Theology – THE EXILE OBSERVER

Isaiah 61 & Luke 4

Isaiah 61:1 “The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound;

2 To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;”

Luke 4:17 “And there was delivered unto him the book of the prophet Esaias. And when he had opened the book, he found the place where it was written,

18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised,

19 To preach the acceptable year of the Lord.”

Before we delve into my recent study, it is important to highlight that the Lord Jesus Christ closed the book (Luke 4:20) before “…and the day of vengeance of our God…” (Isaiah 61:2). That action is a message in itself.

The main study in this article is to clear up what appears on the veneer to be a discrepancy between between Old Testament (OT) & New Testament verses. The majority of the items between the verses can be easily correlated:

Isaiah 61:1 Luke 4:18

preach good tidings unto the meek preach the gospel to the poor

bind up the brokenhearted heal the brokenhearted

proclaim liberty to the captives preach deliverance to the captives

the opening of the prison recovering of sight to the blind

to them that are bound set at liberty to them that are bruised

How can we correlate opening of the prison to recovering of sight to the blind?

Isaiah 42:7 “To open the blind eyes, to bring out the prisoners from the prison, and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house.”

In the verse we can connect opening blind eyes with bringing out prisoners who sit in darkness. Thus, God shows us–interpretations belong to God (Gen 40:8) and we used the word of God to understand the word of God. There are no contradictions in the word of God. If you encounter a situation like that, pray with faith & God will clear it up.

I love the King James Bible, not only because I know it is the inerrant, infallible word of God, but for a multitude of other reasons to include formal equivalence. The King James translators didn’t tamper with the OT verses in order to exactly, literally align them with the NT verses. They faithfully translated the Hebrew in Isaiah & the Greek in Luke–no need for dynamic equivalence. Compare scripture to scripture to scriptures…

Again, faithfully translated & interpretations belong to God.

Romans 3:4 “…yea, let God be true, but every man a liar…”

Elijah, John the Baptist, Elisha & The Lord Jesus Christ

When I began the study (or rather the study came to me–praise the Lord) of the Old Testament (OT) & New Testament (NT) connections between Elijah & Elisha in conjunction with John the Baptist & the Lord Jesus Christ–barely scratching the surface lead to an overwhelming amount of information.

For instance, a study of parallels between Elijah versus Ahab/Jezebel in relation to John the Baptist versus Herod/Herodias involves a large quantity of scripture in itself. There are an abundance of comparisons surrounding the article’s title, so I decided to highlight the following portion from my study:

We can set a base for relating John the Baptist with Elijah via Malachi 4:5-6, Luke 1:17, Matthew 11:13-14 & Mark 9:13. When it comes to Elisha & the Lord Jesus–we can find portraits of Christ throughout the OT. So let us dive in.

In 2 Kings 2 we read of the passing of the mantle from the prophet Elijah to the prophet Elisha (the OT verse will be followed by the NT parallel):

2 Kings 2:7 “And fifty men of the sons of the prophets went, and stood to view afar off: and they two stood by Jordan.”

Matthew 3:13 “Then cometh Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized of him.”

In 2 Kings 2:7 “the two” at the Jordan were Elijah & Elisha; in the NT John & the Lord Jesus. In the OT series Elijah parted the waters of the Jordan & they two crossed. Then Elijah was taken up into heaven by a whirlwind. Straightway, it is written of Elisha:

2 Kings 2:14 “And he took the mantle of Elijah that fell from him, and smote the waters, and said, Where is the LORD God of Elijah? and when he also had smitten the waters, they parted hither and thither: and Elisha went over.”

Matthew 3:16 “And Jesus, when he was baptized, went up straightway out of the water: and, lo, the heavens were opened unto him, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon him: 17 And lo a voice from heaven, saying, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

A couple of awesome parallels–praise the Lord. Elijah’s mantle fell to Elisha; meanwhile after the baptism of John, the Spirit of God descended like a dove & lighted upon the Lord Jesus Christ. Notice also that the waters parted for Elisha, meanwhile the heavens opened for the Lord Jesus Christ. Consider the notion of waters & heavens with:

Genesis 1:7 “And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. 8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

After Elisha smote the waters & they parted:

2 Kings 2:15 “And when the sons of the prophets which were to view at Jericho saw him, they said, The spirit of Elijah doth rest on Elisha. And they came to meet him, and bowed themselves to the ground before him.”

