Wednesday, July 29, 2020

What would Jesus do about Mask Mandates?

I have researched the efficacy of face masks, the rationale for mandating them in public, and yes, I even asked the Lord what He thought about masks. (Imagine that! I asked Him what was in His heart.)

I got an answer, and I will tell you about it,  but first...

Put "Should a Christian wear a mask?" into your favorite search engine and, while there is no consensus, you will find that there are three major arguments being made. Two are for mask-wearing, the authors sounding fairly adamant that Jesus would wear a mask as he went about his daily business with others, and the other group is against the idea that Jesus would wear a mask in public. All three points-of-view quote scripture for support, but none completely match what the Holy Spirit revealed to me.  So first, here are those three arguments:

#1 Wear-the-Mask Argument
This is the Love Your Neighbor argument in which wearing a mask is "an act of love" that protects others.
But the science is not there to support this. Unless you are around a person whose immune system is already compromised (a person who probably ought not be out in the public marketplace to begin with,) you will not find direct, hard evidence that healthy or asymptomatic persons are protecting others by wearing masks. It is all inference. There are no controlled trials that have shown that the basic cloth face mask can prevent transmission of a virus, however, there are studies that show improper use can be worse than none at all.  Healthy persons increase their own risk of developing health issues when their air flow is restricted as the mask picks up moisture from natural breathing and sweat; you can find the science that supports detrimental risk.  
When healthy people wear masks in a fluid retail environment, they visually reinforce disinformation and project a false sense of security.  How is promotion of deceptive propaganda a "loving" behavior?  It is not. Would Jesus enable a lie? Love rejoices when truth prevails.


#2 Wear-the-Mask Argument
This is the God Sets Authorities argument in which the exegesis for Hebrews 13:17 is misdirected and a legalistic interpretation of Romans 13:1-7 has to be pulled wildly out of context, not allowing verses 3 through 7 to interpret verses 1 and 2.
• Hebrews 13:17 refers to spiritual authority and has limited relevance to mask-wearing unless applied to spiritual forces that drive earthly authorities.
• The passage from Romans opens with, "Let every person be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God."  Subsequent verses clearly outline some limits, one being that it applies to moral, competent authority—rulers who are not a terror to good conduct, but to bad.  When a couple lawfully defends their home against gun-toting intruders — only to have the "governing authorities" tamper with the evidence, charge the homeowners with felonies, but not arrest the rioters that broke down the gate, then these government officials are not meeting the standard set in verse 4 where they are "to carry out God’s wrath on the wrongdoer."  They are punishing the innocent. Only legalism of Pharisaic proportion could arrive at the conclusion that God wants the innocent punished while the guilty to go free. The verse was never intended to give lawless officials ungodly powers.
Jesus gave his disciples authority too, using the same Greek word ἐξουσία.  Christians are to use authority over the unclean spirits that are obviously working through evil leaders.  I've always said that you don't have to bake brownies for the devil; we do not owe purveyors of deliberate evil our kindness and respect.  The mask mandates originated in darkness, as I show later. 

#3 Never-Wear-the-Mask Argument
There is an expression, Every mile of road has two miles of ditches.  Whereas #1 & #2 ran off into the left hand ditch, #3 veers toward the right, being pushed hard by pride. 
This is the recalcitrant Don't Tread on Me argument. And legally they are correct; neither the Declaration of Independence nor the Constitution with its Bill of Rights give mask-mandate power to government. If the Court rules that they can, then it is just as wrong a ruling as Roe v Wade was—there is no legitimate authority to kill babies either.  However, without love, this argument becomes a booming brass and a clanging cymbal, cf 1 Corinthians 13.  A person who wants to 'be like Jesus' will not position him/herself in a place without mercy. "For judgment is without mercy to one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment." James 2:13.
 

None Of The Above

When I discussed masks with the Lord, I found that he doesn't endorse any of those positions. His heart is grieved.
I am going to repeat that so it can sink in: His heart is grieved. Lies have been used to restrict and shutter up the church, His Bride. And Christians, who should have armored up for warfare, are too often preaching a false gospel that Jesus would have worn a mask.  What the Church ought to have done/be doing is standing and praying against the spirits of Control (Jezebel), Chaos, (Leviathan) and Sorcery (Pharmakia) which have been loosed across our nation and the world to steal, to kill, and to destroy.  We have had god-given drugs and treatments for this virus from very early on, but those who submit to powers of darkness have kept them from 'we the people.' The delay is largely our (the Church's) fault; lacking knowledge of this spiritual war and lacking boldness to stand against evil.  Because too few spent time seeking Him first,  many became sucked into lying narratives.   

The mask-wearing grieves Jesus; masks are visible evidence of how far the devil's schemes have invaded the United States.  The mask-mandates are intended to silence the righteous. I always knew this in my intuitive spirit, but now I have the words to express in a blog. For the most part, I will not wear a mask because it grieves the Holy Spirit so deeply.  But He also pointed me to 1 Corinthians 10:28b-29 which says:
for the sake of conscience— the other one’s conscience, I mean, not your own. For why should my freedom be determined by someone else’s conscience?…
In context, Paul had been teaching about eating meat sacrificed to idols, but here, it is the underlying principle that matters—not giving the devil a ledge to stand on. So while Paul was personally fine with eating the meat, if it was going to give the devil a hold on someone else, he would not eat it. And that right there is your answer to what would Jesus do about mask mandates: He would not let any glory go to the devil.  He would not give the devil a ledge to stand on. 

A part of me is horrified to see the reasoning that many blogs and articles are using to support their premise that Jesus would wear a mask. They use incredibly submissive argumentation —  If Jesus was willing to experience humiliation, suffering, and death on a cross, surely he would wear a mask, they say. It is as if they missed the entire point of the resurrection: Defeating the devil!     Jesus died on the cross so that he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery, Heb 2:14.
That defeat of the devil changed everything.  The victory of the resurrection changed everything.  Jesus is not going back to the cross.

In fact, this is The Connect to the Unforgivable Sin: If you feel that wearing a mask shows proper submission to government authority, and if you also see that same authority is actively at war against the Church, banning her freedom of peaceable assembly, abridging her freedom of speech, and restricting her free exercise of worship, then you are in the upstream rapids of not considering the work of the Holy Spirit to be Sufficient, and you are headed for the plunge of crucifying Jesus again. (If you are feeling touchy now, please see the footnote; also see the footnote if you think I am being overly dramatic and it is not really all that serious.) 

