DETAILS OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

 

Holy Spirit - Trinity?

Is the Holy Spirit a seperate person from the Father and the Son?

DOES THE HOLY SPIRIT HAVE ARMS, A HEAD, EYES, EARS, MOUTH AND OTHER BODILY PARTS? by Keith Hunt The main proof given to demonstrate that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON (much like Christ) is that the words 'he' and 'him' are used in the New Testament when referring to (i.e. John 16:7- 15). Is this proof? Let's not assume, but investigate. The Greek word used for 'he' and 'him' is "owtos" (autos). Here is what STRONG'S EXHAUSTIVE CONCORDANCE OF THE BIBLE has to say on this Greek word: ".....from the particle au [perh. akin to the base of 109 through the idea of a baffling wind] [backward]; the reflex pron. self, used ..... of the third person; and .....of the other persons her, it [self] one, the other, [mine] own, said .....same [him, my, thy] self, ...... that......them ......at, by, in, into, of, on, with, they ...... things..... this......" Notice that this Greek word can be, and is, rendered 'IT' in dozens of verses (see the Appendix p.1270 in Strong's Concordance of the Bible) The Holy Spirit is referred to as 'it' in Acts 2: 2-3, 16, 17. Now notice Act 12:10. Peter is being released from jail by God's angel, they pass the second ward and come to the iron gate which opened of "HIS own accord." A gate made of iron (certainly not a living person) is referred to as "his." The Greek word used in this verse is "howtoo" [aautou] akin to "owtos" (see Strong's Con.). Translating "he" or "him" for the Holy Spirit is purely a human grammar tool (we shall discuss in detail later). "It" could be just as correct, if not using a grammar tool. The PROOF that the Holy Spirit is NOT a personal being is found in Mat. 1:20. If the Holy Spirit is a living bodily being, then Christ talked and prayed to the WRONG FATHER! The HOLY SPIRIT is: Power (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:8; 8:17-19). Guidance (Mat.4:1; 10:20; Luke 12:12; Acts 10:19-20). Miracle Worker (Mat.12:28; Acts 2:4; 19:6). Revealer (Luke 2:25-27; John 14:26; 16:13-14). Eternal Life (John 4:14,63; 7:38-39; Rom.8:11). Truth (John 14:16-17; 15:26; 16:13). Comforter (John 14:26; 15:26; Acts 19:31). Reprover (John 16:7-11). Holiness (Rom.1:4). Love of God (Rom.5:5; 15:30). Sonship (Rom.8:15). **Intercessor** (Rom.8:26-27). Gift Giver (1 Cor.12:4-11). **The Lord** (2 Cor.3:6-8, 17; Gal.4:6) The Holy Spirit is INTERCESSOR !! So is Christ !!(see Heb. 7: 22-25). Can there be TWO intercessors? Was the Holy Spirit made into flesh to dwell among us? Was the Holy Spirit tempted as we are? Did the Holy Spirit have to overcome sin and die for us? Did the Holy Spirit become our high priest? Was it not Christ? (see Heb. 4:14-16). There is only ONE mediator between man and God - Christ ! (I Tim. 2:5) The Holy Spirit is CHRIST (The Lord). If the Holy Spirit is a third bodily being, separate from Christ and the Father, how can he be the Lord or Christ at the same time? (see 2 Cor. 3:6-8, 17). THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE INVISIBLE POWER ESSENCE THAT COMES FROM GOD THE FATHER AND THE SON - CHRIST. IT CAN BE LIKENED TO ELECTRICITY, FLOWING FROM THE GENERATOR (GOD THE FATHER) TO THE LIGHT BULB (CHRIST) AND OUT INTO ALL WHO COME WITHIN ITS LIGHT. THE HOLY SPIRIT OF GOD CAN BE IN EVERYONE AT THE SAME TIME...... (see Act 2:2-4, 33; 4:31; 5:32; 8:15-19; 11:15). If the Holy Spirit is a third literal being, how can he be EVERYWHERE at the SAME time? If the Holy Spirit is a person and is IN us (Rom. 8:11), then he (this third person) is then in us, and NOT Christ. But it is Christ IN US that is the HOPE of glory (Col. 1:27). It is Christ's MIND that must be in us (Phil.2:5), not some other mind of another individual. The disciples asked Christ to shew them the FATHER. The Israelites knew from their history and the Old Testament that there was a Father (John 14:7-9); but you try to find where they asked to be shown this other supposedly THIRD individual. Why, Christ even had to tell them about the Spirit He would send them! (see John 16:15-26). If this third person of the Godhead had always been around and was an established doctrine of the Old Testament, those disciples would have known all about him. The truth is that there is no such doctrine of God in the Old Testament text: the Jews did not believe in a TRINITY. The doctrine of "the trinity" is a PAGAN IDEA, derived from Babylon under the worship of father, mother and child Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz. (see "The Two Babylons" by Hislop). The disciples that Paul encountered at Ephesus in Act 19: 1, had not only NOT been taught any "trinity doctrine" but had not even had it mentioned to them that there was even a Holy Spirit, let alone that it was a third person to believe in. But they had been told about Christ (v.4). John the Baptist did not preach any "trinity" doctrine to them. The "trinity doctrine" was not adopted into the professing Christian church until 325 A.D. at the Council of Nicene, and that after many years of confused debates; as we shall can see from Church History and the Catholic Encyclopedia. TRINITY IN THE BIBLE? Those who teach the doctrine of the trinity say that it is taught in the Bible. They say that such verses as Matt. 28:19 teach the idea that the Godhead is made up of three separate literal beings. Let's prove all things (I Thes. 5:21), let us not assume anything. Matt. 28:19 does not use the word trinity. In fact, nowhere in the Bible is it used. We can show from dozens of scriptures that God the Father is a literal being. He has a body, eyes, face, feet, etc. Christ in His glorified form today has a body, face, feet. He is a literal being (Rev. l:13-18; 21:3: 22:3,4). BUT, you try to find the scripture that talks about the face, hands, eyes, legs, feet of the Holy Spirit. If he is a bodily person then surely somewhere in all those verses in the Bible you'll be able to find ONE verse that shows the Holy Spirit has a face or legs or hands. See if you can find it. Matt. 28:19 and other similar verses DO NOT prove the Holy Spirit has a body, head, chest or any other parts. This verse, or ones like it, do not even prove that Christ or the Father have bodies. You must prove THAT from other scriptures. GRIEVE NOT THE HOLY SPIRIT? There are many verses in which "Grieve not the Holy Spirit" is used, such as in Eph. 4:30, where people say it must mean a person because it can be grieved. The Holy Spirit teaches (John. 14:26), reproves (John. 16:8), can be lied to (Act 5:3), and can be tempted (Act 5:9). Yes, all that is true? If only people would put scripture with scripture they could come to the truth. Now, compare I Tim. 4:1 and Rom 8:26, 27, WITH I Tim 2:5 and II Cor 3:6,17. Christ is that spirit? The power essence of the Holy Spirit emanates from Christ and the Father. COMMUNION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT? The verse in 2 Cor. 13:14 is used to say we may have communion with him. I presume by this that these people mean we may talk to him. But Christ Himself said no such thing. He taught His followers to pray to the FATHER (Luke 11:2). Christ never once prayed to or had communion with the Holy Spirit - and He set us an example to follow Him (I Pet 2:21). Notice! This verse in 2 Cor. 13 says "communion OF the holy spirit" - not WITH the Holy Spirit; and there is a vast difference between the two. So what DOES this verse mean? The Greek word used here for 'communion' is koinonia, which is from koinonos and means: partnership, a sharer, associate, partaker (see Strong's Con. of the Bible). Paul is saying to all Christians to let the partnership (all God's children have the Holy Spirit in them, Rom. 8:9-11, being partakers of God's Spirit) be (remain) with all of us. This verse has nothing to do with praying to, or trying to talk or communicate with the Holy Spirit. The "Interlinear Greek - English New Testament" by Berry, translates this as: " ....and the fellowship of the holy spirit [be] with all of you. Amen." The writers of the Amplified Bible put it this way: "The grace (favor and spiritual blessing) of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the PRESENCE and FELLOWSHIP (the communion and sharing together, and participation) IN the holy spirit be with you all. Amen - So be it." THE HOLY SPIRIT TALKS? In Matt 3:16, 17 we read, ".....the spirit of God descending like a dove, and lighting upon Him. And lo, a voice from heaven saying, this is my beloved son, in whom I am well pleased." Some say that it was the Spirit - the third person of the Godhead that actually spoke, proving the Spirit is a literal being. Let us assume that view is correct. Do you see what it would mean? The Holy Spirit would then be the literal FATHER of Christ (see also ch. 1:20), and all through His ministry He then talked and prayed to the WRONG Father! Read verse 17 again. It says, "A voice," not "THE voice of the spirit" or "THE voice of the Father." It was "A voice from heaven" that spoke. To say it was the voice of the Holy Spirit is just an assumption by men; this verse cannot prove such a claim. You try to find the verse that says the Holy Spirit has a mouth or literally talks. Was it the Father speaking these words? No! Not even the Father, because Christ Himself said, ".....You have neither heard His voice at ANY time, nor seen His shape" (John 5:37). There is not one verse in the entire Bible that shows God the Father has ever spoken or showed Himself to mankind. Someone will say, but this voice spoke in the first-person tense. It must have been the Father or Spirit. Not necessarily! In John 12:28 we read: "Father, glorify your name (Christ talking to the Father). Then came there A voice from heaven (notice, A voice, not THE voice of God) saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again." This voice spoke in the first-person tense. Now, did the people say, "That was God speaking" or "That was the voice of the Holy Spirit"? No! Read verse 29. "The people, therefore, that stood by and heard it said that it thundered. Others said, an angel spoke to him." It is possible to speak on behalf of someone else and speak in the first-person tense. Someone representing a higher authority can speak on behalf of that authority in the first-person tense. In passing, notice in Matt. 3:16 the shape of the spirit of God was like a dove. The shape of a dove is a long, long way from being the shape of a man. THREE THAT BEAR RECORD? I John. 5:7 is a favourite text that is often quoted by Trinitarians. It reads, "For there are three that bear record in heaven - the Father, the word, and the holy spirit: and these three are one." That's it, shout the Trinitarians, we got it. Proof that the Godhead is three persons. The Amplified Bible renders verses 6-8 like this: "This is he who came by (with) water and blood (his baptism and his death), Jesus Christ, the Messiah; not by (in) the water only but by (in) the water and the blood.And it is the (holy) spirit who bears witness, because the (holy) spirit is the truth. So there are three witnesses in heaven - the Father, the Word and the Holy Spirit, and these three are One; and there are three witnesses on the earth: the Spirit, the water, and the blood; and these three agree (are in unison; their testimony coincides)." Part of these verses is put in ITALICS in the Amplified Bible. What do italics mean? Let the compilers of the Amplified Bible tell you. Under "explanation of arbitrary punctuation" at the beginning of their translation, we read: Italics point out certain familiar passages now recognized as not adequately supported by the original manuscripts. Verse 7 of the King James version was not in the original Greek manuscripts. It was ADDED later to deliberately give proof to the pagan Trinity idea of God, that cannot be found anywhere in the Bible. Commenting on this verse, The Interpreter's Bible says: "This verse in the KJV is to be rejected (with RSV). It appears in no ancient Greek manuscript, nor is it cited by any Greek father; of all the versions, only the Latin contained it, and even this in none of its most ancient sources. The most earliest of the Vulg. do not have it. As Dodd (Johannine Epistles p.127n) remind us 'it is first quoted as a part of I John by Priscillian, the Spanish heretic, who died in 385, and it gradually made its way into manuscripts of the Latin Vulgate until it was accepted as part of the authorized Latin text.' ...... The mention in the true text (vs.8) of the three witnesses which agree naturally led to an interpretation along trinitarian lines, and this occasioned the present transcriptions which appear in various forms in manuscripts and quotations from the fifth century on." A deliberate insertion into the original, to try to substantiate the trinity doctrine that had become accepted by the Catholic church in 325 AD. THE APOSTLES REJECT THE TRINITY! If the "trinity of God" has always been and if the Old Testament church was taught it and believed it - if it was a New Testament doctrine and truth - if the apostles believed and taught it - if they knew that God was composed of three equal and united beings, bodily beings, then they surely didn't respect the third one. Look at the way Paul introduced his epistles: "To all that be in Rome ..... grace to you and peace FROM God our father, and the Lord Jesus Christ" (Rom. 1:7). Paul does not even MENTION the supposed THIRD PERSON of the Godhead. In fact, Paul never once in the introductions of ANY of his letters uses the trinity idea of God. Notice how James introduces his letter: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ....." He forgot to mention the third individual of whom he was a servant. Peter, in his epistles, acknowledges God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, but did not acknowledge the third person. John talks about Christ and God, that they are literal beings; but never as much as once did he mention the Holy Spirit is a bodily person. His salutation in his second letter is void of any other beings except God the Father and Christ. Jude's salutation is from God the Father and Jesus Christ. The third person was again left out. Surely, John in Revelation, could have found room to mention this person that was left out by all others. John mentions Christ, the Father, and the seven spirits before His throne (Rev. 1:4-5), but does not even acknowledge the one who is doing so much work today - the third person of the trinity. Why all this lack of acknowledging the trinity? Why? Because the apostles and New Testament church DID NOT TEACH IT! The Trinity doctrine is PAGAN. It is another one of Satan's deceptions to deceive the whole world about why God created man. It is a doctrine that came by way of Satan's greatest false church. This is what history has to say (see "The Two Babylons" by Hislop). The history of Babylon, Egypt, Rome and other nations demonstrates that the doctrine of a TRINITY was a very important part of PAGAN worship. The history of Christianity shows clearly that the professing popular church for many years was in confusion and there was argument concerning it. As the church compromised more and more with the pagan religions round about to win converts and favour, so it looked for ways to MIX what the heathen believed with the Christianity it taught. The heathen believed in a NIMROD GOD, a SECOND GOD - Semiramis (mother wife to Nimrod) and a THIRD GOD - Tammuz, son of Nimrod and Semiramis. It was just a matter of time before the church claimed it, too, had a trinity. The