W W W W  World Wide Web Witness Inc.  Home Page   Contents Page for Volume  What is New

 

CHAPTER 13

LET THE WITNESS ATTEST

(continued)

SECTION B

 

  THE CASE OF THE 'DREAM' 
 

On looking up the UN related article*1 concerning the piece, When When the Dream becomes Real, which was suggested to this author as a thing that could interest, one has found a sabre-toothed spiritual tiger, a sort of modern form of the wolves in sheep's clothing (Matthew 7:15ff.). It is the nature of these that their outward appearance diverges significantly from their inner state. We look a little however and find the fangs. In connection with these, there is something to note.

The word "paranoid", used in the initial Article of those who do not mythologise the Bible, importing contrary doctrines and subverting the text with illusory, unfounded, untested and unverified concepts, shows where the writer noted stands in total, condemnatory aspersion against the Bible as its own interpreter. It is best to interpret what a person says by what that person says and does, rather than by what someone else says, who is of a different perspective; for this then comes virtually to be a invasion of a name with other gear. Each should stand or fall on its own feet.

When it comes to be the Bible or some philosophy which wants to use a biblical term with a vastly diverse meaning, without the warrant of Christ, and contrary to it, outside  the Bible and its endless verifications, without in many cases even a model which HAS objective truth in it, while affirming what is true with happy abandon, it is not logically difficult to chose; or for that matter, ethically. What stands stands, what falls falls. Let it fall.

The term 'fundamentalist', is greatly abused in this Article to which one turned, and it is a term one rarely uses since it has become so loosely distorted by so many, that it becomes more an emotional outburst for some, than a carrier of any clear propositional meaning. The reader might turn to what one wrote on this topic at The Biblical Workman,  Appendix III. Passing questions of semantic propaganda, however, and the confusion of contraries, we come to the Christ-attested fact that unless one is ready to receive the kingdom of heaven as a little child, it simply cannot be done. The authority for this statement is that person on whom one has grounds of faith, of reason and of experience,  entirely to rely, One unlike any other in that He is perfect in every way, being God incarnate, Jesus Christ (cf. Christ the Wisdom of God ... Ch. 8. SMR Chs. 1, 6, 8, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, Lord of Life Ch. 9). 

Thus He declared, "Except you become converted and become as little children, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven." Actually, in the Greek it has a double emphasis, so that it should read of those who do not so enter, "you will certainly not enter the kingdom of heaven."

This is necessary at the outset. If people will not learn from the mouth of God, they will learn either from their own innards, or from the mouth of man or those who dupe him.  Man is at a supreme disadvantage compared to God! I do not follow him or his philosophies, whether early Greek or current (cf. Spiritual Refreshings Ch. 13, SMR Chs.  3,  10). They are always confused, and thus always discounted in the generations that follow (cf. Colossians 2:8, I Corinthians 1, which excoriate such reliance). Their use-by date is normally found somewhere between the constraints of the conical, rising to a sharp point to end it, and the  comical, falling into irrational penchants (cf. SMR pp. 262ff.)..

The dream which this noted Article refers to, appears one of psychiatric arrogance, secular perspective, impotent working and confused proportions. Jung is made a referee for the dream; yet Jung's work does not even cohere, brilliant though he was, since his aspirations for NECESSARY authority were not met by ACTUAL authority in his own system, so that he recommended authoritative religion, but had none, and found people tended to rely on the agent, and in so doing, without wisdom.

See on Jung, SMR Book 2, first section. As to Freud, also mentioned in the Article in view, this lamentable delusion, like that of Darwin (cf. Wake Up World! Your Creator is Coming Ch. 6,
TMR Ch. 1), has had a long vogue, but now is bypassed by Jung who has been increasingly supplanted by cheaper drugs, though neither of these palliatives has achieved much in many ways.

See further on the love of God, HIS design and the delusive thought of those who, seeking to ignore their Creator, have no truth even theoretically available, removing its presence and access to it, alike, while affirming it in absentia in their own names: two files. One is It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls ... Ch. 9, with special emphasis on the end-notes which cover these topics; the other is News 152. which deals with the meaning of morals, and with such dreams as those of the UN, as seen in some of its productions. News 19 deals systematically with the mountains of morals. News 122 may also be found to the point here. That is closely allied to Secular Myths ... Ch. 7, noted below.

What then ? Not from the tongue of psychiatrists who integrate what they do not and cannot know (except of course from God, whom so many of those ones sidestep in the interests of their dreams), nor from the humming of man in humanistic pre-conceptions which talk of biblical faith as 'paranoid' do we need help, but from the God who made us and having so made us, has the answer to the disintegration of personality, not in scaffoldings of philosophy but in the scarring of Christ, not in depredations of ever-new dreams of man, ever-old in their ignorance of God, but in the declarations of the Almighty, ever immutable, always and alone never distanced by time, or rendered derelict by developments (Psalms 90-91, 145). This is a verificatory fact as well as a biblical statement and a logical necessity (cf. SMR Ch. 5, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6  -7, Sparkling Life ... Ch. 4.

Truth does not change only partly because there is nothing to which to change but error!. It is right at the first, and lasting, at the last just as God is He who knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10): so it endures irreproachable. When God invented our processive time to which we are accustomed,  as a platform for the life which He has dowered (cf. Romans 8:29-39). HE Himself remained and remains from everlasting to everlasting, is God, and SPEAKS LIKE IT.

