Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? (Psalm 94:16)
Jeremiah 7:4, The temple of YHVH. Trusting in man-made religion is pointless. Religious icons, systems and rituals will not save a person or nation from YHVH’s judgment against sin and apostasy. The Jews found out the hard ways that just because YHVH’s temple was located in their land, this was not a guaranteed get-of-jail-free card or a fire insurance policy that would magically save them from the results of their sinful disobedience and rebellion to YHVH and his commandments. Similarly, simply going to church, attending mass or synagogue, praying the rosary or shema, or adorning one’s house with Christmas lights and a Christmas tree or any other religious exercise will not save a person if they fail to repent of their sinful ways and turn back to serving YHVH with their whole heart!
Jeremiah 7:16, Do not pray. (Also see Jer 11:14 and 14:11.) There comes a time when YHVH’s people have become so apostate and reprobate that in their condition of lostness it is pointless to pray for them, and so YHVH will not hear any intercessory prayers offered up on their behalf. At this point, the only things that will capture the attention of such a people is severe divine judgment.
Jeremiah 7:22, For I did not speak. YHVH added the sacrificial system because of Israel refused to hear and obey YHVH (verse 23). It was YHVH’s original intent that Israel simply obey YHVH from a willing heart without a rigorous sacrificial system. It was a temporary system to teach Israel that sin doesn’t pay, to train his people to obey him, and to point the way to Yeshua, who would be that our great sin sacrifice once and for all.
Jeremiah7:31–32, Burn their sons…in the fire. Child sacrifice as part of their cultic rituals was how the ancients disposed of unwanted children even as abortion serves the same wicked and grisly purpose in our day. These children were offered on the altars of Tophet while priests beat drums to drown out the shrieks of the children being burned alive (The ArtScroll Chumash, p. 1167). Jeremiah prophesied that those Jews who practiced this holocaust would become victims themselves with their very own carcasses becoming food for the scavenger birds. (This sad prophecy has been fulfilled numerous times in the long history of the Jewish people including most recently during the holocaust of WW II.)
It has been said that the abortion rate is the same in the American Christian church as that of non-Christians. How concerned are you about the slaughter of the innocent in America, and what are you doing about it?
Jeremiah 7:21–8:3, 9:22 (23)–23 (24), “The Sacrifice of the Wicked Is an Abomination” to YHVH (Prov 15:8).
This message of Jeremiah reveals that the purpose of sacrifice and of all outward acts of worship should be to deepen the inward sense of religion and to stimulate one to a holy or set-apart life. Jeremiah, speaking for YHVH, decries the uselessness of religious activity when accompanied with unholiness and unrighteousness. Furthermore, he denounces the mere mechanical performance of acts of worship; of the superstition that the temple ritual could be a guarantee of security from the judgments of Elohim, while the Israelites were divorced from obedience to YHVH’s Torah. Only whole-hearted repentance could avert a national disaster brought on by YHVH’s judgments (Soncino Pentateuch, p. 439).
What is the true meaning of religion and what was the true purpose of the temple in Israel? Its purpose was to transform people into living temples that would be set-apart or holy unto YHVH Elohim. If they acted one way while in the temple and another way while outside the temple, then the temple activities had only become a mockery of YHVH, a farce and a repugnance to the very one they had supposedly come to worship. Humans may kid themselves by their religiosity, but they cannot deceive the Holy One of Israel who sees all and who reads their hearts and minds. He is not moved by mere outward show of religious piety. What are your true heart motives for pursuing the religion of the Bible? If it is for any reason other than out of a deep, abiding love for Yeshua, for a desire to draw close to the Father in a personal one-on-one way, to walk in righteousness as an act of faith and worship toward him, then your motives need to be reevaluated and readjusted.
Let us define some important words that sadly all too often relate to religious folk. These words are:
Pretense, which is “a claim made or implied, but not supported by fact; ostentation.”
Ostentation, which is “anexcessive display; pretentiousness.”
Hypocrisy, which is “a feigning to be what one is not or to believe what one does not; the false assumption of an appearance of virtue or religion.”
