Old Testament

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CTT | What is the Biblical Stance on Racism?

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CTTThe Bible has many references to people groups, nations, and lineage, but does that make it racist? Not in the way we generally think of racism. In our modern-day we tend to focus on visible distinctions (skin color, hair type, or language) and we use those distinctions to malign people. The color of a person’s skin is used to determine if a statement or decision was racist, wrongfully exempting some and falsely accusing others of racism. When the world rejects Truth and defines all “right and wrong” based on self we shouldn’t really find double-standards all that surprising. We live in a day where sinful judgement takes place all of the time and is often smoke-screened with ad hominem attacks and straw-man racism. Rather than discuss the issues at hand, many who struggle with racism who are caught without a valid argument are the first to play the “racist” card. The world is lost because it has rejected the Truth of God’s Word.

Romans 1:18-20 (ESV)18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse.

So enough about how wrong and sinful the world is today. Let us turn to the Truth of God’s Word to explore this notion of racism and see what the Bible has to say on the matter.

God Created Mankind as One Kind, a single race.

Let us begin on the sixth day of Creation Week.

Genesis 1:24-31 (ESV) 24 And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25 And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.

26 Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27 So God created man in his own image,
    in the image of God he created him;
    male and female he created them.

28 And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29 And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30 And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31 And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.

Every living creature is created according to its kind. When God created plant life (day 3), He instituted the concept of bearing seed after it own kind. Each kind of plant will only bear seed of its own kind, and it will not bear the seed of a different kind. A banana kind will not suddenly bear seeds for stone fruit (like peaches). When the Bible refers to procreation of man, it uses the same rules of seed bearing after its own kind. The Hebrew word (אָדָם) is translated Adam, man, and mankind. All of mankind are a single race. That any man can join with any woman and produce children after their own kind demonstrates this truth. The creation account in Chapter 2 further illustrates this truth.

Genesis 2:18-20 (ESV) 18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” 19 Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him.

In all of creation, there was no helper suitable for Adam. Therefore God created woman out of man and joined them together. One race, one kind, and it was all very good. Now, God designed within Creation a wide array of variety, for we have classified many variations within kinds (different cats, dogs, fruit, vegetables) of the lower creatures and within mankind (heights, weights, skin tones, hair types, eye colors, etc). Before the fall, there was only Adam and his wife, but the genetic material was all there. With sin came the curse, and degradation of all of creation. Divisions of mankind happened, but they did not become different kinds.

The Reset in the Time of Noah

We know that there was great variety in mankind after the fall as they multiplied on the earth. There were men of great renown (Nephilim or giants) in those days and after the flood (Sons of Anak; Numbers 13 (ESV)).  In Genesis 6, we see God is grieved by the wickedness of mankind on the earth and brought judgement upon it, saving Noah and his family. Now all people groups, all of the race of mankind is preserved in the 8 who were aboard the Ark. After the flood, the face of the whole Earth was changed, as well as its climate, and the need to survive in multivarious environments had to have been designed into the mankind by God, and it was. All of mankind spoke one language, and were one people.

Now sin persists in mankind and soon after the flood and the first harvest of the vine, Ham, sinned against his father, Noah. Noah curses Canaan, the son of Ham, as punishment for the wrong committed him by Ham. This becomes our first major separation of people groups, the sons of Canaan become subjects to Japheth and Shem who did what was right by Noah. This is a prophetic judgement on the house of Canaan, one God revisits in the time of Abraham.

Genesis 17:7-9 (ESV) 7 And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you. 8 And I will give to you and to your offspring after you the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.” 9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations.

Abraham was a descendant of Shem. But how did the groups become so foreign to one another in the time that passed between Shem and Abraham, such that Abraham was a sojourner in the land of Canaan?

The Tower of Babel

Let’s look turn to the beginning of Genesis 11.

Genesis 11:1-9 (ESV) | The Tower of Babel
1 Now the whole earth had one language and the same words. 2 And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there. 3 And they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks, and burn them thoroughly.” And they had brick for stone, and bitumen for mortar. 4 Then they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens, and let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be dispersed over the face of the whole earth.” 5 And the Lord came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of man had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is only the beginning of what they will do. And nothing that they propose to do will now be impossible for them. 7 Come, let us go down and there confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord dispersed them from there over the face of all the earth, and they left off building the city. 9 Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth. And from there the Lord dispersed them over the face of all the earth.

So, we see the first separation of people groups after the flood comes as a direct result of sin committed against Noah. A prophetic declaration of separation from the sons of Shem and Japheth and the sons of Ham. After some time, we have a second, major separation when God confused the languages of the people. Remember that everything here was written by Moses as he recorded God’s eye-witness account. We have some clue as to how the languages divided the people by looking at the genealogies recorded in chapter 10, particularly in how the accounts of the descendants of Japheth, Ham, and Shem are concluded. Let’s look at the descendants of Ham.

Genesis 10:6-20 (ESV) 6 The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan.

7 The sons of Cush: Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabteca.

The sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan.

8 Cush fathered Nimrod; he was the first on earth to be a mighty man. 9 He was a mighty hunter before the Lord. Therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before the Lord.” 10 The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. 11 From that land he went into Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth-Ir, Calah, and 12 Resen between Nineveh and Calah; that is the great city. 13 Egypt fathered Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, 14 Pathrusim, Casluhim (from whom the Philistines came), and Caphtorim.

15 Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, 16 and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, 17 the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, 18 the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. 19 And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. 20 These are the sons of Ham, by their clans, their languages, their lands, and their nations.

I’ve highlighted several of the people groups that would become enemies of Israel, worshipers of false gods, wicked men of old. I am confident that most of the highlighted ones are easily recognized while a couple (Heth and Cush) might not be so. We looked at the significance of the descendants of Heth in the story of Jacob and Esau. We will take a look at Cush, but for now I’d like to draw your attention to the significance of Nimrod, the first on earth to be a mighty man. Now, we know that there were Nephilim or giants before the flood, so here the connotation is that Nimrod is perhaps the first earthly king. The beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh. This is significant in understanding what went wrong in the building of the Tower of Babel. After having established his kingdom, he sought to build a tower into Heaven, to be like God, and he had the support of the people. We see that when he left the land of Shinar, he built Nineveh.

After God confused the languages of the people, they dispersed in clans, languages, and nations over the Earth. When their languages split, so did their gene pools and their cultures. Very few remembered God their creator… as we see in chapter 12, God calls Abram to leave the land of his family (Ur of the Chaldeans) into a land that God would give him. We see God calling Abram out of the dispersion of people who had at one time committed to build a monument to themselves, a tower to Heaven. Much like today, when the Gospel of Jesus Christ is to call out of the world a people for Himself. The key separation here is a people who follow and worship the One True God, the descendants of Abraham.

What about skin color?

Skin color has already varied because our genetic makeup has already been set; however, it has not been mentioned as a determining factor in dividing people groups. Now that we have clans and languages split, and the post-flood world, it stands to reason that skin color may become more and more significant in the natural selection process based on climate and language. Answers in Genesis did a good job of explaining how skin type plays a role in natural selection with regards to climates.

Fast-forwarding to Moses as he records the Law, he is God’s chosen prophet to the children of Israel. God used Moses to deliver Israel from their slavery in Egypt, and to lead the people of Israel through the wilderness while God made Himself known to Israel first, and the rest of mankind later. He promised Abraham that the nations would be blessed by his offspring, that is Jesus Christ, through whom all mankind might be saved from the wrath earned by their sin. In Numbers, chapter 12, we see events transpire that would easily qualify as racism in today’s vernacular.

