The Scourge Of Racism
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On the joyful occasion of Palm Sunday last year, the Lord led me to write soberly about the why and what for of His Coronavirus judgment declaring it “a major magnitude ‘shot across the bow’ to the world that God has turned a corner on His forbearance with mankind.”1 On this Palm Sunday commemorating the foretold nearly two millennia ago triumphant, yet lowly entry of Jesus Christ into Jerusalem as Israel’s King (Matthew 21:1-11), I am privileged by Him in this post to wrap up my exposition of the biblical Gospel as a special emphasis to black American males with whom I share ethnic identity.2 Hereafter, none as victims in truth will again say, “no one like me ever told me!”
In declaring the biblical Gospel beginning with last month’s Black History Month post and all this month, I have repeatedly stated that those who repent and believe it are saved from their sins and the wrath of God.3 As I wrote specifically in last week’s post, the wrath of God is the naturally aroused, settled response of His eternal holy Person and character to sin that He judges in perfect righteousness and justice. Sin is not natural to God or the environs of glory in which He dwells. Sin like a virus arises from and is the unique experience of man and angels that have willfully come short of and rebelled against the divine will (Genesis 3:1-11; Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:11-19).
The wrath of God toward sin and sinners is a narrative and prophetic theme throughout the Bible. His wrath makes its first appearance in the biblical narrative at the rebellion of man where God not only affirms in righteousness and justice His fore stated penalty for it physically, but spiritually too, as He separated from His now, sin tainted and guilty creature. Even so, God also displays His grace toward man by promising a Deliverer and providing a temporary covering for his naked body and sin guilt as an animal was slain and its life poured out on behalf and instead of man. In doing this, God signifies what must be done to forever turn His wrath away from man (Genesis 3:15, 17-19, 21-24)!
God’s promise of a future Deliverer is the first mention of it in the Bible as prophecy and His unspoken, but clearly implied continuing wrath toward sinful mankind until all would be fulfilled. Indeed, after writing “God is a just judge,” David adds, “and God is angry with the wicked every day.” God’s delay to judge is due to His longsuffering grace waiting since the ancient king of Israel further warns that if the wicked person does not repent, His retribution will follow (Psalm 7:11-16, NKJV). For this reason, Noah’s generation endured an earth destroying global flood as the first instance of divine wrath poured out upon unrestrained human wickedness (Genesis 6:3, 5-17).
While thereafter, the Bible records many regional and localized displays of His wrath (Genesis 19:12-29; Exodus 15:1-7; 2 Chronicles 24:17-25), the reality God would “once more” express it not just on the whole earth, but the universe too, is what prophecy thematically and consistently asserts; “the day of the Lord” the apostle Peter warns is delayed only again by His longsuffering grace waiting for those He foreknows will be saved from it (Isaiah 2:10-22, 13:6-13, 40:3-5; Joel 1:15-20; Amos 5:16-20; Zephaniah 1:14-18; Luke 3:1-7; Hebrews 12:25-29; 2 Peter 3:1-10, NKJV)! The Day of the Lord is one and the same as The Day Of Vengeance He had me write about in 2016.4
As the Lord Jesus Christ was the divine instrumentality enabling this nearly two millennia period of grace through His death on the cross, burial, resurrection and ascension, so, His glorious return will finish the approaching Day of God’s wrath and vengeance (Isaiah 53, 61:1-2; Mark 14:60-62; Acts 1:9-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; Revelation 1:4-8, 6:12-17). For He endured the wrath of God toward human sin upon Himself in our place as our “Passover” “Lamb” and “once for all” atoning, eternally sufficient sacrifice that any who repent and believe on Him through the Gospel should receive a pass from having to experience it for themselves (John 1:29, 3:16-18, 36, 19:30; Romans 5:6-9; 1 Corinthians 5:7; 1 Thessalonians 1:9-10, 4:13-5:11; Hebrews 9:11-15, 27-10:14, NKJV).
Rejecting His grace throughout severe, escalading warning judgments now, underway with the global Coronavirus pestilence as one among many foretold adversities (Matthew 24:3-31; Revelation 8-9, 11-14), sinners alive at the Day of the Lord will suffer the full outpour of His long held wrath that completely transforms the landscape of the earth and leaves relatively few mortals (Isaiah 42:14-17; Revelation 15-16)!5 God’s wrath is righteous because He did not create us to be rebels that even murder His holy sons, but to be one in fellowship with Him forever!6 Therefore, do not be caught with a proud, stubborn, angry and willfully ignorant heart refusing God’s salvation in the Gospel of Christ who confirms the authenticity of the former days and His own coming Day of wrath (Luke 17:20-37).
(As per usual, there will not be a post on Resurrection Sunday. I will be celebrating my 44th year since becoming a beneficiary of God’s grace to save sinners through faith in Christ on Resurrection Sunday 1977. The Lord saying the same, my next post will be on April 11, 2021.)
1 Read the April 5, 2020 post, God Is Speaking, under the category, Call To Repent.
2 See the March 14, 2021 post, The Gospel Is For Black Males Too!, under the category, The Cause
3 Read the two-part post beginning on February 21, 2021, Willful Ignorance Destroys under the category, Black History and this month’s posts all under the category, The
Cause.
