2012

We live in a broken world; everything is decaying; things do not work when they are supposed to; everything gets dusty in my house no matter how often I clean it; toilets don't flush when they are needed to flush; tires get flat; bills get due no matter how many times you pay them; and we are dying a little bit everyday.

I cook a meal and make a mess; everything is dirty, everything has to be cleaned constantly; even my body, mostly; the flesh really stinks, of course it is also decaying; maybe the dust I clean is all skin cells for all I know; I am shedding skin like a snake, millions of cells fly out to the air wherever I walk, I breath them too, they are in my food, I don't need salt anymore. Gross. Love is in the air.

I read somewhere how our bodies are hosts to billions of bacteria; they live on our skin and inside of our guts; they live also in the air we breathe; it is disgusting when you really think about it; the whole world is a huge living ball of bacteria which varies in size; from human size to bacteria size; everything is moving. When I think how atoms are constructed; and how they are the building blocks of everything we see and feel and taste; it just makes me realize that everything is vibrating, there is a constant shaking going on.

When I look at the sky at night, I see a bunch of stars and huge spaces of nothingness, it is black between the stars; but space is not really space; it is just an illusion; the reality is that all that emptiness is really filled with light, there is just nothing there to reflect it so it appears black. The whole universe is a trippy thing, a fallen trippy thing; and it is beautiful.

Everything will change one day; the time is coming. The other night I watched 2012; you know, that movie about the end of the world; I was laughing, it was pathetic but it had some good things; like the scene where the Sistine chapel ceiling cracks right between the finger of Adam and the finger of God in Michelangelo's mural; then falls on top of all the priests inside, I liked that; then the whole St Peter's basilica falls and rolls on the ground smashing thousands of praying people; I thought that was cool. Am I twisted? Yeah, maybe, but the director of the movie is more twisted than I.

They got it all wrong though; like the thousands of feet high waves that destroy everything; there is a scene where the wave goes through the Himalayas and wipes out the Dalai Lama as he is playing the gong trying to warn everybody, or maybe he was just trying to make some music; my point is that flooding is not the way this world is going, it is fire. Everything will melt with fervent heat.

There is another scene in which the president of the US; (he is black of course, and he is a widower); gets run over by the huge wave in front of the white house; he had stayed behind in a sacrificial act to help those who were affected by the earthquake; well, not really, he didn't want to live anymore, he just wanted to go be with his wife, wherever he thought she was; just minutes before, as he was trying to address the nation; he is almost whispering the news that the end of the world has finally come, and as soon as he starts quoting Psalm 23, the transmission gets interrupted by a thousand degree earthquake; the suspense was killing me.

It turns out that the world governments had previous knowledge this was going to happen and they had already made plans: the construction of "super-arks"; these were high tech boats that looked like Noah's ark, but trick, you know, computer screens all over the place; GPS; satellite links, thousands of horse power motors; the whole nine yards; and of course, luxury accommodations for those who were fortunate enough to be either presidents, key government officials, or super rich; each ticket, or "green card", would cost you a billion euros. They also gathered two of each species of animals, just like Noah; but the giraffes and the elephants didn't have to pay.

The whole thing was a mockery of religion, and who God is, really; what got you to survive was either money or being a super intelligent individual, or a politician or scientist, survival of the fittest; the masses were not privileged enough to continue the human race; they all perished in the world flood; of course I can't forget about the hero of the story, John Cusak, I think his name was, a divorced middle aged writer who saved his family just by having the right connections and a lot of luck; luck is important, you know...

At the end, and after 27 days floating in the new ocean; they head for south Africa, the only land available (maybe because of the world cup); to settle in and continue the saga of the human race; it was all a lesson in global cooperation, and doing the right thing, if you had money that is. The special effects were pretty cool I should admit; it was entertaining.

The truth is that Hollywood will put out the most amazing trash imaginable; but that is to be expected in this broken world. They tell you the rapture is the disappearing of all those people in the boats; so the rapture is only for the rich now. The whole message of the movie is that the end will come and it is going to wipe out the world's religions; all the governments, and human kind in general, only those who are wise and powerful and smart will survive the global conflict; no amount of prayer will help and God will not be present. The creators of this flick have no idea of the reality, and what is coming; in their minds there is no inkling of an idea about the wrath of a holy God who will burn everything in righteous anger.

The only thing I found comforting watching this flick is knowing that there is a God who really is in charge of who will survive the final day; and He didn't make that decision based on how much power, money or brains you have; thank you very much.

What is the decisive factor in salvation? You probably know the answer already; as you know, not many wise, not many mighty, not many noble are called; 1Co 1:27-29 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; and base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.

People read those words all the time; even quote them to justify their own stupidity, and they miss the obvious: God hath chosen. He chose; He made a self-determining act of electing some to eternal life even before He created this universe in which we live; God repeats Himself all throughout the bible; it is there for all to see.

I fear that I sound like a broken record; or a scratched Cd; but I can't help it; no one is reading anyway so really doesn't matter; regardless of who is reading and who is not I will say it again: God is sovereign in salvation; that is the historic Christian gospel; God's supremacy over all His creation is what matters; He remains Sovereign King of the universe, in fact this world is broken for a reason; there is a purpose behind it, and God reigns over the brokenness and feebleness of humanity.

Pro 21:1 The king's heart is in the hand of the LORD, as the rivers of water: he turneth it whithersoever he will. Even the Proverbs mention God's power over all men at all times; isn't that interesting? "Oh, but the Proverbs and the Psalms are just poems and cool sayings; they were written thousands of years ago"; really? How about this one:

Psalm 58:3-11 The wicked are estranged from the womb: they go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies.
Their poison is like the poison of a serpent: they are like the deaf adder that stoppeth her ear;
Which will not hearken to the voice of charmers, charming never so wisely.
Break their teeth, O God, in their mouth: break out the great teeth of the young lions, O LORD.
Let them melt away as waters which run continually: when he bendeth his bow to shoot his arrows, let them be as cut in pieces.
As a snail which melteth, let every one of them pass away: like the untimely birth of a woman, that they may not see the sun.
Before your pots can feel the thorns, he shall take them away as with a whirlwind, both living, and in his wrath.
The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth the vengeance: he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.
So that a man shall say, Verily there is a reward for the righteous: verily he is a God that judgeth in the earth.

Does that sound to you like an old poem and a cool saying? It doesn't to me; it sounds more like reality; it sounds more like the undeniable reality of the history of the universe, which will be consummated when Christ returns as supreme judge to rule the nations with an iron rod.

