Satan's Attempts to Destroy Christ's Lineage, and then Christ Himself (Part 2)

 

Satan's Attempts to Destroy Christ's Lineage, and then Christ Himself (Part 2)

Last week we covered 6 attempts of Satan to destroy Christ’s lineage.  God prophesied in Genesis 3:15 that He would fulfill His promise that Jesus would destroy Satan.  Later, we learned that He would be a Jew coming from Abraham’s, then Judah’s, then David’s family.  Satan was a total failure to stop the arrival of Jesus thus far.  This week we do the last 9 attempts by Satan, including several attempts to kill Christ Himself. Let’s see what happens.

Attempt #7:  This attempt was Satan’s efforts to kill David and his descendants.  This was because Satan figured out that the Messiah would be in David’s line.  How did he deduce that?  First, he narrowed his search to the tribe of Judah, based on Genesis 49:10:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes

(Please understand that these Scriptures were written down at the time of prophecy, and Satan could read them). Satan also saw how King Saul disappointed God by not following His instructions—and how he was from the tribe of Benjamin.  And then, there was the bravery of David, from the tribe of Judah, and how he boasted about God’s power when he defeated Goliath.  So Satan figured that David was next on the throne, and thus he wanted to kill David. Then Samuel anointed David as future king.  So Satan fills Saul’s mind with envy and hatred of David to an obsessive decree.  Saul wanted  to kill David.  And there are many verses that proves that Saul was moved by demonic forces.  Earlier, while David tried to play music to soothe Saul’s violent temper tantrums, Saul with no reason threw a spear at David.  Twice.  Another example of demonic oppression was, Saul sought out a medium, expressly forbidden by God.

But David continued to prove his faith in God.  He was egged on by his military to kill Saul when he had many lucky opportunities, but he remained righteous—by not assassinating the king.  If he had murdered Saul, he would have possibly been an unfit candidate for the Messiah’s line, which would have served Satan well.  (Of course, after he became king, he was a conspirator to murder, but sincerely repented—which is tenderly recorded in Psalm 51. God’s wonderful grace then forgave him.)

When David died, Satan also did everything he could to tempt David’s descendants into evil, hoping to break the lineage to the Messiah that way.  Solomon was David’s son.  Solomon’s many wives seduced him into idolatry.  Solomon spent government money lavishly to build palaces and a glorious temple, burnished with alarming amounts of gold and precious stones.  Thus he taxed his people heavily.  When Solomon died, his own son refused the request of the common people to reduce the tax, and, as a result, the kingdom was split! Just what Stan wanted. There was the rebellious 10-tribe north, still called Israel, and 2-tribe south, called Judah (which included Benjamin). This was a real threat to their continued existence, since a divided nation is weaker and will be attacked by enemies. The following generations proved to be a continuing downdraft of morals and corruptions, of idolatry and religious sexual fornication.  They abandoned God and followed the pagan religions around them. They were in and out of oppressive dominance by Canaanite nations. Satan was partially victorious with Israel, but a failure in Judah, which had enough righteous kings to avoid assimilation (the Israel tribes in the north, in their evil, assimilated, and became Samaritans.) But after all, God’s promise was still holding up, since the Seed would come from Judah. So Satan failed to stop the Seed, Jesus.

Attempt #8.  Ahaziah, the loneliest descendant.  This was around 885 BC.  This was 100 years after Solomon’s son. We now must keep our focus on kings of Judah, not the 10 tribes of Israel in the north, because of Genesis 49:10, remember:

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, Nor a lawgiver from between his feet, Until Shiloh comes

Despite the same-name confusion from II Kings and II Chronicles, Ahaziah’s story begins in II Chronicles 22:1:

Then the inhabitants of Jerusalem made Ahaziah his youngest son king in his place, for the raiders who came with the Arabians into the camp had killed all the older sons. So Ahaziah the son of Jehoram, king of Judah, reigned.

See also II Kings 8:25. As the above verses say, due to raiders (hired by an enemy), his brothers all died. He was alone among heirs among David's descendants.  God's lineage plan was hanging by a single thread.  Not a problem for Him.  God kept Ahaziah from being killed until he had sons, continuing the Judah lineage. He began reigning when he was 22, or, ah, 42. II Kings 8:26 says 22, but II Chronicles 22:2 says 42.  A copyist's error.  Remember, Holy Scripture is perfect in the original.  But an error like this doesn't mean we throw away God's Word.  More than likely, he was 42. He was only king for one year, and had sons. God succeeded, Satan failed. That leads to the next Attempt....

Attempt #9.  Joash. We had another one-man crisis.  Seems that a guy named Jehu was ordained by a prophet to kingship over Israel (I Kings 19:16).  So he did a coup d’etat, and killed the king of Israel, Joram. And, for good measure, ordered the assassination of Ahaziah, (attempt 8, remember), king of Judah (II Kings 9:27).  Then he took the kingship in Israel.  When Ahaziah’s mother, Athaliah, heard of her son’s death, the wicked woman took immediate advantage:  she killed almost all Ahaziah’s sons, intending to reign herself (II Kings 11:1-3).  God's lineage was under threat.  But as II Kings 11:2 records, God saw that she missed one:

But Jehosheba (or Jehoshabeath)..sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him away from among the king’s sons who were being murdered; and they hid him and his nurse in the bedroom, from Athaliah, so that he was not killed.

So the lineage of Christ was again preserved; one survived.  But note:  Joash was a small child (notice "his nurse") when rescued, so he didn't become capable to reign in Judah at the same time as Jehu began reigning in Israel. A council of his aides, smart men, ruled for awhile.

The story of Joash (also called Jehoash) has a semi-happy ending, as you read II Kings 11:21-12:1:

In the seventh year of Jehu, Jehoash became king, and he reigned forty years in Jerusalem. 

The reason I call it “semi” happy is because while he was a good king, and reigned for a long time, II Kings 12:3 says he didn’t take the “high places” away. These were places for worship of a false god. But the point is, Attempt #9 failed; Judah still has lineage.

Attempt #10 Perhaps the most entertaining event in the Bible is the book of Esther.  It is short, and it is wonderful reading. It’s around 500 BC.  Romance (well, as far as they knew, romance) wins, pride loses.  I only have enough space to give you an incomplete Cliff notes. The tribes of Judah were conquered by Babylon. Then Persia defeated Babylonia, and took over the people of Judah (many of them were displaced elsewhere by now).  Persian King Ahasuerus had a beauty contest and picked a new wife, Esther.  Unbeknownst to him, she was Jewish.  But one of the king’s servants, Haman, hated her cousin Mordecai because Mordecai refused to bow to acknowledge his greatness in possessing his high office.  Haman was infuriated at this slight; he resolved to not only kill Mordecai, but all Jews in all the Persian kingdom, which was most of the known world at the time. This would again be another attempt to snuff out the Messianic lineage.  Satan may have given him the idea that it wasn’t enough just to kill Mordecai, but all Jews. (It would not be unusual, since he was from the Amalekite race, enemies of Jews). Through false witness to his king, he got the king’s signet ring to give orders for genocide.  He picked a day for the massive kill—soon.  He was willing to pay a lot of money to those who would do the killing—of every Jewish man, woman, and every child.  A grisly business.  An additional motivation toward getting the help of the Persians in the killing was the fact that whoever killed a Jew would get his land.  Haman was efficient in giving notice to every province in the vast kingdom.  But Esther heard of the plot through her maids, and Mordecai notified her that she would have to act fast to somehow persuade the king to change his mind.  They all knew that Haman was behind it.  There was one unfortunate detail of Persian law—once the king makes a law, it cannot be revoked.   Satan had made a cunning move, and it looked like the Jewish people would all be dead soon.