Numbers 12  (ESV) | Miriam and Aaron Oppose Moses
12 Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married, for he had married a Cushite woman. 2 And they said, “Has the Lord indeed spoken only through Moses? Has he not spoken through us also?” And the Lord heard it. 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, more than all people who were on the face of the earth. 4 And suddenly the Lord said to Moses and to Aaron and Miriam, “Come out, you three, to the tent of meeting.” And the three of them came out. 5 And the Lord came down in a pillar of cloud and stood at the entrance of the tent and called Aaron and Miriam, and they both came forward. 6 And he said, “Hear my words: If there is a prophet among you, I the Lord make myself known to him in a vision; I speak with him in a dream. 7 Not so with my servant Moses. He is faithful in all my house. 8 With him I speak mouth to mouth, clearly, and not in riddles, and he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?” 9 And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them, and he departed. 10 When the cloud removed from over the tent, behold, Miriam was leprous, like snow. And Aaron turned toward Miriam, and behold, she was leprous. 11 And Aaron said to Moses, “Oh, my lord, do not punish us because we have done foolishly and have sinned. 12 Let her not be as one dead, whose flesh is half eaten away when he comes out of his mother’s womb.” 13 And Moses cried to the Lord, “O God, please heal her—please.” 14 But the Lord said to Moses, “If her father had but spit in her face, should she not be shamed seven days? Let her be shut outside the camp seven days, and after that she may be brought in again.” 15 So Miriam was shut outside the camp seven days, and the people did not set out on the march till Miriam was brought in again. 16 After that the people set out from Hazeroth, and camped in the wilderness of Paran.

Ah, here we have a reference to Cush, the son of Ham. The Hebrew word here translated “Cushite” is elsewhere translated “Ethiopian”. The root of this word is the Hebrew word for the Cush which also means “black”. Cush was probably given his name because he was born darker than his siblings. The land of Cush is the land in the southern regions of the Nile, south of Egypt. Moses had taken a black woman for a wife, Miriam and Aaron oppose Moses for it, and God’s anger is kindled. The people have the Law and the statutes of the Lord. If they had any just objection to Moses marrying this woman, they would have presented their case. They didn’t, Miriam and Aaron objected to the marriage and even slightly invoked their status as having prophesied before the Lord before as somehow supporting their issue against Moses. God was furious. He addresses even the fact that the prophets don’t even speak to God in the same manner that God speaks to Moses. As punishment, God strikes Miriam with leprosy. Even when Moses makes his plea with God to heal her, God insists they abide by the Law, and so Miriam must observe the Law and wait 7 days outside the camp before being allowed back in. Is false judgement according to the color of skin condoned in the Bible? Absolutely not. Miriam was cut off from her people (for 7 days) for it.

Conclusion

What we superficially throw around as racism is in no way condoned in the Bible. God created one race, one kind, that is mankind. There are divisions of people, first and foremost whether or not we know the One True God and worship Him as God. There are differences within mankind, differences that I believe God enjoys, for He is the one who Created our variety, our languages, our appearance, our skills, our laughter. He created us in His likeness, in His image… we are a dim reflection of His Greatness. We all are sinners, we’ve all fallen in the sin of Adam and are born dead in sins and trespasses. But just as in Adam all men have sinned and died, through Jesus a way of salvation was provided for all of mankind.

John 3:16-21 (ESV) | For God So Loved the World
16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

John 6:28-29 (ESV) 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.”

Do the work of God, believe in Jesus Christ, whom the Lord God sent out of His love for us, so that we might not perish. Bear fruit in keeping with repentance. May the Lord bless you and keep you in His Word.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

CTT | What About Soul Ties?

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Presentation1Have you ever heard someone teach on “soul ties” and the need for Christians to become aware of them and sever them? I learned about this Word of Faith doctrine at youth retreats and in every Christian “self-help” Book (oxymoron) dealing with sexual purity, adolescence, dating, and marriage. Books teaching about deliverance from addictions to spiritual bondage all point to these soul ties (and generational curses) as the background chains or hindrances to Spiritual Growth and freedom. But are these teachings Biblical?

Well, let’s first look to a resource that presents itself as a Bible study site:

What a soul tie is

The Bible speaks of what is today known as soul ties. In the Bible, it doesn’t use the word soul tie, but it speaks of them when it talks about souls being knit together, becoming one flesh, etc. A soul tie can serve many functions, but in it’s simplest form, it ties two souls together in the spiritual realm. Soul ties between married couples draw them together like magnets, while soul ties between fornicators can draw a beaten and abused woman to the man which in the natural realm she would hate and run from, but instead she runs to him even though he doesn’t love her, and treats her like dirt. In the demonic world, unholy soul ties can serve as bridges between two people to pass demonic garbage through. I helped a young man not too long ago break free from downright awful visitations from demons, all due to an ungodly soul tie he had with a witch. The man was a Christian, and the only thing that allowed her to send demonic torment his way, is through the soul tie. Other soul ties can do things such as allow one person to manipulate and control another person, and the other person is unaware to what is going on or knows what is going on, but for no real reason, allows it to continue. (from GreatBibleStudy.com, accessed 9/23/14)

Wow, that’s quite a collection of things lumped under “soul ties”. Does the Bible teach any of this? From here on out, we will only look at what the Scripture says. Let’s examine the premise behind these claims in bold first before exploring this doctrine any further.

Souls being knit together

The first claim is that the Bible talks about souls being knit together. Where does the Bible talk about that? Well, the phrase is mentioned in the Bible but it isn’t really taught. The most commonly used text for this idea comes from 1 Samuel 18. Let’s begin in chapter 17 so that we can get some context as to when this all took place.

1 Samuel 17:50-58 (ESV) | David Defeats Goliath
50 So David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and with a stone, and struck the Philistine and killed him. There was no sword in the hand of David. 51 Then David ran and stood over the Philistine and took his sword and drew it out of its sheath and killed him and cut off his head with it. When the Philistines saw that their champion was dead, they fled. 52 And the men of Israel and Judah rose with a shout and pursued the Philistines as far as Gath and the gates of Ekron, so that the wounded Philistines fell on the way from Shaaraim as far as Gath and Ekron. 53 And the people of Israel came back from chasing the Philistines, and they plundered their camp. 54 And David took the head of the Philistine and brought it to Jerusalem, but he put his armor in his tent.

55 As soon as Saul saw David go out against the Philistine, he said to Abner, the commander of the army, “Abner, whose son is this youth?” And Abner said, “As your soul lives, O king, I do not know.” 56 And the king said, “Inquire whose son the boy is.” 57 And as soon as David returned from the striking down of the Philistine, Abner took him, and brought him before Saul with the head of the Philistine in his hand. 58 And Saul said to him, “Whose son are you, young man?” And David answered, “I am the son of your servant Jesse the Bethlehemite.”

1 Samuel 18:1-5 (ESV) | David and Jonathan’s Friendship
1 As soon as he had finished speaking to Saul, the soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. 2 And Saul took him that day and would not let him return to his father’s house. 3 Then Jonathan made a covenant with David, because he loved him as his own soul. 4 And Jonathan stripped himself of the robe that was on him and gave it to David, and his armor, and even his sword and his bow and his belt. 5 And David went out and was successful wherever Saul sent him, so that Saul set him over the men of war. And this was good in the sight of all the people and also in the sight of Saul’s servants.