Usually, people don't like to hear about the gore of judgment; about the righteous ones rejoicing when they see the vengeance of our God; they don't like to hear about the righteous washing his feet in the blood of the wicked; their minds go into automatic denial, 'it can't be, God is a God of love and mercy and kindness and He wants all people to be saved'; but the reality, once again, is that the wicked will perish; they will be consumed by the sword of His mouth.

So we run into the problem of definitions; even among the saints there seems to be certain confusion as to what means what. What does it mean to be justified? What does it mean to be saved? What does it mean to be lost? What does it mean to be a saint? What does it mean to be wicked? Everything seems to be of private interpretation these days; everyone makes their own rules and definitions, everyone has their own "philosophy" as to what things mean in the bible; there is no sound teaching; no doctrinal foundation in which to build life's limits and paradigms.

But there is nothing new under the sun, Paul had predicted this was going to happen, check this out: 2Timothy 3:1-7 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come.
For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.

Okay Paul; you mean to tell me that those who are lovers of themselves, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God, covetous, and boasters, and proud, and blasphemers, and disobedient to parents, and unthankful and unholy; those that are traitors, and high-minded, and despise those who are good; you're saying that they have a form of godliness? Yeah, those are the wicked indeed, they seem to be godly but they are not; they deny the power of godliness by their actions and their words, and their thoughts. 'There are hundreds of those in every church so let's not do anything about it and keep on teaching lies to the sheep'; I'm being sarcastic, of course.

That is what a pastor said when confronted with the issue of a so called 'brother' committing adultery; instead of bringing the adulterous dude into discipline by the church, he just justified it by saying that, "there is one in every church"; what a cop out. "For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth".

Have you ever wondered why is that? Why are these people ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth? It is very simple; the truth has to be revealed by God's Holy Spirit; no man can come to the knowledge of the truth by himself; God has to reveal it to him; and the truth is that God doesn't reveal the truth to some people. Yes, just like that, He doesn't.

Let's hear the words of Jesus: John 6:45 It is written in the prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard, and hath learned of the Father, cometh unto me. What causes a man to come to Jesus? That they have heard and learned from the Father; that is what Jesus is saying; and how is it that they have learned from the Father? John 6:44 No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.

That is where the truth comes from, that is who the truth is; God the Father draws people to Jesus after He has taught them and they have learned who is the truth: John 14:6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.

It is obviously clear that no human exertion is capable of drawing near to God in the first place; this is a divine work; this is the work of God Himself. Jesus defines truth being in Himself, and not only that, but Jesus is the Word of God; and so He takes it even further when He says: John 17:17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

So perhaps we see clearly now, we see the whole scope dimly for sure; and we see because God has chosen us, and He has revealed Himself to us in the person of Jesus Christ; and in His word. The truth is only revealed to those who have been elected to receive it; those who have been taught of God and given to Jesus to keep; and nothing can snatch them out of His hand.

By reason of sanity; and by reason of understanding; and most importantly, by reason of the scriptures; those who are ever learning and never coming to the knowledge of the truth are those who might even have a form of godliness but deny its power; and if God Himself chooses those to whom the truth shall be revealed, then He obviously chooses whom to bypass and not reveal the truth to them; I really don't see any other alternative; those who are seeking, are seeking because God is causing them to be seeking; they have heard from the Father and will inevitably come to Jesus; no power in the universe will prevent them from coming and knowing Jesus, the truth; those who are not seeking the truth are not because they have been blinded by the prince of this world.

The day is coming fast; the day of judgment of our God is coming; what a dreadful day that will be, but not for those who have been chosen to live forever. No one who has the Spirit has a problem with that; or maybe some do, at least with the being chosen part; those who read the scriptures read this kind of thing all the time; God has chosen, it is all over the bible, from Genesis to Revelation; and they don't have a problem with that; the problem arises when by reasoning someone comes along and points out that in fact if God has chosen some, then He also has not chosen some; the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately rebels against the truth of the sovereignty of God in salvation.

It does not matter how much we rebel against what the bible says, it never stops being true; all of it. I guess I went off on a trip, as usual; it must be this broken mind I have; but that is the way I function, that is the way God wired me, and I don't mind at all.

Yeah, we live in a broken world; but it is not a fantasy world, the brokenness is real, the children of the Most High are living in a world of chaos and travail, and suffering; even though we go through periods of sunshine, it appears that our sojourning here is mostly through the valley of the shadow of death, but we fear no evil, His mercy shall follow us all the days of our lives and we shall abide in the house of the Lord forever; 2012 or not....

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Be Silent..

Revelation 8:1 When the Lamb opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven for about half an hour.

The scroll is about to be unrolled; The Lamb has opened the seventh seal and the time has come for the full wrath of God to be poured out upon the earth; and so there is silence in heaven. Even the living creatures that cry out "Holy, Holy, Holy" are silent before God. (Rev 4:8 And the four living creatures, each of them with six wings, are full of eyes all around and within, and day and night they never cease to say, "Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!"). Not even whispers are heard, not from the twenty four elders, or the saints, or the billions and billions of angels; they are still and know that He is God.

I tried to imagine that and really can't; I'm still trying. Complete silence in heaven; it is not like that on the earth below; down in the kingdom of the power of the air there is nothing but commotion; the noise of chaos and anarchy; the nations wail for their time has come to face Him who sits on the throne and the wrath of the Lamb; people cry out to the mountains and the rocks to fall upon them: "Rev 6:16-17 Fall on us and hide us from the face of him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of their wrath has come, and who can stand?" Soon after that their request will be answered: one hundred pound hailstones and fire mingled with blood will rain down from the Almighty; not to hide them from His face, but to crush them into perdition.

That is the most amazing example of the extent of the depravity, and the enmity against God, of the human heart; instead of talking to God and asking Him to save them, they talk to the rocks and the mountains; "mother earth" will take care of us, they think; and then they will realize, "who can stand?".

The presence of YHWH and His justice demands silence; on the day of YHWH heaven listens in adoring expectation; thousands of years have passed since Zephaniah pronounced it: Zephaniah 1:7-8 Be silent before the Lord GOD! For the day of the YHWH is near; YHWH has prepared a sacrifice and consecrated his guests. And on the day of YHWH's sacrifice-- "I will punish the officials and the king's sons and all who array themselves in foreign attire.

Yeah, all those who have not white linen robes washed in the blood of the Lamb will be punished; they array themselves in strange attire; in the basic principles and philosophies of this world; in man-made doctrines, they can't blame BP for the tar color of their tunics; they can't blame Bush anymore; silver and gold cannot buy them a way out; there is no insurance policy that they can buy against "Acts of God".

