Bible Study with Fred, #753: Ephesians 4:1-3: the unity of the Spirit

Bible Study with Fred, #752: Ephesians 3:20-21: world without end

Psalm 62 comments

 

Psalm 62:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician, to Jeduthun, A Psalm of David.» Truly my soul waiteth upon God: from him cometh my salvation. 2  He only is my rock and my salvation; he is my defence; I shall not be greatly moved. 3  How long will ye imagine mischief against a man? ye shall be slain all of you: as a bowing wall shall ye be, and as a tottering fence. 4  They only consult to cast him down from his excellency: they delight in lies: they bless with their mouth, but they curse inwardly. Selah. 5  My soul, wait thou only upon God; for my expectation is from him. 6  He only is my rock and my salvation: he is my defence; I shall not be moved. 7  In God is my salvation and my glory: the rock of my strength, and my refuge, is in God.

 

In this passage of Psalm 62 David confirms that his deliverance comes only from God and that it is only in God’s power to save him from the liars, the cutthroats who plot against him. They are false friends and disloyal although they pretend to be faithful.

 

Here as in most places where salvation is used, it is a reference to temporal deliverance as the context makes clear although we may use it for our eternal salvation.

 

David has expressed his confidence many times.

 

Psalm 25:5  Lead me in thy truth, and teach me: for thou art the God of my salvation; on thee do I wait all the day.

 

Psalm 27:14  Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

 

Psalm 33:20  Our soul waiteth for the LORD: he is our help and our shield.

 

Psalm 40:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician, A Psalm of David.» I waited patiently for the LORD; and he inclined unto me, and heard my cry.

 

God is our strength and refuge, our consolation times of trouble and pain. It is only in Christ, who is God in the flesh, that we can have confidence in our future. He is the Rock on which the church is built, the cornerstone of the foundation.

 

1Corinthians 10:4  And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

 

Ephesians 2:20  And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

 

1Peter 2:6  Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

 

Psalm 62:8 ¶  Trust in him at all times; ye people, pour out your heart before him: God is a refuge for us. Selah. 9  Surely men of low degree are vanity, and men of high degree are a lie: to be laid in the balance, they are altogether lighter than vanity. 10  Trust not in oppression, and become not vain in robbery: if riches increase, set not your heart upon them. 11  God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God. 12  Also unto thee, O Lord, belongeth mercy: for thou renderest to every man according to his work.

Here David tells the congregation, the Israelites and by extension us, to trust in God always and not to trust in dominating others, in riches, or in men regardless of their social status or power. We have been told who runs the world’s governments.

 

Daniel 4:17  This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

 

We know who is behind the world system that rejects Christ’s rule.

 

2Corinthians 4:4  In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

 

Luke 4:5  And the devil, taking him up into an high mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. 6  And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.

 

In continuing with the thought of this Psalm David puts his trust in God and in God alone, as should we. Verse 12 shows two things; one that the religion of the Israelites was based on works in a way that ours is not. It can also be taken to mean that we will reap what we sow, which we know is often the case if not always. Or as the cartoon, Popeye the Sailorman, muttered, “ya gets what ya pays for.”

 

David understands that God is absolute in power over all reality and it is foolish to trust in anything or anyone else.

 

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1Samuel chapter 30 comments

 

1Samuel 30:1 ¶  And it came to pass, when David and his men were come to Ziklag on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the south, and Ziklag, and smitten Ziklag, and burned it with fire; 2  And had taken the women captives, that were therein: they slew not any, either great or small, but carried them away, and went on their way. 3  So David and his men came to the city, and, behold, it was burned with fire; and their wives, and their sons, and their daughters, were taken captives. 4  Then David and the people that were with him lifted up their voice and wept, until they had no more power to weep. 5  And David’s two wives were taken captives, Ahinoam the Jezreelitess, and Abigail the wife of Nabal the Carmelite. 6  And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD his God.

 

Achish had given Ziklag to David previously.

 

1Samuel 27:6  Then Achish gave him Ziklag that day: wherefore Ziklag pertaineth unto the kings of Judah unto this day.

We remember that Saul’s failure in destroying all of the Amalekites lost him the kingdom as Samuel had told Saul in 1Samuel 15 and repeated in 1Samuel 28.

 

As the Philistine campaign begins it is fortunate that it was God’s will that the Philistine kings rejected David’s alliance with Achish. Otherwise he would have been too late to save his and his men’s families. Here is mention of David’s wives.

