Shabbat shalom kol beit Yisra'el and Mishpachah, and welcome back to this second sermon on the subject of persecution which I hope will be a blessing to you. Last week we looked at some of the chief reasons unbelievers persecute believers and considered some of the responses. We principally looked at the demonic side but we need to be aware also that there is a 'human fleshy' side too. Human psychology, with its various motives and drives, can be complex.

I think it was a couple of days ago a mob, urged by their religious leaders, destroyed a Hindu temple in the Karak district of north-western Pakistan, so the reason why people persecute others isn't necessarily just because the object of their hate is a Christian. We don't have the exclusive monopoly of being hated! It doesn't mean what happened to those Hindus wasn't a demonic response by the perpetrators, just that the reasons for persecution can be more varied. (Indeed, Hindus have been known to do the same to mosques in India). Demons have to work through, and therefore adapt to, those mental filters of their hosts which they can't always bend in the direction they want them to go. Sometimes prejudices can be useful to them at certain times and are less useful to their agenda at other times. The cleverer politicians know this too, especially when it comes to manipulating mobs. In the case of this particular mob, it was the demonically-inspired notion that those who will not agree with their religion need to be destroyed, one of the most primitive, dangerous and unruly instincts of the fallen fleshy nature. To murder is the last and most evil act of all. And, it's a fact, Satan just hates people, all of whom were made by Yahweh who inherited the planet that was originally Lucifer's, which infuriates him because he was kicked out, plus he loves violence and chaos.

So we do need to be careful how we label acts of persecution and not over-simplify the causes. Radical political groups persecute their secular rivals too. Just look at the history of socialist groups. And sometimes 'Christians' so-called, to their great shame, persecute believers holding to different creeds, and people from other religions and from no religion too. We need to remember that Yah'shua (Jesus) and His talmidim (disciples) were persecuted by fellow Yahwists, the Yehudim (Judahites, 'Jews'), as much as they were by pagan Romans. This is a phenomenon that ties specifically into fallen human nature, itself the product of sin, the reason Solomon taught that "the heart of the wicked is of little value" (Prov.10:20, NIV), acknowledging its corruptness and unreliability as a barometer of emet (truth).

Persecution can sometimes appear to be so random, and often it is, and this on account of the fact that "the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked; who can know it?" asks the Book of Jeremiah. "I, Yahweh, search the heart, I test the mind, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings" (Jer.17:9-10, NKJV). So navigating the human heart is sometimes a bit like trying to sail a ship through treacle or trying to establish some sort of consistent intelligence. Alone, without a strong, guiding mind, whose governing action is emet (truth), it is an instrument of chaos. Yes, it has its own intelligence, but it was not designed to function without pure thought any more than thought without pure feelings can be put to good use. Only the Ruach (Spirit) can properly integrate them. And if someone is not led by the Ruach (Spirit), they will never be able to successfully integrate the two according to their original design specification. Thus people will remain walking contradictions.

I mention all of this in part because I did not want to give this sermon today. My target audience is Pentecostals. I have a lot of Pentecostal friends, more than from any other denomination with perhaps the exception of messianics, who I know are going to be upset by what I have to say today. I tried to change topics, because by nature I don't like upsetting people, but I was pressed to resume the original subject material many, many times by the Ruach (Spirit). Truth encounters, as you know, so readily stir up the passions. The mind is so easily brushed aside and closed down by an upset or enraged heart, driving the Ruach (Spirit) away in the process. Offence, that 'bait of Satan' as John Bevere (himself a Pentecostal) calls it, is so easily thrust to the fore [2]. So if you are Pentecostal, or have Pentecodstal leanings or have a Pentecostal background with sentimental attachments and even some longings to return in some measure to that wing of Christianity, please bear with me. This message has to go out.

If you're like me - and maybe some of you are - you'll have wondered why Yahweh has indirectly authored, by allowing, the to us (well, at least to me) bizzare set-up there is in this existence, the mystery of life and of our having to live in a very contrary and complex world. Why even permit believers to be persecuted at all? I'd like to suggest that the question is wrong. For one, are we 'believers', 'Christians', 'Messianics', talmidim (disciples), followers of the Way, etc.? Have we made it yet? Or are we in truth these things only in the making? And if so - as I firmly believe - of what does the 'making' and 'finishing' consist of, and why? Why not be born on earth, convert, and be whisked straight to Heaven as I am sure Rapturists would love to happen? And not just them, mind you.

Many a soul would love a Superman to fly down and whisk them out of the fire, unscorched, unsinged, and covered by a magical shield. Yet even when we are rescued, and sometimes spectacularly, there is still the smell of burnt hair or skin. You see, not everyone is rescued as Daniel was from the lion's den, not everyone is rescued as Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego were from the firery furnace without so much as a whiff of burning on their flesh or clothing. We read these fabulous stories and we want to experience same sort of rescue when we find ourselves in similar situations. But Yahweh doesn't always physically rescue in that way. Indeed, He rarely does. Why? I could give you many reasons, not least of which is the degree of faith of those being rescued, but even that isn't always an adequate explanation. Sometimes we have to experience being sold into slavery or jail time, as righteous Joseph of Egypt did, and sometimes we are martyred for the Saviour for no moral fault of our own. Sometimes we're not supposed to be rescued in any way because our time is up or because Yahweh has other purposes in radically changing our circumstances.

I think of St.Patrick who was kidnapped from a Welsh montastery by Irish raiders and reduced to slavery. He ended up being the instrument of bringing the Besorah (Gospel) to Ireland and indirectly saving some of my ancestors. That's why I said life is complex and the set-up sometimes makes no sense, and in such moments we may be tempted to succumb of naturalism, and even atheism, because everything seems to random and purposelessness. Yet it is not. Remember always that the main rescue that we have come for here is from sin, death, and hell and, once rescued ourselves, assist others be rescued. That rescue or salvation is offered all the time and millions accept the offer and turn it for huge blessings. That is how we are to primarily measure success or failure by asking ourselves whether we have been useful to Elohim (God) or not. All other kinds of rescue - from slavery and other kinds of physical oppression, are, whilst not unimportant, secondary in importance even if we may not always think so because of the suffering all of these bring. The goal is not to escape suffering but to escape hell and inherit heaven and the resurrection.

