Year: 2020

Rev 2:1-6 NLT

 “Write this letter to the angel of the church in Ephesus. This is the message from the one who holds the seven stars in his right hand, the one who walks among the seven gold lampstands: I know all the things you do. I have seen your hard work and your patient endurance. I know you don’t tolerate evil people. You have examined the claims of those who say they are apostles but are not. You have discovered they are liars. You have patiently suffered for me without quitting. But I have this complaint against you. You don’t love me or each other as you did at first ! Look how far you have fallen! Turn back to me and do the works you did at first. If you don’t repent, I will come and remove your lampstand from its place among the churches. But this is in your favor: You hate the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans, just as I do.

What were the works of the Ephesus church that our Lord Jesus had commended (though there was also rebuke) ?

1. They did not tolerate evil people.
2. They had examined the claims of the false apostles and found them to be liars.
3. They had suffered patiently without quitting.  (Contending against popular megachurch false pastors today will surely bring much backlash not only from these cults but also from the postmodern tolerant Christendom.)
4. They hated the evil deeds of the Nicolaitans who were false teachers at that time.

Better to suffer and be commended by our Lord Jesus for doing what pleases Him than to gain the praise and favor from postmodern tolerant Christendom today.

2 Pet 2: 10-12

Bold and willful, they do not tremble as they blaspheme the glorious ones, whereas angels, though greater in might and power, do not pronounce a blasphemous judgment against them before the Lord. But these, like irrational animals, creatures of instinct, born to be caught and destroyed, blaspheming about matters of which they are ignorant…

Jude 1:8-10

Yet in like manner these people also…reject authority, and blaspheme the glorious ones. But when the archangel Michael, contending with the devil, was disputing about the body of Moses, he did not presume to pronounce a blasphemous judgment, but said, “The Lord rebuke you.” But these people blaspheme all that they do not understand, and they are destroyed by all that they, like unreasoning animals, understand instinctively.

Acts 23:4-5

Those who stood by said, “Would you revile God’s high priest?” And Paul said, “I did not know, brothers, that he was the high priest, for it is written, ‘You shall not speak evil of a ruler of your people.’”

The above verses are clear that we do not blaspheme the rulers both in the physical and spiritual realms.

Even though the devil had no jurisdiction over Michael, yet Michael would not revile him for he recognized the devil to be in a position of authority. (2 Cor 4:4).

It is one thing to criticize unjust policies of government but quite another to speak evil of the rulers. (Acts 23:5). It will be foolish for naive pastors to join the false teachers (being described above as irrational animals) in reviling the devil or the government leaders (such as President Trump of USA and President Xi of China) and attributing the blame to them for the current hard times.

We must accept nothing happen outside God’s sovereign will. It is judgment and training for the wicked and the faithful respectively. God has warned repeatedly in Scripture of coming hard times and of course, ONLY the faithful listen, stay watchful, prepare and endure.

Postscript :

This is worth noting from the above Scriptural references that the false teachers, though they are agents of the devil, can even blaspheme the devil.  This shows that as long as deception works in its favor, evil can go to that extent of self inflicting blasphemy.

Isaiah 45:6-7

That they may know from the rising of the sun to its setting that there is none besides Me.  I am the Lord, and there is no other; I form the light and create darkness, I make peace and create calamity; I, the Lord, do all these things.’

Amos 3:6-7

If a trumpet is blown in a city, will not the people be afraid? If there is calamity in a city, will not the Lord have done it?  Surely the Lord God does nothing, Unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.

Job 2:9-10

Then his wife said to him, “Do you still hold fast to your integrity? Curse God and die!” But he said to her, “You speak as one of the foolish women speaks. Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” In all this Job did not sin with his lips.

The above verses are self explanatory.  The faithful are expected to listen to the warning of the coming end time birth pains, stay watchful, prepare and endure when they come.  They should not be caught unawares.  In Rev 18 when God judges Babylon and destroys all wealth, He expects the faithful to come out of her before plagues of mourning, famine and death visit.

Scripture makes it clear that calamitous judgments from God are true and just.  It is wrong to believe that calamities are evil works and try to “absolve” God of His sovereign will to decree calamitous judgments.

Rev 16:5-9

And I heard the angel in charge of the waters say, “Just are you, O Holy One, who is and who was, for you brought these judgments.  For they have shed the blood of saints and prophets, and you have given them blood to drink.  It is what they deserve!”  And I heard the altar saying,

Rev 18:1-8

After this I saw another angel coming down from heaven. He had great authority, and the earth was illuminated by his splendor. With a mighty voice he shouted: “‘Fallen! Fallen is Babylon the Great!’ She has become a dwelling for demons and a haunt for every impure spirit, a haunt for every unclean bird, a haunt for every unclean and detestable animal. For all the nations have drunk the maddening wine of her adulteries. The kings of the earth committed adultery with her, and the merchants of the earth grew rich from her excessive luxuries.”  Then I heard another voice from heaven saying, “Come out of her, my people, lest you take part in her sins, lest you share in her plagues; for her sins are heaped high as heaven, …she glorified herself and lived in luxury,… for this reason her plagues will come in a single day, death and mourning and famine,…”

It is clear from Rev 18 that the Babylonian system, led by this latter days city of Babylon, is unmistakably the alliance of governments (kings of the earth),  global multi-national companies and the supply chain links (merchants) and the global shipping lines, seaports and financial centres (those who make their living by the sea) forming a global supply chain and financial system engaged in globalized trade.

