The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2021 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 96

Temple Jumping

Have you heard of bungee jumping?

Jeremy Markovich, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

Wikipedia, the wicked encyclopedia, says that ”Bungee jumping is an activity that involves a person jumping from a great height while connected to a large elastic cord. The launching pad is usually erected on a tall structure such as a building or crane, a bridge across a deep ravine, or on a natural geographic feature such as a cliff.”

A number of people have died bungee jumping. Sometimes the bungee broke. At other times the stretch of the bungee was miscalculated, allowing the bungee and the jumper to fall too far.

Have you heard of bridge jumping?

Jeremy Markovich, CC BY-SA 2.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0&gt;, via Wikimedia Commons

officialbridgeday.com says:

“Held annually every third Saturday in October on the New River Gorge Bridge in Fayette County, West Virginia, this is the only day each year thousands of spectators can walk across the bridge and watch as serious BASE jumpers get their chance to fly 876 feet into the Gorge below.”

Bridge jumpers use parachutes instead of bungees, and most of the time, they do open.

Why do people bungee jump, and risk a broken bungee and a broken head? Why do people jump off a bridge 876 feet high, into the dangerous New River?

They get a thrill by tempting fate, as it’s called.

Have you heard of Temple jumping?

Satan tempted Christ by daring Him to Temple jump.

By Jaakov Shoham, self-photographed, public domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1894992

The southwestern corner of the Temple Mount today is a high point. It might possibly be the spot where Satan dared Yeshua to jump. A broken stone was found tumbled below that spot, which said, “the place of the trumpeting.” That was where a priest would blow a trumpet to announce events. So if this high spot was used for trumpeting because of its height, then perhaps…?

Matt 4
5) Then the devil took him into the holy city. He set him on the pinnacle of the temple,
6) and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down, for it is written, ‘He will put his angels in charge of you.’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’”

Satan quoted scripture.

Ps 91:9-12 (WEB)
9) Because you have made Yahweh your refuge, and the Most High your dwelling place,
10) no evil shall happen to you, neither shall any plague come near your dwelling.
11) For he will put his angels in charge of you, to guard you in all your ways.
12) They will bear you up in their hands, so that you won’t dash your foot against a stone.

Notice how Satan approaches these temptations of Christ. In this one, Satan quotes scripture.

That’s right. Satan came on like Billy Graham.

The quote is correct. The application is twisted.

Nearly a century ago women were discouraged from cutting or bobbing their hair. There was even a hit song about it, “Why Do You Bob Your Hair, Girls?” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bg1TvrZkfEU

This modesty about hair could also apply to wearing the hair down instead of up, as in a bun or top knot on top of the head. An old story, and that’s probably all it is, says that a preacher railed against top knots by quoting this verse from the Bible –

“Top knot come down!”

But the cited verse actually says:

Matt 24:16-17 (KJV)
16) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
17) Let him which is on the house top not come down to take any thing out of his house:

If that really happened, Satan could have been really proud of that twisting.

Here’s another example of twisting.

Matt 5:17 (WEB)
17) “Don’t think that I came to destroy the law or the prophets. I didn’t come to destroy, but to fulfill.

Even though Yeshua plainly said that He did not come to destroy the law, that verse is cited to show that Christ destroyed the law, because He fulfilled it. But when Christ said He didn’t come to destroy but to fulfill, fulfill has to be the opposite of destroy. So Christ did not come to destroy the Commandments and to say He did is a tornadic twisting.

Peter mentioned Christian scripture twisting.

2Pet 3:15-17 (WEB)
15) Regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; even as our beloved brother Paul also, according to the wisdom given to him, wrote to you;
16) as also in all of his letters, speaking in them of these things. In those, there are some things that are hard to understand, which the ignorant and unsettled twist, as they also do to the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17) You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your own steadfastness.

The Greek word “athezmos,” translated there in the World English Bible as ‘wicked,’ actually means ‘lawless,’ as the International Standard Version has it.

2Pet 3:17 (ISV)
17) And so, dear friends, since you already know these things, continually be on your guard not to be carried away by the deception of lawless people. Otherwise, you may fall from your secure position.

The English Standard, Lexham, Smith, The Scriptures Bible versions, among others, also render “athezmos” as lawless – breaking the law.

If Peter was warning against the twisting of Paul’s writings by the deception of lawless people, then what was the twisting?

It was lawlessness.

Christian twisters were saying that Paul had done away with the law.

Paul himself wrote about that twisting.

Rom 3
8) Why not (as we are slanderously reported, and as some affirm that we say), “Let us do evil, that good may come?” Those who say so are justly condemned.

31) Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

That twisting – that Paul said that Christians should “do evil,” that is, break the Ten Commandments – is still going on today.

Wonder who’s behind that twisting?

Saying that Christ’s flock should do evil so that good may come of it when God forgives the evil is the same principle as snake handling and Temple jumping. It means to purposely sin and then expect God to forgive us. Basically this is the modern Christian doctrine of grace, license from God to break God’s Commandments.

That is Satan’s twisting and the devil did the same thing with Yeshua. Satan quoted the Psalm about the angels bearing Christ so He wouldn’t dash His foot and then dared Him to jump off a Temple wall. The devil tried to get Yeshua to flaunt who He was by Temple jumping, just to show off.

“Hey, look at me. I’m Superman! Whee!”

I lived right across the holler from snake handlers. My dad said they met in a house there, but we never went over across the creek to check it out. According to Wikipedia, there is still a snake handling congregation in the town where I went to school, and a small number of snake handling groups are still spread throughout those Appalachian Mountains. These congregations do lose some people to snakebites and for some reason, they don’t attract a whole lot of new converts.