But God knew this ahead of time, and made His own chess moves.  God is always one step ahead of Satan.  Why not?  He is the master of the dimension of time.  He knows the entire history of everyone on earth ahead of time.  I can imagine all the future videoclips He could see at the same time.

Esther, I suspect with God’s help, made a brilliant plan.  And in the end, she, with great tears explained it all to Ahasuerus and appealed to the king’s mercy (we all know how women are). Haman made some wrong moves and was hung, Mordecai got the king’s signet ring, (he revealed some whose attempt were to assassinate the king),  and while the king couldn’t change the law, he provided another law that allowed Jews to kill their enemies first!  The Jews were honored. This happened in the Persian kingdom, which is Iran today.  Can you imagine today’s Iranians giving Jews the right to kill their enemies?  For sure, this whole thing was a rarity for the Jews.  God wins, Satan loses.

Attempt #11 and following show Satan’s all-out attempt to kill Jesus, whom he knew was the Messiah from prophecies about His birthplace (Micah 5:2), and by a visit by wise men underneath a supernatural star.

We won’t count as an Attempt how Joseph, when he heard of Mary’s pregnancy, was on the verge of divorcing her as his betrothed wife.  Without such an important element in culture of a man standing up to be a father, the scandal of irresponsible fornication and baby-production would have been much greater.  That would have meant that Jesus would probably have been banned from speaking at any synagogue in the land. His message would never have gone out. In any event, an angel told Joseph in a dream that Mary was still a virgin, and bore a child through the Holy Spirit.  Joseph believed it—so he was definitely the right man for the job of stepfather.

Neither are we going to start with Caesar, who had the brilliant idea that everyone had to be registered in their original home province.  So Joseph and a very pregnant Mary had to travel over bumpy roads on horseback.  This endangered her; a too-early, or even, stillbirth could have resulted.

No, let’s start Attempt #11 with king Herod, who was in a fret about the wise men appearing out of the East and asking for the location of the newborn King of the Jews. Hearing about another king was bad news to him. Two more dreams were necessary from God, but the wise men were warned not to tell Herod they had found the Messiah, and Joseph was warned to escape.  So Herod’s cruelty in killing every child age 2 and under in the Bethlehem area did not produce the desired effect. Satan’s Attempt #11:  FAIL.

Attempt #12 was at the very beginning of Jesus’ ministry.  John the Baptist had given Jesus credibility, there was a miracle of wine at Cana, and Jesus was brilliant in initial appearances speaking at synagogues.  But that was it to that point, so He had barely got going. He wasn’t a crowd-producer yet, to spread the new Gospel.  But Jesus, on one Sabbath, informed the synagogue public that ancient Jewish prophets spent some time being kinder to Gentiles rather than Jews (Luke 4).  The xenophobic Jews got a demonic gang urge, and were on the verge of throwing Him off a cliff.  God suddenly engineered an escape miracle, because it simply says, without explanation, that “passing through the midst of them, He went His way.”  It was also a fact that Scripture records other instances of men’s desire to kill Him before the mock trial that finally did it.  But Jesus was smart enough to have plenty of loving followers around Him during the day, and slip away into remote locations at night. His full message had time to get out. The only way they got to Him was the betrayal of Judas.
.

Attempt #13 This was Satan’s attempt to drown the Messiah in a huge sea storm on the sea of Galilee, which had violent storms on occasion. But this storm was unusually dangerous and could have been lethal.  Why do I think that Satan was behind this?  Because in Luke 8:24, and Mark 4:39, Jesus “rebuked” the wind and raging water.  A curious word, right? But the word “rebuke” is used in Scripture for deliverance from demons (Matthew 17:18, for instance).  Yes, Satan can figure out how to have his demons make a storm.  But, Jesus can figure out the source, and deliver Himself from the weather.  A great God.

Attempt #14 Satan figured he had Jesus’ number at the Crucifixion.  Even though the witnesses against Him were false, even though Pilate and his wife did everything they could to release Jesus, the Jewish crowd were in a demonic paroxysm again; they wanted to see Jesus dead.  They even preferred to see a murderer released instead of Jesus.  They even cursed themselves, saying (Matthew 27:25) “his blood be on us, and on our children.”  God, in total disgust, rejected these Jews. Jesus warned them several times about this. God’s judgment came down on those Jews 40 years later.  Under a vicious Roman general Titus, over a million of the Jews were slaughtered in a raid on Jerusalem in 70 A.D.  The temple was completely torn down, as Jesus had prophesied.  But Satan was looking only at Jesus; he actually figured that the Crucifixion would do the job; Jesus would stay dead.  But in the greatest triumph of history, Jesus was resurrected, and lives!  Now His Gospel of freedom from sin and resurrection for His followers still abides in a minority everywhere in the world.

Attempt #15 is probably future, and thus speculative.  God prophesied, through an allegory in Revelation 12, Satan’s attempt to devour Christ in the future. (He is the Child in Revelation 12; Satan is the dragon).  In Revelation 12:13, Satan is attacking “the woman,” probably Israel. So Satan will cause many Jews to die.  Other verses suggest God's children (those that believe and follow Christ) will also be heavily persecuted. In other Scripture we find that he is attempting a giant war against Christ and His followers at Har Megiddo, also called Armageddon (Revelation 16:13-16).  But no one can be certain about the future, so I am deliberately sketchy about details.  All I know is that Satan is given one last chance, in some probable future date, as implied in Revelation 12:12, to do his destructive work. It was futile, since Christ wins, the followers of Satan dies.  It may come during our lifetimes, it may not.  But he will be a masterful deceiver, so much so that the earth comes under one world ruler and one non-Christian religion--most people will actually worship an antichrist under Satan’s control!  Many nominal Christians will be fooled, as Matthew 24:24 says about that future day:

….false christs and false prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

Jesus even began His Olivet Discourse on future events by warning His followers about deception (Matthew 24:4).  He also warned His followers to stay alert and looking for Him, not to be caught up in the ways of the world, which could destroy us. Yes, it is true that Satan looks like the Cleveland Browns, as he went 0-14, as we showed above, but he is wily and is successful on getting the majority of people to be swayed and hell-bound.  Jesus confirms that in Matthew 7:13-14:

 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. ¹⁴ Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it

My final word of warning is from II Corinthians 11:13-15:

For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. ¹⁴ And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. ¹⁵ Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.