We can resist the devil because of Jesus’ finished work. We cannot either add to or diminish his finished work without being in error. 

And resisting the devil is exactly the test before the Church in this season.  Jesus wants us to seek Him with unveiled faces.  He wants us to walk in the glory, not in disease.
We must stay/become forward-looking in our pursuit of God's plans for our lives. Focusing too long on the here-and-now lets us get stuck, and if not repented of, eventually left behind. Neither the sticking nor the staying are God's plan for us; He does not desire a derailing but rather our progress from one degree of glory to the next.



Footnotes:
I am not claiming that wearing a mask is a sin and I most certainly am not suggesting it is an unforgivable one! I am saying that mask-mandates are a scheme that did not originate with God to keep you safe and protected from disease.  The mandates are not His plan. They are rooted in evil desires to cripple the Church, and any protection they offer in a public setting is minuscule. Consequently, ministering deliverance from the devil overrules making a stand against a mask.  Poverty is from the devil, so earning your income could overrule refusing a mask. Disease is from the devil, so helping the sick would overrule refusal to wear a mask. Along with poverty and sickness, there are other curses, many are listed in Deuteronomy 28 including drought, insanity, and the politically incorrect one of verse 43 involving the status of illegal aliens. If wearing a mask helps you overcome any curses, then the works that defeat evil overrule making a political statement about it. 
Christ "redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us," Galatians 3:13. Correspondingly, using a mask to assist redemption is not a sin. It has always been this way: surgical masks were developed to minimize contamination during surgery when the body is open and exposed. They were not designed to restrict the healthy.  But to act as if Jesus is not enough, and then to add more rules for the healthy, is submission to an evil controlling spirit.
I am not claiming to have the full and final word of the Lord on this topic either. I am sharing the "one next level" that the Holy Spirit led me to understand. I am neither maliciously nor enviously judging those who are at different mileposts on their journey. Love rejoices when truth prevails.


THIS is our governing authority for the United States, Amendment I →  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.
A paid expert is not a governing authority. Any government official, either elected or appointed,  who violates the Constitution is not a legitimate governing authority because they are lawless. 

UPDATES: 
By Baruch Vainshelboim, originally published November 2020 - Scroll down to the start of the article. From the conclusion: The data suggest that both medical and non-medical facemasks are ineffective to block human-to-human transmission of viral and infectious disease such SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, supporting against the usage of facemasks. Wearing facemasks has been demonstrated to have substantial adverse physiological and psychological effects.
or copy & paste this>    https://www.scribd.com/document/503573509/Facemasks-in-the-COVID-19-era-A-health-hypothesis-by-Baruch-Vainshelboim 
**This paper is now censored by Twitter.  Facebook cites it as false or misleading because it did not come from Stanford University.  The author, Vainshelboim, is credentialed as "Cardiology Division, Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System/Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA, United States" 
 
 
By Anne Hendershott, September 29, 2020  "A politician first, Fauci has always played all sides of the equation because he knows that inspiring fear will always drive public policy in the direction he wants it to go. "
 

Kisielinski, Kai, et al. “Is a Mask That Covers the Mouth and Nose Free from Undesirable Side Effects in Everyday Use and Free of Potential Hazards?” MDPI, Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute, 20 Apr. 2021, www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/8/4344/htm.   The described mask-related changes in respiratory physiology can have an adverse effect on the wearer’s blood gases sub-clinically and in some cases also clinically manifest and, therefore, have a negative effect on the basis of all aerobic life, external and internal respiration, with an influence on a wide variety of organ systems and metabolic processes with physical, psychological and social consequences for the individual human being.

 


 

Tuesday, June 9, 2020

ARCHIVE of Twitter user Ashley Rae Goldenberg's List of "The Companies That Support Antifa, Black Lives Matter, and Want You De@d

Companies defending the rioters:

