Ox in the Field masks for Satan

Thanks to an out-of-town friend coming to Chicago on business, I was unexpectedly treated to a visit to the Field Museum of Natural History on Monday morning. For a Christian, the museum's exhibits of Egypt, China, Tibet, Africa, Asia, the Pacific Islands, etc., offer a plethora of religious artifacts showing the vast interest of these cultures in communicating with spirits--appeasing them, mediating with them, harnessing their powers, on and on.

Touring the Pacific Islands exhibit, examining old specimens from Hawaii, New Guinea, Tahiti, Polynesia, New Ireland, etc., I was hit with dozens of well-preserved ritual/ceremonial/ religious painted masks made by tribal leaders, using natural materials from their tropical environs. Only elite status members of the tribe were permitted to construct a mask and these men sought a certain spirit's input for the mask’s design, then used the mask to carry out the spirit's interests. A number of the faces of the masks were of oxen.

A 1990 blurb from the Chicago Tribune reads, “Children may get a sense of deja vu when they see the new permanent exhibit called ‘Pacific Spirits: Life, Death and the Supernatural’ at the Field Museum of Natural History. It`s as though all their amorphous nightmare monsters have taken shape and come to roost in the museum.

There are masks with glaring eyes and mean mouths, some with saucer eyes and flapping jaws, others with pig snouts and pointed tusks or slithering snakes or flying bats and one that`s twice the size of a small child.”

*****

From Bible passages in Ezekiel 1 and 10 and Revelation 4 it is clear the ox is a representative of the cherub who is Satan.

“Folks, people talk about the devil having two horns--the two horns are the horns of an ox!” says Preacher Richard Jordan. “People go around making signs with their two fingers—peace, victory, all that kind of stuff—and that’s the devil.”

An entry to Wikipedia under the heading “Sign of the horns,” “Gene Simmons of the rock group Kiss attempted to claim the ‘devil horns’ hand gesture for his own. According to CBS News, ‘Simmons filed an application Friday, June 16, 2017 with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a trademark on the hand gesture he regularly uses during concerts and public appearances - thumb, index and pinky fingers extended, with the middle and ring fingers folded down. According to Simmons, this hand gesture was first used in commerce - by him - on Nov. 14, 1974. He is claiming the hand gesture should be trademarked for ‘entertainment, namely live performances by a musical artist [and] personal appearances by a musical artist.’ Simmons abandoned this application on June 21, 2017.” 

*****

"Do you remember in Genesis 3 when God talked to the serpent and told him he was going to be cursed above all the cattle of the field?” continues Jordan. “People come along and say, ‘Well, see, your Bible’s not very scientific. It doesn’t know the difference between a reptile and a cattle.’ Well, my dear friend, you just haven’t studied far enough! There’s a revelation there that science can’t pick up on and botany and biology can’t get! That tells you that the serpent standing there was cattle—he was an ox!”

In what has to be one of the most famous Bible passages of all, Genesis 3:13-15 reads,  [13] And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

[14] And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:
[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.

"When that serpent stood there talking to Eve do you think that was a snake standing there?" says Jordan. "Did you ever read in Matthew where Jesus told the Pharisees, the religious leaders of Israel, ‘Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?’

“He called them serpents and they weren’t snakes. They were men who had the CHARACTER, the nature, the spiritual status of ‘your father the devil.’ You see, He’s talking about the character.

“Lucifer was a cherub. In his fallen nature, he was a good-looking dude, able to transform himself into an angel of light. But his nature was that of a serpent; that dragon of Revelation 12.

“When Jesus Christ is called 'the lamb of God,’ do you think He’s a four-legged ‘baa’? Sheep with fleece on His back? When it refers to Herod as 'that fox,’ do you think he was a four-legged animal with a fluffy tail? No, these are terms that describe the character. The essence of the personality.

*****

“In Ezekiel, those descriptions of those beasts, those living creatures around the throne of God, identify the cherub as an ox who is a cattle.

"Yeah, there’s stuff going on way deeper than what’s on the surface. But if you don’t study your Bible as a Bible-believer, you’re never going to get that. You going to stumble on the surface stuff, stump your toe and run out ‘Aumph, Aumph, Aumph,’ all the way home. Or you’re going to give your Bible the benefit of the doubt and keep reading; you’ll find those answers.

“Look at the rest of that verse in Genesis 3:14: ‘and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.’

“Now, when God says ‘upon thy belly shalt thou go,’ He’s not talking about slithering around with no legs; it’s not that at all. We got an old saying Down South, ‘He’s lower than a snake’s belly in a wagon rut.’ I mean, when you’re on your belly, you’re as low as you can possibly get. Every other creature is above you.

“God’s saying, ‘Satan, you’re going to be the lowest of the low.’ What did he want to be? He wanted to be like the Most High, but he’s going to be the Most Low and there’s going to be a war that goes on.

“When verse 15 says, ‘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,’ there’s going to be a war between the Most Low and the Most High.

"God tells Adam and Eve in verse 19, 'In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.'

“You know what you’re made out of? You’re made out of dust, dirt. With this stuff that transpired with Adam and Eve, God said to Satan, ‘You’re the lowest of the low and you’re going to consume man. If man’s left to himself, you’re going to eat him alive.’ Satan’s going to devour man’s body.

“Can I tell you that sin destroys you. There is no free sin. There’s a ‘pay day some day.’ Now, that thing about dust . . .

“Look at the account in Luke 13: [11] And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself.
[12] And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity.
[13] And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.

“When it says she’s ‘bowed together’ that means she’s bent over and can’t lift herself up. When you’re bowed down like that what are you looking at? You’re looking at your feet and the dust. Dust was all the woman could see. All she could see herself as was the devil’s food.

“That’s where Israel was and the only thing that could redeem her from that dust consciousness that she lived with for the 18 years, and she spent all her money on trying to get healed, was the Lord Jesus Christ when virtue went out of Him.

