Job 36: Kings in Fetters (Part 15)
We continue from where we left off in Part 14, where we got to know how the scribes and the Pharisees who “shut up the kingdom of heaven against men” (Matthew 23:13) are like crabs in a bucket. They sought to shut up the kingdom of heaven against men because they themselves could not enter in. Job 36:14 reveals to us that their life is among the unclean. 2 Peter 2:10 tells us that they walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness. Repentance is beyond them, and they lead others to follow them in their pernicious ways, making their disciples “twofold more the child of hell” (Matthew 23:15) than themselves, making it twice as hard for them to enter into the kingdom of heaven.
Interestingly, the word “repent” is found exactly 46 times in the 1611 King James Bible, 46 being the number of chromosomes in a man’s genome. Paul tells us in Romans 7:18 that in our flesh dwelleth “no good thing”, and this goes all the way back to Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. As a matter of fact, Jesus tells us what is so “unclean” about the scribes and the Pharisees in:
Matthew 23:27 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness."
It is their hypocrisy. These religious hypocrites were compared to whited sepulchres which do appear beautiful outwardly but inwardly are full of dead men’s bones. Our bones are where blood is produced.
Leviticus 17:11 "For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul."
Blood is the substance that God has ordained which can make atonement for the soul. The blood of Jesus Christ is the only thing that can make atonement for your souls and mine, so that we can live forever, and the blood of Jesus Christ came from God the Father, whose Holy Spirit came upon Mary, the mother of Jesus, who gave birth to the Son of God, as in:
Luke 1:35 "And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God."
Jesus, the Son of God was born of a woman, which in turn was made from the rib of a man:
Genesis 2:22-23 "And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man. 23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man."
The blood of Jesus that can make atonement for your souls and mine came from God the Father, and it is the blood of Christ that can produce eternal life.
John 6:63 "It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life."
Likewise, the words of the LORD in the 66 books of the Holy Bible can produce everlasting life in a born again believer, even as our bones produce blood. But dead men’s bones cannot produce life, because they are full of uncleanness.
John 15:3 "Now ye are clean through the word which I have spoken unto you."
It is the word of God that is able to clean us from inside-out. The words of mere men can only clean the outside, but not the inside, as in:
Matthew 23:25 "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess."
Today, churches all over the world are overrun by all kinds of man-made theories, theologies, philosophies and traditions, and these things did not happen by accident. Earlier, I have demonstrated from scripture how all these things have been prophesied according as they should happen. Within those “whited sepulchre” pharisaical churches are full of dead men’s bones and of all uncleanness.
Deuteronomy 4:2 "Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you."
Today, we have many different schools of thoughts in mainstream Christianity represented by the "-ism" behind the idea, for example, "decision-ism". The "-isms" denote their school of thoughts or framework of thinking. These are philosophical ideas which men have invented that would add unto or take away from the words of the LORD in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. While those churches may appear spiritual on the outside, within they are full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness. While they appear to preach the gospel of peace, it is actually “another gospel” in disguise:
2 Corinthians 11:4 "For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him."
The gospel of Jesus Christ is the "power of God unto salvation" according to Romans 1:6. The gospel that modern-day churches are using to reach out to the world today is a corrupted gospel. In the words of Apostle Paul, "Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof..." (2 Timothy 3:5) i.e. just an empty shell. The Jesus they preach is not the Jesus of the Holy Bible. This is just like the scribes and the Pharisees who, instead of faithfully preaching from the word of God, they use it to deceive others for their own gain, as in:
Mark 7:9-13 "And he said unto them, Full well ye reject the commandment of God, that ye may keep your own tradition. 10 For Moses said, Honour thy father and thy mother; and, Whoso curseth father or mother, let him die the death: 11 But ye say, If a man shall say to his father or mother, It is Corban, that is to say, a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me; he shall be free. 12 And ye suffer him no more to do ought for his father or his mother; 13 Making the word of God of none effect through your tradition, which ye have delivered: and many such like things do ye."
Hypocrites will use the word of God to deceive, and in the process of doing so, they must necessarily wrest Scripture. In fact, the Devil (their father) also did the same thing when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness, as in:
Matthew 4:1-4 "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil. 2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungred. 3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. 4 But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God."
Here, Satan was in fact quoting from Deuteronomy 8:3, but that was his version of the scripture (think modern bible versions!). Notice how he wrested scripture just so that he could trip Jesus into a fall? But then Jesus corrected him in verse 4, starting with “It is written...” Likewise, pharisaical churches too, will only quote scripture where it seems to justify their erroneous doctrines, and they will wrest scripture just so they could use it to deceive.