 

1Samuel 25:39  And when David heard that Nabal was dead, he said, Blessed be the LORD, that hath pleaded the cause of my reproach from the hand of Nabal, and hath kept his servant from evil: for the LORD hath returned the wickedness of Nabal upon his own head. And David sent and communed with Abigail, to take her to him to wife. 40  And when the servants of David were come to Abigail to Carmel, they spake unto her, saying, David sent us unto thee, to take thee to him to wife. 41  And she arose, and bowed herself on her face to the earth, and said, Behold, let thine handmaid be a servant to wash the feet of the servants of my lord. 42  And Abigail hasted, and arose, and rode upon an ass, with five damsels of hers that went after her; and she went after the messengers of David, and became his wife. 43  David also took Ahinoam of Jezreel; and they were also both of them his wives.

 

This is such a disaster his followers talk of stoning him. But David’s faith in God allowed him to feel confident.

 

This confidence determined what he would do next.

 

1Samuel 30:7 ¶  And David said to Abiathar the priest, Ahimelech’s son, I pray thee, bring me hither the ephod. And Abiathar brought thither the ephod to David. 8  And David enquired at the LORD, saying, Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them? And he answered him, Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all. 9  So David went, he and the six hundred men that were with him, and came to the brook Besor, where those that were left behind stayed. 10  But David pursued, he and four hundred men: for two hundred abode behind, which were so faint that they could not go over the brook Besor. 11  And they found an Egyptian in the field, and brought him to David, and gave him bread, and he did eat; and they made him drink water; 12  And they gave him a piece of a cake of figs, and two clusters of raisins: and when he had eaten, his spirit came again to him: for he had eaten no bread, nor drunk any water, three days and three nights. 13  And David said unto him, To whom belongest thou? and whence art thou? And he said, I am a young man of Egypt, servant to an Amalekite; and my master left me, because three days agone I fell sick. 14  We made an invasion upon the south of the Cherethites, and upon the coast which belongeth to Judah, and upon the south of Caleb; and we burned Ziklag with fire. 15  And David said to him, Canst thou bring me down to this company? And he said, Swear unto me by God, that thou wilt neither kill me, nor deliver me into the hands of my master, and I will bring thee down to this company. 16  And when he had brought him down, behold, they were spread abroad upon all the earth, eating and drinking, and dancing, because of all the great spoil that they had taken out of the land of the Philistines, and out of the land of Judah. 17  And David smote them from the twilight even unto the evening of the next day: and there escaped not a man of them, save four hundred young men, which rode upon camels, and fled. 18  And David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away: and David rescued his two wives. 19  And there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all. 20  And David took all the flocks and the herds, which they drave before those other cattle, and said, This is David’s spoil.

 

David consults God through the priest’s ephod and God responds. So, with his troop divided David is able to destroy the Amalekite band with the intelligence provided for him by the Egyptian slave captive. David recovers he and his men’s families and possessions and takes much spoil away from this encounter. David is very wise to divide those ready for battle from those too weakened by the fast, hard ride. God had promised David would recover all and he did just that.

 

1Samuel 30:21 ¶  And David came to the two hundred men, which were so faint that they could not follow David, whom they had made also to abide at the brook Besor: and they went forth to meet David, and to meet the people that were with him: and when David came near to the people, he saluted them. 22  Then answered all the wicked men and men of Belial, of those that went with David, and said, Because they went not with us, we will not give them ought of the spoil that we have recovered, save to every man his wife and his children, that they may lead them away, and depart. 23  Then said David, Ye shall not do so, my brethren, with that which the LORD hath given us, who hath preserved us, and delivered the company that came against us into our hand. 24  For who will hearken unto you in this matter? but as his part is that goeth down to the battle, so shall his part be that tarrieth by the stuff: they shall part alike. 25  And it was so from that day forward, that he made it a statute and an ordinance for Israel unto this day. 26  And when David came to Ziklag, he sent of the spoil unto the elders of Judah, even to his friends, saying, Behold a present for you of the spoil of the enemies of the LORD; 27  To them which were in Bethel, and to them which were in south Ramoth, and to them which were in Jattir, 28  And to them which were in Aroer, and to them which were in Siphmoth, and to them which were in Eshtemoa, 29  And to them which were in Rachal, and to them which were in the cities of the Jerahmeelites, and to them which were in the cities of the Kenites, 30  And to them which were in Hormah, and to them which were in Chorashan, and to them which were in Athach, 31  And to them which were in Hebron, and to all the places where David himself and his men were wont to haunt.

 

David displays his leadership and kingly qualities here by including the men who were too weak to go with him to the battle in the spoil in spite of the protestations of a few troublemakers and by sending spoil to the elders of Judah who were loyal to him. These wise moves will create loyalty and a sense of devotion for him by the people of Israel.

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Psalm 61, comments

 

Psalm 61:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician upon Neginah, A Psalm of David.» Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer. 2  From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed: lead me to the rock that is higher than I. 3  For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy. 4  I will abide in thy tabernacle for ever: I will trust in the covert of thy wings. Selah.

 

David’s praise here of God is truly remarkable and it is a prayer we can use almost in its entirety with few changes.