pagan's Nimrod became God the Father. Semiramis, the queen of heaven, became the Holy Spirit. And Tammuz, the boy child god, became Christ. And so another pagan, false Satanic idea was added to a so-called Christianity. Just another one of Satan's false doctrines added officially to his instrument of deception in 325 A.D. God says this instrument of Satan has deceived the whole world. The whole world has been made drunk by her false ways and teachings. She is called in Rev. 17, Mystery, Babylon the Great. So drunk have people become by this church's teachings that FEW Christians really understand WHY God made mankind. You need to study my article called A CHRISTIAN'S DESTINY. HERE ARE MORE STUDIES ON THE HOLY SPIRIT: THE HOLY SPIRIT WORKS, SO IS IT A PERSON? Those who teach the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, separate from the Father and Son, say this is shown to be so because the Spirit WORKS, does things. Indeed the Holy Spirit works according to its will (1 Cor.12:11) . The Spirit raised Christ from the dead (Acts 2:24; 1 Pet.3:18; Heb. 13:20; Rom.1:4). The Spirit was used in creation (Gen.1:2, 26, 27 with Job 33:4). But does stating that something WORKS automatically mean that it is a PERSON ? If it does then WISDOM is also a person, for in Proverbs 8:12, 15, 16 and 9:1-3, we read: "I WISDOM.......By me kings reign.......By me princes rule, and nobles, even all the judges of the earth.......Wisdom has built her house.......She has killed her beasts, she has mingled her wine, she has also furnished her table. She has sent forth her maidens......." Nobody really believes wisdom is a person, separate from the Lord, even if it is given human like qualities. The Holy Spirit, like wisdom, does indeed perform "works" - but teaching that it is a PERSON BECAUSE OF THIS is as fragile as believing that wisdom from the Lord is a person because it "works" also. WHAT THE NEW CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA ADMITS "The OT (Old Testament) clearly does not envisage God's spirit as a person, neither in the strictly philosophical sense, nor in the Semitic sense. God's spirit is simply God's Power. If it is sometimes represented as being distinct from God, it is because the breath of Yahweh acts exteriorly (Isa. 48:16; 63:11; 32:15).......Very rarely do the OT writers attribute to God's spirit emotions or intellectual activity (Isa. 63:10; Wis.1:3-7). When such expressions are used, THEY ARE MERE FIGURES OF SPEECH that are explained by the fact that the RUAH was regarded also as the seat of intellectual acts and feeling (Gen. 41:8). Neither is there found in the OT or in rabbinical literature the notion that God's spirit is an intermediary being between God and the world. This activity is proper to the angels, although to them is ascribed some of the activity that elsewhere is ascribed to the spirit of God" (New Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 13, p. 574, emphasis theirs). THIS ENCYCLOPEDIA FURTHER STATES: ".......the NT (New Testament) concepts of the Spirit of God are largely a continuation of those of the OT.......The majority of NT texts reveal God s spirit as something, not someone; this is especially seen in the parallelism between the spirit and the power of God. When a quasi-personal activity is ascribed to God s spirit, e.g., speaking, hindering, desiring, dwelling (Acts 8:29; 16:7; Rom.8:9), one is NOT JUSTIFIED IN CONCLUDING immediately that in these passages God s spirit is regarded as a Person; the same expressions are used in regard to rhetorically personified things or abstract ideas (see Rom.6:6; 7:17). Thus the context of the phrase 'blasphemy against the spirit' (Mat.12:31; cf. Mat.12:28; Luke 11:20)shows that reference is being made to the power of God" (Vol.13, page 575). THE HOLY SPIRIT HAS PERSONALITY, IS IT A PERSON? We are told by those who teach that the Holy Spirit of God is a PERSON with a body and shape as of a man (although they have yet to find one single verse in the Bible that talks about the mouth, ears, head, hands, feet etc. of this so called third person of the Godhead) that the proof for such a belief is in the fact that the Holy Spirit is given a personality by the New Testament. One writer has listed many scriptures to show the personality of the Spirit. We should indeed be willing to read them as they are a part of the inspired word of God. "As they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto I have called them " (Acts 13:2). "Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near and join yourself to this chariot" (Acts 8:29). "While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold three men seek you....." (Acts 10: 19). ".......and were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to preach the word in Asia. After they were come to Mysia, they determined to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit suffered them not" (Acts 16:6,7). This man continues to list other verses that he says show the personality of the Spirit and so make him a PERSON. He testifies of Christ and glorifies Him (John 15:26; 16:14). He has power of His own (Rom.15:13). He searches all things (Rom.11:33,34, with 1 Cor.2:10,11). He works according to His will (1 Cor.12:11). He dwells with real Christians (John 14:17). He spoke in and by the prophets (Acts 1:16; 1 Peter 1:11,12: 2 Peter 1:21). He strives with sinners (Gen.6:3). He reproves and guides (John 16:8,13). He comforts (Acts 9:31) and helps our infirmities (Rom.8:26). He teaches (John 14:26; 1 Cor.12:3). He sanctifies (Rom.15:16; 1 Cor.6:11). Some of the favourite scriptures used by those who teach the Holy Spirit must be a person because human like qualities are given it are these: "And grieve not the Holy Spirit of God......" (Eph.4:30). Ahhh, see the Spirit can be grieved, so it must be a PERSON, many will insist. "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you do always resist the Holy Spirit, as your fathers did so do you " (Acts 7:51).. "Then Peter said unto her, How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord....... " (Acts 5:9). The Spirit can be resisted and tempted and so, claim our Trinitarians, he must be a PERSON! DOES GIVING HUMAN LIKE QUALITIES TO SOMETHING AUTOMATICALLY PROVE THAT THAT SOMETHING IS A PERSON ? Stop and think now. Have you ever called your CAR, your BOAT, your AIRPLANE by the word "she" ? Have you ever given your boat a NAME of a person and ever said something like this about it: "You have to be very careful when starting Molly, she is fussy about not having too much gas." Now, neither you or any of your friends actually believe or teach that your boat Molly is a human woman - a PERSON ! It has been customary for mankind to give PERSONAL QUALITIES to inanimate objects for centuries. Even God Himself inspired Moses (who wrote the first five books of the Bible) to record that He (God) uses this type of language. This is found in the account of Cain killing Abel. "And Cain talked with Abel his brother.......when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and slew him. And the Lord said unto Cain, Where is Abel your brother? And he said, I do not know....... And He (God) said, What have you done? The VOICE of your brother s BLOOD CRIES unto me from the ground" (Gen.4:8-10). Notice how God Himself said Abel's BLOOD (an inanimate object) cried out with a voice to Him from the ground ! The Lord used PERSONAL QUALITIES for Abel's blood. But does anyone believe that Abel's blood was a separate PERSON with arms, hands, legs, head and body APART from Abel ? I think not ! In the time of David this common terminology of attributing human qualities to things that were not persons was still in use, as we see from Psalm 98: 8, "Let the FLOODS clap their hands : Let the HILLS be joyful together." Do floods of water have HANDS? Can hills be JOYFUL as humans can be joyful? Of course not! Now see how Solomon was inspired by God to talk about WISDOM. "Wisdom CRIES outside. SHE (wisdom is a woman?) utters her VOICE in the streets.......Because I have called, and you refused, I have STRETCHED OUT MY HAND, and no man regarded" (Prov.1:20,24). Here we see verses about wisdom having as it were BODILY PARTS and said to be a WOMAN. That's more like a PERSON to me than any of the scriptures that are used try and prove the Holy Spirit is a person. If only those Trinitarians could find such verses about the Spirit then maybe I'd take their teaching a little more serious. We are told more about this person, this woman called wisdom, "Does not wisdom CRY? and UNDERSTANDING put forth her VOICE?" Now we have another person, another woman, 'understanding' must be a person because she has a voice, "She stands in the top of the high places...." she must have legs then. ".......Hear.......the opening of my LIPS shall be right things. For my MOUTH shall speak truth....... I wisdom dwell with prudence......." We have a house full of gals here, wisdom, understanding, and now prudence. "The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His way....... When He prepared the heavens I was there......Then I was by Him.....and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him......." (Prov.8:1,2,6,12,22,27,30). It would seem that the Lord not only had the woman 'wisdom' with Him in heaven, but a few other women as well - 'understanding' and 'prudence.' Maybe the practice of Polygamy on earth was borrowed from heaven. Well as Paul said, I speak as a fool so some may come to the truth. Of course wisdom and the other two women are not REAL PERSONS, but qualities and attributes that come from the Lord (see Prov.2:6). YET THE LORD GIVES WISDOM THE PERSONALITY OF A WOMAN. GIVING SOMETHING A PERSONALITY DOES NOT AUTOMATICALLY MAKE IT A PERSON ! This use in language, of applying personality to inanimate things, was not confined just to the Old Testament period. We see the great apostle Paul using this idiom and figure of speech, in the book of Romans, when explaining what sin did to him after a full knowledge of the commandments came to his attention: "But SIN, finding opportunity in the commandment (to express itself) got a hold on me and aroused and stimulated all kinds of forbidden desires.......For SIN, seizing the opportunity and getting a hold on me (by taking its incentive) from the commandment, beguiled and entrapped and cheated me, and using it (as a weapon) killed me" (Rom.7:8,11 Amplified Bible, emphasis mine). Here, Paul gives personality to SIN - talks about sin as if it was a PERSON. He says sin got a hold of him, took the commandments of God as a weapon in its hands and using this weapon as a knife or sword, killed Paul. Now no one believes that SIN is a PERSON, yet Paul speaks of sin as if it was indeed a person! Giving inanimate things qualities of personality is known commonly as PERSONIFICATION. Take a few minutes and look that word up in your dictionary. I can show you verses in the Bible that plainly reveal God the Father and God the Son have a body, head, face, arms, hands, feet, etc. THEY are PERSONS. Unless you can show the same for the Holy Spirit, I submit you have no basis in fact for believing that the Spirit of God is a person. GIVING PERSONALITY TO THE HOLY SPIRIT ONLY PROVES THE USE OF PERSONIFICATION IN THE BIBLE. NOTHING MORE AND NOTHING LESS! THE HOLY SPIRIT, IS IT A MAN OR A WOMAN? For centuries now (from about the 4th century.A. D.) nearly all Christendom has accepted and taught that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON, a masculine person, that is a MALE. The basic proof for this teaching has been, as one man says, "Language has no meaning if the Spirit is not a Person, seeing that Jesus repeatedly employed the masculine pronoun when speaking of him. Thirteen times over, in John 16 for example, He refers to the Spirit as HE, HIM, HIMSELF" (Dr. Herbert Lockyer, ALL THE DOCTRINES OF THE BIBLE, page 76). It is true, that in the Greek NT the masculine pronoun is used. But did Jesus actually say these words in Greek? It was probably in the common tongue of the people that Jesus spoke to His disciples and the multitudes, and that tongue was ARAMAIC not Greek. I bring this to the attention of the reader for a very important reason. There has risen in recent years a group of Christians who claim that the Holy Spirit is FEMALE, a WOMAN! They too use the basic language GENDER as a proof of their belief. And their proof is not without some validity if language gender is the criteria to use to support the teaching that the Spirit is a PERSON. In the Hebrew OT the word for Spirit is nearly always in the feminine gender, these individuals correctly point out to us. They also tell us, as does the Eastern Catholic Church (see the Holy Bible by Lamsa) that the NT was originally written in ARAMAIC and later translated into Greek (their arguments are really founded on very thin ice) and so again the word for Spirit would be in the feminine gender. The Greek itself is very interesting, for though the word Comforter is masculine gender in John 16, the word Spirit throughout the NT is in the neuter gender. Now, if we use language gender to try to prove our point that the Holy Spirit is a PERSON,it would truly leave us in a quandary and contradiction. Is the Spirit a WOMAN, a MAN or NEUTER? The truth is, the writers of the Bible never intended us to use language gender to prove whether the Holy Spirit was a man or a woman. A lesson in Greek grammar will explain: In the Greek language, like some others (Spanish, Italian, French, etc.) every noun has what is called gender; that is, it is either masculine, feminine or neuter. Grammatically, all pronouns in Greek must agree in gender with the word they refer to, or in other words, with the term that the pronoun replaces. The Greek word PARAKLETOS (comforter) has masculine gender, hence the translators use of the personal pronoun "he." For the pronouns EKEINOS and AUTOS "it" would have been a far better rendering into the English language, as in John 1:32 and 6:63; Romans 8:16. Let us further explain from the gender of the Spanish language. EL VASO is the Spanish for "the glass." The article "EL" and the "O" ending of the word VASO give the word "glass" a MASCULINE gender. But by no means could a glass be considered a MALE PERSON in the human sense. LA MESA in Spanish means "the table." It is feminine in gender. Yet it would be silly to consider a table as a FEMALE PERSON. The gender of a word has nothing whatever to do with whether the thing designated is REALLY masculine or feminine in the human sense. Gender in language is nothing more than a convenient grammatical tool. Personal note: I had been attending a Church school and Sunday school from the age of six, I also had been faithfully reading my Bible from that early age. No one had ever taught me that the Holy Spirit was to be thought of as a literal personal bodily being, as the Father and Christ are. From the age of 7 until I was 19, I only thought of the Spirit of the Father and Christ as a part of their very NATURE, something that radiated out from their glorified bodies. It was not until I was 19 and attending a Baptist church that I encountered the teaching of the Trinity doctrine, and was told that the Holy Spirit was a personal being just like the Father and Son were personal beings. Then later I discovered that others teach the Godhead is ONE being manifested in THREE forms. And still later, found that some teach God is three in ONE but with no form or body...just a something who is a nothing. I laughed at all such ideas of men. ....................................... Written in 1985

