The False Prophet

WARNING! Hate Speech

If you are overly sensitive to speaking God's truth to unrighteous behavior

-or-

If you have any violent tendencies

PLEASE DO NOT READ FURTHER

I had to place that warning in an attempt to avoid any backlash in the future from what is being considered at present in the United States Congress.

That is because the currently planned laws would make the following word of God to be labeled hate speech:

For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen,being understood through what has been made, so that they are without excuse. For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their speculations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible man and of birds and four-footed animals and crawling creatures. Therefore God gave them over in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that their bodies would be dishonored among them. For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen. For this reason God gave them over to degrading passions; for their women exchanged the natural function for that which is unnatural, and in the same way also the men abandoned the natural function of the woman and burned in their desire toward one another, men with men committing indecent acts and receiving in their own persons the due penalty of their error. And just as they did not see fit to acknowledge God any longer, God gave them over to a depraved mind, to do those things which are not proper, being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them. (Rom 1:20-32)

While you will not hear these words preached from any of the "mainline" churches in America today, I just wanted to get them out before they were officially banned from all pulpits.

The Green Letter Bible

You've heard of the Red Letter Bible? The one where all the words of Jesus are in red letters?

There are "Red Letter Christians" who only read those parts of the Bible and develop their religion from them.

To them Christianity means living a certain lifestyle and making "disciples" of all people so that the whole world will become the "Kingdom" suitable for the return of the King. ("Thy kingdom come")

Well, now there is a Bible for all the Gaia worshippers out there- the "Green Letter Bible."

"The Green Bible will equip and encourage people to see God's vision for creation and help them engage in the work of healing and sustaining it. With over 1,000 references to the earth in the Bible, compared to 490 references to heaven and 530 references to love, the Bible carries a powerful message for the earth."

"Understand the Bible's powerful message for the earth" is how this Bible is promoted. As recommended by Larry Schweiger, president and CEO, National Wildlife Federation, "With The Green Bible highlighting relevant verses and offering solid context, we must heed the call to solve urgent climatic and ecological threats facing creation."

Me? I'm a black letter Christian.

I read the Bible's powerful message for the earth to be:

And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound. The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up. And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood; And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed. And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters; And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter. And the fourth angel sounded, and the third part of the sun was smitten, and the third part of the moon, and the third part of the stars; so as the third part of them was darkened, and the day shone not for a third part of it, and the night likewise. And I beheld, and heard an angel flying through the midst of heaven, saying with a loud voice, Woe, woe, woe, to the inhabiters of the earth by reason of the other voices of the trumpet of the three angels, which are yet to sound! (Rev 8:6-13)

Three more woes yet to come!

The ultimate outcome of the earth?

The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will pass away with a roar and the elements will be destroyed with intense heat, and the earth and its works will be burned up. Since all these things are to be destroyed in this way, what sort of people ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by burning, and the elements will melt with intense heat! But according to His promise we are looking for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells. (2 Peter 3:9-13)

Do you wonder if these verses concerning the earth are green in the Green Letter Bible?

The "message" of the Bible?

Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. (2 Cor 5:17-20)

The 2 Kinds of Faith

"Unanswered prayer stands between the individual and a faith life."

That is the opening sentence of a booklet by E.W. Kenyon titled The 2 Kinds of Faith.

I have spent a considerable amount of time reflecting on that supposition. How many, I wonder, are involved enough in their Christian walk to have this kind of thought rise to the surface of their consciousness? In our society today there is such an excess of plenty that one can obtain an acceptable level of living purely by osmosis. It is easy then to say, "Praise the Lord!" because it is obvious it came from Him and, after all, they DID pray for it.

There is a division at that point in life, however. On the one hand there are those as above who get what they are satisfied with in a reasonable amount of time and simply go on living as always. These are the same people that populate the "Success" seminars and make all the positive thinking preachers (religious or secular) rich.

The other side of the split is those who do not obtain what they want or need. Out of the many, many books dealing with the subject of unanswered prayer the overwhelming majority present the solution as some form of sin correction rather than dealing with the root of prayer- faith.

This booklet provides one of those light bulb moments in understanding the workings of faith. In it is presented the contrast between mere "Mental Assent" and "Faith."