Snake handlers twist scripture. At some time, somebody in the Appalachian Mountains got the idea that the Bible tells us to pick up snakes and parade around with them just to show that God will protect us. This verse was the basis of their thinking.

Mark 16:17-18 (WEB)
17) These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages;
18) they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”

A video tells of a gospel singing group who discovered – mid-service! – they were in a snake handling church. Their biggest complaint? The church didn’t have enough doors! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FE4z60a_lew

Paul was bitten by a serpent on the island of Malta, but Paul didn’t pick up the snake and parade it around. Paul was bitten when he gathered firewood, but then he just shook the snake off into the fire. Paul was not harmed. The snake was. That is the meaning of Mark 16:18.

Satan dared Christ to be like the snake handlers, to put Himself in danger like bungee jumpers and bridge jumpers, just to show off. Such acts are not done to be exalted in the eyes of God, but just to be exalted in the eyes of others.

Satan’s first temptation for Yeshua was at the human drive to stay alive, when Satan dared Christ to turn rocks into bread. Satan’s second attack was at the human drive to exalt itself.

We have to eat food to stay physically alive. We don’t need to exalt ourselves to live, but all who live want to.

Hezekiah was a good king, and because of that he was blessed. And because he was blessed, his heart was lifted up.

2Chr 32:24-26 (WEB)
24) In those days Hezekiah was sick even to death: and he prayed to Yahweh; and he spoke to him, and gave him a sign.
25) But Hezekiah didn’t render again according to the benefit done to him; for his heart was lifted up: therefore there was wrath on him, and on Judah and Jerusalem.
26) Notwithstanding Hezekiah humbled himself for the pride of his heart, both he and the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so that the wrath of Yahweh didn’t come on them in the days of Hezekiah.

Hezekiah’s drive to exalt himself showed up when the Babylonians showed up.

Isa 39
1) At that time, Merodach Baladan the son of Baladan, king of Babylon, sent letters and a present to Hezekiah; for he heard that he had been sick, and had recovered.

Notice the situation. The Babylonians had heard – from far away! – that Hezekiah had been healed, and they came to visit the king who had received that miracle. What a fantastic opportunity for Hezekiah, who had been healed, to publicly praise Yahweh Rapha, Yahweh our healer, who had healed him!

But what happened?

2Kgs 20
13) Hezekiah listened to them, and showed them all the house of his precious things, the silver, and the gold, and the spices, and the precious oil, and the house of his armor, and all that was found in his treasures: there was nothing in his house, nor in all his dominion, that Hezekiah didn’t show them.
14) Then Isaiah the prophet came to king Hezekiah, and said to him, “What did these men say? From where did they come to you?” Hezekiah said, “They have come from a far country, even from Babylon.”
15) He said, “What have they seen in your house?” Hezekiah answered, “They have seen all that is in my house. There is nothing among my treasures that I have not shown them.”
16) Isaiah said to Hezekiah, “Hear the word of Yahweh.
17) ‘Behold, the days come, that all that is in your house, and that which your fathers have laid up in store to this day, shall be carried to Babylon. Nothing shall be left,’ says Yahweh.

Hezekiah was king of Judah. He was already looked up to by all the people in his kingdom, and apparently many outside his kingdom. But he felt compelled to exalt himself before the Babylonians, too.

What good did that do him?

Nothing. But good king Hezekiah succumbed to the temptation to exalt himself.

King Saul was picked by Yahweh as king, and Saul looked more kingly than any other man in the kingdom.

1Sam 9:2 (WEB)
2) [Kish] had a son, whose name was Saul, an impressive young man; and there was not among the children of Israel a better person than he. From his shoulders and upward he was higher than any of the people.

Saul looked good. And apparently looking good was really important to King Saul.

After Saul had been king for some years, Samuel told Saul that Yahweh had rejected him as king. Yet Saul was still worried about how he looked before the people!

Right after Saul had been told that Yahweh had rejected him as king –

1Sam 15:24-31 (WEB)
24) Saul said to Samuel, “I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of Yahweh, and your words, because I feared the people, and obeyed their voice.
25) Now therefore, please pardon my sin, and turn again with me, that I may worship Yahweh.”
26) Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of Yahweh, and Yahweh has rejected you from being king over Israel.”
27) As Samuel turned about to go away, Saul grabbed the skirt of his robe, and it tore.
28) Samuel said to him, “Yahweh has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day, and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.
29) Also the Strength of Israel will not lie nor repent; for he is not a man, that he should repent.”
30) Then he said, “I have sinned: yet please honor me now before the elders of my people, and before Israel, and come back with me, that I may worship Yahweh your God.”
31) So Samuel went back with Saul; and Saul worshiped Yahweh.

That was truly astounding. Saul had just been put on death row, yet he wanted to make sure he looked good before the elders as he went.

Saul could have repented as Hezekiah did, or humbled himself as even wicked Ahab did. But no! Saul still wanted to be the most exalted man in Israel.

Ananias and Sapphira were part of the First Flock, those who became followers of Christ around the time of Pentecost in 30 CE. They had seen miracles taking place left and right around them. They had seen how the spirit had changed the Christianos.

Acts 4:33-37 (WEB)
33) With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Yeshua. Great grace [favor] was on them all.
34) For neither was there among them any who lacked, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them, and brought the proceeds of the things that were sold,
35) and laid them at the apostles’ feet, and distribution was made to each, according as anyone had need.
36) Joseph, who by the apostles was surnamed Barnabas (which is, being interpreted, Son of Encouragement), a Levite, a man of Cyprus by race,
37) having a field, sold it, and brought the money and laid it at the apostles’ feet.

