The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2022 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 107

Forgiving Sin is not Approving Sin

“Seventy times seven…”

Many people have heard that phrase, from this passage.

Matt 18
21) Then Peter came and said to him, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me, and I forgive him? Until seven times?”
22) Yeshua said to him, “I don’t tell you until seven times, but, until seventy times seven.

Based on that, many people think Christ instructed His followers to accept and approve a sinner’s sins. A thief can continue to steal, an adulterer can continue to adulterize, a killer can continue to kill and a Christian must forgive all those sins without mentioning repentance. God loves the sinner so you’re supposed to forgive him while he keeps sinning. That’s how you show love to a sinner, it is thought.

This general approach of no repentance and change shapes the policies of the Democrats’ cities. When a cop shoots a criminal, it’s the cop’s fault. When a criminal shoots a cop, it’s the gun’s fault. Their solution to crime is not to stop the criminal behavior but just to get rid of the police.

That thinking is similar to forgiving sinners while they continue to sin.

This is particularly relevant today, when society is full of the worst sins of humankind, yet the “liberals” demand that “alternative lifestyles” be accepted. This is the same as saying that if you get rid of the police, there are no crimes. This trend is seen in the nation and the world, and also in most churches.

Again people think that because Christ said to forgive seventy times seven, a Christian must accept and approve unrepentant sins. If Christ expected others to accept and approve sin, then surely He would also expect Himself to forgive, accept and approve unrepented sin.

Matt 11
20) Then he began to denounce the cities in which most of his mighty works had been done, because they didn’t repent.
21) “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
22) But I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon on the day of judgment than for you.
23) You, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, you will go down to Hades. For if the mighty works had been done in Sodom which were done in you, it would have remained until this day.
24) But I tell you that it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom, on the day of judgment, than for you.”

Capernaum and Sodom did not repent. They didn’t stop sinning. They are not forgiven and will face judgment.

Christ sent His disciples out to preach that people should repent. Those who refused to repent were to receive worse judgment than Sodom.

Mark 6
7) He called to himself the twelve, and began to send them out two by two; and he gave them authority over the unclean spirits.
8) He commanded them that they should take nothing for their journey, except a staff only: no bread, no wallet, no money in their purse,
9) but to wear sandals, and not put on two tunics.
10) He said to them, “Wherever you enter into a house, stay there until you depart from there.
11) Whoever will not receive you nor hear you, as you depart from there, shake off the dust that is under your feet for a testimony against them. Assuredly, I tell you, it will be more tolerable for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!”
12) They went out and preached that people should repent.

Christ’s whole message was based on repentance.

Matt 4
17) From that time, Yeshua began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Peter’s first message to the first flock was to repent.

Acts 2
38) Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Yeshua Christ for the forgiveness of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

Paul’s message in Athens, the paragon of paganism, was to repent.

Acts 17
30) The times of ignorance therefore God overlooked. But now he commands that all people everywhere should repent,
31) because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”

God commands all people everywhere to repent. Those who do repent under the blood of Christ will be forgiven. Those who do not repent will be judged for that.

So when Yeshua told Peter to forgive seventy times seven times, He was not telling him to approve the practice of sinning. In Luke, Yeshua reaffirmed what He had said to Peter but with further instruction.

Luke 17
3) Be careful. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him.
4) If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

So instead of approving sin, Christ told His disciples to rebuke the sinner. Then if the sinner repents – that is, if he stops practicing sin – we are commanded to forgive him.

Yeshua also gave an example of repenting and then forgiving.

Matt 18
15) “If your brother sins against you, go, show him his fault between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained back your brother.
16) But if he doesn’t listen, take one or two more with you, that at the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established.
17) If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the assembly. If he refuses to hear the assembly also, let him be to you as a Gentile or a tax collector.

A sinning brother without repentance is not to be forgiven but is to be treated like a lowly IRS agent.

Forgiving a sin does not mean approving sin. Forgiving a sin itself implies that the sin is wrong. Otherwise it wouldn’t need forgiving. The sin is forgiven when stopped.

That’s the way it was with the step-mother lover in Corinth. Paul and the assembly did not forgive, accept or approve the sinner while he continued sinning. Once he stopped the sin, then he was forgiven and accepted.

Forgiving sin without repentance of sin is approving the sin. To approve sin is to disapprove of God, who condemns sin.

Again the message of the world, the message of Satan’s mind, is to approve and accept all sins. They’re not even called sins by them.

As an example, let’s say we are close to someone who is practicing terrible sin, perhaps adultery as the Corinthian step-mother lover was. Fornication and adultery are so common today that it’s the rare person who does not encounter it among family, friends and churches. We have the choice of letting the person know that is wrong, or just going on like normal and act as if nothing is wrong. If that’s what you do, that’s approving adultery.

The thinking is that God loves everyone, so I just need to love him, too, and accept whatever he does. So the adultery is accepted, the adulterer is approved, and everything is hunky dory. Nobody gets bent out of shape.

This happens in church congregations all the time. In any one small congregation it may only happen once every so many years, but in all congregations as a whole, it happens continuously. As in the Corinth congregation, this whole process is viewed as good. Forgiving and approving the adultery is seen as an expression of God’s love. Therefore the sin, the adultery, leads to goodness – the goodness of God forgiving the adultery.

In Protestant theology, this is called grace.

Paul called it baloney.

Rom 3
5) But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath? I speak like men do.
6) May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?
7) For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?
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.

Let’s examine that verse by verse.

5) But if our unrighteousness commends the righteousness of God, what will we say? Is God unrighteous who inflicts wrath?
That is, if our sin leads to God’s goodness when He forgives our sin, is God then wrong to punish us for sin, because after all, our sin did lead to goodness?

5) I speak like men do.

In other words, that’s the way people think.

6) May it never be! For then how will God judge the world?

7) For if the truth of God through my lie abounded to his glory, why am I also still judged as a sinner?

If sin leads to good, then God can’t judge people for being sinners. So sin doesn’t really lead to good. Sin leads to suffering and death.

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.

Some said that Paul taught that sinning is good, because sin leads to God’s grace. Anyone who says that is justly condemned, either then or now.

What Paul discussed there is the same general principle as people today accepting and approving sin, thinking they’re showing God’s love for the sinner, by accepting his sins.

Forgiving sin is not approving and accepting sin. Forgiving sin is to forget a sin that has been repented and replaced with upright conduct. That’s what Paul and the Corinth assembly ultimately did with the step-mother lover. His sin was not approved, he was not accepted, but was turned out. When he stopped sinning, they all forgave him and accepted him. But not until then.

As happened in Corinth at first, the sin of adultery is often condoned and forgiven while still going on. On the other hand –

Repented adultery, adultery that is stopped, is one of the hardest sins to forgive. From personal observations through the decades, I have seen this among acquaintances a number of times. When a spouse goes off the rails of sanity and sanctity and plunges into adultery, the shafted spouse is devastated.

Cut to the quick.

Once I drove to a local riverside spot to sit and read. Usually no one would be at that spot, but that day another man was there. I did not approach him because I wanted to read. It was summer, though, my van window was down so he came over to me. He had been divorced, I don’t know how long ago, and proceeded to tell me, a perfect stranger or even worse, an imperfect stranger, all about the woman who had wronged him by leaving him.

And he couldn’t stop telling me.

Over and over he kept telling me how the woman had wronged him, and that told me he was really, really hurt. He couldn’t let it go.

I personally have known four people who, after being shafted by their mates, soon came down with cancer. They were not old people at all, just hurt people. Three of them died young.

Here is an ignored truth: often people who make a huge mistake come to realize it.

For example, a survey showed that most people who get a divorce regret it five years later.

“Rats! Wish I hadn’t done that!”

I have repeatedly seen people who badly jumped the tracks, later, want to get back on. Then, as Christ said – seventy times seven! – the shafted spouse must forgive the repentant mate, who stopped adulterizing and wants to come back home.

That’s what Christ was talking about when He said to forgive seventy times seven. “If your brother sins against you, rebuke him. If he repents, forgive him. If he sins against you seven times in the day, and seven times returns, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”

In my personal experience, however, it is the rare spouse who can do that with a repented, adulterous mate. Those who have not forgiven are supported by their church theology, which seldom allows forgiveness for a repentant fallen mate.

So we have the situation in today’s twisted world where repentant adulterous mates are not forgiven, and unrepentant adulterers are. Neither of these shows God’s love.

Christ came to call sinners to repentance. “…I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance,” He said, (Mark 2:17). Most sinners in Christ’s time did not like being told to repent, any more than they like it today. Repentant people are glad they were told to repent. Unrepentant sinners hate it.

And they hate those who tell them to repent.

Matt 10
21) “Brother will deliver up brother to death, and the father his child. Children will rise up against parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22) You will be hated by all men for my name’s sake, but he who endures to the end will be saved.

34) “Don’t think that I came to send peace on the earth. I didn’t come to send peace, but a sword.
35) For I came to set a man at odds against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law.
36) A man’s foes will be those of his own household.
37) He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me isn’t worthy of me.
38) He who doesn’t take his cross and follow after me, isn’t worthy of me.
39) He who seeks his life will lose it; and he who loses his life for my sake will find it.

How is a Christianos at odds with his father or a daughter against her mother? How does that happen?

It only happens because of somebody standing against sin, among people closest to us – unrepentant, destructive sinning, that the Christianos will never accept and approve.

“This is the way I am and you have to accept it,” the Democrats scream over and over. “I’ll do whatever I want and you have to approve it.”

And a New York Times editorial preached that Christians have to change their beliefs, to accept homosexuality. You have to accept and approve sin, the liberal illegalists preach.

This view will prevail, because that’s the easy way out. Sins will be “forgiven,” accepted and approved. Almost all churches will be full of this, accepting and approving the worst sins named in the Bible. And the religious liberals say this is “loving the sinner.”

And those who dissent from the consensus are called haters, but they are actually the hated.

John 15
18) If the world hates you, you know that it has hated me before it hated you.
19) If you were of the world, the world would love its own. But because you are not of the world, since I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
20) Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his lord.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you….

The world hated Yeshua because He told them to repent. The world hates anyone who tells them to repent. The very last thing an unrepentant person wants is to be told to repent. Yet, the one thing an unrepentant person needs most is to be told to repent.

And perhaps the one thing that Christians hate to do most is to tell sinners to repent. A well-known country singer lost the other half of his duet. His young wife died. They were Christians, of whatever variety. Then his daughter became a lesbian. He knew that was wrong, but he would not stand against her sin because, he said, “She’s my daughter.”

The message of repentance is hard to give.

Compare the two approaches.

1. Christians give their message of fake love, which is “You don’t need to repent – God loves you and forgives all sins. I love you and I accept and approve all your sins, no matter what you do.”

This will bring praise and warmth to the sin acceptor.

2. The Christian lets the sinner know that his sin puts him in danger of eternal judgment by Christ Himself. God does not forgive unrepented sin. Repent and be renewed.

Then what happens? Most of the time the Christian who gave the warning will be despised.

But look what happened to Paul –

or rather, Saul the slaughterer.

Acts 7
58) They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.

Acts 8
1) Saul was consenting to his death. A great persecution arose against the assembly which was in Jerusalem in that day. They were all scattered abroad throughout the regions of Judea and Samaria, except for the apostles.
2) Devout men buried Stephen, and lamented greatly over him.
3) But Saul ravaged the assembly, entering into every house, and dragged both men and women off to prison.

Acts 9
1) But Saul, still breathing threats and slaughter against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest,
2) and asked for letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.
3) As he traveled, it happened that he got close to Damascus, and suddenly a light from the sky shone around him.
4) He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
5) He said, “Who are you, Lord?” The Lord said, “I am Yeshua, whom you are persecuting.
6) But rise up, and enter into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

Acts 9
11) The Lord said to him, “Arise, and go to the street which is called Straight, and inquire in the house of Judah for one named Saul, a man of Tarsus. For behold, he is praying,
12) and in a vision he has seen a man named Ananias coming in, and laying his hands on him, that he might receive his sight.”
13) But Ananias answered, “Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much evil he did to your saints at Jerusalem.
14) Here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on your name.”
15) But the Lord said to him, “Go your way, for he is my chosen vessel to bear my name before the nations and kings, and the children of Israel.
16) For I will show him how many things he must suffer for my name’s sake.”
17) Ananias departed, and entered into the house. Laying his hands on him, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord, who appeared to you on the road by which you came, has sent me, that you may receive your sight, and be filled with the Holy Spirit.”
18) Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he received his sight. He arose and was baptized.
19) He took food and was strengthened. Saul stayed several days with the disciples who were at Damascus. [Those are the ones he came to slaughter!]
20) Immediately in the synagogues he proclaimed the Christ, that he is the Son of God.

Paul was rebuked by Christ Himself. Saul the slaughterer repented and became Paul the preacher.

And when you see sin in someone close to you, you must give him the chance to repent, to be like Paul, the slaughterer turned preacher.

All around us we hear the message that love approves and accepts sin and the sinner. In reality, to refuse to point to repentance is to deny the sinner the chance to repent, the chance to change his life, and the chance for life. The Christianos duty is to follow their Master’s example as He did with Paul, and as Paul did with the step-mother lover. Point to repentance and renewal, no matter how hard it may seem.

Chapter 106

End Time Religion:

Fake Love

Back home from college for a family visit, I told my high school best friend about my great interest in Margie Brown. Then he asked, “But how do you know you love her?”

I hadn’t thought about that. It seemed like a Hollywood test question, like from a movie. How do I know that I love her?

After some consideration I concluded –

I could spend my life with Margie, or without her. Those were the only two options.

Spending my life without her?

Well, I couldn’t stand that idea. I spent all the spare time with her that I could, and when I was not with her I was thinking about her. So what I most wanted to do was to spend my whole life with her. That was the only good option.

I reckoned I loved her.

The following decades have proven that to be mutual true love. Hollywood love as portrayed in movies is feel-good fake love, more for show than go. The world today is full of fake love.

The Corinth assembly was the epitome of fake love. They were tolerant, inclusive – and hard hearted. Christian congregations can learn much from them, about what real love is.

1Cor 5
1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2) You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3) For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4) In the name of our Lord Yeshua Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshua Christ,
5) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.
6) Your boasting is not good. Don’t you know that a little yeast leavens the whole lump?

In Corinth, a man was adulterizing with his father’s wife. His step-mother.

As you might expect, God forbids lying with your stepmother.

Lev 18
8) “‘You shall not uncover the nakedness of your father’s wife: it is your father’s nakedness.

Deut 22
30) A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s skirt.

This sin was so perverse that even the Gentiles considered it –

Perverse.

“The ancient Roman writer and statesman Cicero said this type of incest was an incredible crime and practically unheard of…” Guzik’s Commentary, 1 Cor 5:1.

Step-mother adultery was a sin that even Gentiles wouldn’t tolerate. So if God doesn’t tolerate that sin, and if the Gentiles wouldn’t tolerate it, then who would tolerate it?

The Corinthian Christians.

To corinthianize is, from Collins English Dictionary, “to live a promiscuous life.” In other words, to corinthianize is to live like somebody from Corinth.

[I]ts reputation for moral corruption made the “Corinthian life” synonymous with luxury and licentiousness, its pretensions to philosophy and literary culture made the phrase “Corinthian words” a token of polished and cultivated speech;
https://zondervanacademic.com/blog/what-was-the-city-and-church-of-corinth-like-an-excerpt-from-ralph-martins-2-corinthians-wbc

“Corinthian words” meant sophisticated speaking and “Corinthian life” meant back alley morals. So while the Corinthian congregation allowed penultimate perversity, they made it sound real good.

Much as mainline churches do today – sophisticated sinning. They approve sin with eloquent words of “wokeness”.

Amazingly, it seems there was nobody in the Corinth congregation who condemned the sin. Apparently, they all approved what was going on. Not only did they approve the sin, they boasted about approving it.

How could they boast about that? What was their thinking?

Surely they bragged about how accepting and loving they were!

Just like liberals do today. Will wonders never cease?

You see, even though that was nearly two thousand years ago in Greece, human nature is still the same; and God’s Commandments are still the same. So all through time, when people disobey those Commandments, they try to make themselves feel good about it.

As Corinth did – “you are inflated with pride…Your boasting is not good,” Lexham English Bible, 1 Cor 5:2, 6.

How about today’s churches? How about Joe and Nancy?

Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi regularly take communion in their Roman Catholic Churches. Yet every day of their lives they stand for abortion, for sexual perversity and against marriage. They totally contradict their church. So why are they allowed to take part in what is considered the most holy part of the RCC service?

Because of the old Corinthian Christian attitude.

How about that? The Church of Rome is actually from Corinth.

No matter how evil Joe and Nancy are, the Roman church allows them to be a central part of their church. Why do they do that? Because they “love” Joe and Nancy. Just as the Corinth Christians loved the guy that Paul said to send to Satan.

Don’t most Protestant churches today do the same thing? Don’t almost all churches have people in their congregations who believe that to love someone you must approve their sins? That God is approachable, not reproaching; inclusive, not excluding anyone; and all loving, but never correcting.

The tolerance, diversity and inclusive movement in the western world today is just a natural extension of the modern Christian approach to God. That approach says God is love, and to refuse to accept a sinning sinner is to hate him. If you don’t approve a sinner’s sins, you’re a hater. Haven’t you talked with Christians who argue that people who live perverse lives were “just born that way?”

Congregations and individuals who oppose opposing sin consider themselves to be paragons of love. And in a way they are paragons of love –

Self-love.

As in Corinth, they puff themselves up by their love-without-limit posturing. Plus by not opposing sin, and this is a big point, they do not put their social standing at risk.

Amos 5
10) They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks blamelessly.

Lot was abhorred when he told the people of Sodom not “to act so wickedly”.

Gen 19
9) They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow [Lot] came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!” They pressed hard on the man Lot, and drew near to break the door.

To the liberals, in Sodom, Lot was judgmental. Almost everybody unfriended him on Facebook.

The same will happen to any Christian who tells a sinner to repent and be renewed. And any congregation that follows Paul’s example with the step-mother lover will be vilified as unloving, judgmental and unchristian. Those who tolerate sin, as Corinth did, are considered the real Christians. Those who call for repentance are called haters.

Tolerating sin causes sin, whether in a congregation, in a person, or in yourself. As Paul wrote to Corinth, “a little leaven leavens the whole lump”. If they allow sin in their midst, their midst will begin sinning. Any sin they approve in others, they will approve in themselves.

That’s the reason Yahweh forbid Israel from mixing with the Canaanites.

Judg 2
1) The angel of Yahweh came up from Gilgal to Bochim. He said, “I made you to go up out of Egypt, and have brought you to the land which I swore to your fathers; and I said, ‘I will never break my covenant with you:
2) and you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you shall break down their altars.’ But you have not listened to my voice: why have you done this?
3) Therefore I also said, I will not drive them out from before you; but they shall be in your sides, and their gods shall be a snare to you.”

That was the angel of Yahweh who said that, the one who became the Messiah. He said the Canaanites Israel left in their midst would be a snare to them.

Indeed, Israel was snared by the evil in their midst.

Judg 2
11) The children of Israel did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and served the Baals;
12) and they forsook Yahweh, the God of their fathers, who brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the peoples who were around them, and bowed themselves down to them: and they provoked Yahweh to anger.
13) They forsook Yahweh, and served Baal and the Ashtaroth.

Wise Solomon was snared by tolerating evil in the wives he chose to marry.