Okay, so here we have written that after God defeated Goliath at the hand of David, Jonathan took to David and loved him as his own soul. Their souls were knit together. In the Hebrew the phrasing for “soul knit to soul” here is nephesh qashar nephesh. The Hebrew language has very few words so each word has a meaning that is broader than our English word for “soul”. Before we look at the meanings of the individual words, let’s look at where this idea is conveyed elsewhere in Scripture. Such a place is found in Genesis 44. Now, to set this next quote up a bit, this is during the 7 years of famine that followed the 7 years of bounty prophesied to Pharoah by Joseph. If you remember Joseph was the favored son of his father, Jacob (who would later be renamed Israel), whose brothers sold him into slavery. They deceived Jacob and told him that Joseph was killed (Genesis 37). Fast forward many years later, Joseph is now second-in-command of all Egypt and his brothers have come for food to weather the famine. If you are unfamiliar, I recommend reading the whole story beginning in Chapter 37, but for now let’s dive into 44.

Genesis 44:18-34 (ESV) 18 Then Judah went up to him and said, “Oh, my lord, please let your servant speak a word in my lord’s ears, and let not your anger burn against your servant, for you are like Pharaoh himself. 19 My lord asked his servants, saying, ‘Have you a father, or a brother?’ 20 And we said to my lord, ‘We have a father, an old man, and a young brother, the child of his old age. His brother is dead, and he alone is left of his mother’s children, and his father loves him.’ 21 Then you said to your servants, ‘Bring him down to me, that I may set my eyes on him.’ 22 We said to my lord, ‘The boy cannot leave his father, for if he should leave his father, his father would die.’ 23 Then you said to your servants, ‘Unless your youngest brother comes down with you, you shall not see my face again.’ 24 “When we went back to your servant my father, we told him the words of my lord. 25 And when our father said, ‘Go again, buy us a little food,’ 26 we said, ‘We cannot go down. If our youngest brother goes with us, then we will go down. For we cannot see the man’s face unless our youngest brother is with us.’ 27 Then your servant my father said to us,‘You know that my wife bore me two sons. 28 One left me, and I said, “Surely he has been torn to pieces,” and I have never seen him since. 29 If you take this one also from me, and harm happens to him, you will bring down my gray hairs in evil to Sheol.’ 30 “Now therefore, as soon as I come to your servant my father, and the boy is not with us, then, as his life is bound up in the boy’s life, 31 as soon as he sees that the boy is not with us, he will die, and your servants will bring down the gray hairs of your servant our father with sorrow to Sheol. 32 For your servant became a pledge of safety for the boy to my father, saying, ‘If I do not bring him back to you, then I shall bear the blame before my father all my life.’ 33 Now therefore, please let your servant remain instead of the boy as a servant to my lord, and let the boy go back with his brothers. 34 For how can I go back to my father if the boy is not with me? I fear to see the evil that would find my father.”

We see here Judah pleading with Joseph (not yet knowing it was him) not to hold the youngest as they go back for their father. Judah explains that Jacob’s life is bound up in the boy’s life, here we see in the Hebrew “nephesh qashar nephesh“. Jacob’s life (nephesh) is bound up in (qashar) the boy’s life (nephesh). Jacob had explained to Judah that the mother of Joseph had only borne him 2 sons, and one was presumed dead; therefore, all that Jacob had left of her was this youngest boy. Jacob barely survived losing his favored son, Joseph, and Judah and the rest of the family believed fully that if they should return again without the youngest, Jacob would die of grief.

So does this mean the modern-day teaching of soul ties is Biblical? Well, let’s ask a couple of questions.

  • Is this a prescriptive text? Does the Scripture teach us about these soul ties here or whether they are good or bad? No. In both instances we have descriptive texts of uniquely strong emotional bonds.  Jesus taught that the second greatest commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself, and then answered the question of “who is our neighbor” in a parable. Jonathan’s love for David saves David’s life on a couple of occasions from King Saul. David refuses to raise his hand against Saul (God’s anointed) and is terribly grieved when he learns of Saul’s death and the death of Jonathan. Jacob’s love for his youngest son is strong and tied to his deeply-seated love/loss for Joseph. Is it healthy? Not really, but neither is it being prescribed here. It simply was. Notice, however, that in neither case is this “knitting together of souls” happening in the background or by mistake or accident. These are deliberate bonds of love.
  • Is this connection a Spiritual One? As we saw in the 2 texts above, the word nephesh is translated both soul and life. I have yet to find it translated “spirit” as in the spiritual part of a person. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruwach. Nephesh is more commonly associated with the emotions, mind, passions, and physical being rather than spiritual.

Clearly this idea of souls being knit together is a depiction of a deep emotional bond between two people. However, we haven’t established its existence at a Spiritual level nor have we seen any actual teaching on the matter. We see it merely describing a level of love that is uniquely strong in nature. We don’t see anything similar in the New Testament. Granted, we shouldn’t expect to see Hebrew terms being taught in the New Testament, but there is no teaching in the New Testament regarding a knitting of souls or a soul-bond between two individuals.

Becoming One Flesh

This is the most commonly taught aspect of this soul tie thing, especially in books targeting youth or adolescence. The idea here is that sex automatically ties the souls of those involved together. As the teaching goes, this is meant to be a good thing in marriage, but in the case of pre-marital or extra-marital sex it’s touted as its own spiritual problem beyond that of adultery. As the doctrine goes this connection then leaves an open door for continuing sin and spiritual torment and even blocked blessings from God… whether you are aware of this lasting soul tie or not. Is that what happens in sex?

Genesis 2:20-24 (ESV) 20 The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. 21 So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. 22 And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. 23 Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
because she was taken out of Man.”

24 Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.

Here we don’t see any of the Hebrew words used in the previous example of knitting souls. We see here that the two will become one flesh. There is no invoking of any spiritual realm here. She was formed from his flesh, and in the joining of their flesh they become one flesh again.

Souls Tied in the Spiritual Realm?

Marriage is a covenant of flesh. That is how Jesus taught it in Matthew 22.

Matthew 22:23-30 (ESV) | Sadducees Ask About the Resurrection
23 The same day Sadducees came to him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked him a question, 24 saying, “Teacher, Moses said, ‘If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.’ 25 Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. 26 So too the second and third, down to the seventh. 27 After them all, the woman died. 28 In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.”

29 But Jesus answered them, “You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. 30 For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven.

The setup here is wonderful, because what the Sadducees created in their hypothetical was in keeping with the Law. No sin is described and there is no adultery here according to the Law. What the Sadducees are trying to trap Jesus with is that if there is a resurrection then at the resurrection she would now be guilty of adultery having multiple husbands, and having slept with all the brothers (specific sins in the Law). Jesus obliterates this trap by exposing their ignorance of the Scriptures… there is no marriage in the resurrection. Therefore, marriage is an earthly covenant of flesh, not a Spiritual one. It points to a spiritual relationship between Christ and His Church, but it is only a shadow of it. With this understanding, let’s take a look at Paul’s teaching/rebuke to the Corinthians in Chapter 6.