Zephaniah goes on: Zeph. 1:14-18 The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast; the sound of the day of the LORD is bitter; the mighty man cries aloud there.
A day of wrath is that day, a day of distress and anguish, a day of ruin and devastation, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of trumpet blast and battle cry against the fortified cities and against the lofty battlements.
I will bring distress on mankind, so that they shall walk like the blind, because they have sinned against the LORD; their blood shall be poured out like dust, and their flesh like dung.
Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them on the day of the wrath of the LORD. In the fire of his jealousy, all the earth shall be consumed; for a full and sudden end he will make of all the inhabitants of the earth.

If somebody threatens you saying, 'I will kill you', you might get scared; but when the King of Heaven and earth says to you "I will pour out your blood like dust and your flesh like dung"; I think that would just terrify you beyond measure; the only question in your mind would be "who can stand?"; that would surely cause you to seek refuge from the mountains and the rocks, and to ask them to fall on you to hide you from His face; if you have not been clothed in white linen your flesh will fly out like dung; that is a very graphic picture, terror at its peak. The big difference of course, is that God's words are not a threat; they are a prophecy, which means that they are a promise that will eventually be fulfilled.

"The great day of the LORD is near, near and hastening fast"; that was said around two thousand and four hundred years ago, in the times of King Josiah (640-609 BC); a lot or people, probably billions of people, have died during that period of time; and people continue to die even as I write these words.....you probably know where I'm going with this but anyway.....a lot of people have died during 2400 years; and a lot of them had no idea who YHWH is; in fact the gospel was property of the Jewish people until after Jesus arrived on earth and ascended up to heaven.

It is certain that Paul, the apostle to the gentiles, was the first to travel outside the region of Israel to foreign lands to preach the gospel of Jesus; for hundreds of years the gospel was segregated to the middle east and Asia minor, and as far as I know; the American continent was not discovered until the late 1400"s; according to history, it was the year 1492, the date was October 12th; they say that Christopher Columbus was the man; some others say that the Norges (the Vikings) were the first to discover America in the 900's, but it really doesn't matter for my point; about 1500 years had passed before the gospel (assuming they really preached the gospel) came to this continent. Are you asking questions yet?

For at least two thousand years, people have been mocking the coming of the Lord; even Peter wrote: 2Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

How many people die in a single day in this planet? Who knows really; but there are a lot of people who die every single day; the year has three hundred and sixty five days; let's just say that 100 people die every day, that makes thirty six thousand five hundred individuals who die every year, that is of course a very low number because there are probably thousands of people who die every day; now multiply 36,500 times 1500 years, that makes 54,750,000 people who have died at the rate of only 100 per day.

Wouldn't you say that at least one thousand people die every day around the globe? If we assume that rate, it makes the figure above to grow to more than 5 billion people, and we are only talking about 1500 years, not the whole of history of mankind; out of that number, how many do you think were saved? Half of it? A quarter of it? Let's make it 10 percent for the sake of argument, is that too low a number? Ok, let's make it 50 percent; that is a lot of people who have been saved right? It is 2.5 billion people. What happened to the other 2.5 billion? Remember, we are only taking into consideration 1500 years; I hope you see my point by now....

Out of 2.5 billion people; let us assume that 2 billion heard the gospel and refused to believe and repent; that left us with half a billion people who never heard the gospel before they died; I thought God wanted to save everybody; well, not really. Reality says the contrary; 2 billion people made the wrong choice, but what about the other 500 million? Those people never had a chance to choose, they never heard the gospel; why?

But let's forget about everything I have said up to this point and read this little story: Numbers 31:6-18 And Moses sent them to the war, a thousand of every tribe, them and Phinehas the son of Eleazar the priest, to the war, with the holy instruments, and the trumpets to blow in his hand.
And they warred against the Midianites, as the LORD commanded Moses; and they slew all the males.
And they slew the kings of Midian, beside the rest of them that were slain; namely, Evi, and Rekem, and Zur, and Hur, and Reba, five kings of Midian: Balaam also the son of Beor they slew with the sword.
And the children of Israel took all the women of Midian captives, and their little ones, and took the spoil of all their cattle, and all their flocks, and all their goods.
And they burnt all their cities wherein they dwelt, and all their goodly castles, with fire.
And they took all the spoil, and all the prey, both of men and of beasts.
And they brought the captives, and the prey, and the spoil, unto Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and unto the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the camp at the plains of Moab, which are by Jordan near Jericho.
And Moses, and Eleazar the priest, and all the princes of the congregation, went forth to meet them without the camp.
Moses was wroth with the officers of the host, with the captains over thousands, and captains over hundreds, which came from the battle.
And Moses said unto them, Have ye saved all the women alive?
Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against the LORD in the matter of Peor, and there was a plague among the congregation of the LORD.
Now therefore kill every male among the little ones, and kill every woman that hath known man by lying with him.
But all the women children, that have not known a man by lying with him, keep alive for yourselves.

What is going on? Moses is upset with his captains because they kept all the women alive and the children; and then he commands to kill them; in the first place they were not supposed to bring all these people back but exterminate them; even the children; but by God's providence and total control of all things that ever come to pass, some of them were spared.

If you have a problem with that story, then you have a problem with who God really is. Is it not true that people struggle with this kind of scenario? The question spins in their minds as to how can a God who is love ordain the destruction of whole cities, including women and children; it doesn't compute in their tiny finite minds that God can be like that, so they make all kinds of excuses to not believe what the bible clearly says; you heard them before: "it was a different dispensation"; "it was a different covenant"; "God was dealing with the Jews", etc, etc, etc. Gee, some people just refuse to believe what the bible says; even after you show them what it says and they read it with their own eyes, and I'm not talking non believers.

The fact is that God remains in control of all things, and He never changes; He is the same yesterday, today and forever; the same God who in order to make His power known said to Pharaoh: Exodus 9:16 And in very deed for this cause have I raised thee up, for to shew in thee my power; and that my name may be declared throughout all the earth; He is the same God who repeatedly states: "and you shall know that I Am YHWH"; He is the same who keeps mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children, and upon the children's children, unto the third and to the fourth generation. Yeah, you have read that right; God raised Pharaoh to demonstrate His power on him and get fame throughout all the earth, and then guess what, God drowned him in the Red Sea; along with his army and his chariots; or do you think Pharaoh just made the wrong choice in chasing after the children of Israel?