  1. 23andme: https://archive.is/Mjbwk
  2. 72andSunny: https://archive.is/B1x7Y
  3. Abbey Road Studios: https://archive.is/AJlrg
  4. The Academy (the Oscars): https://archive.is/cNRYf
  5. Activision Blizzard: https://archive.is/qfRJ1
  6. Adidas: https://archive.is/ezQ22
  7. Airbnb: https://archive.is/GmMjl
  8. Alaska Airlines: https://archive.is/wnICf
  9. Amazon: https://archive.is/lBR4u
  10. American Airlines: https://archive.is/XBwhw
  11. American Express: https://archive.is/kzWXa
  12. American Apparel: https://archive.is/ETfYw
  13. Apple Music: https://archive.is/cj97E
  14. Astro Gaming: https://archive.is/9aWhf
  15. AT&T: https://archive.is/OzC04
  16. Atlantic Records: https://archive.is/65QQq
  17. AWS: https://archive.is/NXNAG
  18. AXE: https://archive.is/Xpxhw
  19. Barnes & Noble: https://archive.is/PCPKn
  20. Bank of America: https://archive.is/FH1O0
  21. Bergdorf Goodman: https://archive.is/nQiPA
  22. Bethesda: https://archive.is/2xeNE
  23. Ben & Jerry’s: https://archive.is/BqHRv
  24. Billboard: https://archive.is/Ruuv8
  25. BMW: https://archive.is/lRN51
  26. Boost Mobile: https://archive.is/pLnAf
  27. Bratz: https://archive.is/vOA1d
  28. Bungie: https://archive.is/81KHV
  29. Burberry: https://archive.is/ha0jP
  30. Call of Duty: https://archive.is/DEJA6
  31. Capcom: https://archive.is/S1BgN
  32. Capitol Records: https://archive.is/jeUpY
  33. Canada Goose: https://archive.is/y2nLo
  34. Cisco: https://archive.is/fNvdP
  35. Citigroup: https://archive.is/36fkF
  36. Conde Nast: https://archive.is/ChMdI
  37. Converse: https://archive.is//sKjmg
  38. Crunchyroll: https://archive.is/q7Ucj
  39. CW: https://archive.is/JumZU
  40. CVS: https://archive.is/DbBSV
  41. Dell: https://archive.is/IeI9j
  42. Degree: https://archive.is/SItaW
  43. Devolver Digital: https://archive.is/xcaEH
  44. DIRECTV: https://archive.is/hhBG4
  45. Discord: https://archive.is/hGtDw
  46. Disney: https://archive.is/wldfM
  47. Doritos: https://archive.is/nLHv0
  48. DoorDash: https://archive.is/vhTW2
  49. Doulingo: https://archive.is/v9Wpk
  50. E! News: https://archive.is/3PJyz
  51. EA: https://archive.is/92ALS
  52. Eight Sleep: https://archive.is/IiV7n
  53. ESPN: https://archive.is/1I5Tf
  54. FedEx: https://archive.is/kKVJp
  55. Fender: https://archive.is/OGjBM
  56. Formula 1: https://archive.is/FCpBG
  57. FOX: https://archive.is/p2BvT
  58. Frosted Mini Wheats: https://archive.is/vrEYN
  59. Funimation: https://archive.is/sfN8E
  60. GameSpot: https://archive.is/zEkO3
  61. Goldman Sachs: https://archive.is/TA2h0
  62. GoFundMe: https://archive.is/Be0fJ
  63. Google: https://archive.is/DK2T8
  64. Gorilla Glue: https://archive.is/0R9ya
  65. Grindr: https://archive.is/Z6KcW
  66. Harry’s: https://archive.is/mE4NN
  67. HBO: https://archive.is/oiUyY
  68. HBO Max: https://archive.is/LGsPt
  69. Help Scout: https://archive.is//D8DCs
  70. Hershey’s: https://archive.is/ZQ5zD
  71. H&M: https://archive.is/A9ONJ
  72. HP: https://archive.is/BO2tc
  73. Hulu: https://archive.is/4CyO2
  74. Humble Bundle: https://archive.is/YXDb6
  75. IBM: https://archive.is/ij3Q1
  76. Indiegogo: https://archive.is/jrDZk
  77. itch.io: https://archive.is/UTsTi
  78. Intel: https://archive.is/93D5q
  79. IKEA: https://archive.is/piwcs
  80. ITV: https://archive.is/yD1pS
  81. Kickstarter: https://archive.is/0zwng
  82. Levi’s: https://archive.is/KizLO
  83. LinkedIn: https://archive.is/sX5zb
  84. L’Oreal Paris: https://archive.is/Jfelo
  85. Logitech: https://archive.is/vf6J7
  86. Lululemon: https://archive.is/rjCRV
  87. Louis Vuitton: https://archive.is/nGZe8
  88. Lyft: https://archive.is/UXl3k
  89. Madden NFL 20: https://archive.is/CTUoi
  90. Marvel Entertainment: https://archive.is/Ptup6
  91. MATTEL: https://archive.is/bvsqN
  92. McAfee: https://archive.is/IGXA1
  93. McDonald’s: https://archive.is/jOZ65
  94. Mercedes Benz: https://archive.is/bs8y6
  95. Metropolitan Opera: https://archive.fo/wecQ2
  96. Microsoft: https://archive.is/A7Vjv
  97. Napster: https://archive.is/fVY1s
  98. NASCAR: https://archive.is/LG2hU
  99. Netflix: https://archive.is/UVSEr
  100. NFL: https://archive.is/G4yq4
  101. NHL: https://archive.is/lYbyG
  102. Niantic: https://archive.is/UdKYR
  103. Nickelodeon: https://archive.is/JWSPQ
  104. Nike: https://archive.is/UXYBy
  105. Nintendo: https://archive.is/5UOjp
  106. Nordstrom: https://archive.is/A7mUU
  107. North Face: https://archive.is/rq1Cb
  108. Old Spice: https://archive.is/1UK5d
  109. Paramount Pictures: https://archive.is/ixXHd
  110. Paramount Network: https://archive.is/BCAX3
  111. Patreon: https://archive.is/wzfM5
  112. Peloton: https://archive.is/d36k7
  113. Playstation: https://archive.is/52Vvl
  114. Pokemon: https://archive.is/p9zuP
  115. Popeye’s Chicken: https://archive.is/CzlHd
  116. Pop-Tarts: https://archive.is/8cMGG
  117. Porsche: https://archive.is/VrmlZ
  118. Pringles: https://archive.is/1WpA1
  119. Procter & Gamble: https://archive.is/JSMO4
  120. Reddit: https://archive.is/H09M8
  121. Red Lobster: https://archive.is/aIUyy
  122. Reebok: https://archive.is/v0nat
  123. Reese’s: https://archive.is/Rc4pJ
  124. Rice Krispies: https://archive.is/U4Zn9
  125. Riot Games: https://archive.is/2XH97
  126. Salesforce: https://archive.is/t1qZB
  127. Sanofi: https://archive.is//ErmGO
  128. Scholastic: https://archive.is/fFmX3
  129. Sesame Street: https://archive.is/5he9K
  130. Showtime: https://archive.is/YTPVw
  131. Slack: https://archive.is/gF9ym
  132. Sephora: https://archive.is/Gm7Rc
  133. Skillshare: https://archive.is/JX5em
  134. Snap: https://archive.is/HcGGQ
  135. Snapchat: https://archive.is/5reL4
  136. State Street: https://archive.is/gnqt0
  137. Sony: https://archive.is/1PtlU
  138. Spotify: https://archive.is/ufTeo
  139. Square Enix: https://archive.is/qmPIX
  140. STARZ: https://archive.is/eQ4YG
  141. Starbucks: https://archive.is/EENlS
  142. Star Wars: https://archive.is/xnSgt
  143. Subway: https://archive.is/D5F8H
  144. Taco Bell: https://archive.is/LLY9l
  145. Target: https://archive.is/YoIrO
  146. TBS: https://archive.is/N0QhU
  147. Tesco: https://archive.is/hZS7B
  148. Thatgamecompany: https://archive.is/7po1C
  149. TikTok: https://archive.is/bt2vy
  150. Timberland: https://archive.is/HZtxv
  151. Tinder: https://archive.is/YaY2y
  152. TMobile: https://archive.is//KB2lG
  153. Twitch: https://archive.is/DAmR5
  154. Twitter: https://archive.is/auIgi
  155. Ubisoft: https://archive.is/0qMff
  156. Uber: https://archive.is/RrScn
  157. UnitedHealth Group: https://archive.is/rzQXF
  158. Vans: https://archive.is/5nYag
  159. Verizon: https://archive.is/hPZoJ
  160. VERSACE: https://archive.is/wWsxK
  161. Vevo: https://archive.is/MVtrR
  162. Via: https://archive.is/fFIvU
  163. ViacomCBS: https://archive.is/uCGXy
  164. Virgin Records: https://archive.is/QiykN
  165. Virta: https://archive.is/7e9KT
  166. VIZ: https://archive.is/eMuIW
  167. Warner Bros https://archive.is/F1Tqn
  168. Warner Records: https://archive.is/Mm6qb
  169. XBox: https://archive.is/6zdVS
  170. YouTube: https://archive.is/5qz6a
  171. Zildijian: https://archive.fo/o6Tqi

