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Joshua-gate
The Great End Time Conspiracy
March 18, 2008
By Ron and Karen Schwartz
Have you ever wondered why it seems as though God is not at work in our
churches? Or why it is that He does not seem to be actively involved in
the “good” they are trying to achieve? Have you ever wondered why it is
that, though Christians can sometimes see God at work in their
individual lives, there doesn’t seem to be any “tangible” evidence that
God is working effectively through the larger Body of Christ –
specifically in Western churches?
Oh, sure, some good is being achieved. You can’t help but achieve some
good when you pour in $100 billion. But remember, Christianity as it was
originally cast did not require 10,000 churches, 100 million Christians,
and $100 billion to see the mere handful of questionable “converts” that
we see today. Aside from the financial and physical efforts of men,
where is God? Why does it seem that He is standing on the sidelines as
we strive to achieve our religious goals alone?
Paul wrote, “If God be for us, who can be against
us (Romans 8:31)?” Since Satan is very effectively winning on
every front, it is safe to ask the question: “Is God truly for us?” And
if God is not for us, then why? Perhaps a better question to ask
would be: “Is God working against us?”
In the following stories, we will discover that God has actively worked
against His people repeatedly in the past, and it is happening again
today. At least today we have the opportunity to learn from the annals
of history. We can learn from past mistakes. Or are we just like the
many generations that preceded us, blindly walking into
self-destruction?
Judges 2:7-23
7 The people served the Lord throughout the lifetime of Joshua and of
the elders who outlived him and who had seen all the great things the
Lord had done for Israel. 8 Joshua son of Nun, the servant of the Lord,
died at the age of a hundred and ten…
10 After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers
[they died], another generation grew up, who knew
neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. 11 Then the Israelites
did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals. 12 They forsook
the Lord, the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt.
They followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them.
They provoked the Lord to anger 13 because they forsook him and served
Baal and the Ashtoreths. 14 In his anger against Israel the Lord handed
them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies
all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. 15 Whenever
Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to
defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were in great
distress.
16 Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of
these raiders. 17 Yet they would not listen to their judges but
prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their
fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers had
walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands. 18 Whenever the
Lord raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved them
out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived; for the
Lord had compassion on them as they groaned under those who oppressed
and afflicted them. 19 But when the judge died, the people returned to
ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following other gods
and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up their evil
practices and stubborn ways.
20 Therefore the Lord was very angry with Israel and said, "Because this
nation has violated the covenant that I laid down for their forefathers
and has not listened to me, 21 I will no longer drive out before them
any of the nations Joshua left when he died. 22 I will use them to test
Israel and see whether they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it
as their forefathers did." 23 The Lord had allowed those nations to
remain; he did not drive them out at once by giving them into the hands
of Joshua.
We find encapsulated in this account the entire story of Christianity –
at least as complete as it is today. Joshua, a type of Christ, brought
the people of God into the Promised Land, which is a type of New
Testament life – a life of promise. Armed with nothing more than the
power of God, Joshua demonstrated to God’s people that entire cities
(i.e., Jericho) could be taken for God without the need for them to lift
a single spear because God was with them and so was His power. In like
manner, Jesus stepped out of the pages of history demonstrating through
His actions and through the men of His generation that all the powers of
darkness were no match for a single man filled with the power of God.
Like Joshua, Jesus and those of His generation defeated Satan and
threatened to dismantle his kingdom upon this earth.
But just like Joshua, Jesus and His generation did not live on this
earth forever. Following Joshua’s death, we find that “after
that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers [they
died], another generation grew up, who knew
neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel… They forsook the Lord,
the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt. They
followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples around them… In his
anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered
them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer
able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord
was against them to defeat them, just as he had sworn to them. They were
in great distress.”