Christians, beware!  Do not fall for this upcoming great deception. You must endure the persecution to gain heaven. If we ever sign up with the Antichrist, our future will be in hell. Think soberly on Revelation 14:9-11:

Then a third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives his mark on his forehead or on his hand, ¹⁰ he himself shall also drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out full strength into the cup of His indignation. He shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. ¹¹ And the smoke of their torment ascends forever and ever; and they have no rest day or night, who worship the beast and his image, and whoever receives the mark of his name

Acknowledgement:  Chuck Missler, a great man of God, who is sorely missed by his passing.

 

 

Satan’s attempts to destroy Christ’s lineage and then Christ Himself

 

Satan’s attempts to destroy Christ’s lineage and then Christ Himself

What say we look at certain world history from another dimension, namely a spiritual dimension?  I’m not Frank Peretti, but I guarantee, it will add meaning to what’s happening in the world, and will go far to explaining what we’re on earth for.  So here we go:  In Genesis 3:15, after Satan persuaded Adam and Eve to sin. God threw down the gauntlet to Satan:

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.”

To explain, Satan would be enemies to Eve’s descendant (Jesus the Christ).  Satan had already proclaimed his hostility in his sworn desire in the past to be equal with God (Isaiah 14:12-17). When God said “Your seed” He means all those descendants of Satan—human or fallen angels-- who refuse to obey God and refuse to believe in His Son, Jesus the Christ.  When He said “her Seed,” the capital letter "S" means a single person, namely Jesus, a descendant of Eve.  And, I might add, you could include all those who are followers of Jesus and have made Him Lord of their lives.  So, Satan is the enemy of the Jews, who carried the Messianic lineage, resulting in Jesus; and Satan is also the enemy of true Christians, and he wants nothing more than to destroy us, our lives and reputation, and everything spiritual in us.

God tells Satan that His Son Jesus will “bruise (Satan’s) head,” a mortal wound.  Satan will only “bruise (Jesus’) heel, a non-mortal wound (Jesus died, but He was resurrected).

So God has thrown down the gauntlet.  Who will win, God or Satan? Satan, before killing Christ by the hand of his own followers (who were, by the way, both Jew and Gentile), tried numerous times in history to destroy Jesus’ ascendants. If he could do that, Christ would never have been born.  That seems “smart.” 

So let’s tell the story about Satan’s various efforts to kill Jews and their seed, Jesus.

Attempt #1:  Eve hoped that her first child would be God’s Seed and the Deliverer from her sins.  That child was Cain.  But Cain ignored God’s instructions on how to do the atonement offering that God instructed, and became a murderer of Abel, Eve’s second son.  Now she hoped her third child would accomplish her desire for a Deliverer—Seth.  Well, Seth had faith in God, and Christ was indeed descended from him. So Satan failed on Attempt #1, since the lineage continued despite his efforts to cut it short.

Attempt #2:  Many of Satan’s followers, also known as fallen angels, came to earth and married earth women. The children they bore were a hybrid of immortal fallen angels, and mortal humans—so they were non-human babies-- and likely un-saveable. They grew up to be “mighty men” and “men of renown.”  (I have a couple blogs on this--which was believed by church fathers; refer to those blogs with DNA in the title). They were called Nephilim (Gen.6:1-4, NIV and Septuagint—the Bible of Jesus’ day).  The Hebrew word means “fallen ones.” They were also wicked; and from other appearances in Scripture, they were super-tall and, obviously, very strong.  Why not?  They were half mortal, and half immortal (through the fallen angels, their fathers, their spirits retained their wickedness, their strength and immortality).   The Nephilim dominated in their appearance on earth, and completely corrupted the people of Noah’s day, both morally and physically (partly by deviant DNA-mixing through sex).  Anyway, Satan figured, if he could corrupt the earth like this, then no one would be physically pure to bear a pure Seed.

But he was defeated again because Noah and his immediate family kept DNA-clean (i.e., they avoided sex with the Nephilim-induced people of the world), and he made an ark as God had directed, and everyone else was destroyed by the Flood, leaving Noah, his wife, and immediate family to start all over.  Satan failed on Attempt #2. But keep in mind, despite their bodies being killed at the Flood, the spirits of the Nephilim left their bodies and were still alive.

Attempt #3:  God picked the Hebrew people to be His people, beginning with Abraham.  Their job was to carry His Word, His history, in Scripture, and to worship Him as the only God---in the midst of, yet again, a totally corrupt post-Flood populace—even though all came from Noah. Most people separated from Noah and his descendants. (The Jews didn’t do a bang-up job themselves, disobeying God’s instructions).  But Satan brought about an extremely severe famine, hoping to kill off the Jews. To avert death, the Hebrews moved to Egypt to farm the better land there.  They were allowed to do this because Abraham’s great-grandson Joseph was in good with the Pharaoh (by revealing to him a vision about the upcoming famine so he could prepare for it).  So God made sure that His Jewish family was accepted in Egypt, which had reserves of grain, so they didn’t starve in the great famine.  So Satan’s attempt at starving them out failed in Attempt #3.

Attempt #4: Later Pharaohs made the Jews slaves for 400 years.  One evil Pharaoh got up one morning and thought, “These Jewish slaves are becoming more populous than we Egyptians, and that’s a danger; let’s kill every baby Hebrew boy at birth and stop their population growth.”  He gave the order for genocide—encouraged by Satan. Unfortunately, he stupidly laid the responsibility to kill Jewish babies on the midwives--which were mostly Hebrews!  (I presume he assumed that their fear of him would even make them commit infanticide).  However, even at risk of their own lives, they refused to kill the newborn Hebrew boys.  That not only saved the Hebrew population, but it saved little Moses, who later became a great deliverer himself.  Attempt #4 by Satan was a failure.  You would think that Satan would have gotten the message by now.  When God decides to do something, it gets done—even through sinful men.  You have to give credit to the Hebrew midwives.  We need some of them today, considering the baby-genocide in our abortion clinics.

Attempt #5: Moses, through God, performed miracles of destruction on the country of Egypt.  But Pharaoh was so stubborn that he held on through each disaster; it finally took the death of his firstborn to release the Jews.  Early in their exodus to get away, the Pharaoh and his army went after them again, only to be wiped out by the closing Red Sea—another miracle by God.  So the Jews were not only saved from destruction by Pharaoh’s army, but they were really Free.  Attempt #5 failed.

Attempt #6: Let’s back up in time a bit. Please note two verses God had told Abraham. First, Genesis 12:1-3:

Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your family and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. ² I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

Secondly, God told Abraham, in Genesis 15:13-14:

Then He said to Abram: “Know certainly that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, and will serve them, and they will afflict them four hundred years. ¹⁴ And also the nation whom they serve I will judge; afterward they shall come out with great possessions. 

Satan, we can assume, listened in to these conversations—and thus knew, upon watching Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob’s travels, that God had chosen the land of Canaan as God's land for His people.  (Important side note:  Satan does not have God’s powers.  He can only be in one place at a time, and cannot read minds.  But he has lots of demon-followers in lots of places who help him that way, and he can sometimes guess thoughts by our facial emotions, and what we say.  And, I would imagine, he has various ways of putting sinful thoughts in our head—like he did with Pharaoh on infanticide).  So he put these two sections of verses together. Satan, at the time of Abraham, figured that the Hebrews won’t be in Canaan, God’s choice for their living space, for at least 400 years; they would be elsewhere (slaves in Egypt) instead.  He also hoped that Israel (their name, since they were populous enough to be a nation now), would have to conquer the various tribes of Canaan to secure the needed land.  Thus, Satan comes up with Attempt #6:  stop the Israelis from entering God’s chosen land, Canaan. (PS:  God's inheritance was far more than the strip of land they hold today.) If he could do that, they would have to wander to different places and their nation would be assimilated and fizzle out.  So he concocted up another sexual use for his fallen angels.  I have Bible imputation as proof. Let’s read Genesis 6:4, this time in the NIV version (remember, this verse was quoted in Noah’s day, the first “use” of the Nephilim):

The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.

