A Christmas Message ...
Back To Square One
You've probably noticed. Our world's IQ, insanity quotient, has gone crackers, crazy, gonzo, bonkers, wacko of late. Pick your adjective. And this trend seems to escalate with each new sunrise. When looking through the prism of Biblical prophecies, our world has been changed in fundamental ways since 9/11. What we are witnessing is the steady emergence, the rising up of the sixth empire, Babylon the Great of Revelation. This story began with a prophecy in the book of Genesis, when Isaac’s wife Rebekah was pregnant. “And the LORD said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from within you; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” [Gen. 25:23]. Today, both these different manner of people, you included, are at the heart and core of the prophecies of Revelation unfolding before our eyes on a daily basis.
Introduction
When these two brothers grew into men, the birthright was passed down, as it had from Abraham to their father, Isaac. Jacob/Israel, in turn, received the birthright blessing, beginning the fulfilling of Genesis 25:23 that the older, Esau/Edom, shall serve the younger. Esau felt he was wronged out of the birthright and the inheritance. It resulted in another prophecy, “And Esau/Edom hated1 [See footnote at the end of Introduction section], Jacob/Israel because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then I will slay my brother Jacob.” [Gen. 27:41; read chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man's Elephant for the repercussions of Edom's lie of omission in dealing with the birthright].
And while during their physical lifetimes, the two brothers made amends, fulfilling the prophecy to “slay my brother Jacob/Israel” began about 2000 years ago with the children of Israel and Christ, and continues to this day. Edom’s prophecy to slay his brother will culminate at the end of the Christian age with the penultimate conflict between Babylon the Great and all the nations of Israel. [See Jer. 30:7; Rev. 13:4, 7]. Recall that an exceedingly angry Herod the Great [first century BCE] had all the children two years and younger in the region of Bethlehem slain by the sword when he found out the wise men from the east left him high and dry concerning the exact location of the young child Christ. “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her sons, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” [See Mat. 2:16-18, 10:34; Jer. 31:15]. King Herod was a descendant of Edom.
A note about Matthew’s quote of Jeremiah 31. Rachel, the beloved wife of Israel, was the mother of Joseph [See Gen. 46:19; Gen. 49:22-26]. Israel's wife Leah was the mother of Judah, the Jews. Joseph is the kingly line of the House of Israel to this day through his son Ephraim, Great Britain, and Ephraim's brother Manasseh, the US. [Eze. 37:16; Gen. 48; also see the Feature article, Is The US (And UK) In End-times Bible Prophecy?]. And as Christ said, he was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in this age. [Mat. 15:24]. Rachel was buried in Bethlehem, which is where Christ was born. [Gen. 35:19]. In a prophetic sense, then, Rachel is the mother of the House of Israel, hence weeping for her sons. And later, when Christ was crucified, it was under the auspices of Herod Antipas, the first century CE Edomite ruler of Judea. [See the Feature article, The Little Horn: First Century Antichrist].
The prophetic description of Edom in Genesis 27 states, “And by the sword shall you live, [war, and the benefits thereof both military and economic; see Guns And Money] and shall serve your brother [Israel- the House of Judah, and the House of Israel]; and it shall come to pass when [not if] you have dominion, you shall break his yoke from off your neck.” US President Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921, may have unwittingly put his finger on this when he said, "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it ... An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy."
Edom gained dominion over the House of Judah by the first century BCE as we read above with Herod. Since 9/11, dominion of the House of Israel is nearly a fait accompli. Take a few minutes to read the entire chapter of Genesis 27.
No doubt, history will look upon 9/11 as the major turning point in world events leading up to the emergence of the sixth empire in Revelation. It overtly marks a changing of the guard on US soil from the House of Israel to Edom. [See 9/11 Smoking Gun]. As a result, for the first time in its history, those controlling the US government initiated a war, not just foreign, but a domestic war against its own citizens wielding the battle cry of "national security." [Our World Since 9/11and CIA Now Spies On All Of Us]. The casus belli of the Iraqi war, somehow linked to 9/11, but not to its alleged Saudi instigators, was based on a deliberate lie: Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Pandora's Box has been opened ever since. [Take a minute here to read John 8:37-44 when Christ addressed those of Edom on the Mount of Olives.2 See footnote at the end of Introduction section].
Since then, the US and its allied governments have ramped up their warmongering around the globe. [The Globalization Of War; Secret Wars In 120 Countries]. They’ve gone to war economically with sanctions overseen by the international central banks, thereby controlling what countries can buy or sell. [See Rev. 13:17; also the Sneakers article, One World Peace And Security]. Iran, and Russia, a member of the BRICS countries who pose a long-term potential threat to the IMF and US/UK controlled central banking system [see New Development Bank], are the two most notable examples. And this doesn’t include the US military/covert ops chaos that’s burned up trillions of tax dollars [War Costs], that could be put to good use domestically improving infrastructure and the economy. Instead, it is used for matters of the sword, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine and Russia, Libya, the Levant, the greater Middle East and Africa. Asia is not out of their sights either. We've entered an era of "perpetual" war. [For example, see Apocalypse Now: Iraq 3.0].
And it is out of chaos among the nations that the beast, the sixth empire Edom, will emerge. “I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns … and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation.” [Rev. 13:1, 7; see Vast US Worldwide Network Military Bases], which certainly describes a one world government [1WG]. In Dan. 7:2, “Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove [Aramaic, giyach, to burst forth, as if to battle; see Dan. 11:40, 41] upon the great sea [the Mediterranean].” The first five heads of this beast, from Babylon to the Ottoman empire, ruled Jerusalem and the area of the Mediterranean bordering their territory, as will Edom. [See Dan. 11:45; also the Feature articles, Revelation 17: Big Brother, and Ten Horns, Ten Nations]. As the JFB Commentary [A.R. Fausset] notes regarding Rev. 13, “ … out of the troubled waves of peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.” The chaos of wars and worldwide economic upheaval, perhaps initiated by the crash of the unregulated $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market controlled by five banks3 [see Derivatives], caused by the sixth head certainly would trouble the people and nations of the world, opening the way for dominion by Edom and a 1WG.
As noted, living by the sword is a common theme since 9/11 on the part of the US, the British and it’s allied European governments, all connected by the umbilical of Edom's central banks. Echoing "lies are truth" and the "war is peace" language of force, mainstream corporate media pummels us with the propaganda that not blindly marching in step with the government is somehow “unpatriotic.” As the prophecy states, “I will slay my brother.” Yet, we fail to see the obvious. Edom, under the pretense of patriotism [we've all seen those football field size flags and the orchestrated military personnel from overseas surprising their families at televised sporting events], is enlisting the children of Israel, our sons and daughters, to fight their wars while simultaneously undermining the very foundational principles of the US Constitution and the rule of law.
"Speak unto the House of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane [Heb. chalal, to pollute, desecrate] my sanctuary [Heb. miqdash, in context his holy people], the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have forsaken [by failing to provide them with the love of the truth of the word of God] shall fall by the sword.'" [Eze. 24:21, 24]. US presidents ban the same media from televising the return of our "hero's" [i.e., war dead] coffins, lest we lose our appetite for their faux-patriotic propaganda as was the case with the Vietnam war. Media doublespeak aside, blindly following this course is idiotic and foolhardy. These cooperative tactics of the central banks vis-a-vis governments and the military are somewhat reminiscent of hostile corporate raiders, only with countries. The only effective "poison pill" defense, however, appears to be the nuclear deterrent, at least for the time being.
Why are those who control the US government so enamored of war? The Genesis prophecy said, “Two nations are in your [Rebekah’s] womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from within you.” Back in the day when those of the House of Israel still had control of the US, President Harry Truman said, “I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.” [See Mat. 5]. Edom lives by the sword. Edom and Israel are two very different manner of people. [See Edom Judah].
When we consider lies, war and hate, the Biblical prophecies point to Edom in the last days. We just need to look at the world’s current events, consider a bit of history and connect the dots to realize it. [For Consideration1 and 2]. But as our LORD said to the prophet Ezekiel of us in our age, “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house [the House of Israel], which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house." [Eze. 12:2, 9]. Our ancestors of the House of Israel had been taken captive and scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire, circa 730 BCE, due to their idolatry and rebelliousness. So while this statement was descriptive of Ezekiel's physical residence at the time, c. 590 BCE, the prophetic portent is for us, the House of Israel in our age.
This is where we find ourselves today, prophetically, with the children of Israel and our older brother, i.e., Big Brother, Edom. [See the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?]. We’ve left the Brave New World for 1984. And for the most part, we are none the wiser for it.
However, it would be a huge mistake on our part to view Edom as the cause of our troubles. They’re not. We are. We only have ourselves to blame, as the prophecies make abundantly clear to us. We are a rebellious people. We've given Edom power over us. We are the weaker brother. We have forsaken our covenant. We have forsaken our birthright. And we have forsaken the gospel delivered by Christ and the apostles in the first century for Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. And we are cursed for it exactly as the apostle Paul said. We've turned the hand of our Lord against us. [See Gal. 1:6-9, Jer. 30:15].
Instead of remaining steadfast in the truth, standing up and claiming our heritage as the sons of God in this age through the Spirit of God, we have fallen victim to the feeble lie that we are gentiles, children of this world. [See the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. We are so weak spiritually that the many don't recognize the truth even when stumbling across it. Our societies have sunk to the point that moral turpitude is now the norm. Godly honor and moral integrity are rare commodities. The nations of Israel have abandoned the love of the truth of the word of God, as have those who claim to speak for God. [Read Eze. 13:1-9; Micah 3:5]. So, what can we do, then, as individuals? The rest of this article leads us to our answer. We need to get back to square one.
1 This is the first use of this word, hated, in the Biblical record, and it is used in context with Edom and Israel. The Hebrew, satam, means to cherish animosity against, to follow hostilely. The only other use of this word in the Old Testament refers to the son of Israel, Joseph, the kingly line of the House of Israel in the last days. See Gen. 49:23. Both uses of the Hebrew satam in the Old Testament are specific references by Edom to his brother Israel. The last days prophetically refer to the time between Christ's first coming and his return. And as we know, Christ, born in Bethlehem was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the last days, or this age. As this age began with the killing of the children of Israel by Edom, so too shall it be until Babylon the Great falls. Edom has followed the House of Israel hostilely and has held dear their animosity towards us through the past two millennia. Edom's hatred today extends to us of the House of Israel. Be sure to read the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother.
2 In John 8:33, this same group of "Abraham's seed" says they never were in bondage to any man. However, all Israel was in bondage in Egypt. By a simple process of elimination with the two brothers, that only leaves Israel's brother Edom that Christ is addressing. [See the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares].
3 "Currently [May, 2013], just five banks control 90% of all derivatives contracts: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs." See 5 Banks. All the usual suspects with their proven track record for disrupting the world's economy in 2007-2008 with the bond and real estate derivatives market. Just six years later, all the nations of the world are in a far more precarious situation. For an interesting review of the 2008 crash, read Michael Lewis's The Big Short.
Feature Section
This being the fifth anniversary of the Christmas Messages, I thought I would post some of the pertinent passages from the previous articles. However, it was a bit complicated to excise portions of the articles without losing some context. Therefore, I would encourage you to go back and read the articles in full.
In 2010, The Love Of The Truth
[See Full article].
Our society today is a direct result of what we've allowed it to become and continue to willingly embrace. It's blowback, the negative consequence of cause and effect. [See Eze. 24:25]. Evangelicals, at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in October 2010, were frantic, warning that people are abandoning the traditional churches and atheism is becoming the new religion. No wonder.
Our Christian actions, in terms of time and money, confirm we already prefer the mythical god Santa Claus, still embraced and celebrated with their children by these very same evangelicals, over Christ, in large part due to the irrelevancy of what is passed off by mainstream Christianity as the "gospel." [See the Feature article, What Exactly is the Gospel?]. If these same evangelicals genuinely claim to speak and live the truth, it would seem logical that they would denounce Santa Claus and the entire Christmas myth. Yet, they wonder why people are turning away from the hypocrisy and futility they see daily in corporate religion. This is not to say individuals are not sincere. But sincerely believing a fable does not make it the truth.
