Ohio State loses!

Okay, time is running out so I have to go to press! I am currently working on this article as I watch the Ohio State Big Ten championship game with Indiana. As I write, OSU is ahead 10-6.

In the last commercial break was an ad for "The Ohio State University" in which an older male voice said with conviction, "At Ohio State we are the 'never afraid to innovate teams.' Then I heard something close to, "We're committed to bringing it home."

I thought, and for those who might not already know I am an Ohio State alum from 1987, "That works for me." 

*****

No matter how it goes over, I have to finish the personal side of my book and I have been having the HARDEST time of it! Here are just a few takes at it lately:

The biggest takeaway from my trip to my hometown of Loudonville, OH on October 17 is that it really felt like home--like no other place I've ever lived. After all, having moved there from Akron at age 10, this is where I developed who I was--my personality, my beliefs, my convictions, my tastes, my affinities, my dreams.

Sure, I was afraid of things then but nothing like today, because I wasn't trying to protect anything really. Rather, I was trying to become something for the future. I wasn't sinning anything remotely near what I am today. I was, in fact, pretty innocent, as well as naive.

Getting off at the Sunbury exit of I-71N was when the journey home, after a 24-year absence, really started to take hold of me. I knew that road because of how many times we took it to Columbus and back. 

*****.

Driving home to Loudonville after a 24-year lapse (!!!) couldn't have come at a better time. I figure I might as well have driven through the Rockies.

In fact, I thought to myself as I drove the roads inside the Mohican Forest (the same ones I constantly bicycled as a teenager and college student), "My day-long odyssey drive inside the Grand Canyon, from glorious sunrise to sunset, wasn't as special as this!"

At long last, I was reunited with the super-hilly roads I knew by heart as a cyclist. Fortunately, everything came back to me in the most rewarding way, truly bringing back childhood and who I really am--the me that never, ever could have imagined living the life I went on to live.

Now, I have to remind you from Sunday's post that I had just read an article about near-death experiences and told myself, "I have to live like my life is really close to almost being over if I'm ever going to accomplish the things I want for myself before I die."

Anyone who counts me as a friend knows that I've been FOREVER working on a book about my church and its teachings. The reality is I was "writing" this book even before my dad died very suddenly one month after 9/11 in 2001.

In fact, my second to last phone conversation with him was the SAME Saturday night he fell in his home and proceeded to treat his broken hip with injectable shots of the heavy-duty painkiller Talwin.

 My dad, a medical doctor with his own private practice in Loudonville (1974-1994), kept all kinds of hard-core medicine on the lamp table and bookshelves nook next to his reclining chair. He wanted to be ready for anything I guess.

He asked me that night, "Are you working on that book?"

My last conversation with him was only a few hours before his death! It lasted for three minutes tops. It was just before he was being prepped for  found out he was being prepped for surgery and I said, "I'll be praying for you." He said, "Do that." That was our end!

*****

Okay, now I've got to break in with this detail from my visit to Loudonville. I turned left onto Loudon Avenue from the same block on Route 60 where we lived at 525 Union St. and could not believe that next-door to the EXACT spot where my dad's office, since torn down, was located is now a cannabis dispensary with the name Klutch!!! 

In a way, and I'm not endorsing marijuana, etc., nothing could somehow be more ironic. In our time in Loudonville my dad gained a major reputation as a "diet doc" who would give all kind of strong drugs in his sincere desire to help people curtail their hunger. He also wanted to help those with stress and anxiety.

Patients would drive sometimes from 70-90 miles away just to see my dad and have him set them up with some "good stuff."

I realized I'm a military man's daughter. That was my thought in the return from what I made a "near-death experience." I want to "die in the battlefield; die in the war."

*****

I prayed that I would have my own near-death experience to make me realize in the most penetrating way that my life is close to being over and could even only be a few years away if I am fortunate enough.

When I neared the town limits of Loudonville, coming down that last big majestic, forested hill on Route 3 as you near Mohican State Forest, I knew I was truly, truly home, as in, if I can request one last road to drive on, this forest would be it. (If I had one last activity it would be swimming in the Atlantic at South Beach, Miami, just at the same stretch I first swam in at the age of 5)

Nobody but me and my Savior know exactly what it meant to me all the bazillion times I rode my bicycle through the forest. I remember times when I was so sad climbing those hills I didn't know how I would go on with life. I remember all the dreaming and imagining, too, that went on during the rides.

Making the turn onto Route 97 was one thing for my emotions, but then when I turned onto the forest road leading to the Clear Fork Gorge and the Fire Tower my soul was fully engaged. I might as well have been at the Grand Canyon, or inside Big Sur, or cycling the Blue Ridge Parkway--all things I've done by myself and found very memorable.  

Seeing the heavy pine needles on the berm, just exactly like when I would climb that first initial hill in the thick heavily dark woods on my bicycle, I was transported back like a soothing balm from heaven to my high school years when I first discovered my addiction for riding all through this forest.

Of course, I could hardly contain my excitement to reach the gorge, recognized as a Natural National Landmark. As the historic site sign at the place where you first see the amazing landscape informs, the gorge, filled with white pines and towering hemlocks, is 1,000 ft. wide and 300 ft. deep.

"The seclusion has preserved a rare forest community," says the sign. "The gorge has changed little since pioneer legend Johnny Appleseed tended his apple orchards nearby."

Oh, yes, my old "secret friend" Johnny. Unlike during my youth, now many of the highways in and around Loudonville have official road signs that read "Johnny Appleseed Scenic Byway."

Absolutely nobody knew that I used to regularly think about Johnny as I rode my bike all through the territory. I knew it was THE territory he covered!!!