1Kgs 11
1) Now king Solomon loved many foreign women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, and Hittites;
2) of the nations concerning which Yahweh said to the children of Israel, “You shall not go among them, neither shall they come among you; for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.” Solomon joined to these in love.
3) He had seven hundred wives, princesses, and three hundred concubines; and his wives turned away his heart.
4) For it happened, when Solomon was old, that his wives turned away his heart after other gods; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as was the heart of David his father.
5) For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom the abomination of the Ammonites.
6) Solomon did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh, and didn’t go fully after Yahweh, as did David his father.
7) Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, on the mountain that is before Jerusalem, and for Molech the abomination of the children of Ammon.
8) So he did for all his foreign wives, who burnt incense and sacrificed to their gods.

Apparently it took a while for Solomon to be snared, because it didn’t happen until he was old. But after so many years of tolerating evil in his heart, his heart became evil. Tolerating sin caused sin, not just in the tolerated – his pagan wives – but also in the tolerator – Solomon himself.

A Christian is not to marry an unbeliever.

2Cor 6
14) Don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers, for what fellowship have righteousness and iniquity? Or what fellowship has light with darkness?
15) What agreement has Christ with Belial? Or what portion has a believer with an unbeliever?
16) What agreement has a temple of God with idols? For you are a temple of the living God. Even as God said, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they will be my people.”
17) Therefore, “‘Come out from among them, and be separate,’ says the Lord. ‘Touch no unclean thing. I will receive you.

A Christian is not to marry an unbeliever, to be snared in the unbeliever’s sin. Again, when you approve sin in others, you will accept it in yourself.

Right after Paul told Corinth to “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves,” in 1 Cor. 5:13, he strongly warned the whole congregation against sexual sins.

1Cor 6:15-18 (ISV)
15) You know that your bodies belong to the Messiah, don’t you? Should I take what belongs to the Messiah and unite them with a prostitute? Certainly not!
16) You know that the person who unites himself with a prostitute becomes one body with her, don’t you? For it is said, “The two will become one flesh.”
17) But the person who unites himself with the Lord becomes one spirit with him.
18) Keep on running away from sexual immorality. Any other sin that a person commits is outside his body, but the person who sins sexually sins against his own body.

Paul told the Corinthian Christians themselves to flee sexual immorality. He wasn’t talking to the step-mother lover, because that guy was not going to be part of the group. Paul told the whole assembly not to get involved with prostitutes.

Why?

Tolerance of sin causes sin. From what Paul wrote, those inclusive tolerators in Corinth may have been involved in a little hanky-panky themselves.

That makes sense. If they were so tolerant of the step-mother lover, wouldn’t they be tolerant with themselves?

Tolerance of evil is the opposite of hating evil. The Bible tells us to hate evil.

Ps 97
10) You who love Yahweh, hate evil. He preserves the souls of his saints. He delivers them out of the hand of the wicked.

Prov 8
13) The fear of Yahweh is to hate evil. I hate pride, arrogance, the evil way, and the perverse mouth.

Amos 5
15) Hate evil, love good, and establish justice in the courts…

God commands us to hate evil. King Jehoshaphat of Judah tolerated the evil that Ahab did.

Ahab was a Baal worshiper.

1Kgs 16
30) Ahab the son of Omri did that which was evil in the sight of Yahweh above all that were before him.
31) It happened, as if it had been a light thing for him to walk in the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, that he took as wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshiped him.
32) He reared up an altar for Baal in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria.
33) Ahab made the Asherah; and Ahab did yet more to provoke Yahweh, the God of Israel, to anger than all the kings of Israel who were before him.

That was bad because Israel did not have any good kings before Ahab.

Jehoshaphat was the opposite of Ahab, a Yahweh fearing king who taught Judah to obey God. The good kings of Judah all had shortcomings. David fell short when he stole Bathsheba and killed Uriah. Uzziah wanted to take over the priesthood. Hezekiah lifted himself up before the Babylonians. What was Jehoshaphat’s big fault?

He was tolerant and inclusive.

The Bible simply says –

2Chr 18
1) Now Jehoshaphat had riches and honor in abundance; and he joined affinity with Ahab.

Jehoshaphat was good buddies with Ahab. A God lover was good buddies with a God hater.

Jehoshaphat helped Ahab in a battle. Ahab, loving pagan that he was, set Jehoshaphat up to be killed, but he himself was killed. After that the Bible says –

2Chr 19
1) Jehoshaphat the king of Judah returned to his house in peace to Jerusalem.
2) Jehu the son of Hanani the seer went out to meet him, and said to king Jehoshaphat, “Should you help the wicked, and love those who hate Yahweh? Because of this, wrath is on you from before Yahweh.

Should you help the wicked?

Helping the wicked sin brings God’s wrath on you. Approving a sinner’s sin is helping him sin, but is hurting him.

Ahab was not rebuked by Jehoshaphat, and Ahab died. The Corinthian step-mother lover was rebuked and he repented, as Paul wrote later. Now which of those, Jehoshaphat or Paul, was showing love to the sinner?

The great problem with tolerating sin is that the unrepentant sinner pays the ultimate price.

1Cor 6
9) Or don’t you know that the unrighteous will not inherit the Kingdom of God? Don’t be deceived. Neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor male prostitutes, nor homosexuals,
10) nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God.

That list of people who will not be allowed into the Kingdom of God is a list of “Progressive” causes! Sexually immoral? Adulterers? With sexual freedom, there is no such thing. Homosexuals? That word itself is a modern creation to equate them with heterosexuals. Thieves? Progressives believe that crime is caused by the police. Drunkards? Alcohol addiction is a disease, not a sin.

“Progressives” tolerate all those people, but all those people will not be tolerated in the Kingdom of God. Those who don’t repent of sin will have to pay for it.

The Corinth group had the same attitude as today’s diversity and inclusion movement – that to love someone is to approve what he does, whatever it is. This attitude now infects most churches, to a more or less degree. To kick Joe and Nancy out of the congregation is not loving them, they think. How can the church love them if they’re not in their congregation?

In sum, to love a sinner, you must approve his sin. That is lawless love. It does not show love to God and it does not show love to the sinner.

Actually, that’s not love at all. That is hate.

Notice these details that Yahweh gave Israel about how to love a brother.

Lev 19
9) “‘When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest.
10) You shall not glean your vineyard, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am Yahweh your God.
11) “‘You shall not steal. “‘You shall not lie. “‘You shall not deceive one another.
12) “‘You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.
13) “‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.
14) “‘You shall not curse the deaf, nor put a stumbling block before the blind; but you shall fear your God. I am Yahweh.
15) “‘You shall do no injustice in judgment: you shall not be partial to the poor, nor show favoritism to the great; but you shall judge your neighbor in righteousness.
16) “‘You shall not go up and down as a slanderer among your people. “‘You shall not endanger the life of your neighbor. I am Yahweh.

All those are detailed commands of kindness. Leave some of your harvest in your field, for people like Ruth. Don’t rob your neighbor, even if you can. Don’t curse the deaf and for goodness sake, don’t trip the blind.

And then, in the next verse, what else is included in these commands of kindness?

17) “‘You shall not hate your brother in your heart. You shall surely rebuke your neighbor, and not bear sin because of him.

Tolerance of sin is “loving” your brother to death. Rebuking sin is loving your neighbor as yourself, as the next verse concludes.

18) “‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

Repeat – Rebuking a sinner is loving your neighbor as yourself. Accepting and approving someone’s sin, whoever it is, is hating your brother.

Rebuking is a strong word. What does it mean? It simply means to tell the sinner to stop sinning. Christ spent three and a half years doing that, giving examples of how to do it. Paul showed us how a congregation should do it, in his letter to Corinth when he commanded them that they –

1Cor 5
5) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

And if there were any other adulterers in the Corinth group, or any who still followed pagan worship practices, or any alcoholics, or any extortioners (probably usury) –

They weren’t even to eat with such a person.

1Cor 5
11) But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don’t even eat with such a person.

One of the great Christian responsibilities for assemblies and individual Christians is to warn the wicked. Point out sin. Tell the sinner to stop sinning.

An elder is to reprove and rebuke.

2Tim 4
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

Any congregation that does not do that, any congregation whose elders do not do that, either is not or will not be the flock of Christ.

Ezekiel was twice warned about warning the wicked, in Ezekiel 3 and 33.

Ezek 33
8) When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don’t speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand.
9) Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn’t turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.
10) You, son of man, tell the house of Israel: Thus you speak, saying, Our transgressions and our sins are on us, and we pine away in them; how then can we live?
11) Tell them, As I live, says the Lord Yahweh, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn, turn from your evil ways; for why will you die, house of Israel?

Why warn the wicked? To get the wicked to “turn from his way and live.”

Fake love is approving a brother’s sin. That’s what Satan wants. That is the way of death.

God’s love is rebuking a brother’s sin, to point him to repentance. That is God’s way. That is the way of life.

Tolerant people, those who make such a show of showing love, don’t really care if a person repents or not. That is the bottom line. For all they care, the sinner can go to Gehinner.

Sin tolerators are far more concerned with their social standing that with the sinner’s ultimate fate.

In the chapter on Ananias and Sapphira, we asked how many churches think that God did the right thing with those two sinners?

In the same way, how many of today’s churches would do what Paul did with the Corinthians? Will they turn flagrant sinners over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh and saving of the spirit? Or will they just tell them to take a seat right next to Joe and Nancy?

The common refrain today, when faced with ungodly sin in arrogant, unrepentant, progressive sinners is –

We’re all sinners. So since we’re all sinners anyway, what they’re doing is acceptable. If you haven’t heard that, you will.

Repeat – any congregation that does not rebuke sin – which is breaking the Ten Commandments – either is not or will not be the flock of Christ.

The tolerance, diversity and inclusive movement is straight from the mind of Satan, it is sweeping the modern world, and the result as shown in modern America is unfettered sin. America’s churches are filling up with Joes and Nancys.

End time religion prides itself on love – fake love, self-love, lawless love. To ignore an unrepentant sinner sinning himself to death is not love. Even at cost to yourself, as when Lot was abhorred, love must rebuke.

Think of it this way. When someone is in a house fire, should you tell him what a good guy he is, or should you tell him to run out of the house?

Rom 12
9) Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

That’s very clear. Love that does not abhor evil is hypocrisy. It’s actually hating your brother in your heart.

The Corinth assembly was the epitome of fake love. They were tolerant and inclusive – and hard hearted. Christian congregations can learn much from them, about what real love is. One of the major campaigns of the elitists today is “tolerance and diversity”. This is just Satan’s end time campaign to get the world to accept, approve and practice the breaking of God’s Commandments. Expect it all around you, and reject it.

Worldly love does not hate evil.

The love of the world is to love evil.

Worldly love is Commandment breaking.

To love God is to hate evil.

The love of God is obeying His Commandments.

The love of God seeks repentance and life.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2022 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 105

End Time Religion –
God’s Love versus Satan’s Love

Did God make a mistake with Ananias and Sapphira?

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.

What about that?

Ananias and Sapphira sold some land. Let’s say that it sold for a hundred gold coins. They then gave fifty gold pieces to the flock, for food and sustenance.

That was a sizable donation, half the price of the land. Surely that was more than most people have ever given to support a Christian cause. But they did not donate all of the money they received, while pretending they did.

They didn’t ask for their donation money back. They just lied about how much they had and how much they gave.

So in spite of their large gift, these were the last words that Ananias would hear –

“You haven’t lied to men, but to God.”

CLICK.

Three hours passed. During that three hours, Sapphira had time to think about what they were doing, and what she would do. She did not have to do what her husband did, even if he ordered her to. Everyone’s first obedience is always to God.

But she came in, blissfully unaware that she was now a widow. She willingly went along with Ananias’ evil.

Suddenly her ears heard this: “the feet of those who have buried your husband are at the door, and they will carry you out.” Then there were footsteps. Then –

CLICK.

Did God make a mistake there? Was that wrong? Was just telling a lie a capital offense? Did God’s punishment fit the crime? I mean, after all they did give a bunch of money for the cause. Shouldn’t that count for something?

If someone did that same deed with a local church, what would the church do? If a person said he had won a lottery of fifty thousand dollars and he was giving it all to his church, and they discovered he actually won a hundred thousand dollars, what would a church do?

Of course, they wouldn’t execute him. Even the Roman Church doesn’t do that, at least not any more. But wouldn’t a church say to that person, “Because you lied to God about your gift, take all your money and go with the devil?” Would they say that?

Now that’s a far weaker punishment that Ananias and Sapphira got, but do you think a church would tell them to take all their money and be gone?

Probably not.

What would a church do?

“Well, you have done a wonderful deed in donating to the church. We must reprimand you for telling a white lie, but it was just a little bitty white lie so we will surely forgive you for that. After all, the good you have done with your donation far outweighs the little evil that crept in.”

Isn’t that pretty much what most churches would do? And maybe all?

In other words, wouldn’t most Christians kinda think God made a mistake in the way He dealt with Ananias and Sapphira?

God is love.

1John 4:7-8 (WEB)
7) Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God, and knows God.
8) He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

So since God is love, what God did with those two liars was an expression of love – God’s love.

People think that God thinks like them. They think that God’s love must match what they think.

Scientists think that God does not exist because they can’t see Him, they can’t hear Him, and they can’t measure Him. And that is the most egocentric thinking possible, because they’re assuming that they can see, hear and measure everything that exists. They think there is nothing that they can’t perceive.

They do not allow for the possibility that their thinking and their senses and their abilities might be limited. I mean, if God is God, He will not be limited by human limitations. Why? Because He ain’t human. Therefore God is not subject to human measurements.

In the same way, people’s ideas of what love is should not be expected to match what God’s love is. People are just people. They fuss, fight, divorce, and war, so it is not be to expected that they would have an understanding of love, as understood by God.

Read again what John said in that passage –

1John 4
8) He who doesn’t love doesn’t know God, for God is love.

To the degree that we don’t know God, we don’t know what love is. So when He booted Ananias and Sapphira to boot hill, we’re not real sure about that.

The two great commandments are love of God and love of neighbor.

Matt 22
36) “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?”
37) Yeshua said to him, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’
38) This is the first and great commandment.
39) A second likewise is this, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’
40) The whole law and the prophets depend on these two commandments.”

That is from the World English Bible. The King James says in verse 40, “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

That Greek word for hang is used in –

Acts 10:39 (KJV)
39) And we are witnesses of all things which he did both in the land of the Jews, and in Jerusalem; whom they slew and hanged on a tree: [referring to Christ.]

Acts 28:3-4 (KJV)
3) And when Paul had gathered a bundle of sticks, and laid them on the fire, there came a viper out of the heat, and fastened on his hand.
4) And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand…

“Hanged on a tree” and “hang on his hand” is the same word used in “On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

So you have the two great commandments up above, and then hanging down from them are the Commandments. The Ten Commandments hang down from the two great commandments. Hanging from the first great commandment to love God are the first five of the Ten Commandments, telling how to do that. Hanging from the second great commandment are the last five of the Ten Commandments, telling how to love your neighbor.

So the love of God is obeying the first five Commandments. You honor His being, His form, His name, His Sabbath, and the people He put in charge of teaching you about Him, your parents.

Conclusion? You love God by obeying His Commandments. You never love God by breaking His Commandments. Again you honor His being, His form, His name, His Sabbath and your parents.

1John 5:3
3) For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments. His commandments are not grievous.

His Commandments don’t cause you grief. Breaking His Commandments is what causes grief.

John 15:9-10 (WEB)
9) Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love.
10) If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and remain in his love.

This is an absolute ironclad principle. You love God by obeying the Commandments that He spoke, and wrote, and keeps by His side in the Ark of the Covenant at His throne in heaven. Saying that you love God without obeying His Commandments is a lie from Satan. From what happened with Ananias and Sapphira, we know what God thinks of liars. He even has a Commandment about that.

People want to claim God’s love without showing Him the love of obeying Him. God rejects unrepentant “love,” as He did with Ananias and Sapphira.

Notice what Yeshua instructed His disciples.

Matt 10
11) Into whatever city or village you enter, find out who in it is worthy; and stay there until you go on.
12) As you enter into the household, greet it.
13) If the household is worthy, let your peace come on it, but if it isn’t worthy, let your peace return to you.
14) Whoever doesn’t receive you, nor hear your words, as you go out of that house or that city, shake off the dust from your feet.
15) Most certainly I tell you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city.

Who said that?

Christ said it.

What did He say?

If people don’t listen, shake the dust off your feet and shake a leg and git on down the road.

That’s exactly what Paul and Barnabas did.

Acts 13
46) Paul and Barnabas spoke out boldly, and said, “It was necessary that God’s word should be spoken to you first. Since indeed you thrust it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.
47) For so has the Lord commanded us, saying, ‘I have set you as a light for the Gentiles, that you should bring salvation to the uttermost parts of the earth.’”
48) As the Gentiles heard this, they were glad, and glorified the word of God. As many as were appointed to eternal life believed.
49) The Lord’s word was spread abroad throughout all the region.
50) But the Jews stirred up the devout and prominent women and the chief men of the city, and stirred up a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and threw them out of their borders.
51) But they shook off the dust of their feet against them, and came to Iconium.

A common Christian teaching is that you can love God without obeying His Commandments. T’aint so. Ananias and Sapphira’s offering was rejected when they broke the ninth Commandment against lying, among others. When they did that, they didn’t love God, as they pretended. They hated Him.

Deut 7
9) Know therefore that Yahweh your God, he is God, the faithful God, who keeps covenant and loving kindness with them who love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations,
10) and repays those who hate him to their face, to destroy them: he will not be slack to him who hates him, he will repay him to his face.

You love God by obeying His Commandments. You hate Him by disobeying His Commandments.

How, then, do you love other people?

The last five Commandments show love for others, where you don’t kill him/her, adulterate his present or future mate, steal his stuff, mislead him, or want anything that is his. All this is shown by Christ’s statement, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”

Just like loving God, love for people is always obeying God’s Commandments.

Humans usually think that love is accepting the breaking of God’s Commandments.

Let me repeat that.

People usually think that love is accepting the breaking of God’s Commandments.

Wonder where that idea comes from?

That’s not true love. That is fake love.

We’ve heard a lot in the last few years about fake news, and we’ve heard of lot of fake news in the last few years. Love that approves breaking God’s Commandments is not love at all. It’s feel good, phony, fake love.

In this end time world, where we are inundated with fake news and fake love, it’s critical to remember that love for people is obeying God’s Ten Commandments. Love for others is never approving or accepting their breaking the Ten Commandments.

But Satan has turned that around. The world says that love is accepting, approving and encouraging Commandment breaking. Even further, Satan’s forces say that obeying and teaching God’s Commandments is hate and hate speech. If you do not approve and accept their Commandment crushing, they will call you a “hater” – for not showing love.

And you know what?

They will hate you for that.

Why did Ananias and Sapphira want to make a big donation to Christ’s flock?

Acts 4
31) When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.
32) The multitude of those who believed were of one heart and soul. Not one of them claimed that anything of the things which he possessed was his own, but they had all things in common.
33) With great power, the apostles gave their testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Yeshua. Great grace 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.

Why did Ananias and Sapphira want to make a big donation to Christ’s flock? Because everybody was doing it. Apparently every Christianos who owned property sold it and put their money in the pot. When they needed to eat, that’s what the pot was for.

This is often cited as an example of socialism/communism.

Tain’t so.

Socialism/communism always requires elites to spend other people’s money for them. The elites then take other people’s money away from them by force. That’s called taxes. And of course, the elites, the party bosses, the politburo, the bureaucrats are very well paid for their noble efforts in running people’s lives. As in – the richest zip codes in America are right next to Washington, DC.

There were no elites in Jerusalem taking people’s money from them. All those Christianos had free choice as to what they would do with their property. No, Yahweh is not a socialist. Yahweh is a yahwist.

