The Insanity of Sin

There is a battle going on between the forces of Good and forces of Evil. A battle that reaches to the remotest parts of the Earth. In involves the whole of creation and it is for the hearts and minds of men because God made us to be the custodians of the Earth and all of His creation here.

It is truly a similar narrative to that of the Star Wars Universe although that narrative involves Eastern thinking about the God within. Our narrative is about the battle to save mankind and creation and it is between the Creator and Satan. A battle between the Righteousness of Yahweh and the Wickedness of Satan.

The reason for this battle is because Satan used to called Lucifer and was Yahweh’s most powerful Archangel. He  was the most powerful of the three Archangels who were named Lucifer, Michael and Gabriel. He began to be jealous of Yahweh and sought to exalt himself above Him. He fostered rebellion in his heart which germinated into sin and the insanity of disobeying God. From this insanity began a war between Yahweh the creator and the God of all that is righteous and good and Satan the destroyer and the proponent of all that is unrighteous, wicked and evil.

In Genesis chapter 3 we read of Satan’s possession of the serpent and the temptation of Eve the wife of Adam. Adam and Eve were the first parents of humanity. Satan engaged Eve in a conversation about the fruit of the trees in the Garden of Eden. Genesis 3 verses 1-7  “He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths...”

This action of disobedience by man against Yahweh introduced sin - insanity into the Creation on Earth. It broke the relationship between man and God and allowed Satan to usurp the position of man as guardian of the Earth so that he became the defacto ruler of the Earth. The separation of man from God by sin made a situation where God then had to provide a means for man to make reparation for their sin on an ongoing basis. God did this by allowing man to perform animal sacrifice and the shedding of blood through clean animals such as the lamb or bull. The blood was a symbol of the blood that Christ Jesus would shed on the Cross to pay the sin debt for all mankind.

When God addressed man and the serpent he also indicated a path for the future redemption of mankind through His seed. Genesis chapter 3 verse 15 “And I will put enmity, Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, And you shall bruise His heel.” We believe this to be a reference to the coming of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In Genesis chapter six we see God becoming tired of the sinfulness - insanity of mankind. In Genesis chapter six verses 3 - 8 the bible says  “And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

So, God commissioned Noah to build and Ark and when that was built he put Noah and his family in the Ark with two of each kind of animal. He then flooded the World and preserved the creation through Noah’s family and the animals that he brought on the Ark with them. Obviously there were other species like fish that were able to survive the flood without assistance. The waters receded and God blessed Noah and his family and instructed them to go an fill the Earth.

It didn’t take long for man to fall back into sinful ways and they were soon seeking to build a central civilization and decided to build a tower to reach the sky in honour of other deities. “And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.”But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.

It is plain to see that sin is actually insanity. In disobeying God the people sink into a malaise where they seek to amuse themselves and pass the time doing every wicked thing that they can think of. God then sought a righteous man to begin to gather a people who would be obedient to his commands and bring righteousness to the world. He approached Abraham and instructed him to move from Ur of the Chaldees to the land of Canaan. His journey was fraught to say the least and he didn’t always do the right things. He made it in the end and God made an eternal covenant with him and his descendants. You can read of this in Genesis chapters 12 through 17.

An interesting glimpse of the insanity of sin is found in the rescue of Abrahams nephew Lot from Sodom and Gomorrah by two angels of God (Genesis 18-19). Because of the evil of the people in Sodom and Gomorrah, God decided to destroy the cities. Lot was living among them and farming on the plains around them. The angels arrived at the city late in the day and came to see Lot so that he and his family could be warned to leave before the judgement. Lot asked them into his house to extend them hospitality and allow them shelter for the night.

The men of the city surrounded Lot’s house and sought to take the angels that they might lay them. Lot endeavoured to dissuade the men to no avail but the angels intervened and struck them with blindness. The angels instructed Lot to gather his family and leave the city before they destroyed it because of its sin - insanity.

