Generations to Come

I invoke as a witness against you today the heaven and the earth: life and death I have set before you, blessing and curse. So choose life, so that you may live, you and your offspring, by loving Yahweh your God by listening to his voice and by clinging to him, for he is your life and the length of your days in order for you to live on the land that Yahweh swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them.

Deuteronomy 30:19–20 (LEB)

I have witnessed the deterioration of organized religion and society in a fifty year timeline of situational observation which is hard to ignore. As a child I learned about the Ten Commandments and Bible stories in Sunday school and was even taught the “golden rule” in secular education. The golden rule is a Biblical principle that tells us to treat people the way we would want to be treated.

Matthew 7:12 (LEB): ¹² Therefore in all things, whatever you want that people should do to you, thus also you do to them. For this is the law and the prophets.

Secular education taught the essence of “the law and the prophets” when I was in grade school, yet today most of the church has abandoned the teachings of Jesus, which was the law and the prophets. Jesus, or in Hebrew, Yeshua, told us we would know people by their fruits. The Apostle Paul expanded this and gave us a list from the Torah of how we should expect people to behave that are in covenant with Yeshua.

Galatians 5:22–24 (LEB): ²² But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law. ²⁴ Now those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh together with its feelings and its desires.

A person who behaves in this manner through the Spirit is not affected by the law of God, or Torah. The Torah is what points out our short comings, life in the flesh or sin. Those who operate in the flesh, void of the indwelling Spirit writing the laws of God on their heart, will not be part of the kingdom of God.

Galatians 5:19–21 (LEB): ¹⁹ Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are sexual immorality, impurity, licentiousness, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, factions, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, things which I am telling you in advance, just as I said before, that the ones who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.

This list that Paul gives us is not for us to define by our own methods. The church has let societal norms define what is acceptable to God, instead of going to the “glossary of terms” that is found in the Bible. Children are not taught right from wrong as defined by scripture at their places of worship, instead they are given a more trendy set of morals. Of course, I am painting Christianity with a broad brush by these statements. There are still Bible teaching churches today, but what will the state of these churches be a hundred years from now? Three hundred years? What will it look like? I know some Christians are looking for a “rapture” of the church any day, just as believers of earlier generations were expecting the second coming of Christ. Instead they should be studying to learn how to be acceptable on that day, whatever or whenever it may be.

2 Peter 3:1–13 (LEB): 3 Dear friends, this is already the second letter I am writing to you, in both of which I am attempting to stir up your sincere mind by a reminder, ² to remember the words proclaimed beforehand by the holy prophets and the commandment of the Lord and Savior through your apostles, ³ above all knowing this, that in the last days scoffers will come with scoffing, following according to their own desires ⁴ and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep, all things have continued just as they have been from the beginning of creation.” ⁵ For when they maintain this, it escapes their notice that the heavens existed long ago and the earth held together out of water and through water by the word of God, ⁶ by means of which things the world that existed at that time was destroyed by being inundated with water. ⁷ But by the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly people.

⁸ Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that one day with the Lord is like a thousand years, and a thousand years is like one day. ⁹ The Lord is not delaying the promise, as some consider slowness, but is being patient toward you, because he does not want any to perish, but all to come to repentance. ¹⁰ But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, in which the heavens will disappear with a rushing noise, and the celestial bodies will be destroyed by being burned up, and the earth and the deeds done on it will be disclosed. ¹¹ Because all these things are being destroyed in this way, what sort of people must you be in holy behavior and godliness, ¹² while waiting for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be destroyed by being burned up and the celestial bodies will melt as they are consumed by heat! ¹³ But according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness resides.

Peter does not mention anything about a secret rapture, just that we should be living a life of holy behaviour and godliness as the day of the Lord approaches where everything will be burned. People will get further and further away from what is considered holy behaviour and godliness as the years fly by leading up to His return.

2 Timothy 3:1–9 (LEB): 3 But know this, that in the last days difficult times will come, ² for people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, slanderers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ hardhearted, irreconcilable, slanderous, without self-control, savage, with no interest for what is good, ⁴ traitors, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God, ⁵ maintaining a form of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid these people. ⁶ For from these are those who slip into houses and captivate foolish women loaded down with sins, led by various kinds of desires, ⁷ always learning and never able to come to a knowledge of the truth. ⁸ And just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so also these oppose the truth, people corrupted in mind, disqualified concerning the faith. ⁹ But they will not progress to a greater extent, for their folly will be quite evident to everyone, as also the folly of those two was.

Jannes and Jambres were sons of Balaam who opposed Moses, just as people are opposing the truth today. The truth was given through Moses by God. It is not by accident Paul is comparing the rejection of Moses to the rejection of the truth.

John 17:17 (LEB): ¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth—your word is truth.

The kingdom of Judah completely forgot the truth until a renovation of the temple unearthed the word of God given through Moses.

2 Kings 22:4–6 (LEB): ⁴ “Go up to Hilkiah the high priest, and let them count the money being brought to the temple of Yahweh that the keepers of the threshold have collected from the people, ⁵ and let them give it into the hand of those appointed doers of the work at the temple of Yahweh. Let them give it to the doers of the work who are at the temple of Yahweh to repair the breach of the temple: ⁶ to the skilled craftsmen, to the builders, to the masons, and to buy timber and hewing stones to repair the temple.

Picture a church building project years after the word of God has been completely forgotten. This is already the case in some denominations.