That act by Barnabas was significant enough to be included in the Bible and he later worked beside Paul. Ananias and Sapphira saw that humble deed by Barnabas. But instead of being humble like him, they reversed that and tried to exalt themselves before the First Flock.

Acts 5
1) But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira, his wife, sold a possession,
2) and kept back part of the price, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles’ feet.
3) But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land?
4) While you kept it, didn’t it remain your own? After it was sold, wasn’t it in your power? How is it that you have conceived this thing in your heart? You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”
5) Ananias, hearing these words, fell down and died. Great fear came on all who heard these things.
6) The young men arose and wrapped him up, and they carried him out and buried him.
7) About three hours later, his wife, not knowing what had happened, came in.
8) Peter answered her, “Tell me whether you sold the land for so much.” She said, “Yes, for so much.”
9) But Peter asked her, “How is it that you have agreed together to tempt the Spirit of the Lord? Behold, the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.”
10) She fell down immediately at his feet, and died. The young men came in and found her dead, and they carried her out and buried her by her husband.

Why did Ananias and Sapphira do that?

Just to be exalted in the eyes of people –

People who did not believe in exalting themselves!

Ananias and Sapphira agreed together to tempt the spirit of the Lord. And that’s just what Satan tried to get Yeshua to do.

“If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down…”

Christ answered the devil, as He did with the first temptation, by again quoting from Deuteronomy.

Matt 4:7 (WEB)
7) Yeshua said to him, “Again, it is written, ‘You shall not test the Lord, your God.’”

In Deuteronomy, Moses restated Israel’s history in the wilderness and in that retelling, Moses included this.

Deut 6:16 (WEB)
16) You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah.

Massah means “testing.”

Exod 17
1) All the congregation of the children of Israel traveled from the wilderness of Sin, by their journeys, according to Yahweh’s commandment, and encamped in Rephidim; but there was no water for the people to drink.
2) Therefore the people quarreled with Moses, and said, “Give us water to drink.” Moses said to them, “Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you test Yahweh?”
3) The people were thirsty for water there; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”
4) Moses cried to Yahweh, saying, “What shall I do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me.”
5) Yahweh said to Moses, “Walk on before the people, and take the elders of Israel with you, and take the rod in your hand with which you struck the Nile, and go.
6) Behold, I will stand before you there on the rock in Horeb. You shall strike the rock, and water will come out of it, that the people may drink.” Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel.
7) He called the name of the place Massah, and Meribah, because the children of Israel quarreled, and because they tested Yahweh, saying, “Is Yahweh among us, or not?”

Yahweh had promised Israel that He would take care of them and take them to the Promised Land. But Israel murmured. Actually they griped, groaned, murmured and moaned – that Yahweh was going to kill them.

They were saying that Yahweh is a liar.

…to kill us, our children, and our livestock with thirst?”

“Is Yahweh among us, or not?”

They tested Yahweh by saying He was a liar and would not keep His promise to carry them safely to the Promised Land.

And Satan tried to get Yeshua to do the same thing that Israel did.

Yahweh had promised, as Satan quoted, “‘He will put his angels in charge of you.’ and, ‘On their hands they will bear you up, so that you don’t dash your foot against a stone.’”

So for Yeshua to Temple jump and test Yahweh on that is to imply that Yahweh might be a liar.

Rom 3
4) May it never be! Yes, let God be found true, but every man a liar…

The ultimate self-exaltation is to call God a liar – let God be found true, but every man a liar!

Who can judge God?

Job 38:19-29 (WEB)
19) “What is the way to the dwelling of light? As for darkness, where is its place,
20) that you should take it to its bound, that you should discern the paths to its house?
21) Surely you know, for you were born then, and the number of your days is great!
22) Have you entered the treasuries of the snow, or have you seen the treasures of the hail,
23) which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle and war?
24) By what way is the lightning distributed, or the east wind scattered on the earth?
25) Who has cut a channel for the flood water, or the path for the thunderstorm;
26) To cause it to rain on a land where no man is; on the wilderness, in which there is no man;
27) to satisfy the waste and desolate ground, to cause the tender grass to spring forth?
28) Does the rain have a father? Or who fathers the drops of dew?
29) Out of whose womb came the ice? The gray frost of the sky, who has given birth to it?

Job 40
1) Moreover Yahweh answered Job,
2) “Shall he who argues contend with the Almighty? He who argues with God, let him answer it.”
3) Then Job answered Yahweh,
4) “Behold, I am of small account. What shall I answer you? I lay my hand on my mouth.
5) I have spoken once, and I will not answer; Yes, twice, but I will proceed no further.”
6) Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
7) “Now brace yourself like a man. I will question you, and you will answer me.
8) Will you even annul my judgment? Will you condemn me, that you may be justified?

Satan tried that. Repeatedly. How arrogant and self-exalting Satan is, to repeatedly call God a liar!

Satan’s world today is filled with that attitude – self-exaltation.

The constant message of Satan’s media is –

Exalt yourself, exalt yourself, exalt yourself!

Cars, houses, clothing, jewelry – all sold with the purpose of self-exaltation.

The current dominant political message in America is – exalt yourself above all others. Blacks, Asians, Hispanics – always the message is for each group to exalt itself above all other groups. Envision division, with each group struggling to lift itself above all others. Women against men, wives against husbands, mothers against fathers and children –

“Women shouldn’t feel like second-class citizens!”

