The commandment reads, “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.” Jordan says, “That didn’t mean, ‘Don’t you cut your grass on Saturday.’ It didn’t mean, ‘Boy, you just need one day a week off.’ It meant, ‘Every Saturday you sit down and rehearse in your mind what my purpose in creation is and don’t forget you’re part in it.’
“Of course, Israel didn’t do that. The point God’s trying to get through to Job is He had a place He was going to dwell, but when sin came in He couldn’t dwell there.
"And when the Flood came, He went in there and that piece of ground that He had prepared for His house to come live, He broke it up; He destroyed it. Took a sledgehammer and just beat the fire out of it and broke up all that place where it isn’t compatible for His house to dwell there now. He’s saying, ‘I created everything to live there and now I’ve messed it up so I can’t live there. Job, there’s a problem in my creation that’s got to be resolved before I can come and live there. I’ve got an enemy.'
“I love what He says in Job 38: 12-13: Hast thou commanded the morning since thy days; and caused the dayspring to know his place; That it might take hold of the ends of the earth, that the wicked might be shaken out of it?’ He says, ‘Job, I got the sun all ready for it to come and shake the earth.’ Did you ever read in Isaiah 24 and Luke 21 about the powers of heaven being shaken? What’s that talking about? Gravity is a power of heaven.
“You know what makes the tide? The movement of the moon. (Meteorologists) know 10 years from now when it’s going to be high tide and low tide based on where the moon is. There’s a mathematical formula based on the gravitational pull that determines that. The powers. And He says, ‘Job, I’ve got everything ready for the sun to shake the wicked out of the earth that the high arm of my enemy could be broken. The things necessary to accomplish the day of my wrath I’ve got ready.’ ”
Saturday, February 26, 2011
Friday, February 25, 2011
Celestial calculations
The word magic comes from the Greek word magi, meaning “wise men.” Jordan says, “The magos were people who were prognosticators, star-worshippers, stargazers,” says Jordan. “We see in Daniel 2 that the wise men were really the magicians and the astrologers; the religious leaders of Babylon.”
We’re told in Daniel 2:27, for example, that, “Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king.”
Isaiah 47:13 says, “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”
Jordan explains, “Isaiah 47 is a chapter about the fall and destruction of Babylon that looks over to ‘mystery Babylon the great’ over in Revelation 17, but it also looks back to Genesis 11 where Babylon began. These people, they claim, were able to predict the future by calculating the planetary positions, and that’s the same crowd as in Daniel 2.
“Now, they’re people who have a great deal of claim to being wise; to wisdom, counsel, knowledge and so forth. They were credited by those about them with profound wisdom and with extraordinary knowledge that was gained by these celestial calculations of the stars.
“At one time God used the heavens as a means of communicating. Numbers 24, when Balaam, one of the seers of Mesopotamia, is hired by Balak to curse Israel. He was one of these magi characters from the east. The prophesy he gives in verse 15 says there shall come a star out of Jacob. The passage goes on down and talks about the coming of Christ and His destruction of the enemies of Israel in the land.
“But notice he sees a star. He would be somebody interested in that kind of thing. In Genesis 1, when God created the sun and the stars, He made them for signs. He made them as instruments to teach and point to doctrine. There are verses in Job, the oldest written book in the Old Testament, that show they knew the constellations and the influences those constellations have. In fact, if you go to Amos 5, the Lord argues, ‘But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.’
“God made those signs and what Amos’ saying is, ‘What you need to do is not just try to read the stars; you better get in touch with the one who created all that.’ He’s talking to Israel here, by the way. The nation had become so corrupted that they had abandoned God’s word for the pagan gods . . .
“Notice they had become attached to a particular star. The stargazers looked at all these stars, but Israel had become attached to a particular star; the star of their god Molech that they made. You remember when Moses is up on the mountain and Aaron gets all the gold, and all the earrings and bracelets, and makes the golden calf and says, ‘Here be thy gods O Israel that brought thee out of Egypt’?
“The indication is they really had two tabernacles in the wilderness. They had one God gave them through Moses but they also had another one; one that’s of this pagan god. But they had become attached to a star in connection with him.
******
“Not only is there a particular star, there’s a particular planet. As Paul reveals in Acts 14: 11-12, ‘And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.’
“Notice these guys down here who were worshipping pagan gods are priests of Jupiter. Now Jupiter, of course, is the father of the gods and it’s Zeus, the big god of the Greeks. Acts 19:35 goes on,‘And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?’ You see these guys are worshipping these gods up here."
(Editor’s note: To be continued . . . I am still trying to recover from a cold that smacked me down over Presidents’ Day weekend, followed by a gastrointestinal virus that had me on the run from the wee hours Wednesday morning, as in awakening to simultaneous diarrhea and vomiting from my nose-plugged dream land. Just putting out a warning to all who live in Chi-town. It’s definitely going around. Glad I had Blanket—a one-time queen-sized wedding gift to my parents now reduced to a small tangled and torn heap from my 30-some years of snuggling—to help me through. I am a wimp when it comes to this stuff!)
We’re told in Daniel 2:27, for example, that, “Daniel answered in the presence of the king, and said, The secret which the king hath demanded cannot the wise men, the astrologers, the magicians, the soothsayers, shew unto the king.”
Isaiah 47:13 says, “Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.”
Jordan explains, “Isaiah 47 is a chapter about the fall and destruction of Babylon that looks over to ‘mystery Babylon the great’ over in Revelation 17, but it also looks back to Genesis 11 where Babylon began. These people, they claim, were able to predict the future by calculating the planetary positions, and that’s the same crowd as in Daniel 2.
“Now, they’re people who have a great deal of claim to being wise; to wisdom, counsel, knowledge and so forth. They were credited by those about them with profound wisdom and with extraordinary knowledge that was gained by these celestial calculations of the stars.
“At one time God used the heavens as a means of communicating. Numbers 24, when Balaam, one of the seers of Mesopotamia, is hired by Balak to curse Israel. He was one of these magi characters from the east. The prophesy he gives in verse 15 says there shall come a star out of Jacob. The passage goes on down and talks about the coming of Christ and His destruction of the enemies of Israel in the land.
“But notice he sees a star. He would be somebody interested in that kind of thing. In Genesis 1, when God created the sun and the stars, He made them for signs. He made them as instruments to teach and point to doctrine. There are verses in Job, the oldest written book in the Old Testament, that show they knew the constellations and the influences those constellations have. In fact, if you go to Amos 5, the Lord argues, ‘But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.’
“God made those signs and what Amos’ saying is, ‘What you need to do is not just try to read the stars; you better get in touch with the one who created all that.’ He’s talking to Israel here, by the way. The nation had become so corrupted that they had abandoned God’s word for the pagan gods . . .
“Notice they had become attached to a particular star. The stargazers looked at all these stars, but Israel had become attached to a particular star; the star of their god Molech that they made. You remember when Moses is up on the mountain and Aaron gets all the gold, and all the earrings and bracelets, and makes the golden calf and says, ‘Here be thy gods O Israel that brought thee out of Egypt’?
“The indication is they really had two tabernacles in the wilderness. They had one God gave them through Moses but they also had another one; one that’s of this pagan god. But they had become attached to a star in connection with him.
******
“Not only is there a particular star, there’s a particular planet. As Paul reveals in Acts 14: 11-12, ‘And when the people saw what Paul had done, they lifted up their voices, saying in the speech of Lycaonia, The gods are come down to us in the likeness of men. And they called Barnabas, Jupiter; and Paul, Mercurius, because he was the chief speaker.’
“Notice these guys down here who were worshipping pagan gods are priests of Jupiter. Now Jupiter, of course, is the father of the gods and it’s Zeus, the big god of the Greeks. Acts 19:35 goes on,‘And when the townclerk had appeased the people, he said, Ye men of Ephesus, what man is there that knoweth not how that the city of the Ephesians is a worshipper of the great goddess Diana, and of the image which fell down from Jupiter?’ You see these guys are worshipping these gods up here."
(Editor’s note: To be continued . . . I am still trying to recover from a cold that smacked me down over Presidents’ Day weekend, followed by a gastrointestinal virus that had me on the run from the wee hours Wednesday morning, as in awakening to simultaneous diarrhea and vomiting from my nose-plugged dream land. Just putting out a warning to all who live in Chi-town. It’s definitely going around. Glad I had Blanket—a one-time queen-sized wedding gift to my parents now reduced to a small tangled and torn heap from my 30-some years of snuggling—to help me through. I am a wimp when it comes to this stuff!)
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Ruth's tent man the tenth man
The Book of Ruth, probably written by Samuel, is an infinitely charming Old Testament book with only four chapters, 85 verses and 2,578 words.
There is, in fact, only one other book in the Bible with a woman’s name: Esther. Ruth is a Gentile who marries a Jew and Esther is a Jew who marries a Gentile. Both of these books are books of history, typology and doctrine. Someone once said, “Ruth is one of the richest rewards of truly knowing the scripture.”
“Heart history appeals to people who have a heart,” says Jordan. “The stories that are based in appeal to affections are the things that attract people, and Ruth is that way. There’s always a charm in a book that is filled with typology, and the main characters in Ruth are all pictures of God’s dealings with the nation Israel, and especially in the kinsman redeemer Boaz, who is a type of Christ.
Ruth is a love story that is very much a true story. More importantly, it’s a book of prophecy and doctrine in typology, written during the early part of David’s reign before he had Solomon.
Jordan explains, “Ruth takes place during the deep dark period of Judges but isn’t recorded until the early reign of David because Boaz is the predecessor of David. David is in Boaz’ line and Boaz is one of those key people who are in the Messiah’s line and now David can be Israel’s king. So, in that interlude between David and Solomon, where God is teaching Israel how He will work on their behalf, He writes a little book because the first thing Israel needs when there under all that judgment is for Him to be their Kinsman Redeemer.
“And the first thing the Davidic covenant provides for them is a redeemer. And so the little book of Ruth, nestled as it is between Judges and the ministry of Samuel. . . in the book of Judges you see the doctrine of the kinsman redeemer--you see Gideon the deliverer and Samson the avenger and God ministering through the weaknesses of Israel and bringing about His purpose. You’re seeing those things God will do to redeem Israel and you see David and Solomon as the king and the one who brings the blessing of prosperity to them. Those are the mandates God has in the Davidic covenant that will be accomplished in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
*****
Between the first two cycles of the five cycles of judgment laid out in Leviticus 6 there was a period of respite. The first cycle, as said, covers the dark ages of the Book of Judges, where the book of Ruth took place, but then there’s sort of a respite from Samuel through the reigns of David and Solomon. The Book of Judges isn’t written until that respite period comes on the scene. During the reign of David, they reach back into Judges and pull out a story of Ruth and Boaz. In fact, the story’s pulled out of the lineage of King David. In his ancestors is a story about the Kinsman Redeemer that is doctrine attached to that period of respite.
