Antichrist's 'becoming'

 (new article tomorrow)

When Satan’s cast out of heaven in the great tribulation, the beast in the bottomless pit rises up to become the “son of perdition.”

The Antichrist is killed in the midst of the week, and when a man dies his soul goes to hell. This beast out of the bottomless pit comes up and inhabits his body and he literally becomes “Satan incarnate.” There’s an angel who’s king over the bottomless pit in Revelation 9:11, so there’s a lot of weird stuff going to happen, explains Richard Jordan.

Revelation 9: [11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.

The Antichrist is described as “the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit.” That takes place in the midst of the 70^th week when he’s killed. If a man dies, he’s dead. Your soul dies and goes to hell and you don’t get out of hell and come back.

This beast animates that body and so you have all these movies, books, TV shows, etc., about vampires and the walking dead.

There’s this fascination with all that kind of stuff because that’s part of the mythology of man’s mind; it’s part of what’s there because the creative genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired.

And if I want to prepare the world to worship me, what am I going to do? I’d take all the young people in the world and I’d teach them this is normal, common, ordinary kind of stuff.

*****

Regarding the Antichrist, Zechariah 11:17 reveals, [17] Woe to the idol shepherd that leaveth the flock! the sword shall be upon his arm, and upon his right eye: his arm shall be clean dried up, and his right eye shall be utterly darkened.

The way that verse is understood in most teaching is the sword, like in the Book of Job, is his power that’s going to be broken. Then they say his eye--the source of light, wisdom, understanding--is going to be dried up and so the judgment’s going to come and his arm’s going to be “clean dried up.”

He’s going to lose all his power and his wisdom’s going to be completely gotten rid of and that's what’s going to happen in the Second Coming of Christ. The Antichrist and his power will be negated and gone forever.

That’s what the preachers say about the passage and that’s okay if you want to take it with a spiritual bent like that, but if you just leave it for what it says, there are some fascinating things in connection with this. What it would mean is that the sword shall be upon his arm and his right eye. This guy’s going to be wounded.

How do you get both a guy’s eye and his arm? You could probably get this eye and that arm, but you’d have to whack at him. You remember Peter in the garden; he cuts the guy’s ear off with a sword? How would you do that?

To swing hard enough to get it you’d hit his shoulder. But if he was ducking, you could get his ear and it would fly up in the air. Jesus caught it and stuck it back on and healed him. In other words, Pete was trying to cut his head off. Well, in the case of the Antichrist, there’s a sword attack that wounds his arm and his right eye.

Revelation 13, talking about the Antichrist in verses 1-2, says in verse 3, [3] And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast.

The Antichrist sustains a deadly wound that’s healed. If you have a deadly wound, that’s a mortal wound you die from, so this means he’s not dead anymore. In the process he lives.

Talking about the two witnesses, Revelation 11:7 says, [7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

Notice there’s a beast that ascends out of the bottomless pit that used to be on the earth. You’ll see him again in chapter 17:8. The beast used to be on the earth, he’s gone out, and now he’s going to ascend and be the one who ultimately goes into perdition.

*****

Isaiah 37 reports, [5] So the servants of king Hezekiah came to Isaiah.
[6] And Isaiah said unto them, Thus shall ye say unto your master, Thus saith the LORD, Be not afraid of the words that thou hast heard, wherewith the servants of the king of Assyria have blasphemed me.
[7] Behold, I will send a blast upon him, and he shall hear a rumour, and return to his own land; and I will cause him to fall by the sword in his own land.

This is Hezekiah and the Assyrians that are attacking him, but notice what he says in verse 7. You can find all that in Daniel 11. ‘And I will cause him to fall by the sword.’

About the judgment on the Antichrist, Isaiah 14:18-19 says, [18] All the kings of the nations, even all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house (i.e., they’re all dead).
[19] But thou art cast out of thy grave like an abominable branch, and as the raiment of those that are slain, thrust through with a sword, that go down to the stones of the pit; as a carcase trodden under feet.

He’s killed by his enemies with a sword, but notice what happens to him. He goes down into the grave, wounded with a sword like all these others, but then he gets cast out of the grave.

The idea there is this guy professes himself to be God. Somebody says, ‘Well, how do you know Jesus Christ is God?’ Romans 1:4 says, [4] And declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the spirit of holiness, by the resurrection from the dead:

The dude gets assassinated. He dies. When a man dies, you know where his soul goes? To hell. You know how his soul gets out? You know how people get out of hell? You get out at the Great White Throne Judgment when God casts you into the lake of fire.

But there lies that dude’s body and there’s a spirit down in the bottomless pit (a fallen angel) which ascends up, takes residence in that body and animates that body.

He stands up and all the world goes, ‘We knew HE was the One!’ That deadly wound is healed and all the world declares him to be God because he’s declared to be God by that resurrection.

Listen, Satan is a consummate imitator and counterfeit of what God has done. Satan is a counterfeit of God the Father; “your father is the devil.”

The Antichrist is a counterfeit of God the Son and “the false prophet” is a counterfeit of God the Holy Spirit. That unholy trinity--the beast, the false prophet and Satan--works together. Revelation 20:10 says they all wind up in the lake of fire.

That idol shepherd and the wound he has--the things we’re reading about and why those things become so prominent in the Scripture is because there’s some things that go on in the midst of that 70^th week in connection with the Antichrist BECOMING, and that’s the word people use—he’s becoming.

You ever seen the movie Red Dragon? The red dragon, the protagonist, keeps saying, “I am becoming. I am becoming.” And he’s transforming himself into this great demonic thing. That becoming is a part of the occult.

*****

“Mystery Babylon the Great comes into all of that. Zechariah 11:16 says, [16] For, lo, I will raise up a shepherd in the land, which shall not visit those that be cut off, neither shall seek the young one, nor heal that that is broken, nor feed that that standeth still: but he shall eat the flesh of the fat, and tear their claws in pieces.

You remember how they worship the queen of heaven? They have drink offerings of blood, as Psalm 16:4 calls it, and are eating flesh. You go to a Catholic church and their Mass, and they believe when they ring the bell and do the blessing that little cracker becomes the flesh of Jesus Christ. When you put that cracker in your mouth you’re literally eating the flesh. When you take in that hooch you’re drinking the blood.

