The Abomination of Desolation

 

I’ve finally got a lecture by Mike Winger, my favorite pastor-teacher lately, that is perfect for sharing.  This one does a great job of explaining “The Abomination of Desolation,” a surefire sign that will tell those that are alive at the time that the last 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation has arrived.  The reason that event is so important is, it is the first unique sign that we (or whoever lives then) are in the End of Days.  Scripture tells us (Rev. 6 and Matthew 24) that the first half of the Tribulation, the first 3-1/2 years, the “beginning of sorrows,” will have deception, wars, famine, earthquakes, and plagues.  But since those things happen with unfortunately some regularity, when they happen, we still don’t know if we’re in the last days.  The abomination of desolation is the first unique sign—but it’s after half of the Tribulation is gone.  But despite how bad things are in the first half, when we see that sign, those alive then must steel themselves for the last 3-1/2 years, because they are going to be horrible beyond imagination.  In the last half of the Tribulation, persecution of Jews and Christians will heat up to a deadly level; even beheadings are mentioned for those days in Scripture. 

In case you haven’t guessed already, I do not believe in a “pre-Tribulation” rapture of the saints.  The Bible clearly indicates that saints alive at the time, will see the abomination of desolation, will see the Antichrist unmasked for who he really is; and must endure chaos and persecution before Jesus comes at the end of the Tribulation. I have other blogs that prove this timing.  Other names that I will be using for the Antichrist in this paper (all from Scripture) include the Beast, the Man of Sin, the Son of Perdition.  Scripture has many more, depending partly on which Bible translation you are using.

Just a little background here; my words, not his:  the last 7 years of this current earth’s existence are explained by successive ‘seals,’ covered in Revelation 6 (I have discussed this in great detail in other blogs).  Without detailed annotating, so as just to get the big picture, here goes:  The 7 years begins with the man of sin making a 7-year covenant with the Jews for their protection.  But he gains world-dictator power through a highly successful wartime campaign, and becomes loved by most of the world (presumably because he brought the world some totalitarian order out of mass chaos.)  He is eager to be worshipped.  But there are famine and plagues, and severe shortages.  Then, halfway through the 7 years, he breaks the covenant, exposes who he really is as a hater of God, of Jews, and of Christians—and goes to war against them.  He builds an idol to himself in the rebuilt Temple, blasphemes God, and requires worship.  Anyone who won’t bend the knee will lose the ability to buy food and necessities.  God will allow him to kill most Jews and Christians.  This means God may require true Christians to give their lives because we can only worship Him; we must endure horrible persecution.  Many will go apostate, willing to bend the knee to the Lawless one to save their lives, and their families’ lives.  But they will have traded their lives for an eternity in hell.  Some Scripture verses to back all this up:  Matthew 24, Luke 21, Mark 13, Daniel 8 and 9, II Thessalonians 2 and Revelation 6, 13, 14:9 and 17.

At this point, Pastor Winger lectures at some length on the preterist interpretation, the belief that almost all these events have already happened by the year 70 AD.  After exhaustive research, he opposes it; he finds their arguments “weak.”  It’s in contrast to the harmony of the futurist account (see the last paragraphs of this paper for an example of that).  Believing, as I also do, that these prophecies are future, it’s possible we may see these events unfolding during our lifetime, so let’s be prepared, shall we?  We will not burden our lecture summary by his going over the preterist interpretation.  His lecture is already difficult enough. 

 

Pastor Winger is focused on the phrase “Abomination of Desolation,” as mentioned in Daniel 11 and 12, Matthew 24 and Mark 13, in this lecture.  Along with the son of perdition who brings it about.  What is this ‘abomination’?  What happens?  So let’s have a go on his lecture.

First, he says, as I mentioned before, that wars, famines, earthquakes, strange heavenly activity or “pestilences” (fatal epidemic diseases) do not pinpoint that the Tribulation is here, or are accurate signs of Jesus’ soon return--since we have these things throughout history. But Jesus does give a clear sign of end times, as Mark 13:14 points out, namely, the Abomination of Desolation.  Here is the verse: 

 “So when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not” (let the reader understand), “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains.

So what is it? Before I say anything, I must add the abomination is NOT the Beast.   

Looking at the above verse, it’s very important to see Israel as the first focus of this event, not Europe or the Roman Empire; specifically “Judea,” the southern area, including Jerusalem.  That is where the man of sin, previously covenanted with the Jews for their protection, at the midway point of the covenant, shows his hatred of Jews, which shows his true character, and begins a murderous campaign of slaughtering Jews, many by beheadings, causing the Jews to flee for their lives.  They have one instruction from God in response to seeing his real character:  Flee!  Go into hiding!  Here’s more on this subject from Mark 13:

 And let him who is in the field not go back to get his clothes. ¹⁷ But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! ¹⁸ And pray that your flight may not be in winter. ¹⁹ For in those days there will be tribulation, such as has not been since the beginning of the creation which God created until this time, nor ever shall be And unless the Lord had shortened those days, no flesh would be saved For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

You can see how Jews must act quickly to escape capture, and you get the idea that there is nowhere to find a place to sleep while fleeing (perhaps they must keep their identity secret).  You can also see how this last half of the Tribulation will exceed the Hitler genocide in its intensity, since he kills most Jews alive in those last 3-1/2 years. He is also after killing Christians (the ‘elect’).  Finally, note that there will not be a “secret” return of Jesus to rescue from this horrible time period.  Satan, in fact, uses that false pre-Tribulation rapture doctrine to deceive people that are confused and scared (did Christ come?  Did I miss it?  We were supposed to be raptured before this guy appeared). He also provides false Christs who show miracles.  They are willing to grab onto this, since they no longer have a foundation to trust God. After all, they will think, He promised to protect us, and He ‘did not keep’ His ‘promise,’ according to their pre-Trib theology.  So, not sure of their religion any more, they might be willing to eventually bend the knee to the Lawless one—exactly what Satan wants.  The pre-Trib theology was just made for him to manipulate.  

All right, so let’s dig in about our subject matter. The word “Abomination” in the phrase refers to an idol, an object of worship other than God.  How do we know that?  Because we see the word “abomination” in the Old Testament many times; and the terrible thing the people are doing is worshipping idols and not obeying God’s rules (II Kings 21:11, for example).  Secondly the idol causes “desolation.” That term probably refers to some kind of spiritual impurity of the Temple (which will be rebuilt in the future). In the Old Testament, when the Jews set up idols, this caused God, and His blessings, to depart Israel, or leave them desolate of His protection. When they were ready to repent and return to God, one of their duties was to purify the Temple by destroying stone and wood idols, and then performing certain rituals (read up on the Jewish cleansing of Hanukkah, in late November each year—not a “holiday” item, by the way, so don’t confuse it for a Jewish celebration of Christmas or Thanksgiving). 

Now, what did Mark mean by the idol “standing where it ought not?” We can obtain this from Matthew 24:15-16, a “parallel passage” (i.e., same subject).  Here it is:

“Therefore when you see the ‘abomination of desolation,’ spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place” (whoever reads, let him understand), ¹⁶ “then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. 

Jesus refers to Daniel (we’ll tackle that too).  But “where it ought not,” as Matthew says, clearly refers to the placement of the abomination, or idol, in the ‘holy place.’  The Temple had a Holy of Holies place, where the high priest could only go once a year.  Still within the inside chambers, then there was the holy place, where priests did rituals with the golden candlestick, or lampstand; also the altar containing incense, and shewbread as they were commanded to do in the year.  Finally, there was the outer court, outside the building—where Gentiles could observe and be present. So we’re speaking of an inner chamber, the holy place, where the idol was placed.

Pastor Winger now covers the Daniel references:  Here is Daniel 8:13:

Then I heard a holy one speaking; and another holy one said to that certain one who was speaking, “How long will the vision be, concerning the daily sacrifices and the transgression of desolation, the giving of both the sanctuary and the host to be trampled underfoot?”

