The Chocolate Soldier ~ by C. T. Studd

The Chocolate Soldier

By C. T. Studd

Christian Literature Crusade
Fort Washington, Pennsylvania

 

“THE CHOCOLATE SOLDIER”

or

“Heroism – The Lost Chord of Christianity”

_______________

HEROISM is the lost chord; the missing note of present-day Christianity!

Every true soldier is a hero! A SOLDIER WITHOUT HEROISM IS A CHOCOLATE SOLDIER! Who has not been stirred to scorn and mirth at the very thought of a Chocolate Soldier! In peace true soldiers are captive lions, fretting in their cages. War gives them their liberty and sends them, like boys bounding out of school, to obtain their heart’s desire or perish in the attempt. Battle is the soldier’s vital breath! Peace turns him into a stooping asthmatic. War makes him a whole man again, and gives him the heart, strength, and vigour of a hero.

EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN IS A SOLDIER – of Christ – a hero “par excellence”! Braver than the bravest–scorning the soft seductions of peace and her oft-repeated warnings against hardship, disease, danger, and death, whom he counts among his bosom friends.

THE OTHERWISE CHRISTIAN IS A CHOCOLATE CHRISTIAN! Dissolving in water and melting at the smell of fire. “Sweeties” they are! Bonbons, lollipops! Living their lives on a glass dish or in a cardboard box, each clad in his soft clothing, a little frilled white paper to preserve his dear little delicate constitution.

Here are some PORTRAITS OF CHOCOLATE SOLDIERS taken by the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.

“He said, ‘I go, sir,’ and went not”; he said he would go to the heathen, but stuck fast to Christendom instead.

“They say and do not” – they tell others to go, and yet do not go themselves. “Never,” said General Gordon to a corporal, as he himself jumped upon the parapet of a trench before Sebastopol to fix a gabion which the corporal had ordered a private to fix, and wouldn’t fix himself, “Never tell another man to do what you are afraid to do yourself.”

To the Chocolate Christian the very thought of war brings a violent attack of ague, while the call to battle always finds him with the palsy. “I really cannot move,” he says. “I only wish I could, but I can sing, and here are some of my favourite lines:

“I must be carried to the skies
On a flowery bed of ease,
Let others fight to win the prize,
Or sail thro’ bloody seas.

Mark time, Christian heroes,
Never go to war;
Stop and mind the babies
Playing on the floor.

Wash and dress and feed them
Forty times a week.
Till they’re roly poly –
Puddings so to speak.

Chorus:

Round and round the nursery
Let us ambulate
Sugar and spice and all that’s nice
Must be on our slate.”

“Thank the good Lord,” said a very fragile, white-haired lady, “God never meant me to be a jelly-fish!” She wasn’t!

GOD NEVER WAS A CHOCOLATE MANUFACTURER, AND NEVER WILL BE. God’s men are always heroes. In Scripture you can trace their giant foot-tracks down the sands of time.

NOAH walked with God, he didn’t only preach righteousness, he acted it. He went through water and didn’t melt. He breasted the current of the popular opinion of his day, scorning alike the hatred and ridicule of the scoffers who mocked at the thought of there being but one way of salvation. He warned the unbelieving and, entering the ark himself, didn’t open the door an inch when once God had shut it. A real hero untainted by the fear of man.

Learn to scorn the praise of men.
Learn to lose with God;
Jesus won the world thro’ shame!
And beckons us His road.

ABRAHAM, a simple farmer, at a word from the Invisible God, marched, with family and stock, through the terrible desert to a distant land to live among a people whose language he could neither speak nor understand! Not bad that! But later he did even better, marching hot foot against the combined armies of five kings, flushed with recent victory, to rescue one man! His army? Just 318 odd fellows, armed like a circus crowd. And he won too. “He always wins who sides with God.” What pluck! Only a farmer! No war training! Yet what hero has eclipsed his feat? His open secret? He was THE FRIEND OF GOD.

MOSES – the man of God – was a species of human chameleon – scholar, general, law-giver, leader, etc. Brought up as the Emperor’s grandson with more than a good chance of coming to the throne, one thing only between him and it – Truth – what a choice! What a temptation! A throne for a lie! Ignominy, banishment, or likely enough death for the truth! He played the man! “Refusing to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, he chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the pleasures of sin and success for a season, accounting the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt.”

Again I see him. Now an old man and alone, marching stolidly back to Egypt, after forty years of exile, to beard the lion in his den, to liberate Pharaoh’s slaves right under his very nose, and to lead them across that great and terrible wilderness. A WILD-CAT AFFAIR, if ever there was one! When were God’s schemes otherwise? Look at Jordan, Jericho, Gideon, Goliath, and scores of others. Tame tabby-cat schemes are stamped with another hall mark – that of the Chocolate Brigade! How dearly they love their tabbies yet think themselves wise men! REAL CHRISTIANS REVEL IN DESPERATE VENTURES FOR CHRIST, expecting from God great things and attempting the same with exhilaration. History cannot match these feats of Moses. How was it done? He consulted not with flesh and blood, he obeyed not men but God.

Once again I see the old grey-beard, this time descending the Mount with giant strides and rushing into the camp, his eyes blazing like burning coals. One man against three million dancing dervishes drunk with debauchery. Bravo! Well done, old man! First class! His cheek pales not, but his mouth moves, and I think I catch his words, “If God be for me who can be against me? I will not be afraid of 10,000 of the people that have set themselves against me. Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear.” And he didn’t. He wins again. Whence this desperate courage? Listen! “Now the man Moses was very meek above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.” “The Lord spake unto Moses face to face as a man speaketh unto his friend.” “My servant, Moses,” said his Master, “is faithful in all Mine house, with him will I speak mouth to mouth.” Such is the explanation of Moses the chameleon, the man and friend of God and consequently a first-class hero.

DAVID – the man after God’s own heart – was a man of war and a mighty man of valour. When all Israel were on the run, David faced Goliath – alone . . . with God – and he but a stripling, and well scolded too by his brother for having come to see the battle. What a splendid fool Eliab must have been! as though David would go to see a battle and not stay to fight. THEY ARE CHOCOLATE SOLDIERS WHO MERELY GO TO SEE BATTLES, AND COOLLY URGE OTHERS TO FIGHT THEM. They had better save their journey money and use it to send out real fighters instead. Soldiers don’t need dry nurses, and if they did the Holy Ghost is always on the spot and ready to undertake any case on simple application. No! David went to the battle and stayed to fight, and won! Wise beyond his years, he had no use for Saul’s armour. It cramped his freedom of action. He tried it on and took it off, quick sharp. And, besides, it made such a ghastly rattle, even when he walked, that he could not hear the still small voice of God, and would never have heard Him saying afterwards, “This is the way to the brook, David! and there are the five smooth stones! Trust only in Me and them. Your own home-made sling will do first class, and there! that’s the shortest cut to Goliath.” THE CHOCOLATES RAN AWAY – they were all Chocolates – but David ran upon Goliath. One smooth stone was enough.

David’s secret was that he had but one Director, and He, the Infallible One. He directed the stone, as He directed the youth. Too many directors spoil the sport, and two are too many by just one. Thus Christ said to His soldiers: “HE shall teach you all things, HE shall guide you into all the truth.”

“THIS is My Beloved Son: HEAR HIM.”

“ONE MEDIATOR ONLY, between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.”

ONE DIRECTOR OF CHRISTIAN MEN – GOD THE HOLY GHOST. Whose directions require indeed instant obedience, but not the endorsement of any man.

THE DEVIL NEEDS RED-HOT SHOT, FRESH FROM THE FOUNDRY OF THE HOLY GHOST. He laughs at cold shot or tepid, and as for that made of half-iron and half-clay, half-divine and half-human, why you might just as well pelt him with snowballs.

Whence did this raw youth derive his pluck and skill? Not from military camps, nor theological schools, nor religious retreats. “To know The Only True God and Jesus Christ,” is enough. Paul determined to know only Jesus Christ, and look at the grand result! Whilst others were learning pretty theories, David, like John, had been alone with God in the wilds, practising on bears and lions. The result? HE KNEW GOD AND DID EXPLOITS. He knew God only. He trusted God only. He obeyed God only. That’s the secret. God alone gives strength. God adulterated with men entails the weakness of iron and clay – Chocolate – brittleness!

Yet hero as he was, even David alas! once played the role of Chocolate Soldier. HE STAYED AT HOME WHEN HE SHOULD HAVE GONE TO WAR. His army, far off, in danger, fighting the enemy, won. David, at home, secure, within sight of God’s house and often going there, suffered the one great defeat of his life, entailing such a bitter, life-long reaping as might well deter others from the folly of sowing wild oats. David’s sin is a terrific sermon (like Lot’s preaching in Sodom must have been), its theme – “DON’T BE A CHOCOLATE SOLDIER!”

In his simple, quick, and full confession, David proved himself a man again. It takes a real man to make a true confession – a Chocolate Soldier will excuse or cloak his sin. He tumbles in the mud, flounders on, wipes his mouth to try to get the bad taste of his acted lie out of it, and then goes on his way saying, “I have done no wickedness.” A self-murdering fool! Killing his conscience to save his face, like Balaam beating the ass who sought to save his master’s life. Being a Chocolate Soldier nearly did for David. Beware!