The REASON that His word, the Bible, has no competitors in unchanging testimony, factually verifiable and in contest with many over millenia is simple: when God speaks, nothing can stand against it. He has infinite knowledge; others lack it. He has infinite purity as we see in the references above; others lack it. He is infinitely committed as seen not only in Israel's precisely predicted history, but in the coming and intense verificatory vigour of Christ, when the challenge is to be GOD ON EARTH and SHOW IT (cf. SMR Ch. 9). Nothing else but Christ as a person, the Bible as a propositional presentation in His name, has stood under test, being testable, or has logical validity (cf. SMR Chs. 1, 5, 10, TMR Ch. 5).

When therefore what is not this, speaks from inadequate premises and poses solutions to matters arising from the creation called man, it is wantonry to offer 'solutions' and witless is the end of it, as seen in the broken shards and reeking ruins of history's greats, in their imperial longings and philosophical singings, as dead as deceased larks that went too high, intoxicated with the height, forgetting the ground. (Cf. News 70, TMR Ch. 8, SMR pp. 713ff., Cascade of Truth, Torrent of Mercy Ch. 10, Divine Agenda Ch. 3 ). The healing of the spirit is from God only (News 82), which is only natural since He made it, and man's reconstructions are mere ignorant attempts to make what is invisible, to sedate its organs of operation, to redirect its tenor or tenure, when it is the heart which is to the point, and as to that, ONLY GOD KNOWS IT, the endless streams of endlessly warring psychologies merely one verification, the power of His remedy in operation over millenia, another (cf. SMR pp. 347ff.).

Ours is the platform; His is the direction. Ours is the novel; His is the authorship; His brilliance has given liberty; His grace has provided love: His power institutes a scope for history and a crux for its turning, which is precisely why Calvary was and is central, why the Middle East is a bubbling pot where the heat never dies down. There He was, there He acted vicariously, there He will return (Zechariah 14:5). There it was to be bubbling and shrieking as His coming drew near, and so it is, war arising and proliferating, the nations invasive and intolerant to little Israel, seeking its further dismemberment with a passion that matches the robbery of most of the Palestine promised to it by the League of Nations, and Britain, in favour of Jordan, already. (Cf. Victory ... Ch. 1, It Bubbles ... Ch. 10).

In this UN related Article, then, a play is made of the term 'apocalyse', and while there is admission that trouble may indeed strike the earth, this is suavely distanced, and the concept of some ultimate psychic form which happens to include such a notion is sown, without ground; yet it is ground into the concept and construction in the Article. It does not seem to mind an 'apocalyse' so long as he set about 'adapting' the meaning to something else. ,This, it is becoming the now nearly normal practice, in some circles of theology and politics, of using re-definition instead of innovation, whereby man often plagiarises the thoughts of God and adapts, adopting to imprison in the purlieus of his own little mind,  what has proceeded from another. Neo-orthodoxy seems almost to live such a lichen sort of existence.

 Apocalyse ? Non-fundamental, and hence non-paranoid (the undoubted sense of the text of this piece of groundless philosophy) thinkers may wish to adopt this useful term. That is the inspiration that appears in the Article. Take what is grounded and use it for what is unfounded, and those accustomed to the usage, may swallow the abuse.

What then can be done with the eminently deserved fact of judgment, following the many warnings of God, the exhibit of Israel for millenia as a foretaste, and the many fulfilled prophecies on the way, including the precise pattern exposed for our present Age (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5) ?

What can be done ? with the fact, with the term 'apocalyse', now explicitly referred in the Article, to the Bible ? Why, USE IT, this term 'apocalyse' for some sort of personality change. In this way, there is the additional feature that the concept of being born again can be included, removed from its casing in the Bible, added to apocalyse, removed from its historical sequence in the Bible; and the two then wedded, proceed to produce children of thought. One of these children is the NEW MAN (communism had one too, again, some millenia after Christ talked carefully and clearly of this issue in His own dynamic and boldly verified terms); it is the apocalyptic personality. This is apparently one which has realised a few things (not very clear, but doubtless the propagandist can make it clear when the time comes).

Such culturally or psychically reconditioned people have endured what they endure, and become whatever they become, and smoothly lotioned with whatever the lotion is, they become whatever it is that the sort of people that sort of writer would like  to think they are to be.

Communism has already however done its dash on this sort of verbal manipulation, using terms of tried and stable meaning and application, in the Bible, testable and tested, and deploying them for a philosophy so acutely vague and groundless, that it is no marvel it was shown to be utterly false in so much so often (cf. News 37, News 122, SMR pp. 127ff., 925ff., Divine Agenda Ch. 6, Ch. 3, Beauty of Holiness Ch. 4, *2, Of the Earth, Earthy ... Ch. 2, News 97, 98 - Spiritual Refreshings ... Chs. 3 and 4, Repent or Perish Ch. 7, SMR pp.  422Eff.). Supported by gross and grisly power, it eventually lost in Russia its cheque book, as in China, its self-reliance, and used what is free to rebuild (cf. News 37, Divine Agenda Ch. 3).

Lester DeKoster's book on Communism and the Christian Faith exposes this 'adaptation' of tried and Christian concepts to Communist philosophy in a most delicious and enlightening manner, and this is a book worthy of attention.