So, why aren't we just 'whisked away' once we've made a decision for Christ? Why must we tarry? We're told in the Scriptures that whilst justification is a jurisdictional or legal affair, whilst this aspect of salvation is basically a 'one-off' event or occurrence because of what Messiah did for us on nthe Cross, we're also taught that salvation is a process that has a past, present, and future. Everything isn't accomplished in a single moment of decision. Certain legal requirements may be but the actual transformation of the legally 'saved' man or woman is more involved. Clearly there is more to 'being saved' than accepting the Gospel Message, though millions of lazy Christians will dispute this. I understand the wish for the simplicity of the 'once saved, always saved' notion - how very convenient that would be - but it clearly isn't, an obvious reason we are required to linger, tarry or live a life here earth beyond the moment of deciding for Yah'shua (Jesus). Why so? In order (amongst other things) for our emunah (faith) to be tested and strengthened.

Anyone who has ever done any 'RnD' or 'Research and Development' in Metallurgy will know that the perfecting of metal alloys takes a lot scientific research - many years, sometimes. This is why Christ said on several occasions, "he who endures to the end will be saved" in the future tense (Matt.10:22; NKJV; cp. 24:13; Mk.13:13). If the 'once saved, always saved' doctrine were true, there would be no need to speak of 'enduring' for the sake of a future salvation, would there? So this is an example of salvation future...we haven't got there yet, we have to complete the full length of our assigned time on earth before the Master will declare us to be fully and finally 'saved' assuming, of course, we don't backslide, repudiate the faith and fall away. Yes, we can lose our salvation if we are so determined. Again, I know, this upsets a lot of deterministic Protestant salvation theologies but we have to accept what the Saviour said if we claim to be His followers. Nobody alive has received Salvation Future. No one.

One of my favourite Christian writers, C.S.Lewis, makes this important point in his classical work, The Screwtape Letters [3] which I recommend everyone read if you haven't already done so. It's about conversations between a senior and a junior demon in which he reveals the strategies he uses to ensnare and destroy believers. He wrote:

"Courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at it's testing point, which means, at the point of highest reality. A chastity or honesty or mercy which yields to danger will be chaste or honest or merciful only on conditions. Pilate was merciful 'till it became risky."

This should prompt us to ask: 'What does a truly saved person look like?' followed by a second question, 'What do I currently look like as one claiming to be a saved Christian, Messianic or Believer?' The simple answer is that a truly saved person resembles his or her Master, Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), which sounds very trite and cliché, I know, so I need to add a qualifier which most neither like nor accept: 'A truly saved person lives all the mitzvot or commandments as Christ did flawlessly, not in his or her own power but in Christ's' resurrection power. And as we know, that doesn't happen all in one go because yielding the personal will in daily living is quite a different thing to making a decision - important though that it is - in a moment of time. Indeed, for most Christians, too much of what passes for 'salvation' looks to me more like a 'New Year's Resolution' which may hold for a few days, weeks, or months using our own will-power but which cannot be maintained indefinitely. Not until our will has been surrendered to His can we even begin...and that's where the rubber of a true Christian's life finally meets the road of reality. We are only able to live the perfect life by receiving, through emunah (faith) and ongoing obedience, the empowerment to live the New Covenant Torah way Yahweh ordained.

This is the mistake millions of Protestants make. They understand the legal transaction between the Cross of Christ and the repentant sinner, they understand the need and requirement for a personal decision to be 'saved' but then many assume that that one action of deciding (by, for instance, reciting the 'Sinner's Prayer') automatically encompasses the spiritual life too by ascribing to it an instant, automatic sanctification. The reality of life with its many challenges soon dispells that myth yet the old dogmatic claims continue to be pedalled in the hope that Yahweh will overlook their lawlessness when Scripture tells us He won't. Then their theologians engage in all the usual scriptural gymnastics to try and explain the contradiction between their lives and scriptural teaching, something that has become quite a sophisticated art with 500 years of complex mental exercises behind them since Martin Luther stepped out of Catholicism and Calvin mutated it into fatalism. The result is always, at length, confusion. Deep down they know in their souls Yahweh expects them to obey His mitsvot (commandments), that this is proof or evidence of an on-going salvation and sanctfication, part of them knows it is common sense, which is why they end up sometimes quoting the Torah (Law) to deal with moral questions, and yet they remain hidebound by their 'Nailed-to-the-Cross' and 'Once Saved, Always Saved' traditions.

The result is a variety of 'compromises' for believers to choose amongst, the most common one being the notion that the only mitzvot (commandments) they intend to obey are the ones Christ and His apostles repeated in the New Testament - 'if it's not in the New Testament', they argue, 'then obviously we don't need to obey it anymore', as though the New Testament was a self-sufficient ,anual or list of things we can and can't do apart from the Tanakh (Old Testament). And yet, do they ever go beyond the New Testament? All the time, when they expect allegiance to extra-biblical creeds and the teachings of their denominations. The commandments they don't like they explain away by marking them down to either having been 'nailed to the cross' or belonging to some imaginary 'dispensation' which has now passed into history and no longer concerns us. We can, they say, now eat ham sandwiches, worship on the Roman Sunday (or Saturday) sabbath, and change the definition of what marriage is, to name three typical examples.

