The Scourge Of Racism
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Why have some professing Christians and their leaders during the course of my thirty plus years of service to the Lord accused me of being too serious and strict; my biblical instruction, naive? Isn’t it because they are not very serious about the Lord nor seek to fully obey His Word as it is written? In the shallow waters of faithless superficiality through manmade Christianity the religion, compromise or the corruptions of falsehood, these accusers resent anyone who with zeal to proclaim and live out the light of biblical Christianity exposes their darkness. But praise be to the triune God, only faith and full obedience to the end have been and will be rewarded (Numbers 14:20-24, 30-38; Hebrews 3:5-19, 10:35-39)! Anyone that believes to the contrary is deceived.
Truly, what the Lord led me to write in The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and to reiterate in the following edited 2011 blog repost, the Bible as God’s Word is a lost book to many insincerely professing American Christians. Statistics on Bible study and other measures of biblically taught faithfulness compiled by those such as The Barna Group sadly still support my Spirit empowered assertion. Just as the many insincere 7th century BC Israelites for whom the Book of the Law became lost as they went astray from the Lord, so, too, many insincere professing Christians today who are willfully disobedient to the Word; living and doing as it pleases them.
Professing Christians and especially the men who are God’s chosen leaders in the home and churches beginning with every guilty pastor and elder must repent from abandoning God’s Word as it is written in disobedience! Sirs, as I challenge you in my book, it is time to stop hating the faithful and join us as a king Josiah to the church you serve. Otherwise, since as the Lord’s servant and yours I have been permitted to look ahead in His prophetic Word, I will tell you what I see: I see that your visions of grandeur and perpetual earthly legacy born of ego, pride and selfish ambition are about to be dashed against the rocks as God’s judgment in the churches continues and intensifies (2 Chronicles 34:19-25; Jeremiah 25:32-38; 1 Peter 4:17-18)!
In continuing disobedience, your eternal future is not any better than your destroyed earthly legacy unless you do repent (1 Corinthians 3:5-17)! Why should the men you shepherd view the instruction in my book as somehow new? And why are you so fearful of its contents? I write nothing in my book that is not already written in the Book of books! But again, since the Bible uncorrupted is lost to you as the direct source material of your instruction and equally important example, you scorn and scoff at anyone or anything faithful to God and His Word that shows your shortcomings and corruptions instead of repenting so His Spirit-fired revival might come to you. Know this going forward: only the repentant will enjoy God’s peace in what is coming (2 Chronicles 34:26-28)!
Originally Posted July 24, 2011
One of the most remarkable signs of the times pointing to Christ’s near return is His propheti-cally insightful rhetorical question about the spiritual climate of the world at His coming found in Luke 18:8. His question comes at the end of a parable He gives to encourage men of faith to never lose heart but to always persist in prayer with God. He asks, “when the Son of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?” While we would be tempted in pride to say yes, Christ’s knowledge of the future and the now observable steady decline of authentic, biblical faith among professing believers confirmed by statistics, points to a sobering no to His question.
Christianity’s march from the 1st century to this hour closely spiritually parallels Israel’s march from Egypt to Babylon. Significant in both is the setting aside of God’s Word. In Israel’s case, the Book of the Law was lost in the Temple complex only to be re-discovered by priests who had been ordered to restore the Temple by a faithful king named Josiah. After having the lost book read to him, the king repented before the Lord and feared His righteous judgment for the spiritual situation was far worse than he had thought. They did enjoy a temporary revival (2 Kings 22-23:27).
The fact that I and many other authors are writing books calling Christians to turn back to God’s will, way and Word is evidence that the Bible is lost in many hearts and churches. Physically, the printed pages are everywhere. Indeed, the Bible is the best-selling book on the planet! But due to a lack of genuine faith leading to real repentance, conversion, salvation and obedience among other reasons, the Book is lost to many in plain sight.
I rejoice to have been commissioned of the Lord to write The Strong Man Of God: Back to Basics. But it is heart-breaking to see the faces of men I teach who profess to be Christians, acting as if what I am teaching about being a man is a new discovery. The teaching of my book is and has been in the Book, the Bible, God’s unchanging Word that is to fire our faith and obedience even until Christ’s return. We need to find God’s lost Book once again. You can begin in my book that for the sake of our men, families and communities we might enjoy at least a temporary revival.