No there is no need of an apocalyse within ( and on this please read Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Ch. 7, which covers much of the material in the Article); nor is there any human tendency towards apocalyse by some sort of naturalistic flavour of the month conception (cf. Acme, Alpha and Omega
Ch. 9, Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Ch. 3).

Change of a SPECIFIED nature is needed, indeed; one towards a SPECIFIED PERSON, in fact not towards man as criterion, but to God as Creator. It is preceded by repentance, not some sophisticatedly diffuse mediation, but towards the one Mediator, Jesus Christ (I Timothy 2:3-6), who came to present the case, the need, the personality, the way, the light, the lift, the manner, the spirit of what is expected, and to do as GOD in the form of MAN what no other has done or could do, a perfect pattern from the Headquarters of Heaven, the very Word of God instructing flesh through flesh, and reaching spirit as one of them, but not as one with them, for repentance comes first (cf. It Bubbles, It Howls, He Calls Ch. 8).

This He did, so that man might be reconciled to God, not to world powers, world psychiatry or world philosophy, grabbing His terms for man's own use, without warrant, without ground or even logical possibility of telling truth, in a world ex-God as revealed, and hence not having that commodity. (Cf. Barbs, Arrows and Balms 6    -7.)

Apocalyse ? The term from the Greek means an uncovering, a making naked, a a revelation, a manifestation. It is simply an UNCOVERING of reality in terms with which one must come to terms, or quit (or have quittance notice served). You find that in Romans 2:5, where we find the challenge to man, "but in accordance with your hardness and your impenitent heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God." This 'revelation' is the same term in Greek, and its application comes from precisely what, in this instance, IS being uncovered or made plain!

Its fearful flavour, when that is in view,  is not in the thought of "end" so much as in that of judgment; and not so much in judgment, as in the GUILT which DESERVES it! That is why one can find in I John  that "perfect love casts out fear" (I John 4:18), though it removes nothing of reverence! for IN LOVE Christ having borne the sin of all who come to Him for all time, in SECURITY He keeps them, whatever (John 10:9,27-28):  and that 'whatever' includes judgment where He, already judged (Romans 3:25-26), is the shield for faith (cf. Romans 3:23ff., 8:29ff.). HIS perfect love cast it out in terms of what He HAS DONE; His perfect love (Romans 5:5) shed abroad in our hearts, casts it out in terms of what it is, and what He affirms as well (cf. Romans 8:32ff.).

THE apocalyse of John, that is, the book of REVELATION, then, simply means the uncovering, the exposure, the manifestation of what God gives and is, and thus the revelation or exposure of what God is about. The case, then,  is dreadful because humankind has become unkind, yes dreadful in the bulk, and without Christ (Ephesians 4:17ff.), without hope now as always (Ephesians 2:12), and now more obviously than ever.

Thus we read this in Ephesians 2:12:

"at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise,

having no hope and without God in the world.

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ."

It is true that man does at times think about his morals, their submergence, his hopes, their realities, his ways, their end, and not without reason does he have concern. He may well and most aptly be very disquieted, should he not yet have found the redemption of God in Christ Jesus. It is like a heavy drinker plus smoker, occasionally considering where his BODY will end. In our case, it is where the SPIRIT of man will end, with the bodily assignment to follow (cf. Matthew 25:14ff., 22:1-10, John 5:10ff.), the destinies being everlasting shame for the frivolous folly of being wise in one's own eyes, or everlasting life for the simplicity of becoming as a little child and finding in God, one's everlasting Father, with access through His salvation, Jesus Christ (Isaiah 49:6, Acts 4:11-12).

The lost life  will end precisely where it is going, unless and until it changes direction in the phenomenon called repentance, and takes a trip, not into hope, but into reality, not into that creation, man, in his thought, but by grace finding the God who made him, by His invitation, and finding Him where He is to be found! That,  again, is just where HE says (even Generals are approachable better if you go where they SAY), as in Isaiah 55 and 66:2, as in Psalm 51, I John 1. He is to be sought not only WHERE He is to be found but WHEN He is near! we learn in Isaiah 55.

The change needed in man is not to some irrational psychiatry which affirms what is true while removing the means in its model, but in the Great Physician, who knows how to mend hearts so that they do not break (Isaiah 61:1ff - read by Christ  at Nazareth, and practised frequently by Him, both then and now by His Spirit in His name!). He knows, if they be broken, how to act so that they are revitalised and if need be through still being lost, then regenerated (Titus 3:3-7), so that they are His habitat (Colossians 1:27) as is most natural for the supernatural Maker of man in His own image.

Rebuilding in the philosophic parlours of man, is like putting the debris from an explosion with papier maché, into some imagined form which pleases. Strength, truth and stability is needed (Isaiah is given to express this so deliciously in 33:6).

Regeneration by the power of God, is like an author, finding a script torn and blotted, undecipherable in much, printing off another copy! (John 1:12). These, they are born, not of flesh or blood, nor of the will of man, but from that celestial and supernatural Creator, who having made, knows all about restoration following redemption.

It is He who knows how to counsel man, and it is a humble and a contrite spirit is that to which He looks (Isaiah 66:2), not a flamboyance of self-affirmation of dreams. Indeed, so many fill their minds with their culture that there is no room for much else (cf. SMR pp. 422Qff.). You find this in Isaiah 28-29, where in addition to the promise of the Messiah, made more than once, the sure foundation, there is this lament that none seems to listen, that the Lord must go to the babes, before their minds are desolated and defiled by invasive and polluted culture, corrupted and unclean, if by any means they might learn!