Saturday, May 30, 2020

Why I Am Looking Forward to Pentecost this Year.


History of Pentecost

 The church that I grew up in taught us kids that the "first" Pentecost is found in the Book of Acts, Chapter 2, when 120 believers were praying together in the upper room. One can find support for that position with a standard web search. The problem is that one must smushh the definitions to make it true.

It was the first Pentecost of the Christian era. It was the first time that humans were filled with the Holy Spirit for keeps and not just in a temporary visitation. It was the Pentecost that launched the Church.  So if that's your definition, it was the first.

But under a different name, the first Pentecost followed seven weeks after the first Passover, and for that we must go back to the time of Moses. The Festival of Weeks (7 weeks = 49 days, then the 50th day is the celebration), known on the Jewish calendar as Shavuot, also  the Feast of First Fruits, the beginning of the wheat harvest—the Jews had recognized these feasts since the Exodus, and it partially accounted for why so many foreign-born Jews were in Jerusalem.  
During the exodus, seven weeks after leaving Goshen in Egypt, the Israelites were camped in the shadow of Mt. Sinai where the Spirit of the Living God came down in glory and gave Moses the Ten Commandments. Every year after leaving Egypt, the Israelites celebrated the first fruits and the giving of the law with thanksgiving and remembrance.  Roughly fourteen centuries later, this feast, now called Pentecost in the Greek language, was still celebrated 50 days after Passover.
And so it was that in Acts 2 we find 120 heirs of salvation are in the upper room praying, probably reading scripture, and waiting for the Holy Spirit. But let's back up ten days... 


The Last Thing Jesus Said - Acts 1:8
"But you shall receive power—ability, efficiency and might—when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends—the very bounds—of the earth."
And again, I've discovered that my childhood church was fairly selective over what they emphasized. We got the "begin at Jerusalem and spread over the world" assignment part, but the empowerment part.. well, that was treated like a booster rocket, needed for launch but then falls away. Except that you will be hard-pressed to find scripture that supports that concept; it is just a conclusion drawn by people who didn't experience and haven't seen much power since lift off of the Church.
The point of the Holy Spirit's coming, however, was for believers to receive ability, efficiency, and might. There was no expiration date on the promise.

Back to Pentecost - Acts 2

1 And when the day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all assembled together in one place, 2 When suddenly there came a sound from heaven like the rushing of a violent tempest blast, and it filled the whole house in which they were sitting. 3 And there appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were separated and distributed and which settled on each one of them. 4 And they were all filled (diffused throughout their souls) with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other (different, foreign) languages (tongues), as the Spirit kept giving them clear and loud expression [in each tongue in appropriate words]. 
No one in my childhood church had a solid revelation of this. That's forgivable—that's some awesomely radical stuff going on. Their explanations deferred to old commentaries; there's nothing sinful about using commentaries either but this resulted in explaining the supernatural appearance more than the actual significance.
I don't remember anyone trying to connect the dots with John 14:26 where Jesus says, "But when the Father sends the Spirit of Holiness, the Redeemer from the curse—the One like me who sets you free, he will teach you all things in my name."

Before you jump up and tell me you've read the Gospel of John many times and never saw 'the Redeemer from the curse' in there, let me interject that that translation is based on an Aramaic manuscript which King James' translators never had access to. English translations of John 14:26 use a variety of words to translate  παράκλητος τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον  and I will list them in a footnote¹ below. I chose this one based on the Passion translation/paraphrase because the Holy Spirit as 'the Redeemer from the curse' is integral to empowering the the Church to take its place as the Standard Bearer in culture and not be reduced to the "optional elective" for individuals that secularists wish it to be. 

I believe that there is a general need for traditional Western Protestant congregations to be more aware of the spiritual battles around us.  Jesus won against spiritual forces throughout his Earth ministry, but we haven't been trained to see it. After Jesus read a messianic prophesy from Isaiah, members of his hometown synagogue tried to push Him off a cliff. The storm that nearly sunk the boat on the Sea of Galilee was not a natural occurrence. These attacks were instigated by malevolent spirits. There are other examples too, and the thing to be aware of is that Jesus addressed them and had victory as the Son of Man,  not as the Son of God. The Holy Spirit is the delivering power for this warfare.

There are three Old-Testament incidents when Evil Spirit-Realm Forces/Entities did a whammy on the human race. My childhood church recognized the first one: the Fall in the Garden of Eden.  It tried to ignore the second one in Genesis 6 when the "sons of god" took the wives they chose from the daughters of men. And it skated over the surface of the third inter-dimensional attack being constructed at the Tower of Babel.  I've found that those were fairly typical responses of the 20th Century Western Christian church; they liked 'scientific' logic and any foray into the mystic made them queasy. In the ancient Near East, however, in the era and region where the Apostle Paul and Jesus' disciples grew up, people saw these assaults as three battles of an on-going war.  Whereas we tend to lay almost all of the blame for mankind's condition on Eve's chatting with the serpent, and see most every foul thing since then as being fallout from that bad decision,  the Jewish weltanschauung (applied worldview) of Jesus day saw a long war against YHWH being responsible for the human condition.