All that is the epitome of Satan’s mind.

Satan dared Yeshua to jump off a Temple wall just to exalt Himself and test to see if Yahweh is a liar. But Satan is the liar.

John 8
44) You are of your father, the devil, and you want to do the desires of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and doesn’t stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks on his own; for he is a liar, and its father.

The world today is full of Satan’s lies. Think evolution, which directly calls God a liar. Think global warming, an existential threat to humanity. Think Star Wars and aliens from outer space. All Satan’s lies.

So Satan called God a liar and dared Yeshua to do the same thing. The devil quoted scripture close enough, but then twisted its meaning. The fake angel of light has done a lot of scripture twisting throughout church history. Should we not expect to see it again?

Yeshua did not take Satan’s dare and did not exalt Himself. He did not come for His own glory. The human drive to exalt itself is deep in the human spirit. The drive to eat is understandable. The drive for self-preservation is understandable. But this drive to exalt ourselves above all others – what do we get from that? When a wife puts a husband down, or vice versa, why does that make them feel good? When people get personally offended with each other, does that help them or harm them? Why did Julius Caesar, Napoleon and Hitler try to conquer the peoples around them? Why did Alexander cry when he could conquer no more? Was he weird or something?

No. He and they just had the human drive to exalt itself.

That is what the Messiah overcame! All praise to Him!

As we now near the end of this age, the Jews are back in the Promised Land. They have the Temple Mount. They plan to build a new temple to welcome a new messiah.

And the messiah the world is looking for is –

A puffed up messiah, supremely self-exalted, to lord it over all others in the whole world.

A Temple jumper.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2021 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 95

The Master Deceiver at Work

Heylel-Satan is certainly clever, but the Enemy’s first attack on Yeshua was not rocket science.

Matt 4
1) Then Yeshua was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil.
2) When he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was hungry afterward.

How do you attack someone who’s fasting?

You go for the belly.

As when the Arabs attacked Israel in 1973.

History.com
On October 6, 1973, hoping to win back territory lost to Israel during the third Arab-Israeli war, in 1967, Egyptian and Syrian forces launched a coordinated attack against Israel on Yom Kippur, the holiest day in the Jewish calendar. Taking the Israeli Defense Forces by surprise, Egyptian troops swept deep into the Sinai Peninsula…

…[M]any of Israel’s soldiers were away from their posts observing Yom Kippur (or Day of Atonement), and the Arab armies made impressive advances with their up-to-date Soviet weaponry.

That biased article omitted the very, very relevant fact that Israelis were fasting, and the Arab armies purposely chose that fast day for their attack.

The Arabs just followed Satan’s example. The devil attacked Yeshua when he was fasting, not just for one day but fasting for forty days.

Again this is not rocket science. Satan did the obvious. The devil tempted Yeshua with food.

Matt 4
3) The tempter came and said to him, “If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

Satan used the same technique that was so successful with Eve – the doubting query.

With Eve – “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”

With Yeshua – “If you are the Son of God…”

When Satan queried Eve, the devil implied that God lied. And with Yeshua, the query implied that the Messiah lied. Are you really the Son of God?

Actually Satan lied.

Matt 8:28-29 (WEB)
28) When he [Yeshua] came to the other side, into the country of the Gergesenes, two people possessed by demons met him there, coming out of the tombs, exceedingly fierce, so that nobody could pass that way.
29) Behold, they cried out, saying, “What do we have to do with you, Yeshua, Son of God? Have you come here to torment us before the time?”

Those demons knew who Yeshua was. If they knew it, then their master knew it. So Satan lied when she acted like she didn’t know that Yeshua was the Son of God.

This is the one biggest factor between the followers of Christ and the followers of Satan. The followers of Satan deny that Yeshua is the Son of God.

The disciples knew He was the Son of God.

Matt 14:25-33 (WEB)
25) In the fourth watch of the night, Yeshua came to them, walking on the sea.
26) When the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, “It’s a ghost!” and they cried out for fear.
27) But immediately Yeshua spoke to them, saying “Cheer up! It is I! Don’t be afraid.”
28) Peter answered him and said, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the waters.”
29) He said, “Come!” Peter stepped down from the boat, and walked on the waters to come to Yeshua.
30) But when he saw that the wind was strong, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, saying, “Lord, save me!”
31) Immediately Yeshua stretched out his hand, took hold of him, and said to him, “You of little faith, why did you doubt?”
32) When they got up into the boat, the wind ceased.
33) Those who were in the boat came and worshiped him, saying, “You are truly the Son of God!”

Peter knew He was the Son of God.

Matt 16:13-16 (WEB)
13) Now when Yeshua came into the parts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?”
14) They said, “Some say John the Baptizer, some, Elijah, and others, Jeremiah, or one of the prophets.”
15) He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”
16) Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ [Messiah], the Son of the living God.”

John the baptizer knew.

John 1:34 (WEB)
34) I have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Martha knew.

John 11:25-27 (WEB)
25) Yeshua said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will still live, even if he dies.
26) Whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”
27) She said to him, “Yes, Lord. I have come to believe that you are the Christ, God’s Son, he who comes into the world.”

And when Paul learned about the Son of God, he immediately preached it.

Acts 9:19-20 (WEB)
19) He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus.
20) Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.

All those knew and acknowledged Yeshua as the Son of God.

On the other hand –

Or more correctly stated, in the other spirit –

The head waggers did not accept that Yeshua was the Son of God.