Definitely more to come on Appleseed and how he really became a MAJOR disappointment.

Faith in the reality: 'I'm the Lord's free man'

(working on travelogue update and will post tomorrow evening)

“When Paul says ‘suffer,’ that word doesn’t necessarily mean that you experience pain; the word can simply mean 'to allow.’ Jesus Christ, for example, said, ‘Suffer the little children to come unto me.'

“You get all the way to II Timothy 3:12 before Paul says, ‘Yea, and all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution.’

“Now, in II Timothy 2:9 he’s talking about himself suffering persecution, so you know that’s what the context is: [9] Wherein I suffer trouble, as an evil doer, even unto bonds; but the word of God is not bound.

"Paul writes in Romans 8: [17] And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

"If I allow the life of Christ, and that godly edification now to live in me, then there is a reigning that I’ll be a part of; there’s a promise of the life to come in that future out there that I’ll be a part of. To the measure that I don’t allow Christ to do it then I lose out. So the issue there is the Judgment Seat of Christ and the life that is to come.

*****

“Spiritual growth is a process of paying more and more attention to God’s righteousness and less and less attention to your own.

“Preachers spend time trying to get people to do more and more--to try harder, live radically for God, change your life, etc.—and the result is really stunted spiritual growth because you fix your eyes on yourself and you can’t do it. It’s not going to be you. And when you’re in those moments where it’s you, and you come to the conclusion, ‘I can’t do it,’ that’s good! Because you know where to go to the One who can.

“Most of the thinking about Christian living and sanctification is really just terribly narcissistic. It’s thinking about, ‘How are we doing? How are we growing? Am I doing it right? Am I not doing it right?’

“We ponder our spiritual failures and we brood over our spiritual successes and it’s all about us. The more you focus on your need to be better, the worse you really get. You wind up becoming neurotic and self-absorbed and all of life’s about you.

“When you’re possessed with your performance, instead of Christ’s performance; when you spend your time thinking about what you’re doing, instead of what He’s doing, well, then, what are you going to do but get worse? That hinders your spiritual growth because it makes you increasingly self-centered.

“Sanctification, set-apart living, is forgetting about yourself: ‘It’s not me! It’s Christ!’ The grace of God works--is manifested, put on display--in your minuses, not your pluses.

“It’s in your weaknesses, not your strengths. Now that’s the opposite of religion. Religion says, ‘YOU got to make it, YOU got to create it, or you’re going to fail.’

“If you’re always uprooting, checking on growth (‘How am I doing?’), that’s not going to get it. It’s Christ who’s the issue. He’s the cornerstone; the point of reference in all of our life and where all of our growth originates from. Spiritual growth and deliverance is by God’s design and God’s timing.

“God’s made you a part of something that before the foundation of the world He planned to do. He’s already formed it and fitted you into it. It’s His design and you grow in that. If you’re going to bring that design into the reality of your experience, you appropriate it by FAITH. The reality is that’s the reality!

“He came to live His life fully in you and Paul says, ‘Wake up, dudes, don’t you know that?!’  You’re bought with a price. You ought to live in the reality of who God has made you. If God came to dwell in you, how should you live?! Wake up! If you’ve got an asset like THAT, what should you do?! USE IT!

“God’s in you to live His life. Now, in I Corinthians 6, that’s talking about you as an individual. His purpose in you personally is to make your life a vehicle, a vessel; that is, a living manifestation of the One who inhabits you.

“I have a friend who doesn’t like how a song says, ‘He set me free.’ He said you need to sing it, ‘He made me free.’ That’s a technicality, but he’s right. God doesn’t just set you free; He MADE you something you weren’t before. You’re free. You’re the Lord’s ‘free man.’ That’s the reality and faith can believe that.”

God: 'Forget the details; just trust me'

(new article this evening for certain)

God took Abraham and walked him around the land He later would give him and his seed forever. Abraham just took God at His Word in spite of any details.

“By faith Abraham sojourned in the land of promise. By the way, that’s what that land ought to be called. The land over there in Palestine is not the Holy Land. Ezekiel says it will be holy one day, but it will be holy because God is going to dwell in it and sanctify it and He’s going to put His presence in it," says Richrd Jordan.

“Abraham sojourned in the land and they lived in tents and tabernacles. He was by faith saying, ‘This is MY country! This is MY land! God gave me this!’

“God said, ‘Don’t worry about the details. Forget all the details. Just trust me. Go out there and enjoy it!’

“Hebrews 11:10 says, ‘For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.’

"He says, ‘I’m not going to be satisfied until I get the city God’s going to build. I’m not going to build me a city. I’m going to let God build it! He said He would. I’m going to trust Him.’

“Abraham took God at His Word in spite of a lack of explanation and any real accounting of how it was going to be accomplished. He just trusted God.

*****

“Verse 11 says, ‘Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised.’

“She conceived seed by a fellow who, by all natural rights, shouldn't have been able to have been the father of anybody. Sarah and Abraham just took God as His word despite the natural laws of life that would have seemed to have limited them.

“Look at Genesis 17:15 and notice how this thing worked out in history. Abraham fell on his face and said, ‘Uh, yeah, get real, Lord! Ha, ha! You pullin’ my leg or not? Ha!’

“Abraham obeyed but he didn’t obey fully. But Hebrews looks back and says, ‘You know the issue isn’t your performance; the issue’s your faith.’

*****

“Verse 12 is a great verse: 'Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the seashore innumerable.'

“Now that’s what God did. The stars of the heaven and the grains of sand--those are figures of speech to describe the innumerable seed of Abraham.

“I don’t know if you ever thought of what it must have been like for Abraham. I love that in verse 11 where it says Sara received strength.