In Zechariah, when they eat that flesh, they’re literally sacrificing those believing Jews, the souls under the altar. They’re literally sacrificing them to this character in their religion. “They teach thy servants to commit fornication and eat things sacrificed to idols.” That’s not just the symbolic stuff; at that point it gets to be the real thing!

So God’s people are being persecuted in a way that’s hard to fathom. Back in Kings it says they had such famine they ate their babies a span long. They’d take a little 18-inch baby and starve him so bad that he dies and then they eat him.

You think, “How does it get that bad?” This stuff, though, they’re not doing it just because they’re starving; they’re doing it to sacrifice to Satan. 

Witchcraft-based government with Trump as 'The Magician'?

On April 17 at 8:57 in the morning, Trump wrote an X tweet stating, in part, “Israel will not be bombing Lebanon anymore. They are PROHIBITED from doing so by the U.S.A. Enough is enough!!! Thank You! President DJT.”

What’s interesting is there is a Tarot card from the 1982 Illuminati Card Game showing a screaming head that looks very much like Trump and the title of the card is “Enough is Enough!”

From Wikipedia: “The 1982 game has ominous secret societies competing with each other to control the world through various means, including legal, illegal, and even mystical. It was designed as a ‘tongue-in-cheek rather than serious’ take on conspiracy. It contains groups named similarly to real-world organizations, such as the  Society for Creative Anachronism and the Symbionese Liberation Army. It can be played by two to eight players. Depending on the number of players, a game can take between one and six hours.”

So, what’s even more telling is there’s a famous Tarot card showing a magician wearing a red shawl over a white robe, exactly like Trump was depicted in his personally sent message on Orthodox Easter (April 12 ) showing himself as a Jesus-like figure healing a man in his sick bed. The name of the Tarot card is “The Magician.”

Here’s commentary from a YouTuber who is a Bible-believing Baptist preacher:

“When you’re a man like Donald Trump and you’re obsessed with higher consciousness and the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’ (ala Norman Vincent Peale who was Trump’s preacher growing up) and stuff like that, you want everybody around you to be propping you up like that because, in a sense, you think that feeds the mantras and the spiritual energy that you are getting so that you will eventually become who they think you are.

“We talked about how, in the esoteric meaning, he posted what he posted because he believes in the ‘Power of Positive Thinking’ and its manifestation, which is magic.

“Donald Trump, by his philosophy of life, basically practices magic; he’s a white magic magician. That’s what he is.

“Now there’s another layer to this picture, in that it was obviously an AI image created from an account that has been depicting Donald Trump as a messianic figure more than one time.

“Of course, Donald Trump is on the ‘I’m big on myself’ side, but when he has people around him who are enabling him (like his personally picked White House spiritual adviser Paula White-Cain), feeding this side of this man, it’s not healthy for him spiritually, and so naturally he thinks of himself as a messiah-type figure.

“But all of this is groundwork for this. There is a strange coincidence with this image. I looked at it and I thought, 'Man, there’s something up.' Everybody was talking about how there was this Baphomet figure above his head (with the three spikes coming out) in this AI portrait that Trump says he thinks was meant to show himself as a Red Cross doctor.

“I looked at this and I thought, ‘I have seen what he’s wearing before; I’ve seen that,’ and I just couldn’t place it, and I had a listener send me an email and they connected the dots for me.

“It’s just a ‘strange coincidence,’ but let me compare what Trump is wearing in this AI image to a Tarot card called ‘The Magician.’ You look at that and you tell me that that’s not weird. I mean, ‘Yee-haw, guys, yee-haw.’ We’re in the kooky territory now.”

*****

Here is a post from last June entitled “Trump’s Appeal Comes From Peale”:

I remember once near the beginning of my years in New York I sought out an authentic Norwegian restaurant in Manhattan (my father was 100 percent Norwegian; his parents came over from the Kristiansand area) and when I walked out of it after dining there by myself, not far from it (possibly even next door or across the street, as I remember) I was shocked to find I was outside the Marble Collegiate Church made famous by Norman Vincent Peale, who, and this was the real shocker for me, has a life-sized statue of himself, in preacher-mode, right off of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue!!

When I was in high school, living in the Sunday morning TV realm of Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral out of Garden Grove, Calif., (especially when my dad decided to my delight some Sundays at the last minute that we would not be attending the main service at our First Baptist church in downtown Loudonville, OH), I was totally aware of Norman Vincent Peale.

Peale was Schuller's mentor who appeared on his nationally televised Hour of Power service. Peale had best-selling books on how to be a happier, fully confident, always upbeat--and above all, "successful"--Christian.

Think about this. Trump was following his parents in going to Marble Collegiate when he was young. That's where HIS father made him go and he LOVED it--worshipped it, in fact. There are quotes from him saying that no one wanted Peale's sermon to end on those Sunday mornings he was in attendance.

I never remember being told by anyone as a kid that Peale was a phony preacher. He was admired and respected--just like a kind of Dale Carnegie, really!

I can now see the great marketing job with Peale, a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Freemason!!! This is where Trump got his skills to be such a master trickster. It's been engrained in his psyche starting with his childhood preacher!

From the website Esoteric Freemasons: "The 33rd degree Mason Ritual has its origins in 18th century France, when members of the Masonic Lodge developed rituals as a way to bring new members into their ranks. These rituals were used to symbolize various concepts, such as brotherhood, justice, and morality. Over time, more elaborate rituals were developed and eventually the Scottish Rite emerged as an independent organization with its own set of rituals.

"The 33rd degree Mason Ritual consists of four parts: initiation, instruction, instruction in symbolism, and passing through the degrees. During initiation, new members are instructed in the principles and values of Freemasonry. They are then instructed in symbolism such as handshakes and symbols that represent various concepts. Therefore, they pass through each degree until they reach the 33rd degree."

*****

Here's an excerpt from an online article posted by Politico magazine in 2016, entitled "How Norman Vincent Peale Taught Donald Trump to Worship Himself":

Is this guy for real? Or more to the point, could anyone really possess that much self-confidence? There has been no shortage of explanations—a huge inferiority complex, infantile narcissism, delusional thinking—for Trump’s undying self-assurance. But as I discovered when writing a book about Donald, his father, and his grandfather, if you want to understand what goes on underneath the blond comb-over, you’d do well to look back to two crucial events in the early 1950s.

