Joshua-gate
Part 3. The Jezebel Conspiracy: the Downfall of Kings
March 30, 2008
By Ron and Karen Schwartz
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Ron's Thoughts
1 John 2:27
As
for you, the anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need
anyone to teach you. But as his anointing teaches you about all things and
as that anointing is real, not counterfeit — just as it has taught you, remain
in him.
Consider the magnitude of these words: “the
anointing you received from him remains in you, and you do not need anyone to
teach you.” Most Christians don’t really believe this. They
feel insecure concerning their ability to hear from God, so they want to be
taught. But that is just the tip of the iceberg. They are also
insecure in their faith, their trust in God’s love for them, and even their
salvation. Yes, this is normal for most contemporary Christians, but
should it really be that way?
Ask yourself this: Are you secure in your relationship with
your spouse? Do you trust him or her? Do you doubt whether or not
s/he truly loves you? Do you feel as though something is wrong? Do
you feel like s/he is holding back affection? How about your relationship
with your parents? Do you trust their love for you? Do you believe
that they truly care about you? Are you in the least bit concerned whether
or not they will help and support you? If you don’t trust someone, or
if you feel insecure about that relationship, then something is wrong. It
should NOT be that way. You should have absolute trust, security, and
confidence in your spouse. You should have absolute faith in your
parents’ support and love. Trust, faith, confidence, and security are
all marks of healthy relationships, and when these positive characteristics are
missing, it is symptomatic of a serious problem.
The same holds true in our relationship with God. When we
lack trust, faith, confidence, and security, then something is wrong. We
should consider why it is so. When we are initially saved, we have no such
doubts. Rather, we are overcome with joy, faith, and security. We do
not wonder whether God loves us, nor are we insecure in our relationship with
Him.
Church people tell new converts that their spiritual “high (i.e.,
their passion and love for God, their absolute faith in His promises, their
simplistic trust in His love, etc.)” is nothing more than a “honeymoon”
period with God. “Just give it some time,” they say, “and you will
become normal. You will be just like the rest of us.” And of
course “normal” to them is insecurity, lacking joy and faith, and
questioning their salvation. “Normal” is spiritually dry and wondering
why God has abandoned them.
Spiritual insecurity, lack of faith, and doubt of God’s goodness
are not marks of spiritual maturity but an indication of something wrong in
one’s relationship with God. Healthy Christians should not feel this
way. Apostate, compromising, and idolatrous Christians feel this way
because of the conviction of God’s Spirit. But since these feelings have
become the norm for contemporary Christians, they are told not to worry about
it. Churches encourage Christians to dismiss their conviction as a dry
spell, deep inner spiritual growth, and normal Christian living. But it is
a lie. It is part of the Joshua-gate conspiracy.
The Great Seducer
There is a story in the Old Testament about a great whore who
married a king of Israel and helped to bring about his downfall. Her name
was Jezebel.
1 Kings 16:29-33
In
the thirty-eighth year of Asa king of Judah, Ahab son of Omri became king of
Israel, and he reigned in Samaria over Israel twenty-two years. Ahab
son of Omri did more evil in the eyes of the Lord
than any of those before him. He not only considered it trivial to commit
the sins of Jeroboam son of Nebat, but he also married Jezebel daughter of
Ethbaal king of the Sidonians, and began to serve Baal and worship him. He set
up an altar for Baal in the temple of Baal that he built in Samaria. Ahab
also made an Asherah pole and did more to provoke the Lord, the God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of
Israel before him.
When Jehu was anointed king, he made the following observation
concerning Jezebel:
2 Kings 9:22
And he [Jehu] answered, What peace, so
long as the whoredoms of thy mother Jezebel and her witchcrafts are so
many?
Now “Ahab…
did more to provoke the Lord, the
God of Israel, to anger than did all the kings of Israel before him,”
because he “sold himself to do evil in the
eyes of the Lord, urged on by
Jezebel his wife (1 Kings 21:25).”
Jezebel
introduced her pagan culture into Ahab’s life and pushed him into it. Ahab
did not do evil because he hated God. He did evil because he was
religious. He misconstrued his religion as true worship. Right up to
the end, he believed He was doing what was right. However, even
though he was a religious man and may even have had good intentions, it did not
prevent God from actively bringing about his destruction.
