A MESSAGE FROM OBADIAH TO USAID

 

"USAID (US AID)  humanitarian packages were found amidst a cache of weapons owned by terror group Hezbollah in Lebanon, an Israel Defense Forces soldier claimed to an American newspaper.

“From the American taxpayer to Hezbollah, with love,” said Asher Fredman,, a former IDF soldier and currently executive director of the Misgav Institute for National Security and Zionist Strategy, a think tank, in Jerusalem.

"Asher told The Post that he found sniper rifles, anti-tank missiles and explosives alongside the care packages marked “USAID” while on patrol in an undisclosed village in Lebanon where the Iran-backed Hezbollah had a stronghold."

There's a line from a TV series in which the antihero, who has been found out, says to the federal agent, "If you don't know who I am, your best course would be to treas lightly."

It is evident that USAID did not know who they were dealing with when they sent aid and comfort to the Jew-hating terrorist group, Hezbollah, an ally and supporter of Hamas. They did know what Hezbollah was, and they did know Hamas but USAID didn't know Someone else. Hamas (lit. "Violence") has stated its goal: 

"Hamas’ ideology is simple and it is this simplicity that makes it so powerful to the masses: 'Israel will exist and will continue to exist until Islam will obliterate it, just as it obliterated others before it'. This declared objective appears right at the beginning of Hamas’ Covenant, as translated and published by the Yale University School of Law.

"To dispel any doubts between being only “anti-Israel” or just plain “antisemitic”, Hamas’ Covenant spells this explicitly: “The Prophet, Allah bless him and grant him salvation, has said: ‘The Day of Judgement will not come about until Moslems fight the Jews (killing the Jews), when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Moslems, O Abdulla, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him.” (The Times of Israel," Oct. 13, 2023, emphasis theirs)

In the shortest book in the Old Testament and the least read one in the Bible, Obadiah identifies who USAID is dealing with when it engages in sending care packages to an organization of Jew haters:

Obadiah 1:11, in a list of Edom's crimes against Israel, there is the notation that one of those crimes was to become one with Babylon who had attacked Israel. Obadiah described what awaited Edom for its aiding Babylon: Obadiah 1:4--"I (God) will bring you down!" despite their boast as the nation bragged, "Who will bring me down?" (Obadiah 1:3)

By sending the care packages, USAID became as Hezbollah and Hamas (Obadiah 1:11). To oppose Israel is to poke the "pupil of God's eye" (Zechariah 2:8, literal translation)  

Recalling the words of verse 4, we have now seen this result: God has has taken down the USAID website, USAID has let go of hundreds of staff, and the USAID office building has been closed, preventing other staff from accessing it.

USAID did not "tread lightly" when it came to giving aid an comfort to the Jew-hating Hezbollah.

 

 

 

THE "RELIGION" YOU'RE ALLOWED TO CRITICISE

 Someone said, "You accept the society in which you were born." In other words, we fail to recognize our own cultural norms because they are so…normal even if they're wrong and we accept them without thought.  Does a fish realize that it's always been in water until it flops ashore?  

For example, decades ago, people used to smoke cigarettes everywhere, even lighting up in hospitals. You didn't think about it; it was normal. When you watched a game show on TV, the host would be smoking (if the sponsor of the program was Camels or Winston). A thank-you gift for being a contestant on a program like "I've Got A Secret" was a carton of the sponsor's cigarettes. 

In commercials on TV or ads on the back cover of a magazine, a man dressed in a white lab coat, a "doctor," would tell us that his favorite brand was Winston which he said,  "Winston astes good like a cigarette should." It was a catchy jingle, one not to be forgotten.

Athletes got into the trend; an ad picturing Mickey Mantle, cigarette in hand, with the words, "So many of the Yanks smoke Camels, I decided to try them. I smoked Camels a while and I knew--Camels are for me! They're mild and swell tasting." We gave it no thought.

Movies advertised in the newspaper didn't give the starting times for the feature; you might arrive in the middle or near the end. Nobody thought about; it just was.