As we saw before, the Nephilim were the deviant DNA "children" of the fallen angel fathers, who were immortal, and the mortal earth mothers during Noah's time. Their bodies were killed at the Flood. But note the underlined phrase “and also afterward.”  Every phrase in Scripture has a reason to exist in God’s Word, and this one says that we would get more Nephilim even after they were drowned in the Flood in Noah’s day.  In other words, the spirits of fallen angels came down to earth again, took on men, proved sexually attractive to the females again, and we got more Nephilim.  But this time, men did not live 800 or 900 years like in Noah’s day. (Climate change?)  Their lives were short, a little longer than ours. So the deviant DNA can’t be spread as fast.  So Satan concentrated his efforts on spawning to a limited area—he picked, of course, Canaan. These babies grew up giants, again. Hopefully they would scare the Israelis away, and they couldn’t stay in God’s chosen land. If we can accomplish that, God would be a liar, unable to do what He promised. And the Jews would not want to follow an unreliable God. So he picked several tribes in Canaan, sent his fallen angels there, and those areas became populated by the evil Nephilim.  Scripture backs this idea up. It indicates giants existed in:  the Philistines, the Anakim, the  Rephaim, the Zamzumim, the Emim, and the Amorites. All in Canaan, of course.  (Check them out in Numbers 13:32; Deut 2:10,11,20,21; and Deut 3:11,13).  Deuteronomy also provides more detail on Og, king of Bashan, whose bed was 15 feet long and 6-1/2 feet wide.   And of course we have Goliath, killed by David, several hundred years later, who probably was at least 9 feet tall. I suspect Goliath was at the tail-end of that effort, so he was not as tall nor as imposing as before.

Satan almost got what he wanted; the nation of Israel, freed from Pharaoh after 400 years, went north from Egypt, and approached the land of Canaan.  Moses sent out spies to see the lay of the land.  They brought back wonderful food, but their knees were shaking.  As they reported in Numbers 13:32-33--and every word of this is in God's Word:

The land through which we have gone, in spying it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in it are men of great size. There also we saw the Nephilim (the sons of Anak are part of the Nephilim); and we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their sight.

 A bit of hyperbole, there, about the size comparison—but you get the picture; these were giants—again. So the Israelis voted to NOT go in and fight the Canaanites.  God was so disappointed in how they wouldn’t depend on Him for deliverance that He made them wander through the desert area for another 38 years, until everyone who voted dropped dead.  Now all that were left were the kids in the earlier days, now grown up.  But these “kids” were not dummies; they realized that they had miracles (their shoes never wore out, they always found water, they had free food dropped on them 6 days a week), and they realized that their non-believing parents paid the ultimate price for disobedience; and finally, walking the desert every day made them hardened, so they could be soldiers with endurance.

Plus, I would imagine, they would do anything to stop wandering aimlessly through the desert.  So, with Joshua in command (Moses died), this time they voted to go in and fight.  A brave decision.  God built up Joshua’s courage by appearing to him as well.  This time they cleared out most of these corrupt and sometimes giant people (details on the Canaanite idolatries are too disgusting to explain here; they were a wicked people).  The key is the phrase “most of.”  Goliath is an example of how there were some still around years later that Joshua couldn’t get to.  In any event, Satan’s effort to stop Israel from moving to the land of God’s calling failed.  #6:  FAIL. Satan is now 0-6.

NEXT WEEK: WE COMPLETE SATAN'S FAILED EFFORTS TO STOP GOD'S PLAN FOR CHRIST

 

The Fear of God

  The Fear of God

The fear of God is an important, yet little studied topic. Let’s start by examining Acts 2:41-47, using the New King James (NKJ):

Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them. 42 And they continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers. 43 Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles. 44 Now all who believed were together, and had all things in common, 45 and sold their possessions and goods, and divided them among all, as anyone had need. 46 So continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, they ate their food with gladness and simplicity of heart, 47 praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily those who were being saved.

You may ask, in light of their joy of being a new creation in Christ, being happily together quite regularly, and being able to see incredible miracles, why do they experience "fear?"  One might argue that they were afraid of miracles, but that doesn't make sense--seeing a miracle of healing would make them rejoice; "this is the right group to be in," I would say. I maintain that this is a fear of the superpower of God instead.  We will study how that connects. Also, we ask, in light of the tremendous power the church had, being close to God, sharing their assets compassionately with one another, and “having favor with all the people”—were these wonderful things caused by their fear of God? It wouldn’t seem possible—such a negative emotion as fear connecting to their joy and upright behavior. Let’s explore this mystery together.

The Greek translated “fear” is phobos—from which we get phobia, defined as “a persistent, abnormal, and irrational fear of a specific thing.” But Greek lexicons give phobos a range: Fear, dread, terror, to reverence, respect, or awe. Awe is “the astonished, weighty sense of God’s power and presence.” Vine’s is my favorite (not because of this); for one meaning, the “bad” definition of fear was when Jesus spoke: “dread, terror, always with this significance in the four Gospels.” If Jesus spoke harshly when He used the term, why wouldn’t we?

I have heard "fear" downgraded by so many pastors to "reverence" (which few know what that is, so they can dismiss the whole thing.) The other meaning of phobos in Vine’s is less intimidating but is still weighty (not the weak “awe)”:  “reverential fear of God as a controlling motive of the life; in matters spiritual and moral, not a mere fear of His power and righteous retribution, but a dread of displeasing Him.” It's not like just saying, "God, sorry I did that."  Think hard on the real meaning of "dread."

Examine your hearts: when you're thinking of sinning, do you have a real dread of displeasing Him, and that completely removes the impulse of desire? Is your fear of what He might do, enough to make you stop cold? Is the fear of God a controlling motive in your life? I suspect the only thing keeping us back from many sins is the fear of being discovered by our friends or family and losing our reputations. The serious dread of displeasing God is much worse, but...often it's just not there; we just don’t think about Him.

Many sermons are expounded on God’s love, few on His hate--of sin. Of course, we assume God hates the sin but loves the sinner. If that’s true, why do so many people end up there? Many sermons on “God is love,” few on fearing Him. This paper will attempt to show how many verses there are on how fear of God is good for you, and show you that it is a desirable attribute. Hopefully after reading it you can introspect on His holiness and get to know His “dark side” more. Like medicine, it will seem unpleasant—but it’s good for you.