I point that out so that the symmetry of Pentecost's "Undo" is more easily seen. It is not a perfectly mirrored reversal, but some² of the loss of communication at Babel was restored. The Pentecost of Acts 2 was no longer a only a feast-day recitation of Israel's history, but the the birth of the ecclesia moving forward.  The Holy Spirit had come to stay for the next Age. Men could be filled with "power from on high." They could choose to seek and stay in the presence of the Holy Spirit without being dependent upon times of divine impartation.

It was the Pentecost of Acts 2 that began the release of spiritual gifts, spiritual fruits, and the God-ordained³ offices of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor, and teacher. And with these offices, using these gifts, and empowered by the Holy Spirit, mankind began to realize his authority restored over the devil: the authority to lay hands on the sick and have them recover, to cast out demons and have them leave, to do the works of Jesus and greater works besides.

Pentecost of 2020

By any unit of measure, 2020 has been a unique year, and it is not yet half-over. It may well prove to be a year as monumental for the Church as was 1517, when Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses to to door in Wittenberg, Germany.
Faced with the spread of SARS-CoV2, governments around the world have shuttered church congregations from meeting. Heirs of Salvation have risen to the occasion and used technology to carry on services with electronic media, but...  

At the Acts 2 Pentecost, they were all assembled together in one place.  I believe this is the Lord's perfect will for 2020 too.

Like my blog's name says, we are on a Bootcamp Planet. The church has been tested these past few months and now it is time to graduate. We will see if we hit the mark this coming Pentecost.

The Church has spent years in training, and it is time to deploy.



A Bit of Digging into Language Study

If you like the King James Bible, that's fine, but let me show you something—
In the KJV, Isaiah 59:19b reads like this:
When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.
Since the discovery of the Dead Sea scrolls in 1949-1956, many of the newer Bible translations move the comma. The original language does not use such punctuation, so the translators reasoned it out as well as they could from the manuscripts available. Comparing with Jeremiah 46:7, the adversary is a flood, so it could be translated that way.  But many scholars today working with additional manuscripts believe that the power of the flood belongs with the Lord, not with the enemy. 
When the enemy shall come in, like a flood the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.

And there's the Berean Study Bible for Isaiah 59:18-19, prophesying the Covenant of the Redeemer.
So He will repay according to their deeds: fury to His enemies, retribution to His foes, and recompense to the islands. So will they fear the name of the LORD from the west and His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a raging flood, driven by the breath of the LORD.
The shifting comma nuances (yes, I'm using 'nuances' as a verb; just go with it) a change from our protection to the Lord facing off with our enemy; both are true. 

Is This a Word for Our Time?

There are some contemporary prophets who think so.  Understand that I am not talking about prophets in the Old Testament sense where the Holy Spirit would come upon them with a word and leave again—where if they missed it they were to be stoned. I am talking about the post-Acts 2 Pentecost office of prophet, one of the five along with apostle, evangelist, pastor, or teacher. These are people that God choses to hear what He is saying and confirm what He is doing in His kingdom. 
Many are saying that as the world deals with SARS-CoV-2, that what the enemy intended for evil, God intended for good, in order to accomplish a day like this—to preserve the spiritual lives of many people, cf Genesis 50:20.
At the first Passover, the Israelites were sheltered in their homes waiting for the plague of death to pass over. It has been pointed out that during Passover 2020, Israel was once again sheltered in their homes waiting for the plague to pass—a literal reenactment. Will Pentecost follow suit? Will we find ourselves now assembled together in one place when the Spirit of Holiness comes with a manifestation of power? Will the breath of God be so strong that it sounds like a tempest? Will we see angelfire?  Will you speak in tongues? Will you be drunk with new wine?  ... That will depend upon your expectation and/or resistance to the Holy Ghost. How far do you really want to go? All things are possible.  The Lord wants us to, even plans for us to walk in His Spirit and His Power.  Will we accept Pentecost as an opportunity to allow the Holy Spirit to reset our congregations and get us back on course with His plans?

What to Expect

The Acts 2 Pentecost had two main functions. (1) It PROVIDED for the church. Believers could receive spiritual gifts. A governmental structure of five offices would soon be revealed. Spiritual fruits of love, joy, peace. patience. kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and temperance would be able to be grown by all who would be led by the Spirit.  (2) It EMPOWERED the church. Miracles, now done in Jesus' name would continue.  Boldness to witness to the ends of the Earth came upon the believers with the revelation of a Kingdom destiny.  Jesus said the Holy Spirit will teach us all things, cf  John 14:26 above.  We should expect that a God Who Does Not Change would want us to receive His provision and empowerment to disciple nations in a post-pandemic world where fear-mongers and and censorship of truth had become entrenched in our daily lives.  

The residents of Jerusalem thought the believers from the upper room were drunk that day. They were, but with new wine of the Spirit, not the fermented stuff as the world supposed. God had poured out His Spirit on mankind.  In Pentecost 2020 we will have an opportunity to be refreshed with new wine of the Spirit.  How much we can handle will depend upon how prepared we are with new wine skins.  We will not be given more than we can hold, but we can have as much as we prepared for. 







Footnotes
¹  παράκλητος is translated as Comforter, Advocate, Counselor, Intercessor-Counselor, Strengthener, Standby, Companion, Paraclete, Helper, Helper in Court, Helper - the Ruach ha-Kodesh, and from the Orthodox Jewish Bible, the Melitz Yosher, the one who speaks eloquently in someone else's defense.
² I used "some" because pragmatically, we still "see in a glass darkly."  We are entitled to "all" through our covenant, but that manifests in the light of God's glory.
³ God-ordained offices, as opposed to self-chosen "careers." 



Friday, April 24, 2020

Why I am not a fan of Unspoken Prayers - UPDATED

 At the outset, please know that I am not trying to step on anyone's toes.  If you are getting good results with unspoken prayers, Great! Certainly both common sense and the scriptures tell us that there is a time to keep silent. It can be discretion to not pray aloud in a formal pubic setting, and for a variety of solid reasons: It could derail the focus that God intends. It could make people question and misjudge motive. It could spawn gossip.  So, I'm certainly not saying that there is never a time for unspoken prayer.

What I am saying is that I am not a fan of unspoken, unvoiced prayer as the go-to style for prayers that need to effect change.  "Unspoken" is better saved for receiving guidance prayer, because it keeps you quiet enough to hear, and for times and places where spoken prayer would be disruptive, impractical, or sorely advised. And by "sorely advised" I mean something of a nature that results in the proverbial casting pearls before swine— Use unspoken prayer for things dear to your heart when those around you cannot help and will only trample on what you'd say.