The “transgression of desolation” translates the same thing as abomination of desolation.  In the difficult Daniel 9:24-27 (NIV), here are the verses relevant to our purpose:

“Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city….²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’… After the sixty-two “sevens”, the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary….. ²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one “seven” In the middle of the “seven” he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him

I have dealt with these difficult verses on another blog, but here’s the short version:  The word “seven” has been proven, by historical dates on the 62+7 of them, to be seven years.  Jesus’ death is predicted here (He is the Anointed One), and the destruction of Jerusalem (which happened at 70 AD), is prophesied as well. But verse 27 is a jeweled verse for those looking forward to end times. It really says “He will confirm a covenant with many for one 7-year period.” With the help of other verses, this is the 7-year Tribulation, and “He” is the covenant-maker, the Antichrist.  “In the middle” means after 3-1/2 years, He will reveal himself as a Jew-hater by setting up an idol in the Temple. This transgression of God’s holy things makes the Temple spiritually impure and desolate of God’s blessing.   And he (the Antichrist) will ‘put an end to sacrifice and offering.”  He will not let Jewish ritual in the Temple continue, so great is His intolerance of them.

Still more can be learned at Dan 11:31:

And forces shall be mustered by him, and they shall defile the sanctuary fortress; then they shall take away the daily sacrifices, and place there the abomination of desolation

This shows that he uses troops of soldiers to take over the Temple.  These Gentiles will tromp through the Holy Place (defiling it) and they will install the idol (offending God further)—and stop Jewish religious rituals. 

Pastor Winger then tells us that the Jews listening to Jesus relating these things will think back to a Jew-hater known as Antiochus Epiphanes, who, in 167 BC set up an idol to Zeus, told everyone to worship Zeus, and sacrificed a pig in the Jewish temple. He forbade sacrifices and circumcision—upon pain of death.  This was prophesied by Daniel, who lived around 600 BC, thus predicting this 400 years before it happened (Wikipedia has a different slant on this, but we already know they are not God-lovers).  The Jews of the 167 BC era thought that Antiochus Epiphanes was the Antichrist, and his idol of Zeus was the Abomination.  But Jesus is making it clear that His discourse in Mark 13 is the future, so it is not the Jew-hater of 167 BC, who had also set up an idol.  The Bible has many such echoes; a type, then the reality. 

Paul no doubt had the same Antichrist in mind when he gave us II. Thessalonians 2:1-4:

Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you, ² not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,…. as though the day of Christ had (already) come. ³Let no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

Note the phrase “coming (Greek, parousia) of our Lord” is the subject of these verses.  The word Parousia, and “gathering together to Him” suggest clearly he is speaking of the timing of the Rapture. This is further proved by the phrase “day of Christ”—whenever that term is used, it’s referring to rapture.  And note “that (rapture) Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed.  As Daniel 9:27 suggests, that will not happen until the Tribulation is midway through.  So, the rapture is after mid-Tribulation at least, NOT before the Tribulation.  As we have shown elsewhere in this paper, the rapture is actually at the end of the Tribulation.

Paul calls the Antichrist the “son of perdition’ here.  He shows his egomania for worship, even sitting in the Temple, in effect saying he is God.  Possibly this means that his idol that he sets up, previously mentioned, is a self-portrayal.  This is accompanied by an apostasy (a falling away), as presumably people will not trust God, since their belief about Him taught them that they were supposed to be raptured before this! (This is where they are open for deception, looking desperately for the Christ, willing to believe someone who can do miracles.) Verse 9 of II Thessalonians 2 shows that the Antichrist can do supernatural signs and wonders, too; so many people will be duped into thinking HE is the Christ.  (that’s actually the Muslim doctrine). They will be deceived.  Yet he hates God. 

Keep in mind, there is no excuse that will keep you out of hell if you do not endure faithfully to your belief in God and Christ.  God lays the blame for believing deception on sinning people, as he lays the hammer down in vv. 10-12:

….unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. ¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, ¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness

This shows that God allows Satan to set up this delusion because of the people’s long history of not wanting the truth; they had “pleasure in unrighteousness.”  The world has too many goodies for these people; they prefer wallowing in it rather than obeying God, who told us not to wander into it, for fear of our eternal lives. 

Pastor Winger tells us of an apparent conflict in the translation of Mark 13:14, as one translation suggest the idol is not human, the other translation says it is human.  Simple explanation:  The Antichrist at some point was in the holy place, claiming to be God, demanding worship; and when he is elsewhere, he has set up the idol, possibly a self-portrayal, saying we should face it and bend the knee.  I have the feeling he expects this to be done daily. He may give away cell phones and require that we facetime it (I have another blog which has a strange but intriguing explanation for this idol and the Antichrist; see my blogs with “DNA” in the titles).  A further strange talent of the idol is in Revelation 13:15. THAT will get the people quaking in their boots.

Continuing, II Thess. 2:8 seems to suggest that (1) after the lawless one is revealed, (2) Christ comes (remember, this speaks of the Rapture); and (3) He destroys the Antichrist.  Here’s the verse:

And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.

But, first of all, we know from the verses further above that the Antichrist, once he is unmasked, still has the last 3-1/2 years of the Tribulation to kill Jews and Christians with fury.  So he is not destroyed immediately at the midpoint of the Tribulation at his unmasking.  So if he is destroyed at Jesus’ coming, we must conclude His Coming is at the end of the Tribulation.  We do find, from other Scriptures, that the Antichrist is not totally destroyed. (The Greek for “destroyed” doesn’t have that finality in meaning.) When Jesus comes, the man of sin is bound and helpless for a thousand years (the Millennium), then temporarily set free, to stir up people to turn against Christ, and is finally sent to hell after he starts the last war on earth (Rev. 19:19).

Pastor Winger then shows how the many pieces of all this are in many books of Scripture, and quotes from a commentary to prove the absolute harmony of Scripture in prophesying has to be God-inspired.  To give you a small quote: 

“This person is the end-time Antichrist (Daniel 7:23-26 and 9:25-27, II Thess. 2:3,4,8,9; Revelation 13:8-10 and 14-15).  He will make a covenant with the Jewish people at the beginning of a 7-year period preceding Christ’s second coming (Dan. 9:27).  The Temple will be rebuilt and worship re-established (Rev. 11:1).  In the middle of this period after 3-1/2 years the Antichrist will break his covenant, stop Temple sacrifices, desecrate the Temple (Dan. 9:27), and proclaim himself to be god (Matt. 24:15, II Thess. 2:3-4, Rev. 11:2, Mark 13).  This launches the terrible end-time events of the great Tribulation (Rev. 6:8-9 and 16).  Those who refuse to be identified with the Antichrist will suffer severe persecution and be forced to flee for refuge (Rev. 12:6, 13-17).  Many Jews and Gentiles will be saved during this time (Rev. 7), but many will also be martyred (Rev. 6:9-11).”

Obviously, prophecies of the end times are deliberately difficult to figure out, and there are many other issues and questions.  But I got the main stuff, with Winger’s help. 

Finally, Pastor Winger speaks of Luke’s slant on Jesus’ lecture being considerably different than those of Matthew and Mark, even though they seem to be on the same subject.  For instance, Matthew and Mark emphasize the abomination of desolation occurring in the Temple, our main subject matter.  But in Luke, there was no such reference.  They were to flee when there were armies surrounding the city of Jerusalem, not in the other two books, when God will depart Judea and allow the land to be desolated by the enemy.  Luke also goes on about Gentiles ruling in Judea, until the “times of the Gentiles are fulfilled” in the future—which is irrelevant IF the time period we’re talking about is at the tail-end of the present world.  The Gentiles’ ruling days is not mentioned at all in the other two books.  Particularly due to these differences, Winger believes that Luke is covering two subjects at once, when the other two documents emphasize only the last days.  Luke’s change in emphasis (he wrote about 55 AD) is also to warn people of the coming destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD, when the Jews were surrounded by Roman armies. Despite being surrounded, they got a couple weeks of grace to escape when the Roman army got temporarily distracted elsewhere, giving them an opportunity to slip out of the city to hide in the countryside.  But as usual, most people ignored the prophecy, and about one million Jews were slaughtered that stayed in the city.