Ruth 2:1 says, “And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.” The term kinsman is used about a dozen times in the book. Unger’s Bible Handbook is the first to refer to Ruth as “the romance of redemption.”
Jordan explains, “When you start at the beginning of the genealogy of Christ and count down the first ten guys you come to Noah. The tenth one in Shem’s line (the line of Christ) was Abraham. Boaz is the third tenth man.
Matthew 1:5 says, “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse.”
Jordan says, “That’s why the Book of Ruth is there to tell you who Boaz is. By the way, you can go on through the Old Testament and find those other tenth men and find their significance. It’s fascinating.
“The Book of Ruth isn’t just a little ditty that just happened to be passed on from campfire to campfire; ‘Let’s just put it in the Bible because we happen to have it around.’ Ruth is put there in the Bible to teach some doctrine about the kinsman redeemer, about Israel’s need to be redeemed.
“Boaz has some real insightful wisdom and a determined commitment and an undeterred love for Ruth to get the job of redemption done. By the way, the name Boaz means ‘in his is strength’ and he’s the redeemer who gets the job done! The picture is of the Messiah. It’s Israel in the time of Jacob’s trouble being saved by her Messiah who comes by the way, out of Bethlehem.”
There is, in fact, only one other book in the Bible with a woman’s name: Esther. Ruth is a Gentile who marries a Jew and Esther is a Jew who marries a Gentile. Both of these books are books of history, typology and doctrine. Someone once said, “Ruth is one of the richest rewards of truly knowing the scripture.”
“Heart history appeals to people who have a heart,” says Jordan. “The stories that are based in appeal to affections are the things that attract people, and Ruth is that way. There’s always a charm in a book that is filled with typology, and the main characters in Ruth are all pictures of God’s dealings with the nation Israel, and especially in the kinsman redeemer Boaz, who is a type of Christ.
Ruth is a love story that is very much a true story. More importantly, it’s a book of prophecy and doctrine in typology, written during the early part of David’s reign before he had Solomon.
Jordan explains, “Ruth takes place during the deep dark period of Judges but isn’t recorded until the early reign of David because Boaz is the predecessor of David. David is in Boaz’ line and Boaz is one of those key people who are in the Messiah’s line and now David can be Israel’s king. So, in that interlude between David and Solomon, where God is teaching Israel how He will work on their behalf, He writes a little book because the first thing Israel needs when there under all that judgment is for Him to be their Kinsman Redeemer.
“And the first thing the Davidic covenant provides for them is a redeemer. And so the little book of Ruth, nestled as it is between Judges and the ministry of Samuel. . . in the book of Judges you see the doctrine of the kinsman redeemer--you see Gideon the deliverer and Samson the avenger and God ministering through the weaknesses of Israel and bringing about His purpose. You’re seeing those things God will do to redeem Israel and you see David and Solomon as the king and the one who brings the blessing of prosperity to them. Those are the mandates God has in the Davidic covenant that will be accomplished in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ.
*****
Between the first two cycles of the five cycles of judgment laid out in Leviticus 6 there was a period of respite. The first cycle, as said, covers the dark ages of the Book of Judges, where the book of Ruth took place, but then there’s sort of a respite from Samuel through the reigns of David and Solomon. The Book of Judges isn’t written until that respite period comes on the scene. During the reign of David, they reach back into Judges and pull out a story of Ruth and Boaz. In fact, the story’s pulled out of the lineage of King David. In his ancestors is a story about the Kinsman Redeemer that is doctrine attached to that period of respite.
Ruth 2:1 says, “And Naomi had a kinsman of her husband's, a mighty man of wealth, of the family of Elimelech; and his name was Boaz.” The term kinsman is used about a dozen times in the book. Unger’s Bible Handbook is the first to refer to Ruth as “the romance of redemption.”
Jordan explains, “When you start at the beginning of the genealogy of Christ and count down the first ten guys you come to Noah. The tenth one in Shem’s line (the line of Christ) was Abraham. Boaz is the third tenth man.
Matthew 1:5 says, “And Salmon begat Booz of Rachab; and Booz begat Obed of Ruth; and Obed begat Jesse.”
Jordan says, “That’s why the Book of Ruth is there to tell you who Boaz is. By the way, you can go on through the Old Testament and find those other tenth men and find their significance. It’s fascinating.
“The Book of Ruth isn’t just a little ditty that just happened to be passed on from campfire to campfire; ‘Let’s just put it in the Bible because we happen to have it around.’ Ruth is put there in the Bible to teach some doctrine about the kinsman redeemer, about Israel’s need to be redeemed.
“Boaz has some real insightful wisdom and a determined commitment and an undeterred love for Ruth to get the job of redemption done. By the way, the name Boaz means ‘in his is strength’ and he’s the redeemer who gets the job done! The picture is of the Messiah. It’s Israel in the time of Jacob’s trouble being saved by her Messiah who comes by the way, out of Bethlehem.”
Monday, February 21, 2011
Down in my heart . . .
There’s a big difference between human happiness and godly joy. Human happiness is about meeting personal expectations and having circumstances match your desires.
“It means I’m happy when others respond the way I want them to, or expect them to respond,” says Jordan. “God’s purpose in your life has nothing to do with making you happy. People say, ‘Well, certainly God wants me to be happy.’ I’ll agree with you that the Lord is real happy to have you be happy. But that isn’t really God’s purpose in your life.”
*****
The message of evangelicalism today is to manipulate God into meeting our expectations so we can live the good life and be happy.
“If God’s goal was to make you happy then suffering wouldn’t have any real purpose in your life. In fact, it would be completely counter-productive,” says Jordan. “Real joy is about meeting God’s expectations, not yours, and having done God’s will. That’s how somebody like Paul could be beaten and shipwrecked over and over and over again, locked away in prison, and could still talk about joy and fulfilling his course and his ministry with joy. God’s purpose is to use me to bring glory to His name and in every circumstance of my life that’s my purpose, my privilege. I don’t need to look at circumstances and evaluate whether this is a place I can rejoice or not . . .
“I can imagine Paul’s life maybe didn’t turn out the way he expected it to when he started out. It’s a sobering thing to know brothers and sisters are suffering. Real intense persecution in our day. And yet by God’s standards, they’re living the good life. They’re living life to the maximum. People don’t always live to their own profession of expectations and when their decisions affect me, I might not always be thrilled about it, but I can rejoice because that’s a walk of faith; faith in who God’s made us . . .
“Glory is an outward expression. Rejoicing is an inner attitude. So the inner attitude of joy results in me being able to express that outward demonstration of that joy in times of trouble, difficulty and pressure, or persecution.
*****
“It isn’t enough just to say ‘tribulation works patience’; it’s KNOWING that it does that causes us to be able to have the glory—the outward expression of this joy in the midst of trouble.
“All of your joy is eventually going to have to be based in who God has made you and what He’s going to do with you in Christ. Every time in Paul’s epistles when you see the issue of hope, it’s always looking to the future. It’s a Rapture-resurrection kind of a look. Always talking to God about what His word says about the circumstances I’m in gives me the ability to continually endure through the trouble because I’ve got a hope out there in the end that fills my heart with rejoicing.
“Now the trouble is a circumstance in which I’ve been equipped by God to grow. What gave Paul the ability to live in whatever the circumstances were and to have joy was not to evaluate life the way human viewpoint evaluates it, on the basis of simple happiness.
“My strength, my power is made perfect, made complete in weakness. You see, grace requires you to do nothing. My joy is going to come from the sufficiency of His grace.
*****
“If you’re going to be a writer, you need a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms where you get the nuances of English words. English is a wonderful language. The only language compared to the Greek language in its versatility, if not surpassed (I think it has) is English and the ability to express things and turn a phrase.
“Time proves character. When you associate with someone over time you’re going to find out who they are and what they’re there for. Initially, you disappoint someone. That means the person had expectations that weren’t realistic. That’s called legalism. Unreal expectations. When you function like that you’re going to be disappointed, and the legalistic reaction is to condemn, criticize and work wrath, rather than question yourself as to whether or not maybe you had a problem.”
“It means I’m happy when others respond the way I want them to, or expect them to respond,” says Jordan. “God’s purpose in your life has nothing to do with making you happy. People say, ‘Well, certainly God wants me to be happy.’ I’ll agree with you that the Lord is real happy to have you be happy. But that isn’t really God’s purpose in your life.”
*****
The message of evangelicalism today is to manipulate God into meeting our expectations so we can live the good life and be happy.
“If God’s goal was to make you happy then suffering wouldn’t have any real purpose in your life. In fact, it would be completely counter-productive,” says Jordan. “Real joy is about meeting God’s expectations, not yours, and having done God’s will. That’s how somebody like Paul could be beaten and shipwrecked over and over and over again, locked away in prison, and could still talk about joy and fulfilling his course and his ministry with joy. God’s purpose is to use me to bring glory to His name and in every circumstance of my life that’s my purpose, my privilege. I don’t need to look at circumstances and evaluate whether this is a place I can rejoice or not . . .
“I can imagine Paul’s life maybe didn’t turn out the way he expected it to when he started out. It’s a sobering thing to know brothers and sisters are suffering. Real intense persecution in our day. And yet by God’s standards, they’re living the good life. They’re living life to the maximum. People don’t always live to their own profession of expectations and when their decisions affect me, I might not always be thrilled about it, but I can rejoice because that’s a walk of faith; faith in who God’s made us . . .
“Glory is an outward expression. Rejoicing is an inner attitude. So the inner attitude of joy results in me being able to express that outward demonstration of that joy in times of trouble, difficulty and pressure, or persecution.
*****
“It isn’t enough just to say ‘tribulation works patience’; it’s KNOWING that it does that causes us to be able to have the glory—the outward expression of this joy in the midst of trouble.
“All of your joy is eventually going to have to be based in who God has made you and what He’s going to do with you in Christ. Every time in Paul’s epistles when you see the issue of hope, it’s always looking to the future. It’s a Rapture-resurrection kind of a look. Always talking to God about what His word says about the circumstances I’m in gives me the ability to continually endure through the trouble because I’ve got a hope out there in the end that fills my heart with rejoicing.
“Now the trouble is a circumstance in which I’ve been equipped by God to grow. What gave Paul the ability to live in whatever the circumstances were and to have joy was not to evaluate life the way human viewpoint evaluates it, on the basis of simple happiness.
“My strength, my power is made perfect, made complete in weakness. You see, grace requires you to do nothing. My joy is going to come from the sufficiency of His grace.
*****
“If you’re going to be a writer, you need a dictionary of synonyms and antonyms where you get the nuances of English words. English is a wonderful language. The only language compared to the Greek language in its versatility, if not surpassed (I think it has) is English and the ability to express things and turn a phrase.