What does the Word of Elohim have to say about hypocrisy? Please review the following biblical passages:
Job 13:16; 15:31,33,34; 20:4,5; 27:8–10
Psalm 78:34–37
Proverbs 15:7; 21:27
Isaiah 1:13,15; 29:13–16; 48:1–2; 66:3–5
Jeremiah 3:10; 7:4, 8–10
Hosea 10:1,4
Matthew 6:1,2,5,16,24; 7:5,15,21–23; 15:7–9, chapter 23
Luke 11:39,42,44,52
Romans 16:18
Galatians 6:3
Titus 1:16
James 1:8,22–24,26; 2:14–26; 3:17
2 Peter 2:1–3,17,19
1 John 2:4,9,19; 4:20
Revelation 3:15–18
Now let’s review some statistics relevant to the state of the American Christian church from George Barna’s book, The Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators—A Statistical Report on the State of Religion in America. This book was first published in 1996, yet how much has the American church changed for the better since then? Here are some startling statistics:
85% of Americans claim to be Christian
10% of Americans are “Bible Christians”: that is, they fully accept biblical authority, total trust in Christ for salvation, are evangelistic and are active in a church, and believe in moral absolutes.
25% of Americans are “Conventional Christians”: they claim total trust in Christ for salvation, are involved in a church, they exercise a privatized faith, believe in moral relativism and appreciate the Bible.
28% of Americans are “Cultural Christians”: they have a universalistic world-view, their religion is works based (i.e., they believe that good people will go to heaven), they are moral relativistic, nominal church involvement and are Christian in name only.
Of those who claim to be Christian, only 40 percent believe in a literal Satan; 63 percent believe in the accuracy of the Bible; only 30 percent read their Bible in a week; only 57 percent agree that good people will go to heaven; only 31 percent believe in a fiery place of torment after death; 37 percent believe hell is only symbolic; only 9 percent knew what the “Great Commission” was; 63 percent had no idea what “John 3:16” referred to; and only 35 percent could accurately define the meaning of the word gospel.
YHVH sent the prophet Jeremiah to warn the nation of Israel of impending doom if it failed to repent of its disobedience to him. He then cites many examples of various sins that had become odious in YHVH’s nostrils. In their smugness, the Jews felt secure because they possessed the temple in Jerusalem. Surely YHVH would not allow the Jews to be destroyed for the sake of his spiritual house. Yet Jeremiah warned that this security was a false one and to prove his point he calls to their attention the example of the Northern Kingdom or house of Israel, which had already been taken captive a couple of generations earlier. What parallels do we see in the Christian church that are similar to those of the Southern Kingdom or house of Judah of Jeremiah’s day? How many Americans take comfort (and pride) in the notion that America is a “Christian nation” and that certainly YHVH would allow nothing disastrous to happen here? Some take comfort in America’s military and economic might. Others feel that a pre-tribulation rapture will carry them “out of here” when the going gets tough. Is it possible that some might be in for a rude awakening one of these days when things don’t go as planned? We know from history that the temple in Jerusalem—as if it were some lucky talisman—did not protect the Jews who. The stark reality of this came to rest on the Jewish people as they watched their beloved temple go up in flames, even as their conquerors were dragging them off in chains to be slaves in a foreign nation. Could the unexpected happen to America, or any other country? Is YHVH any more duty-bound to protect us than he was the Jews of that day?
I just received a question in the comments section of this blog as to whether I would submit to forced government virus testing and quarantining. Below, I will answer this question as well as share with you my position on vaccines.
For the record, I am 60 years old and have never had a vaccine in my life—not a single one. I don’t intend to ever get one either. Are all vaccines bad? No. But most are because of the toxic substances (adjuvants) that they contain.
Now I’m not opposed to all vaccines. Vaccinations are not necessarily a bad concept. It’s called allopathic medicine and is based on the idea, among other things, that a little toxic substance put into the body can help to build the body’s immune system to fight the pathogens of a particular disease. However, before I would ever take a vaccine, I would have to be certain that it didn’t contain any toxic materials, biblically unclean substances, or biblically forbidden ingredients such as aborted fetal tissues. I would also want to make certain that the vaccine was effective and was actually fighting the disease for which it was intended, and NOT last year’s virus as opposed to this year’s virus.