Those first Christianos, of their own free choice, sold out and gave it away. One of those Christianos who did that was, for whatever reason, specifically named.

Acts 4
36) Joses, 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.

So Barnabas was recognized then and forever for what he did.

Ananias and Sapphira wanted to do that. Actually they wanted that… recognition.

Think about what they did.

They had surely been in Jerusalem on that Pentecost when Christ’s flock was begun. They had seen the miracle of the flaming tongues. They had seen the miracles of people being healed. They had seen the miracle of people turning away from self-love, which is always putting the self first. To turn away from self is also a miracle.

Ananias and Sapphira surely had seen all that, been right in the middle of it, and had seen and heard and probably personally talked with Christ’s disciples, the apostles.

‘Shalom, Peter! What’s up?’

Moreover, they had also probably been in Jerusalem for the Passover/Unleavened Bread Feast when Yeshua was sacrificed –

Sacrificed for them!

In spite of all that, instead of loving God, they decided to hate Him. They broke His Commandments.

‘Yeah, that’s all we got for the land. Ain’t we somethin’ special?’

That is wicked.

People judge a crime by the specific act that is committed. God judges by the heart. Holding back part of the sale money was of itself not an evil act. That wouldn’t have been as giving as the others, but to do so would not have directly broken the Commandments. Their money was their money. They had the God given choice as to what they would do with their property. There was no socialism.

But when they lied to God, that was wicked, from the inside out and all the way through.

Self-love was still their prime motive in life – in spite of all they had seen. Given the right extreme situation, say with their own lives at stake, they would have done anything, any crime, any atrocity, to save themselves. That’s the way self-love is.

God did not make a mistake with Ananias and Sapphira, although almost everybody thinks He did. The love of God is obeying His Commandments. Love for other people is obeying God’s Commandments and never approving their disobedience.

You see, when Ananias probably led Sapphira into their scheme, he did not love her. And Sapphira could have saved both their lives by saying “NO, Ananias. I will not do that! You are horribly wrong. Don’t lie about the money. Repent and ask for forgiveness.”

But Sapphira did not do that. She did not show her husband his sin. She approved his sin. She was tolerant and inclusive and she killed him.

Breaking the Commandments and approving commandment breaking is never showing God’s love. That’s Satan’s love.

The End Time Church: From the Cathedrals to the Catacombs

By Dan L. White

Copyright 2022 by Dan L. White, all rights reserved.

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

Chapter 104

End Time Religion – Diversity and Inclusion

What else will the end time masses believe, while they’re righteously eating their bean burgers? Besides vegetarianism, what will the end time religion require of all people on earth?

End time evangelists will preach “diversity and inclusion.”

Actually, they are already.

The modern religious dogma of diversity and inclusion includes only those whom the elites say are includible. Diversity does not extend to those who actually differ. Those who prefer steaks over bean burgers will be banned.

As we can see all around us in the US, diversity and inclusion are part of the end time religion developing today. An enormous campaign is underway to force this creed on all who don’t want to be included. The diversity campaign seeks to end diversity.

Can we coin a new word?

Deluphemism.

A deluphemism is a euphemism purposely designed to delude.

American liberals constantly use deluphemisms.

Oh, wait – there’s one now –“liberals.”

They are among the most intolerant, illiberal people in the whole world yet they arrogantly call themselves “liberal.” That is a deluphemism, a deceptive term purposely meant to mask the ugly reality.

Other liberal deluphemisms are pro-choice for abortion, and abortion itself is a euphemism for butchering babies. Progressive is a deluphemism for regressing from freedom toward dictator rule. “Voting rights” is a deluphemism for communist style one-party election control, where people don’t have to prove their identity to vote. And vote. And vote. And vote.

This technique of deluphemisms is constantly used by the “liberals” to delude the masses. It really, really works. Half the country has swallowed the deluphemisms just mentioned. So “diversity and inclusion” is a deluphemism toward ending individual religious freedom.

Diversity seeks to end diversity. Everyone has to accept everything and everyone has to be accepted. No exceptions – no diversity – allowed.

The League of California Cities, in a program promoting “diversity, equity and inclusion,” described diversity like this. “Diversity refers to political beliefs, race, culture, sexual orientation, religion, class, and/or gender identity differences.”
https://www.calcities.org › docs › default-source › annual-conference—session-materials › 09

But if a religion does not accept variant sexual orientation or gender identity, then that religion is not included in diversity.

A league of cities? The cities of the most populous state, California, join together to compel this conformity. That’s a powerful force trying to force diversity.

Government schools have also long championed compelled conformity, which is what diversity and inclusion really is.

From CNN:
“All public schools in New Jersey are now required to teach diversity, inclusion, and equality courses in grades kindergarten through 12th grade…”

Kindergarten through 12^th grade? That pretty much includes all the students in New Jersey, in government schools, anyway.

“The law will require schools to highlight and promote, “economic diversity, equity, inclusion, tolerance, and belonging in connection with gender and sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, disabilities, and religious tolerance.”

One parent who supported the law said –

“Children will repeat in school what they hear at home, it’s up to the teachers to correct students and teach them,” and teach students about inclusion and equality, which is what this new law will do.”

https://www.cnn.com/2021/04/11/us/schools-new-jersey-new-law-unconscious-bias/index.html

That parent is saying that teachers will contradict parents and teach children that their parents are wrong. If a parent refuses to accept the teacher’s correction, as reported to the teacher by a child, at some point the government may take that child away from the parent. This is what socialists in other nations have done, for the ‘good of the child.’

With the start of the 2021/2022 school term –

“The current school year brought a new LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum to New Jersey middle and high schools. That law requires schools teach middle- and high-schoolers about the political, economic, and social contributions of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.”

Schools there have to teach the LGBT religion. That is the main focus of this diversity and inclusion campaign – to contradict the Bible on morals. It puts public school teachers in the place of preachers.

One Republican legislator against the law said –

“the Legislature continues pushing schools to be de facto parents and legislating the direction of moral compasses,” he said. “Allow kids to be kids and return the duty of morals to parents and preachers.”

A number of other states besides New Jersey have such diversity laws, and that number is steadily increasing. The US Department of Education will force all American public schools to comply, as soon as they can, by withholding federal funds from schools who don’t. Facing that threat, local public schools always comply.

So government is forcing inclusion on those who don’t want to be included. Somewhat surprisingly, this religious blitzkrieg for diversity and inclusion also includes the business world.

A business is in business to do business, not to preach a religion. In this end time, however, many overgrown, near monopoly corporations have taken it upon themselves to save the world from God and the Bible.

Coca Cola, a Fortune 100 company, has been selling its sickly drink for well over a hundred years. It now sells Coke in over two hundred countries. Who knows how many people’s bodies have suffered from its sweet tasting, pathogenic poison? Yet Coca Cola, instead of repenting of their basic business of inducing people to make themselves sick, struck out at those who don’t meet Coke’s standards of diversity and inclusion. In 2021 they required law firms doing business with them to hire their employees according to inclusion dogma set by Coke.

“Under the plan, any law firm seeking to do business with the company was required to commit that at least 30 percent of billed time would be from “diverse attorneys,” and at least half of that time would be from black attorneys,”

Coke requiring other companies to hire according to race and gender directly violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which stipulates that employers cannot treat people differently based on race. Coke’s policy is not limited to their own corporation but mandates it for any law firm that does business with Coke.

Coke blamed their own black employees’ perceived lack of success on their white workers, by “encouraging its white employees to be less white.” They think that if white people act less white, that makes black people better. How is it possible to be more racist than that?

Coke also supported the Democrat leftists in a wrangle over election integrity in Georgia. Such actions were not taken by Coke to sell more Cokes. Such actions are a religious statement, not coming from the profit-and-loss statement but from the heart.

Because of all these political/religious actions, their flagship drink is now known as Woke Coke.

Those are just a few examples of this modern religious movement of diversity and inclusion. In America and the western world today, there are way too many to exhaustively detail.

What is this religious movement against? What are they trying to wipe out? What is the opposite of diversity and inclusion?

This movement is against the Bible.

So what does the Bible teach about diversity and inclusion?

One of the most famous Bible stories, although it’s not just a story, is God leading Israel from Egypt to the Promised Land. Who was already in the Promised Land?

Canaanites.

Like basically all the world, they had traded God for gargoyles, idols.

Rom 1
21) Because, knowing God, they didn’t glorify him as God, neither gave thanks, but became vain in their reasoning, and their senseless heart was darkened.
22) Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,
23) and traded the glory of the incorruptible God for the likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed animals, and creeping things.

So God told Israel to have nothing to do with the gargoyle gang.

Num 33:50-56 (WEB)
50) Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying,
51) Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, “When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan,
52) then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places.

55) “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be as pricks in your eyes and as thorns in your sides, and they will harass you in the land in which you dwell.
56) It shall happen that as I thought to do to them, so will I do to you.”

God had Israel remove the Canaanites from the Promised Land. The Bible could not possibly contradict the end time religion of diversity and inclusion more than that.

However, Israel did not exclude the Canaanites. Israel did practice diversity and inclusion. Israel drank woke Cokes, and were slowly poisoned by the sweet syrupy swill. They adopted Canaan’s blasphemous beliefs and wayward ways.

After seventy years in captivity, some of the tribe of Judah returned to the Promised Land. What did they do then?

Some again adopted diversity and inclusion.

Ezra 9
1) Now when these things were done, the princes drew near to me, saying, “The people of Israel, and the priests and the Levites, have not separated themselves from the peoples of the lands, following their abominations, even those of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Jebusites, the Ammonites, the Moabites, the Egyptians, and the Amorites.
2) For they have taken of their daughters for themselves and for their sons, so that the holy seed have mixed themselves with the peoples of the lands. Yes, the hand of the princes and rulers has been chief in this trespass.”
3) When I heard this thing, I tore my garment and my robe, and plucked off the hair of my head and of my beard, and sat down confounded.
4) Then were assembled to me everyone who trembled at the words of the God of Israel, because of their trespass of the captivity; and I sat confounded until the evening offering.
5) At the evening offering I arose up from my humiliation, even with my garment and my robe torn; and I fell on my knees, and spread out my hands to Yahweh my God;
6) and I said, “My God, I am ashamed and blush to lift up my face to you, my God; for our iniquities have increased over our head, and our guiltiness has grown up to the heavens.
7) Since the days of our fathers we have been exceeding guilty to this day; and for our iniquities we, our kings, and our priests, have been delivered into the hand of the kings of the lands, to the sword, to captivity, to plunder, and to confusion of face, as it is this day.
8) Now for a little moment grace has been shown from Yahweh our God, to leave us a remnant to escape, and to give us a nail in his holy place, that our God may lighten our eyes, and give us a little reviving in our bondage.
9) For we are bondservants; yet our God has not forsaken us in our bondage, but has extended loving kindness to us in the sight of the kings of Persia, to give us a reviving, to set up the house of our God, and to repair its ruins, and to give us a wall in Judah and in Jerusalem.
10) “Now, our God, what shall we say after this? For we have forsaken your commandments,
11) which you have commanded by your servants the prophets, saying, ‘The land, to which you go to possess it, is an unclean land through the uncleanness of the peoples of the lands, through their abominations, which have filled it from one end to another with their filthiness.
12) Now therefore don’t give your daughters to their sons, neither take their daughters to your sons, nor seek their peace or their prosperity forever; that you may be strong, and eat the good of the land, and leave it for an inheritance to your children forever.’
13) “After all that has come on us for our evil deeds, and for our great guilt, since you, our God, have punished us less than our iniquities deserve, and have given us such a remnant,
14) shall we again break your commandments, and join in affinity with the peoples that do these abominations? Wouldn’t you be angry with us until you had consumed us, so that there should be no remnant, nor any to escape?
15) Yahweh, the God of Israel, you are righteous; for we are left a remnant that has escaped, as it is this day. Behold, we are before you in our guiltiness; for none can stand before you because of this.”

At that time, Judah repented and decided to separate themselves from the anti-Yahweh pagans.

Ezra 10:10-12 (WEB)
10) Ezra the priest stood up, and said to them, “You have trespassed, and have married foreign women, to increase the guilt of Israel.
11) Now therefore make confession to Yahweh, the God of your fathers, and do his pleasure; and separate yourselves from the peoples of the land, and from the foreign women.”
12) Then all the assembly answered with a loud voice, “As you have said concerning us, so must we do.

Again, that is the opposite of the modern doctrine of diversity and inclusion.

In the New Testament, the moral law is magnified, not nullified.

Isa 42:21 (ESV2011)
21) The LORD was pleased, for his righteousness’ sake, to magnify his law and make it glorious.

Just as the Canaanites were put out of the Holy Land, unrepentant sinners are not to be in the flock of Christ. When people think that God accepts unrepentant sinners, that’s not magnifying the law. Sin is the transgression of the law, and accepting unrepentant sinners is nullifying the law.

As Paul stoutly scolded the inclusive Corinthian Christians.

1Cor 5
1) It is actually reported that there is sexual immorality among you, and such sexual immorality as is not even named among the Gentiles, that one has his father’s wife.
2) You are puffed up, and didn’t rather mourn, that he who had done this deed might be removed from among you.
3) For I most certainly, as being absent in body but present in spirit, have already, as though I were present, judged him who has done this thing.
4) In the name of our Lord Yeshua Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Yeshua Christ,
5) are to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Yeshua.

9) I wrote to you in my letter to have no company with sexual sinners;
10) yet not at all meaning with the sexual sinners of this world, or with the covetous and extortioners, or with idolaters; for then you would have to leave the world.
11) But as it is, I wrote to you not to associate with anyone who is called a brother who is a sexual sinner, or covetous, or an idolater, or a slanderer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner. Don’t even eat with such a person.
12) For what have I to do with also judging those who are outside? Don’t you judge those who are within?
13) But those who are outside, God judges. “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

The flock is Christ’s body, and just as His physical body saw no corruption, so the flock is not to be corrupted. Paul’s instruction to Corinth applies to all the flock: “Put away the wicked man from among yourselves.”

Again, the opposite of diversity and inclusion.

The reason Israel was to avoid the Canaanites and the reason the adulterer was put out of the Corinth assembly is this.

1Cor 15
33) Don’t be deceived! “Evil companionships corrupt good morals.”
34) Wake up righteously, and don’t sin, for some have no knowledge of God. I say this to your shame.

Evil is epidemic. It spreads like an infectious plague. An infection in the body corrupts the body. And that is why Satan wants the doctrine of diversity and inclusion. And that’s why God doesn’t.

Gentiles like those Greeks in Corinth are grafted into Israel, and they become part of Israel. It is not Gentiles and Israel. Christ’s followers are all Israel, spiritual descendants of obedient Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or Israel. They are subject to the same law as Israel, which is the Ten Commandments and the two great commandments.

As Paul wrote to the once disobedient Romans.

Rom 12
1) Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service.
2) Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God.

9) Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor that which is evil. Cling to that which is good.

So the Gentiles who were once separated from God by a curtain in the Temple were allowed access to God when the curtain was ripped in two by Christ’s sacrifice. But they must conduct themselves as obedient descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and not as wild progeny of Esau. They must be Israelites.

With Christ, then, Gentiles are accepted or included, not as Gentiles but as Israelites. There is no perversity of diversity. All are included/unified in Christ.

Gal 3:27-29 (WEB)
27) For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
28) There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free man, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Yeshua.
29) If you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed and heirs according to promise.

Both Gentiles and Israel are unified in Christ.

No one who is diverse from God will be included.

John 5:24-29 (WEB)
24) “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life.
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.

Those are the two sides. The resurrection of judgment, the diversity and inclusion crowd, which includes everybody but Christ’s flock. And the resurrection of life, or Christ’s flock, which includes none of the diversity and perversity crowd.

1John 5:12 (WEB)
12) He who has the Son has the life. He who doesn’t have God’s Son doesn’t have the life.

We must remember that what we see burgeoning today is from the mind of Satan. The end time religion in all its aspects is what Satan wants. So why does the devil push the doctrine of diversity and inclusion so hard, trying to get the whole world to accept LGBT and as many letters after as may be added?

Satan preaches that doctrine because Satan’s diversity was not accepted, and Satan is not included in God’s Kingdom.

Rev 20:10-15 (WEB)
10) The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever.
11) I saw a great white throne, and him who sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. There was found no place for them.
12) I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and they opened books. Another book was opened, which is the book of life. The dead were judged out of the things which were written in the books, according to their works.
13) The sea gave up the dead who were in it. Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them. They were judged, each one according to his works.
14) Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.
15) If anyone was not found written in the book of life, he was cast into the lake of fire.

Rev 12 (WEB)
12) Therefore rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and to the sea, because the devil has gone down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has but a short time.”

Satan is perpetually excluded from the coming Kingdom of God, and is included in the lake of fire. No wonder Satan wants the doctrine of diversity and inclusion.

There are only two ways, the way of Satan and the way of Christ. None of either group is included in the other.

We must understand and remember that what we see going on in the world today is the game plan of an evil spirit being. The modern doctrine of diversity and inclusion is Satan’s world expressing the mind of Satan – LGBT. And with time running out, the devil is really getting antsy.

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 103

The End Time Religion – Vegetarianism

What will the end time religion be like?

The end time religion will be the culmination of six thousand years of human arrogance and ignorance. How can we tell how this religion will be?

There are some ways to discern what is coming.

First, we can look at the past, at the old Roman religion, which has survived in the world for so long. Pax Romana had its basis in military power coupled with religious conformity. Since the end time world power is taken to be a revival of the Roman Empire, we can figure that the Roman religion in some modern form will be part of it.

Second, we can look at the present, at what is happening today. The world around us is being molded by technology and geopolitics into one world, pulled together by modern gadgets but with the same fractious, fighting human spirit. What religious trends do we see developing today?

Strangely enough, when we observe the ethics and mores arising today, one of the elements of the end time religion we see developing is –

Vegetarianism.

Now that’s kinda surprising. Why should a soybean weenie be part of the end time religion?

It is, for sure. We look around us today and we see this huge campaign to ban meat and push bean burgers.

Even McDonald’s, which successfully sells beef burgers in over a hundred countries, introduced a veggie burger a few years ago.

As far left wing Microsoft Network described –
“With an increased awareness of animal cruelty and new innovations in the plant-based food industry, vegetarianism is all the rage. Many restaurants and franchises have adopted vegetarian options, not only because of the myriad health properties and benefits to the environment, but also to provide more inclusive dietary choices for customers.”
https://www.msn.com/en-us/foodanddrink/foodnews/mcdonald-s-dumps-its-veggie-burger-what-does-that-say-about-the-franchise/ar-AANy0Au

So the company that advertised “Two all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, and a sesame seed bun,” decided to try veggie burgers.

As that quote from MSN showed, vegetarianism today has two pillars.

One is the religious belief that the foods God created for His people to eat are harmful. The second is the religious belief, from evolution, that animals are equal to people, and it is unethical – immoral! – for people to eat their animal brothers.

Seventh Day Adventists are well known for teaching that eating meats that God said are clean are actually harmful. Saying certain good foods are bad is not totally new, as Paul cited.

1Tim 4 (International Standard Version)
1) Now the Spirit says clearly that in the last times some people will abandon the faith by following deceitful spirits, the teachings of demons,
2) and the hypocrisy of liars, whose consciences have been burned by a hot iron.
3) They will try to stop people from marrying and from eating certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.

Since God created certain foods to be eaten with thanksgiving, saying they are not to be eaten is calling God a liar.

Paul also wrote about ascetics, who took pride in severity to their bodies.