Luke also has many phrases on the end of days, as well. That part of his discussion is to warn us, if we are in the last days.  Let’s hope we do better than the Jews in paying attention to the warning.  It’s just not smart to disobey God’s explicit instructions. 

The Curse of Complacency in the U.S.

 There are three cultural and religious conditions in America that mix together into a toxic formula that will severely reduce our power in the Lord, unless we take deliberate action.  Let’s name them and tell what toxic results the admixture leads us to.  Here are the components:

1. High relative income.  America doesn’t have the wealthiest people on the planet, but it has the highest average family income, in 2021, estimated at $79,900.  This is ‘way ahead of second highest among the measured  nations, Luxembourg, whose median was under $68,000,
2. Belief in eternal security—“once saved, always saved.” A rapidly-growing phenomenon.
3. Belief that Christians will be raptured before the seven-year “tribulation.” This is called the pre-trib rapture theory. Its opposite is the post-trib theory, belief that Christians must endure the tribulation before being rescued.  Pre-trib belief is a growing phenomenon. A recent study of 1000 people show that twice as many believe in pre-trib as those who believe in post-trib rapture,

So, what is the result, in most cases, from mixing these three elements together? You won’t like what I think is the answer:

COMPLACENCY--“a feeling of being satisfied with how things are and not wanting to try to make them better…especially when accompanied by unawareness of actual dangers or deficiencies”

Not a good spiritual position, I think you will agree.  Why do I believe complacency exists?  The main reason is simple statistics.  Jesus said, 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

As I said in an earlier blog ("Most Americans are Not Saved"), the word “few,” upon study, means 6 or 7 out of 100.  So if America is average in its Christian ratio, 6 or 7--say 7--Americans out of 100 are going to heaven. Yet the latest surveys reveal that 65% of Americans claim to be Christians.  So if you took 100 people, 65 would say they’re Christian, but only 7 of those, based on what Jesus implied, might actually be going there.  So, if you broke those down to "lowest common denominator," out of every 9 people who say they are saved, only one really is—but what about the other 8?  They are deceived. They think they are Christian and going to heaven, but they are not. They are on the broad way to hell.  Eight out of 9 claiming to be Christian therefore have complacency--they have “unawareness of actual dangers,” do they not? Since this ‘unawareness” rate is so high (8 out of 9, or almost 89% of those who think they’re heaven bound are really on the way to hell); it seems to  indicate complacency is toxic throughout the culture.

Unless you want to make the argument that, oh yes, 65% of America is truly saved.  That's because we are ‘way above average in the world in being brought up Christian.  So you’re saying that compared to the meaning of Jesus' word "few,"  supposedly Americans are not "few"--yes, we're 9 times the average.   I would like to give a simple argument that should crush such thoughts:  Christianity turned the Roman Empire upside-down between 30-300 AD.  They went from being a small band of hated “heretics” to being declared the state religion. Huge social improvements were put into place.  (You don't read about these things because your school history class "has to" avoid religion.) Yet what percentage of the population caused that?  The answer, according to best statistics, was shocking: Christians never got higher than 10% of the population! With the power of God, they did it.  So I ask you, what powerful social changes have Christians done lately (the last 100 years) in America, with allegedly 7 times the ratio as Rome? Our argument of being superior to the world, as you see, doesn’t hold water with such powerful influences as the early Christians that were dedicated and truly abiding in Christ..And you must abide and obey Christ to be saved.  (John 15:1-6).

Now you may argue, “Well, they were under persecution—this made them stronger.”  OK, that’s another way of saying “Well, we’re weak now.”  Exactly what I maintain.  Our weakness is due to complacency, my friends.  If we really stood up for Christ by living a truly separated-from-the world life, we would also experience huge persecution.  But we're not.  Oh, yes, a few people in America have indeed suffered--but few.

So I am maintaining that we have complacency.  Now let’s look at the three causes I enumerated above.  Let’s start our proof with:
High Relative Income. If people have any “religion” at all, the most-frequent assumption they make (if they call themselves "Christian") that have high income is this:  “God gave me high income because He loves me.  As Deuteronomy 28 shows, He blesses those who follow Him.  So since I am blessed, He must love me, so I’m heaven bound.”  Well, that’s Old Covenant, or Old Testament. Some of those rules got wiped out in the New Covenant.   Jesus introduced the rules for rich people in the New Covenant.  Let’s look at the new rule: Matthew 19:23-24:

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. ²⁴ And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God.”

Let’s make sure we understand this:  Jesus was saying, it’s more difficult for a rich person to be saved than a middle or lower income person.  So if the overall saved average in the world is 7%, then America, with a larger number of richer people, would actually see a lower than 7% saved rate.   So people who have a family disposable income of higher than $60,256 (see above), being richer than average, are in particular danger. Rich people have a big problem; they get involved with the world, and love its comforts.  But Jesus says they can't love the world and also love God.

Now, of course, you may dispute all this.  You may say:

1. Yes, we have higher income.  But I think we’re saved anyhow.  We accepted Christ.  My possible responses to that argument:
2. Praise the Lord if that’s really true; as Our Lord said in Matthew 19:26:  “With God all things are possible.”  But there’s a few questions I’d like to ask:
3. How much time do you spend praying over the death and suffering of your poor brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world?  Things are unbelievably bad for them in China, Syria, Somalia, and North Korea, just to name a few.  How much of your income do you donate to their relief and missionary endeavors annually? Do you reject the purchase of unneeded material things so that you can give more to the Lord’s work?  And I do not mean your local church here.  The suffering is so much greater elsewhere in the world. If none of these things have entered your mind, are you really saved?
4. Have you ever meditated on just exactly what Jesus said in Matthew 6:19-20:

 “Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal; ²⁰ but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal.

As I point out in another blog (A Radical Truth:  Part I), Jesus is commanding us (per the phrase “DO NOT”) not to save money beyond imminent use of funds.  This strongly suggests giving away all income that we don’t really really need.  This is in actuality advocating redistribution of wealth—on a voluntary basis, of course. Done by Christians.  Think about this:  What do men go to war for?  Really, isn’t it because other people have more than they?  Such radical redistribution as Jesus suggests, such giving, reduces their greedy homicidal impulse, if they see such kindness among wealthy people toward them —and an open hand to give can save many of these people for the Lord.  And it will seriously reduce envy, war and killing.  Giving sacrificially is the greatest witness for Christ of all!

Yes, you accepted Christ.  But have you given gifts to the Lord, as Galatians 5:22-23 says?  Are you spending time reading Scripture to learn how to copy Jesus, how to obey His every commandment—and thus abiding in Him?  As John 15:6 says:

If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. 

I have a blog on how to maintain salvation ("Getting to Heaven")—Scripture says we must endure to the end to be saved.  It would be a mistake to lean too much on that past salvation experience, if not followed with appropriate deeds.  Getting saved, then not radically changing your life, says you are not abiding in Christ--and you could be headed for being thrown in the fire.

Too many wealthy people give 10% to church--but the churches, because of the burdens of salary and building upkeep, are only able to give 10% of their revenues to poor people in great need around the world.  So even of the wealthy, only 1% of their revenue (10% x 10%) finally ends up going to the people who need it.  Why not give straight to parachurch or independent agencies?  If your church building is not able to keep the doors open, that's OK.  You could meet in groups of 10 or 20 in people's homes every Sunday.  It's a radical idea, but that's how the early church started, and that's the only way the people who are often on the verge of dying of malnutrition or disease are getting desperately needed funds.  The closeness of a housegroup means people get to know one another better, and this  increases accountability of individual members, not a bad idea (but only if the leader of each housegroup believes in church discipline as presented in Scripture.)

Now, of course, you may simply argue “I’m not rich.  We make $80,000 a year, and can barely get by.  So this isn’t relevant to me.”  I would say, your $80,000 puts you well above average in the U.S., to begin with.  But thinking on a worldwide scale, and in all of past history, as Jesus is addressing all people of all time, you are one of the wealthiest people who ever lived.  There is a special responsibility, a special burden, to go with this wealth—and you must fight hard against overspending, against deceit and complacency, which will come your way, which would tear you away from your mission for the Lord.  Consider Matthew 13:22, where the Sower of the world has many failures and only a few successes; here is one of his failures:

²² Now he who received seed among the thorns is he who hears the word, and the cares of this world and the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he becomes unfruitful.