They will never go in depth to reason with the whole counsel of God, with the two or three faithful witnesses, precept upon precept, line upon line, here a little, and there a little. In so doing, they have made the word of God of none effect to those who follow their teachings. Notice in this passage I have highlighted the words “tempted” and “tempter”? These words bear a connection to:
Luke 8:13 "They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away."
In Matthew 4:1-4, Satan was the tempter and the Son of man was the tempted. The Devil will tempt the church with his version of “the truth”. Therein is a prophecy revealed unto us that a time of temptation will come, especially when we consider this along with the “falling away” in 2 Thessalonians 2:3. The time will come when the church will be tempted with the option to either believe in the word of God and endure the tribulation, or depart from the word of God and “fall away”. The church will be divided over doctrines. Born again believers will remain standing, but others will depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits and doctrines of devils, as in:
1 Timothy 4:1 "Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;"
To depart means to walk away. To depart from the faith means to walk away from the belief that the words of the LORD is the way, the truth and the life. When they reject the word of God, when they walk away from the source of eternal life, they “fall away” as dead men. Earlier, I’ve demonstrated from scripture how dispensationalism is a necessary step in the revival of ancient Rabbinism, the religion of the scribes and the Pharisees.
Beginning at the turn of the 20th century, dispensationalism has been spreading like wildfire, and it soon became the dominant theology taught in churches all over the world. One of the key features of dispensationalism is the “Pre-Tribulation Rapture” theory which asserts that the church will literally be removed from the earth and transferred to heaven just before the Antichrist makes his appearance. In another words, Christians will never get to see the Antichrist or suffer from the “Great Tribulation” because according to the reasoning of dispensationalism, the rapture must take place between the end of the current dispensation (“dispensation of Grace”) and the onset of the next dispensation.
Notice how they have cleverly inserted the rapture at the end of the dispensation of Grace? In so doing, they have tied the rapture of the church to the end of God’s grace. Grace and the present church age are synonymous according to their doctrine. The end of God’s grace, according to the dispensationalist mindset, is the beginning of God’s wrath. In order to garner support for their theory, they will quote: 1 Thessalonians 5:9 "For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Jesus Christ," and they use that as proof text for a coming pre-tribulation rapture.
In fact, there was even a movie produced in joint collaboration between Hollywood and the church in 1980 by the name of “Left Behind”, and their aim was to subtly brainwash the general population with the idea of a pre-tribulation rapture. While all these may seem to make sense, even to unbelievers, it was a setup.
Why do I say that?
First and foremost, 1 Thessalonians 5:9 did not tell us that there is going to be a pre-tribulation rapture, or did it? They only inferred from it. Secondly, recount Luke 8:13 “... in time of temptation fall away”. Recount how Satan tempted Jesus with his version of the truth while the Son of man was in the wilderness enduring hunger, in the pretext of ending his suffering. The hidden agenda, however, was to trip Jesus into a fall just as he did to Eve in the garden of Eden. The same old Devil will also tempt the church with his version of the truth, and will cause many to fall away from the faith, and all these done in the name of truth, and in the name of grace.
In 1 Timothy 4:1, Paul warned us about seducing spirits and doctrines of devils that shall come in the latter times. Jesus rebuked the scribes and the Pharisees in Matthew 16:3 "... O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?" Born again believers are called to discern the signs of the times, and this is an ability that the hypocrites in heart are not gifted with because they do not believe in the words of the LORD. We are called to discern with the spiritual eyes that God has opened for us: the Old Testament and the New Testament, in the 66 books of the Holy Bible.
1 John 2:26-27 "These things have I written unto you concerning them that seduce you. But the anointing which ye have received of him abideth in you, and ye need not that any man teach you: but as the same anointing teacheth you of all things, and is truth, and is no lie, and even as it hath taught you, ye shall abide in him."
John also warned us concerning “them” that have come in the name of the LORD, bringing their “-isms” with them. Again, these "-isms" denote their school of thoughts or framework of thinking. They are philosophical ideas which men have invented that would add unto or take away from the words of the LORD in the 66 books of the Holy Bible. These are doctrines of devils that Paul has so warned in 1 Timothy 4:1. A born again believer does not need seducing spirits or doctrines of devils to help him understand the words of the LORD. He has the Spirit of truth to teach him and guide him unto all truth along with the word of truth (66 books of the Holy Bible) that he has received.