Col 2:20-23 (WEB)
20) If you died with Christ from the elements of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to ordinances,
21) “Don’t handle, nor taste, nor touch”
22) (all of which perish with use), according to the precepts and doctrines of men?
23) Which things indeed appear like wisdom in self-imposed worship, and humility, and severity to the body; but aren’t of any value against the indulgence of the flesh.

Severity to their bodies included ‘don’t taste,’ meaning to avoid certain foods and feasts.

So forbidding foods that God created to be eaten is not new, but currently it is a very strong mega-trend, reaching far beyond SDA’s. Adventists are a relatively conservative Christian group that do teach many Bible principles, but they are now joined in their vegetarianism by the most lawless left wing part of society. In these times, it’s not surprising that humanity calls God a liar about foods, since the world calls Him a liar in a number of other areas, such as relations between men and women. It is surprising that Adventists find themselves teaching the same doctrine on foods as the most anti-Bible people in the world. These end time people kill their own babies, live lascivious lives, forsake marriage and family, believe that criminals should be coddled, and say that the Bible is just legends and Yeshua is a myth.

With all that spiritual blindness, do these anti-Christ vegetarians somehow have truth about meats?

That does seem unlikely.

Seventh Day Adventists teach that a vegetarian diet is healthier than the clean meats taught in the Bible. In getting away from foods that God created to be eaten, there is a strong trend now to promote meat that isn’t. Several large companies have sprung up with the message that they’re saving the planet by creating fake meats.

A small point that is difficult to understand –

If meats are so bad, why do vegetarians go to so much trouble to create concoctions that look like meat? They eat soybean wieners, burgers, and steaks. They sure don’t taste like meat, but they’re made to look like succulent Angus or Charolais. If meat’s so bad, why do they want to make stuff that looks like meat?

I strongly believe that eating snakes is bad and I have never, ever tried to make my hot dog wieners look like a snake. So if meat is bad, why make fake meats?

Soybean substitutes often taste repugnant, so if a soybean-burger looks good to the eyes, then I guess that helps vegetarian tongues tolerate it.

SDA vegetarianism does not come from the Bible but from their prophetess Ellen G. White. She said she had a vision about foods in 1863, and because of that vision she came to strongly believe that meat is harmful to body and spirit.

“It has been clearly presented to me that God’s people are to take a firm stand against meat eating.” Counsels on Diets and Foods, Ellen G. White, p383.

“God’s people,” as she called them, had to make a critical choice. Would they accept the Bible with its teaching of clean meats, or would they accept the vision of a woman preacher, who said that eating meat including clean meats “animalized” a person?

Following up on that vision, she went on to teach some very unusual ideas about how meat affects people.

“Meat should not be placed before our children. Its influence is to excite and strengthen the lower passions, and has a tendency to deaden the moral powers.” (ibid, pp. 63-64)

So when you eat a burger, it doesn’t just add calories – it adds carnality.

One analyst of E.G. White’s writings against meat summarized them this way.

To summarize Mrs. White’s teachings on meat in the diet:

Clouds the brain
Benumbs the intellect
Enfeebles and deadens the moral nature
Weakens the higher powers
Lessens spirituality
Renders mind incapable of understanding truth
Causes insubordination
Stimulates lustful propensities
Strengthens the lower passions
Animalizes a person, strengthens the animal appetites
Interferes with the religious life
Causes a person to miss out on companionship with heavenly angels
May cause God to decide not to heal someone’s sickness
Causes sickness and disease
Endangers physical, mental, and spiritual health
https://nonsda.org/study11.shtml

Adventists demanded acceptance of her multiple visions as being inspired by God, regardless of what the Bible says, and they expelled any who did not accept Ellen’s visions. Not all Adventists, though, got the meat of her anti-meat message.

“There are those among Seventh-day Adventists who will not heed the light given them in regard to this matter. They make flesh meat a part of their diet. Disease comes upon them. Sick and suffering as a result of their own wrong course, they ask for the prayers of the servants of God. But how can the Lord work in their behalf when they are not willing to do His will, when they refuse to heed His instruction in regard to health reform? … For thirty years the light on health reform has been coming to the people of God, but many have made it a subject of jest. They have continued to use tea, coffee, spices, and flesh meat. Their bodies are full of disease. How can we, I ask, present such ones to the Lord for healing?” (Counsels on Diets and Foods, Ellen G. White, p. 400)

When Ellen said that some Adventists “will not heed the light given them in regard to this matter;” and “For thirty years the light on health reform has been coming to the people of God,” she was referring not to the Bible but to her visions. This is the most important point about Ellen’s SDA vegetarianism. It’s not God’s teaching. It’s just Ellen’s.

Adding what is considered holy writ to what God wrote is not uncommon. The Jewish rabbis considered their writings equal to God’s word. The Mormons believe that a man who was convicted in New York of selling “seer stones” – rocks that let the buyer see the future – saw the inspired Book of Mormon in his hat. And Adventists believe in Ellen White’s visions, even when they contradict the Bible, as with vegetarianism.

Even if she had been right, basing a religious teaching on a person is really wrong. Whether that person is called a prophet or prophetess, an end time apostle or a pope, basing your religion on what a person says instead of what God says is idolatrous.

Ellen taught that eating meat makes people do immoral things – it “animalizes” them, renders their minds “incapable of understanding truth, and “causes a person to miss out on companionship with heavenly angels.”

This is an incredibly strong teaching.

Also incredibly wrong.

We know that Christ ate meat during his whole physical life on earth.

Did His eating of the Passover lambs every year cause Him to do immoral acts? Hardly. He was not “animalized” by a lamb chop. He was sinless.

When Yeshua fed fish to the hungry multitudes, and doubtless ate of it Himself at that time, did that keep Him from understanding truth, as Ellen said? Hardly. This is what the Master said soon after the fish dinner when He fed the multitudes.

Mark 8:34-38 (WEB)
34) He called the multitude to himself with his disciples, and said to them, “Whoever wants to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.
35) For whoever wants to save his life will lose it; and whoever will lose his life for my sake and the sake of the Good News will save it.
36) For what does it profit a man, to gain the whole world, and forfeit his life?
37) For what will a man give in exchange for his life?
38) For whoever will be ashamed of me and of my words in this adulterous and sinful generation, the Son of Man also will be ashamed of him, when he comes in the glory of his Father with the holy angels.”

That’s a divine understanding of truth. Eating meat did not make Christ “incapable of understanding truth.”

After His resurrection when He cooked and ate fish with the disciples, did that cause Him to “miss out on companionship with heavenly angels?”

Hardly. They were right by Him when He ascended to the right hand of the Father.

Acts 1:9-11 (WEB)
9) When he had said these things, as they were looking, he was taken up, and a cloud received him out of their sight.
10) While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing,
11) who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Yeshua, who was received up from you into the sky will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky.”

Again, the SDA teaching that clean meats are harmful does not come from the Bible. It is based on the vision of their prophetess, and that vision makes God a liar and Christ a sinner, since He was “animalized” by eating meat. If Ellen’s vision was right, then the Bible is wrong.

Adventists teach that meats that God created “to be received with thanksgiving” are actually harmful to people created in God’s image. They conduct their own studies to – not surprisingly – support Ellen’s vision and subsequent teaching.

However, numerous other studies are not so kind to her 1863 vision.

“Long term vegetarianism can lead to genetic mutations which raise the risk of heart disease and cancer, scientists have found.

Populations who have had a primarily vegetarian diet for generations were found to be far more likely to carry DNA which makes them susceptible to inflammation.

Scientists in the US believe that the mutation occurred to make it easier for vegetarians to absorb essential fatty acids from plants.

But it has the knock-on effect of boosting the production of arachidonic acid, which is known to increase inflammatory disease and cancer. When coupled with a diet high in vegetable oils – such as sunflower oil – the mutated gene quickly turns fatty acids into dangerous arachidonic acid.

‘Those whose ancestry derives from vegetarians are more likely to carry genetics that more rapidly metabolise plant fatty acids’ said Professor Tom Brenna, Professor of Human Nutrition at Cornell.

The finding may help explain previous research which found vegetarian populations are nearly 40 per cent more likely to suffer colorectal cancer than meat eaters, a finding that has puzzled doctors because eating red meat is known to raise the risk.

Previous studies have shown that vegetarianism and veganism can lead to problems with fertility by lowering sperm counts.

Separate research from Harvard University also found that a diet high in fruit and vegetables may impact fertility because men are consuming high quantities of pesticides.

Many vegetarians also struggle to get enough protein, iron, vitamin D, vitamin B12 and calcium which are essential for health. One study found that vegetarians had approximately five percent lower bone-mineral density (BMD) than non-vegetarians.”
Telegraph.co.uk, Wednesday 30 March 2016

And another example —

Babies’ Mental Delay Tied to Moms’ Vegan Diet
The breast-fed infants of two mothers who did not eat any animal products, including milk and eggs, developed brain abnormalities as a result of a vitamin-B12 deficiency, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (news web sites) (CDC) reported Thursday.

The primary sources of vitamin B12, which is essential for brain development, are animal products like meat, dairy products and eggs. Since the mothers ate little or no animal products, too little vitamin B12 was transmitted to their children through breast milk, according to the CDC’s Dr. Maria Elena Jefferds.
(Reuters Health) Yahoo! News Fri, Jan 31, 2003

The fact is that people who live a moderate Christian life, as most SDA’s do, who don’t commit adultery, don’t get drunk, aren’t obese and follow a generally uplifting lifestyle are all generally healthier and live longer than non-Christians who don’t follow that lifestyle. This applies to Adventists, Protestants, Catholics and independents or whatever. To the degree that they live within the natural laws of God, as written in the Word of God, they will benefit. Having clean meat in a balanced diet is not harmful, but healthy.

As we said, Adventists have now been joined by the modern anti-Christ movement in preaching that meat is harmful. This is a strange pairing, Adventists and anti-Christers.

The second argument against eating meats that God created to be received with thanksgiving is that, because of evolution, animals are our brothers and it’s downright immoral to eat them.

I was driving on a four lane highway and saw a lady stopped on that road. She had blocked the left lane – the fast lane – with her car and was out on the pavement getting a terrapin off the road. The speed limit on that major US highway is 65, and many people drive way over that limit. That lady felt enormous concern for that terrapin crossing the road, but had no concern whatsoever for any of those people who easily could have been killed running into her stopped car.

As they were in this incident –

Andre Roy, 50, and his daughter Jessie, 16, were killed when Roy’s Harley-Davidson chopper slammed into the rear of Czornobaj’s Honda Civic on June 27, 2010.

Seconds earlier Czornobaj, a financial analyst, had stopped her car in the left lane of a provincial highway in Candiac, south of Montreal, after she spotted a group of ducklings on the median, CTV News reported. She got out of her car and tired (sic) to herd the ducks into her car.
https://www.foxnews.com/world/woman-faces-life-in-prison-for-stopping-car-to-help-ducks-and-causing-crash-that-kills-two

This mindset believes that ducks and terrapins are equal to people. They believe it is immoral to take animal lives for food, as God directed, yet they think it is ethical to risk human lives to save a terrapin or a duck.

PETA stands for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Others have said those letters can also stand for People Eating Tasty Animals.

PETA is the most notorious US supporter of the ‘animals equal people’ doctrine. Their motto is, “Animals are not ours to experiment on, eat, wear, use for entertainment, or abuse in any other way.”

Activistfacts.com says, “PETA seeks “total animal liberation,” according to its president and co-founder, Ingrid Newkirk. That means no meat or dairy, of course; but it also means no aquariums, no circuses, no hunting or fishing, no fur or leather, and no medical research using animals. PETA is even opposed to the use of seeing-eye dogs.”
https://www.activistfacts.com/organizations/peta-people-for-the-ethical-treatment-of-animals, 12/7/21

That also ultimately means no pets. No dogs, no cats, no parakeets or canaries.

PETA even took major league baseball to task for using the term “bullpen” for the area where pitchers warm up. These people are true religious zealots.

Global warming preaches that people raising cattle for milk and meat is overheating the planet with bovine flatulence. Therefore people must stop eating meats that God created to be received with thanksgiving in order to save people from extinction. This global warming campaign has turned into a religious movement, with prophets amassing just as many missed prophecies as any Christian preacher.

Of course, some might argue that the flatulence is coming from more than the cows.

Left Wing Burger King has shown their global warming religion by promoting a zero-beef burger – the Impossible Whopper.

“100% Whopper, 0% Beef!” they crow.

But wait – since it’s a veggie burger, should I say they “crow” about it?

Anyway, Burger King’s 0% beef burger is part of the global warming-vegetarian religion. All those people who live in the mega-polluting urban areas are going to save the planet by eliminating all the cows in the country fields. Thus the Burger King ban-the-beef campaign.

So if the new Whopper is not beef, then what is it?

Well, for one thing, its soy leghemoglobin.

Leg of lamb is delicious eating, so I guess that leg-hemoglobin is the best cut of a soybean?

What else is in the Impossible Whopper?

“Water, Soy Protein Concentrate, Coconut Oil, Sunflower Oil, Natural Flavors, 2% Or Less Of: Potato Protein, Methylcellulose, Yeast Extract, Cultured Dextrose, Food Starch Modified, Soy Leghemoglobin, Salt, Mixed Tocopherols (Antioxidant), and Soy Protein Isolate.”

Well, since the first and biggest ingredient is water, the Impossible Burger does make a healthy start. But– since the main ingredient is water, maybe they should call it a Slopper instead of a Whopper. Or to compete with the Texas What-a-Burger chain, maybe Burger King could call this zero beef burger the Water-Burger.

If the plant based fake meat concoction is so superior to beef, then why does BK also add –

“Vitamins and Minerals (Zinc Gluconate, Thiamine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B1), Niacin, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (Vitamin B6), Riboflavin (Vitamin B2), Vitamin B12)” –

Why do they add synthetic vitamins, which are found naturally in beef? And it is a given that synthetic vitamins are not absorbed in the same way as vitamins from natural food.

The Impossible Burger seems about as natural as nylon. And in all the times I have gone through the BK drive-through this past year, I was constantly bombarded with ads about the Impossible Burger. The BK phone app has repeated “taste test” deals trying to persuade me to try the Impossible Burger.

And after all these months of such promotions, you know what I have concluded about the Impossible Burger?

It’s impossible to get me to eat one.

Now in this end time another branch of holy vegetarianism, besides SDA’s, has arisen.

Vegans.

Vegans eat only plant-based foods, restricting themselves to grains, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Vegetarians, including SDA’s, may cheat and eat some animal products, such as milk and eggs, but vegans are more strict in their religious zeal as to what they will not eat.

I emphasize that vegetarianism is much more a religious practice than a health practice. This is shown by the way that vegetarians react. They don’t just want to eliminate meat eating. They want to eliminate meat eaters.

“Animal rights activists” believe that animals are people’s brothers. So to show their love for animals, they may kill you.

“In the land of boeuf bourguignon and steak-frites, eating meat is turning controversial. Even selling it is becoming dangerous…

A butcher’s shop window was stoned on Sunday night in the Paris region and tagged with a sign that read “stop speciesism” to denounce the exploitation of other species by mankind, Le Parisien reported. In April, seven meat shops were doused with fake blood in the northern Hauts-de-France region while another and a fishmonger suffered broken windows, according to Agence France-Presse.

Five animal rights activists were fined near Paris on Tuesday for storming a local slaughterhouse in April, trying to block operations….

The front page headline for the newspaper L’Opinion this week read “Welcome to Veganistan,” characterizing vegan and vegetarian promoters as “a threat to freedom rights.”
https://www.bloombergquint.com/business/vegans-are-rising-in-france, 12/16/21

These veggie zealots want to make it impossible for anyone to have a beef burger. They want to force me to eat the Impossible Burger.

The quoted French newspaper called that approach “Veganistan,” because their approach is similar to some Muslim nations. Even if you disagree, they will try to force you to obey them. And if you continue to think differently than they do, they may cut off your thinker.

In a US incident –
“Animal rights agitators stormed a Florida Chick-fil-A for the restaurant’s Cow Appreciation Day Tuesday, and staged a bloody protest that left many small children traumatized.

“They came in slicing each other’s throats, putting each other on their knees, dropping them onto the floor in front of a bunch of children,” patron Crystal Valle-Najar told WFLA.

Videos of the protest posted online show several animal rights crusaders dressed as cows and chickens, and another dressed as butcher with a large fake knife, as they staged a bloody slaughter in front of children screaming in horror.”
https://www.theamericanmirror.com/blog/2017/07/12/video-kids-scream-animal-rights-protesters-storm-fl-chick-fil

Can you see that vegetarianism is a religious movement, part of the end time religion?

The animal rights movement ultimately comes from teaching evolution in government schools. Evolution is the religious belief that God is not Creator, and vegetarianism and animal rights are just extensions of that belief. This typifies the mind of Satan, whose modus operandi is to repeatedly call Yahweh God a liar.

Veganism is based on the belief that eating meat is morally wrong.

Vegetarianism is based on the belief that eating meat or animal products is unhealthy and damaging to the body.

Both are based on the premise that God is a liar.

In the Bible God says that some meats are clean and some aren’t. Noah’s ark carried seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean.

Gen 7:2 (WEB)
2) You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female.

The Hebrew word translated “clean” is “tawhore,” defined as pure, as in the gold on the high priest’s vestments.

Exod. 39:30 (WEB)
30) They made the plate of the holy crown of pure gold, and wrote on it a writing, like the engravings of a signet: “HOLY TO YAHWEH.”

In the same way that certain meats are pure, Yahweh’s words are pure.

Ps 12:6 (LEB)
6) The words of Yahweh are pure words like silver refined in the crucible on the ground, refined seven times.

So that definitely does not sound like clean – or pure! – meat is bad for you.

This is not a ceremonial law. This is a creation law. When Noah went on the ark, those animals had been clean or unclean since creation. Clean animals were to be eaten, unclean were not.

Yahweh Himself ate beef, although admittedly it was tender and good beef.

Gen 18
1) Yahweh appeared to him by the oaks of Mamre, as he sat in the tent door in the heat of the day.
2) He lifted up his eyes and looked, and saw that three men stood opposite him. When he saw them, he ran to meet them from the tent door, and bowed himself to the earth,
3) and said, “My lord, if now I have found favor in your sight, please don’t go away from your servant.
4) Now let a little water be fetched, wash your feet, and rest yourselves under the tree.
5) I will get a morsel of bread so you can refresh your heart. After that you may go your way, now that you have come to your servant.” They said, “Very well, do as you have said.”
6) Abraham hurried into the tent to Sarah, and said, “Quickly prepare three measures of fine meal, knead it, and make cakes.”
7) Abraham ran to the herd, and fetched a tender and good calf, and gave it to the servant. He hurried to dress it.
8) He took butter, milk, and the calf which he had dressed, and set it before them. He stood by them under the tree, and they ate.

Yahweh there was the being who became the Messiah, the one who directly dealt with Abraham and his descendants. This was God on earth. Abraham killed a young calf while He was there, prepared it, and then Yahweh/Yeshua ate it.

Was that animal cruelty?

Apparently Yahweh didn’t think so. That’s why He had created those animals.

When Yahweh led Israel out of Egypt, where did He take them?

Exod. 3:7-8 (WEB)
8) I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey;…

Yahweh took Israel to the land of milk and honey, both animal products, and both delicious.

Had vegans been there, they would not have gone into the land of milk and honey. And that puts them in the company of these guys.

Num. 14
28) Tell them, ‘As I live, says Yahweh, surely as you have spoken in my ears, so will I do to you:

29) your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness; and all who were numbered of you, according to your whole number, from twenty years old and upward, who have murmured against me,
30) surely you shall not come into the land, concerning which I swore that I would make you dwell therein, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, and Joshua the son of Nun.

