THE END-TIME MARK OF THE ANTICHRIST (V)

(…continued from part 4…)

(V)        The evil character of Daniel’s ‘abomination of the desolation’ can never be Antiochus Epiphanes, the vile Syrian king -as commentaries of J.F.B. and Albert Barnes point. John Gill’s slant towards Titus Flavius Vespasianus, the tyrannic Roman emperor, cannot be favoured, in view of the chronology of the one remaining week. Matthew Poole’s attempt to substitute Emperor Titus with Jesus is a complete “No, no!” It cannot be the jihadism of Mohammedism as Adam Clarke sees it. Of the seventy weeks of prophecy, the existential incarnation of Christ saw Him leaving the earth in the sixty-ninth week. He was to “finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy,” but, just one more week the Lord left in an ascension to heaven. Why? Jesus would not perpetrate any abominable evil. The ‘body that thou hast prepared me: (Hebrews 10:5)’ is a sown seed which must be allowed to fructify: The Church.

   The seventy weeks is purely soteriological, incarnational and a conscious, engendered intent to solidify the foundation for the Adamic emancipation from the destruction of the original sin. God must, ergo, be the actuating Actor of this event. It must be purely Jewish as well: for it says, “Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression (Daniel 9:24). Jesus, born a Jew, did not stay here to the end of the prophetic 70. Did He reject God’s will or did He honour it? We understand that Christ will never ever go against the Father’s will. John 10:30 “I and my Father are one.” 1John 5:7, “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” Jesus honoured the will of the Father by suffering the Holy Spirit’s indwelling of the born again Christian, to birth the Church, the mystical body of Christ. “And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever” [John 14:16].

   Intercalation! That is what the Church age happens to be.

    Seven more years to go, and, He left. What did the wisdom of God do? He paused the seventy weeks; in-between it, He wisely sandwiched the Church age. The Temple worship thus suspended, the Holy Spirit left the holy of holies. The Temple worship was essentially rendered nugatory at the ascension of Jesus Christ. It is this suspension that negates the possibility of the final taskmaster of Israel to be any of Muhammad, Titus Flavius or Antiochus Epiphanes. Jesus said, “And the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come” [Matthew 24:14]. ‘World’ in this verse, is oikoumenē (oy-kou-men’-ay) ‘the whole inhabited earth; the world; the inhabitants of the earth; men; the universe; the world.’ The word ‘nations’, ethnos (eth’-nos), is: ‘a race (as of the same habit), that is, a tribe; (specifically) a foreign (non-Jewish) one (usually by implication pagan).’

                Contrary to the exposition of some commentaries, as these definitions have unraveled, the evangelism is not solely for the Jewish nation of her twelve tribes. It is for the entire races of the whole world. This evangelism is essentially the business of the born-again Christians. They will take the word of God to the whole wide world before the emergence of the Beast -son of perdition. His new world order of Nazification accounts for his bestiality. The word of God does not see him as an Adam. When the Church is translated a la rapture, the remaining seven paused years continues. So, we will not be here at all!

                Pauline exaltation says, “But we are not of them who draw back unto perdition; but of them that believe to the saving of the soul” [Hebrews 10:39]. Who do not draw into perdition? Christians! The word ‘perdition,’ used by Jesus for Judas in John 17:12, and which Paul describes the Antichrist in 2Thessalonians 2:3, is apoleia (a-pō’-lei-a), meaning: ‘total destruction, ruin or loss (physical, spiritual or eternal).’ The great tribulation can never involve true Christians. It is meant for the unbelieving Israel and the Gentile nation that spurned the gospel that was preached throughout the world.

Folks, this is why you just must be born again (John 3:7) before your earthly time is up! Pray the prayer of all prayers: the one that gets you born again. Are you ready? It must come from the core of your heart, and believing every word. Here we go; say:

Dear heavenly Father, I come to you now, in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sins. I believe that You raised Him from the dead (for my justification). I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord, and I receive Him as my Lord and Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!

. (…to be continued…)

Read part 4 here

Click to read part 6

Righteousness (4)

The Church is protected in His righteousness

(Continued from part three…)

4)            Some people should be careful lest the righteousness of their hortatory be mere religious quackhood of Pharisaical brassbound; that of Sadducean myopia or the proclivious excessiveness of the boldacious Scribes of Matthew 5:20, “For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Scribes and the Pharisees were too legalistic. So soaked inebriately in the legalism of Judaism, the quackhood of religious sanctimonious facade had become their masquerade. They had fashioned their own theological stance. Exhibitionism has taken over righteousness as the ordered norm.