Likewise, following the generation of Christ, a new generation arose who
forsook the simplicity of Christ’s teaching and eventually created the
institutionalized form of Christianity that evolved into the Catholic
Church, which then ushered in the Dark Ages. Just as the generation
following Joshua did, this new generation after Christ also set up new
gods. They created gods out of “saints,” angels, and Mary, and they even
set a man in the place of Christ. This form of Christianity was void of
the power of God and at the mercy of Satan and his forces of darkness. “They
were no longer able to resist,” and whenever they “went
out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them.”
But throughout these dark years, there were those who cried out to God
to intervene. So, as in the generations following Joshua where God “raised
up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders,” God
raised up men who were considered “reformers” to deliver God’s people
from their captivity to Catholicism. In the days of Joshua, the people
of God “would not listen to their judges but
prostituted themselves to other gods and worshiped them. Unlike their
fathers, they quickly turned from the way in which their fathers
had walked, the way of obedience to the Lord's commands.” In the
same manner, the generations of the reformers quickly reverted back into
institutionalized Christianity and God was forced to raise up a new man.
The addiction to institutionalism was paralyzing. For each step that
Christians took out of their quagmire, they took two steps backward.
Every time “the judge [reformer]
died, the people returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their
fathers.” Generation after generation of reformers came and died
for the past five hundred years until we reach today’s apostate
generation.
Today there are no more reformers. We are like the generation following
the judges. During that era, “the Lord was very
angry with Israel and said, ‘Because this nation has violated the
covenant that I laid down for their forefathers and has not listened to
me, I will no longer drive out before them any of the nations Joshua
left when he died. I will use them to test Israel and see whether
they will keep the way of the Lord and walk in it as their forefathers
did.’”
Today we live in a generation of Christianity virtually barren of God’s
power and influence. It seems that all we have in the form of leaders
and reformers are “wannabes” and pretenders. All around us are men (and
women) who claim to be prophets and apostles and modern day reformers
but who are curiously absent of God’s power. They retain large
followings through promises and predictions that never seem to
materialize. They claim that mighty revivals are about to occur. They
claim that God is about to unleash His might. They claim that God is
about to raise up a militant church of unbridled power. But all these
men eventually die and go “to their fathers”
while the institutionalized church spirals deeper and deeper into
apostasy, and their predictions of revivals and mighty power unleashed
never occur.
We are being lied to by a lying spirit in the mouths of many who
claim to be the prophets of God. Does that sound familiar? Where
have you heard it before?
1 Kings 22:20-23
20 And the Lord said, 'Who will entice Ahab into attacking Ramoth Gilead
and going to his death there?' One suggested this, and another that.
21 Finally, a spirit came forward, stood before the Lord and said, 'I
will entice him.'
22 'By what means?' the Lord asked. 'I will go out and be a lying spirit
in the mouths of all his prophets,' he said. 'You will succeed in
enticing him,' said the Lord. 'Go and do it.'
23 So now the Lord has put a lying spirit in the mouths of all these
prophets of yours. The Lord has decreed disaster for you.
What God did to those who claimed to be His people following Joshua’s
generation is not without precedent. We find the same thing in this
account when His people abandoned Him as their Lord. In Judges, we find
that “the hand of the Lord was against them to
defeat them,” and here He uses their own prophets to lure them
into a battle that would end in their demise. As the prophet foretold, “The
Lord has decreed disaster for you.”
When we read the history of Israel and how they continued to fall
repeatedly into idolatry we must ask, “Why?” Why didn’t they ever learn
that idolatry brought with it destruction? The answer is really quite
simple. From their perspective, they were simply claiming the promises
that were left to them. God promised them this land. God said that He
would fight on their behalf. So why doubt Him? Similarly, our Christian
leaders point to the promises left to us: the scripture, and their
interpretation of prophecy. Consequently, their spiritual condition and
the idolatry in the church do not matter because they have the Bible to
encourage them.
But
today, to the surprise of many, the hand of the Lord is against the
arrogance of the people who claim His name just as in the generations of
old. Battle after battle is being fought and lost today in every moral,
political, and spiritual field of battle. Contemporary Christianity,
holding tightly to the promises of God, is on the defensive and pushed
back on every front. So deceived are contemporary Christians by the
lying spirits in the mouths of their leaders that this generation still
believes that they are serving God and that God is for them.
