Thursday, 26 May 2016
Apostasy
THERE CAN BE NO DOUBT, dear friends that this is one of the most difficult passages in the Word of God. It has a depth in which an elephant may swim. Many have stumbled over it to their own destruction. Pray unfeignedly that we may be kept from erring in speaking from it.
There are two principle interpretations of these words which I would consider.
There are some divines who believe professors are here spoken of.
They who, live the foolish virgins, have lamps and a wick, but no oil in their vessels. They who come a far way to Christ, but who do not come altogether.
I would humbly offer you three reasons why I think that this is not the right interpretation of these words.
First, it is said, they are enlightened, that they have tasted of the heavenly gift; that is, Christ, and the powers of the world to come. Now it appears to me that this is the mark of a true believer; a true believer has no more than this.
But I have a second objection. I do not believe that mere professors falling away cannot be renewed by repentance. You remember Simon Magus: he fell away in shameful apostasy, but what did the apostle Peter say to him? 'Repent, therefore, of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thy heart may be forgiven thee' (Acts 8:22). The same thing is true of Manasseh, there is little doubt but that he was a professor. He was brought up under the care of his godly father Hezekiah, but he fell away into shameful apostasy, and set up a carved image in the holiest of all, and made his children pass through the fire to Moloch. Yet he was brought to repentance.
But I have a third objection. It is said. 'It is impossible for those who were once enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift, and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost, and have tasted the good word of God, and the powers of the world to come, if they shall fall away, to renew them again unto repentance.' That is, it is impossible to bring them back to saving repentance. Now this shows that they were there before. For these three reasons I feel obliged to give up this interpretation.
I will now give you the second interpretation which divines put upon these words. It is that Paul is supposing a case, a case that will never happen.
Suppose 'they who were once enlightened', etc., I believe, dear friends, for the sake of warning sluggish Hebrews, and for the sake of warning you, Paul wrote these dreadful words.
Let us now go over the description here given of a true believer.
They are enlightened. The first thing that the Holy Spirit does when he is converting a soul is to give light: 'Ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord' (Ephesians 5:8). He pours a flood of light into the unconverted soul, so that it sees itself. The first thing that the Holy Spirit does, is to give knowledge to let us see things as they are - heaven as it is - hell as it is. This light, brethren, too, is sanctifying light. 'Beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image, from glory to glory' (2 Corinthians 3:18). And this is saving light: 'For this is life eternal, to know thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent' (John 17:3). You remember when Paul was converted, there were scales that fell from his eyes, and he was enabled to see (Acts 9:18). Now this is just intended to show us what conversion is - it is as scales falling the eyes - it is the giving of sight to the blind.
I would now put this question to you, Have you been enlightened? Can you say with the blind man, 'Once I was blind but now I see' (John 9:25)? Have you seen the wonder of this plan of salvation of Christ? On the answer of that question rests your conversion. Sometimes when a child has been awakened in a family, and begins to pray, they often ask, What fancy is this? Dear fiends, it is no fancy. Such a one now sees that there is a hell - there is a heaven - that conversion is something real. It is no mere fancy that a man may take up at pleasure. It is divine. Would to God that ye all knew it, for then ye would see that it is no fancy.
I come now to the second part of the description: 'And have tasted of the heavenly gift', The heavenly gift is the gift of God. Is the same that is spoken of in John 1:14; 'The Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.' Paul calls it the 'unspeakable gift' - 'Thanks be to God for his unspeakable gift.' (2 Corinthians 9:15). In these words it is called the 'heavenly gift'. I suppose it is called the heavenly gift in allusion to the manna that came down from heaven. And that to taste of the heavenly gift, I think, means to have a real experience of Christ. Those who would interpret the words as referring to professors, say that it means 'slightly to taste'; but this is not the meaning of these words: they mean to have a real experience of Christ. It is said in the Hebrews 2:9: 'He tasted death for every man.' Again, in the Psalm 34:8" 'O taste and see that the LORD is good.' That is to have a real experience of God's goodness. Have you then tasted of the heavenly gift? You know he would have been foolish Israelite, who gathered in manna in the morning and ground it and made it into cakes, but ho never tasted of it .