What kind of “deceitfulness” did the Lord mean?  How about “I am rich because God loves me.”  We’ve already covered the falseness of that deceit. Yet rich people continue to complacently  believe it. We should say, about all our wealthy incomes, “God, through no particular reason on my part, allowed me to be rich—what does God want me to do with this special gift He has given me for Him?”

Let’s move on to the second cause of the cultural disaster known as Complacency:  Belief in eternal security.  Supposedly, to feel good about salvation, all you have to do is say, “I was saved at a youth camp in the summer of 2002.  And I've lived a pretty clean life since.  So I’m saved forever.  No need to worry about hell.”

So what do a lot of these people do anyway?  They get married, and if they feel good about it, they stay married; if they don’t like it, they get divorced.  And remarried.  Well, did you know that's un-Scriptural?  See Matthew 5:32.  If Christians are  getting new partners like they're getting a new lease car, if they're acting just like the world in an important area as this, are they Christian?  Another aspect:  Much of their conversation, even with Christians, is secular—when they want a car, they talk up cars with everybody.  And so on through houses, boats, jobs, how to get the “best” girl (her religious behavior ranks low on importance for most--in fact, if she seems a "fanatic," it excludes her).  God does not enter those discussions.  Retired people, I can tell you, we have endless conversations about restaurants, how to save a dollar, our health, or our golf game, etc.  Or, for the younger, they may live in fornication (sometimes even if they have young children), then they “get saved,” but if they break up, and later get into financial straits or loneliness, they live with someone again.  Later they might get married.  These people pray—or appeal to God--only when they get desperate.  They never read their Bibles, except in an occasional short streak. They might get to church every other week, until they can afford a boat, or get a job working Sundays. Then they disappear:  you better hope they might attend a Saturday night sermon.  They are never torn about the possibility of hell for themselves, their family, or their friends.
The point I am trying to make?  God’s plan for what to do for Him, in obedience, as a "new creation" are not a goal by the majority of those who believe in eternal security when they "got saved."  Jesus’ commandments about forgiving, about adultery and divorce, etc are ignored as inconvenient; these decisions are made without reference to God. "I'm a Christian; I assume God will help me make up my own mind." But un-Christian behaviors result. We should feel  warnings, but our consciences are seared; doing them are never considered even sinful, nor as serious enough to be seeing yourself on the pathway to hell if you disobey.  So, is this abiding in Christ?  It's like we make the decisions, and we're kind enough to ask Jesus to come along for the ride and continue to bless our decisions.  Well, that's Not happening.  But a doubt about their salvation?  Not a wisp of worry in their mind.  I got saved in 2002 camp, don’t you know.  It was a great event.  So I’m Rock Solid about Eternal Security.  (Definition:  I’m as complacent as I can be).  Pastor told me so.  Well, God bless that pastor.  He will have to give an account for his deception.  Scripture is full of verses that clearly indicate that security is conditional on holiness.  I have a three-part blog on this one:  Escaping Hell (Part 1), and Do Peter, James and John…(Part 2) and Do Paul…(Part 3).  I know that you Eternal Security folks are ingrained in your beliefs, but consider again that 8 out of 9 of those who think they are saved are not!  What are the odds that you’re one of the 8…or can you assume that you’re for sure the 1 in 9?  (The other 8 have the same faith in their beliefs that you do.) This is heaven vs hell we’re talking about, it’s worth a few hours of open-mindedness and reading all of New Testament Scripture, especially every word from Jesus, and praying for His guidance.

Now we move to the third of the triad causing our country’s massive complacency:  The pre-trib rapture believers.  (By the way, I used to be in all three of these camps before.  But I’ve always been a reader, and He led me to some good reading material.)  I only have space to give you one difficulty with the pre-tribbers:  Their theology has Christians being raptured, without any pre-indicators, before the end-times tribulation.  The horrible things of those last tribulation days—wars, famines, earthquakes, massive persecution and martyrdom—will happen on earth while you’re enjoying heaven.  The Holy Spirit that indwells true believers, a Comfort to His beloved and thus a witness of His grace to non-believers, will not happen to your friends and unsaved relatives, because you will be gone, and unable to help them when they need you the most.   Thus, a “Christian” who believes this will be effectively saying, to his unsaved relatives and friends:  “You should be saved as I am.  We can leave this scene and leave non-believers to suffer the greatest misfortune of their lives without us.  When they need us the most, Jesus takes us out of here.”  You know what the thinking non-believer will imagine when hearing this raw explanation of the pre-tribber mindset?  “Oh, sure; you want me to believe in a theology of abandoning people I care for, a theology of complete selfishness.  Is that what Christianity is?  You can keep it, my un-friend.”  Another fact is, the pre-trib theory is not a historical Christian belief; the idea was created around 1830.  It’s the opposite of the “post-trib” theology that was believed by almost all "futurist" Christians for 1800 years before that.  The predominant historical belief was, Christians will have to hang around through the end times and suffer, and giving their life for Him.  So this newer pre-trib idea says, in effect:  For the first 1800 years, when the greatest minds that Christians had, from men close to Him, men who changed Rome, they all believed mistakenly, because they believed Jesus had two Advents--Jesus at birth and Jesus at resurrection and judgment.  The “truth” is, the pre-tribbers say, Jesus is having 3 Advents—at birth, at His return in judgment, and a previously unknown middle one, a secret rapture of Christians living then. Of course, there isn’t a single solid Scripture to prove it, but if you twist some Scripture like a pretzel, and compartmentalize others, you’ve got this great theology that people love to hear about, so it must be true! All those 1800 years, those guys were all wrong.  We have it right now—the subtitle for our theology is:  Good Luck, the rest of you: 'when things start to heat up, We’re Outta Here!
If that isn’t a complacent theology, I don’t know what is.

So there you have it.  Three corrupting effects.  Lots of complacency.  Oh, you still don’t believe we’re in a complacent period?  I have a “closing argument” thought for you:  Have you heard about the stat that “Christians” divorce at the same rate as non-Christians?

Here’s a shocking statement from Christianity Today, 2/14/14:

Andrew Walker interviews Dr. Bradford Wilcox, Director of the National Marriage Project, and asks him the question, "Are religious conservatives really divorcing more than religious liberals, or more than people who have no religious affiliation at all?" Dr. Wilcox answers,

Up to a point, yes. The article finds that conservative Protestants, and counties with higher shares of conservative Protestants, are indeed more likely to divorce—compared to Americans in other mainstream traditions, from mainline Protestantism to Mormonism to Catholicism.

Thus, conservative (i.e., evangelical) “Christians” have a higher divorce rate than “mainline” (i.e., liberal) Christians. That’s a shocker by itself, saying that the supposedly more committed Christians divorce at a higher rate. The article goes on to say,

…A new article by sociologist Charles Stokes in www.family-studies.org suggests that the problem here is mainly with nominal conservative Protestants—those who attend (church) rarely or never. It's these nominal conservative Protestants who are much more likely to divorce.

That word “nominal” (which means “in name only,” not by actual behavior) seems to back my claim that most of those who claim to be saved aren’t.  By the way--aside from my personal experience, here’s the reason I keep harping on the subject of divorce.  What did Jesus command?  In Matthew 5:32:

whoever divorces his wife for any reason except sexual immorality causes her to commit adultery; and whoever marries a woman who is divorced commits adultery.

You would have to conclude that there’s a lot of adultery going on in America among “Christians,” is there not?  Now, what does Galatians 5:19-21 say?

Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, ²¹ envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

Think about this:  God hates divorce so much that He places it in the same camp as the idolaters, the sorcerers, the murderers—all these terrible people, including divorcers who remarry (if unrepentant) are going to hell!  Were Jesus and Paul blunt about hating divorce?  Yes.  But do we get it?  No; we have people all over the place who choose temporary residence in a new marriage, hoping for a little more bliss in this life—and they are trading it for an eternity in hell!  Bad trade, folks!  Do our pastors get it?  No.  For the most part, they insist God will forgive you, without demanding that you see what danger you’re in, or even asking you for repentance.  No church discipline, no loss of Communion under more liberal popes.