John 1:32 “And John bare record, saying, I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him. 33 And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost. 34 And I saw, and bare record that this is the Son of God.”

Thus, with the mantle, the parting of the waters & the spirit resting/the Spirit remaining–glorious parallels.

Unbound by Time

Isaiah 40:8 “The grass withereth, the flower fadeth: but the word of our God shall stand for ever.”

1 Peter 1:24 “For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth, and the flower thereof falleth away:

25 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you.”

To claim, when it comes to the Holy Bible, that we must know what was being said in the context of particular time, place & culture contradicts the aforementioned verses. The word of God is not subject:

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

Hebrew 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

I do not promote a complete ignorance of history; in fact, the Good Book provides much history. My proposition is that claiming, “what did it mean then & what does it mean now (in our culture)?”–is unsound doctrine.

1 Corinthians 10:11 “Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.”

Different time periods & culture do not dictate interpretation (although we fallible humans often try). We have the Old Testament & we have the New Testament–it is enough.

Luke 22:38 “And they said, Lord, behold, here are two swords. And he said unto them, It is enough.”

Ephesians 6:17 “..and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God:”

My claim is not akin to history has zero value. I am a history buff & history can offer insights, but let us not apply history to the word of God, but rather the word of God to history:

Hebrews 1:10 “And, Thou, Lord, in the beginning hast laid the foundation of the earth; and the heavens are the works of thine hands:

11 They shall perish; but thou remainest; and they all shall wax old as doth a garment;

12 And as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed: but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail.”

A Pattern Concerning Giants

Genesis 6:2 “That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.”

Judges 21:20 “Therefore they commanded the children of Benjamin, saying, Go and lie in wait in the vineyards;

21 And see, and, behold, if the daughters of Shiloh come out to dance in dances, then come ye out of the vineyards, and catch you every man his wife of the daughters of Shiloh, and go to the land of Benjamin.”

In Genesis 6 the sons of God, angels, took wives of the daughters of men–all which they chose. In the last two book of Judges, the chapters surround the Benjamites. The main point here is that after all the prior events of the two chapters, the remaining Benjamites did not have any wives.

The solution was Judges 21:20-21–when the virgin daughters of Shiloh performed their annual dance; the Benjamites would snatch a wife. There were 400 young virgins left over after the punitive destruction of Jabeshgilead. So we have the Benjamites mirroring the sons of God in Genesis 6.

When sons of God came into the daughters of men:

Genesis 6:4 “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.”

The Benjamites mirroring this action closed out the book of Judges. The next book is the last of judges–Samuel. In the book of Samuel the Israelites cried out for a king:

1 Samuel 10:20 “And when Samuel had caused all the tribes of Israel to come near, the tribe of Benjamin was taken.

21 When he had caused the tribe of Benjamin to come near by their families, the family of Matri was taken, and Saul the son of Kish was taken: and when they sought him, he could not be found.

22 Therefore they enquired of the LORD further, if the man should yet come thither. And the LORD answered, Behold, he hath hid himself among the stuff.

23 And they ran and fetched him thence: and when he stood among the people, he was higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward.”

Therefore, if you put it all together, the Benjamites in Judges 21 mirrored the action of the sons of God in Genesis 6–which resulted in giants. In the next book of the Bible a Benjamite, Saul–is chosen as king. Saul was, “…higher than any of the people from his shoulders and upward” (1 Sam 10:23 & mentioned earlier in 1 Sam 9:2).

Saul is not labeled as a giant, but he is taller than the rest of the Israelites. When the word of God speaks of giants, people often ignore the girth of the beings. One should picture an excessively tall being proportioned more like a football linebacker rather than a center in basketball.

At the end of the day it was not the tallest of the Israelites who defeated the 9 foot 9 inch tall (6 cubits) Goliath. It was David.

1 Samuel 16:7 “But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.”

Acts 13:21 “And afterward they desired a king: and God gave unto them Saul the son of Cis, a man of the tribe of Benjamin, by the space of forty years.

22 And when he had removed him, he raised up unto them David to be their king; to whom also he gave testimony, and said, I have found David the son of Jesse, a man after mine own heart, which shall fulfil all my will.