Another obvious example would be the minimum Kashrut laws required of Gentile converts which they don't actualy obey anymore (how many Protestants do you know who drain the blood from the meat they eat as the apostles demanded? [4]. The most common 'explanation' for ignoring various mitzvot (commandments) in either of the two Testaments, which I talked about recently, is the belief that since the Torah (Law) has been supernaturally written on our hearts through spiritual rebirth, we now only have to obey what our hearts tell us to do, no matter the obvious absurdity of that idea given that every heart seems to have a different set of laws it chooses to follow or not to follow, and this they then call the 'freedom' to pretty much do as you please...up to a vague point.

I've never said this before even though I have preached on this subject a 'thousand-and-one times' over the years but perhaps now is the time for me to say it: this phenomenon has all the hallmarks and symptoms of a magical spell. It's as though a vast section of the Body of Christ is in a trance that it can't extricate itself from, a trance that leads to contradictory perceptions of reality in mind, heart and action. Maybe you can think of another description but how would you describe someone who thinks one thing, feels another, and does yet another?

In the classical sense, a spell consists of words that are used as charm, incantations or its effect that can create a fascination in the soul. Ask yourself, what leaves you 'spell-bound'? Charismatic speakers and preachers, for one, many of whom may be pied-pipers leading you to destruction without your knowing it. I had one man, years ago, come to me from the Vineyard movement of churches who was part of the so-called Toronto Airport 'anointing'. He was plagued by a demonic problems. As went through the whole Deliverance diagnostics with no results until I asked him if he spoke in 'tongues', which he said he did, and I asked him if he was willing to have his 'anointing' tested in prayer. He was hestitant but in desperation agreed. The moment we started testinh his 'tongues' he felt as though his head was being crushed by a tightening band. I told him this 'gifting', which he thought was from the 'Holy Spirit', and offered to throw the spirits out if he would renounce 'tongues'. He refused and that was the last I heard from him. But that was his problem. He knew the truth now but he was a narcotically controlled by his false 'anointing'. He was under strong spell and the demons within him were oppressing him. As many as half a billion Pentecostals and Charismatics may be in his this man's position to varying degrees.

Breaking a spell, moreover, can be quite a traumatic experience because we are suddenly confronted with a reality radically different from the one portrayed in words or conveyed in emotions by the spell-masters who most often are themselves under the same spell and are using their gifts of preaching or teaching to propagate the lie without necessarily realising it. We have now arrved at a time where spells, some of them centuries, or even millennia, old, urgently need to be broken. You'll see why in the weeks and months ahead.

This moment in history is ripe for such a breaking of spells. As false prophets multiply and as more and more of their prophecies are exposed as being demonstrably false (like the ones I've been sharing with you over the last two months, especially those concerning the 2020 US Presidential election), then those who partake of these false prophets and share the same spirit, theology, doctrine and practice, can start breaking that spell as they see the lies ever more clearly. It is a time for a removing of ancient, hypnotic veils. It is a time for seeing past the deceptions and lies. How many more false rapture prophecies do you need to witness before you will be convinced that either the prophets are false and the idea of a 'rapture' is false? What about that even more intoxicating so-called 'tongues' phenomenon? The latter in particular come from the same dark spiritual well which can be traced back to unique historical events like the Azuza Street Revival of 1906 when Pentecostalism was born, or the Second Great Awakening of 1790 to 1840, or the First Great Awakening of 1730 to 1755, or the start of Mormonism in 1830 to 1830, or the Millerites and early Adventists, or whatever. Most don't realise that the early Mormons and Seventh-Day Adventists were very charismatic indeed.

The point is all of these 'revivals' or 'awakenings', though some good things came out of them (which we can appaud and acknowledge), were nevertheess partially or totally LAWLESS or TORAH-REJECTING and therefore the fullness could never come through them, and they eventually died out. Compare the modern, liberalised methodists with the original fiery ones! Yahweh in His great mercy and loving kindness has worked, over the centuries, through the mix of light and darkness but He can never recognise such as the culmination or goal of His Great Plan of the Ages. At some point they all have to come to an end because the Remnant is not a 'mixed, chaotic theological or existential company' in which numerous unclean spirits are operating. Even the Old Covenant, so beloved of so many messianics, had to finally be removed because, as Yah'shua (Jesus) taught, it could never hold the new spiritual wine (Mt.9:17; Mk.2:22; Lk.5:37-38). The same is true for all the Protestant sects which are incomplete and in many cases now utterly destitute of spiritual light, destroyed as they have been by an almost fully matured lawless, antichrist spirit. Their time is at an end. Look at the Anglican Church. They have to be relinquished by those still in them. The parasitic spirits they carry cannot be put into the wineskin of full Torah obedience required by the overcoming Bride. The separation that is in the process is dependent on whether those dark spirits are gone or still present. It is your choice and it may well be the second most important choice of your life after deciding to follow Yah'shua (Jesus).

What this means practically-speaking is that those who are of the Remnant who still in these churches need spiritual deliverance and to make a formal a change of allegiance. This is an absolute requirement. A man cannot serve two masters. This necessarily means a change of identity too to the true Messiah, and a renunciation of the lawless, ever mutating, theologically shape-shifting half-messiah. Alas, because of the stubbornness of man, this also necessitates the future Remnant passing through the fire of persecution and tribulation. And herein lies the overarching problem. We tend to want, because of residual fleshiness masquerading as Light, to hold onto the past instruments and anointings we obtained viâ the fallen churches and messianic synagogues, because they have absolutely no place in the spiritual configuration of the Melchizedek Priesthood which many are now speaking of but as yet little understand.