But with a few exceptions noted, prayer that moves mountains and changes things is best when spoken aloud. Whispering does not make a request more pious, but over time the enemy has worked that delusion into much doctrine. Our adversary has had two millennia to drain Power from the Church by sneaking in all sorts of faith-draining ideas.
In my nice, emphasis-on-polite, Midwestern protestant upbringing, the churches that I attended had been infiltrated with Timidity.  Verses like Hebrews 4:16 made people nervous. "Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace..."  The spirit of timidity is one of the fear spirits; God does not give us spirits of fear. Do the logic. 

Here is a similar precept in Hebrews 10:19 —  And so, dear brothers and sisters, we can boldly enter heaven’s Most Holy Place because of the blood of Jesus.
If you had stumbled upon this verse at my church youth group, you probably would have come away with the idea that you can trust God. The blood of Jesus would not be presented as our power source, but as a euphemism for His death. You would not have gotten the notion that Jesus wants you to boldly enter heaven's Most Holy Place. That would have been arrogant and prideful, right?  The insidious thing though, is that such a conclusion devalues the blood of Jesus.  
If His blood makes a bold approach possible, and yet you're being told that a bold approach is egotistical and offensive to God...  something does not compute.   
(At the risk of opening a rabbit trail, let me interject that I grew up in churches that believed when Jesus cast out devils, he was curing mental illness or epilepsy. Some probably thought the devil existed only as an allegory. There was little understanding of blood sacrifice.) 

But back to why I am not a fan of Unspoken Prayers— Realize what Jesus did by speaking!  By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God’s command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible. Hebrews 11:3 That was an out loud utterance. It is also how Jesus got here in bodily form: Mary answered. "May it happen to me according to your word."  Luke 1:38.  The importance of the spoken word was reiterated when the devil challenged Jesus in the wilderness. Jesus answered, "It is written, 'Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.'" Matthew 4:4.  And we know from Romans 10:9-10 and 1 John 4:15 that out-loud confession has a role in salvation.

There are many other examples. A spoken word has frequency, literally setting waves in motion.

Job's friends did not always give him the best advice, but because we see Eliphaz's exhortation playing out later on when Job prays for his friends, we can trust this one: You will also decree a thing, and it will be established for you; And light will shine on your ways, Job 22:28. There are incidents in scripture where deliverance or healing would not come unless a declaration was made. Prophets were raised up to make out loud declarations.  Mark 11:23 instructs us to speak to mountains that we desire to move; we are not instructed to use mental telepathy.  

Truth be told, we need to hear ourselves!
So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. Romans 10:17 NASB. Faith is more easily come by when we hear ourselves speak it out. Prayer that quotes scripture, the word of the Lord, is full of power.  It is much easier to believe that we are in agreement with the will of God, and harder to pray amiss when praying scripture aloud. 

Hold That Thought — because I am going to come back to it for my final point about Spoken Prayer Activating Angels. But first, because (a) a new corona virus has spread worldwide, and (b) the majority of prayer requests at my church are for healing/health issues,  I want to take a sidebar and focus on Speaking Healing for a bit. 


   All prayer for healing is a form of spiritual warfare because disease entered as part of the curse for disobedience, (and Moses added some details during his Mountains of Blessing and Cursing Sermon). I have already quoted a passage from Hebrews 11:3 that shows a spoken word can be a bridge between the spirit realm and this physical world.  All the "And God said..." incidents of Genesis 1's Creation Week show this.  Spoken words contain power. We see this in the dark realm as people perform curses. We who are in the light should be speaking blessings and the breaking of curses.
   A partial answer for why so many are sick in the church today is found in 1 Corinthians 11:30, a failure to discern the body. I wrote earlier that the church I attended as a teenager had incomplete teaching on the blood of Christ. They, like many other churches, also downplayed the body of Christ. Think of the Passover covenant; the blood on the doorpost was addressed in my Sunday school; the the eating of the Lamb wasn't. I am still trying to find all the missing pieces, but the eating of the Lamb was what caused the Israelites to go out with not one sick or feeble among them. The blood on the doorposts caused the angel of death to pass the house, and my church somewhat taught about blood for salvation. But it was the body of the lamb, also represented by communion bread, that was for healing. 
   Salvation (blood) and healing (body) ought to be twin mercies, but my childhood church taught the first one just a little and the second one barely at all.  Unsurprisingly then, because of the spoken words there, we received a modest level of salvations and very few healings, in proportion to the spoken word that was sown.   

Prayer connects this us in this physical realm to our Father, who is Spirit, by using words. Our need to tap Supernatural power is another reason I am not a fan of unspoken prayers. Spoken prayer activates angels. A quick look at three scriptures will give us a bearing here: 
1. He will command His angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways. Psalm 91:11 command, give charge, issue an order; these are out-loud speech concepts.
2. Are not the angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation? Hebrews 1:14 If angels are assigned* to guard us and serve us, wouldn't they be used in answering prayers?  These two verses show/tell us about the God side of it, that He commands and sends.  The third verse is about the angels' response. 
3. Bless the LORD, ye his angels, that excel in strength, that do his commandments, hearkening unto the voice of his word. Psalm 103:20  Mighty supernatural beings hearken to, carry out, heed, and obey the voice of His word.  

Most who read my blog will have heard this before, but I will say it again anyway: A Bible on the bookshelf is not a Living Word. It has to be activated. It needs to be voiced.
 For the word of God is living and active, and sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even as far as the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrows, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Hebrews 4:12  "word" in this verse is λόγος , the logos form meaning spoken word.  Speaking forth is a power boost.

For a variety of reasons, I am not a fan of unspoken prayer.  Plus, speaking is the God-way of getting stuff done:  

  For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. Psalm 33:9


ADDING THIS:

May 14 - I came back to add a bit about the relationship between Faith and Confession.
Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of a heavenly calling, consider Jesus, the Apostle and High Priest of our confession.
Hebrews 3:1
 Jesus is the High Priest of our confession.
 