Let me go along with the arguments justifying God's own word and say that yes indeed it was a different dispensation, a different covenant and that He was dealing with the Jews; what happened in 70 AD? Jerusalem was leveled down by the Romans, just as Jesus predicted and foreordained; how many people died there? Let's say only one person died and did not get saved; wasn't God willing that all would get saved, as the Arminians say? What about the rest of the nations? People still died without knowing the Only One God of the universe; they still died without having a way out, or an option to choose from, and if I say that they had the witness of the stars and all creation, it makes it even worse. And what about my hypothetical scenario with the half billion who were never given the chance to choose? As you might well have discovered by just reading the scriptures and using your mind; God is not the way you think He is.

"But you just quoted second Peter where he says that God is not willing that any should perish but that all come to repentance, what about that?" I know, I just quoted second Peter; but you have to know the context and pay attention to what he is saying; that is one of the pernicious maladies that I constantly observe among the saints; not paying attention, and above it all not thinking about what it is the scriptures are saying; and no, I'm not part of a cult or blaspheming.

Go ahead, get your bible and look it up for yourself, read it with your own eyes, use your own brain; be a Berean and search the scriptures to see if it is true. To whom is Peter writing his second letter? Go ahead tell me...... ok don't tell me; he is writing "to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ" ; he says it right there at the very beginning; he is not writing to the heathen, (or the non believers, if the word "heathen" makes you cringe) or to the whole world; and he says "with us" the same "us" he is talking about later in 2Peter 3:9 "He is patient toward us; not willing that any should perish"; who is the "any"? The "any" are the "us"; it is obvious. Should I keep going? I might.

Ok, since you insist. Notice there in Peter's words, the key to this whole seemingly enigmatic situation: "to them that have obtained"; how is it that you have faith? You have obtained it; how did you obtain it? Through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; this is basically what Paul says in Ephesians 2:8-9; look it up.

Not only that but the obtaining is a gift from God; so if it is a gift from God, on what depends the obtaining of the gift? Not on you or me or any one for that matter, except God; it is up to Him alone to give the gift; Paul elaborates in Ephesians and says: "according to the good pleasure of His will"; see? It is all up to God; He decides who gets the gift, and obviously all the half a billion people in my hypothetical example did not get the gift; meaning God did not give it to them; Paul says later on in the same chapter: "according to his good pleasure which he hath purposed in himself"; which means that God is not pleased to give the gift of faith to some.

Just by using the word "gift" it is implied that it is free and that is not based on the recipient's actions; otherwise it would be a "payment", or as Paul says, a wage. If I see ten beggars and give ten bucks to one of them, am I unrighteous or unjust because I didn't give it to the other nine? If I go to an orphanage to adopt a child, and I do it; am I unjust or a bad person because I did not adopt the whole orphanage? I don't think so; well, neither is God unjust at any time. Good thing I'm not God.

What people constantly forget is that 100 percent of all people are already condemned and on their way to hell; the wonder is not that so many perish, but that God shows mercy to so many of us; that is what is awesome; He is under no obligation to be merciful to me or anybody else; He does not owe human kind anything; on the contrary, we owe Him our very breath, the very beating of our hearts is a gift from Him; He makes the rain descend, and the sun to shine on the just and the unjust.

All of the above is summarized in one word: grace. God has revealed in the scriptures what we need to know about Him and about our condition, and about redemption through Jesus Christ; He has dealt with the whole human population in a very gracious and patient manner; and as you have read in the words of Peter, God is being patient for the sake of the elect; not one single one of His children, His chosen ones, shall perish; nothing can separate us from His love which is in Christ Jesus. He is in charge over the whole universe; He reigns absolute, and He will judge the wicked; that is reality.

Now don't get me wrong and think that I think that I am special (which I am) or that I deserve anything from the hand of God; not at all; I deserve to die and burn forever, almost everyday I make David's words my prayer: For innumerable evils have compassed me about: mine iniquities have taken hold upon me, so that I am not able to look up; they are more than the hairs of mine head: therefore my heart faileth me; but every day I thank God for His mercy and for choosing me before the foundation of the world, I thank Him that He has not appointed me to wrath but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

God shows Himself faithful every single day of my life; I bow before Him in awe of His mercy and grace; His goodness leaves me speechless; there is no more to do but to be silent before His majesty.

“We have come into the way of faith,” says Augustine: “let us constantly adhere to it. It leads to the chambers of the king, in which are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. For our Lord Jesus Christ did not speak invidiously to his great and most select disciples when he said, ‘I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now,’ (John 16:12). We must walk, advance, increase, that our hearts may be able to comprehend those things which they cannot now comprehend. But if the last day shall find us making progress, we shall there learn what here we could not” (August. Hom. in Joann).

I'll be silent for about half an hour now......

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

Justification....

God is sovereign; He reigns over all things in the heavens and on the earth and under the earth; in all realms, spiritual, mental, physical; He alone is the fountain of life; and apart from Him there is none other; God created and knows all things and He is worthy of all our praise and worship.

This is how the Westminster Confession states it:

God has all life, glory, goodness, blessedness, in and of Himself; and is alone in and unto Himself all-sufficient, not standing in need of any creatures which He has made, nor deriving any glory from them, but only manifesting His own glory in, by, unto, and upon them. He is the alone fountain of all being, of whom, through whom, and to whom are all things; and has most sovereign dominion over them, to do by them, for them, or upon them whatsoever Himself pleases.
In His sight all things are open and manifest, His knowledge is infinite, infallible, and independent upon the creature, so as nothing is to Him contingent, or uncertain. He is most holy in all His counsels, in all His works, and in all His commands. To Him is due from angels and men, and every other creature, whatsoever worship, service, or obedience He is pleased to require of them. (John 5:26; Acts 7:2; Psalms 119:68; 1Tim 6:15; Acts 17:24; Job 22:2; Romans 11:36; Revelation 4:1; Daniel 4:25,35; Hebrews 4:13; Romans 11:33; Psalms 147:5; Act 15:18; Ezekiel 11:5; etc, etc, etc.).

That is exactly what John says describing his vision of the heavenly realm; for the same reason, God is being praised and worshiped all the time, non-stop, forever:

Rev 4:8-11 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.
And when those beasts give glory and honour and thanks to him that sat on the throne, who liveth for ever and ever, The four and twenty elders fall down before him that sat on the throne, and worship him that liveth for ever and ever, and cast their crowns before the throne, saying,
Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.

Did you see that? All things were created by God for His pleasure. He created us for His pleasure, His delight, His enjoyment. Do you ever think about yourself as an object of pleasure unto God? To tell you the truth, I don't. But I have to. I have to, but it is hard; it is a hard thought to embrace.