“Time proves character. When you associate with someone over time you’re going to find out who they are and what they’re there for. Initially, you disappoint someone. That means the person had expectations that weren’t realistic. That’s called legalism. Unreal expectations. When you function like that you’re going to be disappointed, and the legalistic reaction is to condemn, criticize and work wrath, rather than question yourself as to whether or not maybe you had a problem.”
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Enhancing effect
When Genesis 6:2 says the "sons of god saw the daughters of men that they were fair," this means these earth-invading angels found the human women “useful.”
“They went out among them and found appropriate subjects and you’ve got these celestial creatures invading the earth and conducting procreative experimentations with women,” explains Jordan. “Now, Joshua, Caleb, David and Noah all fought against these dudes and won, but nevertheless, the genetic engineering produced an advanced extraterrestrial human-type creature."
As Gen. 6:4 reports, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Jordan explains, “Men of renowned means men they were men of great note, enhanced intelligence and superior ability. Daniel 2:43 is a really weird verse. Daniel interprets the dream of Nebby’s and sees this great colossal image. He writes, ‘And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’
“The indication is these kings aren’t going to be on the seed of men but are going to mingle their seed with the seed of men. Over and over in the scripture, man is described as clay. In this particular case, it’s not just any men; it’s the nation Israel. Iron is associated with the giants. The idea is those 10 kings who reign with the Antichrist, who is the SON of perdition, he’s the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit.
“You see, there are going to be some things associated with the activity of the Antichrist that are far beyond simple physical, political, economic philosophy. The 10 kings that give power with him are described in the same terms as these characters back here in Genesis 6 who give father to the ‘nephilim.’ So, the indication is there’s going to be some more of this stuff taking place in the future. The past becomes prologue to the future!”
*****
Isaiah 13 starts with, “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.” Jordan says, “When you got a burden it weighs you down. When he sees this about Babylon he says, ‘Here’s some horrible things that I got to tell you about what’s going to happen to Babylon.'
Joel 2:11 says, “And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” Jordan says, “This army is the mustering of the host for battle and they gather from the end of heaven. This is the crowd he’s talking about in Isaiah 13. What happens if a natural normal person falls on a sword? It says, ‘They shall not be wounded.’
“You see, what he’s describing here is not an army made up of natural men, humans, this is an army made up of supernatural creatures. Celestial beings called from the heavens ‘angels,’ and the army of the Lord that He comes with is an army of these ‘mighty ones’ back in Isaiah 13. What happens is, first He whets His sword in the heavens (Rev. 12, Isa. 34) and Michael takes the armies of God and goes out through the heavens and casts Satan and all of his angels down to the earth. And then the angelic armies of heaven, having cast Satan out of the heavens to the earth, they come down with the Lord Jesus Christ to finish the job.”
Isaiah 13:2 says, “Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles, shake the hand nobles.” In other words, there is a portal through which they’re going to come out of the angelic dimension into our dimension in order to be able to fight.
“Angels are not made of Carbon-14 and in the scripture, there are passageways; we use the term portals,” explains Jordan. “In literature, they use the term Stargates. Fascinatingly, that’s what the Bible calls it. If you come over to Rev. 9, all the ones I know how to identify geographically are in the Middle East. One is described being in Egypt, one in Babylon, one in Palestine. They are doorways.
“If you think about in the angelic world, they’re just as real as you are. They’re just not made of the same physical properties. Life in their realm is just as real as it is in our realm. I’ve tried to show you that in heaven are farms and cities and manufacturing plants. We talk about the business of heaven. Paul describes the invisible realm and he use exactly the same terminology to describe it as he does for down on earth. There’s work, there’s jobs, there’s life to be carried on.
“In Daniel 10, Gabriel leaves heaven and it takes him 21 days to get to Planet Earth because the passageway he traveled through to get down here had some roadblocks. Every time he crossed a territorial boundary, the government that he crossed into wanted to see his passport or diplomatic pouch and they held him up and slowed it down. He said it took him 21 days. He said, ‘When I go back there’s a war up there going on and I’ll have to go back through all that stuff.’ So there are routes across the heavens.”
Jude 6 says, referring to the days of Noah, “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Similarly, II Peter 2:4 states, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
Jordan explains, “The angels had a house built by God and they left it. They shifted their dimensional habitation. They literally came into man’s dimension to reside to participate in this experimentation, and that’s where those gates come in. Revelation 9 starts out: ‘And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.’ All these demonic creatures come out. Once again, there’s this coming in and going out.
Gen 6:4 says there were giants in the land AFTER the flood. “What they were trying to do, through the genetic engineering, and these procreation experiments, was corrupt humanity so the seed of the woman could not produce a Redeemer,” says Jordan. “The reason Eve was taken out of Adam and not created separately is because there could be only one head of the human race. Everybody had to come from one person or you would have needed more than one Redeemer.
“Well, if you could create a human that was something other than human…the whole argument, the whole bio-ethic discussion about this kind of stuff hinges upon man being created in the image of God. If you weren’t created in the image of God, what difference does it make? Breed you like a dog or cow or pig. Eugenics is the thing to do. In fact, Richard Dawkins, the big atheist of our day, endorses the idea (even though you can’t endorse Eugenics per say because Hitler did that).
“What’s the difference between breeding somebody to be an athlete or training them? Well, ethically if you think we’re just the product of evolution, there is no big deal. In fact, it’s the logical, natural thing to do. ‘Let’s enhance things.’ If you understand the importance of man as a creation of God, as having a purpose in the earth, ‘Go out and have dominion; reclaim it.’ See, that’s why Satan was seeking to do that in Gen. 6.
"After the flood he starts over again but then he quit. The reason he quit was because the issue was no longer about corrupting all of mankind; because the seed of the woman became the seed of Abraham. ‘Now we only had to get Abraham.’ That’s an easier task then all the rest.”
******
Acts 16:16 says, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.”
Jordan explains, “She was someone who was empowered by the oracle of Delphi; by the spirit of what they would have called a python--a pagan god. She was a spirit of divination who had this connection with this crowd we’re talking about and she had this demon who could speak through her. She says, ‘These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.’ Now, is she telling the truth or not? Have you ever wondered why in the world this demon-possessed woman would say such a thing?
“Did you ever notice back in Matthew 8:29 Jesus cast demons out of a guy and the demon says, ‘Hold on thou Son of God, have you come to torment us before our time?’ You see the demons knew exactly what was going on dispensationally in Matthew 8. They know what’s going on dispensationally right here. Satan keeps up to date on what God’s doing and he opposes what God’s doing. He doesn’t shoot blanks and he doesn’t waste ammunition shooting at something God used to do and isn’t doing anymore.
“That’s why the giants were going after Israel. Today, the Adversary knows God’s not trying to repossess the land of Palestine. What’s He doing? He’s forming the Body of Christ.”
“They went out among them and found appropriate subjects and you’ve got these celestial creatures invading the earth and conducting procreative experimentations with women,” explains Jordan. “Now, Joshua, Caleb, David and Noah all fought against these dudes and won, but nevertheless, the genetic engineering produced an advanced extraterrestrial human-type creature."
As Gen. 6:4 reports, “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”
Jordan explains, “Men of renowned means men they were men of great note, enhanced intelligence and superior ability. Daniel 2:43 is a really weird verse. Daniel interprets the dream of Nebby’s and sees this great colossal image. He writes, ‘And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’
“The indication is these kings aren’t going to be on the seed of men but are going to mingle their seed with the seed of men. Over and over in the scripture, man is described as clay. In this particular case, it’s not just any men; it’s the nation Israel. Iron is associated with the giants. The idea is those 10 kings who reign with the Antichrist, who is the SON of perdition, he’s the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit.
“You see, there are going to be some things associated with the activity of the Antichrist that are far beyond simple physical, political, economic philosophy. The 10 kings that give power with him are described in the same terms as these characters back here in Genesis 6 who give father to the ‘nephilim.’ So, the indication is there’s going to be some more of this stuff taking place in the future. The past becomes prologue to the future!”
*****
Isaiah 13 starts with, “The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz did see.” Jordan says, “When you got a burden it weighs you down. When he sees this about Babylon he says, ‘Here’s some horrible things that I got to tell you about what’s going to happen to Babylon.'
Joel 2:11 says, “And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?” Jordan says, “This army is the mustering of the host for battle and they gather from the end of heaven. This is the crowd he’s talking about in Isaiah 13. What happens if a natural normal person falls on a sword? It says, ‘They shall not be wounded.’
“You see, what he’s describing here is not an army made up of natural men, humans, this is an army made up of supernatural creatures. Celestial beings called from the heavens ‘angels,’ and the army of the Lord that He comes with is an army of these ‘mighty ones’ back in Isaiah 13. What happens is, first He whets His sword in the heavens (Rev. 12, Isa. 34) and Michael takes the armies of God and goes out through the heavens and casts Satan and all of his angels down to the earth. And then the angelic armies of heaven, having cast Satan out of the heavens to the earth, they come down with the Lord Jesus Christ to finish the job.”
Isaiah 13:2 says, “Lift ye up a banner upon the high mountain, exalt the voice unto them, shake the hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles, shake the hand nobles.” In other words, there is a portal through which they’re going to come out of the angelic dimension into our dimension in order to be able to fight.
“Angels are not made of Carbon-14 and in the scripture, there are passageways; we use the term portals,” explains Jordan. “In literature, they use the term Stargates. Fascinatingly, that’s what the Bible calls it. If you come over to Rev. 9, all the ones I know how to identify geographically are in the Middle East. One is described being in Egypt, one in Babylon, one in Palestine. They are doorways.
“If you think about in the angelic world, they’re just as real as you are. They’re just not made of the same physical properties. Life in their realm is just as real as it is in our realm. I’ve tried to show you that in heaven are farms and cities and manufacturing plants. We talk about the business of heaven. Paul describes the invisible realm and he use exactly the same terminology to describe it as he does for down on earth. There’s work, there’s jobs, there’s life to be carried on.
“In Daniel 10, Gabriel leaves heaven and it takes him 21 days to get to Planet Earth because the passageway he traveled through to get down here had some roadblocks. Every time he crossed a territorial boundary, the government that he crossed into wanted to see his passport or diplomatic pouch and they held him up and slowed it down. He said it took him 21 days. He said, ‘When I go back there’s a war up there going on and I’ll have to go back through all that stuff.’ So there are routes across the heavens.”
Jude 6 says, referring to the days of Noah, “And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.” Similarly, II Peter 2:4 states, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment.”
Jordan explains, “The angels had a house built by God and they left it. They shifted their dimensional habitation. They literally came into man’s dimension to reside to participate in this experimentation, and that’s where those gates come in. Revelation 9 starts out: ‘And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.’ All these demonic creatures come out. Once again, there’s this coming in and going out.
Gen 6:4 says there were giants in the land AFTER the flood. “What they were trying to do, through the genetic engineering, and these procreation experiments, was corrupt humanity so the seed of the woman could not produce a Redeemer,” says Jordan. “The reason Eve was taken out of Adam and not created separately is because there could be only one head of the human race. Everybody had to come from one person or you would have needed more than one Redeemer.