They didn’t want to go into the land of milk and honey. Vegans wouldn’t want to go into the land of milk and honey.

In the New Testament, John the baptizer announced the coming of the Messiah. He did not announce that he was not an animal rights guy.

Mark 1:6 (WEB)
6) John was clothed with camel’s hair and a leather belt around his waist. He ate locusts and wild honey.

John the baptizer wore clothes made from animals, ate locusts that God said were clean, and consumed a delicious animal product – wild honey. Christ said, “Among those who are born of women there has not arisen anyone greater than John the Baptizer,” yet the vegans and vegetarians would have thrown blood on John’s camel’s hair coat.

Twice Christ fed hungry multitudes with grains and fruits that He miraculously created on the spot.

Well, no, He didn’t. He didn’t feed them grains and fruits. Actually He twice fed them fish that He miraculously created. He caught them in that big fish pond in the sky.

Matt 14:19-20 (WEB)
19) He commanded the multitudes to sit down on the grass; and he took the five loaves and the two fish, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, broke and gave the loaves to the disciples, and the disciples gave to the multitudes.
20) They all ate, and were filled. They took up twelve baskets full of that which remained left over from the broken pieces.

Matt 15:32-37 (WEB)
32) Yeshua summoned his disciples and said, “I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days and have nothing to eat. I don’t want to send them away fasting, or they might faint on the way.”
33) The disciples said to him, “Where should we get so many loaves in a deserted place as to satisfy so great a multitude?”
34) Yeshua said to them, “How many loaves do you have?” They said, “Seven, and a few small fish.” [That shows what they normally ate themselves.
35) He commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground;
36) and he took the seven loaves and the fish. He gave thanks and broke them, and gave to the disciples, and the disciples to the multitudes.
37) They all ate, and were filled. They took up seven baskets full of the broken pieces that were left over.

Why did Christ feed those people? Because He had compassion on them. They were hungry. If He had compassion on them, would He then have given them unhealthy food?

No.

Instead of fish, why didn’t Yeshua give them fruits, nuts and grains, as Ellen White would have done? Was Ellen better than Christ?

No. Yeshua didn’t give them fruits, nuts and grains because they were hungry. Christ gave them filling, nutritious food – meat.

You know what?

If Ellen had been there, in that crowd listening to the giver of truth who Himself was truth –

SHE WOULD NOT HAVE EATEN HIS FISH.

Now that sounds a little fishy, doesn’t it?

Yeshua ate the Passover lamb His whole life. He also ate it at the end of His life.

Matt 26:17-19 (WEB)
17) Now on the first day of unleavened bread, the disciples came to Yeshua, saying to him, “Where do you want us to prepare for you to eat the Passover?”
18) He said, “Go into the city to a certain person, and tell him, ‘The Teacher says, “My time is
t hand. I will keep the Passover at your house with my disciples.”’”
19) The disciples did as Yeshua commanded them, and they prepared the Passover.

Christ’s last meal was meat. Was the Master defiled by eating “harmful” foods?

No. The foods He ate were not harmful. And He should know, since “all things were made through him. Without him was not anything made that has been made,” John 1:3.

And after His resurrection Christ ate fish, to make his disciples feel comfortable.

Luke 24:36-43 (WEB)
36) As they said these things, Yeshua himself stood among them, and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
37) But they were terrified and filled with fear, and supposed that they had seen a spirit.
38) He said to them, “Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39) See my hands and my feet, that it is truly me. Touch me and see, for a spirit doesn’t have flesh and bones, as you see that I have.”
40) When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.
41) While they still didn’t believe for joy, and wondered, he said to them, “Do you have anything here to eat?”
42) They gave him a piece of a broiled fish and some honeycomb.
43) He took them, and ate in front of them.

Even after His resurrection, the risen Messiah cooked fish for His disciples.

John 21:9-13 (WEB)
9) So when they got out on the land, they saw a fire of coals there, and fish laid on it, and bread.
10) Yeshua said to them, “Bring some of the fish which you have just caught.”
11) Simon Peter went up, and drew the net to land, full of great fish, one hundred fifty-three; and even though there were so many, the net wasn’t torn.
12) Yeshua said to them, “Come and eat breakfast.” None of the disciples dared inquire of him, “Who are you?” knowing that it was the Lord.
13) Then Yeshua came and took the bread, gave it to them, and the fish likewise.

Again Christian vegetarians face this dilemma. If you had been there with Christ’s disciples, and Yeshua gave you a piece of fish that He had just cooked, what would you have done?

“Sorry, but I don’t eat that. It’s bad food, you know.”

Well, no, Yeshua didn’t know that. So did He know less than Ellen White or those in Veganistan?

You can see how vegetarianism is not just an alternate way of eating. It is a direct assault against God, accusing Him of being cruel to animals and accusing Him of harming His chosen people by ordering them to consume animal products. This is not a simple thing. It’s not just another choice. Calling God a liar is a serious offense, even if it’s done in a “Christian” manner.

Now if you want to avoid foods that God created to be received with thanksgiving, that’s your choice, but you must not call God a liar by saying those foods are harmful. If you do, you are the liar.

Vegetarianism is now part of the end time religion pushed on the world by the rabid anti-Christ movement. I expect the movement to include sexual abandon, violence, self-exaltation –

But vegetarianism?

So why in the world would Satan not want us to have milk and meat and wool coats and leather shoes?

Simple, I guess. Those things are blessings made by the Creator for His people. Satan hates people and fervently and feverishly tries to destroy them. And that even includes stopping them from having leg of lamb or filet mignon or Whoppers.

Christian vegetarians must ask themselves if they are wise to be brothers in this belief with the modern anti-Christ movement.

The end time religion certainly has different aspects, but the central core of this religion is the same message that Satan preached to Eve.

“Has God really said, ‘You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?’” …“You won’t surely die.”
Genesis 3

Satan’s message is that Yahweh God is a liar, and people can survive without their Creator.

And that’s the biggest lie of all time.

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 102

Who were those Evil “Judaizers”?

Practically everybody has heard of them. They’re notorious, ignominious, and even detestable.

Who are they?

The “Judaizers.”

In 325, when he changed the Passover/Unleavened Bread Feast to what became Easter, Constantine called the “Jewish crowd” “detestable.”

“It appeared an unworthy thing that in the celebration of this most holy feast we should follow the practice of the Jews, who have impiously defiled their hands with enormous sin, and are, therefore, deservedly afflicted with blindness of soul. … Let us then have nothing in common with the detestable Jewish crowd; for we have received from our Saviour a different way.” (Eusebius, https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf201.iv.vi.iii.xviii.html)

The different way that Constantine received was the Roman way with Roman holy days, Roman government, and Roman doctrines, all renamed to look Christian.

In 365, 28 years after Constantine’s death, the Council of Laodicea of the Roman Church made this decree.

“Christians must not judaize by resting on the Sabbath, but must work on that day, rather honouring the Lord’s Day; and, if they can, resting then as Christians. But if any shall be found to be “Judaizers”, let them be anathema from Christ.” (Council of Laodicea, 29th Canon).

Who were those detestable “Judaizers”, Christians who kept the Bible Feasts and Sabbath, instead of Constantine’s holy days and sabbath, which are not in the Bible?

Acts 1
1) The first book I wrote, Theophilus, concerned all that Yeshua began both to do and to teach,
2) until the day in which he was received up, after he had given commandment through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen.
3) To these he also showed himself alive after he suffered, by many proofs, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and speaking about God’s Kingdom.
4) Being assembled together with them, he commanded them, “Don’t depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father, which you heard from me.

Christ told the apostles not to leave Jerusalem but to wait there until the Father’s promise arrived.

Luke 24
49) Behold, I send forth the promise of my Father on you. But wait in the city of Jerusalem until you are clothed with power from on high.”
50) He led them out as far as Bethany, and he lifted up his hands, and blessed them.
51) It happened, while he blessed them, that he withdrew from them, and was carried up into heaven.
52) They worshiped him, and returned to Jerusalem with great joy,
53) and were continually in the temple, praising and blessing God. Amen.

After He ascended, the disciples went to the Temple, where they continually praised God.

For ten days.

That means they observed two weekly Sabbaths in the Temple. The high times of the Temple were the Sabbath and Feasts, so they observed the Sabbaths in the Temple. Had they not observed the Sabbath there, they would have been kicked out of the Temple.

Then –

Acts 1 (cont.)
12) Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mountain called Olivet, which is near Jerusalem, a Sabbath day’s journey away.
13) When they had come in, they went up into the upper room, where they were staying; that is Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.
14) All these with one accord continued steadfastly in prayer and supplication, along with the women, and Mary the mother of Yeshua and with his brothers.
15) In these days, Peter stood up in the midst of the disciples (and the number of names was about one hundred twenty), and said,

The 11 apostles, all cited by name, and the rest of the 120, including Mary, Yeshua’s mother, were “commanded” to wait in Jerusalem.

Until when?

Until the Feast of Shavuoth, or Pentecost.

Acts 2
1) Now when the day of Pentecost had come, they were all with one accord in one place.

Then, on that Bible festival, after waiting for 10 days, the Father sent the Holy Spirit to His people.

Why did God wait 10 days to send His spirit to His people?

He waited 10 days until Pentecost –

Because He observes the Bible Feasts. The Father gave them, He planned them, and they show His plan for mankind. No surprise, then, that God the Father observes the Bible Feasts, as He did there with that Pentecost when He sent His Holy Spirit on that day.

When Yeshua told His disciples to wait in Jerusalem for the promise, He was commanding them to keep the Bible Feast of Pentecost. Had they not kept Feast of Pentecost, they would not have been in the first flock.

Of course, they all kept the Feast of Pentecost, anyway, along with the other Bible Feasts.

Those 120 people were all of one mind, “with one accord.” They had heard and lived with the Master for 42 months, except for Mary and his brothers, who had known Him His whole life. They knew what He did on the Sabbath and Feasts, and they did the same. So when Pentecost came, they were keeping it, as Christ had always done. They were all with one accord, all keeping the Bible Feast.

If Christ had spent 3½ years teaching them not to keep the Feasts, why would He tell them to wait until Pentecost? If the Feasts were done away, why would the Father wait until the Feast day to send the Holy Spirit? If the disciples had been taught by the Master to hate the Feasts, why were they all still keeping them?

But according to Constantine’s teaching, and that of the Roman Church, they were all “Judaizers”. Yet these “detestable” Christians, were the first to receive the spirit of Christ.

Acts 2
4) They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak with other languages, as the Spirit gave them the ability to speak.

These people had enormous spiritual understanding, as a supernatural gift from God. Do you really think they were deceived about the Sabbath and Feasts, which they kept? Were they just unconverted Judaizers, heading for hell for obeying God’s written instructions?

God did not first pour out His spirit to the Romans, who kept the winter solstice festival and the spring fecundity festival. God chose to first give His spirit to Israelites who were keeping His Feast day. That’s a very important fact. The Judaizers were the ones who were first filled with the fire of the spirit, not the Romans.

Then, of all things, the Master did not rebuke the “Judaizers.” Instead He multiplied them.

Acts 2
41) Then those who gladly received his word were baptized. There were added that day about three thousand souls.
42) They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and prayer.
43) Fear came on every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.
44) All who believed were together, and had all things in common.
45) They sold their possessions and goods, and distributed them to all, according as anyone had need.
46) Day by day, continuing steadfastly with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread at home, they took their food with gladness and singleness of heart,
47) praising God, and having favor with all the people. The Lord added to the assembly day by day those who were being saved.

The flock of Christ multiplied from 120 to three thousand people, in one day –

The day of the Feast of Pentecost.

They all continued in the apostles’ teaching, which included obeying the Sabbath and Feasts. Christ did not reject these “Judaizers”, as Constantine did, but Christ performed many wonders among them. And day by day the Lord added to the flock, from all those people who had come to Jerusalem –

For the Feast.

Acts 6
7) The word of God increased and the number of the disciples multiplied in Jerusalem exceedingly. A great company of the priests were obedient to the faith.

Okay, we’re way beyond three thousand now. The disciples were multiplied exceedingly. That multiplied multitude even included a number of priests.

That brings up an interesting question.

When those priests came into the First Flock, did they immediately switch from the Sabbath to Constantine’s Sunday? Did they switch from Pentecost and the Bible Feasts to Constantine’s Roman feasts, which became Halloween, Christmas and Easter? Were these priests converted into Constantine Christians?

Hardly. The First Flock was created on a Feast day. If the Christian priests forsook the Feasts, they would be denying the birth of the Flock.

These priests were “obedient to the faith” – Judaizers!

One of the First Flock “Judaizers” was Stephen. As he was being stoned to death, the Son of Man granted Stephen a rare vision.

Acts 7
55) But he, being full of the Holy Spirit, looked up steadfastly into heaven, and saw the glory of God, and Yeshua standing on the right hand of God,
56) and said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God!”
57) But they cried out with a loud voice, and stopped their ears, and rushed at him with one accord.
58) They threw him out of the city, and stoned him. The witnesses placed their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.
59) They stoned Stephen as he called out, saying, “Lord Yeshua receive my spirit!”
60) He kneeled down, and cried with a loud voice, “Lord, don’t hold this sin against them!” When he had said this, he fell asleep.

Stephen was “full of the holy spirit.” Christ was very close to those believers, closer than at any time in the twenty centuries since, much closer than He was to those Roman Christians in Constantine’s time. So as Stephen was being martyred for his faith, Yeshua granted Stephen, a Pentecost Christian, that very special vision.

Doesn’t that give us the definite impression that these First Flock “Judaizers” were not detestable people?

Later, a great assembly was held, as recorded in Acts 15, about people Judaizing on the Sabbath and Feasts.

Acts 15
1) Some men came down from Judea and taught the brothers, “Unless you are circumcised after the custom of Moses, you can’t be saved.”
2) Therefore when Paul and Barnabas had no small discord and discussion with them, they appointed Paul and Barnabas, and some others of them, to go up to Jerusalem to the apostles and elders about this question.
3) They, being sent on their way by the assembly, passed through both Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles. They caused great joy to all the brothers.
4) When they had come to Jerusalem, they were received by the assembly and the apostles and the elders, and they reported all things that God had done with them.
5) But some of the sect of the Pharisees who believed rose up, saying, “It is necessary to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses.”
6) The apostles and the elders were gathered together to see about this matter.

Well, no, the assembly was not about Sabbaths or Feasts at all. The meeting was primarily about circumcision. And that raises a cutting question –

If the Pharisees were so upset about circumcision, why weren’t they upset about the Sabbath and Feasts being canceled?

Those Pharisees had no concern whatsoever about Christians not observing the Sabbath.

Why not?

That could be only because those Christians did observe the Sabbath and Feasts.

And in fact, the Sabbath was mentioned in that assembly, and that mention proves that the Gentile Christianos observed the Sabbath with the Jewish Christianos. James, the physical and spiritual brother of Yeshua, said that Gentiles did not have to obey the Law of Moses and cited certain things that related to debased Gentile practices.

Acts 15 (cont.)
19) “Therefore my judgment is that we don’t trouble those from among the Gentiles who turn to God,
20) but that we write to them that they abstain from the pollution of idols, from sexual immorality, from what is strangled, and from blood.
21) For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath.”

James just said that Gentile Christianos heard the books of Moses in the synagogues every Sabbath.

He was talking about “Gentiles who turn to God,” and those Gentile Christians heard the scriptures read in the synagogues every Sabbath.

As they did with Paul.

Acts 13
14) But they, passing on from Perga, came to Antioch of Pisidia. They went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and sat down.
15) After the reading of the law and the prophets, the rulers of the synagogue sent to them, saying, “Brothers, if you have any word of exhortation for the people, speak.”
16) Paul stood up, and beckoning with his hand said, “Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen.

Those were Jews and Gentile God fearers, all in the synagogue on the Sabbath. And Paul went on…

Acts 13
26) Brothers, children of the stock of Abraham, and those among you who fear God, the word of this salvation is sent out to you.
27) For those who dwell in Jerusalem, and their rulers, because they didn’t know him, nor the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath, fulfilled them by condemning him.

This is just what James referred to – “the voices of the prophets which are read every Sabbath.” Gentiles who accepted the one true God were called God-fearers, such as Cornelius in Acts 10. They were in the synagogues on the Sabbath, observing the Sabbath. When Paul said “children of the stock of Abraham,” that was the Jews, “and those among you who fear God,” that was the Gentiles.

The first Gentile Christian, Cornelius, was a God fearer.

Acts 10
1) Now there was a certain man in Caesarea, Cornelius by name, a centurion of what was called the Italian Regiment,
2) a devout man, and one who feared God with all his house, who gave gifts for the needy generously to the people, and always prayed to God.

That means, like those that Paul spoke to, Cornelius the God fearer observed the Sabbath and attended synagogue. So when James said, “For Moses from generations of old has in every city those who preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath,” and James as talking about the Gentiles who turned to God, he was saying that the Gentile Christians kept the Sabbath.

Back in Acts 13 again, when Paul finished speaking in the synagogue to the Jews and Gentile God-fearers, what happened?

Acts 13
42) So when the Jews went out of the synagogue, the Gentiles begged that these words might be preached to them the next Sabbath.
43) Now when the synagogue broke up, many of the Jews and of the devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas; who, speaking to them, urged them to continue in the grace of God.
44) The next Sabbath almost the whole city was gathered together to hear the word of God.

So Paul urged them to continue in the grace of God and the Gentiles wanted to get together the next Sabbath to hear the word of God.

Wait a minute! If “grace” does away with the Ten Commandments, why did those who were in the “grace of God” wait until the next Sabbath for their next religious meeting?

The Gentiles begged that Paul speak to them again – the next Sabbath.

And Paul agreed!

He did not say, come back tomorrow on the holy day of the sun. He waited until the next Sabbath to speak to the Gentiles. Why did the Gentile God-fearers request the next Sabbath?

Because they observed the Sabbath, and would be in the synagogue the next Sabbath, obeying the fourth Commandment.

How about that?

The Gentiles called into the First Flock were also “Judaizers”. Like their Israelite brothers, they too kept the Sabbath and Feasts.

So Constantine, the exalted Roman emperor, called all these people in the First Flock detestable. All the Christians in the First Flock were detestable! That’s a pretty detestable act by the exalted Roman emperor.

Exactly who was he calling “detestable?”

“Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James…along with the women, and Mary the mother of Yeshua and with his brothers.” Those brothers included James and Jude, who wrote two books of the New Testament. Other detestables included Stephen and Cornelius, who like the Christian priests, were obedient to the faith.

It’s just really hard to see Peter as a “detestable”. The apostle Peter was the one chosen to speak to the thousands on Pentecost. Peter and all those three thousand first converts were there because they were observing the Feast. Had Peter or all those others not been there at the Feast, they would not have been in the First Flock. Peter was also used to introduce the Gentiles to Christ. Peter wrote two books of the New Testament.

And Peter carried a big shadow…

Acts 5
12) By the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. They were all with one accord in Solomon’s porch.
13) None of the rest dared to join them, however the people honored them.
14) More believers were added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women.
15) They even carried out the sick into the streets, and laid them on cots and mattresses, so that as Peter came by, at the least his shadow might overshadow some of them.

When Peter was called before the high priest for preaching Yeshua, the Bible says he was “filled with the Holy Spirit.”

Was Peter detestable because he kept the Sabbath and Bible Feasts?

Nah.

Peter was one of the chosen leaders of the First Flock, and spoke to the multitude at Pentecost – because he kept the Sabbath and the Feasts.

Peter was sent by God to do God’s work. Peter was not an evil Judaizer because he obeyed and observed the Sabbath and Feasts.