23 Of this man’s seed hath God according to his promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:”

I was absolutely delighted when the Lord opened my eyes to these parallels this morning. I will now relate all this to an uncomfortable subject, but something that is a reality in the West–eugenics.

Ever since the wealthy oligarchs & their education intellectuals rejected the word of God in favour of the theory of evolution the belief that mankind will somehow breed himself into some sort of salvation has become their doctrine. They think they will evolve & transcend mankind by breeding the alleged best of the best (best by measured IQ, physical traits, wealth, fame etc).

Notice with their Climate Change myth, you, O’ regular person should not breed to allegedly save the planet. However, the same wealthy & powerful who attend their global Climate Change conferences continue to breed undiscouraged.

Raised Up–A Symphony

1 Chronicles 17:11 “And it shall come to pass, when thy days be expired that thou must go to be with thy fathers, that I will raise up thy seed after thee, which shall be of thy sons; and I will establish his kingdom.

12 He shall build me an house, and I will stablish his throne for ever.

13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before thee:

14 But I will settle him in mine house and in my kingdom for ever: and his throne shall be established for evermore.”

Acts 2:29 “Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

30 Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

31 He seeing this before spake of the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in hell, neither his flesh did see corruption.

32 This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”

The following revisions omit important words from Acts 2:29:

ASV, RSV, NRSV, NLT, NIV, NASB, HCSB, ESV

For beginners, the mentioned revisions remove, “according to the flesh” from Acts 2:29 (see 1 John 4:1-3 for more on that matter). They also omit, “raise up Christ.” This disrupts the correlation not only with “raise up” in 1 Chronicles 17:11, but also disrupts Acts 2:29-32 in itself.

The omission of “raise up Christ” to sit on his throne is replaced in the revisions with only, “seat” or “put” one of his (David) descendants on his throne. As proven by Acts 2:29-32; the series in 1 Chronicles 17:11-14 is more than seating a descendant of David on the throne–“raise up,” a prophecy fulfilled by the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.

As I said, removing “raise up Christ” & replacing it with seating one of his descendants on his throne in Acts 2:30 does not even sync well with the subsequent verses concerning His resurrection. Acts 2:30 includes “raise up Christ” & the provided portion concludes with:

Acts 2:32 “This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses.”

The word of God is a perfect, interconnected symphony; if one note is changed over here, it disrupts the unity & continuity with a note elsewhere. A person does not need to know one iota of Hebrew or Greek to witness the recklessness of modern scholars in the English language.

Modern scholars have often claimed they simply want to update pronouns such as thee, thou or ye (in truth, the English Grammar pronouns are more concise than the wide ranging vernacular pronouns). However, avid Bible readers can routinely witness that they have changed so much more.

There is a great irony with the modern scholars & their more “readable” revisions: not only do they disrupt verse-to-verse correlations in the Bible, but they also have made verses more difficult to understand even within their own context.

John 2:18 “Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?

19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Serving the Groves…again

2 Chronicles 24:18 “And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.”

When people abandon faith in the word of God, the concept of groves & serving groves routinely occurs.

When a church believes the word of man’s science instead of the word of God–they are left with little to preach about & cannot edify anybody. So they turn to the communist platform (psychology, racism, sexism, LGBT & socialism) in the hopes of fulfilling something.

There is another common denominator within Churches that have abandoned faith in the word of God: serving groves. Yes, instead of preaching about the Word made flesh (John 1:14) the Word of God, the Lord Jesus Christ–the same who have abandoned faith often “preach” or have mission statements concerning climate change or sustainable development.

Therefore, they are back to serving groves again. They just repackage their pagan religions as modern science so called.

The Mad Star

Isaiah 14:12 “How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!”

(Even if one is not a KJB’er, stick around because my translation notes are relatively short & their is edification for all believers in this post. I do not include macrons or symbols above the hebrew or greek words, I do not know how on this website, but the words are accompanied by Strong’s Concordance reference numbers)

Anyone who has engaged in the KJB vs the rest debate should be familiar with the issue of modern translations & Isaiah 14:12. A majority of modern translations substitute “Lucifer” with “morning star” or “day star.”

The primary debate is that both substitute terms used by many modern translators refer to the Lord Jesus Christ in the New Testament (2 Peter 2:9; Rev 22:16). That is evidence enough against modern translations from my estimation. I will offer something more though.