“Well, if you could create a human that was something other than human…the whole argument, the whole bio-ethic discussion about this kind of stuff hinges upon man being created in the image of God. If you weren’t created in the image of God, what difference does it make? Breed you like a dog or cow or pig. Eugenics is the thing to do. In fact, Richard Dawkins, the big atheist of our day, endorses the idea (even though you can’t endorse Eugenics per say because Hitler did that).
“What’s the difference between breeding somebody to be an athlete or training them? Well, ethically if you think we’re just the product of evolution, there is no big deal. In fact, it’s the logical, natural thing to do. ‘Let’s enhance things.’ If you understand the importance of man as a creation of God, as having a purpose in the earth, ‘Go out and have dominion; reclaim it.’ See, that’s why Satan was seeking to do that in Gen. 6.
"After the flood he starts over again but then he quit. The reason he quit was because the issue was no longer about corrupting all of mankind; because the seed of the woman became the seed of Abraham. ‘Now we only had to get Abraham.’ That’s an easier task then all the rest.”
******
Acts 16:16 says, “And it came to pass, as we went to prayer, a certain damsel possessed with a spirit of divination met us, which brought her masters much gain by soothsaying.”
Jordan explains, “She was someone who was empowered by the oracle of Delphi; by the spirit of what they would have called a python--a pagan god. She was a spirit of divination who had this connection with this crowd we’re talking about and she had this demon who could speak through her. She says, ‘These men are the servants of the most high God, which shew unto us the way of salvation.’ Now, is she telling the truth or not? Have you ever wondered why in the world this demon-possessed woman would say such a thing?
“Did you ever notice back in Matthew 8:29 Jesus cast demons out of a guy and the demon says, ‘Hold on thou Son of God, have you come to torment us before our time?’ You see the demons knew exactly what was going on dispensationally in Matthew 8. They know what’s going on dispensationally right here. Satan keeps up to date on what God’s doing and he opposes what God’s doing. He doesn’t shoot blanks and he doesn’t waste ammunition shooting at something God used to do and isn’t doing anymore.
“That’s why the giants were going after Israel. Today, the Adversary knows God’s not trying to repossess the land of Palestine. What’s He doing? He’s forming the Body of Christ.”
Monday, February 14, 2011
The present actual reality
“If you put truth on the table, it doesn’t matter how much error is there,” says Jordan. “If truth can get an opportunity to have a fair hearing, it will take care of itself. The problem is error knows this so it doesn’t want truth to get on the table, or if it does, it wants it to be on the table in a distorted manner.
“God takes His life and implants it in our humanity. Jesus Christ was God. He took upon Himself our humanity and was made flesh. He lived in order to demonstrate above all other things what it’s like. Here’s how God intended man to live.”
*****
Ephesians 1:18 reads, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”
Jordan explains, “You notice the ‘his’ in there? We usually read that verse backwards. You know, it’s ‘the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what the hope is of, not your calling, but His calling.’ Ephesians is saying, ‘It ain’t about you; it’s about what HE’S doing! It isn’t what you’re accomplishing, nor what He’s accomplishing for you—it’s what HE’S accomplishing for Himself USING you to do it. That’s the Bigger Picture.
“. . . There’s a great sense that people have of being alienated, separated, being out here by myself in the world. Everybody has that sense. But what do you do about it? One of the reasons people join gangs, whether it’s street people or . . . I remember years ago reading an article about Al Capone and Joe Kennedy. Kennedy and Capone were contemporaries and had Kennedy not been a millionaire he would have been considered a bootlegger. Every bottle of Irish-Scotch whiskey that comes into America, his family still gets a piece of.
“During the Prohibition, Al was over here with the speakeasies and he’s got guys importing it and making it in the radiators and stuff. Well, he’s a gangster. They both had the same motivation; they just started at different social stratas. One had no money, no political contact but he had street muscle. The other guy’s got political muscle and financial muscle. So one’s this big respected guy and the other, it’s let’s hang him and get rid of him kind of a guy. But the motivation behind both of them was the same. Power, money.
“One of things that motivates people is a desire to belong. To be a part of something special. You’ve been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Do you understand you belong to something that God planned to do from before the foundation of the world? How did you become a part of that? In Him.”
*****
Ephesians 1:4 says, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
Jordan explains, “You got to notice that verse doesn’t say He chose you to be in Him; it says He chose you IN Him. When you trusted Christ, and God put you in His Son, He put you into something that He’s been planning to do from before the foundation of the world. Now, if that can’t help you bust your buttons and feel special, well you got a problem. You aren’t thinking about it. What you need to do is come to appreciate what that is.
“The verse says ‘that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.’ Holy means your set apart; something special to Him. You belong to Him and you’re especially His. I Peter I (without blame) and John 17 (before Him in love) are used to describe God’s attitude toward His Son before the world began. That means God thinks about you and I today exactly the way He thought about His Son before the world began.
“Sometimes you think about yourself kind of different than that, don’t you? God doesn’t. Now who do you think is right? If you’re going to ‘be strong in the Lord,’ that’s where your strength is. Your strength is to come to appreciate the present actual reality of God’s attitude toward you and God’s estimation of you.”
“God takes His life and implants it in our humanity. Jesus Christ was God. He took upon Himself our humanity and was made flesh. He lived in order to demonstrate above all other things what it’s like. Here’s how God intended man to live.”
*****
Ephesians 1:18 reads, “The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”
Jordan explains, “You notice the ‘his’ in there? We usually read that verse backwards. You know, it’s ‘the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you may know what the hope is of, not your calling, but His calling.’ Ephesians is saying, ‘It ain’t about you; it’s about what HE’S doing! It isn’t what you’re accomplishing, nor what He’s accomplishing for you—it’s what HE’S accomplishing for Himself USING you to do it. That’s the Bigger Picture.
“. . . There’s a great sense that people have of being alienated, separated, being out here by myself in the world. Everybody has that sense. But what do you do about it? One of the reasons people join gangs, whether it’s street people or . . . I remember years ago reading an article about Al Capone and Joe Kennedy. Kennedy and Capone were contemporaries and had Kennedy not been a millionaire he would have been considered a bootlegger. Every bottle of Irish-Scotch whiskey that comes into America, his family still gets a piece of.
“During the Prohibition, Al was over here with the speakeasies and he’s got guys importing it and making it in the radiators and stuff. Well, he’s a gangster. They both had the same motivation; they just started at different social stratas. One had no money, no political contact but he had street muscle. The other guy’s got political muscle and financial muscle. So one’s this big respected guy and the other, it’s let’s hang him and get rid of him kind of a guy. But the motivation behind both of them was the same. Power, money.
“One of things that motivates people is a desire to belong. To be a part of something special. You’ve been chosen in Him before the foundation of the world. Do you understand you belong to something that God planned to do from before the foundation of the world? How did you become a part of that? In Him.”
*****
Ephesians 1:4 says, “According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.”
Jordan explains, “You got to notice that verse doesn’t say He chose you to be in Him; it says He chose you IN Him. When you trusted Christ, and God put you in His Son, He put you into something that He’s been planning to do from before the foundation of the world. Now, if that can’t help you bust your buttons and feel special, well you got a problem. You aren’t thinking about it. What you need to do is come to appreciate what that is.
“The verse says ‘that we should be holy and without blame before him in love.’ Holy means your set apart; something special to Him. You belong to Him and you’re especially His. I Peter I (without blame) and John 17 (before Him in love) are used to describe God’s attitude toward His Son before the world began. That means God thinks about you and I today exactly the way He thought about His Son before the world began.
“Sometimes you think about yourself kind of different than that, don’t you? God doesn’t. Now who do you think is right? If you’re going to ‘be strong in the Lord,’ that’s where your strength is. Your strength is to come to appreciate the present actual reality of God’s attitude toward you and God’s estimation of you.”
Saturday, February 12, 2011
In those days and AFTER
The London Daily Mail broke the news of a “transgenetic” creature with a body of a sheep and half-human organs comprised of 15% human cells. The message was this “evolutionary” development brought the prospect of animal organs being transplanted into humans one step closer.
Genesis 6:1 presents a passage that describes a transgenetic kind of an issue: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
Jordan explains, “If angels in heaven do not marry or give in marriage, why would they have any sexual interest in the daughters of men? When it says they saw ‘that they were fair,’ the thought would be they were good-looking and that they were attracted to them, but since angels don’t have a sex drive, and they would have no pro-creation ability, this would not be an issue to them. One of the mitigating factors there is they could see men and women, and they could see them having a good time, and want to enter into that. But when you study the verse really carefully it really isn’t talking so much about that.
“The Hebrew word for ‘fair’ is literally the idea of a ‘fit extension.’ It’s the idea of being an acceptable or good host in which to implant yourself. The verse says 'they took them wives.' Now when you take somebody, you’ve heard of alien abductions, they didn’t go in and court the women and win them; they TOOK them. Just the terminology tells you this is an involuntary kind of a thing. It was not mutual consent; they came in and took them.
“The indication here is they begin to enter into this genetic experimentation and they begin to work with the genetic mutations with man and they create a mutant life form. Genesis 6:4 says, ‘There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.’
“Notice it says there were giants in those days and after that. That’s important. It didn’t just happen before the Flood; the same genetic experimentation happened after the Flood.
Jude verse 6 gives little bit of understanding of how this could take place: ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’
“Their first estate was in heaven. These guys leave their original estate, leaving their own habitation. They had a habitation that God had built for them to live in. What Jude’s describing is these angelic beings using created matter to embody themselves in. People argue angels did not have a seed to create children with but the point in Jude is they left where they didn’t have it and came down here and took upon another form so they could have it.
“In fact, in the next verse says, ‘Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.’ Do you remember what was going to happen in Genesis 19? These two angels come with Lot and the guys in town come and they want to take these two men (angels) and we get the term sodomy from Sodom because they wanted to have homosexual relationships with them. Lot offers them his daughters but they wanted the guys.
“Before you get all fired up about the angels not having a seed, notice that Satan has a seed. Gen. 3:15: ‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’ Satan comes to Eve as a Brad Pitt kind of guy. Notice Satan’s seed is going to function among humanity. That’s what Jesus Christ is referring to when he says of the Pharisees, ‘Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.’ They were a group of people who were spiritually generated and produced, had their origin from Satan. I John 3:12 says, ‘Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.’
“Notice Cain was OF, produced BY that wicked one. You know why people say prostitution is world’s oldest profession? They say that because the old wives’ tale is that Satan and Eve had sex in the Garden and that that was the Original Sin. And that he seduced her and fathered Cain. In Genesis 4, Eve says, ‘Behold I’ve gotten a man from the Lord.’ The idea is he was the father of Cain. This is the verse they use for that. But that isn’t what those verses are talking about.