*****

Here’s an article I posted in 2016 under the headline, "OX News alert":

Daniel 4:33 reads, “The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.”

Jordan explains, “That madness that goes in Nebuchadnezzar; there’s a name for it in the books: lycanthropy. It’s when a man or a woman imagines themselves to be an animal and Nebby goes stark-raving buggy, or I should say beastly. He just goes berserk. He’s out in the field and thinks he’s an ox.”

If you look on Wikipedia, clinical lycanthropy is defined as “a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal. . . Affected individuals report a delusional belief that they are in the process of transforming into an animal or have already transformed into an animal.”

Jordan explains, “Now this madness Nebby’s involved in here, notice the terminology. Over and over again, the madness and the reason for the detailed descriptions (in Daniel 4) are the terms that match the tribulation period. He goes out and he eats grass like a what? An ox.

“ ‘And his hair grows like eagles’ feathers.’ You go over in Ezekiel 1 and you’ll see that eagle associated with that same type of thing. That’s a Second Coming passage, by the way.

“His nails are said to grow like bird claws. You ever read in Revelation 18 about Babylon over there being the habitation of every filthy and foul bird? You know what birds are types of in the Bible? Demons.

*****

“Did you ever read that parable in the Book of Mark and in Matthew about the sower who went out there and sowed that seed, and then the fowls of the air came out and what did they do? They snatched that seed away and Christ said, ‘That’s what Satan’s done; taken that word out of those peoples’ hearts.’ Those birds are demons that go in and snatch out that Book, see? That’s why in Revelation 18 they’re used in a passage that’s describing demonic activity.

“When Hitchcock put that movie out about how the birds are coming, you just thought he had a nightmare, didn’t you? You didn’t know that that fellow had . . . I tell you people that the creative genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired. Satan knows that Book even if a bunch of dumb Christians don’t.

“The greatest handbook on types and symbols in the universe is that one right there in your hands! Don’t you let somebody come along and say that Book isn’t important. That Book right there will explain to you what’s going on in the world when you don’t understand what’s going on.

“The types and the symbolism in art, movies, theatre of today come right out of that Book! In the great movie ‘Star Wars’ they say, ‘The Force be with you.’ That’s a quotation out of Daniel 11.

“See people, that book is THE Book!

“The tribulation period is going to be a time when God looks at the Antichrist and says, ‘He’s the beast! He’s a mad man!’ And what does the world do? They bow down and worship him and exalt insanity! Madness!

*****

“Psalm 49:6 says, ‘They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.’ Verse 10 says, ‘For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.

[11] Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.’

“ ‘They call their land after their own names.’ Boy, isn’t that the telling the truth! ‘Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.’

“He said, ‘If you’re a guy like that, you know what you are? You’re a beast.’ Peter in II Peter 2 warns about a class of people who are literally beasts. II Peter 2:12 says, ‘But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.’

“Natural brute beasts. Just fit for nothing but destruction. That’s a class of people that are just beasts.

“Notice the reference to Balaam in verse 15? Come over to Jude. Compare II Peter 2 with Jude and you’ll notice references to Sodom and Gomorrah preceded the passage we just read as they do in Jude verses 6 and 7 and then verse 8:

“Verse 10 says, ‘But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.’ All of that’s like Revelation 2:14 and 2:20.

“Verse 16 says, ‘These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.’

“You get the idea that these are a bunch of bad rascals, don’t you? This is just man gone mad and it’s the madness of self-will, and that willful king leads the nations in a mad pell-mell rush to destruction.

*****

“Go back to Daniel 4 and notice Nebuchadnezzar is restored into his kingdom here. Daniel 4:34 says, ‘And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.’

“Folks, when Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself, God restored him and he’s found in his right mind. In verse 26 he comes to know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men; he comes to know that the heavens DO rule!

“He’s not just saying, ‘God’s the boss.’ He’s saying that the heavens RUN things!

“There’s an interesting reference in verse 13: ‘I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;’ That holy one, by the way, Nebby understood that to be angels. If you go back to verse 8 he talks about ‘the spirit of the holy gods.’ Those are angels.

“Verse 17. In verse 23 he talks again about the watcher and the holy one coming down and giving the word. There’s a decree these angels bring down that results in what happens to Nebuchadnezzar happening.

“People, the watchers and the holy one there, that is a reference to the administration of the affairs of the universe. God Almighty has a government over this universe, not just over the earth, but over the whole universe.

“Notice they’re called the watchers. There’s a special class of these people who have the function of going about in the earth and seeing what goes on and carrying back to God the report before the judgment throne of God.

“Go to I Kings 22 and you’ll see a little glimpse of some of the activity of this deal. 22:19. There is a courtroom scene whereby what is going to happen on the earth, and what is determined, is decided upon, and there’s one that’s sent from that court down to the earth to see to the execution of God’s purpose.

“Now I can’t give you perfect understanding about how all that goes on, but Nebby came to understand that God Almighty ran the show and that what happened down here, happened according to His governmental authority and His control and His rule and His decision-making!

“The Book of Daniel is full of this stuff. Daniel 10:13. The reason Daniel and his prophetic import is so full of this is because in the tribulation period this is going to be the issue! Jesus Christ is going to come back down into the heavens and take over the government of the heavens, cast Satan down onto the earth (Rev. 12) and then follow him down here and take the earth away from him.

“People, the issue from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, is the authority of a throne over this universe!”

Mark of beast a real sore spot--of leprosy

There are four times in the Bible where you find Scripture being written on both sides. In Exodus 32, it says, [15] And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

In Ezekiel 2, Ezekiel writes [9] And when I looked, behold, an hand was sent unto me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein;
[10] And he spread it before me; and it was written within and without: and there was written therein lamentations, and mourning, and woe.

John testifies in Revelation 5:1, ‘[1] And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.’

“When Christ opens that seven-sealed book written on both sides, out flows the wrath of God,” explains Jordan. “The seals, the trumpets and the vials; they all flow out of that book. He says, ‘I’ll bring forth,’ and the curse is going to go forth.