Matt 27:39-43 (WEB)
39) Those who passed by blasphemed him, wagging their heads,
40) and saying, “You who destroy the temple, and build it in three days, save yourself! If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross!”
41) Likewise the chief priests also mocking, with the scribes, the Pharisees, and the elders, said,
42) “He saved others, but he can’t save himself. If he is the King of Israel, let him come down from the cross now, and we will believe in him.
43) He trusts in God. Let God deliver him now, if he wants him; for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’”

The high priest did not accept that Yeshua was the Son of God.

Matt 26:63-66 (WEB)
63) But Yeshua held his peace. The high priest answered him, “I adjure you by the living God, that you tell us whether you are the Christ, the Son of God.”
64) Yeshua said to him, “You have said it. Nevertheless, I tell you, after this you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of Power, and coming on the clouds of the sky.”
65) Then the high priest tore his clothing, saying, “He has spoken blasphemy! Why do we need any more witnesses? Behold, now you have heard his blasphemy.
66) What do you think?” They answered, “He is worthy of death!”

Even some of those who first followed Christ did not accept the Son of God.

John 6:64-69 (WEB)
64) “But there are some of you who don’t believe.” For Yeshua knew from the beginning who they were who didn’t believe, and who it was who would betray him.
65) He said, “For this cause have I said to you that no one can come to me, unless it is given to him by my Father.”
66) At this, many of his disciples went back, and walked no more with him.
67) Yeshua said therefore to the twelve, “You don’t also want to go away, do you?”
68) Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life.
69) We have come to believe and know that you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

The difference between the disciples who left and those who stayed was whether or not they believed in Yeshua the Son of God.

To not acknowledge Yeshua as the Son of God is to follow Satan.

Luke 12:8-9 (WEB)
8) “I tell you, everyone who confesses me before men, him will the Son of Man also confess before the angels of God;
9) but he who denies me in the presence of men will be denied in the presence of the angels of God.

John 3:16-18 (WEB)
16) For God so loved the world, that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
17) For God didn’t send his Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through him.
18) He who believes in him is not judged. He who doesn’t believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

In the resurrection, there is no middle ground. When the dead hear the Son of God’s voice, the difference between life and judgment is whether or not they believe in the Son of God.

John 5:25-29 (WEB)
25) Most certainly, I tell you, the hour comes, and now is, when the dead will hear the Son of God’s voice; and those who hear will live.
26) For as the Father has life in himself, even so he gave to the Son also to have life in himself.
27) He also gave him authority to execute judgment, because he is a son of man.
28) Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
29) and will come out; those who have done good, to the resurrection of life; and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of judgment.

Again, those who follow Yeshua know that He is the Son of God. Those who follow Satan don’t acknowledge that.

That’s why government schools are Satan’s schools. They don’t teach that Yeshua is the Son of God, and they’re right in Satan’s camp. Public schools are not neutral. They oppose the Son of God. Their schools are Satan’s schools. There is no middle ground.

Yeshua saw Satan fall from heaven, so Satan knew very well that He was the Son of God. And when the devil made this challenge, it was based on a lie.

“If you are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.”

The “if” was the lie.

Eve and Adam accepted Satan’s teaching that they would not die if they disobeyed God. They ate the forbidden fruit, because it looked so good, and could make them wise in the world. But they did die.

They were selfish, thinking of themselves and what they could get for themselves. Self is the prime attitude of Satan, and Eve and Adam had that same attitude. As do all people –

Except for One.

Christ answered Satan’s dare to turn the rocks into rolls by looking beyond the bread.

Matt 4
4) But he answered, “It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.’”

How would Yeshua feel after forty days of fasting?

Hungry.

Luke 4
1) Yeshua, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan, and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness
2) for forty days, being tempted by the devil. He ate nothing in those days. Afterward, when they were completed, he was hungry.

Yeah, He was hungry. But He wanted God more than He wanted physical food.

I remember the first time I fasted on the Day of Atonement. The idea of going a whole day and night without food or drink seemed extremely extreme. What would happen to my poor, malnourished, 180 pound body? And I made one huge tactical error on my first fast day. I left a bright red apple on the shelf of my desk at college, and the image of that apple imprinted itself on my mind, from that fast day to this day.

However, I did not become as desperate as my wife and her kid sister, ages 13 and 9, who on the Day of Atonement sniffed the peanut butter jar.

Yes, Yeshua was hungry. Although the Bible does not specifically state this, I will state with some confidence that during that forty day fast, Yeshua never stared at a red apple or sniffed the peanut butter jar.

For physical people, food is life. Bread is physical existence. To deny bread, or food, is to be willing to give up your physical existence.

Especially after not eating or drinking for forty days.

In the wilderness Israel had a big problem giving up their food.

Exod 16:2-15 (WEB)
2) The whole congregation of the children of Israel murmured against Moses and against Aaron in the wilderness;
3) and the children of Israel said to them, “We wish that we had died by the hand of Yahweh in the land of Egypt, when we sat by the meat pots, when we ate our fill of bread, for you have brought us out into this wilderness, to kill this whole assembly with hunger.”

11) Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying,
12) “I have heard the murmurings of the children of Israel. Speak to them, saying, ‘At evening you shall eat meat, and in the morning you shall be filled with bread: and you shall know that I am Yahweh your God.’”
13) It happened at evening that quail came up and covered the camp; and in the morning the dew lay around the camp.
14) When the dew that lay had gone, behold, on the surface of the wilderness was a small round thing, small as the frost on the ground.
15) When the children of Israel saw it, they said one to another, “What is it?” For they didn’t know what it was. Moses said to them, “It is the bread which Yahweh has given you to eat.”