“I know the other versions and commentators try to make that not be Sara’s faith but Abraham’s faith, but I’ll tell you what, there’s an old saying out in the world: ‘It takes two to tango.’ And if Abraham had come home and said, ‘God said we’re going to have a child,’ he couldn’t have a child without his wife.

“She had to be a willing participant in that which seemed to go against all of nature, and all of her understanding, but there came a place where Sara was willing by faith to do what God said and God supernaturally gave to that couple the physical capacity to bear the seed and that’s wonderful and it came by faith.

“And even though they started out doubters and not fully doing what they ought to do, it wasn’t what they were doing that was the issue anyway.

"It was always going to be what God did that was the issue and they took God at His Word in spite of not having everything written down ahead and all the details figured out. And in spite of what their natural inclinations would have told them, in spite of all that, they just took God at His Word.

“You know how Israel’s going to get through that tribulation? Just that way. You know how they’re going to ‘lay aside every weight and the sin that doth so easily beset us and run with patience the race set before them, looking unto Jesus the Author and Finisher of their faith’?

"It’s going be the motivation of faith resting in the provisions God has made for them and in Christ, and in the promise that’s He’s given them about what He’s going to do for them and with them."

*****

Paul writes in Romans 3:24, “Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.”

“The general rule is that adverbs end in ‘ly’ and describe the action of the verb and so freely is an adjective for the verb justified,” explains Jordan.

“Our justification’s a gift. God says, ‘I did everything. I’m providing the whole shooting match; it’s yours. I did all this work at Calvary for you and now I’m going to declare you righteous without you doing a thing. It’s a gift and it’s free.’

“The righteousness of God is unto all who believe, but it’s also UPON; it’s put upon all them that believe. Put upon is a state of being: ‘Here I am, this is what I am. I’m righteous.’ The result of having the righteousness of God put on you is justification.

*****

“The word ‘grace’ means ‘unmerited favor.’ Now, you need to associate with that the word ‘delight’ because that’s the word that needs to be placed into the definition. It’s favor, but it’s SPECIAL favor and it’s delightfully given. A person can show you special favor and do it begrudgingly, but the Lord doesn’t do that.

“Unmerited means you don’t deserve it, therefore it’s not of works. There’s no works in grace. Grace is the refusal of works because it’s a free gift God’s given to you, therefore you can’t work for it. You work for it and it isn’t a gift.

"Romans 11:6 is a verse you need to be familiar with when you try to show someone grace is the absence of works. It says, [6] And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.

*****

“Romans 6:22-23 says, ‘But now being made free from sin, and become servants to God, ye have your fruit unto holiness, and the end everlasting life.

[23] For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.’

“People think of eternal life as dying and going to heaven and living with God in heaven forever, but there’s not a verse in the Bible that defines eternal life that way.

“Jesus Christ defines eternal life in John 17:2-3: ‘As thou hast given him power over all flesh, that he should give eternal life to as many as thou hast given him.

[3] And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.’

“Eternal life isn’t just dying and going to heaven and dancing it up around New Jerusalem, kicking up gold dust. Eternal life is to have a personal, intimate, fruit-bearing knowledge of the Father. In the end, the gold of it is that you know the Father in an intimate, everlasting way.

“You don’t just understand what the Father’s plan is and what His will is, you say, ‘Woo-hoo, I get the picture and I LIKE it! I think I’ll just join in and do this! I’ll let the zeal of the Lord of hosts . . . the thing that thrills Him thrill me!’

“It’s your faith resting in the truth of God’s Word, and when your faith rests in God’s grace--who God has made you in Christ--it will bring forth fruit unto God; righteousness unto holiness.

*****

“Holiness is talking about your character; about who you are. You’re someone who’s set apart for the purpose for which God created you. You’re able by the grace of God to bear fruit unto holiness. You’re able to bear activity and growth that represents who God created you in Jesus Christ.

“The word ‘holy’ and the word ‘sanctification’ means to be set apart for the purpose for which it’s created. His character begins to express itself through you and the end is eternal life.

“Look at Jeremiah 9. The passage reads, ‘Thus saith the LORD, Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, neither let the mighty man glory in his might, let not the rich man glory in his riches:

[24] But let him that glorieth glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me, that I am the LORD which exercise lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight, saith the LORD.’

“Glory in the fact that you understand the Lord and that you have an intimate personal knowledge of Him. You understand what He’s about, what He thinks, how He reacts, what He’s planning, and you understand to the point it brings forth fruit in your life. If you’re going to rejoice in something, rejoice in that!

*****

“That thing about ‘exercising lovingkindness, judgment, and righteousness, in the earth: for in these things I delight’—the key to knowing the Lord, and to knowing God, is to understand what He delights in!

"What is it that thrills His heart? It’s what He’s doing in His Son! If you ask the Father, ‘What is it that thrills you?’ He’ll say, ‘There He is at my right hand.’

“Psalm 40:7-8 is quoted in Hebrews 10 as being a reference to Jesus Christ, but I want you to see how it’s said in Psalms: ‘Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me,

[8] I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.’

“When the Lord Jesus Christ came, He said to the Father, ‘I delight in what you delight in. I delight in your will! I know what you delight in, Father, and you know what, that thrills my heart, too, and I’m ALL IN for what you delight in!’

“Paul says, ‘Let that mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus.’ Christ gives you the privilege of thoroughly, completely understanding what the Father’s thinking is, what He delights in, what thrills His heart, and He says, ‘Come on and delight in that, too! Get as thrilled about it as He is!’

“In the Bible that’s called God-likeness or godliness. Godliness isn’t just doing what God does; it’s DELIGHTING in it, buying into it. It’s being ALL IN to it like He is.”