In our present case, as noted, the Article before me at the site suggested,  does not even stop at  declaring paranoid the realism of the word of the Creator, and bouncing along on a wheel-less chariot of imagination already long banished in the ever-deadened hopes of man.  It goes further,  as in the clutter of humanism, and allied with religious talk that despises the revelation of God, it dares to make of the indefeasible judgment of God, an entry of psychology, not a testimony to truth.

It is ever so. Man loves to parade his glory, which is vainglory (I Corinthians 1:18-23, cf. Isaiah 29:10-15 cf.  News 82), and will not return to the Lord, despite the continual assassination of his dreams, by fact, their fraudulent self-assertion no better than that of Babel (cf.  SMR pp. 422Qff.).

Those

bullet of Alexander the  Great,
 
bullet of the Caesars, of Rome itself,
 
bullet of the Turk with his scimitar,
 
bullet of the  Tartar with his hordes on horses,
 
bullet of Germany with her military methodology, and racial superiority syndrome,
 
bullet of Napoleon with the liberty which was not free, the equality still so unequal and the fraternity which could be so feverish,
 
bullet of Hitler with the purges,
 
bullet of Stalin with the re-disposition of mankind as far as possible with small care for his protoplasm,
 
bullet of Mao with his little red book and his large red pools of millions slaughtered for 'the plan',
 
bullet of the reductionists of the 19th and 20th century
(cf. references above, Aviary of Idolatry, Repent or Perish Ch. 7, and see indexes):

these have but one  end: the pile.

The word of God has had but one beginning, the mind and heart of God, and its end is one, to be fulfilled (cf. Matthew 5:17-20), as on this site is shown perhaps thousands of times.

I speak in the love of Christ, for these dreams are indeed exposed by Jeremiah in Ch. 23, by Jude likewise, and by Christ who spoke of those who bypassed Him as to their spiritual ancestry in no uncertain terms (John 8:41ff., cf. Matthew 24:12, 24:24), while in word and deed,  making His own manifest exhibition of God what it was, the test to end all tests. So did He pronounce on this world what it had coming to it. What then did He say ? This: they rejected Me who came in God's name, He declared, but when someone comes in his OWN name, him they will receive*2.

This is to come before too long by scriptural pointers (cf. Answers to Questions Ch. 5); and what Christ called "the prince of this world": the humanistic, naturalistic, pseudo-spiritual pep-people and their leader, who will at last bring their dream into its guillotine proportions before the Lord returns, as He said (Matthew 24), this is one to avoid at all costs.

Let us hear Him in John 5:24-47 (colour emphasis added):

"But I do not receive testimony from man: but these things I say, that you might be saved.
He was a burning and a shining light: and you were willing for a season to rejoice in his light.
But I have greater witness than that of John: for the works which the Father hath given Me to finish, the same works that I do, bear witness of Me, that the Father hath sent Me. And the Father himself, who has sent Me, has borne witness of Me. You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His shape. And you do not have His word abiding in you: for the One whom He has sent, Him you do not believe.

"Search the scriptures; for in them ye think you have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that you might have life. I do not receive  honour from men. But I know you, that you do not have the love of God in you. I am come in my Father’s name, and you do not receive Me: if another shall come in his own name, him you will receive.

"How can ye believe, who receive honour one of another, and do not seek  the honour that comes from God only? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father: there is one who accuses you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed Moses, you would have believed Me: for he wrote of Me. But if ye do not believe his writings, how will you believe My words?"

 

Now in terms of biblical perspective (that Bible of which every jot and tittle is to be fulfilled, as the Christ has declared - Matthew 5:17ff.), let us specifically note some features of Jeremiah 23.

" 'Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of My pasture!' says the Lord. Therefore thus says the Lord God of Israel against the shepherds who feed My people:

'You have scattered My flock, driven them away, and not attended to them. Behold, I will attend to you for the evil of your doings,' says the Lord. But I will gather the remnant of My flock out of all countries where I have driven them, and bring them back to their folds; and they shall be fruitful and increase. I will set up shepherds over them who will feed them; and they shall fear no more, nor be dismayed, nor shall they be lacking,' says the Lord.

M

" 'Behold, the days are coming," says the Lord,'

'That I will raise to David a Branch of righteousness;

A King shall reign and prosper,

And execute judgment and righteousness in the earth.

In His days Judah will be saved,

And Israel will dwell safely;

Now this is His name by which He will be called:

THE LORD OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS.

" 'Therefore, behold, the days are coming,' says the Lord, 'that they shall no longer say, "As the Lord lives who brought up the children of Israel from the land of Egypt," but, "‘As the Lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel from the north country and from all the countries where I had driven them. And they shall dwell in their own land.'

A

" 'My heart within me is broken

Because of the prophets;

All my bones shake.

I am like a drunken man,

And like a man whom wine has overcome,

Because of the Lord,

And because of His holy words.

 

'For the land is full of adulterers;

For because of a curse the land mourns.

The pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up.

Their course of life is evil,

And their might is not right.

 

'For both prophet and priest are profane;

Yes, in My house I have found their wickedness,' says the Lord.