Event No. 1 occurred in October 1952, when a book appeared called The Power Of Positive Thinking. Written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and translated into 15 languages, it remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 186 weeks and sold 5 million copies. Donald was only 6 years old at the time and didn’t read the book until much later, but it quickly became important in the large Queens household in which he grew up, and it would play a critical role in his future. His parents, Fred and Mary, felt an immediate affinity for Peale’s teachings. On Sundays, they drove into Manhattan to worship at Marble Collegiate Church, where Peale was the head pastor. Donald and both his sisters were married there, and funeral services for both Fred and Mary took place in the main sanctuary.

“I still remember [Peale’s] sermons,” Trump told the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July. “You could listen to him all day long. And when you left the church, you were disappointed it was over. He was the greatest guy.” A month later, in the same news conference at which Trump tossed out Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, he again referred to Peale as his pastor and said he was “one of the greatest speakers” he’d ever seen.

Known as “God’s salesman,” Peale merged worldliness and godliness to produce an easy-to-follow theology that preached self-confidence as a life philosophy. Critics called him a con man, described his church as a cult, and said his simple-minded approach shut off genuine thinking or insight. But Peale’s outlook, promoted through his radio shows, newspaper columns and articles, and through Guideposts, his monthly digest of inspirational messages, fit perfectly into the Trump family culture of never hesitating to bend the rules, doing whatever it took to win, and never, ever giving up.

“Believe in yourself!” Peale’s book begins. “Have faith in your abilities!” He then outlines 10 rules to overcome “inadequacy attitudes” and “build up confidence in your powers.” Rule one: “formulate and staple indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding,” “hold this picture tenaciously,” and always refer to it “no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.”

Subsequent rules tell the reader to avoid “fear thoughts,” “never think of yourself as failing,” summon up a positive thought whenever “a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind,” “depreciate every so-called obstacle,” and “make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent.”

Peale’s philosophy fell on willing and eager ears in the Trump family. Long before this self-esteem guru codified his canon, Donald’s grandfather Friedrich used Peale-like confidence and tenacity to make the first Trump fortune during the Klondike gold rush. A few decades later, Donald’s father, Fred, deployed proto-Peale thinking to become a multimillionaire real estate developer in Brooklyn and Queens. And Donald Trump himself has cited Peale’s advice many times in his own career.

Here is another post from last year:

Isaiah 47: [10] For thou hast trusted in thy wickedness: thou hast said, None seeth me. Thy wisdom and thy knowledge, it hath perverted thee; and thou hast said in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me.

[11] Therefore shall evil come upon thee; thou shalt not know from whence it riseth: and mischief shall fall upon thee; thou shalt not be able to put it off: and desolation shall come upon thee suddenly, which thou shalt not know.
[12] Stand now with thine enchantments, and with the multitude of thy sorceries, wherein thou hast laboured from thy youth; if so be thou shalt be able to profit, if so be thou mayest prevail.

You know what an enchantment is--you have these code words to try to release power. You have the chants and all that stuff people do. They're going to use these sorceries and stuff, casting spells to try to gain an upper hand, explains Richard Jordan.

[13] Thou art wearied in the multitude of thy counsels. Let now the astrologers, the stargazers, the monthly prognosticators, stand up, and save thee from these things that shall come upon thee.

They have the word of prophecy and are going to tell the future and they're going to use what look like signs and wonders and so forth to do these things and it's going to deceive the nations.

*****

Nahum is a book of judgment and chapter 3 is sort of walking it out the door. This is the final judgment of God against Nineveh, which is the stronghold of the Antichrist and the book's looking to the time in the last days, especially at the time of the Second Advent.

Verse 1: [1] Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;

He's describing a battle going on here. He's talking about the violence that makes the city of Nineveh the capital of bloodshed.

In verses 2-3 He literally describes the carnage of the battlefield: [2] The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots.

[3] The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

This is a description of a live, contemporary military engagement. It's not talking about some cemetery; this is the battle going on right then and the city's just being wiped out.

Here's what's behind the military carnage: [4] Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

That's a description of the power, the spiritual activity that lies behind that militaristic world dominion domination kind of conquest that Nineveh represents. The Antichrist has sought to be the ruler of the world.

There are two forces that propel that militaristic world dominion idea and these two forces don't just compel the Antichrist; he's harnessing what's there in life all along.

If you went around today and tried to explain what it is that causes nations to rise against nations and causes the militaristic dominion over nations, there's two reasons . . .

In verse 1, he's talking about just that lust for wealth: "You've got something I want; I'm going to come and rob you and I'm willing to shed blood to get it."

In 3:16, talking again about Nineveh as it's being destroyed, [16] Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

That's like that thing in Ezekiel 28 about Satan's merchandise and how he's out selling his ideas.

They're pillaging, robbing and it's that greed; that lust for wealth and gaining things that other people have. That's why Jesus warned His apostles, "Take heed, and beware of covetousness: for a man's life consisteth not in the abundance of the things which he possesseth."

The second thing is down in Nahum 3:4 and it's more sinister. You understand the greed issue, the human nature kind of thing, but Satan uses that human nature to accomplish his purposes

That verse is not talking about a house of ill-repute; that's talking about that thing in Revelation 17:

[5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

[6] And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

It's talking about that satanic-inspired religious dominion and you remember that city in Revelation is the city that rules over the kings of the earth and it's made the kings of the earth drunk with the wine of her fornication.

She's literally intoxicated them and put a spirit within them that causes them to fall in line with the Adversary's goal of making the Antichrist the head ruler of the nations, and no matter what kind of bloodshed it takes to do it, they'll do it.

In Nahum 2, back in verse 11, the thing about those three lions there: [11] Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid?

I've tried to say to you Egypt, Babylon and Assyria are associated together and the issue about the Antichrist being an Assyrian, the terminology goes all the way back to Genesis 11 and the idolatry with Nimrod. That's that spiritual power.

The Egyptian, the Pharoah in Isaiah 14, Babylon is called Assyria. In Isaiah 52, Pharoah is said to be the Assyrian running them. So, there's a spiritual power behind the political manifestation.

You'll see that city in Isaiah 47: [1] Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.

[2] Take the millstones, and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.
[3] Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: I will take vengeance, and I will not meet thee as a man.