The descendants of Abraham moved to Egypt because of famine and became enslaved there for four hundred years. Yahweh (God), sent Moses to lead them out of Egypt. He did this with his brother Aaron and together in God’s service they enacted a series of plagues upon Egypt until the people of Israel were freed.  The Red Sea parted and they crossed to the other side on dry ground and then they roamed the desert for forty years because of their sin - insanity - disobedience against God.

God gave Moses the Law which was written on stone tablets by the finger of God. The Law is as follows. Exodus chapter 20 verses 1 - 17:
1.     “And God spoke all these words, saying: “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. “You shall have no other gods before Me.
2.    “You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
3.    “You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain, for the Lord will not hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.
4.    “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labour and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God. In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates. For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day. Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it.
5.    “Honour your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.
6.    “You shall not murder.
7.    “You shall not commit adultery.
8.    “You shall not steal.
9.    “You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour.
10.    “You shall not covet your neighbour’s house; you shall not covet your neighbour’s wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbour’s.”

These Ten Commandments and rest of the Torah (Law of God), as found in the Five Books of Moses are the sum of the righteousness of God. They underpin the overarching laws and sanity that scaffolds any truly civilised society to function on a daily basis. To ignore them, or to replace them with another belief system. For instance, secular socialism is to flirt with the collapse of society and government.

This is the ultimate goal of Satan and his kingdom of fallen angels. To undermine the righteousness of God and to replace that with insanity that would lead in the end to total chaos and savagery. Naturalistic tribal cultures, such as, the Celts, the Picts, the Polynesians and the tribes in Papua New Guinea are examples of what happens in a culture the lacks a knowledge of Yahweh and His Law. The deeper you go into unrealised sin the more insane your culture will become.

Modern examples of the impact of Satan’s system in our time, are the spread of Paganism, New Age Religion and occult knowledge like Wiccan, Free Masonry and Spiritualism. In Kiwi Culture (NZ), we can see sin and insanity in the re-adoption of Maori spiritualism. We are bringing back the worship of their Gods and the cultural practices like Kapa Haka and their ancient Karakia (To Rangi and Papa), and incorporating them into every day life. The result could will be the return of spiritual entities like the Patupaearehe (Fairies), and the Taniwha as our culture surrenders the protection yielded from Christianity in the name above all names, Jesus Christ. Darkness is growing in our world as we head toward the coming Tribulation and then the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

A clear example of sin - insanity and the impact of righteousness is found in Mark chapter 5 verses 1 - 13 where it says this: “They came to the other side of the sea, to the country of the Gerasenes. And when Jesus had stepped out of the boat, immediately there met him out of the tombs a man with an unclean spirit. He lived among the tombs. And no one could bind him anymore, not even with a chain, for he had often been bound with shackles and chains, but he wrenched the chains apart, and he broke the shackles in pieces. No one had the strength to subdue him. Night and day among the tombs and on the mountains he was always crying out and cutting himself with stones. And when he saw Jesus from afar, he ran and fell down before him. And crying out with a loud voice, he said, “What have you to do with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I adjure you by God, do not torment me.” For he was saying to him, “Come out of the man, you unclean spirit!” And Jesus asked him, “What is your name?” He replied, “My name is Legion, for we are many.” And he begged him earnestly not to send them out of the country. Now a great herd of pigs was feeding there on the hillside, and they begged him, saying, “Send us to the pigs; let us enter them.” So he gave them permission. And the unclean spirits came out and entered the pigs; and the herd, numbering about two thousand, rushed down the steep bank into the sea and drowned in the sea. The herdsmen fled and told it in the city and in the country. And people came to see what it was that had happened. And they came to Jesus and saw the demon-possessed  man, the one who had the legion, sitting there, clothed and in his right mind, and they were afraid. And those who had seen it described to them what had happened to the demon-possessed man and to the pigs. And they began to beg Jesus to depart from their region.