4 See the June 5, 2016 Post, The Day Of Vengeance, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
5 Despite the unscientific attempts by evolutionists to interpret the empirical data to the contrary, the evidence of cataclysm consistent with what would have occurred
during and after the global flood of Noah’s day is everywhere to be seen on earth including our nation’s famous Grand Canyon. They look at it as a wonder of nature
over evolutionary millennia (Romans 1:18-21); the Lord’s faithful see tragedy and ruin as the recent aftermath of His wrath potently displayed globally for the first time
upon rife human wickedness which no one in good conscience can deny is coming to this again (Genesis 7:11-8:14; Psalm 29:10)!
6 Learn about the eternal destiny of every faithful Christian man who is also an aspiring strong man of God in the image of Jesus Christ in my book, The Strong Man Of
God: Back To Basics. It is published by Open Door Communication Ministries, Inc. and available in print or digital formats at major internet booksellers. You can also
purchase a print copy in the Strong Man Store. A summary introduction of the strong man of God in Christ’s image is presented on the strong man of God Web Site.
The Lord came to me during my time of Bible study on the morning of October 24, 2017 as I reflected on the condition of our nation asking, “Watchman, what do you see?” I said, “I see a house divided collapsing in on itself and there is no stopping it!” Then there was silence except for the noise of my scramble for a pen to write down what just happened. Would to God that the collapse in progress could be halted, but the authoritative teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ is always and eternally true (Matthew 12:22-26; 24:35)! Many see what I saw, but that old reliable crutch, denial, with mostly self-centered reasons continues to be their comforting fall back.
Among the legion of demonic and sin inspired causes America is a collapsing house divided is the falling away of the secular news media from its benchmark standards of journalism. Gone are the days last names like Murrow and Cronkite stood not only for professional journalistic excellence, but integrity, objectivity, political and social neutrality. Today, it is very clear the dominant players in the secular news media produce news that at times has been deceitfully constructed and slanted subjectively toward a political and socially liberal point of view. Political correctness, tolerance and feminism are in; biblical morality and views are out when true neutrality should favor neither.1
With few exceptions the secular news media’s adoption of all things 21st century politically and socially liberal in agenda has made its star reporters come across as hostile antagonists in their reporting on those not in sync with that agenda, rather than as aggressive protagonists in pursuit of the truth in the legacy of Murrow. Its reporters are also in the vanguard of a major resurgence of self-righteousness as every human failure of any kind and even disasters from the natural order allowed or brought by God must have blame and retribution assigned to someone as if those reporting have no faults or failures at all. When the Lord led me to write this 2011 edited repost, the sample issue was sexual harassment accusations against then Presidential candidate, Herman Cain.
Since then it has been Bill Cosby and now, Harvey Weinstein. The spectacle is sickening to watch as reporters press their agenda and look for scoops to further their careers along with their bosses' ratings, dollars, awards and bragging rights. As one of the Lord’s watchmen, I understand having an agenda, advocacy and rebuke in writing since I bear His either directly or by inspiration in mine. His goal through me is typically repentance of the guilty beginning always with me as the messenger. For this reason, though many still consider me offensively “in your face,” trust me, tempered by my own failings, I have not said everything the way I have wanted to say it! In this repost, plainly see another reason our divided nation is collapsing and hear the Lord if self-righteousness is an issue for you.
Originally Posted November 29, 2011
What a blessing we have had in America historically to have had a free press. Journalism was once a noble profession where there were high ethical standards. Getting the facts, being objective and fair were among the values the great journalistic enterprises lived by. Who knows all of the reasons those standards have gone by the wayside--though no doubt, some will argue they still live by them. The case of Presidential candidate Herman Cain illustrates my concern. The media swarmed all over the accusations of sexual harassment against him not caring to get the facts, but determined in a sensational feeding frenzy to make him confess guilt.
Let me be clear, I am not in any way endorsing Herman Cain or trivializing legitimate sexual harassment or the new charge by a woman saying they had a long time affair. However, with the heart of my God I am crying out against the resurgence and hypocrisy of self-righteousness in our society and the media in particular. Journalists (who are nothing more than sinful human beings with press passes) hunt down, harass, browbeat, accuse, convict and sentence the principals in their stories with all of the heartless gusto of the religious leaders who brought the woman caught in adultery to the Lord Jesus. After first making them wait, the Lord declared, “He who is without sin among you, let him throw a stone at her first,” (John 8:1-12, NKJV). No one did and all walked away.
The Lord in no way condoned the woman’s sin in this incident. However, He forced the self-righteous religious leaders to consider if they were to be held accountable by God on the spot for their own sins, they would be condemned. The Lord would also remind us and our news media of this truth. For us, tell the truth about sin, but do so understanding we are sinners too that need after the truth is told, a place of brokenness, repentance, mercy and forgiveness. For the media, pursue your story, be objective, get and report the facts in a neutral and fair way to all sides. Do this keeping in mind if all of your own sins were known, you too would be condemned. These are the ways of the aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ I write about in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics.2
1 In actuality, while historically free from government control, the American press as part of its fabric has always reflected societal mores as was the case prior to this anti- Christian era when they were strongly influenced by Judeo-Christian values. From such mores were drawn its own formerly high standards of journalistic character such as integrity and interest in factual truth men such as Murrow and Cronkite adhered to.
