The Scourge Of Racism
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Happy Father’s Day to all of our readers that are fathers! I originally wrote this edited Commentary before the similarly titled, “Weak Women Made Great” (posted this past Mother’s Day) in 2010 to challenge men about registering for and attending our first community offering of “The Strong Man Of God Course” (now “The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study”1). The cause to restore men through the Gospel of Jesus Christ and instruction in biblical manhood remains as urgent as ever on this Father’s Day. Purposeful instruction is essential because how else will men come to learn what a man is and does by God’s design without it?
Therefore, this post joins the many I have already made as the Lord has led stressing again the need and urgency of our Ministry cause to restore men. It is also another thunderous and clear call to pastors and churches to repent from whatever hindrances to fulfill your God ordained responsibility to reach and teach men as His chosen leaders beginning in the family (Matthew 4:19, 28:19-20)!
Originally Published April 2010
After conducting The Strong Man Of God Course over the last two years in some of Oregon's prisons, I have come to greatly admire many of the men that have taken it. Those that I admire come to the course with the brokenness and humility of knowing they are weak in their sins. They require no prolonged instruction to convince them that they are sinners and need everything God has to offer to help them become the men He originally designed them to be. The lack of an overwhelming sign up for the course from among so-called "free" men in the community is by contrast, a telling indicator that the many who have heard about it, still do not see their need.
Speaking in terms of weak or strong would not even be an issue if it were not for the fact that we are all sinners as direct descendants of Adam, the first man. This is the verdict of God our Creator and Judge in His Word (Romans 3:10-20, 23, 5:12-14) and the undeniable truth of our daily lives. God originally designed and created us to live before Him as men that are strong; creatures passionately devoted to pleasing Him and doing His will! But when sin came we were made weak in our ability to function as He designed. So, now, all men without God and many that profess to know Him are weak.
Yet, with a significant amount of help from the first fallen creature, the formerly "anointed cherub," Satan (Ezekiel 28:11-19; Revelation 12:9), men in sinful pride either outright deny their inner weakness or engage in mental games to evade owning up to it. In denying the truth about our weakness we become excessively hostile toward God and/or seek to excel at something that makes us great enough we think to escape condemnation. With mental games, we claim victimization or attempt to rationalize, justify, cover up by deceit, avoid or dismiss the truth about our sin driven weakness in the flesh. However, neither denial nor games provide any lasting deliverance from the truth.
Since there is no way around, over or under it, why not just confess the truth? I am weak. I am not only weak as a man before God, but as a husband, father, son of my parents and citizen of the community. Still not ready to admit it? Then be reminded you are weak if you cannot deliver yourself from your sin nature and the evil deeds that result even after adopting a religion. You are weak if you are a slave to your sinful lusts and practice sexual immorality in and outside of marriage. You are weak if you are driven by your impulses of every kind including anger and violence. You are weak if you are addicted to anything and after going into recovery, still struggle to remain free.
In The Strong Man Of God Course we introduce weak men to the Strong Man of God, Jesus Christ, who came to this earth as a second Adam for the express purpose of restoring willing men to God's original design (Matthew 18:11). We urge men to embrace not religion, but Christ in order to transition from weakness to strength as a lifelong journey. His is the strength of the Almighty God who created the heavens and the earth and gives strength to the weak that seek Him (Psalm 28:6-9)! For this very reason the apostle Paul rejoiced in his weaknesses as a man for then in the Lord, he was made strong (2 Corinthians 12:7-10).
Otherwise, know this: it is the men that humble themselves before God like many of those I have met in our prisons who find His grace, forgiveness and help, not the proud (Luke 18:9-14; 1 Peter 5:5-7). The end of weakness in pride is destruction here and now and forever (Proverbs 16:18)! Our Ministry cause to restore men is not some passing fad emphasis, but an intense, ongoing work of evangelism and biblical instruction with prophetic importance and urgency given the times and the Lord’s mandate (Malachi 4:5-6). Only restored men who properly understand their divine design, roles and responsibilities will be able to lead their families to faithfully navigate through these latter days to the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ!2
1 The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study is available in the Strong Man Store.
2 Men that are not Christians or that are, but there is no instruction in the church attended can be helped and taught by obtaining my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back
To Basics available at all major internet books sellers, by order at your favorite brick and mortar bookstore or in the Strong Man Store.