 

Bible students, Rabbis, and commentators are unsure if a Neginah was a musical instrument, a note, or a tune. It is the singular of Neginoth found in Psalm 4:1’s introduction.

 

The metaphor of wings in this Psalm is used elsewhere as one would expect if one person were behind most of writing. We’ve already talked about the use of wings to represent God’s deliverance.

 

We cry out when our hearts are overwhelmed with fear or grief or even regret and plead for God to lead us to a safe place above all our enemies. God is our strong tower, a castle’s keep. We will trust in God forever and abide with Him for eternity. He indwells each believer through His Spirit, His mind working in us. We should trust in that deliverance.  

 

Christ is that rock that is higher than I, our shelter in life’s storm, a strong tower against our enemies.

 

Psalm 61:5 ¶  For thou, O God, hast heard my vows: thou hast given me the heritage of those that fear thy name. 6  Thou wilt prolong the king’s life: and his years as many generations. 7  He shall abide before God for ever: O prepare mercy and truth, which may preserve him. 8  So will I sing praise unto thy name for ever, that I may daily perform my vows.

 

In verse 5 David says that God has heard him in the vows he made pleading for deliverance.

 

Verse 1 said, Hear my cry, O God; attend unto my prayer.

 

God has given David and we ourselves an everlasting inheritance. That is the heritage of those that fear thy name.

 

Some might say though that from an immediate perspective David is talking about the faithful of Israel of his day. The large application of the verse is appropriate, too, I believe.

 

David says that God will add days to his life and years to his posterity. As a reference to Christ we can see that of his kingdom there will be no end.

 

Isaiah 9:6  For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. 7  Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.

 

David affirms that he will abide with God for ever which is also a reflection of the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Psalm 41:12  And as for me, thou upholdest me in mine integrity, and settest me before thy face for ever.

 

David declares that he will sing praise to God for ever, which is what he must have vowed in his distress.

 

Psalm 30:12  To the end that my glory may sing praise to thee, and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give thanks unto thee for ever.

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The Death of a Nation - sermon notes, revised

 

Psalm 9:17  The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

Philippians 2:21  For all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus Christ’s.

Please forgive me for a little bit of history before I get started.

In April, 1945 the largest amphibious assault in the Pacific theater of World War Two operations would begin the Battle of Okinawa. It would last 82 days until the end of June. This battle underscores a point I want to make about American society after World War Two. Understand that in that American culture of the time men did not easily talk about things such as PTSD, which was not recognized until 1980 by the American Psychiatric Association according to the VA website although a formal diagnosis for trauma was created in the 1950s. The horrific combat experiences and what support soldiers, as the horrifically wounded were brought to the rear, saw was not something men were inclined to talk about as freely as they are encouraged to do today, if at all. So the following numbers must have represented the toughest cases as countless numbers suffered, and their families suffered, in silence.

“Roughly 1.3 million American service personnel suffered some kind of psychological setback during World War II. By July 1943, the U.S. Army was discharging ten thousand men each month for psychiatric reasons, and the numbers increased as the war dragged on. During the Battle of Okinawa, fought between late March and the end of June 1945, the Marines suffered twenty thousand psychiatric casualties.”

Childers, Thomas. Soldier From The War Returning (p. 8). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

I would assert that there was profound stress placed on the 16 million Americans who served in WW2. This is more than 10% of all Americans at the time. We are talking about staggering social implications for the coming decades.

“The military…was “discharging psychoneurotic veterans at the rate of 10,000 cases a month in late 1943 and in early 1944.” More than 216,000 veterans had been discharged for psychoneuroses by the Army alone.

Childers, Thomas. Soldier From The War Returning (p. 70). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

By the fall of 1945, the Army had already admitted one million men to Army hospitals for treatment as “NPs,” neuropsychiatric casualties.* More than 40 percent of all Army medical discharges were NP cases, and by 1947 more than half the beds in VA hospitals were occupied by men suffering from some sort of psychoneurotic disorder.

Childers, Thomas. Soldier From The War Returning (pp. 231-232). HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.

Newspaper and magazine articles were warning the women at home and families that their returning young men might be damaged and have very special needs and react to civilian life in adverse and hard to understand ways. America was set up for the social chaos that would come and the radical change in American morals, views of authority, and the growing distrust and disrespect of institutions and religion. Many veterans of World War Two suffered horribly back at home with promises unfulfilled and a growing hostility toward them from many of the people back home. Frustrated veterans even fought pitched battles against law enforcement like the Battle of Athens, Tennessee against corrupt police and corrupt local government.