Confession is made with the mouth. Belief resides in the heart, but confession is voiced. The two—confession and belief—work in tandem.
 "The word is near you, in your mouth, and in your heart." That is, the word of faith which we proclaim, that if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised Him out from the dead, you will be saved.
Romans 10:8-9 
You're probably familiar with the King James Bible's Book of James statement that faith without works is dead. Contemporary translations may say that faith without works is worthless or useless, and at least one uses barren. James is making the point that faith needs to be complemented with action.  Confession, voiced speech out loud, is one way that faith can be activated.  Scripture does not call Jesus the High Priest of our quiet thoughts, but of our confession.

One more thing today—
The War in Heaven; Revelation 12:10-11
…And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying: “Now have come the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God, and the authority of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down—he who accuses them day and night before our God. They have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony...
Who is the "they" that conquers the accuser?   "They" are not Jesus, although they used His blood. They are people who used a spoken expression.  

===========
* assigned to guard us and serve us - the "guardian" aspect is not only protection of life and safety, but also as sentinels of our destiny.  In Isaiah 43:19 we read, "Do you not see it? Indeed, I will make a way in the wilderness and streams in the desert." Angelic assignments are instrumental in this. 








 

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Murmuring and Plague—When Aaron Stood between the Living and the Dead

For many people, if they know anything at all about the 16th chapter of the Book of Numbers, it's probably going to be a memory of Korah's Rebellion— and maybe the groaner of a pun: Korah thought he was in good standing, but he was really at fault, which of course, is a reference to his death when a shifting fault line opened a chasm beneath him.  

The Israelites were serving God's sentence for their obstinance: Forty Years Wandering in the Wilderness.  Korah, from the tribe of Levi, supported by another 250 community leaders and two families of Rubenites, Dathan and Abiram, had never fully repented for their role in causing that situation and directed the blame at Moses.  They reckoned that if Moses had been any good at leadership, he'd have come up with a way for them to be in the Promised Land of milk & honey. After all, Moses had asked God to relent after that other issue with the Golden Calf, but now Moses had accepted the 40-year punishment and wouldn't even try to do anything about it.  They thought Moses was— well, let's say that Korah's opinion of Moses was analogous to Hillary's opinions of Donald Trump. So they planned a coup. Lacking the availability of Russians for bringing a fake collusion charge, they skipped straight to accusing Moses and Aaron of exalting themselves above the assembly of the LORD.  "Arrogant narcissists!" they murmured, "thinking they are better than us."   

I am not going to detail the first 35 verses of chapter 16. It is a thrilling story that you can review for yourself. But the gist of it was that Moses challenged Korah and his supporters to an incense burn-off to be held the next day. Moses also wanted to talk with Dathan and Abiram, but they accused Moses of wanting to gouge out their eyes and refused to hear him out.  The next day, when the Glory showed up and it became apparent the God wanted to put an end to EVERYBODY all at once, Moses and Aaron did some on-their-face negotiating with God. The rest of the assembly was given an opportunity to step away from the tents of Korah, Dathan, and Abiram before the earth opened and swallowed them alive.  The 250 men left with incense in their censers (firepans) panicked, and the fire of God consumed them.

The coup had failed, and the next five verses Ought To Have ended the sorry affair. The remaining assembly Ought To Have learned respect for and fear of the Lord.  There Ought To Have been an understanding of Righteousness and Holiness. Here are those five verses:

Then the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, "Say to Eleazar, the son of Aaron the priest, that he shall take up the censers out of the midst of the blaze, for they are holy; and you scatter the burning coals abroad. As for the censers of these men who have sinned at the cost of their lives, let them be made into hammered sheets for a plating of the altar, since they did present them before the LORD and they are holy; and they shall be for a sign to the sons of Israel." 
So Eleazar the priest took the bronze censers which the men who were burned had offered, and they hammered them out as a plating for the altar, as a reminder to the sons of Israel that no layman who is not of the descendants of Aaron should come near to burn incense before the LORD; so that he will not become like Korah and his company— just as the LORD had spoken to him through Moses.
~ Numbers 16:36-40   

A wealth of information about holiness, administrative authority, and respect for what is sacred is packed into that passage.  It is not my purpose to unpack it now because I really want to get on with the parallel between that coup attempt of the past and this coup attempt of the present. But do note that the Lord told Moses to have Eleazar collect the censers of the dead; (a) we see the beginning of transference of the duty to the next generation, and (b) Aaron remains ceremonially clean (because he did not touch the dead) and therefore was eligible for what will happen next.

And now...    Murmuring brings a Plague

If you thought the Israelites might have caught a clue, nope. You'd be wrong.  The very next day their traitorous mouths were accusing Moses of murder.  Yes. Seriously. Murder!

Verse 41 But on the next day all the congregation of the people of Israel grumbled against Moses and against Aaron, saying, “You have killed the people of the LORD.”
 
Go figure! They'd had Egyptians hand them gold and jewels. They'd all been healed at the first Passover. They've seen the Red Sea stand as a wall and walked across on dry ground. They'd seen the awesome lightnings atop Mt. Sinai. They were being fed with manna in a wilderness where there's nothing but rock and sand. Their clothing was not wearing out. If they'd used toilet paper then, their roll would have spun a never-ending supply.  And still they grumbled.

Well, the figuring isn't all that hard these days. It's fairly easy to see the parallels between the Israelites back then and major segments of the population today. Enabled by a Legacy Media with little understanding of God's Holiness, the murmuring against our President runs nonstop, and when the cameras are on, the narrative becomes punctuated with full-out accusations and lies.

Eventually God had had enough. He showed up at the tent of meeting. The cloud covered it and the glory of the LORD appeared. God was going to defend His friend Moses. That's what friends do. The Good News Translation has God telling Moses and Aaron, "Move back from these people, and I will destroy them on the spot!"  The chronic whining and criticism had brought on a plague.  The protection had lifted.

Although at first, Moses and Aaron fell facedown to intercede as before, Moses quickly discerned that this time was different. This time there was no begging for mercy. This time he could not pray it away. This time required action. ...and Moses said to Aaron, "Take your fire pan, put live coals from the altar in it, and put some incense on the coals. Then hurry with it to the people and perform the ritual of purification for them. Hurry! The LORD's anger has already broken out and an epidemic has already begun." GNT verse 46. 