Happy Mother’s Day to all of our readers that are mothers! Just as God gave Adam one, simple command that he disobeyed, so, He gave woman taken out of man a two-fold purpose and one command (Genesis 2:17, 3:16b). But Satan, sin and self have not let all women joyfully embrace God’s two-fold purpose to be wives and mothers. In fairness, sinful men have not always made the two-fold purpose of women easily appealing to them! Nevertheless, the will of God stands as validated by Jesus Christ when questioned on the issue of divorce (Matthew 19:1-10). He did as He has led me to do in teaching God’s program for mankind: go back to the beginning.
All disobedience is sin! Thus, on this Mother’s Day 2018 the Lord has had me post this edited 2010 Commentary near the end of my series of posts since April 8th and celebrating “The Value Of Women” to stress that women like men as sinners need His salvation too. Even if you have done the will of God in being a wife and mother, this alone cannot save you! However, if you have disdained obedience to the will of God for you as a wife and mother being a feminist or other rebel barring any natural obstacles such as no suitors or sterility respectively, then you have magnified the justice of His wrath upon you as a sinner.1 Weak in sin, God prefers to have you become great in His sight!
Originally Published May 2010
Our nation's calendar is fast filling up with special days for every conceivable person, thing and event. The significance of the older of these special days is already diminishing in the face of their increase and the obvious commercialism that is attached to each one. Mother's Day is one of those older special days that is steadily losing its power to forcefully direct our thinking not only to authentic appreciation of our mothers, but even deeper, the absolutely essential role women have in the continuing existence and expansion of humanity on earth.
It is in the intensifying darkness of rebellion against the divine purposes for, design and order of human life on earth that every aspiring strong man of God in the image of Christ can see the light of how sin is devastating the female version of man and motherhood. The Bible says, “all have sinned…,” (Romans 3:23), so, this clearly means women too! It also means women equally like men are weak before God through sin. Women in pride engage in denial and play all of the mental games of men to attempt to escape their weak and fallen condition with the same failed result.
However, after thousands of years of mostly compliance with their unique calling as wives and mothers by divine design and creation, in these latter days a growing number of women are even openly rejecting that calling. Some defiantly refuse to marry men and become mothers preferring instead to have same sex relationships or to pursue male oriented ambitions. Others willfully choose to become single mothers. An incredible number of married and single mothers abuse, abandon and murder their children. These acts born of sin in weakness are very egregious to God.
The female version of man only exists in this present age to help their husbands fulfill God’s two basic purposes: rule the earth as stewards and fill it with humanity (Genesis 1:26-28). God created the man first making him the head and took the woman out of him as his companion and helper. In their bodies He deliberately created a division of role and responsibility for the conception of children. The man fathers the children; the woman conceives, bears and nurtures them.2 Together, the couple and their children were to subdue and govern territory on the earth to the glory of God. This is still God’s program until He, not man, changes it and He is going to (Luke 20:27-36)!
While the sons of God from among men and women of this present age that live to please Him and do His will are His strong men eternally, the women are now also called great!3 This is because Christian women that voluntarily submit to the order, roles and responsibilities God has designed for the fulfillment of His mortal purposes well please Him. There is no greater work or ministry they can perform than to cooperate with God and their husbands in bringing human life into existence (1 Timothy 2:11-15). Indeed, Adam called his wife, "Eve" because he understood the awesome role and responsibility she was given as "the mother of all living," (Genesis 3:20, NKJV).4
In being a wife and mother, women act in the likeness of God. The Holy Spirit condescends to serve as every Christian's intended eternal Companion and Helper (John 14:16-17). The great woman of God humbly submits to the divine will to do the same with her husband. God is a life giver; women are too. God said from the beginning, "'Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness,'" (Genesis 1:26a, NKJV). Man the male and female both share in the image and likeness of God. Hence, because the woman is not the head of the family does not make her roles any less important. Praise God for His great and all women that willingly choose to be wives and mothers!
Women and men of this age that refuse to fulfill their God assigned roles and responsibilities plainly show themselves to be proud, arrogant and self-willed rebels that will be destroyed in the divine wrath that is near at hand (Romans 1:18-32). So, the Lord is calling all rebels to repentance! The unsaved are called to repent and believe the Gospel--that He died on the cross for your sins, was buried and rose again on the third day--to be saved from wrath (1 Corinthians 15:1-4); willfully sinning professed Christians to escape the fate of being found apostates (Hebrews 10:26-31, 35-39). Judgment begins (and has begun) in God's own house on the earth (Luke 13:6-9; 1 Peter 4:12-19). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, "Who is on the Lord's side?"