Even in light of this, modern day prophets continue with their
message of how much God loves their followers and how many great things
He is about to do. Therefore, contemporary Christians, content in their
apathy and idolatry, march forward into battles they are destined to
lose. There is no way that God is going to use this generation of
apostate, self-serving, self-absorbed, apathetic, and backslidden people
to be the mighty army of the end times. It will not happen, and the
“prophets” who are filling your ears with such a message are lying to
you.
You ask, “Why they would lie about such things?” Well, to begin with,
who would listen to them or contribute finances to their businesses if
they told the truth? Every businessman knows that the way to milk the
public is by giving the public what it wants, and Christians today want
to be filled with hope. So that is exactly what today’s hireling
prophets give: false hope. Today’s Christians and their leaders cling to
the promises of God the same way Israel did in Judges. They cling to the
false hope that their leaders peddle. They try to believe in the coming
promise of greatness that their prophets proclaim, yet in their hearts
they know the truth: they are a fallen people, full of sin and idolatry.
How can we proclaim these things so definitively? It’s really quite
simple. The scriptures tells us, "Consider this,
you who forget God, or I will tear you to pieces, with none to rescue
(Psalms 50:22).” There is no rescue for contemporary Christians
who have abandoned God. They have but one option, and it is not the
option that is being voiced among our prophetic circles. God also said:
2 Chronicles 7:13-1
"When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts
to devour the land or send a plague among my people, If my people, who
are called by my name, will 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.”
Our Western nations are being eaten away, devoured. The self-proclaiming
prophets and apostles refuse to speak the truth and risk losing their
financial support. Our churches and political action groups cannot save
us. There is but one response available for God’s people: humble
ourselves, repent, and plead for God’s mercy.
We find it interesting that this verse says, “If my people, who are
called by my name, will humble themselves…” There is no humility spoken
in the words of today’s “prophets.” They arrogantly claim great revivals
and that mighty people will arise. These are not the words of humble men
who not only acknowledge their own sin and arrogance but that of those
claiming to be God’s people. These “prophets” speak of God’s power
coming to His people as though they are entitlements rather than the
result of humility and true repentance.
The “prophets” who plague the end time believers with prophecies of
power, greatness, and grandeur are part of the end time conspiracy of
Satan. It is “Joshua-gate.” God’s people do not need more prophets to
tickle their ears but true reformers to bring them humbly to their
knees. It is the only hope for God’s people and for their nations, and
let’s just pray that it isn’t too late.
It will come as both a surprise and a revelation to most Christians to
learn the truth. That “in his anger against Israel [or contemporary
Christians] the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He
sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to
resist. Whenever Israel [or contemporary Christians] went out to fight,
the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them.” What Christian
today would believe that “the Lord was against them to defeat them?”
None! Because there are so few prophets or church leaders who are
speaking the truth. The conspiracy of Joshua-gate is so well hidden.
Mixed Theology
Have you ever wondered why Israel never learned? It seems obvious that
if you are going to worship an idol, it would enrage God, would it not?
So why did they continually tempt God?
It is really much more subtle than that. The Israelites believed they
had never really abandoned God even though God said that they did. Each
time the prophet came along telling them that they had abandoned God,
they laughed at him or killed him. They deceived themselves into
believing they had not. They still circumcised their sons. The priests
in the tabernacle (or temple) were still making sacrifices, and after
all, isn’t that what God wanted? God was being appeased, wasn’t He? To
them, the essence of the covenant was being fulfilled, so certainly God
would overlook their idols.
Consider the following story:
Judges 17:5-13
5 Now this man Micah had a shrine, and he made an ephod and some idols
and installed one of his sons as his priest. 6 In those days Israel had
no king; everyone did as he saw fit.
7 A young Levite from Bethlehem in Judah, who had been living within the
clan of Judah, 8 left that town in search of some other place to stay.