 

" 'Therefore their way shall be to them

Like slippery ways;

In the darkness they shall be driven on

And fall in them;

For I will bring disaster on them,

The year of their punishment,' says the Lord.

 

'And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria:

They prophesied by Baal

And caused My people Israel to err.

Also I have seen a horrible thing in the prophets of Jerusalem:

They commit adultery and walk in lies;

They also strengthen the hands of evildoers,

So that no one turns back from his wickedness.

All of them are like Sodom to Me,

And her inhabitants like Gomorrah.'

 

B 

"Therefore thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the prophets:

‘Behold, I will feed them with wormwood,

And make them drink the water of gall;

For from the prophets of Jerusalem

Profaneness has gone out into all the land.’

 

C 

"Thus says the Lord of hosts:

'Do not listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you.

They make you worthless;

They speak a vision of their own heart,

Not from the mouth of the Lord.

They continually say to those who despise Me,

"The Lord has said, 'You shall have peace' ";

And to everyone who walks according to the dictates of his own heart, they say,

‘No evil shall come upon you.’

 

 

D 

  • "For who has stood in the counsel of the Lord,
  • And has perceived and heard His word?
  • Who has marked His word and heard it?
  • Behold, a whirlwind of the Lord has gone forth in fury -
  • A violent whirlwind!
  • It will fall violently on the head of the wicked.
  • The anger of the Lord will not turn back
  • Until He has executed and performed the thoughts of His heart.
  • In the latter days you will understand it perfectly.
  •  
  • "I have not sent these prophets, yet they ran.
  • I have not spoken to them, yet they prophesied.
  • But if they had stood in My counsel,
  • And had caused My people to hear My words,
  • Then they would have turned them from their evil way
  • And from the evil of their doings.
  •  
  • " 'Am I a God near at hand,' says the Lord,
  • 'And not a God afar off?
  • Can anyone hide himself in secret places,
  • So I shall not see him?' says the Lord;
  • 'Do I not fill heaven and earth?' says the Lord.
    •

    E  " 'I have heard what the prophets have said who prophesy lies in My name, saying,


    "I have dreamed, I have dreamed!"

    " 'How long will this be in the heart of the prophets who prophesy lies? Indeed they are prophets of the deceit of their own heart, who try to make My people forget My name by their dreams which everyone tells his neighbor, as their fathers forgot My name for Baal.

    F

    'The prophet who has a dream, let him tell a dream;

    And he who has My word, let him speak My word faithfully.

    What is the chaff to the wheat?' says the Lord.

     

    'Is not My word like a fire?' says the Lord,

                              'And like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?' "

     

    First, before A, notice the MESSIAH, which is captioned M, for here is the answer, not in philosophy or man, but in God as man, who came, who is coming, whose realm is His to reign (cf. Isaiah Chs. 9:6-7 and 7,11, 32, with Ezekiel 34 and cf. I Corinthians 1!, Colossians 2:8). Now one may notice that in A above, there is the appalled horror of the Lord at the falsity of those who speak as prophets, but are vain, empty and confused, speaking a vision of their own hearts. Their place is often accompanied by immense immorality, which is true of much that is false in religion and the cultural collateral of false religion; and of course in many 'Western' democracies, it has reached the point of even arriving at 'marriage' between non-reproductive pairs as dying cultures try to tell man his place, from the void at which they face themselves!

    As a void is its source, so is it the result! More, they sow the wind, and will reap the whirl-wind (Hosea 8:7), for there in the realm of moral affairs, a certain cyclotronic reinforcement. It is not surprising, for when man bruises his heart, all is affected!

    This was the sort of setting in Israel in the day of Jeremiah, for spiritual reasons not least (cf.  It Bubbles ... Ch. 10); and it is so in the USA and Australia to no mean extent, now. It is appalling, but the solution does not lie in immersion in these ways. Heralded at the start (in M) is the Messiah who alone has the answers in Himself, now as always (Hebrews 13:8).

    In B we see something of the results of pursuing such a profession as those misled into becoming the false prophets, assuredly found.

    In C appears the delusion of imagining there can be peace in this sidestepping of the Lord, some even daring to use His name to contravene His most clear words!

    D shows the sadness that if those who are in fact false prophets, and popular,  had been able to lead the people not in this way, but in that of the Lord Himself, who as God both knows and can pardon, then how happy might have been the result, now denied by this hideous presumption; for as in E it is only the "deceit of their own heart" which moves them, which they speak. Often discarding the truth, some even pretentious in denunciation of the word of God in terms of 'paranoid' parameters (cf. Jeremiah 44:16-17), they soon are vulnerable to the terrible fate of II Thessalonians 2:9-11, when BECAUSE they did not love the truth, they get an 'active delusion': and without ground, stand where no ground is, and thus standing, fall.

    In F God issues His challenge: dream ? He declares, by all means do so, but what is this dream of yours compared with the word of God, enduring, rich, faithful, abundantly attested and not the thing of philosophy, but the utterance of the Almighty! It is chaff, your dream,  to wheat, His word! That is what He here declares. Such is His challenge then, and now, to the dreams of man. When it is God who gives the vision, in His word, however, the delight comes true and the history that follows it, is like a lap-dog, not in temperament, but in FOLLOWING the divine directions! Wise are they who do likewise! (Luke 6:46, Matthew 7:15-21).

