Was Elijah A Happy Man?

Was Elijah a happy man? He was not a rich man. He lived for a while off a poor widow. Another time he lived off the bread and meat that the ravens brought him. He was a desert man and a wanted man. At times he felt all alone. When Jezabel swore to have his blood in 24 hours, he was a fearful man. Yet days before that he was very bold. After hiding from King Ahab for three and a half years he dared to meet him for a showdown. Moderns would say he was bi-polar. He ascended to great heights on Mt. Carmel and days later descended to the depths of depression.

            Was he a happy man? He was not interested in being happy. The thought never entered his mind. He only cared about one thing - God’s kingdom. To modern cynics he was too radical. They would say he was too obsessed with the political situation. “Let people be. Why are you so radical? Why do you torment yourself so? You’re mad! You’re delusional. On top of that, you’re self-righteous. You think you’re the only one. You said, ‘It ain’t gonna rain ‘til I say so.’ Besides that you murdered the prophets of Baal! Would Jesus do that? You’re possessed! Why don’t you have some fun? Take a vacation once in a while.”

            Elijah told Ahab to call for 900 false prophets to be present for the showdown at Mt. Carmel. If they all showed up it was and earth-shattering experience that drastically transformed the political landscape, because after that, prophet after prophet appeared to give messages to Ahab. Before that they were all hiding in caves.

            The great passion of Elijah was the restoration of God’s kingdom and the destruction of Baal worship. God ordained him to anoint a new king for Israel, a new king for Syria, and a new prophet to take his place. The new king for Israel, Jehu, stamped out Baal worship and God rewarded him with the longest dynasty in Samaria’s history, 99 years. But the victory was not entire. Jehu failed to stamp out the golden calf worship.

            Was Elijah a happy man? Who cares? Elijah did not.

Bad Things Happen To Good People?

    We should not be surprised at all the atrocities and evil in the world. We should be surprised that most of us escape such curses that we deserve since the Fall. It is only by God’s grace that we are not all destroyed since Adam fell. “For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob” (Mal 3:6). “Nothing can happen to you unless I let it happen,” saith the Lord. “And if I do, it is for your good, even unto death.” The “you” here are those who love God and are the called according to His purpose (Romans 8:28).

     Someone might object that it is not fair for God to spare some and let the rest be destroyed. Remember the parable where the owner paid the same wage to those who worked one hour as he paid to those who had worked all day? Those who worked all day said, “It’s not fair!” What was the owner’s answer?  “Is it not lawful for me to do what I wish with my own things? Or is your eye evil because I am good?” (Mt 20:15).

    Why do most people object that it is not fair for bad things to happen to some people? Is it not because they assume (presuppose) that nothing bad should happen to anyone, or at least not to innocent people? Is it a valid assumption? Not according to Scripture. No one is innocent. All are stained by Adam’s Fall and death came upon all.

    It is an insult to God’s holiness to insist that He has an obligation to save everyone. For man to insist that is to make himself God’s judge. Such arrogance deserves the wages of sin (death). On judgment day every mouth will be stopped and all the world will be declared, “Guilty.”  The gift of God is eternal life to those whose names are found written in the Book Of Life.

The True Church

The True Church

Revelation 1 depicts the seven churches of Asia as golden candlesticks and calls them the churches of Christ. Candlesticks are used to give light to the world. Jesus said to His church, “You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden” (Mt 5:14). The seven churches of Asia were visible to the world. They were shining lights that could not be hidden. But even though they were depicted as pure as gold, Jesus pointed out their faults. So it is with the visible church. The church in Corinth is called the church of God (1 Cor 1:1) even though it had many faults and sins. God called the church in the wilderness His son, His firstborn (Exodus 4:22), but with most of them God was not well pleased (1 Cor 10:5).

This seems like a contradiction, but it is a paradox that some cannot discern. Their logic says, “If a church tolerates false doctrine, it is not God’s church. It is a false church.” But is that the logic of Scripture?

