It certainly did not seem as though we had only published once this month. Where did the month go? Apparently we have not been as focused as we might have been. We had thought we would get at least one more post written before the world ended yesterday, but neither of those things happened. Whether you sincerely expected the end of the world, considered the possibility, or merely watched from a distance, there are things to learn from the whole experience.
God intends for us to hear Him every day. That is the essence of the present day ministry of the Holy Spirit. Jesus said it was good that He go away because then the Holy Spirit would come. (John 16:7) The Holy Spirit would not be contained within a human body as Jesus was during His stay on earth, but would be available to all believers all the time. What many people do not understand as they read those words is that each member of the Godhead carries the primary work of God on earth individually in each epoch of history. This is a key concept in understanding why we are still here and why the predictions of the end of the world yesterday were errant.
All three members of the Trinity were present at creation. (Genesis 1:1,2; John 1:1) God the Father worked from the time of creation until Jesus took on flesh and assumed His earthly ministry. When Jesus returned to the right hand of the Father (Hebrews 8:1), The Holy Spirit began His ministry on earth. That ministry will continue until Jesus returns for His Church--at some still future time.
This whole concept of the world ending at 6:00 PM, May 21, 2011 started with the teachings of one man. Granted that man is nearly ninety years old and so should be regarded as an elder in the faith. As we waded and sifted through his aberrant teachings, there was one, common thread of error that might have prevented much of the problem. In case you missed the previous post to this blog, we gave some explanation of the problem of spiritual deception. The nutshell version is that anyone can be deceived. Age and experience are helpful in recognizing deception, but definitely do not completely prevent the problem. In fact, the people with the best spiritual insight are often the most susceptible to deception.
One of our areas of ministry has been the teaching of and distinction between the spirit and the soul. The teaching is too detailed to repeat here, but to begin with, the spirit and soul are completely different and separate from one another. (1 Thessalonians 5:23; Hebrews 4:12) The spirit is the God part of us. Its sole purpose is to put us into contact with God. This concept is much easier to understand when we realize the spirit enables contact with God just as our body enables contact with the world. (At least we think that makes it more simple to understand.) Meanwhile, the soul sits between the spirit and the body, processing all that spiritual and physical input through our mind and emotions and then deciding what to do about it by our will.
The concept of the end of the world on May 21, 2011 is a result of a series of mathematical calculations based on interpretations of various scriptural passages, as well as historical and Biblical dates. Guess what? It did not all come together as neatly as some expected. The reasons for this seem obvious. Somewhere in the collective mind (soul) of a group of sincere, but misguided people, a date, a verse of scripture, or a mathematical calculation was incorrect. We have all made mistakes and continue to do so. This one simply got out of hand, like an urban legend going viral on YouTube.
As recently as May 20th, I commented to a Facebook posting it seemed odd someone could say for certain the end of the world would come at a specific time on a specific date, but not be able to discern whether another person were born-again. In fact, most of the people who espoused the concept of the world's end yesterday, are not completely certain if they themselves have been born-again. My point, of course, is that interpretations, and calculations of historical dates are all soulical activities whereas spiritual discernment would enable us to know if we or any other person has been born-again--and when Jesus might return for us. The point is to live as though He could come back at any time.
I sort of wonder if part of the reason God does not want us to know when Jesus will get here is because we might stop doing what we are supposed to be doing. (Assuming were are doing what we should be doing now.) Worse yet, we could be like the Israelites in the wilderness who cast off restraint because Moses was so long in returning from his meeting with God on Mt. Sinai. (Exodus 32)
The people who embraced yesterday as the day the world would end were seduced and deceived. Many of them are sincerely seeking God for His will and His plan. For the time being, they have disqualified themselves as Holy Spirit-led individuals by believing a lie. Among other things, they were taught that the Holy Spirit left all the churches in 1994 because He apparently could not work with them anymore. My understanding is that was the fall back position when Jesus did not return then as predicted. I wonder what they will say this time? At this point I am tempted to quote my own proof texts, but that would probably serve little purpose. We are still here. We may be for awhile yet. Most of you have heard me say I do not do eschatology. Perhaps now you understand why.