EZEKIEL FOR TOMORROW CHAPT. 5 - 8

 

Ezekiel For Tomorrow!

Chapters 5 to 8

FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?  Part 3 by Keith Hunt Over and over again God shows through the prophets of the OT that when the time comes to send the Messiah (Christ Jesus) back to this earth in POWER and GLORY to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, the peoples of the House of Israel and the House of Judah (all 13 tribes of Jacob or Israel) have already gone into a three and one half year captivity, a scattering abroad into the land of their enemies, FROM WHICH they are DELIVERED by the Messiah, and returned to the land of Promise, the Holy land of Palestine, when they shall rest in peace, build the fallen cities, cultivate the land with such bounty that the seed planter and the reaper will overlap each other. We see this foretold in the book and prophecy of AMOS. Amos was sent to the House of Israel in the main, to warn them that if they did not REPENT and turn to worship the true God in spirit and in truth, they would be punished with destruction and captivity. THIS IS A PROPHECY FOR YOU, O PEOPLE OF THE CELTIC-ANGLO-SAXON NATIONS OF THE USA AND BRITISH COMMONWEALTH, AS WELL AS NATIONS OF NORTH-WEST EUROPE. IT IS A PROPHECY FOR THE END TIME, JUST BEFORE THE PLOWMAN OVERTAKES THE REAPER. The prophecy is set just before the Lord sends you into captivity for ALL YOUR SINS. It takes us through the time of "Jacob's trouble" (as it was called by Jeremiah), a time such as NEVER BEFORE on this earth(see Jer.30; 31; 32; 33), and into the restoration of Israel, into the ABUNDANCE of the reign of the Messiah on earth. "BEHOLD, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the SINFUL kingdom(the people of Israel - that's most of you who are reading these messages), and I will DESTROY IT(the Kingdom, the power, the government) from OFF the face of the earth; SAVING I WILL NOT UTTERLY DESTROY THE HOUSE OF JACOB, says the Lord(the prophet said in chapter 5 that by the time it was all over only 10% of you would remain alive to return under the Messiah's hand). For, lo, I WILL COMMAND, and I will SIFT the House of Israel AMONG THE NATIONS, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, YET SHALL NOT THE LEAST GRAIN FALL UPON THE EARTH. ALL THE SINNERS OF MY PEOPLE SHALL DIE BY THE SWORD, which say, The evil shall not overtake nor prevent us (Many reading this will laugh at it, they will deny that the nations of North-west Europe, the British Commonwealth and the USA are the literal peoples of the house of Israel. Your leaders will deny it, your religious teachers will deny it. They will say "this evil will not come upon us." God says these and others are SINNERS, who will die by the sword. 90% of you shall perish, by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence. Yet the 10% that remain shall be sifted through the nations, but shall live and the book of Revelation says that 144,000 shall find repentance and the first resurrection at the coming of the Messiah. The rest will live as human flesh and blood and be restored to the promised land where they shall learn the ways of the Lord and find rest and blessings beyond belief). In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David this is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old(a fulfilment took place concerning this prophecy once in the days of the NT church when the Gentiles were brought into the fold of God - see Acts 15 - but a larger, end time fulfilment is yet ahead, when after you have been restored to the Promised land, and are the true light to the world that the Eternal chose you to be among the nations - see Deut.4 - then the Gentiles from all nations shall want to learn from you and from the Almighty God that will be among you - see Isaiah 2; Micah 4). That they may posses the remnant of Edom, and of all the heathen, which are called by my name, says the Lord that does this. Behold, the DAYS COME(they have never yet ever been, not days like this that you are about to read) says the Lord, that the PLOWMAN SHALL OVERTAKE THE REAPER, AND THE TREADER OF GRAPES HIM THAT SOWS SEED; and the mountains shall drop sweet wine, and all the hills shall melt. AND(NOTICE IT, AT THIS TIME AS WHEN THE ABOVE IS TO TAKE PLACE) I WILL BRING AGAIN THE CAPTIVITY OF MY PEOPLE ISRAEL(bring once more FROM captivity as it was in the days of Moses when the Eternal brought Israel from the land of their captivity in Egypt), and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof; they shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them. And I will plant them upon their land, and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God" (Amos 9:8-15). So, there is GOOD news and there is BAD news for you. Before you experience the GOOD news YOU WILL HAVE TO LEARN SOME MIGHTY BIG LESSONS! YOU WILL HAVE TO COME TO LOATHE YOUR SINS, YOUR WICKEDNESS, YOUR IDOLATRY, AND ALL YOUR PERVERSE WAYS WHEREIN YOU HAVE REBELLED AGAINST YOUR GOD AND SAVIOR!! People of BRITAIN, head tribe of Israel, you who have such a long glorious history. You who have seen the hand of the Lord working with and for you so many times over the centuries. You who were blessed with greatness above your brethren. You have in these last days, the last years of this 20th century, increased in so much violent crime that a recent report now makes you as your brother the United States, that for so long a time stood alone in the western world where "blood touched blood." But you O people of Britain are now not far behind your brother. Daily your streets and towns are being filled with violent crime of every sort and evil. The Lord God calls you by name in His prophetic word. He lays it open and squarely on your plate. He pulls no punches. He gives it to you right between the eyes. He first tells Israel you will be many days WITHOUT A KING, and without a PRINCE, the throne of Israel will not be as it is today, it will not function when in CAPTIVITY (Hosea 3:3-4). As before, the Eternal goes on to say that after all this punishment you SHALL RETURN AND SEEK the Lord, and even DAVID(who shall be resurrected at the return of the Messiah - see Jer.30:9) and shall at last truly FEAR the Lord Almighty and His goodness. In the LATTER DAYS - the end time, this shall all come to pass (verse 5). But as for YOU O nations of Britain, the lands of Ephraim. Here is what the Lord says, "EPHRAIM IS JOINT TO IDOLS: LET HIM ALONE! Their drink is SOUR: THEY HAVE COMMITTED WHOREDOM CONTINUALLY....O EPHRAIM, YOU COMMIT WHOREDOM, AND ISRAEL IS DEFILED....EPHRAIM SHALL BE DESOLATE IN THE DAY OF REBUKE: AMONG THE TRIBES OF ISRAEL HAVE I MADE KNOW THAT WHICH SHALL SURELY BE(THESE MESSAGES AND WHAT OTHERS WILL DO TO WARN YOU ARE PART OF THIS PROPHECY)....Ephraim is OPPRESSED and broken in JUDGMENT(you do not fear the Lord any more, only about 4% of you attend "church" on a regular basis. You have rejected the knowledge of the Lord and so He is going to reject you)....For I will be unto Ephraim as a lion....I will TEAR AND GO AWAY...I will go and return to my place, TILL THEY ACKNOWLEDGE THEIR OFFENCE, AND SEEK MY FACE: in their AFFLICTION they WILL SEEK ME EARLY(THE NEXT VERSES OF THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER show it will be in the THIRD YEAR of captivity God will start to answer you - a day for a year principle of Bible prophecy)" (sections from Hosea 4 and 5). Those that will lift up their voice like a TRUMPET AND WHO SHOW the people their sins, do not have a pleasant task at times. It brings me no pleasure to have to expound to you the words of the Lord regarding this matter of WHAT IS GOING TO COME YOUR WAY unless you as peoples will REPENT! Listen to the voice of the Lord: "O Ephraim, what shall I do unto you....I have SLAIN THEM WITH THE WORDS OF MY MOUTH....FOR I DESIRE MERCY, AND NOT SACRIFICE; AND THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOD MORE THAN BURNT OFFERINGS. But they like men have transgressed the covenant: and have dealt treacherously against me....And as troops wait for a man, so the COMPANY OF PRIESTS MURDER IN THE WAY by consent: for they commit lewdness. I have seen a HORRIBLE THING in the house of Israel: there is the WHOREDOM of Ephraim, Israel is defiled....." (Hosea 6:4-10). The Eternal has already SPOKEN IT! It has gone forth out of His mouth. DESTRUCTION is coming your way O nations of Israel. It is ONLY A MATTER OF TIME. And that time is in the hands of the Lord. Even if you were NOT Israel, you would still die in your sins because they are so heavy and so multiplied. All nations with such wickedness have finally DESTROYED THEMSELVES. So it was with the mighty Roman Empire, and so it shall be for you. It is only a matter of time, and time is marching on! You will notice once more(God repeats it over and over again through the prophets) what the Eternal says about your MINISTERS, your PRIESTS, your leaders in religious worship. They are as a pack of hounds chacing the fox. As a troop of men waiting to beset and plunder the traveller. What they do SPIRITUALLY is as MURDER! So says the God of israel. Their theology KILLS! They offer you LIBERTY but they themselves are the servants of CORRUPTION! They put no difference between that which is HOLY and that which is UN-holy. They have a FORM of religion, they have sacrifice, but they have no KNOWLEDGE - true knowledge - of the Lord God. They come in the name of Jesus, but they lead MANY astray. They are BLIND and they lead the blind, both they and their followers going into the ditch. You have been TOLD! It is time to OPEN YOUR EYES, to search the Scriptures DAILY (Acts 17), to HUNGER AND THIRST after RIGHTEOUSNESS, to LOVE THE TRUTH, so some of you can escape from the fouler and find the TRUTH THAT SHALL SET YOU FREE! EZEKIEL SPEAKS AGAIN As nations you may be planning on sticking around for a while, planning on raising your children, seeing them off to College or University, looking forward to spending time with your grandchildren. And as nations you will plan and make sure you have a DEFENCE FORCE to protect your from the enemy without. You have Early Warning machines and computers incase an enemy should want to strike. You have secret spies and under-cover agents. You have indeed MADE READY, and the trumpet has been blown so can go to war if it is so determined by others who would have your wealth and lands. You are the "tops" in the world for military might and power, well for now you are, as I write these messages to you from Ezekiel, in the year of 1997/98. The future holds a different pattern of events that will see your "lovers" in Europe, emerge as the number ONE super power in trade and commerce and military might. But for now, you are prepared, at least you think you are prepared, BUT THE ETERNAL SAYS DIFFERENTLY. "Moreover the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Also, you son of man, thus says the Lord God unto the LAND OF ISRAEL; An end, the end, is come upon the four corners of the land. Now is the end come upon you, and I will send mine anger upon you, and will JUDGE YOU ACCORDING TO YOUR WAYS, and will recompense upon you all your ABOMINATIONS. And my eye will NOT SPARE you, neither will I have pity....and you shall KNOW that I am the Eternal....An end is come, THE end is come, it watches for you; behold, it is come....Now will I SHORTLY pour out my fury upon you, and accomplish my anger upon you....Behold the day, behold, it is come....Violence is risen up into a rod of WICKEDNESS....THEY HAVE BLOWN THE TRUMPET, EVEN TO MAKE ALL READY; but none goes to the battle, for my wrath is upon all the multitude thereof. The SWORD is WITHOUT, and the PESTILENCE and the FAMINE within: he that is in the field shall die with the sword; and he that is within the city, famine and pestilence shall devour him. BUT they that ESCAPE of them escape, and shall be on the mountains like doves of the valleys, all of them MOURNING, every one for his INIQUITY. All hands shall be feeble, and all knees shall be weak as water....They shall cast their silver into the streets, and their gold shall be REMOVED: their silver and their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the wrath of the Lord....because it is the STUMBLINGBLOCK of their INIQUITIES....And I will give it into the hands of the strangers for a prey, and to the wicked of the earth for a spoil; and they shall pollute it (Now you stop and think, ask yourself this question: WHO, what people in this century could you classify have been the wicked of the world, that have brought more pain, suffering, and death on the world than any others? The Eternal will yet use those same people to bring you this time to DEFEAT and to your knees in humble repentance).... Make a chain: for the land is FULL of BLOODY CRIME, and the city(Jerusalem - the type here used to foretell what will come upon the House of Israel, as we saw earlier) is full of violence. Wherefore I will bring the WORST OF THE HEATHEN, and they shall posses their houses: I will also make the POMP of the STRONG to cease; and their holy places shall be defiled. DESTRUCTION COMES; AND THEY SHALL SEEK PEACE, AND THERE SHALL BE NONE! Mischief shall come upon mischief....then shall they SEEK a VISION of the PROPHET; but the LAW shall perish from the PRIEST, and COUNSEL from the ANCIENTS (Those who should KNOW the Lord and the true