The Scourge of Racism is purposely a short and to the point book since it was the extension of a shorter newsletter article.1 However, I have kept the content short even in its update at the leading of the Holy Spirit because He has patterned it after “the little book” in Revelation 10 (NKJV). Time is also short and professed Christians do not need a lengthy treatise on what we already know to be the history and reality of the sin of racism in the Church. We need what God has provided through me in this little book: a direct, truthful and prophetic confrontation with the problem of racism in the Church and what He wills to resolve it complete with a warning of the consequences for refusing to obey!
The seventy-eight page little book the Lord led me to write, of course, does not compare in scale of magnitude weight to the prophetic content of the “little book open” in the hand of a “mighty angel” that appears to the apostle John. So weighty is the book’s content, the angel cries out as “a lion roars” and in response “seven thunders uttered their voices.” John understood them, but Heaven forbid him to write down what they said (Revelation 10:1-4, NKJV). After hearing the angel solemnly swear by God the Creator “that there should be delay no longer” in bringing about His foretold future, John is instructed to take “the little book” from the hand of the angel (Revelation 10:5-9, NKJV).2
Obeying the voice that spoke to him from Heaven, the apostle of Christ “took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it.” In similitude to the prophet Ezekiel’s experience, John too, found the Word given “was as sweet as honey in” his “mouth.” Unlike Ezekiel, however, John’s stomach became “bitter” or upset from the Word following the sweetness it had in his mouth as the voice from Heaven had warned him. Then, he was told, ‘“You must prophesy again about many peoples, nations, tongues, and kings,’” just as Ezekiel was sent with His message to Israel (Ezekiel 2:6-3:4; Revelation 10:10-11, NKJV). Revelation 11:1-22:5 is the prophetic content of the little book John ate.
While far less weighty in scale than the content of the little book given to the apostle John, the little book I was led by the Holy Spirit to write to the Church of Jesus Christ in America is no less important since it is His message. Indeed, the words on the front cover of my little book from the Lord, “Perhaps A Terminal Appeal To The Church” are there to convey the seriousness and urgency of its instruction and exhortations in these latter days when prophetically significant events are suddenly and rapidly occurring such as what happened in Israel October 7th.3 Hear me or not, as a called and gifted watchman/prophet to the Church, I serve at the Lord’s pleasure (Ezekiel 33:1-9)!
Truly, professed Christian white, then black leaders and adult men of other hues who call themselves conservative evangelicals within His Church are the first audience for the little book the Lord gave me because they are supposedly “people of The Book.” For most of the last four centuries conservative white evangelicals--devoted to evangelism, the largest in number and loudest on select moral issues, have been a dominant force in the American Church. Even so, the sin of racism has not been a pressing moral issue for them and has been left largely in place with only some occasional impotent lip service addressing it in recent times because it is so widely tolerated and practiced.4
That a sin so wretchedly obvious as racism could be openly advocated in history and in many cases clung to by guilty men professing such devotion to Christ, demonstrates how with “craftiness” and ease the deceiver does his work in willing selfish hearts.5 For just as Satan drew Eve away from God’s commandment through the lusts of her heart and mind, so, he has done among men that regularly spoke (and speak) otherwise sound words, but their minds on racism were (are) “corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ,” (Genesis 3:1-6; 2 Corinthians 11:2-4, NKJV). That simplicity being the truth in the Gospel, fidelity to Him and “the whole counsel of God,” (Acts 20:17-27, NKJV).
Because racism is sin and not just a moral or social justice issue men can get to when they please or deem it important, the Lord with longsuffering over the centuries has been seeking for those tolerating and practicing it in His Church to repent!6 Repentance from the sin of racism is not negotiable as no sin is that Christ died for on the cross at Calvary (1 Corinthians 15:3). In the little book He gave me to eat, I write with the sweetness of joy in the righteousness and truth of God’s Word concerning the sin of racism as well as the hopeful outcomes if conservative white evangelicals in the majority pay heed. There is also the sadness of knowing it will have finally taken the Lord’s severe judgment to move these men to do right in His sight--if at all--as the curtain falls on this age.
1 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 7. Purchase the book in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
2 Read the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
3 See the October 29, 2023 post, Hear O Israel And The Church, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 Read the September 24, 2023 post, Racism In Christ’s Church A No-No and the related one on October 8, 2023, Racism A Reason For Church Judgment, both under the category, Instruction. In the latter post, I quote leading white conservative evangelical, Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., from his book, The Gathering Storm, Secularism, Culture And The Church, Copyright 2020, Nelson Books, Nashville, and do so again here regarding his observation about many contemporary churches (and by default, their leaders): “These churches have sacrificed biblical fidelity on the altar of cultural relevance; they are willing to discard biblical Christianity in order to be ‘on the right side of history,’” p. 192. This is exactly what conservative white evangelicals have also been doing with the sin of racism until now!