NATHAN was another real Christian Soldier. He went to his king and rebuked him to his face, like Peter’s dealing with Ananias (only David embraced his opportunity and confessed), and unlike the Chocolate Soldiers of today who go whispering about and refusing either to judge, rebuke, or put away evil because of the entailed scandal forsooth. Veritable Soapy Sams. They say “It is nothing! nothing at all! A mere misunderstanding!” As though God’s cause would suffer more through a bold declaration and defence of the truth and the use of the knife, than by the hiding up of sin, and the certain development of mortification in the member, involving death to the whole body. “He that doeth righteousness is righteous,” and “he that doeth sin is of the devil,” and ought to be told so. He that is a second time led captive by the devil needs neither plaster nor treacle, but the brace rebuke and summons to repentance of a righteous man to effect his salvation. WE ARE BADLY IN NEED OF NATHANS TODAY, who fear God and nought else, no, not even a scandal.

DANIEL was another hero. Of course he was! Was he not the man greatly beloved of God who sent an angel to tell him so?

I love to watch him as he walks, with firm step and radiant face, to the lions’ den, stopping but once – like his Master en route to Calvary – to comfort his weeping and agonized emperor. God shut the mouths of the lions against Daniel, but opened them wide against those who had opened their mouths against His servant.

A man is known by his works, and the works of Daniel were his three friends, who, rather than bow down to men or gold, braved the fiery furnace.

Again we see him going to the banquet hall, and hear his conductor whisper in his ear, “Draw it mild, Daniel, be statesmanlike. Place and power again for you if you are tactful and wise – especially tactful!” And Daniel’s simple reply, “Get thee behind me, Satan!” There he stands before the king, braving torture or instant death – but it’s the king who quails, not Daniel – who tells him to his face the whole hot truth of God, diminishing not a jot.

JOHN THE BAPTIST – a man taught and made and sent of God – good old John! Who doesn’t love and admire him? Why, even Herod did. A genuine deficiency of oil and treacle in his composition. He always told the bang flat truth, with emphasis. As he loved, so he warned. He knew not how to fawn. HE WOOED WITH THE SWORD, AND “MEN” LOVED HIM THE BETTER FOR IT. They always do.

The leaders of religion sent to John to ask him the dearly loved question of every Pharisee, “By what authority doest thou these (good) things?” They asked that of Christ Himself, and crucified Him for the doing of them. John’s answer was plain and pungent, “I will tell you what you ask, and more. (John was always liberal!) I? I am nobody, but ye and your masters are a generation of vipers.” A good hot curry, that! John never served his curries with butter sauce, but he was always very liberal with chutney – a man of God – NO SUGAR PLUM NOR CHOCOLATE SOLDIER HE!

Thus also he faced Herod after six months in an underground dungeon, and he a man of “God’s Open-air Mission”. Brought straight in before the king; surrounded with all the might and majesty of camp and court; blinking at the unaccustomed sight of light, but by no means putting blinkers on the truth, he blurted out his hot and thunderous rebuke, “Thou shalt not have that woman to be thy wife.” A whole sermon in one sentence, as easy to remember as impossible to forget. John had preached like that before; like Hugh Latimer, he was not above repeating a good sermon to a king, word for word, when the king had not given sufficient heed to it.

John received the unique distinction of a first-class character from both God and the agent of the devil. Hark to the Saviour indulging in an outburst of exquisite sarcasm, “What think ye of John? A reed shaken by the wind? A man clothed in soft raiment?” A Chocolate Christian? (How delicious! The Chocolates were right in front of Jesus at the time – Pharisees, Sadducees, priests, scribes, lawyers, and other hypocrites. How the crowd must have enjoyed it!) “A prophet? Nay, much more than a prophet! Of men born of women there is none greater than John.” And what did the devil’s agent say when, after John’s death, he heard of Jesus? “This,” I tell you, “is John risen from the dead.” What a character! Fancy Jesus being mistaken for anyone! He could have been mistaken only for John. Nobody envies him the well-deserved honour, great though it was, for John was a man – pure granite right through, with not a grain of chocolate in him.

Had John but heard Jesus say, “Ye shall be My witnesses unto the uttermost parts of the earth,” I very much doubt if Herod’s dungeon, or his soldiers, could have detained him. He surely would have found some means of escape, and run off to preach Christ’s Gospel, if not in the very heart of Africa, then in some more difficult and dangerous place. Yet Christ said, referring to His subsequent gift of the Holy Ghost to every believer, “He that is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he,” intimating that even greater powers than those of John are at the disposal of every Christian, and that what John was, each one of us can be – good, straight, bold, unconquerable, heroic.

But here are other foot-tracks – outrageous ones: they can belong only to one man – THAT GRANDEST OF CHRISTIAN PARADOXES – THE LITTLE GIANT PAUL – whose head was as big as his body, and his heart greater than both. Once he thought and treated every Christian as a combination of knave and fool. Then he became one himself. He was called “fool” because his acts were so far beyond the dictates of human reason, and “mad” because of his irresponsible fiery zeal for Christ and men. A first-class scholar, but one who knew how to use scholarship properly; for he put it on the shelf, declaring the wisdom of men to be but folly, and determined to know nothing else save Jesus Christ and Him crucified. The result – he made the world turn somersault. His life was a perpetual gamble for God. Daily he faced death for Christ. Again and again he stood fearless before crowds thirsting for his blood. He stood before kings and governors and “turned not a hair”. He didn’t so much as flinch before Nero, that vice-president of hell. His sufferings were appalling; read them. He trod in his Master’s footsteps, and so received – God is always just in His favours – the same splendid compliment that Jesus did. “All forsook him.” So there were some Chocolate Christians in those days too. Anyone who forsook Paul must have been made of Chocolate. Doubtless the “CHOCOLATES” excused themselves as they do today. “Who could abide such a fanatical, fiery fool? such an uncompromising character? Nobody could work with him, or he with them!” (What a lie! Jesus did, and they got on well together.) A tactless enthusiast, who considered it his business to tell every man the unvarnished truth regardless of consequences. He won his degree hands down, and without a touch of the spur. A first-class one, too – that of the headman’s axe – next best to that of the cross.

And so the tale goes on. Go where you will through the Scriptures or history, you find that men who really knew God, and didn’t merely say they did, were invariably Paragons of Pluck; Dare-Devil Desperadoes for Jesus; Gamblers for God. “Fools and Madmen,” shout the world and the Chocolates. “Yes, for Christ’s sake,” add the Angels!

Nobly they fought to win the prize,
Climbing the steep ascents of heaven,
Thro’ peril, toil, and pain.
O God, to us let grace be given,
To follow in their train.

The Chocolate Christians of today can at least boast of having ancient pedigrees. There are CHOCOLATES A LA REUBEN, who have great searchings of heart, and make great resolves of heart too. But somehow they still sit among the sheepfolds, listening to the pipings of their much-loved organs and church choirs. It’s good to have a great heartsearching. It’s better to make a great heart-resolve. But, if instead of obeying, we squat among the sheep, leaving our few hard-pressed brethren to tackle the wolves by themselves, verily we are but Chocolate Christians. You made a great resolve to go to Africa for Christ a year or two ago. Where are you now? In England? Yes! Yes! Lollipop! (Judges 5: 16.)

There are CHOCOLATES MEROZ, who earned the curse of the angel of the Lord. War was declared; the battle about to begin; the odds were outrageous, and Meroz remained in England attending conventions until the battle was over, then he went, in comfort and security, as a Cook’s tourist! Doubtless they said, “They couldn’t fight till they had been properly ordained, and, besides, there was so very much to be done in fat, overfed Meroz, and surely to feed a flock of fat sheep in a safe place has always been considered the ideal training of war”; as though the best training for the soldier was to become a nurse-maid!!! (Judges 5: 23.)

CHOCOLATES DU BALAAM begin first-class, and earn the name of prophets. Then they develop a squint, melt, and finally run out of the frying-pan into the fire, thus Balaam.

One day he couldn’t get his left eye to look at God. It would look at earth and mammon and that chit of a girl, Miss Popularity. He ought to have done as God told him, and plucked it out. But he said that was too much to ask of any man, and besides he wanted the best of both worlds. He had a hearty desire to die the death of the righteous, but he wasn’t willing to pay the price of a righteous life. He hadn’t the pluck to curse God’s people, so he made plans for others to make them sin. But one day, while his dupes were putting his chestnuts into the fire, they fell in themselves, and Balaam with them (Numbers 22-24).

“I counsel thee to buy of me eyesalve, that thou mayest once again have a single eye, and be enabled to see the folly of flirting with the world.”

CHOCOLATE DEMAS, who left old fiery hard-hitting Paul for an easier path. He said he thought Paul should wink at, or slobber over sin, instead of rebuking it. “He was so very fond of the knife, you know; and he never would use sticking-plaster, because he said it never healed the sore but made it burrow underneath and become bigger, worse, and dangerous” (2 Tim. 4: 10).

