Eph 832ff 6/19/88
DOCTRINE OF CHRISTIAN RESPONSIBILITY
A. What is the responsibility of the Christian with regard to activism?
1. There is a tremendous emphasis today among evangelical Christians to practice social and political engineering and activism. Many of the so- called television evangelists have violated the principle of church and state in order to become a politically-active candidate.
2. Christian involvement in vigorous and often political activity to achieve political goals is one of the greatest tragedies of this moment.
3. There is little or no understanding among believers of the role of the Christian in the client nation to God. This is often predicated on the erroneous theory of a so-called “Christian” nation. The “Christian” nation is a myth; the client nation to God is a reality. Both believers and unbelievers exist in a nation, many religions as well as Christianity.
4. There is no such thing as so-called “Christian” laws. The Bible teaches that a nation should follow the laws of divine establishment, designed for believers and unbelievers alike. If so-called “Christian” laws existed, that would outlaw all unbelievers, and that would be tyranny.
5. Christians have become monsters in trying to get their way; e.g., in the abortion crusade. There is no soul life in the womb; to deny this is to say God is the author of sin, which is blasphemous and unthinkable. But Christians have turned this into a vicious tragic evil. They march and force their children to participate. That’s not what we’re here for. But as long as Christians do these things, we will continue to go down.
6. The Bible clearly emphasizes the fact that the impact of Christianity on client nation USA is spiritual. Christians do have civil responsibility, such as military service, paying taxes, fulfilling certain civic responsibilities. But this does not include violence, destruction of property, intrusion on the privacy of others, or any form of civil disobedience.
7. The separation of church and state demands that the believer understand his role in society in terms of God’s plan, God’s purpose, and God’s will for his life as a member of the royal family of God living in the dispensation of the Church.
8. The spiritual impact of the protocol plan of God not only opposes the present modus operandi of Christian activism, but assigns it to the arrogance of the cosmic system, and thereby makes it a function of grieving the Holy Spirit rather than walking by means of the Spirit.
9. This is the function of reversionism, the black-out of the soul, scar tissue of the soul, reverse-process reversionism.
10. As goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God. A client nation to God is defined in terms of spiritual activity under establishment freedom.
11. As our Lord said, “Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s, and unto God the things that are God’s.”
a. “Render unto Caesar” is the establishment activity of the believer, his function under the divine institutions of freedom, marriage, family, and government.
(1) Freedom must include privacy, self-determination, the sacredness of property and life.
(2) Freedom can only be maintained under the laws of divine establishment through military victory.
(3) Free enterprise and the coexistence of poverty and wealth side-by-side is a normal function of a nation.
(4) Separation of church and state is very important.
(5) Separation of the military and state is very important so that no coup d’etat or military dictatorship will ever exist.
(6) The greatest commentary on the details of a military are given in Numbers, which begins with universal military training.
(7) There must be laws against criminality. The Bible advocates that for certain criminal offenses the individual be executed under the principle of capital punishment.
(8) There must exist civil authority. Freedom without authority is anarchy. Authority without freedom is tyranny. You cannot have one without the other.
b. “Render unto God” is the believer, after personally receiving Jesus Christ as his Savior, executing the protocol plan of God.
(1) It refers to the manufacture of invisible heroes, the establishment of a pivot by which the client nation functions under blessing by association.
(2) Manifest destiny demands blessing by association with mature believers, not activism from carnal Christians who are guilty of moral degeneration.
B. Illustration: The Northern Kingdom, Isa 28:8-12.
1. The Northern Kingdom became pleasure-mad in their prosperity. All they could think of was pleasure and its stimulation. It became a country of drug addicts and drunks. This is described in Isa 28:8-12.
2. Isa 28:8, “For all the tables are full of filthy vomit; there is not a single clean place.”
3. Isa 28:9, “To whom shall He teach knowledge of doctrine? To whom shall He cause to interpret the message? Those just weaned with milk? Those just taken from the mother’s breast?”
a. In other words, with everyone drunk or hopped up on drugs, Isaiah was saying, “How can we ever teach doctrine?” The only hope against the great Assyrian empire was a pivot of invisible heroes.
b. The recipients of doctrine could not be babies; adults were needed.