In the Bible, God provides the proper names of people & places. Sometimes He gives us the name meaning along with the name, but for most proper names the English reader has to refer to a concordance. Why would modern translators chose only one name (Lucifer) out of the entire Bible & only give the name meaning, but not the name itself? That is inconsistent.

Lucifer appears once in scripture in the KJB, Geneva & Wycliffe Bible. The hebrew word is “heylel” (H1966). Strong’s concordance says it means “morning star,” refer back to the paragraph above. One question for both KJB’ers or MT’ers should be, how is the name Lucifer a name for the devil? In Isaiah 14, it speaks of the King of Babylon? There are several reasons (the examples at the end of this article also infer it), but for beginners in Isaiah 14 we can tell God speaks of more than the King of Babylon:

Isaiah 14:29 “Rejoice not thou, whole Palestina, because the rod of him that smote thee is broken: for out of the serpent’s root shall come forth a cockatrice, and his fruit shall be a fiery flying serpent.”

Thus, Isaiah 14 speaks of the fall of the King of Babylon & includes breaking the Assyrian (Babylon included Assyria in their empire)–then we have the mention of the “serpent’s root.” Full stop. Let us address the common scholarly claim that Satan is not the same Satan throughout scripture. They claim the proper name is instead a general term for an adversary & Satan refers different entities throughout scripture. Satan is the same Satan & the serpent is Satan:

Revelation 12:9 “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.”

Revelation 20:9 “And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,”

Now for a very interest thing involving the Geneva Bible. For starters, the KJB translators did not claim all prior English translations bad translations; in fact, their goal was to make “one principal good one.” They succeeded, for even MT advocates use the KJB as the standard for comparison. James White wrote The King James Only Controversy–not the NIV or ESV or NLT or NASB controversy.

In the Geneva Bible, which also uses the name Lucifer in Isaiah 14:12, there is an interesting expository footnote which includes, “…for the morning star that goeth before the sun, is called Lucifer, to whom Nebuchadnezzar is compared.”

Here is how that exposition ties in: the name heylel (H1966) is a derivative of halal (H1984). The term halal is used 165 times & the KJB translators rendered it most often as “praise,” but also sometimes as “glory” or “shine” (amongst 13 different renderings). The interesting thing in relation to the Geneva footnote is that KJB translators rendered halal as “mad” (as in insane) several occasions. Well…what happened to Nebuchadnezzar?

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

Thus, the reason I used the term The Mad Star for the title.

Another interesting note in the study; the Romans called the planet, a”star” to them–Lucifer (one source–The Days of the Week by Isidore, bishop of Seville). If one looks up at the night sky & regards all the lights as stars; some stars have an erratic pattern (you could say mad pattern) in respect to other stars. In Jude 1:13 we encounter the phrase “…wandering stars…” which is planetes (G4107) aster (G792).

Like when the Lord Jesus turned water into wine, I saved the best for last in this article:

John 2:10 “And saith unto him, Every man at the beginning doth set forth good wine; and when men have well drunk, then that which is worse: but thou hast kept the good wine until now.”

I will transition from translations & interesting notes to the prime edification of Isaiah 14. To say prime edification–the material has to do with our Lord Jesus Christ. Whether it is a prophecy or portrait of the Lord Jesus Christ in the OT or as in the case of Isaiah 14–a contrast.

In Isaiah 14:19 Lucifer/the King of Babylon is referred to as an “..abominable branch…” ; whereas Jesus the King of kings:

Isaiah 11:1 “And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots:”

Zechariah 6:12 “And speak unto him, saying, Thus speaketh the LORD of hosts, saying, Behold the man whose name is The BRANCH; and he shall grow up out of his place, and he shall build the temple of the LORD:”

John 2:19 “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”

Also concerning the King of Babylon/Lucifer in the Isaiah 14:9 “Hell from beneath is moved for thee to meet thee at thy coming…” in contrast to the Lord Jesus:

Mark 16:19 “So then after the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God.”