MARK joined the Chocolate Brigade once. He left Paul and Barnabas in the lurch, and went back to Jerusalem for a rest cure – a religious retreat. Thank God he got sick of it ere long, resigned his commission, and re-enlisting in God’s army became a useful soldier (Acts 13: 13).

MANY FINE YOUNGSTERS ARE TURNED INTO CHOCOLATES BY OLD PROPHETS. Old prophets who have lost their fire, or fire off words instead of deeds, usually become Great Chocolate Manufacturers. That poor young prophet. He did so well when he obeyed God only, but it was all over with him when he listened to another voice, even though that of an old prophet. Didn’t the old prophet say he was a prophet? and say he’d got the message straight from God? What a damnable lie! The floor of Christendom and elsewhere is littered with wrecks made by old prophets. God won’t stand nonsense from any man. Every man has to choose between Christ and Barabbas, and every Christian between God and some old prophet. Better be a silly donkey in the estimation of an old prophet than listen to his soft talk and flattery, and afterwards become a wreck. “This is My beloved Son, hear HIM.” No! not even Moses, nor Elijah, nor both. “HEAR HIM.” “You have an anointing from God, and you have no need that any man teach you.” You say you believe the Bible! do your deeds give the lie to your words? (1 Kings 13).

THE TEN SPIES WERE CHOCOLATES. They melted and ran over the whole congregation of Israel, turning them into CHOCOLATE CREAMS – “softies”, afraid to face the fire and water before them. God put them all into the saucepan again and boiled them for forty years in the desert, and left them there. He has no use for Chocolates. It’s not small things He despises, but “Chocolates”; for He said, “Your little ones shall inherit the promised land which you have forfeited through listening to men and despising Me” (Numbers 13).

JONAH became a Chocolate Soldier once. Told to go to Africa, he went to Liverpool and took ship for America. Luckily he met a storm and a whale which, after three days’ instruction, taught him how to pray and obey, and set him once again on the right track (Jonah 1).

There’s nothing that shows up CHOCOLATES so much as a bit of a breeze among God’s people. Paul and Barnabas had one once. Judging from experience, I guess there were some Chocolates about then who got into a fog right away! Before that, they had vowed they would go to the heathen; but this breeze between P. and B. put them off. If they hadn’t been MADE OF CHOCOLATE they would have said, “This affair between Paul and Barnabas only makes it more necessary for me to keep close to God, and do what He told me to do more exactly and punctually; so I shall go a bit sooner to Africa – that’s all!”

Difficulties, dangers, disease, death, or divisions don’t deter any but Chocolates from executing God’s Will. When someone says there’s a lion in the way, the real Christian promptly replies, “That’s hardly enough inducement for me; I want a bear or two besides to make it worth my while to go.”

CHOCOLATES are very fond of talking loud and long against some whom they call fanatics, as though there were any danger of Christians being fanatics nowadays! Why, fanatics among Christians are as rare as the “dodo”. Now, if they declaimed against “tepidity”, they would talk sense. God’s real people have always been called fanatics. Jesus was called mad; so was Paul; so was Whitfield, Wesley, Moody, Spurgeon. No one has graduated far in God’s School who has not been paid the compliment of being called a fanatic. We Christians of today are indeed a tepid crew. Had we but half the fire and enthusiasm of the Suffragettes in the past, we would have the world evangelized and Christ back among us in no time. Had we the pluck and heroism of the Flyers, or the men who volunteered for the North or South Polar Expeditions, or for the Great War, or for any ordinary dare-devil enterprise, we could have every soul on earth knowing the name and salvation of Jesus Christ in less than ten years.

Alas! What stirs ordinary men’s blood and turns them into heroes, makes most Christians run like a flock of frightened sheep. The Militants daily risked their lives in furtherance of their cause, and subscribed of their means in a way that cried “Shame” on us Christians, who generally brand the braving of risks and fighting against odds as a “tempting of God”.

CHOCOLATE CARAMELS – “stick-jaw”, boys call them – jawing, “I go, sir,” and sticking fast in Christendom. No conquest is made in assured safety, and conquest for Christ certainly cannot so be made.

We Christians too often SUBSTITUTE PRAYER FOR PLAYING THE GAME. Prayer is good: but when used as a substitute for obedience, it is naught but a blatant hypocrisy, a despicable Pharisaism. We need as many meetings for action as for prayer – perhaps more. Every orthodox prayer-meeting is opened by God saying to His people, “Go work today; pray that labourers be sent into My vineyard.” It is continued by the Christian’s response, “I go, Lord, whithersoever Thou sendest me, that Thy Name may be hallowed everywhere, that Thy Kingdom may come speedily, that Thy Will may be done on earth as in heaven.” But if it ends in nobody going anywhere, it had better never have been held at all. Like faith, prayer without works is dead. That is why many PRAYER-MEETINGS might well be styled “much cry, yet little wool”. Zerubbabel didn’t only hold prayer-meetings; he went and cut down trees, and started to build. Hence God said, “From this day will I bless thee.”

Report says that someone has re-discovered the secret of the old masters. Cannot we Christians re-discover, and put into practice, that of our Great Master and His former pupils, Heroism? He and they saved not themselves; they loved not their lives to the death, and so kept on saving them by losing them for Christ’s sake.

WE ARE FRITTERING AWAY TIME AND MONEY IN A MULTIPLICITY OF CONVENTIONS, conferences, and retreats, when the real need is to go straight and full steam into battle, with the signal for “close action” flying.

The "Vox Humana" plays too important a part in our Christian organs and organizations today. The music, whoever plays, is bound to be thin when the tops of “Instant Obedience” and “Fiery Valour” are missing or unused, and without them to play the “Lost Chord” of Heroism is an impossibility.

“Whatsoever he saith unto you, do it,” said the Blessed Virgin. Do what? Not put treacle and spice into the soft holy vessels inside the house, but pour the Water of Life into those empty stone ones outside. Cana’s marriage feast would have ended in shame had the wine run short. Christ’s marriage feast begins only when the wine is sufficient – a blend from every tongue and kindred and tribe and nation. The supply is assured, as soon as the water is poured out as Christ directed, into “the uttermost parts of the earth”. The mischief today is the reluctance of the servants to do the outside work. They all want to serve indoors, wear smart clothes, listen to the conversation, and make a terrible lot of themselves in the butler’s pantry.

DO LET US MAKE A REAL START NOW – AT ONCE. For years, like Mr. Winkle, we’ve declared we were just about to begin, and then never began at all.

We must divorce Chocolate and Disobedience, and marry Faith and Heroism.

“Who shall begin the battle?” asked the king. “Thou,” replied the prophet, and when the king and the young princes led the way, though the odds against them were terrific, they won with ridiculous ease. So, too, THE APOSTLES LED IN THE WAR OF GOD to the uttermost parts of the earth. Likewise in the Crusades, the kings and princes of State and Church led; then why not today in THE CRUSADE OF CHRIST TO EVANGELIZE THE WORLD?

GOD’S SUMMONS TODAY IS TO THE YOUNG MEN AND WOMEN OF GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA AND CHRISTENDOM, WHO CALL THEMSELVES BY THE NAME OF CHRIST. “New wine,” said Christ, “must be placed in New bottles.” Those superfluously labelled and patched-up old-fashioned ones are as hopeless as the New Theology. They can’t be moved lest they burst with pride and spill the wine in the wrong place.

Listen: “And it shall be in the last days, I will pour forth of My Spirit upon all flesh. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your young men shall see visions (of faith), your old men shall dream dreams (of valorous obedience); yea, and on My bondmen and on my bondmaidens in those days will I pour forth of My Spirit, and they shall prophesy; and I will show wonders in the heaven above and signs in the earth beneath; and it shall be that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved.” But how can they call on Him of whom they have not even heard? Must you stay, young man? Can’t you go, young woman, and tell them? Verily we are in the last – the Laodicean stage – that of the Lukewarm Church.

Wilt thou be to Christ the partner of His throne or an emetic (Rev. 3: 21); a Militant or a Chocolate Christian? Wilt thou fear or wilt thou fight? Shall your brethren go to war and shall ye sit here? When He comes, shall He find faith on the earth?

A thousand times you have admitted Christ’s

Love so amazing, so divine,
Demands your life, your soul, your all.

Wilt thou be a miser and withhold what honour demands of thee? Wilt thou give like Ananias and Sapphira, who, pretending to give all, gave only part?

Possessing and enjoying the vineyard, wilt thou, like the husbandman, refuse the agreed rent? Wilt thou fear death, or devil, or men? AND WILT THOU NOT FEAR SHAME?

Some shall rise to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.

Shall we refuse to emulate the heroes of old, or shall we accomplish the double fulfilment of those glorious words? –

All these being men of war came with a perfect heart to make Jesus King over all the world. They were all mighty men of valour for the war! He that was least was equal to a hundred, and the greatest to a thousand! They were not of double heart! Their faces were like the faces of lions! They were as swift as the roes upon the mountains (to do their Lord’s commands)! Ye sought in time past, for Jesus to be King over you. NOW, THEN, DO IT. (Compare 1 Chron. 12: 8, 33 and 38, and 2 Sam. 3: 17 and 18.)

