The following passage (Ezekiel 13:10-16) comes from today’s One Year Bible reading. I blog it because the bold portion closely parallels a vivid dream I had in the wee hours of Tuesday morning.
“‘Because they lead my people astray, saying, “Peace,” when there is no peace, and because, when a flimsy wall is built, they cover it with whitewash, therefore tell those who cover it with whitewash that it is going to fall. Rain will come in torrents, and I will send hailstones hurtling down, and violent winds will burst forth. When the wall collapses, will people not ask you, “Where is the whitewash you covered it with?”
“‘Therefore this is what the Sovereign LORD says: In my wrath I will unleash a violent wind, and in my anger hailstones and torrents of rain will fall with destructive fury. I will tear down the wall you have covered with whitewash and will level it to the ground so that its foundation will be laid bare. When it falls, you will be destroyed in it; and you will know that I am the LORD. So I will spend my wrath against the wall and against those who covered it with whitewash. I will say to you, “The wall is gone and so are those who whitewashed it, those prophets of Israel who prophesied to Jerusalem and saw visions of peace for her when there was no peace, declares the Sovereign LORD.” ‘
I’m just an ordinary guy, trying to make sense of it all like everyone else. I don’t claim that any of it is in the least big prophetic. (The Ezekiel passage, is, after all, condemning a plague of false prophets and prophecies!!) Sometimes a dream is just a dream. And yet… I can’t help reflecting and wondering how much it may describe — perhaps metaphorically, perhaps a good bit more literally — what the events of the last 24 hours have set in motion in the larger world. An incomplete thought but we’ll leave it there for now.
I wonder if you realize that this is God speaking to the harlot church. That we are about to be judged for our own actions.
That what has occurred now in the world. Is our own doing.
this is a pronounciation on the American Evangelical Christian movement.
Who instead of forgiving our enemies, invaded them.
Who instead of praying for our enemies, send troops to hunt them down.
Who instead of wiping the dust from our feet, and letting our peace return to us, as we leave those places, put 737 military bases that are all now, currently surrounding Israel.
We have done this. We are to blame.
We are about to suffer from our arrogance, and white washed blindness in our religious pride.
I am saved and I have to tell you… I’ve been talking about this for over 3 decades, and warning and what have I been told? I am unteachable. I will not submit to my pastors.
I do not understand scripture.
I do. God isn’t a bad teacher. He never lies.
We have raised our flag higher than the God whom we declare gave us this nation, and in doing so have lifted an idol above the power of God.
we are now walking into what we have created. By our own mind, will and emotions.
We are the enemy within.
By: James Van Leuvaan on November 5, 2008
at 6:13 pm
James – thanks for stopping by. I’m with ya’ on much of this. Really. That said… God’s truth and teaching comes to us in many ways, including (as scripture makes clear) through pastors and other brothers and sisters in Christ. In that spirit and for my other readers who may be more open to teaching than you say you are…
You write: “this is a pronounciation [sic] on the American Evangelical Christian movement.”
Well, maybe. Some of it. But IMHO you can’t come to the right conclusions with such broad, group-based generalizations. (Only God gets to do that). Every organization or movement I’ve ever been a part of is flawed in some way, and the church(es) — singular or plural, take your pick — are no exceptions this side of heaven. God uses broken vessels — flawed men, women and institutions — even as he rejects some that are completely corrupted.
That’s not to make apologies for some deeply mis-leading ideas and people that have worked to completely rot out large sections of the church(es). (Trust me, I’ve seen ‘em up-close-and-personal — multiple times). But to lay this all at the feet of one broad movement in one nation and (for example) ignore the amazing, global work of Billy Graham (the father of that movement), is far too hasty and sweeping. Or just observe the super-abundant fruits of, say, Chuck Colson, a bona fide evangelical whose worldview differs markedly from yours, it would seem.
As you note yourself (and as Ezekiel goes on to prophesy in subsequent chapters) we are saved as God loves us: individually. As an evangelically-leaning Christian in America, one needn’t evade the blame that is rightly due to point out, factually, that there are gross heresies pervading non-evangelical denominations and also rotting the church in Europe, including your home country (Holland) and your adopted one (Canada). The punishment that’s coming will fall much more widely and be justified by far far more than just the sins of American Evangelicalism!
You also wrote: “Who instead of forgiving our enemies, invaded them. Who instead of praying for our enemies, send troops to hunt them down. Who instead of wiping the dust from our feet, and letting our peace return to us, as we leave those places, put 737 military bases that are all now, currently surrounding Israel.””