“If you look at the reference in Exodus 32, you’ll see God’s wrath flowing out there, too.

“In Zechariah 5:3, we know the roll was written on both sides because it says ‘for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.’

“This vision of Zechariah’s is talking about the judgment to take place when the law, the covenant, has been broken. That curse goes forth and that wrath is laid out.

"In verse 4, he describes it in a way that reminds you of something in book of Leviticus. He writes, [4] I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

“This curse is going to be all-consuming consumption that destroys everything related to the satanic policy of evil of the Antichrist and all his associates. There’s a curse in your Bible that does that.

*****

“Leviticus 13 and 14 deal with leprosy and leprosy in the Bible is a 'sign disease.' It’s a disease God uses as a sign of the corrupting power and the corrupting results of sin. In Exodus 4, Moses says, ‘How are they going to know you sent me?’ God told him, ‘I’ll give you two signs.’

"One of the signs was the sign of leprosy. Moses took his hand, put it in his robe, pulled it out and God made the hand leprosed. Then Moses put it back in and pulled it out and God healed it. It was a sign of healing, but the thing he healed was leprosy; the most deadly, most demonstrative disease because it literally causes flesh to die and corrupt.

“There’s no other disease that has two whole chapters dedicated to it in the Bible. Those chapters in Leviticus aren’t there because leprosy was such a consuming disease in that day.

“In the Mosaic Law, when He told Israel don’t eat pork and don’t eat lobster and catfish, there was no health benefit or problem related to any of that.

“Leviticus 22 tells us that God did that to make Israel look different. There’s not a verse that says He did it for any health reason. God told Adam and Eve to eat herbs. He told Noah for them to eat meat.

“People say, ‘Well, you weren’t made to eat meat so you shouldn’t eat meat.’ Well, if you shouldn’t eat meat God made a mistake telling Noah it was okay to do it. If God told Pete it’s okay to eat pork, then there’s no health problem in it, otherwise God was recommending something that was bad for him. He gave those dietary restrictions to make them separate.

“Leprosy wasn’t because everybody was getting leprosy; it was picked out because it’s a sign; something that carried a message. One of the interesting things about leprosy is that, if you look at Leviticus 14:34, it says, [34] When ye be come into the land of Canaan, which I give to you for a possession, and I put the plague of leprosy in a house of the land of your possession;

“In the first part of the chapter he said leprosy could get into people and they’re unclean when they have it. Notice from the verse that leprosy can not only be in people, it can be in the dwelling place; the house.

“Verse 44-45 says, [44] Then the priest shall come and look, and, behold, if the plague be spread in the house, it is a fretting leprosy in the house: it is unclean.
[45] And he shall break down the house, the stones of it, and the timber thereof, and all the morter of the house; and he shall carry them forth out of the city into an unclean place.

“The plague can spread out through the house and when the leprosy gets into the house because it came in with the people, it touches the stones, the timbers and even the mortar that holds the stones together. You get completely annihilated and that’s exactly what we’re reading about in Zechariah.

“Leviticus 13: 46-48 says, [46] All the days wherein the plague shall be in him he shall be defiled; he is unclean: he shall dwell alone; without the camp shall his habitation be.
[47] The garment also that the plague of leprosy is in, whether it be a woollen garment, or a linen garment;
[48] Whether it be in the warp, or woof; of linen, or of woollen; whether in a skin, or in any thing made of skin.

“Notice the leprosy even gets into the garment. This is a consuming stuff. Here’s how he’s going to describe it. Leviticus 13:2: [2] When a man shall have in the skin of his flesh a rising, a scab, or a bright spot, and it be in the skin of his flesh like the plague of leprosy; then he shall be brought unto Aaron the priest, or unto one of his sons the priests:

“Notice he describes leprosy as 'a bright spot.' Verse 42 says, [42] And if there be in the bald head, or bald forehead, a white reddish sore; it is a leprosy sprung up in his bald head, or his bald forehead.

“So you’ve got this white spot and it gets all festered and all red and infected and that’s how you identify leprosy.

*****

“When that curse goes forth out of that book written on both sides in Revelation 5, and the seals go out and they’re open, then there's the trumpets and the vials come out in chapters 15 and 16.

Revelation 16:2 says, [2] And the first went, and poured out his vial upon the earth; and there fell a noisome and grievous sore upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.

“Here’s God’s wrath being poured out. Here’s the curse going forth into the earth. The first went and poured out his vial upon the earth and there fell a noisome and grievous sore. You ever had a sore that was just boiling, running, wouldn’t quit? It’s nasty, grievous.

“Notice it’s ‘upon the men which had the mark of the beast, and upon them which worshipped his image.’ When they went out and got that mark of the beast, by the way, look at Revelation 13:2: [2] And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

“Notice that when the Antichrist is described as an animal, he’s described as a leopard. He has the feet of a bear and the mouth of a lion, but he’s a leopard.

"You remember what Jeremiah 13 said about a leopard? Verse 23 reads, ‘Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? then may ye also do good, that are accustomed to do evil.’ You know how you identify a leopard? By his spots.

“If they get that mark of the beast, when the wrath of God comes out, for those birds that have that spot of the beast God puts a spot of leprosy on them.

“And it's in their garments. That’s why Jude 23 says, [23] And others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire; hating even the garment spotted by the flesh.

“Listen, you’re talking about something where God’s literally going to consume people; consume the flesh off their body in judgment.

“The only thing they’ll be fit for is to be consumed; He’s talking about burning them up. Here’s the curse identified in Isaiah 5:24: [24] Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

“It won’t go well for those who’ve cast aside God’s law. Jeremiah 5:14 says, [14] Wherefore thus saith the LORD God of hosts, Because ye speak this word, behold, I will make my words in thy mouth fire, and this people wood, and it shall devour them.

“You remember what John the Baptist said about the Lord Jesus? ‘[12] Whose fan is in his hand, and he will throughly purge his floor, and gather his wheat into the garner; but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.