All this sounds like “unawareness of actual dangers,” does it not? Well, that’s the definition of complacency.  I’ll say the statistic one more time:  8 out of 9 people who think they’re going to heaven are actually going to hell. Are you sure you’re not one of the 8?  Take some time to study the Scriptures, ask God to open your eyes, read my blogs on these dangerous beliefs.  May God bless you.

Jesus Taunts Satan

 After I listened to Dr. Heiser’s Youtube series “The Unseen Realm,” I bought the book.  There is another gem he shared with me there that I’d like to share with you.  It is found in the difficult text of Matthew 16:13-18:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” ¹⁴ And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” ¹⁵ He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” ¹⁶ Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” ¹⁷ And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. ¹⁸ And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

 So who, or what, is the “rock” upon which Jesus will build His church?  Catholics say Jesus was saying Peter is the rock.  So, they say, he was the first pope.  But Protestants say, no, Jesus was doing a word-play.  Peter comes from the Greek “petros,” which means “stone.” But when Jesus uses the word “rock.” he means, according to Vine’s Expository Dictionary, a “mass of rock,” a “sure foundation,” as opposed to a detached stone which could be “easily moved.” Therefore, they say, Jesus was saying He is the rock he was referring to; He is the foundation of the church (I Corinthians 3:11), immovable in His doctrines and foreknowledge.

 Dr. Heiser admits to the accuracy of this word-play, but adds that Jesus has another word play for “who/what is the rock,” which conveys a cosmic scope.

 To explain his idea, we must start with the fact that Jesus was leading His disciples into Caesarea Philippi (Matthew 16:13 above), which happens to be at the foothills of Mt. Hermon—a very significant mountain because of its moral darkness.  This mountain was the place where Satan and his fallen angels plotted to destroy the lineage of Jesus by sexual relations with earth women (Book of Enoch, Chapters 6 and 7).  (I’ve discussed the validity of the Book of Enoch, how it’s quoted in Scripture, in recent blogs).  So the mountain has one dark feature right there. 

 Then there’s the fact that the meaning of Hermon, in Scripture, is Anathema, which means “devoted to destruction.”  Uttering Anathema on someone is the direst of curses one can pronounce.  Paul uses the Greek for the word in Galatians 1:8:

 But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed.

 Messing with Scripture’s gospel brings down curses from God, and separation from Him forever.  With meaningful repentance, God could forgive. 

 Having this evil name is the second darkness around Mt. Hermon. 

 Finally, to get to my third point of darkness about Mt. Hermon, you need some additional background.  To briefly review a previous blog: Genesis 6:1-4 really says that in Noah’s day, fallen angels came to earth, took on the form of men, and married and had sex with earth women.  The children of this sexual match of immortal angels and mortal women were aberrant.  They became renowned giants, and they were called Nephilim (the word is in the ESV or NIV translation).  The Nephilim were wicked.  And being a mix of mortal and immortal, they were not human, so it’s then possible that they were unsaveable. They were also linked to the rapid immorality that brought on the Flood (Genesis 6:5), and the evil technology that they taught men (from the book of Enoch)—it amounted to how better men can destroy themselves and their culture. 

To complete the background, we fast forward to the days of Moses and Joshua his general. Their purpose was to wipe out all the population of Canaan.  Why Canaan?  They had the most abominable worship, which I can't even begin to explain.  And they had the evil giants.  Yes, Satan brought out his fallen angels to do their work again.  Now you may really want to know, "Why Canaan?  Couldn't God have selected an easier plot of land?  God's principle is, You go the the heart of evil, the source, the head of the snake.  You cut off the head.  Anyway, God announced it ahead of time, so Satan knew about it.  So Satan brought out his evil fallen angels again, to populate Canaan with Nephilim giants.  He figured these guys would scare the Hebrews away, defeating God's plan. But Joshua believed in the power of God, that if he was doing God's will, nothing can stop God's plan. They found a way to defeat the giants.  Scripture speaks of these giants many times.  Toward the end of this mission, Joshua defeated the giants of Bashan, for instance.  Their king, Og, had a bed that was between 14 and 16 feet long. Deuteronomy 3:11 and Joshua 13:12 records these facts:

 …Og the king of Bashan was left…Behold, his bed was a bed of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the Ammonites? Nine cubits was its length……all the kingdom of Og in Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei… these Moses had struck and driven out.

 The point of mentioning “Og the king of Bashan” is this: Mt. Hermon is smack in the middle of the Bashan area.  Thus, Mt. Hermon and Bashan, in addition to being a community for Satan’s minions, despite having a name that is accursed, and having had demonic giants, also still has a lot of wicked people. As Joshua 13:12 above notes, Ashtaroth was the capital city of Bashan.  Ashtaroth has a bad reputation as well; the people worshipped the goddess Ashtoreth (in other nations, she was called Aphrodite, or Ishtar—both fertility goddesses—we get Easter from Ishtar).  These goddesses were also known as the “queen of heaven” (Catholics take note), and the people of Bashan and Mt. Hermon persuaded the Israelites into worshipping this goddess as well. There were religious sexual rituals that took place.  The worship involved the “high places,” which were also constructed in Israel.  They were mentioned many times in the Old Testament.  God wanted them destroyed—they practiced sacred prostitution. This was heterosexual, bisexual, and homosexual perversion. I mean, how bad is this?  See if you can imagine such perversity as prostitution part of your religion. All this is to say:  This was the third evil of this mountain area. 

In summary, for all three of the reasons listed above, Mt. Hermon was Ground Zero of the gates of hell and demonism on earth--and yet this is where Jesus was leading His disciples. 

Now, to finish the backdrop to the cosmic scope of what Jesus was doing on Mt. Hermon, I need to explain the “gates of Hell” quote. Hopefully you remember Matthew 16:18 above:

…on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

We’re ready for the final two gems I got from Dr. Heiser. First, the idea that people have today, whether Catholic or Protestant, about interpreting this is, Satan would be attacking the church, but “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it (“it” is the church, they say).  But this made no sense to Dr. Heiser, who couldn’t visualize gates attacking the Christian church. Gates are defensive, not offensive. Their purpose is to hold the attackers back. There is a simple explanation for this conundrum, and that is:  a proper translation.  From the Pure Word, the most accurate translation of koine Greek around, Matthew 16:18b: 

…upon this huge Rock I will build My Assembly (ed. note: the church), and the gateways of hell shall definitely not triumph against Me.  

This translation definitely implies that Jesus, in this quote, while He is standing on Ground Zero of hell on earth, is prophetically saying He (through us) will be attacking the gateways of hell, and the gateways will not be able to hold Him back (praise God!).  Christ, with the help of His church, will blow through those gateways in complete and utter triumph! Hell will not triumph against His attack!

How does this happen? Because, though Satan would assume he triumphed by killing Jesus, in reality, Jesus won the battle.  First, by dying, He accomplishes great things:  He thus pays for our sins.  Not only that, He was resurrected from the dead; thus He defeated death. We believers will, with the help of the Holy Spirit, attack Satan ourselves by living godly lives, sacrificing life’s pleasures for Him, and by bold witness.  By following God’s will, our lives will be a triumph of good against evil.  We will someday also be resurrected and join Him in heaven, and there will be no more death.    

There is a second gem I got from Dr. Heiser, that further explains his “cosmic meaning” of the “who is the rock” conundrum.  Dr. Heiser has climbed Mt. Hermon himself and discovered a huge rock jutting up from the earth at the peak, so that is the best vantage point that Jesus likely made His speech.  That jutting-up rock was the rock Jesus was pointing out.  Jesus was saying, “from where you are standing, even at this rock and the gates of hell, we shall attack Satan and shall have victory.” That was the double entendre of the word-play. “You are Peter (stone).  I will build my church even on the gates of hell, represented by this rock.”