On his way he came to Micah's house in the hill country of Ephraim.
9 Micah asked him, "Where are you from?"
"I'm a Levite from Bethlehem in Judah," he said, "and I'm looking for a
place to stay."
10 Then Micah said to him, "Live with me and be my father and priest,
and I'll give you ten shekels of silver a year, your clothes and your
food." 11 So the Levite agreed to live with him, and the young man was
to him like one of his sons. 12 Then Micah installed the Levite, and the
young man became his priest and lived in his house. 13 And Micah said, "Now
I know that the Lord will be good to me, since this Levite has become my
priest."
In this account, a Levitical priest went looking for a place that would
support him. He eventually hired out his services to work alongside the
idols in Micah’s home. He saw nothing wrong with this as long as God was
being served.
Does this sound familiar? Today’s churches believe that if they can
just find a man to act as a priest for them, then everything will be
perfect. These men (church leader-pastor-priests) are hired by churches
and work alongside all the other idols in the church. And the church
members feel that now - because they have a priest - God will be pleased
with them because this priest will make sure that everything is done
that needs to be done to appease God. It is history repeating itself.
God brought reformers to free His people from Catholicism just as He
once brought “judges” to free them from the
“raiders who plundered them.” But just like
Israel, who finally reached a point where God would no longer help and
instead worked against them, we fear that the time for this generation
has about expired. Contemporary protestant churches may not have idols
of saints and Mary that stand alongside their worship of God, but they
still have idols nonetheless. They worship their beautiful buildings,
their scholarly pastors, their great social programs, their public
standing, and all the good they believe they are doing. They believe
that God sees and approves of what they do and therefore overlooks their
idols. They believe all His promises are waiting for them to claim
because they have pastor-priests, because their churches grow, and
because they tell each other that God is with them. But where is God
really?
There are groups that ignore their spiritual condition altogether and
believe that all they need to do is “name it and claim it.” They believe
that the God of Israel who punished His people for their sin is gone and
in His place is a genie who now awaits their command. These people have
no concept of Bible pattern. They are lied to by their leaders and have
become blind followers of the blind.
But where is God in our Western nations? You certainly cannot see Him
working on the behalf of Christians in society as it continues its
spiral downward into depravity. You cannot see Him at work in politics
as laws and government become more and more hostile toward Christians.
It is becoming more and more difficult for individual Christians to see
Him at work in their own lives. Most Christians join a local church with
its pastor-priest in order to find security. They simply take by faith
that God is still with them even though they can barely (if at all) see
Him at work in their own lives. So they continue to pour their money and
support into their churches in the hope of buying favor with God through
their priest. But has this ever worked? Even the Israelites, as they lay
under the sword of their captors, continued to tithe. This did not
impress God then, and it will not impress Him today. It will take more
than 3% of your paycheck to appease an angry God.
In the generation of Christ, they did not ask questions such as “Where
is God?” and they did not migrate from city to city trying to find
answers. They could see the hand of God actively at work amongst them.
Why don’t we? The answer is self-evident. It is because this generation
thinks a whole lot more of itself than God does.
Christians of this generation grade themselves on a curve. They
simply try to emulate the most popular (pseudo-spiritual) person they
know, and if they reach that threshold, then they believe they must also
be spiritual. They delude themselves into believing that the most
spiritual person amongst them must be God’s standard for spirituality.
However, in actuality, the most spiritual people amongst the arrogant
leaders of contemporary Christianity are sorely lacking. In many
respects, this situation is similar to the lowing of academic standards
for our children each generation. What is considered an “A” today was
only average fifty years ago. Christianity has followed suit. You may be
the most spiritual person in your church, but just remember: the king
of the fools is still just a fool.
Conclusion
Do you sometimes wonder why it seems that God has forsaken you? Then you
are not alone. More and more Christians of this generation are asking
the same question. Have you ever wondered why it seems that you just
can’t seem to find a church where the power and presence of God is
“really” active (and we are not talking about pretenders and
counterfeiters with all their hype)? Once again, you are not alone. Have
you ever wondered why there is such a great migration and exodus from
traditional churches as Christians search for something real? Yes, you
are not alone. More and more, God is not just forsaking this generation;
more and more He is actively working against it. And now, it is not just
churches that are beginning to experience it. Individual people are,
too.