                Righteousness is not a visibility of a worn toga. It is the covering raiment for the regenerated soul. Not visible to the naked eyes, it becomes apropos for the corporeality of the redeemed to interpret the honourificabilitudinitatibus of the new man in Christ. Who is this new man? He is revealed in Colossians 3:9-10, which reads, “…seeing that ye have put off the old man with his deeds; 10) And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” The new man is the creation of the Lord Jesus of whom the Scripture says, “…and without him was not any thing made that was made” [John 1:3]. The new man’s spiritual locale is found in his Maker. 2Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” The new man is eternally in Christ for two reasons: Christ is eternal –the everlasting Father of Isaiah 9:6–; the word ‘new’ (of 2Cor. 5:17) is the Greek kainos (kai-nos’) ‘new (especially in freshness).’ The Eternal Father sees the newness of this freshness ceaselessly. On His eternal right hand sits Christ the Preserver of the redeemed newness.

 JEHOVAH TSIDKENU

                The word ‘image’ of Colossians 3:10 is eikon (ei-kone’) ‘1. a likeness 2. (literally) statue, profile 3. (figuratively) representation, resemblance.’ If he possesses the likeness of Him that created him, simple logical understanding demands that he should bear the fruit of his Maker to prove the verity of his newness. Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 23) Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” It is not a matter of law, which is compulsorily cleft onto à la religion. Our righteousness is a walk with the Lord. Galatians 5:16-18, “This I say then, Walk in the Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the flesh. 17) For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would. 18) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.” Righteousness has separated us from the fleshly proclivity of our old man, found in Galatians 5:19-21, “Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, 20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, 21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,” propelled by the workings of demonism.

                The new man in Christ is the man of Psalm 1:3. The life of the new man strictly becomes the business of the Divinity. John 15:2 “Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away: and every branch that beareth fruit, he purgeth it, that it may bring forth more fruit.” The words ‘taketh away,’ airo (ai’-ro), means: ‘1. to lift up 2. (by implication) to take up or away 3. (figuratively) to raise (the voice), keep in suspense (the mind) 4. (specially) to sail away (i.e. weigh anchor) 5. (by Hebraism) to atone for sin.’ Airo, contextually, is not of the Hebraic definition of ‘atonement.’ What more proof do we need to show that the life of the new man is strictly the business of the Divinity when ‘purgeth’ is kathairo (ka-thai’-rō) means: ‘1. to purify. 2. (specially) to trim back from superfluous or dispensable growth (down to the essential). 3. (spiritually) to trim and purify?’ Those who misrepresent Jesus are the likes of Judas Iscariot, the heretic Simon Magnus and the rich man who denied the mendicant Lazarus a good life: they were removed, being useless.

                You can put on the righteousness of Jesus by getting born again. Say this simple prayer, meaning it from your heart:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”     

  (…to be concluded…)

Read part three here

Click here to read the concluding part 5

CONJUGAL PALAVER (1)

                How could you fail to remember the instructional words of your husband, dear Mrs. Wife? You cannot afford to forget the generative utterance of the mouth of your husband. Your push into the mind of forgetfulness is a connotative disregard to the oracular afflatus of the Most High. The spirit of your forgetfulness is a goad of Satanism. The day you said, “I do,” to him is the day of his installation as the priest of your marital home. This is God’s protocol. There is, absolutely, nothing you can do about this, Mrs. Wife.                                                                                                                                                       He doubles as the head and the priest of the family.  

Marriage is a covenant

                Be wise, dear wife, and accord him all the support he needs. His instructions, his wants and vision earnestly need you to be his biggest fan and supporter. If you did not know these things concerning a husband then what are you doing in his life? If you had an awareness of this phenomenon regarding marriage and you decide to veer off the course of his words, you are nothing short of a Delilah and of course, the Jezebel come to disrupt the spiritual equilibration of the desideratum needed by this man to achieve his goals, as far as God is concerned.

Think Jesus, matrimonially.