The lesson was that man does not live by physical bread alone. Ultimately life does not come from bread, but ultimately life comes from God.

Deut 8:2-3 (WEB)
2) [Moses said]You shall remember all the way which Yahweh your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, that he might humble you, to prove you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep his commandments, or not.
3) He humbled you, and allowed you to be hungry, and fed you with manna, which you didn’t know, neither did your fathers know; that he might make you know that man does not live by bread only, but man lives by everything that proceeds out of the mouth of Yahweh.

That verse in Deuteronomy was what Christ quoted back to Satan.

Even after fasting for forty days, Yeshua did not turn the rocks into bread. He put love of God before love of self. He put spiritual life before physical life.

That trait carried through to the end of His earthly physical life.

Mark 14:33-36 (WEB)
33) He took with him Peter, James, and John, and began to be greatly troubled and distressed.
34) He said to them, “My soul is exceedingly sorrowful, even to death. Stay here, and watch.”
35) He went forward a little, and fell on the ground, and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass away from him.
36) He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible to you. Please remove this cup from me. However, not what I desire, but what you desire.”

Just as when He did not turn rocks into bread, so He did not turn away when He was asked to give up His life. He was exceedingly sorrowful, by His own words, even to death. He asked that the cup be removed from Him. But He humbled Himself to drink that cup of bitter wine. Then He became the bread of life for us.

Notice the difference in the two attitudes between Satan and Yeshua.

Satan tried to exalt herself above the throne of Yahweh, lied and connived, and desperately tried to gain position for her self.

Yeshua was always willing to give up Himself. Going without food, not accepting the devilish temptation to eat rocks, even being willing to give up His life to serve His heavenly Father.

Satan had tricked Eve with “Has God really said…? And Satan tried to trip up Christ with “If you are the Son of God…”

In both cases the devil attacked with darts of doubt. We can expect the same thing.

Satan is currently casting darts of doubt over everything Biblical. Today the Bible is “discredited by scholars.” If scholars cast doubt on something, then how can it possibly be true?

Even many Christians now teach that certain parts of the Bible are not to be taken as truth. This includes the commands that a woman is to keep silent in the assembly and a woman is not to teach a man. It also includes the first chapter of Romans, where it speaks of men who “burned in their lust toward one another, men doing what is inappropriate with men.” Those scriptures, among others, are said to be just cultural standards of an ancient time, and not relevant today. Those are demonic darts of doubt.

Moreover, modern intellectuals claim that Yeshua is just a mythological figure, like Zeus and Aphrodite. A book description on Amazon reads –
“Jesus Christ: A Pagan Myth” explores the pagan origins of Christianity and shows that Jesus Christ never lived. This book is for doubting Christians,” it says. Actually the book seeks to create doubting Christians.

How do we deflect Satan’s darts of doubt?

We do what the Messiah did.

Bread feeds the body but fasting feeds the spirit. As Christ gained spiritual strength to overcome Satan, so we must use fasting to gain spiritual strength to overcome Heylel-Satan, the deceiving enemy. Without regular fasting, we simply cannot overcome Satan, the world and ourselves –

On our own.

If you want God, you must seek Him with all your heart. That means being willing to give up physical bread, and ultimately even to give up physical life. If you will seek God, you have to work at it, and you must fast. In these end times that we now face, if you do not fast frequently, the devil will eat your lunch.

Yeshua was willing to give up bread and physical life for spiritual life. Christ’s disciples must also be willing to do that.

Satan attacked a hungry Yeshua in the belly. Yeshua attacked a self-loving Satan in the spirit. God’s spirit won, and the rocks stayed out of the oven.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2021 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

Scripture quotations are from the World English Bible (WEB) which is in the public domain.

Chapter 94

The Star Who Fell from Heaven

If Bar Kochba was the Son of the Star, then who is the star he was son of?

Isa 14 (WEB)
12) How you have fallen from heaven, morning star, son of the dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, who laid the nations low!
13) You said in your heart, “I will ascend into heaven! I will exalt my throne above the stars of God! I will sit on the mountain of assembly, in the far north!
14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds! I will make myself like the Most High!”

‘Morning star’ is how the Hebrew word ‘heylel’ is translated in the World English Bible. Most other translations have a similar rendering. Heylel is used only that one time, in Isaiah 14. The King James translation has ‘Lucifer,’ which is Latin for ‘light bringer.’ That’s how Jerome translated ‘Heylel’ in his Latin Vulgate version of the Bible in 405, still in use today. Mickelson’s Enhanced Strong’s Dictionaries defines ‘heylel’ as “something or someone of radiant splendor.”

The morning star Heylel tried to exalt her throne to be like the Most High. That can only mean Satan.

In English, Satan is usually called “he,” but angels or God’s messengers are not he or she and it doesn’t sound quite right to call Satan “it.” In today’s world, Satan incites women to rebel against men, and even Bible translators are focused on “gender equality.” So instead of calling Satan “he,” I will call it “she.” And to further conform with feminazi protocol, I will use a hyphenated name –

Heylel-Satan.

Ezekiel wrote of the covering cherub on the holy mountain of God.

