Category: Bible

Because you’re really pagans.

אַל־תִּבְטְח֥וּ בִנְדִיבִ֑ים בְּבֶן‮‬־אָדָ֓ם׀ שֶׁ֤אֵֽין לֹ֥ו תְשׁוּעָֽה׃.

Ps 146:3.

The world would be a far better place-

‘If your brother does something wrong, go and have it out with him alone, between your two selves. If he listens to you, you have won back your brother.  If he does not listen, take one or two others along with you: whatever the misdemeanour, the evidence of two or three witnesses is required to sustain the charge.  But if he refuses to listen to these, report it to the community; and if he refuses to listen to the community, treat him like a gentile or a tax collector.  (Matt. 18:15-17)

And the dust has settled, Churches in America have some serious soul-searching to do.  And the first question it has to ask itself is

… why is it that we have so very few Micaiah ben Imlah’s and far far far too many servants of Baal occupying American pulpits?

Listen to this saying, you cows of Bashan living on the hill of Samaria, exploiting the weak and ill-treating the poor, saying to your husbands, ‘Bring us something to drink!’  The Lord God has sworn by his holiness: Look, the days will soon be on you when he will use hooks to drag you away and fish-hooks for the very last of you; through the breaches in the wall you will leave, each one straight ahead, and be herded away towards Hermon -declares Yahweh. (Amos 4:1-3)

God is coming for you.

On the same day Jesus went out of the house and sat by the sea. And great multitudes were gathered together to Him, so that He got into a boat and sat; and the whole multitude stood on the shore. Then He spoke many things to them in parables, saying:

“Behold, a sower went out to sow. “And as he sowed, some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds came and devoured them. “Some fell on stony places, where they did not have much earth; and they immediately sprang up because they had no depth of earth. “But when the sun was up they were scorched, and because they had no root they withered away. “And some fell among thorns, and the thorns sprang up and choked them. “But others fell on good ground and yielded a crop: some a hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty. “He who has ears to hear, let him hear!” (Matt. 13:1-9)

“Blessed are the merciful, for they shall receive mercy.”

“Be merciful, even as your Father is merciful.” — Mt 5:7–Lk 6:36.

What don’t you get?

My child,

do not cheat the poor of their living,
and do not keep needy eyes waiting.
Do not grieve the hungry, or anger one in need.
Do not add to the troubles of the desperate, or delay giving to the needy.
Do not reject a suppliant in distress, or turn your face away from the poor.
Do not avert your eye from the needy, and give no one reason to curse you;

for if in bitterness of soul some should curse you, their Creator will hear their prayer. — Sir 4:1–6.

In 1925 Robertson wrote

The preacher is an expert on the word of God by profession.-  A.T. Robertson

If he were alive today and saw the ignorance of so many preachers in terms of the Bible he would be horrified.  And disgusted.  And he had a bit of a temper, so he would probably say something about it.

Paul tells the Romans in chapter 13 of his letter to them to pray for those in authority. I agree. And since Paul doesn’t say we should pray that God would bless them, I’ll offer this prayer daily for the next four years, or less.

For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips,
Let them even be taken in their pride,
And for the cursing and lying which they speak.
Consume them in wrath, consume them,
That they may not be;
And let them know that God rules in Jacob
To the ends of the earth. Selah. – Ps 59

Grant not, O LORD, the desires of the wicked;
do not further their evil plot, or they will be exalted! Selah

As for the head of those who surround me,
let the mischief of their lips overwhelm them!
Let burning coals fall upon them!
Let them be cast into fire,
into miry pits, no more to rise!

Let not the slanderer be established in the land;
let evil hunt down the violent man speedily!

I know that the LORD will maintain the cause of the afflicted,
and will execute justice for the needy. — Ps 140

May the Lord cut off all flattering lips,
And the tongue that speaks proud things,
Who have said,
“With our tongue we will prevail;
Our lips are our own;
Who is lord over us?”

“For the oppression of the poor, for the sighing of the needy,
Now I will arise,” says the Lord;
“I will set him in the safety for which he yearns.”

The words of the Lord are pure words,
Like silver tried in a furnace of earth,
Purified seven times.

You shall keep them, O Lord,
You shall preserve them from this generation forever.

The wicked prowl on every side,
When vileness is exalted among the sons of men.  — Ps 12

No, misery does not grow out of the soil, nor sorrow spring from the ground. It is people who breed trouble for themselves as surely as eagles fly to the height. (Job 5:6-7)

Look, the Day of Yahweh is coming, merciless, with wrath and burning anger, to reduce the country to a desert and root out the sinners from it. (Isa. 13:9)

Neat…

The wicked are estranged from the womb;
They go astray as soon as they are born, speaking lies.

Their poison is like the poison of a serpent;
They are like the deaf cobra that stops its ear,
Which will not heed the voice of charmers,
Charming ever so skillfully.

Break their teeth in their mouth, O God!
Break out the fangs of the young lions, O Lord!
Let them flow away as waters which run continually;
When he bends his bow,
Let his arrows be as if cut in pieces.

Let them be like a snail which melts away as it goes,
Like a stillborn child of a woman, that they may not see the sun.

Before your pots can feel the burning thorns,
He shall take them away as with a whirlwind,
As in His living and burning wrath. – Ps 58

Amen.

But the prophet who presumes to say something in my name which I have not commanded him to say, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that prophet must die.”  ‘You may be privately wondering, “How are we to tell that a prophecy does not come from Yahweh?”  When a prophet speaks in the name of Yahweh and the thing does not happen and the word is not fulfilled, then it has not been said by Yahweh. The prophet has spoken presumptuously. You have nothing to fear from him.’ (Deut. 18:20-22)

“Not everyone who says to Me,`Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.” (Matt. 7:21)

Allow me to simplify- just because you call yourself a Christian doesn’t mean you are.