2 The book is available at all major internet book sellers and in the Strong Man Store.
The great outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah’s grave sin came from at least four sources: God’s holiness, the holy angels, the physical creation and Abraham’s nephew, Lot, caring for his own soul, his family, unsuspecting strangers and those injured by the iniquity of the cities. All sin offends the holiness of God and demands His righteous and just action upon it. He, however, has very often borne with His holy offense and graciously suffered long with the sinner(s) as He did in Noah’s day and with Israel until there is “no remedy,” (Genesis 6:5-8; 2 Chronicles 36:15-16, NKJV). As earlier noted, God had already been gracious to the wicked cities, but there was no repentance!
The holy angels fully loyal to God are as advertised, holy; having no fellowship with or delight in sin! Myriads of them surround His throne to declare and guard God’s holiness (Isaiah 6:1-7). They watch the activity of fallen angels opposing God and engage with them in accord with His purposes and at His directive (Daniel 10:4-14). They also watch sinful men and carry out judgments upon them in line with God’s will as took place with the king of Babylon (Daniel 4:13-17). God’s holy angels most assuredly cried out to Him continually concerning the grave sin of Sodom and Gomorrah. As such, it is no surprise two angels accompanied the Lord to “see” their grave sin for Himself.
We know on a basic level that the earth is filled with life and living things. However, God’s Word would have us to understand that not only the earth, but “the whole creation” is alive to Him and now, even “groans” waiting for its promised restoration after that of His sons at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:18-23, NKJV). Operating with His firm laws of physics such as gravity, the physical creation retains the original moral order God created it with though, for now, it is under His temporary curse for man’s sin (Genesis 3:17-19). The physical creation is repulsed by the iniquity of mankind who are supposed to be its holy and righteous rulers (Genesis 1:26; Hebrews 2:5-8).3
Finally, the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah came as it turns out from the only righteous man that lived in Sodom, Lot. He was so morally offended by the wicked deeds of his fellow citizens, he sat in the city gate as one of the judges to intercept and if possible protect unaware travelers while his own righteous soul Scripture says was “oppressed” and daily “tormented” “by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds,” (Genesis 19:1-3; 2 Peter 2:7-8, NKJV).4 But even though His own holiness, the holy angels, the physical creation and righteous Lot truthfully, vehemently cried out to the Lord who is Omniscient and Omnipresent about the grave sin of the cities, He still came down for a Personal look.
This tells us how reluctant God in love, grace, mercy and longsuffering is to destroy even the most wicked of human beings. This becomes clear in His exchange with Abraham. From where the Lord stood before Abraham He saw as close as His holiness would allow that all that had been reported to Him in the great outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah was so (John 1:43-51) because the destroying angels started out on their mission while Abraham questioned Him as though the matter was settled. Concerned for his family (Lot) and the people he once went to war to rescue, Abraham wanted to know if God would “destroy the righteous with the wicked,” (Genesis 18:22-23, NKJV)?
The character of God and Abraham shines in their exchange (Genesis 18:24-33). The Lord displays His eternal mercy by being willing to spare Sodom if just ten righteous persons were found in it; Abraham, great humility and reverence for God referring to himself as “dust and ashes,” (Genesis 18:27, NKJV).5 The far gone wickedness of the men of Sodom was shortly confirmed (Genesis 19:4-11). Lot and his family would be delivered from God’s wrath if they were willing to heed and follow him (here again is shown the weight of male headship as God designed). Some were not willing and perished as did Lot’s wife after setting her affections on the city while fleeing it (Genesis 19:12-26).
Saints, take note Lot was moved out of the way of God’s wrath immediately before it fell (Genesis 19:27-29). We are still here now, and remain during all of His warning judgments (Joel 2:30; Revelation 8-11:14) that include allowing Satan to bring his “great wrath” upon our number in such persecution and tribulation by the hands of his emissaries that relatively few saints--a mortal remnant--are left on earth (Isaiah 57:1-2; Daniel 7:15-25; Matthew 24:15-22; Revelation 6:9-11, 7:9-17, 12:7-13:18, 14:9-13, NKJV). Persecutors should know that reducing our number hastens the one and only coming visible, audible Day of the Lord and evacuation of His righteous remnant just before He pours out His full wrath (Psalm 50:1-6; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11; Revelation 6:12-17, 15-16).6
Therefore, let all the guilty especially among professed Christians repent before the Lord now, since He will not grant peace through any means but Himself going forward until after His wrath is fulfilled (Ezekiel 33:10-11; John 14:27, 16:33; Romans 5:1-2). For no one will escape the judgment of disobedience to the call to repent in the Gospel at Christ’s return; judgment that is already underway in the “house of God,” (2 Thessalonians 1:3-12; 1 Peter 4:12-19, NKJV)!7 The wrath of the “Prince of Peace” is perfectly just because as He did at Sodom and Gomorrah, He came in Human form and had not only His Personal look at, but experience with the grave sin of this world when He suffered by our hands for us leading up to and on Calvary’s cross (Isaiah 9:6-7, 11:1-10, 53, 57:3-13, NKJV).