1 Corinthians 6:12-20 (ESV) | Flee Sexual Immorality
12 “All things are lawful for me,” but not all things are helpful. “All things are lawful for me,” but I will not be dominated by anything. 13 “Food is meant for the stomach and the stomach for food”—and God will destroy both one and the other. The body is not meant for sexual immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord for the body. 14 And God raised the Lord and will also raise us up by his power. 15 Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members of a prostitute? Never! 16 Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For, as it is written, “The two will become one flesh.” 17 But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with him. 18 Flee from sexual immorality. Every other sin a person commits is outside the body, but the sexually immoral person sins against his own body. 19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit within you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, 20 for you were bought with a price. So glorify God in your body.

While I dislike making arguments from silence; however, if sexual immorality were more than sin and somehow created a spiritual connection that needed a special severing, I believe Paul would have taught it plainly here. He doesn’t. Instead he moves right on into marriage, divorce, widows, and living as called. Why? Because sin is sin and there is no need to invent theories behind sins, one only needs to look in the Law, for the Law identifies sin and convicts us of sin. Adultery and all other forms of sexual immorality are sin. The answer to breaking the Law while under the Mosaic Covenant is death. The answer under the new covenant of Jesus’s blood is also death, but that death having already been paid by Jesus Christ. Which brings us to our assessment on this matter of “soul ties”.

Rescuing Mechanism for Word of Faith Theology

The doctrine of “soul ties” looks plausible at first (especially since it seems to fit our experience), but in-truth it cannot be taught from the scriptures, nor can it be substantiated as a Spiritual phenomenon. The biggest problem with this teaching is in the assertion that one who is “born again” saved by Grace, through Faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ, might still have some sort of spiritual connection as a result of some past sin that remains at work in the believer’s life unless it is severed by some specific prayer. Really? Is that the Message of the Gospel? That once you have been made alive in Christ, parts of your soul might be unwittingly be bound in the spirit realm to past sin? No, it isn’t. This notion of the soul tie is a rescuing mechanism for the Word of Faith movement.

In the Word of Faith (WoF) movement, sin is not properly taught. More importantly, the condition of sin and the completeness of Christ’s substitutionary atonement on our behalf are not properly taught. In fact, once a person is saved the WoF movement rarely goes back to the cross except to declare promises based on the cross and “speak them” into existence. They teach that healing needs to be claimed and declared based on Isaiah 53, and that prosperity in this life is to be spoken into existence based on our having been adopted into the Kingdom of Heaven. The glaring problem with this teaching is the fact that Christians still get sick, Christians still die, and Christians still have financial struggles. The WoF catch-all for this fact is that we have to grow in faith until we are walking in the Spiritual realm and bringing Heaven down to earth, until then we get sick or we are poor because of our lack of faith. Then there comes the issue of repeated or habitual sins and addiction. Because WoF has a slanted view of the problem of sin, they need a rescuing mechanism for why confession of sin and repentance unto salvation doesn’t immediately remove the flesh’s desire to sin. Soul Ties (and generation curses) seem to offer an explanation for why we find ourselves caught up in sin even after we have been saved. It offers an external actor for the sin, a need for prophetic insight into the “root cause of the sin” and another occasion to “declare” freedom and to “speak” deliverance into existence. Unfortunately, if the ritual doesn’t stick… the Christian is back to square one… questioning his own faith and whether or not Christ truly died for him and his sin.

Conclusion

This “soul tie” thing isn’t Biblical. If you want to know why you continue to sin after having been saved by Grace, it’s because you still live in a fallen world, and walk in corrupted flesh that actively seeks out sin in opposition to the Holy Spirit who lives in you. Paul teaches in Romans 7 and in Galatians 5:16-26. In Galatians, he isn’t comparing Lost versus Saved; rather he is pointing out that our flesh desires sin but our Spirit desires Holiness. Walking in the Spirit is to deny the flesh daily, not by treating it harshly (asceticism) but by resisting its temptation and obeying the Holy Spirit. We confess and repent from our sins daily, taking up our cross daily, and following Christ. Repentance is a continual process. As we grow in knowledge and faith in Christ, we become more and more aware of the sin within our own flesh, and the deceitfulness of our own heart. There is not special ritual or prayer to cut off sin, for the answer to all sin, to all of the Law, is the Cross of Jesus Christ. There will come a day when we will no longer have to contend with our own sinful flesh, when at least our bodies will truly be healed of the sin of Adam and made perfect, that is in the resurrection in the Great and Final Day of Christ’s return.

Philippians 3:7-14 (ESV) 7 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— 10 that I may know him and the power of his resurrection, and may share his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11 that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.12 Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. 13 Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Are there demons? Absolutely. Do they tempt and attack? Yes. Is there some special spiritual-jujitsu Christians need to learn to combat them? No. The Gospel of Jesus Christ frees us from spiritual darkness. We must contend with the flesh, resist devil (tempter), and repent of sins daily. We need God’s Grace every hour of every day.

1 John 1:8-9 (ESV) 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

The forgiveness is immediate based on what Christ already accomplished at the cross. The cleansing is a continual process that will be completed when we are finally free of this earthly, fallen, body and are given our new heavenly bodies on the day of Christ’s Return.

May the Lord Bless and Keep you firmly in His Will,
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

Prophetic Insight or Divination?

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propheticWe’ve allowed many to play fast and loose with the term “prophetic” whenever we see folks proclaim “prophetic insights” based on calendars (Hebrew and Modern). Is this Prophetic or merely divination by other spiritual means (numerology, astrology, omen reading).

Let us begin with what will undoubtedly be a season of supposed “prophetic words” that will capitalize on the upcoming Hebrew New Year (Rosh Hashana). It seems every year there is a “prophetic word for 20XX” that never gets reviewed or tested. A prophet of God must be 100% accurate or they are false and need to repent for their blasphemy. There is no in-between.

The Seventh Month

On our western calendar, Rosh Hashana falls on the evening of September 25. While it is called the “Hebrew New Year”, it doesn’t mark the first day of the calendar year as we westerners have come to think of “New Year”. It is in-fact the first day of the seventh month of the year. This is an important month in the Mosaic Covenant, so let us brush up a bit on what Scripture says regarding this month.

Leviticus 23:23-25 (ESV) | The Feast of Trumpets
23 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 24 “Speak to the people of Israel, saying, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall not do any ordinary work, and you shall present a food offering to the Lord.”

Okay, so this is to be a Sabbath day in addition to the weekly Sabbath (since this calendar is based on both solar and lunar cycles to keep the seasons) the day on which Rosh Hashana falls varies from year to year. Keeping track of Sabbaths the months, the lunar cycles and the holy days was a priestly duty, but all of the people of Israel had to abide by them in order to keep the Law.

Leviticus 23:26-32 (ESV) | The Day of Atonement
26 And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 27 “Now on the tenth day of this seventh month is the Day of Atonement. It shall be for you a time of holy convocation, and you shall afflict yourselves and present a food offering to the Lord. 28 And you shall not do any work on that very day, for it is a Day of Atonement, to make atonement for you before the Lord your God. 29 For whoever is not afflicted on that very day shall be cut off from his people.30 And whoever does any work on that very day, that person I will destroy from among his people. 31 You shall not do any work. It is a statute forever throughout your generations in all your dwelling places. 32 It shall be to you a Sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict yourselves. On the ninth day of the month beginning at evening, from evening to evening shall you keep your Sabbath.”