Could there be a clearer contrast between the righteous sanity of God in Christ Jesus and the absolute insanity of Satan and the demons with their complete surrender to sin. As this man delivered from madness sitting there clothed and in his right mind.? People who have experience with demon possession, the drug culture, spiritism and the esoteric religions may understand what I’m alluding to here. Satan is the Prince of this World. He seeks to unfold a system which is the exact opposite of the righteousness of God. A world where Satan is in control, is under the influence of complete madness, total chaos and absolute insanity. A world of evil and darkness. Along with this is Satan’s goal to totally destroy mankind. This is mostly because with us gone he has the Earth to himself to show the rest of the universe what a Satanic world would look like.

Yahweh will not allow this to happen and Satan’s time is limited to the present and then the seven years of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble. Which is the Tribulation spoken of by Jesus in Matthew chapter 24, the prophet Daniel’s in the Seventieth Week prophecy and the apostle John’s book of The Revelation. At the end of the seven years is the Second Coming of Jesus Christ and the establishment of the eternal Kingdom of God.

In conclusion: Dear Reader what I hope to make plain to you is that with God we have righteousness and sanity, even though as fleshly beings we will continue to know sin and temptation in our lives here on the Earth. If we believe on the redemptive work of Christ Jesus on the Cross where he bore our sin and shed His blood in payment of our sin debt. If we repent and are baptised in the name of Jesus Christ, our sins will be forgiven and we will receive the Holy Spirit. Who will sanctify us and help us to overcome sin. Whereas, if we give in to temptation and let sin reign in our lives we will be ruled by it and the Prince of Darkness in whom it began. Our lot will be madness, chaos and insanity. All that we hold dear will be hated and destroyed. We will own nothing and be happy. Which will you choose, a God who loved you enough to die on the Cross for you while you were yet a sinner, or to serve Satan, and sin resulting in eternal death.

Galatians chapter 5 verses 16 - 25 “But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.

Take Your Mark

 

We live in an amazing World of the Information Super Highway – The Internet. We have amazing digital devices that far surpass the types of technology that we would have imagined would be hundreds of years in the future only a few decades ago. In fact knowledge acquisition on a human scale has reached a tipping point. With the advent of Artificial Intelligence what should have taken centuries of development even with the best human minds is now potentially months, weeks, days or even only hours and minutes away.

So where is all this new accumulated data leading us? Is there prophecy that can explain this headlong plunge into the ungoverned abyss of data unbridled. Plunging headlong into the great unknown regions of moral decadence and decline supervised by the unknown quantity that is the cutting edge of the Western Military Industrial Complex. Which is now on steroids because of quantum computing and the recent advances in software development resulting in Artificial Intelligence.

A look into the future, could show mankind’s incredible potential for innovation and discovery leading humanity to the stars. Man without God such that man is the master of his own domain, his own future as it were. Take a step back and look at the impact of mankind on the Earth. The careless and rampant destruction that we have wrought on our home planet. The wars, the greed, the harm to our human brothers and sisters. The lack of moral accountability, the rebellion, revolution and sinful impulsivity. Question? Would the other peoples of the universe want mankind roaming around the galaxy reaping greed inspired devastation on planet after planet?

Think of the James Cameron movie “The Avatar” as a well imagined example of the type of viral infestation that mankind could become. Never gaining wisdom, only everlasting sinful greed to obtain and consume ever more of the galaxy, or the universe. Where would it end?

Honestly, God will not allow mankind to leave Earth. The bible tells us the Lucifer’s experiment with the sin virus and it’s accompanying philosophy of wickedness and evil. Sin will not be allowed to leave the Earth, even to travel within the Solar System. In that vein, the last time the Earth had billions of people mankind became so wicked that God sought to end creation on the Earth. He brought a great cataclysmic flood that was planet wide and that we can see the evidence for in the geological layers of the fossil record.