How can this be? I ask. How can God who is infinitely holy, and righteous, and infinitely hateful of sin, find any pleasure in a man like me, so full of iniquity and abominable thoughts? My difficulty gets resolved when I think about justification; that is the answer to my question; that is the only way that I could ever bring pleasure to God, being justified by faith. God is pleased with me because of the faith that He gave me to justify me, and that makes me pleasurable unto Him; He delights in seeing me believe, and delights in saving me from His wrath; which is coming, by the way.

Of course the issue here is, did I believe on my own, or did God cause me to believe? The scriptures clearly teach that He is the One who gave me the faith; and He is the One who caused me to believe; there is no argument against that even though some people try to argue against it, the doctrine is impossible to defeat, as we have proved over and over not only by the scriptures themselves but also by sound logic; the scriptures are clear, that is the end of the argument in my mind.

So what is justification? The teachers say that to be justified is to be looked upon just as if we never sinned; but I think that is not completely accurate, or completely complete (is that redundantly redundant?); justification is really a legal term; legal meaning that there is a law that requires justice from the transgression of it, and being justified is to be declared innocent from transgression, or from breaking the law. Not braking but breaking, English is a tripper of a language....

In this case we all have broken the law, meaning the ten commandments, but God justifies us by faith and declares us righteous; covering our sins (our law breaking deeds and thoughts) with the blood of Christ; imputing unto us the righteousness of Jesus and His obedience, and making the choice to look at that righteousness and obedience instead of at our sin and disobedience; God consciously chooses to forget our iniquities, He consciously chooses to remember them no more. It is not as if we never sinned, but our sin has been blotted out with the blood of Christ; it has been covered. I think I'm making sense.

The concept is not really complicated or obscure; in fact it is glorious and awe inspiring, but it requires humility to understand; and it requires the work of the Holy Spirit of God in our hearts and minds; these are things that are foolishness to the wise of this world; they are a stumbling block to the religious; they are veiled to those who are perishing, as Paul says, to those who do not obey the truth.

That we have been imputed with the righteousness and obedience of Christ, and our sins and transgressions have been imputed unto Christ; it's a marvelous thing. My mind is just too puny to really comprehend what that really means; it is one of those things that I reason out, I try to understand (and I do but not fully), and then I just take it at face value; God says it is true, and He says He did it; so I rest on that and I believe it. That is what entering into His rest means; you end from your labors of trying to be acceptable by your own desserts; your own works, your own deeds of righteousness, which are really just filthy rags: Isa 64:6.

After the great tribulation that is coming upon the earth is finished; and after the universe has been melted with fervent heat; and after Jesus has set up His kingdom of righteousness in which there are no shadows; and our minds and bodies have been completely redeemed and renewed, and we obey God out of a pure heart in which there is no guile; the only words we will be able to pronounce will be: "Blessing, and honour, and glory, and power, be unto him that sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb for ever and ever"; we are not going to be able to say "look! I have prevailed; where is my crown?" From the billions and billions of billions, and zillions of zillions of people that have been redeemed, not a single soul shall be able to boast for a single act of righteousness; no, not even one; for there is not one righteous, no, not even one. Pride will have been obliterated from among the bride of Christ.

That is what grace is about; it is about being declared righteous by the King of heaven and earth;
2Co 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him. He, being Jesus Christ, became sin for us; our sin was imputed unto Him, so that we have been made the righteousness of God; it is not our righteousness but that of God Himself; a righteousness that is infinitely righteous; infinitely pure, infinitely holy; now, that is amazing.

[By the way: "He knew no sin" Paul says; didn't He know any sin? Or know about sin? No; that is not what that means; it means that He was not acquainted with sin, did not know sin intimately; did not have a relationship with sin, (except hatred for it); He was never, and has never, performed any sin, in thoughts, attitudes, or actions; the same term (ginosko) is used by Jesus in this verse: Matthew 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.]

That is what happened when God justified me, He gave me His very own righteousness, my sin being taken away and imputed unto Christ; Jesus Himself paid for it, all of it, past, present and future; so that now God looks at me and sees His Son's righteousness, which is His own righteousness, and His Son's obedience; His perfect obedience; and He takes pleasure in me because of that. I'm not going to argue against that; ever.

The problem with some people is that they do not understand this simplicity; in their minds they have to continue to keep themselves acceptable unto God (and other men) through their actions; you can see them every Sunday at church; they walk around flaunting their whiteness and apparent purity; their pride and arrogance screaming as they walk around thinking they are a blessing to the weak; they are a walking contradiction; a negation of sound doctrine.

This makes sense since there are only two ways possible to be justified by God; the one is justification by works; the second one, and the only one that is valid in all cases, is justification by faith.

Justification by works is based in the righteousness that is acquired by perfectly obeying the law; a man is justified in the sight of God when in His judgment that man, or woman, is considered, or deemed, righteous; and he is accepted on account of that righteousness. As long as a person is considered a sinner; there can be no place for communion with God since God hates sin with infinite hatred; so the person is under His wrath; the due penalty for sin.

Everyone who is a sinner is condemned before the judgment seat of God; their iniquity is an abominable thing before Him and it must be dealt with sooner or later with the punishment that the law requires; which is in this case is death eternal; infinite wrath poured out upon the sinner for his sin; this is called divine justice; which is in itself infinitely and perfectly just. Therefore, wherever there is sin, there is also the wrath of God to justly deal with it; but if God could find in the life of a person the perfect holiness and purity required to satisfy the requirements of the law, God would declare that person righteous; which we know that for a man or woman born into this world such a thing is impossible.

On the other side; one is justified who is not regarded as a sinner, and who has been acquitted before the judgment seat of God; a tribunal before which all sinners stand guilty as charged, as I said before; here that man is justified when he by faith takes hold of the righteousness of Christ and appears before the tribunal of God not as a sinner but as righteous; being considered innocent, his guilt is taken away, and he is accepted and received as just.

In essence; an exchange is needed to satisfy the divine justice; we either exchange our own righteousness for our guilt, or Christ righteousness for our guilt; the issue to keep in sight, and that we cannot run away from, is the fact that we are guilty no matter what; our sin and unrighteousness demands either a penalty, or an acquittal; and that is where grace comes in to the rescue. Of course, I have used a figure of speech since there is no way under heaven in which we can exchange anything; God is the initiator of the exchange; He is the justifier of those who have faith in Jesus; not us; and those at the same time have faith in Jesus because God gave them the faith to believe (Eph. 2:8-9).