3 Those that may feel like the creation seems to be acting against mankind in recent years are on to something and it will get worse before it is all over! Truly, the polluting
physical activity of man such as burning fossil fuels is only an infinitesimally small contributor to the unusual weather patterns, storms, intensifying heat, droughts, sea
rise etc. compared to their flagrant transgression, sin and iniquity that defile the earth (Isaiah 24:4-6). Under His sovereign oversight and as warning judgments, God is
allowing the earth (including its wild animals) and soon the whole cosmos to register their displeasure to man’s defiling sin (Leviticus 18, 20; Jeremiah 23:18-20, 25:32-33,
30:23-24; Luke 21:25-26)! Surely, the proponents of global warning do not believe green house gases on earth directly impact the moon, sun or stars light years away, do
they? Rather than green new deals, let the children cry out for their guilty parents to repent!
4 See my Independence Day 2021 post, under the category, Biblical Worldview, where I liken my reaction to the wickedness of our times to that of Lot. Truly, any professed
Christians supposedly sanctified to God that are not disturbed in some measure by the blatant display of human depravity we see and hear everywhere in our day, plainly
show they are false or apostate!
5 O, that such were the case among the many of us professing to be Christians who supposedly in like faith and character are Abraham’s spiritual descendants! This being
so, there is no way that I continue to cry out for repentance at the Lord’s directive among you who claim to know Him. Humility is one of the common character traits of
the image of Christ the Father builds in genuine Christian men and women as I write in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and draw out in The Strong
Man Of God Men’s Group Study and Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study. These resources are available at your favorite internet book seller and in the
Strong Man Store.
6 Conversely, our large number on the earth forestalls the coming Day of the Lord’s wrath as He assured Abraham in their exchange about His destruction of Sodom and
Gomorrah. And as the destroying angel instructed Lot, we saints are to know the full outpour of God’s wrath will not occur until we are out of the way (Genesis 19:22-24;
Luke 17:26-37; Revelation 16:17-21)!
7 Attend this Ministry’s 30 minute Strong Man Of God Online Rally at https://thestrongmanofGod.org/Webcast for a fresh, biblically grounded presentation of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ!
Let me begin by wishing any mother reading this a blessed Mother’s Day! In spite of the successful work of feminism over the past half century to diminish the high view of motherhood God instilled in humanity from creation, an aspiring great woman of God in the image of Jesus Christ especially that has fully devoted herself to His assignment is still blessed by Him (Luke 7:11-17).1 Indeed, a mother’s love historically self-denying, patient, kind, sacrificial and protective to name a few excellent qualities is patterned after God’s own. Historical motherhood is remarkable given the intrusion of sin by Satan’s deceit, God’s judgment, life and death in a fallen world (Genesis 3-4).
In God’s image and by His design, a mother’s natural love for her children provides and cares for, manages, nurtures and protects them. It is typically a mother’s protective love that can cause her to stand up for and defend her children against harm at the risk of her own life though, this facet of love is plainly not active when she decides to abort her unborn or otherwise murder her child outside of the womb--instances of which fill these latter times. Jochebed, the mother of Moses in the Bible, is an outstanding example of a mother’s protective love as is a harlot in Solomon’s dilemma of wisdom. Both sought to protect the lives of their children (Exodus 1:22-2:10; 1 Kings 3:16-28).
No doubt, it is protective love that would cause a mother who does not truly know God or His nature and character presented in the whole Bible to react against the truth of His coming wrath upon her progeny as I was directed by Him to warn about in a recent post.2 While a mother’s protective love is commendable and appropriate in the right situations as we saw in the earlier biblical examples, to be willing to lash out against sound doctrine to the point of corrupting God’s Word to redefine Him and revise the truth is a great evil that without repentance, He will not leave unpunished. For in the falsehood, such a mother is seeking to create a made to order god of her own liking!
As I have encountered this diabolical falsehood inspired of demons and cherry picked from God’s Word, it insists that since God is love, He cannot possibly bring wrath upon any human being, but particularly children. Now, this statement sounds good at first glance because there is the New Testament passage that declares truthfully, “God is love,” (1 John 4:8, NKJV). In context, the apostle John is asserting the source and standard of love in the eternal nature of God that ought to exist in and among born again Christians because He lives in us by the Holy Spirit. We know Him so intimately and completely in love, “the day of judgment” holds no fear for us (1 John 4:4-19, NKJV).
The foregoing exclusively involves born again Christians who have been delivered from God’s coming wrath through repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son, Jesus Christ! His sacrifice to save us from our sins and wrath is a clear display of God’s love as John reminds us in the passage cited. But God in nature has other attributes besides love. Among His eternal attributes are also holiness, righteousness and justice from which flows His condemnation of and wrath toward mankind as sinners.3 His love delays carrying out the fullness of His wrath to give time to repent as in the days of Noah, Sodom and Judah (Genesis 6:5-22, 7:11-24, 14:1-17, 18:16-19:29; 2 Chronicles 36:15-21).