And you know what else?

Those holy times – the Sabbath and Feasts – are also sent from God. They are not evil. They are a blessing from the Creator, to remember the Creator and to remember His plan for man.

So when somebody casts aspersions on the Judaizers, just remember who those Judaizers were.

The “Judaizers” pejorative has been used against the Sabbath and Feasts for nearly as long as Christ’s flock has existed. As we go forward in this end time, a new temple would bring the Sabbath and Feasts into worldwide focus. We will hear, from Constantine’s Church, about evil Judaizers again.

Judaizers like –

All the apostles.

All the 120 disciples.

All the thousands of first Christians.

And all of Yeshua’s earthly family.

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 101

Satan and the Sabbath

The Greek general, Antiochus Epiphanes, was encircled.

He who was called Epiphanes – “God Manifest,” or “God on display” – sheepishly stood and watched while a Roman drew a circle around him in the dirt!

Antiochus was in Alexandria, Egypt in 168 BCE, ready to conquer Egypt. The Roman Senate sent a decree telling him to stop. They wanted Egypt for themselves. A Roman emissary, Popillius, drew that circle around Antiochus and told him not to leave it until he gave an answer to Rome.

“Antiochus having read the decree, told Popillius he would consult with his friends about it, and speedily give him the answer they should advise; but Popillius, insisting on an immediate answer, forthwith drew a circle round him in the sand with the staff which he had in his hand, and required him to give his answer before he stirred out of that circle; at which strange and peremptory way of proceeding Antiochus being startled, after a little hesitation, yielded to it, and told the ambassador, that he would obey the command of the Senate.” Prideaux’s Connexion, part 2, book 3

After that, Antiochus got out of the circle and then got out of Egypt and instead attacked Judah and Jerusalem. That was okay with Rome.

Antiochus killed tens of thousands of Jews and forbid them to observe the Sabbath, among other things. He also set up a statue of Zeus and sacrificed a pig in the Temple.

In 135 CE, Roman emperor Hadrian did pretty much the same thing. After the Bar Kochba rebellion, Hadrian plowed Jerusalem, built a new Jerusalem with a different name, set up an idol of Jupiter, and forbid the observance of the Sabbath, among other things.

So using worldly rulers Antiochus and Hadrian that was Satan attacking the Sabbath.

Roman Christianity also attacked the Sabbath from early times, especially from the time of Constantine. This has resulted in a Christianity that believes that a Christian has to break the Ten Commandments to be saved. Anyone who seeks to obey the Commandments, as with the Sabbath, is said to be trying to earn his salvation and therefore doomed to hell.

As in this typical statement from one Christian church.

https://ibtministries.org/viewcourse.php?crid=108
Some today, like the Judaizers of Paul’s day, tell us we must keep the Law of Moses to be saved. Those who leave the Gospel of Christ for the Law have fallen from grace (Galatians 5:4; Hebrews 3:12). No one can be justified by keeping the Law or any part of it such as offering animal sacrifices, keeping Jewish feast days, burning incense, using instrumental music in worship, keeping the sabbath, etc. Salvation is in Jesus Christ for all upon one basis – obedience to the faith of Christ!

Notice several false premises there.

The first false premise:

Sabbath keeping Christians teach that “we must keep the Law of Moses to be saved.”

That’s totally false. Judaism teaches the law of Moses, and some Messianic Christians try to retain parts of the law of Moses, not with sacrifices but with circumcision and various adornments. Most Christian Sabbath keepers, though, focus on the law of God, which is the Ten Commandments and the two Great Commandments. They absolutely do not teach keeping the law of Moses. To whatever degree, they teach obeying the law of God.

The second false premise:

Since we can’t be justified by our own obedience to the Ten Commandments, we should break the Ten Commandments.

The statement that “No one can be justified by keeping the Law or any part of it…” is totally true. Yet mainstream Christianity reasons that since they can’t be justified by their own Commandment keeping, they shouldn’t obey the Commandments at all.

Paul wrote much about not being justified before God by our own obedience. We can only be justified by the sacrifice of Yeshua. But since we can’t be justified by our own disobedience to the law, does that mean we should purposely disobey the Commandments?

Paul faced that argument in his time, and he answered it in the strongest language.

Rom 3:28-31 (WEB)
28) We maintain therefore that a man is justified by faith apart from the works of the law.
29) Or is God the God of Jews only? Isn’t he the God of Gentiles also? Yes, of Gentiles also,
30) since indeed there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith.
31) Do we then nullify the law through faith? May it never be! No, we establish the law.

Churches say, as we quoted above, that the “faith of Christ” nullifies the Ten Commandments. On the contrary, Paul clearly says that faith establishes the law.

How does faith establish the law?

Rom 6
1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2) May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?
3) Or don’t you know that all we who were baptized into Christ Yeshua were baptized into his death?
4) We were buried therefore with him through baptism to death, that just like Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we also might walk in newness of life.

The faith of Christ is accepting the sacrifice and death of the perfectly obedient Messiah. Then by His spirit we strive to live an obedient life, following the example of Yeshua, obeying the Commandments. Thus we establish the law.

Rom 6:12-15 (WEB)
12) Therefore don’t let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.
13) Neither present your members to sin as instruments of unrighteousness, but present yourselves to God, as alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
14) For sin will not have dominion over you. For you are not under law, but under grace.
15) What then? Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

What is sin?

Romish Christianity cannot define sin. They say sin is missing the mark. What mark? Without the Ten Commandments, you ain’t got no mark.

As the early English translations so clearly put it, “sin is the transgression of the law,” 1 John 3:4. Without that definition, sin is not definable. Sin is breaking the Ten Commandments. And Paul said that breaking the Commandments is not to have dominion over us.

Gracism teaches that because Christians are under grace, they are free to disobey God’s Commandments. That means they are free to sin. But Paul said the opposite – Shall we sin, because we are not under law, but under grace? May it never be!

We receive God’s favor, commonly translated as grace, only because our sins have been forgiven. Our sins – Commandment breaking – had cut us off from God. Should we have our sins forgiven just so we can continue sinning? No. That’s not God’s plan. That’s Satan’s deception.

Why was Yeshua justified before God the Father in the first place?

He was justified by His perfect obedience to the Ten Commandments. He didn’t sin.

Why are we not of ourselves justified before God?

Because we have disobeyed the Ten Commandments. We have all sinned.

Rom 3:23 (WEB)
23) for all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God;

Yet the common Christian belief is that since we cannot be justified because of our disobedience to God’s Commandments, we should keep breaking them. They say that salvation is in Christ, then they refuse to follow His example of obeying the Commandments. They claim to follow Paul but are doing the opposite of what Paul taught.

Rom 6
1) What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
2) May it never be! We who died to sin, how could we live in it any longer?

We cannot be justified by our own obedience because none have been obedient. We can be made just before God only by Christ who was the only one who was obedient. With His help, we strive to follow His example of obeying the Ten Commandments. We do not want to follow the example of Satan, the great Commandment breaker.

The third false premise:

Since the Ten Commandments were included in the law of Moses, and since the law of Moses is ended, everything that was in the law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, is ended.

The law of Moses included the Ten Commandments. It also included reminders not to break the Commandments, reminders such as sacrifices, circumcision, and fringes. The law of Moses also included statutes based on the Commandments for the nation of Israel at that time.

Deut 30:15-16 (WEB)
15) Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death and evil;
16) in that I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the land where you go in to possess it.

The Law of Moses was based on obeying the Ten Commandments. So what was the problem with it?

The people didn’t obey. Old Covenant Israel broke the Commandments.

After Judah returned from their Babylonian captivity, Nehemiah said this in a prayer.

Neh 9:13-17 (WEB)
13) “You came down also on Mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, and gave them right ordinances and true laws, good statutes and commandments,
14) and made known to them your holy Sabbath, and commanded them commandments, and statutes, and a law, by Moses your servant,
15) and gave them bread from the sky for their hunger, and brought forth water for them out of the rock for their thirst, and commanded them that they should go in to possess the land which you had sworn to give them.
16) “But they and our fathers dealt proudly and hardened their neck, didn’t listen to your commandments,
17) and refused to obey, neither were they mindful of your wonders that you did among them, but hardened their neck, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage. But you are a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and didn’t forsake them.

26) “Nevertheless they were disobedient, and rebelled against you, and cast your law behind their back, and killed your prophets that testified against them to turn them again to you, and they committed awful blasphemies.

29) and testified against them, that you might bring them again to your law. Yet they dealt proudly, and didn’t listen to your commandments, but sinned against your ordinances, (which if a man does, he shall live in them), turned their backs, stiffened their neck, and would not hear.

33) However you are just in all that has come on us; for you have dealt truly, but we have done wickedly;
34) neither have our kings, our princes, our priests, nor our fathers, kept your law, nor listened to your commandments and your testimonies with which you testified against them.

Over and over in that prayer, Nehemiah admitted the sins of his people. Judah broke the Ten Commandments. That was the problem with the Old Covenant. So what needed to be changed?

The Ten Commandments or breaking the Ten Commandments?

Breaking the Commandments needed to be changed.

Did everything in the law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, end with the New Covenant?

No. The two great commandments that Christ cited in Matthew 22 were from the law of Moses.

Deut 6 (WEB)
4) Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God; Yahweh is one:
5) and you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might.

Lev 19 (WEB)
18) “‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.

The two great commandments did not end. They are the basis for a Christian life. Yet they were in the law of Moses.

Look at several more Old Covenant examples that have to be included in the New Covenant.

Exod 22 (WEB)
22) “You shall not take advantage of any widow or fatherless child.

Can a follower of Christ take advantage of a widow or orphan? No? Then that’s in the New Covenant.

Lev 18:21-23 (WEB)
21) “‘You shall not give any of your children to sacrifice to Molech; neither shall you profane the name of your God: I am Yahweh.
22) “‘You shall not lie with a man, as with a woman. That is detestable.
23) “‘You shall not lie with any animal to defile yourself with it; neither shall any woman give herself to an animal, to lie down with it: it is a perversion.

All those principles and more in the law of Moses also apply in the New Covenant. The premise that everything in the law of Moses is ended is enormously false. Such a belief ultimately does away with Yahweh God Himself, because after all, He was the other party in the Old Covenant.

Third false premise –

Modern Christianity equates the Ten Commandments, such as the Sabbath, with reminders and statutes pointing to the Ten Commandments, such as sacrifices, circumcision, and physical adornments.

Christianity throws out the baby with the bath water. Reminders and statutes that pointed to the Commandments were ended because they did not lead to obeying the Commandments. Common Christian theology throws out those futile reminders to obey the Commandments and then throws out the Commandments with them.

That kinda misses the point.

Circumcision and sacrifices were ended precisely because they did not lead to obeying the Ten Commandments. Circumcision was changed from fleshly to spiritual circumcision of the heart. Why do followers of Yeshua need to be circumcised in the heart? So they will obey the Ten Commandments.

Rom 2:26-29 (American KJV)
26) Therefore if the uncircumcision keep the righteousness of the law, shall not his uncircumcision be counted for circumcision?
27) And shall not uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfill the law, judge you, who by the letter and circumcision do transgress the law?
28) For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh:
29) But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

So followers of Yeshua need to be circumcised spiritually so they will obey the Ten Commandments in the law.

When Christians say we don’t have to obey the Commandments, and then go around breaking them, they’re right back where Old Covenant Israel was. Ah, but Christians say that God restated nine of the Ten Commandments in the New Testament.

If the Ten Commandments were so bad that they had to be destroyed, why would God want to restate them?

What an absurd teaching – that the Ten Commandments were so evil that the Son of God destroyed them all. Then He restated nine of them. Was He confused?

What’s going on here?

This is just, self-willed, self-deceiving hearts not wanting to obey what Yahweh wrote and spoke. Instead they want to pick and choose what they will obey. This is the real theological problem and it’s not theology at all. It’s human nature.

The human heart – all of us – naturally want to live contrary to the law of the Twelve Commandments, the two great commandments and the Ten Commandments. We want to be like the world, accepted by the world, part of the world. But we don’t want to admit that to ourselves, so we find ways to religiously disobey.

So all those are multiple false premises in that common church position of spurning God’s Commandments. Yet the reality is so simple. Follow Christ who obeyed the Ten Commandments. Don’t follow Satan who broke them.

The law of God is the red light of life. It tells us when to stop. It doesn’t give us the power to stop sinning. It just tells us what sin is. “By the law is the knowledge of sin,” Romans 3:20, AKJV.

And all of this about not wanting to obey the Ten Commandments applies particularly to the Sabbath Commandment.

America today is increasingly a lawless society, and this includes people literally running red lights in traffic. Some just don’t want to be bothered with having to stop at red lights. This is also increasingly true for people with God’s red light, the Ten Commandments. People don’t want to be bothered with having to stop, especially with the Sabbath, where the point of the Commandment is to –

Stop.

Stop doing what you do on the other six common days. Just rest and delight in your Creator.

Satan, using Antiochus and Hadrian, attacked the Sabbath by forbidding it. The Roman Church repeatedly attacked the Sabbath, calling it Jewish. The Sabbath has been attacked all over the world and all down through the ages. Therefore we will assume that in the end time, Satan will continue attacking the Sabbath and those attacks will increase.

Why?

Because the Sabbath is a memorial to Yahweh the Creator. Satan hates the Creator, even though Satan is part of that creation. Thus Satan hates the seventh day Sabbath.

The Sabbath is extremely important –

Important to Yahweh, as the memorial of the Creator and a sign of His people, a sign that endures through the ages;

Important to Satan, as the memorial of Yahweh, to be destroyed along with the rest of God’s Commandments.

And at the last time, the focus on the Sabbath will increase between Yahweh and Satan.

The end time world ruler is known as the “lawless one.”

2Thess 2:7-8 (WEB)
7) For the mystery of lawlessness already works. Only there is one who restrains now, until he is taken out of the way.
8) Then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will kill with the breath of his mouth, and destroy by the manifestation of his coming;

The lawless one will not obey the Sabbath law. The Sabbath is a signature sign of obedient Christians and we will not expect the lawless one to obey it. Constantine sought to unify his empire by banning the Sabbath. The Roman Church followed that up by doing the same thing, for centuries. Today the mainstream Christian church, all over the world, despises the Sabbath. So, just as has been done down through the centuries, in the last century, we expect the lawless one to do the same and attack the Sabbath.

But how?

This lawless one apparently will sit in the Temple rebuilt by Jews, who are very assiduous about their “Sabbath keeping,” according to their own hundreds of rabbi rules, which is not really Sabbath keeping at all. Perhaps Satan will do as with Antiochus and Hadrian, and the lawless and the worldwide global church will kick the Jews out of the temple they built, will ban the Sabbaths and Feasts as before, and will declare a new worldwide religion based on “love,” where every day is a sabbath.

Or perhaps the Jews will accept all other religious beliefs, including those of the five brimstoned cities of the Jordan plain, as long as the worldwide government allows the Jews to practice their man-made rabbi religion. In the end time worldwide religion that they will all be part of, the theme is worldwide unity, and we see this developing today. Constantine’s goal of total unity in politics and religion will almost come to pass. Jews at that time can say that anti-Sabbath people are okay and anti-Sabbath people can say that Jews are okay, and they will all be following the same accepted overall religion of ‘unity in the empire’ and tolerance. This will be the end time version of the old Roman religion, where all religions are included, all are accepted and none are allowed out. Christians who reject the Gaymorrah religion would be persecuted both by the Roman religion and by Judaism, as happened in history.

And that is what seems most likely, based on past history.

But the end time is a time of the greatest deception ever, by the great deceiver who deceives the whole world. It may be that the scenarios just described are a bit too easy to figure out. How can Satan deceive the people who are least likely to be deceived, those who know about Antiochus and Hadrian and the lawless worldwide church?

How can Satan deceive those people?

Talk of a new temple today brings the Feasts and Sabbath to the center of world attention. The purpose of the Feasts and Sabbath is to worship Yahweh God Almighty.

To worship any other god on the seventh day Sabbath is not observing Yahweh’s Sabbath.

The Sabbath was set apart by the Creator to remember the Creator. To worship another god on the Sabbath is to break the Sabbath – even if it’s called “observing the seventh day Sabbath.”

The most important temple times are the Sabbath and Feasts. If the lawless one sits in the temple of God, as God, does that mean some type of false Sabbath and Feast observance directed to that lawless one, who sits in the temple of God, as God? That would be not to worship Yahweh but to worship Satan, yet on Yahweh’s holy days. Would almost all people be deceived by that, even the most elect, thinking they’re worshiping Yahweh on His holy days in His Temple, but instead worshiping Satan?

So the lawless one may kick the Jews out of their temple and persecute them. The lawless one may join the Jews in their temple, in a worldwide tolerance religion. The lawless one who claims to be god may be worshipped as Yahweh God, on the seventh day Sabbath. However it develops, we can be sure that this end time religion will seem divine, even to many of those who should know better.

Matt 24:23-24 (ISV)
23) “At that time, if anyone says to you, ‘Look! Here is the Messiah!’ or ‘There he is!’, don’t believe it,
24) because false messiahs and false prophets will appear and display great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.

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 100

The Difference Between Christ’s Flock and Satan’s Mob

The time has come for Satan to attack.

Not that the devil hasn’t been, but now the attacks are getting worse and worse. This is the end time, the last chapter of Satan’s world. Satan’s time is short, like a drowning rat running out of air, a desperate devil.

Rev 12 (WEB)
17) The dragon grew angry with the woman, and went away to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep God’s commandments and hold Yeshua’s testimony.

How will Satan attack us? What will Satan try to get us to do?

The answer?

Same as always.

Satan will try to get you to break God’s Commandments, by getting you to think it’s good to break them.

Just as Satan told Eve. ‘Go ahead and do what God told you not to do. It’s all right. You won’t die.’

Poor Eve. It was just a juicy fruit, one of many in the garden, but different than the rest. Perhaps she only ate a little bit, maybe just a tiny bite, and it did taste good. So what’s the big deal?

The big deal was that Eve followed another god – Satan. She broke Commandment number 1 – “You shall have no other gods before me,” Exodus 20:3; and that also broke the first of the two great commandments – “you shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might,” Deuteronomy 6:5.

That was it. That was all. Eve and Adam’s seemingly simple act derailed the human race: “So then as through one trespass, all men were condemned; …through one man’s disobedience many were made sinners… Rom 5:18,19.

Who would have done what Yahweh did? Who would have embarrassed the first two people for being stark naked, then kicked them out of the luscious garden into the briers of the world, and sentenced them both to death, along with all their progeny, just for eating that one fruit?

Few would really agree with what Yahweh did. Most people would agree with Satan, thinking that what Eve did wasn’t that big a deal.

Did God overreact? Eve only ate a delicious fruit, to gain wisdom, to better herself, to find “self-fulfillment.”

But the fact that this one act condemned the whole human race to death shows how important it is not to overrule God, even if you mean well. Notice this from the Ten Commandments.

10^th commandment – don’t covet.
9^th – Don’t bear false witness.
8^th – Don’t steal.
7^th – Don’t commit adultery.
6^th – Don’t kill.
5^th – Honor your father and mother.
4^th – Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
3^rd – Don’t make the name Yahweh useless.
2^nd – Don’t create idols.
1^st – Don’t worship any other gods.

Those Commandments have an order, from less serious to most serious. The order of the Ten Commandments shows how important it is not to overrule God, even when you mean well. To follow another god is the most serious mistake you can make.

When Eve listened to Satan and ate the forbidden fruit, she overruled God. She considered what He said, she considered what Satan said, she considered what she thought, and in her very best judgment she overruled God. That broke the first Commandment.