So, lo and behold, here we are at the end of 2010 in a very large, complicated mess, with the past decade costing us trillions in war related expenditures, not to mention the deleterious wars, both foreign and domestic, that affect society in general and families and friends in particular. With state governments bankrupt, very high unemployment rates, coupled with trillions of dollars in lost housing values the past few years, plus the millions of people in the US who've lost their homes, with all those chimneys for Santa to slide down, and others who are close to it, so that as the Christmas season grows longer year by year, our situation seems to grow corresponding worse. Collectively, we've managed to garner a sock full of coal. [For an enlightened secular analysis, see Taking Down America and A Brave New Dystopia].
Not only has current day Christianity rebelled by dealing falsely with our heritage, we have lost sight of it and the truth. We don't believe Christ. We don't take him at his word. No wonder our children are becoming atheists. And if we don't follow Christ, who is it we follow? Again, it looks like the mythical Santa Claus. And because we don't take Christ at his word, we have come to embrace the deceits and lies. Thus, we are a people who once would not lie [Isa. 63:8], to become a people who don’t recognize the truth when it hits us right between the eyes.
The reason for our date with the Apocalypse is simple. "... because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." [2 Ths. 2:10-12].
In 2011, Our Christian Faith
[See Full article].
In hindsight, Shakespeare’s Polonius in Hamlet had sage advice, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” If we had lived within our means, the US might not have 800 [more than 1000 and growing in 2014] or so military bases circling the globe, and the second largest item in the US budget wouldn't be our national debt payment, but we’d have a healthier ledger sheet, and a stronger financial future for our children and grandchildren. Instead, we’ve gambled our national inheritance in the world's largest casino, Wall Street, literally losing our houses to “the House.”
In all, the aggregate debt of the “wealthy” nations of the world is on the order of $200 trillion and counting. This is about three and a half times the world’s GDP, which is the same debt ratio of the US’s debt as a percentage of GDP. Cumulatively speaking, this is the largest amount of debt in the history of the world. And the US is the world's biggest debtor nation. More than a few first world countries are close to the point that the interest payments on their debt will overwhelm their nation’s revenues. Some governments are only holding back this mudslide of financial collapse by having favorable interest rates … for now.
To put $200 trillion in debt into some sort of perspective, if you counted from one to a trillion every second of every day of every year, it would take you nearly 32,000 years. Now multiply that times 200, about 6.5 million years, and you get some kind of an idea how deep the hole is. The 99% are on the hook for a lot of bucks.
Ninety-nine percent of Americans are more likely to have been directly impacted by this deliberate act of financial terrorism than we have with any act of political terrorism. Following the 9/11 attacks, homeland security ballooned exponentially, yet almost nothing has been done to protect us from further financial ruin, which many financial pundits believe is on the horizon in the form of a $700 trillion [one quadrillion plus in 2014] unregulated derivatives market. As only five banks control the derivatives market, their actions, intentional or not, could make the 2008 crash look like a small tremor in the world's economy opening the way for a 1WG and economy.
Many of the alleged perpetrators of 9/11 were hunted down and imprisoned, tortured or killed. The Bush administration went to war in Iraq. However, your money was used to reward the financial corporation's predators with trillions in bailouts and billions in bonuses. Some of the perpetrators, like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others were declared "too big to fail." However, the biggest failure is in the moral fabric of the US.
It’s ironic, while New York was the key target in the 9/11 political terrorist attacks, it is New York’s Wall Street, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the forefront, that unleashed the financial terrorist attacks on the US and the rest of the world with far greater negative impact, blowback, on the West. [2013: They're At It Again; see the Sneakers article, One World Peace And Security]. The question begs asking, why is there such a vast difference in the government's response with al-Qaeda versus al-Wallstreet? The simple answer is that our government is filled with al-Wallstreet operatives. [For the back story of the US financial mess and where it's heading, see chapter six in the book, The Blind Man's Elephant and the final chapter in The Curious Elephant, The Great Rebellion. For a secular look at these events, read The Big Short- Inside The Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis].
In 2012, The War Dispatches
[See Full article].
By MICHAEL J. MILLER 7:30 AM ET
NEW YORK CITY— John F. Kennedy said, “The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate ... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.” The Bay of Pigs notwithstanding, about forty years later, a new generation of American leaders apparently motivated by a tumescent imperial swagger for “war and hate,” started the Iraq war over non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and not the obviously gauche raison d’etre, existent oil and gas. The Middle East, and the world haven’t been the same since the fateful day in Baghdad, when America, ignorant of its prophetic portent, opened Pandora’s box in the ancient land of Babylon.
The hot spots of war move about our planet like locusts on leaves, spawned by the greed for our world’s geo-political power and wealth. And while the US military-corporate complex wages wars on many fronts, some with troops, drones and missiles, others with economic sanctions, and others with covert ops, war, not peace, has become a perpetual part of our every day life. When we follow the money, when we look at our annual federal budget, it’s who we are now and what we do. We're building a world at war.
All the same, it doesn’t register that war is being waged upon us. Like the proverbial frog in water that progressively nears cooking temperatures, we are oblivious to the increasing heat of our domestic war, which appears to us as nothing more than the normal progression of everyday life.
And while the US may be the prime example, Western Europe and the UK are not without their own troubles. It’s as though the US is steadily morphing into the old Soviet Union, including the accoutrement fail of the Afghan war, and Western Europe is becoming the old eastern bloc with all its government mismanaged economic woes. [Not surprising as those who were pulling the strings in the old Soviet Union and eastern bloc are now doing the same in the US and the western bloc]. So while our attention has been directed to the overt wars over there, we’ve been blinkered about the covert war in our own homelands.
Sun Tzu, author of the Chinese book of military strategy, The Art of War, wrote, “All war is deception.” And “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” This is sort of like cooking the frog without all the fuss, hence, the strategic importance of using deception when waging war.
The genesis seed of 9/11 spawned this enigmatic secret state process of subjugation. It is conducted for “our good” in the name of that magical all-inclusive abracadabra doublespeak phrase, national security. This genesis seed also spawned several hundred new domestic spy agencies, with the NSA at its head. Technology has been developed that can match our identity to our voices from phone eavesdropping. Our smart phones essentially being NSA portable eavesdropping devices. Cameras can now identify us by the way we walk down the street. And the FBI recently instituted, what is surely just the initial foray, a billion dollar facial recognition system at undisclosed locations within the US. Added to this is the fact that our computers conveniently come packaged with GPS locators, user-facing cameras and auto scanning facial recognition software that can’t be disabled. Our digital devices, upon which we eagerly have become so reliant, have surreptitiously become personal Trojan horses.
Like it or not, true Christian morals and values have been supplanted by societal values, which are corporate values. We can be an irresponsible, vile and immoral person with little socially redeeming value, but if we‘ve got a dollar in our pocket, then we are their kind of person. Corporations love nothing more than money and the control it brings. “For the love of money is a root of all evil, for which some have strayed from the faith [Greek, pistis, a conviction of the truth] in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” [1 Tim. 6:10].
It turn, elected selected officials serve their constituency, big corporations, not the redundant electorate. And these big corporations get their money to unduly influence political decision makers from purchases made by us, the redundant electorate. If it weren’t a truly grim situation, we’d be amused by the irony of it all. We’re patriotically footing the bill with our lives and money to disenfranchise ourselves.
As the 2013 Christmas Message remains the most popular reader article since the beginning of summer, it makes sense to repost most of it here.
In 2013, Our Corrupted Compass
[See Full article].
It’s noteworthy that the first written mention of the four major compass points referencing Earth is in connection with our ancestors, and reaches down to us today. [For those of you not familiar with our true Biblical ancestry, read the Feature articles, The Tale Of Two Covenants, and We’re Abraham’s Seed and Heirs; also the Sneakers articles, This Old House and His Treasured Possession]. And regarding the extent of the blessings mentioned here by Yehovah to the House of Israel spreading out in all directions and all the families of the Earth being blessed, read the Feature article, Is The US (and UK) In End-times Bible Prophecy?
Today, as the House of Israel, our theological-spiritual compass is out of whack. Our angle of declination is way off, and we don’t know which way is up, which is to say our inclination is messed up too. We aren’t following our correct heading, true geographic east, the truth of the word of God. “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel [Christ] appeared from the east. His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the Earth shined in his glory.” [Eze. 43:2, 4]. When Christ returns, he will set his feet upon the Mount of Olives, which is in the east, before Jerusalem. [Zec. 14:4]. Having lost our bearing, we are following the fallacious magnetic charm of the latter day god, Santa at the North Pole. The sixth beast in Revelation, 666 is called Babylon the Great. According to the JFB Commentary, the Babylonians believed the common meeting place of their gods was in the north.
Having lost our direction, we are theologically and spiritually adrift, out of sight of the truth because we have abandoned our heritage and covenant [our compass] with God to run after falsehoods and lies in this, the silly Santa Season. [See the Sneakers article, Got Milk?].
As we are in the Santa Season, let’s go through a prophecy in Jeremiah addressed specifically to us, the House of Israel, warning us not to get involved with a certain heathen practice, with which we are all too familiar. We’ll begin in verse 1.
Jeremiah 10:1- Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, House of Israel.
This is very clear to whom it is addressed. It is addressed to the Christian nations by our LORD, Christ, who told us, “I am only sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” [Mat. 15:24]. Our LORD also said, " ... the House of Israel are my people." [Eze. 34:30]. And as the gospel says, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” [Luke 1:68; see the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. And as the apostle Paul confirmed, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law [covenant made with Israel only, Exd. 19:5, 6, Tts. 2:14, 1 Pet. 2:9], that we might receive the adoption of sons." [Gal. 4:4, 5]. Our abandonment of this truth and our covenant with God over the past two millennia has led to our alliance with Santa. And as we’ll read, our destination is very much a sack of coal rather than shiny presents under the tree.
Those who have redefined our Biblical identity have duped us. And it was set in motion by events that took place about 4000 years ago. [Read chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man’s Elephant for a detailed accounting]. Understanding our history in this regard is essential if we wish to grasp what we’re discussing here in Jeremiah. Otherwise, we’ll be tempted to fall back to the defensive position of “no way, I don’t think so, and this can’t be right because.” Knowing the truth sets us free. It puts the wind at our back, hastening us to the correct heading given us by Christ, our LORD. [John 8:32].
10:2- Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not learn the way of the heathen, and do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathens are dismayed at them.
Again, this is a very clear statement. Do not learn the way of the heathen. But, of course, we have. When God tells us to go east, we head north following our compromised compass. And not only have we learned the way of the heathen, we’ve done it in a much grander fashion than the heathens of past ever imagined.
The signs of heaven here refer to the winter solstice. Among others, the heathens worshipped the Sun as a god. As the year wore on, the sunlight portion of the days became shorter, and colder. The shortest sunlight day of the year is the winter solstice. To appease the Sun god, they devised a certain custom. Regardless of our motivation and qualifying proclamations, it is this custom we are warned not to learn. [See the Sneakers article, Birthdays Of The Gods]. And what is this custom that the heathens partake in?
10:3- For the custom of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
The heathen custom that we are warned against learning involves a tree cut from the forest around the time of the winter solstice. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out where this is going.
10:4- They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with nails and hammers so it will not topple.
Our picture is coming into focus. Heathens cut a tree out of the forest around the time of the winter solstice. This is an evergreen tree as the deciduous trees are barren. Then, heathens fasten it with nails so it doesn’t fall over. And then we decorate it with gold and silver. Sound familiar, Dr. Watson?
10:5- They are upright like a palm tree, but they speak not. They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.
Thus, we have trees that are fastened with hammers and nails that stand up straight to keep them from falling over. They are decorated around the time of the solstice. We are told not to fear them, because unlike the heathen’s belief, the trees have no power to do anything, evil or good, much less affect the Sun’s behavior. Instead, as Christians, the children of God, the House of Israel, we should fear the word of our LORD, who is almighty and powerful, the Creator of the heavens and the Sun when he tells us not to learn this custom. Nevertheless, we fear the tree rather than our LORD.