In Isaiah 14:13-14, Lucifer exalts himself, whereas the Lord Jesus Christ:

Philippians 2:6 “Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God:

7 But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men:

8 And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

9 Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10 That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11 And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Note that Lucifer said in his heart: “.. I will exalt my throne above the stars of God…” (Isaiah 14:13). There are many places in scripture where stars & angels can be connected (e.g. Rev 12:4 with Rev 12:9 or Job 38:7 which includes “morning stars”–boqer (H1242) kowkab (H3556) in that case). Thus, exalting himself above the angels of God. That is a contrast with our Lord Jesus Christ:

Hebrews 1:6 “And again, when he bringeth in the firstbegotten into the world, he saith, And let all the angels of God worship him.”

Hebrews 2:9 “But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.”

Finally, even if MT’s render the name Lucifer as “morning star” or “day star” as a reference to the physical star or planet that we can observe rise in the sky; note the contrast to the where the true day star (the Lord Jesus Christ) arises:

2 Peter 1:19 “We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:”

Luke 17:20 “And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.”

Praise the Lord Jesus Christ.

The Strange Woman

Proverbs 5:3 “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, and her mouth is smoother than oil:

4 But her end is bitter as wormwood, sharp as a twoedged sword.

5 Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.

6 Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.”

The strange woman in the book of Proverbs is a strange woman & the strange woman as in the harlot of Babylon which is the mother of harlots–so like mother, like daughter. She is juxtaposed to wisdom in the book. The strange woman is an adulteress & consider this series:

Proverbs 7:18 “Come, let us take our fill of love until the morning: let us solace ourselves with loves.

19 For the goodman is not at home, he is gone a long journey:

20 He hath taken a bag of money with him, and will come home at the day appointed.”

I refuse to believe that a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ can miss the bigger implications in the above series (Mark 13:34).

To return to the article’s opening verses from Proverbs 5, I searched the scriptures & here are some correlations & contrasts to the verses about the strange woman (I added the roman numerals to clearly delineate the sections–there is a lot of scripture):

I: Proverbs 5:3 “For the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb…”

Proverbs 16:24 “Pleasant words are as an honeycomb…”

She speaks some pleasant words, they drop as an honeycomb, thus they drop like honey. In contrast the law, testimony, statutes, commandment, fear & judgments of the LORD (Psalms 19:7-9):

Psalms 19:10 “..sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb.”

II: Proverbs 5:3 “…and her mouth is smoother than oil:”

This section took me a long time to correlate (or as I believe not in the nature of a boast: the Lord finally showed me) because I was focussed entirely on the oil. Her mouth is smoother than oil–she speaks smoother than smooth things:

Isaiah 30:10 “Which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits:”

The people only wanted to hear smooth things even if they are lies. The subject of peace always sounds like a smooth thing, but is it truth?:

Jeremiah 8:11 “For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.”

Thus, I correlate the sequence to a false prophetess:

Revelation 2:20 “Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee, because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols.”

III Proverbs 5:4 “But her end is bitter as wormwood,…”

If you recall in section I, the judgments of the LORD (Psalm 19:7-10) are included amongst the things that, “…are sweeter also than the honey and the honeycomb.”

Amos 5:7 “Ye who turn judgment to wormwood, and leave off righteousness in the earth,”

Romans 1:32 “Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.”

Thus we have the judgment of God & the woman promotes celebrating the opposite (readers of Romans 1 should understand a common popular issue that certainly relates). The word wormwood correlates to bitterness (Lam 3:15, Rev 8:10-11):

Deuteronomy 32:32 “For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, and of the fields of Gomorrah: their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter:

33 Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps.”

With the venoms of asps, see Romans 3:13-3:18, which includes:

Romans 3:18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

Juxtaposed to the wormwood & the bitterness of that vine:

John 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.”

In Revelation 8:11 “..and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.” Thus, the waters poisoned by Wormwood are a deadly drink:

Mark 16:18 “They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them…”

IV Proverbs 5:4 “..sharp as a twoedged sword. ”

Her end is as sharp as a twoedged sword. That is an end to be feared:

Luke 12:5 “But I will forewarn you whom ye shall fear: Fear him, which after he hath killed hath power to cast into hell; yea, I say unto you, Fear him.”

Proverbs 8:13 “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.”

Her end is sharp as a twoedged sword, but:

Hebrews 4:12 “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword…”

V Proverbs 5:5 “Her feet go down to death; her steps take hold on hell.”