    The case is not now any different in essential features from that which  obtained in Jeremiah's day, except that now, the Messiah having come, and the day drawing nearer for His return (Acts 1:7), the end of the Age comes for many who do not look, like children with sleepy eyes before bed.

    Sleep however is not appropriate at such a time! What happened to Israel in the days of Jeremiah when the people would not heed, when Jeremiah could go as with a candle (Jeremiah 5), to search Jerusalem for a righteous man ? Alas the Book of Lamentations tells us; but that of which it speaks,  it did not come before the prophet had expressed the immense intensity of the grief which came in advance of the devastation to come (Jeremiah 9:1ff.), since it was clearly seen to be coming from the hand of God to those who acted as if deaf and blind, both.

    Afterwards, in parallel, how profound the lament as little lords, cultural lords, religious innovationists (seems more active than innovators) who roll their own, blind to God, to destiny and to the desire of the nations! (Haggai 2:5-7). In the meantime, there comes this, in that text, that the Lord "will shake all nations", but it is with this glorious attribute attached, "and they shall come to the Desire of all nations"; but not all will so come (Hebrews 12:25-28, 2:1-4).

    Indeed, this world with its Gentiles now in their heyday (or is it a little post-mature!) as in Romans 11, is facing a time so gross that unless the Lord Jesus Christ returned, it would be unlivable (Matthew 24:22). Their 'dreams' always say the contrary; but they are running out of gas. Always force comes, direct or indirect, by psychiatric brutality as in Russia, or dispossession as there also, by religious inventions as in Islam (cf. More Marvels ... Ch. 4, SMR pp. 1080ff.), or by worship of liberty without Lord, which ends in a sink without bottom. It is not that liberty is bad; it is wonderful indeed: but to use His product without His oversight is like divorcing your car from all mechanics, or at least the maker, on the view that this is a spree of being free, free! The feeling may be understandable; but the wisdom is not visible.

    As to our prototype, Israel of old: They did NOT listen, and were captured, many taken off to Babylon (just as many are metaphorically taken off today! cf. Biblical Blessings Ch. 2). It is only in God that safety is; and it is thus good to see that any refer in no small terms to a personal faith in Christ. Keep it there, it is not to share; for the dreams of man are nothing more. Our task here is to present the Jesus Christ who saves, who redeems, who heals, who gives beauty for ashes (Isaiah 61, Luke 4), to give a reason for it (I Peter 3:21), and to help all whom we may, in the Lord's own name, to avoid the disasters of this day, and to be active in His kingdom with joy unspeakable and full of glory, for glorious He is, and wonderful are His ways (I Peter 1:8).

    Soon face to face is the glorious consummation (I Cor. 13, Revelation 22); and even now His presence is glorious, His peace deeper than any lake, His light above that of the sun. The desires of man are not litter; but the abasement of his life to the soil, to the ground of duplicity, self-deceit, making his car a contrivance of 'life' which does not happen to show any power to do this sort of thing, just to reproduce, and his life a thing for himself, his appointees, his eternal soul a plaything for the predators of power, whose history is as ever, one of ashes, like a burnt-out student, sportsman or shell of a house. (Cf. Secular Myths and Sacred Truth Ch. 7).

     

    THE CONCLUSION OF THE MATTER

    bullet DO NOT BE ROCKED, BUT STAND ON THE ROCK WHICH BEING ETERNAL, IS IMMUTABLE, IMMISCIBLE, NOT EVEN LIQUID, BUT INFINITELY SOLID AMID THE WRITHING WAVES
    CREATED BY THE CROSS-CURRENTS OF HUMAN INVENTION.

    He is His own witness, and having come and done all, is to be rested on,     Commander, Leader
    and Witness     (Isaiah 55:4, Revelation 1:5), alone to be regarded, as God is alone above man,
    triune in glory, single in entity, embracing as He embraces, three persons,
    the Lord of love and the God of creation.
     
    bullet It is an infinite privilege to have adoption papers available, and to be able to come to Him as Father,
    through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
     
    bullet He has come for us; now it is necessary for man to come to Him! (John 1:12).

    May the Lord aid those tempted into such drolleries at this time, to find and relish the grand wonder of the rock, and unsubdued by the waves and tempests, to find its stability and truth eternally delightful as
    has been the blessed provision for man from the days of Isaiah (33:6) and long before (cf. TMR Ch. 3, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17).

    In a play, a rugged looking cardboard painted and contoured, may be of service for a rock. In life, it is not so. The living Rock alone, incapable of instability, provides ground of assurance, blessing of heart, strength of character, service of spirit, because of His life (cf. Matthew 7:24ff.); as likewise pardon of what He cleanses, because of His death. Ruler over life, because of His resurrection, He is filled with grace, humility, the words of His lips, the truth. It is glorious that He is there! As with any other friend, that fact is not hard to discern by its results, and with Him, while these include suffering for truth, yet is there engaged a spiritual resource which is incalculable in beauty, magnificent in comfort and without limit in strength.

    REFERENCE:

    "Delusive Drift or Divine Dynamic" Ch. 2 may be of interest in terms of this theme.

     


     

    NOTES

    *1

    "Article" with a capital is after this first case, used relative to the one concerned throughout.

     

    *2


      EXCURSION ON FOUNDATION OF BUILDINGS

    Christ declared this: they rejected Me who came in God's name,  but when someone comes in his OWN name, him they will receive (John 14).