We are now in an era of billions of people once again and once more we are seeing sin, greed and wickedness being unleashed around the Earth. For two thousand years since the Crucifixion. Death, Burial and Resurrection of Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God. Christians, have looked for the Second Coming. Looking at the events happening in the world at this time, it is possible to say that the time of God’s judgement on mankind and his imminent return is near at hand.

So, how does this relate to the Mark of the Beast. Well, the bible tells of the Mark in Revelation chapter 14 verses 9 &10: “Then another angel, a third one, followed them, saying with a loud voice, “If anyone worships the beast and his image, and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”

This will happen in the Tribulation time that Jesus prophesied of in Matthew 24 verses 4 through 8: “And Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you. For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and they will mislead many people. And you will be hearing of wars and rumours of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for those things must take place, but that is not yet the end. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. But all these things are merely the beginning of birth pains.”

Sound familiar? So we are living in the time immediately before the Tribulation which ends with the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. The next verses in Matthew 24 tell what happens during the Tribulation and relate to the scripture in Revelation 14 which tells about those who worship the beast and receive the Mark of the Beast. It becomes a them or us situation. Those who worship and follow the beast will receive the full measure of the wrath of God and Christians following Jesus in the Tribulation will be put to death. You will not be able to buy or sell without the Mark. Not to receive the mark means you can’t be a citizen of Satan’s world empire at that time.

In the 1990’s considerable work was carried out to establish the use of computer chip technology that could be used to mark the people. As this progressed, GPS tracking technology was also added to the package. Phones can be used in this way also. In the last ten years considerable advances have been made in the field of bionomics. Where computer tech can be grafted into the brain or central nervous system which would enable connection to Internet without the need of a computer. The implications for marking, locating and potentially controlling people are really quite sinister.

The time we live in today is an interesting one for marks. If you looked at a picture of bathers on the beach fifty years ago. A prominent feature would have been their clear skins. Virtually no one had tattoos of any kind. Today we would see all manner of tattoos from tiny butterflies to taimoko and on to full body cultural and artistic tattoos.

The bible forbids tattoos in Leviticus chapter 19 verse 28 “You shall not make any cuts in your body for the dead, nor make any tattoo marks on yourselves: I am the LORD.” To my mind most folk who place tattoos on their bodies are unaware of this commandment and also of the danger that they put themselves in by marking themselves in this way. A butterfly tattoo is probably harmless but still breaks the law of God’s commandment. However, a full body tattoo of a cultural or spiritual nature makes a statement about the soul of the person concerned and where their spiritual interests lie. I believe it is a mark of the devil and claims them for Satan. It is not the mark of the beast but it may ensure that they get one when the time comes.

Yahweh (God), marks His people as well. In the old testament the nation of Israel were instructed to remove the foreskins of boys at eight days old. This was a mark that they were of God’s holy people. Today Christians are marked by the Holy Spirit when they believe on Christ Jesus and His redemptive work upon the cross. This happens by His indwelling presence in the heart of the believer. Hebrews chapter 8 verse 10 has this to say. “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and write them on their hearts, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people...” Jesus spoke of the “Blood of the New Covenant,” in Matthew 26 verse 28 “for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” So the Holy Spirit writes God’s laws on our hearts and puts them into our minds. Believers are sealed by the Holy Spirit and are given to Christ Jesus by His Father.

What may we then conclude? Well, there is an ongoing battle between Satan and Yahweh (The Creator God). It is a battle between good and evil and I believe the people living on the Earth now will see its conclusion in the Tribulation and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. Those who belong to Christ Jesus are sealed by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Those who belong to Satan carry a variety of marks but during the Tribulation will carry a mark on the back of their hand and forehead and will require this to participate in the Tribulation economy. Christians will be put to death during that time.

John 3:16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life...”

Kiwi Christians And The Secular Blues

A few weeks ago on the evening news the news reader described the Hurricane’s female rugby team’s Poua Haka and how it had been written and performed to criticise the current government coalition and its agenda to reverse the impacts of the extreme left wing swing during the Ardern years.