So the big picture is this:  Jesus is near the final week of His life. He has reasoned with the evil Pharisees, Sadducees, and scribes; He has admonished and warned them that their lack of belief will send them to hell (John 8).  But they still plan to kill Him. He knows that when He enters Jerusalem for Passover, they will make their move to kill.  (What’s ironic is, they were playing into God’s hands—He wanted them to do it on Passover, to prove who the real Lamb of Sacrifice is). Jesus wants to taunt Satan into making his final move to kill Him. Jesus is deliberately standing on Mt. Hermon, ground zero for hell, and giving Satan the middle finger, as it were.  He is telling Satan—"come on!  Bring it on!  Go ahead!  Prove you are powerful enough to kill me!"  (Ironic, as I say, since that’s what God wanted to happen to save His faithful people by Jesus paying the price for our sin.  Satan did not know about God’s plan of redemption and resurrection).  Jesus knew how to pick a spot for throwing down the gauntlet.

Jesus picked another spot and did it again, on the Mt. of Olives. That’s the place where in the Old Testament, the Israelites worshipped the idol Molech, which included the ritual of child sacrifice.  It’s hard to believe, but Molech idol-worship started with Solomon in I Kings 11:7:

Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Molech the abomination of the Ammonites, on the mountain east of Jerusalem…

 The mountain east of Jerusalem has been definitely identified as the Mt. of Olives.  As is too typical, what starts out as a favor Solomon does for his foreign wives to give incense to their gods turned out, particularly in the days of King Manasseh later, to devolve into something abhorrent, namely the murder of innocent children.  Manasseh sacrificed his own children to the god Molech, and encouraged his people to do the same (the crux of the sad story is contained in II Kings 21:9-14). As a result of this horrible slaying of the innocents, God promised to wipe Judah off the map like you would take a dish towel and wipe it clean. And He did. Judah was in fact conquered and put into captivity by the Babylonians because of their most grisly of idol-worship that ever was.  (How do you think God feels about our abortions?)

So Jesus picked the very same spot to pronounce judgment on Israel again (Matthew 24:3-22). Why?  Because this time they would be killing another innocent--Him, the God-man. The worst of all possible crimes—trying to kill God.  The Jews were doing their usual thing, sacrificing innocent lambs on Passover, judging people when they would break a Scriptural law, and judging them again if they went against the pile of rules and traditions they added to Scripture (they had piles of rules on how far you could travel on Sabbath).  They felt confident that they had righteously obeyed the Law (the Torah).  But they were still wicked in heart; they had killed many prophets in the past (who pronounced judgment on them), and now they were going to be in a blood-lust, screaming to Pilate to send Jesus to the Cross. So before Jesus gave His life, He announced, on the mountain that had seen so much innocent little children’s blood—and judgment--in the past, and had seen the blood in the lambs shed in Passover, that within a generation, judgment will come again and blood will be shed.  The blood of the people will run again—because they were going to kill The Innocent Lamb of God.  In Matthew 24:34, on the Mt. of Olives, Jesus makes this important promise:

 Truly, I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.

If the hermeneutic rule is, take it literally if at all possible, here is the place to take it literally.  Despite our dogged belief that Matthew 24 is future, only the fact that He is prophesying to that present group of Jews can be certain:  A generation in that time was 40 years.  Let’s say Jesus was crucified and rose again somewhere in A.D. 30 or 33.  As it so happens, in 40 years or under, the Roman general Titus came in, in exactly 70 AD, and burned everything down, including the Temple, killed a million or more Jews—and fulfilled this prophecy. The Jews paid the price for their murder of the Innocents. 

So what I’m saying here is, Jesus knew how to pick His spot when it came to make an announcement. And His spot is based on history. Note how much we learned in this paper in the New Testament by studying the past, in the Old Testament.  We need to read more of the Bible, and the Old Testament in particular.  I’ve got a question for you:  Would you be able to tell the story of Jesus, using only the Old Testament? If you ever talk with a Jew, that might be the only way you would get his (or her) attention.

You know, you never stop learning enough from the Scripture.  There are always deeper treasures to find.  I don’t think we could ever, in this post-Christian age, get people to submit to Christ by “the Romans Road” anymore.  People are different these days; the majority don’t know anything about Scripture anymore, nor do they express an interest in history.  You have to start where their weakness is; many of them can’t think of a good reason for living these days.  The whole Bible presents the entire love and judgment of God.  Good vs. Evil.  Since seminarians aren’t respecting the inspiration of Scripture enough, especially regarding the Old Testament, pastors are graduating from seminary not knowing the Gospel as it has to often be presented today—cover to cover, the spiritual battle of good vs. evil. How God has triumphed over evil in so many places, and how we must avoid evil to follow God.  And there is frequently a supernatural element attached in His plans—but that gets dismissed in this demythologizing day, so our future pastors only get part of the picture. Ask God for guidance when you read His Word. Respect its infallibly for every word said, and be hungry for righteousness.  How to get to heaven is seldom taught properly these days, I mean it.  His Word will lead you to the way to salvation and to happiness.     

Divine Rebellions

 This is another great sermon by Dr. Michael Heiser, on the Unseen Realms.  Read with enjoyment.

If you ask the average Christian, ‘Why is the world so depraved?’  They’ll say, ‘It was the Fall in Genesis 3.’ But if you asked the first century Jews the same question, you would get ‘There are three reasons.  The first was the Fall, because the sin of Adam and Eve was the entrance of rebellion into God’s good Creation, which broke mankind from close fellowship with God; and death for all of us arose because of it (Romans 5:12 is a great verse on that, but first-century Jews would have to come up with a different verse).  The second was the rebellion in Genesis 6:1-4 with the sons of God; and the third reason was what happened at Babel.’  Our question for study is, How did these other two sources of depravity factor in, and why did their consideration disappear in current theology? 

The first source of depravity was the Fall. I agree that Adam and Eve's sin had a world-shaking effect, but I cannot comment on Dr. Heiser’s sermon portion on that.  By excluding his treatment, I am definitely not saying it is a lesser cause for depravity.  The reason for my exclusion is, he talks about the serpent, about the Garden of Eden, and many others, as metaphors.  he's doing bit of Origen here, for the astute.  He’s saying that it might not have been a snake, it might not have been Eden.  Those terms have mystical, broader meanings instead.  My problem with this is, you’re moving away from an interpretation of Scripture as history, which I don’t want to see happen.  Keep in mind, we don’t know the appearance of the serpent before it was cursed, and for all we know, or maybe Adam knew, a snake could talk.  Maybe Adam did not know language was only for humans; we should also consider, elsewhere in Scripture a donkey talked (the joke was, Balaam argued back),  so anything’s possible, especially in a brand-new world. I am certainly not suggesting Dr. Heiser is spreading lies; he is extremely knowledgeable on Scripture and he opened up a secondary way to look at verses that presented a different look to their meanings; and what he says elsewhere makes sense.  My previous blog on him proves that. 

So let’s move on to his second reason for the causes of depravity in the world. This is all explained in my other blog, "God and gods," so I will be brief here. Genesis 6:1-5, we proved, was the sexual union between fallen angels and earth women. Since all creatures produced after their own kind, that meant that humans, with particular DNA structures, were supposed to procreate only with other humans.  But the fallen angels defied that.  Being immortal, they had a different DNA than humans, who are mortal. So their sexual union with human women produced an aberrant offspring--giants, called Nephilim.  Other Scripture supports that. This led to violence, and a gigantic corruption of genes. 

Also, the ancient book of Enoch has more details about the wicked Nephilim. No, the book of Enoch is not part of God's Word, but it has great credibility.  Enoch, as Genesis 5:24 proves, was perhaps the godliest man living at the time.  His writing was valid, because he is quoted three times in Scripture (Jude, II Peter, and John).  His writing showed that the Nephilim helped to proliferate sin in man by teaching men (1) skills and technologies for warfare—how to make swords and knives and spears; (2) about plants and herbs that have healing properties, as well as mind-altering properties--which led to people  becoming psychologically addicted; (3) about astrology (not astronomy), which in effect made them turn into idolatry—worshipping the sun, moon, and stars, trying to control their future; and (4) cosmetic arts of seduction which led to sexual immorality. The results of all this "wonderful technology" they taught were broken homes, bloodshed, and worship of demons, some of that through altered consciousness.  These were all horrors, all accelerating men’s skill in perverting themselves as individuals and as society. All this helped the proliferation of sin that left God frustrated enough to declare an end to mankind in Genesis 6:5. 