All have grown rich from the power of this Babylonian system. (Rev 18:3).  This is the current capitalism we know today.   As a result, the nations have grown haughty to believe in their own wealth and might.  We see this haughtiness peaked in changing God’s universal laws of sanctity of life and marital relationship and His abhorrence of homosexual sins.  That also birthed the apostate Christianity in hyper grace, prosperity and NAR movements basking in her glory.

How do we come out of Babylon which is a haunt for EVERY impure spirit, unclean and detestable animal, and unclean bird ?

We have to get out of Babylon in getting out of :

1. All kinds of greed. Luke 12:15;  1 Tim 6:6-10; 17-19.  (A haunt of every impure spirit).
2. Being weighed down by carousing, drunkenness and the anxieties of life. Luke 21:34.  (A haunt of every unclean and detestable animal).
3. Being lured into the false gospels of hyper grace, prosperity and NAR movements.  Matt 13:31-32.  (A haunt of every unclean bird).

God had already so warned that if we fail to get out by the time He judges all wealth (Rev 18:17), we only have ourselves to be blamed for being caught in the plagues.

God’s judgment will be true and righteous and we should rejoice when it comes.

Rev 18:20; 19:1-3

Rejoice over her, O heaven, and you saints and apostles and prophets,
for God has given judgment for you against her!

After this I heard what seemed to be the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, crying out, “Hallelujah!  Salvation and glory and power belong to our God, for his judgments are true and just; for he has judged the great prostitute who corrupted the earth with her immorality, and has avenged on her the blood of his servants.”

Postscript :

(In the book of Revelation,  chapters 5 to 16 talk about the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments.   Then chapters 17 and 18 talk about Babylon before the rest of the book talks about the return of our Lord, His final judgment and the coming of new heaven and new earth.   Babylon in chapter 17 and 18 talk about judgment of her religious system by the beast as the spiritual harlot, and judgment of her financial system by God in destroying all wealth respectively.  It is not chronological.  When the seal, trumpet and bowl judgments are released,  all systems will be destroyed or made subservient to the Antichrist anyway.  So the destruction of Babylon will logically come during the birth pains to pave the way for the rise of the one world government and currency.)

Matt 13:24-30; 36-43

²⁴ Jesus told them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field. ²⁵ But while everyone was sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat, and went away. ²⁶ When the wheat sprouted and formed heads, then the weeds also appeared.  ²⁷ “The owner’s servants came to him and said, ‘Sir, didn’t you sow good seed in your field? Where then did the weeds come from?’  ²⁸ “‘An enemy did this,’ he replied.  “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’  ²⁹ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. ³⁰ Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”  ³⁶ Then he left the crowd and went into the house. His disciples came to him and said, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds in the field.”  ³⁷ He answered, “The one who sowed the good seed is the Son of Man. ³⁸ The field is the world, and the good seed stands for the people of the kingdom. The weeds are the people of the evil one, ³⁹ and the enemy who sows them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the harvesters are angels.  ⁴⁰ “As the weeds are pulled up and burned in the fire, so it will be at the end of the age. ⁴¹ The Son of Man will send out his angels, and they will WEED OUT OF HIS KINGDOM everything that causes sin and all who do evil. ⁴² They will throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. ⁴³ Then the righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Whoever has ears, let them hear.

The field is the world and believers and unbelievers are already living together in it, so it is pretty obvious that there is no need for the devil to plant his agents in the world outside the kingdom of God.  It is stated clearly in verse Matt 13:41 that at the end of age,  the angels will weed these devil’s agents OUT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD.  (Further scriptural references supporting the premise are found in Matt 8:11-12 and John 15:1-6).  When Jesus our Lord was explaining the above parable to the disciples,  He shared more parables about the Kingdom of Heaven.  In the parable of the net, He said that the Kingdom of Heaven Is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind till it was full. Later the men would sit down and sort the good into the containers and throw out the bad.  Again the sorting was done not with the whole sea of fish but only the fish that were gathered in the net.

Sometimes we really wish that the weeds (the false teachers and their minions who are agents of the devil) can be weeded out now out of God’s kingdom, but our Lord explained that if the weeding is done by the servants of God now, the wheat might also be uprooted probably because men are still fallen and are not perfect in discernment. The angels will do the weeding at the end of age instead.  An example was the Spanish Inquisition.  In the name of weeding out heresy in Spain,  the objective turned out to be consolidating the power of the Spanish monarchy.   Many innocent believers suffered brutal deaths.

So we must bear this in mind that not all who call themselves Christians are wheat.  We must also accept the fact that some whom many hold in high esteem as apostles of Christ and servants of righteousness may be the devil’s agents who are skilled workmen in disguise and deception.  It is sad that most believers are so receptive of the feel good messages of these seeds sown by the devil.  When the few true prophets were proclaiming the judgment of Israel at the hands of the Babylonians, Israel chose to believe the feel good messages of the numerous false prophets then.   Likewise today, we should not expect the false teachers to preach on the coming birth pains, the nearness of salvation and the impending return of our Lord.