If you are confused - and that is only natural when coming out of a partly true and partly false system wherein the two contrary elements have been forcibly fused together over a long period of time so that it becomes hard to distingish them anymore, deceiving the mind and heart of the as yet unpurified soul - that is understandable. You will no more understand the process of this separation than you understood your original rebirth that exposed and then displaced both the hidden and visible darkness that you formerly served as an unbeliever, catapulting you into a completely new dimension of awareness, the Light of Christ. You therefore have to beg Yahweh to reveal some important things to you if you are serious about entering the vows of the Covenant Bride. The two questions you have to ask yourself, questions I have asked you many times before which perhaps made little or no sense at the time, are these: When you first became a Christian or Messianic,

• 1. What were you saved from? and
• 2. What have you been saved to?

Today's message is primarily for Evangelical Protestants and their denominational relatives but this doesn't mean the Catholics and Eastern Orthodox are being let off the hook. Those qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) within their ranks have different, though similar, separations to make. For now - today - my heart is filled with compassion for my Protestant brethren who have so many good things to share and yet who are stunted and buffetted by so many false attitudes, teachings and practices. And of the Protestants I admit freely the Pentecostals are being singled out, not because they they are 'worse' than anyone else but because Yahweh loves them and knows the potential that at least those among them who love holiness possess. The 'charismatics', on the other hand, in so many ways represent the unredeemable side of that Pentecostal movement out of which they sprung with their innumerable heresies.

There are so many fine Pentecostals who are under a basket of spells. Yah'shua (Jesus) said that "the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in ruach (spirit) and emet (truth); for the Father is seeking such to worship Him" (John 4:23, NKJV). Please notice how He couples the Ruach (Spirit) to emet (truth). If you are lawless, you're not worshipping in all-truth which in turn means that the spirit behind your worship not truly 'spiritual'. Again, as if to emphasise the importance of this, He said that "Elohim (God) is Spirit[ual] [5], and those who worship Him must worship in ruach (spirit) and emet (truth)" (John 4:24, NKJV). This is not an option - it's a mitzvah, a commandment. So it doesn't matter how enthusiastic or passionate you are in your worship, if your're not worshipping in emet (truth), your worship is almost certainly - at least in part - of the flesh, and what that means is that you are worshipping yourself. It goes without saying that "the sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is His delight" (Prov.15:8, NKJV). When it comes to such things as obvious immorality like murder, adultery, theft, and the like, then obviously the prayers of those who commit these sins is an abomination. But the meaning of Solomon is broader. He goes on to qualify himself:

"One who turns away his ear from hearing the Torah (Law), even his prayer is an abomination"(Prov.28:9, NKJV).

In other words, if you know that the Torah is mandated on all Yahweh's people in all generations (minus, obviously, the now fulfilled and therefore abolished sacrificial system and Levitical Priesthood), if you know what the mitzvot (commandments) are and you refuse to do them, then your prayer is an abomination to the Most High. Holiness Pentecostals by and large accept the ethical law (not all of it, mind you) but not all Pentecostals espouse holiness (and are therefore even more lawless), and charismatics certainly do not. But there's more to the Torah than just ethics, central though these are to the moral scheme of the New Covenant. The overall lifestyle of Yahweh's people, including Christians/Messianics, also includes the divine moedim or appointments, that include the Sabbath, the New Moons, the annual, 7- and 50-yearly festivals (requiring the Creation Calendar to accurately calculate), the dietary code and the marriage laws which are almost entirely rejected by Pentecostals and Protestants in general. Yahweh is merciful with the ignorant to be sure, and has done great things through Protestants over five centuries in those days of ignorance, but that day is over with so much sound instruction now available from those who understand and implement the Torah. Then there is no excuse any longer, and then worship and prayer become progressively tainted by lawless believers until they reach the point of being regarded as an abomination. This is not a small matter any more but one of the greatest urgency in a time of judgment especially.

One of the big issues with Pentecostalism is the false, trance-like prattling they call 'tongues' about which I have spoken much over the last 30 or so years. It's a prison house preventing these very sincere believers from riding the beam of light back to the real Throne of Yahweh-Elohim on the seven-stepped derech or way represented by the seven annual Festivals (see the Tavnith website for further clarification) as opposed to the mistaken two-step trip they claim is 'the fullness': spiritual rebirth and spirit-filling leading to meaningless heathen-like babbling and a whole basket of muddied gifts [6]. The demonic entities that promote false tongues that the Pentecostals and Charismatics are steered by create an impure, filthy psychic layer that seeks to imitate and cheapen the true majesty of the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). It rides on top of their (in most cases) authentic spiritual rebirthing like a slick of oil on top of the sea, blinding and so preventing them from coming to the fullness, provoking rage (like burning oil) when challenged.

The late-comer or Charismatic Movement is the murky blossoming of that dark side and it will, and already is, mutating into full-blown satanism. The cults it is now producing stand as clear evidence of this - we had one here in Sweden in 2004 in a place called Knutby near Uppsala where a Pentecostal/Charismatic congregation went rogue, the pastor's wife claiming to be the actual, literal 'Bride of Christ', resulting in some bizzare teachings and cultic behaviours that ended up in an actual murder and a pair of attempted murders. The 'Knutby Drama', as it came to be called, was all over the media at the time and in liberal, socialistic Sweden contributed further to giving Christianity a bad name.

Whereas a large number of the Remnant will come out of the Pentecostal Movement, shorn of all the psychic and demonic garbage, the rest will wage war against the Kingdom of the Qodeshim (Saints, Set-Apart Ones) and disappear into the Whore Church along with most of the charismatics who refuse to repent, or otherwise lose their faith altogether.

Now I must say something else that's important for you to understand and why it is we need many years yet to prepare the Bride, why there is a penultimate judgment going on right now and why this is part of that preparation. There are centuries of lies that have to be stripped off the imprisoned Bride trapped in the denominational mindset and that takes time, time that goes way back beyond Azuza Street and indeed the whole Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. The Reformation was Yahweh's work (and I would undoubtedly have been a part of it had I been alive at the time) but it was only a partial work needing half a millennium to prime and settle before it could be taken as far as it could in preparation for the end-time Restoration. The work of Restoration itself is a huge project [7]. Spiritual surgery can't be rushed, time is needed not just for individual healing but for the healing of generational wounds too [8]. That healing is part of the work of the Ruach Eliyah or Spirit of Elijah.