5 For this cause, the Bible holds up how Christ, the Strong Man of God, got the victory over Satan and Christian men that aspire to be strong men of God in His image, can get it too! I eagerly write about Him in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics. It is available in the Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
6 One reason proud professed Christian white men resist thoroughly repenting from the sin of racism before the Lord is they believe they are doing blacks and other minori- ties a favor we do not deserve at their expense. However, the favor being done in repentance is by the Lord as He extends undeserved forgiveness of sin to the guilty! I urge you, sir, to watch our ongoing Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, on YouTube to be reminded how sweet it is to be forgiven by God.
I am pleased to share this week that the special Crowdfunding Campaign for our Books To USA Prisons Project I spoke of in my January 24, 2016 blog entitled, God Cares For The Incarcerated under the category, The Cause, will launch tomorrow, February 1st at 10AM PST on the Christian run, We Raise Web Site. Our campaign goal is to raise $9,000 in 45 days to send 2 copies of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to over 800 select State and Federal prisons across the United States. Our board of directors as well as every part of Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. is involved with Strong Man Ministries leading out.
We need as many Christians as possible to help us who remember what it was like to be a lost sinner and all of the many ways God used (including books) to tug at your heart and present the Gospel to you. We are especially appealing to those that have read The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to step up and help us since you know firsthand not only that the Gospel is plainly and purely presented, but also God’s design and program for biblical manhood throughout eternity! Just this past week I received a letter from an inmate quoted from previous correspondence he sent and presented on the We Raise Web Site. In his new letter Troy Bayless writes: “I truly believe the message of the book is foundational and needed for all men.”
Troy is an example of an inmate we have corresponded with after his initial contact letting us know he had read the book. We have also sent him with others our printed Strong Man Of God Monthly Newsletter as a form of continuing ministry into his life. Here is what he had to say about that:
I want to thank you for continuing to send me the Strong Man Of God Monthly
Newsletters. They have been a source of strength and understanding of who
God calls me/men to be, incarcerated or not.
Having read about the Books To USA Prisons Project in the newsletter, Troy also offers his sincere commitment to pray for and when he is able financially, to support it as he has previously done in making a small, unsolicited donation to help underwrite the cost of mailing out the newsletter to him. Troy and many other inmates who have come to or rededicated themselves to Christ as a result of what He is doing through Strong Man Ministries and my book, are the fruitful reasons I am boldly asking for your help not only to raise the funds we need to carry out the Books To USA Prisons Project, but also all of our continuing God ordained work as a faithful partner or friend of the Ministry! Learn how to do that on the Give Page.
This project is definitely not about my ego as the book’s author, but another way to reach the many incarcerated men like Troy with the Gospel and the Lord’s foundational instruction on biblical manhood as I wrote in the already referenced blog! Willing men in prison can be saved and their lives turned around by the Lord! If you doubt that, I have to wonder how it is you believe you were saved since as a sinner in the sight of a holy God, you stood no more worthy of salvation than the worst incarcerated offenders (Romans 3:9-20, 23)? Indeed, the Lord Jesus came to earth to call lost sinners to repentance and salvation, not the righteous (Luke 5:27-32, 19:1-10)!
Because they fully know they are sinners, amazingly, I have witnessed more hearts among the incarcerated ready to receive God’s grace in the sweet Gospel than in most of the churches I have been in over my lifetime! Therefore, in remembering where God has brought you from as a “redeemed sinner,” I appeal to you in His love and all care for the lost everywhere including the prisons largely neglected by professing Christianity, stand with us to pledge your support in funding our Books To USA Prisons Project beginning tomorrow. While you can make a pledge as low as $5, I want to challenge you to pledge the largest possible amount not thinking that many others will also be making pledges.
Your pledge can only be made by credit card because no charges are processed until our fundraising goal is met. In fact, if we do not reach our fundraising goal, we will not receive anything and your credit card pledge is cancelled. At first glance, this policy by We Raise might seem to be unfair. However, they believe and I do too that we are raising funds for a project in which we have already counted the cost. If our fundraising comes up short of what the project requires, then it cannot be done. Because they have strict accountability, investigated us and required that we submit a budget, you can be assured your support is going to go fully to support the Books To USA Prisons Project.
