The West’s Idols and High Places Are Being Attacked

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Ezekiel 6:3–5, High places…idols…corpses. As a judgment against the backslid and idolatrous “mountains of Israel” (Ezek 6:1), YHVH promises to bring a sword against his people as they are worshipping their idols instead of him.

The “mountains of Israel” in this instance is a poetic and prophetic Hebraism for the nations of Israel that YHVH has scattered around the world because of his judgments against their sin.

In this modern age, few people bow down to literal idols, but idolatry is as rampant now as it was in ancient times. Any person, thing or idea that gets in the way of or hinders a person from worshipping and obeying Elohim is an idol to that person. It may be money, sex, drugs, education, power, sports, philosophies, entertainment or pleasure.

The “mountains of Israel” today are largely the Christian nations of the world, which are backslid spiritually.

Typically, YHVH raises up Israel’s enemies to punish his backslid people in hopes they will repent of their sinful ways and return to him. The biblical Edom (or the jihadist Moslems) are YHVH’s end times paddle by which he is spanking his wayward people.

So what are the high places of the Christian nations where their idols are located that Edom is attacking resulting in slain corpses being strewn about? Think of the places where Edom has been detonating bombs and spraying bullets in their attempts to massacre the “people of the book” (as the Koran calls them), who are the Jews and the Christians. The West’s high places of idol worship include sports arenas and sporting events, Christmas parties, schools, night clubs, “gay” night clubs, financial centers, churches and other places of religious activity, places of governmental authority and military installations to name a few. All these high places where idolatry occurs represent the gods and idolatrous concepts of post-Christian Israelites who have rejected Elohim for their idols.

These are YHVH’s judgments upon his people to bring them to repentance.

 

Leviticus 26: Some Thoughts on Divine Judgment

Divine judgment is not a popular topic, and few Bible teaches discuss it because it disturbs the status quo of what people think about themselves. However, for those who are true followers of YHVH Elohim, who are serious students of the Scriptures, and who are intent on pursuing biblical standards of holiness and righteousness, this subject must not be avoided.

Lady Justice Stature n Germany, Frankfurt

The dictionary definition of judgment: “a decision of a court or judge; a misfortune or calamity viewed as a divine punishment.”

The Bible speaks a lot about judgment. When we read about the subject of judgment in the Bible, it usually pertains to the “other guy”: someone in the past, or someone in the future, or someone that we consider to be more sinful than we are. The problem is that our pride prevents us from thinking that it is something that could happen to us.

Judgment is nothing more than suffering the consequences of our actions. It’s simply a function of the law of cause and effect. If you jump off of a building, you’ll suffer the consequences of your actions when you hit the ground. Similarly, when we break YHVH’s commandments, we will suffer the consequences. It’s a matter of degrees. To the degree that we obey his commandments, we’ll reap the blessings of obedience. Conversely, to the degree we disobey them, we’ll reap the negative consequences (Lev 26:3ff cp. 14ff). For most of us, our actions with regard to obedience to YHVH’s laws are a mixture of both good and evil, so we’re reaping both blessings and curses at the same time.

As a result of coming out of the mainstream church, most of us have been so indoctrinated with the concept of YHVH’s love and grace, that we have a skewed view of his judgments. Few preachers ever talks about divine judgment. Add to this the fable of the pre-tribulation raptures, and the idea of divine judgment is shoved further into the back of many believers’ minds. If a preacher does talk about divine judgment, they’re often accused of being judgmental, and this accusation, whether accurate or not, tends to shut down the conversation on the subject of divine judgment. No one wants to talk about it since it messes with people’s false view of an Elohim that is so loving and gracious that he would never judge anyone for anything. Any discussion of the subject of divine judgment also forces people to face the reality of their own sinfulness and wickedness and the fact that they deserve Elohim’s judgments for their disobedience.

Beyond this, most of us have contrived a our own personal theology whereby we excuse and justify ourselves to maintain the comfort zones of our sin. Our hearts become hardened as we justify our sin, and we often excuse our own sinfulness by comparing Continue reading

 

Blessings and curses for Torah obedience and YOU

Leviticus 26:1–46, Blessing 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 the source of their blessings is, and that their blessings are contingent upon obedience to YHVH. 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 nations who claimed to follow the Bible.

In the case of America, and Great Britain before her (and other Christian nations as well), there was in former times a national consciousness of core biblical values and, to one degree or another, a public acknowledgement, acceptance of and respect for the God 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 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 their hearts are uncircumcised, they refuse to humble Continue reading

 

Will You Be Deluded into Following “the Big Lie?”

Isaiah 66:4, I choose their delusions. When people who know the truth of YHVH apostatise from his truth, in an effort to bring them back to him, he will discipline them as a loving parent to bring his children back to him. This process begins when people allow false gods or heart idols to replace devotion and obedience to YHVH (Ezek 14:1–5).

