Tag: antichrist

Birds Or Branches?

Apart from the Bible, the inspired, anointed, and eternal Word of God, I have a fairly short list of recommended reading…books that draw me back time and again because of their insights and wisdom. Of course, everyone’s list is different, but I thought I would share three which are at the very top of my own, books that I would categorize as “must-reads” if I were ever qualified to teach an “advanced” course in discipleship!

The three writers all have something in common. First of all, none are household names in the realm of Christian non-fiction literature. Second, each of these men had a depth in their knowledge of scripture and a passion in their pursuit of Jesus Christ that I can only aspire to. Finally, they are all deceased. Am I suggesting that some of the “old-time” (prior-generation) Bible preachers and teachers may have had a grasp of some spiritual truths and realities that have been lost to many of the modern church mentality?

Well, actually…yes!

But before I share my list, there is another distinction we should be reminded of.

Matthew chapter 13 begins with the well known parable of the sower, but goes on to include various similies pertaining to the kingdom of God on earth, including the tares and the wheat, the leaven and the flour, the nesting birds and the mustard tree, and the net filled with bad fish and good fish harvested at the end of the age. Most discerning teachers of hermeneutics (Bible interpretation) agree that these particular images represent the mixture of evil and good that will coexist within the Church, i.e., the kingdom of heaven on earth, prior to its being separated out – like the sheep and the goats – upon the return of Christ and the Day of Judgment. (I once read a Bible commentator’s peculiar declaration that the “leaven” represents Jesus. A thousand times…NO! I also once heard a seminary-trained pastor state that “WE…are the birds of the air” [nesting among the branches of the mustard tree]. For his sake, I hope he was wrong! Branches, yes. The birds, or “fowl” of the air? Not in this passage!)

Jesus told us who the “birds of the air” represent in the parable of the sower (Matthew 13:19). If we apply a standard of interpretation to a portion of the scripture, we must do so consistently. Imagery cannot logically be something “clean” in one verse, and something “unclean” in the next.

Like a cacophonous flock of grackles in a grocery store parking lot tree, the “birds” are the most attention-getting things about that tree. They may have completely taken over the tree, and invariably leave a mess on the ground below them. The same is true of the great tree, or Vine (Christ) that grew up from a tiny mustard seed (the Word), and puts out branches (born-again believers). The “birds” may be the noisiest, most visible thing about the tree; they may receive shelter, food, and protection from the tree; they may build their “nests” in the tree; they may even make their “living” from the tree (“Sow a faith-seed of $$$ to MY ministry so I can indulge my pet projects for God, fly my private jet, and live like a king on this earth”)…

The problem is, the birds are not part of the Tree!

(See a recent post related to this topic, “The Counterfeit Conception”).

The good news is, because God is merciful, there is hope for “tares.” I know. I spent many years in the Church as a tare, thinking that I was a child of God until Jesus mercifully opened my eyes through His Word (following a considerable period of personal and spiritual crisis) . It requires an absolute miracle for a tare to be transformed to wheat (or for a fowl to become “foliage”), but thankfully we serve a loving Savior who is in the miracle business! But there is a prerequisite: do I really want the truth, no matter the cost?

Oh, my recommended reading list…I will likely quote from these in the future:

1) The School of Christ ~ T. Austin-Sparks (re-printed by World Challenge)

2) Born Crucified ~ L.E. Maxwell (a Moody Classic)

3) Remarkable Incidents and Modern Miracles through Prayer and Faith ~ G.C. Bevington (Kingsley Press)

Psalm 119:105 KJV “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path.”

*Recommended blogs:

https://123hallelujah.wordpress.com/  by Margaret

https://unshakablehope.com/  by Bill Sweeney

The Counterfeit Conception

Something very disturbing had happened in the hearts of many of the religious “elite” of Jesus’ time – including priests, Pharisees, and Sadducees – that caused our Lord to categorize them very differently from the common people, even contrasting them in a negative light vis-à-vis the prostitutes and tax collectors, the “dregs” of Hebrew society!

Matthew 21:31-32 NASB…“Truly I say to you that the tax collectors and prostitutes will get into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness and you did not believe him; but the tax collectors and prostitutes did believe him; and you, seeing this, did not even feel remorse afterward so as to believe him.”

According to Jesus, not only were these privileged “sons of Abraham” NOT God’s children, but they had been, in fact, spiritually sired by the evil one, Satan himself! These “converts” were not growing up into the image of Christ. Instead, they were being transformed into the image of the “father of lies.”

John 8:44 NASB “You are of your father the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. Whenever he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

Even more terrifying, some very self-righteous and pious among these “counterfeits” had descended so far into Satanic deception and demonic control that they had consciously and deliberately blasphemed the Holy Spirit by declaring – in their jealous rage – that the Son of God and His disciples were casting out demons in their midst by the power of the prince of demons himself, “Beelzebub.” For this sin, Jesus said, there was NO forgiveness, either in this life or in the life to come!

Matthew 12:32 NASB “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to come.”

It is odd to think that Jesus would pray and ask God to forgive many of the very people who persecuted Him, accused Him, and brutally nailed Him to the Cross, but that there was another class of “religious” persons who had become so blinded and perverted by darkness that they had already sealed their own doom for all eternity, by denying the true source of exorcism by the power of the Holy Ghost working through Jesus and also through His spiritual descendants. By contrast, others like Nicodemus and some of his peers – though in the beginning unregenerate – turned to Jesus, having recognizing the source of His spiritual authority.

Matthew 6:23 NASB “But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light that is in you is darkness, how great is the darkness!”

Hebrews 10:26-31 NASB “For if we go on sinning willfully after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a terrifying expectation of judgment and the fury of a fire which will consume the adversaries. Anyone who has set aside the Law of Moses dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much severer punishment do you think he will deserve who has trampled under foot the Son of God, and has regarded as unclean the blood of the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay.’ And again, “The Lord will judge His people.” It is a terrifying thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”

Satan is now, more than ever, in the business of seducing followers, but we need to realize that until we are convicted of sin and make the choice to surrender ourselves fully to Christ, we are all prisoners of death and darkness. But for those even in our darkened generation who desire to know truth and whose consciences have not been permanently seared by an appropriation and subsequent rejection of the “Spirit of grace”, there remains great HOPE!

How great is God’s love for us?

Romans 5:8-11 NASB “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him. For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also exult in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received the reconciliation.”

Bryan