We don't, however, have another five centuries for the Bride to work this all out, we have but two generations (mine, which is ending, and the next one, which is just arising), so this is going to be an intense time of rapid change. The notion that the Second Coming is in a few months or a handful of years is pure wishful thinking and those who have prophesied otherwise will soon be exposed as false prophets.

Just consider the handicaps. The superhero imagery of ancient paganism, reintroduced into American, and thus, by osmosis, into Western culture generally, by a never ending stream of comic characters like Superman, Batman, Wonderwoman, Spiderman, and so on, has infected the Western mindset with a basket-full of ever new, archetypal false messiahs. This all started in the late 1930's during the Great Depression. This has given rise to the lie that the rescue of societies going through various crises will be accomplished by super-hero types minus, one supposes, the colourful underwear and masks. This mindset has seaped into the churches too where believers have come to expect that their problems are going to solved by instant, magical rescues by human messiah figures. This expectation tapped into the Rapture doctrine, invented a century earlier in the 1830's and popularised by James Nelson Darby in his Bible translation, a 1939 edition of which I have here. Now the hope of millions of deluded believers is they will be magically whisked away in the sky and taken off stricken Planet Earth so as to avoid persecution and tribulation, a notion I can't think the suffering believers of Nigeria and Pakistan, to name but two currently afflicted countries, would be at all convinced by.

All of this self-inflicted programming in the Body of Messiah has to be undone and we have to get back to right thinking and scriptural expectations. The major part of my calling and work has been to re-educated the Body and to deprogram those imbibed with all this false teaching. And the work is painfully slow, as I have experienced, though I am now beginning to see the fruits. This ability to see through the lies is not an instantly acquired gift no matter how much those who claim to be 'spirit-filled' insist they can instantly discern the truth. They are in for lots and lots of rude awakenings and part of our ministry is to help them back up onto their spiritual feet after they have had so much of the nonsense they have come to believe in shaken out of them by divers tribulations. Like I said, this is one of the reasons persecution is permitted by Heaven because most people have to be knocked senseless before they will face the truth. The medicine may be tough but it's necessary if truth is to prevail.

Look here, the Saviour of the World is not a Superman of the kind created in Marvel comics. The work of the true Saviour extends over centuries, even millennia, often (from a human persepctive) painfully slowly, with occasional bursts of Light descending upon Yahweh's people as happened in the New Testament Messianic Community (Church) in the first century AD. We will see at least two such bursts again, and one very soon indeed, but - and I have to underline this - they will not be the 'main thing' and weren't the 'main thing' in the first century, wonderful acts of grace though they are on Elohim's (God's) part. We're not supposed to be living in a world of mighty daily miracles - little ones, yes, but Red Sea-type crossings, no, because these things don't built up true emunah (faith). They are given to help the weak and unbelieving make a decision to trust even when nothing much externally seems to be happening to evidence an Elohim (God) of wonders, and to overcome otherwise impossible obstacles [9].

So when it comes to the division between continuationists and cessationists - those who believe the mighty gifts of the first century are still among us, and those who do not - respectively - understand that the 'normal' experience of most believers ought to make us 'cautious continuationists'. When you're spiritually young and on fire with the Ruach (Spirit), everything looks super-wonderful and supernatural and other-wordly. And that's good and necessary, the young need that foundation. But as you grow up and mature, as in marriage, actually, the experience of life comes to be seen as more humdrum and 'ordinary'. The weakness of the Pentecostals and Charismatics and the Azuza Street phenomenon that birthed their movements is that they demand the same kind of supernatural hyperactivity that was enjoyed in the first century...all the time. When this doesn't happen the biblcial way, they turn to various devices like psychicing themselves up to 'make' miracles happen and invent doctrines claiming they have the power to 'force' Elohim's (God's) hand. That's what the Kenneth Copelands and Beth Moore's of this world believe. The charismatics have taken this to an extreme and have shown just what kind of forces they have invited into their spiritual life by all their lawlessness, anarchy and heresy.

The emet (truth) as far as what kind of an attitude we should have lies somewhere between Continuationism and Cessationism. I am open to any and every kind of miracle and spiritual gift mentioned in the Bible...and more...but I now neither expect nor demand them from Yahweh. It has been, for me, a hard lesson to learn, I don't mind telling you. Life is complex and the free agency of people is fixed by Heaven. And though Calvinists don't get this, unlike Charles Wesley (the founder of Methodism) who did, Yahweh's merciful and loving interaction with free and responsible human beings does not detract from His sovereignty or glory. We cannot demand miracles but we absolutely should, and must, be open to them.

When the Body (or parts of it) leans too far in the direction of Cessationism, it kills off the Ruach (Spirit); when it leans too far in the direction of Continuationism, you end up, first, with lawless Pentecostalism and then, further down the road, total Charismatic anarchy. The people of Azuza Street were too impatient, they neglected the Torah because they hadn't been taught it in their Cessationist parent churches, and that opened up a lot of dangerous doors to the dark side which they only too willingly went through when they saw, as they supposed, fruit from the Tree of Life. One can only imagine what Yahweh might have done had they been Torah-obedient! As Messianic Evangelicals we strive, first, to repent, then to obey, and finally to trust Yahweh to do what He will and do not exclude any kind of supernatural miracle on any scale, great or small. Finally, and most importantly, we have learned, I hope, to be satisfied with what we already have whilst not ever closing the door to other possibilities. And yet, sadly and tragically, there are a number of believers who say they want to be a part of the Remnant, or that they already are, who are impatient and in too much in a hurry, who bring some or all of their baggage from their former denominations with them, who are going to miss the boat unless they calm down and moderate themselves, leaving behind all the false charismata. The trouble is, most refuse because their too addicted to the false 'gifts'.