4. Isa 28:10, “Principle of doctrine added to principle of doctrine, line of Scripture added to line of Scripture, a little doctrine in this message, a little doctrine in the next message.”
a. This is one of the most unusual verses in the Hebrew, because it is onomatopoeic. It is a monosyllabic imitation of two things: of the drunken speech related to Isa 28:8, and to the babbling of those who have rejected Bible doctrine.
b. In time of stress, those who have rejected doctrine and who have no establishment orientation are cry babies. They whine and mew and complain their way through life. They never see that they themselves are responsible for the national disaster that overtakes the client nation.
c. Though the sound of the Hebrew is slurred and babbling, the content points to the only solution for the nation, which is to establish invisible heroes. For that to occur, believers must listen to once principle of doctrine added to another principle of doctrine. This verse promotes the expository teaching of the Word of God.
d. The monosyllabic babbling of the drunks is imitated to give the solution. In that sense, it almost becomes an entendre.
e. Notice that not one word promotes Christian activism. The only solution is “principle of doctrine added to principle of doctrine.” It all accumulates, and it produces the invisible hero. The invisible hero comes through the perception of doctrine, not through Christian activism.
f. Christian activism is an abomination to the Lord, and it brings about the cycles of discipline that eventually destroy the client nation to God.
g. The babbling reminds the prophet of speaking in tongues. It is interesting to note that Isaiah refers to that next in verse 11.
5. Isa 28:11, “For with alien articulation and by means of a foreign [Gentile] language, He will speak to this people.”
a. Here Isaiah makes a prophecy about all Jewish client nations, how they will all eventually be destroyed. (Today there is no Jewish client nation; only Gentile nations can be client nations to God during these times of the Gentiles.)
b. The Jews would no longer learn the Gospel from Isa 53, or from their repeated phrase “SHAMA JISRAEL, ADONAI ELOHENU, ADONAI ECHAD.” They would learn the Gospel through Gentile languages only. When that occurred, that would be the sign that Jewish nations would no longer function as client nations to God until the Second Advent of Jesus Christ.
c. Since they would not be evangelized by their own native language, they were therefore to be set aside until the last 1000 years of history. Only when Jesus Christ returns will there ever be a Jewish client nation again. That means there are no Jewish client nations throughout the Church Age and Tribulation.
6. Isa 28:12, “ . . . but they would not listen.”
a. Reversionistic sublimation of the Northern Kingdom meant all they wanted to do was to party. They were self-indulgent, preoccupied with themselves.
C. The Temporary Gift of Tongues.
1. Isa 28:8-12 is quoted in the tongues passage of 1 Cor 14:21. It is applied to the gift of tongues in 1 Cor 14:22.
a. The spiritual gift of tongues was not emotional babble, but it was the actual speaking of the Gospel in foreign languages. At that time, there were Jews visiting Jerusalem for Holy Days who understood these foreign languages as their own native tongue.
b. For the next forty years, Jews were to be evangelized in Gentile languages. This was the purpose for the gift of tongues.
c. But at the end of that forty years, specifically in August of 70 A.D., the gift of tongues was withdrawn, i.e., concurrent with the fall of the last Jewish client nation of Judah.
d. 1 Cor 13:8 lists some temporary spiritual gifts. “ . . . whether there is the gift of tongues, they shall cease.” The first temporary gift to cease was the gift of tongues.
e. The eggastramuthos demon can control the vocal cords of the unbeliever he possesses, thus assimilating the gift of tongues and giving credibility to cults and evil religions.
f. Isaiah explained why the gift of tongues was so temporary, because it was a warning to Israel only. 2. 1 Cor 14:21, “In the Torah [Old Testament, Isa 28:11], it stands written, `With strange [foreign] languages, and by the lips of strangers [Gentiles], I will speak to this people, and [Isa 28:12] even so, they will not listen to Me,’ saith the Lord.”
a. Why were the Jews overrun and destroyed by the fifth cycle of discipline? Not because of unbelievers, but because the believers would not listen to Bible doctrine.
b. Inevitably when a client nation goes down, it is the fault only of believers in Jesus Christ. They fail to execute the protocol plan of God. They fail to learn “principle of doctrine upon principle of doctrine, line of Scripture exegeted upon line of Scripture exegeted, some doctrine today and some doctrine tomorrow.”
