Old-timers called it a 'Dumb Dog degree'

Using terminology about the wrath of God in ‘the day of the Lord,’ Hosea 9:7 says, “The days of visitation are come, the days of recompence are come; Israel shall know it: the prophet is a fool, the spiritual man is mad, for the multitude of thine iniquity, and the great hatred.”

The passage goes on, [8] The watchman of Ephraim was with my God: but the prophet is a snare of a fowler in all his ways, and hatred in the house of his God.
[9] They have deeply corrupted themselves, as in the days of Gibeah: therefore he will remember their iniquity, he will visit their sins.

Jordan explains, “You see where he says the prophet is a fool? The spiritual man is mad? When he says ‘mad’ there, he’s not talking about being fired up and angry at somebody. He’s talking about like when Festus said to Paul, ‘Much learning hath made thee mad.’ In other words, he’s become a crazed fanatic.

“The prophet of Israel was supposed to be a watchman for the Lord. Verse 8 refers to ‘the watchman of Ephraim.’ He’s saying, ‘It used to be that the prophet was God’s watchman, but now a prophet is a snare. Now he’s a fool and a madman because he’s preaching a mad message.’

“Judges 3:4 says the prophets ‘were to prove Israel by them, to know whether they would hearken unto the commandments of the LORD, which he commanded their fathers by the hand of Moses.’

“How would they know if they loved the Lord with all their heart and soul? They find out by whether they obey the written Word of God. So what’s happening over here in Hosea is you’ve got that prophet and dreamer of dreams and they’re going to come along and show them signs and wonders and miraculous events and say, ‘Look, this is a word from God!’

“They were doing that back at that period of time in Hosea. He says, ‘These guys are fools and they’re mad men. They’re out of their gourds for the multitude of their iniquity and great hatred.’ That’s what’s driven them mad. Now what would the hatred be toward? Well, verse 8 tells you.

“There’s a religious hatred aimed towards God’s people, the nation Israel. God’s truth—the Word of God. There’s a religious system that is aiming at—it’s producing iniquity, gross corruption, sin, violence, idolatry, that has disintegrated the culture of the nation Israel. And it comes out of the house of their God.

“You notice ‘God’ there is capitalized. They have taken God’s house, Jehovah’s house, and turned it into the source of hate for the truth. That’s why he says they’re fools and mad men.

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“I think about that in relationship to our world today. You know, we fellowship together with the saints and people in an assembly like this, but if all you thought Christendom was about is what you see here, woo, you’d be real disappointed!

“You can get out there in the average—listen, you can go to hundreds of churches around this territory and never find another one like this. It’s too bad but it’s true. You go out there and you see the culture as it’s going around and so forth. If you judged everything by what we do, you wouldn’t get what’s going on out there.

“But if you go out there and begin to deal with religion, you’d begin to say the prophet is a fool and the spiritual man is mad. They’re just off their rocker out there.

“And the result of that is the same thing that’s happening in our culture is what happened in the nation Israel because the nation Israel is the standard nation for how things work like this.

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“You see in verse 8 how it says ‘the watchman of Ephraim was with my God’? Go to Ezekiel. Ezekiel is the watchman. Now Ezekiel is carried away in captivity by Nebuchadnezzar in the 5^th Course of Judgment on the southern kingdom, but it’s the same spiritual kind of a situation.

“Ezekiel 3:17 says, ‘Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me.’

“Notice that the watchman is designed to sit on the wall, watch for danger, and when he sees the danger coming, he’s to shout warning to people inside. In fact, you’ll see in the text he’s to blow a trumpet.

“If the people heed the warning they can be delivered, and if they don’t they’re destroyed. But it’s on them because he warned them.

“But if he sees the danger coming and  just keeps his mouth shut and doesn’t warn anybody, or he gives them a, ‘Oh, it’s okay, don’t worry,’ then the destruction comes; they’re still destroyed but now the guilt is on him too.

“A watchman is someone God gives His Word to and the purpose is for them is to—the prophets were to be warning Israel. What was happening is instead of warning them, they were seducing them into the lie program.