The
idea that God may actively work to destroy His people is lost in our generation
of apostate Christians. Contemporary Christians believe that God is so
merciful and longsuffering that He would never harm them (for they are His
children), but instead He would find some way to change their hearts and to
forgive them: certainly God would never destroy them. But this, too, was
Ahab’s opinion. He was ordained king of Israel by God. Therefore,
it was beyond comprehension that God would seek to destroy him.
Like
Ahab, contemporary Christians have become enculturated
by society and its social and moral values. It has fallen victim to the
culture of humanism, relativism, post-modernism, and the political climate of
tolerance and equality. So benign does our culture appear that its
characteristics have become a part of every facet of contemporary Christian
worship and religion. Our culture seems so right and harmless… but then,
certainly this is also what Ahab thought. The parallel between Ahab and
our contemporary Christian culture is remarkable.
After
the death of Ahab and his wife, the name “Jezebel” vanishes from the
scripture, at least until the end. Then her name and her actions suddenly
reappear.
The name “Jezebel” recurs in the book of Revelation where Jesus
says this to His church, “I have this against you:
You tolerate that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess. By
her teaching she misleads my servants into sexual immorality
[whoring] and the eating of food sacrificed to idols. I have given her time to
repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of
suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer
intensely, unless they repent of her ways (Revelation 2:20-23).”
Then again later:
Revelation 17:1-2
1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials,
and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the
judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication,
and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her
fornication.
In Revelation, John writes about his vision of the last days.
In his vision, he saw a great whore whose goal was to bring about the downfall
of kings. The great whore began as a single church but has eventually
grown to cast her deception over the entire world. The great whore may
have begun as a single church (i.e., the Catholic church) but she has expanded
herself to fill the earth with the institutional churches of this age.
Once
again, we find Jezebel arising to deceive kings. From these passages, we
know the following concerning her:
1) She wants to seduce kings (i.e., “with
whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication”).
Who are
these “kings of the earth”
whom she has seduced? In the
first chapter of revelation, we read, “And from
Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead,
and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and
washed us from our sins in his own blood, And hath made us kings and priests
unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen
(Revelation 1:5-6).”
This time Jezebel is not after “a” king of Israel, but after
the “kings
of this earth.” She longs to replace Christ as the true “King
of kings (Revelation 17:14).” She is not
after the sinners and fornicators but those who have committed their purity to
God. She longs for their innocence – to make them into a whore as she
is. Have you ever noticed how the truly anointed of God’s Spirit are
sought after by institutional churches? They are attracted to the true
anointing of God, but as soon as they have control of the anointed, they try to
either make them into the same spiritual whore that they are, or they seek to
kill them if they refuse to comply.
2) Christians today have “been
made drunk with [her] wine.”
In the beginning of this note, we discussed the fact that it is not
normal for relationships to suffer with doubts, insecurities, and a lack of
trust and faith. Yet this is exactly how most contemporary Christians feel
toward God. They are insecure in their faith, their salvation, and even
their standing with God. They doubt whether God will answer their prayers.
And they doubt whether or not God loves them. These things are all
symptomatic of a deeper problem.
What does this tell us? The insecurity that contemporary
Christians sense in regard to their faith, salvation, and the leading and
teaching of the Holy Spirit (an insecurity that was inexplicably missing during
and immediately following their spiritual rebirth) is conviction from the Holy
Spirit. The great whore churches try to numb this conviction by
telling contemporary Christians that their conviction is not from God but is
instead the work of the devil in trying to get them to doubt the grace and mercy
of God. Church leaders tell their compromising, backslidden, apostate
congregations that all they really need is more faith and confidence.
Therefore, Christians, in the face of spiritual conviction, force themselves to
believe that there is nothing wrong with their spiritual state. They
force themselves to believe that their feeling of lack, their “dryness,” and
their dissatisfaction is normal, that it is simply an attack by Satan, and that
they should ignore it. These lies perpetrated by church leaders are all
part of Joshua-gate: the conspiracy of the end time.