When I really think about it, the works issue gets immediately resolved by that one statement; as Paul elegantly explains: Rom 3:26-28 To declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus. Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? of works? Nay: but by the law of faith. Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. (But I guess I'm being redundantly redundant).

Getting back to my voyage; I should ask, why is justification by faith so important? In my worthless opinion, it is important because it is the basis of our whole system of belief; in fact Christianity is defined by the doctrine of justification by faith; this is the reason, or I should say one of the reasons, why Jesus died on that Roman cross; His crucifixion, death and resurrection are not only the apex of the glory of God's grace but also the means by which this justification was made possible; it was really the only way to deal with the sin of the elect; and the only viable alternative to purchase redemption for the justified; this -justification- is where the message of the gospel becomes foolishness to the wise and a stumbling block to the religious; but for those who are called, the wisdom and the power of God.

So then; not knowing this doctrine; or pretending to know it and not understanding it, will always be the cause of the lack of honor and respect, and awe, that is due to our King, and that we see in our present culture; our post-modern Christian culture. And of course, the same lack of knowledge and understanding is due to the absence of sound doctrinal preaching of the word of God; to the ear-tickling message of the fluke-warm church. I think I'm going to start ranting......I'll try not to; or maybe not, whatever.

Why am I saying this? Because it is the truth; you can see it every Sunday if you pay attention; the only way to not see it is by being one who does not comprehend this doctrine; the pride of the human heart is beyond knowledge, I say it all the time; the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it? God answers His own question through Jeremiah: 17:10 I the LORD search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings. Amazing.

I receive an email from the blue letter bible everyday; a devotional reading by Charles H. Spurgeon; and I think yesterday's says it better than I can:

Exodus 20:25 And if thou wilt make me an altar of stone, thou shalt not build it of hewn stone: for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it.
"God's altar was to be built of unhewn stones, that no trace of human skill or labor might be seen upon it. Human wisdom delights to trim and arrange the doctrines of the cross into a system more artificial and more congenial with the depraved tastes of fallen nature; instead, however, of improving the gospel carnal wisdom pollutes it, until it becomes another gospel, and not the truth of God at all.

All alterations and amendments of the Lord's own word are defilements and pollutions. The proud heart of man is very anxious to have a hand in the justification of the soul before God; preparations for Christ are dreamed of, humblings and repentings are trusted in, good works are cried up, natural ability is much vaunted and by all means the attempt is made to lift up human tools upon the divine altar. It were well with sinners would remember that so far from perfecting the Savior's work, their carnal confidences only pollute and dishonor it.

The Lord alone must be exalted in the work of atonement, and not a single mark of man's chisel or hammer will be endured. There is an inherent blasphemy in seeking to add to what Christ Jesus in His dying moments declared to be finished, or to improve that which the Lord Jehovah finds perfect satisfaction. Trembling sinner, away with thy tools, and fall upon your knees in humble supplication; and accept the Lord Jesus to be the altar of thine atonement and rest in Him alone" C. H. Spurgeon.

You can trip about that; have a nice day......

http://makariotes.blogspot.com

The Good ground...

2Pe 3:10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.


The more I read the book of Revelation; the more I get translated into the supernatural; it might be my obsessive compulsive nature but I can't stop thinking about it; I am sure that I am not the only one who experiences this; the word of God is indeed sharper than a two edged sword.

I used to read Revelation and it would amaze me; now it really makes me think more about the grace of God; and amazes me even more. I often ask myself how can I motivate those whom I love to dwell in this book of life, how can I get them all jacked up and excited about God's words; and in impotence I realize that is not my work, it is the work of God Himself; and the most important thing, actually the only thing I can do, is to pray that God will reveal Himself to them as He has to me.

So I have been praying a lot about that; praying is the one activity in my life that actually brings me peace and comfort; I know I am praying according to God's will, I know I'm praying in Jesus' name; and I know that I'm praying in faith, this faith that doesn't go away; so I know my prayers are being heard, and they will be answered; I believe that.

We are in a war everyday; at least I know that I am; the war rages between the flesh and the Spirit, and to tell you the truth, sometimes I feel tired of fighting; sometimes I fell like letting go of the self-control and just do what feels right to my flesh, practice some flesh-control; and then something stops me, every time, I know it is the Spirit of God inside of me winning the battle; the day is over and we won, again.

That is all I have to do, all that I have to be concerned with is today; sufficient for the day is it's own trouble, Jesus said. I'm not saying that I shouldn't plan for the future, but my future is only tomorrow, the next 24 hours; after all these years walking with Jesus I learned to just walk and trust; walk and trust; walk and trust; the moment I least think it, I will be in His presence and all this will be but a dream; sometimes it's a bad dream, sometimes it's a good dream; but it will be just like a dream nonetheless.

That's what the bible does to me; it takes me to the real reality of the reality of things; and that is a good thing; I would be worried if it didn't; and that is why I pray for those whom I love; I want them to experience the real thing. This of course is also the work of God; I cannot say that I have arrived anywhere, or that I have accomplished anything, all that I can say is that God has changed me; I am a completely different person than I was even a year ago, and that is a good sign; it is a sign that He lives inside of me, that I am indeed a child of God; that He made me one.

At the same time, and it is for sure, I can't say that I will not do something tomorrow; or that I will not sin in this or that; I don't really have that confidence, and I don't because I know how deceitful my heart is; I experience that every single day; all I can really say is that right now I'm trying not to sin. I have enough problems to boast about tomorrow.

As Charles Spurgeon says; sanctification is heart-work; life in general is all about the heart condition; and the normal condition of the human heart is darkness and confusion; the heart of the world is set on the world itself; I think I should write a song about it; maybe, that would be cool, I think.

It is a marvel to watch how God works in our hearts, or in my heart; we all go through the same things during this life; but what really amazes me is to see how can one be so excited about the kingdom of God, and then as time goes by, the person gets colder and colder, until finally they are disgusted at the mention of anything holy, or they consider it boring; what happened to that person? Was theirs an emotional experience only? Was their experience a guilt-driven false repentance? How can anyone who has claimed to be born from above suddenly reject even the fellowship of the saints?

Jesus explained this in the parable of the sower; the cares of the world choked the word and they never produced fruit; there was no growth, just an artificial sprout of life, and then death came back, or life never arrived. Luke 8:14-15 And that which fell among thorns are they, which, when they have heard, go forth, and are choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life, and bring no fruit to perfection. But that on the good ground are they, which in an honest and good heart, having heard the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience.
Isn't that amazing? I think it is. Why are they choked with cares and riches and pleasures of this life? What makes the ground good ground? How is it that some produce fruit a hundred fold, and some not? Is it because of their free-will? Did they make the right choices? Didn't they have a list of goals? Maybe they needed to commit, or maybe they needed to re-commit.

