“Today’s Church wants to be raptured from responsibility.” — Leonard Ravenhill
Have you ever noticed that the age demographic of those who promulgate the “end time” message are, for the most part, a bunch of “free love” hippies from the 1960s and 70s who have lost hope in God, love for man (1 John 5:2) and love for their country?
Look at what their messages are and you will understand what I am explaining here. They are believers that just do not believe.
These hippies are continuously magnifying, through their lack of love (Matthew 24:12) though they talk much of it (Matthew 15:8), fear; a fear of the consequences of their dereliction of duty (1 John 2:4) in reaping the curse (Leviticus 26:14), a fear of man which paralyzes and, in the end, a snare (Proverbs 29:25). In fact, it is a fear in which the Lord did not give (1 Timothy 1:7).
They continuously magnify lawlessness (Proverbs 28:4), magnify crimes against God and man, which merely exposes their hate and rebellion toward God and man presenting a message to the people that is a blatant failure to love God enough to actually obey Him (John 14:21).
Remember, it is the church’s obligation to deal with the wicked (Psalm 94:16) in keeping His commandments unto judgment in establishing peace (Deuteronomy 4:6; Isaiah 51:4) because they love.
These hippies have learned well from the world and the mainstream media in submitting to the wicked. This is the world of which they have been commanded to come out (2 Corinthians 6:17).
These are also the same group of hippies that have convinced many in America to separate God’s law from His love, when love is the fulfilling of that law.
“Love worketh no ill to his neighbour: therefore love is the fulfilling of the law.” Romans 13:10; Leviticus 19:17
These same hippies have also attempted to abrogate that which Jesus did not come to abrogate but to explain!
“Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.” -Matthew 5:17-18
They want to create, out of thin air, terms like “legalism” and “legalistic,” As if to suggest that when you obey God’s government that is somehow legalistic. This mentality is brought to you exclusively by the hippies (Antinomians with no regard for law) that are responsible for the anarchy which you see today in America.
On a Personal note, I obey because I see what Christ did for me on Calvary (John 3:16) in covering my sins through His blood (Revelation 1:5) in living for Him who died for me (2 Corinthians 5:15).
What did He magnify in His incarnate life? The Law (Exodus 20), which drove me to the foot of the cross to meet my Savior from my sins (Matthew 1:21; John 16:8; Acts 20:21).
Jesus magnified the law of God. Just look to the Scriptures.
“The Lord is well pleased for his righteousness’ sake; he will magnify the law, and make it honourable.” -Isaiah 42:21
“Then said I, Lo, I come: in the volume of the book it is written of me, I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.” -Psalm 40:7-8
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a people:” -Hebrews 8:10
Jesus clearly came to establish the law through faith.
“Do we then make void the law through faith? God forbid: yea, we establish the law.” -Romans 3:31
After all, the law is the schoolmaster to bring men unto Christ (Galatians 3:24).
“The Law detects, grace alone conquers.” -Augustine
Scripture also warns of those who speak not accordingly.
“To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” -Isaiah 8:20
“Scripture is also clear that “Faith worketh by love.” -Galatians 5:6
Let me ask you, is it then love to withhold the faith which brings about the works? No, it’s just the opposite.
“ What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does It profit? 17 Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. Somehow or another these hippies seem to overlook the scriptures that clearly expose their hypocrisies (Matthew 16:6) and inactions (James 2:14-17, 26).
“For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments: And might not be as their fathers, a stubborn and rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and whose spirit was not steadfast with God. The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle. They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in his law;” -Psalm 78:5-10
However, the hippies of today gather in the thousands and have become nothing short of a bunch of fear-mongering cowards (1 Timothy 1:7; Revelation 21:8) that capitulate and continue to spread nothing but what’s in their reprobate hearts, and that message is “gloom and doom.” How contrary to that of Scripture and the examples set forth?
Then again:
“For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears; And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.” -2 Timothy 4:3-4
They can only give what they have received, and what they have received is what they have to offer- and what is that? Hopelessness! It shows you what these hippies are feeding upon. It is the blind leading the blind, and it is why they are leading their followers, who should be following Jesus (John 14:6), into the ditch (Matthew 15:14).
These are the same unrepentant hippies (2 Corinthians 7:10) hippies that are fueling fear, which only oppresses the up and coming generations, in which they have, in so many ways, forsaken decades ago, twice as much the sons and daughters of hell (Matthew 23:15), just like themselves (Psalm 9:17).
These hippies do not preach Christ crucified (1 Corinthians 1:23-30). They preach “Get ready fearful flock, Jesus is coming back soon, come buy your new bunker from me.”
Gloom and doom, gloom and doom is what they proclaim, failing to lift a finger in obedience to the Lord or to help of their own posterity. How contrary to Scripture!
