Micaiah continued, “Therefore hear the word of the LORD? I saw the LORD sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and on his left. And the LORD said, ‘Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?’ “One suggested this, and another that. Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the LORD and said, ‘I will entice him.’ “ ‘By what means?’ the LORD asked. “ ‘I will go out and be a lying spirit in the mouths of all his prophets,’ he said. “ ‘You will succeed in enticing him,’ said the LORD. ‘Go and do it.’ “So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets of yours. The LORD has decreed disaster for you.” (1 Kings 22:19-23)

The Mantra Of The New World

This is an addendum to an earlier piece Are You Comfortable Here?, a little food for thought. And if you haven’t seen the above text before–and it is repeated again in 2 Chronicles 18:1-27–or if it had slipped your mind, no doubt it will be a bit troubling to you in trying to square these words of inspired Scripture with the seeker sensitive “traditions” (read: man-loving malarkey) currently going on within modern $evangelicalism$; as well as in: “Now new and definitely not improved,” “postmodern” $new evangelicalism$. O we are constantly told: “Our god of love would never bring about disaster or judgment as we go merrily on our way of pleasing men by telling them exactly what they want they already wanted to hear” (see–2 Timothy 4:3). However, it is quite difficult to reconcile that fallacious philosophy with verse 20 above – And the LORD said, “Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead and going to his death there?” And verse 23 – So now the LORD has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these prophets.

As a matter of fact, this love mantra of the New World Global “mush god” has been chanted so long and so often in our capricious culture that apparently we are just expected to accept it as fact; as if by mere repetition we can do away with the absolute truths contained in Holy Scripture–thereby changing the eternal Word of God. However, while we should be able to file this under “Things Too Stupid To Believe,” the pathetic and sad fact remains that this is actually being believed in virtually all of the sappy and sentimental $evangelical$ community today. For if it wasn’t, then we wouldn’t be ensnared by the Ecumenical Church of Deceit with its demonic deceptions centered on self like the Purpose Driven Life or the Word Faith movement; nor would we be enticed by satanic seducing spirits appealing to the “rebel” in us like the highly schismatic and quietly arrogant Emergent Church movement. Have you had any dialogues with these “Christians” lately? If you can’t see the divisive spirit behind this movement, then I’m afraid you simply haven’t really paid much attention to it.

But what I write here is a word of admonition for those of you who are so quick to rule out the more supernatural and spiritual side of the Christian faith, and there are many more of them than you might think. I offer this for your consideration: Is it possible that God the Holy Spirit gave us this peek into the spiritual world through our Lord’s prophet Micaiah as a way to better help us understand what He would later tell us is going to happen as the time for Christ to return draws near? Are we so sure that the following words that refer to the literal time of the Antichrist do not also have another application for us right now as the Father brings an end to His Age of Grace:

The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders, and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie and so that all will be condemned who have not believed the truth but have delighted in wickedness (2 Thessalonians 2:9-12).

The Double-Edged Sword

Now I propose we think for a minute about Hebrews 4:12 – For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged Sword. Why do you suppose that God told us this, and what might we learn from it? Certainly in context we’re talking about Jesus Himself and the sharp double-edged Sword which comes out of His mouth in Revelation 1:16. In the Bible “sword” often symbolizes God’s judgment, and obviously Sword also refers to the Word of God–the Bible itself–as it does here in Hebrews 4:12. As we spiritually apply this imagery of the two-edged Sword to Holy Scripture we can see that often the Bible has a meaning in its grammatical-historical setting, and in addition it also has a spiritual meaning which will apply in another manner. This can be evidenced throughout the Bible as the human authors are led by God the Holy Spirit to take a text that had one application in the past, and then at a later time the Lord will have them use it another way bringing out a more complete understanding of His verse. As the apostasy deepens around the Body of Christ it becomes even more imperative that we keep in mind that this will never contradict or countermand anything God had already revealed about His unchanging Nature.

And here I must quickly address an issue the Lord has revealed to me concerning what some people think about the things I have been writing recently. The minority who follow Apprising Ministries know that there has been much coming here lately about the Emergent Church, but Jesus did tell us plainly that – “a bad tree cannot bear good fruit.” As such you would also have noticed that I am not even trying to “sugarcoat” what needs to be said, and for some the feeling is that this is a violation of speaking the truth in love in Ephesians 4:15. But I offer instead that what I’m doing here is rather found in the very next chapter of this same great Book of the Bible where God the Holy Spirit says – walk as children of light: (For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth;) proving what is acceptable unto the Lord. And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them – Ephesians 5:8-11, (KJV).

What we need to wake up to here is that the turning away from proper Biblical doctrine and dabbling in “works of darkness” like the a-logical mysticism of eastern philoso-theologies is no joke to the LORD God Almighty in Holy Scripture. O sure, Brian McLaren, Rob Bell, Erwin McManus, Dan Kimball and other “notables” within Emergent Church circles are currently still within shouting distance of the Lord perhaps, but as we think of our text and the words of of 2 Thessalonians 2:11 you need to understand that this type of Gnostic anthropocentric doctrine was already rejected by the historic orthodox Christian Church, and the fact is that God has never taken the denigration of His Word lightly. You also need to know that in this New Downgrade No-Controversy it doesn’t matter one iota that cowardly contemporary $evangelical$ leaders do not have the intestinal fortitude to say publicly what I am teaching here. Indeed, we heard lots of pious big talk during the Ted Haggard scandal and then it was right back to blogging about nothing. In fact, truthfully the current state of the American Christian Church is so abysmal I’m not really that concerned if these works of mine even remains online.