“If Cain was a physical son of Satan, his brother Abel was Adam’s son. Then the descendants of Cain, and the genetic contamination that would have taken place because of that, would have to somewhere still be here today. If you read about the human genome and DNA, 97% of the genetics in DNA is non-codable. Only about 3% of the DNA we’re using is codable and so what people then say is, ‘Well, 97% is the alien DNA from the wherever.’ You could run this stuff off to the place where it gets to be a little too much with the speculation.
“When it says ‘Cain is of that wicked one,’ Cain bought into the lie program, and just as Satan was the spiritual father of Israel’s leaders in John 8, and they were OF that wicked one, Satan was their father. Cain was the very first Pharisee, the progenitor of those birds who wanted to kill Christ and Jesus identified him that way in Matthew 23.
“So it’s a spiritual parentage when he’s talking about the seed, but it’s interesting that Satan does have prodigy. It’s not like he doesn’t have children. He certainly does. He has prodigy.”
*****
This idea of the mingling, the genetic engineering, as observed in Genesis 6:4, is the result of the genetic experimentation and engineering between ‘the sons of god’ and the daughters of men producing a mutant life described as giants in the earth.
“These were men of greatly enhanced intelligence, enhanced strength, enhanced size and also some really weird things otherwise,” confirms Jordan.
“When you start having genetic mutations, odd things come. In Deuteronomy 3:11, for example, this giant’s bed was 12 feet long and six feet wide. He must be 10-11 feet tall and three-feet wide. The point is he’s uncharacteristically large. When you read about these giants you see the genetic engineering produced a lot of misfires in the mutant forms that they took. Goliath was a big guy and very skilled, strong, adaptive. He wasn’t just a freak in size.
“II Samuel 21:20 reveals, ‘And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.’ II Samuel 23:20 says that ‘Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab.’
“In the Apocrypha’s Book of Enoch it talks about angels experimenting with animal genetics. So they weren’t just doing it with humans evidently; the common lore is it was also with animals. Well, that would explain for you some of what’s going on in II Samuel where you would have the successful corruption of the species barrier.
“You remember in Genesis God says every species will reproduce ‘after its kind’? So He created a barrier and they’re trying to bridge that barrier and produce some mutations that would be beyond that normal-species barrier between normal reproduction. And the intelligence, the instincts that they would be trying to create . . . you now see in sci-fi stuff even today, in fact in the last few years you read about how to produce the ultimate soldier and they try to breed into a person the ability to have the eyesight of a cunning sharp-vision animal creation. It involves the senses and so forth and that isn’t anything new.
“People tend to think about men in Genesis as if they were all cave men with clubs going out and bumping gals in the head and dragging them home into cave. These guys were technological marvels, men of renowned with advanced cultures in civilization. If the angels had come down, you know they have some advanced technology that we don’t have. Some of this stuff is going on in that context.
“If you compare Gen. 10:8 (‘And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.’) with I Chron. 1:10 (‘And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth.’) they say the same thing.
“What does it mean to say Nimrod ‘began’? It’s almost like he subjected himself to the genetic experimentation and was willing to have that genetic altering in himself in order to partake of the enhancement. It’s Nimrod who establishes Babel in Genesis 11 and it’s him who designs the Tower of Babel to reach unto heaven.
“So all of these things back in Genesis get kind of connected that way where you have these supernatural forces and a guy like Nimrod would be trying to take these supernatural forces and put them under human control. Jesus says in Matthew and Luke, ‘As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the son of man.’ What you’re reading back there in Genesis is really a template for what’s going to be in the Last Days.
“In Daniel 2 you have this great image of Nebuchadnezzar. The feet represent the kingdom of the Antichrist. Daniel 2:43 says, ‘And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’
“Who is the ‘they’? Well, there is no real antecedent unless it’s the toes back in verse 42. Now if they’re going to mingle themselves with the seed of men, whoever they are must not be men; must not be human or there would be no comparison with it. You look up the word ‘iron’ in a concordance and you’ll be amazed how often it’s associated with the giants. My subjective guess is it has something to do with magnetism and electronic forces and that kind of stuff. Superman had kryptonite and they got iron.
“What you have here in Daniel is something that isn’t human mingling with the seed of men. All of this satanic activity starts all over again in the Last Days. Rev. 11:7 says, ‘And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.’ That’s talking about the two witnesses.
“Isn’t that an interesting way to define the ‘son of perdition’? He’s the ‘beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’ He is moved from that dimension into the human dimension. He’s doing exactly what the angels back there in Genesis did. If you recall, we’ve looked at a bunch of verses back in Isaiah about the idea of the portals; the places where you can move from one dimension to the other dimension.
“Of course, it’s God’s light that holds that darkness back, and as you look at world today and see how darkness is just engulfing it, along with that is this openness to these types of things.”
Genesis 6:1 presents a passage that describes a transgenetic kind of an issue: “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”
Jordan explains, “If angels in heaven do not marry or give in marriage, why would they have any sexual interest in the daughters of men? When it says they saw ‘that they were fair,’ the thought would be they were good-looking and that they were attracted to them, but since angels don’t have a sex drive, and they would have no pro-creation ability, this would not be an issue to them. One of the mitigating factors there is they could see men and women, and they could see them having a good time, and want to enter into that. But when you study the verse really carefully it really isn’t talking so much about that.
“The Hebrew word for ‘fair’ is literally the idea of a ‘fit extension.’ It’s the idea of being an acceptable or good host in which to implant yourself. The verse says 'they took them wives.' Now when you take somebody, you’ve heard of alien abductions, they didn’t go in and court the women and win them; they TOOK them. Just the terminology tells you this is an involuntary kind of a thing. It was not mutual consent; they came in and took them.
“The indication here is they begin to enter into this genetic experimentation and they begin to work with the genetic mutations with man and they create a mutant life form. Genesis 6:4 says, ‘There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.’
“Notice it says there were giants in those days and after that. That’s important. It didn’t just happen before the Flood; the same genetic experimentation happened after the Flood.
Jude verse 6 gives little bit of understanding of how this could take place: ‘And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.’
“Their first estate was in heaven. These guys leave their original estate, leaving their own habitation. They had a habitation that God had built for them to live in. What Jude’s describing is these angelic beings using created matter to embody themselves in. People argue angels did not have a seed to create children with but the point in Jude is they left where they didn’t have it and came down here and took upon another form so they could have it.
“In fact, in the next verse says, ‘Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.’ Do you remember what was going to happen in Genesis 19? These two angels come with Lot and the guys in town come and they want to take these two men (angels) and we get the term sodomy from Sodom because they wanted to have homosexual relationships with them. Lot offers them his daughters but they wanted the guys.
“Before you get all fired up about the angels not having a seed, notice that Satan has a seed. Gen. 3:15: ‘And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.’ Satan comes to Eve as a Brad Pitt kind of guy. Notice Satan’s seed is going to function among humanity. That’s what Jesus Christ is referring to when he says of the Pharisees, ‘Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers.’ They were a group of people who were spiritually generated and produced, had their origin from Satan. I John 3:12 says, ‘Not as Cain, who was of that wicked one, and slew his brother. And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his brother's righteous.’
“Notice Cain was OF, produced BY that wicked one. You know why people say prostitution is world’s oldest profession? They say that because the old wives’ tale is that Satan and Eve had sex in the Garden and that that was the Original Sin. And that he seduced her and fathered Cain. In Genesis 4, Eve says, ‘Behold I’ve gotten a man from the Lord.’ The idea is he was the father of Cain. This is the verse they use for that. But that isn’t what those verses are talking about.
“If Cain was a physical son of Satan, his brother Abel was Adam’s son. Then the descendants of Cain, and the genetic contamination that would have taken place because of that, would have to somewhere still be here today. If you read about the human genome and DNA, 97% of the genetics in DNA is non-codable. Only about 3% of the DNA we’re using is codable and so what people then say is, ‘Well, 97% is the alien DNA from the wherever.’ You could run this stuff off to the place where it gets to be a little too much with the speculation.
“When it says ‘Cain is of that wicked one,’ Cain bought into the lie program, and just as Satan was the spiritual father of Israel’s leaders in John 8, and they were OF that wicked one, Satan was their father. Cain was the very first Pharisee, the progenitor of those birds who wanted to kill Christ and Jesus identified him that way in Matthew 23.
“So it’s a spiritual parentage when he’s talking about the seed, but it’s interesting that Satan does have prodigy. It’s not like he doesn’t have children. He certainly does. He has prodigy.”
*****
This idea of the mingling, the genetic engineering, as observed in Genesis 6:4, is the result of the genetic experimentation and engineering between ‘the sons of god’ and the daughters of men producing a mutant life described as giants in the earth.
“These were men of greatly enhanced intelligence, enhanced strength, enhanced size and also some really weird things otherwise,” confirms Jordan.
“When you start having genetic mutations, odd things come. In Deuteronomy 3:11, for example, this giant’s bed was 12 feet long and six feet wide. He must be 10-11 feet tall and three-feet wide. The point is he’s uncharacteristically large. When you read about these giants you see the genetic engineering produced a lot of misfires in the mutant forms that they took. Goliath was a big guy and very skilled, strong, adaptive. He wasn’t just a freak in size.
“II Samuel 21:20 reveals, ‘And there was yet a battle in Gath, where was a man of great stature, that had on every hand six fingers, and on every foot six toes, four and twenty in number; and he also was born to the giant.’ II Samuel 23:20 says that ‘Benaiah the son of Jehoiada, the son of a valiant man, of Kabzeel, who had done many acts, he slew two lionlike men of Moab.’
“In the Apocrypha’s Book of Enoch it talks about angels experimenting with animal genetics. So they weren’t just doing it with humans evidently; the common lore is it was also with animals. Well, that would explain for you some of what’s going on in II Samuel where you would have the successful corruption of the species barrier.
“You remember in Genesis God says every species will reproduce ‘after its kind’? So He created a barrier and they’re trying to bridge that barrier and produce some mutations that would be beyond that normal-species barrier between normal reproduction. And the intelligence, the instincts that they would be trying to create . . . you now see in sci-fi stuff even today, in fact in the last few years you read about how to produce the ultimate soldier and they try to breed into a person the ability to have the eyesight of a cunning sharp-vision animal creation. It involves the senses and so forth and that isn’t anything new.
“People tend to think about men in Genesis as if they were all cave men with clubs going out and bumping gals in the head and dragging them home into cave. These guys were technological marvels, men of renowned with advanced cultures in civilization. If the angels had come down, you know they have some advanced technology that we don’t have. Some of this stuff is going on in that context.
“If you compare Gen. 10:8 (‘And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.’) with I Chron. 1:10 (‘And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be mighty upon the earth.’) they say the same thing.