Notice that this time it took the authority of a priest to make atonement for the people.  These are Old Testament rules; but the need to have respect for holiness does not change just because we got a New Testament. In 1 Peter 2:5 we are told that New Covenant believers "are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ." Our authority is in Christ. New Testament believers can be given a priesthood, but that only increases our need to maintain a "fear of the Lord."


So Aaron took the censer as Moses had ordered and ran into the midst of the assembly. And seeing that the plague had begun among the people, he offered the incense and made atonement for the people.
~ Numbers 16:47, Berean Study Bible 

Aaron's censer held live coals and incense.  The censers of the 250 men who died were bronze, indicating that they were used at the altar of burnt offering. The censer used by the High Priest for atonement was made of gold. For both, the live coals came from the sacred fire of the altar, representing God. Aaron's incense also came from the tabernacle, and Psalm 141: 1-2 establishes that incense symbolizes prayer:  
    I call upon You, O LORD; come quickly to me. Hear my voice when I call to You.
    May my prayer be set before You like incense, my uplifted hands like the evening offering.
The picture is Holy God consuming our prayers. The live coal and incense work together to release fragrance. Both were necessary to cover their sin; the $2 phrase is "made propitiation."

He stood between the dead and the living, and the plague stopped. Numbers 16:48

Here, Aaron was a type of Christ. He held the offices of mediator and intercessor as an extension of his priesthood. Under the New Covenant, the provision looks like this: 
 …because Jesus lives forever, He has a permanent priesthood. Therefore He is able to save completely those who draw near to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede for them. Such a high priest truly befits us—One who is holy, innocent, undefiled, set apart from sinners, and exalted above the heavens. 
~ Hebrews 7:24-26, Berean Study Bible
I know that there are plenty of people who would happily laugh at me for positing that the likes of murmuring by CNN, MSNBC,  The New York Times, The Washington Post, Google News, and Buzzfeed brought on Covid-19.  "That's not scientific!" they'll chortle. Who you gonna believe, the Living God or Stephen Hawking? … Okay, Stephen's dead, but that's the point, isn't it?
So, tucked in right at the end of Numbers 16, the Bible gives us an example of chronic murmuring against God's chosen leader being the act that precipitated the plague!  "Trump is no Moses!" comes the retort.  Hmm, maybe not, but he is a biblical character!  or technically, he fits the typology of a biblical character.

The truth is that slander and lies can open all sorts of evil doors in the spirit realm. You just don't know what might come out. Contemporary Western culture is often dismissive of that idea, even though the principle that words carry power is found throughout the Bible, and we are told we will be held accountable for every empty, do-nothing word we speak (cf Matthew 12:36).

The rebellious and refractory words and behaviors of many top figures in politics and media have hit levels of recalcitrance against God and against God's will for the United States that is off the charts. The physiological sciences have documented that a daily bath of doubt, anxiety, and fear-inducing emotions can and does stress the immune system. Observed science is not incompatible with the Lord; paradoxically, His invisible qualities have always been observable in His workmanship (cf Romans 1:20).

We are separated from the Ancient Near-East by thousands of miles, thousands of years, and different words using different alphabets, but men are still grumbling against God and rebelling against His plan.  At the societal level, it has surpassed rudeness and gone to full-blown contempt for God's ways. These sins are obvious. You don't need me to list them. They surround us. Yesterday's example was Speaker Pelosi deliberately holding up everyone's financial relief from the impact of a pandemic because she made a power-play to add funding for murdering babies in the womb. Tomorrow Satan will roll out a new atrocity.

The 'Church' has been both deceived and intimidated. It bought into the falsehood that she must remain so totally separate from the state that her influence was lost, and she stood down for the lie that taking a stand for righteousness is wickedly judgmental and mean. How absurd that promoting righteousness is un-Christlike!  
Most Christians don't need to repent for bank robbery and wild orgies; the sins that so easily beset the Church are usually more like those of the Israelites in Numbers 16: Rather than pursue God, they sought His presence at their convenience, and did not delight in the Lord's way of doing things. 

So What's the Answer?  

Moses and Aaron went to the front of the tent of meeting; they positioned themselves in the place where the Lord's presence was.  From this place they took action.  Holy fire and prayer was the antidote to stay the plague of Numbers 16. 

I've seen people quoting Psalm 91 more often since the onset of Covid-19. The pattern is the same: Moses sheltered under the Most High. Regarding God was Moses' lifestyle, not an occasional event. He made the Lord his dwelling place.  Because Moses loved God, God delivered him. Because Moses knew God's name, God protected him.  Moses lived amidst the holy fire and had on-going conversations with God. 

Aaron took his stand between the dead and the living so that the plague was checked, and then he returned to the doorway of the tent of meeting where Moses had remained in God's presence. That should be our model.



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For Further Contemplation (because ending an epidemic is not the end; there are still lost who need to find the Way, the Truth, and the Life; and there are evildoers who need to be stopped) 
   •••   Malachi 3:13 - 4:6
13“Your words against Me have been harsh,” says the LORD. “Yet you ask, ‘What have we spoken against You?’
14You have said, ‘It is futile to serve God. What have we gained by keeping His requirements and walking mournfully before the LORD of Hosts?
15So now we call the arrogant blessed. Not only do evildoers prosper, they even test God and escape.’”
16At that time those who feared the LORD spoke with one another, and the LORD listened and heard them. So a scroll of remembrance was written before Him regarding those who feared the LORD and honored His name.
17“They will be Mine,” says the LORD of Hosts, “on the day when I prepare My treasured possession. And I will spare them as a man spares his own son who serves him.
18So you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between those who serve God and those who do not.”

1“For behold, the day is coming, burning like a furnace, when all the arrogant and every evildoer will be stubble; the day is coming when I will set them ablaze,” says the LORD of Hosts. “Not a root or branch will be left to them.”
2“But for you who fear My name, the sun of righteousness will rise with healing in its wings, and you will go out and leap like calves from the stall.
3Then you will trample the wicked, for they will be ashes under the soles of your feet on the day I am preparing,” says the LORD of Hosts.  
4“Remember the law of Moses My servant, the statutes and ordinances I commanded him for all Israel at Horeb.
5Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful Day of the LORD.
6And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers. Otherwise, I will come and strike the land with a curse.”