They are 'made partakers of the Holy Ghost.' When a soul tastes the heavenly gift, then it is made a partaker of the Holy Ghost. And observe the word 'partakers.' It means sharers alike - sharers with all that are believers. And not only so, but ye are partakers also with Christ; for the Holy Ghost that dwells in Christ dwells in the believer. And you are partakers with God: 'For if sons then heirs, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ' (Romans 8:17). Do you, O believer, feel anything of this? You that hate believers know nothing of this. And remember, brethren, you that are not receivers of the Holy Ghost, are none of his. You may have the name! You may have the shell! You may have the outward form! But you know him not.
But again, 'they have tasted the good word of God.' I believe this just means the Word of God - the Word which God has given us. It is what is spoken of in Isaiah 52:7: 'How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace...' It is the same word as spoken of in Isaiah 50:4: 'The Lord GOD hath given me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him that is weary.' It is the same the angels spoke of when they appeared to the shepherds of Bethlehem, 'Fear not; for behold I bring you good tidings of great joy which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day, in the city of David, a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord' (Luke 2:10-11). This is the word of God: and to taste the word of God is to relish it - to relish it as you do your necessary food. How many taste it not! How many look around to the clock, and say, When will it be done? Ah! You have not tasted the good Word of God; and why is this? It is because you know not Christ - it is because you are on the way to hell.
They live under 'the power of the world to come'. The unconverted live under the power of this world - under the power of money - under the power of fame. Unconverted men live under the power of these things; but converted souls live under the power of the world to come: their anchor is within the veil. How is it with you? Do you live in the sight of an eternal heaven or an eternal hell? My dear brethren, there is a world to come. There is a world to come, whether you believe it or not. There is but a step between you and it. Many do not believe that there is a world to come. You that are Sabbath breakers, you do not believe there is a world to come. You that sell what makes the drunkard drunken, you do not believe there is a world to come. You do not believe there is a hell, else you could not live as you do.
Now, dear friends I have but a moment to apply this to those whom Paul applied it to. And I would just state it simply to you, that I do not believe it is possible for a child of God to fall away and perish. They may fall, but they an never fall finally. They may fall as David did - They may fall as Abraham did - They may fall as Peter did, but they can never perish; for the faithfulness of God stands against it; the faithfulness of the Son stands against it - 'Lo, these are they which thou hast given me, and I have kept them and none of them is lost' (John 17:12); and the faithfulness of the Holy Spirit stands against it. Some then will ask: What is the use of these fearful words? They are to keep you from drawing back. Take an illustration: I believe that the angels can never fall, according to the passage in 1 Timothy 5:21; but they might look over the golden battlements of heaven to that place of torment, and say, 'If we had sinned, that would have been our portion.' Amen.
Wednesday, 25 May 2016
MAN REGARDED, BUT GOD DESPISED
By Robert Murray M'Cheyne
"If I be a father, where is mine honour?"— MAL. i. 6.
The first conviction that is essential to the conversion of the soul, is conviction of sin; not the general conviction that all men are sinful, but the personal conviction that I am an undone sinner; not the general conviction that other men must be forgiven or perish, but the personal conviction that I must be forgiven or perish. Now, there is no greater barrier in the way of this truth being impressed on the soul than the felt consciousness of possessing many virtues. We cannot be persuaded that the image of God has been so completely effaced from our souls as the Bible tells us, when we feel within ourselves, and see exhibited in others, what may almost be termed godlike virtues. The heroes of whom we have read in history, with their love of country, and contempt of death—their constancy in friendship, and fidelity in affection—seem to rise up before us to plead the cause of injured humanity. And what is more baffling, our every-day experience of the kindness of hospitality—, the flowings of unbounded generosity, —the compassion that weeps because another weeps, and all this among men that care not for Christ and his salvation, seems to raise a barrier impregnable against the truth, that man is conceived in sin and shapen in iniquity. When we enter one cottage door, and see a whole company of brothers and sisters melted into tears at the sight of a dying sister's agonies; or when we enter another door, and see the tenderness of a mother's affection toward her sick infant in her bosom; or when we see, in a third family, the cheerful obedience which the children pay to an aged father; or, in a fourth family, the scrupulous integrity with which the servant manages the affairs of an earthly master, we are ready to as, 'Is this indeed a world of sin? is it possible that the wrath of God can be in store for such a world?' It will be very generally granted, that there are some men so utterly worthless and incorrigible—so far gone in the ways of desperate wickedness, that nothing else is to be expected for them, but an eternity of hopeless misery. There is a crew of abandoned profligates, who scoff at the very name of God and religion. There are atheists, who openly deny his very being—infidels, who openly deny that Christ came in the flesh. There are cold-blooded murderers, and worse than murderers, who are confessed by all to be a disgrace to the name of man. For these, few would dare to plead exemption from the awful vengeance that awaits the ungodly. So that there is a felt reasonableness in the dreadful words: "The abominable, and murderers, and whore-mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone." But that the obedient child, and the faithful servant, —the tenderly affectionate mother, —the hospitable and generous neighbour,— the man of intelligence and good feeling,— that all these should ever be bound up in the same bundle of destruction, and consigned to the same eternal flames, merely because they do not believe in Jesus— this is the rock of offence on which thousands stumble and fall, to their inevitable ruin.