Going back to Nimrod

On the subject of Nimrod, one website article reveals, "The Legend of the Craft continually confounds Masonry, Geometry, and Architecture, or rather uses them as synonymous and convertible terms. It is not, therefore, surprising that it should have selected Babylon as the birth-place, and Nimrod as the founder of what they called 'the science.' " 

Another article found online: "The connection between Freemasonry and Nimrod’s involvement in the Tower of Babel is primarily derived from speculative interpretations and conspiracy theories. Some people believe that the Masons trace their spiritual origins back to the builders of the Tower of Babel, and that Nimrod, as the initiator or primary supporter of the project, played a crucial role in the establishment of Freemasonry.

In this view, the tower represents the first large-scale joint effort in engineering and architecture, laying the foundation for the traditions and practices of masonry."

Yet another website: “The universal sentiment of the Freemasons of the present day is to confer upon Solomon, the King of Israel, the honor of being their first Grand Master. But the legend of the Craft had long before, though there was a tradition of the Temple in existence, given, at least by suggestion, that title to Nimrod, the King of Babylonia and Assyria. It had credited the first organization of the fraternity of craftsmen to him, in saying that he gave a charge to the workmen whom he sent to assist the King of Nineveh in building his cities.

"That is to say, he framed for them a Constitution, and, in the words of the legend, this was the first time that ever Masons had any charge of his science. It was the first time that the Craft was organized into a fraternity working under a Constitution of body of laws. As Nimrod was the autocratic maker of these laws, it necessarily resulted that their first legislator, creating laws with his unlimited and absolute governing power, was also their first Grand Master.

"There is a direct connection between Freemasonry and the ancient Babylonian mystery religion from which the ancient pagan religions of Egypt, Persia, Greece and Rome eventually developed. It all goes back to a man named Nimrod who the Freemasons view as the true originator of their Order.

"Nimrod was a great Mesopotamian king who founded the city of Babylon and established the first great empire after Noah’s flood. He is also traditionally associated with the Tower of Babel. According to tradition, Nimrod sought to turn men away from God by setting up a tyrannical government and setting up a new religion. In fact, the new religion centered around Nimrod and his wife Semiramis eventually evolved into Baal worship from which all the pagan religions of the Middle East and Europe later developed. Not only that, according to the Encyclopedia of Freemasonry: The legend of the Craft in the Old Constitutions, Nimrod is one of the founders of Masonry.

"In fact initiates in at least some forms of Freemasonry are still required to take the 'Oath of Nimrod' even today. The Spring 2006 issue of Freemasonry Today (a Masonic publication) tells us that the Oath of Nimrod is part of the initiation process for the 'indentured apprentice'…..

"The candidate is led into the Lodge by the Deacons, and after prayer, is investigated prior to taking the initiatory oath called the ‘Oath of Nimrod’. Nimrod, of course, the grandson of Noah, is mentioned in the ‘Old Charges’ as a teacher of the masonic craft and the architect of many great cities in Mesopotamia. The working tools are explained, the Ancient Charges (c.1663) and modes of recognition are communicated, and a pale blue cord is placed around his neck. The ceremony of closing the Assemblage is completed with prayer and a ‘seven-fold salute’ to The Most High."

*****

Unbelievably, the Koran says Abraham took his son Ishmael, not Isaac, for the sacrifice. It says Abraham was thrown into a fire by Nimrod when Abraham wasn’t even born until centuries after Nimrod’s death!

Nimrod brought forth teachings of mystery religions and was associated with astrology and magic, encouraging people to have communion with fallen angels. 

The events of the life of Nimrod, grandson of Ham, are recorded in Genesis 10, where it says he established an empire in Shinar and then spread his rule northward along the Tigris over Assyria.

“Nimrod took over that whole Mesopotamian basin and all of that area we call Iraq, and Palestine, and Jordan, and Israel, and Saudi Arabia—all of that area," says Richard Jordan.

"You see, though, the descendants of Ham, after the Flood, were to go south, and the descendants of Japheth to go up, and the descendants of Shem out that way to the east. You say, "But who was to take this middle ground?" God had a people for that.

“God raised them up; that’s what he’s doing with Abraham! You see, there’s a satanic policy of evil designed against God’s purpose in that part of the land and it’s a satanic policy to contest the occupancy of the Promised Land. Satan’s policy was to occupy the land in advance of Abraham coming into it in order to contest Abraham’s seed taking it over.”

“Satan understood from the very beginning the importance of that piece of real estate over there—that part of the earth from the edge of Egypt over to the Persian Gulf, up to the apex over there; what we call that the Fertile Crescent.”

*****

In Genesis 12:1, God appears to Abraham in Mesopotamia and utters the famous lines, “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee.”

“That’s the first time God has appeared in Genesis since the Garden of Eden. He appears personally to Abraham to call him out. It was at a time when the world deserved absolutely nothing but judgment and wrath.

“There's another time in your Bible where the world deserved nothing but wrath and judgment and the Lord Jesus Christ appears (from heaven) and calls out one man to send salvation and blessing to all men?

“In Acts 7, the whole world is guilty before God and the nation Israel strikes out and sends the message back, ‘We’ll not have this man reign over us,’ and Stephen looks up and sees Christ standing at the ‘right hand of the Father.’

“Stephen sees Jesus ready to come back and pour His wrath out, and just as the time is ripe in Acts 7, a man by the name of Saul of Tarsus—a blasphemer against God who had joined the world’s rebellion against the Savior—is made Paul the Apostle and through him forms a new agency—the Church the Body of Christ.