You can investigate We Raise and their operating organization, Wheat Ridge Ministries out of Itasca, IL as we did to learn more about them and how they securely handle your credit card as a donor on their We Raise Web Site. After you have done what you need to do including sought the Lord in prayer, make your pledge as early as possible since the sooner we reach our fundraising goal the better--the end of the 45 day fundraising period on March 18th will be here before you know it! Thank you in advance for any consideration you give or pledge made to help us with our Books To USA Prisons Project.1
1 As of the close of the Crowdfunding Campaign March 18th, we did not reach our goal. However, a Designated Gift Campaign on this Web Site is underway until we reach our goal. For More Information Go to the Books To USA Prisons Project Page.
Clearly, as the Lord has been leading me to write, the most favorable times of the supposed “church age” have passed. Respected observers including Voice Of The Martyrs have been tracking the intensifying hostility and hatred toward as well as persecution of Christians around the globe. In the mix, God is carrying out His millennia ago announced judgment in His house, sifting out faithful from professed Christians among ancient cultures in their lands; separating them from familiar religious structures that are being destroyed. In America, churches are not only dying, but the legal fracture between church and state has become a widening chasm in only a generation as anti-Christians from all persuasions reject the national primacy of Christianity as biblical or manmade religion in every form.
While the handwriting is on the wall for the prophetically foretold hate-filled, anti-Christian sentiment of these latter days to flash over into severe persecution in America as it has and does marching across the planet (Matthew 24:9), many pastors continue to pursue their ambitious church expansion plans in what can only be described as empire building. As the Lord led, I warned in the introduction to the August 16, 2015 blog repost, “Finding God’s Lost Book,” under the category, Call To Repent, such plans driven by the male ego need for leaving a legacy are doomed to come crashing down in God’s judgment! I gave this warning with the following 2012 Commentary I wrote for The Strong Man Of God Monthly Newsletter also in mind that serves as my blog post today.
Originally Published December 2012
It is all the rage today. From corporate chieftains to entertainers, city planners and pimps empire building has migrated from its once exclusive domain among megalomaniac military conquerors and despotic rulers to the common man. Not to be outdone are many pastors and Ministry leaders across America that live for nothing but how to enlarge their name recognition, power, influence and affluence through empires of expanse, brick and mortar. I confess that I am no stranger to such notions and write this as the Spirit leads to myself as much as to fellow servants of God as a warning from the Lord not to go there. For those that have already, our Lord calls you to repent!
As the Lord led me to write in the December 2011 Commentary, The Ambition Of Men, ambition is in man from God as part of our natural make up in being made in the divine image and likeness (Genesis 1:26-27; 5:1-2).1 God is nobly ambitious! Therefore, in and of itself ambition is not evil. Empire building grows out of the God ordained ambition in men to rule, accomplish, build and expand in doing so. As sinners, the corruption of our hearts due to sin influences our motives and causes us not to be concerned about how we empire build (even criminally) or who we hurt in the process. This is evil. In sin, the selfish ambition of men to empire build is of pride and personal glory.
Sinful men of visionary leadership and selfish ambition have historically built great empires. To this day, the world empires of ancient Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece led by Alexander the Great and Rome remain classic studies in empire building. These empires all have in common that they rose and fell in time; their ruins litter the grounds they once stood on. Indeed, God Almighty promises a similar and cataclysmic fate for all the kingdoms of this world with their proudly built structures and monuments to human achievement near the glorious appearing of His King, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 2:10-22, 13:6-13; Daniel 2:24-45; Revelation 6:12-17, 11:15-18)!
The foregoing all being true, it completely amazes me that beginning with the Catholic Church centuries ago and among churches, denominations and ministries of every sort to this hour, ambitious men in the cause of "doing great things for God" labor diligently to build religious empires. These empires are complete with territorial expansion goals and all of the outward splendor and glory of structures men can create in an effort to leave a lasting legacy of their proud achievements. Did these men not get God’s memo from His Word? Every lofty construction of men and mountain is to be brought down close to Christ's return (Revelation 16:17-20, 17:1-6, 15-18:24)!
Many pastors and Ministry leaders reason, of course, that we do not know precisely when the Lord will return. So, buildings of function must be built to serve the needs of the Body of Christ until that Day. True. But this is not what is happening today in many cases as extravagant budgets and fundraising efforts are put into constructing buildings reminiscent of the acclaimed opulence of Vatican holdings to enlarge what are called "campuses." This would not be so bad if it really were all for God’s glory. In truth, many churches especially are expanding their empires to gratify the egos of pastors that see themselves as singularly able to draw and keep crowds. This is pride and arrogance at work.