In the latter instance of His wrath, children are specifically mentioned among those that would perish as the Lord Jesus also warns the women weeping for Him on the way to the cross. This happens as God comes against the sin of their parents (Ezekiel 8-9; Luke 23:26-31).4 No mother could possibly love her children more than God does mankind or His Son yet, He gave Him up to His wrath and death on the cross for us all (Isaiah 49:5-6, 14-16; Jeremiah 31:1-3; Matthew 3:16-17, 27:45-50; Romans 5:6-11)! In His image (fallen as it is), mothers that love their children have had to discipline them for cause after any number of warnings. Surely, you understand God made His own Son to suffer His wrath so we would not have to and has graciously given the world time to repent!
God’s offer of pardon and a free pass from His wrath to mankind through repentance and faith in the Gospel of His Son is now, reaching its expiration date. Whether it is my progeny or yours (God does not show favoritism) all need to take full advantage of His grace. Otherwise, “the wrath of God abides on” them and no mother’s protective love can prevent this by force of will or corrupting Scripture to propagate a falsehood to somehow make Him over and take it away (John 3:36, NKJV). Just as there can be no made to order salvation, neither is there a made to order God!5 He is who the Bible as it is written fully says He is!6 For this reason, every professed Christian must study His whole Word for themselves to know what it actually says in totality to avoid being deceived.7
1 The blessedness of motherhood as the purposeful and exclusive assignment to females by God is taught from His Word by me in my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its companion Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study. Both are available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
2 Read the March 27, 2022 post, No Baby Boomer Free Lunch, under the categories Biblical Worldview and Call To Repent.
3 See the March 28, 2021 post, The Righteous Wrath Of God, under the categories Bible Prophecy and The Cause.
4 God is not out to get children or anyone else for that matter! However, taking Him seriously as they ought in His Word, parents are warned in the context of His prohibition of the practice of idolatry deeply offensive to Him: ‘“I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth gen- erations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments,’” (Exodus 20:3-6; Deuteronomy 5:7-10, NKJV). Sin- ning parents are the ones that in reality show a lack of love and regard for their own progeny by thumbing their noses at God’s Word and warnings about the conse- quences of disobedience (Ezekiel 18:30-32)! If you do not wish for your progeny to endure God’s coming wrath, be and live saved yourself. Then, proclaim the Gospel and witness Christ to them in the prayerful hope of their repentance, faith and salvation to escape!
5 See the May 1, 2022 post, Made To Order Salvation?, under the category, The Faith.
6 Read the May 31, 2020 post, Keeping It Real About God, under the category, Instruction.
7 Get sound help and encouragement to engage beneficially in the spiritual discipline of Bible Study by taking the Fruitful Bible Study Self-Paced Video Course on our Strong Man Virtual Institute YouTube Channel. A Study Guide is available as a free download in the Strong Man Store to help follow along with the series of short videos.
As the Lord has led and arising from last week’s blog, I repost this edited 2012 blog to cause professing Christians to fully consider this business of accusing God of being unfair in these latter days. All of the world’s causes are not God’s causes no matter how right they may seem or emotionally appealing they may be to us (Proverbs 14:12; John 7:21-24). Standing with those as a professing Christian that are accusing God of being unfair is not the side you want to stand on in light of His ongoing judgment in the churches and fast approaching wrath.
Originally Posted May 20, 2012
I am compelled by the Holy Spirit to challenge the whole degenerate spectacle today of so many individuals and groups calling for fairness. It is not new to be sure. The ancient Israelites were so bold as to accuse God of being unfair to His face after He laid down His standard for judging the eternal destiny of souls (Ezekiel 18). Souls that sin, die. Righteous souls live. Righteous souls that backslide into sin and do not repent will die. Wicked souls that repent will live! Israel thought that this was unfair and apparently many professing Christians do today that also cannot bear the thought that God would condemn them for willfully sinning without repentance. But God stands His ground then and now (Ezekiel 18:25-32; Hebrews 10:26-39).
Save your rebuttal of protest on my citing Ezekiel 18 as a Scripture reference for Christians since it is from the Old Testament. I am fully aware that the righteousness spoken of at that time was of the law. However, to God righteousness is righteousness whether it is of the law or from faith. None of the Old Testament saints were declared righteous by keeping the law perfectly because they could not. All who have ever been declared righteous by God were--as the apostle Paul makes clear, declared so based on faith in His promises (Romans 3:9-4:25, 10:1-13). Nevertheless, the righteous of God by faith in all epochs obey His Word to include properly dealing with sin guilt or suffer the consequences. Those who do so in love find it easier to obey (Psalm 32:1-5; 1 John 1:8-2:2, 5:1-3).