One of the shortcuts of Pentecostalism has been to psych people up instead of teaching them to "be still and know that [Yahweh] is Elohim (God)" (Ps.46:10, NKJV). "Meditate within your heart on your bed," the Psalmist says, "and be still" (Ps.4:4, NKJV), not excitable like a little child impatient to rip the wrapping paper off a present. Yes, there must be praise, there must be passion, but it must be seasoned with deep Torah-truth and submission - it's grounding must be grace immersed in Torah the way David taught, wherein lies the mystery of the character of Elohim (God): there must be a proper overall spiritual context, even as the Psalmist declared:

"Let the qodeshim (saints, set-apart ones) be joyful in glory;
Let them sing aloud on their beds.
Let the high praises of Elohim (God) be in their mouth,
And a two-edged sword in their hand,
To execute vengeance on the nations,
And punishments on the peoples;
To bind their kings with chains,
And their nobles with fetters of iron;
To execute on them the written judgment--
This honour have all His qoedshim (saints, set-apart ones)"
. (Ps.149:5-9, NKJV).

Did you notice the second bit of this passage? The bit about the "sword"? Liberalised Western Christians don't like the sword very much because they have been programmed by the dominant culture to hate obedience, submission, law, order, chastisement, punishment - the programming goes very deep and this is another reason why the West has to fall and be severly chastised. Western Christians aren't thinking like Yahweh's people very much at all any more but have become imbibed with American culturalism. They love the 'grace' bit but not the 'Torah' part. And yet they love to quote the Psalms! Re-read that penulultimate Psalm later, #149, because unless you're willing to, first, have that part of that text applied to yourself, you 'ain't gopin' forwards any time soon' and what's coming will flatten you instead of building you up, as it should when you are right-minded.

The righteous among Pentecostals will see the truth of what I am saying eventually but that emet (truth) will come as a huge culture shock as reality slowly dawns, through exhaustive teaching and difficult environmental circumstances, to provide some practical contrast. The others will cling on to the lies and turn against the Remnant with a furious rage along with the unbelievers, because that is what they will finally be revealed to be themselves. I am also anxious for my brethren to be spared unnecessary persecution, and so I will continue to do and say all I can that per chance Christ will deliver them from their delusion. In this season of judgment, false belief leads, on the one hand, to humiliation at the hands of the world. Sadly, that may result is many unbelievers rejecting Christ altogether as they witness the psychic and enthusiasm-driven passion they once supposed was the Ruach (Spirit) dashed on the rock of Torah-truth. There will be much crying and wailing as the truth breaks forth but repentance is sweet and brings with it the dawning of a new day.

I also wish to spare fellow believers unnecessary suffering. I want them to know of the extraordinary strength and peace that Torah-obedience in Christ can bring them. It's how we demonstrate our love for Christ: "If you love Me, keep My commandments", Christ said (John 14:15, NKJV) - obey the Torah. It isn't an option. You can't choose between being a 'grace Christian' or 'a Torah-messianic', and then assume that somehow between us - together - we'll get it right and love Him, two one-legged men pretending to be one body with two legs. Israel isn't a mixed company of confusion and disorder. It isn't one or the other, but both...for everyone. "...choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve," Joshua charged Israel (Josh.24:15, NKJV). And may your answer be as clear, unambiguous and definitive as that of the second generation of the first Exoduseers:

"Far be it from us that we should forsake Yahweh to serve other gods; for Yahweh our Elohim (God) is He who brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, who did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way that we went and among all the people through whom we passed. And Yahweh drove out from before us all the people, including the Amorites who dwelt in the land. We also will serve Yahweh, for He is our Elohim (God)" (Josh.24:16-18, NKJV).

I want Pentecostals to be delivered from lawlessness and be set free from being led by the nose by false prophets, preachers and teachers. I want them to realise their full calling in Christ and to walk in real glory and not to assume that their feelings necessarily equals the Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit). The material coming out of that movement in the USA in particular in the wake of the ongoing political crisis, most of which has proven to be false so far, ought to be enough to wake them up and to take action.

All the compromising - of meeting people half-way for the sake of fellowship - has to end now too. We can be friends, brothers and sisters as far as the simple gospel of salvation in Christ is concerned, but we cannot cooperate with them in matters that owe their inspiration from their false anointings. I speak now to claimant Remnanteers especially. You either follow the cloud by day and the fiery pillar by night, or you go on without authentic supernatural leading into your own desert wandering that has no end except as piles of metaphorical bones in the desert. You can't choose something inbetween - the cloudless desert by day with your lawless friends and the fiery pillar by night with your Torah-obedient ones - it just doesn't work like that, and such always results, first, in double-mindedness and then deadly compromise. I had one brother in this ministry pray over me recently, formerly involved in Pentecostalism, who suddenly burst out into unedifying, meaningless gibberish or 'tongues', contrary to the scriptural rules, exposed to the spirits of chaos of Pentecostal friends. That should have been a warning sign to him to repent and cast out those spirits. This is what the Last Exodus is all about in its current phase. This is why there is trial and tribulation in the world on an unprecedented scale now, permitted by Yahweh to force those naming the Name of Christ to make far-reaching choices that will either set them on the sought-after Way of the Last Exodus or to wander as spiritual vagabonds in permanent exile.