What a stark contrast to our Lord Jesus! Though He owned and was surrounded by glorious splendor beyond the finite human mind to imagine and possessed a foretold destiny of greatness superior to any other (Isaiah 9:6-7), He allowed Himself to be born in a smelly animal stable to serve the purposes of God (Luke 2:4-7). In so serving, He wore the common clothes of His people and had no residence of His own (Luke 9:57-58). He washed the feet of and allowed Himself to be crucified for sinners. He died having built no buildings or monuments to Himself. However, He rose from the dead and ascended to God in glory leaving behind a legacy of affected disciples.
Those first disciples were and we nearly two millennia later are to proclaim the Gospel of our Lord and His Kingdom; making new disciples that form the only thing He vowed to build: His Church (Matthew 16:15-18)! Besides our immortal glory at the resurrection and crowns of reward, the disciples we make in obedience to Christ's commission (Matthew 28:18-20) are the only enduring legacy of our earth sojourn for we shall behold them forever (2 Corinthians 1:12-14; Philippians 2:14-16, 4:1; 1 Thessalonians 2:19-20)! Thus, with His attitude and promise of reward, we labor to enlarge Christ’s eternal Empire in the hearts of men (Philippians 2:3-11). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 This Commentary was posted March 11, 2018 under the category, The Cause. I also address the issue of ambition discussed in that Commentary as well in my book,
The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics available at all major internet booksellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
The Lord has led me to re-post a 2012 blog today as a wrap up word of instruction to follow up the four types of arguments against His program for man presented in this month’s 2011 Commentary Series. This instruction speaks plainly of what the heart and stance of the aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ should be as it concerns correctly interpreting, applying and standing on the already written Word of God. As with everything God wants us to be and do, our Lord Jesus Christ set the example! Indeed, right from the beginning of His ministry when He was tested in the wilderness He provided the needed example and set the standard for us.
In replying to the temptation of Satan to use His own power to satisfy His hunger in acting independent of the Father, our great Champion and Hero, Jesus Christ quoted from and stood on Deuteronomy 8:3: ‘“It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God,”’” (Matthew 4:1-4, NKJV). Please note our Lord did not preface His statement with “I think, I feel or I believe.” Some smart aleck will immediately declare, “Well, we are not Jesus.” This is true. However, He purposely conducted Himself as our example to follow in the humility of a disciple and power of the Holy Spirit (John 13:12-17; 1 Peter 2:21). It is to the extent that we foolishly do not do this today that professing Western Christianity and so many of our churches are in a mess!
Our mess is made worse by those who arrogantly insist on reading into Scripture what they want as purposeful revisionists to justify their evil theologies and deeds. Such persons will not escape destruction for this (2 Peter 2:1-3, 3:14-16). Truly, our omniscient and infinitely wise God has given us the special revelation of His Word to look to and live (John 6:63)! Jesus, the living Word and Son of God constantly directed His friends and foes alike back to the already written Word of God. In all of His teaching He quoted it directly, illuminated it or illustrated and applied its truths by use of parable for example. We are to do no less; answering all of life’s issues with what God’s Word says!
Originally Posted April 29, 2012
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth,” (2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV). I have lost count of the number of times I have had to direct professing Christians back to what the Word of God actually says to correct bad thinking and doctrine. While it is tempting for all of us to believe at any given moment that we have such intelligence, knowledge and wisdom to think and utter profound things, when it comes to the things of God, none of us are that brilliant. The only safe place to be as it concerns the things of God is in His Word as a devoted, eternal learner re-saying only what He has already said!
How many doctrinal squabbles, compromised churches, sects, denominations and even cults calling themselves Christian would go away if “I think, I feel, I believe” were not allowed as a preface when speaking of the things of God, but only, “This is what the Word of God says”? Indeed, the “profane and idle babblings” that made their way into the 1st century churches and which the apostle Paul gives his godly counsel about how to combat in 2 Timothy 2:15 quoted above are legion today. And why? Because we have fewer students of God’s Word seeking to be approved of by Him in understanding it and instead have those who use the Word corruptly to hold up their own (and other men’s) fleshy thinking that ruins rather than builds up the hearers (2 Timothy 2:14, 16-18).