There is, perhaps, no way more commonly used by man to repel all the personal convictions of sin which the Word of God would cast on us. For do I not feel within me all the tender affections of humanity—all the honesties and integrities of our nature? Do not I feel pleasure in being honest and fair-dealing—in being compassionate, and generous, and hospitable? How, plainly, them, may I say to my soul: "Soul, take thine ease"? These virtues of thine are a sure token that thou art born for a blessed eternity. Ah! my friends, is it not a most blessed thing that, in the passage now before us, God wrests from our hand the very weapon wherewith we would defend ourselves, and turns it with a shaft to pierce our worldly conscience? And oh! if we had minds as intelligent as when Adam walked with God in paradise, nothing more would be necessary to carry to our hearts the overwhelming conviction of sin than the repetition of the words: "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you." There is power and pathos in this argument, which might well break down the hardest and most unfeeling mind; it is as if God had said, as he elsewhere doth: "Come and let us reason together." You say that you have many excellent virtues—that you have tender and beautiful affections; you say that filial and parental love occupy a master-piece in your bosom—that integrity and unsullied honesty beat high in your breast. And do I deny all this? Shall I detract from the glory of my own handiwork, so beautiful, even in ruins? No, it is all true ; the son does honour his father—the servant is faithful to his master; all is beautiful, when I look only to the earthly relationships. But that is the very thing which shows the utter derangement of all the heavenly relationships; for, "If I then be a father, where is mine honour? If I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you." I see that you honour your earthly fathers, and serve faithfully your earthly masters; but that is the very thing which shows me that I am the exception. I see that there is not a father in the whole universe that is deprived of the love of his children, but myself —there is not a master under heaven that is robbed of the honour and service of his domestics as I am. If, brethren, you and I were sunk into actual brutality —if we had no love for parents—no honesty to masters—then God might have had cause to say of us, that nothing better could be expected from such wretches, than that we should forget our heavenly Father and Master. But oh! when there are such tender affections in our bosoms towards our earthly relations, is not our sin written as with an iron pen, and with lead in the rock for ever, that we make God the exception—that we are godless in the world?
I would, with all affection and tenderness, beseech every one of you to search his own heart, and see if these things be not so,—see if that which you generally take for the excuse of your sins, be not the very essence of them. What would you not do, what would you not suffer, for the sake of an earthly parent? and yet you will not expend so much as a thought, or the breathing of a desire, for your heavenly Parent. God is not in all your thoughts. You will toil night and day in behalf of an earthly master; yet you will not do a hand's turn for your heavenly Master. God is the only parent whom you dishonour; God is the only master whom you wrong. "If you were blind, you should have no sin; but now it is plain you see, therefore your sin remaineth." If you were incapable of affections or fidelity, then you should have no sin; but now it is plain you are capable of both, therefore your sin remaineth. Imagine a family of brothers and sisters all bound together by the ties of the closest amity and affections. Oh! it is a good and pleasant sight to see brethren dwell together in unity. "It is like precious ointment upon the head, that ran down upon the beard, even Aaron's beard, that went down to the skirts of his garments. It is as the dew of Hermon, that descended upon the mountains of Zion." What will they not do for one another? what will they not suffer for each other? But imagine, again, that all this unity, which is so much like the temper of heaven, was maintained among them, whilst all the while they were united in despising the tender mother that bore them—in turning away from, and forsaking the grey-haired father that had brought up every one of them. Would not this one feature in the picture change all its beauty and all its interest? Would it not make their unity more like that of devils than that of angels? Would you not say, that their affection for one another was the very thing which made their disaffection to their parents hateful and most unnatural? Oh! brethren, the picture is a picture of us: "A son honoureth his father, and a servant his master: if then I be a father, where is mine honour? and if I be a master, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto you."