1 I am well aware that there are church traditions of Christianity the religion of men that have given women a path out of God’s two-fold purpose for them through voluntary
celibacy and consecrated service. However, if the Bible is used as the final source of authority, God’s specific calling of women to lifelong celibacy is not found in it,
though, the apostle Paul affirms it as an acceptable, personally chosen act of devotion (1 Corinthians 7:25-40). Even so, younger women especially must be soberly committed to their vow lest--as Paul warns about widows--they renege bringing condemnation on themselves and giving Satan opportunity to boast (1 Timothy 5:9-15). I conclude in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics that lifelong celibacy as a specific calling from God is of men and very rare. Learn the reason why and more about the biblical calling to lifelong celibacy by getting a copy of my book available through all major internet booksellers, order from your favorite brick and mortar bookstore and in the Strong Man Store. Concerning Christianity as a manmade religion read my two-part, August 21-28, 2016 post, Christianity The Religion Of Men, under the category, Instruction.
2 Read the May 1, 2016 post, Natural Bodies By Divine Design, under the category, God’s Creatures.
3 Definition and prophetic clarity concerning the great woman of God and the eternal future of mortal women are fully given from the Bible in my book. Discussion on these
topics drawn from the Bible and my book can also be read in blog posts the Lord led me to write May 18-26, 2014 and June 19-August 7, 2016.
4 The Great Woman Of God Mothers message as an audio download or CD is available in the Strong Man Store.
Arising from the midst of the Lord’s permitted severe adversities as judgment upon along with grace, mercy and revival in His American Church are men; men who aspire to be “strong” as described of old by Daniel the prophet and in Christ’s image (Daniel 11:32-35; Romans 8:29, NKJV).1 Such men are supposed to be well represented in the Church. However, in these latter days they have been made rare by a multitude of Church sins including the toleration and practice of racism. Restored in their sold out devotion and obedience to Christ, aspiring strong men of God in His image are the only ones that can stand to lead the Church out of racism and into modeling racial harmony!
All men are weak in sin before God (Psalm 6:1-2a, 51:5; Luke 5:4-8; Romans 3:9-18, 23)! Our thinking, attitudes, words and deeds fully display the sin nature that resides within us (Mark 7:21-22). Indeed, racism is but one of many sins men practice that flow from our sin nature and the arrogance with pride spawned by it in the heart.2 With all other sins men commit, racism too, is not only a display of the sin nature, but spiritual weakness. Consequently, as the Lord leads me to write in The Scourge Of Racism, those who practice racism whether they profess to be Christians or not and whatever their hues are also showing spiritual weakness only He can deliver a man from.3
Jesus Christ, God “the Word” and “Son,” came into the world from Heaven by the express will of “the Father,” (John 1:1-2, 14-18, NKJV). He taught with “authority” and did mighty works in the power of God (Mark 1:21-28, 4:35-41; John 20:30-31, NKJV). He was also tested in every manner as we are to the death, but no sin was found in Him for He was perfect in all of His ways (Matthew 4:1-11, 26:36-46, 27:35-54; Hebrews 2:18, 4:15). Without dispute, Jesus Christ is the Strong Man of God He wants all willing men to look to as the role model for what being a man is about, follow and imitate to the end of bearing His image forever (Luke 9:18-36; 1 Corinthians 11:1, 15:47-49)!4
While the Father does allow for the reality of sin weak Christ followers, this is not His perfect will (1 Corinthians 11:23-32). Every man that repents of his sins and believes on Christ for salvation is called by the Father to become a strong man in His Son’s image and purposely set on a path to spiritual maturity to that end by Him (Matthew 10:24-25; Ephesians 4:11-16; Hebrews 12:1-11). In seeking to please Him and do His will, Christian men as aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image submit to and obey His commandments as taught (Matthew 28:18-20). Chief among the Lord’s commandments is for His disciples to “love one another” as He exemplified (John 13:34, NKJV).5
Not only would the world know the reality of Christ by His disciples’ display of love for each other, but they by their obedience to His command would be showing Him love the way He requires (John 13:35, 14:15). As a result, they most assuredly would not be tolerant of or practicing the loveless sin of racism! For besides disobeying the Lord’s command to love each other practicing racism, they know this sin wickedly does harm to its object whether a fellow believer or not (Romans 13:8-10). Too, they understand themselves to be sons of God who behaving in righteousness and love, are distinct from the devil’s children and their hurtful conduct toward others (1 John 3:10-15).