Can God’s church have false doctrines and moral corruption and still be God’s church? Can a dead church be the true church? Was the church in Sardis God’s church? Jesus said to it, “you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead” (Rev 3:1). The church in Ephesus lost its first love. Was it still God’s church? Is a church that allows the doctrines of Balaam and the Nicolaitans still God’s church? That’s what the church of Pergamum allowed (Rev 2:14-15). How about a church like the one in Thyatira that tolerated that woman Jezebel, who called herself a prophetess and was teaching and seducing God’s servants to practice sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols (Revelation 2:20-21)? How about a lukewarm church on the verge of being vomited out? Are they still golden candlesticks? Was it still God’s Church? And who knows if it is vomited out already or its candlestick removed? Can a church still have a name that it lives and be dead? Who decides that? God alone can make that judgment.

Evidently they were still God’s churches because in each church there were still a few names who had not soiled their garments (Rev 3:4). So we learn from the Scriptural examples that God names His church after the remnant within the church that are conquerors and not after those within it that tolerate false doctrine and corruption.

We have those who say, “The true church is our church.” Or, “The Catholic Church is the false church.” But are there no conquerors in the Catholic Church? What defines a true church? Jesus told us in Mathew 18:18. He said to the church, “Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you [plural] bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

When Arius challenged the true faith of the church, the entire church got together in Nicaea in 325 AD and bound on earth and in heaven the essential definition of what the true church. It is called the Nicene Creed. In essentials there must be unity; in non-essentials there must be liberty; liberty to disagree without excommunication. Who gets to decide what the essentials are? Jesus told us in Mat. 18:18.

Therefore, anyone who says he is a Christian, but denies that Jesus is God, cannot say he is a Christian. Who says so? Jesus said the church says so. The church is the pillar and ground of the truth (1 Tim 3:15). The Bible is the word of the church. The Nicene Creed is pure Bible doctrine. The agreement of the one and only church made it binding on earth and in heaven. Jesus said so.

So the question is this: Is the Catholic Church God’s church? Well, according to the logic of Scripture on the visible church, I am forced to admit it is God’s church in spite of false doctrines and corruption because it confesses the essentials of the faith and has true conquerors as a remnant within just as the churches in Asia did.

Is there such a thing as a Christian that has not one ounce of wrong doctrine or corruption? “Reformed and always reforming.”

The same is true of the Baptist churches, the Coptic Church, the Reformed churches, etc. “Reformed and always reforming.”

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty, maker of heaven and earth, of all that is, seen and unseen. 

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, 
the only Son of God, 
eternally begotten of the Father, 
God from God, light from light, 
true God from true God, 
begotten, not made, 
of one Being with the Father; 
through him all things were made. 
For us and for our salvation 
he came down from heaven, 
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary 
and became truly human. 


For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate; 
he suffered death and was buried. 


On the third day he rose again 
in accordance with the Scriptures; 
he ascended into heaven 
and is seated at the right hand of the Father. 


He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, 
and his kingdom will have no end. 

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, 
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son], 
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified, 
who has spoken through the prophets. 


We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church. 
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins. 


We look for the resurrection of the dead, 
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

The Whore Of Babylon And the Beast

The Judgment Of The Great Prostitute

Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute… (Revelation 17:1)

What Is Her Identifying Mark?

And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. (Revelation 17:6 ESV)

And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on earth.” (Revelation 18:24 ESV)

Jerusalem, in New Testament times, was the only city in the world that had killed God’s prophets. Babylon, Nineveh, and Egypt never had done that.

… it cannot be that a prophet should perish away from Jerusalem.’ O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets … (Luke 13:33-34 ESV)

        

Her Destiny

For this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine, and she will be burned up with fire; for mighty is the Lord God who has judged her.” (Revelation 18:8)

And Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you see these great buildings? Not one stone shall be left upon another, that shall not be thrown down.” (Mark 13:2)

This took place in that generation just like Jesus foretold in Mat. 24:34. The Roman army (the abomination of desolation) surrounded Jerusalem  and made it so desolate that Josephus said you could not even tell a city had been there if the Romans had not left a tower still standing. What did the multitude in heaven think about this?

They Rejoiced

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, [2] for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Will the Temple Ever Be Rebuilt?