“That’s what God’s telling them. They may be God’s nation, they may be going back into the land and building that temple and rebuilding that city, but if they don’t go there in faith trusting in God’s Word, and they’re involved in that vain religious system, that curse is on them.

“So Israel’s in a position where they still have to deal with that 5th Course of Judgment. In Zechariah 2 it's called the ‘Holy Land’ and He’s going to consume all those unholy, defiled people out of the land. He’s going to fly that scroll across the sky, fly His Word out there, make it plain. This is the option they have. Then He’s going to separate the wheat from the tares.”

(new article tomorrow)    

'It's a bird, it's a plane, it's a gigantic flying scroll of Scripture!'

“The last three visions Zechariah sees seem to be extremely confusing to commentators,” says Jordan. “You take Florida Baptist teacher Dr. Peter Ruckman. When he wrote a commentary on the Book of Zechariah he kept saying, ‘I didn’t want to write this because there is stuff in Zechariah I don’t know anything about.’

“When he gets to chapter 5, he says, ‘This chapter, nobody knows anything about it.’ Consequently, you can always tell somebody who’s teaching Zechariah how much contact they’ve had with Ruckman, because they’ll say, ‘Well, you can’t figure this out. You don’t know it.’ The mentality is, ‘If doc didn’t know it, nobody can know it.’ The thing about that is you don’t grow beyond what he didn’t know.

“Zechariah 5 is an interesting chapter in that all of a sudden Zechariah doesn’t give you a lot of extraneous information to help you interpret what’s going on but that isn’t because he’s trying to hide it.

"The reason for it, it seems to me, is at this point, where we have the sixth through eighth vision, Zechariah expects his readers to have enough information to be able to understand these things for themselves.

*****

“If you look at Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, there’s a point where the Lord Jesus Christ began to speak in parables. Prior to Matthew 13, for example, He spake very plainly, but now there’s this rejection of Him that’s taken place. The first stated plot to kill Him is in Matthew 12. That’s when He says, the greater prophet, the greater priest, the greater king is here and you’ve rejected Him.

“In Matthew 13 He goes outside of the house, a picture of leaving the nation Israel, and sits by the seaside and begins to give what He calls the ‘mystery parables of the kingdom.’

“Preachers tell you Jesus told parables in order to make it easy for people to understand what he said. Jesus said it was the opposite. He said, ‘It’s for you to understand and for them not to so I’m putting it in veiled language only believers can understand.’

“He gave seven parables in Matthew 13 and interpreted the first two. In Mark 4 when he did it, He explained, ‘I’m going to interpret these for you so you will have a template by which you can interpret all the rest of them.’ He taught them how to interpret the parables so they could go on with the rest and that’s sort of what’s happening in Zechariah.

*****

“Chapter 5 begins, 'Then I turned, and lifted up mine eyes, and looked, and behold a flying roll.' In a little while there’s the 'flying ephah.' Ruckman doesn’t know what these are so therefore they’re unidentified flying objects and he says the chapter’s full of UFOs.

“In this sixth vision about a flying roll you’re going to see here the fact God’s going to judge; He’s going to curse sin. They’ve broken the covenant and it’s not going to go undealt with. The seventh vision of the ephah is a real strange one.

“Zechariah’s first five visions were full of hope, the kingdom, the restoration and then these last four visions focus on vengeance and wrath.

The next two verses reveal, [2] And he said unto me, What seest thou? And I answered, I see a flying roll; the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.
[3] Then said he unto me, This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth: for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.

“When he says it’s a roll, that’s talking about a scroll that's an official document. Ezra 6 begins, [1] Then Darius the king made a decree, and search was made in the house of the rolls, where the treasures were laid up in Babylon.
[2] And there was found at Achmetha, in the palace that is in the province of the Medes, a roll, and therein was a record thus written.

“So the roll is a book that’s been rolled up into a scroll. We’re talking about a book that’s an official document.

*****

"Zechariah 5:4 says, [4] I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.

“What is it that brings a curse? It’s the broken law. You remember the curses of Leviticus 26? God says, ‘You keep the law, keep my covenant, and I’ll bless you. You don’t, I’ll curse you.’

“Deuteronomy 27:26 says, [26] Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them. And all the people shall say, Amen.

“That curse comes from breaking the law, so the flying roll contains the curse. The roll is going to be the Word of God; it’s going to be God’s message to them. That’s how God’s Word was available to them.

“Jeremiah 36 begins, [1] And it came to pass in the fourth year of Jehoiakim the son of Josiah king of Judah, that this word came unto Jeremiah from the LORD, saying,
[2] Take thee a roll of a book, and write therein all the words that I have spoken unto thee against Israel, and against Judah, and against all the nations, from the day I spake unto thee, from the days of Josiah, even unto this day.

"Verse 4 says, [4] Then Jeremiah called Baruch the son of Neriah: and Baruch wrote from the mouth of Jeremiah all the words of the LORD, which he had spoken unto him, upon a roll of a book.

“What Zechariah is seeing is the Word of God and in it is the law. ‘This is the curse that goeth forth over the face of the whole earth.’

*****

“By the way, the idea of it being a FLYING roll. It says ‘the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits.’ A cubit is the measurement between the end of your finger to your elbow. It’s generally considered to be 18 inches, so this thing, if it’s 20 cubits, it’s going to be a little over 30 feet. If it’s 10 cubits wide, it’s going to be 18 feet wide.

"So you’ve got this gigantic roll that’s flying and where’s it flying? Over the land of Palestine. Now why would you have a big copy of the Scripture flying in the air?

“The last time we were at Navy Pier there was an airplane flying by pulling a banner. It was down by Soldier Field but it turned around and came back, flying right over Navy Pier, and all of a sudden you could read the sign.

“You know how you’re watching for it and you can’t see it and you’re just waiting for it to get there? This roll thing is flying in the air for them to read. It’s big and gigantic so it will be easy for them to read!