Shall we not reply: Thine are we, Jesus, and on Thy side. God do so to me, and more also, if as God has sworn unto Him, I do not even so to Jesus – to translate the kingdom from the house of Satan, and set up the throne of Jesus Christ over all the world. (Compare 1 Chron. 12: 18 and 2 Sam. 3: 10.)

Come, then, let us restore the “Lost Chord” of Christianity – HEROISM – to the world, and the crown of the world to Christ. Christ Himself asks thee, “Wilt thou be a Malingerer or a Militant?”

To your knees, man! and to your Bible! Decide at once! Don’t hedge! Time flies! Cease your insults to God, quit consulting flesh and blood. Stop your lame, lying, and cowardly excuses.

Enlist! Here are your papers and oath of allegiance. Scratch out one side and sign the other in the presence of God and the recording angel. Mark God’s endorsements underneath:

HENCEFORTH:

For me    To live is Christ.    To die is gain.    I’ll be a militant.    A man of God.    A gambler for Christ.    A hero.    Sign here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

or

For me    Chocolate my name.    Tepidity my temperature.    A malingerer I.    A child of men.    A self-excuser.    A humbug.    Sign here . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

God’s promises are sure in either case:

“Lo, I am with you alway.”

“I will spew thee out of My mouth.”

Good Lord!

Baptize us with the Holy Ghost, and with fire;

Cure us of all this dread plague of Sleeping Sickness, this crazy talking in our sleep, that even as we unceasingly pray,

Thy Name may be hallowed everywhere;

Thy Kingdom come speedily;

Thy Will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Amen and Amen!

_______________________________________________

More Information on C. T. Studd

 

Original website document can be viewed HERE.

Pdf doc at archive.org can be downloaded HERE.

We visited a Brother in Hospital

After our Church service on Sunday March 1, 2015, in the late afternoon with a summer thunderstorm and torrential rain pouring down outside, the Living Hope eldership of Brothers Dave, Gavin and Les together with Gary sat in the visiting hall of the Northdale Hospital’s psychiatric ward, visiting a dear Brother in Christ named Hartmut, as we testified of our Lord Jesus Christ’s mercy and grace in saving wretched sinners.

Earlier upon arrival Gary had spoken to an Indian sister who had converted from Hinduism to Christianity and she was encouraged to steadfastly share her testimony of the hope that is within her with her remaining Hindu family. Gospel literature was given to her for this purpose. Whilst this conversation was taking place the elders had spent sometime with our Brother Hartmut in fellowship.

A while thereafter, Brother Dave gave his testimony of being an arrogant, white South African sinner who was miraculously saved at the Fynnlands Baptist Church on the Bluff in Durban when he attended a service when invited by his neighbour to solely get this neighbour off of his back! Since then he has been serving the LORD and you can read Dave’s testimony Here. Then Brother Dave handed over to Gary who then preached the Gospel of the Kingdom of God to the African folk who had also joined us – one male patient and two sister staff members. The preaching was from the Gospel of Saint John chapter 3 – you must be born again!

After an hour of fellowship, testifying and preaching, we left Brother Hartmut encouraged and others challenged with the Word of Truth especially since the African male patient also engages in his cultural ancestral worship – wicked traditions of men. Pray for souls that heard the Gospel of the goodness and severity of God Almighty and that salvation can only be obtained through our Lord Jesus Christ alone by being born again! Our prayers are always for genuine repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ (see Acts 20:21).

We are also happy to announce that our Abba Father has been merciful and gracious to our Brother Hartmut who has since been discharged from hospital and is at home with his family. Praise be to God alone!

Soli Deo Gloria!

Be a Blessing to Nations

On Sunday March, 1 2015, I was down to leading our service at Living Hope with the usual welcome, bulletin announcements, a Scripture reading and an opening prayer.

We are reminded in 1 Corinthians 14:26 ~

26  How is it then, brethren? when ye come together, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine, hath a tongue, hath a revelation, hath an interpretation. Let all things be done unto edifying.

A doctrine was given pertaining to evangelism where we are called to be a blessing to nations; to every tribe and tongue and people group. The Scripture reading was done in three parts. First, Psalm 67 ~

1  To the chief Musician on Neginoth, A Psalm or Song. God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face to shine upon us; Selah. 
2  That thy way may be known upon earth, thy saving health among all nations. 
3  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 
4  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for thou shalt judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah. 
5  Let the people praise thee, O God; let all the people praise thee. 
6  Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us. 
7  God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.

This Psalm has its roots in the covenant YEHOVAH (YHVH – God) made with Abram – later to be named Abraham, father of many nations, as secondly we read in Genesis 12:1-3 ~

1  Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee: 
2  And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing: 
3  And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.

Kindly note, God says in verse 2:

1. I will bless thee;
2. I will make thy name great; and
3. Thou shalt be a blessing.

And in verse 3, God says: “in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.”

The Great Commission started in Genesis 12:1-3. The Great Commission is the Abrahamic covenant and the Abrahamic covenant is God’s unchanging purpose for this world. Thirdly, in Galatians 3:8, we read ~

8  And the scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached before the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

The gospel, the good news of the Kingdom of God, was already preached to Abraham in Genesis 12:1-3, saying, In thee shall all nations be blessed.

Today the Church has a misconception of what it is to be blessed. The Church tends to think that to be blessed of God is that the blessings come in possessions, material objects, lots of riches for one’s self and family. But the true blessing is that you have been blessed by being saved from God’s wrath and what you have is what God has given you to be a blessing to the nations, taking the gospel of Christ to the unreached peoples of the world. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (John 3:16).

In the Great Commission verses in Matthew 28:18-20 the word nations is the Greek word ethnos from which we get “ethnics”, which refers to races, tribes especially foreign, pagan, Gentile, heathen, people, nation.

Whilst currently studying Missiology and evangelism I had to do a 2 Corinthians 13:5 examination of myself and it was not a pleasant experience. I do suggest that each and every person examine themselves to see whether they are being truly obedient to God’s commands. Go into your homes and see the entertainment that is there. Leonard Ravenhill said, “Entertainment is the Devil’s substitution for joy.” Entertainment robs us of what we are supposed to be undertaking for the Kingdom of God. What do you watch on Hellevision? How are you a blessing with your time and resources to the unreached people groups of the world?

Are we Jonahs? – running from our commission, that is co-mission with God. Are we asleep in the bottom of the boat while the storm rages outside, a judgment upon the earth, as we read in Romans 1:18 ~

18  For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;

Or are we as Jonah oblivious to the raging storm directed at him/us? At times the Church too sleeps right through the storm of God’s judgment passing over the world assuring herself that the winds outside has nothing to do with her.

Here is the challenge – we going to hear about the heroes of the faith in Hebrews 11 (sermon of the day). Are we individually and corporately going to leave a mark on this generation that people will be speaking of after we have passed on, should our Lord tarry? Leonard Ravenhill hits the nail on the head when he poses the following, not verbatim: We have 24 hours in a day – if we sleep 8 hours, work 8 hours, what are we doing with the remaining 8 hours? Now put that in years. You live 60 years, 20 years you sleep, 20 years you work, what are you doing with the remaining 20 years?

I will end off with Thomas Carlisle’s poem “You! Jonah!”, which possibly sums up the tardiness of being a blessing to the nations, with these lines:

And Jonah stalked to his shaded seat
and waited for God to come around to his way of thinking.

And God is still waiting for a host of Jonahs
in their comfortable houses to come around to His way of loving.

Soli Deo Gloria!

You can listen to the audio Here or by clicking the Internet Archive logo >>>

The notes above are not verbatim with the audio.

______________

Some wording from Kairos: God, the Church and the World, 4th Edition: Living Springs International.

Kirk Cameron’s “Saving Christmas” Film

It is with unhappiness and much sadness that I write this article as it relates to two men I came to respect and love in the ministry and had the privilege of meeting, labouring with and being instructed in the ways of open-air preaching and sharing the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. By the providence of our Great God and Saviour I was able to leave the shores of Africa and visit the United States of America in June 2008 and briefly attend the Ambassadors’ Academy 3, a ministry of Living Waters, under the leadership of the two brothers in the faith, namely Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron of The Way of the Master ministry.

Just recently I viewed Kirk Cameron’s Facebook page where he had been promoting his “Saving Christmas” film as depicted here-above. I had been made aware of this film through an article that appeared at Christian News Network where it is surprisingly quoted:

Was Santa Claus a Christian? A ‘defender of the faith’? Is this reason to sit on the lap of the bearded man at the mall who “knows if you’ve been naughty or nice”? That is what Kirk Cameron is claiming as proof why Christians should celebrate Christmas in a new documentary that opens this Friday [November 14, 2014] in theatres across the country—an assertion that is raising concerns over Cameron’s confusion of Roman Catholicism with Christianity.

Cameron, best known for his role as Mike Seaver on the 80’s TV sitcom “Growing Pains” and films such as “Fireproof” and “Left Behind,” has been promoting his new film “Saving Christmas,” in which the actor seeks to “keep Christ in Christmas,” stating that some holiday traditions aren’t so bad or pagan after all.