Thus, living the way God expects is required of Israel in the Old Testament and Christians in the New. God is perfectly just as our Creator to demand that we live as He has commanded. We are His creatures for whom He has set down His will for our conduct presented in the Bible based on His own holy, just and righteous character (1 Peter 1:13-21)! Christians may not have to obey the letter of the law to be saved, but we have been given commandments that actually fulfill the law we are to obey in the power of the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us according to the New Covenant, to help us do that very thing (Jeremiah 31:31-34; John 13:34-35, 14:15-17; Romans 8:1-4; 2 Corinthians 3:1-6).1
Israel’s exile to Babylon for breaking His covenant and law proves God meant business then, and surely He also means it now for those of us ushered into the New Covenant by the blood of Jesus Christ, His only begotten Son (Luke 22:19-20; 1 Corinthians 10:14-22, 11:27-32)! In spite of this very clear warning though, among the rebels calling everything and everyone including God that stifles their desires unfair are professing Christians in no small numbers. But how can this be? Have they not read in the Bible or been taught God and the Son of God is perfectly and eternally just (Deuteronomy 32:4; Zechariah 9:9; Acts 3:14-15)? Do they not understand that they are blasphemously accusing the holy God of sin and will be condemned with the wicked without repentance because His just ones live by faith in Him (Habakkuk 2:4; Galatians 3:11; Hebrews 11:6)?
Truly, what began a generation ago as the right thing to do in reversing hundreds of years of inequality and unfairness visited by whites (including a great number professing to be Christians) upon blacks and other racial minorities in our nation has now degenerated into a narcissistic feeding frenzy of souls from every walk of life clamoring for equality and fairness as they selfishly see it. Anything one does not personally agree with is childishly labeled unfair. This state of affairs has turned governments, institutions, churches and families into confused bowls of gelatin afraid to say or do anything lest someone be treated unfairly and trying desperately to be all things to all people.
As a black American, it is painful and deeply offensive to watch since racial discrimination continues as it always has and the just demand of my forefathers for its end is mocked and trampled upon by the present clamor for fairness from every quarter including some blacks with all other immoral sinners simply wanting their way. Talk about unfair; now, the very quest for the divinely displayed nobility of fairness has been hijacked by evil so that those in it are treated as and lumped together with all the other whiners that selfishly only want something for themselves. Alas, it would finally come to this in a world that has been unfair since man’s fall to sin and Satan.
Indeed, the world is not fair because we are sinners and its current ruler, Satan, is completely evil. Violently clamor, march, litigate and legislate all you want to; this fallen, sinful world will never of itself be entirely fair. In The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics as the Lord leads, I teach men how He expects us to live in an unfair world following His example (1 Peter 2:18-23). When there are egregious instances of injustice such as that suffered by my forefathers in slavery, Jim Crow segregation and the continuing “isms” that plainly violate God’s standards, we that love the Lord must rise up even at personal cost to peacefully take a stand to advocate for a righteous correction.
Nonetheless, every aspiring strong man and great woman of God in the image of Christ and peculiar to the world knows full well that the just world we seek will only arrive when the Just One comes in wrath to perfectly give the narcissistic agitators for fairness exactly what they demand, vanquish the present ruler and set up His own righteous Kingdom on this planet (Psalm 2:9, 72:1-4; Isaiah 42:1-4; Matthew 6:9-13; Revelation 19:11-16, 20:1-3). The risen, living Christ continues His cry among American churches, “Who is on the Lord’s side?”
1 See the January 2014 posts, God’s New Covenant under the category, Holidays and Party Of The Second Part, Pt. 1 and 2 under the category, The Faith to learn
more about the New Covenant as the one and only covenant from God Christians have to be concerned about.
As the Lord led me to write about earlier this month and celebrate from Palm through Resurrection Sunday, God’s Messiah was foretold by Him through His Jewish prophets in the Bible to come twice.1 The first coming of God’s Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, during the first century A.D. was all about sacrificing Himself to save willing mankind from our sins. He finished this part of the mission on Calvary’s cross with His death. After His burial, resurrection and ascension back to glory, at God’s appointed future time He is slated to return “a second time” to fulfill every promise of salvation God has made to those of us who have put our faith in and wait on Him (Hebrews 9:28b, NKJV).
“Scoffers” living captive “to their own lusts” as foretold, for nearly 2,000 years have scoffed at the faith of faithful Christians in our willingness to wait on “the promise of His coming.” “They willfully forget” the Bible’s instruction on God’s mighty Word in creation and past visitation in destructive wrath using water; foretelling of yet another to come with fire in judging earth’s “ungodly men,” (2 Peter 3:1-7, NKJV). What the scoffers and apparently many professed Christians also fail to realize is that the return of Messiah has been purposely delayed by God this long out of His love and “longsuffering” to save the willing He foreknows from His wrath and eternal damnation (2 Peter 3:8-9, NKJV).2
As the apostle Peter soberly warns, the return of Messiah entails the outpour of God’s wrath in the eternal onset of “the day of the Lord” as earth is reclaimed for His dominion from fallen angels and men, then later, destroyed to make way for “new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells,” (2 Peter 3:10-15; Revelation 11:15-19, 21:1-8, NKJV). His wrath does not fully unfold, however, until after Messiah gathers His two elects--Israel’s mortal remnant and His followers from all nations--to Himself (Mark 13:24-27; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, NKJV).3 These events fulfilled are among the promises of salvation God has made to both elects in His Word!