Church leaders routinely numb their congregations to the convicting
power of the Holy Spirit. Think about it. Haven’t you ever
wondered why it is that when you go to church, you leave feeling good about
yourself, but the longer you are away, the more insecure you begin to feel?
The longer you are away from church, the more the numbness to the conviction of
the Spirit wears off. That is why you feel almost desperate to get back to
church. That is why you feel the “need” to hear a preacher.
Contemporary Christians have become alcoholics, and like every
alcoholic, they are in denial. They know that they are not growing
spiritually. They know that their churches are carnal, apathetic, and
backslidden. They know that their churches reflect the values of this
world and are poor “wannabe’s” to the Church that Christ established, but
they do not care. Their intoxication has made them numb to the voice and
conviction of the Holy Spirit. That is why it is useless to try to get
Christians who are addicted to that system to see it for what it is. Like
all alcoholics, they are in denial.
The great whore institutional church system of this age has not
just ensnared the people of God but the gifted Christian leaders.
Christian leaders are seduced by the institutional church with the promise of
ministerial fulfillment along with financial support. It provides gifted
Christian men with a captive audience and the money to meet their needs.
It hands them a cup of wine and tells them to drink and everything will be okay.
Few Christian men today are able to escape its appeal, and most give in to its
flattery eventually. Once they give in to her charm and drink from her
wine, they begin to believe all her flatteries. They begin to see how
“special” they are and how much the church needs them, and as she invites
them to take their rightful place as the head of the church, somehow it all
seems right. Before long, they are intoxicated and addicted, too.
Pretty soon, they are unable to leave, and in the end, they go into denial along
with the people. The snare has tightened around their necks and slowly
strangles the life of the spirit from them. And as their spiritual gifts
depart, the great whore hands the Christian leader another cup of academics and
education. The whore then leans in close and whispers in their ears,
“There are no spiritual gifts today. My seminars and colleges can give
you everything you need to be a great speaker and a great leader.”
How many great men in scripture have lost their power and position
with God through the seduction of a woman? What about Samson? His
enemies told Delilah to “lure him into showing you
the secret of his great strength and how we can overpower him so we may tie him
up and subdue him (Judges 16:5).” In the end, it was she, not his enemies, who stripped him
of his power. Both Christians and their leaders are being seduced by their
church whores and stripped of their power. And because of the intoxication
of the social and financial fulfillment, they don’t even care. The
intoxication has made them numb to the conviction of God.
It grieves us to see good men whom we know to be gifted in teaching
and prophetic gifts selling themselves out to the whore system. They know
the people who come to them are not spiritual (but carnal), yet they preach to
them as if they are disciplined, functional, responsible Christians. We
ask you, Christian leaders, why don’t you set the wine aside and step away
from the whore? Why not speak the truth and trust God rather than
the whore’s money?
What about King David? “One
evening David got up from his bed and walked around on the roof of the palace.
From the roof he saw a woman bathing. The woman was very beautiful, and David
sent someone to find out about her. The man said, "Isn't this Bathsheba,
the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah the Hittite?" Then David sent
messengers to get her. She came to him, and he slept with her (2 Samuel 11:2-4).”
David fell because he lusted after a beautiful woman. How many great
gifted men have similarly fallen victim to the great institutional church whore?
How many men have sold out to her financial support? How many have come to
believe, though her seduction, that they are great preachers and prophets and
teachers?
If you are telling the people what they want to hear so that you
can maintain their support and following, then you have sold out to the whore.
If you are telling this age of carnal Christians that God wants to bless them,
then you have sold out to the whore. If you are continuing to advance the
agenda of the contemporary institutional church system, drawing from its
financial support and believing that you are indispensible (the church
“needs” you), then you have sold out. You have made yourself part of
the intoxicating wine that has been given to God’s people to drink. You
have made the people need you instead of God. And if you fail to free
yourself from the seducing power of that whore, then you will be part of her
judgment.
3) She claims to be anointed (“a
prophetess”), or inspired, and she offers her inspiration to the saints.