 Once more they cried out, “Hallelujah! The smoke from her goes up forever and ever.” (Revelation 19:1-3 ESV)

And seeing a fig tree by the wayside, he went to it and found nothing on it but only leaves. And he said to it, “May no fruit ever come from you again!” And the fig tree withered at once. (Matthew 21:19 ESV)

And he told this parable: “A man had a fig tree planted in his vineyard, and he came seeking fruit on it and found none. And he said to the vinedresser, ‘Look, for three years now I have come seeking fruit on this fig tree, and I find none. Cut it down. Why should it use up the ground?’ And he answered him, ‘Sir, let it alone this year also, until I dig around it and put on manure. Then if it should bear fruit next year, well and good; but if not, you can cut it down.’” (Luke 13:6-9 ESV)

Jesus’ ministry was three years. The tree was not immediately cut down after His three-year ministry. It was cut down after He dug around it for forty years, and finally cut down in AD 70.

The Beast

In Revelation 17 the Great Prostitute is depicted as mounted on the Beast. The Beast is identified as the city of seven hills. We all know the city of seven hills is Rome. The Beast is described as also having seven heads and ten horns. The ten horns were the ten kings over the ten provinces of Rome. The seven heads represent seven kings. Five had fallen and the angel says, “One is.” The five that had fallen were Julius Caesar, Agustus Caesar, Tiberius Caesar, Caligula Caesar, and Claudius Caesar. The one still living was Nero. Galba came after that, but lasted less than six months. Nero was the Beast incarnate. The Beast was Rome.

The Great Prostitute riding on the Beast signifies that Rome was the support and vehicle of Jerusalem. The chief priests of Jerusalem, who looked like lambs spoke like a dragon when they cried, “We have no king but Caesar.”

Because each Hebrew letter is also a numeral, the letters that spell “Neron Caesar” total 666. The Great Prostitute is also called the beast that looks like a lamb and speaks like a dragon. She is also called the False Prophet.

The Modern Application

This fulfilled pattern repeats itself in history time and again because the nature of man and the nature of the beast never change. Statism is a beast. The function of the False Prophet was to get the whole world to worship its image. Obama also has “priests” (men of the cloth) like Jeremiah Wright and several others who support his statism.

Statism is the enemy of the City of God throughout Scripture. We see it with the Tower of Babel, we see it in Abraham’s home town, Ur of the Chaldees. We see it with Egypt enslaving Israel. We see it with the King of Babylon forcing everyone to bow to his image of the state. And we see it with Rome.

It can be called the divine right of kings and it can be called Marxism. A rose by any other name is still a rose.

Ron Smith

Churchofthekingmcallen.org

A man called me shouting and cussing me out

A man called me shouting and cussing me out for my one minute radio spot that said, “Our Calvinist Puritan forefathers came to this land seeking freedom of religion. They established a government based on a covenant with God called the Mayflower Compact. In the Old country they had paid with their blood to be free from tyrants. Puritan pastor Thomas Hooker wrote the first constitution in the history of mankind for Connecticut in 1639. Thomas Jefferson did not invent the ideas in the Declaration of Independence. They were copied from the Calvinists. The Calvinist Puritans sought to establish a city on a hill based on the Bible. This, and this alone is what made America great. But now we are engaged in a spiritual civil war waged by the powers of darkness that hate biblical values. To vote for Obama is to hate God and the America of the founding fathers.”

The man was really mad. He shouted, “You have no right to say those things on the radio. It’s against the law. I’m gonna report you to the radio station.” I said, “That’s okay. The First Amendment and The Alliance Defense Fund will take care of that.”

He said, “I have a PHD from the University of Tennesee, KNOXVILLE.”  I said, “I do have a doctorate in biblical studies.” He said, “From where? The University of Basket Weaving? Is it accredited?”

He said,  “You’re just an ignorant fundamentalist that interprets the Bible literally. I don’t believe in the virgin birth. I’m a liberal. My father was a Methodist pastor.” I said, “I’m under the authority of a cloud of witnesses… the tried and true ones that brought liberty to the modern world.”

He said, “The Puritans and Reformers were not as smart as we are. They didn’t have cars.” Well, we wouldn’t have cars, either if they had not brought us liberty. It’s for freedom that Christ made us free.

He said, “John Locke and the humanists brought liberty to the modern world, not fundamentalists.” I said, “Do you know when the first constitution in the history of mankind was written? Puritan preacher Thomas Hooker wrote it for the state of Connecticut in 1639. Do you know how old John Locke was then?  Eight years old.”