The men I am describing--aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ--are not more evident in the Church at this hour because many have been left ignorant of their calling attending churches where it or anything like biblical manhood is not taught. Also, men are marginalized in the Church due to another sin, capitulation to feminists for the sake of their definition of equality. Nevertheless, Christ Lord of His Church is restoring willing men through Ministries like ours!6 They are being purposely taught the way of Christ as the Strong Man of God so in being personally restored, they might also restore their families and communities to include local churches as needed.7
As I write in The Scourge Of Racism, whatever their hue aspiring strong men of God in Christ’s image do not tolerate, practice or in silence endorse the sin of racism, but call it out while modeling the Lord’s commanded love.8 As it should be, these aspiring strong men of God in the image of Christ are local church leaders as well as those rising up from the pews to display the solution to racism in His Church and to a skeptical, hostile watching world to His glory as we are called to do! Truly, standing against racism and all biblically defined sin in the midst of intensifying adversities and persecution from Christian impostors and the world will be challenging; they will have the experiences of the men in Daniel’s prophecy already cited as they serve in Christ’s strength (Philippians 4:13).
1 Read the October 15, 2023 post, In Judgment, Grace, Mercy And Revival, under the category, Glory To God!
2 See the September 17, 2023 post, Racism A Two-Fold Scourge, under the category, Biblical Worldview, for a definition of racism.
3 The Scourge Of Racism, Copyright 2023, ODCM Publishing Division, Portland, OR, p. 64. The book can be purchased in this Ministry’s Web Site Stores including the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
4 Learn more about Jesus Christ as the Strong Man of God in my previously published book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics! The Hard or Soft Cover or E-Book Editions are available in the Strong Man Store, all major internet booksellers and brick and mortar bookstores.
5 The Lord knows His commandment is impossible without the indwelling power and help of the Holy Spirit and spoke in anticipation of His coming to equip us to obey (John 3:1-8, 14:16-17, 26; Romans 5:5; 1 Peter 1:22-25).
6 Since 2005 Strong Man Ministries has been carrying out the Lord’s mission to restore men, their families and communities despite actual opposition not only from the world, but local churches! Learn more about our work on our Web Site and courageously consider supporting it.
7 Restoration through returning to the Lord is an important first step for professed Christian men who know they are far from anything like His image in their walk. Our on- going Strong Man Of God Online Rally, Return To The Lord, seeks to facilitate that restoration. Your soul, sir, is worth the thirty minutes it takes to watch the rally on our YouTube channel.
8 The Scourge Of Racism, op. cit., p. 64.
As the Lord leads, I write briefly to elaborate further on His instructive illustration using the concept of a strong man to rebuke Israel’s religious leaders in their blasphemous accusation He cast out demons by Satan recorded in Matthew 12:22-30. This is the text I use in my Releasing The Strong Man message during our second Online Rally rolled out November 27th, Hallelujah, Free!1 The same incident is also presented in Mark 3:22-27 and Luke 11:14-23. The Lord arrives at His strong man illustration after making it perfectly clear the man He had just healed through casting out a demon that made him blind and mute was “by the Spirit of God” (Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 12:28, NKJV).
Very historically significant and spiritually pregnant, Luke wrote the Lord said He performed the healing “with the finger of God,” (Exodus 8:16-19; Luke 11:20, NKJV). Both expressions convey the infinitely superior power of the Kingdom of God over Satan’s kingdom on display for all to see! For as the Holy Spirit is the actualizing Agent of God’s Word that caused the universe to leap into existence out of nothing and lice from dust men practicing the occult recognized (Genesis 1:1-3; Exodus 8:19), so, Israel’s religious leaders supposedly in the know about God should have immediately been rejoicing with everyone else that He had mightily shown up in the miracle!