So far in my life, I have never needed a vaccine, and if I’ve lived this long without one, I suspect that I can make it to the end of my life without one as well. YHVH has healed me many times, and I live a clean, pure life physical and spiritually, so there’s no reason that I should get the virus that’s currently pandemically circulating.
I haven’t exactly spent my life in a cave either without being exposed to possible diseases. I’m out in the world every day running my business. I have travelled to more than 20 countries on four continents, have been in some of the biggest cities in the world, been on many cruise ships and on countless airplanes and otherwise lived a normal, unsheltered life. But I’m careful, know how to protect myself and stay in a right spiritual relationship with my Creator. So far I’ve been spared by YHVH’s grace. I have been to the doctor only once in my life for a medical emergency, and that was more than 30 years ago because of a broken bone.
As far as the leftist governor of Washington State goes and his recent mandates regarding forced government testing for the Corona/COVID-19 virus along with forced quarantines, let me say this. I live in Oregon, which is between Washington and California, so I’m watching the situation in Washington carefully, since such measures could potentially come to my state. I am a libertarian at heart and am opposed to big-brother government encroachments and controls. Basically I want to be left alone to run and manage my own life. I am not opposed to reasonable government measures to protect its citizens from evil things, but am opposed to having my life micro-managed and my constitutional liberties abridged in any way.
With regard to testing, I’m not necessarily opposed to be being tested if I were to come down with symptoms resembling the Corona-COIVID-19 virus. I’d like to know what I’ve got, so I can protect myself and others from it. Quarantine is a biblical-Torah concept after all. If I were to be cursed with this virus, I’d want to know. Beyond that, the less the government knows about me, the less they can control me. They already know a lot, but I’m reluctant to give them voluntarily and for no good reason any more information than absolutely necessary. So to answer your question as to whether I’d submit to testing and mandatory quarantine as the governor of Washington is proposing, I’d have to read the fine details, pray for wisdom from above as to what to do or not to do, and then act out my conscience, and beyond that trust YHVH for his protection and then let the chips fall where they may. This is a decision that each person has to make on their own.
Know this, that the book of Revelation predicts that in the last days, the political and economic powers that run the planet will use pharmaceutical drugs to control the populace for their evil, nefarious and Antichirst purposes (Rev 18:23). I don’t intend to be one of their mind-numbed, subservient, worker bee peasant-serfs. I am a redeemed, blood-bought servant-saint of Yeshua the Messiah, and am in a blood covenant relationship with the Almighty YHVH Elohim, the Creator of the universe, and I will not allow myself to come under any dictates of man that in anyway compromises my relationship with my Elyon or goes against his Written Word. Period. So help me YHVH!
Leviticus 26:1–46, Blessings and Curses Based on Obedience to YHVH’s Torah-Word
The corollary to this passage is Deuteronomy chapter 28. These judgments come upon a people who have forgotten their Elohim because they have been blessed materially and in their self-sufficiency have forgotten who is the source of their blessings. The Torah continually stresses that blessings are contingent upon obedience to YHVH. Similarly, Yeshua reveals that rewards in his everlasting kingdom are also contingent on obedience to his Torah-laws. The greater the obedience, the greater the reward (Matt 5:17).These principles are universal, yet how we tend to forget the cycles of history that repeat themselves over and over again like the unstoppable turning of giant millstone grinding into powder those who refuse to learn the lessons from the past. Each generation proudly asserts it’s exceptionalism and that, somehow, it’s immune to YHVH’s inexorable and immutable principles of divine judgment. Only in the perfect hindsight of history can we see the fallacy of this assumption. Ancient Israel failed to learn these lessons as have subsequent people who claimed to follow the Bible.
In the case of America, and Great Britain before her (and other formerly European Christian nations as well), there was in times past a national consciousness of core biblical values and, to one degree or another, a general public acknowledgement, acceptance of and respect for the Elohim of the Bible. However, as a nation becomes blessed, it reaches an apogee of prominence, power and wealth where it becomes rich and increased with goods and no longer needs Elohim—or so it thinks. It become fat and forgets the source of its wealth and falls into a state of self-sufficiency leading to spiritual blindness in that it fails to recognize its true spiritual state (recall YHVH’s warning to a lukewarm church in Rev 3:14–22). This can happen to individuals, churches and to whole societies.