In my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, we teach men that a very important component of aspiring to be one is studying, internalizing and living out God’s Word in the power of the Holy Spirit! We are to be diligent--exerting persevering, painstaking effort--in studying and seeking God to know and understand His Word. When we are convinced by God that we have His Word right, then we proceed to teach others in humility what He has said from what is already written. When I have spiritual questions, I want to know first, what does the Word say, not what Dr. whoever said? If I am taught and approved of by God in His Word, then I will never be ashamed from getting it wrong and worse, ruining souls for which I will have to give an account (James 3:1).
Do you feel inadequate to “rightly divide the word of truth?” Excellent! You are just the person God is seeking to teach His Word (Proverbs 1:1-7; John 16:12-15; 1 Corinthians 2:9-14). The first step in approaching Bible study for any purpose is the humility to seek God in prayer for a proper understanding. After all, the Bible is God’s Word. Who best to interpret it to and help you understand it than God (Luke 24:45; 2 Peter 1:20-21)? Additionally, there are some fairly common principles of Bible interpretation such as paying attention to the context of verses you are studying you can learn from books on the subject. This and other principles demand your diligence to apply as God requires so that combined with His help, your study is fruitful and your biblically drawn doctrine meets His approval.1
1 As the Lord led many years ago as a pastor, I outlined seven commonly taught principles of Bible interpretation in a one page document from the excellent non-sectarian book, Knowing Scripture by R.C. Sproul. Although I would have you get the book, I have provided my Bible Interpretation Document as a free download in our Strong Man Store as a help to any reader interested in doing Bible interpretation as it is commonly taught in biblically grounded seminaries. There is a right way to interpret and apply Scripture. Go to https://www.thestrongmanofgod.org/Strong-Man-Store to get your free Bible Interpretation Document download.
The march to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the end of this world as we have known it under the dominion of evil is moving just as it has been foretold in the ‘“Scripture of Truth,’” (Daniel 10:18-21, NKJV). As part of this march, I stand in awe of the sovereign God who in wisdom has given men the knowledge to develop technologically at a faster pace in the last 200 years than at any time in all of the millennia before. The telegraph to computers and cell phones, the first automobile to space flight, modern appliances and robotics; all attest to this truth in serving the divine end time purposes and proving that still--regardless of technological progress, man’s chief problem is sin since its works through him have not abated, but only intensified (Joel 2:1-11; Revelation 9:13-21).
With the merciful heart of God, we do not rejoice at the foretold troubles coming upon this world because of sin. However, Christians are not supposed to be falling apart either. Indeed, many professing Christians and their leaders are even in denial and behave as if everything is going (and should continue) as it always has. They fear the future and do not by faith “look up” (Luke 21:28, NKJV) as God intends--having given us His prophetic Word as advance knowledge--because they in disobedience love this present world and their carefully laid plans and dreams rooted in it (Luke 9:23). As I present in this edited 2013 blog repost, God has raised up this Ministry among others to call the weak to His strength as those alone that will endure to receive the promised salvation.
Originally Posted October 6, 2013
It is so very heart breaking to see people all over our nation and world coming unhinged at the slightest provocation; unglued and falling apart at the seams leading to acts of rage and violence in these times of stress. It appears that the natural self-control and fear of consequences resident in most human beings that serve as a restraint to injury to self and others is dissipating and the Bible gives us an important reason why. I do sympathize with the provocations and stresses of life in this world that can lead to the mental and emotional states of mind persons get to that cause them to become unhinged and unglued.
However, the Word of God plainly teaches that these things are so in these latter days because He is allowing mankind in the main--that has spent much of nearly the last two millennia rejecting the Gospel--to now have it their way in the face of His coming wrath (Romans 1:18-32). God (who alone has been evil’s Restrainer) is permitting lawlessness through the venting of humanity’s natural sinful impulses and the instigating, pressuring work of demons to steadily increase and eventually commonly “abound” out of control because this is the kind of kingdom men as sinners choose when they reject the righteous Kingdom of God (Matthew 24:12; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 John 3:4, NKJV).
To add to the misery of the God haters and rebels in these latter days, the God of creation that created it for man, is causing it to convulse violently against its fallen rulers in anticipatory birth pains of its restoration in peace under the immortal sons of God (Mark 13:8; Luke 21:10-11; Romans 8:19-22)! As a result, anxious fear about what is coming upon the earth will also be added to the life stresses that are causing people to now fall apart and soon, to die from mass heart failures (Luke 21:25-26). Sadly, among such persons are many professing to be Christians.