10:6- Forasmuch, there is none like you, O LORD, you are great, and your name is great in might.
This is a reminder to us, again. Why do we partake in a silly and superstitious heathen custom in direct defiance of our LORD, Christ whom we claim with our words to follow? “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” [Mark 7:7]. And in this case, the practice of heathens. The trees have no power in them, despite what heathens may think. It is our LORD that is all-powerful. Yet, to which god do our actions defer? Justifications aside, it’s such a plain and simple command too, Do not learn the way of the heathen.
10:7- Who would not fear you, King of the nations? For to you does this pertain [Heb. ya’ah, to pertain to]. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.
Remember these verses are directed to the nations of the House of Israel, and not to the entire world, or even the House of Judah, who are blind to Christ in this age. The King of the nations here references the King of Israel, who is Christ. [John 1:49]. The office that Christ holds as King of Israel is his alone. And in all the nations of Israel, there are twelve including Judah, the Jews [see Genesis 49 for the list], no one is like our Savior. Therefore, who wouldn’t respect, reverence and honor our LORD? Uh, that would be us.
So, Dr. Watson, what tree is it that is cut out of the forest about the time of the winter solstice [in case you are wondering, this is the end part of December, originally on the 25th], is fastened so it remains upright, has to be carried because it can’t walk, [you know, like out of a supermarket lot or tree farm to your car], is decorated with gold and silver [you know, like shiny orbs and tinsel, often with an angel of light on top, 2 Cor. 11:14], and pertains to our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ? The answer is elementary. If you answered totem pole, go to the back of the class.
This is the heathen practice that we are specifically told not to partake in. Yet, travel around the world, and wherever you find the House of Israel spread out on the face of the Earth, north, south, east or west, you will find us up to our eyeballs in Christmas trees. We are such a clever bunch.
10:8- But they are altogether stupid and foolish; the tree is a doctrine of vanity.
Okay, we’re not so clever. In fact, we’re downright stupid and foolish. That’s pretty harsh language to use about anyone. Keep in mind, our Savior, who shed his blood for us when nailed to a wooden cross made from a tree, is telling us this. If Jesus Christ walked into our house this December, pointed at our Christmas tree and said, “You stupid and foolish sod. I gave my life for you. And you repay me by running after a silly and ignorant pagan custom directly contrary to what I told you!” what would we say?
“Yeah, well get over it. I’ll honor you any way I choose, if I choose.”
While most of us may think we would not dare utter these words to our Savior, we do worse. We make this same point with our actions every Christmas. Yet, we can’t or won’t connect the dots. We are more afraid of what our Christmas tree-hugging neighbors, co-workers and family might say if we don’t have a Christmas tree in our house and office. What would we tell them if they asked why? We fear the tree and not our LORD, all our falsely pious, justifying words to the contrary. And it’s all because we have forgotten our covenant and forsaken the gospel our LORD and Savior delivered to us in the first century.
Verse nine references the sorts of merchandise, the gold and silver et al, associated with the pagan tradition of the solstice tree making the point that “everything connected with idols is the result of human effort.” [JFB Commentary, Jeremiah 10; see the Sneakers article, Better Than Gold].
10:10- But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the Earth shall tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.
This is the effect dot that needs connecting to the cause dot. Otherwise, we get the not so happy ending, the sack of coal we mentioned at the beginning.
The very being of our Savior is truth. And our Savior has offered us eternal life. The Christmas tree on the other hand, is nothing but a lamentable, false and lifeless god that leads us away from our first century covenant. What excuse do we offer up to follow this god in direct opposition to what we have been told? “Well, LORD, the compass I got at Christmas said it was pointing east to you, but I ended up going north to Santa Claus. It’s not my fault.” Excuses are reasons for failure. Christ didn’t call us to be Christian failures.
When we have Christmas trees in our homes and offices, our actions show we lack the conviction of the truth. We are feeble in faith, not trusting the word of our Savior. And when our faith lacks the works of trusting and following Christ’s words, how can we claim to be Christians? “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith [Greek, pistis, a conviction of the truth] on Earth?” [Luke 18:8; see the Sneakers article, We Don't Believe You].
Our LORD’s anger is addressed to us, the House of Israel. We have taken our birthright and the abundance of the incredible covenant promises, and squandered it throughout the four corners of the world on a two-bit tree god. Don’t learn the way of the heathen.
Perhaps, being told we are stupid and foolish, even by Christ, is a bit too pedestrian nowadays to really get through to us in our f-bomb laden society. We may need something more robust and vigorous in the way of vulgar vernacular. But I’ll leave it to what works for you.
This tree business is the most colossal and mindboggling boondoggle foisted upon any people in the history of the world. It’s worse than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim and Amancio Ortega, four of the known richest guys on the planet, pooling and handing over their man-made fortunes of 200 billions or so in exchange for a useless rusted bottle cap found along the side of a road because some guy in a red suit convinced them it is the most valuable thing on the planet. Stupid and foolish? You bet, but less so than our Christmas tree-Santa fiasco. We’ve been duped, directed away from the promise of our eternal inheritance, our eternal life in our Father’s kingdom, paid for in full by our Savior’s blood, for what, a dead tree!?
Remember, that in the context of the Christmas tree we are told, by the anger of our Savior the Earth shall tremble, and the nations [that’s us] will not be able to abide his indignation. Might be a good idea to write this down on a slip of paper. Bring it with you when you go to buy your tree this year. Read it just before you pay for the tree. And understand that the true cost of the tree that pertains to our LORD, as we’ll see, first is the loss of our birthright, then our countries, and in the end, our lives.
In Joel, the prophecy says, “The Earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the Sun and the Moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And the LORD [Christ] shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” [Joel 2:10, 11; also in context for the House of Israel, Acts 2:16-21, 36].
Christ said in Matthew, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the first five seals of Rev. 6], shall the Sun be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken ….” [Mat. 24:29].
And in Revelation we read, “And when he opened the sixth seal [during the time of the sixth beast, 666], and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the Sun became as black as a sackcloth of hair, and the Moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the Earth … and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved away out of their places.
“And the kings of the Earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?’” [Rev. 6:12-17].
We are stupid if we think the whole Santa-Christmas tree thing is innocent and harmless. We are foolish if we think it honors our Savior. Our corrupted compass leads us to a false destination. We need to align ourselves with the compass bearings given to us by our Savior. Christians fear, honor and respect our LORD, not the tree.
10:11- Thus you [Jeremiah] shall say to them [the nations of the House of Israel], ’The gods that have not made the heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under these heavens.
Verse 11, rather than being written in Hebrew, was written in an Aramean dialect, [W. Wright, Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages, 1890, p.16]. Aram's ancient border was just to the north of the kingdom of the House of Israel, which is southern Syria today. Connections with Aram go back to Isaac who married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel of Padan-aram. Bethuel was a son of Nahor, Abraham's [Abram's] brother. [Heb. Arammiy, Gen. 25:20]. His son Jacob/Israel married Rachel and Leah, daughters of Laban, also of Aram. [Gen. 29:16]. Aram was a descendant of Shem, Noah's firstborn son. This region did not become known as Syria, an abbreviation of Assyria, until after the Assyrian Captivity in 732 BCE.
The contrast of putting this verse into the Aramaic, rather than the Hebrew language of the House of Israel’s covenant with the true God, highlights the point that our Christmas trees are false gods, considered idolatry in the eyes of our LORD and will be destroyed along with everything else we've put in place of the true God. It also ties it in with the duality of Isaiah's chapter 17 regarding both the Arameans [Damascus] and Ephraim, the House of Israel. Jeremiah penned verse eleven about 40 years or so after the last remnant of the House of Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians. [2 Kng. 17:24]. It was still a fresh memory. As Jeremiah wrote this after the Assyrian captivity of the House of Israel, it is a prophetic history lesson. And because we are ignorant of our covenant relationship with God, believing the deceit that we are gentiles, we have no clue that this message is intended for us today. [See the Feature article, Mirror, Mirror On The Wall].
Jeremiah wrote of Israel in chapter three. “The LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king: ‘Have you seen what backsliding [House of] Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain under green trees, and played the harlot’ … I put her away and gave her a bill [legal document] of divorce.’” [Jer. 3: 6, 8]. The highest point at which trees can grow on a mountain is called the tree line. Forest trees that grow up to the tree line are members of the pine tree family, or evergreen trees. The high mountain areas referenced here are located in the northern reaches of the kingdom of the House of Israel, not far from the southern border of Aram. It is in this area that Christ began his ministry. [See the Feature article, The War Dispatches].
The preceding verse, verse 10, today reiterates the outcome of the divorce, the Assyrian Captivity, only to a much greater degree. The House of Israel was divorced from God, slain and the remnant forcefully removed from their lands, taken captive as slaves and scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire.
Ezekiel wrote a parable about us, the House of Israel. We are called a rebellious house. As we've mentioned, prophecies can and do have dual fulfillments. We see here that the children of the House of Israel were divorced from God and were afflicted for their dalliance with trees. It will be worse for us the second time. "In your filthiness is lewdness: because I [Christ] have purged you [Heb. taher, to be cleansed, made pure, referencing the Assyrian Captivity, then Christ's first century redemption], and you were not purged [we haven't learned from our history and are back to the trees again], you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon you. I [Christ] the LORD have spoken: it shall come to pass and I will do it, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways and according to your doings [not our falsely pious words] you will be judged, says the LORD." [Eze. 24:13, 14]. This corroborates the dual nature of the purging prophecy for Ephraim, the House of Israel in Isaiah 17 that is the basis for the Feature article, Damascus A Heap Of Ruins, which is a lead-in to this article.1
Our LORD and Savior is furious, as in violent and intense anger, with us for returning to the idolatry of the tree. Stop and consider. Christ purged the House of Israel, divorced our ancestors from the covenant. Then, Christ takes on life in the flesh to redeem us from that divorce. Nailed to a tree, he gave up his life for us that we might reap the glorious eternal inheritance according to the promises of the new covenant. "One can show no greater regard for those dear to him than to give his life for them, and this is the love you shall find in Me." [John 15:13, JFB Commentary; the English word friends in the KJV is not a noun, but the Greek adjective, philos].
Yet after all this, we, who claim to be Christians, honor Christ by returning to our old ways with trees again? [See Pro. 26:11]. According to Ezekiel's prophecy, the events of the Apocalypse and the fury of the great day of our LORD's anger will not be a merry time. Since the Assyrian Captivity, Isaiah 17:1-3, the House of Israel has not been "purged of our filthiness." Therefore, some people believe God is absent from our daily affairs. Not so. He's biding his time.
When we don’t learn the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes with its severe consequences. Because of our putting Christ’s name on the Christmas tree, and speciously tying his name to the heathen custom at the winter solstice, the current day House of Israel is told by the prophet Ezekiel, “Afterward, he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks towards the east … By setting their [House of Israel’s] threshold by my threshold, and their door jambs beside my door jambs, with only a wall in between me and them, they have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed. Therefore, I will consume them [Heb. kalah, to come to an end] in my anger … As for you Ezekiel, son of man, describe to the House of Israel the temple [the house of God] that they will be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the pattern.” [See Eze. 43:1, 8, 10, 12; to measure God's plan, the pattern, for us, see the Feature article, Three Temple Ages Make A Plan].
God warned our ancestors to come down from the forests in the high mountains and forsake their idolatry with trees. He advised the House of Israel to return to the temple, the house of the LORD, and the keeping of his ordinances. They didn't. Hence, their divorce from God and the Assyrian Captivity. While Ezekiel described the physical temple, the altar and the priesthood in his follow on verses and chapters, this is a prophetic reminder for us today. The House of Israel needs to weigh God’s plan of eternal inheritance, being kings and priests to God on the new Earth in the new Jerusalem against the way of the Christmas tree that defiles Christ's name and leads to death. Christ is now fulfilling his plan. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." [Heb. 3:1; see the Feature article, The Three Times In God's Plan].