ways of righteousness, health, and safe-keeping, those ministers of yours who come in the name of the Lord and who say "thus says the Lord" when He HAS NOT SPOKEN TO THEM, they shall fail and fall. You shall then see them for what they have always been - false prophets and false deceivers). The king shall mourn, and the prince shall be clothed with desolation, and the hands of the people of the land shall be troubled: I will do unto them AFTER THEIR WAY, and according to their DESERT will I judge them; and they SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE ETERNAL" (Various sections of Ezekiel chapter 7). Paul, the great apostle of the NT church, was inspired to write that WHATSOEVER WE SLOW THAT SHALL WE REAP! The mighty Russian Empire stood strong and mighty after WW2, stood for a while, forty years or so. But it sowed among its people that which finally brought it to collapse and disintegration. It sowed economical sins that now still hold its people in poverty and misery. You also, peoples of the English speaking nations and lands of North-west Europe, are sowing the sins of rejecting the ways and commandments of the Holy One, for the ways that seem right unto a man, but which end in dead. You have chosen to cast the Eternal and His Word out of the schools, by and large, out of the court-rooms, by and large, out of your governments, both nationally and locally, by and large. In so doing it is only a matter of time before you also crumble and disintegrate as a people, ready to be taken over by the worst of the heathen, who will show no mercy, as they kill and force those left of you to serve them and the state religion of Babylon the Great, that they will put around your neck. To be sure, they will think they do God a service, they will think they are acting righteously for their god whom they will believe is the true God. It is at that time, when those left of you shall come to see WHO is the real true God, who are His real true servants, and WHAT real REPENTANCE is all about! But before that day arrives, the Almighty has more to say against you and your religious leaders and the false worship you extend towards Him. In chapter 8 we find Ezekiel in his house, with some of the elders of Judah sitting around - he was still a captive by the river of Chebar. He had not be allowed to go to the peoples of Israel who were far from where he was a captive. More messages from the Lord concerning the sins of Israel were to be given him. Ezekiel was lifted up in VISION and taken to the house of God in the city of Jerusalem. Taken to the very center of what was supposed to be the true pure religion of the true pure Almighty Eternal God of the people of Judah. Taken to the Temple or Tabernacle that King Solomon was allowed to build in honor of the God of his father David. It was David, the man after God's own heart that wanted to build the Temple, but he was not allowed to undertake the task because he was a "blood man" but the Lord did say his son would build it, and so it was. Notice verse SIX! All that he saw in vision was to portray the ABOMINATIONS that were within the HOUSE OF ISRAEL'S RELIGIOUS WORSHIP TOWARDS THE ETERNAL! In vision he even saw seventy men of the house of Israel as if they were literally there acting out the worship of religion and believing that this false worship (which the context clearly shows it was) was acceptable to the true God(verses 10,11). They were so deceived they actually thought(and no doubt taught it to others of their flock who blindly followed them) IT MADE NO DIFFERENCE! That God did not see, did not take into account the false from the true. They thought and they taught that the Lord was not really concerned with those who worshipped Him on the earth, that He had left them to decide and figure out for themselves HOW TO WORSHIP HIM! They said God was FAR AWAY, with more important things on His mind than to be concerned with telling people on earth HOW to worship Him. They were teaching that the Eternal would ACCEPT EVERYONE, just as they were without searching to know and to practice the righteous ways of the Lord (verse 12). And this is precisely the state of YOUR religion in your nations today O House of Israel. You are being taught that GRACE, the grace and mercy of God through the blood of Christ Jesus frees us from all obligations to obey the laws and commandments of God. You are being taught that you can live ANY life-style you desire and it's okay with the Father in heaven. Why you were "born" that way, the Lord made you that way, many tell you. You were "born" a homosexual or Lesbian, you were "born" a child molester, or spouse abuser, or addicted to alcohol, or gambling. You have churches that accept such people's styles of life and do not teach them to REPENT AND CHANGE! You have hundreds and thousands of ministers up and down your lands that claim they represent the true God but teach you He does not see, that it does not matter to Him, that you take false pagan traditions and customs from the darkness of the un-converted world, and ADOPT and ADAPT them to try to worship the ONE who says He will NOT ACCEPT such worship towards Him. For starters, look up in your Encyclopedias the origin of HALLOWEEN! Many "church going" people and whole church congregations openly participate in this day or evening of "fun." Then after that little bit of investigation, you may like to continue with finding out the facts about Easter and Christmas, Valentines Day, January the first celebrations, and yes even "Thanksgiving Day." Ah, and many of your leaders of religious matters work in darkness, behind closed doors, to practice their habitual sins, that seem to hold them in the grip of slavery. We have seen a number of them, well known evangelists, in the spotlight of your public media to reach the masses, fall in disgraceful ignominy. And to the shame of themselves and yourselves, some of them have refused to retire to the back seat of the church, as long as some will continue to give them acclaim and adoration. As shocking as it is, some of those preachers claim they are above the law of God, too important for the work of the Lord. They claim the Eternal does not see (verse 12). The IMAGE of jealousy that stands in the door of your churches(verse 3), could be today any NUMBER of things, that will provoke the Lord to jealousy. I have mentioned a few above. Certainly far too many of you give your allegiance to an organization, be it locally or nationally, or to the church building itself, or to the people in that building, so making them your "social club" from which you cannot pull away no matter how corrupt or false in doctrine they become. That also is an idol that will provoke the Supreme One to jealousy. Then in verse 14 we have the persons who "weep for Tammuz." What on earth is this all about? Well it's quite a story, longer than we have time for here to cover in detail, but I will cover some of it. Before we go back to the very beginning of the entrance of Tammuz on the earth and where he really came from, a little information about his celebration is educational for us as it pertains to the time of Ezekiel. The word Tammuz is the Syriac for Adonis. Yes, the supposed handsome mystic fellow all the women swoon over and cry about with emotional butterflies in their stomach. He was, in the pagan world, the paramour of Venus, the sex goddess. These women at the Temple, instead of weeping over the SINS of the nation are crying over the idol Tammuz. He was said to have been killed by a wild boar, and then permitted by the gods to spend half the year on the earth and then the other half in the lower world. An annual feast was celebrated to him in June at Byblos, when the Syrian women, in wild grief, tore off their hair, and gave their persons over to prostitution, consecrating the hire of their infamy to Venus; next followed the days of rejoicing for his return to the earth - the former feast being called "the disappearance of Adonis," the latter, "the finding of Adonis." See on this the Bible Commentary by Jamieson, Fausset and Brown, Vol.2. Now to the story of Tammuz as it was in the beginning. For this we must go back to NIMROD, mentioned in Genesis 10. He was a MIGHTY ONE, a MIGHTY HUNTER, and he was such it is written BEFORE the Lord. He established a KINGDOM, the first so mentioned in the Bible. The JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA says: "he who made all the people REBELLIOUS against God." They have good reason to say this. The expression "a mighty one" has a hostile meaning. The expression comes from the Hebrew word "gibor" which means TYRANT; while the very name Nimrod means "let us rebel." The Hebrew word "before" as in "before the Lord" also carries a hostile meaning - AGAINST! Nimrod was AGAINST the Lord, the one who taught and led the people to REBEL against the Lord. He was a priest of DEVIL-worship. He was the priest-king of Babylon, his empire. Nimrod did die, for he was but human. The Babylonian religion which he founded CONTINUED on and DEVELOPED further under the leading of his WIFE. After Nimrod's death, his wife, Queen SEMIRAMIS, claimed that he was now the SUN-god. And later, when this idolatrous woman gave birth to an illegitimate son, she claimed that this son, TAMMUZ by name, was Nimrod REBORN. Now Satan knew the promise from the Lord that a "seed" would come from woman, that was to be the SAVIOR of the world, who would conquer sin, death, and Satan himself. Queen Semiramis, as an instrument in the hands of Satan, claimed that HER son was supernaturally conceived(immaculate conception) and that HE was the PROMISED SEED, the "savior" of the world. This Babylonian religion went on to formulate that the MOTHER(Semiramis) was to be worshipped as much as the child, if not more than the child in certain respects. The "golden calf" was a SYMBOL of Tammuz, son of the Sun-god Nimrod. This Nimrod-Sun-god was the Baal of the Scriptures, so often mentioned as the false god that your fathers O house of Israel worshipped time after time, until the True Lord had to send them into captive punishment, for their idolatry and Sabbath breaking. This system of false TRINITY worship(Nimrod-Sun-god, Mother queen of heaven, and the child Tammuz) spread from Babylon to the nations of the world. We find evidence of this Babylonian religion - in one form or anther - in all the false religions of the earth and all nations upon it. As it spread, the names of the three principle characters often CHANGED and other rites added and expanded upon, but the basic form still remained in tact. It ALL started in BABYLON, under Nimrod, who was under the influence of Satan. The whole system has many MYSTERIOUS parts to it, many mysterious patterns, rites, forms, symbols, feasts, codes of worship etc. In the book of Revelation it is called BABYLON MYSTERY RELIGION. It is symbolized by a WOMAN, a fallen woman. One who is drunk on the BLOOD of the SAINTS of God, whose history has been to persecute and kill the true children of the Almighty. She rides a BEAST that does her bidding, a civil power that acts on her behalf. She is said to be a MOTHER, who had children born from out of her. They are called HARLOTS, for they also have many of her character traits and ways and practices. LISTEN ISRAEL! Many of your past theological scholars of the 16th to the 19th centuries KNEW WHO SHE WAS, AND BOLDLY PROCLAIMED IT TO ALL WHO WOULD READ THEIR BIBLE COMMENTARIES, which are still in print to this day and can still be purchased through the your Bible Book stores. Tammuz was the false savior, being dressed up by Satan to deceive the world as the true Savior. The women weeping for Tammuz in this section of Ezekiel's message is to teach you that there is a FALSE EMOTIONAL RELIGION in your lands. A people that THINK they are worshipping the real SAVIOR of the world, but are in truth only following in a physical emotional way the FALSE savior of Satan. They may think they are worshipping Jesus Christ, but in reality they serve and worship Tammuz, the son of the Sun-god Nimrod, who taught the whole world to rebel against the one and only true Eternal Lord of the universe. Now notice verses 15 and 16 of Ezekiel the 8th chapter. If all this was not enough, God says that an even GREATER ABOMINATION is going on in the sanctuary of the House of the Lord. TWENTY-FIVE men, representing the 25 courses or orders of the priests, 1 Chr.24:18,19, with the high priest at their head, which in turn represents the WHOLE priesthood of your lands. These then are said to have their BACKS to the west and WORSHIP THE SUN IN THE EAST! Pretty clear! God is telling you that your religious leaders AS A WHOLE are nothing but a group of PAGAN SUN WORSHIPPERS! O, they may come to you in the "name of the Lord" and say to you that "Jesus is the Christ" but as Jesus Himself said, they would and they do DECEIVE MANY! Read again Jesus' prophecy in Matthew 24. What does the Eternal says to all this: "Therefore will I also deal in fury: mine eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity: and though they CRY unto me in mine ears with a LOUD VOICE, yet will I NOT HEAR THEM" (verse 18). IS THERE NO HOPE, FOR AT LEAST SOME? WE SHALL SEE IF THERE IS NEXT TIME AS WE CONTINUE WITH THE MESSAGE OF EZEKIEL. ..............................................................         To be Continued