3. 1 Cor 14:22, “For this reason, the gift of tongues are a sign, not to those who believe, but to those who do not believe.”
a. When Jewish unbelievers were evangelized in Gentile languages, that was the sign that the Jewish client nation was about to go out.
b. It was almost 800 years before Isaiah’s prophecy was fulfilled. He wrote Isa 28 around 721 B.C.; it wasn’t fulfilled until 30- 70 A.D.
c. After 70 A.D., Jews would be scattered throughout the world. Although there would be Jewish nations, no Jewish nation would again be a client nation to God until the Millennium.
4. The purpose of the gift of tongues was to communicate the Gospel message to the Jews in Gentile languages, and to warn Israel that their client nation status was coming to an end, and that they would be replaced by Gentile client nations.
5. A prophecy about this was given by our Lord in Lk 21:20-24. Lk 21:24, “They will fall by the edge of the sword; they will be led captive into all nations. Jerusalem shall be trampled underfoot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.”
a. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline always takes place in exactly the same way, i.e., by an army overrunning and destroying a nation.
b. The times of the Gentiles runs coterminously with the Church Age, from 70 A.D. to the resurrection or Rapture of the Church.
c. For forty years, from 30 to 70 A.D., the gift of tongues was used to warn Israel of the coming of the fifth cycle of discipline. The times of the Gentiles began in August of 70 A.D.
d. In this period of the times of the Gentiles, only Gentile nations can be client nations to God. The first Gentile nation was S.P.Q.R., which was sustained by three generations of a Gentile pivot in the Roman province of Asia. From that Gentile pivot came 400 years of great prosperity and client nation function, including a fantastic missionary thrust.
e. Rome was followed by many great Gentile client nations, such as the Franks, Goths, Scots, Irish, Scandinavians, Swiss, French, Brandenberg Prussians, and the Anglo-Saxons in the Atlantic basin, i.e., Great Britain and the United States. Perhaps the pivot and client nation privilege will move to the Pacific basic in the twenty-first century.
D. Why does a client nation fall? Hosea 4:1-6.
1. Very shortly after these words in Hosea were written, the Assyrian army invaded the Northern Kingdom and overran the country. They raped the women and enslaved the survivors.
2. Hosea 4:1-6 not only explains why a client nation falls, but it also gives the solution. Nothing has changed since this was written in B.C. 721. The failures and solutions are the same. “The Word of God is alive and powerful;” the Word of God is pertinent.
3. Hos 4:1, “Hear the word of the Lord, you citizens of Israel [Northern Kingdom] because the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the client nation, because nothing of doctrine is taught, nothing about grace is being applied; there is no knowledge of God in the land.”
a. In His control of history, Jesus Christ never destroys a nations or permits its destruction until it has gone beyond all reasonable hope.
b. The Hebrew word for “case” refers to lawsuit. This is a case before the supreme court of heaven.
c. We are all the products of God’s policy of grace. We earn and deserve nothing! It is by grace that we stand.
4. Hos 4:2, “Instead, there is lying [dishonesty], deception, homicide, stealing, rape, blood touches blood [idiom: perpetuated violence].”
a. When people lie, they have rejected the truth in their function. When a maximum number of people are in a state of dishonesty, the strength of the nation as a whole is lost.
b. Those who commit murder ought to be executed under the law of capital punishment. Homicide does not refer to killing the enemy in battle.
c. Military soldiers who are believers should be the best killers of the enemy of all. As they are filled with the Spirit in battle, they are calm; they concentrate on the proper use of their weapons. They fight well and kill well, and they have no regrets. They fulfill the principle of freedom through military victory. This military function is not only legitimate; it is honorable.