The clear message is that these false gods, Santa, and the Christmas tree, which our "Christian" society holds in high regard today, will be destroyed by our LORD [See Zec. 13:2], with the very large majority of the House of Israel being acceptable losses in the process too, as was the case the first time around with Isaiah's chapter 17 prophecy. The prophet Isaiah warns us today, “But they [the House of Israel] rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit [See Acts 2:36-38], therefore he [Christ] was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” [Isa. 63:10]. Don't learn the way of the heathen.
10:12- He has made the Earth by his power, and he has established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens at his discretion.
10:13- When he speaks, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the Earth, he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
These verses are similar to what God reminded Job of regarding his power in creating the cosmos. “Can you [Job] lift up your voice to the clouds that the abundance of waters may cover you?” [Job 38:34]. In other words, can you tell the clouds to rain on Earth? Didn’t think so. And neither can a decorated tree that is cut out of the forest. You think we’d be smart enough to figure this out. But …
10:14- Every man is stupid in his knowledge: ever founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
10:15- They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation, they shall all perish.
Again, keep in mind that the context of Jeremiah 10 is the House of Israel. This is addressed to us and not the whole world. The point here is that all these things, the Christmas tree, Santa, all the presents we buy, all this is vanity. [See the Sneakers article, Two Kinds Of Stuff]. They are not capable of imparting life. Our LORD and Savior is real. Yet, we choose to ignore the magnificent plan God has set before us, and embrace the fake that is to be destroyed. This is stupidity as defined by our Savior.
Our Savior has offered us eternal life in a new heaven and Earth. We have the opportunity to be kings and priests to our God [Rev. 5:10]. But we chuck this out the window for what, Santa and his red-nosed reindeer, a tree and gifts we probably want to return? Do we really understand how stupid and faithless we must look to our LORD? [See Christmas Spirit]. It’s such a simple thing. Don’t learn the way of the heathen. What word from our LORD is there here that we don’t understand? It's somewhat reminiscent of what our LORD said to Adam and Eve. " ... don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." [Gen. 2:17]. Adam and Eve didn't listen either. And we know how that turned out. We don't do well when it comes to trees, do we? [See the Sneakers article, Bum's Rush].
10:16- The portion of Jacob [the House of Israel] is not like them: for he is the former [the Creator] of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The LORD of hosts [heaven’s armies] is his name. [See Gen. 2:1; Isa. 37:16; Jer. 2:19].
In other words, the House of Israel’s share or portion, our inheritance promised by our Creator is not like these false man-made bobbles. God’s promise to us is magnitudes greater than what we can imagine. He is the Creator of everything in existence both in heaven and on Earth. We are Christ’s “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, our LORD’s possession, that we may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” [1 Pet. 2:9].
Forsaking this compass heading, we joyfully follow the course of darkness, proclaiming the merry praises of Santa Claus, happy to decorate our evergreen trees at the time of the winter solstice in accordance with the heathen practices we’ve learned. We are encouraged in this deceit by secular corporate media to "keep Christ in Christmas." Yet Christ warns us, Don't learn the way of the heathen. We are eager to sail the seas of unrighteousness, out of sight of the truth, forsaking our inheritance. No wonder our LORD of heaven’s armies and Savior is angry with us. And as promised by his word, he will set his armies against us because of our iniquities.
Or, we can choose to immediately change course.
10:20- My tabernacle is spoiled and all my cords are broken, my children have gone forth from me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent anymore or to set up my curtains.
10:21- For the pastors have become stupid, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Because of our insistence on following our erroneous compass heading, the children of the House of Israel are told we’ve left God. We’ve abandoned our covenant and the gospel. We allowed God’s house to become dilapidated, overrun by heathen practices. As his children, we have forsaken him, and the truth, for God is truth. [See the Sneaker’s article, This Old House]. Even those who should be our shepherds leading us to our LORD have not sought him. Our society has become a runaway snowball, bumping and bouncing downhill, racing towards its proverbial hell. It doesn’t take a theological scholar to look at the events of the past year to see the emerging lawless beast all around us.
The US, its inheritance plundered, is no longer an economic superpower unless we are referencing the super national debt. China has warned the US to get its financial house in order, while downgrading the US's credit rating. And the Chinese yuan is increasingly used in foreign transactions. [Yuan International Currency]. The top two US debt items are military expenditures and paying interest on the national debt, largely due to past military expenditures. [US Debt Tracker]. Together, with the dicey unregulated derivatives market, they pose a greater threat to national security than any terrorist organization or "security" leak. Yet, the caretakers in the US government plod ahead on the same old track, postponing rather than solving, bickering as they go, unenlightened to the extraordinary threat within. As with the Roman Empire and others only found in the dust of history, moral and honorable civilizations degenerate and rot until they destroy themselves from within, doomed according to the inexorable law of political entropy.
With the respect and prosperity of its people gone, the vitality of its economy gutted and looted, the US vainly strains to remain a military superpower, as did the old Soviet Union. The government prints ink on paper for money in a desperate dash to avoid collapse because it lacks integrity and economic exuberance. This "wide is the gate and broad is the way" path, in time, leads to the advent of the beast and false prophet who will offer us, as the Christian writer Dostoevsky noted, our daily bread to make everything all better. [See 1 Ths. 5:1-11; also the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?].
While the House of Israel possessed the birthright blessing, what we use to be, our militaristic, "live by the sword" brother Edom does not have this promise. The purging that our LORD said is to come upon our heads is clearly manifesting itself. We've surrendered our birthright to our brother. He has nearly gained total dominion. [See Gen. 25:23, 27:40; also chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man's Elephant for a complete discussion]. We are daily prey to the wolves in sheep’s clothing. [See Rev. 13:7]. This is where we, the children of the House of Israel, are in the silly Santa Season of 2013. [For a secular video comment, see US Not Greatest Country Anymore. Warning: contains adult language that can be considered offensive. To avoid, mute the sound and fast forward to the 1:59 mark].
According to various media reports, people around the world wonder, “What happened to America?” This isn’t the magnanimous defender of liberty and truth that the country use to be. As President Truman said nearly seventy years ago in his first address to the US Congress, "The responsibility of a great state is to serve and not to dominate the world." The US has gone from George Washington, a president who "could not tell a lie," to presidents who cannot tell the truth.
We only need a little objective introspection to see that those of the House of Israel no longer control our nations. [In reference to who does, see v. 4 Obadiah; Gen. 25:23, also John 8:39-47; see the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother]. Sibling nations, the governments of the US and England are at the forefront of lawlessness, torture and the killing fields of war with the aim to dominate the world. [See US Wars]. It was only a decade ago that the US, for the first time in it’s history, became the overt instigator of war and torture, with Syria clearly a possible fourth US war in the past ten years, depending on how we classify US actions in Pakistan, Libya and Iran. Re-read Genesis 27:40. [See the Feature article, Revelation 17: Big Brother; also This Isn't Your Grandfather's USA].
Ten years on, and after a major economic fiasco whose "perpetraitors" were bailed out by those most negatively affected, every call, every email, everything just about is gathered without consent in violation of the 4th amendment rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. But the government, despite its less than stellar track record of being forthright and honest, tells us not to worry. They're not pushing us towards a one world government. They’re not Big Brother.
In Summary
It is evident when paying attention to what’s happening in the world politically, economically, and militarily, and to the prophecies in the Biblical record, that we are well down the road towards fulfilling the events described in Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel and the other books of the OT prophets. We just don’t have a time line. But we do have a sequence of events. “Now learn the parable of the fig. When the branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So likewise when you see all these things, know that it [the end of this age] is near, even at the doors.” [Read Mat. 24:3-33 for “all these things”].
It all began in the garden in Eden, no doubt with a fig tree somewhere there as well as with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The question for us has been, and remains a simple one, "Do we believe and listen to the truth of God or not?" Eve and Adam chose to listen to Satan. And with that, mankind's knowledge of good and evil, and the choices we make between these two entered into our lives. Do we choose evil or good ... unrighteousness or righteousness ... lies or the truth? [See the Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?]. It has been this way since the days in the garden, and will continue through the end of our age. [See the Sneakers article, Birthdays Of The Gods].
The end of this age is described in the Book of Daniel as the worst time in human history since there was a nation. The reason for this, too, is simple. Like Eve and Adam, we've listened to the wrong source, and made the wrong choices. [See the Sneakers article, Bum's Rush]. It would be prudent of us, who are serious about living the truth, to heed the words of our LORD and the warnings we have been given, if not as nations, then at least as individuals.
If Christianity were reduced to a single point for a Christian to act upon, our square one, it would be embracing to the fullest extent the love of the truth of the word of God. God is love [1 John 4:16] and the author of the truth [Deut. 32:4]. This is the criterion God shall use to determine whether a person shall be saved or condemned at the end of our age. However, we've noted before that there is a time element involved too. As the apostle Paul wrote, our Lord has a deadline. "... because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." [2 Ths. 2:10-12].
It would be wise, if not having done so already, to make a move back to square one, our first century Christian roots and the love of the truth, without delay. "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." [Mat. 25:1-13].
1 This specific passage from Ezekiel, while a direct prophetic reference to the city of Babylon the Great, the corrupted Jerusalem, it is a 3-D multi-faceted prophecy. The duality is that while the House of Israel once again has returned to idolatry and trees, once again God will use Babylon to punish those of Israel. It is a reprise of Israel's shortcomings, Babylon being used to punish Israel, then God destroying Babylon, which in the last days is the city of Jerusalem. Thus, we have a multi-layered, interwoven prophecy involving the children of Israel, Edom, Babylon, both as a metaphor for our rebellious and sinful ways, and literally as two heads of the beast, and the city of Jerusalem over a period of thousands of years. Twice Edom's Jerusalem will be destroyed, 70 CE and at the end of this Christian age. [See the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares]. And twice the House of Israel shall be purged, the Assyrian captivity and the end of this age. The cause of these events being set in motion is Israel's leaving the love of the truth of the word of God, which in turn engenders "the rise of Babylon from the sea." [Rev. 13:1].
-- Michael J. Miller, 2014
Italics, bold and [ ] are the author's.
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"Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me."
You've probably noticed. Our world's IQ, insanity quotient, has gone crackers, crazy, gonzo, bonkers, wacko of late. Pick your adjective. And this trend seems to escalate with each new sunrise. When looking through the prism of Biblical prophecies, our world has been changed in fundamental ways since 9/11. What we are witnessing is the steady emergence, the rising up of the sixth empire, Babylon the Great of Revelation. This story began with a prophecy in the book of Genesis, when Isaac’s wife Rebekah was pregnant. “And the LORD said to her, Two nations are in your womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from within you; the one shall be stronger than the other, the older shall serve the younger.” [Gen. 25:23]. Today, both these different manner of people, you included, are at the heart and core of the prophecies of Revelation unfolding before our eyes on a daily basis.
Introduction
When these two brothers grew into men, the birthright was passed down, as it had from Abraham to their father, Isaac. Jacob/Israel, in turn, received the birthright blessing, beginning the fulfilling of Genesis 25:23 that the older, Esau/Edom, shall serve the younger. Esau felt he was wronged out of the birthright and the inheritance. It resulted in another prophecy, “And Esau/Edom hated1 [See footnote at the end of Introduction section], Jacob/Israel because of the blessing wherewith his father blessed him: and Esau said in his heart, The days of mourning for my father are at hand, then I will slay my brother Jacob.” [Gen. 27:41; read chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man's Elephant for the repercussions of Edom's lie of omission in dealing with the birthright].