Okay let me think about this for a moment; the seed is the word of God, Jesus says; of course you have to read the verses before so you see what He says at the beginning of the explanation; but it is the word of God; and it is falling in different kinds of soil; the picture is here that of the sower throwing the seed out to the ground, right? Right.

The sower is not kneeling down to dig a hole and to put the seed in it; He is grabbing it by the hand-load and throwing it out; I have to make the assumption that at this point the ground has already been prepared for sowing; nobody goes out to the field to just throw seed at random; what kind of farmer would that be, right? Right.

So I have to make an additional assumption; or better yet; ask a question: who does the ground belong to? I assume it belongs to the sower; He is the owner. Jesus says that the sower is sowing His seed; so if the seed is His, then the ground is His also; what kind of farmer goes into someone else's field to sow his seed? He sows His seed on His ground, right? Right.

More assumptions; the sower is walking sowing His seed; throwing it on the ground; but as He does this, it just so happens that some of it is falling by the wayside, some among the rocks, some among the thorns, and some on the good ground; I assume the obvious here: the sower's purpose is to sow the seed so that it springs up and becomes a plant and it yields fruit, what kind of farmer sows seed expecting it to just die and produce nothing, He sows with the intent of having a product, right? Right.

I have this picture in my mind: a sower is walking on a path in the middle of His field, or around it, throwing seed; on the sides of the path there are rocks, and a little farther there are thorns, and over there is the ground that has been prepared for the crop; of course I might just be completely out there in my imagination, but that is how I picture it; I have actually seen fields in Mexico that look like that, so I imagine it like that. I can use my imagination, right? Right.

The seed (more assumptions, by the way) is one kind of seed; it has to be; and since Jesus says the seed is the word of God, then it is one kind of seed; I have never seen a field with corn and wheat, and tomatoes, and onions, and strawberries, and...; my point is that the seed is one kind of seed, so what it is expected to produce is one kind of product, right? Right.

I have to ask another question here; and that will lead me to make more assumptions, logical assumptions but assumptions nonetheless; the ground has to be prepared for sowing, right? Right.

If the ground belongs to the sower and the ground has to be prepared for sowing; and the rocks and the thorns are part of the field, then the whole thing is like that by design, right? Right.

Is it not obvious that if the sower wanted all the seed to fall on fertile soil, it would fall on the good ground only? I think so. So who determines where the seed is to fall? Do you know any farmer that purposefully wastes his seed by throwing it in places that he knows it will die and not produce anything? What I mean is, do you think the seed fell by the wayside, and on the rocks and among the thorns by coincidence? The sower did it knowingly; in other words, the sower knows that as He throws the seed aiming for the good ground, some of the seed will by default fall among the rocks and thorns, right? Right.

All these questions and assumptions are logical questions and logical assumptions; all based on how the universe has been set up by God, and following my oximoronical and potentially illogical reasoning, and following Jesus' words, which are the words of God Himself; I said it before, God gave us a brain with the expectation that we would use it, right? Right.

Usually, the ground is tilled for sowing; that means that the ground is prepared for the seed; this accomplishes many things, I'm not a farmer so I'm probably wrong, but the tilling of the ground allows the ground to breathe and to absorb water better, right? Right.

Ok, I'll try not to ask the 'right' question anymore; I will, I promise. Or maybe not, someone with integrity does not make any promises he knows he will not keep, right? Right. See what I mean? I just broke my promise; good thing I'm not God, right? Right.

At any rate of reasoning; the ground is made good ground by the sower; I don't see any other alternative; the sower tills the ground and removes the rocks and thorns and bushes, and then he sows the seed; the whole thing is a process, right? Right.

Then from the eternal perspective, we are not talking about terrestrial things but divine things; the ground cannot give anything by itself; to determine the context of this parable you have to read the previous chapter; there we see that He, Jesus, remotely healed the centurion's servant, or slave, He raised a widow's son from the dead; also John's disciples came to ask Him if He was the one to come; actually John sent them; and what does He do before answering their question? Answer: Luke 7:21-23 And in that same hour he cured many of their infirmities and plagues, and of evil spirits; and unto many that were blind he gave sight. Then Jesus answering said unto them, Go your way, and tell John what things ye have seen and heard; how that the blind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, to the poor the gospel is preached. And blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.
John was in prison at this point; and he is probably thinking "was I preparing the way for the real messiah?"; or he could have been asking himself: "have I tilled the ground the right way?", right? Right.

He continues after answering them: Luke 7:27-28 This is he, of whom it is written, Behold, I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee. For I say unto you, Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist: but he that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.

So, in my limited understanding, what I see is that the previous chapter is about faith; it is about believing in Jesus; the centurion believed, he believed so much that Jesus expressed wonder at his faith; the widow believed; John's disciples believed; the publicans believed; the people of the town believed; the prostitute believed; see, it is about believing; right? Right.

There were some that did not believe; and just as it was back then, the same way it is today; some believe and some do not; so what happens next? What happens next is chapter eight; and chapter eight begins with Jesus going throughout the cities and villages proclaiming the good news of the kingdom; then doctor Luke mentions all these women who came to minister to Jesus with their substance; it is beautiful.

In the middle of all the people around Him he spoke the parable of the sower, as soon as He is done He says "He that hath ears to hear, let him hear". People didn't get it; in fact the twelve didn't get it so they asked Him; what does this mean? And what does He say? "Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand". Have you ever wondered why He says that? What does that mean? It means that the mysteries of the kingdom are only revealed to some people and not to others, the mystery is clear to those to whom it has been given, it is obvious, right? Right.

The parable of the sower was not understood by those who were not intended to understand it; in fact those who were supposed to understand it didn't; Jesus had to explain it to them; which is the reason why the disciples asked Jesus to tell them what it meant, and why I'm asking all these questions; that is what the word of Christ causes in me; it causes me to ask questions; it causes me to be in awe; that is the purpose behind it, to change me, to reveal divine things to my understanding; to change my paradigm.

The words: "that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand" do not apply to me and you; they apply to those who have been left out of the mystery and in their misery. I find this fascinating; intriguing; marvelous and powerful. Those words indicate how special I am in His eyes; how dear I am to His heart; how glorious His grace is; how deep is His love for me.