It is in this context of the present stresses and those foretold still to come that God has called forth our strong man of God cause. We are not just about a book and brand. Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God demonstrated by His life, death and resurrection to immortality! Men from Adam’s son, Seth, have known the strength and blessing that comes from calling “on the name of the Lord” (Genesis 4:25-26, NKJV) and the Lord Himself has commanded men to “be strong” from ancient times (Deuteronomy 31:23, NKJV).
Now, though, it is at “the ends of the ages” that calling on the name of the Lord and being strong in the strength He supplies to His faithful and obedient ones is of the utmost prophetic urgency and absolutely imperative (1 Corinthians 10:11, NKJV). For as I have written previously (in blogs and my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics) and will continue to proclaim with Scripture in the face of the world’s escalating stresses as well as hatred and persecution of Christians, only the strong in Christ will persevere to the end and eternal glory (Matthew 24:13; Mark 13:13)!1
The strength supplied to His aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ is nothing short of divine power through the Holy Spirit (Ephesians 3:14-16)! Thus, God’s strength is not a human emotion or moment of euphoria. God’s power is of the real, continuing spiritual substance of His eternal being that created and upholds the universe! And so, the great apostle writes again, “Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might,” the source Scripture for the slogan of Strong Man Ministries: Making Men Eternally Strong (Ephesians 6:10, NKJV)!
In His strength combined with the whole armor of God which includes the “shield of faith,” aspiring strong men and great women of God are expected to stand against all manner of adversity as well as “the wiles” and attacks of the devil and his “spiritual hosts” working through willing human agencies in these evil days just as our Lord Jesus did (John 16:32-33; Ephesians 6:11-18; 1 John 5:4-5, NKJV). Christians from a biblical perspective, then, are not supposed to become unhinged, unglued or panicked to the death during the course of what we see happening in nor defect from Christ seeking escape from suffering to the world.
We stand firm in our trust in Christ and the very real supernatural strength our God supplies to us as aspiring strong men and great women of God. We also continue to act as a moral people walking in the righteousness of Christ and to the bitter end proclaim and witness the Gospel about Him and His coming Kingdom. Unless, therefore, there is a Holy Ghost fired movement such as ours to help men and women professing to be Christians become aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ, many will perish in the swift rolling tide of increasing lawlessness, troubles, demonic activity and the violent convulsions of creation coming upon this world with divine permission. In spite of this, a “falling away” is foretold (2 Thessalonians, 2:3, NKJV).2
Nevertheless, in the meantime, if we restore many men, their families and communities for even a short season before the darkest days arrive, it has all been worth it. So, we preach the Gospel compelling men to come to Christ and in coming to Him, become strong men of God in His image (Romans 8:29)! Pastors and churches that are guilty this is your cue: get out of the way; stop resisting us in this mission clinging to your comfy lives supported by the mindset of manmade Christianity the religion in the old paradigm of God’s permitted temporary existence. Repent if you will and in this new paradigm where Christianity the religion of men in their own strength is plainly revealed to be marked out for divine destruction (Isaiah 47:8-15; Revelation 18:1-8), stand with and welcome our cause, Ministry and biblically rooted message (Acts 4:23-31; Romans 8:31-39; 2 Thessalonians 2:13-17; 3 John 5-8). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord's side?”
1 Purchase my book at any major internet bookseller or the Strong Man Store on our Web Site, www.thestrongmanofgod.org.
2 See the February 2, 2014 blog, The Falling Away, under the category, Bible Prophecy to learn more about this coming event.
The Holy Spirit continues to stir my heart from last week’s blog, The Never Changing God, under the category, Call To Repent, to remind all of us gifted to preach the Gospel and truths of God’s Word that we are “appointed” by Him as were all who ever came before us (John 15:16; 1 Timothy 2:7, NKJV)! We, therefore, are God’s preachers since it is always the case that the one appointed serves the one who appointed him. Appointed by God, Christian preachers in service and message owe Him loyalty first and above all other loyalties to include churches, denominations and self. That the Holy Spirit would insist such a reminder be given indicates not a few have forgotten these truths.
In biblical use, to preach is to herald, proclaim or publish the words or message of God to the human audience He directs. Noah is identified by the apostle Peter as a “preacher of righteousness” and would be one of the earliest in the Bible (2 Peter 2:4-5, NKJV). Appointed by God, Noah preached warning those of his day their righteous Creator was about to destroy them in their wickedness and the evil world they had created (Genesis 6:11-13). After the flood, God would appoint and equip many men to publically preach His messages as prophets (authoritative spokesmen, seers and watchmen) primarily among His chosen people, Israel, but beyond them as well (Exodus 4:10-17; Jeremiah 1:1-10; Jonah 1:1-2; Mark 1:1-8).