Let's begin with two verses from Proverbs, 9:10:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

And Proverbs 10:27:

The fear of the Lord prolongs days: but the years of the wicked shall be shortened

I could end this blog right here; If God says it, I believe it.  Do you, though? You want to be truly smart?  You want to live longer?  Read God's Word with fear. I think of Judah’s king Josiah. His priest, upon digging around the former Temple (looking for money), found a copy of the Torah. II Kings 22:11ff tell the story: 

Now it happened, when the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, that he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of the Lord for me, for the people and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the Lord that is aroused against us, because our fathers have not obeyed the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.”

 Do you feel that His Word is not "wisdom;" it's comfort?  Well, God's purpose is not to make you feel good; it is in pruning, in sanctifying you.  Another statement in Proverbs says we should never owe anybody--you that are under a mountain of debt, do you believe that?  That's just one of the many, many ways to gain wisdom.  Consider the stories (I hate that word--these events all happened exactly as written) of the giants of the faith--they had their weaknesses, too (except Jesus).  How did they handle such weaknesses?  We see, in Scripture, the results of pride, and of humility; of rich people, of poor people.  Scripture tells the whole story, like no other.

Let’s begin with Genesis 20:11, 17 and 18, where Abraham sees the good side of men fearing God: They would be less likely to murder him and take his beautiful wife:

And Abraham said, “Because I thought, surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will kill me on account of my wife...So Abraham prayed to God; and God healed Abimelech, his wife, and his female servants. Then they bore children; ¹⁸ for the Lord had closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech because of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.

He knew that God loves him, that following Him regardless, will all turn out well. Have we developed that trait? Note that his comment on how fear of God would prevent sin is agreed to by God, since He backed him up by healing a family.

In Genesis 31:42a, Jacob has a name for God: The Fear of Isaac. Nowhere does God disapprove of this name. Note how Jacob appreciates this-named God as his God, connecting it with His protection for him. Thus, the three patriarchs of Israel, giants in the faith, are all given to fearing God.  If Laban had that quality, he would not have twisted Jacob inside out:

Unless the God of my father, the God of Abraham and the Fear of Isaac, had been with me, surely now you (Laban) would have sent me away empty-handed.

In Exodus 1:17, the children of Israel are slaves in Egypt. The pharaoh, fearing for their numerical advantage, has instructed the Hebrew midwives to kill the boy babies as soon as they arrive out of the womb. But the midwives refuse to do it—even though disobeying pharaoh endangers their own lives—because of their fear of God (fear of His judgement for murder). Note His blessing on them because their fear of God was greater than their fear of the pharaoh.

But the midwives feared God, and did not do as the king of Egypt commanded them, but saved the male children alive... because the midwives feared God…He provided households for them.

Maybe we’d have fewer abortions, if the mothers or attending nurses had a real fear of God today. In the 60 million abortions in the U.S. since Roe v Wade, these women (and some attending men) did not have enough fear of God to dread His ultimate punishment for murder. How many have read Galatians 5:21, which says that (unrepentant) murderers “will not inherit the kingdom of God,” and would spend an eternity in hell? (PS:  the end of Roe v. Wade has not dropped the number of abortions.)

In Exodus 14:31, after God’s great plagues, after the exodus, and His killing the pursuing Egyptians, then the children of Israel finally feared God. After that they really believed Moses and God. So, a real belief in God, with obedience following, results from a fear of God.

Thus Israel saw the great work which the LORD had done in Egypt; so the people feared the LORD, and believed the LORD and His servant Moses.

In Exodus 18:21, Moses is to select men as judges, an extremely important function. The first requirement for such men? You guessed it; they need to have a fear of God.

Moreover you shall select from all the people able men, such as fear God, men of truth, hating covetousness; and place such over them to be rulers of thousands, rulers of hundreds…

In Exodus 20:20b, the Ten Commandments are given. The very first words that Moses says at this momentous occasion include the following:

God has come to test you, and that His fear may be before you, so that you may not sin.”

The Ten Commandments is supposed to show how much our sins have offended Him, and awaken the soul to a proper fear of God as Judge for our sin. The Commandments are His original rules--but it still took a fear of God to see that it was impossible to obey God and live without sin--so we were in Judgment.

There are plenty more in the Old Testament, but to make this paper short enough to be readable, let’s skip ahead to the New Testament; what did Jesus say about fear? Matthew 10:28:

And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

People give the wrong answer when you ask them Who to fear here—we’re to fear God. Only God can destroy both soul and body in hell. People experience “peer pressure;” they shrink back from declaring for Christ, particularly in public. And so it was for the Jews, who did not want to go against the Pharisees, who could be a genuine threat to your reputation if you followed Jesus. But Jesus was unsympathetic for those feelings; He has a stark word (one of many—He talked a lot about hell): basically, "it’s them or me, you can't have both. Fear God, enough to follow Jesus' commands, and you might lose your life, but keep your soul (in heaven); but if you fear Man, thus denying God (You can't have both), and while you save your skin currently, He can Judge you to Hell." Fear can make us more sanctified as we dread to earn His anger if we continue to sin..

Don’t forget, we said in the two definitions of “fear” that the meaning in the Gospels, in Jesus' words, is “dread, terror.” Jesus was blunt. Your terror of what God can do to you should be greater than your terror of what people can do. People can take your lives, but God can take your eternity.

We definitely need an injection of fear for God in this sin-attractive world, to keep us out of hell. You want mercy from God? We all should, because the depth and frequency of our sin means we need lots of mercy. Luke 1:50 tells us how to get mercy:

And His mercy is on those who fear Him From generation to generation.

Luke 5:26 gives the peoples’ reaction when they see Jesus healing: Fear. Why? Of His supernaturalism, of things which they do not know.

And they were all amazed, and they glorified God and were filled with fear, saying, “We have seen strange things today!” In a modern world, we would be more cynical and sophisticated about healings. Which is the better reaction? Note how their fear didn’t stop their glorifying God. Another good result from a supposedly negative emotion (The same thing happens in Luke 7:16).

In Luke 23:40-41, one criminal on a cross next to Jesus rebukes the other. The one who feared God admitted his execution was proper punishment for his deeds, a good thought--but something few criminals do. He also judged Jesus as innocent, something the people and the Pharisees couldn’t do. Fear of God allows you to judge people properly, and to be humble. Also, wonderfully, the one who feared God got saved. The other one was going to hell.

But the other, answering, rebuked him, saying, “Do you not even fear God, seeing you are under the same condemnation? 41 And we indeed justly, for we receive the due reward of our deeds; but this Man has done nothing wrong.”

Now we go to the book of Acts. God’s stamp of approval was definitely on the man who was the first Gentile to whom they evangelized the Gospel. Cornelius was that man. How did he get to be first in line for such a wonderful event? Because he feared God, among other positive features. A description of him is in Acts 10:2:

…a devout man and one who feared God with all his household, who gave alms generously to the people, and prayed to God always.

Note that fear of God is listed ahead of his giving to the poor, and ahead of his passion for prayer. I’ve heard lots of sermons on giving and the power of prayer, but none on the power of fearing God.