“You have to come all the way over to Acts to get to another crisis point like you have in Genesis 12 where God chooses one man out to send salvation to the nations. It’s a wonderful parallel there.”

Stephen actually makes reference to Abraham at the beginning of Acts 7 when he pleads with the Jews ready to kill him, “Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran,

[3] And said unto him, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and come into the land which I shall shew thee.
[4] Then came he out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and dwelt in Charran: and from thence, when his father was dead, he removed him into this land, wherein ye now dwell.”

What is often not realized about Abraham is that when God deals with him in Ur of the Chaldees and tells him to flee, Abraham is a sophisticated city-dweller in the midst of a tremendously advanced civilization.

"We get the idea that all these cities back there in time past—well, they were all headhunters and cave-dwellers. That just isn’t true, though. Ur of the Chaldees has been extensively excavated, and they had running water, indoor plumbing and all kind of things in their homes—things we only had in this country as a general rule everywhere in the last 80 years. And yet in 2,000 B.C., Ur was a prosperous, advanced technological city and Abraham was urbane and he leaves there to go across the Arabian dessert to Palestine.”

*****

Genesis 10:19 says, “And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha."

This territory is what's called today Palestine. The Canaanites lived in Israel’s land, or the land God gave to Abraham, telling him, “Walk out in that land; it's yours!”

“The reason he mentions the Canaanites in Genesis 9, and Canaan the descendant of Ham, is to draw attention to the curse that was on the occupants of the land that Israel was going to go in there," explains Richard Jordan. 

"Over and over and over again God tells Israel to go in there and throw the Canaanites out. That curse and the justification for that, and the understanding of why that was to be done in Israel’s history, Moses is writing this when those orders were being given to Israel and he writes this thing in Genesis 9 and God the Holy Spirit puts it here to cause Israel in Moses’ day to understand why it is that that was a cursed people. They were ‘outlandish people,’ as they’re called in Nehemiah.

"They didn’t belong where they were and they had settled there against the wishes of the Lord. We’re going to see in Genesis 11 that these are the people that do that kind of thing!

*****

“You understand that term ‘a servant of servants’ is not a derogatory or pejorative kind of a description. In the Hebrew language, when they wanted to say something in the superlative, they would repeat it.

“You heard it said in Genesis 2 when the Lord said unto Adam, ‘The day you eat of the Tree of Good and Evil thou shalt surely die.’ For years I’ve heard preachers say, ‘Well, that means ‘dying thou shalt die,’ and that’s what it says in the Hebrew. People say, ‘Well, see that means dying spiritually you’re going to die physically.’ That isn’t what that means at all!

“What that is is understanding the exact thing that he says in Hebrew without understanding the language and the grammar of the language that’s being dealt with.

"In the Hebrew language, when they wanted to make something in the superlative, they repeat it. We would say, ‘You’re going to surely die.’ In other words, there isn’t any way to get around it and you see that in Hebrew constantly like that. Well here it’s the same kind of thing.

“He’s saying he’s going to be a servant par excellence. There’s nobody gonna beat this guy at serving. He’s going to be the best there is. He’s going to render extraordinary service to mankind and he does it in the area of mechanical skills and technology; getting the job done. Ham’s descendants are to make a tremendous contribution to mankind in that area.

“Japheth (verse 29) is going to spread out and be a developer, an expander, an explorer. He’s going to have the power of technology (the skills developed by the other two brothers and their respective descendants) to expand it out.

“Shem takes care of religion. Every major world religion comes from the tents of Shem. You know, when Ham develops a religion it’s spurious. When Japheth develops a religion it’s a phony and there’s something about you just say, ‘Eehh, there’s something about that that just doesn’t . . .’

“Ham develops a religion and you get something like voodoo. The Mambo-Jambo stuff and the Spiritism. Japheth develops a religion and you get something like Christian Science or the Mormons.

"But when Shem develops a religion, you come up with Mohammedism, Islam or the Baha’is or Confucianism or Buddhism. If you ever read about the Buddhists and those guys, and you begin to see, you know these guys are onto something. There’s something a little more authentic about that.

*****

“They used to say, ‘The English ruled the waves, the French ruled the land and the Germans ruled the air.’ They were the thinkers in Europe. Well, when you get to messing with Shem, Shem is in his head. He’s thinking.

“I’ll give you an illustration about why you need to understand this; how it will help you in politics and in international affairs. The U.S. went into Korea and got the britches beat off of them. You know why? They didn’t understand Shem.

“Ten years later they went to Vietnam and Shem cleaned their clocks; cleaned our plow! You know why? Japheth isn’t equipped to deal with Shem because he doesn’t think like Shem thinks. Shem looks at that hill out there . . .

"In WW II there was something you were trying to take. You took a city and you could see strategic advantage to it and all that. You go fight Shem and there’s this hill out over there; got nobody living on it but the whole battle, the whole war, depends on taking that hill and keeping it. Well, see that’s in his head! There’s a mental attitude about that thing.

“That’s the same thing that happened in Vietnam. You go up against Shem and there isn’t but one or two things to do. One is to go in there and you just beat him into a pulp, soundly, the first time you mess with him or two, you leave him alone. That’s the only two options you’ve got. You don’t have the option of a limited engagement or that kind of stuff. You know why? He’ll beat you; you just don’t have sense enough to know it yet! He beats you and waits ‘til it dawns on you and that’s just the way he is and you see that all through the Scripture.

“These three men’s descendants are designed to have all those characteristics that are wonderful, good and positively blended together, not in a melting pot but in a divinely ordained system, or nationalism, where all of their contributions were functioning and working and then blended together for the good of the whole. Genesis 10 records the spread
of these men.