Back home, women had been forced to work in factories and then forced to give up those jobs when men returned from war creating a tension often under the surface of unfulfilled expectations and personal frustration. The car culture and business disrupting the extended family by moving nuclear families around the country created a sense of alienation from each other. Even things like air conditioning brought people off the front porch where they communicated with their neighbors and into the home where a barrage of propaganda from TV and radio had them fixated including biased news reporting that swore it was unbiased. Any semblance of unity and the power of the extended family had to be worked hard to maintain and often lost in the fight. People would only see close relatives at holidays and vacations if they could afford to travel and children often felt like strangers in unfamiliar places as families moved around the country to take advantage of promotions or just better-paying jobs. My point is that you had a country under a great deal of emotional stress starting in the mid to late 1940s.

And we lived under the threat of annihilation in a very possible nuclear war with Soviet Russia.

On top of that social disruption, in spite of our prosperity and power in the world, there was something else hammering and cutting at America’s collective “soul.”

It was the philosophy of communism.

My opinion from my reading is that communism is a modern form of the ancient heresy of Gnosticism, which began in Ancient Egypt. Very generally speaking Gnosticism has mankind as perfectable on his own, having the divine spark in every man. Ultimately mankind will evolve to a divine state. Gnostics in the early Christian era believed in two creating Gods and that all matter was evil so God could not have come in the form of a real body or died on the Cross. There are elites with special knowledge unavailable to the rest of us and they work behind the scenes. I’ve oversimplified Gnosticism because every religion has Gnostic beliefs of some sort except Bible-believing Christianity. In communism it is understood that through much suffering, bloodshed, and murder mankind, without any God in the picture, will one day evolve to a state where classes don’t exist and man will have become perfect, a communist. There will be no want, no needs not met, and from each according to his ability and to each according to his need. And billions of people will have to die to get there.

John wrote of the Gnostics of his day who denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh.

 

1John 4:2  Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confesseth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: 3  And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

 

2John 1:7  For many deceivers are entered into the world, who confess not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh. This is a deceiver and an antichrist.

The communist is the ultimate Gnostic, not only denying that Christ came in the flesh but that neither He nor God the Father even exist.

Just to remind you communists existed in the ancient world of Plato and Roman philosophers, denying the right to private property and exalting the will of the collective, in that only the state gives you worth and you have no rights or identity apart from the state and the state’s will.

There were groups in such diverse places as Persia and Cromwell’s England who preached communism. But it is the French Revolution that births modern political communism, made it a religion, and uplifted communist principles that resulted in the mass murders of the 20^th century misdirecting even such worthwhile efforts as the Civil Rights movement in America.  And the communism that is threatening to bring down America today as beacon of freedom shining in the world can be traced to that event. I refer you to the books Fire in the Minds of Men: Origins of the Revolutionary Faith by James Billington and The Black Book of Communism Crimes, Terror, and Repression for more detailed analysis. Early communists declared that it was the fullest expression of democracy and that everyone, regardless of interest or understanding or stake in society, needed to vote even if they had to be told who to vote for, and thousands of revolutionaries fled turmoil in Europe to come and infect our country before the Civil War.

I want to make you aware that Democratic congressman Martin Dies who spent some time as the chairman of the House Committee that investigated communists back in the 1930’s and 40s said that there were an estimated 5,000 communists and people of questionable loyalites in the U.S. government at the start of WW2 and many of them were later proven to be outright Soviet agents. After all, it was a Soviet Agent, proven and known, who helped write the UN Charter, the first global communist governmental body. It was a communist agent in our government who dictated the ultimatum to Japan that led to Pearl Harbor and he was later proven to be a Soviet spy wanting to prevent Japan from attacking the Soviet Union rather than us.

But, the real damage was done by those who just were partial to the communist ideals. You don’t have to be a member of the Communist Party or an agent of a foreign power to be a communist, little c. They pushed for unions to disrupt the working class which became so powerful and corrupt that Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy would write a famous book about the unions called The Enemy Within.

But communists eventually became disenchanted with the prosperous American worker who simply refused to rebel against his “chains” as he was too prosperous. Remember, as the famed Rush Limbaugh said about conservatives, “we want prosperity for everyone,” and as President Donald Trump declared in his second debate with Biden, “success will bring us together.”

Well, prosperity and success for the common American worker in the 1940s, 50s, and 60s did not make them think they needed a revolution, just a pay raise or maybe a bigger home.

So, an influential communist writer and postmodern philosopher named Herbert Marcuse, a member of the prestigious Marxist Frankfort School of Critical Theory, who was one of those communists that worked in our government during World War Two working for the OSS the precursor to the CIA, with dozens of other communist thinkers, and the Office of War Information dispensing propaganda, began writing about a new avenue for Marxists and communists to drive down to tear down this nation and rebuild it in their twisted vision of utopia. The socialist revolution would move from focusing on the working class to focusing on marginalized groups like women who rejected traditional roles, gays, transgender people, and minorities, as well as the environment.