Now in Numbers we see what sacrifices were to be brought for the Day of Atonement:

Numbers 29:7-11 (ESV) | Offerings for the Day of Atonement
7 “On the tenth day of this seventh month you shall have a holy convocation and afflict yourselves. You shall do no work, 8 but you shall offer a burnt offering to the Lord, a pleasing aroma: one bull from the herd, one ram, seven male lambs a year old: see that they are without blemish. 9 And their grain offering shall be of fine flour mixed with oil, three tenths of an ephah for the bull, two tenths for the one ram, 10 a tenth for each of the seven lambs: 11 also one male goat for a sin offering, besides the sin offering of atonement, and the regular burnt offering and its grain offering, and their drink offerings.

The Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur) is arguably the most important day on the Hebrew calendar. Lots of sacrifices made to atone for the sins of the people of Israel. It marks the end of the High Holy days that begin on the first day of the seventh month. Let’s look at the historical significance of the Day of Atonement within the Mosaic Covenant.

Leviticus 16:1-10 (ESV) | The Day of Atonement
1 The Lord spoke to Moses after the death of the two sons of Aaron, when they drew near before the Lord and died, 2 and the Lord said to Moses, “Tell Aaron your brother not to come at any time into the Holy Place inside the veil, before the mercy seat that is on the ark, so that he may not die. For I will appear in the cloud over the mercy seat. 3 But in this way Aaron shall come into the Holy Place: with a bull from the herd for a sin offering and a ram for a burnt offering. 4 He shall put on the holy linen coat and shall have the linen undergarment on his body, and he shall tie the linen sash around his waist, and wear the linen turban; these are the holy garments. He shall bathe his body in water and then put them on. 5 And he shall take from the congregation of the people of Israel two male goats for a sin offering, and one ram for a burnt offering. 6 “Aaron shall offer the bull as a sin offering for himself and shall make atonement for himself and for his house. 7 Then he shall take the two goats and set them before the Lord at the entrance of the tent of meeting. 8 And Aaron shall cast lots over the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. 9 And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord and use it as a sin offering, 10 but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the Lord to make atonement over it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.

Okay, so we have now a full picture of what was required as far as sacrifices on the Day of Atonement. It was quite the bloody affair, and it was the only day when the High Priest could enter the Holy Place. The High Priest must first offer a sacrifice to atone for himself and his house, then he had to follow God’s commands to make atonement for the Holy Place because of the sins of the people, and then the tent of meeting and the altar. Then he would lay his hands on the live goat and confess over it all of the sins of the people (this is where the term “scapegoat” derives its meaning) so that it will carry away the sins of the people.

Everything we have discussed in the Law is a foreshadowing of the final sacrifice, the final Day of Atonement, the day that Jesus Christ died on the cross to atone for our sin forever.

Hebrews 9:19-28 (ESV) 19 For when every commandment of the law had been declared by Moses to all the people, he took the blood of calves and goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, 20 saying, “This is the blood of the covenant that God commanded for you.” 21 And in the same way he sprinkled with the blood both the tent and all the vessels used in worship. 22 Indeed, under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins.23 Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. 24 For Christ has entered, not into holy places made with hands, which are copies of the true things, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. 25 Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the holy places every year with blood not his own, 26 for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself. 27 And just as it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment, 28 so Christ, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time, not to deal with sin but to save those who are eagerly waiting for him.

This is the significance of the Day of Atonement for those of us who are in Christ Jesus. Plainly taught in Scripture. We now have the great High Priest at the right hand of God the Father interceding on our behalf. No more animal sacrifices, no more waiting for the seventh month of the year, much less the 10th day of the seventh month.

Prophetic Insight or Divination?

There is an unquenchable drive within the community of self-appointed apostles and prophets to always have a “fresh” or “new” word of prophecy. There is very little Biblical teaching in that community. In fact, there is a sense that what is old is no longer relevant, so there is no point of going back to what the Scriptures teach. Oddly enough, when these individuals do go back to the Scriptures, they tend to dive into odd portions of the Old Testament to rip verses or promises out of context. Finally, what is often times presented as a “prophetic word” or “prophetic insight” is really no different from divination.

Numerology and Astrology presented as Prophecy

Why do accept the idea that God is in any way bound to a Calendar (Hebrew or Modern)? Were the feasts and the Sabbaths to be observed by God or by men? Was God bound to certain days on which He could speak to His prophets? No. God spoke when He chose to speak, through whom He chose to speak to whomever He chose to speak. The Lord God is Sovereign. If God is not bound by certain days of the Calendar while the Mosaic Covenant is in effect, He is definitely not bound by those days now that the Truth of Jesus Christ as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God has been revealed. Jesus promised to send the Holy Spirit to dwell within us, and Paul taught that we, Christians, are now the temple of the Holy Spirit of God. If He dwells within us, then we needn’t wait for the Day of Atonement to approach the mercy-seat, or to confess our sins and be forgiven. So, why… WHY have we adopted the pagan practices of astrology and numerology in an attempt to divine the Will of God for “the New Year”?

We’ve already been dealing with false-prophesy in the form of astrology regarding John Hagee’s “4 Blood Moons” nonsense. The supposed tetrad of lunar eclipses that (depending on how you are trying to sell this ‘prophesy’) spell either doom or an opportunity for unlocking some secret blessing from God. Astrology.

Now, thanks in-part to the Hebrew-roots movement, we get 2 seasons of “annual prophetic words”, one for our modern New Year and another for the Hebrew Calendar New Year. We’ve already seen the Biblical significance of this month and how it points to Jesus, but the Hebrew year is also 5775. We’ll undoubtedly see ‘prophetic’ insights tied to some sort of divine significance of the numbers 5 and 7, and the fact that both numbers are doubled. (Rod Parsley and Chuck Pierce have apparently already done so). Numerology.

Neither of these forms of divination are Biblical nor are they Prophetic. While it is true that God repeats patterns of significance in His Word when He chose to work Creation in 6 days and rest on the 7th, it is God who sets the pattern, not the pattern that sets God. The pattern must point to God, or it is meaningless. For example, if I commit a sin (you pick one), there is no power in the number “7” or “10” that I can invoke to get God to forgive me, but if I remember that the Day of atonement (10th day of the 7th month) points to Christ on the Cross, then I can be reminded that Christ already made atonement for my sin, and that all that is required of me is to confess and repent from my sin. Nothing prophetic about your watch showing 7/7/77 as the date, or 7:55:07 as the time… there is no power of prophesy in the number, nor is God obligated to give a prophetic word just because the Calendar has a certain number or letter on it. Divination points to omens, not to the Living God, and not to Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

Divination is not Powerless

The real problem here is not only that God is not bound by any calendar to give a word of prophesy, but that divination is prohibited. Remember the test of a prophet isn’t limited to whether or not the sign or wonder comes to pass. Both the Law and Jesus tell us that false prophets will also produce signs and wonders. We are NOT to listen to every spirit, but only God the Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 18:9-12 (ESV) | Abominable Practices
9 “When you come into the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall not learn to follow the abominable practices of those nations. 10 There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering, anyone who practices divination or tells fortunes or interprets omens, or a sorcerer 11 or a charmer or a medium or a necromancer or one who inquires of the dead, 12 for whoever does these things is an abomination to the Lord. And because of these abominations the Lord your God is driving them out before you.

Acts 16:16-19 (ESV) 16 As we were going to the place of prayer, we were met by a slave girl who had a spirit of divination and brought her owners much gain by fortune-telling. 17 She followed Paul and us, crying out, “These men are servants of the Most High God, who proclaim to you the way of salvation.” 18 And this she kept doing for many days. Paul, having become greatly annoyed, turned and said to the spirit, “I command you in the name of Jesus Christ to come out of her.” And it came out that very hour. 19 But when her owners saw that their hope of gain was gone, they seized Paul and Silas and dragged them into the marketplace before the rulers.