*****

“Now the problem comes up that, shortly after they begin to spread out on the earth, rebellion came in. Satan’s policy of evil is to destroy God-instituted nationalism and bring in internationalism and have a one-world government, one-world religion and one-world race. And God’s purpose was not those things.

"God set out these families and He put them in nations and determined they would have geographic and political boundaries between them for the purpose of ‘if happily they might seek after the Lord and find Him.’

“Gen. 10:2. Japheth’s descendants go up; when they leave the Ark they move out north and they go up into Europe and Japheth becomes the Indo-European people. Verse 6: Ethiopia is Cush, Mizriam is Egypt, Phut is Libya and Canaan didn’t make it down there like he ought to have.

“Look at cross-references over in the Book of Psalms. Psalms 105 and 106 are where Egypt is called the Land of Ham and Ham goes down south and into Africa and that’s Ham’s land. Verse 21. Shem’s descendants go toward the East. Verse 30.

“Shem’s the guy God picks up now from here on out because in chapter 11:10, and the reason he picks up Shem is in verse 11:26: ‘And Terah lived seventy years, and begat Abram, Nahor, and Haran.’

“Terah lives 70 years and begat Abram and there’s the guy that the rest of the story is all about! You’re going to get these quick genealogies, but the one they’re going to focus on from now on is Shem and you need to notice the things about Ham and Japheth.

“There’s nothing particularly outstanding about Japheth there except maybe verse 10:5: ‘By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations.’ If it’s after their tongue, then obviously the divisions and so forth take place after the Tower of Babel destruction because they were just one tongue prior to that.

“I guess the one descendant of Ham you probably ought to notice the most is in verse 10:14: ‘And Pathrusim, and Casluhim, (out of whom came Philistim,)
and Caphtorim.’

“The Philistines are descendants of Ham. You need to remember that. You get over into Israel’s history and you know they constantly have trouble with the Philistines. You remember Sampson fell in love with a little Philistine gal and so forth?

“You want to remember who they came from, where they came from and what they’re doing. They give you a little insight into the makeup of the controversies that are going on over there. There’s a lot of ‘cosmopolitan’ activity going on in your Bible that sometime you miss.

“Esau went and married a bunch of Canaanite women, and when he saw that the Canaanite women, and him marrying them, made his momma and daddy unhappy, he went and married another one!

"You see, there’s things going on there that you don’t want to miss about what’s happening and what was making him unhappy. It isn’t that much different than what goes on in the 20th Century, see? Not that much different at all.”

'7-headed monster? You're a nut' 'No, you're the nut!'

The whole chapter in Job 41 describes the devil and it describes him as guess what? A sea monster. Leviathan by name.

[1] Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

In other words, “Can you go fishing and catch this guy and bring him out of the water?” explains Richard Jordan.

“Or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?” God’s saying, “Are you going to go control this guy? Forget it.”

Isaiah 27 is how you know that Leviathan is Satan. You can’t go to the commentaries and find this out, by the way. For some strange reason the commentaries cover up Job 41. They say, “Leviathan, that’s really a whale or maybe a whirlpool or something like that.”

They know it’s a monster, but Leviathan is a seven-headed dragon. They say, “Well, we certainly know it’s nothing like that. Archeologists have never found a seven-headed dragon, and you couldn’t have such a thing because which one of the heads would control his feet? Got too many brains. How are they going to work together? So, it can’t really be that; it’s got to be something else.”

Well, you see, the Bible sets up its own system of terms and then definitions of the terms that tells you how to study it. Leviathan is not a seven-headed dragon like you think of some big lizard running around.

This is in the spiritual realm. This is a degenerated form of Lucifer, the covering cherubim. This is a degenerated form to which Satan has devolved because of sin.

We read in Revelation 12 that he’s the great red dragon. He’s the seven-headed monster in the sea out there in the water that’s above the universe. That’s where he’s at. When I say that, that blows your mind. I’m talking about Genesis 1.

I know what people say. “Agh, you’re a bunch of nuts.” That’s not it at all. It just means we settled all those issues and we’re spending our time studying, and the more you study the more you kind of get over here, and you get out further, and then a little further, and pretty soon the establishment out there looks at you and says, “Well, you’re a nut.”

But you know what that means? That means when you’re out way over there and you look back at them, you know what you think they are? They’re nuts too.

Someone says to a guy, “You’re a nut,” and he says, “That’s all right, I’m screwed onto the right bolt.”

In a passage on the Second Coming of Christ, Isaiah 27:1-6, the first verse says, [1] In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea.

Tell me something, who’s the piercing serpent and the dragon? That’s Revelation 12; that’s Satan. Who’s Leviathan? He’s the piercing serpent; he’s the dragon that’s in the sea. He’s that sea monster out there.

John sees the beast rise up out of the sea. Revelation 13 tells us Satan gives him his seat. It’s Satan who gives him his great power and authority and puts the words in his mouth to speak.

That beast, when he comes, he comes as the ultimate embodiment and manifestation of the satanic policy of evil.

The beast that he sees come out of the sea, look at what he is in Revelation 13: [1] And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.
[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.

He comes riding on the authority of Satan, so he’s seen as one coming up out of the sea. Satan raises him up and gives him his seat and power and great authority.

You notice he’s a leopard, a bear, a lion. You ever seen any pictures of this guy? Clarence Larkin has a big old book called “Dispensational Truth” with charts and pictures. He has a book on Revelation and one on Daniel. They’re the best books on Revelation, Daniel and prophecy you’ll ever buy. If you buy these three books (not everything in it was right, but it was good for his day with a publication date of 1920), you’ll never need to buy any other books on those topics.