And while during their physical lifetimes, the two brothers made amends, fulfilling the prophecy to “slay my brother Jacob/Israel” began about 2000 years ago with the children of Israel and Christ, and continues to this day. Edom’s prophecy to slay his brother will culminate at the end of the Christian age with the penultimate conflict between Babylon the Great and all the nations of Israel. [See Jer. 30:7; Rev. 13:4, 7]. Recall that an exceedingly angry Herod the Great [first century BCE] had all the children two years and younger in the region of Bethlehem slain by the sword when he found out the wise men from the east left him high and dry concerning the exact location of the young child Christ. “Then was fulfilled that which was spoken of by Jeremiah the prophet saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her sons, and would not be comforted, because they are not.” [See Mat. 2:16-18, 10:34; Jer. 31:15]. King Herod was a descendant of Edom.
A note about Matthew’s quote of Jeremiah 31. Rachel, the beloved wife of Israel, was the mother of Joseph [See Gen. 46:19; Gen. 49:22-26]. Israel's wife Leah was the mother of Judah, the Jews. Joseph is the kingly line of the House of Israel to this day through his son Ephraim, Great Britain, and Ephraim's brother Manasseh, the US. [Eze. 37:16; Gen. 48; also see the Feature article, Is The US (And UK) In End-times Bible Prophecy?]. And as Christ said, he was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in this age. [Mat. 15:24]. Rachel was buried in Bethlehem, which is where Christ was born. [Gen. 35:19]. In a prophetic sense, then, Rachel is the mother of the House of Israel, hence weeping for her sons. And later, when Christ was crucified, it was under the auspices of Herod Antipas, the first century CE Edomite ruler of Judea. [See the Feature article, The Little Horn: First Century Antichrist].
The prophetic description of Edom in Genesis 27 states, “And by the sword shall you live, [war, and the benefits thereof both military and economic; see Guns And Money] and shall serve your brother [Israel- the House of Judah, and the House of Israel]; and it shall come to pass when [not if] you have dominion, you shall break his yoke from off your neck.” US President Woodrow Wilson, 1913-1921, may have unwittingly put his finger on this when he said, "Some of the biggest men in the United States, in the field of commerce and manufacture, are afraid of somebody, are afraid of something. They know there is a power somewhere so organized, so subtle, so watchful, so interlocked, so complete, so pervasive, that they had better not speak above their breath when they speak in condemnation of it ... An invisible empire has been set up above the forms of democracy."
Edom gained dominion over the House of Judah by the first century BCE as we read above with Herod. Since 9/11, dominion of the House of Israel is nearly a fait accompli. Take a few minutes to read the entire chapter of Genesis 27.
No doubt, history will look upon 9/11 as the major turning point in world events leading up to the emergence of the sixth empire in Revelation. It overtly marks a changing of the guard on US soil from the House of Israel to Edom. [See 9/11 Smoking Gun]. As a result, for the first time in its history, those controlling the US government initiated a war, not just foreign, but a domestic war against its own citizens wielding the battle cry of "national security." [Our World Since 9/11and CIA Now Spies On All Of Us]. The casus belli of the Iraqi war, somehow linked to 9/11, but not to its alleged Saudi instigators, was based on a deliberate lie: Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Pandora's Box has been opened ever since. [Take a minute here to read John 8:37-44 when Christ addressed those of Edom on the Mount of Olives.2 See footnote at the end of Introduction section].
Since then, the US and its allied governments have ramped up their warmongering around the globe. [The Globalization Of War; Secret Wars In 120 Countries]. They’ve gone to war economically with sanctions overseen by the international central banks, thereby controlling what countries can buy or sell. [See Rev. 13:17; also the Sneakers article, One World Peace And Security]. Iran, and Russia, a member of the BRICS countries who pose a long-term potential threat to the IMF and US/UK controlled central banking system [see New Development Bank], are the two most notable examples. And this doesn’t include the US military/covert ops chaos that’s burned up trillions of tax dollars [War Costs], that could be put to good use domestically improving infrastructure and the economy. Instead, it is used for matters of the sword, wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Ukraine and Russia, Libya, the Levant, the greater Middle East and Africa. Asia is not out of their sights either. We've entered an era of "perpetual" war. [For example, see Apocalypse Now: Iraq 3.0].
And it is out of chaos among the nations that the beast, the sixth empire Edom, will emerge. “I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea having seven heads and ten horns … and authority was given it over every tribe and people and language and nation.” [Rev. 13:1, 7; see Vast US Worldwide Network Military Bases], which certainly describes a one world government [1WG]. In Dan. 7:2, “Daniel spoke and said, I saw in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of the heaven strove [Aramaic, giyach, to burst forth, as if to battle; see Dan. 11:40, 41] upon the great sea [the Mediterranean].” The first five heads of this beast, from Babylon to the Ottoman empire, ruled Jerusalem and the area of the Mediterranean bordering their territory, as will Edom. [See Dan. 11:45; also the Feature articles, Revelation 17: Big Brother, and Ten Horns, Ten Nations]. As the JFB Commentary [A.R. Fausset] notes regarding Rev. 13, “ … out of the troubled waves of peoples, multitudes, nations and tongues.” The chaos of wars and worldwide economic upheaval, perhaps initiated by the crash of the unregulated $1.2 quadrillion derivatives market controlled by five banks3 [see Derivatives], caused by the sixth head certainly would trouble the people and nations of the world, opening the way for dominion by Edom and a 1WG.
As noted, living by the sword is a common theme since 9/11 on the part of the US, the British and it’s allied European governments, all connected by the umbilical of Edom's central banks. Echoing "lies are truth" and the "war is peace" language of force, mainstream corporate media pummels us with the propaganda that not blindly marching in step with the government is somehow “unpatriotic.” As the prophecy states, “I will slay my brother.” Yet, we fail to see the obvious. Edom, under the pretense of patriotism [we've all seen those football field size flags and the orchestrated military personnel from overseas surprising their families at televised sporting events], is enlisting the children of Israel, our sons and daughters, to fight their wars while simultaneously undermining the very foundational principles of the US Constitution and the rule of law.
"Speak unto the House of Israel, 'Thus says the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane [Heb. chalal, to pollute, desecrate] my sanctuary [Heb. miqdash, in context his holy people], the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pities; and your sons and your daughters whom you have forsaken [by failing to provide them with the love of the truth of the word of God] shall fall by the sword.'" [Eze. 24:21, 24]. US presidents ban the same media from televising the return of our "hero's" [i.e., war dead] coffins, lest we lose our appetite for their faux-patriotic propaganda as was the case with the Vietnam war. Media doublespeak aside, blindly following this course is idiotic and foolhardy. These cooperative tactics of the central banks vis-a-vis governments and the military are somewhat reminiscent of hostile corporate raiders, only with countries. The only effective "poison pill" defense, however, appears to be the nuclear deterrent, at least for the time being.
Why are those who control the US government so enamored of war? The Genesis prophecy said, “Two nations are in your [Rebekah’s] womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from within you.” Back in the day when those of the House of Israel still had control of the US, President Harry Truman said, “I do not believe there is a problem in this country or the world today which could not be settled if approached through the teaching of the Sermon on the Mount.” [See Mat. 5]. Edom lives by the sword. Edom and Israel are two very different manner of people. [See Edom Judah].
When we consider lies, war and hate, the Biblical prophecies point to Edom in the last days. We just need to look at the world’s current events, consider a bit of history and connect the dots to realize it. [For Consideration1 and 2]. But as our LORD said to the prophet Ezekiel of us in our age, “Son of man, you dwell in the midst of a rebellious house [the House of Israel], which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house." [Eze. 12:2, 9]. Our ancestors of the House of Israel had been taken captive and scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire, circa 730 BCE, due to their idolatry and rebelliousness. So while this statement was descriptive of Ezekiel's physical residence at the time, c. 590 BCE, the prophetic portent is for us, the House of Israel in our age.
This is where we find ourselves today, prophetically, with the children of Israel and our older brother, i.e., Big Brother, Edom. [See the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?]. We’ve left the Brave New World for 1984. And for the most part, we are none the wiser for it.
However, it would be a huge mistake on our part to view Edom as the cause of our troubles. They’re not. We are. We only have ourselves to blame, as the prophecies make abundantly clear to us. We are a rebellious people. We've given Edom power over us. We are the weaker brother. We have forsaken our covenant. We have forsaken our birthright. And we have forsaken the gospel delivered by Christ and the apostles in the first century for Santa Claus and the Christmas tree. And we are cursed for it exactly as the apostle Paul said. We've turned the hand of our Lord against us. [See Gal. 1:6-9, Jer. 30:15].
Instead of remaining steadfast in the truth, standing up and claiming our heritage as the sons of God in this age through the Spirit of God, we have fallen victim to the feeble lie that we are gentiles, children of this world. [See the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. We are so weak spiritually that the many don't recognize the truth even when stumbling across it. Our societies have sunk to the point that moral turpitude is now the norm. Godly honor and moral integrity are rare commodities. The nations of Israel have abandoned the love of the truth of the word of God, as have those who claim to speak for God. [Read Eze. 13:1-9; Micah 3:5]. So, what can we do, then, as individuals? The rest of this article leads us to our answer. We need to get back to square one.
1 This is the first use of this word, hated, in the Biblical record, and it is used in context with Edom and Israel. The Hebrew, satam, means to cherish animosity against, to follow hostilely. The only other use of this word in the Old Testament refers to the son of Israel, Joseph, the kingly line of the House of Israel in the last days. See Gen. 49:23. Both uses of the Hebrew satam in the Old Testament are specific references by Edom to his brother Israel. The last days prophetically refer to the time between Christ's first coming and his return. And as we know, Christ, born in Bethlehem was sent only to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the last days, or this age. As this age began with the killing of the children of Israel by Edom, so too shall it be until Babylon the Great falls. Edom has followed the House of Israel hostilely and has held dear their animosity towards us through the past two millennia. Edom's hatred today extends to us of the House of Israel. Be sure to read the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother.
2 In John 8:33, this same group of "Abraham's seed" says they never were in bondage to any man. However, all Israel was in bondage in Egypt. By a simple process of elimination with the two brothers, that only leaves Israel's brother Edom that Christ is addressing. [See the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares].
3 "Currently [May, 2013], just five banks control 90% of all derivatives contracts: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs." See 5 Banks. All the usual suspects with their proven track record for disrupting the world's economy in 2007-2008 with the bond and real estate derivatives market. Just six years later, all the nations of the world are in a far more precarious situation. For an interesting review of the 2008 crash, read Michael Lewis's The Big Short.
Feature Section
This being the fifth anniversary of the Christmas Messages, I thought I would post some of the pertinent passages from the previous articles. However, it was a bit complicated to excise portions of the articles without losing some context. Therefore, I would encourage you to go back and read the articles in full.
In 2010, The Love Of The Truth
[See Full article].
Our society today is a direct result of what we've allowed it to become and continue to willingly embrace. It's blowback, the negative consequence of cause and effect. [See Eze. 24:25]. Evangelicals, at the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization in October 2010, were frantic, warning that people are abandoning the traditional churches and atheism is becoming the new religion. No wonder.
Our Christian actions, in terms of time and money, confirm we already prefer the mythical god Santa Claus, still embraced and celebrated with their children by these very same evangelicals, over Christ, in large part due to the irrelevancy of what is passed off by mainstream Christianity as the "gospel." [See the Feature article, What Exactly is the Gospel?]. If these same evangelicals genuinely claim to speak and live the truth, it would seem logical that they would denounce Santa Claus and the entire Christmas myth. Yet, they wonder why people are turning away from the hypocrisy and futility they see daily in corporate religion. This is not to say individuals are not sincere. But sincerely believing a fable does not make it the truth.
So, lo and behold, here we are at the end of 2010 in a very large, complicated mess, with the past decade costing us trillions in war related expenditures, not to mention the deleterious wars, both foreign and domestic, that affect society in general and families and friends in particular. With state governments bankrupt, very high unemployment rates, coupled with trillions of dollars in lost housing values the past few years, plus the millions of people in the US who've lost their homes, with all those chimneys for Santa to slide down, and others who are close to it, so that as the Christmas season grows longer year by year, our situation seems to grow corresponding worse. Collectively, we've managed to garner a sock full of coal. [For an enlightened secular analysis, see Taking Down America and A Brave New Dystopia].