The third major reason for man’s depravity was the tower of Babel. That is where I have more to say. Genesis 11:1-9:

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

The purpose of the tower "with its top to the heavens" was to worship another god.  Our God judges sin; they wanted a god who would let them express their ego and pride, "to make a name for ourselves."  As a result, they stayed in one place, so they could build the tower, possible only with a large group.  They defied God's instruction to fill the earth (God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Genesis 1:28). 

To understand further why God did this dispersion, other Scripture will help. Let's look at Deuteronomy 32:1b, 4b-6, 8-9, ESV:

 …hear, O earth, the words of my mouth…4…A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he;
They have dealt corruptly with Him;
    they are no longer his children because they are blemished;
    they are a crooked and twisted generation. ⁶ Do you thus repay the Lord,
    you foolish and senseless people? Is not he your father, who created you…
    ⁸ When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance,
    when he divided mankind, he fixed the borders of the peoples, according to the number of the sons of God ⁹ But the Lord's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted heritage.

Note:  In case your version translates "sons of God" with a different word in v.8, keep this in mind:  the Dead Sea Scrolls proves that the correct phrase in v. 8 is “sons of God;” it even uses the word Elohim (see my last blog, "God and gods").  It’s not sons of Israel (which wasn’t even a nation yet!), nor sons of Adam, as other translations say.

We can assume that God might have thought, “This is the opposite of what I commanded.  I want a human family, I want the Edenic mandate (to fill the earth) to be fulfilled. I love you, I want the best for your lives, so please obey my commands, and you’ll get your best life. And your response?  ‘No, we’d like to build a tower, worship another god.’ 

The tower was a ziggurat, built to offer sacrifice and barter with whatever god they believed in. It was tall so they could more likely make their god hear their pleas and desires, and see them offering things to him in exchange.  This was unacceptable again, since our God did not work that way.  So God probably thought, ‘You refuse to be loyal to me, so you want another god; so I will give you what you really want:  a 'divorce’ from my love for you (Deuteronomy 32:5 above, "no longer His children").  I will disinherit you. I’m still going to disperse you, divide you up (Deut. 32:8), and assign one spirit to command each of your nations--namely, each of you gets one of the sons of God to worship (Deut. 32:8). These fallen angels, these demons who wish to be worshipped as gods, can be your new rulers.  You can be under their corrupt command, since you want to worship other gods. Let’s put you under their thumb.’ This is the Old Testament equivalent of Romans 1:18-25, wherein God “gave (humankind) over” to their persistent rebellion.  God thought, ‘Hopefully you will grow tired of this god, this demon, and his rule over you.  Hopefully you will change your mind and let Me lead you; you will find that I love you. Perhaps you will turn back to Me.'

God still wanted a loyal, witness nation, a society who loves Him, to show  how what His leadership could do to bless a loyal nation.  He had His eyes on one man of great faith and godliness, Abram, and his wife Sarai (their grandson was Jacob, referred to in Deut.32:9 above.  They became renamed Abraham and Sarah, but they couldn’t have kids, they were too old--so they were perfect to start a godly nation with.  You say, how is that?  Because God wanted them to see His power and love when He performs a miracle and they have a child together. Then they will teach their children of His power and love. God then hoped they would continue a loyal family descending from that.  And every nation around them will hear of this power of God, too.  Besides the Biblical proof I’ve bolded and alluded to in Deuteronomy, why do I think this was the order of God’s thinking?  Because right after God’s language curse, the people began dispersing (as God wanted in the first place), grouping with people who spoke the same language in Genesis 11, and immediately God covenants with Abram in Genesis 12:1-3 to form and rule His nation!  Here it is:

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country (Note: Ur) and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. ² And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. ³ I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

“All the families” meant God was thinking of the lineage of Abram eventually going through David, then eventually to Jesus, Christ the Redeemer, who would truly bless all the families on earth. (Galatians 3:16).  God also wanted to show the world, who worshipped other gods, how His love would bless the Hebrew people.  This testimony would draw more people to Him, and be blessed as well.

The chosen nation Israel was supposed to finally be Yahweh’s family, starting from the godly Abraham.  They’re even called a “kingdom of priests” (Exodus 19:6).  Since a priest is a mediator between God and men, Israel was, through its godliness and witness, supposed to be a mediator between Yahweh and all the nations.  A witness of a great God, with the people having a great testimony.

The sons of God that were to rule over the other nations, of course, failed God’s command to be just, as He knew they would—they were corrupt (Psalm 82:2-7—from my previous blog).  As a result, the lack of testimony meant people were blind about our real God; so now they were lost in the ugly power of sin in their lives.

There was a solution for this blindness and powerless, beautifully hinted in Psalm 82:8, where God gives hope through all our failures—through His Son, Jesus:

Arise, O God, judge the earth; for you shall inherit all the nations!

 The word for ‘arise’ is the same as the word for ‘resurrection.’  Sin’s death cannot defeat us, if we turn in faith to Jesus, who showed us that resurrection will defeat sin and have a new life in heaven when we die. 

I hope you’ve appreciated these nuggets from Scripture from Dr. Heiser, as much as I have.

Finland Puts Christians On Trial

 Juhana Pohjola wouldn’t be cast to play his own part if Hollywood made a movie about a bishop put on trial for his faith. The Finnish pastor has inherited a place in the church of Martin Luther, but it appears none of Luther’s pugnacity or vitriol.

In person, Pohjola, 49, is forthright but unassuming, and gentle. Stereotypically, the Finn is thin and tall. He often pauses while speaking to carefully consider his next words. He listens attentively to others with far less impressive resumes.

In more than two decades as a pastor, Pohjola has ministered to congregations as small as 30. He has spent his life building a network of faithful churches across Finland, many of which started with a few people gathered for prayer, Bible study, hymn-singing—and communion, if they can get a pastor. In an in-person interview with The Federalist, Pohjola urged fellow Christian leaders to be willing to seek out “one lost sheep” instead of crowds and acclaim.

This is the man who appears to be the first in the post-Soviet Union West to be brought up on criminal charges for preaching the Christian message as it has been established for thousands of years. Also charged in the case that goes to trial on January 24 is Pohjola’s fellow Lutheran and a Finnish member of Parliament, Paivi Rasanen.

Rasanen’s alleged crimes in a country that claims to guarantee freedom of speech and religion include tweeting a picture of a Bible verse. Potential penalties if they are convicted include fines and up to two years in prison.

Finnish Authorities: The Bible Is Hate Speech

Rasanen and Pohjola are being charged with “hate speech” for respectively writing and publishing a 24-page 2004 booklet that explains basic Christian theology about sex and marriage, which reserves sex exclusively for within marriage, which can only consist of one man and one woman, for life. The Finnish prosecutor claims centuries-old Christian teachings about sex “incite hatred” and violate legal preferences for government-privileged identity groups.

Writer Rod Dreher pointed out the witch hunt nature of this prosecution: “Räsänen wrote that pamphlet seven years before LGBT was added to the national hate-speech law as a protected class. She was investigated once before for the pamphlet, and cleared — but now she’s going to undergo another interrogation.”

Rasanen and Pohjola both have adamantly affirmed “the divinely given dignity, value, and human rights of all, including all who identify with the LGBTQ community.” Christian theology teaches that all human beings are precious, as all are made in God’s image and offered eternal life through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

In advance of the trial, Rasanen and Pohjola have been interrogated by police for hours about their theology. Pohjola told me in the interrogation police treated Christian beliefs as thought crimes. In a statement, Rasanen noted that the police publicly admitted their interpretation of Finland’s law would make publishing the Bible a hate crime.