Religion deadened the hearts of these men as it does many today. Not being willing to acknowledge the spiritually obvious, the Lord uses the logic of the natural world in His rebuke of Israel’s religious leaders to hopefully help them see the truth. In the natural world no one can typically enter into a strong man’s house and take his goods. Strong here expresses the idea of being well equipped whether physically in body, with weapons or both to repel anyone that would tread upon the premises a man guards to take from him. The only way such a thing could happen is if the one who enters the strong man’s house is actually stronger than he is!2
Thus, if the Lord Jesus cast a demon out of the man, then, He is plainly stronger! Satan would not foolishly do this since the demon belongs to his kingdom and has bound up and occupied the man serving his kingdom purposes. Christ freed the man on this and every other occasion He cast out demons because His Kingdom is stronger! As the Lord led me to point out in the Online Rally message, Satan has bound every sinful man in some form because he though fallen, is an angel and naturally stronger than we mortals.3 But Christ being stronger than Satan is not only able to release us from his binding ties, but enable us to become the eternally strong men of God in His image God intended from the beginning who in His strength, can repel Satan’s efforts to bind us going forward!4
1 View the rally and subscribe to the channel at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o13NjNpNexg.
2 Please note the Lord is not advocating for men to be ready to pulverize or keep weapons to fend off home intruders, but only relating the natural posture of men who under- stand their role as protectors of their families and homes. That said, the Lord’s use of the strong man in His illustration affirms this divine assigned role of men from crea- tion as protectors of their families and homes. Men in this role imitate God who protects Heaven--no one will ever roll up into Heaven to successfully bind God, unseat Him and plunder His House (Genesis 1:26; Isaiah 14:12-15; Revelation 12:7-9, 12, 19:11-16, 20:1-3, 7-10)!
3 Satan binds men as sinners through the ties of sin, fallen thinking, emotions, attitudes and deeds as well as the fear of death and evil desires (Proverbs 20:9; Romans 3: 9-20, 23; Galatians 5:19-21; Hebrews 2:14-15; James 1:12-15).
4 Read and take to heart Ephesians 6:10-18! Learn about becoming a strong man of God in Christ’s image in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics along with companion works The Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study at your favorite internet book seller and in the Strong Man Store.
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.
It is only fitting coming to the end of the made to order considerations built on falsehood within professing Christianity the Lord has led me to address over the past weeks, that I conclude for now, with a false doctrine of the end. As with the Bible, divergence and confusion surrounding the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and gathering of His followers to Him unnecessarily exist within professing Christianity because many have developed their own made to order end.1 This would not be so if everyone would start in the Bible, interpret what it says about the matter in its wholeness using the same principles and event chronology with which it is written!2 The confusion is destroying some.
As with all other sound doctrine, addressing the end of this present age and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ must begin with what the Bible actually says, not falsehood or sinful, mortal presupposition! The teaching that Christ returns secretly to quietly fulfill 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 before the beginning of the last seven years of God’s seventy weeks timeline vision He gave to Daniel is not stated anywhere in Scripture.3 It is presupposed by those that remove the passage from its natural connection to and contextual flow with 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11. Also, all of what takes place as tribulation during God’s final seventieth week is wrongly considered His full-on wrath at work.
The secret rapture as a made to order event taking place before the onset of God’s seventieth week is largely and forcefully espoused as an end time doctrine by many evangelical Christians. I wrote about the recent origin of this doctrine launched by a false prophecy as the Lord led in a 2014 post.4 So, I will not address that again here. However, it is important to know that where you start in interpreting Bible prophecy is absolutely essential for accuracy. God has wonderfully given His people knowledge about the future only He has had from eternity! So, we must always start with what He actually says or is deduced contextually in His written prophetic Word about future events.
The fore stated is well known by scholars, prophets, pastors and Bible teachers, but for whatever all of the reasons they do not always follow this common sense principle when it comes to end time doctrine. One major reason, of course, is loyalty (publically at least) to denominational and sectarian employers or donors that will separate them from their income for deviating from the party line which is righteous if the party line is entirely biblical (1 Timothy 6:3-5)! Another is a compromising tolerance many engage in because of the prevalence of so many end time scenarios that include those that reject even the prophesied millennial reign of Christ plainly written (Revelation 20:1-10).5
The ancient Jewish sect of the Sadducees missed the awesome instruction of God revealed in the resurrections He performed plainly written in the Old Testament as well as reality of Christ’s because they chose to reject all but the first five of its books and the possibility of resurrection. The Lord answered them directly: ‘“Are you not therefore mistaken, because you do not know the Scriptures nor the power of God,’” (Mark 12:18-27, NKJV)? If there is any place to be doctrinally dogmatic it is where the Word of God is plain regardless of whether or not it fits comfortably into one’s or someone else’s carefully constructed theology. As the Lord showed, error is to be confronted!