    In what ways did Jesus Christ come in God's name, as distinct from merely in His own, let us consider, so that we may realise this in contrast to the parallel of an imposter who  latter attempt to act in his own name, a spirit indeed of things which in the final consummation of the Devil's Messiah, is awaiting us (cf. II Thessalonians 2:4ff., Daniel 7:7-8,20ff., Revelation 13:5ff.) ? The froth and frivolity of this coming imposter has had many preliminaries (cf. I John 2:18-19). They have been acutely horrible in their paranoid pretensions and graceless dynamics, persecutions and self-parades with an emptiness which only violence can impose! Christ coming not in His own name, had no place for such vileness or violence, but for evidence and power, grace and truth. This He had to show, to fulfil what was written, and showed in a way which the years do not attenuate, and which soon so rocked the time following that the most powerful Empire in the world soon found an Emperor claiming to be a Christian.

    First, Christ did not come unannounced. For millenia His coming had been declared in many ways through many prophets covering many aspects of what He, the Messiah, would do (cf. Joyful Jottings 22-25, TMR Ch. 3, Barbs, Arrows and Balms 17, with Heart and Soul, Mind and Strength Chs. 4-7, on Isaiah, and The Impregnable Tower Chs. 7 and  8). In His time, He met the criticisms, confrontations, interrogations of many of the most odious, learned, inflamed voices of the Age, and in so doing, He was always apt, never unvictorious, always seeing the depths and the heights past the issues of the superficial, while meeting these futile reasonings of His opponents irrefutably.Always bringing things to their essence, always scriptural, H was always fulfilling to the letter whatever had been written of Him (cf. Christ, the Wisdom and the Power of God Ch. 8, Repent or Perish Ch. 2, SMR Ch. 6, and see Luke 11:46ff., Matthew 21-23, 13, Mark 2, Matthew 26-28), just as history since has fulfilled to the letter what He foretold..

    Instead of being afraid of death, He was noted by John the Baptist (John 1:29) from the first as the coming sacrificial Messiah, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world; but as John also made signally clear, those who did not believe but sought to bypass, sidestep and ignore the testimony, these coming in their clouds of false glory were a "brood of vipers", a breed of evil-doers. John did not persecute those who he warned: it was he who was literally beheaded by a lustful king.

    "Who," John had asked, "has warned you to flee from the wrath to come!" What was offered by the prophet was not a panacea, but a peace from salvation in the coming Messiah, with the repentance necessary for His acceptance, being attested by John's baptism. Crowds came to him in the wilderness, where he was widely recognised for his plain speaking and prophetic ministry. When he was instructed from God as to the identity of the Messiah, he pointed Him out and many followed through John to Christ. This included some of the apostles to be. I must decrease, said John, and He must increase!

    When he was later imprisoned because of his challenging Herod on his immoral life, he sent messengers to Christ, feeling troubled, and Christ sent back this message, and proceeded with many divulgements and prophecy.

    "Jesus answered and said to them,

    "Go and tell John the things which you hear and see:


    'The blind see and the lame walk;
    the lepers are cleansed and the deaf hear;
    the dead are raised up
    and the poor have the gospel preached to them.
    And blessed is he who is not offended because of Me.'

    "As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John:

    "What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the wind? But what did you go out to see? A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are in kings’ houses. But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet. "For this is he of whom it is written:

    ‘Behold, I send My messenger before Your face,

    Who will prepare Your way before You.’

    "Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force. For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to receive it, he is Elijah who is to come. He who has ears to hear, let him hear!

    "But to what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the marketplaces and calling to their companions, and saying:

    ‘We played the flute for you,

    And you did not dance;

    We mourned to you,

    And you did not lament.’

    "For John came neither eating nor drinking, and they say, ‘He has a demon.’ The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and they say, ‘Look, a glutton and a winebibber, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!’ But wisdom is justified by her children."

    "Then He began to rebuke the cities in which most of His mighty works had been done, because they did not repent:

    "Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes. But I say to you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon in the day of judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hell; for if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Sodom, it would have remained until this day. But I say to you that it shall be more tolerable for the land of Sodom in the day of judgment than for you."

    "At that time Jesus answered and said,

    'I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. Even so, Father,
    for so it seemed good in Your sight.     All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him.

    "Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.     Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.     For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.' "

    Christ's prophecies as always were fulfilled in the cases seen above: but here our point is that His depth and coverage of answer, in such teeming fulness and beautiful purity, nothing exaggerated, nothing minimised, everything provided for, evidence noted succinctly just as the prophecies of Isaiah (29,35) had required for the Messiah, the power of God indisputably deployed on a consistent, insistent and persistent basis: these things were the very acme of truth, authority and the beauty of holiness. These things were His testimony.

    No vendetta marred His utterance, and His exposures were on biblical principle for the deliverance of the people, that they might find rest apart from the polluted pretensions of the wholly ungodly pretenders who sought to run the temple, some disbelieving the power of God, some wanting to control it with traditions of their own. These things He exposed (Matthew 22, 23),pointing out that such as these would neither enter the kingdom of God nor suffer others to do so, as if throwing away the key. He confronted this horrible distortion just as Isaiah had done (Isaiah Chs. 1, 28 and 29, and see Isaiah 28:16, 29:14 cf. 6:10 and Matthew 13:14ff.).