EZEKIEL FOR TOMORROW-- CHAPTER 5

 

Ezekiel For Tomorrow!

Chapter 5

FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL?  Part 2 EZEKIEL 5 People of the nations of the British Commonwealth, the United States of America, and countries of North-West Europe, you are the literal people of the 10 tribes of the Old Testament House of Israel, who were taken as captives and slaves by the armies of the Empire of Assyria from 745 to 718 B.C. Those ten tribes never returned to their land of Samaria in Palestine, but eventually migrated north to the area of the Black and Caspian seas. Through the following centuries they came into Europe under various names, the most familiar ones being the names of Celts, Danes, Gauls, Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, Franks, Normans, and Vikings. Those peoples settled in North-west Europe and the British isles. There the people of the tribe of Joseph - Ephraim and Manesseh - multiplied together, eventually forming a multitude of nations and a great single nation, as foretold in the book of Genesis. There are dozens of prophecies in the OT concerning the last days of this present age, and what portends for YOU as nations, IF as nations you will NOT repent! Those words of prophetic significance WILL come to pass as sure as day turns into night. The Eternal says that as you multiplied in population, wealth, and power, so your SINS multiplied, until your lands are full of every kind of wickedness and corruption and perversion, from the top of your head to the sole of your feet. The Almighty God gives you a warning and a sure end result of your sins, through the prophet Ezekiel. He tells you that His punishment, His correction, His chastising, will come upon you, and in no uncertain manner. Last time we saw the setting and calling of Ezekiel to warn the House of Israel. He was a prisoner by the river of Chebar. He was to tell the children of Israel (far away from where Ezekiel was) about their future destruction and captivity, yet he was NOT to go about among them, and his mouth was to remain shut....until God opened it, and that was to be way down at the time of the end of this present age. The events to come upon the city of Jerusalem was to be a type of the events to come upon the House of Israel, shortly before the coming of the Messiah in glory to rule all nations with a rod of iron. We have now come to the beginning of the 5th chapter of the book of Ezekiel. Here God gets very specific in percentage of your peoples and what WILL happen to them in the yet future time of "Jacob's trouble" or the "great tribulation" that is to come upon the whole world, about three and one half years before the glorious return of Christ Jesus to this earth. Your sins and wickedness O house of Israel is very great and have come before the Holy One of Israel, for judgment and correction. You, nation of Britain, have about 4% of your population that attend religious services on a regular basis. Even most of those have little knowledge or desire to find the truths of the word of the Lord. You are a people of secular materialism, and such sexual desires of lust that the most popular daily newspaper has its topless girl on page three each day. Canada, your violent crime is growing - killings and murders on the increase, and still you will not bring back the death penalty for those guilty of willful murder, as the laws of the Eternal proclaim should be the law of the land. The United States of America, your crime rate is the highest in Israel, and blood does touch blood. You have a high percentage of church going people, and ones that say they believe in a God, yet your land is full of every sin and evil imaginable. Every day in the lands of Northwest Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United Sates, the local news of your towns bring the sordid reality of a people that have forgotten the true ways of the Almighty, have turned their back on the commandments of God, have fallen into drug abuse, food abuse, alcohol abuse, gambling abuse, pleasure and sports madness, hate and violence, unhappy families, abuse within families of every kind, and a huge divorce rate. Your schools by and large have no discipline, and true to the prophecies, children are your oppressors. Those that lead you cause you to err and destroy your paths. Your leaders are mad and your prophets are profane, so says the Lord. Your lands kill tens of thousands of the most helpless and innocent each year in your freedom of choice abortion clinics. Your courts are full of injustice, where sometimes the rich and the famous can literally get away with murder. Then on the other hand many innocent people are found guilty because of the pressure from some to find and convict a suspect - to solve a case. You have judges that take bribes, and lawyers that will defend anyone for pay, manipulating the law, withholding evidence, lying and twisting things, using the race issue, and doing just about anything to win a case if paid enough money. The poor and the widow and the fatherless are being forgotten, while the rich get richer. The people's money collected through taxes is often greatly abused by your government agencies as clearly reported by your investigative news programs. There is lust, greed, envy, immorality, perversion, unbridled anger, a calling of good "evil" and the calling of evil "good" through your lands O children of Israel. You have a form of godliness but deny the power thereof! You trample on the holy Sabbath day of the Eternal. And reject His feasts while observing those He hates. Most of your religious teachers have taught you to believe that God's grace gives you license to break the law of God. While they offer you liberty, they themselves are the servants of corruption and sin. Because there is no knowledge of the Lord in the land, because you have chosen to reject true knowledge, the Almighty is going to reject you that you will be no priest unto Him. You are increasingly teaching and proclaiming that Homosexuality and Lesbianism is fine among consenting persons. You are starting to even give them "family" status, with child rearing rights. All this, while the perfect righteous and holy One calls living this life style an abomination! I could go on and on listing and expounding your wickedness and sins, but those I have commented on shall bring punishment upon you from the Eternal in no uncertain way. That certain way God will now reveal and proclaim to you. Unless you repent as nations what you are about to read is certain to come to pass. So it is written, and so it will be done. And when it will come upon you, then you will know there is a God in heaven who rules in the kingdoms of men, setting up and setting down as He has decreed by His holy prophets, one of them being the prophet Ezekiel. Remember, the city of Jerusalem and that which was to befall it, is used in the book of Ezekiel as a type of the nations of the house of Israel, and what is to befall them just before the coming of the Messiah in power and glory to rule all nations and establish the Kingdom of God over the whole earth for a thousand years. "And you , son of man, take you a sharp knife, take you a barber's razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard: then take you balanced to weigh, and divide the hair. You shall burn with fire a THIRD PART in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a THIRD PART, and smite about it with a knife: and a THIRD PART you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. You shall also take thereof a few in number, and bind them in your skirts. Then take of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for thereof shall a fire come forth into ALL the HOUSE OF ISRAEL. Thus says the Lord God; THIS IS JERUSALEM: I have set in the midst of the nations and countries that are round about her. And she has changed my judgments into WICKEDNESS more than the nations, and my statutes more than the countries that are round about her: for they have REFUSED my judgments and my statutes, they have not walked in them" (Ezek.5:1-6). This is the word of the Lord unto the HOUSE OF ISRAEL, not the house of Judah, but unto those that had already, 120-150 years earlier, gone into captivity and were now out of the Assyrian land and in the area of the Black and Caspian seas, heading North and West into Europe and South into Asia Minor. The House of Israel was typified by the city of Jerusalem. What was written here was to yet happen to the people of the holy city, and in so doing this prophecy had a first fulfilment, but the MAIN and ULTIMATE fulfilment was to take place on the peoples of the House of Israel, still in the FUTURE of us TODAY. These words are YET to come to pass on YOU PEOPLES of the United States, Northwest Europe, and the British Commonwealth, unless you REPENT AND SEEK THE ETERNAL WITH ALL YOUR HEART! "Therefore thus says the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against you, and will execute judgment in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. Therefore the fathers shall eat the sons in the midst of you, and the sons shall eat the fathers; and I will execute judgment in you, and the whole remnant of you will I scatter into the winds" (chapt.5:8-10). The time will yet come in Jacob's trouble, that starvation and hardship will be so intense people will literally eat each other to try and stay alive. Those of you who shall survive will be scattered into the winds as captives and slaves of your enemies. "Wherefore, as I live, says the Lord God; Surely, because you have DEFILED my SANCTUARY with all your detestable things, and with all your ABOMINATIONS, therefore will I also DIMINISH you; neither shall my eye spare, neither will I have pity" (verse 11). One of the reasons that judgment and punishment will come upon you is because of the FALSE RELIGIONS that you espouse. The Eternal calls your religions, yes even your so called "Christian" religion, an ABOMINATION! You have defiled His name and His sanctuary with evil abominations! You have changed the holy Sabbath day of the 4th Commandment, the 7th day, to the pagan sun-god day of the first day of the week, which not one verse in the entire Bible declares is the Lord's day to be set apart as holy unto Him. You have rejected the FEATS of the Lord as listed in Leviticus 23, the Festivals that Jesus observed in the NT Gospels, the Festivals that the early apostolic church continued to observe, and you have adopted and adapted the feasts of the heathen, deceived, Satanically influenced nations around you. Spend a few hours in your Encyclopedias and look up the topics of Easter, Christmas, January 1st, Valentines Day, Halloween, and even Thanksgiving Day, and enlighten your eyes and mind to the truth of the matter concerning these festivals that are passed off by the leaders of your churches as "Christian" and pleasing to God to celebrate. Then search the Scriptures and find what the Eternal has to say about taking the feasts of the spiritually darkened nations around you and worshipping Him with them. You can start with Deuteronomy 12:29-32. The word of the Almighty says your priests and ministers have put NO DIFFERENCE between that which is holy and that which un-holy, that which is clean and that which is un-clean, that which is righteous and that which is un-righteous. Your religious leaders have led you astray and have deceived you with enticing and sweet words. You heap to yourselves ministers with itching ears that tell you what you have hired them to tell you. You and your workers in the sanctuary of God have turned the grace of the Lord into a license to sin and practice wickedness. You have church organizations that support the sin of abortion on demand. You have churches that teach their members that homosexuality and Lesbianism is acceptable to God and just another life style that is within His law. You have ministers that have fallen into gross sins many times, that have brought shame and embarrassment on the word and name of Christ and His true church, which you allow to remain as leaders of the flock of God. Because of all this and more, listen to what the Almighty Eternal God says to you: "A THIRD PART shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of you: and a THIRD PART shall fall by the sword round about you; and I will scatter a THIRD PART into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them" (verse 12). Here the order is pestilence, famine, the sword, and scattering, but later as we shall see, the order is the sword, famine, and pestilence (chapter 6:11). So we cannot be dogmatic as to which will come first upon you, but whichever is first, the message is very clear, when all is done, two thirds of you will be dead while the other remaining third is scattered into the winds and a sword comes after them. The prophet AMOS was inspired to foretell that only ONE TENTH of you shall remain alive after God has poured out His judgments on you (Amos 5:1-3). "Thus shall my anger be accomplished, and I will cause my fury to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and they SHALL KNOW that I have spoken in my zeal, when I HAVE(future tense) accomplished my fury in them. Moreover I will make you waste, and a reproach among the nations that are round about you, in the sight of all that pass by you. So it shall be a reproach and a taunt, an instruction and an astonishment unto the nations that are round about you, when I shall execute judgment in you in anger and in fury and in furious rebuke. I the Lord have spoken it. When I shall send upon you the evil arrows of famine, which shall be for their destruction, and which I shall send to destroy you: and I will increase the famine upon you, and will break your staff of bread. So I will send upon you famine and evil beasts, and they shall bereave you; and pestilence and blood shall pass through you; and I will bring the sword upon you. I the Lord have spoken it" (verses 13-17). As if all this was not enough emphasis, the Lord God opens up the other barrel of the shot gun and unloads it upon you in chapter six. Most of you will not listen or harken to these words so you may repent from all your wickedness, for you are a most rebellious and stone-hearted people, but for the few among you who will fall upon their knees in humble repentance, and so save their souls, I will give you the words of the Eternal as found in Ezekiel the sixth chapter. "And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set your face towards the mountains of Israel, and prophecy against them, and say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus says the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a SWORD UPON YOU, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will CAST DOWN YOUR SLAIN MEN before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcases of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be made desolate, and your idols shall be broken and cease, and your images shall be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and YOU SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD. Yet will I LEAVE A REMNANT, that you may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, WHEN you SHALL BE scattered among the countries. And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried CAPTIVES, because I am broken with their WHORISH heart, which have departed from me, and with their eyes, which go a whoring after their idols: and they shall LOATHE themselves for the EVIL which they have committed in all their ABOMINATIONS. And they shall KNOW that I AM THE LORD, AND THAT I HAVE NOT SAID IN VAIN THAT I WOULD DO THIS EVIL UNTO THEM. Thus says the Lord God; Smite with your hand, and stamp with your foot, and say, Alas for ALL the EVIL ABOMINATIONS of the house of Israel! for they shall FALL BY THE SWORD, BY THE FAMINE, AND BY THE PESTILENCE. He that is far off shall die by the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remains and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my FURY upon them. THEN shall they KNOW that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, and in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savor to all their idols. SO WILL I STRETCH OUT MY HAND UPON THEM, AND MAKE THE LAND DESOLATE, YES, more desolate than the wilderness towards Diblath, in all their habitations: AND THEY SHALL KNOW THAT I AM THE LORD." Do not think that your wealth and your mighty weapons of war, all your space-age computer driven rockets and machines of mass destruction with their nuclear war-heads, will protect you from the destruction that surely lies in wait for you, O peoples of the House of Israel. Have you no remembrance of how the Eternal has used with mighty results of devastation, the forces and power of NATURE against some of your towns and cities in the past? It would only be a matter of hours that you would be on your knees, broken and helpless, to the sword of your enemies, if the Almighty was to turn the power of nature upon you from coast to coast, border to border, nation to nation. If the God in heaven was to pour out upon you plagues, pestilence, and famine, that you have never seen the like of for hundreds of years, if all these natural evils of huge paralyzing death and pain were to come upon you from the hand of the Lord, if one third of you were lying dead in the streets from these destructive plagues, you would be helpless to withstand the sword from your enemies. You may be preparing to LIVE as great nations, you may eventually see who your real enemies will be, and you may, at the stroke of midnight BLOW THE TRUMPET, to make ready, but you will not stand to fight. More from the Eternal about this point in the next part as I proceed through the book and prophecy of Ezekiel. ..............................................  To be Continued