There may still be hope. Humble yourself before God. Lay down the idols
of greatness, self-sufficiency, and self-success you have in yourself
and cry out to God. Your answer does not lie in your church or the
plethora of Christian leaders that abound everywhere. No, such things
are not the answer for our predicament.
Our modern day “prophets” and church leaders have learned that
Christians want to hear messages of prosperity, hope, and “peace and
safety.” These “prophets” plague the prophetic and apostolic circles of
contemporary Christianity. They compete to see who can come up with the
most unique form of blessing for today’s carnal Christians. Do you know
any prophets like this? We are certain you do. In fact, these are about
the only prophets you do know.
Prophets who speak the truth have little or no following. And those who
consider themselves prophets know this. So they sell themselves out in
an effort to find popularity. If we truly live in the era of the
Laodicean church, then does it stand to reason that God would be
speaking all these blessings? The modern popular “prophets” say yes.
They point out that even during the most backslidden time in Israel’s
history, God retained a remnant. We find it interesting that modern
“prophets” attribute “remnant” status to anyone who listens to and
follows them. But this is poor criteria for such status, especially
since there is virtually no spiritual difference between traditional
churches and the Christians who have attained their “remnant” status. Do
you really believe that God honors their membership? It is double talk.
It is deception. It is Joshua-gate. Those who believe that God
would bless this backslidden generation are fools.
As long as Christian leaders continue to attribute greatness to
themselves, taking or accepting titles of grandeur, there can be no
humility. The people who follow these men emulate their aspirations
toward greatness and believe that they are a great people, too. As a
result, each “prophet” or church leader and those who follow him are
deemed to be “great” and “blessed by God” regardless of their spiritual
condition. This is true both in the prophetic community as well as the
more traditional churches. Everywhere in every Christian circle of the
West, you will find this same arrogance. No one believes God has
anything but favor and blessings for their group.
But if we are right (and would to God that we are not), then none of
the efforts that today’s Christians are making through their allegiance,
support, and financing of their churches will buy them anything. If we
are right, then God is beyond sending Christians any more “great”
reformers or prophets to try to turn His people from their idolatry. If
we are right, then the prophets and popular church leaders who parade
around our countries talking of the great things God is about to do are
simply liars. If we are right, then today’s great Christian leaders are
no better than the Old Testament priest who attempted to appease God
while being himself another idol whom the people worship. If we are
right, then there can be only one thing that will make a difference to
God, and it is not tithing, church attendance, submission to authority,
or church support. It is humility that will lead to true repentance.
We ask you to stop wondering why God seems to be forsaking today’s
churches and the Christians who fill them. Stop trying to find security
in a church that is filled with compromising, apathetic, self-absorbed,
backslidden Christians. They are no better off than you. They are also
simply hoping to find hope and pretending to have faith. Down in their
hearts they know the truth: God is walking farther and farther away.
At no time in Christian history has there been such an explosion of new
churches springing up everywhere, fueled by Christians roving here and
there trying to find God. Today’s great migration of Christians is the
result of the famine of God’s presence. Today’s churches can sing songs,
collect tithes, and prophesy until the cows come home, but it will not
draw God’s presence. Today it will take humility. Today it will take
repentance. Today it will require laying down idols – especially the
idolatry directed toward Christian leaders – and returning to God.
When you read the following scripture, just remember that the vast
majority of the scriptures we quote to sinners in our acts of evangelism
were actually written to God’s own people:
Isaiah 55:6-7
Seek the Lord while he may be found; call on him while he is
near. Let the wicked forsake his way and the evil man his thoughts. Let
him turn to the Lord, and he will have mercy on him, and to our God, for
he will freely pardon.
Amen
kmsrjs@triton.net
Ron's Thoughts |