It is a fearful thing, when our very virtues, to which we flee for refuge against the wrath of God, turn round most fiercely to condemn us. What avail your honesties,—what avail your filial attachments,— what avail your domestic virtues, which the world so much admire, and praise you for, if, in the sight of God, these are all the while enhancing your ungodliness? Let no man misunderstand me, as if I had said that it was a bad thing to be honest, to be faithful and just, and affectionate to parents. Every sensible man knows the value of these earthly virtues, and how much they are invigorated and enlarged, and begin a new life, as it were, when the worldly man becomes a believer. But this I do say, that if thou hast nothing more than these earthly virtues, they will, every one of them, rise in the judgment only to condemn thee, I say only what the mighty Luther said before me, that these virtues of thine, whereby thou thinkest to build thy Babel tower to heaven, are but the splendid sins of humanity; and that they will only serve to cast thee down into tenfold deeper condemnation. God doth not charge you, brethren, with dishonesty, with disobedience to parents. The only charge which he brings against you here, is the one long sin of the natural man's life--ungodliness. God is not in all your thoughts. He admits that you have earthly virtues; but these just make blacker and more indelible your sins against heaven.
Monday, 23 May 2016
Three World Wars
Pike's Letter to Mazzini
The First World War must be brought about in order to permit the Illuminati to overthrow the power of the Czars in Russia and of making that country a fortress of atheistic Communism. The divergences caused by the "agentur" (agents) of the Illuminati between the British and Germanic Empires will be used to foment this war. At the end of the war, Communism will be built and used in order to destroy the other governments and in order to weaken the religions.
The Second World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences between the Fascists and the political Zionists. This war must be brought about so that Nazism is destroyed and that the political Zionism be strong enough to institute a sovereign state of Israel in Palestine. During the Second World War, International Communism must become strong enough in order to balance Christendom, which would be then restrained and held in check until the time when we would need it for the final social cataclysm.
The Third World War must be fomented by taking advantage of the differences caused by the "agentur" of the "Illuminati" between the political Zionists and the leaders of Islamic World. The war must be conducted in such a way that Islam (the Moslem Arabic World) and political Zionism (the State of Israel) mutually destroy each other. Meanwhile the other nations, once more divided on this issue will be constrained to fight to the point of complete physical, moral, spiritual and economical exhaustion. We shall unleash the nihilists and the atheists, and we shall provoke a formidable social cataclysm which in all its horror will show clearly to the nations the effect of absolute atheism, origin of savagery and of the most bloody turmoil. Then everywhere, the citizens, obliged to defend themselves against the world minority of revolutionaries, will exterminate those destroyers of civilization, and the multitude, disillusioned with Christianity, whose deistic spirits will from that moment be without compass or direction, anxious for an ideal, but without knowing where to render its adoration, will receive the true light through the universal manifestation of the pure doctrine of Lucifer, brought finally out in the public view. This manifestation will result from the general reactionary movement which will follow the destruction of Christianity and atheism, both conquered and exterminated at the same time.
RABBI RABINOVICH'S SPEECH OF JANUARY 12TH, 1952
"Greetings, my children; You have been called her to recapitulate the principal steps of our new program. As you know, we had hoped to have twenty years between wars to consolidate the great gains which we made from World War II, but our increasing numbers in certain vital areas is arousing opposition to us, and we must now work with every means at our disposal to precipitate World War III within five years.
[They did not precipitate World War III but they did instigate the Korean War when on June 25, 1950 they ordered the North Korean army to launch a surprise attack on South Korea. On June 26, the U.N. Security Council condemned the invasion as aggression and ordered withdrawal of the invading forces.
"Then on June 27, 1950, our Jewish American President Truman ordered air and naval units into action to enforce the U.N. order.
"Not achieving their full goals, they then instigated the overthrow of South Vietnam Ngo Dinh Diem, Premier under Bao Dai, who deposed the monarch in 1955 and established a republic with himself as President. Diem used strong U.S. backing to create an authoritarian regime, which soon grew into a fullscale war, with Jewish pressure escalating U.S. involvement].
"The goal for which we have striven so concertedly for three thousand years is at last within our reach, and because its fulfillment is so apparent, it behooves us to increase our efforts and our caution tenfold. I can safely promise you that before ten years have passed, our race will take its rightful place in the world, with every Jew a king and every Gentile a slave (Applause from the gathering).