After recently asserting that Christians should celebrate Halloween, in a video clip released last week entitled “Do You Love Santa Claus,” Cameron stated that “maybe someone like Santa Claus is actually on our team.” He then released a second video providing the history of the figure of Santa Claus, who was actually the Roman Catholic Bishop Nicholas of Myra, Turkey under Pope Sylvester I.

“He was a devout Christian,” Cameron states, but not noting Nicholas’ Roman Catholic faith. Read more Here (Full Report)

Another Christian News Network article that should be read appears at this link: ‘Maybe the Grinch Had a Point’: Kirk Cameron’s ‘Saving Christmas’ Won’t Be Saved From Critics.

Whilst I have personally not viewed the film, and will not be viewing the same in its entirety, I have watched the trailer and read some reviews on it, and have also seen the comments on Kirk Cameron’s Facebook page – for the film vs. against the film; pro-Christmas vs. anti-Christmas; man’s pagan traditions vs. Biblical Historical Truth. It all makes for interesting reading, but there can be only one Truth. Just as our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ said:

31  . . . If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed;
32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.
36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. ~ John 8:31,32 & 36

This is the saddest part of this blog posting. I had placed a comment on Kirk’s Facebook wall, including the birth chart to the left (click on it to enlarge in another tab), and my comment was deleted. You read right – D E L E T E D. It appears that when one confronts error with the literal Biblical Historical Truth you are summarily deleted and not allowed to “play in the play-group.” I am saddened and really disappointed by how professing Christians can censure Christians if they do not agree with their world view! It goes much deeper than that as it is a matter of Truth vs. error and those in error do not want to listen! Well argue with the Word of God then. When one reads the Holy Scriptures, are you able to find “Christmas Day” mentioned in YHVH’s Holy Feast Days in Leviticus 23? Or maybe it was instituted in the New Testament and I have just missed the Chapter and Verse! No, you can’t find it, because it doesn’t exist.

Surprisingly an initial comment with the chart also appears to have mysteriously disappeared on Ray Comfort’s Facebook wall, and this before I reposted three more comments randomly! It is also very surprisingly that Kirk Cameron who is attempting to evangelise the masses has also changed his comment settings and you have to “possibly like” his page before you can comment thereon; or is the comment feature only not available to me? Well, getting back to the initial comment on Kirk’s page which went something along these lines, not verbatim as the original one was deleted:

Christian, please read your Holy Bible and you will find out that Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ, was born on 15 Tishri (September/October) at the Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) and He was born in a Sukkot (Booth) and not a stable/cave. If you know what to look for start reading: Luke 1 and 2; 1 Chronicles 24:10; Leviticus 23:33-44; Deuteronomy 16:16; and many other Scriptures.

To help with the Scriptures quoted here-above please view the afore-stated Birth of Christ Chart together with the following powerpoint presentation: The Nativity of Yeshua HaMeshiach.

Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron receive literally thousands upon thousands of “hits/likes/shares/comments” on their Facebook accounts and it is mostly by idolising Christian folk. If a message is being proclaimed please make sure it is without error. In the past I too fell into the trap of “idolising” men such as Comfort and MacArthur, and I had to REPENT before God for being so caught up in men’s ministries in idolatry instead of listening to the leading Holy Spirit and walking with God. Don’t say it will never happen to you. For many of you it has already happened and you can’t see the woods for the trees!

The only conclusion I can arrive at is that the literal Biblical Historical Truth that I presented showed up the errors in Kirk Cameron’s “Saving Christmas.” My plea to ALL reading this is: Stop trying to put the Lord Jesus Christ into something He was never in to start off with! Do you think the “Christmas” practices that are undertaken every year were at His birth? Was there a Xmas tree and all the tinsel and trappings in the sukkot Yeshua, our Lord Jesus Christ was born in? Or do you think there is a Xmas tree in heaven before the throne of God Almighty every year to celebrate His Son’s birth? Obviously the first century believers never celebrated this way so why should you/we do so now? YES – certainly preach the Gospel at every opportunity including on December 25, but don’t be pagan like the rest of the heathen world. You can do so separated from the worldly system (see James 4:4). You are to be in the world, but not of the world, as it is written:

15  I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil.
16  They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
17  Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. ~ John 17:15-17

We are commanded to have unity in the Christian faith. Unfortunately we don’t see unity, but rather divisions. As it is written:

9  God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord.
10  Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.
11  For it hath been declared unto me of you, my brethren, by them which are of the house of Chloe, that there are contentions among you.
12  Now this I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul; and I of Apollos; and I of Cephas; and I of Christ.
13  Is Christ divided? was Paul crucified for you? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul? ~ 1 Corinthians 1:9-13

3  Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4  There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling;
5  One Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6  One God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all. ~ Ephesians 4:3-6

14  That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
15  But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ: ~ Ephesians 4:14,15

Christ Jesus made it abundantly clear how we are to remember Him. It is recorded what we are to do in remembrance of Him until He returns for His spotless, unified Bride:

23  For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:
24  And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.
25  After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the new testament in my blood: this do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me.
26  For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew the Lord’s death till he come. ~ 1 Corinthians 11:23-26; read with Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:19,20. [my emphasis]

Maybe Chris Williams, movie reviewer for the Advisor and Source in Michigan has it right. At the second Christian News Network report above, quote: “Williams said that in the end, “Kirk Cameron hasn’t made a movie for Christians. He’s made a movie for Kirk Cameron.””  I would have thought Kirk would contend for the faith and would have told the literal Biblical Historical Truth and stood as a light in this dark wicked world, and “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven” (Matthew 5:16). We read further in Romans 13:12  “The night is far spent, the day is at hand: let us therefore cast off the works of darkness, and let us put on the armour of light.” “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Ephesians 5:11). The “Saving Christmas” film is not reproving the unfruitful works of darkness, but encouraging them. If this is so, then brother Kirk Cameron in sincere love I call you to repentance.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

_______________

P.S. This blog posting will be placed on my Facebook wall and Ray Comfort and Kirk Cameron will be tagged accordingly.

Nelson Mandela’s Wake

After all that has been said and done over the last ten days of mourning from Nelson Mandela’s death on December 5, 2013 at Houghton, Gauteng until his state funeral at Qunu in the Eastern Cape on December 15, 2013, it is sad that South African’s and the world communities from all nations have been mislead into much idolizing and placing the man Mandela on a pedestal, reverencing him as an idol, a god that is worshiped.

Many secular unbelievers and religious persons, together with professing Christians, who say they do not worship him or commit idolatry towards him, the very persons have given Mandela during his life and even now in his death cultic reverence that far exceeds the worship of the Creator of the world. At no other time in history has the majority of people in this world given such reverence to a mere man than at this time, when the same majority of people cannot even worship the One True God in the same way. Not every religion worships the same God and we can even see that Mandela sold out to the Devil’s wiles by giving all people groups in South Africa freedom of religion that blasphemously encourages even the cultural ancestral worship and Satanic worship in terms of the Bill of Rights enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (Act No. 108 of 1996), and at the same time the preamble of the constitution reads “… May God protect our people. Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika, Morena boloka setjhaba sa heso, God seën Suid Afrika, God bless South Africa, …”. Why would God bless a nation that has rebelled against Him with false, evil and wicked idolatrise worship of other gods through religious works and man-made customs, traditions, commandments and legislation? God’s Word says that if any person does not believe upon His only begotten Son, the Lord Jesus Christ, that person is condemned already, as we read:

John 3:17  For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. John 3:18  He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. John 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. John 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. John 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

We also read:

John 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

The world at large as well as South Africans repeatedly said that Mandela is “resting in peace” and countless messages give the eulogy that he must “R.I.P.” If Mandela was not born-again of God (see John 3:3,5-7) then he would not see the Kingdom of God. We also heard from Mandela’s daughter Makaziwe, to quote from The Witness newspaper dated June 28, 2013, Madiba’s daughter said “her father had been unequivocal. He had repeatedly said that when he died he would look for the ANC branch in heaven and join it.” The truth be told, the Holy Word of God as contained in the Holy Bible does not say that there are man-made political parties in heaven. Any believer in the Lord Jesus Christ would realise that he would be before the throne of God worshipping the Lamb of God, His Son the Lord Jesus Christ, and not looking for any man-made communist-ideology party. We also note that there was no public profession of faith by Mandela that he was a follower of the Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, he was one who pampered to the masses and gave them carte blanche to worship any god they wished, when the Creator of the heavens and earth, YHVH (Yehovah, LORD), said He will not give His glory to any other, as we read:

Isaiah 42:8  I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.

Isa 48:11  For mine own sake, even for mine own sake, will I do it: for how should my name be polluted? and I will not give my glory unto another. Isa 48:12  Hearken unto me, O Jacob and Israel, my called; I am he; I am the first, I also am the last.

There is also an indictment against every nation that comes against God’s chosen people Israel (Jacob) and they do so at their own peril and demise. We also read about how God deals with those that worship false gods that He has not commanded nor will tolerate, as we read:

Judges 10:6  And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook the LORD, and served not him. Judges 10:7  And the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and he sold them into the hands of the Philistines, and into the hands of the children of Ammon.