Not only has current day Christianity rebelled by dealing falsely with our heritage, we have lost sight of it and the truth. We don't believe Christ. We don't take him at his word. No wonder our children are becoming atheists. And if we don't follow Christ, who is it we follow? Again, it looks like the mythical Santa Claus. And because we don't take Christ at his word, we have come to embrace the deceits and lies. Thus, we are a people who once would not lie [Isa. 63:8], to become a people who don’t recognize the truth when it hits us right between the eyes.
The reason for our date with the Apocalypse is simple. "... because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." [2 Ths. 2:10-12].
In 2011, Our Christian Faith
[See Full article].
In hindsight, Shakespeare’s Polonius in Hamlet had sage advice, “Neither a borrower nor a lender be.” If we had lived within our means, the US might not have 800 [more than 1000 and growing in 2014] or so military bases circling the globe, and the second largest item in the US budget wouldn't be our national debt payment, but we’d have a healthier ledger sheet, and a stronger financial future for our children and grandchildren. Instead, we’ve gambled our national inheritance in the world's largest casino, Wall Street, literally losing our houses to “the House.”
In all, the aggregate debt of the “wealthy” nations of the world is on the order of $200 trillion and counting. This is about three and a half times the world’s GDP, which is the same debt ratio of the US’s debt as a percentage of GDP. Cumulatively speaking, this is the largest amount of debt in the history of the world. And the US is the world's biggest debtor nation. More than a few first world countries are close to the point that the interest payments on their debt will overwhelm their nation’s revenues. Some governments are only holding back this mudslide of financial collapse by having favorable interest rates … for now.
To put $200 trillion in debt into some sort of perspective, if you counted from one to a trillion every second of every day of every year, it would take you nearly 32,000 years. Now multiply that times 200, about 6.5 million years, and you get some kind of an idea how deep the hole is. The 99% are on the hook for a lot of bucks.
Ninety-nine percent of Americans are more likely to have been directly impacted by this deliberate act of financial terrorism than we have with any act of political terrorism. Following the 9/11 attacks, homeland security ballooned exponentially, yet almost nothing has been done to protect us from further financial ruin, which many financial pundits believe is on the horizon in the form of a $700 trillion [one quadrillion plus in 2014] unregulated derivatives market. As only five banks control the derivatives market, their actions, intentional or not, could make the 2008 crash look like a small tremor in the world's economy opening the way for a 1WG and economy.
Many of the alleged perpetrators of 9/11 were hunted down and imprisoned, tortured or killed. The Bush administration went to war in Iraq. However, your money was used to reward the financial corporation's predators with trillions in bailouts and billions in bonuses. Some of the perpetrators, like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and others were declared "too big to fail." However, the biggest failure is in the moral fabric of the US.
It’s ironic, while New York was the key target in the 9/11 political terrorist attacks, it is New York’s Wall Street, with Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley at the forefront, that unleashed the financial terrorist attacks on the US and the rest of the world with far greater negative impact, blowback, on the West. [2013: They're At It Again; see the Sneakers article, One World Peace And Security]. The question begs asking, why is there such a vast difference in the government's response with al-Qaeda versus al-Wallstreet? The simple answer is that our government is filled with al-Wallstreet operatives. [For the back story of the US financial mess and where it's heading, see chapter six in the book, The Blind Man's Elephant and the final chapter in The Curious Elephant, The Great Rebellion. For a secular look at these events, read The Big Short- Inside The Doomsday Machine by Michael Lewis].
In 2012, The War Dispatches
[See Full article].
By MICHAEL J. MILLER 7:30 AM ET
NEW YORK CITY— John F. Kennedy said, “The world knows that America will never start a war. This generation of Americans has had enough of war and hate ... we want to build a world of peace where the weak are secure and the strong are just.” The Bay of Pigs notwithstanding, about forty years later, a new generation of American leaders apparently motivated by a tumescent imperial swagger for “war and hate,” started the Iraq war over non-existent weapons of mass destruction, and not the obviously gauche raison d’etre, existent oil and gas. The Middle East, and the world haven’t been the same since the fateful day in Baghdad, when America, ignorant of its prophetic portent, opened Pandora’s box in the ancient land of Babylon.
The hot spots of war move about our planet like locusts on leaves, spawned by the greed for our world’s geo-political power and wealth. And while the US military-corporate complex wages wars on many fronts, some with troops, drones and missiles, others with economic sanctions, and others with covert ops, war, not peace, has become a perpetual part of our every day life. When we follow the money, when we look at our annual federal budget, it’s who we are now and what we do. We're building a world at war.
All the same, it doesn’t register that war is being waged upon us. Like the proverbial frog in water that progressively nears cooking temperatures, we are oblivious to the increasing heat of our domestic war, which appears to us as nothing more than the normal progression of everyday life.
And while the US may be the prime example, Western Europe and the UK are not without their own troubles. It’s as though the US is steadily morphing into the old Soviet Union, including the accoutrement fail of the Afghan war, and Western Europe is becoming the old eastern bloc with all its government mismanaged economic woes. [Not surprising as those who were pulling the strings in the old Soviet Union and eastern bloc are now doing the same in the US and the western bloc]. So while our attention has been directed to the overt wars over there, we’ve been blinkered about the covert war in our own homelands.
Sun Tzu, author of the Chinese book of military strategy, The Art of War, wrote, “All war is deception.” And “The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.” This is sort of like cooking the frog without all the fuss, hence, the strategic importance of using deception when waging war.
The genesis seed of 9/11 spawned this enigmatic secret state process of subjugation. It is conducted for “our good” in the name of that magical all-inclusive abracadabra doublespeak phrase, national security. This genesis seed also spawned several hundred new domestic spy agencies, with the NSA at its head. Technology has been developed that can match our identity to our voices from phone eavesdropping. Our smart phones essentially being NSA portable eavesdropping devices. Cameras can now identify us by the way we walk down the street. And the FBI recently instituted, what is surely just the initial foray, a billion dollar facial recognition system at undisclosed locations within the US. Added to this is the fact that our computers conveniently come packaged with GPS locators, user-facing cameras and auto scanning facial recognition software that can’t be disabled. Our digital devices, upon which we eagerly have become so reliant, have surreptitiously become personal Trojan horses.
Like it or not, true Christian morals and values have been supplanted by societal values, which are corporate values. We can be an irresponsible, vile and immoral person with little socially redeeming value, but if we‘ve got a dollar in our pocket, then we are their kind of person. Corporations love nothing more than money and the control it brings. “For the love of money is a root of all evil, for which some have strayed from the faith [Greek, pistis, a conviction of the truth] in their greediness, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.” [1 Tim. 6:10].
It turn, elected selected officials serve their constituency, big corporations, not the redundant electorate. And these big corporations get their money to unduly influence political decision makers from purchases made by us, the redundant electorate. If it weren’t a truly grim situation, we’d be amused by the irony of it all. We’re patriotically footing the bill with our lives and money to disenfranchise ourselves.
As the 2013 Christmas Message remains the most popular reader article since the beginning of summer, it makes sense to repost most of it here.
In 2013, Our Corrupted Compass
[See Full article].
It’s noteworthy that the first written mention of the four major compass points referencing Earth is in connection with our ancestors, and reaches down to us today. [For those of you not familiar with our true Biblical ancestry, read the Feature articles, The Tale Of Two Covenants, and We’re Abraham’s Seed and Heirs; also the Sneakers articles, This Old House and His Treasured Possession]. And regarding the extent of the blessings mentioned here by Yehovah to the House of Israel spreading out in all directions and all the families of the Earth being blessed, read the Feature article, Is The US (and UK) In End-times Bible Prophecy?
Today, as the House of Israel, our theological-spiritual compass is out of whack. Our angle of declination is way off, and we don’t know which way is up, which is to say our inclination is messed up too. We aren’t following our correct heading, true geographic east, the truth of the word of God. “And behold, the glory of the God of Israel [Christ] appeared from the east. His voice was like the noise of many waters, and the Earth shined in his glory.” [Eze. 43:2, 4]. When Christ returns, he will set his feet upon the Mount of Olives, which is in the east, before Jerusalem. [Zec. 14:4]. Having lost our bearing, we are following the fallacious magnetic charm of the latter day god, Santa at the North Pole. The sixth beast in Revelation, 666 is called Babylon the Great. According to the JFB Commentary, the Babylonians believed the common meeting place of their gods was in the north.
Having lost our direction, we are theologically and spiritually adrift, out of sight of the truth because we have abandoned our heritage and covenant [our compass] with God to run after falsehoods and lies in this, the silly Santa Season. [See the Sneakers article, Got Milk?].
As we are in the Santa Season, let’s go through a prophecy in Jeremiah addressed specifically to us, the House of Israel, warning us not to get involved with a certain heathen practice, with which we are all too familiar. We’ll begin in verse 1.
Jeremiah 10:1- Hear the word that the LORD speaks to you, House of Israel.
This is very clear to whom it is addressed. It is addressed to the Christian nations by our LORD, Christ, who told us, “I am only sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” [Mat. 15:24]. Our LORD also said, " ... the House of Israel are my people." [Eze. 34:30]. And as the gospel says, “Blessed be the LORD God of Israel, for he has visited and redeemed his people.” [Luke 1:68; see the Feature article, And It's Still A Mystery]. And as the apostle Paul confirmed, "But when the fullness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that were under the law [covenant made with Israel only, Exd. 19:5, 6, Tts. 2:14, 1 Pet. 2:9], that we might receive the adoption of sons." [Gal. 4:4, 5]. Our abandonment of this truth and our covenant with God over the past two millennia has led to our alliance with Santa. And as we’ll read, our destination is very much a sack of coal rather than shiny presents under the tree.
Those who have redefined our Biblical identity have duped us. And it was set in motion by events that took place about 4000 years ago. [Read chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man’s Elephant for a detailed accounting]. Understanding our history in this regard is essential if we wish to grasp what we’re discussing here in Jeremiah. Otherwise, we’ll be tempted to fall back to the defensive position of “no way, I don’t think so, and this can’t be right because.” Knowing the truth sets us free. It puts the wind at our back, hastening us to the correct heading given us by Christ, our LORD. [John 8:32].
10:2- Thus says the LORD, ‘Do not learn the way of the heathen, and do not be dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathens are dismayed at them.
Again, this is a very clear statement. Do not learn the way of the heathen. But, of course, we have. When God tells us to go east, we head north following our compromised compass. And not only have we learned the way of the heathen, we’ve done it in a much grander fashion than the heathens of past ever imagined.
The signs of heaven here refer to the winter solstice. Among others, the heathens worshipped the Sun as a god. As the year wore on, the sunlight portion of the days became shorter, and colder. The shortest sunlight day of the year is the winter solstice. To appease the Sun god, they devised a certain custom. Regardless of our motivation and qualifying proclamations, it is this custom we are warned not to learn. [See the Sneakers article, Birthdays Of The Gods]. And what is this custom that the heathens partake in?
10:3- For the custom of the people are vain: for one cuts a tree from the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.
The heathen custom that we are warned against learning involves a tree cut from the forest around the time of the winter solstice. It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure out where this is going.
10:4- They decorate it with gold and silver and then fasten it securely with nails and hammers so it will not topple.
Our picture is coming into focus. Heathens cut a tree out of the forest around the time of the winter solstice. This is an evergreen tree as the deciduous trees are barren. Then, heathens fasten it with nails so it doesn’t fall over. And then we decorate it with gold and silver. Sound familiar, Dr. Watson?
10:5- They are upright like a palm tree, but they speak not. They must be carried, because they cannot go by themselves. Do not be afraid of them, for they cannot do evil, nor can they do any good.
Thus, we have trees that are fastened with hammers and nails that stand up straight to keep them from falling over. They are decorated around the time of the solstice. We are told not to fear them, because unlike the heathen’s belief, the trees have no power to do anything, evil or good, much less affect the Sun’s behavior. Instead, as Christians, the children of God, the House of Israel, we should fear the word of our LORD, who is almighty and powerful, the Creator of the heavens and the Sun when he tells us not to learn this custom. Nevertheless, we fear the tree rather than our LORD.