So many people hear our message, nod their heads in agreement, but do nothing about it. They continue in their old ways. They know the truth in their heads, but their hearts won't embrace it, and so they continue to act in their former ways. The Mark of Messiah, in contradistinction to the Mark of the Beast, is on the forehead and on the hand - it is both in our thoughts and in our actions. If persecution is permitted, as it is being, then in many cases it will be to shake up those neutral or compromising believers who won't make an action-based decision because they are still spellbound by the lies of the OSAS and hyper-grace crowd, the latter of whom don't think we have any choosing to make because Elohim (God) did all the choosing beforehand for us. Those from such unfortunate background (and they do have my heart-felt sympathy) have got to learn, quickly now, to exercise Torah-guided, proactive faith and to stop living the cheap armchair version offered by most churches. The Remnant is like a mighty river pushing relentlessly toward its goal. That means living out the divinely ordained lifestyle and - yes - occasionally making honest mistakes, repenting when they do, and carrying on until they have learned to perfect their walk in Christ, as He commanded us in Matthew 5:48 where He said:

"Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect" (Matt.5:48, NKJV).

That is simply another way of saying that we have to actively overcome our sinful dispositions and any false anointings we may have received from lawless churches. 'Overcome', by the way, is a word that appears over 30 times in the Bible and over 10 times in the Book of Revelation alone which is the book of the very end times. I would like therefore to suggest to you that a reason Yahweh permits His people to be persecuted is so that they can develop the moral and physical courage to overcome everything that's preventing them from repenting and therefore holding them back. So don't talk about 'overcoming' glibly as though it were something as straightforward as 'making a decision for Christ', vitally important and necessary though that is, because to 'do' the overcoming 'thing', and to thereby qualify to be part of the Bride of Christ and (in the very last times) of the Remnant too, is the highest goal of all, and such requires courage. And again, I realise that lazy and unregenerated souls do not want to hear this, yet this is the reason there are, according to Paul, multiple levels of glory and different resurrections to accommodate the lazy and disobedient of the Kingdom (1 Cor.15:41-42a). So I say, as the French do, courage, mon brave!

Face the Scriptures for what they actually say, and agree, if you will, with C.S.Lewis when he said that "courage is not simply one of the virtues, but the form of every virtue at it's testing point". And a reason so many people want to be raptured, or for Messiah to return tomorrow, is because they don't want to be 'tested' as their forefathers were before them. Shame on them, shame on us for being such cowards. He tested Abraham (Gen.22:1), Israel (Ex.15:25), Job (Job 23:10) and indeed all His servants at sundry times. "For you, O Elohim (God)," said David, "tested us; you refined us like silver" (Ps.66:10, NIV).

Again, like I said last week, don't actively court persecution but don't deliberately avoid and so miss out on living an authentic life in Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ). Learn, like Yah'shua (Jesus) and Paul, to welcome it, if what you are doing is right...which the bases of becoming righteousness through the appropriated righteousness of Christ.

"Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the nevi'im (prophets) who were before you" (Matt.5:11-12, NKJV).

But if you're being persecuted for no biblically legitimate reason, how foolish and pointless is that. If you go and blow up a Planned Parenthood building because they're murdering the unborn and injure or kill some of the staff, or lie in wait, as one misguided Christian once did and murdered an abortionist doctor, what credit is that to you? Does that make you any different from them? And if you are then persecuted or brought to account by the law, do not be surprised or seek sympathy, for you will have acted falsely. Two wrongs don't make a right. Or if you go and get martyred for preaching a false doctrine or militantly pursuing the precepts of a false religion, do not be surprised if you are persecuted to no good end at all. If you go around mudering opponents of your religion or non-religion, expect no reward in the afterlife for your foolishness, as some religionists hope for by killing their religion's opponents. Such an angry response from others will then be deserved, and you will earn absolutely no spiritual credit whatsoever. I speak generally, of course.

A very wise East Prussian minister, Julius Rupp, once said at the turn of the 20th century:

"[He] who does not live according to the truth that he recognises, is himself the most dangerous enemy of truth" [1].

Years ago in Oxford I met an old Methodist who told me adamantly and matter-of-factly, "I was born a Wesleyan and I'll die a Wesleyean!" I've meet Catholics, Adventists and people from all sorts of denominations who've said similar things. Once a man said he would investigate our claims when there were more of us...more converts. Imagine what Yah'shua (Jesus) would have said if the first talmidim (disciples), who went on to become apostles, had replied to His invitation to follow Him by saying that too: 'When you have more followers, we'll follow too!' Actually, I 'phoned up that man some years later and told him we had grown by many hundreds, as was indeed the case then, but you've guessed it, he wasn't interested because it was just an excuse he had made. The insincere will always make up excuses - I knew he didn't mean it. Another man, from South Africa, once told me that my preaching was the most anointed he had ever heard. Whether that was true or not is immaterial for later, when he learned we believed in a doctrine he did not accept, he withdrew what he had earlier said about the quality of my preaching! I share that anecdote as an example of the silly subjective judgments people make but Yah'shua (Jesus) experienced no different, did He? So many followed Him until He asked them to do something that stretched their faith too much for their liking (Jn.6:53-66). They were unwilling to take up their crosses even once, let alone daily, in order to follow Him (Mt.10:38; Mk.8:34; Lk.9:23).

Julius Rupp was right. If we refuse to live by the truth that we have come to recognise, we become a most dangerous enemy of the truth. I have witnessed many to whom the Ruach (Spirit) had born powerful witness, make a U-turn and persecute us because implementing that truth began to cause them difficulties with others whose friendship, social status, or employment they did not wish to lose. Rather than be persecuted themselves by unbelievers they chose instead to persecute their own brethren. Think on that! I still find it incredible thinking back on it but it has happened so many times in my life and ministry. If necessary we must be prepared to forsake all - and I mean everything - in pursuit, and implementation, of the truth. Yah'shua (Jesus) taught a story to illustrate that principle in the parable of the Pearl of Great Price (Mt.13:45-46). Following Yah'shua (Jesus) means doing all He said too, which, He said, would be the evidence that we loved Him.