You have the virgin daughter of Babylon, which would be Revelation 17. Here's the virgin. In that religion when you worship the queen of heaven she's the virgin, the Madonna. This city, in verse 5: [5] Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, The lady of kingdoms.

So, she's 'Our Lady,' she's the queen of heaven, she's the virgin. All of those terms have to do with the religious system called Baal worship.

*****

Here is a post from last June entitled “Trump’s Appeal Comes From Peale”:

I remember once near the beginning of my years in New York I sought out an authentic Norwegian restaurant in Manhattan (my father was 100 percent Norwegian; his parents came over from the Kristiansand area) and when I walked out of it after dining there by myself, not far from it (possibly even next door or across the street, as I remember) I was shocked to find I was outside the Marble Collegiate Church made famous by Norman Vincent Peale, who, and this was the real shocker for me, has a life-sized statue of himself, in preacher-mode, right off of the sidewalk on Fifth Avenue!!

When I was in high school, living in the Sunday morning TV realm of Robert Schuller's Crystal Cathedral out of Garden Grove, Calif., (especially when my dad decided to my delight some Sundays at the last minute that we would not be attending the main service at our First Baptist church in downtown Loudonville, OH), I was totally aware of Norman Vincent Peale.

Peale was Schuller's mentor who appeared on his nationally televised Hour of Power service. Peale had best-selling books on how to be a happier, fully confident, always upbeat--and above all, "successful"--Christian.

Think about this. Trump was following his parents in going to Marble Collegiate when he was young. That's where HIS father made him go and he LOVED it--worshipped it, in fact. There are quotes from him saying that no one wanted Peale's sermon to end on those Sunday mornings he was in attendance.

I never remember being told by anyone as a kid that Peale was a phony preacher. He was admired and respected--just like a kind of Dale Carnegie, really!

I can now see the great marketing job with Peale, a 33rd Degree Scottish Rite Freemason!!! This is where Trump got his skills to be such a master trickster. It's been engrained in his psyche starting with his childhood preacher!

From the website Esoteric Freemasons: "The 33rd degree Mason Ritual has its origins in 18th century France, when members of the Masonic Lodge developed rituals as a way to bring new members into their ranks. These rituals were used to symbolize various concepts, such as brotherhood, justice, and morality. Over time, more elaborate rituals were developed and eventually the Scottish Rite emerged as an independent organization with its own set of rituals.

"The 33rd degree Mason Ritual consists of four parts: initiation, instruction, instruction in symbolism, and passing through the degrees. During initiation, new members are instructed in the principles and values of Freemasonry. They are then instructed in symbolism such as handshakes and symbols that represent various concepts. Therefore, they pass through each degree until they reach the 33rd degree."

*****

Here's an excerpt from an online article posted by Politico magazine in 2016, entitled "How Norman Vincent Peale Taught Donald Trump to Worship Himself":

Is this guy for real? Or more to the point, could anyone really possess that much self-confidence? There has been no shortage of explanations—a huge inferiority complex, infantile narcissism, delusional thinking—for Trump’s undying self-assurance. But as I discovered when writing a book about Donald, his father, and his grandfather, if you want to understand what goes on underneath the blond comb-over, you’d do well to look back to two crucial events in the early 1950s.

Event No. 1 occurred in October 1952, when a book appeared called The Power Of Positive Thinking. Written by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and translated into 15 languages, it remained on the New York Times best-seller list for 186 weeks and sold 5 million copies. Donald was only 6 years old at the time and didn’t read the book until much later, but it quickly became important in the large Queens household in which he grew up, and it would play a critical role in his future. His parents, Fred and Mary, felt an immediate affinity for Peale’s teachings. On Sundays, they drove into Manhattan to worship at Marble Collegiate Church, where Peale was the head pastor. Donald and both his sisters were married there, and funeral services for both Fred and Mary took place in the main sanctuary.

“I still remember [Peale’s] sermons,” Trump told the Iowa Family Leadership Summit in July. “You could listen to him all day long. And when you left the church, you were disappointed it was over. He was the greatest guy.” A month later, in the same news conference at which Trump tossed out Univision anchor Jorge Ramos, he again referred to Peale as his pastor and said he was “one of the greatest speakers” he’d ever seen.

Known as “God’s salesman,” Peale merged worldliness and godliness to produce an easy-to-follow theology that preached self-confidence as a life philosophy. Critics called him a con man, described his church as a cult, and said his simple-minded approach shut off genuine thinking or insight. But Peale’s outlook, promoted through his radio shows, newspaper columns and articles, and through Guideposts, his monthly digest of inspirational messages, fit perfectly into the Trump family culture of never hesitating to bend the rules, doing whatever it took to win, and never, ever giving up.

“Believe in yourself!” Peale’s book begins. “Have faith in your abilities!” He then outlines 10 rules to overcome “inadequacy attitudes” and “build up confidence in your powers.” Rule one: “formulate and staple indelibly on your mind a mental picture of yourself as succeeding,” “hold this picture tenaciously,” and always refer to it “no matter how badly things seem to be going at the moment.”

Subsequent rules tell the reader to avoid “fear thoughts,” “never think of yourself as failing,” summon up a positive thought whenever “a negative thought concerning your personal powers comes to mind,” “depreciate every so-called obstacle,” and “make a true estimate of your own ability, then raise it 10 per cent.”

Peale’s philosophy fell on willing and eager ears in the Trump family. Long before this self-esteem guru codified his canon, Donald’s grandfather Friedrich used Peale-like confidence and tenacity to make the first Trump fortune during the Klondike gold rush. A few decades later, Donald’s father, Fred, deployed proto-Peale thinking to become a multimillionaire real estate developer in Brooklyn and Queens. And Donald Trump himself has cited Peale’s advice many times in his own career.

Knowing Him in experience of newness

(sorry for delay and new article for certain this evening. I had a LONG spell of terrible heartburn after being at my brother's for dinner. He made a beautifully brown caper cream sauce for his chicken and homemade pilaf rice but boy, it was too rich for my digestion, I found out. Heavy cream, butter, etc., and I really gave myself a healthy dousing on my plate of food (including asparagus) not exactly knowing the ingredients!)

There’s a startling thing we learn in John 14: [8] Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us.