Once again, for brevity, we have to skip lots of verses, and move on to the Epistles. In Romans 3, Paul is enumerating the horrible sins of those bound for hell…” Their throat is an open tomb,” etc. He then describes sin that gets worse and worse as men get farther away from Him. And how does he end it with, what phrase did he use as the worst, the source of all this defiant sin and rebellion? It’s in Romans 3:18 (just before the gospel is explained):

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

In Romans 11:20-22:

Because of unbelief they (Jews) were broken off, and you (Gentiles) stand by faith. Do not be haughty, but FEAR. 21 For if God did not spare the natural branches, He may not spare you either. 22 Therefore consider the goodness and severity of God: on those who fell, severity; but toward you, goodness, if you continue in His goodness. Otherwise you also will be cut off.

Paul is justifying why he is bringing the Gospel to the Gentiles—it was because the Jews (the natural branches of Jesus, the Vine) rejected it and got “broken off” the Vine. So God turned to the Gentiles. But the Gentiles might get haughty (“we’re smarter than the Jews”). His solution for that? They needed to fear God, or else He could cut them off too (God hates pride). Further, note that God is called “severe.” Haven’t heard any sermons on God’s severe qualities. Does God sound antagonistic there? Well, deal with it; change your definition of God’s love. He is in charge of the universe, and makes the rules. We should be grateful that He reveals Himself to us so we know what to do to get on His good side, and what gets on His bad side.

In II Corinthians 7:1, Paul summarizes the method to be holy: namely, Fear God; it goes a long way to perfecting holiness.

Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

In Ephesians 5:21-22:

²¹ Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God. Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord

Women are going to dislike me for this, but Paul has a solution for women who can’t submit to their husbands because they don’t trust him. Fear of God is the key in submitting to your husband—sorry, that’s what God’s Word says above. I’m reminded of Abraham, who was ready to do something illogical (move his 65-year-old wife 1,000 miles from comfort to live in tents, because, as I assume he said to her  “God told me to.” And it worked out, because God honored his fear of Him--He made sure all was well. Women, take a hint—trusting your husband is really trusting God, because you’re obeying His commandment to submit. He will honor your trust in Him and make it all work out. The verses are then broadened to include all of us acting unselfishly and trusting all the brothers and sisters. One more time--What makes us take a chance and submit to others? Fear of God. I have never heard a sermon on this angle of wives submitting to husbands--it is simply “context.”

 Once again, brevity demands a stop. I’m sure I missed some great verses. All you need to do is go to biblegate.com and “google” the word “fear.” But I think you’ve gotten the message. Fear of God is absolutely necessary to reduce sin and to be more holy, to obey God. A lot more people would be saved if they had this attribute. The only question is, how do we develop this fine characteristic? Here’s a few suggestions: (1) Read more of the Old Testament. Lots of judgment and hellfire for disobedience, from not fearing God. Not pleasant, but you need to see how much God hated sin. Don’t fall for the argument, “God was different then.” If you believe that, you haven’t gotten the right message about Jesus, either, so that leads to suggestion (2) Read the Gospels just to study exactly what Jesus said. Do you notice how much He talked about judgment? Well, there you go. God doesn’t change, after all, in how much He hates sin, between Old and New Testaments. Write down everything that suggests what it really takes to be saved (or read my blog on initial and final salvation for a quickie summary). When you’re reading, be careful to “update” Biblical words like “idols.” Maybe you think that’s just for primitive folk, statues of wood and stone. So it doesn't apply to me, you say. But read a Biblical definition of idolatry, then spend some time asking yourself if you’ve been into idolatry, in its modern applications. In other words, spend some time asking yourself about the sins you’ve done, and the effects on the family, trying to place yourself above God (that’s idolatry too). And then think about God, who loves you more than you can imagine, watching you sin. You (and everyone) could do much more with your life if you dedicate yourself 100% to Him. He would make you so happy. So why don’t you? Examine that—is it simple selfishness? Greed? Fear of being laughed at? Then imagine yourself at the judgment seat—we will all be there—when you give your reasons, your lame reasons. What are your Scriptural gifts? You don’t know? Have they been given to God? Do you know what your fruits are? How about your time with God? A person you’re in love with, you talk to daily—how much time do you spend during the week talking with God? Maybe you conclude that you don’t really love Him? That’s not good; read I John when it separates saved vs unsaved, measured by the love you show.

Last but not least:  Most people will go to hell. Jesus said in Matthew 7:13-14:

narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.
Most people are clueless about their status and believe God is a good guy, so they’ll pass.

It’s never too late to change faulty beliefs.

As you can see, lots of Scripture reading and introspection are needed. Please, take time for this. Most people’s mind goes ten different ways when trying to be quiet and meditate on Scripture. Or they sink into this, “I’m just a worm and can’t do anything.” (Maybe appealing for sympathy to get out of being judged always worked when you were a kid; it doesn’t work with God). Developing a fear of God would be frowned at by most ministers today, but who cares what they think? Their “moral leadership” is why we’re in a mess in the U.S. Better to read Scripture like the above to get the real truth about qualities God loves to see. Like fearing Him.

 

Modern Evangelism Is Missing a Vital Link

 

Modern Evangelism Is Missing a Vital Link

A well-known evangelist, Ray Comfort, estimates that 80-90%, conservatively, of decisions for Christ in modern evangelism will thereafter lose their witness and he or she will not even attend church consistently.  He cites a detailed study of the 294,000 who “got saved” in a one-year crusade effort by a major denomination, Harvest, in 1991. They had 11,500 churches keeping close records.  (PS: Evangelism sweeps don't usually do this).  Only 14,000 of the 294,000 still attended church, only a couple years later. That’s a 95% loss rate!

He also studied the works of famous evangelists of the past—such as Wesley, Whitefield, Moody, Spurgeon, and Finney. Along with New Testament evangelists, Paul, Peter, Steven, and Timothy.  Their writings and sermon notes suggested a much higher number of people hanging onto their conversion in those bdays.  Why has this loss rate gone stratospheric, he wondered?  One of the things he noticed was that in those days, the preaching by these great men would frequently begin with how people have broken God’s Laws.  Then, after that was covered thoroughly in the sermon, the Good News was taught. This principle of sermon order (bad news, then good news) has faded away, particularly starting in the early 1900s.  Nowadays, preachers--and seminary professors-- consider that the “You Have Broken the Law" sermon-starter is just too negative, and have shied away from it.  Modern evangelistic theory (taught in Christian colleges) assumes that most people feel they are not worthy to be with God, so we have to emphasize God’s grace and love right from the start, to make them feel wanted, then explaining what Christ did on our behalf. The Prodigal Son (Luke 15) was the classic example of a good sermon, as they teach how the father accepted his son, though he wasted the inheritance, and still smelled of pigs.

Mr. Comfort came to his conclusion:  the old ways were better, because they had a lower loss rate.  

What's more important, Scriptures seem to provide proof of his idea.  Psalm 19:7 says, in part:

The Law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul

Well, converting the soul is what we want in evangelism, right?  The Bible lays it out plainly.  You present the Law where people can clearly see their own violations. Then you bring up God as holy, and having expectations that we clearly cannot meet. THEN you bring up Christ, and what he did.