Judges 10:10  And the children of Israel cried unto the LORD, saying, We have sinned against thee, both because we have forsaken our God, and also served Baalim. Judges 10:11  And the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Did not I deliver you from the Egyptians, and from the Amorites, from the children of Ammon, and from the Philistines? Judges 10:12  The Zidonians also, and the Amalekites, and the Maonites, did oppress you; and ye cried to me, and I delivered you out of their hand. Judges 10:13  Yet ye have forsaken me, and served other gods: wherefore I will deliver you no more. Judges 10:14  Go and cry unto the gods which ye have chosen; let them deliver you in the time of your tribulation. Judges 10:15  And the children of Israel said unto the LORD, We have sinned: do thou unto us whatsoever seemeth good unto thee; deliver us only, we pray thee, this day.
Judges 10:16  And they put away the strange gods from among them, and served the LORD: and his soul was grieved for the misery of Israel. [writer’s emphasis]

Nothing has changed since Mandela signed into law the practice of freedom of religion as we saw at the FNB Stadium Memorial that took place on December 10, 2013 before a world audience when proceedings were opened by the atheistic ANC regime who promotes all gods which in effect promotes no “God”, when an interfaith prayer session opened proceedings. This is ecumenical which is an affront to Almighty God, an abomination. When presidents of nations followed by their people say “God bless” after practicing such heinous debauchery against a Holy Sovereign Good and Perfect God, how can they even think the One and Only True God who revealed Himself as the Lord Jesus Christ, will bless them. In fact, the God you have blasphemed with your idolatrise practices and neglect of the good for the practice of the profane evil will not bless, but curse you and your earthly nations! The writing is on the wall and Judgment is at the door! The axe has been laid at the root of the people. The Lord Jesus Christ says:

John 8:24  I said therefore unto you, that ye shall die in your sins: for if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins.

There is no resting in peace when people die in their sin outside the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ. Irrespective of what you believe through your religious practices  or lack thereof, God has made only ONE WAY of receiving peace between Him and you and therefore you can ONLY have a relationship with God through His only begotten Son Jesus. No other way exists! God’s Word tells us, as we read:

1 Timothy 2:5  For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

and the Lord Jesus Christ said, as we read:

John 14:6  Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
John 14:7  If ye had known me, ye should have known my Father also: and from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.

and we hear how we receive the righteousness of God, as we read:

2 Corinthians 5:21  For he [God] hath made him [Jesus] to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

It is with a grieved heart that we learn that up to the death of Mandela that the traditions and customs of men were still prevalent, which goes contrary to God’s Word. We also read in an article that appears online at MailOnline, where you can read the following, quote:

“During the last hours before his death at 8.50pm Johannesburg time, elders from Mandela’s native Thembu clan joined his relatives at his side.

“The elders would have performed, either at Mandela’s home or later in the mortuary, a traditional ceremony called ‘the closing of the eyes’, to herald the transition from life to the next stage.

“The ceremony would have involved the elders talking to Mandela, and also to his ancestors, to explain what was happening to his spirit during each stage as he passed from life on earth, CNN reported.” [end quote]

This description does not appear in God’s Word, but what God tells us in His Holy Word is that no-one is to speak to the dead, which is to be a necromancer. We read in Deuteronomy 18:10,11 as it is written:

Deu 18:10 There shall not be found among you any one that maketh his son or his daughter to pass through the fire, or that useth divination, or an observer of times, or an enchanter, or a witch, Deu 18:11 Or a charmer, or a consulter with familiar spirits, or a wizard, or a necromancer.

From the preceding portion of Scripture we see that God orders that there should be no “consulters with familiar spirits” or a “necromancer” and it is evident that upon the “elders talking to Mandela, and also to his ancestors” it is a clear violation of God’s command. This obviously is what Mandela believed in for the Mandela family practiced their “custom, ritual and taboo” of his early childhood [Wikipedia]. From these practices it is clear that what Christian background Mandela might have engaged in in his early years, he mixed it with his traditions and customs, which the Word of God says makes God’s Word of none effect (see Matthew 15:6; Mark 7:13).

What is also sad, is that Satan wants the world to be deceived and we now see “everyone” wants to follow the legacy of Mandela, which goes against the Word of God. We also see that people are deceived by making such bold-faced statements that “God and Mandela will rule the universe” [a written note by a young mourner at a shrine outside Mandela’s Houghton home] or that “Mandela is the black man’s messiah.” The last statement was voiced quite brazenly by people waiting in lines during the empty corpse of Mandela laying in state at the Union Buildings in Pretoria as brothers-in-Christ Ricky Springer (Full Proof Gospel Ministry) and Gary Crous (Repent and Believe South Africa) preached our Lord Jesus Christ to them, calling men, women and children to repentance and faith in Christ the Saviour, the Only True and living God who can justify you and forgive you of your sin. An earnest call was made to repent and turn from their idolatrise behaviours to a merciful God, and to worship Him alone. [Photos of Mandela’s Wake]

What is disturbing is that citizens of South Africa are being indoctrinated and brain-washed with a communism technique that keeps people in bondage and fearful. Following a democracy does not give people freedom, it just makes you a slave of another political system. The Lord Jesus Christ said that if you knew the truth it shall make you free, as we read:

John 8:31  Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on him, If ye continue in my word, then are ye my disciples indeed; John 8:32  And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. John 8:33  They answered him, We be Abraham’s seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? John 8:34  Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.
John 8:35  And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever.
John 8:36  If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. John 8:37  I know that ye are Abraham’s seed; but ye seek to kill me, because my word hath no place in you. John 8:38  I speak that which I have seen with my Father: and ye do that which ye have seen with your father.

And “your father” that the Lord Jesus Christ refers to is Satan, the Devil, as we read:

John 8:44  Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

What the world needs now is not to follow the legacy of a dead man who could not resurrect himself, but to obey the commands of a living God who showed He is the Messiah by resurrecting Himself to life again, something Mandela could not do! Who you follow determines your eternal destiny. The Lord Jesus Christ said that you will know a man by his fruit – how he conducts his life. Is he living for Truth – which is a Person, not a set of rules and regulations – or is he deceived by lies? Whosoever committeth sin is a servant to sin (lawlessness – sin is the transgression of the law, see 1 John 3:4). What the world also sweeps away is the very conduct of Mandela. Sadly, after being released from prison, he did not leave his hatred behind in prison as the fable goes, as can be seen by him singing a “liberation” song from the heart, saying “we will kill the white man – amaBhulu.”

The same applies with the radical songs “Shoot the Boer” and “Take up your machine gun” that even the South African president Jacob Zuma has openly sung even after taking up power after apartheid. We read the following in God’s Holy Word:

Ephesians 5:19  Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;

It is clear that the vast majority of the people do not sing and make melody in their heart to the Lord as set out in the preceding Scripture as they are not believers in our Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, what prevails in and amongst the secular world is the very opposite, and sadly in and amongst professing Christians and those that masquerade as Gospel singers,  many of them do the singing for filthy lucre’s sake, for self-enrichment and out of greed and self-honour.  What is also evident is that it is not just the singing of so-called liberation songs, but there is a sinister evil practice afoot that has South Africans grossly gullible, blinded by a smokescreen masquerading as democracy as they believe the lie that South Africa is better off today than the dark days of apartheid. Sadly it starts with the indoctrination of our children through a god-hating regime who keeps brain-washing the populace with the so-called evils of apartheid without painting the full picture of the communist terrorism that prevailed through the military wing MK with the killing of both black and white civilians and the present genocide (watch the video of Genocide Watch at the link) that is taking place with atrocities against predominately white Afrikaner Boers who are the growing statistics of farm-murders. South Africa is also the murder and rape capital of the world with crime totally out of control. The sad reality that even so-called Christians cannot see is the prevalence of apartheid being practiced in reverse in the form of BBBEE right in our very midst, and this after Mandela said that never, never, and never again will one group rule over another (at his swearing-in as president of South Africa in 1994).

In closing, in the tribute given at the funeral in Qunu on December 15, 2013, by Nelson Mandela’s friend Ahmed Kathrada, he addressed Mandela as “Madala” as if he could hear him by saying: “What do we say to you in these, the last final moments together, before you exit the public stage forever?” In response Mr Kathrada, Mr Mandela departed into eternity the night he died. He could not hear you at the funeral. Kathrada then ended off the speech with the following statement: “When Walter [Sisulu] died, I lost a father and now I have lost a brother. My life is in a void and I don’t know who to turn to.” In response to your predicament, and all those who find themselves in the same predicament, the answer is simple: You need to repent and turn your sinful life over to the Lord Jesus Christ; He is your only hope.

South Africa and the world communities have been warned. This is your only hope, as we read in Philippians 2:1-15:

Php 2:1  If there be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any bowels and mercies, Php 2:2  Fulfil ye my joy, that ye be likeminded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Php 2:3  Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves. Php 2:4  Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on the things of others. Php 2:5  Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Php 2:6  Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God: Php 2:7  But made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men: Php 2:8  And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. Php 2:9  Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:
Php 2:10  That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; Php 2:11  And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Php 2:12  Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling. Php 2:13  For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure. Php 2:14  Do all things without murmurings and disputings: Php 2:15  That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;

The God of Creation is not tolerant – He is intolerant of your abominable blasphemous idolatrise sin! Repent today, before it is too late! Ukupenduka!