10:6- Forasmuch, there is none like you, O LORD, you are great, and your name is great in might.
This is a reminder to us, again. Why do we partake in a silly and superstitious heathen custom in direct defiance of our LORD, Christ whom we claim with our words to follow? “But in vain do they worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.” [Mark 7:7]. And in this case, the practice of heathens. The trees have no power in them, despite what heathens may think. It is our LORD that is all-powerful. Yet, to which god do our actions defer? Justifications aside, it’s such a plain and simple command too, Do not learn the way of the heathen.
10:7- Who would not fear you, King of the nations? For to you does this pertain [Heb. ya’ah, to pertain to]. For among all the wise men of the nations, and in all their kingdoms, there is none like you.
Remember these verses are directed to the nations of the House of Israel, and not to the entire world, or even the House of Judah, who are blind to Christ in this age. The King of the nations here references the King of Israel, who is Christ. [John 1:49]. The office that Christ holds as King of Israel is his alone. And in all the nations of Israel, there are twelve including Judah, the Jews [see Genesis 49 for the list], no one is like our Savior. Therefore, who wouldn’t respect, reverence and honor our LORD? Uh, that would be us.
So, Dr. Watson, what tree is it that is cut out of the forest about the time of the winter solstice [in case you are wondering, this is the end part of December, originally on the 25th], is fastened so it remains upright, has to be carried because it can’t walk, [you know, like out of a supermarket lot or tree farm to your car], is decorated with gold and silver [you know, like shiny orbs and tinsel, often with an angel of light on top, 2 Cor. 11:14], and pertains to our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ? The answer is elementary. If you answered totem pole, go to the back of the class.
This is the heathen practice that we are specifically told not to partake in. Yet, travel around the world, and wherever you find the House of Israel spread out on the face of the Earth, north, south, east or west, you will find us up to our eyeballs in Christmas trees. We are such a clever bunch.
10:8- But they are altogether stupid and foolish; the tree is a doctrine of vanity.
Okay, we’re not so clever. In fact, we’re downright stupid and foolish. That’s pretty harsh language to use about anyone. Keep in mind, our Savior, who shed his blood for us when nailed to a wooden cross made from a tree, is telling us this. If Jesus Christ walked into our house this December, pointed at our Christmas tree and said, “You stupid and foolish sod. I gave my life for you. And you repay me by running after a silly and ignorant pagan custom directly contrary to what I told you!” what would we say?
“Yeah, well get over it. I’ll honor you any way I choose, if I choose.”
While most of us may think we would not dare utter these words to our Savior, we do worse. We make this same point with our actions every Christmas. Yet, we can’t or won’t connect the dots. We are more afraid of what our Christmas tree-hugging neighbors, co-workers and family might say if we don’t have a Christmas tree in our house and office. What would we tell them if they asked why? We fear the tree and not our LORD, all our falsely pious, justifying words to the contrary. And it’s all because we have forgotten our covenant and forsaken the gospel our LORD and Savior delivered to us in the first century.
Verse nine references the sorts of merchandise, the gold and silver et al, associated with the pagan tradition of the solstice tree making the point that “everything connected with idols is the result of human effort.” [JFB Commentary, Jeremiah 10; see the Sneakers article, Better Than Gold].
10:10- But the LORD is the true God; he is the living God and the everlasting King. At his wrath the Earth shall tremble, and the nations will not be able to abide his indignation.
This is the effect dot that needs connecting to the cause dot. Otherwise, we get the not so happy ending, the sack of coal we mentioned at the beginning.
The very being of our Savior is truth. And our Savior has offered us eternal life. The Christmas tree on the other hand, is nothing but a lamentable, false and lifeless god that leads us away from our first century covenant. What excuse do we offer up to follow this god in direct opposition to what we have been told? “Well, LORD, the compass I got at Christmas said it was pointing east to you, but I ended up going north to Santa Claus. It’s not my fault.” Excuses are reasons for failure. Christ didn’t call us to be Christian failures.
When we have Christmas trees in our homes and offices, our actions show we lack the conviction of the truth. We are feeble in faith, not trusting the word of our Savior. And when our faith lacks the works of trusting and following Christ’s words, how can we claim to be Christians? “Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will he find faith [Greek, pistis, a conviction of the truth] on Earth?” [Luke 18:8; see the Sneakers article, We Don't Believe You].
Our LORD’s anger is addressed to us, the House of Israel. We have taken our birthright and the abundance of the incredible covenant promises, and squandered it throughout the four corners of the world on a two-bit tree god. Don’t learn the way of the heathen.
Perhaps, being told we are stupid and foolish, even by Christ, is a bit too pedestrian nowadays to really get through to us in our f-bomb laden society. We may need something more robust and vigorous in the way of vulgar vernacular. But I’ll leave it to what works for you.
This tree business is the most colossal and mindboggling boondoggle foisted upon any people in the history of the world. It’s worse than Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Carlos Slim and Amancio Ortega, four of the known richest guys on the planet, pooling and handing over their man-made fortunes of 200 billions or so in exchange for a useless rusted bottle cap found along the side of a road because some guy in a red suit convinced them it is the most valuable thing on the planet. Stupid and foolish? You bet, but less so than our Christmas tree-Santa fiasco. We’ve been duped, directed away from the promise of our eternal inheritance, our eternal life in our Father’s kingdom, paid for in full by our Savior’s blood, for what, a dead tree!?
Remember, that in the context of the Christmas tree we are told, by the anger of our Savior the Earth shall tremble, and the nations [that’s us] will not be able to abide his indignation. Might be a good idea to write this down on a slip of paper. Bring it with you when you go to buy your tree this year. Read it just before you pay for the tree. And understand that the true cost of the tree that pertains to our LORD, as we’ll see, first is the loss of our birthright, then our countries, and in the end, our lives.
In Joel, the prophecy says, “The Earth shall quake before them, the heavens shall tremble, the Sun and the Moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. And the LORD [Christ] shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executes his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” [Joel 2:10, 11; also in context for the House of Israel, Acts 2:16-21, 36].
Christ said in Matthew, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days [the first five seals of Rev. 6], shall the Sun be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken ….” [Mat. 24:29].
And in Revelation we read, “And when he opened the sixth seal [during the time of the sixth beast, 666], and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the Sun became as black as a sackcloth of hair, and the Moon became as blood, and the stars of heaven fell unto the Earth … and the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved away out of their places.
“And the kings of the Earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every freeman, hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains, and said to the mountains and rocks, ‘Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne, and from the anger of the Lamb: for the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?’” [Rev. 6:12-17].
We are stupid if we think the whole Santa-Christmas tree thing is innocent and harmless. We are foolish if we think it honors our Savior. Our corrupted compass leads us to a false destination. We need to align ourselves with the compass bearings given to us by our Savior. Christians fear, honor and respect our LORD, not the tree.
10:11- Thus you [Jeremiah] shall say to them [the nations of the House of Israel], ’The gods that have not made the heavens and the Earth shall perish from the Earth and from under these heavens.
Verse 11, rather than being written in Hebrew, was written in an Aramean dialect, [W. Wright, Comparative Grammar of the Semitic Languages, 1890, p.16]. Aram's ancient border was just to the north of the kingdom of the House of Israel, which is southern Syria today. Connections with Aram go back to Isaac who married Rebekah, daughter of Bethuel of Padan-aram. Bethuel was a son of Nahor, Abraham's [Abram's] brother. [Heb. Arammiy, Gen. 25:20]. His son Jacob/Israel married Rachel and Leah, daughters of Laban, also of Aram. [Gen. 29:16]. Aram was a descendant of Shem, Noah's firstborn son. This region did not become known as Syria, an abbreviation of Assyria, until after the Assyrian Captivity in 732 BCE.
The contrast of putting this verse into the Aramaic, rather than the Hebrew language of the House of Israel’s covenant with the true God, highlights the point that our Christmas trees are false gods, considered idolatry in the eyes of our LORD and will be destroyed along with everything else we've put in place of the true God. It also ties it in with the duality of Isaiah's chapter 17 regarding both the Arameans [Damascus] and Ephraim, the House of Israel. Jeremiah penned verse eleven about 40 years or so after the last remnant of the House of Israel was taken into captivity by the Assyrians. [2 Kng. 17:24]. It was still a fresh memory. As Jeremiah wrote this after the Assyrian captivity of the House of Israel, it is a prophetic history lesson. And because we are ignorant of our covenant relationship with God, believing the deceit that we are gentiles, we have no clue that this message is intended for us today. [See the Feature article, Mirror, Mirror On The Wall].
Jeremiah wrote of Israel in chapter three. “The LORD said to me in the days of Josiah the king: ‘Have you seen what backsliding [House of] Israel has done? She has gone up on every high mountain under green trees, and played the harlot’ … I put her away and gave her a bill [legal document] of divorce.’” [Jer. 3: 6, 8]. The highest point at which trees can grow on a mountain is called the tree line. Forest trees that grow up to the tree line are members of the pine tree family, or evergreen trees. The high mountain areas referenced here are located in the northern reaches of the kingdom of the House of Israel, not far from the southern border of Aram. It is in this area that Christ began his ministry. [See the Feature article, The War Dispatches].
The preceding verse, verse 10, today reiterates the outcome of the divorce, the Assyrian Captivity, only to a much greater degree. The House of Israel was divorced from God, slain and the remnant forcefully removed from their lands, taken captive as slaves and scattered throughout the Assyrian Empire.
Ezekiel wrote a parable about us, the House of Israel. We are called a rebellious house. As we've mentioned, prophecies can and do have dual fulfillments. We see here that the children of the House of Israel were divorced from God and were afflicted for their dalliance with trees. It will be worse for us the second time. "In your filthiness is lewdness: because I [Christ] have purged you [Heb. taher, to be cleansed, made pure, referencing the Assyrian Captivity, then Christ's first century redemption], and you were not purged [we haven't learned from our history and are back to the trees again], you shall not be purged from your filthiness any more, till I have caused my fury to rest upon you. I [Christ] the LORD have spoken: it shall come to pass and I will do it, I will not go back, neither will I spare, neither will I repent; according to your ways and according to your doings [not our falsely pious words] you will be judged, says the LORD." [Eze. 24:13, 14]. This corroborates the dual nature of the purging prophecy for Ephraim, the House of Israel in Isaiah 17 that is the basis for the Feature article, Damascus A Heap Of Ruins, which is a lead-in to this article.1
Our LORD and Savior is furious, as in violent and intense anger, with us for returning to the idolatry of the tree. Stop and consider. Christ purged the House of Israel, divorced our ancestors from the covenant. Then, Christ takes on life in the flesh to redeem us from that divorce. Nailed to a tree, he gave up his life for us that we might reap the glorious eternal inheritance according to the promises of the new covenant. "One can show no greater regard for those dear to him than to give his life for them, and this is the love you shall find in Me." [John 15:13, JFB Commentary; the English word friends in the KJV is not a noun, but the Greek adjective, philos].
Yet after all this, we, who claim to be Christians, honor Christ by returning to our old ways with trees again? [See Pro. 26:11]. According to Ezekiel's prophecy, the events of the Apocalypse and the fury of the great day of our LORD's anger will not be a merry time. Since the Assyrian Captivity, Isaiah 17:1-3, the House of Israel has not been "purged of our filthiness." Therefore, some people believe God is absent from our daily affairs. Not so. He's biding his time.
When we don’t learn the lessons of history, we are doomed to repeat the mistakes with its severe consequences. Because of our putting Christ’s name on the Christmas tree, and speciously tying his name to the heathen custom at the winter solstice, the current day House of Israel is told by the prophet Ezekiel, “Afterward, he brought me to the gate, even the gate that looks towards the east … By setting their [House of Israel’s] threshold by my threshold, and their door jambs beside my door jambs, with only a wall in between me and them, they have defiled my holy name by their abominations that they have committed. Therefore, I will consume them [Heb. kalah, to come to an end] in my anger … As for you Ezekiel, son of man, describe to the House of Israel the temple [the house of God] that they will be ashamed of their iniquities; and they shall measure the pattern.” [See Eze. 43:1, 8, 10, 12; to measure God's plan, the pattern, for us, see the Feature article, Three Temple Ages Make A Plan].