His books are the granddaddy of all and all the great prophecy preachers (Taylor, Ward, Howard, those guys) they just rehash Larkin, unfortunately. His books are a good place to start, but we’ve learned a lot since then. But I’m glad I got my start in those books and once you learn to rightly divide the Word and understand the distinctive ministry of Paul, the mystery truth, you can begin to adjust some of the things he misses.

Larkin has all these great pictures and he draws a leopard with the mouth of a lion and the feet like a bear. Boy, it’s a funny-looking dude. You can imagine what it would look like.

He draws this composite beast. In Job 40 you’ve got the same guy. Job 40:

[15] Behold now behemoth, which I made with thee; he eateth grass as an ox.
[16] Lo now, his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly.
[17] He moveth his tail like a cedar: the sinews of his stones are wrapped together.
[18] His bones are as strong pieces of brass; his bones are like bars of iron.
[19] He is the chief of the ways of God: he that made him can make his sword to approach unto him.
[20] Surely the mountains bring him forth food, where all the beasts of the field play.
[21] He lieth under the shady trees, in the covert of the reed, and fens.
[22] The shady trees cover him with their shadow; the willows of the brook compass him about.
[23] Behold, he drinketh up a river, and hasteth not: he trusteth that he can draw up Jordan into his mouth.
[24] He taketh it with his eyes: his nose pierceth through snares.

Here’s another creature that the scholars don’t seem to be able to understand. The word “behemoth,” if you run to the Hebrew, it says it means an elephant.

The word “behemoth” means a composite beast. It’s a beast made up of a bunch of different beasts. Didn’t you just read about one of them in Revelation 13:2?

What you’re reading in Job 40 is a description of the Antichrist and some of the things the Antichrist is going to do, and then after that you read a description of Satan, who empowers the Antichrist.

If you look at verse 19, if you’re going to stand against the Antichrist in that tribulation period—if those Jews are going to beat the Antichrist, you know how they’re going to beat him?

Nobody in their human ability, in human wisdom, in physical might and prowess can whip the guy. That’s what He’s saying to Job—you can’t stand against him in your own might, but the one who made Job can make his sword approach to him. What’s that? The Book. Do you understand why Satan doesn’t like the Book? It’s the only thing that can get in there and get him

Which is, and which was, is Revelation

(new article tomorrow for certain)

"When you study the Bible, if you just read it, it's so weirdly wonderful how it blows out of the water all the things people have always told you that it says and the things that you thought it taught," says Richard Jordan.

"Revelation 1:20 says, [20] The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

"In Israel's temple and in their tabernacle, they had the menorah, but it was one candlestick with seven branches. Here you have seven separate candlesticks. That's telling you you're dealing with a period of time where the nation Israel has been scattered among the nations; they're no longer that one nation gathered together.

"Now, I'm looking for somebody who's got the seven stars in his right hand who walks in the midst of the seven candlesticks.

Verses 16-17: [16] And he had in his right hand seven stars: and out of his mouth went a sharp twoedged sword: and his countenance was as the sun shineth in his strength. [17] And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not; I am the first and the last:

"Who is it that's walking amidst the candlesticks and has the stars? It's Christ. Every one of these letters to each one of these churches begins with an introductory description.

"Well, if you go to Revelation 2:[18] And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write; These things saith the Son of God, who hath his eyes like unto a flame of fire, and his feet are like fine brass.

"Go back to 1:14-15: [14] His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire; [15] And his feet like unto fine brass, as if they burned in a furnace; and his voice as the sound of many waters.

"Each one of the angels' telling them, 'I'm the messenger, but the one who's talking to you is the glorified Son of man.' For each description John gives of Christ, you'll see that the issue in the description is the issue He's going to deal with each church about.

"Probably one of the most enlightening things I've ever read came from Thomas Newberry and E.W. Bullinger, back in the 1800s, as they taught through the Book of Revelation and had commentaries pointing out that each one of these churches, in the context of remembering, calls to remembrance Israel's past history.

"It's something out of Israel's history that would bring into the consciousness of someone familiar with the Old Testament, which a believing Jew would be, an issue in Israel's history that will correspond with what these churches are facing in 'the last days.'

*****

"Revelation 1:9 says, [9] I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

"There's more tomfoolery taught about that verse than any other verse in the book. John was not exiled on the Isle of Patmos because they didn't like what he was preaching and got mad at him and stuck him on an island. That's what you're told. That isn't what the verse says at all.

"He didn't say anything about being exiled. He said, 'I'm there to get something from God.' What did John get at Patmos? Revelation 1:2: [2] Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.

"He went there for the purpose of getting the information God gave him. He's there on purpose. John writes in verse 10, 'I was in the Spirit on the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.'

"That's the guy that we read in verse 13 and following; that's the Lord Jesus Christ talking to him. Notice, 'I was in the Spirit.' That was a common statement in the prophets about being in a prophetic vision.

"In the Bible, 'the Lord's day' is a day in prophecy that's future from where we are. John was literally transported out of the 1st Century into the future to see in prophetic vision the things that are going to come to pass out there.

"The literary order of Revelation corresponds to the historical order found in the Bible. He starts in Ephesus with a historical reference and then it travels through the Scripture. It's fascinating how this works, and he's going to point them back to those past things they're going to face where they are.

*****

"Revelation 2:4: [4] Nevertheless I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. He says, 'You're problem is you've left your first love.' Where does that take them back to? The beginning of the nation Israel. That's a concept that's used several times in the prophets to describe Israel when God first formed that nation.

"Jeremiah 2 says, [1] Moreover the word of the LORD came to me, saying, [2] Go and cry in the ears of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the LORD; I remember thee, the kindness of thy youth, the love of thine espousals, when thou wentest after me in the wilderness, in a land that was not sown.