Every single one of us has to make decisions for the truth in all its many parts and to be prepared for pushback from family, friends, church and the world. If we are progressively going deeper into truth and choosing, as we must, to incarnate it or live it out, which will require us to often make many, many difficult decisions, we will get various degrees of pushback which more than likely will grow into open opposition and persecution.

The first church I joined of my own free will was a fantastic social institution and I had a lot of friends in it both at home and abroad but it was not teaching the truth and in the end we had to part company. I lost a lot of friends. It started, innocently enough, with my questioning the Christmas tradition but that did not go down at all well. I was expected to simply fall in line with the denominational position. I then came to question those among them who claimed to be prophets who manifestly were not because of their proven false prophecies that none had ever repented of. One thing led to another and I had a similar experience with the second church I joined, this time with their liberalism. It was at that point that Yahweh called me to start this work and that has been orders of magnitude tougher! I never dreamed I would one day be arrested, interrogated and have my work seized and even destroyed. I never dreamed I would come under relentless spiritual attack from satanic covens or have my life threatened. I know that's mild compared with those suffering martyrdom in some parts of the world but the betrayal was by friends and relatives devastating. Experiences has forced me closer to Yah'shua (Jesus) who has fortified me, and I can even smile wryly at some of the things which in the early days I took so personally. It's for these reasons I have often had to learn to stand completely alone, as Daniel did, and many others did in the Scriptures. We need to learn to embrace the courage to do that. That's why we need a lifetime for our faith to grow. That's why Yahweh doesn't whisk us off the world to some far away safe place. I am not remotely the same person I was after I was saved in 1977 to what I am today. And so the journey continues for all of us.

Your willingness to stand on the front line of truth and endure the storm is a measure of where you are headed as far as the Remnant Bride is concerned. By "refusing to falsify Elohim's (God's) word" (2 Cor.4:2, NRSV) and by "proclaim[ing] Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ) as Master (Lord)" (v.5, NRSV), my prayer - and this is the prayer of all Messianic Evangelicals - may "light shine out of darkness" to "the glory of Elohim in the face of Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ)" (v.6, NRSV).

A final word of assurance. Pastor Julius Rupp once said that Elohim (God) never takes without giving more than He has taken. The 'currency' of return may be different, of course, but it's definitely always many orders of magnitude more. Read the conclusion of the story of Job to see that principle in action. Yah'shua (Jesus) taught something similar when He said:

"I tell you the truth, no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for Me and the Besorah (Gospel) will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present æon (age) (homes, brothers, sisters, mothers, children and fields - and with them, persecutions) and in the æon (age) to come, eternal life" (Mk.10:29-30, NIV).

Until next week, when we will conclude this series on persecution, and have a special Rosh Chodesh prophetic meeting the day afterwards, may the grace of our Master Yah'shua (Jesus) be with us all, fortifying us to deal with whatever may come. Amen.

Endnotes

[1] Max Egremont, Forgotten Land: Journeys Among the Ghosts of East Prussia (Picador, London: 2011), p.73
[2] I highly recommend you see John Bevere's video series or read his book of the same name, The Bait of Satan: Living Free From the Deadly Trap of Offense (Charisma House, Lake Mary, Florida: 2004)
[3] C.S.Lewis, The Screwtape Letters: Letters from a Senior to a Junior Devil (1942); also see, Screwtape Proposes a Toast & Other Pieces (1965)
[4] "...abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality" (Acts 15:29, NKJV)
[5] This does not mean, as is traditionally interpreted, that Elohim (God) is 'a [non-corporeal] spirit', this sense being disguised by capitalising the 'S' or 'spirit' as in the NKJV here. The argument (again traditionally) advanced is that this must be so because Elohim (God) is omnipresent and therefore cannot have a body. And whilst it is true a mortal body cannot be omnipresent, that does not exclude the possibility that a resurrected body can be omnipresent. Clearly Elohim (God) cannot be a mere 'spirit' since Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), who has a resurrected body, is omnipresent, and He is Elohim (God). Furthermore, even as a mortal, it is evident that whilst His physical body could only be in one place at a time, as was the case while He was on earth, His spirit could be in multiple places, including in heaven, as witnessed by Yah'shua (Jesus) Himself speaking to Nicodemus: "And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven (and is on earth now, talking to Nicodemus), even the Son of man which is in heaven" (John 3:13, KJV). In other words, Christ was both talking to Nicodemus in secret on earth as well as being simultaneously in heaven. He was trans-dimensional even as a mortal, which may appear mysterious to us as mortals, but is evidently a fact of truth anyway. Speaking of the resurrection, Paul, referencing our mortal physical bodies, said that "it (our physical body) is sown (born of a woman) a natural (mortal) body, it is raised (resurrected as) a spiritual body" (1 Cor 15:44, NKJV). 'Spiritual' here does not mean 'non-physical', a misreading made by Jehovah's Witnesses and some others to imply the resurrection was purely spiritual, not physical, an entirely false notion. Thus to render John 4:24 as, "Elohim (God) is spiritual" is the more accurate form, incorporating all known scriptural truth on the matter. Yahweh-Elohim is spiritual, meaning both non-carnal and possessing a resurrected physical form in the person of Messiah, a deep subject to be sure which we shall not elaborate further upon here.
[6] Non-continuationists ('cessationists') like the Lutherans, Calvinists, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians and many others believe only one step is involved, the first (trusting in Christ), though they may add other steps of their own (if they are Catholics or Eastern Orthodox) by requiring membership in an organisation which they believe to be exclusively true (that would include Mormons and Jehovah's Witnesses) with the sole authority to dispense the 'sacraments' (usually five of them) - those who deny this second step are usually not regarded as properly saved Christians. Others may require that you accept one English translation only as the 'one and only true Bible' like the King James-Onlyers.
[7] See the Messianic Evangelicals website
[8] See the website
[9] See The Final Gathering

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