“Habbakuk 2:2 says, [2] And the LORD answered me, and said, Write the vision, and make it plain upon tables, that he may run that readeth it.

“The idea is put it in big billboard fashion so people can see plainly, because when they get the message then they can run with it. The flying roll is not designed to be some spook show or Star Wars thing where there’s a flying saucer or flying banana out there. It’s not to be a UFO. This is a picture, a vision of how God’s Word is going to be placarded before His people and they’re going to be accountable to it.

“Of course, when he talks about the curse going over ‘the face of the whole earth,’ he’s talking about the land of Palestine. All of the land of the Middle East is going to here this message.

*****

“We know the roll was written on both sides because Zechariah 5:3 says ‘for every one that stealeth shall be cut off as on this side according to it; and every one that sweareth shall be cut off as on that side according to it.’

“When God gave the commandments to Moses, Exodus 32:15 says, [15] And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written.

“They were written with the finger of God, so when He gave the law, He wrote it on both sides. You remember the law is really in two sections.

"The first four commandments talk about the relationship with God: Have no other gods before me, no graven images, don’t take the name of the Lord in vain and so forth. The last six commandments had to do with the relationship with one another. Don’t commit adultery, don’t lie, don’t steal, etc.

“So what does Zechariah do? He’s taking the side of the law that says, ‘Thou shalt not steal,’ and then he says, ‘Thou shalt not swear,’ meaning don’t blaspheme, swear falsely in God's name. One is the fourth commandment and the other is the eighth commandment. So he’s got the balance and that’s why the two sides.

“Those two specific sins are identified, not just because they represent the two parts of the law, but because they focus on the Antichrist, the satanic policy in the ‘last days’ against the Believing Remnant in Israel.

“When he says everyone that stealeth shall be cut off, Jesus said in John 10, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.’

“Who is it that was trying to climb up the other way? The Pharisees; the vain religious system in Israel. They were trying to get the blessings without coming God’s way. And Jesus said, ‘You’re a thief and a robber.’ He said, ‘When they sware falsely in my name, they blasphemed.’

“Revelation 13 says about the Antichrist that his mouth was full of blasphemies against God. These are the special sins that are going to be used in the seduction policy against the nation Israel to try to destroy the Little Flock in Israel and the nation itself. So those specific sins, the reason they’re listed here is because these sins are specific sins that the Antichrist and his followers with their tactics are going to use against the Little Flock.

“I’m saying these particular things because by the time you get here in Zechariah 5, these are the kind of things that ought to be rolling around in your mind when you read these verses.”

*****

“Malachi 4:5-6 is the last thing you read in the Old Testament. It says, [5] Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the LORD:
[6] And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children, and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.

“Before the Second Advent Elijah’s going to come. Who did we just read about in Zechariah 4? You remember those two olive branches, those two witnesses from Revelation 11? We know one is Moses and one is Elijah.

“Right there in Zechariah 5 you just read a couple of verses before about Elijah coming. So Malachi says, ‘Elijah’s coming.’ Verse 6: [6] And I said, What is it? And he said, This is an ephah that goeth forth. He said moreover, This is their resemblance through all the earth.

“If you don’t listen to those two witnesses in Zechariah 4, what’s going to happen? He’s going to smite the whole earth with a curse. You see the connections in that? This stuff is not just free standing. It’s not just, ‘Huh, what is that? Must be a UFO.’ There’s plenty of information here to figure out what’s going on.

*****

“By the way, when he says in verse 2 that ‘the length thereof is twenty cubits, and the breadth thereof ten cubits,’ come back to I Kings 6.

“When you’re familiar enough with these things in your thinking you would ask yourself, ‘Why in the world would he tell me how big the thing is?’ He could have said it was big. Why did he give me the measurements and when he did, why did he give me THOSE measurements?

“Well, if you weren’t really familiar with the history of Israel, you could get a concordance and look it up. It would be better to be familiar with it.

“What you do is you try to get the things in your mind. In fact, I have people email me or Facebook me and ask, ‘What are your reading habits?’ Someone asked, ‘When you read do you study?’ No, just read. Just reading gets it into your mind and then when you study, you’ve got all that stuff floating around in there.

“Here’s a cross reference that you could have found easily. When Solomon built the temple, I Kings 6:2-3 says, [2] And the house which king Solomon built for the LORD, the length thereof was threescore cubits, and the breadth thereof twenty cubits, and the height thereof thirty cubits.
[3] And the porch before the temple of the house, twenty cubits was the length thereof, according to the breadth of the house; and ten cubits was the breadth thereof before the house.

“So the porch on the temple is exactly the same size. You know what you do with a porch? My wife always wanted to have a house with a porch. We stayed at a B&B in Maine that had this beautiful porch looking out over a blueberry field and a big woods full of fall leaves in beautiful color. You know what we did on the porch. We’d get up in the morning and go out and sit on the porch. It was beautiful.

“The porch is where you go watch stuff, where you go see stuff, where you put the handbills. This scroll is there and it’s going to remind them, if they’re thinking, about the temple. Well, there’s something very special going on in Israel in connection with the ‘last days,’ in connection with the satanic policy of thieving; stealing God’s Word from the people and speaking blasphemy against Him that’s going to cause the curse to go out through the whole land that has to do with the temple.

“My point is that the flying scroll, even in its dimensions, points them to the temple. II Chronicles 4:1, talking again about Solomon, says, [1] Moreover he made an altar of brass, twenty cubits the length thereof, and twenty cubits the breadth thereof, and ten cubits the height thereof.

“I just point out again, here’s the altar. Where? In the temple. What is it that the Antichrist is going to assault? Where’s he going to declare himself to be God? Where’s he going to speak the great swelling words of blasphemy? It’s all going to be related to the temple.

*****

“So here comes God’s Word and when you violate the law, that covenant, there’s a curse coming and it’s going to consume the whole land. This thing’s going to cover the whole of the Middle East.