So here we reviewed what was in the Law and then jumped ahead to Acts 16. Notice here there is a slave girl who had an unclean spirit, a spirit of divination. Her owners made money off her divination. She followed Paul and Silas for days and what does the scripture record her crying out? That they were servants of the Most High God proclaiming the way of salvation. Was she telling the truth? Yes. Was she prophesying? No. She was calling attention to herself and to Paul and Silas, but was not seeking to honor the Most High God. For we know that it was a foul spirit. A demon. It was not of God, and that is a problem. I believe this example is recorded in scripture to demonstrate that even if the proclamation sounds right (and this one does seem right in written form) the spirit behind it was wrong. It did not bring glory to God, nor did it edify the Church.

Conclusion

Stop reading omens. Stop searching out others to read omens. Don’t accept divination as a counterfeit for prophesy. Seek first the Kingdom of God by reading His Word, revealed in the Bible. Scripture defines scripture. All scripture is God-breathed. God is unchanging. He will not speak now in a way that runs contrary to Scripture. We are awaiting the Return of Jesus Christ our King, and we have our marching orders, the foundation laid by the Apostles with Jesus Christ as the cornerstone. He is also the Head of His Church. Remember, that the Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of Prophecy (Revelation 19:10). Test the spirits to know if they are of God or of error. The only test we have is Scripture.

One final thought… anyone who claims to speak Prophetically in the Name of the Lord and demands a fee from you in order for you to be blessed by God has flipped the Gospel upside down. Jesus didn’t give His life on the cross for you to earn forgiveness, much less blessing. The sacrifices in the Law don’t translate into “seed offerings” of money commensurate with your faith to believe for miracles from God. The offerings we reviewed for the Day of Atonement didn’t become the wealth of the priests, they were sacrificed to the Lord to atone for their sin. The High Priest faced certain death if he displeased the Lord God on this day. The false teachers of today who seek to sell you false-hope and take advantage of your desperation by teaching for shameful gain what they ought not teach (Titus 1:9-11).

Jude 1:24-25 (ESV)24 Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, 25 to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.

In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

The Bread & Water of Jesus

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Rock of Horeb by Mariano David Otero ©2010-2014 MarianoDavidOtero

Rock of Horeb by Mariano David Otero ©2010-2014 MarianoDavidOtero

To get this week started on a Gospel note, I thought it would be fun to take a look at some of the foreshadowing of the Gospel of Jesus found in Exodus. Today, we’ll look at Jesus’s claims of being the bread and water of life. Let’s begin with a look at the account in Exodus.

Exodus 16:1-5 (ESV) | Bread from Heaven
1 They set out from Elim, and all the congregation of the people of Israel came to the wilderness of Sin, which is between Elim and Sinai, on the fifteenth day of the second month after they had departed from the land of Egypt. 2 And the whole congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness, 3 and the people of Israel said to them, “Would that we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots and ate bread to the full, for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” 4 Then the Lord said to Moses, “Behold, I am about to rain bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a day’s portion every day, that I may test them, whether they will walk in my law or not. 5 On the sixth day, when they prepare what they bring in, it will be twice as much as they gather daily.”

Exodus 16:31-34 (ESV)31 Now the house of Israel called its name manna. It was like coriander seed, white, and the taste of it was like wafers made with honey. 32 Moses said, “This is what the Lord has commanded: ‘Let an omer of it be kept throughout your generations, so that they may see the bread with which I fed you in the wilderness, when I brought you out of the land of Egypt.’” 33 And Moses said to Aaron, “Take a jar, and put an omer of manna in it, and place it before the Lord to be kept throughout your generations.” 34 As the Lord commanded Moses, so Aaron placed it before the testimony to be kept.

Now, if you remember back in our discussion of the Testimony, you know that here it references the Ark of the Testimony, later called the Ark of the Covenant. Inside of the Ark are the stone tablets of the Testimony, the 10 Commandments. If you read the full chapter, you will see that God also sent quail into the camp at night, so that the children of Israel can also have meat. We are skipping this portion for this study because Jesus did not refer back to the quail, but He did teach regarding the manna from heaven.

John 6:25-40 (ESV)25 When they found him on the other side of the sea, they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you come here?” 26 Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, you are seeking me, not because you saw signs, but because you ate your fill of the loaves. 27 Do not work for the food that perishes, but for the food that endures to eternal life, which the Son of Man will give to you. For on him God the Father has set his seal.” 28 Then they said to him, “What must we do, to be doing the works of God?” 29 Jesus answered them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in him whom he has sent.” 30 So they said to him, “Then what sign do you do, that we may see and believe you? What work do you perform?31 Our fathers ate the manna in the wilderness; as it is written, ‘He gave them bread from heaven to eat.’” 32 Jesus then said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. 33 For the bread of God is he who comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.” 34 They said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.” 35 Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me shall not hunger, and whoever believes in me shall never thirst. 36 But I said to you that you have seen me and yet do not believe. 37 All that the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never cast out. 38 For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me. 39 And this is the will of him who sent me, that I should lose nothing of all that he has given me, but raise it up on the last day. 40 For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in him should have eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.”

Amen. Notice that the Jews with whom Jesus spoke knew the Law. They knew that the manna from heaven served as a testimony, only they were confused as to whom the manna testified. They believed it proved that Moses was giving them the Law from God. The error is slight, and it is subtle, but Jesus identifies it perfectly when He clarifies “it was not Moses who gave you the bread…” The testimony was not of Moses, it was of God the Father. Like the stone tablets of the Testimony, while the Law did come into their midst in the hands of Moses, it was to point the children of Israel to God the Father, not to Moses. Similarly, the Law and the manna were pointing to Jesus, the Son of Man. Jesus declared Himself to be both the Son of Man (descendant of Adam promised to crush the head of the serpent) AND the Manna Sent from Heaven, sent by God the Father to grant eternal life to everyone who looks on Him and Believes. This is another place where we see the “Fully Man” and “Fully God” identity of Jesus Christ laid out in Scripture by His own teaching. Notice here that Jesus is the bread of life and that whoever comes to Him will not hunger. We see in the Lord’s Prayer, “Give us this day our daily bread” and many times we see the double meaning of this passage as both asking God to meet our daily bodily need for food as well as spiritual nourishment in the Word of God. But we also see Jesus declare that whoever believes in me shall never thirst. Since this statement comes connected to His declaration that He is the manna sent from heaven, it stands to reason that the reference to thirst may also stem from Exodus, and it does. Let’s turn to the very next chapter in Exodus.

Exodus 17:1-7 (ESV) 1 All the congregation of the people of Israel moved on from the wilderness of Sin by stages, according to the commandment of the Lord, and camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. 2 Therefore the people quarreled with Moses and said, “Give us water to drink.” And Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test the Lord?” 3 But the people thirsted there for water, and the people grumbled against Moses and said, “Why did you bring us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our livestock with thirst?” 4 So Moses cried to the Lord, “What shall I do with this people? They are almost ready to stone me.” 5 And the Lord said to Moses, “Pass on before the people, taking with you some of the elders of Israel, and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. 6 Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock at Horeb, and you shall strike the rock, and water shall come out of it, and the people will drink.” And Moses did so, in the sight of the elders of Israel. 7 And he called the name of the place Massah and Meribah, because of the quarreling of the people of Israel, and because they tested the Lord by saying, “Is the Lord among us or not?”