Mr. Comfort gives us a parable.  Suppose you’re walking around, and someone pops up and says, “I’ve got good news for you!  Someone paid a $2500 fine on your behalf!”  Your reaction might be “What are you talking about?  That doesn’t make sense; I can’t think of what I did wrong for the fine, nor has anybody told me this.”  You are confused, not exactly in a grateful mood, right?  Such a person would be offended, actually--they might even thank you, but still confused.  BUT what if the following event also happened:  This person was clocked doing 55 mph in an area set aside for a blind children’s school nearby.  There were 10 clear warning signs stating that the speed limit was 15 mph.  What he did was extremely dangerous, negligent, and reckless, whether he knew about it or not, and a $2500 fine was appropriate and it was the law.  So this person was caught, and in court his ignorance of the law was brushed aside (that would never bring back the life of a child killed--besides, he had clear warning signs; he just never slowed down to read them).  He was told all the details of his illegality, and then told to pay the fine, and with agony he wondered whether he would have the money, how stupid he was to do that, how much his family would sacrifice their lifestyle—or even how he would tell them—when suddenly someone he didn’t even know stepped forward and paid it for him.  Now his reaction would be a definition of gratitude, right?  He might even want to make friends with this stranger, to see what motivated him to give so much so graciously.

As you can clearly see by the two parables, the second example--explaining the bad news, the Law he broke.  And then, with proper acceptance of that news, giving him the Good News of One who has paid his debt, generates a much more positive response.  Well, that’s the principle they formerly used in preaching.  On the other hand, the first approach is what we have a great deal more of now.  Most people, hearing this more-recent approach, are offended—they don’t think they are bad sinners. (Which means they haven’t been taught about God, how He is perfect, and hates sin. Their thinking might be “I’m better than these criminals I see on TV, so God won’t treat me bad—He’s love, right?”). If I talk the current theme of "grace-only" with a prospect, I pretty much can’t get away from insinuating that they need a do-over to gain assurance about their relationship with God, when they have usually deceived themselves into thinking they don’t think they need one—and they resent our suggestion—and our indirectness. Or, they consider the idea that they need salvation foolish.  As Scripture says in I Corinthians 1:18:

…the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing

Anyone “saved” by this method is more by emotionalism, since there is confusion about why they need to be saved, and what the Good News really saves us from. But in the cold light of the days following, this emotionalism cools off to its final result--rejection (because of the  “sneak attack on my character” more often than not.)  Which is where the 80-90% falling away comes in.

Thus I need, in my speaking evangelistally, to take the time to speak insightfully of the Ten Commandments and even how Jesus took the concept of sin a step further.

To carry the Ten Commandments further, read the Sermon on the Mount; sin is a violation in thought as well as deed.  Thinking about a woman lustfully, is as evil as having sex with her; or hating someone makes you guilty, wanting to wish them dead. And then, if time, you should also cover Jesus’ commandments in the Gospels—for instance, if you are unforgiving to others, God will be unforgiving to you in Judgment day (Matthew 18:21-35), all to show the prospect that we have truly offended a just God—then our prospect hopefully becomes, as James says in 2:9:

Convicted of the law, as a transgressor.

Then the Good News of Christ’s paying our debt will not be offensive or foolish…it will be the power of God to rescue us from a deserved hell unto salvation.

Let’s look at each function of presenting God’s Law. We’ll start with Romans 3:19:

Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God. 

Thus, one function of it is (1) to stop the mouth from excusing or rationalizing.  (A man might say, she enjoyed sex as much as I did, and nobody was hurt. Therefore it's not sin.  Wrong.  It disobeys God's law, therefore it IS sin).  We don’t need to hear much of the prospect’s wisdom, justifying himself and saying, “there are plenty of people who use everybody worse than me.” (He’s either deceived or just putting you off, really). We are the ones bearing the wonderful gift of good news, and need an opportunity to speak.

Secondly, Romans 3:20 says this:

...by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.

The prospect needs to learn about sin, since self-defense and self-deception are rampant today.  We cannot assume that his sin is in the forefront (or even in the back) of his memory. 

 I John 3:4 says:  sin is the transgression of the law.  It would seem obvious that a person needs to know the law intimately in order to know if he has transgressed it, or has sinned.  Romans 7:7 declares this more forcefully:  I would not have known sin except through the law. If you decide that the best course of action is to be ignorant of the law, that won't help.  You still transgressed it, and will pay the price if unsaved.

Thirdly, in Galatians 3:24, the Law is not only to build our knowledge of sin, but, very importantly…the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ. What this means, is, the knowledge of the Law doesn’t really make us reconciled with God…it shows us that we are helpless.  It doesn’t justify us, it just leaves us guilty at the judgment seat. But with the Law, when we see our sin, as God sees it, we see how we have offended God, and if hell is even brought up (which it almost never is nowadays), we can see that we are, deservedly, destined for it.  Then we seek Him for some method of deliverance from such an end. How can I seek reconciliation with a righteous God? Christ is that key, as a good evangelist will point the way.

Modern evangelism abandoned the "old" principle of discussing the Law and how Christ saves us from wrath.  So a new method was sought, considering that  it needed a reason to attract us to Christ. So they invented the term “life enhancement.”  Following Christ will benefit us.  We will have peace, love, joy, fulfillment, and lasting happiness. At this point, Mr. Comfort provides another useful allegory:

Two men are sitting in a plane.  The first is given a parachute, (the only one receiving the offer), and told that it will “improve his flight.”  He is skeptical and even thinking the flight attendant is wacko, as he knows that airlines only talk about "good times are ahead," but he puts it on—just as a trial.  But it weighs his shoulders, and gives him difficulty in sitting upright.  But he perseveres.  After a while, though, he notices that other passengers are laughing at him due to his unusual clothing accessory.  Feeling humiliated, he can’t stand it anymore, and he throws the parachute to the floor.  Disillusionment and bitterness fill his heart, because as far as he was concerned, he was told an outright lie.

To continue the allegory; A second man was given a parachute, BUT he was told a different reason, in alarming detail:  at any moment, without warning, a faulty flight could mean he would be jumping 25,000 feet off the plane. He takes it to heart: He doesn’t notice the discomfort of the parachute, because his mind is consumed with the thought of what would happen to him if he had to jump without it.  He develops a deep-rooted peace in his heart knowing that he shall escape a sure death no matter what happens.  He can deal with other passengers’ mockery—he knows that they need to do what he did.  He might even engage them in intense conversation about their need for this safety device.

You can see what we’re saying.  Under modern evangelism, the man-centered “improvement” approach we started with is a guaranteed failure.  People will take on Christ as an experiment to see whether their life does improve.  But they eventually get what the Scripture promises to the saved--temptation, tribulation, and persecution.  They are humiliated by others, disillusioned about not seeing a rosy path develop for them. They take off the Lord Jesus, and are rightly embittered. They are now inoculated against evangelism in the future, so their latter end is worse than the first. Modern evangelism has promised them what God has not promised.  The opposite of their expectation occurs.  After all, God has every right to test us to see if we can really endure.  Modern evangelism does not ask a crucial question:  Are we able to drink of the cup that Jesus drank of?
We should take the second parachute approach, boldly telling every man, as Hebrews 9:27 says:

it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the judgment

He must understand the horrific consequences of the judgment--hell. He must be educated on what breaking the Law means. He must be told to escape the wrath which is to come, when God judges the earth in righteousness. The issue is not one of happiness, but of righteousness.  Then he will flee to Christ, and experience true peace and joy—the fruits of salvation.  But don’t speak of peace and joy as a “draw card” for salvation, or sinners will respond with impure motives, lacking repentance.  The man correctly taught will have much more motivation to endure the slings and arrows of the unsaved.  When bad times come, he doesn’t throw off Christ—because his reason for taking on Christ is not for rosy paths, but to save him from future wrath.  He has been re-taught to ignore man’s reasoning.  If anything, trials will drive the true believer closer to the Savior—life will be that much better in heaven, and he will be looking more for heaven when life on earth gets miserable.