“What does it mean to say Nimrod ‘began’? It’s almost like he subjected himself to the genetic experimentation and was willing to have that genetic altering in himself in order to partake of the enhancement. It’s Nimrod who establishes Babel in Genesis 11 and it’s him who designs the Tower of Babel to reach unto heaven.
“So all of these things back in Genesis get kind of connected that way where you have these supernatural forces and a guy like Nimrod would be trying to take these supernatural forces and put them under human control. Jesus says in Matthew and Luke, ‘As it was in the days of Noah so shall it be in the days of the son of man.’ What you’re reading back there in Genesis is really a template for what’s going to be in the Last Days.
“In Daniel 2 you have this great image of Nebuchadnezzar. The feet represent the kingdom of the Antichrist. Daniel 2:43 says, ‘And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.’
“Who is the ‘they’? Well, there is no real antecedent unless it’s the toes back in verse 42. Now if they’re going to mingle themselves with the seed of men, whoever they are must not be men; must not be human or there would be no comparison with it. You look up the word ‘iron’ in a concordance and you’ll be amazed how often it’s associated with the giants. My subjective guess is it has something to do with magnetism and electronic forces and that kind of stuff. Superman had kryptonite and they got iron.
“What you have here in Daniel is something that isn’t human mingling with the seed of men. All of this satanic activity starts all over again in the Last Days. Rev. 11:7 says, ‘And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.’ That’s talking about the two witnesses.
“Isn’t that an interesting way to define the ‘son of perdition’? He’s the ‘beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit.’ He is moved from that dimension into the human dimension. He’s doing exactly what the angels back there in Genesis did. If you recall, we’ve looked at a bunch of verses back in Isaiah about the idea of the portals; the places where you can move from one dimension to the other dimension.
“Of course, it’s God’s light that holds that darkness back, and as you look at world today and see how darkness is just engulfing it, along with that is this openness to these types of things.”
Friday, February 11, 2011
Daily delight
Wisdom, in Proverbs 8:22, says, “The LORD possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.”
Jordan explains, “Wisdom says, ‘When He starts doing all that He’s doing, He already had me! He already had the purpose.’ Verse 30 says, ‘Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.’ Wisdom’s saying, ‘You couldn’t get us away from one another. Best friends. I was daily his delight.’
In five of the six days of creation in Genesis 1 God looks at it and says, ‘It’s good.’ At the end, He says, ‘It’s very good.’ Jordan explains, “When He said that, He’s not talking about moral perfection. He’s saying, ‘Hey, the plan’s coming together! What I’ve created matches my plan!’ What’s the plan? ‘Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth. My delights were with the sons of men.’
“God was creating a universe in which He purposed to live. A creation that recognized Him, His glory, His wisdom, Him as being worthy. He was creating a universe to share His life, to share the life that He has. To share the purpose that He has. To take His understanding and to share that.
“God’s purpose in the creation is to honor and exalt His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To bring Him, His authority, His headship as the supreme thing.
"The Bible’s an amazing treasure. It’s God’s special revelation of Himself. It’s not a random heap of verses and text and personal good-luck charms. The Bible’s a gripping story, a story of an awesome God who is Himself on a mission. A God who’s got a plan and purpose and is accomplishing something, and the ultimate goal of that mission is to exalt His Son and to share His life and His life’s purpose with a creation.”
Jordan explains, “Wisdom says, ‘When He starts doing all that He’s doing, He already had me! He already had the purpose.’ Verse 30 says, ‘Then I was by him, as one brought up with him: and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him.’ Wisdom’s saying, ‘You couldn’t get us away from one another. Best friends. I was daily his delight.’
In five of the six days of creation in Genesis 1 God looks at it and says, ‘It’s good.’ At the end, He says, ‘It’s very good.’ Jordan explains, “When He said that, He’s not talking about moral perfection. He’s saying, ‘Hey, the plan’s coming together! What I’ve created matches my plan!’ What’s the plan? ‘Rejoicing in the habitable parts of the earth. My delights were with the sons of men.’
“God was creating a universe in which He purposed to live. A creation that recognized Him, His glory, His wisdom, Him as being worthy. He was creating a universe to share His life, to share the life that He has. To share the purpose that He has. To take His understanding and to share that.
“God’s purpose in the creation is to honor and exalt His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. To bring Him, His authority, His headship as the supreme thing.
"The Bible’s an amazing treasure. It’s God’s special revelation of Himself. It’s not a random heap of verses and text and personal good-luck charms. The Bible’s a gripping story, a story of an awesome God who is Himself on a mission. A God who’s got a plan and purpose and is accomplishing something, and the ultimate goal of that mission is to exalt His Son and to share His life and His life’s purpose with a creation.”
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Winter people
By 2040, estimates are the world will need millions and millions of workers to populate factories, said Jordan in a Bible conference study several years ago about “wintertime.”
He says, “My point is, don’t give up on America. Somebody told me the other day, ‘I think we’re going to get married and move to Hong Kong.’ Are you nuts? If I was going to move somewhere, I’d move to New Zealand. The Crown Colony is like 40 years behind us in apostasy.
“But don’t give up on America. Our geo-political positioning, and the influence we have--the power we have of our national institutions and economy--means that this century is still going to be a good century for America. We’re going to face west more than we face east. In the past century, we faced Europe and interfaced. In the future, we’re going to face and interface with Asia. But we’re still going to be a lynchpin. Which tells me, with regard to ministry, that I need to continue to understand that ministry in America is going to be critical and vital to the future.
“I tell our people here in Chicago, ‘Reach the world by reaching Chicagoland.’ There are 200 languages spoken here. There are over 200 communities of every identifiable people group on the planet in this city’s metropolitan area. Who do you want to reach? Go find the group in Chicago and reach them. Then they can go home and reach their home. Who’s going to have a better chance of reaching their homeland?! They are!
“So instead of me going there . . . but you see it’s more glamorous and more lucrative to do that. I asked a nine-year-old from Ohio, whose dad is a preacher, ‘Paul, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ He said, ‘A missionary on furlough.’ You know why he said that? He’s a pastor’s son and he’s seen the missionaries come to town and how they’re treated and he’s seen how his dad’s treated. I’ll just cut to chase with you. He’s seen the missionary come to town as the hero. ‘Hail the conquering hero! Whatever he wants we’ll give him. Things he doesn’t want we force him to take.’
“I’ve seen missionaries come to town and rob people of their possessions just out of the guilt of, ‘You need to be giving to the missions.’
“Paul targeted strategic metropolitan areas and did the work of evangelism. He got people saved and then he established them in the truth and organized them together in a local ministry. Then he entrusted them to do the work of the ministry and used them as a base to reach to the next area. Is that hard to do? Not if you focus on it.
“Now, if what you’re trying to do is build some big organization out there that’s going to be hard to do because you don’t DO it. But if we go back to focusing on ministry the way Paul was doing it . . .
“One brother said, ‘I fear for the future of our country.’ Well, I would, too, if I thought summer was never going to end! What I fear about the future is not being prepared for winter; dressing like it’s in the summer.
“I’d say get unplugged. By that I mean Romans 12:1-2: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[
] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
“Don’t follow the cohort thinking. You go to get over seasonal thinking and learn not to evaluate the way things were yesterday, but understand the way it’s going to be and go back and figure out the cycle. Get over the post-seasonal thinking, the myth of the Christian nation, all that kind of stuff that the political action and the arena is where the real action is. You know, we’re not called to political dominion and law-motivated service.
“And when you’re involved in that, that is nothing but to be consumed with mammon. And everybody’s who’s always worried about the government and the politics, and making the law do things and make people do things, all their concerned about is mammon. I say that and I know that grates at some of you.
“People are going to watch this DVD and they’re going to: ‘Well, if that’s the way you feel then just don’t have any of my manna.’ Well, I don’t want your manna; I want your heart. You know what you need to do; you need to get busy talking to people about the Lord and sharing the revelation God’s given us today. Be involved in getting that out and get over all the form issues that it’s got to be done my way or the highway. My form or no form and understand that the key is to take the truth and put it in people and let that truth in them do the work of the ministry.
“Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
together for the faith of the gospel;
“When he says one mind, the business way of saying that is we have ‘agenda harmony.’ We’re all on the same page about where we’re going and we’re striving, we’re working, we’re laboring to the point of exhaustion to get there. And then he says ‘in nothing terrified by you adversaries.’ Because there is opposition. You and I have been called to radical risk-taking faith and service. We haven’t been called to living lives of ease. We have been called to lives of united, radical, risk-taking service for the gospel. That’s what you do in the wintertime!
“It may look radical to the system, but if it’s based in the Book, it won’t be radical; it’ll be faith. In the wintertime, you’re going to get the greatest privilege of your life, and if you’re older, they’re going to need your wisdom. If you’re younger, you’re going to be building what you’re going to carry through the future.
“The Gen Xers are going to be a crucial part of this. They will be the group (my children’s’ ages) who is going to kick the butts of the Baby Boomers into gear! They’re going to be the ones who restrain the Baby Boomers’ excesses and say, ‘You’re not getting the job done, get out of the way, we’re going to get it done!’ And that’s how you’re going to get through the wintertime. Look at the last winter. What came out of it? The G.I. Joes, the Civics--we call them the heroes. The Greatest Generation, we call them. It’s that kind of a mentality.”
He says, “My point is, don’t give up on America. Somebody told me the other day, ‘I think we’re going to get married and move to Hong Kong.’ Are you nuts? If I was going to move somewhere, I’d move to New Zealand. The Crown Colony is like 40 years behind us in apostasy.
“But don’t give up on America. Our geo-political positioning, and the influence we have--the power we have of our national institutions and economy--means that this century is still going to be a good century for America. We’re going to face west more than we face east. In the past century, we faced Europe and interfaced. In the future, we’re going to face and interface with Asia. But we’re still going to be a lynchpin. Which tells me, with regard to ministry, that I need to continue to understand that ministry in America is going to be critical and vital to the future.
“I tell our people here in Chicago, ‘Reach the world by reaching Chicagoland.’ There are 200 languages spoken here. There are over 200 communities of every identifiable people group on the planet in this city’s metropolitan area. Who do you want to reach? Go find the group in Chicago and reach them. Then they can go home and reach their home. Who’s going to have a better chance of reaching their homeland?! They are!
“So instead of me going there . . . but you see it’s more glamorous and more lucrative to do that. I asked a nine-year-old from Ohio, whose dad is a preacher, ‘Paul, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ He said, ‘A missionary on furlough.’ You know why he said that? He’s a pastor’s son and he’s seen the missionaries come to town and how they’re treated and he’s seen how his dad’s treated. I’ll just cut to chase with you. He’s seen the missionary come to town as the hero. ‘Hail the conquering hero! Whatever he wants we’ll give him. Things he doesn’t want we force him to take.’
“I’ve seen missionaries come to town and rob people of their possessions just out of the guilt of, ‘You need to be giving to the missions.’