He began preaching a doctrine of the ultimate good in life wasn’t about fulfilling your responsibilities but was to be happy and the only way to be happy was to pursue pleasure. And how could one pursue pleasure if society laid down morals that restricted that pursuit? Through his writings in books like Eros and Civilization and The One-Dimensional Man he became known as the Father of the New Left in the 1960s creating crises to exploit about oppression and the evils of capitalism. The leftist must oppose all that is, called “The Great Refusal”.

The New Left, in the 1960s and 1970s, consisting of Marcuse inspired activists in the Western world campaigned for a broad range of social issues such as civil and political rights, radical environmentalism, sexual liberation, feminism, gay rights, gender role issues like the transgender movement, and campaigned against drug laws.

The New Left campaigned against the Vietnam War, for instance. Why? Because it was unjust or unfair? No, because we were fighting a communist government. If North Vietnam had a king instead of a communist leader there would have been no problem. They will always protect their own.

While sane people were trying to limit pollution so we had clean air to breathe and clean water to drink the communists were screaming about, first, a new ice age coming because of mankind, then it was global warming, and then when the data supported one and then the other and then neither one they called it climate change and used it to justify government control of every aspect of our lives.

Violent radicals in the 1960s were disconnected from mainstream America, though. Finally, in the 1970s, groups associated with the New Left increasingly became central players in the Democratic Party and thus in mainstream American politics. So, here we are today.

What I’ve told you is right from the leftists’ writings. I didn’t make it up. There is a great documentary on Marcuse from years ago on youtube called simply, “Documentary on Herbert Marcuse (1996). There is another great one called The 60s Radicals America Forgot.

Those radicals from the 1960s had a profound impact on our already damaged society in the 30 years after World War Two. You have so-called Christian couples today thinking it’s okay to shack-up because of the movement’s influence.

Marcuse and the inheritors of the New Left movement have given us Critical Race Theory and the simmering sewage that underlies American society today.

Why have I gone to the trouble of giving you this? Aren’t our problems just spiritual, based on man’s sin nature, his fallen state? Certainly, they are. But there is an army of unwitting revolutionaries out there, many in your own family, some in here even maybe, that would do their part maybe unknowingly to destroy traditional morality, our history, our values, our ability to make a living and support our families, and the very concepts of individual liberty and responsibility to make us dependent on eventually a global communist, totalitarian government.

What is their goal? The academics, the thinkers, the politicians, and the, as we say today, influencers? The ordinary person isn’t thinking of this I am sure. But the influencers are definitely.

Of course the communist goal is to tear down America to the ground; all the institutions, cultural standards, and history and rebuild it in a distorted utopian fantasy which, as we have seen all around the world, always winds up being a totalitarian nightmare.

What do we look for to see the proof of what I am saying?

Judges 17:6  In those days there was no king in Israel, but every man did that which was right in his own eyes.

We live in a community, in a nation, among other people. We do not have the privilege or the right to do exactly what we please regardless of the consequences.

There are even people who regard themselves as Conservatives who go on and on about their rights as if they were completely independent of the duties those rights presented. Our Founding Fathers recognized our God given rights as carrying with them fundamental duties that oversee our enjoyment of those rights. I would refer you to Russell Kirk’s great work for any conservative Rights and Duties: Reflections on our Conservative Constitution.

How do you know who you are dealing with in regard to these people?

Isaiah 5:20  Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

Understand that these people regard their collectivist dream of no private property and equal outcomes for everyone with their elite ruling us as moral and good. They regard you and I as immoral and evil because we have faith in God, believe in good and evil based on the Bible’s principles, and uphold the traditional institutions of our country like marriage and family as sacrosanct. We believe in personal responsibility and accountability and in self-reliance as much as that is possible and NOT being dependent upon a government, local or global. In fact, they believe in all of those ideas as being immoral and racist even. They say so.

In fact, they believe any restrictions on what they want to do as being oppressive and tyrannical. They would have no problem shipping you off to a prison or worse because of who you believe in. Remember what Christ said about the religious elite of His day on earth.

John 16:2  They shall put you out of the synagogues: yea, the time cometh, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doeth God service.

The communist is really big on bringing up the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and Democracy which they purposely call “our Democracy” but they mean different things to them than they do to you.

The head of the Soviet Union, Communist Russia, for thirty years was a bloodthirsty tyrant named Josef Stalin. He also believed in Democracy but it was Democracy-by-proxy where the peoples’ vote was simply a rubber stamp for the rule of an enlightened elite. Just think of the recent Covid epidemic.

Speaking of an elite, a socialist, elected dictator named Adolf Hitler ruled over the first and only successful Fascist government in Germany where free speech was not allowed just like in Soviet Russia and no opposition was permitted as in Soviet Russia and where the people had no rights except those permitted by the state, as in Soviet Russia. Many scholars referred to Soviet Russia as Red Fascism because the end result was the same for the common man, totalitarian rule over every aspect of their lives. It’s all about absolute government control.