Because YHVH loves his people and wants to walk among them, to be their Elohim and to bless them (Lev 26:12), when they disobey him and walk in ways that are harmful to their well-being, like any loving parent, he is forced to discipline them. Again and again he sends them his prophets and watchmen to warn them that they’re on a path of self-destruction. But because of pride, they refuse to humble themselves and repent (Lev 26:40–41). It’s the same old story over and over again. Human pride insists that “judgments can’t happen to us because we’re so special.” “All things will continue as they have from the beginning and no evil shall befall us” a self-assured society and individual retorts in mocking and scoffing tones to all those who would hold them accountable for their errant ways (2 Pet 3:3–7). If only the great people, nations and empires that have already trodden this well-worn path and are now in the dust bin of history could speak from their graves and this generation had heart ears to hear!
Leviticus 25:42, Slaves. The Hebrew word slaves or bondmen is ebed meaning “slave, servant, man-servant, worshiper (of Elohim), servant (of Elohim, e.g. Levite, priest or prophet).” Ebed derives from the basic Hebrew root word and verb, abad, meaning “to work or serve.” The word abab refers to service that can be directed toward people, things or Elohim. In biblical usage, if directed toward things, abad can refer to tilling the earth, dressing a vineyard, working flax or constructing a city. When abad is used in reference to serving YHVH it can refer to Levitical and priestly service. In Hebraic thought, such service is considered joyous, not bondage. This same service can be directed toward pagan deities as well. When used in reference to serving another man, abad transforms into the noun ebed meaning “slave or servant.” As discussed below and as pointed out by The TWOT, the concept of Hebrew slavery isn’t akin to the modern concept of slavery where the slave possesses no basic human rights. This was not the case in ancient Israel. The Hebrew slave, on the other hand, occupied a position of status involving rights and trust. The Torah required this to be case as this and other Torah passages demonstrate.
Leviticus 25:45, You may buy. This passage advocates “slavery” among the Israelites. Yet, this is not the slavery the American Negroes, for example, experienced prior to the Civil War. It must be remembered that slavery was rife in the ancient world (as it still is, illegally, today in many countries). Often slaves, however, were able to own homes and livestock and to maintain families as was the case with the Israelites in Egypt and the Jews in Babylon. In this case, these slaves were more like servants or feudal serfs. For example, in Israel, the Gibeonites became the slaves of Israel, but they continued to dwell in their own cities, and enjoy Israel’s military protection (Josh 9). Also, it must be remembered that when Israel conquered an opponents’ land or army, they often inherited slaves from those countries or slaves from other countries the conquered country itself had enslaved. What were the Israelites to do with these people who had been dispossessed of their lands? Send them back to countries that no longer existed, or to which they were no longer welcome? Send them back into heathen situations? Instead, YHVH allowed Israel to bring these captured people into Israel where they could live among a Torah-obedient people who worshipped the God of Israel, YHVH Elohim, where they would be taught to love Elohim totally and their neighbors as themselves. In time, these slaves would be assimilated into the tribes of Israel through intermarriage and become part of Israel and thus be elevated in their social status. In this sense, slavery was a means of evangelizing those who found themselves in the lowest echelons of the ancient world. It was ostensibly a way to bring them into the ways of the Torah thereby elevating them spiritually and socially from their previous enslaved heathen condition.
Leviticus 25:55, Are my servants [or slave.] Here YHVH declares that “the children of Israel are my slaves [or servants, Heb. ebed], whom I have taken out of the land of Egypt—I am YHVH, your Elohim.” Here YHVH states dogmatically that he brought or redeemed the Israelites out of slavery to Egypt so that they could become his slaves. Does this trouble you? Being a slave of YHVH didn’t seem to trouble the apostles of Yeshua who referred to themselves many times as YHVH’s bondservants or slaves (e.g. Rom 1:1; Tit 1:1; Jas 1:1; 2 Pet 1:1; Jude 1:1; Rev 1:1). Perhaps their view of slavery is different than ours. Did they not see two categories of slavery and that all humans fall into one or the other category: slavery to the world, flesh and the devil that leads to death as compared to “slavery” to the Word and the Spirit of YHVH that leads to life? There is no escape. One is either a slave to the law of sin and death or to the law of the Spirit of life in Messiah Yeshua (Rom 8:1–2). Those who have been redeemed by the blood of Yeshua have become Yeshua’s purchased possession as Paul says in 1 Corinthians 6:19–20:
What? Know you not that your body is the temple of the Set-Apart Spirit which is in you, which you have of Elohim, and you are not your own? For you are bought with a price: therefore glorify Elohim in your body, and in your spirit, which are Elohim’s.