Concerning the same strange woman:

Proverbs 2:19 “None that go unto her return again, neither take they hold of the paths of life.”

The strange women takes us in quite a different direction than life:

Matthew 7:13 “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:

14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

John 14:6 “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

VI Proverbs 5:6 “Lest thou shouldest ponder the path of life, her ways are moveable, that thou canst not know them.”

She could make you ponder the path of life (for example ponder John 14:6), like the common claim that there are many religions & many different paths to God. That is not what the word of God says:

1 Timothy 2:15 “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;”

1 John 2:22 “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son.

23 Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father: (but) he that acknowledgeth the Son hath the Father also.”

One can never be certain because of her moveable ways; the opposite of simplicity:

2 Corinthians 11:3 “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”

Her ways are moveable, in contrast:

Malachi 3:6 “For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”

Hebrews 13:8 “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

Unsound Eschatology

I will begin the article by defining what may be Christian jargon for some. I do not do so as if I am standing on an intellectual pedestal & I am feeding the lowly masses. Familiarity with terminology is no measure of intelligence. That is why I dislike the slang phrase dumbing down. So one never heard a term before or it is not a routine part of one’s vocabulary–that would be uninformed or unaware, not dumb.

Doctrine–A collection of beliefs that are supposed to be based off the word of God. A doctrine may encompass several supporting scriptures from different books & chapters of the Bible. Sometimes the label for the doctrine is based off an older language; also the label is used for brevity. Thus, one may not find the verbatim label for the doctrine in scriptures. For instance the rapture is used instead of the, “…caught up” (1 Thess 4:17). That label is derived from an older language. Another example for brevity is the harrowing of hell. Not all doctrine universally agreed upon via interpretation, but the label is an abbreviated way to highlight a subject for those who already have familiarity.

Eschatology–The doctrine of last things. To say end times is a reference to the same study.

Unsound Eschatology–Unsound doctrine of last things. An unreliable collection of beliefs concerning the end times because the collection of beliefs do not align with the Bible. Doctrine is not unsound or unreliable on the basis that it does not align with human reason or logic. The bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ is not logical or rational IAW with human reason. That is why I am not a fan of rational faith. The term itself entails cognitive dissonance.

Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.”

Faith is not going to meet a human endorsed rational or logical cause & effect formula. Some will accuse us of blind faith–which the phrase itself is like saying round circle: “the evidence of things not seen.” Blind faith? Guilty–so what? Not only is my faith irrational–it is exciting. On the topic of logic & reason, many versions of Christian doctrines have been warped via the influence of Plato or Aristotle. The two men wrote some interesting things, but an attempt to glean anything from the Holy Bible on the basis of their writings is error. Christians should be on guard when scholars or theologians routinely toss the terms rationality, logic or reason into the mix.

John 20:29 “Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

The existence of giants is not rational by our modern measure, yet God not only speaks of giants, but He also tells how big a certain giant’s bedstead was & that his bedstead was in a particular place at a particular time:

Deuteronomy 3:11 “For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.”

The dimensions of the bedstead are in the area of 13 feet long & 6 feet wide. The inference was not that Og owned a huge bed, but Og required a huge bed with strong support (iron). If the inference was luxury–we would have been told about Og’s gold or many possessions. All that being said, the size of Og does not align with modern human rationality. This might shake up some folks, but the giants existed–sound doctrine (Ecc 1:9; Gen 6:4; Dan 2:43). It is unsupported by modern human reason, but supported by the scripture.

All that wraps back around to eschatology. The manner of eschatology is molded by whether one has faith in the word of God or human reason or rationality:

2 Peter 3:3 “Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

(Compare to Exodus 32:1)

What people believe about the last things, whether they happen 10 minutes or 10 centuries from now–affects our modus operandi here & now. Generally speaking, there are two vastly different versions of eschatology being promoted within Christian institutions. I am not speaking of disagreements like whether the rapture occurs before, during or after the great tribulation. The two general doctrines are night & day.

I speak of one eschatology that involves patience (Rev 13:10) & another that leads to the belief that men will build the kingdom of heaven on earth (tower of Babel–part 2). One mode promotes the word of God & the other mode promotes oppressed & oppressor philosophy. Both camps utilize the Bible, but one in a greater capacity & one in a lesser capacity.