In our country today you can’t compromise with these people. The communist philosophy is that there must be continual conflict. It is so much so that any concession you make, any compromise, is not enough, will never be enough, because their goal is not a better country but a total destruction of the country’s institutions, morals, values, and history to create their own twisted version of a better world. Marx acknowledged that there must be perpetual revolution. They constantly move the goalposts.

Like the devil character in Goethe’s Faust they believe that, “Everything that Exists Deserves to Perish.” I heard a speaker even say that at a Transgender Marxism lecture on youtube.

I’m taking this verse out of context because it applies so well here;

2Corinthians 3:17  Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.

Under the third-generation New Left doctrine, and yes, it is a religion some of them call Neo-Marxism and some of them call Cultural Marxism things we hold dear like free speech and toleration are emblems of oppression. When they say your spreading the gospel makes them feel unsafe they don’t mean that they are afraid you are going to hit them. What they mean is that anytime someone speaks contrary to what they believe they feel threatened verbally and don’t feel safe. They do not want you to speak unless you parrot their twisted dogma. They will not tolerate you because you are not exactly like them.

There is no point in trying to make sense of them.

The Neo-Marxists that are trying to take over this country don’t want Equal Opportunity, the promise of your founding documents. They want Equal Outcomes, the basis of communism.

The people that are crushing this country don’t want abortion as a right to exercise in a dire and horrible circumstance like rape or incest or a medical condition but what they are demanding at their core is the undiluted right to execute their unborn children for ANY reason or no REASON at all.

They don’t just want clean air and water and as little pollution as possible. They want government, a global government, to tell you how many miles you can drive, what kind of vehicle you can operate, and truthfully if you are limited to driving on certain days and for certain distances in an unreliable battery operated car that might catch fire and explode, the battery of which you will never be able to afford to replace, and they are fine with that.

Broken and old windmill turbines, electric cars and batteries, etc. are more damaging on the environment to create and to dispose of than any imagined benefit will provide.

Don’t get me wrong. I agree with God and I am concerned about one of the possible meanings of the last part of this verse.

Revelation 11:18  And the nations were angry, and thy wrath is come, and the time of the dead, that they should be judged, and that thou shouldest give reward unto thy servants the prophets, and to the saints, and them that fear thy name, small and great; and shouldest destroy them which destroy the earth.

But so-called green energy as it stands today is not the answer. It is only a more difficult question. And it is not, at its core, about a clean planet but about global domination and control.

We live in a world that is being taken over by communism as its tendrils move across the earth. Even Islamic fundamentalism is a child of Marxist thought. From a book advocating violent overthrow of what the communist considers oppressive government and capitalism I found this;

"The Shite revival of the 1960s and 1970s, which developed into the Iranian revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini, was based on a revision of Shiite doctrine influenced by Marxism and committed to the ideology of Third World liberation.”

The World Economic Forum, which advocates global governance on their website and who have one of the authors of their agenda, Joe Biden, advocates a Great Reset of the worldwide economy. Klaus Schwab, director of the World Economic Forum, in a podcast in 2020 as I have listened to, advocates what is clearly a worldwide socialist agenda including redistribution of wealth as called for by socialists.

We are called by Christ to do certain things.

Luke 6:31  And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise.

This is called popularly The Golden Rule and it is fundamental to Christian thinking and behavior. What do the Marxists in today’s society, the communists who have taken over our culture, say? They refer to something they call The Platinum Rule which is supposed to be more valuable and of a higher level of morality and ethics. It briefly says, do unto others as they would want to be done to them.

This wicked philosophy tells you that even if the other person is engaged in a wicked sin you must offer them encouragement in that sin by rendering to them not what Christ wants you to but what they want you to. This means, for example, that you must acknowledge their rejection of the gender they were born into if necessary and that you must avoid at all costs insulting someone with Biblical morality. Even calling someone who was born as a he a he, or him, if they wish they were a her, is considered ideologically unsafe, an insult and a lack of compassion that harms the person, and is, in fact, violence against that person.

Isaiah 59:14  And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.

I have hope for some of these people. Why? Because of how God dealt with me. Your thinking can be changed. As an example when I first became a Christian and attended a Southern Baptist Church I believed that any Bible was a Bible and that the King James was just one of them and maybe not the very best but one that had special historical significance. It only took a heathen, in an internet argument where I had proudly said, “The Bible says,”, to ask me, “Which Bible? They all say different stuff.” From then on as I realized what he said was true and I had no answer, that I had to find out which Bible was authoritative. I had not even considered the question but God spurred me, provoked me to examine Bible manuscript evidence, the writings of the early church fathers, and the history of Bible versions and translating methods. My mind was changed. A pastor in Florida named Peter Ruckman who had undergone a similar experience back in the late 1940s and 50s, was a huge help as he had written extensively on the subject pointing me in certain directions. I was also influenced by a Dr. Gail Riplinger, whose extensive research made it very clear which Bible was God’s Bible. But, I had to do my own research to get where God wanted me to be.