With her wisdom, Eve could have sat on the US Supreme Court.

Eve and Adam directly disobeyed Yahweh, and that first sin condemned the whole human race to death. That’s how important overruling God is, even if you mean well.

In the very last days – and all the days before that – the difference between Christ’s flock and Satan’s mob is the same as the difference between Yeshua and Satan.

What is that difference?

Christ obeys the Ten Commandments.

Satan breaks them. And like their father, Satan’s mob overrules Yahweh God. Because they know better than Him.

Christ’s end time flock, like the first flock, is a bunch of Commandment keepers.

Rev 14:12 (International Standard Version)
12) Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, who keep the commandments of God and hold fast to their faithfulness in Yeshua:

Rev 22:12-15 (WEB)
12) “Behold, I come quickly. My reward is with me, to repay to each man according to his work.
13) I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.
14) Blessed are those who do his commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter in by the gates into the city.
15) Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters, and everyone who loves and practices falsehood.

In other words, outside are those who break the commandments, the sexually immoral, murderers, idolaters, those who do falsehood.

Christ’s flock, at the end time, is a bunch of commandment keepers, just like the first flock was.

Satan does not present itself as the dark devil. Satan did not go up to Eve and shout, ‘Hi. I’m the devil. Follow me and join the party.’

Satan comes across as an angel of light who brings new truth. ‘Hi. I’m Heylel the Light Bringer. Yahweh lied to you. You won’t surely die.’

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote,

How do I love thee?
Let me count the ways.

Satan’s followers think they’re doing good. How does the fallen angel trick them to get them to do that?

Let me count the ways.

1. First, Satan deceives people with the teaching that Yahweh does not exist. If Yahweh doesn’t exist, then His Commandments don’t exist. You can’t break what doesn’t exist.

So who believes this?

Most of the people who have an “advanced” education.

Their advanced education indoctrinates them to believe that all of creation was created without a Creator, the faith of evolution. This faith is completely without basis in observed fact; it is only a theory, totally lacking in evidence. No one has ever observed life coming from nothing alive. No one has been able to create life from non-living material, despite setting up the most favorable elements in scientific experiments. Louis Pasteur flat out disproved spontaneous generation or life coming from nothing alive. In spite of that, evolutionists still believe in spontaneous generation, that life came from nothing alive.

This evolutionist faith is taught in most government schools around the world. The foundational belief of this faith is that Yahweh does not exist and there are no Ten Commandments. Each person can act as his own god, setting his own commandments of right and wrong.

“…you shall be as gods, knowing good and evil,” Satan said.

Amazingly, even many people who call themselves Christian believe this evolution faith. They believe that God exists while at the same time, they believe He doesn’t exist. This may be the most convoluted, confounding and confused belief of all, the simultaneous belief that God is and isn’t.

Much of the world rejects Yahweh as Creator and throws His Ten Commandments out with the mythological garbage. This is particularly true for the most “advanced” nations of the world.

1Cor 1:26-27 (WEB)
26) For you see your calling, brothers, that not many are wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, and not many noble;
27) but God chose the foolish things of the world that he might put to shame those who are wise. God chose the weak things of the world, that he might put to shame the things that are strong;

Again, how does Satan get people to follow it while thinking they’re doing good?

2. Second, Satan deceives followers with the belief that God does exist and the Bible is His word, but in His great mercy He gave His Son to destroy God’s Ten Commandments.

Here is a typical Christian view of the Ten Commandments.

[T]he Ten Commandments are no longer in effect today. The Ten Commandments were written on two tables of stone and given to the Jews at Mount Sinai when they came out of Egypt (Exodus 20:3-17). These commandments were a part of the Law of Moses and the covenant that God made with the Jews- the Jews would keep the commandments, and God would make the Jews His special people (Exodus 19:5). The law of Moses, including the Ten Commandments, was “nailed to the cross” with Christ.
https://www.timberlandchurch.org/articles/are-we-under-the-ten-commandments-today

In reality, the teaching of “Grace destroys law” means that with grace, there is no law – the Ten Commandments are destroyed. Christian theologians often say that nine of the ten are reestablished in the New Testament, but that contradicts James’ statement that breaking one is breaking them all. If you’re 90% obedient, you’re 100% disobedient.

The reality of the ‘grace not law religion’ is that the Ten Commandments are almost wholly ignored by almost all the Christian religion.

Secularists had a good laugh a few years back, when Stephen Colbert nailed Georgia Representative Lynn Westmoreland, who had co-sponsored a bill requiring display of the Ten Commandments in the House and Senate chambers. “What are the Ten Commandments?” asked Colbert.

Westmoreland came up with three.
https://www.salon.com/2014/07/15/why_christians_get_the_10_commandments_wrong_partner/

An article on the Answers in Genesis site by Albert Mohler, a Southern Baptist, refers to that Ten Commandment ignorance.

Article by Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr.:
A Barna poll once indicated that at least 12 percent of adults believe that Joan of Arc might be Noah’s wife. Another survey of graduating high school seniors revealed that over 50 percent thought that Sodom and Gomorrah were husband and wife. A considerable number of respondents to one poll indicated that Billy Graham preached the Sermon on the Mount.

88% of US adults say their household owns at least one Bible.

48% of US adults read the Bible less than 2 times per year.

60% of Americans can’t name even five of the Ten Commandments.
https://answersingenesis.org/christianity/scandal-biblical-illiteracy/

Now if people don’t even know the Ten Commandments, they’re surely not afraid to break them.

Theologians make ‘grace not law’ sound good, by misusing Paul’s profound teaching that we’re justified only by Christ’s obedience and not our own failed obedience. This approach has deceived many people, and the result of this deception is –

They follow Satan’s example of breaking the Ten Commandments, instead of trying to follow Christ’s example of obeying them.

The ‘grace not law’ doctrine teaches that Christ kept the Ten Commandments just so we can be like Satan and break them.

This belief has particular animus to the Sabbath, the memorial of the Creator. The lawless twisting there is that Christians keep the Sabbath every day. They have magnified the law from one day to seven!

The reality is they have no Sabbaths. They have no days when they follow Yahweh’s example of total rest, totally focused on Him.

So it is said that Christ came to destroy the Ten Commandments. But who wanted them destroyed?

Satan. To destroy the Ten Commandments is exactly the role that Satan has. But Satan has a lot of followers who believe that God does exist and the Bible is His word, but He sent His Son to destroy His Ten Commandments.

Again let me count the ways that Satan gets followers, who think Satan’s way is right.

3. Third, with the belief that God does exist, the Bible is His word, and the Ten Commandments are His law, but the Commandments don’t actually mean what they say; and sometimes the Bible doesn’t mean what it says. Instead of what the Bible says, we are to go by theological or cultural interpretations.

This carries duplicity one step further, by supposedly accepting God, the Bible and the Ten Commandments, but just ignoring what they say.

Again a prime example of this is the Sabbath. That’s the one Commandment that Christians remember probably more than any other, yet it’s the one they are most determined to break.

The Sabbath Commandment is very detailed and explicit.

Exo 20:8-11 (WEB)
8) “Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
9) You shall labor six days, and do all your work,
10) but the seventh day is a Sabbath to Yahweh your God. You shall not do any work in it, you, nor your son, nor your daughter, your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your livestock, nor your stranger who is within your gates;
11) for in six days Yahweh made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day; therefore Yahweh blessed the Sabbath day, and made it holy.

Notice the specificity – “Remember the Sabbath day.” Sabbath is not just any day. Sabbath refers to a specific day. If you say, “Hey, I’ll see you Friday!” That’s not just any day. That’s Friday.

And the Sabbath day is not just any day. It means the Sabbath. In the Bible, that’s the only day that has a name. All other days of the week were just numbered, one through six.

That fact alone shows the special position of the Sabbath.

Sabbath came after those other six ordinary, unnamed days and in contrast to them, it had a name –

Sabbath!

The Sabbath Commandment refers back to creation, when Yahweh made heaven and earth in six days and then rested the seventh day. There is no doubt about which day is to be kept holy.

Some say the Commandment does not mean the Sabbath but means any one day in seven. You can set your own Sabbath day, by choosing whichever day you want. You are as God, setting good and evil.

In reality, though, only one day of the week is chosen as their sabbath. That day is the first day of the week, the day that Constantine the sun worshiper enshrined in the Roman Church. Again, this day is not even named in the Bible. It’s just one of those ordinary, nameless days, that first day.

That’s like the comedy movie Galaxy Quest, where crewman number 6 said “…my character isn’t important enough for a last name, because I’m gonna die, five minutes in.” That’s Sunday, the most important day in sun worship religions around the world, but not even important enough to be given a name in the Bible.

Why would God replace the Sabbath, which remembers the Creator from His the time of His creation, with the pagan sun worship holy day?

He wouldn’t.

How do we know that?

Simple. Because that’s not what He said. There is no Bible commandment making Sunday holy.

Yahweh God spoke that fourth Commandment with His own voice, wrote that Commandment on stone with His own finger, and has that Commandment, along with the other nine, in the Ark of the Covenant at His throne.

In speaking and writing the Commandment, Yahweh was very careful to be precisely specific about which day He made holy. God was so careful in His elucidation of the Sabbath that the Sabbath Commandment is the longest of the Ten. He is a meticulous lawyer. After all, it is His law. But He is a good lawyer.

And you thought there weren’t any!

Again the point here is theology teaches that the Bible does not mean what it says, as with the Sabbath. And if the Bible does not mean what it says,  then who says what it means?

Somebody besides God.

This technique of claiming obedience to the Bible while ignoring what it says reaches much farther than just the fourth Commandment. For example, the Bible is explicit in the role that God gave women in this life –  to be submissive wives and loving mothers. They are not to teach men. Yet in this end time world, what the Bible says about women is ignored by almost all who claim to follow the Bible.

Including all women preachers.

This is now being carried one step further, when all the Bible says about Sodom is being reinterpreted with a ‘different cultural standard.’ Sodom is continually cited throughout the Bible as the epitome of evil, in Genesis plus fifteen other books! Yet teachers claiming to follow the Bible brazenly ignore what it actually says about Sodom.

So the difference between Christ’s flock and Satan’s mob is the same as the difference between Christ and Satan. Christ obeyed the Ten Commandments. Satan disobeyed them. Christ’s flock obeys the Ten Commandments. Satan’s mob disobeys them. It was Satan – not Christ! –  who came to destroy the Ten Commandments.

So that makes it easy, right? Don’t worry about the devil deceiving you, as long as you believe in obeying the Commandments.

But the sneaky snake is so tricky that they think they’re following the light, when they head straight into darkness. And this includes those who think they are obeying the Ten Commandments.

Sabbath keepers, for example –

They who acknowledge the fourth Commandment, yet they often come to the point where they think that with their advanced Bible knowledge, they have new truth about the Sabbath. This new truth leads them to do the same things that Sabbath breakers do. They do commerce, play games, take trips – you know, just focusing on all the things they’re interested in. About all they do differently than Sabbath breakers is go to church for a couple hours on the seventh day.

Here’s new truth.

If you’re doing the same things on Sabbath that Sabbath breakers do, you’re not keeping the Sabbath, either.

All of this comes from overruling God. Just taking His word and then overruling it with human reason. Remember the terrible penalty when Eve and Adam overruled God, by taking His words and reinterpreting them.  When Eve listened to Satan and ate the forbidden fruit, she overruled God. She considered what God said, she considered what Satan said, she considered what she thought, and in her very best judgment she overruled God. That broke the first Commandment and condemned the whole human race to death.

It’s not a light thing to overrule God.

See how tricky Satan is? Satan gets followers who are indubitably convinced – in their hearts! – that they are doing right. How does Satan do that?

With the belief that Yahweh does not exist, or that He sent His Son to destroy the Ten Commandments, or that the Bible often doesn’t really mean what it says?

With these three tricks, Satan has speared countless multitudes with the fiery darts of the wicked.

But there is a fourth way that Satan will draw followers – most of the world! – who are sure they’re doing good.

That fourth way is by sitting in the temple of God, doing miracles like God, claiming to be God on earth.

This one is yet to be seen, but it’s coming. And when you see things that are hard to understand, remember –

Christ’s flock obeys the Ten Commandments.

Satan’s mob disobeys them.

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 99

The First Step in Overcoming

The first step in overcoming the self is to repent of the self.

Christ sent His disciples out to preach that people should repent.

Mark 6 (WEB)
12) They went out and preached that people should repent.

After Pentecost, Peter preached that people should repent and be converted.

Acts 3:19 (KJV)
Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out…

Converted became a religious word, but the Greek word translated converted, “epistrepho, ” simply means to turn.

As in Matthew 9:22.

Matt 9:20-22 (WEB)
20) Behold, a woman who had an issue of blood for twelve years came behind him, and touched the fringe of his garment;
21) for she said within herself, “If I just touch his garment, I will be made well.”
22) But Yeshua turning around [epistrepho] and seeing her, said, “Daughter, cheer up! Your faith has made you well.” And the woman was made well from that hour.

The English Standard Version renders Acts 3:19 as —

Acts 3 (ESV2011)
19) Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out…

So to repent means to turn – to turn away from disobedience to God’s Commandments. Most of all, to repent is to turn away from the disobedient self.

When can you stop turning away from yourself?

You can’t. Repentance is required before baptism, but repentance is not limited to that time. To avoid returning to your foolish ways, repentance must be continual.Overcoming the self demands continuous repentance of the self. When you grow to be so Christian that you stop repenting, then you stop being Christian.

Repeatedly the New Testament speaks of repenting, the first step in overcoming.

Matt 4 (WEB)
16) the people who sat in darkness saw a great light, to those who sat in the region and shadow of death, to them light has dawned.”
17) From that time, Yeshua began to preach, and to say, “Repent! For the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.”

Modern Christianity, however, does not emphasize overcoming, but instead emphasizes –

Just coming on over.

Attendance, not repentance.

First of all, most churches don’t even acknowledge what sin is – the transgression of the law. They look at repentance as just being sorrowful for having done wrong. Repentance, though, is not just sorrow for doing wrong, but a turning away from the self that does wrong.

2Cor 7 (WEB)
8) For though I made you sorry with my letter, I do not regret it, though I did regret it. For I see that my letter made you sorry, though just for a while.
9) I now rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that you were made sorry to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly way, that you might suffer loss by us in nothing.
10) For godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, which brings no regret. But the sorrow of the world works death.

The Corinthians were made sorry to repentance, and godly sorrow works repentance. Sorrow itself is not repentance, but can lead to repentance and overcoming.

But churches do not teach overcoming, just coming on over. In fact, just the act of attending church is viewed as righteous, regardless of what the church teaches. It’s like God puts a gold star by people’s names each time they attend church. Then they go home feeling good about themselves, just because they went to church, but then keep on doing the same things they’ve always done. The pro-abortion Catholic politicians are prime examples of this. They oppose most of what their church teaches, but religiously attend church and take communion.

And their church lets them do that! Because they just keep coming on over.

Most churches make people feel good about themselves, not to repent of themselves. After all, they’re attending church!

But do those Catholic pro-abortion politicians ever get around to repenting?

Churches say they first have to get sinners to come to church, then they will tell them to repent.

When unrepentant sinners come to a church, what usually happens if the church does teach repentance?

They leave.

Repent means to change what you’re doing, thinking, and being! So if a church dares to tell the new sinners that they have to change –

Most won’t attend any more.

People do not like to be told they need to repent.

Acts 26 (WEB) Paul said to King Agrippa –
20) but declared first to them of Damascus, at Jerusalem, and throughout all the country of Judea, and also to the Gentiles, that they should repent and turn to God, doing works worthy of repentance.
21) For this reason the Jews seized me in the temple, and tried to kill me.

Paul preached that people should repent and turn, doing works that showed they had turned.

Those Jews did not like to be told to repent. They felt their religion put them above repenting – they attended synagogue every week! – so they tried to kill the guy who told them to repent. They proved they didn’t like to be reproved!

Actually, people like to be told how good they are. I have seen this repeatedly at Feast services, as a ploy to get people to keep coming to those services. To reprove the people is to move the people –

Out the door.

Amos 5 (ESV2011)
10) They hate him who reproves in the gate, and they abhor him who speaks the truth.

Churches of all kinds value attendance above all. They think that if they have more people attending, then they must be pleasing God. Especially if they build a new building! If churches offend people by telling them to repent, and those unrepentant people stop attending church, then how can the church serve those people?

This puts churches are in a pew-pickle.

The church needs people to fill its pews just to be a church. But if the church exhorts, reproves and rebukes, as Paul told Timothy to do, then the churches’ pews will be empty and it may no longer even be a church!

So then, what keeps people from repenting and overcoming?

1. Churches do.

Gather a bunch of people together who are not serious about their calling, not repentant, and as long as nobody upsets the apple cart – nobody exhorts, reproves and rebukes! – then they all think they’re doing great. No need to repent when part of such a wonderful church.

Even churches that know the Ten Commandments are to be obeyed as God’s “royal law” stop preaching repentance and instead teach complacence – which the dictionary defines as “contented self-satisfaction.” Over and over the people will be told how blessed they are to be in that church.

The Pharisees thought that because Abraham was their father, they didn’t need to personally repent. They were the “true church.” People in “God’s true church” don’t really need to repent, do they? So churches almost always keep people from personally repenting.

What else keeps people from repenting?

2. Involvement in the world

Being too involved with the world makes you think like the world. How does the world think?

2Pet 3 (WEB)
3) knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts,
4) and saying, “Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.”

The world’s attitude is that God is irrelevant – “all things continue on as they were from the beginning.” Get comfortable in the world, because things are going to go on just as they have been. No need to repent. Just relax.

But when Paul told Timothy to rebuke, he told him to be urgent.

2Tim 4 (WEB)
2) preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with all patience and teaching.

We cannot be the salt of the earth and the salt of Sodom. The salt of Sodom was Lot’s wife. She gave up her life because she didn’t want to give up the world.

1John 2 (WEB)
15) Don’t love the world, neither the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father’s love isn’t in him.
16) For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn’t the Father’s, but is the world’s.

At the very end time, people of the world love the beast. What is the beast? It’s the worldwide economic system developing today.

Rev 18 (WEB)
15) The merchants of these things, who were made rich by her, will stand far away for the fear of her torment, weeping and mourning;
16) saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, she who was dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls!
17) For in an hour such great riches are made desolate.’ Every shipmaster, and everyone who sails anywhere, and mariners, and as many as gain their living by sea, stood far away,
18) and cried out as they looked at the smoke of her burning, saying, ‘What is like the great city?’
19) They cast dust on their heads, and cried, weeping and mourning, saying, ‘Woe, woe, the great city, in which all who had their ships in the sea were made rich by reason of her great wealth!’ For in one hour is she made desolate.

The people of the end time are made rich by the beast power, and they love it.

So love of the world keeps us from repenting of ourselves. We’re too busy in the world to repent of being like the world.

And then what else keeps us from repenting?

3. Self love

The great deception of the human heart is conceit. After all, almost all drivers are above average!

The most common mistake in life is to underestimate life and overestimate yourself. An overestimated self does not repent of itself.

Why didn’t the five squeaky virgins repent?

Matt 25
1) “Then the Kingdom of Heaven will be like ten virgins, who took their lamps, and went out to meet the bridegroom.
2) Five of them were foolish, and five were wise.
3) Those who were foolish, when they took their lamps, took no oil with them,
4) but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.

Why were the five squeaky virgins squeaky? They didn’t have enough oil.

Why didn’t the five squeaky virgins repent? They didn’t think they needed to.

So churches, the world and self-love can keep us from repenting.

The Passover/Unleavened Bread Feast is a beloved observance of continuous repentance.