EZEKIEL FOR TOMORROW-- INTRODUCTION

                               Ezekiel For TOMORROW!

                            Introduction

FOR WHY WILL YOU DIE, O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? Therefore I will judge you, O house of Israel, every one according to his ways, says the Eternal God. Repent, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin. Cast away from you all your transgressions, whereby you have transgressed; and make you a new heart and a new spirit.......For I have no pleasure in the death of him that dies, says the Lord God: wherefore turn yourselves, and live. Part One (All Scripture quotations from the KJV, unless otherwise noted) by Keith Hunt Will you listen to the voice of the Eternal, O you people of the British Commonwealth, United States of America, and nations of North-Western Europe? Will you open your ears to the word of the Almighty? He speaks to you with power and certainty through the prophet Ezekiel, with end time, this time, the age of the 21st century predictions of what WILL befall your nations, unless total humble repentance with a turning away from sin to ighteousness, is accomplished on a national scale. You, as a collection of prominent nations of the world, with the British Commonwealth and the United States of America spear-heading this family of Celtic-Anglo-Saxon peoples, are mentioned in the pages of Bible Prophecy MORE than any other peoples on the face of this earth - believe it or not. And yes, I know that most of you will not believe it, though it be told you. Listen, you nations! You are THE PEOPLES AND DESCENDANTS OF THE BIBLICAL HOUSE OF ISRAEL! Yes, you are the very LITERAL AND SPIRITUAL peoples of the ancient house of Israel. Most of you will laugh and scorn such an idea as that, most of your religious leaders will vehemently deny that the nations of North-Western Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United States of America, are the peoples of Old Testament Israel. Yes, I know this will be the case - utter denial by most in your nations. I do not come to you in this series of messages to try to prove or to convince you that such a statement by myself is correct. I do simply come to you to TELL you quite dogmatically, whether you believe it or not, that you are the nations of the House of Israel, in the prophecies of Ezekiel and others contained in the Old Testament(OT). There is ample proof, volumes of proof, that my statement is absolutely correct. What I am about to begin to relate to you from the Eternal God through the words that Ezekiel was inspired to write so long ago, the words that God spoke many centuries ago, to be given to you in the last days, WILL COME TO PASS AS SURE AS THE RISING OF THE SUN, if as nations you will not repent. And if that will be the case, if you will not as peoples turn and repent from all your wickedness, then when these prophecies of the Lord do indeed come upon you, then you will know you are the children of Israel, and the Eternal did send His prophets to warn and to teach you, just as the Lord had promised (Amos 3:7). The time is at hand, O house of Israel! Will you not give ear to the admonition and cry from the Lord God, to mend your ways, and return unto Him with all your heart, mind, and soul, to worship Him in spirit and in truth, to hunger and thirst after righteousness? Will you choose to live and not to die? For the Lord has no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from their iniquity and sin, and LIVE! In the time past, God chose a man called Abram from the city of Ur. He told him to pack his bags and head west, for a land that He would promise him. Abram trusting, obeyed. God told him that he would make him a GREAT nation. God then changed Abram's name to Abraham, because he would be a father of many nations and many kings would come from his descent. The Lord gave Abraham perhaps the greatest test of all - to give up his son of promise. Because he was willing to do so, God promises with an oath - "by myself have I sworn, says the Lord" - that Abraham's seed would be as the stars of heaven, posses the gates of their enemies, and in his seed all nations would be blessed. Isaac, was the son of promise, that was born unto Abraham. He had two sons, namely Esau and Jacob. Esau was the firstborn and to him should have gone the birthright of physical bounty and greatness, but for a bowl of pottage he sold it to Jacob. Isaac passed on this birthright officially to Jacob with blessing of the dew of heaven and the fatness of the earth, plenty of corn and wine, with nations bowing down to his offspring, even the nations of his mother's sons - his own brothers. Jacob was also tested by the Lord. He wrestled with the Lord all night and did prevail boldly, so much so that God changed his name from Jacob to Israel, meaning a prince of God, for it was stated that "as a prince hast you power with God, and with men, and hast prevailed." Later, God appeared to Jacob or Israel again, and promised him that of his seed would come a nation and a company of nations! Israel had 12 sons, one being called Joseph. He was a favorite of his father's. Joseph's brothers being envious sold him to the Egyptians. After much trials and tests Joseph rose to become second in command over Egypt under the Pharaoh. Famine in the land of his father eventually brought Joseph's brothers and his father to Egypt where they were all united again in family love. There they were given the land of Goshen, where they greatly multiplied and found favor in the eyes of the Pharaoh. Before, just before, the death of Jacob, Joseph visited him bringing with him his two sons that were born unto him in the land of Egypt, Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob knew this was God's doing and placed his name upon them as his own two sons, and placing his hands on them blessed them. The birthright promise was given to Joseph while the sceptre promise was Judah's(1 Chron.5:2). Joseph and his seed through Ephraim and Manesseh would become as a fruitful bough by a well, whose branches would run all over the wall. They above all other peoples on the face of the earth would inherit the blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep, blessings of the breast and of the womb. They would be mighty in battle strength though many would strive against them. When another Pharaoh was king who did not know the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the peoples of Israel were made bond slaves, and worked in servitude under harsh task masters. They cried unto the Lord for deliverance and He did hear their cry, sending a man called Moses to lead them out of the bondage of Egypt to the land of promise. Even then as today, the peoples of Israel showed wickedness in rebelling against the word of the Lord, even when He suffered long with them. Time and time again they disobeyed His voice, turned their ears away from the words of God's servant Moses as he led them for 40 years in the wilderness. Before Moses died he blessed and prophesied about the tribes of Israel, again the physical blessings of the heaven, the earth, and the sea, were promised to Joseph through his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Jacob had done the same before his death. Promises and blessings to fall upon the tribes of Israel in the last days. When all that faithless and evil generation had died in the desert, God led Israel into the promised land by faithful Joshua. Under his leadership they served the true God. Yet, it was not long after the death of Joshua that the peoples of Israel turned away from serving the Eternal God with all their heart and soul, and went whoring after other gods and other nations round about, doing wickedness in the sight of the Lord. Often, God would correct and punish them by being conquered by the nations around. Then they would again repent and cry out for mercy, and the Lord would deliver them from their enemies. They would for a while serve and obey the Almighty, but in the process of time they would forget the true God and once more return unto practicing falsehood and carnality. In time the peoples of Israel wanted a king to rule them as the other nations around. Their leader Samuel, God's faithful priest and prophet was displeased, as was the Lord Himself, yet the desire of their carnal hearts was granted. God chose Saul, a tall handsome man of valor, to be the first king of Israel. At the beginning he walked with God, but soon departed from the ways of the Lord and was rejected as king, the Lord choosing a young man whose heart was after the heart of God. David was his name. Under David, Israel continued to serve the Eternal in truth and righteousness. Solomon, the son of David, took the throne and continued for most of his life to follow in the foot-steps of his father. But he multiplied many wives from foreign nations who did not know the true God of Israel, and it is written they turned his heart away from serving the Lord in truth and spirit. He also burdened the people with heavy taxation. Upon the death of Solomon, his son Rehoboam was to take the throne. The elders of Israel told him if he would lift the taxation burden his father had imposed upon them, then they would serve him, but he listened instead to the young men, and rejected the wisdom of the elders, to which 10 of the 12 tribes revolted against Rehoboam, setting up their own kingdom and throne in Samaria, under the leadership of Jeroboam. Up to this time the 13 tribes(the tribe of Joseph now being two tribes - namely, Ephraim and Manesseh) were known as "Israel" or "House of Israel." Now from the reign of Rehoboam, it was the 10 Northern tribes that would be known as Israel or the House of Israel, the Kingdom of Israel, and the 3 Southern tribes would be known as the Kingdom of Judah or House of Judah. They would both have their own land, their own dynasty of kings, their own laws, their own national capital cities, their own religious worship, with their own priesthoods, and temple service. It is written this separation and division was allowed and was from the Lord, to fulfil His worldwide plan of the ages to the time of the end. Many prophets from the Lord were sent to both these kingdoms, to correct and to teach them the true ways of the Almighty, if they would but listen and heed. Immediately, upon the departure of the northern 10 tribes to form their own kingdom under Jeroboam, this man established a false counter-part temple priesthood worship practice, with two calves of gold, one in Bethel and the other in Dan, an imitation feast of Tabernacles in the eighth month instead of the seventh as commanded by the Eternal God. He caused Israel to sin a great sin in the eyes of the Lord. The books of Kings and Chronicles contain the histories of these two kingdoms, their ups and their downs, their righteous kings and their evil kings, the times they served the Lord in truth and holiness, and the times they departed from the Lord into wickedness and sin. The times of wickedness and great evil for Israel or the 10 tribe House of Israel, grew more and more frequent. The patience and the mercy of the Lord finally came to its end. Mighty prophets such as Isaiah, Amos, Hosea, were sent to warn the northern kingdom of Israel, that unless true humble repentance was forthcoming, then Israel would be conquered, taken captive, and deported as slaves to the land of their enemy - the mighty and great Assyrian nation. With a stiff neck and rebellious heart, the people of Israel refused to repent and depart from their wicked ways. So God, as promised sent the Assyrian empire and armies to enslave them. From about 745 B.C. to 718 B.C. Israel, the 10 northern tribes, and many from the house of Judah to the south, were deported as captives to Assyria. As foretold by Hosea, the house of Israel started to abide many days without a king, without a prince, and without a sacrifice. And as Amos was inspired to forecast, the nation of Israel was to