I am going to discuss a severe case of unsound eschatology connected to terrible things from the other camp. Note that the entire other camp may not be near as extreme, but their doctrine is akin to this example:

Notorious communist cult leader Jim Jones once slammed a King James Bible on the floor & exclaimed to his congregation, “My grand-daddy believed this Bible–and he was racist!” Although Jones quoted scripture from time to time; this action displayed the treasure of his heart (Luke 6:45). He obsessively spoke on the likes of diversity, racism & sexism.

Eventually the entire cult packed up, went off to a jungle & through precepts such as equality–they planned on building the kingdom of heaven on earth. As is the routine with communism; the end of the matter was mass murder. Some call it mass suicide, but it was mass suicide at gun point.

I must note this is not about a Church ever addressing items like racism, but rather a question: can there ever be a Sunday or two absent of the mention of diversity, racism, sexism or equality? Can scripture such as Hebrews 1 be about Who it is about or must it somehow be related to that agenda?

Based on frequency, is the focus the Lord Jesus Christ, His return & resurrection (1 Cor 15:12-14) or is it a steady stream of oppressed & oppressor rhetoric which promotes insurrection (Barabbas–Mark 15:7) against the perceived status quo?

The night camp’s eschatology leaves no room for Biblically sound eschatology. Through democracy, diversity, equality, no-borders, socialism–it promotes that men will build the kingdom of heaven on earth, the communist utopia. Where does the world worshipping the beast, the mark of the beast, the return of Christ or the battle of armageddon fit in?

In order to propagate the night camp’s version of events–unsound things are promoted across the board. A classic example is the claim that in the Book of Revelation, the emperor of Rome at the time was the beast. Negative:

Revelation 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.”

So, “was, and is not; and shall ascend” does not fit the narrative of what would have been at the time the scripture was penned–a current emperor of Rome. Another question along the lines of the night camp’s narrative–when was the mark of the beast? When did people have to get the name, mark or number of a Roman Emperor in their right hand or forehead in order to buy or sell (Rev 13:16-17)?

Thus, the night camp’s claim is that the Apostle John wrote in the apocalyptic style of the day to reflect what was going on the world around him. Take note: there is not a thing about it being the word of God in such a statement. That is a common marker to watch out for with the night camp. They ascribe too much agency to the human pens–inspired like poets instead of God giving them words & visions to write down:

2 Timothy 3:16 “All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”

“All scripture is given..” is often confused with “inspiration is given.” The inspiration of God was the vehicle (“by”) for all scripture that is given. The men did not take artistic liberties as if John the Apostle thought, “I think I will write this piece in the popular apocalyptic style of today.” In fact the night camp’s claim alludes that the Apostle John was not shown a vision by God.

This article could become book length. I will wind it down by stating that the night camp’s eschatology is like, “As a community, we are going to build the best city that we can.” There is not anything wrong with building a nice city, but the problem is–that is the end of their religion; to build the best city that they can (Gen 11). It is also a pragmatic religion. They want to see things now, they want to make things happen now. Everything is of a temporal nature. Constant oppressed & oppressor rhetoric imparts bitterness. Frankly, all Americans are force fed enough the same rhetoric from the media, the education system, the entertainment industry…the world.

The day camp’s eschatology is patiently enduring the downward spiral of the world. This is not to state that justice should be ignored where it is in our power to do something. The day camp does not lie–lot’s of bad things are going to happen. At some point the world will break it’s cycle of up’s & down’s and only head down, down, down. Bible believing Christians are going to have zero desire to even breath in that world, but they must endure & have faith that everything will end up how the Bible says it will end up. A rational faith will not do because nearly everything around will be heading the opposite direction of the faith. Rationally, pragmatically, the faith will appear not to be working in the world at the time (Rev 13:7). Most importantly, it must be a faith that resides in the heart:

Romans 10:9 “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. 10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

Ecclesiastes & Corinthians

Ecclesiastes 9:11 “I returned, and saw under the sun, that the race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of understanding, nor yet favour to men of skill; but time and chance happeneth to them all.”

1 Corinthians 1:26 “For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called: 27 But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 28 And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: 29 That no flesh should glory in his presence. 30 But of him are ye in Christ Jesus, who of God is made unto us wisdom, and righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption: 31 That, according as it is written, He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.”