For this cause, I rejoice in the memory of and pay tribute to godly men like Marvin Rosenthal, a Messianic Jewish brother and Founder of Zion’s Hope Ministries who departed home to the Lord earlier this year, but not before some years back publically changing his mind about the timing of the rapture.6 As a typical evangelical Christian he had towed the party line from his conversion that the event would occur suddenly and secretly prior to God’s final seventieth week. But after studying Scripture more closely as a lifelong dedicated Bible student, he realized such a thing did not arise naturally from an objective, straight forward reading of prophetic texts and reversed himself.
He very humbly, graciously and respectfully made his personal findings public in the magazine his Ministry publishes, Zion’s Fire, speaking opportunities and a book he wrote titled, The Pre-Wrath Rapture Of The Church. He was ostracized. His book’s title accurately presents what would be the outcome of objectively interpreting the words of our Lord Jesus in the Gospels as He answered His disciples about the “sign of” His “coming, and of the end of the age?” This should be everyone’s starting place! He gave several signs to precede His return and the end including “tribulation” and martyrdom (Matthew 24:3-14, NKJV).7 The Lord’s broad event summary to the end links with the first six seals fastening a “scroll” of prophecy God later gives Him to open (Revelation 5:1-10, 6, NKJV).8
1 Read the May 29, 2022 post, Made To Order Bible?, under the category, Instruction.
2 As I also footnote in the Made To Order Bible? post, there are an excellent set of uniform Bible interpretation principles widely taught in reputable seminaries the world over. Scholars, pastors and teachers to include those that major on Bible prophecy however, do not always apply the principles. As the Lord has led, I have put the major Bible interpretation principles and other information in our new Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course now, featured on our Strong Man Virtual Institute’s YouTube Channel. The video course and optional (but recommended) Study Guide available for free download in the Strong Man Store replace and expand upon a free one sheet document this Ministry formerly offered.
3 See the January 30, 2022 post, The Right Side Of History, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Biblical Worldview for an introduction to God’s seventy week time- line vision given to Daniel.
4 Read the two-part post that begins March 16, 2014, The Prayers Of The Saints, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Though a millennial reign of Christ is not specifically stated anywhere else in Scripture, it is strongly hinted at through the prophets (Psalm 90:1-4; Isaiah 65:20-23; Ho- sea 6:1-3). Since “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” is “prophecy,” we should not be surprised that God includes details and events in it never before revealed (Revela- tion 1:1-3, NKJV).
6 Out of love for and desire to see the Jewish people come to their own Messiah, our Ministry has been a supporter of Zion’s Hope Ministries for many years. Learn more about it at https://www.zionshope.org/.
7 The fact the Lord gives signs He instructs to watch for clearly indicates they do occur before His return contrary to the secret rapture doctrine. These signs in Matthew are also found with little variation in Mark 13:3-13 and Luke 21:7-19.
8 The total of seven seals that fasten the scroll are not judgments as some teach. Instead, they affirm and preview what has already been foretold about divine permitted or initiated future events while in some cases disclosing new details. For example, the first seal in line with the proclamation of the Old Testament prophets and Christ in the Gospels, confirms again man’s violent conquering will continue until the end of the age. This is seen historically, now, in Russia’s war with Ukraine and on through to the last evil conqueror, the Antichrist (Daniel 7:1-8, 15-27; Matthew 24:6-7a)!
A great falsehood in professing Christianity in our day is that somehow God is pleased with its multiple forms by way of thousands of denominations and sects as if there are many faiths. Nothing could be further from the truth since His Word in the Bible teaches there is only the single faith rooted in Jesus Christ (John 12:20-26; Colossians 2:6-7)! So, how is it that there are multiple made to order forms of Christianity? God has historically tolerated these made to order forms of Christianity up until now, as an outcome of His war with Satan who has well used his weapon of deception to seduce the guilty into the sin that has created them. Made to order Christianity is counterfeit and cannot save!