Decades ago, parents gave us boys B-B guns and turned us loose with no supervision to go out and kill as many birds as we could for no other reason than the thrill of the kill. To kill a robin redbreast was a special achievement, one worthy of praise. Nobody thought anything about it. 

Fast forward to our day and the statement still holds, "You accept the society in which you were born." We watch a movie or TV drama in which a kidnappers take a child and hold him for ransom. The frantic parents call the police, the FBI gets involved, they set up a wire tap on the home phone. 

There's one thing the parents don't ever do in the movie: pray. It's the norm for a movie of that type. We think nothing about it. 

Here's another interesting one: there's only one "religion" our culture can criticize and mock it and its Book. Christianity and the Bible. Celebrities winning an Oscar include in their acceptance speech words that mock and blaspheme Christianity. In movies, a preacher is either a fanatical nut, a hypocrite or a devious villain. 

But does the public notice the celebrities don't mock Islam, an Imam, or the Koran. In fact, the celebrities, the academics, and the elites offer nary a jest nor a criticism of that religion. It's all so normal, no one notices the glaring omission. So, the younger generation born into such a society accept it. That's it, over and out.

Therefore, those recently born in our society accept all of this--no praying by frantic parents, no criticism of Islam because . . . there is no "because." Without thinking about it or wondering about it, or asking, "Why," to them, it just "is."  

We are in such a society. We have sown the wind. We are reaping the whirlwind.

PRESIDENT JAMES EARL CARTER JR., SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER PART III

 I have saved the worse for the last. The bulk of this, our last look at the former Sunday school teacher at a church in Plains, GA, is taken from Jewish sources concerning the attitude and actions of the former president concerning Israel and the Jews. 

From "The Jerusalem Post"

"The self-proclaimed champion of human rights, Carter was comfortable with Middle Eastern dictators like Sadat, Hafez al-Assad, and the shah of Iran, but endlessly critical of Israel’s democratically elected leaders, beginning with Menachem Begin.

"No sooner were the Camp David Accords signed in 1979 than Carter embarked on a 40-year smear campaign against Israel. Carter insisted that Israel was violating UN Resolution 242 by not withdrawing to the pre-Six Day War boundaries and failing to create a Palestinian state.

"From a mere misreading of 242, Carter descended into a dark obsession with Israel, casting it as the source of all Middle Eastern instability and a world-leading violator of human rights. His 2004 book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, though based on half-truths and outright lies, effectively legitimized Israel’s delegitimization."

FROM "THE JEWISH PRESS"

"The story of Carter’s attitude towards Israel goes deeper. He was not simply a modern-day anti-Zionist—an ignorant idealogue who wrongly believed that Israeli counter-terrorism policies harmed the “human rights” of the Palestinian people. Carter was, in fact, a traditional, old-fashioned Christian antisemite. 

"We know this because his many post-presidential activities included teaching Sunday school. In 2007, Simon & Schuster released a 13-disc CD boxed set of recorded sermons that Carter gave at Maranatha Baptist Church in his hometown of Plains, Ga., called “Sunday Mornings in Plains.”

"The sermons contain a slew of chillingly pre-modern antisemitic prejudices. For example, he claimed that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are a sleazy “trick” to enhance personal wealth, and that current Israeli policy towards Palestinians is based upon these “Jewish” values and practices.

"In the sermons recorded between 1998 and 2003, Carter attacked Israel by retreading antisemitic tropes dating back to the gospels and patristic writings of the early church. These anti-Judaic beliefs were formulated not in the 1960s or 1970s but between the first and fifth centuries C.E., ensuring well over a millennium of institutional, lethal Christian antisemitism."

AND THIS FROM "THE TIMES OF ISRAEL"

"Carter, who cancelled a planned visit to Gaza on this trip, said Saturday he “deplored” criminal acts by members of Hamas, but said he was looking to support moderate members of the group, which he said wasn’t a terrorist organization."

Enough said.