God warned our ancestors to come down from the forests in the high mountains and forsake their idolatry with trees. He advised the House of Israel to return to the temple, the house of the LORD, and the keeping of his ordinances. They didn't. Hence, their divorce from God and the Assyrian Captivity. While Ezekiel described the physical temple, the altar and the priesthood in his follow on verses and chapters, this is a prophetic reminder for us today. The House of Israel needs to weigh God’s plan of eternal inheritance, being kings and priests to God on the new Earth in the new Jerusalem against the way of the Christmas tree that defiles Christ's name and leads to death. Christ is now fulfilling his plan. "Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling, consider the apostle and high priest of our profession, Christ Jesus." [Heb. 3:1; see the Feature article, The Three Times In God's Plan].
The clear message is that these false gods, Santa, and the Christmas tree, which our "Christian" society holds in high regard today, will be destroyed by our LORD [See Zec. 13:2], with the very large majority of the House of Israel being acceptable losses in the process too, as was the case the first time around with Isaiah's chapter 17 prophecy. The prophet Isaiah warns us today, “But they [the House of Israel] rebelled, and vexed his Holy Spirit [See Acts 2:36-38], therefore he [Christ] was turned to be their enemy, and he fought against them.” [Isa. 63:10]. Don't learn the way of the heathen.
10:12- He has made the Earth by his power, and he has established the world by his wisdom, and stretched out the heavens at his discretion.
10:13- When he speaks, there is a multitude of waters in the heavens, and he causes the vapors to ascend from the ends of the Earth, he makes lightning with rain, and brings forth the wind from his storehouses.
These verses are similar to what God reminded Job of regarding his power in creating the cosmos. “Can you [Job] lift up your voice to the clouds that the abundance of waters may cover you?” [Job 38:34]. In other words, can you tell the clouds to rain on Earth? Didn’t think so. And neither can a decorated tree that is cut out of the forest. You think we’d be smart enough to figure this out. But …
10:14- Every man is stupid in his knowledge: ever founder is confounded by the graven image: for his molten image is falsehood, and there is no breath in them.
10:15- They are vanity, the work of errors: in the time of their visitation, they shall all perish.
Again, keep in mind that the context of Jeremiah 10 is the House of Israel. This is addressed to us and not the whole world. The point here is that all these things, the Christmas tree, Santa, all the presents we buy, all this is vanity. [See the Sneakers article, Two Kinds Of Stuff]. They are not capable of imparting life. Our LORD and Savior is real. Yet, we choose to ignore the magnificent plan God has set before us, and embrace the fake that is to be destroyed. This is stupidity as defined by our Savior.
Our Savior has offered us eternal life in a new heaven and Earth. We have the opportunity to be kings and priests to our God [Rev. 5:10]. But we chuck this out the window for what, Santa and his red-nosed reindeer, a tree and gifts we probably want to return? Do we really understand how stupid and faithless we must look to our LORD? [See Christmas Spirit]. It’s such a simple thing. Don’t learn the way of the heathen. What word from our LORD is there here that we don’t understand? It's somewhat reminiscent of what our LORD said to Adam and Eve. " ... don't eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil." [Gen. 2:17]. Adam and Eve didn't listen either. And we know how that turned out. We don't do well when it comes to trees, do we? [See the Sneakers article, Bum's Rush].
10:16- The portion of Jacob [the House of Israel] is not like them: for he is the former [the Creator] of all things; and Israel is the rod of his inheritance. The LORD of hosts [heaven’s armies] is his name. [See Gen. 2:1; Isa. 37:16; Jer. 2:19].
In other words, the House of Israel’s share or portion, our inheritance promised by our Creator is not like these false man-made bobbles. God’s promise to us is magnitudes greater than what we can imagine. He is the Creator of everything in existence both in heaven and on Earth. We are Christ’s “chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, our LORD’s possession, that we may proclaim the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” [1 Pet. 2:9].
Forsaking this compass heading, we joyfully follow the course of darkness, proclaiming the merry praises of Santa Claus, happy to decorate our evergreen trees at the time of the winter solstice in accordance with the heathen practices we’ve learned. We are encouraged in this deceit by secular corporate media to "keep Christ in Christmas." Yet Christ warns us, Don't learn the way of the heathen. We are eager to sail the seas of unrighteousness, out of sight of the truth, forsaking our inheritance. No wonder our LORD of heaven’s armies and Savior is angry with us. And as promised by his word, he will set his armies against us because of our iniquities.
Or, we can choose to immediately change course.
10:20- My tabernacle is spoiled and all my cords are broken, my children have gone forth from me, and they are no more. There is no one to pitch my tent anymore or to set up my curtains.
10:21- For the pastors have become stupid, and have not sought the LORD: therefore they shall not prosper, and all their flocks shall be scattered.
Because of our insistence on following our erroneous compass heading, the children of the House of Israel are told we’ve left God. We’ve abandoned our covenant and the gospel. We allowed God’s house to become dilapidated, overrun by heathen practices. As his children, we have forsaken him, and the truth, for God is truth. [See the Sneaker’s article, This Old House]. Even those who should be our shepherds leading us to our LORD have not sought him. Our society has become a runaway snowball, bumping and bouncing downhill, racing towards its proverbial hell. It doesn’t take a theological scholar to look at the events of the past year to see the emerging lawless beast all around us.
The US, its inheritance plundered, is no longer an economic superpower unless we are referencing the super national debt. China has warned the US to get its financial house in order, while downgrading the US's credit rating. And the Chinese yuan is increasingly used in foreign transactions. [Yuan International Currency]. The top two US debt items are military expenditures and paying interest on the national debt, largely due to past military expenditures. [US Debt Tracker]. Together, with the dicey unregulated derivatives market, they pose a greater threat to national security than any terrorist organization or "security" leak. Yet, the caretakers in the US government plod ahead on the same old track, postponing rather than solving, bickering as they go, unenlightened to the extraordinary threat within. As with the Roman Empire and others only found in the dust of history, moral and honorable civilizations degenerate and rot until they destroy themselves from within, doomed according to the inexorable law of political entropy.
With the respect and prosperity of its people gone, the vitality of its economy gutted and looted, the US vainly strains to remain a military superpower, as did the old Soviet Union. The government prints ink on paper for money in a desperate dash to avoid collapse because it lacks integrity and economic exuberance. This "wide is the gate and broad is the way" path, in time, leads to the advent of the beast and false prophet who will offer us, as the Christian writer Dostoevsky noted, our daily bread to make everything all better. [See 1 Ths. 5:1-11; also the Feature article, Is That You, Big Brother?].
While the House of Israel possessed the birthright blessing, what we use to be, our militaristic, "live by the sword" brother Edom does not have this promise. The purging that our LORD said is to come upon our heads is clearly manifesting itself. We've surrendered our birthright to our brother. He has nearly gained total dominion. [See Gen. 25:23, 27:40; also chapter six, The Genesis Birthright in The Blind Man's Elephant for a complete discussion]. We are daily prey to the wolves in sheep’s clothing. [See Rev. 13:7]. This is where we, the children of the House of Israel, are in the silly Santa Season of 2013. [For a secular video comment, see US Not Greatest Country Anymore. Warning: contains adult language that can be considered offensive. To avoid, mute the sound and fast forward to the 1:59 mark].
According to various media reports, people around the world wonder, “What happened to America?” This isn’t the magnanimous defender of liberty and truth that the country use to be. As President Truman said nearly seventy years ago in his first address to the US Congress, "The responsibility of a great state is to serve and not to dominate the world." The US has gone from George Washington, a president who "could not tell a lie," to presidents who cannot tell the truth.
We only need a little objective introspection to see that those of the House of Israel no longer control our nations. [In reference to who does, see v. 4 Obadiah; Gen. 25:23, also John 8:39-47; see the Feature article, Isaiah 63: Big Brother]. Sibling nations, the governments of the US and England are at the forefront of lawlessness, torture and the killing fields of war with the aim to dominate the world. [See US Wars]. It was only a decade ago that the US, for the first time in it’s history, became the overt instigator of war and torture, with Syria clearly a possible fourth US war in the past ten years, depending on how we classify US actions in Pakistan, Libya and Iran. Re-read Genesis 27:40. [See the Feature article, Revelation 17: Big Brother; also This Isn't Your Grandfather's USA].
Ten years on, and after a major economic fiasco whose "perpetraitors" were bailed out by those most negatively affected, every call, every email, everything just about is gathered without consent in violation of the 4th amendment rights guaranteed by the US Constitution. But the government, despite its less than stellar track record of being forthright and honest, tells us not to worry. They're not pushing us towards a one world government. They’re not Big Brother.
In Summary
It is evident when paying attention to what’s happening in the world politically, economically, and militarily, and to the prophecies in the Biblical record, that we are well down the road towards fulfilling the events described in Revelation, Daniel, Ezekiel and the other books of the OT prophets. We just don’t have a time line. But we do have a sequence of events. “Now learn the parable of the fig. When the branch is yet tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So likewise when you see all these things, know that it [the end of this age] is near, even at the doors.” [Read Mat. 24:3-33 for “all these things”].
It all began in the garden in Eden, no doubt with a fig tree somewhere there as well as with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The question for us has been, and remains a simple one, "Do we believe and listen to the truth of God or not?" Eve and Adam chose to listen to Satan. And with that, mankind's knowledge of good and evil, and the choices we make between these two entered into our lives. Do we choose evil or good ... unrighteousness or righteousness ... lies or the truth? [See the Feature article, Why Do We Believe The Lies?]. It has been this way since the days in the garden, and will continue through the end of our age. [See the Sneakers article, Birthdays Of The Gods].
The end of this age is described in the Book of Daniel as the worst time in human history since there was a nation. The reason for this, too, is simple. Like Eve and Adam, we've listened to the wrong source, and made the wrong choices. [See the Sneakers article, Bum's Rush]. It would be prudent of us, who are serious about living the truth, to heed the words of our LORD and the warnings we have been given, if not as nations, then at least as individuals.
If Christianity were reduced to a single point for a Christian to act upon, our square one, it would be embracing to the fullest extent the love of the truth of the word of God. God is love [1 John 4:16] and the author of the truth [Deut. 32:4]. This is the criterion God shall use to determine whether a person shall be saved or condemned at the end of our age. However, we've noted before that there is a time element involved too. As the apostle Paul wrote, our Lord has a deadline. "... because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness." [2 Ths. 2:10-12].
It would be wise, if not having done so already, to make a move back to square one, our first century Christian roots and the love of the truth, without delay. "Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming." [Mat. 25:1-13].
1 This specific passage from Ezekiel, while a direct prophetic reference to the city of Babylon the Great, the corrupted Jerusalem, it is a 3-D multi-faceted prophecy. The duality is that while the House of Israel once again has returned to idolatry and trees, once again God will use Babylon to punish those of Israel. It is a reprise of Israel's shortcomings, Babylon being used to punish Israel, then God destroying Babylon, which in the last days is the city of Jerusalem. Thus, we have a multi-layered, interwoven prophecy involving the children of Israel, Edom, Babylon, both as a metaphor for our rebellious and sinful ways, and literally as two heads of the beast, and the city of Jerusalem over a period of thousands of years. Twice Edom's Jerusalem will be destroyed, 70 CE and at the end of this Christian age. [See the Feature article, Obadiah And The Prophetic Parable Of The Tares]. And twice the House of Israel shall be purged, the Assyrian captivity and the end of this age. The cause of these events being set in motion is Israel's leaving the love of the truth of the word of God, which in turn engenders "the rise of Babylon from the sea." [Rev. 13:1].
-- Michael J. Miller, 2014
Italics, bold and [ ] are the author's.
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