Sometimes a light can go off when we think about a thing in a way we are not used to thinking or if we step away from how we have allowed ourselves to be indoctrinated.

The important thing is that you do not let people just tell you stuff without researching it, praying about it, and thinking about it. Our country and culture has been hurt by passive consumerism. There are passive consumers of medicine, of goods and services, of politics, and, yes, of religion, who just want to be told what to think and don’t care to do any mental work themselves. We are warned, though, in a figure of speech linking culturally believed traits of snakes as crafty and cautious and doves as unthreatening and innocent….

Matthew 10:16  Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and harmless as doves.

At one time I believed much of what they believed. As an idiot, a 17 year old going far off to college, in one of the biggest mistakes my parents ever made, I believed in every liberal thing that the Vietnam era provided noodle-brained children who thought they were wise and understanding. I didn’t become a conservative thinker until 1992, 15 years after I left that den of iniquity called a university. I know that change of heart is possible and that, as Jesus said in Matthew 19:26, all things are possible with God.

So, let’s pray for those poor, deluded fools who have no more understanding of reality than a rock. Let’s pray for repentance and salvation for them. Let’s pray that God changes hearts and changes minds and saves sinners from Hell. It is God’s desire, in His heart of mercy.

1Timothy 2:4  Who will have all men to be saved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth.

But, also, we must oppose them politically in every way we can. Your vote matters. Your participation in the political process is of vital importance. Get involved if you can on a local level. Know the Constitution. Understand laws. Be alert and be wise.

Most of all though obey God, do what you need to do to strengthen your family. Know what you believe and as importantly why you believe it. Every man, woman, and child in here should have some idea of why they believe what they believe and, “just because” is not an answer.

I ask you to know who your enemy is, what he or she really wants. For instance, I want to repeat when it comes to abortion you must understand that concerns about allowing it for cases of rape or incest is a smokescreen the communists put up. The issue of abortion for them is about the unalienable right they think they have to kill their unborn at any time for any reason or no reason at all. This radical bodily autonomy, this “I’ll do what I want with my body,” does not extend to you refusing to take an experimental drug as a defense against a Chinese communist bioweapon funded by the U.S. government, however.

I don’t expect or even need anyone to agree with me completely. Whether you disagree with my conclusions or my interpretation of the facts you surely can see that we live in a revolutionary age and in a very desperately dangerous time. I just wish you a walk with Christ that will give you confidence and boldness as you face a hostile world much like the early Christians did.

Bible Study with Fred, #741: Ephesians 2:13-14; our peace with God

Bible Study with Fred, #740: Ephesians 2:10-12; we are his workmanship

Bible Study with Fred, #739: Ephesians 2:8,9; saved through faith

Bible Study with Fred, #738: Ephesians 2:6,7; so we will know who did this

Bible Study with Fred, #737: Ephesians 2:4,5 ; God who is rich in mercy

1Samuel 29 comments

 

1Samuel 29:1 ¶  Now the Philistines gathered together all their armies to Aphek: and the Israelites pitched by a fountain which is in Jezreel. 2  And the lords of the Philistines passed on by hundreds, and by thousands: but David and his men passed on in the rereward with Achish. 3  Then said the princes of the Philistines, What do these Hebrews here? And Achish said unto the princes of the Philistines, Is not this David, the servant of Saul the king of Israel, which hath been with me these days, or these years, and I have found no fault in him since he fell unto me unto this day? 4  And the princes of the Philistines were wroth with him; and the princes of the Philistines said unto him, Make this fellow return, that he may go again to his place which thou hast appointed him, and let him not go down with us to battle, lest in the battle he be an adversary to us: for wherewith should he reconcile himself unto his master? should it not be with the heads of these men? 5  Is not this David, of whom they sang one to another in dances, saying, Saul slew his thousands, and David his ten thousands?

At this point the other lords of the Philistines mightily object to having a noteworthy champion of their enemies, the Israelites, with them. They demand that Achish send David away. He is not to be trusted. It has been suggested that since Achish and his company were bringing up the rear that he was the overall commander and that David and his men were only intended to be his personal bodyguard. 

1Samuel 29:6 ¶  Then Achish called David, and said unto him, Surely, as the LORD liveth, thou hast been upright, and thy going out and thy coming in with me in the host is good in my sight: for I have not found evil in thee since the day of thy coming unto me unto this day: nevertheless the lords favour thee not. 7  Wherefore now return, and go in peace, that thou displease not the lords of the Philistines. 8  And David said unto Achish, But what have I done? and what hast thou found in thy servant so long as I have been with thee unto this day, that I may not go fight against the enemies of my lord the king? 9  And Achish answered and said to David, I know that thou art good in my sight, as an angel of God: notwithstanding the princes of the Philistines have said, He shall not go up with us to the battle. 10  Wherefore now rise up early in the morning with thy master’s servants that are come with thee: and as soon as ye be up early in the morning, and have light, depart. 11  So David and his men rose up early to depart in the morning, to return into the land of the Philistines. And the Philistines went up to Jezreel.