[9] Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time with you, and yet hast thou not known me, Philip? he that hath seen me hath seen the Father; and how sayest thou then, Shew us the Father?

Understand, they’ve been traveling together, journeying together, going through the Galilean area. They’re eating together, ministering together, suffering together. They’re now experiencing the rejection, explains Alex Kurz.

Think about this for a second--Philip was privileged to see the miracles. Imagine, you’re traveling with the Savior, the Messiah, you hear His claims; the Lord Jesus did some miracles in the power of the Holy Spirit, didn’t He? Walking on water, raising the dead, healing the blind, casting out devils.

And then the Lord says, “You don’t know me.” Isn’t that something?! He’s saying, “You’ve been with me this long, Philip, and you don’t know me in this far deeper, far more personal level.”

[10] Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.
[11] Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me: or else believe me for the very works' sake.

What I’m highlighting is it is absolutely possible to be exposed to great amounts of doctrinal information and yet, do you really know Him?

Philippians 3:10: [10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

Paul was saying, “I know the power of His resurrection. I want to know Him personally, passionately, deeply.” There’s a power of resurrection that Paul wants to attain.

[11] If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
[12] Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.

You see the language here? Hence, he says in verse 14: [14] I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

“There’s something about Jesus Christ that I want to know about. I want to know it in experience, not in cold, hard, sterile theological study.”

It has something to do with the power of the resurrection, and Paul says, “I’m trying to seize it! I’m trying to grab hold of it. I’m trying to attain. I’m trying to apprehend.”

When I think of the word apprehend, I think of a police officer. Paul uses the illustration of the athlete. That athlete has a mark and when you hit the mark, there’s a prize. Who’s the prize?

[8] Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ,

Listen, this isn’t a competition to see who gets the biggest house in heaven or who’s more spiritual than anybody else. This is a personal yearning and desire that should be fired up in our soul. This should be a flame in our heart to know Him so deeply and personally that the prize is Jesus Christ.

Romans 6 actually tells us what it is Paul is seeking to attain:

[3] Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
[4] Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.

God has something far more that His glorious plan and purpose . . . You see, Paul says, "I want to apprehend that for which I’m apprehended." God raised up His Son by the glory for the reason of giving to you the same resurrection life.

Paul says, “I want to know Him by understanding what this newness of life is all about.”

Romans 6:8: [8] Now if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with him:

Verse 10: [10] For in that he died, he died unto sin once: but in that he liveth, he liveth unto God.

Jesus Christ lives with the sole purpose of fulfilling and accomplishing the will, the plan, the purpose of His heavenly Father.

Verse 11: [11] Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.

What are we supposed to do? Hey, sin doesn’t have dominion over you anymore. I’ve been raised with Jesus Christ in newness of life. To know Jesus Christ is to know Him as Romans 3 presents Him.

Egypt on their mind

(will have to post new article tomorrow now. in meantime:)

From the website Mythopedia: "One of the most iconic Egyptian deities, Anubis, possessed several distinctive features. While he had a human body (like most Egyptian gods), he also had a jackal’s head and tail. He was typically all black, and was often portrayed in a seated position. Like many Egyptian gods, Anubis was capable of shapeshifting; he was so shocked at the sight of Osiris’s dead body that he immediately turned into a lizard.

"Early on in Egyptian history, Anubis was worshiped as a god of the dead. After Osiris rose to prominence, he became a god of embalming and psychopomp who escorted the dead on their journey to the afterlife.

"In the post-Late Period (664-30BCE) era, Anubis became associated with necromancers. Demotic (a written language that superseded hieroglyphs) spells would invoke Anubis, who would then act as an intermediary, fetching spirits or gods from the underworld."

*****

Ezekiel 26 and 27 set up the stuff about Pharoah in Ezekiel 28 and what you'll see is, just like Tyre was used by the satanic policy of evil to try and duplicate and replace Israel, the power behind the throne is really Satan, explains Richard Jordan.

Egypt has long been, from the very earliest days of God's dealing with the nation Israel, a problem.

Genesis 12:10: [10] And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land.

All of a sudden, Abraham is looking for help and instead of turning to the Lord, he goes DOWN into Egypt. The geography just represents the spiritual declension that's involved in going into Egypt.

Isaiah 31: [1] Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; and stay on horses, and trust in chariots, because they are many; and in horsemen, because they are very strong; but they look not unto the Holy One of Israel, neither seek the LORD!

Instead of looking to the Lord, they're going to Egypt and the Lord says, "That ain't going to work." Verse 3: [3] Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; and their horses flesh, and not spirit. When the LORD shall stretch out his hand, both he that helpeth shall fall, and he that is holpen shall fall down, and they all shall fail together.

All through Israel's history Egypt was the alternative to trusting the Lord. Israel had this propensity when trouble was there to run to Egypt.

You remember when Moses goes into Pharoah and says, "The Lord says let my people go," and Pharoah responds, "Who is the Lord God that I should obey him?" Well, that's the spirit of Egypt and Egypt is a stronghold in Scripture of the satanic policy of evil, carrying out the opposition against what God's doing.

When you look at Israel being sent into captivity, one of the things that they have to face is the fact that the Egyptians are rejoicing in that.

In Daniel 11, one of the two kingdoms (king of the north and king of the south) that opposes in the tribulation--the Antichrist is the king of the north and the king of the south is Egypt. So all the way over to the last days, Egypt is opposing Israel.

Ezekiel 29 begins: [1] In the tenth year, in the tenth month, in the twelfth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:
[3] Speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.

Pharoah, by the way, is a term like president or prime minister. He's lying in the midst of his rivers and he says, "My river." That would be the Nile River. He says, "It's mine; I made it!" Now, that dude didn't make anything. He's claiming to be God. He says, "I'm the one who ought to be in control of everything because I made it,' and that's why he's called 'the great dragon."

If you look at Ezekiel 32: [1] And it came to pass in the twelfth year, in the twelfth month, in the first day of the month, that the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, take up a lamentation for Pharaoh king of Egypt, and say unto him, Thou art like a young lion of the nations, and thou art as a whale in the seas: and thou camest forth with thy rivers, and troubledst the waters with thy feet, and fouledst their rivers.