However, it is way past time for all of us to stop playing at being Christians and to stop neglecting what the Bible actually says. We must do away with these tepid “traditions” we’ve slowly added over time to the Christian faith and come to realize that passages such as our text give you ample warning of just how dangerous it is to open the door to the possibility of the Lord giving you over to your sin. You think He won’t do the same to you? Then you’d best look at what happened to King Saul – Now the Spirit of the LORD had departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD tormented him – 1 Samuel 16:14. If you check this text in the KJV you will see that it reads exactly the same way because the LORD God of Holy Scripture refused to be mocked and this evil spirit was from the LORD [that] troubled him. And might it just be possible that the heavily compromised so-called $$“new” evangelical$$ kingdom should see itself in danger because King Saul is another “type” pictured in Holy Scripture? For Dr. George Livingston may have been writing more than he thought when he said of this pitiful figure in the Bible: “Saul is one of the most tragic figures of the OT. He entered his life’s work with great promise, but ended it with shame and dishonor… The young man of great promise had become as old man of utter disgrace” (The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, Vol. 5, pp.289,290).

So Now Can You Hear The Trumpet?

Have you not read – “then if anyone hears the trumpet but does not take warning and the sword comes and takes his life, his blood will be on his own head. Since he heard the sound of the trumpet but did not take warning, his blood will be on his own head” (Ezekiel 33:4-5). Do you seriously think this is just something from the Old Testament that has no application for you today? Then look at the historic witness of Acts 18:6 where Luke quotes the Apostle Paul saying the exact same thing – when the Jews opposed Paul and became abusive, he shook out his clothes in protest and said to them, “Your blood be on your own heads! I am clear of my responsibility.” The King James Version is a bit stronger – And when they opposed themselves, and blasphemed, he shook his raiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am clean: from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles.

And do you think that the caustic way in which Christ Jesus spoke to warn the Pharisees was unloving? Obviously not, but if His repeated warnings have been ignored, do you truly think that our Lord is now just going to stand quietly by as His Church is turned into a self-centered sinner-sensitive circus? O and we see this question constantly: “Where are the voices of those calling in the wilderness?” Being ignored; but I say the better question is why can’t you hear the Voice when He calls? The current sorry state of the increasingly carnal Christian church here in pagan “postmodern” America is the awful result of our choosing to do things our own way. Spiritual deceptions like the Purpose Driven Church and the Emergent Church and the Word Faith began with a worldly way of thinking: “We need to find a way to prsent Christianity so that that the spoiled and skeptical self-absorbed American will accept it.” Listen hard, can you hear the trumpet – “They are from the world and therefore speak from the viewpoint of the world, and the world listens to them.” (1 John 4:5).

O can’t you see that what we should have done instead is to fall on our faces in repentance and cry out to our gracious Lord to forgive us for the hording for ourselves the many blessings He lovingly gave us until opulence trapped us in our current complacency. Even yet so many among the Christian community still like to make light of the past foibles of God’s still chosen people of Israel. Well, shame on us for having the Power that sustains the entire universe living within us and we made the ill-advised decision to turn to men like Robert Schuller and Peter Drucker and Rick Warren for their pragmatic man-pleasing prostitution of authentic Spirit-Driven Christianity. And meanwhile during this New Downgrade No-Controversy the influential teachers within the Church continue to protect their businesses, oops…ministries, and their book deals by saying nothing when yet another blatant demon-driven deception like the Emergent Church slithered right into your midst. Will a Spurgeon arise; Lord knows he’s quoted enough–but doesn’t anybody listen? And don’t you finally realize that we just don’t have any time left to play spiritual patty-cake with seducing spirits and their doctrines from the Devil himself?

Men and women you need to understand that these counterfeit Christian moves of the Devil like these major pillars in the Ecumenical Church of Deceit like the shallow Purpose Driven Church, the stupid skepticism of the Emergent Church and the self-absorbed Word Faith Church will begin connecting on the broad ecumenical road that leads right back through the apostate Rome. If this man-pleasing kingdom theology truly is correct, then we have to ask ourselves what Jesus meant when he said – “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” And don’t you remember that it is also written – For, as I have often told you before and now say again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is on earthly things (Philippians 3:18-19).

In commenting on this passage in Philippians A.W. Tozer said:

The Bible was written in tears and to tears it will yield its best treasures. God has nothing to say to the frivolous man. The psalmists often wrote in tears, the prophets could hardly conceal their heavyheartedness, and the apostle Paul in his otherwise joyous epistle to the Philippians broke into tears when he thought of the many who were enemies of the cross of Christ and whose end is destruction.

Those Christian leaders who shook the world were one and all men of sorrows whose witness to mankind welled out of heavy hearts. There is no power in tears per se, but tears and power ever lie close together in the Church of the Firstborn. The whole Christian family stands desperately in need of penitence, humility and tears. May God send them soon.

Friend, the sky was growing so red this morning; can’t you read the signs of the times? If you have the spiritual stomach, then ask yourself an honest question (beat up and starve the messenger if you want to) but how long do you seriously think that Yahweh Elohim–the one true and living LORD God of Biblical revelation–is only going to keep talking to so many people who just will not listen…

“Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. And do not begin to say to yourselves, ‘We have [Jesus as our Savior].’ For I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for [Jesus]. The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”

He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says…and obey…to obey is better than sacrifice…