There is no doubt that contemporary churches are fountains of
information and knowledge. They produce impressive universities and floods
of books and other media. Like the Hebrew leaders during the time of
Christ, who dissected and analyzed every word of every scripture, Christian
leaders have completely annotated and explained away the New Testament into
mountains of books, the quantity of which cannot be numbered.
But for all the commentary, inspiration, and “feel-good” books
she produces, she fails to point Christians to their need for true humility and
repentance. Why? Because humility and repentance is not in the
hearts of her leaders. For them to point to the fact that the contemporary
church needs humility and repentance would mean that they as its leaders need
the same. Consequently, contemporary Christians listen to Jezebel, the
prophetess and whore, and fall victim to her apparent wisdom and knowledge of
the scripture. They fall prey to her words of comfort, encouragement, and
blessing.
4) She “misleads
(Greek:
planao , meaning ‘to cause to wander, to lead astray, and to
deceive.’)” through “her teaching.”
The great whore will not tell you that God does not exist or that
you should live in sin. No, outright statements like that would be
immediately recognized as wrong. She will not tell those things directly,
but she will lead you in that direction. Straying or wandering from the
path means that you were on the path at first. You stray from the path one
step at a time. If you can remember a time in your life that you walked
with God and you knew it, then consider where you are today. You didn’t
just wake up one morning changed. You did change, but it was gradual: one
compromise at a time.
The whorish church system wants to change true believers into
whores like her. She knows that true believers will never buy into sin,
apathy, and apostasy, but they may compromise their values just a little bit
under the right circumstances. So she begins to offer them all the great
social pseudo-Christian benefits of her programs. Once again, we find
Bible precedence for this.
Numbers 16:2-3
2 And they rose up before Moses, with certain of the children of
Israel, two hundred and fifty princes of the assembly, famous in the
congregation, men of renown:
3 And they gathered themselves together against Moses and against
Aaron, and said unto them, Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the
congregation are holy, every one of them, and the Lord is among them: wherefore then lift ye up yourselves
above the congregation of the Lord?
Like the princes of Israel, church leaders tell inspired and
anointed believers that since all the Christians in their church love God (that
is, the backslidden and compromising Christians), and they (the anointed
believers) are the ones who are different, then they like Moses are simply
arrogant (i.e., “wherefore then lift ye up yourselves above the congregation of the Lord”).
Church leaders explain to the new believers that they need to conform and be
like everyone else. They tell new Christians who are full of fire and
passion that their passion is simply a mark of immaturity and that it is
misdirected. They tell these fiery believers that they need to go to their
colleges and be mentored by them. Little by little, they get them to stray
from the path that God initially set them on until they are as cold, apathetic,
and apostate as the whore is. Christians don’t start out to be whores;
contemporary churches make them that way.
5) Her goal is to make those whom she beguiles to “commit
adultery with her.”
What is adultery? When Jesus talked to the prostitute, he
described her as having more than one husband. It’s not that
contemporary Christians don’t claim Christ as their Lord and husband, it’s
that He is not their one and only. They have others whom they have placed
as their spiritual heads. They place their church leaders on pedestals and
obey them over God. Remember, adultery is having more than one husband,
and therefore, when Christians elevate men into the same spiritual position of
authority in their lives as Christ, they commit adultery. They become
spiritual whores.
The contemporary church whore needs Christians to commit adultery
with her. Unless they do, they will be listening to and following God.
If they do that, God will expose her sin to them. So she denounces and
reprimands all those who stand independent or refuse to submit to her.
Where have we heard this before?
Daniel 3:5-6
5 That at what time ye hear the sound of the cornet, flute, harp,
sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of musick, ye fall down and worship
the golden image that Nebuchadnezzar the king hath set up:
6 And whoso falleth not down and worshippeth shall the same hour be
cast into the midst of a burning fiery furnace.
It wasn’t enough for Babylon to have power and control over
Israel. Babylon also wanted Israel to freely submit. The same
is true for the contemporary church whore, Babylon the Great. It is not
enough that she controls virtually all contemporary churches. Her leaders
also want all Christians to submit to them and honor them voluntarily. So
they pressure Christians into voluntary subjugation.
6) The great whore draws Christians in by her charm and beauty.