Notice he's called a young lion, the great whale, the dragon--who is all that? Who do those titles refer to? They're references to Satan. What the Word of the Lord is saying to Ezekiel is, "Pharoah represents the will, the purpose, the plan of the devil. He's trying to take God's throne; make himself like the most high. He's the personification of that."

Like I just said, when Moses goes into Pharoah and says, "The Lord says let my people go," Pharoah doesn't go, "Oh, wow, better do what He says." He says, "Who is the Lord God that I should obey him? He's not bigger than me." He's taking the position of the Adversary.

Revelation 12: [7] And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels,

[8] And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.
[9] And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Notice there's Satan and he's got a whole bunch of followers. You go to Ezekiel 29 and Pharoah, as Satan's man, has a whole bunch of followers. You see how he says in verse 3, "My river is mine own and I've made it for myself"?

Well, God says in verses 4 and 5: [4] But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

[5] And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.

Pharoah doesn't just have a river; he's got tributaries. There's Satan and his angels. He's got the fish in his--he's got all these cohorts who've joined with him and working for him. Remember how Jonah was three nights in the whale's belly? Tries to kill Israel? Well, that's what this guy's about.

Talking to Israel, Isaiah 51 says: [9] Awake, awake, put on strength, O arm of the LORD; awake, as in the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou not it that hath cut Rahab, and wounded the dragon?

[10] Art thou not it which hath dried the sea, the waters of the great deep; that hath made the depths of the sea a way for the ransomed to pass over?

You remember in Genesis 1: [2] And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.

The water is the chaos that Satan brought into God's creation. The great enemy of God's truth is chaos; the destruction of order in the world. You're looking at some characters--the lion, the dragon, the whale--that go all the way back to the original conflict between God and Satan; the angelic rebellion.

Isaiah 27:1: [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.

What's the name of Satan as the piercing serpent? Leviathan, the serpent, the dragon--they're all talking about Satan in various forms of his manifestation.

They had understanding of these things from the very beginning. In Job, the oldest book in the Bible, you have the character called the Behemoth and the doctrine of that will be the Antichrist (Revelation 13). Leviathan, from Job 41:1, is Satan: [1] Canst thou draw out leviathan with an hook? or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down?

[2] Canst thou put an hook into his nose? or bore his jaw through with a thorn?

Verse 15: [15] His scales are his pride, shut up together as with a close seal.

[16] One is so near to another, that no air can come between them.
[17] They are joined one to another, they stick together, that they cannot be sundered.

Notice the thing about "his scales are his pride." They're where his glory is. Job 41:34: "He beholdeth all high things: he is a king over all the children of pride."

We just read about this in Ezekiel 29:4 where God's talking to Satan: [4] But I will put hooks in thy jaws, and I will cause the fish of thy rivers to stick unto thy scales, and I will bring thee up out of the midst of thy rivers, and all the fish of thy rivers shall stick unto thy scales.

He's king over all the children of pride for the scales that he uses to demonstrate himself. He's got all this fish; all these people who join him because they're all the children of disobedience.

Here's the judgment in verse 5: [5] And I will leave thee thrown into the wilderness, thee and all the fish of thy rivers: thou shalt fall upon the open fields; thou shalt not be brought together, nor gathered: I have given thee for meat to the beasts of the field and to the fowls of the heaven.

He's going to take him out of the river, throw him up on the land. Down South we'd say, "I'm going to throw you to the wolves."

God's saying, "I'm just going to put you up on the land and let anybody eat on you; just eat you up, take all your defenses away and you're not going to do a thing about it. I'm going to destroy you."

Verse 6: [6] And all the inhabitants of Egypt shall know that I am the LORD, because they have been a staff of reed to the house of Israel. In other words, "Everybody's going to know you aren't the Creator; I am."

Satan calls in his minions from around the planet for his stomping by Christ

Here's a second installment following yesterday's post and working on new topic for tomorrow evening's article:

John 13: [26] Jesus answered, He it is, to whom I shall give a sop, when I have dipped it. And when he had dipped the sop, he gave it to Judas Iscariot, the son of Simon.

[27] And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

At the beginning Satan puts it in Judas’ heart. He’s not content with that so now he’s going to up the ante and there’s this intensification.

It’s a progressive attack going on and finally, at this point, Satan enters personally into Judas and the ministry of Christ comes to a crescendo where there’s this personal struggle between Him and Satan.

You know the struggle: the seed of the woman and the seed of the serpent that goes all through Israel’s history, man’s history. But at this point that conflict is coming to its apex; the crescendo of animosity and hostility between Satan and Christ on a personal level.

Luke 11: [20] But if I with the finger of God cast out devils, no doubt the kingdom of God is come upon you.
[21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

In the parallel passage in Matthew 12, He says: [28] But if I cast out devils by the Spirit of God, then the kingdom of God is come unto you.

When you compare the two passages, one says the Spirit of God and one says the finger of God, so what does that tell you the finger of God is? The Spriit of God.

In Exodus when God wrote the 10 commandments on stone, it says He wrote it with His finger. So who was actually writing it? The Holy Spirit.

Satan brings in all of his host; the demonic forces that operate his system. He’s brought them into the land because Christ just showed up and what Christ is coming to do is take back His possession; take back His nation.

When He says, “But if I with the finger of God cast out devils,” that’s what He’s going to do when the kingdom comes. He’s going to cast them out.

Jeremiah 31: [10] Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
[11] For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

Satan literally held Israel in captivity; it’s like he gripped them and he’s so strong they couldn’t liberate themselves. They can’t extricate themselves, but Christ will and He’s come to do that.

Isaiah 49 is a tremendously helpful passage. After talking down through the chapter about delivering and restoring Israel, in verse 24 you have an objection:

[24] Shall the prey be taken from the mighty, or the lawful captive delivered?
[25] But thus saith the LORD, Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.
[26] And I will feed them that oppress thee with their own flesh; and they shall be drunken with their own blood, as with sweet wine: and all flesh shall know that I the LORD am thy Saviour and thy Redeemer, the mighty One of Jacob.

In verse 24, it’s, “Wait a minute, before you do all that kingdom stuff, shall the prey be taken from the mighty and the lawful captive be delivered?”

Satan looks at the Lord and says, “Wait a minute, I lawfully hold these people. They were my prey. I went and sought them and caught them and I’ve got them and they can’t get out of my grip. And not only that, your law says they’re mine because they’ve broken your covenant; they’ve broken the law. So I’ve got them. You can’t fulfill your promises.”