“Paul targeted strategic metropolitan areas and did the work of evangelism. He got people saved and then he established them in the truth and organized them together in a local ministry. Then he entrusted them to do the work of the ministry and used them as a base to reach to the next area. Is that hard to do? Not if you focus on it.
“Now, if what you’re trying to do is build some big organization out there that’s going to be hard to do because you don’t DO it. But if we go back to focusing on ministry the way Paul was doing it . . .
“One brother said, ‘I fear for the future of our country.’ Well, I would, too, if I thought summer was never going to end! What I fear about the future is not being prepared for winter; dressing like it’s in the summer.
“I’d say get unplugged. By that I mean Romans 12:1-2: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[
] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
“Don’t follow the cohort thinking. You go to get over seasonal thinking and learn not to evaluate the way things were yesterday, but understand the way it’s going to be and go back and figure out the cycle. Get over the post-seasonal thinking, the myth of the Christian nation, all that kind of stuff that the political action and the arena is where the real action is. You know, we’re not called to political dominion and law-motivated service.
“And when you’re involved in that, that is nothing but to be consumed with mammon. And everybody’s who’s always worried about the government and the politics, and making the law do things and make people do things, all their concerned about is mammon. I say that and I know that grates at some of you.
“People are going to watch this DVD and they’re going to: ‘Well, if that’s the way you feel then just don’t have any of my manna.’ Well, I don’t want your manna; I want your heart. You know what you need to do; you need to get busy talking to people about the Lord and sharing the revelation God’s given us today. Be involved in getting that out and get over all the form issues that it’s got to be done my way or the highway. My form or no form and understand that the key is to take the truth and put it in people and let that truth in them do the work of the ministry.
“Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
together for the faith of the gospel;
“When he says one mind, the business way of saying that is we have ‘agenda harmony.’ We’re all on the same page about where we’re going and we’re striving, we’re working, we’re laboring to the point of exhaustion to get there. And then he says ‘in nothing terrified by you adversaries.’ Because there is opposition. You and I have been called to radical risk-taking faith and service. We haven’t been called to living lives of ease. We have been called to lives of united, radical, risk-taking service for the gospel. That’s what you do in the wintertime!
“It may look radical to the system, but if it’s based in the Book, it won’t be radical; it’ll be faith. In the wintertime, you’re going to get the greatest privilege of your life, and if you’re older, they’re going to need your wisdom. If you’re younger, you’re going to be building what you’re going to carry through the future.
“The Gen Xers are going to be a crucial part of this. They will be the group (my children’s’ ages) who is going to kick the butts of the Baby Boomers into gear! They’re going to be the ones who restrain the Baby Boomers’ excesses and say, ‘You’re not getting the job done, get out of the way, we’re going to get it done!’ And that’s how you’re going to get through the wintertime. Look at the last winter. What came out of it? The G.I. Joes, the Civics--we call them the heroes. The Greatest Generation, we call them. It’s that kind of a mentality.”
By 2040, estimates are the world will need millions and millions of workers to populate factories, said Jordan in a Bible conference study several years ago about “wintertime.”
He says, “My point is, don’t give up on America. Somebody told me the other day, ‘I think we’re going to get married and move to Hong Kong.’ Are you nuts? If I was going to move somewhere, I’d move to New Zealand. The Crown Colony is like 40 years behind us in apostasy.
“But don’t give up on America. Our geo-political positioning, and the influence we have--the power we have of our national institutions and economy--means that this century is still going to be a good century for America. We’re going to face west more than we face east. In the past century, we faced Europe and interfaced. In the future, we’re going to face and interface with Asia. But we’re still going to be a lynchpin. Which tells me, with regard to ministry, that I need to continue to understand that ministry in America is going to be critical and vital to the future.
“I tell our people here in Chicago, ‘Reach the world by reaching Chicagoland.’ There are 200 languages spoken here. There are over 200 communities of every identifiable people group on the planet in this city’s metropolitan area. Who do you want to reach? Go find the group in Chicago and reach them. Then they can go home and reach their home. Who’s going to have a better chance of reaching their homeland?! They are!
“So instead of me going there . . . but you see it’s more glamorous and more lucrative to do that. I asked a nine-year-old from Ohio, whose dad is a preacher, ‘Paul, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ He said, ‘A missionary on furlough.’ You know why he said that? He’s a pastor’s son and he’s seen the missionaries come to town and how they’re treated and he’s seen how his dad’s treated. I’ll just cut to chase with you. He’s seen the missionary come to town as the hero. ‘Hail the conquering hero! Whatever he wants we’ll give him. Things he doesn’t want we force him to take.’
“I’ve seen missionaries come to town and rob people of their possessions just out of the guilt of, ‘You need to be giving to the missions.’
“Paul targeted strategic metropolitan areas and did the work of evangelism. He got people saved and then he established them in the truth and organized them together in a local ministry. Then he entrusted them to do the work of the ministry and used them as a base to reach to the next area. Is that hard to do? Not if you focus on it.
“Now, if what you’re trying to do is build some big organization out there that’s going to be hard to do because you don’t DO it. But if we go back to focusing on ministry the way Paul was doing it . . .
“One brother said, ‘I fear for the future of our country.’ Well, I would, too, if I thought summer was never going to end! What I fear about the future is not being prepared for winter; dressing like it’s in the summer.
“I’d say get unplugged. By that I mean Romans 12:1-2: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[
] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
“Don’t follow the cohort thinking. You go to get over seasonal thinking and learn not to evaluate the way things were yesterday, but understand the way it’s going to be and go back and figure out the cycle. Get over the post-seasonal thinking, the myth of the Christian nation, all that kind of stuff that the political action and the arena is where the real action is. You know, we’re not called to political dominion and law-motivated service.
“And when you’re involved in that, that is nothing but to be consumed with mammon. And everybody’s who’s always worried about the government and the politics, and making the law do things and make people do things, all their concerned about is mammon. I say that and I know that grates at some of you.
“People are going to watch this DVD and they’re going to: ‘Well, if that’s the way you feel then just don’t have any of my manna.’ Well, I don’t want your manna; I want your heart. You know what you need to do; you need to get busy talking to people about the Lord and sharing the revelation God’s given us today. Be involved in getting that out and get over all the form issues that it’s got to be done my way or the highway. My form or no form and understand that the key is to take the truth and put it in people and let that truth in them do the work of the ministry.
“Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
together for the faith of the gospel;
“When he says one mind, the business way of saying that is we have ‘agenda harmony.’ We’re all on the same page about where we’re going and we’re striving, we’re working, we’re laboring to the point of exhaustion to get there. And then he says ‘in nothing terrified by you adversaries.’ Because there is opposition. You and I have been called to radical risk-taking faith and service. We haven’t been called to living lives of ease. We have been called to lives of united, radical, risk-taking service for the gospel. That’s what you do in the wintertime!
“It may look radical to the system, but if it’s based in the Book, it won’t be radical; it’ll be faith. In the wintertime, you’re going to get the greatest privilege of your life, and if you’re older, they’re going to need your wisdom. If you’re younger, you’re going to be building what you’re going to carry through the future.
“The Gen Xers are going to be a crucial part of this. They will be the group (my children’s’ ages) who is going to kick the butts of the Baby Boomers into gear! They’re going to be the ones who restrain the Baby Boomers’ excesses and say, ‘You’re not getting the job done, get out of the way, we’re going to get it done!’ And that’s how you’re going to get through the wintertime. Look at the last winter. What came out of it? The G.I. Joes, the Civics--we call them the heroes. The Greatest Generation, we call them. It’s that kind of a mentality.”
He says, “My point is, don’t give up on America. Somebody told me the other day, ‘I think we’re going to get married and move to Hong Kong.’ Are you nuts? If I was going to move somewhere, I’d move to New Zealand. The Crown Colony is like 40 years behind us in apostasy.
“But don’t give up on America. Our geo-political positioning, and the influence we have--the power we have of our national institutions and economy--means that this century is still going to be a good century for America. We’re going to face west more than we face east. In the past century, we faced Europe and interfaced. In the future, we’re going to face and interface with Asia. But we’re still going to be a lynchpin. Which tells me, with regard to ministry, that I need to continue to understand that ministry in America is going to be critical and vital to the future.
“I tell our people here in Chicago, ‘Reach the world by reaching Chicagoland.’ There are 200 languages spoken here. There are over 200 communities of every identifiable people group on the planet in this city’s metropolitan area. Who do you want to reach? Go find the group in Chicago and reach them. Then they can go home and reach their home. Who’s going to have a better chance of reaching their homeland?! They are!
“So instead of me going there . . . but you see it’s more glamorous and more lucrative to do that. I asked a nine-year-old from Ohio, whose dad is a preacher, ‘Paul, what do you want to be when you grow up?’ He said, ‘A missionary on furlough.’ You know why he said that? He’s a pastor’s son and he’s seen the missionaries come to town and how they’re treated and he’s seen how his dad’s treated. I’ll just cut to chase with you. He’s seen the missionary come to town as the hero. ‘Hail the conquering hero! Whatever he wants we’ll give him. Things he doesn’t want we force him to take.’
“I’ve seen missionaries come to town and rob people of their possessions just out of the guilt of, ‘You need to be giving to the missions.’
“Paul targeted strategic metropolitan areas and did the work of evangelism. He got people saved and then he established them in the truth and organized them together in a local ministry. Then he entrusted them to do the work of the ministry and used them as a base to reach to the next area. Is that hard to do? Not if you focus on it.
“Now, if what you’re trying to do is build some big organization out there that’s going to be hard to do because you don’t DO it. But if we go back to focusing on ministry the way Paul was doing it . . .
“One brother said, ‘I fear for the future of our country.’ Well, I would, too, if I thought summer was never going to end! What I fear about the future is not being prepared for winter; dressing like it’s in the summer.
“I’d say get unplugged. By that I mean Romans 12:1-2: ‘I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service.
[
] And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.’
“Don’t follow the cohort thinking. You go to get over seasonal thinking and learn not to evaluate the way things were yesterday, but understand the way it’s going to be and go back and figure out the cycle. Get over the post-seasonal thinking, the myth of the Christian nation, all that kind of stuff that the political action and the arena is where the real action is. You know, we’re not called to political dominion and law-motivated service.
“And when you’re involved in that, that is nothing but to be consumed with mammon. And everybody’s who’s always worried about the government and the politics, and making the law do things and make people do things, all their concerned about is mammon. I say that and I know that grates at some of you.
“People are going to watch this DVD and they’re going to: ‘Well, if that’s the way you feel then just don’t have any of my manna.’ Well, I don’t want your manna; I want your heart. You know what you need to do; you need to get busy talking to people about the Lord and sharing the revelation God’s given us today. Be involved in getting that out and get over all the form issues that it’s got to be done my way or the highway. My form or no form and understand that the key is to take the truth and put it in people and let that truth in them do the work of the ministry.