Do you live your life, make choices, do or don’t do things, say or don’t say things every day with the realty that your are a slave to YHVH? Is Yeshua truly your Lord and Master? It is easy to make the claims that he is, but living out the reality is a totally different things!
Stop murdering your children and referring to it euphemistically as “pro-choice” or “abortion.” Murder is an abomination to a righteous Elohim and, unless you repent make no mistake about it, you will suffer the same fate as that innocent child you murdered, except your fate will be eternal. So says YHVH Elohim in his Divine Word, the Scriptures.
Our Heavenly Father is also calling this nation to turn from all sexual sin and perversion. All sex outside of marriage is sin and an abomination before a righteous Elohim. Turn from this sin now, and repent. Cry out to your loving Heavenly Father for his grace and strength to come out of sexual sin. If you are living with someone you are not married to, marry or leave immediately. Do not come back to them unless it is at your marriage ceremony. If you are a homosexual, lesbian, child molester or someone who is addicted to pornography, turn at once from these sins. They will damn you eternally unless you repent. Flee these sins like the plague. The arms of Yeshua the Messiah are open wide to receive you and to show you the way to your loving and gracious Heavenly Father. Life eternal and hope await all those who forsake wickedness and seek YHVH’s righteousness and holiness.
Those of you who have abandoned your children and families in pursuit of materialism and selfish self-gratification…repent now! Your riches will perish. Your selfish pleasures will come to an end and not satisfy. Your children and marriages will too if you do not make them the priority in your life that Elohim commands.
Children, honor, obey and respect your parents and you will live long and fruitful lives in this blessed land which the Creator of the universe has given to us.
Turn away from addictions all kinds. These include addictions to drugs, alcohol, nicotine, sex, profanity, pornography, television, materialism, hedonism, entertainment, sports, video games or any other thing that is idolatry and is keeping you from an intimate and loving relationship with YHVH. These sins are destructive to you and your family and to your relationship with your Heavenly Father. Anything that is more important to you than obedience to your Creator as delineated in the pages of YHVH’s Word is idolatry. Whatever takes you away from walking in accordance with his righteous commandments is sin and idolatry. Turn from these things now. Restore your marriages, your relationships with your children and family by crying out in repentance to your loving Heavenly Father. Ask him for strength to overcome your sin. Pray for deliverance in the name of Yeshua the Messiah. Cry out to him for the salvation of your soul and pray to receive the Set-Apart Spirit of YHVH Elohim. Do it today, you are not guaranteed life beyond this very moment.
Turn away from false and satanic religions of all kinds. Turn away from witchcraft, satanism, divination, sorcery, astrology, mother earth worship, New Age, New Thought and science of the mind religions, Eastern religions including Freemasonry, Luciferianism and Islam. Turn away from the demonic and Antichrist religion of Islam. Turn away from religious systems that deny the gospel message of the Scriptures, deity of Yeshua the Messiah and the truth of the divine inspiration of all the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
America, turn away from and forsake atheism, humanism, Marxism or socialism and evolution. These philosophies are all cut from the same cloth and are akin to each other. They all engender a hatred for the Creator of the Universe who is YHVH-Elohim, the God of the Bible. They are all demonic and satanic in origination and will bring curses on your life and on this nation if you do not turn away from these things NOW! They are all a part of the package of lies of Satan to damn your soul that he successfully peddled to man at the tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden. These religious philosophies are destructive and ruinous and will bring judgment, curses and damnation to one’s life personally and to this nation corporately if we do not repent of them now.
America, remember the seventh day Sabbath day to keep it set-apart. Six days YHVH the Creator worked, but on the seventh day he rested. He blessed the Sabbath day and set aside that day to be sanctified for his purpose. He commanded his people to keep it. It is a sign between him and his set-apart people. Observe this day, you and your family and be blessed.