5. Hos 4:3, “Therefore, the land mourns, and all who live in it lose their strength, along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.”
a. To lose your strength means to lose your courage, patriotism, and vitality.
b. As a result, not just rational people suffer, but so do animals who cannot understand why they suffer.
6. Hos 4:4, “Yet let no one find fault [as in evil activism]; let no one offer criticism, for your citizens are like those who contend with the communicator of doctrine.” In Israel, the levitical priests communicated doctrine through the use of animal sacrifices, the holy days, and the articles of furniture in the Tabernacle and temples.
7. Hos 4:5, “Therefore, you have stumbled in the daylight, and even the prophet will stumble with you in night darkness; and I will destroy your native country [motherland].”
a. The prophet was the greater Bible teacher. Even he was giving false doctrine, saying such things as “`peace, peace’ when there is no peace.”
b. Today, the stumbling prophet represents pastors who are distracted from Bible teaching by activism, psychology, and false doctrine. As a result, we are entering the cycles of discipline.
c. The administration of the fifth cycle of discipline to the Northern Kingdom would occur within a year, i.e., in B.C. 721.
8. Hos 4:6, “My people are destroyed by lack of knowledge. Because you have rejected the knowledge of doctrine, I will reject you from being a priest nation.”
a. Verse 6 explains why the Northern Kingdom was destroyed and blotted out forever.
b. As goes the believer, so goes the client nation. We as believers should not be involved in activism; we should be growing in grace to become invisible heroes.
c. A nation without absolute truth is a nation without solutions.
E. How are invisible heroes manufactured?
1. In the simplest of terms, the priority solution formula explains.
a. Your #1 priority should be Bible doctrine with emphasis on the mystery doctrine of the Church Age; e.g., the uniqueness of the Church Age with its fantastic privileges, the ten problem solving devices that can meet any situation in life.
b. When Bible doctrine is your #1 priority, then you concentrate on that #1 priority. As you hear Bible doctrine taught, you listen and concentrate, and under the ministry of God the Holy Spirit you learn and advance under post-salvation epistemological rehabilitation.
c. Once you begin to concentrate on priority #1, you organize your life around priority #1. Whatever it takes, you learn Bible doctrine. Perception, metabolization, and application of Bible doctrine is the key.
d. When you learn enough Bible doctrine so that your mental attitude has changed, you organize your thinking around Bible doctrine. Now divine viewpoint takes hold in your life. When that happens, you begin to utilize in detail the ten problem solving devices.
e. As a result of this concentration on and application of Bible doctrine, you advance to the point where you execute the protocol plan of God. At this point, you become an invisible hero.
F. Christian activism and arrogance are not the solution.
1. Christian activism is as destructive to a client nation as is any enemy attack. Christian activism is arrogance, which is the motivation that originated in Satan as the ruler of this world.
2. Rom 12:2, “Stop being conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renovation of your thought that you may prove what the will of God is, namely, the good of intrinsic value achievement, the well-pleasing to God, the mature status quo.”
a. Good of intrinsic value achievement means advance to spiritual maturity, execution of the protocol plan of God, and becoming a winner and invisible hero. b. The well-pleasing to God is the execution of His plan. The only way to execute His plan is to learn and apply Bible doctrine every day.
c. The mature status quo refers to the manufacture of an invisible hero.
3. Rom 12:3, “For I say through the grace which has been given to me to everyone who is among you: stop thinking of self in terms of arrogance beyond what you ought to think, but think in terms of sanity for the purpose of being rational without illusion as God has assigned to each one of us a standard of thinking from doctrine.”
a. To think of self in terms of arrogance is to be preoccupied with yourself.
b. Arrogance is the greatest cause of mental illness and insanity.
c. Part of the arrogance complex is having the wrong expectations because you are not treated the way you want to be treated or loved the way you want to be loved. Disillusionment results.
d. Your standard of thinking from doctrine follows the pattern of the priority solution formula. __________________________________________________________________________