be sifted among and through all nations, as corn is sifted through a sieve, yet not one grain was to fall upon the earth. God was still going to be merciful, He was working out His plan with the children of Israel to the end time, when they would inherit the great physical blessing of the earth, and when Ephraim and Manasseh would become the nation and company of nations as promised to Jacob and Joseph. The house of Israel together with much of Judah, left the land of Assyria, and began their centuries long wandering through Asia Minor, south-west Russia, the Black and Caspian sea area, through Europe and on west to eventually settle in Northwest Europe and the British Isles. The became known as Celts(Kelts), Anglo-Saxons, Danes, Jutes, Gauls, Normans, and other names. The peoples of Manesseh, leaving Europe and Britain to form the mighty United States of America, while the Ephraimites settled England and came to world greatness through the British Commonwealth of nations and all the other lands upon which at one time the sun never set. Yes, whether you will believe it or not, I tell you with dogmatic assurance, you peoples of the lands of Northwest Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United States of America, are the very literal descendants of the Old Testament House of Israel. And the Lord has MUCH to say to you through the prophetic books of the Bible. The message of the book of EZEKIEL is especially for you peoples of the above nations. The House of Judah was not all carried away with the captivity and deporting of the House of Israel. Jerusalem survived the Assyrian onslaught. It was not until about 120 years later that Judah became so wicked and rebellious towards God that He sent them into a 70 year captivity to the Babylonians. Their deportation started about 604 B.C. and lasted till about 586 B.C. During that time, Ezekiel, at the age of 25, was taken captive and in the environs of Babylon, by the river Chebar He was chosen by the Lord to be a prophet to many nations, in particular to the nations of the House of Israel. Now, remember, the peoples of the Northern Kingdom of Israel had ALREADY gone into captivity about 120 to 150 years EARLIER! They were no longer in the land of Samaria. They never as a majority, returned, only a few individuals and a few families of Israel ever came back to live with the peoples of the house of Judah. Some were, by the time Ezekiel was writing, starting to leave the land of Assyria and heading west into Europe. They became known as Celts in history. Ezekiel, as we shall see, never got to the nations he was told to prophetically warn and call to repentance. His message to the House of Israel never reached them. It was not intended to reach them at that time, for it was for a time way beyond the days of Ezekiel. It was a warning, a teaching, a call to repent, and what would happen if the nations of Israel did not repent, at the time of the end, shortly before the coming of the Messiah in glory to establish the government and Kingdom of God of this earth for a thousand years. People of America, people of the British Commonwealth, people of the lands of Northwest Europe, the message of Ezekiel, IS FOR YOU TODAY!! Through the words of Ezekiel, the Almighty God tells you of your sins, your wickedness, your wayward ways in departing from the laws, commandments, statues, and judgments of the Eternal, into false doctrine of false religions, perverseness, evil, sin, and utter depravity of rebelliousness and the way that seems right unto men, but which ways end in death. The Lord says through Ezekiel, He is not pleased with the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should REPENT and turn from their sins and LIVE! The Lord DOES NOT want you to DIE, O house of Israel. He does not want to have to bring these predictions of Ezekiel to fruition upon you, BUT THEY WILL SURELY COME UPON YOU IF YOU WILL NOT TURN YOURSELVES FROM ALL THE EVIL YOU NOW PRACTICE! LISTEN CLOSELY, O peoples of the nations of Israel. Mark the words you hear well, for if God must bring them to pass, you will know He sent His servants to warn you beforehand, and you will KNOW you are the people of Israel indeed, you will know you are not Gentiles at all, as you have been led to believe by your false priests and ministers who come to you in the name of the Lord, but are in truth wolves in sheeps clothing, and ministers of Baal. Listen now closely as I begin to expound to you the message of the Lord from the words of the prophet Ezekiel, for in them contains DEATH on the one hand and LIFE on the other hand. Maybe the nations of Israel as a whole will not repent and so save themselves from the punishment and destruction God will send upon them, but you my friend, can personally find protection and LIFE. I pray you will! EZEKIEL IS CHOSEN TO WARN THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL Chapter one - the setting: Ezekiel is a captive by the river of Chebar. He is 25 years old. The year is about 597 B.C. The word of the Lord comes unto Ezekiel the priest. He is given a vision of four living creatures and four wheels. There is a firmament above the heads of the living creatures, and upon the firmament is a throne. Upon the throne is the appearance of a man. The likeness of the man is expressly and specifically said to be the "glory of the Lord." This throne is a travelling throne, different from the throne room in the Temple in the heavenly Jerusalem. God begins to talk to Ezekiel, starting in chapter two. GOD TELLS EZEKIEL TO SPEAK TO ISRAEL "And He said to me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel....." (verse 3-7). Comment: Israel had gone into captivity and had been deported to Assyria one-hundred-and- twenty to one-hundred-and-fifty years earlier. Ezekiel was a captive of Judah near Babylon. It would have been impossible for him to literally have gone where the peoples of the once northern kingdom of Israel were now beginning to spread out and wander through the nations. God tells him that He is sending him to a stiff-hearted and REBELLIOUS people. He is not to be afraid of them, although they be as thorns and scorpions. He is to speak the words of the Lord to them, whether they will listen or not. Ezekiel is given a vision of a roll of a book, written on both sides. Symbolically he is to eat this book. It contains lamentations, mournings, and woe. Most in the nations of Israel today will not listen to this Ezekiel message. Most will say it is not a prophecy towards much of Europe, the United States, and the British Commonwealth. Such denial of the modern identity of the house of Israel, will result in the very predictions against these peoples, coming to pass. As before stated, when these dire events do come upon you who live in the lands of Israel, then you will surely know you have been most rebellious, and you will know that the true people and servants of the Lord within the "Church of God" did WARN you beforehand. You will know who were the genuine children of God. And you will know or start to know, who the one and only true God is, and that you are literally the children of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. "And He said to me, Son of man, go, get you to the house of Israel, and speak my words unto them. For you are not sent to a people of a strange speech and of a hard language, but to the house of Israel......but the house of Israel will NOT HARKEN unto you, for they WILL NOT HARKEN unto ME: for all the house of Israel are impudent and hardhearted. Behold, I have made your face STRONG against their faces, and your forehead strong against their forehead......fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks, though they be a REBELLIOUS house"(chapter 3:4-9). Comment: It is clear, Ezekiel was sent with a message to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL, which were away in captivity far from where he was a captive near Babylon. They were already moving up to the Black and Caspian sea areas. The house of Israel and the house of Judah were STILL at this time TWO SEPARATE kingdoms and peoples. Ezekiel was a Jew. A good portion of the house of Judah were in captivity from the invasion by the Babylonians, but the city of Jerusalem had not yet fallen. God was sending Ezekiel to warn and preach to the HOUSE OF ISRAEL! He was told by the Lord that the peoples of the house of Israel, you people of Celtic-Anglo-Saxon-Danish-Viking-Jute ancestry, ARE HARDHEARTED, stiff-necked, and an impudent people WHO WILL NOT LISTEN to the Eternal, so you will not listen to Ezekiel. Yet, he was told that God had made his face and forehead STRONG to withstand your rebelliousness. God told Ezekiel to go to them of the captivity, to speak to them, whether they would hear or whether they would not hear(verse 11). Ezekiel could NOT physically go to the house of Israel, for he was a captive in a prison camp by the river of Chebar. So in the spirit of a vision, the living creatures and the wheels, together with the Spirit of the Lord, lifted him away to where others were captive at Telabib, on the banks of the river Chebar. There he remained astonished among them for seven days (verses 12-15). After seven days the word of the Lord again came to him, saying: "Son of man, I have made you a WATCHMAN unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and GIVE THEM WARNING FROM ME......"(verse 17). Comment: You nations of Northwest Europe, the British Commonwealth, and the United States of America. This message is not from some human man, with human ideas, that may or may not come to pass. The words you are about to read and to hear are FROM THE ALMIGHTY, ETERNAL GOD of this Universe, the one who created ALL THINGS by and through Jesus Christ. He is the author of the words, not me, not Ezekiel, and He is ABLE TO BRING TO PASS WHAT HE PROPHECIES WILL COME UPON YOU IF TOTAL HUMBLE REPENTANCE IS NOT FORTHCOMING! Those to whom God tells them to proclaim the message of Ezekiel MUST DO SO or the blood of the people will be required at their hands if they do not. The wicked will die in their wickedness, but if the watchman has not WARNED them, the blood of the wicked will be upon them. But, if the wicked have been warned, the watchman will save his own soul, though the wicked will die(verses 18,19). Sometimes God will TEST even the righteous man, putting or allowing a snare to be placed before him, and if he turn away from his righteousness he will die in his sin. If the watchman has not warned him then his blood will be required at the watchman's hand. If the watchman has warned him and the righteous man does not sin, he shall live. The watchman will also deliver his own soul from death(verses 20-21). Was Ezekiel to literally go out from the prison camp by the river of Chebar and walk, run, ride off to the peoples of the house of Israel, far far away from there in the land of Assyria and beyond, to give them the words of the Lord? Was he to literally, personally himself, to go out preaching among the children of the ten tribe house of Israel, that at least 120 years earlier had been removed from their land of Samaria by the Assyrians, and were now moving North and West? The word of the Lord gives us the answer. "Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spoke with me, and said unto me, Go, SHUT YOURSELF WITHIN YOUR HOUSE. But you, O son of man, behold, they shall PUT BANDS UPON YOU, AND SHALL BIND YOU WITH THEM, and you shall NOT GO OUT AMONG THEM: And I will make your TONGUE TO CLEAVE TO THE ROOF OF YOUR MOUTH, that you shall BE DUMB, and shall NOT be to them a REPROVER: for they are a rebellious house. But WHEN I SPEAK WITH YOU, I WILL OPEN YOUR MOUTH, and you shall says unto them, Thus says the Eternal God; He that hears, let him hear; and he that forbears, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house"(verses 24-27). Comment: Now, does all this sound a little confusing? God calls Ezekiel to be a messenger, a watchman to the house of