The next promises of salvation to be immediately enjoyed by the faithful followers of Messiah gathered to Him from Heaven who are resurrected and those relative few mortals alive on earth at His Second Coming are glorified immortal bodies and eternal righteousness (1 Corinthians 15:50-57; 2 Timothy 4:8)! For in God’s justification by grace through our faith in Messiah looking to that Day, is our being clothed now, with His righteousness as both a spiritual position we occupy and experience we have despite the endless attempts of sin to reassert its dominion over us with the aid of Satan and his temptations we are to vigorously resist (Romans 6-8:17; Galatians 5:16-25; 1 Peter 5:8-11).
Thus, in Messiah Jesus, I am a sinner made righteous in the sight of God through faith and understand myself to be a righteous man who sins when I do in the weakness of the sinful flesh. In sin, I confess and repent of it availing myself of God’s readiness to forgive and cleanse me through the finished work of Messiah on Calvary’s cross as often as needed (Hebrews 4:14-16; 1 John 1:5-2:2). So, when I say I am a sinner to sinners as a Christian, it is not because I am going about practicing sin as a way life any longer, but I am humbly and honestly acknowledging that I still sin as one redeemed by and righteous before God in my mortal journey toward perfection!4
Today, secular films and television programming regularly mock and belittle God’s social and moral order He established at creation for the good of mankind in favor of what they call “progressive” correctives, but which are evil. Contrarily, another promise of salvation Messiah will fulfill in the Day of His Second Coming is the restoration of God’s will and way now, declared in His Word across every aspect of surviving mortal human earth existence in which He will reign as King and Judge (Psalm 72; Micah 4:1-3; Matthew 25:31-46).5 Indeed, we His glorified redeemed followers and saints from all time will reign and judge with Him (Psalm 149; Revelation 1:4-8, 2:26-29, 5:8-10, 20:4-6)!6
At the end of Messiah’s millennial reign in this present earth and age, by His Father’s election as God and Man, He shall resurrect “those who have done evil” and judge for eternity every human who has ever existed that He had not already judged (John 5:16-30; 1 Corinthians 15:20-23; 2 Corinthians 5:9-11; 1 Peter 4:1-5; Revelation 19:11-21, 20:11-15, 22:12-15, NKJV).7 Daniel in his book where we started back on January 9th this year among the prophets of the Bible were shown the coming resurrections of the righteous and the wicked along with their final judgment by Messiah (Daniel 12:2-3).8 Clearly, things will not go well in the judgment to eternal fire for the unsaved who have shown contempt for God’s Word. But the saved who love God’s Word will delight in it forever!
1 See the April 3, 2022 post, Messiah Comes Twice: Once For Sin, under the category, The Faith.
2 Read the two-part post beginning July 18, 2021, No Repentance, No Peace, under the category, Call To Repent. Also, consider the February 6, 2022 post, The Divine Delay, under the category, Bible Prophecy, to appreciate if you will, that as He gave sinful humanity in Noah’s day time to repent and be saved from His wrath, so, all in these last days since He offered up His own Son on the cross to make our salvation possible nearly 2,000 years ago!
3 See the August 15, 2021 post, The Honor Of Bypassing Death, under the category, Bible Prophecy.
4 The Christian journey toward perfection is about allowing God to make us over into the image of Messiah Jesus, His Son. This is the rallying cry and content of my book, The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics and its companion Strong Man Of God Men’s Group Study as well as Great Woman Of God Women’s Group Study all available in the Strong Man Store, at your favorite internet bookseller or brick and mortar bookstore.
5 That’s right! The same transcendent eternal spiritual principles, morality and ethics contained in the Bible the wicked now, mock and belittle as well as many professed Christians corrupt and compromise, will be put in play and enforced by Messiah since as He Himself teaches, neither the content of God’s Law or any of His Words will fail to endure forever (Matthew 5:17-20, 24:35)! See the August 1, 2021 post, Jesus Christ King And Judge!, under the category, Instruction.
6 Read the August 8, 2021 post, Kings And Judges With Christ, under the category, Encouragement.
7 Behold the perfect justice of God the Father to allow His Son, Jesus, as perfect Man to judge His fellow man (Acts 17:29-31)!
8 See the January 9, 2022 post, Easier To Read Bibles, under the categories Bible Prophecy and Instruction.
Daniel holds nothing back of the truth in confessing the transgression, sin and iniquity of his people, Israel, he righteously characterized as rebellion in their departure from God’s written Word. Twice in his confession he also points up the people’s disobedience to God’s direct instruction and warnings to them through His prophets (Daniel 9:6, 10). Besides Moses and Isaiah of the greatest of these prophets (Deuteronomy 28; Isaiah 1), Jeremiah and Ezekiel Daniel’s contemporaries were used mightily of God to graphically present and cry out against their sin, call for their repentance and pronounce His judgment upon their stubborn refusal to do so (Jeremiah 2, 11:11-17; Ezekiel 8, 12).
No, the shame of Babylonian captivity Daniel also asserts twice in his confession to God did not come without prior warning over many years in His longsuffering, forbearance and readiness to mercifully forgive as Israel ‘“rebelled against Him,’” (Daniel 9:7-9, NKJV). Thus, it was that after long sounding his trumpet of warning, Daniel’s fellow prophet in exile, Ezekiel, as God’s watchman to the rebellious captives (whose ministry my own is patterned) learned Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of the Babylonians and directed by Him, announced its complete desolation (Ezekiel 33:1-9, 21-29). Praying with painful hindsight and agreement with God’s written Word, Daniel confesses to Him why.