2 Kings 22:8–10 (LEB): ⁸ Then Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, “I have found the scroll of the Torah in the temple of Yahweh,” and Hilkiah gave the scroll to Shaphan and he read it. ⁹ Shaphan the secretary came to the king and returned the king a word, and he said, “Your servant poured out the money found in the temple, and they have given it into the hand of the doers of the work appointed over the temple of Yahweh.” ¹⁰ Then Shaphan the secretary informed the king saying, “Hilkiah the priest has given me a scroll.” Then Shaphan read before the king.

In modern times this would be like the deacons giving the money to the workers renovating the church. After cleaning out a closet of junk, they discovered a Bible from the 20th century and started to read it, having never read any scripture in their life.

2 Kings 22:11–13 (LEB): ¹¹ When the king heard the words of the scroll of the Torah, he tore his clothes. ¹² Then the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, Ahikam the son of Shaphan, Acbor the son of Micaiah, Shaphan the secretary, and Asaiah the servant of the king, saying, ¹³ “Go, inquire of Yahweh for me and for the people and for all of Judah concerning the words of this scroll that was found. For the wrath of Yahweh that is kindled against us is great because our ancestors did not listen to the words of this scroll to do according to all that is written concerning us!”

Once the King heard what was in God’s instructions he turned the kingdom around. This is what we should do to avoid the wrath of God. It is called repentance. Repentance is not aimlessly walking in a new direction, it is following the instructions of God.

2 Kings 23:1–3 (LEB): 23 So the king sent word, and all of the elders of Judah and Jerusalem gathered to him. ² Then the king went up to the temple of Yahweh, and all of the men of Judah and all of the inhabitants of Jerusalem were with him, including the priests, the prophets, and all of the people from smallest to greatest; and in their hearing he read all of the words of the scroll of the covenant that had been found in the temple of Yahweh. ³ Then the king stood by the pillar, and he made a covenant before Yahweh, to go after Yahweh and to keep his commands and his warnings and his statutes with all of his heart and with all of his soul, to keep the words of this covenant written on this scroll. Then all of the people joined in the covenant.

The King went on to remove all of the abominations from the kingdom. The sun god paraphernalia, the male prostitutes that were in the temple, the false priests, were all removed. Asherah images were destroyed and burned.

2 Kings 23:4–7 (LEB): ⁴ Then the king commanded Hilkiah the high priest, the second priests, and the keepers of the threshold, to bring out of the temple of Yahweh all of the objects made for Baal and for the Asherah and for all the host of heaven, and he burned them outside of Jerusalem in the fields of the Kidron, and then he carried their ashes to Bethel. ⁵ He removed the priests whom the kings of Judah had ordained to burn incense on the high places at the cities of Judah and around Jerusalem and who offered incense to Baal, to the sun, to the moon, to the constellations, and to all the host of heaven. ⁶ He brought out the Asherah image from the temple of Yahweh outside of Jerusalem to the Wadi Kidron and burnt it at the Wadi Kidron; then he pulverized it to dust and threw its dust upon the tombs of the common people. ⁷ He tore down the shrines of the male shrine prostitutes that were in the temple of Yahweh, where the women were weaving shrines for the Asherah.

Once they destroyed the items God warned against, they started doing the things that God commanded.

2 Kings 23:21–25 (LEB): ²¹ Then the king commanded all of the people, saying, “Keep the Passover to Yahweh your God, as has been written on the scroll of this covenant.” ²² For they had not kept this Passover from the days of the judges who had judged over Israel or during the days of the kings of Israel and the kings of Judah. ²³ But in the eighteenth year of King Josiah, this Passover was kept for Yahweh in Jerusalem.

²⁴ Moreover, the mediums and the spiritists, the household gods and the idols, and all of the abominations that were seen in the land of Judah and in Jerusalem, Josiah removed in order to establish the words of the law written on the scroll that Hilkiah the priest had found in the temple of Yahweh. ²⁵ There was not a king like him before him, who turned to Yahweh with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his might according to all of the law of Moses, nor did one arise like him afterwards.

It’s hard to imagine that the modern church is at the same place Judah was before King Josiah heard the words of God read from the Torah scroll found during temple renovations. The same sun god holidays are observed, Asherah poles are brought into the church for certain celebrations, the mediums and spiritists have their place in the new age teachings so prevalent in the church today. I am not sure if any denominations have male prostitutes, but history will likely repeat itself.

The abominable symbology of the mystery religions of Isis, Ishtar, Asherah, Horus, Moloch and all the Baali had to do with sexual immorality as defined by the God of Israel. This is fitting because breaking the covenant of Yahweh and conducting business with other gods is sexual immorality in itself. Therefore, we see all through history that the sex gods and goddesses are representative of all the false religions. This is more apparent today than it has been in recent history, but we are paying the penalty of keeping the fertility rites of other gods alive in the church for the last 1500 years.

Revelation 2:20–23 (LEB): ²⁰ But I have against you that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, the one who calls herself a prophetess, and teaches and deceives my slaves to commit sexual immorality and to eat food sacrificed to idols. ²¹ And I have given her time in order to repent, and she did not want to repent from her sexual immorality. ²² Behold, I am throwing her into a sickbed and those who committed adultery with her into great affliction, unless they repent from her deeds. ²³ And I will kill her children with deadly disease, and all the churches will know that I am the one who searches minds and hearts, and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

Loving God with all our heart and soul means we will hate the things God hates and love the things God loves. Take the instructions of God seriously. A casual disregard will bring curses and destruction to one’s life.

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