And the Lord says, “Even the captives of the mighty shall be taken away, and the prey of the terrible shall be delivered: for I will contend with him that contendeth with thee, and I will save thy children.”

Satan says, “I got these people! I’m stronger than them. They can’t get out from under my control. I have the power of darkness and, besides that, I’ve got you boxed in; you can’t help them because the reason they’re in captivity is they broke the law. They’re in my control because your law says I’ve got them.”

He says, “You can’t do that,” and the Lord says, “Yeah, I can.” “No you can’t!” “Yeah I can.” “No you can’t!” “Yeah I can.”

You know what that would do to you? It would just make you madder and madder and madder and madder and pretty soon you’re pitching a fit because you’re completely frustrated and that fury’s developing.

*****

This is an old study on the same subject:

When Jesus Christ arrives on the scene and says to John the Baptist, ‘I need to be baptized,’ and then goes down through the water and out into the wilderness where He’s tempted by the devil, He is, in essence, repeating the history of Israel.

“Israel goes into the water at the Red Sea and then out into the wilderness where they are tempted but they fail,” explains Jordan. “Christ comes and says, ‘I’m the true vine; I’m the true nation.’ Satan offers Him all the kingdoms of this world if He’ll just follow him and what does Christ do? He doesn’t go for it.

“So Satan goes back and now there’s a contest in the land between Christ and Satan. Christ gets up from there and goes into the cities, and Matthew 4 says He heals the sick, cleanses the leper, throws out the demons, raises the dead, and that the fame of Him went out throughout the land. He shows and preaches, ‘The kingdom is here.’ He says, ‘If I, by the Spirit of God, cast out the devils, then the kingdom of God is come.’

“First it was just the temptation. Then there’s a WAR that begins to rumble in the land. Luke 11 says, [21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

“You see how it describes what Satan is here? He’s a strongman who calls in all his armor; all the unclean spirits and demonic activity. He’s got all these demons from all over the planet and he calls them all back in and says, ‘Hey guys, let’s get all the forces back here because HERE’S where the battle is!’

*****

“I showed you how there were more demons in the land of Palestine then there were Jews to fill. Mary Magdalene had seven in her! That Maniac of Gadara had legions. A Roman legion is 2,000. I mean, ‘Gee whiz, no wonder the guy was buggy!’

“If you study the things that Maniac of Gadara did in Mark 5 and compare it with the comparative passages in Isaiah, you’ll see that all the things he was doing—living in the mountains, living among the tombs, cutting himself—were the activity of Baal worship; of the devils. He was up there worshipping, controlling, doing the will of the Adversary.

“So Christ came along and now there’s a bigger threat. Finally, Satan says, ‘If I have to, if my minions won’t do it for me, I’ll come and do it myself!’

“What does it say about Judas? Satan himself entered into Judas. Satan says, ‘All right, I’ll go do it myself!’

*****

“There’s this building of the contest and the fury builds and finally there’s that power of the hour of darkness at Calvary where Christ literally provokes, ‘Where are you?! I thought you wanted to argue about this?! C’mon! Come stand near. Pour it on!’

“Christ provokes the Adversary to a frenzy of bloodlust rage in which, blinded by the rage of self-serving, of sin, he does the very thing that turns out to be his undoing.

“Christ bruised the heel of His Adversary and literally, in the prophetic Scripture, the picture is of Satan laying prostrate on the ground at the feet of Christ and Christ going, ‘Stomp! You’re dead, sucker!’

“That’s why Christ can say in Matthew 28, ‘All power in heaven and in earth is given unto me.’ In Luke 4, Satan claimed all that for himself and Christ didn’t argue about it. But after the resurrection, He says, ‘It’s mine. I won the right to it.’

“He goes away as a royal exile ready to come back and take up the reigns, pouring out His wrath. The execution of the prophetic program, or of what we’re a part of, destroys the plan in all its intricacies and it’s all done because of the strategic victory that was won at Calvary when He becomes the Redeemer.

*****

“There’s some things done at Calvary that aren’t explained until Paul comes along. That’s why in Colossians 2, Paul tells you, [14] Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
[15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

“You know what He did? His sacrifice at the Cross becomes the means whereby the law that held Israel captive is satisfied and the debt’s paid. And then He makes a new covenant with Israel; that old one having been satisfied and paid. That law is finished, it’s satisfied, it’s done.

“How? By dying. By taking the penalty of the law and then He can replace it with a new covenant where He will do for Israel what they couldn’t do for themselves. How does He have the right to do that? Because He’s their Kinsman Redeemer and that’s what a Kinsman Redeemer does. He pays the debt to restore the inheritance.

“As Paul says in Colossians 1:13-14: [13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
[14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.

“He won the right to change OUR citizenship, too, and it was all done at the Cross.”

Undoing of Satan and all his counsel

This is first installment of Bible study and will have the other half, filling in the holes, this evening:

Jesus Christ says in Luke 11: [21] When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace:
[22] But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.

Satan understands what the purpose of the land of Palestine is in God’s program and why He gave that particular piece of real estate to the nation Israel, explains Richard Jordan.

You go back to Genesis where Jacob has the dream of the ladder and so forth and calls where he’s at “Bethel”, the house of God, and he calls it the gate of heaven.

Genesis 28: [16] And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the LORD is in this place; and I knew it not.
[17] And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.

You remember Lot sat in the “gate of Sodom”? He’s in the government.

Jacob sees the angels ascending and descending. They go out and they come back. They come here, get their orders and they go fulfill their orders and come and report back.

Here’s a strong man; he’s armed and he’s going to keep the ground that he knows is the place where God’s going to reign. His goods are at peace, but if a stronger than him shows up he’ll take it away from him.

The conflict between Satan and Christ . . . Satan enters into Judas and it’s not enough just to put the idea in his mind; there’s a conflict on a personal level between Satan and Christ and Satan’s not going to leave it to anybody else. He’s going to personally come and attack the Lord Jesus; he’s personally going to go after Him.

*****

Jesus Christ is the rightful ruler of the universe by virtue of the Crosswork.