“Zechariah 5:4-5 says, [4] I will bring it forth, saith the LORD of hosts, and it shall enter into the house of the thief, and into the house of him that sweareth falsely by my name: and it shall remain in the midst of his house, and shall consume it with the timber thereof and the stones thereof.
[5] Then the angel that talked with me went forth, and said unto me, Lift up now thine eyes, and see what is this that goeth forth.

“They think they’ve been doing it and getting away with it, but he says, ‘I’m going to send this curse and it’s going to pursue them, not just down the street, but it’s going to go home with them and consume them.

“It’s literally going to consume them, their homes and the building material the houses are made of. Now, that’s quite a curse. He’s literally going to take the whole of them out completely.

“The only thing in the Bible that I know of like that is, can you think of it? You remember when God put the tenth plague on Pharaoh? The death angels are going to come in to all the houses that don’t have the blood on the post.

"If you’re not under the blood, William Tyndale coined a term in the 1500s to describe that event. He called it the Passover. It comes out of Exodus 12:13 when God says, ‘When I see the blood I will pass over them.’ But what He was doing was there was this death angel that pursued Pharoah, that Assyrian usurper seeking to destroy Israel . . .

(to be continued tomorrow) 

You're right where God wants you when...

The forever question endlessly bandied about inside Bible churches, clubs, camps and conferences is, “What is the Christian life supposed to look like?”

“There is a critically important principle we have to establish if we want to enjoy ‘the Christ life,’ ” says Preacher Alex Kurz. “The Christ life is not Jesus just sort of supernaturally taking over us; rather, it is simply adopting and aligning our will with His will. You see the difference?

“Paul says in I Corinthians 2 we have ‘the MIND of Christ.’ It has to do with a capacity that allows you to think like Christ and respond and react like Christ. It’s simply being able to live with the same perspective and outlook about everything and anything in life just like the Lord Jesus.

“In II Corinthians 4:6-7 is the ‘earthen vessel principle.’ Paul writes, [6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.

“In antiquity the earthen vessel was nothing but a cheap expendable clay pot. Why is it that God has deliberately determined to do something by placing Himself within the clay pot? Why does God seek to do it with clay?

“The earthen vessel expresses something about the character of who we all are as humans. It communicates our frail, fragile state. We’re vulnerable, we’re susceptible. We have hairline fractures all of us. We have little chips and cracks and fissures and scratches and flaws.

“Sometimes, though, we convince ourselves that to be a good Christian we need to polish the vessel up a little bit, right? We sometimes think we need to present ourselves as precious vessels of shiny, vigorous strength; vessels that are self-controlled with this quiet rugged individualistic character.

“God says no. God deliberately wants us to go through a process of brokenness. He wants us all to face the emotional battering. The Apostle Paul describes the psychological trauma; the emotional pressures and stresses. Paul recognized, ‘I am a failure!’ over and over again. God says that’s okay. God says, ‘That’s my design!’

*****

“God knows we’re made of dust and we’re filled with flaws and blemishes and we do make mistakes and we’re going to fail Him over and over, but that doesn’t result in defeat. What we discover is that is exactly the way God has designed to do what He’s trying to do!

“It is now IN the weakness, IN the brokenness, IN the place and point where we abandon who we think we are and we can stop . . . what a joy it is not to have to worry about trying to live a phantom Christianity where I’ve got to make myself strong and viable and present myself to God as somebody who’s always in control. NO!! God says, ‘I don’t want you to be in control!’

“Paul writes in I Corinthians 1:27, [27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;

“Do you ever feel foolish? Do you ever feel like you made a mistake and you wish you could get a do-over; a mulligan? You lament, ‘Man, I wish I could go back and change things.’ Listen, God has chosen the foolish things. That’s you.

“Is it a good thing or bad thing to be foolish? It’s consistent with what God’s doing. Always remember that. When you fail that is not indicative that you’re operating against the will of God.

“God factored it into the equation, the formula, the need for you to be a failure. Now shouldn’t that maybe help take some of the pressure off? You see, religion is like a vice grip. It says, ‘You’ve got to get right, get clean, get better, improve, make yourself worthy, present yourself.’ In Christ, though, it’s just, ‘Let it go; be who you are.’

*****

“When Paul says in I Corinthians 2, ‘And I was with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling,’ is he saying he’s an inferior Christian because he was weak? Is he saying, ‘Oh, wow, I don’t have the courage; I don’t have the boldness.’

“He says, ‘Listen, I am terrified sometimes. I’m terrified by the situations taking place.’ Is that a good thing or a bad thing? God has you right where He wants you. Remember, God’s going to confound the things that are mighty by using the brokenness.

“You’re beat up, battered, bruised, don’t have all the answers and God says, ‘I’ve got you right where I want you.’

“Paul says in I Corinthians 4:10, ‘We are fools for Christ's sake, but ye are wise in Christ; we are weak, but ye are strong; ye are honourable, but we are despised.'

“Over and over again he talks this way, especially when he writes to the Corinthians, because the Corinthians were victimized by the ‘selfie culture’; by the ‘me’ mentality: ‘Look at me, self-absorbed.’

“II Corinthians 11:29 says, ‘Who is weak, and I am not weak? who is offended, and I burn not?’ Paul was honest with himself: ‘I’m not the poster child of immense vigor and personal strength. I don’t always have this spiritual fortitude. Sometimes I fail and I fail again and I fail miserably. I am weak and I am offended and I am frustrated, and sometimes I want to throw my hands in the air and pull my hair out.’

“That’s a good thing, though. It’s okay. You’re an earthen vessel, aren’t you? Who do you think you are? Who do you think I am? The sooner I adopt and claim my status as a weak earthen vessel then God has me right where He wants me.

*****

“Of course, Paul really sums it up best in chapter 12. It’s fascinating if you study the Corinthians, to them weakness was abhorrent—‘You don’t want to present yourself as a fool; you want to have respectability! You don’t want to portray yourself as not being in control; you want to have the bull by the horns!’ Paul says, ‘That’s not who I am because I want Christ to be magnified.’