"Write down by that passage Ezekiel 16 where you'll see God describing bringing Israel out of Egypt and literally marrying her, entering into a covenant. We've studied about Israel being the wife of Jehovah.

"As a nation, Israel's first love was Jehovah. Hosea 11 says, [1] When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt. Look at Exodus 4: [22] And thou shalt say unto Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD, Israel is my son, even my firstborn.

"We sing that song, 'I love Him because He first loved me.' Well, that's what God did. When He says, 'You left your first love,' it's, 'Listen, God gave birth to you and you've forsaken the purpose for which He gave birth to you. You've lost your way.' 

*****

"Revelation 2: [8] And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive; [9] I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich) and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. [10] Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life.

"There's some satanic doctrines of devils being propagated in Israel back in the Book of Numbers. Balaam was a prophet Balak hired to curse Israel and God wouldn't let him do it, so what Balak did is he taught Israel how to get God to curse them by introducing Baal worship, going after false gods.

"By the way, you notice it's the doctrine of Baal. In Revelation 2 it's the doctrine of the Nicolaitans. The passage reads, [14] But I have a few things against thee, because thou hast there them that hold the doctrine of Balaam, who taught Balac to cast a stumblingblock before the children of Israel, to eat things sacrificed unto idols, and to commit fornication. [15] So hast thou also them that hold the doctrine of the Nicolaitans, which thing I hate.

"We're talking about a doctrinal issue that's going to curse. The teaching corrupted the nation by causing them to commit fornication and sacrifice things and eat things sacrificed to idols, to devils.

"II Peter 2:15: [15] Which have forsaken the right way, and are gone astray, following the way of Balaam the son of Bosor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

"You know why Balaam did what he did? He says in Numbers 31 before he gets killed, 'Oh, let me die the death of a righteous man.' You?! Ha! That's a little late, man.

"When you read about Balaam in Numbers 22-24 what you find out is Balak came down with a big bag of money and said, 'I'll pay you to curse Israel.' Balaam, always looking for a buck, goes and asks God, 'What do I do?' and the Lord says, 'Don't go, you can't curse them.'

"So he goes and tells Balak what God said and they come back with, 'We'll give you more money.' God tells Balaam again, 'You can't curse them,' so he goes out and says, 'Well, I can't curse them, but I'll take the money and go with you.' Four times he tried to curse them and God wouldn't let him. But the guy loved the wages of unrighteousness. He wanted the money. The love of money, right there, is the root of all evil.

"I just want you to see how important this stuff in Numbers is to these tribulation saints. Jude 11: [11] Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.

"Notice there are three examples (Cain, Balaam and Core) of how the seductive policy of the Adversary is going to seek to seduce the nation Israel into idolatry, the Baal worship.

"Balaam is right in the middle of it. The way of Baal, the error of Baal, the doctrine of Baal. Three different issues. It's a big thing in Numbers and it's a big thing in Revelation.

"By the way, when he says 'where Satan's seat is,' that specific idolatry associated with him, Numbers 31 says they killed Balaam with a sword.

"Look at Revelation 2:12-13: [12] And to the angel of the church in Pergamos write; These things saith he which hath the sharp sword with two edges; [13] I know thy works, and where thou dwellest, even where Satan's seat is: and thou holdest fast my name, and hast not denied my faith, even in those days wherein Antipas was my faithful martyr, who was slain among you, where Satan dwelleth. 

"Come down to verses 16-17: [16] Repent; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will fight against them with the sword of my mouth. [17] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches; To him that overcometh will I give to eat of the hidden manna, and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.

"Now, he does that in Revelation 19. My point is the way they got rid of Baal and Balaam, that's the judgment that's going to fall on these guys. So, what Revelation does is keeps pulling back things from that history there, and if you were a biblically-intelligized Israeli at this time, you'd see those connections.

"Ahab and his wife Jezebel were the people who took Baal worship and made it a state religion in Israel. They intensified it, not just to something that some Israelis were doing, but they literally made it the national religion. Instead of God's truth, it became the Balak truth. It's the official religion, by the way, of the Antichrist in Revelation 17: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

"That's why he says in Revelation 2:24: [24] But unto you I say, and unto the rest in Thyatira, as many as have not this doctrine, and which have not known the depths of Satan, as they speak; I will put upon you none other burden.

"The depths of Satan is that intensive zenith form of Baal worship where Israel's completely captivated by that blinding false doctrine. That's when they're carried out into captivity. 

*****

"Those first four churches focus on Israel's history up to the captivity. When you come to chapter 3 with the church of Sardis, you're going to see Israel in captivity; the fifth course of judgment begins there.

"Revelation 3: [5] He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.[6] He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.

"If you're not going to blot the overcomer out, what would you do to a guy who didn't overcome? You'd blot his name out.

"Matthew 10: [32] Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I confess also before my Father which is in heaven. [33] But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

"So if you don't overcome, you don't confess Him, what does He do? He denies you. That's that reciprocal activity of the Abrahamic Covenant.

"When Israel's fifth course starts, Deuteronomy 29 says, [19] And it come to pass, when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst:

[20] The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

[21] And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law: 

"He says, 'I'm going to wipe you off the record of Israel's history,' and that issue of blotting out their name has to do with sending them away into captivity; taking their citizenship away by taking the nation away. If you're a man without a country, you're gone.

"I know people get bent out of shape about this passage, trying to get around the idea of having your name taken out of the Book of Life, but if you look at Revelation 7, Dan and Ephraim are left out of the list of the tribes who get sealed and out of whom the 144,000 come."