 

PRESIDENT JAMES EARL CARTER JR. SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER PART II

 The saga of the Sunday School teacher in Plains, GA, doesn't end with his favorite song, "Imagine." No, the story sours as it goes along. Had James E. Carter not been the 39th president of the United States, one might wonder in what Bible-believing church would he have been allowed to get near a Sunday school lectern. His song preference was bad enough but he had such serious doctrinal issues that he would have been considered a heretic. Let's examine a few:

1. President Carter, the president from 1977-1981, gave his stamp of approval early on for same sex marriage  (which biblically is no marriage at all). He "justified" his belief, saying, "Jesus would approve if the love was honest and sincere." One might wonder if he ever heard or read Matthew 19:4-6? For the biblicist, God defines marriage, not James Earle Carter Jr. nor the Supreme Court.

2. When abortion became an issue, Carter was not silent about his belief: "I'm personally against it but I'm not in favor of overturning Roe v. Wade. What? That would be like saying, "I'm personally against slavery but if you want to own a slave, that's OK." Or, "I'm personally against murder but if you want to kill someone, I have no problem with that." 

3. Regarding Genesis 1-2, the Sunday school teacher believed it to be an allegorical account, not a literal, historical one. 

4. In a recorded interview, the former president said that it was not necessary to trust Christ to go to heaven because He was not the only way. (Jesus disagreed with that statement in John 14:6)

The saga of the Sunday teacher will continue next week with an examination of Carter's attitude toward Israel and the Jews.

PRESIDENT JAMES EARL CARTER JR. SUNDAY SCHOOL TEACHER

 Former President Carter was famous, after his one term in office, for building homes and being a Baptist Sunday School teacher. But now, one wonders what he was teaching his class. 

It has now come to light that his favorite song was "Imagine" by John Lennon, a song described as the "atheists' anthem,” and a "humanistic Marxist Hymn." Its lines are antithetical to the most basic of biblical teachings:

"Imagine there’s no heaven

It’s easy if you try.

No hell below us

Above us, only sky."

Then there are these lines which would make Karl Marx smile:

“Imagine no possessions… no need for greed or hunger”, “no religion”, and “imagine there’s no countries."

Heaven, gone. Hell, gone. Private property, gone. Nations, gone. It is said that "Imagine" is sung as often as the National Anthem. One reporter described the song as "a radical challenge to militarism, nationalism, capitalism."

A duet sang "Imagine" at the former president's funeral service. Who chose that song? The former president did, specifying his desire in his instructions concerning the service. The performance was not a one and done; he chose it for his wife's service in 2023. One reporter wrote, "The rendition received a standing ovation, a powerful moment that underscored the emotional depth of the service and the enduring impact of Carter's vision for global harmony."

A standing ovation for the atheists' national anthem? A standing ovation for a Marxist melody? There were five U. S. former presidents and their wives in front and center seating among the assembled. Did all five stand and applaud? Then there were the assembled government leaders past and present, Democrat and Republican, all standing and applauding.

Carter was a globalist; no wonder he liked the song. He declared that world peace would only come about when the decisions of the U.N. Security Council were strictly enforced. We see his globalist dream in his description of himself as “a citizen of a troubled world” and he said his hope was for an “international community” that would “negotiate global standards” to achieve global peace. The global standards? I John 5:19 describes the origin of "global standards." 

As a secondary note, the National Cathedral is of the Episcopal persuasion, the song was prearranged and included in the program. The "church" leaders knew of its inclusion well in advance, yet they made no objections.

 President Carter didn't live long enough to see his dreams come true. Those perverted dreams will be fulfilled under the one world rule of the Man of Sin, the antichrist. So, in one sense, we could say that a Baptist Sunday school teacher spent his life and career longing for the coming of the antichrist. 

 

THIS IS INAPPROPRIATE!

 A police officer stands before the press and the people. The network television cameras from CBS, NBC, ABC are running; they are on the scene. There has been a school shooting leaving panic and grief in its wake. First responders are carrying out one body after another, They also carry wounded students and teachers from the building and put them into ambulances. Mothers are crying. Fathers stand stunned. We hear them say things like, "This wasn't supposed to happen here!" 

The school board will cancel all classes tomorrow. Grief counselors will attend next Monday when classes resume. The words, "Thoughts and prayers" flow freely. A church is spreading the news of a candlelight vigil tomorrow night at 7 PM in the church parking lot.