SOLI DEO GLORIA!

_______________

Related posts

Nelson Mandela Day 2011

The Face of Evil and Wicked South Africa

Nelson Mandela and the Iconic Man

The Mandelas, the ancestors, and a nation going to Hell

Nelson Mandela Day 2013

Eastern Cape Mission

Healings or Preaching for Salvation

On Wednesday April 10, 2013 I was contacted by Brother Ed White to come share about the Repent and Believe South Africa ministry with their Bible-study group meeting at his home with his family – wife Petra and their younger daughter Catherine (Rebecca was at work) – which also included his pastor David (jnr.), his wife Kate and David’s dad David (snr.). Brother Aziz was also present having arrived with me.

I ask that this teaching be received in love, as it is intended, and that this matter be heard first before answering the matter as we read:

Proverbs 18:13 He that answereth a matter before he heareth it, it is folly and shame unto him.

This account that follows is hopefully as I understood it correctly. During the discussions, we were advised by David (snr.) that he is involved in the ministry of healing and he gave testimonies of healings that took place. He spoke of a time when 76 (?) people were healed at once in a shed on a farm in Namibia. [Healed from what? This question needs to be answered. Were all the people at that one “meeting” sick? Crippled? Maimed? Blind? Deaf? We know not]. During the evening at one point David (snr.) also mentioned that Jesus’ healings were to save souls as he elaborated on the death of our Saviour upon the Cross being bruised and taking the punishment – which was a graphic description of the Roman torture of the “cat-with-nine-tails with nine barbs”, etc. – also for our healings! He indicated that we, as believers, should move in the anointing of the healing ministry and people will be saved when they see signs and wonders and miracles, because this will reveal that “Jesus is in the house.” However, I advised at the time that not every person is healed, but the greatest miracle of all is when dead-men walking are converted into new creations and being born-again of the Spirit of God! (see John 3:3, 5 and 6)

Being asked to come and share our street preaching ministry and sharing at the home group meeting from the Scriptures, being Ephesians 4:11-16 as read with 1 Corinthians 1:9-13 dealing expressively with the teaching aspect of the ministry and that believers are to be in unity, hearing what our brethren taught concerning their healing ministry it caused me to go away and ask questions of our Father and it was in the waking hours the next morning that certain revelation was unfolding by what was given to me in thoughts that caused me to start searching the Scriptures as a Berean (see Acts 17:11).

What follows is what I believe our Father has revealed to me and He wishes to share with the aforementioned Bible-study group again, which is what is done here.

Healings are not a draw card for Salvation or to Salvation. In Romans 1:16,17 we read what was revealed to the Apostle Paul which reads, as follows:

Rom 1:16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

The power of God unto salvation is the Gospel of Christ to those that believeth. The preaching of God’s Word is what saves people, not signs and wonders and miracles. What saves people from God’s wrath is Salvation which is of God and “… not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?” (see Romans 2:4). We also read, for it is written:

1 Cor 1:18 For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

The preaching of the cross is the Gospel. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is to be preached as the Apostle Paul said “… woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel!” (see 1 Corinthians 9:16) We also know that God uses the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe:

1 Cor 1:21 For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe.

John the Baptist, the Apostles and Jesus the Christ all said that people must repent or they would perish. We read in many accounts of their preaching “Repentance” in Matthew 3:2, 4:17; Mark 1:15, 6:12; Luke 13:3, 5; Acts 2:38, 3:19, 8:22, 17:30, 20:21, 26:20, Revelation 2:5, 16, 21, 22, and 3:3. We are also told in Scripture that we have the ministry of reconciliation as given to us in 2 Corinthians 5:18-21 ~

2 Cor 5:18 And all things are of God, who hath reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ, and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation;

2 Cor 5:19 To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation.

2 Cor 5:20 Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ’s stead, be ye reconciled to God.

2 Cor 5:21 For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him.

What we also see in Scripture is that the Law of God has to be a schoolmaster (teacher) to lead people to Christ as we read in Galatians:

Gal 3:24 Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.

Gal 3:25 But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.

We are also told that we are saved by grace through faith in Ephesians as it is written:

Eph 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

We also know that healings is a gift of the Holy Spirit and so is faith (see 1 Corinthians 12:9), but the gifts are given to believers for the Kingdom of God. When we read about the gifts and that it is for the one body and every member has need of the other in the one body – referring to and in context to the believers in Christ – we also see that these gifts all work for each other and there is to be no division “schism”. We read that we believers are to use our gifts for the care of one another, as we read:

1 Cor 12:25 That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.

1 Cor 12:26 And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it.

1 Cor 12:27 Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

1 Cor 12:28 And God hath set some in the church, first apostles, secondarily prophets, thirdly teachers, after that miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, governments, diversities of tongues.

1 Cor 12:29 Are all apostles? are all prophets? are all teachers? are all workers of miracles?

1 Cor 12:30 Have all the gifts of healing? do all speak with tongues? do all interpret?

1 Cor 12:31 But covet earnestly the best gifts: and yet shew I unto you a more excellent way.

Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:

Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

These gifts are to be exercised in the Kingdom of God which is within you! (see Luke 17:21). The healings are for us believers first and foremost. If a sinner comes to repentance and faith and needs a healing, then those who have the gift of healing will heal that brother or sister. These are Kingdom principles, as we are exhorted by our Lord Jesus Christ: Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (see Matthew 7:6). Initially, the healings done by our Lord Jesus Christ through His ministry on earth were attesting signs to confirm His deity as the Son of God and as God manifest in the flesh (1 Timothy 3:16) as well as the Gospel – the Good News! And the first Apostles did this too as we read in Act 2:43 and that there were “fear came upon every soul” “And all that believed were together, and had all things common;” (Acts 2:44). The reason we can know this is that when our Lord Jesus Christ healed ten lepers we read of the account that only one stranger – a Samaritan – came and gave God glory. Many people want the healing, but few accept the healer our Lord Jesus Christ, as Lord of their lives. We read:

Luke 17:11 And it came to pass, as he went to Jerusalem, that he passed through the midst of Samaria and Galilee.

Luke 17:12 And as he entered into a certain village, there met him ten men that were lepers, which stood afar off:

Luke 17:13 And they lifted up their voices, and said, Jesus, Master, have mercy on us.

Luke 17:14 And when he saw them, he said unto them, Go shew yourselves unto the priests. And it came to pass, that, as they went, they were cleansed.

Luke 17:15 And one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, and with a loud voice glorified God,

Luke 17:16 And fell down on his face at his feet, giving him thanks: and he was a Samaritan.

Luke 17:17 And Jesus answering said, Were there not ten cleansed? but where are the nine?

Luke 17:18 There are not found that returned to give glory to God, save this stranger.

Luke 17:19 And he said unto him, Arise, go thy way: thy faith hath made thee whole.

Luke 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

Luke 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

The Gospel is about changed hearts! This is also confirmed when we see that many disciples stopped following our Lord Jesus Christ when we read John 6:66! These were the very disciples that witnessed the healings, miracles and feedings. That is why we need to understand the parable of the sower (see Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8) which deals with the soils (hearts). There are many that fall away from the faith because they never came repentant having the good seed planted in the good soil that brings forth a good harvest and they are a result of a man-centred gospel that lacks repentance and has no power, and men have changed the ways of God to suit their own doctrines, traditions and customs. The ways of men cause false converts which leads many to be inoculated to the True Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ!

We also read on another occasion of the account when our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to His disciples returning from a mission, as it is written:

Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.

Luke 10:18 And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

Luke 10:19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

Luke 10:20 Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.

Our rejoicing, in humility, should be because our names are written in heaven. We also can read from the work J.C. Ryle Expository Thoughts on the Gospel, the following in relation to the aforementioned Scripture portion:

“Luke 10:17-20 WE learn, from this passage, how ready Christians are to be puffed up with success. It is written, that the seventy returned from their first mission with joy, “saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name.” There was much false fire in that joy. There was evidently self-satisfaction in that report of achievements. The whole tenor of the passage leads us to this conclusion. The remarkable expression which our Lord uses about Satan’s fall from heaven, was most probably meant to be a caution. He read the hearts of the young and inexperienced soldiers before Him. He saw how much they were lifted up by their first victory. He wisely checks them in their undue exultation. He warns them against pride.

The lesson is one which all who work for Christ should mark and remember. Success is what all faithful laborers in the Gospel field desire. The minister at home and the missionary abroad, the district visitor and the city missionary, the tract distributor and the Sunday-school teacher, all alike long for success. All long to see Satan’s kingdom pulled down, and souls converted to God. We cannot wonder. The desire is right and good.

Let it, however, never be forgotten, that the time of success is a time of danger to the Christian’s soul. The very hearts that are depressed when all things seem against them are often unduly exalted in the day of prosperity. Few men are like Samson, and can kill a lion without telling others of it. (Jdg 14:6.) No wonder that Paul says of a bishop, that he ought not to be “a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil.” (1Ti 3:6.) Most of Christ’s laborers probably have as much success as their souls can bear.