This parable of the sower is also mentioned by Mark and Matthew; in Matthew chapter 13 Jesus explains more extensively the reason why He speaks in parables; He quotes Isaiah chapter 6, and He says: Mat 13:11-17 He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them. But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear. For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men have desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

Just for kicks let's see what Isaiah prophesied: Isa 6:6-10 Then flew one of the seraphims unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: And he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged. Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Isaiah's iniquity is taken away by God; the same way that the ground is prepared for the seed to grow and produce what it is intended to produce; God chooses the ground and He makes sure that the seed that falls on the good ground falls where it supposed to fall.

So important is this prophecy of Isaiah that not only Jesus declares that it has been fulfilled by Him; it is indeed the reason why He speaks in parables to the people; but it goes further than that; Mark mentions it; and, as we already know Luke mentions it here in our text; John mentions it, and Paul also mentions it; you wanna see? Here: Mark 4:11-13 And he said to them, "To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven." And he said to them, "Do you not understand this parable? How then will you understand all the parables? That is Mark; but check that out and notice what Jesus says about this parable; it is the key to understanding all of them.

Then we have John writing this: John 12:37-41 Though he had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him, so that the word spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled: "Lord, who has believed what he heard from us, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?" Therefore they could not believe. For again Isaiah said, "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them." Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him.

John makes sure to mention that even though Jesus had performed many miracles in front of all those people, some did not believe; and then he explains why that is: it has been prophesied by Isaiah through the Holy Spirit; and where does the prophecy originate? It originates from God; and now it has been fulfilled; and in fact, it is still being fulfilled even as we speak.

As you might well notice here; the words of Jesus and John do not match exactly the words from the prophecy in Isaiah; have you ever wondered why, or noticed it? The reason is obvious to me; but I will let you do some righteous pondering and find out on your own; it is very simple; maybe I should rephrase that, there are two possible reasons, but there is one reason for sure, and it is not a contradiction.

Okay, I'm making progress, and I really hope that you are not one of those brothers who say "your blog is too long, so I don't read it"; if you are, and have read all the words above until this point, then I bet something happened to you and now you don't find the blog too long. As for me, I find this stuff very fascinating, and wonderful, and beautiful, so I really pray that you will too; are you thinking?

Let me say it again; when we read the words of God we need to use our brain; that is how faith operates; God uses your thinking abilities to reveal things to you; but sometimes we really don't think about what we are reading; the words are so simple that we make the assumption that their meaning is clear, and it is; but there is always something deeper that the words themselves; that is he reason why this is a supernatural book; it takes you out of this world into the heavenly places; all through your faith and your mind; it is through our faith that God is exerting His power in us, see 1Peter 1:5.

Anyway; we have seen Isaiah's prophecy in Matthew, Luke, Mark, and John, next is Paul using it also; check this out: Acts 28:24-27 And some believed the things which were spoken, and some believed not. And when they agreed not among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word, Well spake the Holy Ghost by Esaias the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, Go unto this people, and say, Hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and not perceive: For the heart of this people is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed; lest they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.

Now, if you are like me and get off on trips through the universe, you might have noticed that in Isaiah it says "Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not. Make the heart of this people fat...", and so on; the words of Jesus according to Matthew are: "By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people's heart is waxed gross" and so on; and then Mark says: "but for those outside everything is in parables, so that "they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand, lest they should turn and be forgiven"; then Luke says: Unto you it is given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God: but to others in parables; that seeing they might not see, and hearing they might not understand", then we have Paul saying the prophecy (as quoted by Luke in the book of acts), and he says "it was said by the Holy Spirit"; but when we get to John he is the one who is quoting the prophecy, not Jesus; and in John who is the one doing the action of making their hearts fat, and their ears numbs and their eyes blind? So there you go....

In verse 40 of chapter 12 John says "He has blinded their eyes and hardened their heart, lest they see with their eyes, and understand with their heart, and turn, and I would heal them." Isaiah said these things because he saw his glory and spoke of him."; Again, who is doing it? You read it for yourself; it is God who is doing the action of hardening and numbing and blinding; and then John explains why Isaiah said what he said; because he was looking at Jesus telling him the prophecy.

It is obvious dude; that God is the One who can open the eyes of the blind; no one else can do that; it is God who can also shut the eyes of the ones who see; when I read the section in Matthew and compare all these verses; it is obvious what is happening here.

Guess what; it keeps on going; I'm not making doctrine out of a few verses of scripture; the doctrine is already there, you just have to think about it and you will see what I'm talking about: the absolute sovereignty of God in salvation.

Now, check this out: 2Cor 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them. The god of this world is under the complete and absolute authority of the God of heaven and earth, right? Right.

And this: Rom 11:4-10 But what saith the answer of God unto him? I have reserved to myself seven thousand men, who have not bowed the knee to the image of Baal.
Even so then at this present time also there is a remnant according to the election of grace.
And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
What then? Israel hath not obtained that which he seeketh for; but the election hath obtained it, and the rest were blinded (According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day.
And David saith, Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumblingblock, and a recompence unto them:
Let their eyes be darkened, that they may not see, and bow down their back alway.

So there is a remnant; and according to Paul, God is the one who has made it for Himself; He is in control of who believes and who does not; that is the point of the parable of the sower; it is why Jesus quotes Isaiah, and the reason why Matthew, Mark, John and Paul all quote Isaiah's prophecy; God is in charge of the seed and the ground and the rocks and the thorns; He decides what happens; as always.

"Oh but that was a different dispensation"; dude, open your eyes, or better yet, ask God to open your eyes, He is the only one who can really do that. "But I had to make a choice"; here we go again with the Pelagianism; is it not obvious in the scriptures that God, YHWH, the Sovereign King of Heaven and earth is in charge of who believes and who doesn't? Why do you want to minimize and take away His glory? I'll tell you why; pride and arrogance; the heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked.

Then we have Paul; explaining to the Thessalonians why the Day of The Lord has not yet come:
2Thessalonians 2:7-14 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:
That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.
But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Who is the One who is sending them a "strong delusion, that they should believe a lie"? And be damned? It is God Himself; it is right there clear and simple, and obvious. How can you run away from these words? How can you, or anybody else, try to rob God from His glory and sovereignty, after reading that?

So all this rant clears my mind, and absolutely and clearly answers my question; I ccould try to find a way around it, I could try to rescue God from His own word, and I could try to make Him an impotent God who is always defeated by the will of His creatures; but I can't; the evidence is overwhelming; my reason prevents me; His own word will not let me.

I will leave you with the words of the prophet Nahum: NAH 1:2-3 God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies. The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

I guess I will read Revelation some more....

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