The most basic point of relevance regarding these two reveals itself in the Bible teaching about Jesus. How many people give mental assent to the truths regarding Jesus, yet never truly exercise faith in Him for their personal salvation?

Such a person will always be separated from God-

For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is written, "but the righteous man shall live by faith." (Rom 1:16-17)

A Mustard Seed

Sometimes it seems that I think about things other people just pass over. I am not always sure if I just missed the point, or if everyone else didn't know there was a point.

"Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you." (Matt 17:20)

How big is a mustard seed?

And move a mountain ?!!!?

I remember a time when I was praying for the faith to move my truck when it broke down! (It didn't budge.) Obviously I have nothing remotely close to "size of a mustard seed" faith.

So is faith big and small, or great and little?

Either way, how do I get more faith?!!! I don't really care to move mountains, but gee, everyday things are really wearing me out.

Here I will go back to my opening, this is where I seem to veer off away from other people. That is because this really bothers me. I just don't understand this, and I seriously want to.

How am I going to get my obviously microscopic faith larger?

I see people who offer up or attempt various methods:

Some people pray. And they pray really hard, too. I can tell because of how loud and how serious their voices get.

They call that faith, but it just looks like they have finally convinced themselves- and whatever happens is fine with them.

Pray harder + think harder → more faith.

Other people talk. By that I mean they are convinced that "the power of death and life are in the tongue" (Prov 18:21) These people end up either like the Positive Thinking teachers whose only ccomplishment is making money selling books to people desperate to be "successful." Or they end up like the "white" witches, casting spells with their words to get what they want.

It doesn't seem to me like either of these have anything to do with God.

Jesus said to "Have faith in God." (Mark 11:21) God, not words, or any other thing I can imagine or work hard at.

Here I come to the end of this post.

What? you thought I had some quick, smart answer to give you?

No. This is way too important for something I can just come up with. (Even though I have not just started to think on this. Thirty years and enough books on prayer and faith to fill a library have gone into my desperate pursuit of faith.) Plus, I said in the beginning, this bothers me. A lot. Because I really don't have the answer to faith that "will move mountains."

I do promise though to add some later posts with very serious, and helpful, information and ideas for you to aid you in your pursuit of "faith the size of a mustard seed."

Wretched Man That I Am

Many people relate to the teaching on prayer from Luke 18 where the publican "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner." (Luke 18:13)

Mistakenly taking the teaching of Jesus regarding the publican and the Pharisee, "I tell you, this man [the publican] went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted." (Luke 18:14) They add to this the teaching of Paul "Wretched man that I am! Who will set me free from the body of this death?" (Rom 7:24)

Why do I say mistakenly? Isn't that what both Paul and Jesus intended us to feel?

In a word, NO!

So many Christians are stuck at Romans 7:24, unable to move on to Romans 7:25! How is it this horrible, condemning verse is so well known, and the next verse is forgotten? For it says,

"Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, on the one hand I myself with my mind am serving the law of God, but on the other, with my flesh the law of sin."

What of this next verse? And how could that be "thanks be to God"?

Unfortunately, a long time ago verse and chapter numbers were added to the Bible. (Unfortunate only in the fact that some divisions occur where they disrupt a thought.)

Thus Romans chapter 8 begins (as we all know) "There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus!" (Rom.8:1) (We all know this verse, but we have learned it in isolation, not relating it to the two verse right before it.)

Why do we condemn ourselves when God has said there is now no condemnation? The better question would be, "Why have we been taught to condemn ouselves?"

There is now no condemnation.

How can anyone call themselves "wretched" when they know this truth: ^"He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him" (2 Cor 5:21)?

Righteous or Wretched? What has God said?

What then about, "standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven" (Luke 18:13)?

Please! "Therefore, brethren, since we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water." (Heb. 10:19-22)

Yes! Draw near to God with confidence! Having faith in the rightousness bestowed upon us in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ."

^"Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful; and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:23-25)

Consider this my attempt to "provoke" (literal translation) you to love and good deeds, and especially assembling together in fulll assurance of our righteousness in Christ and our standing before God with no thought of condemnation.

What God has declared righteous, who are we to call "wretched"?