Be careful here. Those bases are being used, in large measure, to protect Israel from her enemies… at least until January 20th. You’ve got that one completely upside-down. The folks that our president-elect says he wishes to elevate have, for the most part, been adamantly against Israel and in favor of a kind of moral equivalence in the Middle East that beggars reason.
In addition, the enemies we are urged to pray for are individuals, not nations (though it’s not a bad practice to pray for those also). That’s a point where universal pacifists routinely get hung up. Most who advocate a new era of American isolationism would not advocate disbanding their local police force yet they would, it seems, deny that protection to others suffering under tyranny elsewhere. How is that right?
Furthermore, one can pray for one’s enemies while hunting them down for the purpose of bringing them to justice. After all, if they are doing evil to innocents, is it not a gross injustice to those innocents to let their tormentors continue un-checked? To let them walk free?
We lock up criminals to punish them and prevent further crimes while at the same time forgiving and ministering to them as people. Don’t get the two things confused.
You also seem to equate the American Evangelical movement to the actions of the U.S. government over the last several years and that’s a very big leap to make indeed. (If you’re old enough, you might recall that Jimmy Carter was/is also an evangelical and his policies were (and recent rhetoric is) almost precisely opposite to that of the Bush administration’s.)
Finally, the passage about wiping the dust from our feet is about retreating from villages that show no hospitality and do not receive the gospel of Christ. It’s about not wasting our time. Yet in many of the darkest, most repressive, islam-dominated parts of the world — including Iraq and Afghanistan — the gospel is preached and the word received by many (quietly, behind the scenes) even as those in power reject it.
One may shake off the dust from one’s sandals by refusing to deal with corrupt, hard-hearted leaders and yet bring peace and set the conditions that make it possible to minister to others who are quite receptive. (Those previously under the sword of islam). The ’sandals’ passage is not a call to wholesale isolationism, as you seem to suggest.
Again, these are my critiques. I’m with you on the rest of it. God bless you.
By: ultraguy on November 6, 2008
at 8:28 am
Well though I have no issue with your response, I want you to take a look at basic common sense facts which are our current global demographics.
Right now, the UN declares that there are 195 nations in the world.
Right now, the CIA declares that there are between 189 – 215 nations in the world, though they do admit that they also count principalities, dominions, and territories, which are in all truth under the control of one of those 195 nations mentioned by the UN.
Right now, the USA – according to the CIA AND the UN Security Council have full control of 192 nations listed of the 195 nations defined.
Right now, there are 737 military bases which are entire American in nations outside of the United States, 450 of which completely surround the nation of Israel, all with nuclear capability.
That is over and above the domestic military installations.
Right now, the world has just hailed and cried, and cheered globally for the president elect which is going to be President of the United States, and already Europe has extended a hope towards multilateralism LED by this President Elect.
Either all of God’s word is true, or it is all a lie.
So then… answer these questions.
Who is the beast that the rest of us can not make war with? Because the only country I see with that kind of power, is the USA.
Who is the “anti-christ” cited throughout Daniel, Ezekiel, and Revelation, that will unite and unify the globe where everyone is already worshipping him, with T-Shirts and even changing their names to match his middle name?
You see, as far as me being “unteachable” I’m so forever grateful for that, because in that, God has not let me perish for lack of knowledge.
I know that Vatican City is only 8 square miles. I know that the population of the Vatican is 134 strong.
That instantly eliminates them for “the Harlot Church” because they were against the invasion of Iraq. And have not wavered from that position to this day.
However, the entire evangelical movement from 2001 have hunted mulims, hated homosexuals, and attacked anyone and anything that was not what it decided we are to believe. They traded robes of greed, for robes of light.
You see, God said we’re not suppose to be involved in politics.
So why are you all involved in what we are outright commanded not to be involved within?
Let the dead bury the dead remember?
I have … actually no… i was sent by God to the USA for 8 years BEFORE 9-11.
I was sent to over 30 states, in order to speak about the prostitutions of scripture, yet, pastors all wanted to control me. Tell me that they did not give me authority to speak such things, and I would answer them, that only God is able to deliver my soul, and that they – as men – have no authority over it.
For all their rhetoric’s of love, they sure showed how definitively they hate. I learned quite a bit about the Harlot church by watching American churches in their methods.
None of those churches helped any of their poor, but boy oh boy did they ever tell so much about how they all knew God’s will.