“Paul says, ‘Only let your conversation be as it becometh the gospel of Christ: that whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I may hear of your affairs, that ye stand fast in one spirit, with one mind
together for the faith of the gospel;
“When he says one mind, the business way of saying that is we have ‘agenda harmony.’ We’re all on the same page about where we’re going and we’re striving, we’re working, we’re laboring to the point of exhaustion to get there. And then he says ‘in nothing terrified by you adversaries.’ Because there is opposition. You and I have been called to radical risk-taking faith and service. We haven’t been called to living lives of ease. We have been called to lives of united, radical, risk-taking service for the gospel. That’s what you do in the wintertime!
“It may look radical to the system, but if it’s based in the Book, it won’t be radical; it’ll be faith. In the wintertime, you’re going to get the greatest privilege of your life, and if you’re older, they’re going to need your wisdom. If you’re younger, you’re going to be building what you’re going to carry through the future.
“The Gen Xers are going to be a crucial part of this. They will be the group (my children’s’ ages) who is going to kick the butts of the Baby Boomers into gear! They’re going to be the ones who restrain the Baby Boomers’ excesses and say, ‘You’re not getting the job done, get out of the way, we’re going to get it done!’ And that’s how you’re going to get through the wintertime. Look at the last winter. What came out of it? The G.I. Joes, the Civics--we call them the heroes. The Greatest Generation, we call them. It’s that kind of a mentality.”
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Refreshing love
Peace comes from standing, and therefore resting, in the truth of God’s Word. Jesus Christ said, “If ye know these things, happy are ye if ye do them.”
Putting to the death the “old man” and the habits of the flesh is part of those rivers of living water that are torrents in the inner being flooding out everything that is not God.
Jordan says: “There’s never any growth without pressure or obstacles. Agape love is a mental-attitude love. By knowing ‘tribulation worketh,’ we learn how much God loves us; how highly He values and esteems us. We’re told ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.’
“That ‘shed abroad’ is like a great river coursing and flowing over our soul. It just comes and courses in and flows in over us and refreshes us. It’s like the old Nestea Plunge commercial. This sweaty, hot guy falls off into that pool and you just almost want to go ‘Ahhh’ yourself when you see him go under.
"It’s the Holy Spirit that takes all of these things as they happen to us; it’s the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and builds up in our soul strength. We’re strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.
“People, it’s the Word of God that energizes us. God’s Spirit works through His Word and He takes what we know about these things and energizes us.”
As David writes in Psalm 36: “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
[8] They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
[9] For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”
Putting to the death the “old man” and the habits of the flesh is part of those rivers of living water that are torrents in the inner being flooding out everything that is not God.
Jordan says: “There’s never any growth without pressure or obstacles. Agape love is a mental-attitude love. By knowing ‘tribulation worketh,’ we learn how much God loves us; how highly He values and esteems us. We’re told ‘the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost.’
“That ‘shed abroad’ is like a great river coursing and flowing over our soul. It just comes and courses in and flows in over us and refreshes us. It’s like the old Nestea Plunge commercial. This sweaty, hot guy falls off into that pool and you just almost want to go ‘Ahhh’ yourself when you see him go under.
"It’s the Holy Spirit that takes all of these things as they happen to us; it’s the Holy Spirit that takes the Word of God and builds up in our soul strength. We’re strengthened by His Spirit in the inner man.
“People, it’s the Word of God that energizes us. God’s Spirit works through His Word and He takes what we know about these things and energizes us.”
As David writes in Psalm 36: “How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.
[8] They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house; and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures.
[9] For with thee is the fountain of life: in thy light shall we see light.”
Friday, February 4, 2011
Soon shall be over past
Writing my last entry here from New York made me sentimental to find those same old Shorewood tapes I said I replayed over and over on my Walkman while walking the streets of Manhattan (as well as riding the subway rails, jogging in Central Park, standing in line at the groceries and post offices, etc., etc.).
Just tonight, I went scrounging through my huge black Lawn & Garden bag full of old tapes and CDs that clogs the entrance to my bathroom (I have no storage space in my studio and only one very small closet so this was the only big spot to put it).
It was really interesting what I found, including a cassette where I had interviewed the missionary doctor who worked closely with my dad in Ecuador (Doc Wally from the movie “End of the Spear”) and a recorded funeral service for my Norwegian grandmother in Superior, WI, that was dated 1-24-86.
Just an hour earlier I listened to this funeral and they had a friend of hers with a great voice sing an old Lutheran hymn that was said to be a favorite of my grandmother’s! Here are the lyrics:
I’m But a Stranger Here
By: Thomas R. Taylor
I’m but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home;
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
What though the tempest rage,
Heaven is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heaven is my home;
And time’s wintry blast
Soon shall be over past;
I shall reach home at last,
Heaven is my home.
Therefore I murmur not,
Heaven is my home;
Whatever my earthly lot,
Heaven is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand.
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
Just before writing this I finished listening to a really old study of Jordan’s from my New York years that caught my eye because it was entitled: “Our Sonship Walk; The Breadth, Depth and Height.”
Here are a few outtakes from it that I’ve edited down: “The issue in this age isn’t you striving to serve God. Rather, it’s recognizing who God has already made you to be. “Don’t say ‘I want this for my life’; you have it! You got to get out of the ‘wanter’ stage and realize you’re in the ‘haver’ stage! Go be who God made you!
“The motivation of the law principle puts individuals under a system of fear. Fear of losing. It winds up with a bunch of psychological guilt and you’re under a guilt syndrome all the time. It’s a performance system that uses guilt and fear as a motivation.
"Grace uses love as a motivation. It’s not just a warm, personal feeling. It’s a mental attitude of value and esteem where you begin to understand and value the things God values. It’s when you begin to look out at life the way God looks at it and you can look at the details of your life and value and esteem the things God values and esteems. That’s love. That’s what God calls love.
“Grace is not, ‘perform acceptably and get the reward.’ Grace says, ‘Man, look at what God’s done for me! Look at what I got! Whoopee! I am rich, man! I’ve got some stuff!’ And you begin to learn what it is. You begin to get your feet established on what it is God’s given you in Christ, and by the time you get to Romans 12 your heart’s just a ticking; it’s just a beatin’: ‘Hhheh! Hhheh! Hhheh! Look at all these divine operating assets that are mine! All the wisdom of God working on my behalf! Man, I’m motivated now! I’m stirred up! That’s God working in me!’ Then the love of Christ constrains you.
“There’s a new way to think. Verse 3 Paul talks about it: ‘For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.’
“He says, ‘Think straight about who you are. Think about it; don’t put up a bunch of stuff. Just think about who are you!’ Let me ask you that—who are you?
“God wants His life, His program on display. And He’s fixed you so that it can be. Look at Philippians 1:9-11. Folks, God Almighty is glorified when you and I bear fruit. It’s that simple. God gains glory when we people see our lives and they see us and they see His life, His actions, His attitudes fill our lives and they hear His praise and His word coming off of our lips, God gets the glory. Motivated by His grace to walk and demonstrate the dignity of the position that we have in Christ.
"The issue in the local assembly, the issue in the life of every Believer, is Godly edification, building up a HOUSE of doctrine in our soul out of which we can live for God’s glory and begins to bear fruit for His glory.”
Just tonight, I went scrounging through my huge black Lawn & Garden bag full of old tapes and CDs that clogs the entrance to my bathroom (I have no storage space in my studio and only one very small closet so this was the only big spot to put it).
It was really interesting what I found, including a cassette where I had interviewed the missionary doctor who worked closely with my dad in Ecuador (Doc Wally from the movie “End of the Spear”) and a recorded funeral service for my Norwegian grandmother in Superior, WI, that was dated 1-24-86.
Just an hour earlier I listened to this funeral and they had a friend of hers with a great voice sing an old Lutheran hymn that was said to be a favorite of my grandmother’s! Here are the lyrics:
I’m But a Stranger Here
By: Thomas R. Taylor
I’m but a stranger here,
Heaven is my home;
Earth is a desert drear,
Heaven is my home;
Danger and sorrow stand
Round me on every hand;
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
What though the tempest rage,
Heaven is my home;
Short is my pilgrimage,
Heaven is my home;
And time’s wintry blast
Soon shall be over past;
I shall reach home at last,
Heaven is my home.
Therefore I murmur not,
Heaven is my home;
Whatever my earthly lot,
Heaven is my home;
And I shall surely stand
There at my Lord’s right hand.
Heaven is my fatherland,
Heaven is my home.
Just before writing this I finished listening to a really old study of Jordan’s from my New York years that caught my eye because it was entitled: “Our Sonship Walk; The Breadth, Depth and Height.”
Here are a few outtakes from it that I’ve edited down: “The issue in this age isn’t you striving to serve God. Rather, it’s recognizing who God has already made you to be. “Don’t say ‘I want this for my life’; you have it! You got to get out of the ‘wanter’ stage and realize you’re in the ‘haver’ stage! Go be who God made you!
“The motivation of the law principle puts individuals under a system of fear. Fear of losing. It winds up with a bunch of psychological guilt and you’re under a guilt syndrome all the time. It’s a performance system that uses guilt and fear as a motivation.
"Grace uses love as a motivation. It’s not just a warm, personal feeling. It’s a mental attitude of value and esteem where you begin to understand and value the things God values. It’s when you begin to look out at life the way God looks at it and you can look at the details of your life and value and esteem the things God values and esteems. That’s love. That’s what God calls love.
“Grace is not, ‘perform acceptably and get the reward.’ Grace says, ‘Man, look at what God’s done for me! Look at what I got! Whoopee! I am rich, man! I’ve got some stuff!’ And you begin to learn what it is. You begin to get your feet established on what it is God’s given you in Christ, and by the time you get to Romans 12 your heart’s just a ticking; it’s just a beatin’: ‘Hhheh! Hhheh! Hhheh! Look at all these divine operating assets that are mine! All the wisdom of God working on my behalf! Man, I’m motivated now! I’m stirred up! That’s God working in me!’ Then the love of Christ constrains you.
“There’s a new way to think. Verse 3 Paul talks about it: ‘For I say, through the grace given unto me, to every man that is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly, according as God hath dealt to every man the measure of faith.’
“He says, ‘Think straight about who you are. Think about it; don’t put up a bunch of stuff. Just think about who are you!’ Let me ask you that—who are you?
“God wants His life, His program on display. And He’s fixed you so that it can be. Look at Philippians 1:9-11. Folks, God Almighty is glorified when you and I bear fruit. It’s that simple. God gains glory when we people see our lives and they see us and they see His life, His actions, His attitudes fill our lives and they hear His praise and His word coming off of our lips, God gets the glory. Motivated by His grace to walk and demonstrate the dignity of the position that we have in Christ.
"The issue in the local assembly, the issue in the life of every Believer, is Godly edification, building up a HOUSE of doctrine in our soul out of which we can live for God’s glory and begins to bear fruit for His glory.”
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