1Cor 11 (WEB)
28) But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread, and drink of the cup.
29) For he who eats and drinks in an unworthy way eats and drinks judgment to himself, if he doesn’t discern the Lord’s body.
30) For this cause many among you are weak and sickly, and not a few sleep.
31) For if we discerned ourselves, we wouldn’t be judged.
32) But when we are judged, we are punished by the Lord, that we may not be condemned with the world.

Each year that festival requires humble repentance, remembering the blood of the Lamb. After the Messiah overcame Satan and the world, He totally overcame Himself when He gave Himself. That is our standard of overcoming, and that’s humbling.

We are not to compare ourselves with each other.

2Cor 10 (WEB)
12) For we are not bold to number or compare ourselves with some of those who commend themselves. But they themselves, measuring themselves by themselves, and comparing themselves with themselves, are without understanding.

We are not to compare ourselves with each other. True repentance comes from –

Comparing ourselves to God.

Job is a monumental lesson in repentance.

Job 1 WEB)
8) Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”

None like Job in the earth!

But what did Job need?

Job needed personal repentance.

How did God bring Job to repentance?

By comparing Job to Himself.

Job 38
1) Then Yahweh answered Job out of the whirlwind,
2) “Who is this who darkens counsel by words without knowledge?
3) Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!
4) “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare, if you have understanding.

Well, where was Job when Yahweh laid the foundations of the earth?

Job wasn’t.

Job was not even a glimmer in old man Job’s eye. Job’s old man wasn’t around then, either, or Job’s grandfather, or great-grandfather, or…

When Yahweh laid the foundations of the earth, Job and all his predecessors all the way back to Adam and Eve were not. Strike one on Job.

Job 39 (WEB)
26) “Is it by your wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south?
27) Is it at your command that the eagle mounts up, and makes his nest on high?

Job raised animals, but he did so by working with the way they were already made. Job never made the hawk soar, or the sheep bleat, or the goats jump. God did, and Yahweh made the eagles nest the way they do, way up high. Like us, Job just watched them, like us: “Oh, look! There’s an eagle!”

Strike two on Job.

Job 40 (WEB)
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?
9) Or do you have an arm like God? Can you thunder with a voice like him?
10) “Now deck yourself with excellency and dignity. Array yourself with honor and majesty.
11) Pour out the fury of your anger. Look at everyone who is proud, and bring him low.
12) Look at everyone who is proud, and humble him. Crush the wicked in their place.
13) Hide them in the dust together. Bind their faces in the hidden place.
14) Then I will also admit to you that your own right hand can save you.

This is the great error of human nature. We know we will die at some time, and we know we might die at any time, but we act like we will never die, and that somehow we can save our lives by our own efforts.

Job’s right hand could not save him. God’s could.

Strike three.

Job 42 (WEB)
1) Then Job answered Yahweh,
2) “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be restrained.
3) You asked, ‘Who is this who hides counsel without knowledge?’ therefore I have uttered that which I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I didn’t know.
4) You said, ‘Listen, now, and I will speak; I will question you, and you will answer me.’
5) I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you.
6) Therefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Job was the most outstanding man on earth in his time, “none like him in the earth.” The story of Job is the repentance of Job when he was compared, not to other people because there were none like him, but compared to Yahweh God Almighty. With that comparison, Job abhorred himself, and that was probably an overestimation.

Job is kind of a picture of the old covenant-new covenant. Job did certain things; in fact, he did everything he knew to obey. But all that did not make him righteous as God is righteous. Only God is righteous as God is righteous.

Here is an astounding fact –

Religion can sometimes work against itself. Amazingly, the human heart is so treacherous than even doing good can lead to doing bad.

As with these fine men.

2Chr 26 (WEB)\
4) He [Uzziah]did that which was right in the eyes of Yahweh, …
5) He set himself to seek God… and as long as he sought Yahweh, God made him to prosper.

16) But when he was strong, his heart was lifted up, so that he did corruptly, and he trespassed against Yahweh his God; for he went into the temple of Yahweh to burn incense on the altar of incense.
17) Azariah the priest went in after him, and with him eighty priests of Yahweh, who were valiant men:
18) and they resisted Uzziah the king, and said to him, “It isn’t for you, Uzziah, to burn incense to Yahweh, but for the priests the sons of Aaron, who are consecrated to burn incense. Go out of the sanctuary; for you have trespassed; neither shall it be for your honor from Yahweh God.”
19) Then Uzziah was angry; and he had a censer in his hand to burn incense; and while he was angry with the priests, the leprosy broke forth in his forehead before the priests in the house of Yahweh, beside the altar of incense.
20) Azariah the chief priest, and all the priests, looked on him, and behold, he was leprous in his forehead, and they thrust him out quickly from there; yes, himself hurried also to go out, because Yahweh had struck him.
21) Uzziah the king was a leper to the day of his death, and lived in a separate house, being a leper; for he was cut off from the house of Yahweh: and Jotham his son was over the king’s house, judging the people of the land.

2Chr 32 (WEB)
21) Yahweh sent an angel, who cut off all the mighty men of valor, and the leaders and captains, in the camp of the king of Assyria. So he returned with shame of face to his own land. When he had come into the house of his god, those who came forth from his own bowels killed him there with the sword.
22) Thus Yahweh saved Hezekiah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem from the hand of Sennacherib the king of Assyria, and from the hand of all others, and guided them on every side.
23) Many brought gifts to Yahweh to Jerusalem, and precious things to Hezekiah king of Judah; so that he was exalted in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.
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.

2Chr 35 (WEB)
18) There was no Passover like that kept in Israel from the days of Samuel the prophet; neither did any of the kings of Israel keep such a Passover as Josiah kept, and the priests, and the Levites, and all Judah and Israel who were present, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem.
19) In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah was this Passover kept.
20) After all this, when Josiah had prepared the temple, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight against Carchemish by the Euphrates: and Josiah went out against him.
21) But he sent ambassadors to him, saying, “What have I to do with you, you king of Judah? I come not against you this day, but against the house with which I have war. God has commanded me to make haste. Beware that it is God who is with me, that he not destroy you.”
22) Nevertheless Josiah would not turn his face from him, but disguised himself, that he might fight with him, and didn’t listen to the words of Neco from the mouth of God, and came to fight in the valley of Megiddo.
23) The archers shot at king Josiah; and the king said to his servants, “Take me away, because I am seriously wounded!”
24) So his servants took him out of the chariot, and put him in the second chariot that he had, and brought him to Jerusalem; and he died, and was buried in the tombs of his fathers. All Judah and Jerusalem mourned for Josiah.

Uzziah, Hezekiah, Josiah – along with Asa and Jehoshaphat, were the very best kings that ruled over the kingdoms of Judah and Israel. Yet their doing well set them up to fall, when they stopped being personally repentant. For a short while, they stopped overcoming.

How does that apply to us?

After being in the truth for years, after being in the “church” for years, after following God’s way for years, we can reach a point where we stop being personally repentant.

This is the end time, the last days, the final epoch of this age of humanity. Humans are now even reversing Babel.

Gen 11 (WEB)
6) Yahweh said, “Behold, they are one people, and they have all one language, and this is what they begin to do. Now nothing will be withheld from them, which they intend to do.

This is the end time, when nothing will be withheld from them which they intend to do, except they’re not allowed to destroy all humanity. For however long it lasts, we are now in the last part of this age of humanity.

Rev 18 (WEB)
21) A mighty angel took up a stone like a great millstone and cast it into the sea, saying, “Thus with violence will Babylon, the great city, be thrown down, and will be found no more at all.
22) The voice of harpists, minstrels, flute players, and trumpeters will be heard no more at all in you. No craftsman, of whatever craft, will be found any more at all in you. The sound of a mill will be heard no more at all in you.
23) The light of a lamp will shine no more at all in you. The voice of the bridegroom and of the bride will be heard no more at all in you; for your merchants were the princes of the earth; for with your sorcery all the nations were deceived.
24) In her was found the blood of prophets and of saints, and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

This end time revival of the old Roman economic system is now shaping up. With her sorcery all the nations will be deceived. Only overcomers will endure through this. Repentance is a never-ending attitude, admitting to yourself that you need to overcome yourself. Always admitting it. If you abhor yourself in dust and ashes, then you will repent of that self.

The first step in overcoming is personal repentance. The last step in overcoming is personal repentance.

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 98

Overcoming

When the game is on the line, the big hitter steps up to the plate.

So Satan-Heylel made two personal appearances, first against Eve and then against Yeshua. The devil struck out against Yeshua, but hit a home run against Eve.

Satan will also tempt all who try to follow Christ. When the big hitter comes after you, will the devil strike out or hit a home run? Will you overcome Satan, as Yeshua did? Or will you be overcome, as Eve was?

Will you be an overcomer?

After Satan got Eve and Adam to join the rebellion against Yahweh, human kings ruled Satan’s world. They gained rule by force, they maintained rule by force, they controlled lives by force. That is Satan’s way. Satan rules by force. God rules by spirit.

Like Satan, all those kings, chiefs, emperors, Caesars, sheikhs, khans, etc. wanted to be number one. Because of that, many people died fighting to keep those number-ones number one. War and killing have prevailed on the earth since Cain killed Abel. Humanity hates war because people just don’t like getting killed, but humanity as a whole has never been able to stop war. The farther time goes on, the worse wars get. Just as any one individual is doomed to die, so warring humanity as a whole is doomed to destruction. If left to itself, humanity will destroy itself because of its own spirit.

But most people don’t believe that. Even after six millennia of non-stop war – six thousand years of brutal killing! – people still believe they can save themselves from themselves. “Progressives” don’t think the human race is regressing toward oblivion, but is somehow progressing. After all, people have flown to the moon.

This is one of the great proofs of God. We are as He says we are. And if a bunch of “progressive” people wound up on the moon together, what would they do? They would fight. Just as we had World War I and World War II, there would be Moon War I.

Moon War II would come later.

When most people think the human race is progressing instead of regressing, that is massive self-deception.

(Jer 17:9 [WEB])
The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly corrupt: who can know it?

Who does the deceitful heart deceive?

The one who has the heart.

And who can know it?

If you know that you’re not deceiving yourself, you’re probably deceiving yourself.

Satan has deceived the whole world. People also deceive themselves. So when Satan tries to deceive people, they’re sitting ducks.

What makes people even more vulnerable to Satan’s deceptions is the fact that people have the same spirit as Satan –

Enmity to God.

(Rom 8:7 [WEB])
because the mind of the flesh is hostile towards God; for it is not subject to God’s law, neither indeed can it be.

The name Satan means adversary or enemy. The King James Version in Romans 8:7 says that the “carnal mind is enmity against God.” So the natural human mind is enmity to God, and Satan is God’s enemy. People have the same spirit as Satan, God’s adversaries.

People don’t believe they have the same spirit as Satan. But Satan certainly believes it.

For example, when Satan attacked Job, the devil assumed that Job would react just as Satan would react.

Job 1:8-11 (WEB)
8) Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant, Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil.”
9) Then Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Does Job fear God for nothing?
10) Haven’t you made a hedge around him, and around his house, and around all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.
11) But put forth your hand now, and touch all that he has, and he will renounce you to your face.”

Satan expected Job to be looking out for number one – himself. And when Job got blasted instead of blessed, Satan expected Job to attack God.

Job didn’t.

Satan couldn’t believe it.

Job 2:3-5 (WEB)
3) Yahweh said to Satan, “Have you considered my servant Job? For there is none like him in the earth, a blameless and an upright man, one who fears God, and turns away from evil. He still maintains his integrity, although you incited me against him, to ruin him without cause.”
4) Satan answered Yahweh, and said, “Skin for skin. Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.
5) But put forth your hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will renounce you to your face.”

When Job lost his wealth and family, he didn’t do what Satan expected. So Satan said take away his personal health, and he will be just like me.

But Job was “blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil.” Job was not perfect, but he was not God’s enemy.

However, most people with a carnal or natural mind are God’s enemies, with the same spirit of lawlessness as Satan, just naturally doing wrong and thinking it’s right.

Prov 4:19 (WEB)
19) The way of the wicked is like darkness. They don’t know what they stumble over.

This is fascinating to consider. All those people in all those six thousand years of war, you’d think they would say – “Hey, why don’t we all just stop killing each other?”

But they never have.

And now their weapons are worse than ever and they can kill better than they ever have. It’s like they’re in perpetual darkness, never stopping war, yet always thinking they can. “They don’t know what they stumble over.”

How about human “science?” Science is considered the ultimate advance in human progression. What does science believe?

Science believes that life came from non-life. They don’t know when, they don’t know how, they don’t know why. No one has ever seen life come from non-life, though they have searched diligently. No one has ever been able to create life from non-life, though they have tried desperately. Their science is said to be based on observable, repeatable actions, yet they believe something that has never been observed and cannot be replicated. Human science is a blaring, glaring contradiction of itself and is an epitomical deception, because –

All scientists are just people, and all scientists have Jeremiah 17:9 hearts.

Jer 13:16 (WEB)
16) Give glory to Yahweh your God, before he causes darkness, and before your feet stumble on the dark mountains, and, while you look for light, he turns it into the shadow of death, and makes it gross darkness.

But there is a way out of human darkness.

Isa 9:2-7 (WEB)
2) The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light. Those who lived in the land of the shadow of death, on them the light has shined.

6) For to us a child is born. To us a son is given; and the government will be on his shoulders. His name will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
7) Of the increase of his government and of peace there shall be no end, on the throne of David, and on his kingdom, to establish it, and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from that time on, even forever. The zeal of Yahweh of Armies will perform this.

By overcoming Satan, Yeshua the Messiah gave humanity a way out of darkness and death. Yeshua had a different spirit than Satan, a lawful, loving spirit that overcame the lawless, self-loving spirit of the devil.

“Get behind me, Satan!!!”

Against Satan, by yourself you’re a sitting duck. Satan deceives you and you deceive yourself. Good luck with that.

Each individual who comes out of the darkness of death must use the spirit of Christ – the overcomer – to overcome the spirit of Satan and of human nature. There is no other way. Humans can be self-serving but they can never be self-saving. And just as the Messiah had to face temptation, deception and false religion, so each of us has to overcome Satan-Heylel, the great deceiver.

Of and by ourselves, we cannot do that. Since we start with the same lawless spirit as Satan, relying on ourselves to overcome Satan is like –

Relying on Satan to overcome Satan.

That won’t work.

Yeshua emptied Himself of being God.

Phil 2:5-7 (WEB)
5) Have this in your mind, which was also in Christ Yeshua,
6) who, existing in the form of God, didn’t consider equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7) but emptied himself, taking the form of a servant, being made in the likeness of men.

Individuals who become Christ’s disciples must empty themselves of being like Satan.

In this life, we must grow from being like Satan to being like Yeshua.

Just before Satan entered Judas to betray Yeshua, the Messiah said:

John 14:30 (WEB)
30) I will no more speak much with you, for the prince of the world comes, and he has nothing in me.

John 16:32-33 (WEB)
32) Behold, the time is coming, yes, and has now come, that you will be scattered, everyone to his own place, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me.
33) I have told you these things, that in me you may have peace. In the world you have oppression; but cheer up! I have overcome the world.”

That is the life of overcoming – overcoming Satan, Satan’s society, and ourselves.

The Messiah commands us to overcome, in the letter to the seven congregations in Revelation.

Rev 2
7) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes I will give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the Paradise of my God.

11) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. He who overcomes won’t be harmed by the second death.

17) He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies. To him who overcomes, to him I will give of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and on the stone a new name written, which no one knows but he who receives it.

26) He who overcomes, and he who keeps my works to the end, to him I will give authority over the nations.

Rev 3
5) He who overcomes will be arrayed in white garments, and I will in no way blot his name out of the book of life, and I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.

12) He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the temple of my God, and he will go out from there no more. I will write on him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of heaven from my God, and my own new name.

21) He who overcomes, I will give to him to sit down with me on my throne, as I also overcame, and sat down with my Father on his throne.

He who overcomes,…as I also overcame, the Master said. That’s a tall order!

But look again at the reward.

1. the tree of life
2. not harmed by the second death
3. a new name
4. authority over the nations
5. your name in the book of life
6. pillar in the Temple of God
7. sit with Christ at His throne

Overcoming as the Master overcame is a tall order, but the rewards for overcoming are gigantic.

Can you overcome Satan?

Satan will attack you wherever you’re weakest. And remember the devil knows you very well. After all, in your natural state you think just like Satan.

And if you’re not of the carnal mind but have grown with the spirit of Christ, then you’re just a higher target, more desirable prey for the tempter.

Can you overcome the world?

Most churches just follow the world, at what they consider to be a safe distance. They don’t overcome the world, but just go along with the world.

Can you overcome yourself?

Sure you can, right?

So which is harder? Overcoming the world, or Satan, or yourself?

Which was harder for Yeshua?

He fasted forty days before fending off Satan-Heylel, so He expected a terrific battle. But with the spiritual strength of fasting, He seemed to knock Satan down with ease. “Get behind me, Satan!” Yeshua said in total triumph.

Was the world hard for Yeshua to overcome?

There is not the remotest hint that He was drawn to the world at all. When he was twelve years old, He was not running wild but was spending extra time at the Temple, even after the seven day Feast, with those who were supposed to know about God.

But overcoming Himself?

Even for Yeshua, that was plenty tough.

Isn’t that amazing? Even knowing what His purpose was in being born in the flesh, even after living half a lifespan as the prophesied Messiah, even after giving up His heavenly position, and even after defeating Satan 3 – 0, when it came time to give up His life, to give up Himself, to endure the pain and suffering and the weighty reality of personal death –

He asked for relief.

Luke 22:41-44 (WEB)
41) He was withdrawn from them about a stone’s throw, and he knelt down and prayed,
42) saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.”
43) An angel from heaven appeared to him, strengthening him.
44) Being in agony he prayed more earnestly. His sweat became like great drops of blood falling down on the ground.

How tough was that?

Indescribably tough. That’s one of the most striking verses in the Bible. I cite it repeatedly. Every time I read that, I feel for Him, I hurt with Him, I try to imagine what it means to sweat blood, and I get a glimmer – just a glimmer – of what it means to overcome myself.

You see, there is no comparison in spiritual strength between me and the Master. I have never walked on water; I can barely swim. I have never been used to raise the dead, and sometimes I have bored people to death with my speaking. I have never been transfigured on a mountain top, even though I was born and raised in the mountains. You will readily agree there is no comparison in spiritual strength between me and my Messiah. We can’t even say that He is spiritually stronger than me, because we can’t even be compared at all! You cannot compare zero and a trillion. There’s nothing to compare.

So then, in my miniscule spiritual condition, how tough is it for me to overcome myself, to be willing to give all and to give up everything that is me, even my life? How tough is that for me?

Rev 12:9-11 (WEB)
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.
10) I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation, the power, and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ has come; for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them before our God day and night.
11) They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.

That’s as tough as it gets. And I’d say that’s probably true for you, too.

But –

1 John 4
4) Greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.

Get behind me, Satan!

Yeshua overcame Satan, Satan’s world, and His own self-love.

Which was tougher?

Well, He didn’t sweat drops of blood when He met Satan. He did, when He met Himself.

The essence of Satan’s spirit is to love yourself more than anything or anyone else. We start out with that spirit – you’re number one!

We have to grow to love God, even when the blessings go missing. Then He’s number one, and we’re number zero. That is true love and that’s the test God wants us to pass. Overcoming Satan, overcoming Satan’s world, and overcoming our own self-love –

That is overcoming.

And we are moving ever closer to the time when we will sweat blood –

Rev. 12
11) They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death.