Many times, people seek YHVH’s blessings and favor, while at the same time worshiping the idols of their hearts. When a person is in this spiritual condition and they ask for YHVH’s guidance in a matter, a person isn’t able to clearly hear the will of YHVH, since any light of truth they may receive from him will be filtered through the tinted windows of their idolatrous hearts. They will hear only what they want to hear from him. In fact, YHVH promises to answer a person “according to the multitude of his idols” because he is “estranged from me by [his] idols” (Ezek 14:5). This is part of the humbling and testing process YHVH puts his people through as they trek through the wilderness of life en route to the Promised Land of their spiritual inheritance. He wants to see what’s in their hearts and determine whether they will obey all of his commandments whole-heartedly or not (Deut 8:2–3).

As a judgment against his wayward people, YHVH will allow them to come under spiritual delusion in an effort to bring them back to him in hopes of helping them to see that the proverbial grass isn’t greener on the other side of the fence.

This is what happened to the prodigal son in Yeshua’s parable when he returned to his father’s house after having lived riotously for a season.

When people turn from YHVH and choose to serve other (or foreign) gods (or idols), YHVH may allow those gods to rise up to enslave his people (Jer 5:19).

Sometimes YHVH will even send a deluding or lying demonic spirit to further deceive his hard-hearted and rebellious people (2 Chr 18:22).

During the end times apostasy, YHVH will send a strong delusion to his saints who don’t love his truth enough to fully obey him. They will end up believing “the big lie”  of the man of sin. This man of sin is the agent of Satan and whom Paul characterizes as the lawless or Torahless one (2 Thess 2:8–12).

 

YHVH’s Lightning Bolt of Judgment

Leviticus 10:1–7, Nadab and Abihu were executed by the fire of YHVH for not following his commandments. This disobedience was induced by the consumption of alcohol, which impaired their ability to following YHVH’s protocols for the tabernacle service (Lev 10:9). Likewise, at the end of the Messianic Age (Millennium) unrepentant sinners will be executed by the fire of YHVH in the lake of fire (Rev 20:15) because they have been made drunk by the false religious teachings of the whore system of religious spiritual Babylon (Rev 18:3–4).

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We are now living in an age where, thankfully, most of our sinful actions are not met with instant divine judgment (the case of Ananias and Sapphira in the Book of Acts would be a notable exception). Does knowing that YHVH will not instantly “zap” us with the proverbial lightning bolt from heaven when we sin cause us to become lax and even calloused toward sin in our lives? Do we truly walk in the fear of YHVH? Do we fear the consequences of sin even though the results may not be immediate? How loose is your spiritual walk? How many hidden sins that no one knows about do you have that you are failing to deal with?

The path of righteousness is becoming narrower and ­narrower. There are levels of rewards in Yeshua’s kingdom. Not everyone will be “the greatest in the kingdom of heaven”. Some will be the least, and many will not even be there at all (Matt 5:19). Remember that the tares that were mixed in with the wheat were culled out and burned (Matt 134:24–30). This is a picture of true versus false converts coexisting together to the very end!

 

The Secular Judge and the Persistent Widow—An Encouraging Story

Luke 18:2, A judge. In this parable of the Persistent Widow and the Unjust Judge, Yeshua is using a Hebraic form of reasoning or argument called kol v’khomer where a point is made from a lesser weight to heavier weight. In other words, if premise A is correct, then how much more so is premise B correct?

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In the Jewish religious thinking of the first century, this is one of the seven laws of biblical interpretation of Hillel the Great (ca. 32 b.c. to A.D. 7) who was one of the greatest Jewish religious leaders of Yeshua’s day. In this parable, Yeshua is making the point that if an ungodly, secular judge who cares little about the needs of a widow will grant her wishes because of her persistent pleas for justice against her enemies, how much more will Elohim hear and answer the prayers of his elect saints who have faith in him and cry out to him continually to avenge them of their enemies.

A day of judgment is coming when the scales of justice will be balanced in favor of the saints of the Most High Elohim, the Just Judge of the universe. Certainly Elohim presently attends to the needs of his servants and gives them victory over their enemies in many small ways. But many believers are still suffering greatly at the hands of the wicked who don’t fear Elohim. However, the day is coming when YHVH will move with a mighty hand and universally avenge his servants of all their enemies small and great. Until then, the righteous martyrs continue to cry out asking Elohim, “How long, O YHVH, holy and true until you judge and avenge our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” (Rev 6:10). His answer to them is to wait just a little longer (verse 11), for the great day of YHVH’s wrath, the wrath of the Lamb, which is coming upon the wicked (verse 17) is coming soon. Until then, YHVH promises to never leave nor forsake his servants (Heb 13:5), so be strong in him!

 

The Real State of the Union…

How about a dose of reality in the face of political propaganda and reassuring babble from our so-called leaders?!

Bottom line: This nation needs a spiritual revival from top to bottom and vice versa. It’s our only hope. Until then, we’re destined only to receive more of the same. It’s called judgment!

Franklin Graham is right when the other day he stated that America’s problem is moral and spiritual sickness, and that only repentance from sin will cause the situation to improve.