Judgement

East-West Separation

October 2, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy. He will not always chide: neither will He keep His anger forever. He hath not dealt with us after our sins; nor rewarded us according to our iniquities. For as the heaven is high above the earth, so great is His mercy toward them that fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far hath He removed our transgressions from us. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that fear Him For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust.” (Psalm 103:8-14)

If you take a few moments to Google the idea of the universe expanding, this is what you will find:

The American astronomer Edwin Hubble made the observations in 1925 and was the first to prove that the universe is expanding. He proved that there is a direct relationship between the speeds of distant galaxies and their distances from Earth. This is now known as Hubble’s Law.

The galaxies outside of our own are moving away from us, and the ones that are farthest away are moving the fastest. This means that no matter what galaxy you happen to be in, all the other galaxies are moving away from you. However, the galaxies are not moving through space, they are moving in space, because space is also moving. In other words, the universe has no center; everything is moving away from everything else.

There is no separation in a person’s life like the separation from the companionship of a loved one. Different causes produce the anguish from such a separation: military service, emotional estrangement, divorce, incarceration, and death. These and others can cause a sadness and almost unbearable, crushing depression.

If we were only animals, separation would most likely not produce severe sadness. Some animal species are deeply affected by separation. The study of the African Elephant, as an example, indicates that the memories of these huge beasts are deeply affected by the death of one of their herd. But we are quite different from any of the animals God created.

We humans were created for a unique fellowship and communion with our Creator. The fact of sin—disobedience to God’s law by our first parents, produced a progeny of lawbreakers who through history have illustrated alienation from God. We have been alienated from that common-union for which we were created—the union of God’s Spirit in our spirit. That’s what originally made Eden perfect.

It is the Christian religion that teaches reconciliation of man with his Creator by means of a mediator. The Scripture says,

“God wills that all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus; who gave Himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time” (I Timothy 2:4-5).

You know, I think that David the King knew this long before Edwin Hubble made his discovery. After his sins of adultery and murder, the Psalmist was granted to learn the spiritual principle that God’s forgiveness of our sins is easily depicted as being removed from us by His grace further and further from those acts whereby we sinned against God and our fellow friends. The records of our sins and failures might be kept in the memory of friends—especially those against whom we sinned heniously. They may be kept in the records held by civil authorities. With todays computer technology they can pull up every speeding ticket, every act of tax evasion, and display it right in front of us or others. Look how the investigating agencies are digging into the political machinations of our political parties. Emails….telephone conversations, you name it. You are on record.

But that’s not so with your moral transgressions against the God of the Universe, if you have repented and asked forgiveness from Him. Look what King David says:

The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and plenteous in mercy.
The Lord does not always scold us; He doesn’t keep His anger forever.
He doesn’t always deal with us in accordance with our sins.
He doesn’t always give us the penalty we really deserve.
If we truly fear Him and repent of our sins He will show us mercy.
God treats us like a loving human father would treat us.
God knows everything about us—He knows every secret we keep.
God knows every weakness, every character flaw, and every evil motive.
And in spite of all that we have done to deserve His displeasure…
God is willing to forgive us and separate our sins from us “As far as the east is from the west.”

Think of it! Meditate on the fact. If the universe as we know it is expanding, then the distance between our past sins and failures are drifting further and further away from us. We may be tempted to hold onto our past failures; but God has removed and is continually removing our confessed and forsaken sins away from us. He does this in order that we might serve Him every day with a clear conscience and a desire to allow Him in His power and grace to live through us toward others for His glory and the benefit they might receive by our positive witness to His grace in forgiveness. Now that is the mercy of God! Learn it. Grasp it. Cling to it, and rejoice that you are His forgiven child.

The Missing Element

February 21, 2017 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I have appointed you a prophet to the nations.” (Jeremiah 1:5)

The Old Testament is old. It was not written to us in the 21^st Century. It is not relevant to our culture and time. The person who says that is ignorant of what the Old Testament Scriptures reveal about the depravity of man and the holiness and eternal purposes of the God of the Universe.