Ezek 28
12) Son of man, take up a lamentation over the king of Tyre, and tell him, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: You seal up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.
13) You were in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone adorned you: ruby, topaz, emerald, chrysolite, onyx, jasper, sapphire, turquoise, and beryl. Gold work of tambourines and of pipes was in you. In the day that you were created they were prepared.
14) You were the anointed cherub who covers: and I set you, so that you were on the holy mountain of God; you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.
15) You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, until unrighteousness was found in you.
16) By the abundance of your traffic they filled the midst of you with violence, and you have sinned: therefore I have cast you as profane out of the mountain of God; and I have destroyed you, [Lexham and New English translations say “expelled” instead of destroyed], covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
17) Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you have corrupted your wisdom by reason of your brightness: I have cast you to the ground; I have laid you before kings, that they may see you.

Yeshua saw that morning star plunge to earth – like a meteor.

Luke 10
18) He [Yeshua] said to them, “I saw Satan having fallen like lightning from heaven.

When the covering cherub was cast down to the earth, Heylel was then called Satan. Instead of light bringer, this covering cherub was now –

Enemy.

So after her rebellion in heaven, Heylel became Satan, and the light-bringer became the dark-bringer. Yeshua told Paul that Paul was going to be sent to people —

Acts 26
18) to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me.’

Paul was to turn people from the power of Satan, which is darkness. But Satan still presented herself as the light-bringer.

Observing how Satan’s followers are in this world, we may conclude that Satan thinks her way is the right way, and that her darkness really is the light.

Left wing anti-Christ Americans have empty, self-focused lives. They climb mountains and sky dive, practice yoga and vainly build up their bodies, take drugs and engorge in unbridled sex, perpetually trying to find some meaning somewhere in their lives. Yet these spiritual nomads, wandering to and fro and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, constantly tell conservative Christians how they must change their lives. Liberals believe in butchering babies and selling body parts, in using drugs for entertainment, in spreading sexual diseases and making the government pay for their treatment, in punishing police and rewarding criminals –

Yet they do not at all see themselves as depraved, demented or deceived. They see themselves as paragons of perfection, the highest peak of millions of years of evolutionary progress –

And they’re always ready to set Christians straight.

That’s how Satan’s people are. So surely Satan is the same way, thinking her way is the right way, that she is the one with the truth and that Yahweh God Almighty is judgmental, self-righteous, condemning, and a radical right-winger.

Perhaps that’s why Satan is so incredibly deceptive. She knows she’s right.

How deceptive is Satan?

Rev 12
3) Another sign was seen in heaven. Behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads seven crowns.
4) His tail drew one third of the stars of the sky, and threw them to the earth. The dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her child.
5) She gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron. Her child was caught up to God, and to his throne.

At some point, a third of the angels in heaven follows Satan against Yahweh. Or as they might see it, they follow Heylel the light-bringer against the darkness of Yahweh.

Consider that for a moment. Spirit beings who know Yahweh is their Creator, who have seen His power and limitless magnificence, instead choose to follow the rebel Heylel-Satan.

That requires some heavy duty deception!

As with Eve.

Gen 3
1) Now the serpent was more subtle than any animal of the field which Yahweh God had made. He said to the woman, “Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’”
2) The woman said to the serpent, “Of the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat,
3) but of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat of it, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
4) The serpent said to the woman, “You won’t surely die,
5) for God knows that in the day you eat it, your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

The International Standard Version translation of that familiar passage includes an interesting note.

Gen 3:1 ISV
1) Now the Shining One was more clever than any animal of the field that the Lord God had made. It asked the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You are not to eat from any tree of the garden’?”
ISV note: The Heb. word Ha-Nachash means the Shining One; or the Diviner; i.e. one who falsely claims to reveal God’s word; or the Serpent.

We also cite the Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament
Hath God indeed said, Ye shall not eat of all the trees of the garden?” כִּי אַף is an interrogative expressing surprise.

Satan’s query implies disbelief. Heylel-Satan was asking Eve, “Didn’t God lie to you?”

Satan ignored God’s personal name. She just used the common noun ‘elohim.’

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges adds –
Observe that in the serpent’s mouth the general name, “God” (Elohim), is used, and not the sacred name “Jehovah” (Lord), and that the woman replying takes up the serpent’s words.

The method which the serpent adopts is insidious. He knows the prohibition; he feigns ignorance, and asks to be instructed. The question suggests a doubt of Divine goodness. It takes the tone of indignant surprise at the injustice and harshness of a prohibition which had forbidden the man and the woman to eat of any tree of the garden. Such a suggestion, however easily refuted, might instill into the mind of the unsuspicious woman a grain of doubt, whether even any limitation was consonant with perfect justice and kindness.

The Keil & Delitzsch Commentary also discusses Heylel’s technique with Eve.
The serpent calls God by the name of Elohim alone, and the woman does the same. In this more general and indefinite name the personality of the living God is obscured. To attain his end, the tempter felt it necessary to change the living personal God into a merely general numen divinium…

Or just another one of them thar gods.

Elohim is a generic term, not exclusively used for Yahweh. Elohim is also used for “the gods of Egypt”, for idols, as in 1 Kings 11:33 for Chemosh, “the god of Moab”, and for demons, seraphim, the spirits of the dead brought up at Saul’s urging, and to human kings and prophets.

Elohim is not the specific name of the Creator, and not even equal to the English word God, since elohim is used for men and the English word isn’t. On the other hand, the personal Yahweh is in the first five of the Ten Commandments, one whole stone tablet of the two. The third Commandment specifically commands not to ignore the name Yahweh.

Satan – not surprisingly – ignored it. No surprise then that almost all of Satan’s world also follows that practice.

So Satan avoided the personal name of the Creator, instead used the common noun elohim, and then told Eve she could be elohim!