“It is impossible for me to think that the classical Christian views and the doctrine of the majority of denominations would become illegal. The question here is about the core of Christian faith; how a person gets saved into unity with God and into everlasting life though the redemptive sacrifice of Jesus. Therefore, it is crucial to also talk about the nature of sin,” Rasanen told Dreher. “As we are living in a democratic country, we must be able to disagree and express our disagreement. We have to be able to cope with speech that we feel insults our feelings. Many questions are so debatable and contradictory that we have to have the possibility of discussing. Otherwise the development is towards a totalitarian system, with only one correct view.”

Major International Implications

Humans rights lawyer Paul Coleman, who spoke to The Federalist from his Alliance Defending Freedom International office in Vienna, Austria, says Pohjola and Rasanen’s cases are a “canary in the coalmine” for freedom of speech across the West. ADF International is providing legal support for Pohjola and Rasanen’s cases.

“Although all European countries have these hate speech laws, and these hate speech laws are increasingly being used against citizens for things that they say, this is the first time we’ve really seen Christians face criminal prosecution for explaining their biblical views,” Coleman said. “…It’s unprecedented. We’ve not seen attacks on free speech on this level in Europe, and that’s why they are extremely important cases, not just for the people of Finland and Paivi Rasanen and the bishop themselves, but for all of Europe. If this is upheld in one jurisdiction, we will no doubt see it in other jurisdictions as well.”

Such “hate speech” laws exist in every European country and Western countries such as Canada and Australia, and descend from Soviet influence. Coleman called them “sleeper laws,” saying that in other countries “they could be used any time just like they are in Finland. People need to mobilize against these laws and overturn them.”

Legally privileging certain sexual behavior has thus broken western countries’ promises of equality before the law for all citizens, as well as enabling government discrimination against citizens who exercise their free speech and religious liberty, as in the Baronnelle Stutzman and Jack Phillips cases in the United States.

“Establishing standards of identity” also lets government meddle in theological controversies that are none of its business, said the Rev. Dr. Jonathan Shaw, who directs church relations for the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod (LCMS) and has known Pohjola for decades. Pohjola’s church is an international partner of the LCMS.

From a natural law and historic Western perspective, “the government isn’t supposed to get into people’s brains and tell them what’s right and wrong to believe and say,” Shaw noted in a phone interview. “That’s not their realm. Their realm is in externals, things like protect people in their bodies, go to war when necessary, and punish criminals… This is really what’s at stake [in the Pohjola case]. Government has lost its moorings and doesn’t know its purpose.”

From Part-Time Pastor to Bishop

After theological study in Finland and the United States, Pohjola’s first congregation in Helsinki started with about 30 members, he says. It was only able to support him part-time at first. He remembered his wife accompanying the congregation’s hymn-singing on a piano while their firstborn daughter, a baby at the time, laid on a blanket on the floor nearby.

Finland’s state church began openly disobeying Christian theology concerning sex differences amid the global sexual revolution of the 1960s. So Christians alienated by the state church’s embrace of anti-Christian cultural demands sought faithful pastors like Pohjola, who are known as “confessional” for adhering to historic Christian confessions.

The resulting growth of his tiny congregation gradually led to establishing a seminary, then dozens of mission churches, which grew as the theologically unfaithful state church shrank. In 2013, 25 of these new confessional congregations formed the Evangelical Lutheran Diocese of Finland. Today, that diocese oversees 45 congregations and missions and is training 64 pastors.

That growth has been accompanied by suffering, including persecution first from Pohjola’s own church.

First Persecuted By His Own Church

In 2009, Pohjola was awarded the theological journal Gottesdienst’s Sabre of Boldness Award, which is granted “for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity on behalf of the Holy Church of Christ, while engaged in the confession of His Pure Gospel in the face of hostile forces, and at the greatest personal risk.” The award honored Pohjola, with other faithful Finnish pastors, for standing firm as Finland’s state church sought civil charges against them for refusing to disobey the Bible’s commands that only men be sent to lead spiritual warfare as pastors.

Like Luther before him, Pohjola was expelled by his own church body in 2014 for adhering to God’s word on this matter. The notice of his discharge declared Pohjola was “obviously unfit to be a pastor.” At the time, he responded with grief but also by saying that he must obey God rather than men, lamenting: “Instead of the Church being purged with God’s Word, she is being purged from God’s Word.”

In the interview last week, Pohjola said being defrocked from “his baptismal church” grieves him to this day. On his mother’s side, Pohjola said, his family includes Lutheran pastors in that church going back to the 17th century Reformation. But he could not disobey God’s commands to retain his social status or employment.

Division or Unity? Yes

Pohjola’s separation from Finland’s state church also had the consequence of uniting him and his flock with other confessional Christians across the globe. The International Lutheran Council is a global network of theologically unified churches, and like the confessional churches in Finland, that network is growing.

Mathew Block, the ILC’s communications manager, noted that the heightened contradictions between increasingly unnatural pagan practices and historic Christian teachings are causing a global “confessional realignment.” It’s forcing people to make a real decision about where they stand rather than allowing them to inhabit the increasingly nonexistent, indecisive middle.

This is affecting churches all over the world. While it means divisions in some areas, it also is leading to unity in others. For example, despite other important theological differences, all the world’s largest Christian bodies agree with the doctrines for which the Finnish government is persecuting Pohjola. That allows them to speak in chorus to government leaders.

Already many dozens of top religious leaders across the world have formally raised their concerns with Rasanen and Pohjola’s prosecution to the Finnish government and the United Nations. Several U.S. members of Congress have also asked U.S. agencies to take action against Finland for these human rights abuses.

“I encourage Roman Catholic ecclesiastical leaders and all those who care for souls to speak up and join hands and lock arms with us as we talk about the absolute necessity of our historic Christian values of one man, one woman marriage, and the freedom to be able to believe it, to say it, to publish books about it, and find practical ways through hospitality, education, and other social engagement to make society strong that way,” Shaw said. “All churches—one could even say all religions but in particular the Roman Catholic faith—this reflects their historic commitments as well.”

The Shepherd Faces Wolf Attacks for the Sheep

In August 2021, the international Lutheran church recognized Pohjola’s steadfast leadership amid persecution by supporting his election to bishop of Finland’s confessional diocese. The ILC hosted Pohjola’s November 2021 speaking tour in the United States, and is raising funds across the world to raise awareness of his case.

“Our mission has been that, if the shepherd sees that one sheep is missing, he knows,” Pohjola said of the churches he oversees. He noted that many people coming to faithful Finnish churches are seeking love and connection from a church family as the secular world becomes increasingly isolated and family-less, in no small part because of pagan sexual behavior and beliefs.

“People don’t go to church for social capital now. This is a serious life and they want to be serious with God. So churches have to build communities that stand on solid Lutheran, biblical doctrine,” Pohjola says.

While he may not share Luther’s temperament, Pohjola’s response to his own persecution by church and civil authorities does mirror Luther’s simplicity four centuries ago: “Here I stand. I can do no other.” He adds a pastoral message to Christians watching governments turn on them today.

“We have to learn from the past, Christians who have suffered under persecution, and be prepared,” Pohjola said. “But it’s not something to be worried about, because Christ remains faithful to His church and wherever he is leading us, He will come with us. He will provide everything that is needed for the future of His Christians and His church.”

You can hear Pohjola talk about his case and its implications during his November visit to the United States here:

And watch a Federalist Radio Hour interview with Pohjola here:

Joy Pullmann is executive editor of The Federalist, a happy wife, and the mother of six children. Her brand-new e-book is "The Advent Planbook." Check out her recommended classic Christmas picture books, "The Read-Aloud Advent Calendar," and her bestselling ebook, "Classic Books for Young Children." Sign up here to get early access to her next full-length book, "How To Control The Internet So It Doesn’t Control You." A Hillsdale College honors graduate, @JoyPullmann is also the author of "The Education Invasion: How Common Core Fights Parents for Control of American Kids," from Encounter Books.

Photo Image courtesy International Lutheran Council

Bible Christian persecution Christianity Faith Finland free speech global affairs hate crimes human rights identity politics Juhana Pohjola LCMS LGBT Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod Paivi Rasanen Religion