I asked, “Have you ever heard of presuppositionalist reasoning? If I presuppose something is true, even if it’s not, all my logic will be based on that basis. It does not mean my logic is bad (i.e. that I’m stupid). It means I put my faith in the wrong presupposition. If you presuppose something different, it does not mean your logic is bad or that you’re dumb. It just means you presupposed something different. I presuppose that the Bible is factual and you presuppose it’s not. Does that make me stupid?”

“Before you jump to the conclusion of calling someone stupid because they don’t see it your way, stop to consider that. And before you make a judgment on who you think I am (a literalist), listen to the sermon I preached just last Sunday on that very subject. Just like every day speech, we mix both literal speech with figurative speech all the time.  So does the Bible.”

I said, “You said you’re a liberal. I always thought “liberal” meant “tolerant.” He said, “Yes. We’re tolerant.” I said, “You don’t seem to be tolerating me.” He had no answer.

     By the time the call ended he was calm and wished me a good day. His mouth was shut.

 
"But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts, and always be ready to give a defense to everyone who asks you a reason for the hope that is in you, with meekness and fear" ( 1Pet 3:15).

You Are Gods

John Calvin says the use of “gods” for rulers and those in authority is a synecdoche. Synecdoche is a figure of speech in which a part is used for the whole or the whole for a part, the special for the general or the general for the special, as in ten sail  for ten ships  or a Rockefeller  for a rich man.  

Psalm 82:1 God stands in the congregation of the mighty; He judges among the gods. 2 How long will you judge unjustly, And show partiality to the wicked? Selah 3 Defend the poor and fatherless; Do justice to the afflicted and needy. 4 Deliver the poor and needy; Free them from the hand of the wicked. 5 They do not know, nor do they understand; They walk about in darkness; All the foundations of the earth are unstable.   6 I said, “You are gods, And all of you are children of the Most High. 7 But you shall die like men, And fall like one of the princes.” 8 Arise, O God, judge the earth; For You shall inherit all nations.

Calvin notes that the following passages “in the Fifth Commandment are comprised by synecdoche all superiors, in authority.”

Lev 19:32 You shall rise before the gray headed and honor the presence of an old man, and fear your God [gods]: I am the LORD.

Deut 16:18 You shall appoint judges and officers in all your gates, which the LORD your God gives you, according to your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment.  [Republican government]

Deut 20:9 And so it shall be, when the officers have finished speaking to the people, that they shall make captains of the armies to lead the people.

John 10:34-36 Jesus answered them, “Is it not written in your law, ‘I said, “You are gods”’? If He called them gods, to whom the word of God came (and the Scripture cannot be broken), do you say of Him whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, ‘You are blaspheming,’ because I said, ‘I am the Son of God’?”

Exodus 22:28 “You shall not revile God [Hebrew: the gods], nor curse a ruler of your people.”

 Ge 6:2 that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.

Gen 6:4 There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.

Job 1:6 Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.

Job 2:1 Again there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan came also among them to present himself before the LORD.

The Host of Heaven

1Ki 22:19 Then Micaiah said, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD: I saw the LORD sitting on His throne, and all the host of heaven standing by, on His right hand and on His left.

Eph 3:10 to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places,

Eph 6:12 NKJV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Ephesians 6:12 ESV For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.

Dan 10:20-21 Then he said, “Do you know why I have come to you? But now I will return to fight against the prince of Persia; and when I go out, behold, the prince of Greece will come. But I will tell you what is inscribed in the book of truth: there is none who contends by my side against these except Michael, your prince.”

Terms Used For “gods” In Scripture

the congregation of the mighty

gods

children of the Most High.

Sons of God

the gray headed

judges and officers

captains

rulers

the host of heaven

principalities and powers

spiritual forces of evil

prince of Persia

prince of Greece

Michael, your prince

Where Was God During The Colorado Massacre?

Where Was God

The skeptic says, “If God is in control of all things, He’s not doing a very good job. Look at the mess the world is in.” That statement seems to imply that they want a tyrant as god, and people should be robots “controlled” by him. That’s why unbelievers choose statism and make laws to control everyone! They think God is doing a terrible job so let the state take over. But God’s law is the law we need.

The world is a mess precisely because God permits freedom. God is faithful to keep the promise of His covenant to unleash His wrath on covenant breakers. The “mess” of the world is proof that the Bible is true and that God is in control. To break the covenant by sitting in judgment on God simply brings unleashes evil consequences. To bow before Him brings blessing. We reap only what we sow.