“In II Corinthians 12:9, Paul writes, [9] And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me.

“God’s process is you’ve got to die to yourself that the life of Christ might be made manifest. We want to take shortcuts, right, because our DNA won’t allow us to be weak, foolish and offended? God says that’s part of the formula!

“The power of Christ is perfected, not when you’re in control, but when you're at the point of the most desperate need. We’re left with nothing but who? Christ. Paul said, ‘I want to win Him. I want to have fellowship with His sufferings. I want to be made conformable unto His death. I want to win Christ.’ Wow!

“In the next verse he says, [10] Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.

“Listen, only a lunatic can talk like that! Who here enjoys infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions and distresses?! Paul doesn’t say, ‘I enjoy it,’ by the way.

*****

“We have to have a renewed way of thinking about life. Life is not an enemy. Adverse circumstances are not an enemy. We have to renew the way we interpret what's happening in life, and when life beats us to a pulp, whether it’s physically, psychologically, emotionally, economically, we can go through the whole gamut. 

“Why does Paul say, ‘For when I am weak then am I strong’? That’s the difference between ‘having the eyes of our understanding enlightened’ and living with the eyes of the flesh. You see the difference there?

"That’s how God is going to confound the mighty, because it goes against all that we instinctively believe about what we’re supposed to be doing. God says, ‘Stop doing; start being.’

“Religion tries to convince, ‘You’ve got to do it; you’ve got to do to get.’ God says, ‘It’s already done; you already have.’ Wow, we can rest, but we can have a different way of pursuing.

*****

“When II Corinthians 4:6 says God ‘hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ, but we have this treasure . . .’ the treasure is the ministry; the Good News of Jesus Christ and Him crucified.

“The treasure is this knowledge of the glory of God; the plan and the design and the purpose of God Almighty. It’s the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.

“God entrusts all of that to a bunch of vulnerable, susceptible clay pots who are going to feel the hurt and the pain and the trauma and are going to fail. God says, ‘That’s a good thing.’ Why? ‘That the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.’

“The message is, ‘Get out of the way.’ That’s what Paul is saying to the Corinthians and quite frankly, that’s the key to having meaning and fulfillment in life—the sooner we get out of the way.

“The excelling power of God is when He deliberately equips us in the realm of the inner man to do something while we’re an earthen vessel, so that He is free to do something IN and THROUGH us.

*****

“II Corinthians 1 says, [3] Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort;
[4] Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.
[5] For as the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also aboundeth by Christ.

“That’s the excelling power of Almighty God! Our Father who personally desires to carry us through the circumstances. It’s when He can function as a ‘Father of mercies,’ as 'the God of all comfort,' that He is happy, because He literally desires us to go through this process of being broken. We’re not alone.

“II Corinthians 1: 6 says, ‘And whether we be afflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation, which is effectual in the enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer: or whether we be comforted, it is for your consolation and salvation.’

“That’s what Paul means when he says ‘faint not.’ Don’t surrender, don’t quit, don’t abandon ship. Don’t wave the white flag of surrender. The excelling power of God is the ability to endure, because God’s design is, ‘I want you busted, I want you broken, I want you to be that earthen vessel.’ Why? ‘Because I’m trying to do something here!’

*****

“Verse 9 says, ‘But we had the sentence of death in ourselves, that we should not trust in ourselves, but in God which raiseth the dead.’ Having a ‘sentence of death in ourselves,’ means we abandon the ‘selfie life;’ the ‘me’ approach.

“Death leads to complete trust and reliance on what God is teaching us. You see why it’s necessary to be a busted and broken container? Because our 'Father of mercies,' what He wants us to do is render self dead so now we’re left with Him.

“Verse 10-13: [10] Who delivered us from so great a death, and doth deliver: in whom we trust that he will yet deliver us;
[11] Ye also helping together by prayer for us, that for the gift bestowed upon us by the means of many persons thanks may be given by many on our behalf.
[12] For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.
[13] For we write none other things unto you, than what ye read or acknowledge; and I trust ye shall acknowledge even to the end;

“The sooner we abandon self, our own independence and self-sufficient reliance, the sooner we now do what verse 13 says. We operate with the spirit of faith. ‘So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.’

“It may look one way, but God says, ‘Here’s the eternal reality.’ Faith, by the way, is ‘according as it is written.’ Jesus Christ is the capital ‘W’ word of God. We have the small ‘w’ word of God; the life of Christ is nothing short of believing by faith obedience what God has written and said about what He’s doing.”      

Satan's one last stand and its takers

A New York Times study from a few years back analyzed the top search terms plugged into Google over the past decade inside both the poorest and richest counties in America.

While Top Ten results for the rich people included digital cameras (No. 1 was “elph” and No. 3 was “nb-41"), the most popular terms typed in from the poor included: No. 2 "antichrist"; No. 6 "about hell"; No. 7 "the Antichrist"; No. 10 "the Rapture."

*****  

At the end of the Bible’s prophesied Millennium Kingdom, Satan is set free for "one last stand" in which he immediately goes out into the nations and gets men to rebel against the Lord Jesus Christ, who’s been reigning as king over the entire earth from the city of Jerusalem.

“Think with me what’s happening during this age,” says Ohio preacher David Reid. “At the Second Coming, right before the Millennium is set up, there is war in heaven and Satan and his angels are kicked out. The sun’s turned to darkness and the moon’s turned to blood.

“The Lord Jesus Christ returns on a white horse with the armies of heaven.  He goes through the earth and every single person who rebels against His authority is conclusively destroyed.

“With this Second Coming all His foes are just utterly destroyed and He then ‘rules with a rod of iron’ during the Millennium Kingdom.

“Psalm 2 says to ‘kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way,’ and what happens is the Gentile nations of the earth are to come up to Jerusalem to acknowledge Him, and when they don’t, He causes it not to rain on their nation.