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“Isaiah 56 says, ‘His watchmen are blind: they are all ignorant, they are all dumb dogs, they cannot bark; sleeping, lying down, loving to slumber. [11] Yea, they are greedy dogs which can never have enough, and they are shepherds that cannot understand: they all look to their own way, every one for his gain, from his quarter.
[12] Come ye, say they, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and to morrow shall be as this day, and much more abundant.

“They’re harlots and they’re blind. I love the thing in verse 10 where he says they’re all ignorant. Bunch of ignoramuses. They’re dumb dogs. DDs.

“A lot of time you see preachers with that doctor so-and-so stuff and you look at the degree behind his name and it says ‘DD.’ That’s supposed to be doctor of divinity and that’s an honorary degree.

“He didn’t go to school to get that; somebody just gave it to him because they like him. But a ‘DD’—old-timers used  to say that’s a ‘Dumb Dog degree.’ Well, that’s what these guys are. Isaiah was a contemporary of Hosea. Their prophets have just lost it.

“Jeremiah 23:9 says, ‘Mine heart within me is broken because of the prophets; all my bones shake; I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine hath overcome, because of the LORD, and because of the words of his holiness.’

“You think about that statement. Jeremiah loved God’s Word and He loved God’s people. He loved the truth of God. In fact, if you look at the last line of verse 9, it says, ‘because of the words of his holiness.’

“You know what you call that Book in your hand? You call it the Holy Bible. You know where you got that? Because it’s the words of His holiness. Jeremiah loved that. The prophets were commissioned by God to be preachers and teachers of His Word and Jerry says, ‘My heart within me is broken because of the prophets.’

“They weren’t doing their job and it broke his heart. The visitation is to come and deal with the sins of the nation. Hosea 9:9 says ‘they have deeply corrupted themselves.’ The nation Israel has been corrupted down to its core.

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“Isaiah 1:4-7 says, ‘Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.

[5] Why should ye be stricken any more? ye will revolt more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint.
[6] From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment.
[7] Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers.

“That’s saying, ‘You’re just one oozing puss pocket of sin and corruption. You are deeply corrupted. The prophets are stairs. They’re out there trying to catch you. That’s all that stuff about the seduction program; Mark 13 talks about how ‘if it were possible even the elect would be seduced.’

“They’re trying to seduce them into the lie program out of the truth and its seducing spirits teaching doctrines of devils trying to produce that and it produces the hatred of God’s Word and God’s plan in God’s house.

“So you have the temple of God turned into the temple of Satan. Revelation 2 calls places associated with it ‘the synagogues of Satan.’ In other words, they’ve completely subverted God’s purpose for the nation Israel.

“Baal worship has never ceased in Israel. That’s the idea about being deeply corrupted. And you see it in Hosea 9:9. The days of Gibeah. Now what that does is take you back to Judges 19. Israel has deeply corrupted themselves.

“That’s like Revelation 2:24 when he talks about ‘the depths of Satan.’ They’ve gotten completely caught up in the snare of the Adversary. They’re DEEPLY corrupted as in the days of Judges 19.

“First you need to notice the context. The history of the Book of Judges ends at chapter 16 with the death of Samson. He’s the last judge. Then you have chapters 17-21 where you have a series of events that are recorded to demonstrate to you the inward, moral, spiritual character and condition of Israel at the time of the book.

“And this is a bad scene!   You see confusion, idolatry, sin, violence, all because they’ve been rejecting God’s Word. So the book ends by saying, ‘Here’s what the culture out there looks like when you reject God’s Word.’

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“Now chapter 17-18 deal with, we talked about these passages over and over, about how this is the first foothold Baal worship got in the land of Israel. It comes in ultimately, in chapter 18, through the tribe of Dan.

“From the tribe of Dan up in the northern kingdom it gets established and becomes the state religion (I Kings 12-16) and goes all the way into Hosea’s day in that northern kingdom where then they are finally deeply corrupt. You’re so corrupted with Baal worship you can’t get out of it. The only thing left is just destroy you. That’s what starts in Judges 17-18.

“Then you come to Judges 19. Hosea 9 says, ‘You know how bad you are? It was with you just as it is in Judges 19.’

“There’s something that happened in Judges 19 that was worse; it sunk down lower than any Gentile nation on the earth at that time. Israel had sunk so low morally and spiritually and culturally that they were down lower than the nations that God sent them into the land to destroy! So Judges 19 is a standard of that.”