Gen 3:5 (Lexham English Bible)
5) For God [elohim] knows that on the day you both eat from it, then your eyes will be opened and you both shall be like gods [elohim], knowing good and evil.”

Hey – That’s exactly what Satan wanted!

So instead of turning away when Satan called Yahweh a liar, Eve opened a discussion with Heylel about whether or not Yahweh is a liar. Eve did not gain by that discussion. She lost Eden and her physical life. Fraternizing with Satan is fatal.

That’s one of the greatest lessons in the Bible, in the first few pages. You do not gain by fellowshipping with Yahweh’s enemies, the spiritual Canaanites.

Calling God a liar is an extreme evil. All government schools do that today. Eve should have rebuked Satan and people today should rebuke government schools.

Zech 3 WEB
1) He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the angel of Yahweh, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary.
2) Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”

That was Yahweh on earth, the messenger of Yahweh who became the Messiah, and Yahweh the Father in heaven. So Yahweh on earth said Yahweh in heaven rebuke you, Satan.

So Eve should have said something like, “You tricky snake!”

But Eve didn’t say that. She did not rebuke Satan for calling God a liar.

Again we consider this situation. Eve and Adam were personally acquainted with their Creator. Not only did they know Him – He was their Father, the One who birthed them. He had given them the incredible, astounding, humanly unrepeatable miracle of life. Yet the shiny one easily tricked them into thinking that their Father was a liar, that their Father had even lied to them, and that their Father did not love them.

Heylel-Satan had brought darkness to Eve and Adam.

Then, after Eve and Adam were kicked out of Eden, Satan went after their family.

Gen 6
[Before the Flood –]
11) The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.
12) God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.

All flesh!

Again that is astonishing. Noah’s father Lamech overlapped Adam by a half century, and Lamech died only two years before the Flood. So some people who died in the Flood probably knew Adam! They could have personally asked him:

“Adam, what was it like when you first opened your eyes?”

“Adam, what did you think when you first saw Eve?”

“Adam, how did that shiny serpent sucker you in?”

So basically all the people who died in the Flood could have known, or known of someone who knew Adam. In spite of that first or second hand testimony about creation, everyone on earth at that time was deceived by Heylel-Satan, except for one family.

Absolutely astounding!

The same thing happened after the Flood. The tower of Babel, as commonly calculated, was only about a century after the Flood. With life spans at that time still long, everyone knew about the great Flood. Yet the general population decided to build a tower, specifically to disobey Yahweh’s command to spread out over the earth.

And by Abram’s time?

Well, righteous Abram lived in a city, Ur that was devoted to a moon goddess.

Even Abram’s family apparently were moonstruck.

Josh 24
2) Joshua said to all the people, “Thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, ‘Your fathers lived of old time beyond the River, even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nahor: and they served other gods.

Wow! The sneaky snake had snuck in again.

And again, and again, and again.

Rev 12
9) The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him.

How deceitful is she, Satan?

Even after being bound for a thousand years, which is a millennium of peace and prosperity, when Heylel-Satan is released for a time, the same thing happens –

Again!

Rev 20
7) And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison,
8) and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.

Again.

Heylel-Satan’s power to deceive may only be exceeded by Yahweh’s power to enlighten.

So who does Heylel-Satan try to deceive?

Just the whole world.

Do you live in the world?

The light bringer who brings darkness deceives by making bad look good, by making evil enticing, and by making disobedience to God seem better than obedience. She still looks like a light bringer.

2Cor 11
14) And no wonder, for even Satan masquerades as an angel of light.

Now we come to today’s world and what do we see?

These are some of Heylel-Satan’s deceptions in the world today.

Whole World Deceptions

1. All life began by evolution. No one has ever seen life come from nothing alive, no one has ever made life from nothing alive, yet most of the world believes that life came from nothing alive.

2. The human family has more than two genders, male, female, and one hundred more, according to current thinking.

3. Butchering her baby is a woman’s right to choose.

4. The world faces an existential crisis that threatens to erase human life from the planet. Christ warned that the real threat is human violence that “no flesh be saved.” But the elites of the world say that the existential threat to extinguish all life is “global warming.”

Christian Deceptions

5. The personal name of God is in the first five of the Ten Commandments, yet almost everyone in the world thinks it’s wrong to call Yahweh by that name.

6. The day of the sun, an inanimate orb, has replaced the weekly Sabbath, the perpetual memorial day of the Creator Yahweh.

7. The drunken winter festival has replaced God’s Feast of Succoth, the spring observance of Ishtar has replaced Passover, and all Christian holy days are old Roman holidays.

8. Satan broke the Ten Commandments, Christ obeyed them, yet Christians believe that you have to break the Ten Commandments to be saved, and that if you obey what the Ten Commandments actually say, you’re trying to earn your salvation.

9. When the Bible says that women are to be silent in the assemblies and are not to teach men, those was just cultural mores.

10. The sin of Sodom was that the men of Sodom were just unfriendly to strangers.

American National Deceptions

11. People are murdered by violent guns, not violent people.

12. If white people don’t do anything racist, then they still have systemic racism because they’re white.

13. Government schools that teach that God does not exist do not teach religion.

14. Marriage is not from God, any two people can marry, and a family is any who happen to get together, including dogs.

That’s how Heylel-Satan has deceived today’s world –

So far.

Satan deceived Eve, the pre-Flood world, the post-Flood world, a third of the angels, today’s world, the Christian religion, and modern America.

In these end times, in the face of this incredibly deceptive power of Heylel-Satan, how will she try to deceive you?