Let us pray much for humility, and especially for humility in our days of peace and success. When everything around us seems to prosper, and all our plans work well,—when family trials and sicknesses are kept from us, and the course of our worldly affairs runs smooth,—when our daily crosses are light, and all within and without like a morning without clouds,—then, then is the time when our souls are in danger! Then is the time when we have need to be doubly watchful over our own hearts. Then is the time when seeds of evil are sown within us by the devil, which may one day astound us by their growth and strength.

There are few Christians who can carry a full cup with a steady hand. There are few whose souls prosper in their days of uninterrupted success. We are all inclined to sacrifice to our net, and burn incense to our own drag. (Hab 1:16.) We are ready to think that our own might and our own wisdom have procured us the victory. The caution of the passage before us ought never to be forgotten. In the midst of our triumphs, let us cry earnestly, “Lord, clothe us with humility.”

We learn, for another thing, from these verses, that gifts, and power of working miracles, are very inferior to grace. It is written that our Lord said to the seventy disciples, “In this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.” It was doubtless an honor and a privilege to be allowed to cast out devils. The disciples were right to be thankful. But it was a far higher privilege to be converted and pardoned men, and to have their names written in the register of saved souls.

The distinction here drawn between grace and gifts is one of deep importance, and often and sadly overlooked in the present day. Gifts, such as mental vigor, vast memory, striking eloquence, ability in argument, power in reasoning, are often unduly valued by those who possess them, and unduly admired by those who possess them not. These things ought not so to be. Men forget that gifts without grace save no one’s soul, and are the characteristic of Satan himself.

Grace, on the contrary, is an everlasting inheritance, and, lowly and despised as its possessor may be, will land him safe in glory. He that has gifts without grace is dead in sins, however splendid his gifts may be. But he that has grace without gifts is alive to God, however unlearned and ignorant he may appear to man. And “a living dog is better than a dead lion.” (Ecc 9:4.)

Let the religion which we aim to possess be a religion in which grace is the main thing. Let it not content us to be able to speak eloquently, or preach powerfully, or reason ably, or argue cleverly, or profess loudly, or talk fluently. Let it not satisfy us to know the whole system of Christian doctrines, and to have texts and words at our command. These things are all well in their way. They are not to be undervalued. They have their use. But these things are not the grace of God, and they will not deliver us from hell. Let us never rest until we have the witness of the Spirit within us that we are “washed, and sanctified, and justified, in the name of the Lord Jesus and by the Spirit of God.” (1Co 6:11.) Let us seek to know that “our names are written in heaven,” and that we are really one with Christ and Christ in us. Let us strive to be “epistles of Christ known and read of all men,” and to show by our meekness, and charity, and faith, and spiritual-mindedness, that we are the children of God. This is true religion. These are the real marks of saving Christianity. Without such marks, a man may have abundance of gifts and turn out nothing better than a follower of Judas Iscariot, the false apostle, and go at last to hell. With such marks, a man may be like Lazarus, poor and despised upon earth, and have no gifts at all. But his name is written in heaven, and Christ shall own him as one of His people at the last day.” (End quote)

When we look at the many healings and miracles done by our Lord Jesus Christ, we see a recurring mention of faith and belief by those receiving the healing. As mentioned earlier faith is a gift from God by the Holy Spirit as we can read in 1 Corinthians 12:9 and also in Galatians 5:22 where faith is listed as a Fruit of the Holy Spirit. Therefore, we can know from the Scriptures that these healings and miracles had to be attesting signs as no person can have that type of faith unless God has drawn the person and imparted the gift. We know that none seeks after God (see Romans 3:11) and No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him: … (see John 6:44), so God had to have given the persons the faith, their belief and the ability for them to worship our Lord Jesus Christ. We are also here speaking about Jews from the House of Israel who must have received a revelation from God to know Jesus as Messiah. Why else would Jews call Yeshua Lord? Here are a few examples:

Blind Bartimaeus called Him Lord – Rabboni from Rabbi, Master = Great Teacher – and had faith.

Mark 10:46 And they came to Jericho: and as he went out of Jericho with his disciples and a great number of people, blind Bartimaeus, the son of Timaeus, sat by the highway side begging.

Mark 10:47 And when he heard that it was Jesus of Nazareth, he began to cry out, and say, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

Mark 10:48 And many charged him that he should hold his peace: but he cried the more a great deal, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me.

Mark 10:49 And Jesus stood still, and commanded him to be called. And they call the blind man, saying unto him, Be of good comfort, rise; he calleth thee.

Mark 10:50 And he, casting away his garment, rose, and came to Jesus.

Mark 10:51 And Jesus answered and said unto him, What wilt thou that I should do unto thee? The blind man said unto him, Lord, that I might receive my sight.

Mark 10:52 And Jesus said unto him, Go thy way; thy faith hath made thee whole. And immediately he received his sight, and followed Jesus in the way.

In Mark 7:24-30 the Syrophenician woman called Him Lord – she must have also heard of our Lord Jesus Christ and believed for in Matthew’s account in 15:21-28 her faith heals her daughter (v.28).

In Mark 5:35-43 Jarius’ daughter is healed – he is told to be not afraid only believe.

In Mark 5:1-20 the demons are cast out of the demoniac. In verse 6 the man came and worshipped Jesus. Cf verse 19 the Lord hath done for thee, and hath had compassion on thee.

Then there is the woman with the issue of blood twelve years:

Mark 5:25 And a certain woman, which had an issue of blood twelve years,

Mark 5:26 And had suffered many things of many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was nothing bettered, but rather grew worse,

Mark 5:27 When she had heard of Jesus, came in the press behind, and touched his garment.

Mark 5:28 For she said, If I may touch but his clothes, I shall be whole.

Mark 5:29 And straightway the fountain of her blood was dried up; and she felt in her body that she was healed of that plague.

Mark 5:30 And Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about in the press, and said, Who touched my clothes?

Mark 5:31 And his disciples said unto him, Thou seest the multitude thronging thee, and sayest thou, Who touched me?

Mark 5:32 And he looked round about to see her that had done this thing.

Mark 5:33 But the woman fearing and trembling, knowing what was done in her, came and fell down before him, and told him all the truth.

Mark 5:34 And he said unto her, Daughter, thy faith hath made thee whole; go in peace, and be whole of thy plague.

We also read the account of the paralytic being healed which is our Lord Jesus Christ demonstrating that He has power to forgive sins and the act of the miracle healing was the confirmation that the man’s sins were forgiven first:

Mark 2:1 And again he entered into Capernaum after some days; and it was noised that he was in the house.

Mark 2:2 And straightway many were gathered together, insomuch that there was no room to receive them, no, not so much as about the door: and he preached the word unto them.

Mark 2:3 And they come unto him, bringing one sick of the palsy, which was borne of four.

Mark 2:4 And when they could not come nigh unto him for the press, they uncovered the roof where he was: and when they had broken it up, they let down the bed wherein the sick of the palsy lay.

Mark 2:5 When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee.

Mark 2:6 But there were certain of the scribes sitting there, and reasoning in their hearts,

Mark 2:7 Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?

Mark 2:8 And immediately when Jesus perceived in his spirit that they so reasoned within themselves, he said unto them, Why reason ye these things in your hearts?

Mark 2:9 Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee; or to say, Arise, and take up thy bed, and walk?

Mark 2:10 But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins, (he saith to the sick of the palsy,)

Mark 2:11 I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house.

Mark 2:12 And immediately he arose, took up the bed, and went forth before them all; insomuch that they were all amazed, and glorified God, saying, We never saw it on this fashion.

Healings and miracles was not what our Lord Jesus Christ came to do as a means to draw men to Himself to save them. Our Lord Jesus Christ was specific:

Mark 1:38 And he said unto them, Let us go into the next towns, that I may preach there also: for therefore came I forth.

Mark 1:39 And he preached in their synagogues throughout all Galilee, and cast out devils.

We also know that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke in the parable of Lazarus and the rich man dealing with heaven and hell in Luke 16:19-31 that the five brothers of the rich man – who are the people also of this generation – that they have Moses and the prophets (the Bible), and if they do not hear them, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead. We are also told that unless a preacher – not a healer – is sent:

Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

Rom 10:15 And how shall they preach, except they be sent? as it is written, How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!

In two portions of Scripture our Lord Jesus Christ reiterated the following:

Matt 12:39 But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:

Matt 12:40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.

Matt 12:41 The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.

Matt 12:42 The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here.

Matt 16:4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given unto it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas. And he left them, and departed.

Today, this generation is still evil, wicked and adulterous and it is still seeking after a sign as a result of many false prophets, false teachers (2 Peter 2:1) and false apostles (2 Corinthians 11:13) masquerading as “preachers” of Truth, but they are charlatans! The Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ is repentance and faith which are both a gift from Almighty God for Salvation.

We truly hope that this treatise settles the discrepancies that do exist in how brethren interpret Scripture. We are once again reminded that there should be no divisions between the brethren which are saints, the ekklesia of God. Let the living Word of God truly speak from the law and the prophets and the fulfilment of our Lord Jesus Christ as contained in the Holy Bible.

SOLI DEO GLORIA!