To say that the laws, principles, moral and spiritual standards God gave the Jewish people have no relevance to our time and culture is to exhibit gross ignorance of both Judaism and Christianity. It is an absurdity. God said to Jeremiah,

“Behold, I put my words in your mouth. See, I have appointed you this day over the nations and over the kingdoms, to pluck up and to break down, to destroy and to overthrow, to build and to plant…You have seen well, for I am watching over My word to perform it.” (Jeremiah 1:9b-12)

Jeremiah, like other select individuals, was called by God to deliver His message to His people – both those of faith and those of unbelief. Enlightened by the Holy Spirit, they were rendered infallible in speaking and writing. Evangelicalism in America today appears to have lost its prophetic voice. The New Testament declares to the Church,

“Pursue love, yet desire earnestly spiritual gifts, but especially that you may prophesy…one who prophesies speaks to men for edification and exhortation and consolation…One who speaks in a tongue edifies himself; but one who prophesies edifies the church…therefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy.” (I Corinthians 14:1, 3-4, 39)

Today, as never before, the Church needs those who have been called by God to prophesy to the Church. I’m not talking about professed biblical scholars who foolishly set dates for the rapture of the Invisible Church. The gift of prophecy, as Paul stated, is for the “edification, exhortation and consolation” of the Church – the body of Christ. It is not a ministry to unbelievers. Its focus should be to call the people of God back to God and away from its absorption of our pop culture in worship and practice.

The Old Testament Prophets didn’t simply speak God’s opinion on the nation of Israel. They spoke God’s revealed word of discernment and judgment. They boldly proclaimed,

“My people have committed two evils; they have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, to hew for themselves cisterns, broken cisterns that can hold no water…My people are foolish, they know Me not. They are stupid children. And they have no understanding. They are shrewd to do evil, but to do good they do not know.” (Jeremiah 2:13, 4:22)

How long do you think an emergent church leader would last if he preached like that? The Old Testament Prophets spoke God’s judgment upon His people, the Jews. And in doing so they condemned the heathen around them with whom they had compromised and made alliances. They even prophesied that God would use those pagan nations to punish His chosen people.

Ancient Israel and Judah had forsaken the authoritative rule of the God of their fathers. They had amalgamated themselves with the worship of pagan deities and had sunk to the immoral practices of their heathen neighbors. Today’s emergent church, in many ways, has been invaded by the American pop culture. Emergent churches sought “new measures” for attracting the unsaved and opened their arms to our culture’s ways of marketing. In making alliances with the practices and psychology of our pop culture, the Evangelical Church has become as popular as any social organization. In doing so the traditions, creeds, theology of our Protestant forbearers have been abandoned for a message suited to satisfy the “tickling ears” of the masses. Traditional forms of worship were cast aside for new, emergent forms of liturgy. What’s missing in our Starbuck generation of relationship-building evangelical churches? What’s conspicuously absent is intestinal fortitude for pastors to preach the whole counsel of God. The gift of prophecy both in the Old Testament and the New Testament Church was and is to boldly proclaim the valid implications and applications of authoritative Scripture, whether church attendees like it or not. Until we see that on a broad scale our nation will continue to devolve in ways never resembling the greater generations of our past.

The Old Testament scriptures contain vital history, theological wisdom, divine promises, and unchanging judgments of God upon the sin of His people and those who know Him not. To ignore its truthful teachings is to incur the judgments the Prophets proclaimed. They are as relevant and applicable today as when they were first spoken. Not written to us, they are for our generation and generations to come. And what’s more,

“When He ascended on high, he led captive a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men…He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4:8-12)

Where do you hear the voice of God’s prophets for this era of doom and death?

Sick and Angry

October 18, 2015 by Beryl Smith 1 Comment

“ Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth, each one of you, with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity.”
(Eph. 4:25-27)

Can any right thinking individual not feel sick, when they see our nation devolving in corruption and immorality? Politicians lie to get votes. Businessmen lie and cheat to make deals. Our public educational system is engulfed by secular humanism. The onslaught of Islamic militants appears to succeed in their godless jihad around the world. Our nation seems to be satisfied to forsake its opportunity to provide leadership in the world; and political apathy seems to be a cancer eating at our national foundations. But is the thing that bothers me the most?