The police officer in a very authoritative voice begins to speak to the shocked and grieving mass of people and press huddled and hugging one another. 

His first words, after a brief update of the number of dead and injured, are those concerning the perpetrator who killed and wounded all those people. That would be a difficult task for anyone but he does it. It's his job to face parents and press. His feelings don't count.

Then he says, "This is unacceptable!" It's those word that strike a hollow cord. "This must stop?" Really? Does he himself believe, really believe, that what he just said is going to make anyone else gain the sense to know that it's wrong to go around school halls, libraries, and cafeterias shooting teachers and students?

The truth is that nobody thinks policeman's command will stop the next one or the one after that or the one after that from happening. The truth is: "The heart is more deceitful than all else And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?" The truth continues from Jeremiah who wrote: "Can the Ethiopian change his skin Or the leopard his spots? Then you also can do good Who are accustomed to doing evil."

In Jeremiah's day, there came a point where Israel swam down the River of No Return. The society had passed the point where a change of mind was impossible because of their persistence in rebellion against God.

 The Israelites were so saturated in evil that it was impossible for them to change. They could no more change then than the dark Ethiopian could change the color of his skin or the leopard his spots. This a classic example of loss of freedom of the will through persistent sinning. Sin becomes so natural that Jeremiah is speaking of the force of habit, yet not denying freedom of choice they once had until they sinned it away.

The story is told of a Christian back in the days of the Roman gladiators fighting to the death in the Colosseum. He denounced it fully. But one day, he decided to go the arena only to get the experience of what it was like among the frenzied fans, getting on the inside.

He went but he kept his eyes closed and soaked in the emotional atmosphere. He left exhilarated and came back the next day. As he sat down, he kept one eye open. Returning the next day, he kept both eyes wide open and shouted with the thousands. 

Psalm 1:1: "How blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, Nor stand in the path of sinners, Nor sit in the seat of scoffers!

23,000 ITCHING AND EAGER EARS PART V

 

WHY THE OLD TESTAMENT?

A popular and influential pastor of a church the size of a small town wants his congregation and all the pastors who come to his training sessions to be like him: separate themselves from the O. T. (!) The basis for his burning obsession is this claim: “The early Christians, including the Apostles didn’t have a Bible for 400 years and they turned the world upside down without one.”

 It’s true that they turned the ancient world upside down but it’s fable that they and the Apostles didn’t have a Bible.  He goes on to say that when they did have a Bible, it was “hastily cobbled together.”

The rejection of the O. T. began early in church history:

This is especially true of Marcionism, with its distaste for an angry God, its optimism about human improvement, and its eagerness to set aside the Bible Jesus read.

“Who was Marcion and why is he important?

“Marcion was born in what is now Turkey) on the coast of the Black Sea. Marcion, the son of a bishop, he was an intelligent, capable, hard, unbending, vain, rich, ambitious man. He made his way to Rome sometime between AD 135 and 139 and was accepted as a Christian into the church there. He even gave a large gift to the congregation—200,000 sesterces (worth more than a hundred year’s wages for a laborer). His stint in the church at Rome did not last long. He was formally excommunicated in AD 144 and his lavish gift promptly returned.

“Marcion was one of the most successful heretics in the early church. He was opposed by everyone who was anyone. For nearly a century after his death, he was the arch-heretic, opposed by Polycarp (who called him the firstborn of Satan), Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Clement, Tertullian, Hippolytus, and Origen. He was one of the few heretics that the Greek and Latin Christians united in condemning.” 

DID THE APOSTLES AND THE EARLY CHURCH HAVE A BIBLE?

Let’s examine the question, “Did the early church and the Apostles have a Bible?” Answer, of course they did! It wasn’t the complete Bible we have today. Revelation was progressively given. They had 39 books, Gen. – Malachi. That’s a lot of Bible.

We start way, way back to Moses, who, during the 40-year wilderness wanderings of Israel, was moved along by the Holy Spirit to write Genesis – Deuteronomy.