John made note of this when he wrote, “And
the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and
precious stones and pearls… and when I saw her, I wondered with great
admiration (Revelation 17:4, 6).” When John first saw her, he was captivated by her beauty
and splendor. The angel, unaffected by her charm, had to draw John’s
attention back (“And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel (Revelation
17:7)?”).
The institutional church is a powerful force at work among God’s
people. Its pseudo-Christian appearance promises to the believer
everything he wants for his social and spiritual fulfillment. He can meet
other believers, hear great inspirational messages, find social interaction for
his entire family, and participate in any number of classes and programs.
So Christians everywhere give in to her charm. They sell out to her
programs for high school and college students, for singles, for child care
during services that gives them a break, and for concert-style entertainment.
They can acquire everything but spiritual growth, so why would anyone want to
give it up?
Some Final Thoughts
Why does God compare the institutional church to a whore?
Let’s consider the analogy. There are costs associated with
both a whore and a marriage. The cost is different, but so is the benefit.
The cost associated with marriage is much greater than that associated with a
whore. Marriage requires self-sacrifice and purity but carries with it the
benefit of reciprocation. The cost associated with a whore, however, is
usually nothing more than monetary, and its benefit is regret and emptiness.
When you consider it from this point of view, it is easy to see the comparison.
The whore church requires very little from her members aside from
money. She certainly does not require abstinence (i.e., purity) from other
lovers. Like a marriage, God requires self-sacrifice and purity.
Moreover, whores don’t care how many lovers you have as long as they get their
money, but a spouse does. Similarly, a whore church doesn’t care about
your purity, or how many idols you serve, as long as she gets her tithes.
In fact, even the unsaved can become members as long as they pay their dues.
In addition to the cost, the benefit one receives from the whore
church is empty. It lacks substance. Most leave her “services”
having allowed themselves to be deluded into believing they have done all they
need to do and closing their eyes to anything more. Others leave knowing
in their hearts that they are frauds and that their Christian experience is
hollow. They use all the familiar clichés and go through all the motions
to worship like all the other idolaters but there is little spiritual substance
to their lives. In contrast, a real relationship with God may cost
you your life but it yields the benefit of life everlasting. Christians
who truly experience a relationship with God don’t need whore churches with
their fraud and pretentiousness. In fact, they find it nearly impossible
to survive there.
At one time, Christianity could be described as an “explosion”
of evangelism. Christianity was defined by the “gospel” – the good
news of salvation. Today, however, Christianity can best be described as
an “implosion” of religious self-indulgence. It’s no longer a matter
of the church going out into the world, but the world coming into the church,
resulting in church whoredom.
At one time, the church was a force against which the gates of hell
could not prevail. It rallied around Christ and held Him up as Lord.
Today, however, the contemporary church is the victim of society and it folds
under social and cultural pressure. Christ is no longer at its center.
Today, everything about the church rallies around its members and what is
appealing to them.
When Christianity was great and powerful, it was because Christ was
the driving source at its center, molding the church into His likeness.
Today, the members are the driving source at its center, demanding that it
conform to their likeness. It isn’t Christ that Christians want but
social and emotional fulfillment. They “church shop” - not for Christ
but for which church offers the best benefits. In the contemporary church,
we find the ultimate form of idolatry: Christians now worship their own
pleasures. And since their pleasures are religious in nature, Christians
misconstrue their idolatry for godliness.
Contemporary Christians assign blame for God’s judgment to
everything but where it really belongs. They believe that judgment will
befall their countries because of social sins like homosexual marriage,
abortion, liberalism, and humanism that permeate their societies. But God
‘s blessings or His curses are not dependent upon the actions of society.
They are dependent upon the actions of His people.
2 Chronicles 7:14
If
my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and
seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and
will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
Stop waiting, hoping, and praying for society to change. Stop
blaming “them.” It’s not a “them” issue. Instead, examine
your own heart. The future does not hinge upon whether or not social
corruption ends. It hinges upon whether or not God’s people will repent.
It may not be too late for you or your church. There may still be time.
There is ONLY ONE HOPE for you, your church, and this nation: REPENT.
kmsrjs@triton.net (use the same address for MSN Messenger)
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