Mr. Comfort then told of an evangelistic crusade he preached in Australia.  He preached of the Law, Hell, and wrath.  He told of disappointment: few people came forward, and how the atmosphere felt tense. He felt the usual disappointment in people’s deafness.  Well, he thought of Noah, “a just man, perfect in his generations...who walked with God” (Gen. 6:9), who despite being “a preacher of righteousness” (II Peter 2:5), never was able to save a single soul outside his family.  The Spirit lifted Mr. Comfort up, told him to simply carry on. Mr. Comfort confessed that this lack of results, over time in a cynical world, wears him down, and had pulled him, at one time period, unwittingly to preaching a man-centered Gospel—to get happier results. For that time he got lots of results—that was nice.  The original numbers of people “saved” are higher that way, and there is less tension.  People are happy to have Jesus take a turn at getting them out of the mess they’ve made of their lives. But--they are not clean from the wrath to come because we don’t tell them of the wrath to come.  That was a glaring omission in his message. In the end, people should be asking what David, what the Prodigal Son, and Joseph asked:  How could they sin against God? After all, He is also a God of wrath, and we can’t just ignore that—it’s one of His personality traits.  Real repentance is understanding that the great offense here is against God, not just “horizontal” repentance against your fellow man. Mr. Comfort calls this “horizontal only” approach “superficial and experimental.”  The prospect should be seeking something called “godly sorrow” to obtain true repentance, an important element in salvation.  As II Corinthians 7:10 says: …godly sorrow produces repentance.  In evangelism nowadays, we are missing discussing sin against God. We have preached the cure without telling them of the disease.

AB Earle, who had 150,000 converts to his ministry in the mid-1800s, made the following quote:
I have found by long experience that the severest threatenings of the Law of God have a prominent place in leading men to Christ.  They must see themselves lost before they will cry for mercy; they will not escape danger until they see it.

Mr. Comfort has noticed that there are many people who have been “saved” several times, yet their lives don’t show change. They’re still fornicating, still blaspheming, and so on. What they’re likely doing is:  Using the grace of God for an occasion of the flesh. They sin, they might ask God to forgive them, they move on same as before. They don’t esteem the sacrifice and don’t understand how great the sin.  It means nothing to them to trample the blood of Christ underfoot. The problem is: They’ve never been convinced of the disease—so that they might appropriate the cure.

When you study the Word, you find that Biblical evangelism is always interpreted as restrictive to people that are proud, but grace to the humble.  Never do you see Jesus giving the gospel to proud, arrogant, self-righteous people.  With the Law, He breaks the heart and with the Gospel, He heals the broken heart. The proud and highly esteemed are an abomination to God (Luke 16:15).  Note who gets the good tidings in Isaiah 61:1. The poor, the brokenhearted and the captives are those who are there spiritually:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, Because the Lord has anointed Me To preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, To proclaim liberty to the captives, And the opening of the prison to those who are bound

Only the sick want to appropriate a cure. In Luke 10:25-37, after being plainly asked "what shall I do to inherit eternal life?", Jesus gave the lawyer Law.  Why?  Because the man was proud.  Note v. 29 for that in part of the story below:

And behold, a certain lawyer stood up and tested Him, saying, “Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ²⁶ He said to him, “What is written in the law? What is your reading of it?” ²⁷ So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and ‘your neighbor as yourself.’” ²⁸ And He said to him, “You have answered rightly; do this and you will live.” ²⁹ But he, wanting to justify himself, said to Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”  ³⁰ Then Jesus answered and said: “A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among thieves…(the rest of the story is of the Good Samaritan, who helps a person in trouble when no one else would).

Jesus knew this Jewish lawyer didn’t like Samaritans.  Then the Master Debater came to the climaxing point:

³⁶ So which of these three do you think was neighbor to him who fell among the thieves?” ³⁷ And he said, “He who showed mercy on him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do likewise.”

The lawyer had no response—he could see his own lack of love, compared to this generous Samaritan.  He could see that he was a Commandment-breaker.  The Law has done its job again—stopped his mouth, maybe convinced him of sin.

Note that a similar event happens when the rich young ruler visits Jesus.  We read of it in Luke 18:18-23, where again, Jesus shies away from an easy response:

Now a certain ruler asked Him, saying, “Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” ¹⁹ So Jesus said to him, “Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.²⁰ You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’ ” ²¹ And he said, “All these things I have kept from my youth.” ²² So when Jesus heard these things, He said to him, “You still lack one thing. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me.”²³ But when he heard this, he became very sorrowful, for he was very rich.

Again, Jesus did not begin with the Gospel to this person. (Today’s preacher, as soon as he asks, “what shall I do to inherit eternal life?” would engage him in a salvation prayer).  But Jesus sees a proud person underneath (Note v. 21), who was not ready for the Gospel.  So in verse 20 the young ruler gets the Law—the “horizontal” part-- and is still convinced that he has never sinned (an advantage that only Jesus can claim, really).  Then Jesus slyly points out his lack of the first commandment (Thou shall have no other gods before me) by showing him that his real god is his money.  Once again, no argument. His mouth was stopped.

In contrast, we see Nicodemus, in John 3.  While a leader of the Jews, he was humble of heart, acknowledging the deity of Jesus (verse 2).  He receives the Gospel, and perhaps the greatest verse in His Word, John 3:16.

Consider also Nathanael, in John 1:47-51.  In him was no deceit.  That trait is a tool of the proud, but he does not have that negative quality.  Plus, he acknowledged the deity of Christ (v.49).  Jesus gives him the honor of prophesying about Himself and His future coming.  Part of His glorious good news. This kinder approach goes for the Jews who gathered on the day of Pentecost, in Acts 2.  These were devout men, v. 5 (“devout” denotes humility).  What did Peter preach to them?  Not the Law, but the Gospel.  (But he doesn’t hesitate to lay blame on them for His crucifixion, v. 36).

Think of two verses to the great hymn, “At Calvary:” Years I spent in vanity and pride, Caring not my Lord was crucified, Knowing not it was for me He died  On Calvary.
By God’s Word at last my sin I learned; then I trembled at the law I’d spurned Till my guilty soul imploring turned  To Calvary. May God bless you as you search for His ways of presenting His precious Words to the lost in your environment.  In the light of our first few paragraphs, remember the saying: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” There is a lot of insanity in evangelism these days. Acknowledgement:  Ray Comfort, “Hell’s Best Kept Secret,"   audio and book from Livingwaters.com.