Showing posts with label Moses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Moses. Show all posts
Sunday, May 22, 2011
Saturday, June 13, 2009
The Workings of a Religious Spirit, Part 4
I do not really want to write this post. I am not at all sure I can pull it off without sounding overly harsh. Then again, the people reading this blog primarily fall into two camps. For the most part you will give us a fair hearing. We appreciate that and take it as a sacred charge to only be writing the truth as we understand it. The other group is reading with a critical eye because they think we are writing about them. They cannot afford to be wrong in matters of faith and practice so they have to find fault with the writing or the writer. Regardless of which camp you belong to, may we assure you, this is not about you. If, however, you should feel uncomfortable with yourself over anything you read here, we suggest you seek the Lord to find the real reason for your discomfort.
"Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth..." (2 Timothy 3:8) There were religious spirits working even in Egypt thousands of years ago. Moses had to deal with them. The magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh's court had religion bottled up and packaged for their greatest good. When he should have been letting God's people leave Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart because his religious leaders convinced him Moses was not part of the religious elite. That was true. Moses was coming in the name of I Am to set God's people free from their bondage to the Egyptians. God always comes to set his people free from bondage. He is working on that in the Santa Maria valley right now.
Let us be precise about what was going on. Perhaps we will see a parallel or even two between the religious spirit Moses confronted and the one we are facing. The religion of Egypt was controlled by a group the Bible calls magicians and sorcerers. This is done lest we be confused about who is the good guy in this historical account. Jannes and Jambres are traditionally thought to be the leaders of these magicians and sorcerers. By way of their magic arts, this group was able to convince Pharaoh they were the ones to whom were given the power of God in the nation of Egypt. Along comes Moses telling them I Am has sent me to tell you to let Israel go. Pharaoh had to ask who is this I Am, and who is Moses, and why would he let the unpaid laborers who were building the infrastructure of Egypt simply leave.
Moses had a word from God. Pharaoh had a country that needed cheap labor. Jannes and Jambres had a religious structure that garnered its power by being a closed system that maintained the status quo. They resisted the truth. We know the end of the story. God had to finally destroy Egypt and kill the firstborn in all their houses before Pharaoh was willing to send the Hebrews away. Even then he had second thoughts and went after them with his whole army. Again, we know the end of that story. The words of warning for us follow immediately, "but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all..." (vs. 9) Religious leaders who perpetuate a closed religious system hit a glass ceiling. They do not understand why they are not making any more progress than they are. It is clear from these verses the reason is they resist the truth. The problem, as we know, is they cannot see the truth because they are blinded by a religious spirit.
There are lots of other places we could go in talking about the workings of religious spirits, and perhaps we will reprise this series in the future, but there are other things we would like to teach that might fill in some blanks first. Stick with us for one more manifestation of a religious spirit and we will move onto something more fun.
"...who suppose that godliness is a means of gain..." (1 Timothy 6:5) Many people reading those words will doubtless think we are about to indict the word of faith teachers. In truth we probably have less of an axe to grind with most of them then with certain other groups. In fact most of them seem to be outside the influence of religious spirits so they are of no concern in this case. The reason our minds go there is because we have mostly been taught that the gain Paul is talking about here is strictly, or at least primarily, financial.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the heretical Scientology cult (guess how we feel about Scientology) is purported to have said the best way to make a lot of money is to start a religion. He then went on to prove his hypothesis by becoming a wealthy man. We have never found there to be a great deal of money in the business of religion, but perhaps that is because we were never very good at it. In any event, gain cannot be seen as simply dollars in the bank or the worldly things money can buy. It is actually better summed up as "more". This deception of a religious spirit thinks more is better, more money, more people, more buildings, more buses, more books authored, more Cd's distributed, etc. Hear me on this, there is nothing wrong with any of that--unless it leads to arrogance, which it certainly can. A byproduct of doing the right things before God is his material blessing. Therefore, we cannot simply look at a person's material substance and judge whether he is being influenced by a religious spirit. A person who is so influenced will, probably sooner than later, give himself away. Just as a gambler with a tell, this person will brag, as humbly as he can, about the people he ministers to, the money his ministry generates, or the building project he is planning. There will be a smugness about him that cannot be explained away simply as a personality trait. Did we mention he is not very good at receiving counsel from anyone who has not reached his level? That is all we are going to say about that. We could give examples, but we will not--at least not in the blog.