Because of all the evil in the world, some people think Satan must be the ruler. He is called the god of this world (2 Cor 4:4), the god of “worldings” (earth dwellers). For them, he is their ruler. But they seem to think Satan can do whatever he pleases. How do we square this with all the Scriptures that say Christ is the ruler? Please examine the following Scriptures to see if these things are so. Let’s be like the Bereans who “were more fair-minded than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so” (Acts 17:11). Scripture interprets Scripture by means of cross-references.

The Bible teaches Satan can do nothing unless the Lord lets him. The buck stops with God Almighty. Satan had to get permission to torment Job. He had to get permission to sift Peter. God uses Satan as His tool of wrath just as He used Assyria to punish covenant-breaking Israel. “Woe to Assyria, the rod of My anger And the staff in whose hand is My indignation” (Isaiah 10:5). For believers God’s rod is redemptive, but for unbelievers His wrath is destructive. It depends where your heart dwells… in heavenly places or on earth.

Just before Jesus went to the cross He said, “Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out” (John 12:31). “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). Satan then came with his rulers and arrested Jesus. But the plan backfired. He arose from the dead and while the disciples “watched, He was taken up, and a cloud received Him out of their sight” (Acts 1:9).

Daniel foresaw this ascension of Christ when the heavenly court was set and the Ancient of Days was seated and “behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a Son of Man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom one that shall not be destroyed (Daniel 7:13-14 ESV). And “a judgment was given for the saints” when, as the Greater Solomon, He sat down at the right hand of the Father “on the throne of the LORD as king in place of David his father” (1 Chronicles 29:23).

Daniel said, “As I looked, this horn made war with the saints and prevailed over them, until the Ancient of Days came [to the court], and judgment was given for the saints of the Most High, and the time came when the saints possessed the kingdom” (Daniel 7:21-22 ESV). That time came when Christ ascended to the Father. “And there were loud voices in heaven, saying, ‘The kingdoms of this world have become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever!’” (Rev 11:15)

Through the sacrifice of Christ Satan was cast out of his place of rule in heaven and came down to arrest Jesus.  This is also the pattern of history. “For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Rev 12:12).

“So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him. Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, “Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time” (Rev 12:9-12).

Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords (including over Satan). But as long as God’s people do what Israel did, Satan will be unleashed by God on “earth dwellers” (See Rev 12:12). The wrath of God is looming over America right now because America has been becoming more and more carnal “earth dwellers” instead of being seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:6). But… “If My people…” (2 Chron 7:14).

God says to those who love Him (His elect), “Nothing can happen to you unless I allow it. And if I do, it is for your good… even unto death”  (See Romans 8:28). “For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39 ESV).

Where was God during the theater slaughter in Aurora, Colorado? “If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there” (Psalm 139:8). God gave Satan permission. Why??? God has his reasons. Instead of questioning God we need to question ourselves. We might not know the specific reasons, but Scripture clearly reveals that if we break God’s covenant He swears to unleash His wrath. It’s time to “Consecrate a fast, Call a sacred assembly; Gather the elders And all the inhabitants of the land Into the house of the LORD your God, And cry out to the LORD” (Joel 1:14). That is the answer to, “Why?”

Even though the Lord is already King over all the earth, there is another sense in which He is not. The prophet Zechariah said some 500 years before Christ came, “the LORD shall be King over all the earth. In that day it shall be—‘The LORD is one,’ And His name one” (Zechariah 14:9). In one sense this prophecy was fulfilled when Christ ascended to the Father and sat on the throne of the Lord in the place of David His Father. But in another sense the whole earth will acknowledge Christ as the ruler of nations. “All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD, and all the families of the nations shall worship before you. For kingship belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations” (Psalm 22:27-28 ESV).

It’s reported that Tocqueville said, “I sought for the greatness and genius of America in her commodious harbors and her ample rivers - and it was not there . . in her fertile fields and boundless forests and it was not there . . . in her rich mines and her vast world commerce - and it was not there . . . in her democratic Congress and her matchless Constitution - and it vas not there. Not until I went into the churches of America and heard her pulpits flame with righteousness did I understand the secret of her genius and power. America is great because she is good, and if America ever ceases to be good, she will cease to be great.”

Churchofthekingmcallen.com