"You remember the success of our propaganda campaign during the 1930's, which aroused anti-American passions in Germany at the same time we were arousing anti-German passions in America, a campaign which culminated in the Second World War.
"A similar propaganda campaign is now being waged intensively throughout the world. A war fever is being worked up in Russia by an incessant anti-American barrage while a nation wide anti-Communist scare is sweeping America.
"This campaign is forcing all the smaller nations to choose between the partnership of Russia or an alliance with the United States.
"Our most pressing problem at the moment is to inflame the lagging militaristic spirit of the Americans.
"The failure of the Universal Military Training Act was a great setback to our plans, but we are assured that a suitable measure will be rushed through Congress immediately after the 1952 elections.
"The Russians, as well as the Asiatic peoples, are well under control and offer no objections to war, but we must wait to secure the Americans. This we hope to do with the issue of antisemitism, which worked so well in uniting the Americans against Germany.
"We are counting heavily on reports of antisemitic outrages in Russia to whip up indignation in the United States and produce a front of solidarity against the Soviet power.
"Simultaneously, to demonstrate to Americans the reality of antisemitism, we will advance through new sources large sums of money to outspokenly antisemitic elements in America to increase their effectiveness, and we shall stage antisemitic outbreaks in several of the larger cities.
"This will serve the double purpose of exposing reactionary sectors in America, which then can be silenced, and of welding the United States into a devoted anti-Russian unit.
(Note: Protocol of Zion No. 9, para. 2, states that antisemitism is controlled by them. At the time of this speech they had already commenced their campaign of antisemitism in Czechoslovakia).
"Within five years, this program will achieve its objective, the Third World War, which will surpass in destruction all previous contests.
"Israel, of course, will remain neutral, and when both sides are devastated and exhausted, we will arbitrate, sending our Control Commissions into all wrecked countries. This war will end for all time our struggle against the Gentiles.
"We will openly reveal our identity with the races of Asia and Africa.
I can state with assurance that the last generation of white children is now being born. Our Control Commissions will, in the interests of peace and wiping out interracial tensions.
"Forbid the whites to mate with the whites. The white women must cohabit with members of the dark races, the white men with black women.
"Thus the white race will disappear, for the mixing of the dark with the white means the end of the white man, and our most dangerous enemy will become only a memory.
"We shall embark upon an era of ten thousand years of peace and plenty, the Pax Judaica, and our race will rule undisputed over the world.
"Our superior intelligence will easily enable us to retain mastery over a world of dark peoples."
Question from the gathering: Rabbi Rabinovich, what about the various religions after the Third World War?
Rabinovich:
"There will be no more religions. Not only would the existence of a priest class remain a constant danger to our rule, but belief in an afterlife would give spiritual strength to irreconcilable elements in many countries, and enable them to resist us.
"We will, however, retain the rituals and customs of Judaism as the mark of our hereditary ruling caste, strengthening our racial laws so that no Jew will be allowed to marry outside our race, nor will any stranger be accepted by us.
(Note: Protocol of Zion No. 17 para. 2, states:
'Now that freedom of conscience has been declared everywhere (as a result of their efforts they have previously stated) only years divide us from the moment of the complete wrecking of that [hated] Christian religion. As to other religions, we shall have still less difficulty with them.')
"We may have to repeat the grim days of World War II, when we were forced to let the Hitlerite bandits sacrifice some of our people, in order that we may have adequate documentation and witnesses to legally justify our trial and execution of the leaders of America and Russia as war criminals, after we have dictated the peace.
"I am sure you will need little preparation for such a duty, for sacrifice has always been the watchword of our people, and the death to a few thousand jews in exchange for world leadership is indeed a small price to pay.
"To convince you of the certainty of that leadership, let me point out to you how we have turned all of the inventions of the white man into weapons against him. His printing presses and radios are the mouthpieces of our desires, and his heavy industry manufactures the instruments which he sends out to arm Asia and Africa against him.
"Our interests in Washington are greatly extending the Point Four Program (viz. Colombo Plan) for developing industry in backward areas of the world, so that after the industrial plants and cities of Europe and America are destroyed by atomic warfare, the whites can offer no resistance against the large masses of the dark races, who will maintain an unchallenged technological superiority.
"And so, with the vision of world victory before you, go back to your countries and intensify your good work, until that approaching day when Israel will reveal herself in all her glorious destiny as the Light of the World."
(Note: Every statement made by Rabinovich is based on agenda contained in the "Protocols of Zion.")