"Now as Jannes and Jambres resisted Moses, so do these also resist the truth..." (2 Timothy 3:8) There were religious spirits working even in Egypt thousands of years ago. Moses had to deal with them. The magicians and sorcerers of Pharaoh's court had religion bottled up and packaged for their greatest good. When he should have been letting God's people leave Egypt, Pharaoh hardened his heart because his religious leaders convinced him Moses was not part of the religious elite. That was true. Moses was coming in the name of I Am to set God's people free from their bondage to the Egyptians. God always comes to set his people free from bondage. He is working on that in the Santa Maria valley right now.
Let us be precise about what was going on. Perhaps we will see a parallel or even two between the religious spirit Moses confronted and the one we are facing. The religion of Egypt was controlled by a group the Bible calls magicians and sorcerers. This is done lest we be confused about who is the good guy in this historical account. Jannes and Jambres are traditionally thought to be the leaders of these magicians and sorcerers. By way of their magic arts, this group was able to convince Pharaoh they were the ones to whom were given the power of God in the nation of Egypt. Along comes Moses telling them I Am has sent me to tell you to let Israel go. Pharaoh had to ask who is this I Am, and who is Moses, and why would he let the unpaid laborers who were building the infrastructure of Egypt simply leave.
Moses had a word from God. Pharaoh had a country that needed cheap labor. Jannes and Jambres had a religious structure that garnered its power by being a closed system that maintained the status quo. They resisted the truth. We know the end of the story. God had to finally destroy Egypt and kill the firstborn in all their houses before Pharaoh was willing to send the Hebrews away. Even then he had second thoughts and went after them with his whole army. Again, we know the end of that story. The words of warning for us follow immediately, "but they will progress no further for their folly will be manifest to all..." (vs. 9) Religious leaders who perpetuate a closed religious system hit a glass ceiling. They do not understand why they are not making any more progress than they are. It is clear from these verses the reason is they resist the truth. The problem, as we know, is they cannot see the truth because they are blinded by a religious spirit.
There are lots of other places we could go in talking about the workings of religious spirits, and perhaps we will reprise this series in the future, but there are other things we would like to teach that might fill in some blanks first. Stick with us for one more manifestation of a religious spirit and we will move onto something more fun.
"...who suppose that godliness is a means of gain..." (1 Timothy 6:5) Many people reading those words will doubtless think we are about to indict the word of faith teachers. In truth we probably have less of an axe to grind with most of them then with certain other groups. In fact most of them seem to be outside the influence of religious spirits so they are of no concern in this case. The reason our minds go there is because we have mostly been taught that the gain Paul is talking about here is strictly, or at least primarily, financial.
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of the heretical Scientology cult (guess how we feel about Scientology) is purported to have said the best way to make a lot of money is to start a religion. He then went on to prove his hypothesis by becoming a wealthy man. We have never found there to be a great deal of money in the business of religion, but perhaps that is because we were never very good at it. In any event, gain cannot be seen as simply dollars in the bank or the worldly things money can buy. It is actually better summed up as "more". This deception of a religious spirit thinks more is better, more money, more people, more buildings, more buses, more books authored, more Cd's distributed, etc. Hear me on this, there is nothing wrong with any of that--unless it leads to arrogance, which it certainly can. A byproduct of doing the right things before God is his material blessing. Therefore, we cannot simply look at a person's material substance and judge whether he is being influenced by a religious spirit. A person who is so influenced will, probably sooner than later, give himself away. Just as a gambler with a tell, this person will brag, as humbly as he can, about the people he ministers to, the money his ministry generates, or the building project he is planning. There will be a smugness about him that cannot be explained away simply as a personality trait. Did we mention he is not very good at receiving counsel from anyone who has not reached his level? That is all we are going to say about that. We could give examples, but we will not--at least not in the blog.
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