It appears to me that the main reason why this nation is crumbling is that the Evangelical Church has surrendered in the spiritual battle and has given the devil, Satan and his minions, free reign to destroy this nation. And I place the blame squarely on the spiritual leadership in the Evangelical Church. Preachers won’t preach against the holocaust of abortion – some of their members have joined the abortion industry that has resulted in the murder of over 60 million of our unborn children. [Read more…]

Let’s Get This Straight

September 4, 2015 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“For Thou didst form my inward parts; Thou didst weave me in my mother’s womb. I will give thanks to Thee, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; wonderful are Thy works, and my soul knows it very well. My frame was not hidden from Thee, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought in the depths of the earth. Thine eyes have seen my unformed substance; and in Thy book they were all written, the days that were ordained for me, when as yet there was not one of them.”
(Psalm 139:13-16)

God ordained and planned your life before He spoke the Universe into existence. He ordained the day of your conception, the day of your birth, and the day of your death. God is the author of life, the sustainer of life, and the consummator of all earthly life by His providence.

Abortion is premeditated murder. Murder is the killing of a human being with intent to kill (malice aforethought). It is condemned by God and worthy of damnation in hell. In our post-Christian culture, the murder of the unborn is subjected to the choice of the mother bearing the child. It is culturally accepted as pre-birth, partial birth, and of post birth, as seen in the damnable practice of removing a child to harvest its organs for sale. Culture willfully accepts abortion as normal solution to an unwanted pregnancy, particularly in cases of rape, incest, or the health of the mother. [Read more…]

The Evil Wind of Delusion

December 9, 2014 by Beryl Smith Leave a Comment

“And for this reason God will send upon them a strong delusion so that they might believe what is false, in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in unrighteousness.” (II Thessalonians 2:11-12)

The words of Paul to the Thessalonians are as applicable to us as they were to the 1st Century believers in Asia Minor. An evil wind is blowing. It is a wind of strong delusion.

Nations and peoples who turn their backs and hearts from God incur the righteous judgment of God. Having grown up in California in the post WW-II and Korean War era, I did not envision our nation turning so far away from the beliefs of our founding fathers. It is evident from our national political turmoil and our financial indebtedness that a thinking person should at least consider the possibility of God’s judgment upon us.

As we continue to see the erosion of our Judeo-Christian heritage and the evident embrace of the spiritual bankruptcy of multiculturalism and secular humanism, we must ask ourselves, “Has God given to our people a “strong delusion”? – a deluding influence that they should believe lies? Is America to slide down into the pit of unbelief, as nations in the past?

The evil wind of unbelief blows stronger with ever year I spend in this “Land of the Free.” Unbelief breeds deeper delusion in the world of myth, lies, and heresy. Moral and spiritual poverty follow this delusion. The worst judgment of God upon us is not our national debt of 18 Trillion Dollars. Forbes “Opinion” reports,

“The federal unfunded liabilities are catastrophic for future taxpayers and economic growth. At usdebtclock.org, federal unfunded liabilities are estimated at near $127 trillion, which is roughly $1.1 million per taxpayer and nearly double 2012’s total world output” (1/17/14).

That ought to be enough to scare any Christian into their prayer closet, if they have one!

It is the damnation of our “pleasure in unrighteousness” that spells our demise as a great nation. It is our personal and national sin that invites our judgment and doom.

We who believe in the Christ who rules the Universe and will judge the world, have a three-fold responsibility to God and our nation, as Paul discusses in the context of the verses of my text.

First, we must constantly give thanks that “God has chosen you from the beginning for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and faith in the truth. And it was for this He called you through our gospel, that you may gain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ” (2:13-14).

Second, we must “stand firm and hold the traditions which you were taught, whether by word of mouth or by letter from us” (2:15). The pagan beliefs of the ancient world and the skepticism of our atheistic age will go to hell, where those will dwell who believe their teachings.

Third, we must desire and then allow “our Lord Jesus Christ Himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us eternal comfort and good hope by grace, comfort and strengthen our hearts in ever good work and word” (2:16).

We must realize we have been converted – turned from the “broad road of destruction” to the “narrow road of life.” By our words and actions we have been called by God to stay the strong delusion of unbelief, which appears to be God’s judgment upon our land. We would do well to quote those words of John Bunyan from Bedford Jail,

“The hill, though high, I covet to ascent,
The difficulty will not me offend;
For I perceive the way of truth lies here.
Come, pluck up heart, let’s neither faint nor fear;
Better, though difficult, the right way to go,
Than wrong, though easy, where the end is woe.”