Here at the start of Chapter 17, we find the children of Israel leaving the wilderness of Sin. While the temptation to allegorize the English name of this wilderness, the Hebrew doesn’t quite point in that direction. The Hebrew word translated Sin here is (Ciyn) is different from the Hebrew word for sin as in something that is sinful (chatta’ath). Ciyn translates into “thorn” or “clay”, but here it is referencing an actual place, an area of wilderness where there is no water, especially not enough for all of the Israelites here.

There is significance in God’s command for Moses to take the staff with which he struck the Nile (as commanded by God)  when God turned the River Nile into blood as the first plague of judgement upon Pharaoh. Moses was to strike the rock at Horeb so that Israel would know that it was God who led them out of Egypt. The split in the rock comes after a blow of judgment, and from the split comes a flow of water to quench the thirst of the children of God. This also points ahead to the cross, where Christ would lay down His life and bear the full wrath of God that was due us for our sin, so that in Him we might have eternal life.

John 19:28-37 (ESV) 28 After this, Jesus, knowing that all was now finished, said (to fulfill the Scripture), “I thirst.” 29 A jar full of sour wine stood there, so they put a sponge full of the sour wine on a hyssop branch and held it to his mouth. 30 When Jesus had received the sour wine, he said, “It is finished,” and he bowed his head and gave up his spirit. 31 Since it was the day of Preparation, and so that the bodies would not remain on the cross on the Sabbath (for that Sabbath was a high day), the Jews asked Pilate that their legs might be broken and that they might be taken away. 32 So the soldiers came and broke the legs of the first, and of the other who had been crucified with him. 33 But when they came to Jesus and saw that he was already dead, they did not break his legs. 34 But one of the soldiers pierced his side with a spear, and at once there came out blood and water. 35 He who saw it has borne witness—his testimony is true, and he knows that he is telling the truth—that you also may believe. 36 For these things took place that the Scripture might be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken.” 37 And again another Scripture says, “They will look on him whom they have pierced.”

The water flowed after the Rock was pierced. By the blood of Jesus Christ, the debt we could not pay was paid for by Him. All who look upon the Son and believe in Him will never thirst, for in Him they will find Living Water. This is a call of the Gospel that goes out to all people, both Jew and Gentile.

John 7:37-39 (ESV) 37 On the last day of the feast [of booths], the great day, Jesus stood up and cried out, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive, for as yet the Spirit had not been given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.

John 4:7-15 (ESV) 7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

The call goes out to everyone, Gentile and Jew. At the feast of booths, Jesus is talking to Jews who are observing the Law. The call to come to Jesus all who are thirsty includes believers. We must not get so caught up in observing the Law that we lose sight of the Gospel and become thirsty ourselves.

The Gospel for Today and Tomorrow

The Jews in Jesus’s day looked back to the Law as testimony of Moses, but failed to recognize the fulfillment of the Law in their day, in the very body and ministry of Jesus. Sadly, I fear that many Christians fall in the same trap, only now they do it with the Gospel. They think of the Gospel as something they needed to “get saved” or “be born again” sometime in the past, and then go through life trying to sanctify themselves by works of the Law, forgetting that the Gospel isn’t just something you needed at one time or that took place once in your life, but the Gospel is for our every day. Give us this day our Daily Bread, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is needed every day. We need forgiveness and remission of sins daily, and we have not yet fully grasped the promise of the Gospel, for we each will still die for our earthly bodies are corrupt. The fountains of living water, the eternal life as a promise for all who believe are prizes that lay ahead of us, in the great tomorrow, the Day of our Salvation.

Revelation 7:9-17 (ESV) 9 After this I looked, and behold, a great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, with palm branches in their hands, 10 and crying out with a loud voice, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb!” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures, and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.” 13 Then one of the elders addressed me, saying, “Who are these, clothed in white robes, and from where have they come?” 14 I said to him, “Sir, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones coming out of the great tribulation. They have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.

15 “Therefore they are before the throne of God,
and serve him day and night in his temple;
and he who sits on the throne will shelter them with his presence.
16 They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore;
the sun shall not strike them,
nor any scorching heat.
17 For the Lamb in the midst of the throne will be their shepherd,
and he will guide them to springs of living water,
and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.”

There’s still more to come for God’s people. Don’t allow the charlatans and the peddlers of false gospels distract you from the Promise of the Kingdom to come. This temporal life is a but a vapor, a breath of time. While we are here, let us be faithful stewards, striving to do the works of God so that His Will might be done in all the earth. What is that work? Well, as Jesus said earlier, that we believe in Jesus Christ who was sent by God, so that whoever looks upon the Son and believes will have eternal life. This is the work of the Gospel, and our charge as stewards of the Gospel.

Matthew 28:18-20 (ESV)18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”

May the Lord bless you and keep you firmly in His Will,
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge

You Shall Not Worship God That Way

Faithful Stewardship Leave a comment

bibleI keep seeing supposed leaders of the church searching for “secrets” for worshiping or seeking God hidden in the occult, the new age, paganism, kabbalah, etc. and it disgusts me. Not only are these forms not taught in scripture, God’s word forbids it. You shall not worship the Lord Your God in that way. I apologize in advance that this post will not likely be one of my most eloquent of blogs.

False Prophets and False Teachers

Most of these false teachers twist scripture in ways that are easily discerned by simply looking at what the Word of God says in context. But it seems that when they get bored of twisting the Word of God they like to dig into false religions and adopting pagan practices and think that they can be used by Christians to worship or communicate with the One True God. The Apostle Peter pointed out that Proverbs 26:11 applies to such false teachers:

2 Peter 2 (ESV) | False Prophets and Teachers
1 But false prophets also arose among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, even denying the Master who bought them, bringing upon themselves swift destruction. 2 And many will follow their sensuality, and because of them the way of truth will be blasphemed. 3 And in their greed they will exploit you with false words. Their condemnation from long ago is not idle, and their destruction is not asleep. 4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment; 5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction, making them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; 7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked 8 (for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard); 9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, 10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, 11 whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. 12 But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant, will also be destroyed in their destruction, 13 suffering wrong as the wage for their wrongdoing. They count it pleasure to revel in the daytime. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their deceptions, while they feast with you. 14 They have eyes full of adultery, insatiable for sin. They entice unsteady souls. They have hearts trained in greed. Accursed children! 15 Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing, 16 but was rebuked for his own transgression; a speechless donkey spoke with human voice and restrained the prophet’s madness.

17 These are waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. For them the gloom of utter darkness has been reserved. 18 For, speaking loud boasts of folly, they entice by sensual passions of the flesh those who are barely escaping from those who live in error. 19 They promise them freedom, but they themselves are slaves of corruption. For whatever overcomes a person, to that he is enslaved. 20 For if, after they have escaped the defilements of the world through the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they are again entangled in them and overcome, the last state has become worse for them than the first. 21 For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than after knowing it to turn back from the holy commandment delivered to them. 22 What the true proverb says has happened to them: “The dog returns to its own vomit, and the sow, after washing herself, returns to wallow in the mire.”