YHVH Elohim, the Creator of the universe says in 2 Chronicles 7:14,
If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
But don’t stop there. Continue reading several verses later:
But if ye turn away, and forsake my statutes and my [Torah] commandments, which I have set before you, and shall go and serve other gods, and worship them; then will I pluck them up by the roots out of my land which I have given them; and this house, which I have sanctified for my name, will I cast out of my sight, and will make it to be a proverb and a byword among all nations. (emphasis added)
America, now is the time to return to YHVH! Return now to the biblical Torah roots of your Christian faith and return to the truth of YHVH-Elohim as lived and taught by Yeshua the Messiah and the first-century, Torah-law keeping, Yeshua-loving, Spirit-filled believers of the book of Acts in the Bible!
In this scripture passage, Jeremiah, the weeping prophet (lamenting for the apostate condition of the nation of Israel), speaking on behalf of YHVH, pleads with Israel to return to YHVH, the Elohim (God) of Israel, who had graciously blessed that nation. Under YHVH’s watchful care, Israel had prospered, yet eventually, like the first century believers in Laodicea (Rev 3:14–22), material prosperity had led to their forsaking YHVH for secularism.
Jeremiah addresses all levels of Israelite society: kings, princes, priests, prophets, pastors and the people. No one escaped his stinging rebuke. In our day, kings and princes would correspond to our political leaders, while prophets, priests and pastors to our spiritual leaders. The people would be everyone else.
In verse 13, Jeremiah states that Israel was guilty of two sins: they had forsaken YHVH, the Fountain of Living Waters, and had exchanged his divine and life-giving truth for the stagnant waters of man-made cisterns, which in Hebraic poetic symbolism is a metaphor for false, humanistic religious and philosophical systems of men. In verse 27, Jeremiah accuses Israel of turning its back on YHVH and exchanging worship of the Creator for worship of the creation and material objects (idols). This is reminiscent of what the Apostle Paul declares in his Epistle to the Romans (chapter one) of a society that rejects the divinely revealed truth of YHVH as found in the Scriptures, and then begins worshipping that which the Creator created including the earth, animals and their own bodies (resulting in hedonism and sexual perversion). In verse 21, Jeremiah declares that Israel had become like a degenerate plant and a strange or foreign grape vine, which can be related to the wild olive tree Paul speaks of in Romans 11. (See also Jer 11:16.)
With all this in mind, can we identify any spiritual parallels between ancient Israel and modern America? If Jeremiah were alive today what might he say to America?
A Wake Up Call—The Battle For the Soul of America
For several generations now, a righteous remnant of end-time warriors has been fighting an uphill battle against immorality, abortion, rebellion against the biblical laws of YHVH, humanism, Marxism/socialism, Eastern “spirituality”/New Age and the global takeover by the corporate-governmental fascist elite called the New World Order. The latest addition to this list is the Antichrist religion of Islam and anti-Semitism. Both are raising their demonic heads at home and abroad in the traditional Judeo-Christian nations of Europe. Islam began knocking on the spiritual door of America a few decades ago, and now because of the large numbers of Moslems in this country, Islam has become a threat worth noting. The goal of Islam is definite, for the Koran states it clearly: to take over the world and to dispossess both Christians and Jews of their lands, property and lives, if they fail to convert to Islam.
We find ourselves in this situation because we as a nation have failed to repent of the sins listed above and now the judgment of Islam and along with the spread of illegal aliens is coming against us (allowed by Elohim) to hopefully wake us up and drive us to our knees before our Father in heaven.
These curses are coming against America because of its moral and spiritual weakness. Like biological pathogens, these threats to America are feeding on the physical and spiritual body politic of this nation because its spiritual immune system (its spiritual, biblically-based faith and morals) has been seriously compromised due to moral and spiritual declension due to its trend toward weak, hireling and apostate spiritual leaders.
Where Are the Spiritual Watchman?
Where are the spiritual watchmen on the wall of America warning us of these things and urging us to repent? Other than a few lone and small voices crying in the wilderness, the major leadership of the church in America has been virtually silent. Unless we repent now, starting with the church confessing and forsaking its sins, I believe that America the Titanic is going down in Elohim’s judgment.