You know my friend. I’ve been serving God all of my life. As a matter of point, my mother had a vision about me, 15 years before I was born, because God had decided I was going to do what He said I would do, and let me tell you a little secret.
In 44 years, I haven’t ever known God’s will until after the fact.
I didn’t know why God said to leave the USA 3 weeks before 9-11. I didn’t know until 9-11 when it was on the news and I said, “oh, that’s why.”
I didn’t know why I had to do anything that He told me I had to do, until after it was done.
So, if I know that I’m spirit filled, and hear God, and revere Him, and am not fearful of Him, beyond the fear of His greatness – and do not have the arrogance to state that I know God’s will.
I’d sure like to know how you all think you know it?
I have not perished from lack of knowledge, and I am grateful that even I have not been deceived.
Because my friend. I challenge you to name the nation, the single nation that can right now, militarily take out the United States of America.
I challenge you to name that individual that is currently being hailed by every soul on this planet as the hope that can change the world, whom is not a US citizen.
I’m check back for your reply on that, because I know and you know, deep deep down, that there is no nation, and there is no individual, which instantly then brings forth another question….
why are you listening to those false teachers who are leading God’s people astray, every sunday morning? on a pulpit, when the facts are so blatantly in your face?
Better yet, why don’t you ask those pastors those same questions, and show them the publicly accessible information which I just showed you?
Yes, I have particular blogs with those distinct links to the publicly accessible information, which you are more than welcome to view.
I didn’t write them. They’re from the library of Congress. The Pentagon. the UN Security Council. The EU websites.
Facts blow massive holes in the false teaching of the American Evangelical Harlot Church Teachings.
1+1=2
always will.
By: James Van Leuvaan on November 6, 2008
at 4:26 pm
BTW. The prophecies tell us that those bases WILL be used to protect Israel, and then, they will be turned on Israel.
Either every word of God is true. Or every word of God is a lie.
I read the entire books, not just the verse that make me feel righteous.
So I don’t have to be careful. It was already written that this is how it would be, the ruse of protection, as the Harlot Church is tricked by Satan, put those bases all around Israel, and when Satan is ready, he will take those same bases, and fire upon Israel.
Because that is what has been prophesied.
So it is written. So it shall come to pass.
I’m actually pretty happy about it, to tell you the truth, because there isn’t anything left on this planet worth saving.
By: James Van Leuvaan on November 6, 2008
at 4:33 pm
“there isn’t anything left on this planet worth saving”
Beg to differ. They’re called people. God loves them all. As for the rest of your comments, well… you seem to have it all worked out, so let’s just leave it there.
By: ultraguy on November 6, 2008
at 9:01 pm
well that’s too bad. I was really hoping you’d be able to come up with actual facts and information that prove what I’ve said – which so exactly lines up with the same scripture that you and I read (except my version isn’t cluttered with republican biased “america the great” rhetoric so that we could never be the bad guys editorializm) in order to represent who is the beast, and what current existing international politics, and recent history stands up to prove that I’m 100% incorrect.
I’d find that interesting. You shouldn’t have given up so quickly, your pastor would be dissappointed in you, and well if that fails, you could always report me to homeland security as anti-whatever you need me to be in order to keep your eyes closed and say that you did it because it’s “God’s will”
By: James Van Leuvaan on November 6, 2008
at 9:35 pm
Not giving up, dude. Just tired and busy and not wanting to clog the forum here. FWIW, I’ve never heard of a Bible with Republican commentary(!)
E-mail me if you want to continue. (It’s in my profile).
I think you’ll discover that, a) you’ve made more assumptions about me (and some other readers here) than are warranted by the facts and, b) we have far more in common than you might imagine. (Ah, the wonders of Google!)
By: ultraguy on November 7, 2008
at 10:46 am
a) I’m soooo glad you googled me! Thank God for that wonder of wonders!
I am quite sure we have much in common, though I do not have any loyalty to any flag or nation. I don’t see the point.
For me? I serve God only. So nation, flag, color, gender, and language are no more important to me, then whether it is raining or snowing outside (I’m pretty oblivious to weather
).
I am also coming back to the USA now that there is a government that isn’t going to tell me what to think, feel, like, be, who can talk to, who is a bad person and so forth…
And as for the Republican comment? Have you been in any churches lately? It is if Republican and God are indivisible in most of their silly rhetoric…
seriously…
and yes,
I’ll email you sometime.
By: James Van Leuvaan on November 7, 2008
at 1:25 pm