    It was personal spiritual rest that figured serenely in His invitation, but only where truth lay. His claim was not apart from evidence, but through it, not apart from the Age-old testimony of the prophets, but through them, not apart from personal power in the performance of His call as Messiah, but in terms of what He attested in word and deed. This was an open book which He presented in the scriptural word and His presence as the Eternal and Living Word of God (cf. Micah 5:1-3, John 1:1, 8:58, Hebrews 1, Psalm 44, Isaiah 48:16), waiting to be read by those who would put on the spectacles that can enable them to see spectacles of wonder, their eyes useless to those who sought to close the book of truth and the book of life, as many did, leading eventually in the magnificently protrayed and predicted murder of Isaiah 52-53.

    When He appointed the apostles, the twelve as they were called, it had a dual function, to enable their continuance in building His church and passing on His words (John 14:25-26) until He returned (Luke 24:24ff., Acts 1:7ff., Matthew 24:36ff., 26:64), and to secure the services of the traitor whom the prophets attested would betray Him, as in Psalm 69 (cf. Joyful Jottings 25). He knew of this and foretold it Himself as well (John 13:18-19,21, 6:70). When Judas did betray Him, Jesus even was aware of the time of it (John 13:26-28), and asked that person to get his job done quickly! Perceiving the end to be near, when its due time had come, Christ laboured in prayer, since to be sinless and sovereign, the very Creator on earth (Isaiah 48:16, Zechariah 2:8ff., Psalm 45, Hebrews 1), and to bear the sins, acquiescing in becoming a sin offering indeed, was an experience which, in the format of man, would be gruesome to the extraordinary limits of horror (Luke 22:39ff.).

    Thus provision was made in the apostles (John 6:70), and in His words being brought to their memory by the power of His Spirit (John 14:26), so that they might truly pass on, after His return to heaven (John 6:60ff.), the words and the truth until His return which He had long before indicated (cf. Matthew 7:21ff.), as had the prophecy of the Old Testament (Zechariah 14:5), which had even forecast the very date of His death (Daniel 9:24-27 cf. Highway of Holiness Ch. 4).

    When therefore one of the twelve was missing, Judas the betrayer having committed suicide (cf. Acts 1), the apostles as they were now called (the sent ones) elected in prayer, a replacement. He had to have been in the company of Christ so as to be an actual witness. As to Paul, he was superadded as apostle to the Gentiles, as one born out of due time! (I Corinthians 15:8). Peter in turn referred to his writings as the word of God (cf. II Peter 3:16). When the church eventually resolved issues to ensure there were no illegitimate additives, for Christianity has from the first stressed evidential realities (cf. John 3:11, Acts 4:20, 2:32, 3:15, 10:39). Thus was the New Testament Canon or list of scriptures attesting Christ as witnesses to Him who came ONCE and died ONCE at the appointed place and time, attested and bound (the general ecclesiastical councils of Hippo 393, and Carthage, 397, acknowledged the canon for the Greek New Testament; in its authenticity and authority, it stood, just as the Jews passed on their own canon, making 66 books in all cf. SMR Appendix   C, Sparkling Life Chs. 1 and 2, Ancient Words, Modern Deeds Ch.   11).

    These works were all written, in the New Testament either by apostles or by their close associates, and the question of avoiding what was not so, this was punctiliously and long continued until every question was resolved, the authenticity accepted, and so the canon completed decisively,  though of course a large array of main works was clear and secure from the first. Thus was Christ's advent and work completed for the Church, and His words defined just as His Person was definitive (Hebrews 1:1-8, John 14:9ff., Matthew 11:27) of His Father. Indeed, the Church, as Paul declared, is founded, "having been built" (Ephesians 2:19 - it is of course the PAST TENSE even in his day) "on the foundations of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone."

    On this foundation, one is placed; and it does not vary, just as the 12 did not vary, except for one replacement among them to cover the predicted and Christ-attested case of the traitor who, being dead from his own hand, needed replacement with someone else who had shared life with Christ (Acts 2:21). What was built in Paul's day does not change, nor does its Gospel, as that apostle so thunderously affirms (Galatians 1:6-9). There is no apostolic church but the one which recognises Christ as its ONLY Master (Matthew 23:8-10), who gave His words to His friends who were with Him, the One who died ONCE (Hebrews 9:12-28) and rose ONCE (Romans 1:4), bodily from the dead (Luke 24), who had ONE group of apostles to whom He committed by the power of His Holy Spirit, the memory of His words, just as there is ONE God who sending His eternal word as man, brings eternal life to those who believe in Him, not in some other Jesus, some other Gospel and some other Spirit which being fraudulent and bogus, is not worthy of thought, except to expose it.

    It is this actual Christ who earned His name, who performed the prophecies, who made indeed the prophecies which accurately depict in detail, our own day (Matthew 24, cf. SMR Ch. 8), who is the final foundation and only Master (I Corinthians 1:10-11, Matthew 23:8-10, Romans 14:9), apart from whom there is nothing for mankind; and in whom, there is a delightful sufficiency. It is this which is so readily found, for in Him, one is working with God, with the power and Person sent, to the glory of God, as so superabundantly attested by God, with no competition in person or propositional words anywhere to be found either on this present earth or in history, with His own glory about one, whatever the suffering, moving to the day of His return, as the light at dawn.