“When they come up to Jerusalem to worship, they go over and literally see down into the pit of hell. They literally see, ‘Wow! The worm dieth not and the fire’s not quenched! Down there’s all the people in the past who rebelled against the Lord’s authority!’

*****

“So then (when the thousand-year Millennium Period expires), Satan is let out of the bottomless pit and basically the entire earth says, ‘Hey, yeah, let’s go kill the Lord Jesus Christ!’

“After Christ’s wreaked conclusive havoc on everyone who’s ever opposed Him, man says, ‘Yeah, we can take Him!’ It’s just absolute, total insanity!

"So, as I reflect on why people aren’t beating down the door today (to hear biblical truth and become saved), the issue with men is men are just crazy! They’re just rebellious and ornery and the sad thing is . . .

“We conduct a prison ministry in (central Ohio) and one of the things we tell the guys is there’s only way you end up in hell. You don’t end up there because you tried really hard to be good and, instead of getting a B minus, you got a C plus and God cut off the curve right there and sent you to hell.

“You end up in hell because you made a conscious decision to reject the grace of God! Think about how tragic that is because what He did on the Cross—when He said, ‘It is finished,’ it was finished for every single human being that ever lived, and the sad reality of what happens today is the vast majority of the earth says, ‘I don’t need that; I’ll earn it myself!’ And that’s just asinine stupidity because it’s not going to work.”

*****

Talking about the future of the devil’s angels, Isaiah 34:4 says, “And all the host of heaven shall be dissolved, and the heavens shall be rolled together as a scroll: and all their host shall fall down, as the leaf falleth off from the vine, and as a falling fig from the fig tree.”

“When you roll up a scroll you’re through with it,” explains Jordan. “You closed it up. When it says 'the host of heaven,' it's all those God put in positions up there to run the government of the heavens and He’s now saying, ‘Your job is over.’

“You ever get laid off? Ever had your department dissolved where they say, ‘Your job no longer exists’? That’s different from getting fired. You get fired and your job’s still there; it's just that somebody else will fill it.

“When Isaiah says it’s 'dissolved,' he’s talking about, ‘All the functions they had up there, that government system’s over; God’s replaced it with His own.’

“All the ordinances of heaven and so forth are going to be replaced and all their host shall fall down as the fallen leaf off from the vine and as a fallen fig from the fig tree.

“He casts them out into the earth.  Now, here’s why: Isaiah 34:5 says, ‘For my sword shall be bathed in heaven.’ Where is God’s sword first bathed? In heaven. Verse 6 says ‘the sword of the Lord is full of blood.’

“Verses 8-10 say, ‘For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.
[9] And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
[10] It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.’ "

*****

Personal notes:

I was telling someone at church Sunday that my family never really knew why my dad, in his mid-40s, suddenly decided to close his booming private practice in Akron, OH and become a missionary doctor in the jungles of Ecuador, taking his young family (including our French poodle Mimi) with him. He paid his own way, not asking for any donations, and I know we were planning for a long stay because he sent large shipping barrels full of stuff—hundreds of phonograph records and valuable hardback books, old photos and other mementos, on and on.

As it turned out, we were only there a year and a half. My dad decided to leave after being confronted about his prescription pill use by the only other doctor at the tiny hospital in Shell-Mera—the same tiny compound of world-famous missionaries Nate Saint and Jim Elliot. We represented one of six families living there.

But back to his original decision to become a missionary. Through the missionary radio outfit HCJB he was sent to the same spot where, only 14 years earlier, Saint and Elliot, along with three other missionary men, made international headlines, even being featured in a huge spread by Life Magazine (cover headline of ‘Operation Auca’), after being speared to death by men from an ancient tribe. The American men had been trying to bring the gospel by flying to them deep in the jungle.

My mom says my dad had been living on the edge in Akron, working really long hours as he popped uppers and downers, and that he told her, “I’m not going to live much longer; I’ve got to do something for God before I die.” She said she agreed to it because she thought that by “getting away from it all,” he would calm down and straighten up, quitting the pills. Little did she know he packed a whole shipping barrel full of meds, including injectables.

Shortly after my dad died in 2001, I called Dr. Wally Swanson, referred to as Doc Wally in the movie End of the Spear, and asked him different questions about my dad’s role in Ecuador. Swanson was the director of the hospital and my dad and him conducted surgeries, etc. He actually said my dad did an enormous good by bringing down the medicines, helping save many lives.

In her book, Through the Gates of Splendor, written by Elliot’s wife, Elisabeth, she writes about her husband’s mission, “He was a young man of twenty-five, tall and broadchested, with thick brown hair and blue-gray eyes. He was bound for Ecuador—the answer to years of prayer for God’s guidance concerning his lifework. Some had thought it strange that a young man with his opportunities for success should choose to spend his life in the jungles among primitive people. Jim’s answer, found in his diary, had written a year before:

“ ‘My going to Ecuador is God’s counsel, as is my leaving Betty, and my refusal to be counseled by all who insist I should stay and stir up the believers in the U.S. And how do I know it is His counsel? Yea, my heart instructeth me in the night seasons. Oh, how good! For I have known my heart is speaking to me for God! . . . No visions, no voices, but the counsel of a heart which desires God.’

“Jim’s mood of the moment was felt by Pete . . . The two had learned to understand and appreciate each other long before, and their going to Ecuador together was, to them, one of the ‘extras’ that God threw in. Pete, too, had met with raised eyebrows and polite questions when he made it known that he was going to Ecuador. An M.A. in literature, Pete was expected to become a college professor or Bible teacher. But to throw away his life among ignorant savages—it was thought absurd.

“There remained a group of tribes that had consistently repelled every advance made by the white man: the Aucas. They are an isolated, unconquered, seminomadic remnant of age-old jungle Indians. Over the years, information about the Aucas has seeped out of the jungle . . . Whatever Jim and Pete had been able to learn about them was eagerly recorded, so that by now the very name thrilled their young blood. Would they someday be permitted to have part in winning the Aucas for Christ?”