He prays: ‘“Yes, all Israel has transgressed Your law and has departed so as not to obey Your voice.’” As a foretold consequence, he acknowledges they now, had a desolate homeland, holy city, Jerusalem, and Temple as righteous judgment from God (Daniel 9:11-12, NKJV). I remind us in America again that Israel is the only chosen people and nation of God in history.4 Yet, He brought upon them His righteous judgment stemming from their departure from His Word in disobedience as well as stubborn refusal to repent. Now, if He did this to Israel, where do the many guilty in our nation get off asserting an exceptional standing that exempts us from the same (Jeremiah 25:15-29)?
This is a great falsehood in the land that is working tangible desolations commensurate with the nation’s moral ruin (Micah 3:8-12). For in the arrogance of this self-deceit, the guilty are refusing to humble themselves and repent before God Almighty while He intensifies the desolations upon our nation in our plain view through calamities such as devastating storms, out of season tornadoes, wildfires and His unrelenting Coronavirus pestilence (Isaiah 45:6-7).5 Like Israel, will you foolishly continue not to see ‘“all this disaster has come upon us’” because of transgression, sin and iniquity refusing to repent and ‘“understand’” God’s ‘“truth,’” (Deuteronomy 31:14-32:47; Daniel 9:13, NKJV)?
The foregoing is especially heartbreaking in a land filled with so many professed Christians, their churches and religious educated elites that ostensibly know God and His truth fully written, but who willfully refuse to acknowledge the obvious for all manner of motives. Is not this scenario of spiritual dullness through preoccupation with Christianity as manmade religion how it is that the biblical instruction of salvation by grace through faith alone had to be uncovered again by Martin Luther, a broken and miserable German priest searching for the living God using his Latin Vulgate and Greek Bible translations after over a millennium of corrupt Catholicism usurped and buried it?
Because God is holy, righteous and just, sin not confessed and repented of always has consequences no matter who it is that is guilty! The plain fact is Israel in sin not confessed or repented of was guilty before God. Consequently, as Daniel declares soberly to God in his prayer about Israel’s obstinacy (and ours too), ‘“Therefore the LORD has kept the disaster in mind, and brought it upon us; for the LORD our God is righteous in all the works which He does, though we have not obeyed His voice.’”6 He adds in simple humility, ‘“we have sinned, we have done wickedly;’” including himself in again with his people despite that he was godly (Daniel 9:14-15, NKJV).7 Daniel confessed and repented even though, Israel in the disaster as many today, still refused to do so!
In spite of his people’s failure to do right, Daniel closes his prayer appealing to God in all of His ‘“righteousness’” to ‘“let Your anger and fury be turned away from Your city Jerusalem…,’” (Daniel 9:16, NKJV). God’s righteousness here was to honor His Word; the prophecy He gave Jeremiah to limit Jerusalem’s desolation at the time to “seventy years,” (Jeremiah 25:1-11; NKJV). Daniel then, appeals to God to hear him and take pity on the ‘“desolate’” state of His ‘“sanctuary’” as well as the ‘“desolations’” of the people as He looks out on the situation not in accord with their ‘“righteous deeds’” since they had none, but His ‘“great mercies,’” (Daniel 9:17-18, NKJV). Finally, he exhorts God to ‘“forgive…listen and act,’” (Daniel 9:19, NKJV). Should professed Christians pray otherwise?
4 See the two-part post that begins August 2, 2020, Flavorless Salt Is Worthless, under the category, Call To Repent.
5 Read the July 5, 2020 post, Decision At The Crossroads, under the category, Call To Repent. For all including professed Christians in unbelief that want to redefine God Almighty out of existence or in one’s personally determined image of Him, He is who He is and does what He pleases as it is written (Exodus 3:13-14; Psalm 135:-6; Isaiah 40:12-26)! As a result, mortals should fear in the face of His power rather than dismiss Him through hearts proudly hardened. Or don’t you realize that He who with a word instantly stilled storms (Mark 4:35-41) is also able to permit them with other calamities as works of Satan (Job 1:6-19; Lamentations 3:37-38; Amos 3:6b) and summon them at whatever intensity He wills as He shall do in His wrath before the end of these “latter days,” (Psalm 135:7; Jeremiah 25:30-38,30:23-24, NKJV)?
6 As the harlot daughters of Catholicism in the over 500 years since Luther launched the Protestant Reformation with his biblical rediscovery of God’s salvation by grace through faith in Christ alone, the guilty have shared fully in their mother’s harlotries of disobedience, feat of choking off sound doctrine and being stubbornly unwilling to repent. This is to their terminal judgment with their mother (2 Timothy 3:1-12; Revelation 16:19b, 17-19:4)!
7 While in my book,The Strong Man Of God: Back To Basics, the Lord leads me to hold up faithfulness as the character trait Daniel exemplifies, obviously humility is also among the many character traits of Christ and the aspiring strong man of God in His image he displays. Get my book along with its 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.
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