by Gen. Jim, POW
Back to Hosea. He writes: “Ephraim is oppressed … because he willingly walked by human precept” (5:11). Isn’t today’s Church guilty of this? The NAB reads, “Ephraim is oppressed, crushed …. For he has willingly gone after FILTH!” The filth was his reliance on foreign nations and their gods. Hasn’t both Church and State gone after the gods of the world? One such god is $$. The Church, like the State (the world), relies upon $$ (instead of God)to keep afloat – in the cesspool of the DAMNED!
Paul’s prayer for the Colossians was “…that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding” (Colossians 1:9).
Wisdom / Knowledge / Understanding
Paul prayed that the Colossian believers would be fruitful and increase in the knowledge of God (v. 10). While worldly knowledge has its limited benefits, we should never trade God’s knowledge, wisdom and understanding, for more of the world’s knowledge.
“Knowledge” is mentioned around 52 times in the New Testament. It has several nuances. If you have a Strong’s Hebrew/Greek Concordance, see numbers 56, 1097, 1108, 1922, 4907 in the New Testament Greek.
Besides knowledge, God also gives “wisdom” and “understanding” (see Proverbs 2:6). After Solomon said “fools hate knowledge” (vv. 22, 29) he further wrote about “understanding” in chapter 2, along with “wisdom”:
“Knowledge” – vv. 5,6,10
“Understanding” – vv. 2,3,4,5,9,11
“Wisdom” – vv. 2,6,7,10
ALL these, he writes, will keep you/us and deliver you/us from the way of evil.
Compare vv. 1-11 with vv. 12-22. Verses 1-11 = spiritual treasures; vv. 12-22 = evil/crooked/wicked way, which in the end will lead you to death.
Solomon uses the principle of the immoral woman (v. 16) to show us the evil way if we have followed the world. The Church can be likened to a woman, a whorish woman who has become unfaithful to her Husband (Christ). Revelation 17 also describes a woman in 17:1. The “Great Harlot” (v. 3) – she is seen sitting upon a scarlet beast; verse 4 shows her arrayed in purple and scarlet; verse 5 shows her with a name, the name “mother of Harlots” written on her forehead; in verse 6, she is drunk with the blood of the saints/martyrs.
Some believe this word picture to be specifically referring to the Roman Catholic Church. The colors are those of the Roman Catholic Church. The evil deeds – murder of true saints – is Catholic history. Personally, I don’t know about this interpretation.
As God’s/Jesus’ servants and ministers, we are to teach Their ways and instructions. Israel was instructed by God thru Moses to “diligently keep yourself, lest you forget the things your eyes have seen (His miracles/judgments), and lest they depart from your heart … and teach them to your children and your grandchildren” (Deuteronomy 4:9). Why have we stopped teaching our children and grandchildren Bible truths? Instead of teaching Bible truths, parents buy their kids destructive things, – destructive to the eyes and ears – things to plug them into the ways of the world, not Jesus and His Gospel.
The world couldn’t wait to take Bible reading and prayer out of our schools. And until lately, this evil has been enforced; but some Christians finally fought back and now Bible reading and prayer are not entirely banned in some places. However, the Bible is still not part of most school’s programs, which in times past it was.
Education centers (schools, colleges, etc.) are conduits of knowledge; hence, the Bible should be taught and learned at least on a voluntary basis. The Bible itself is a training manual, to teach/train those who want it and adhere to it … training/teaching in righteousness and equipping them for every good work (2 Timothy 3:16-17).
We are to transmit God’s truths any way we can. Yes, we can use social media / tech to do this. Sadly, other false religions are doing this too. But, at least for now, we can be a witness for Christ to a lost and DAMNED world.
Will the time come when God will withhold knowledge from us? We may be there now: look at the judgments/punishments befalling the world. And all this chatter about “global warming” – no matter what you think about this topic, the Spirit has told us that God will increase the heat upon the earth so as to give humankind a taste of HELL-on-Earth. I’m not making this up (see Jesuscallstoall.com where Daily Words of the Spirit are posted).
Please consider: Life is short, fragile. We may plan our future but not one of us has the assurance it will work out the way we plan. Planning is not a sin, but make sure He/They are in our plans! This sin of presumption is in the assumption that we are in control! Be wise, let God lead and guide you in life. Let’s hope we do not find ourselves seeking Him too late – to where He refuses to be found because of our willful rebellion.