I was going to try to trim down the quote, but to properly track the pronoun use (the highlighted “they”), it became necessary to include the full chapter. Peter is specifically calling out the false prophets and false teachers. He does not mix his words, and he does not leave any “wiggle room”. They face a fate worse than that of never having heard the Gospel. Think about that for a minute… without the Gospel we face a fate that we’ve earned, one of wrath. Those who have been given the Gospel and then turn aside chasing after the defilements of the world leading others to the same (false prophets and teachers enticing the unsteady souls) face a worse judgement. As we saw previously in James 3:1, “…for you know that we who teach will be judged with greater strictness” (ESV), there is precedent for such a concept. Peter also makes it clear that he isn’t just saying someone whose heart is after God but lacks understanding (though James points out that such a person who teaches will be judged more strictly), Peter is identifying all of the markings of a false teacher and false prophet. Wolves who prey upon Christ’s sheep. Sheep who He left under the charge and protection of the Elders of His Church (beginning with the Apostles continuing to this day).

The Bible is the ONLY Source of Knowledge About the One True God

While I am not a cessationist, I do believe the canon of scripture to be closed. Therefore, God’s revelation of Himself, His Kingdom, and His Return, is complete until the events Prophesied in Scripture actually come to pass. In the meantime, we are to take EVERYTHING we hear and measure it against the Word of God, the Bible, to know if it is of God. We know that when God wrote the first tablets of the Law, He declared them the Tablets of the Testimony. They Testified of Him, God the Father. In the Law, God makes absolutely clear that we are not to attempt to worship the One True God in a manner that we learn from the world. Let’s look in Deuteronomy 12.

Deuteronomy 12:1-4  (ESV) 1 “These are the statutes and rules that you shall be careful to do in the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. 2 You shall surely destroy all the places where the nations whom you shall dispossess served their gods, on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. 3 You shall tear down their altars and dash in pieces their pillars and burn their Asherim with fire. You shall chop down the carved images of their gods and destroy their name out of that place. 4 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way.

The full chapter is worth reading and studying with the understanding that there are portions of the Law that were permanently fulfilled in Christ, never to be repeated. Such as the one physical Temple and the daily Sacrifices, whose fulfillment in Christ is clearly laid out in the book of Hebrews. For this discussion, let us skip down to the closing portion of this chapter.

Deuteronomy 12:29-32 (ESV) | Warning Against Idolatry
29 “When the Lord your God cuts off before you the nations whom you go in to dispossess, and you dispossess them and dwell in their land, 30 take care that you be not ensnared to follow them, after they have been destroyed before you, and that you do not inquire about their gods, saying, ‘How did these nations serve their gods?—that I also may do the same.’ 31 You shall not worship the Lord your God in that way, for every abominable thing that the Lord hates they have done for their gods, for they even burn their sons and their daughters in the fire to their gods. 32  “Everything that I command you, you shall be careful to do. You shall not add to it or take from it.

Although the title is not part of the Scriptural text, it is a section heading included by the translators of the ESV, to help the reader understand the context of the following portion. It is very interesting to me that while it is included under “idolatry” the question isn’t about which God is to be served; rather, this is a question of the manner in which we are to serve/worship God. This is a portion of the Law where God reveals something about Himself, that He will not honor forms of worship derived from the world, from those who have worshiped false gods. For the Lord hates those forms of worship. Hates.

Oh sure, this will get a fast and boisterous “Amen!” when we refer to human sacrifice, temple prostitution, and setting up an Asherah pole in church. But what about Yoga? Transcendental Meditation? Channeling? Spirit Guides? Laberyinth prayers? Asceticism? Monasticism? Numerology? Divination? Praying to graven images? Lectio divina? How strong your “Amen” remains depends largely on your knowledge of what the Word of God says and where these practices originate.

The Colossians struggled with the influence of mystical, ancient, foreign teachings and forms of worship. Let’s look at what the Apostle Paul had to say.

Colossians 1:11-23 (ESV) 11 May you be strengthened with all power, according to his glorious might, for all endurance and patience with joy, 12 giving thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of the saints in light. 13 He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, 14 in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. 15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. 16 For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him. 17 And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18 And he is the head of the body, the church. He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent. 19 For in him all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether on earth or in heaven, making peace by the blood of his cross. 21 And you, who once were alienated and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and above reproach before him, 23 if indeed you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel that you heard, which has been proclaimed in all creation under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.

Now, this highlighted portion is sometimes twisted out of context to justify the search for alternate means of knowing, worshiping, and pleasing God outside of Scripture. There is nothing in Scripture that suggests that what we read about God in Deuteronomy 12 has ever changed; in fact, God does not change. We do know that Jesus declared all foods clean, and God reiterated it to Peter in Acts.

Colossians 2:6-23(ESV) 6 Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, 7 rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. 8 See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. 9 For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, 10 and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. 11 In him also you were circumcised with a circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, 12 having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the powerful working of God, who raised him from the dead. 13 And you, who were dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, God made alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses, 14 by canceling the record of debt that stood against us with its legal demands. This he set aside, nailing it to the cross. 15 He disarmed the rulers and authorities and put them to open shame, by triumphing over them in him. 16 Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. 17 These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. 18 Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, 19 and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. 20 If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the world, why, as if you were still alive in the world, do you submit to regulations— 21 “Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch” 22 (referring to things that all perish as they are used)—according to human precepts and teachings? 23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-made religion and asceticism and severity to the body, but they are of no value in stopping the indulgence of the flesh.

If anyone… anyone comes to you with strange teachings, or so-called “spiritual practices”, or hidden principles, or new revelations regarding how to please God, hear God, or to compel God in any way to answer your prayers, stop… take out your Bible… and say “show me in here”. I don’t care if they can point to a 3rd century monk, it wasn’t an Apostle, it is not Scripture. Sola Scriptura is the only sure way of knowing it is of God.

Be alert, not many of the false teachers are willing to divulge the origins of their teachings. Many will pull Gospel texts out of context to suggest that Jesus practiced some of these techniques or they will simply declare “God showed me this” and throngs of Christians will simply say, “sounds legit!” without batting an eye.

Much of this problem comes as a result of improperly teaching Scripture. When churches lose sight of properly dividing Law and Gospel, and slip into Law > Gospel > Law emphasis, it pushes Christians into a false ideology where Salvation is by Grace but making God happy with us is something we have to do on our own. That’s not the Gospel… that’s Law. It becomes particularly dangerous when the Laws taught post-Gospel end up being man-made laws and not even scriptural… that’s false teaching, and it destroys souls. Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, regardless of your denomination, stick to the written Word of God. Bury it in your hearts, and keep it on your minds always. Learn to rightly identify Law and Gospel, knowing that we need both in equal measure, for it is the Testimony of God. The Holy Spirit is alive in each of us who are in Christ as a promise to us and a seal of His Salvation. He will grant us understanding of the Word, and He does not speak on His own, but will always point us to Christ. There are things in scripture we will not fully grasp until Christ’s return (1 Corinthians 13:8-12). Until that great and glorious day, let us hold fast to the Word of God, and the Mystery of Christ, that is the Gospel.

Colossians 4:2-6 (ESV) 2 Continue steadfastly in prayer, being watchful in it with thanksgiving. 3 At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison— 4 that I may make it clear, which is how I ought to speak. 5 Walk in wisdom toward outsiders, making the best use of the time. 6 Let your speech always be gracious, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how you ought to answer each person.

May the Lord Bless you and keep you firmly in His Will,
In Christ Jesus,
Jorge