It caught me by surprise and I said some lamentable things about haka and the worship of pagan deities and the national plunge toward the stone age. Especially bad form given that it was in front of my daughter who is married to a Tuhoi man and my grandson who is obviously Tuhoi and Pakeha.

As I age I am increasingly aware that the world around me no longer belongs to my generation. The culture that I lived most of my life in no longer exists. Technology has moved on. The younger generations have different objectives and different values. The Christianity that I knew and believed is no longer and now the extremism that we see in politics is also in religion.

There is one thing that is very precious that is still barely holding on. Although, we live in a rapidly developing and changing multicultural society. But Maori and Pakeha are still Kiwis. I know that not everyone would agree with that but now in the 21st century it is more true than it ever has been. Many Pakeha see Maori as being Kiwi like themselves, and vica versa, so that there is a massed response to what the government are proposing.

When you look at Chloe Swarbrick’s maiden speech as Green Party Co-leader about taking on the government in parliament and on the protest rallies. The rugby girls and their protest haka and looming legal action over the actions of the government to reverse various legislations relating to Smokefree NZ, Three Waters and backing out of Co-governance. The Coalition are going to have to work with the people if they are to justify the decisions they are trying to implement. They seriously risk being a one term administration if they don’t.

However, there is an agenda among the global elite to bring a New World Order into being. Klaus Schwabe of World Economic Forum is extremely vocal about the urgent need to reduce global population and to allow the Earth to regenerate in the hope of reversing Climate Change and the damage to Mother Earth.

The new tranche of of global politicians. Jacinda Ardern, Justin Trudeau, Chloe Swarbrick, Christopher Luxon. All are the new type of globalist and corporate style political elite. So, while we fight over dual governance and water rights for the future are we are missing the more important issues which are being dealt with in the background.

Is the World being reformed in such a way that the freedoms that were won by the Christian Reformers, like Luther and Calvin, are being systematically stripped away. Is democracy is being replaced by Marxism and, or Fascism. The right live your life freely and in peace is being replaced by the right to own nothing and the command to be happy about it. The middle class is being erased and the have not’s are being enslaved.

The global elite are busily reforming the world to suit themselves and intend to reduce the global population to a more sustainable level to allow the planet to regenerate. Or is this a ruse from the devil and the Luciferians to bring about WWIII and to destroy humanity and the world and to lay waste to the whole of God’s creation? At the same time enacting a final global state religion demanding the worship of Satan and the beast trinity of Satan, the Beast and the False Prophet. Do the likes of Klaus Schwabe, and the Global and Kiwi Elites, really not understand that the ultimate goal is not just a New Global Order for the sake of the Earth. It is a global nation that worships the Beast and an actual Fourth Reich that imitates the thousand year rule of Christ Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom except under Satan. Do they not know that the bible says this will never happen and Yahweh will never permit it to succeed? Do they not realise if they continue with this wickedness it can only end in their death in the Valley of Miggedo at the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

So what can we do as Kiwi Christians as we look at a rapidly changing world which has completely discarded the precepts of the bible and the commandments of God? Well it may seem trite and somewhat lacking in practicality but the answer is the same as it has always been. Repent and pray without ceasing while we share the gospel without pause. Read the bible and put on the “Full Armour of God from Ephesians chapter six verses ten through twenty.

The Whole Armour of God

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armour of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth, and having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one; and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel, for which I am an ambassador in chains, that I may declare it boldly, as I ought to speak.

Remember we Kiwi’s are descended of the best warriors and smartest minds of the Pakeha and Māori Nations. Innovation and flexibility are our defining characteristics, that is along with a calm demeanour and patient disposition which makes us unflappable and unstoppable. Qualities that we are admired around the world for. So combine that with national repentance and putting on the “Full Armour of God and despite the fact that we live at the end of this age. We can assist the Yahweh in sowing and reaping a mighty harvest in the name of Jesus Christ. We can help fill the ranks of the Saints in the Kingdom of Heaven. Maranatha – Come Lord Jesus.