These hippies then wonder why they are a reproach, why they are despised by the younger generations and others that see through their facade of heretical teachings Let me tell you why that is. They have been subjected to everything and protected from nothing and these people do nothing but offer an unsettling fear (1 John 3:18).
Friends, these hippies are dead in their sins (1 Corinthians 15:17), they preach a false grace that is pushed as an occasion for the flesh to succumb rather than an empowerment that overcomes (Romans 8:37; 1 John 4:4, 5:4).
Remember,
“But where sin abounded, grace did much more abound.” -Romans 5:20
They know not the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, Jesus Christ. They know death not life, and they desire all that listen to their messages to embrace the same (Matthew 23:27).
“He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.” -1 John 5:12
Where do you see or hear these hippies living in union with Christ (Romans 8:17), boldly proclaiming in power “Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you”? (Luke 10:19)
When speaking of the revelation given unto the Church, Jesus said, “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it” (Matthew 16:18).
Scripture tells us in 1 John 2:6,
“He that saith he abideth in him ought himself also so to walk, even as he walked.”
Well then, what did Jesus do? He said, “Follow Me” (Matthew 4:19).
In following Christ, what is it that we see the Christ doing? Occupying! The Church is to emulate what Christ did and is doing today (1 John 4:17)!
Jesus said “Occupy till I come” (Luke 19:13).
It was Jesus that said, “Say not ye, There are yet four months, and then cometh harvest? behold, I say unto you, Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest” (John 4:35).
It was Jesus that said “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age” (Matthew 28: 19-20).
I cannot find Jesus telling His followers to sit down and do nothing, that God is on His throne and He will do for them what they are unwilling to do for themselves, nowhere!
Furthermore, the Church is not to limit the Holy One of Israel (Psalm 78:41)!
But I do find promises to those who disobey the Lord.
“And it shall come to pass, that as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you; so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you, and to bring you to nought; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whither thou goest to possess it.” -Deuteronomy 28:63
And the reason why…
“I am the Lord your God, which brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, that ye should not be their bondmen; and I have broken the bands of your yoke, and made you go upright.But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you;” -Leviticus 26:13-16
These are the same people, in their unregenerate state, who look for another opportunity to capitalize on those who are foolish enough to listen to their heretical and unscriptural theology of eschatology.
Of course, they cannot pass by the opportunity as to why they should write a book every year highlighting when Jesus may be coming back. They want to tell what Jesus Himself said that He did not know (Matthew 24:36).
Yet, these are the same “do nothing” hippies who are trying to convince you that you are going to be raptured from responsibility. You can’t find that in the Bible either.
The good news is that you can find NO WHERE in Scripture where the Lord EVER failed a faithful man or a faithful woman of God, NO WHERE (1 Kings 8:56).
Finally, can you imagine our forefathers back in the 1700s saying, “This is it. It is all over with. Jesus is coming back to get us out of here”?
No, our forefathers, along with the Black Robed Regiment, 13 colonies and with less than 3% of the population, responded to God’s commandments. They took heed unto the Lord and He bestowed upon them the victory throughout the War for Independence. Remember our national motto, “No King but King Jesus” with the flags flying, “Appeal to Heaven.”
They saw their responsibilities and answered the call.
America, when we call upon the God of our fathers even now, in Jesus’ name, He will answer. Yet, we must all meet Him on His terms (Jeremiah 29:11-13). Our forefathers did not lay down, they stood up and played the men that God created them to be. They fought the good fight of faith (1 Timothy 6:12) and secured their posterity’s future. They did not fall to circumstance, they sought the Lord, He heard, answered, and set the record straight that He is the same yesterday, today and forever (Malachi 3:6; Hebrews 13:8).
The Lord showed Himself strong on their behalf. With this, our forefathers pledged the high cost of their lives, fortunes and sacred honor, and paid with their blood to redeem us (in the natural-1 Corinthians 2:14) through their sacrifice (John 3:16; 1 Peter 3:18) and yet, we call them blessed.
The second President of the United States John Adams said, “Posterity, You will never know how much it cost the present generation to preserve its freedom! I hope you will make good use of it. If you do not, I shall repent in Heaven, that I ever took half the pains to preserve it.”
The way in which we express our gratitude to those who gave so much is to honor them with our actions in living for what they died to give us (2 Corinthians 3:17).
“Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will perform that good thing which I have promised unto the house of Israel and to the house of Judah. In those days, and at that time, will I cause the Branch of righteousness to grow up unto David; and he shall execute judgment and righteousness in the land. In those days shall Judah be saved, and Jerusalem shall dwell safely: and this is the name wherewith she shall be called, The Lord our righteousness.” -Jeremiah 33:14-16
© 2019 Bradlee Dean – All Rights Reserved
E-Mail Bradlee Dean: Bradlee@SonsOfLibertyRadio.com