Israel. Gives him a message and tells him if he does not go and preach it to those who will die if they do not repent, the blood of their lives He will require at the watchman's hands. The Lord tells Ezekiel he must warn them of their wickedness. Then He tells Ezekiel He will SHUT HIS MOUTH, BIND HIM UP and he will not go out among them. He tells him that he will be DUMB and not a reprover. But also goes on to say that WHEN HE speaks to Ezekiel then he will open his mouth and speak to them the words of the prophetic message. Ummm, what on earth can it all mean? Just this, and I will prove it to you in the following parts to this series. Ezekiel was chosen to be a watchman to the house of Israel, house of Judah, and some other nations. He was given a prophetic message for those nations. He ALSO WAS TO WRITE it down, to PRESERVE it! He was NOT allowed to go himself, personally and bodily, to those nations. He was to remain a captive by the river of Chebar. In that sense his mouth was shut. He was not to be like the other prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Amos, Hosea, who did personally preach among the peoples of Israel and Judah. He was to be "dumb" in that sense. His message to the nations he was to warn WAS NOT FOR HIS DAY! It was for a time FAR BEYOND the time and age of Ezekiel. He was to be somewhat like much of Daniel's prophetic messages, closed and sealed up till the time of the end. Daniel would sleep in death, rest in the grave, and his messages would rest with him UNTIL the time of the end, when people would run to and fro and knowledge would be increased. Then Daniel's messages would be understood and preached(Dan.12:4). So it was to be for Ezekiel. His warning messages to Israel and other nations, were for the time of the end, the time just before the coming of the Messiah in glory and power to rule all nations on the face of the earth. Ezekiel was to remain dumb, his mouth shut, UNTIL THE LORD SPOKE and then the messages that Ezekiel had written down WOULD BE PROCLAIMED LOUD AND STRONG. The time for those warning cries to go to Israel, Judah, and some other nations, concerning punishments, mercy, restoration, and the age of the Kingdom of God on earth through the return of the Messiah to earth, came in this 20th century, and will continue to be shouted to them as we head into the 21st century. Part of that very fulfilment is being done right now as you read these words, and whenever others distribute these words and this series of articles, or themselves proclaim this same truth as you will hear be reading. LISTEN CLOSELY, O you people of the modern house of Israel. God is sending you His servants who are faithfully telling you His word of promise. What he told Ezekiel to write down so many centuries ago, is now being proclaimed to you. The Lord has promised He will not do anything but first He reveals it to His servants the prophets, who do understand His prophetic word and the messages contained in books of the Bible such as in the book of Ezekiel. What you shall hear in this series of articles WILL COME UPON YOU UNLESS AS NATIONS YOU REPENT! The Almighty Eternal God says you are a most rebellious people, an impudent hardhearted people. He says your lands are filled with wickedness and that you will die in your sins if you will not turn from your wickedness and live. He will show you through the words of Ezekiel that your prophets and priests are profane, leading those of you who are "religious" into the way of falsehood, sin, deception, and Baal worship. The Eternal will show you through the writing of Ezekiel, that your secular leaders of your nations are MAD and without the knowledge of the true God and His true ways that lead to health and life. The Lord will get quite specific at times, naming specific sins. He will get specific at telling you exactly HOW He will punish you, even to percentage of numbers who will die from specific things He will bring upon you. He will tell you some of your past history, some of your future history, how He will bring you to real deep repentance, the mercy some of you shall find, and the gathering together He will perform on you, so you will never again depart from His holy, righteous, honorable, and perfect laws and commandments. There is GOOD NEWS for you, but as it seems to be so many times, the good news must come AFTER the bad news. It would seem that you as nations will not repent, so therefore the bad news will come to pass as God foretells in the early chapters of the book of Ezekiel. May you as an individual reading this, seek for the Lord with all your heart, soul, and mind. May you acknowledge the truth, hunger and thirst after righteousness, fall upon your knees and cry out to the Eternal for grace and mercy, to be forgiven your sins through the death and blood of Christ Jesus, and walk in a personal relationship with both the Father and the Son. In so doing God says through Ezekiel, He will mark you with His Spirit so you may escape the destruction that will surely come upon the modern nations of the house of Israel. It is written: Let him that has an ear to hear with, HEAR what the word of the Lord does say. The time has come for YOU to HEAR and to HEED!! A MAJOR KEY IN UNDERSTANDING EZEKIEL'S MESSAGE "You also, son of man, take you a tile, and lay it before you, and portray upon it the city, even Jerusalem: And lay siege against it, and build a fort against it, and cast a mount against it; set the camp also against it, and set battering rams against it round about. Moreover take thou unto you an iron pan, and set it for a wall of iron between you and the city: and set your face against it, and it shall be besieged, and you shall lay siege against it. THIS SHALL BE A SIGN TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL.......Moreover he said unto me, Son of man, behold, I will break the staff of bread in Jerusalem: and they shall eat bread by weight, and with care; and they shall drink water by measure, and with astonishment. That they may want bread and water, and be astonied one with another, and consume away for their iniquity"(chapter 4:1-3, 16,17). Comment: Did you find from the above this most important key to unlock the book of Ezekiel to your understanding? Most of Judah were already in captivity to the Empire of Babylon. Basically only the city of Jerusalem was still to be captured and destroyed by the armies of Babylon(this would take place around the year 586 B.C.). Ezekiel was a captive by the river of Chebar. He was going to be taken IN VISION, through the Spirit, many times to Jerusalem and even the Temple in Jerusalem. There he would be shown many of the abominations, sins, and wickedness taking place in the city and in the Temple within the city. Jerusalem was to fall to the armies of Babylon in a most horrific and painful manner, partly given in the verses quoted above. The key is: All that was to happen to the city and inhabitants of Jerusalem WAS A TYPE OF WHAT WAS TO BEFALL AND COME UPON THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL AT THE TIME OF THE END, A TIME JUST BEFORE THE COMING OF THE MESSIAH IN GLORY, AND TO WHICH HE WOULD RE-GATHER THE SCATTERED CAPTIVES OF ISRAEL AND JUDAH, RESTORE THEM AS ONE SINGLE PEOPLE(13 TRIBES AGAIN AS ONE NATION), AND ESTABLISH THE KINGDOM OF GOD OVER ALL NATIONS UPON THIS EARTH, JERUSALEM BECOMING THE CENTER AND CAPITAL CITY OF THAT NEW AGE TO COME, AS PROPHESIED BY MANY OF THE OTHER PROPHETS BESIDES EZEKIEL. ALL THIS IS STEP BY STEP PROCLAIMED AND UNFOLDED AS WE PROCEED THROUGH THE PAGES OF THIS BOOK OF EZEKIEL. REMEMBER, MARK IT WELL, NEVER FORGET THIS VITAL KEY! ALL THAT WAS TO TAKE PLACE TO THE CITY OF JERUSALEM WAS AND IS A TYPE AS TO WHAT WILL TAKE PLACE TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL (AND THE HOUSE OF JUDAH) ONCE MORE SHORTLY BEFORE THE COMING OF CHRIST THE MESSIAH TO ESTABLISH GOD'S KINGDOM ON EARTH. Notice verse 13. The words are FUTURE TENSE!! It concerns the "children of Israel" who had ALREADY gone into captivity some 120-150 years earlier. Now, with Jerusalem as a type, God says the children of Israel will eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, "WHITHER I WILL(future tense) DRIVE THEM." DOZENS of prophecies in the prophetic books declare this same truth. The house of Israel and also the house of Judah are, if as nations they do not repent, going to be destroyed by their enemies, taken as captives to foreign lands, in a time called "Jacob's trouble" by Jeremiah. A time approximately three and one half years before the return of Christ Jesus to this earth. These many prophecies show that when Jesus comes in glory, the children of Israel and Judah are in a state of captivity and slavery, that Christ DELIVERS them out of, and restores them as one people(what is left of them, which will be one tenth of their present populations) to the promised land of Palestine. There they will serve God with a new heart and a new spirit, to finally be the light of the world that God originally wanted them to be. Israel had already suffered, had already been conquered, had already been deported out of Samaria into the lands of the Gentiles, over a HUNDRED YEARS previously to Ezekiel writing these words. And God tells him that the children of Israel WILL BE DRIVEN away among the Gentiles. This is part of the prophetic message the Eternal tells Ezekiel to tell the house of Israel. That a time is YET TO COME when they will eat their defiled bread among the Gentiles, a time when God WILL - "whither I WILL drive them." Yes, you peoples of the British Commonwealth, North-western Europe, and the United States, the fall of the ancient city of Jerusalem, its captivity, and its destruction, the pain, the suffering, the death, and the captivity of its people, is a type and an example, as to what is to befall YOUR NATIONS in the time beyond us, in the 21st century. You as peoples, have turned away your hearts and minds from the word and ways of the Holy One of Israel. You have multiplied wickedness and sin in your homes, your schools, your Universities, your work places, your religious temples, and in your leisure practices. As you increased in population and in material wealth, so you forgot God and increased your whoredom, unrighteousness, lewdness, vanity, jealousy, lust and greed. Even your religious leaders have led you into sin, saying the grace by which you are saved abolishes the law and commandments of the Almighty God. They have turned the grace of God into a license to sin and to practice those things that are an abomination to the Holy One. Your religious leaders have put no difference between that which is holy and that which is un-holy. They call black, white, and call white, black. Or they turn everything into the shade of gray. The turning of things upside-down, and not right-side-up, means there is no real knowledge of the Lord in the lands, and because you have rejected true knowledge then the Eternal is going to reject you. God is no respecter of persons, and what everyone sows that they will reap. Even if you do not want to believe you are the literal people of the house of Israel, still you will face punishment and destruction as nations of peoples, because all people who have entered upon the pathway of grave and plenteous sins, have crumbled from within and finally from without. You only have to look at the mighty iron Empire of Rome, or more recently the falling apart of the "God rejecting" empire of Russia. The hand-writing is clearly on the wall. Soon it will be time to meet your maker, O nations of the house of Israel. Starting in chapter five of Ezekiel, the Lord God begins to get very specific as to the punishment to come upon you O Israel, even to the percentage of you that will live(and live what kind of life) and die. BUT WHY WILL YOU DIE O HOUSE OF ISRAEL? TURN YOURSELVES FROM YOUR WICKEDNESS SO THAT YOU WILL NOT DIE, BUT THAT YOU MAY LIVE! To be continued .........................................................