While the Lord and His apostles are clear Spirit-filled Christians do not have to be rigidly uniform in the way we fellowship with Him and each other or express and experience “our common faith” that is known as Christianity (Mark 9:38-41; Luke 9:49-50; Romans 14-15:6; 1 Corinthians 8, 10:23-33; Colossians 2:8-23; Titus 1:1-4, NKJV), all are to obey the commandments, transcendent spiritual principles, morality and ethics presented in God’s whole Word (Matthew 5:17-20, 28:19-20; John 8:31, 14:15-24). Chief among the Lord’s commandments is for His disciples to “love one another” as He has “loved” us (John 13:34-35, 15:9-14; 1 John 2:3-6, 3:10-24, 4:7-5:3, NKJV).
The Lord’s command for His disciples to love each other runs deeper than a sentimental wish for disconnected people to try their best to do this in their own strength as I have encountered so many times in churches during my journey. The Lord gives a command He expects to be obeyed and supplies the means He knows we do not naturally have to do so through the agency of the Holy Spirit within us (Romans 5:5)! As well, His Spirit-filled disciples are more than just people brought together without any formal or lasting connection except faith in Christ, but we have been made eternal spiritual “family” with God as our “Father,” (Romans 8:14-17; Ephesians 2:19-22, 3:14-21, NKJV)!
Because of the foregoing positive spiritual realities, the apostle Paul easily implores us as Spirit-filled sons in the family of God “to walk worthy of the calling with which” we “were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” He follows this with the staggering declaration: “There is one body, and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all,” (Ephesians 4:1-6, NKJV). What are we missing in professing Christianity currently? How about love and one!
Would someone really try to convince me that the warfare, divisions in disunity and multiple made to order forms of Christianity in America alone are the outworking of God’s supernatural love and the best that can be done? No, but God in His Word as it is written reveals the truth that it is foretold apostasy, falsehood, sin, carnality, spiritual adultery along with manmade religion weakly trying its best in the flesh and failing miserably (Matthew 24:10-12; 1 Corinthians 3:1-4; Galatians 5:13-15; James 3:13-4:5)! And with the focus on self, who cares what the Bible teaches about there being only one Body, Spirit, hope of our calling, Lord, faith, baptism and Father?1
Indeed, the multiple forms of Christianity today are a foretold spiritual madness and successful work of Satan after centuries of tempting professed Christians God has permitted (James 1:12-18).2 For it is the direct result of “deceiving spirits” generating many false “doctrines” leading to disobedience and apostasy, outwardly religious men walking in the flesh that view the faith as a religion they control, “impostors” and the purposeful rejection of “sound doctrine” plainly contained in the pages of the Bible many do not regularly study for themselves; preferring instead to be taught by those who teach them what they want to hear (1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-9, 13, 4:1-4, NKJV).
Nevertheless, whether professed Christians comfortable with the present spiritual madness of disunity in multiple forms of Christianity accept the truth or not, Heaven recognizes only “the faith” of Scripture “which was once for all delivered to the saints” (Ephesians 4:7-16; Philippians 1:27-28; 2 Timothy 4:6-8; Jude 3, NKJV). All other forms of Christianity as manmade religion are counterfeit, being judged and will be destroyed even before Christ returns as He has led me to write in previous posts (Revelation 17:1-19:4).3 Thus, it is imperative the Christianity we have be of the Bible and that we know it from study as our authoritative source!4 For it is certain that none other but biblical Christianity can save and is worth dying for (Revelation 6:9-11, 7:9-17, 12:11, 13:1-18, 14:9-13).5
1 Read the April 26, 2020 post, There Is Only One..., under the category, Instruction, where the Lord led me to call for unity in the face of the clear paradigm shift He initiated with His Coronavirus judgment.
2 See the two-part post beginning June 7, 2020, Days Of Separation, under the category, Bible Prophecy. God has allowed Satan to tempt those that are supposed to know Him as testing since Eden (Genesis 3:1-6). It continues within professing Christianity at this hour as the Lord separates out His faithful from the wicked (Psalm 11:4-6; Revelation 2:8-11, 16:15).
3 See for examples the August 23, 2015 post, Babylon Is Falling!, under the category, Bible Prophecy and on June 10, 2018, God’s Judgment Upon His House also under the category, Bible Prophecy as well as God’s Creatures. Finally, read the two-part post that begins August 23, 2020, The Churches Under Judgment, under the category, Instruction.
4 For instruction on how to get the most out of your Bible study take the free Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course the Lord led me to produce on our Strong Man Virtual Institute’s YouTube Channel. An optional (but recommended) Study Guide is available for free download in the Strong Man Store.
5 This is the heart of aspiring strong men and great women of God I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God Back To Basics. It is available with the companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
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