Paul, in Colossians 1, tells us the reason God could have a dispensation of Gentiles: [13] Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
[14] In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Hebrews 2: [14] Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

The Lord Jesus Christ successfully entered into the sphere of Satan’s greatest strength, the power of death, and what did He do? He destroyed death. How? By the resurrection.

Why didn’t He stop Satan from doing what he’s doing in John 13? You remember when Christ confronts Saul on the Road to Damascus?

Acts 9: [3] And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:
[4] And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me?
[5] And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

You know what a prick is? You keep sticking somebody with it, pricking them, poking them. Why do you do that? Make them mad.

And Christ literally enraged Satan into a bloodthirsty rage to follow his natural fallen instincts.

The reason Christ didn’t throw Satan out is because He was going to His death and He was going to have Satan kill Him, so Satan did the very thing that turns out to be his undoing.

When Satan sees the Cross, he had to say, “I did it,” and it’s the thing that, through death, Christ “destroys him that had the power of death,” and it was that power of death that held you and me (as Gentiles) and Israel, mankind, in bondage and fear of death.

So Christ delivers us from the very thing that’s holding us in satanic captivity and secures redemption for Israel—and, as we learn, for us too.

Now, Satan didn’t know anything about us. You go to  I Corinthians 2 and you appreciate the fact that there was a part of the program that wasn’t there for Satan to even think about.

I Corinthians 2: [7] But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory:
[8] Which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.

We’ve studied about the fact that God has this congregation of the mighty ones that meets together and He trains them and teaches them to operate and to think in the wisdom, knowledge and understanding that He has in creation.

The fallen gods do the same thing, and yet in all of their counsel and all of their discussions, they never came up with—“What’s the strategy we’re going to use to fight and defend our purpose?” They never came up with the idea of grace.

The song says, “Grace ’tis a charming sound, melodious to our ears.” But it sure isn’t according to human viewpoint.

Paul says in Ephesians 3 that He’ll give you whatever you ask or think. I’ve thought about that verse a lot: [20] Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us,

Would you have ever thought, not just asked, but even thought about asking God to make His Son a man so He could be a curse for you? No, you wouldn’t have thought of that. That’s grace thinking; that’s God’s love going to God’s wisdom and saying, “We need a plan,” and then God stepping forward and saying, “Here’s the plan.”

I Corinthians 3: [18] Let no man deceive himself. If any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise.
[19] For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness.

Again, the Lord knows the thoughts of the wise, that they’re vain. God knew what they were going to do. They didn’t think of what He was going to do. So He wins the victory. The ultimate victory comes through the wisdom of God. That’s the point.

In Colossians 2, you see not only did He provide that victory for the nation Israel, delivering them from the strongman, but in verse 9: [9] For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.
[10] And ye are complete in him, which is the head of all principality and power:
[11] In whom also ye are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ:
[12] Buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with him through the faith of the operation of God, who hath raised him from the dead.

There’s no water in that; that’s your identification with Christ. That’s something God does. The circumcision is made without hands. The baptism isn’t something a preacher or priest does. This is the operation that God does.

Corinthians in a New York state of mind

(sorry for delay--new article for certain this evening before midnight)

“Corinth (pop. 500,000) was what we would call a first-century laissez-faire society; their motto could have been ‘anything goes,’ and, it did,” writes Richard Ritenbaugh (www.bibletools.org) about what the port city was like at the time of Paul’s ministry there. “Even though Aphrodite was the leading deity in Corinth, Poseidon was the patron deity of Corinth, since it was right on the sea.

"Professional gamblers and athletes betting on the Isthmean Games took up residence here. Slaves, sometimes freed but with no place to go, roamed the streets day and night. And prostitutes, both male and female, were abundant . . . The temple of Aphrodite on the Acro-Corinthus, high point of Corinth, employed 1000 prostitutes alone . . . These were people who came out of a highly sexualized culture.

“People from Rome, the remainder of Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and indeed all the Mediterranean world relished the lack of standards, and freedom of thought which prevailed in that city. These were the people who eventually made up the Corinthian church. They had to learn to live together in harmony, although their national, social, economic, and religious backgrounds were very different.

“So, what we have is a first century version of New York City. Everybody tries to go there. There is vice. There is every kind of idea. You have actors, sports figures, financiers, business heads, great minds, artists, philosophers, all making their pilgrimage to a city where they know that they will have the freedom to do what they want to do. And this was known throughout the Mediterranean world. In fact, there was a word—to corinthianize—which means almost without restraint. It was tinged, of course, with sexual innuendo.”

*****

“The first six chapters of Corinthians are a scathing rebuke to those Corinthian Believers for their lackadaisical, unworthy, appalling lifestyle,” says Richard Jordan. “They were fighting. They were suing each other. They were in some gross immorality.

“Paul tells them, ‘You’ve got such wickedness in your midst that it isn’t even named among the Gentiles.’ He’s telling them the unsaved Gentiles had better morals, more scruples and respect than they had. There was terrible wickedness openly in their midst.

“Do you think that was much of a testimony to the Jews whose Scripture would look at that and reason, ‘God says that kind of a person is an abomination to Him; God can’t be over there’?

“The Corinthian Believers needed, literally, the supernatural sign gifts that could not be gainsayed in their midst, not because of their spiritual condition, but because of the fact that they weren’t very spiritually minded.

“God is giving them a supernatural ministry IN SPITE of their lack of faith, lack of faithfulness and lack of a proper worthy walk. The 'sign gifts' were not given to the Corinthians because they sought it harder, prayed for it more earnestly, and deserved it more, in spite of all the stuff you hear today to the contrary.

“Those people were in a morally and spiritually lethargic and lecherous condition and God put the 'sign gifts' there sovereignly because of the need of the witness He was bearing to those Jews. And because He bore it there, that witness is recorded in Scripture for all time.

“Let me tell you, if there’s anything the grace message has contributed to understanding is that the ‘gift program’ is over and folks, when it’s over it’s over, and there are no gifts for you to seek today and you’re not a gifted person in the sense the Corinthians were.

“That’s the reason that verse in Ephesians 4 is in the PAST tense. Paul writes, [11] And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
[12] For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
[13] Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

“When the Word of God came there wasn’t a need any more for Him to supernaturally give it, because now we’ve got the doctrine in the written Word that we can put in our heart and be the motivator for us to then go do the things. Before the doctrine in the Word, they needed the gifts to motivate them to go do.”