When Moses finished Deuteronomy, Israel had the first 5 books of the Bible. It was the Bible at the time Moses wrote it. It didn’t have to wait to be “approved.” Over time, the Holy Spirit moved David, Solomon, the prophets, Major and Minor, among others like Joshua to inscribe God’s Word. 

We have a fascinating during the reign of King Josiah of their finding the Bible in the Temple as recorded in II Kings 22:1-13. King Josiah was stunned by the discovery. What King Josiah said is important for us today: “Go, inquire of the Lord for me and the people and all Judah concerning the words of this book that has been found, for great is the wrath of the Lord that burns against us, because our fathers have not listened to the words of this book, to do according to all that is written concerning us.” Not only did they find it, not only could they read it (literacy) but they also were convicted and it resulted in a revival in Israel.  

This revival  reminds us of Hebrews 4:12: “For the word of God [which includes the OT] is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 

Isaiah 55:11: “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.

If you wanted to study the most complete and in-depth explanation of the Atonement, what N. T. text would you turn to? You wouldn’t. When Isaiah finished his majestic work, we have in Is. 53 the most complete and in-depth explanation of the Atonement in the entire Bible. The Apostles used that chapter to explain what happened from noon to 3 PM on the cross.

THE APOSTLES DEPENDED ON THE O. T. TO PROVE JESUS WAS THE MESSIAH

In the very first evangelistic sermon in the Church Age, Peter uses the O. T. to prove his point when he quotes Joel 2:14-21. Then in Acts 2:25-28, he quotes David in 2:30-31. And again in 2:34. In Acts 4:11, Peter, speaking to the religious authorities said, “He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone, quoting Ps. 118 which he told them Jesus fulfilled makes no sense at all without the OT. In I Peter 1:16, he draws on the OT to say, “Because it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.” In Acts 4:15, Peter points out that what David wrote was by the Holy Spirit: “who by the Holy Spirit, through the mouth of our father David Your servant, said, ‘Why did the Gentiles rage,” quoting Ps. 2.

From that we move to II Tim. 3:16: “All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;” so, since that is true, that means the Major and Minor prophets, Isaiah and Obadiah, and Habakkuk are profitable and inspired. 

What did the resurrected Christ do with those 2 men traveling to Emaus? Luke 24:27, 44: “Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures  [the OT]. “. . . These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.” In Jn. 5:31, Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures [the Old Testament] because you think that in them you have eternal life; it is these that testify about Me.” He also said that “Scripture [the OT} cannot be broken."

GETTING DOWN TO BASICS

Without the OT, we would have no idea what “Messiah” means. Does it mean some “anointed one” or is THE MESSIAH predicted in the OT more than that? Then, to stay basic, and you can’t get more basic than the gospel, we read, “For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received, that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, ⁴ and that He was buried, and that He was raised on the third day according to the Scriptures.

SO WHAT?

We see that we can’t understand the words and works of Jesus without the OT as we see from Luke 4: 16-21. And consider this: we have no idea what John the Baptist or Jesus and the Apostles were talking about when they said, “Behold the Kingdom of God is at hand?” Without the OT, we would have to ask, “What kingdom are you talking about? They didn't need to define it; the Jews knew, knowing the OT

Failing to declare ‘the whole counsel of God’ is a serious matter. To instruct people to annul, subvert; to do away with; to deprive people  of authority if the OT is to annul, subvert; to do away with; to deprive of authority,  is to do away with 60% of God’s Word. 60%! That’s over half the Bible!

Paul said to the Ephesian elders, “I am innocent of the blood of all, for I did not shrink from declaring to you the whole counsel of God.” The “whole counsel of God” refers to the entirety of God’s purposes in salvation-history as revealed in Scripture. Had the apostle failed to make known the Lord’s redemptive plan of blessing overcoming curse in the person of Jesus, he would have stood accountable before God. The whole council of God includes Gen.-Revelation.

The Old Testament, while not written to Christians, was still written for us.

With the NT, the Scripture is complete, and we now have in whole “the faith that was once for all delivered to the saints” (Jude 3). This “faith,” however, is only understood rightly within the framework of “the whole counsel of God.”

We are to be students of the Word.  Bible is much more than 27 books.