So Achish, leader of the Philistines, feels compelled politically to send David and his men packing. They return to Philistine territory. David now must wait for news of the battle and we know that in spite of any protestations his heart lies with Israel.

Bible Study with Fred, #736: Ephesians 2:2,3; the children of wrath

Psalm 60 comments

 

Psalm 60:1 ¶  «To the chief Musician upon Shushaneduth, Michtam of David, to teach; when he strove with Aramnaharaim and with Aramzobah, when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand.» O God, thou hast cast us off, thou hast scattered us, thou hast been displeased; O turn thyself to us again. 2  Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. 3  Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. 4  Thou hast given a banner to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. 5  That thy beloved may be delivered; save with thy right hand, and hear me.

 

John Gill reported that famed Rabbi Aben Ezra thought that Shushaneduth was a known tune that this Psalm would have been sung to although he admitted that others thought it was a musical instrument, long forgotten. The Michtam, he wrote, was a “Golden Psalm of David.”

 

It is hard to contrast this victory with victories in cross-reference like…

 

2Samuel 8:13  And David gat him a name when he returned from smiting of the Syrians in the valley of salt, being eighteen thousand men.

 

…because, as ancient Rabbis said, there were several battles and multiple events of slaughter of different numbers.

 

David’s lament here refers to the difficulties Israel was facing with its neighbors and enemies and the constant warfare that would make David a warrior-king.

 

We can see also here a prophecy of the Jews in their several dispersals or disaporas. Specifically, though, we can see this as what happened in the 2,000 years after the Jews rejecting of Jesus of Nazareth as their Messiah and Saviour.

 

John 19:15  But they cried out, Away with him, away with him, crucify him. Pilate saith unto them, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests answered, We have no king but Caesar.

Matthew 27:25  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

 

Scattered and persecuted, even hunted like animals by their enemies who were the tools of Satan, with their suffering permitting the survival of the nascent Christian church, God’s beloved, also a reference to Christ Himself.

 

1Thessalonians 2:16  Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved, to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.

 

Note Paul’s lamentation for the people of his birth nation.

 

Romans 9:1 ¶  I say the truth in Christ, I lie not, my conscience also bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost, 2  That I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart. 3  For I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh: 4  Who are Israelites; to whom pertaineth the adoption, and the glory, and the covenants, and the giving of the law, and the service of God, and the promises; 5  Whose are the fathers, and of whom as concerning the flesh Christ came, who is over all, God blessed for ever. Amen.

 

Now see the use of beloved.

 

Mark 1:11  And there came a voice from heaven, saying, Thou art my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.

 

Romans 1:7  To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

 

Ephesians 1:6  To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved.

 

John then uses the word beloved as an address to the Christians he is talking to over half a dozen times. But for David in context this is a plea for deliverance and victory. This is about a war for survival much like modern-day Israel has faced several times and even, at this writing, is embroiled in with a vicious enemy.

 

Psalm 60:6 ¶  God hath spoken in his holiness; I will rejoice, I will divide Shechem, and mete out the valley of Succoth. 7  Gilead is mine, and Manasseh is mine; Ephraim also is the strength of mine head; Judah is my lawgiver; 8  Moab is my washpot; over Edom will I cast out my shoe: Philistia, triumph thou because of me. 9  Who will bring me into the strong city? who will lead me into Edom? 10  Wilt not thou, O God, which hadst cast us off? and thou, O God, which didst not go out with our armies? 11  Give us help from trouble: for vain is the help of man. 12  Through God we shall do valiantly: for he it is that shall tread down our enemies.

 

Here David exalts in the victories he believes will come through God’s help and by His will and at the same time delivers a prophecy of a triumphant Christ. This is repeated in Psalm 108.

 

See also 2Samuel 8:2  And he smote Moab, and measured them with a line, casting them down to the ground; even with two lines measured he to put to death, and with one full line to keep alive. And so the Moabites became David’s servants, and brought gifts.

 

Note Christ’s victory in Revelation as He takes control of what’s left of the kingdoms of the world.

 

Revelation 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

 

In the context it is God that is proclaiming what He will do and it is David who is, while lamenting that God might not have helped them as the struggle is great, confident that God will use Israel to accomplish His ends.

 

God will use nations to accomplish His ends as He uses people to do so, even those who are His enemies, even those who don’t believe He exists. What a blessing it is to believe, trust in, and obey God and be used for His purposes as opposed to moving blindly doing His will and then spending eternity in destruction. Do we have confidence, do we pray even, that God will use us to accomplish His will?