STRAINING THE GNAT AND SWALLOWING THE CAMEL

STRAINING THE GNAT AND SWALLOWING THE CAMEL

                “You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life, but they testify of me.” John 5:39

                There are some people for whom it makes no difference if you love the Lord with all of our heart and soul and mind and your neighbor a yourself. It doesn’t matter if you are searching the scriptures daily looking for signs of our Lord’s return. If you don’t have their exact formula, their exact turn of phrase, or their precise interpretation of prophecy, then you are as good as lost.

                Jesus faced the same problem in His day. He was dealing with God’s chosen people who considered themselves to be God’s remnant people. They were the people of the scriptures. They had put walls within walls within walls, to guard “The Truth” and yet the Way the Truth and the Life was walking in their midst and they could not recognize Him.

                Jesus wasn’t buying their formulas and their traditions and it dumbfounded them. How could He oppose their religion when they were the Remnant people?

                Unfortunately, they had chosen to live by a different” infallible” source… a lesser light to help them understand the greater light of Scripture. But by now, whether they could recognize it or not, they were operating more under the authority of the Talmud than they were the Torah. They thought they were the people of the Word, but Jesus said to them: “Neglecting the commandment of God you hold to the traditions of men.” Mt. 7:8

                By the time that Jesus came on the scene, they were so steeped in their Talmudic traditions that even as their Creator and Messiah lived among them showing them how God wants the Law to be lived and fulfilled in life, they rejected Him outright.

                I honestly believe that it was not a coincidence that Jesus came into the world at a time when the Pharisees were in control. He was using them as a backdrop… as a demonstration of what His kingdom would NOT be. Jesus did not come to bring THIS, but THAT. (See Jeremiah 31:31, 32)

                For them, life was all bound up in a strictly intellectual interpretation of scripture… full of information but void of the Spirit… full of “Truth” but void of love… whited sepulchers… full of dead men’s bones.

                Paul warned the people to beware of the “false circumcision.” They could grab a guy and pull his pants down and prove whether or not he was really a Jew and they had the authority to do so because Circumcision began with Abraham and God had called it an everlasting covenant. (Gen. 17:13) You can’t break an everlasting covenant right? It is forever… and yet in the New Covenant a new circumcision was to take the place of the old cutting of the foreskin. So circumcision was a sign pointing forward to a greater reality to come. This principle remains true across the board.

                Paul gave us his credentials as the perfect Pharisee in Phil. 3:1-10. But now he warned the people saying…”For we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh” and everything that had once made Paul the perfect Pharisee he now counted as dung in order that he may “know Christ and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death in order that he might attain to the resurrection from the dead.” Phil 3:10, 11.

                For the one steeped in Talmudic tradition it made no difference if they lived the life… it was the formula that counted and they travelled the world over to make one convert to their traditions even as they rejected the Son of God.

                It is extremely interesting to me that the same Sanhedrin that condemned Jesus to death in His day, has been formed once again in our day and that in betraying the true Jewish faith they are now joining forces with the Pope on one hand, and the New World Order on the other hand, and the Masonic Lodge on another hand and together they are seeking to forge a global government based upon the worship of Lucifer.

                With the coming enforcement of their Talmudic traditions and their Noahide laws, they will seek to crucify Jesus Christ all over again in the form of His true followers. The Noahide law calls for the death of all who worship Jesus Christ, both in Israel and in the world… and that is why I am trying to warn my Messianic brothers and sisters to seek discernment over what they support in Israel and what they must avoid. The devil is in the details and we are faced once again with the exact same issues that Jesus faced in His day with the same threats of execution if we do not comply.

                Again Paul informs us that “we are the true circumcision who worship in the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus and put no confidence in the flesh…” Phil. 3:3

                I left Pharisaic religion years ago when, like Paul, I had an encounter with the real power of Christ. HE came into my heart… He kicked the devil out… a demon that had managed to hide behind all of my man made facades… and He filled me with His Holy Spirit and I have been living by His Holy Spirit ever since.        (With much to learn along the way of course) I can never turn back to the weak and worthless things that once ruled my life. I have encountered the real Christ of whom the Scriptures speak and I was blown away by His power to send Satan fleeing.  I have found that power in Pentecost and not in the traditions of men.

                We live in the most critical of times. As the sons of God are being formed in this final age, the same forces that ruled the world in Jesus’ day are being reconstructed complete with the Sanhedrin, the temple, the priesthood, the Talmudic traditions and many of God’s people, both Christians and Jews are preparing to say once again: “We have no king but Caesar.” And they will once again choose Barabbas.

                But when he (The antichrist) goes into the temple of God claiming to be God in what both Daniel and Jesus called “The Abomination of Desolation” then those who know Jesus’ warnings will flee from Jerusalem and Judea, not even returning for their coat and hat. Likewise true Christians everywhere are going to face increasing persecution as we remain faithful to walking in Spirit and in truth. Those who are truly born again will be as a blinding light to the powers of darkness and they will indeed want to snuff us out.

                But we as Christians need to be aware that Pharisee- ism is much more subtle than we might think. It sneaks into our lives, giving us confidence in our own flesh, in our own works and in the Law and in our traditions to save us, rather than the living person of Jesus Christ. Slowly, almost imperceptibly we begin to look to our own goodness (be it ever so fragile and fickle) and we stop trusting in the blood and the cross of Jesus Christ.

                This is what is happening in the falling away church today as they depart from the true Gospel of our salvation to find security in numbers… in a global religion of promised peace… in a politically correct brotherhood… a broad way that leads to destruction… directed by a cabalistic consortium of Luciferians that share Satan’s desire to rule the world.

                We are being given a choice between Jesus and Barabbas today and only those who live by the Spirit of Christ and the truth of Christ and the power of the Gospel will be able to see the right path.

                Today many are straining out the gnat, but they are swallowing the camel and walking into the greatest deception of all time.

                “So then brethren, we are under obligation not to the flesh, to live according to the flesh- for if you are living according to the flesh you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live, for all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God. For you have not received the spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received the spirit of adoption by which you cry out Abba Father. The Spirit Himself witnesses with our spirit that we are children of God.” Romans 8:12.

                When we are born again, our once dormant spirit is made alive by the Spirit of Christ so that His Spirit can witness with our spirit that we are children of God. It is by this born again spirit that we must live, for it is in this spirit in marriage with the Holy Spirit that we have become sons and daughters of God. So don’t let anything else take the place of that new life that Jesus has planted within you.

                “The one who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; the one who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness that God has borne concerning His Son. And the witness is this; that God HAS given us eternal life and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God in order that you may know that you HAVE eternal life.” 1 John 5:10-13

                Jesus did not give us Bible Prophecy to make static doctrine out of it, but rather to study it and to discern the times and to understand the issues as they unfold. God’s Word never changes, but our understanding of it may change as the prophecies unfold before our eyes. So don’t get stuck with the Pharisees and with their rigid interpretations based more on the Talmud than the Torah so that when Jesus the true Messiah came, they rejected Him.

                Today, once again we are in danger of straining the gnat while swallowing the camel. Selah