In preaching to Israel, Moses foretells that God would raise up a Prophet like, but greater than him (Deuteronomy 18:15-19). This Prophet is the Lord Jesus Christ as the last of the Old Testament prophets He commends, affirms (Matthew 11:7-11; John 1:29-36, 3:22-36). Moses’ announcement came with a solemn warning that reaches right down to this hour concerning any prophet that presumed to speak (or preach) a word in God’s Name which He had not commanded or in the name of other gods--so much for ecumenicalism; all the other gods do not stand on the same ground and are clearly not saying the same thing as the God of the Bible (Deuteronomy 18:20-22).
Not only is Jesus Christ the Prophet of God, but He is also the Preacher and Apostle of God’s joyful good news of repentance, faith, salvation and the Kingdom to Israel (Mark 1:14-15; Hebrews 3:1-2)! After His death for our sins, burial, and resurrection, He sent the disciples of His inner circle He had made apostles out to Israel and the nations to make new disciples by preaching the Gospel about Him, repentance and faith in Him for the forgiveness of sins, the New Covenant and promise of the indwelling Holy Spirit as well as God’s Kingdom on the earth (Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:19-23; Acts 1:6-8, 2:1-40, 3:11-4:22)!
Then there is that Jewish apostle of Christ sent specifically to us Gentiles, Saul of Tarsus also known as Paul (1 Corinthians 15:1-11; Galatians 1:11-24; 1 Timothy 1:12-13). He tirelessly preached the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout Roman controlled Asia and Greek speaking Europe; always pressing to preach where Christ and the Gospel had not yet been preached (Romans 15:14-21). It is from him that we learn Christian preachers are an important fulfillment of God’s long ago announced plan to send heralds of His greatest message to the world yet; the Good News of salvation from sin by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ, His Son (Isaiah 49:6, 52:7; Romans 10:14-15)! Truly, God desires the salvation of all men (1 Timothy 2:1-6; Titus 2:11-15).
It was by Paul’s instruction too that we understand preaching is far beyond the wisdom and skill of men even well taught in public speaking. It is the required foundational spiritual gift from God to equip His appointed heralds to deliver His message of salvation in His power (1 Corinthians 2:1-5)! Such are apostles who run to the ends of the earth as heralds preaching the Gospel where it has never been preached, making disciples and planting churches and evangelists who irresistibly preach the Gospel and witness Christ to the unsaved wherever they find themselves. Also, apostles, evangelists along with prophets within the whole Body and pastor/teachers in the local churches preach the Gospel and expound God’s Word to equip His people for service and build them up to maturity in the faith (Ephesians 4:7-16).
The foregoing all being biblically true, it stands to reason that no professing Christian man or woman having declared themselves called of God to preach should conduct their lives in an ungodly manner (1 Corinthians 9:24-27) or preach where He has not authorized in all disobedience (1 Corinthians 14:33-37; 1 Timothy 2:11-15). Neither should any preach a gospel or any other message He has not commissioned from His Word; communication embodying suppositions of their own invention and fleshly wisdom as emissaries of Satan that deny biblical truth and even the Lord of our salvation. The consequences of corruption and falsehood are eternally severe no matter who you are as the original New Testament apostles warn (2 Corinthians 1:12-14, 4:1-6, 11:13-15; Galatians 1:6-10; 2 Peter 2:1-3).
Therefore, let all of the appointed preachers of God repent to whatever extent you are coming short of His will while there is still the opportunity since the foretold judgment in His house is already underway. Caught in sin, how shall you escape? If the biblical Gospel and sound doctrine purely proclaimed are no longer enough to make disciples, form or sustain churches, then clearly we are in (and you must accept we are in) the foretold perilous paradigm of the latter days (2 Thessalonians 2:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 4:3-4). Resist the evil temptation to slander God, compromise or corrupt His Word to satisfy your personal thinking and ambitions in spiritual weakness to build a following.
Rather, stand as aspiring strong men and great women of God in the image of Christ preaching His Word as it is written regardless of the cost and to the end that you may please God and gain an eternal reward! Get a copy of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics to learn what being an aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ is all about because it is for preachers too! It is available directly or by order wherever books are sold and in our Strong Man Store at www.thestrongmanofGod.org.
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