                Marriage is solely God’s institution, designed to enable the population of righteous offspring of humanity. The LORD God who created Adam, the male, is the same Creator who brought Adam, the female, into physical phenomenon. As far as God is concerned, the pristine duo had spiritual briefing of His existence. Each had been briefed separately on his or her conjugal role. God brought the female to the male to be introduced to him, the first occupant of Eden Garden, and to see what he had to say about that new creativity. The superintendency of the male Adam is underscored by the facticity of the female Adam being brought into the Eden, where Adam, the male, sat in occupation of it in his domination of the entire globe.

                An affront to the ethics of divine protocol is not only unladylike; it is a total disregard to the physical presence of the Creator. You do not, as a matter of courtesy, welcome yourself into a home of the landlord, who is setting his eyes on you for the first time. The male Adam had to utter the words of welcome, not to the Creator who happens to be the true Owner, but the newly introduced entity, to whom was given the sobriquet, ‘Woman’.

                It is, whether you like it or not, and without sounding chauvinistic, a man’s world.

                No doubt, would it have been an affront to the protocol of the Creator’s institution if the Bible had recorded the introduced one as saying, “This is the bone of my bones and the flesh of my flesh, he shall be called man.” The aberrational push of the breath of those words were put in check by the briefing which the LORD God had etched into her psyche. The first set of the word ‘man’ that shows up in Genesis chapter 1 verse 26 to chapter 2:22 is hyponymically ‘Adam’. It comes out a total number of 11 times (Genesis 1:26, 27,2:5, –twice in 2:7–, 2:8, 15, 16, 18, 22; and 13 times if you add the two times Adam comes in chapter 2 verse 19. It is the Hebrew ‘âdâm (aw-dawm’): ‘ruddy, that is, a human being (an individual or the species, mankind, etc.).’ It (‘âdâm) comes from a root: âdam (aw-dam’): ‘to be red, red. To show blood (in the face), that is, flush or turn rosy.’                                                                                   

                It was the responsibility of the man to name, being the head of the family. The authority found in verbal pronouncement lies with Adam, the male. He stands, dear wife, in authority before the Creator, even to His divine admiration. Mrs. Adam, how could you have forgotten the Divine briefing of the day of your making? As you walked the first ever walk side by side the Creator, did He not intimate you with the protocol to be observed in the home you were about to be ushered into? God did tell you that His word was with the man. That every utterance of authority concerning the marriage institution must proceed from the lips of the man: for he is the appointed priest of the Most High God in your home. Amen.      

One flesh divided into two!

                She should have accorded her husband her infamous serpentine discourse. It never occurred to her where she was plunging the entire human race when she thought within herself, “I’ve got this.” The tempter meant a wicked business! Unbeknown to the woman was a tsunami that had taken the innoxious form of a three minute’s foggy drizzle. It, she ominously thought, was just a harmless curiosity that hissed through fanciful fangs devoid of venom of paralysis. She took upon herself, the role that had no existence in the marital code of Eden –God’s home.

                She spoke, unconstitutionally, without the authorisation from the authorised Adam. Words, before God, are so important that they must be brought before His adjudication. Armed with an idiotic confidence, unfortunately, she did not know that she was actually working against the will of God. What an ironic event! The one who was created to bait the enemy of God into incarceration is falling prey to a serpentine manipulation!  

(…to be concluded…)

Read the concluding part two

IS THE LORD GOD THE AUTHOR OF MORAL EVIL? (four)

(Continued from part three…)

4)

 *His credibility suffers an eternal setback.

                It is said of the LORD in Hebrews 1:8-9, “But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom. 9) Thou hast loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, even thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows.” The ‘righteousness’ of verse 8 is: euthutēs (yoo-thoo’-tace): ‘rectitude.’ And the ‘righteousness’ of verse nine is: dikaiosunē (dik-ah-yos-oo’-nay): ‘equity (of character or act); specifically (Christian) justification.’  The resultant effect of the incontestable rectitude of Father and Son makes THEM the eternal lights. “And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the light thereof” [Revelation 21:23].

*He, on moral ground, loses His adjudicatory stance of being the ‘Ĕlôhı̂ym.

                One of the meanings of ‘Ĕlôhı̂ym is ‘magistrate’. God’s guilt will rob Him of all moral justifications to try anybody. His insistence on judging wrongdoers will only give Him the evil persona of a sadistic tyrant. A guilty judge has no rectitude of any moral standing to try any offender. He must vacate the bench. God will forever be the good KING. Why? The good Book says in Psalm 110:1, “A Psalm of David. The LORD said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.” All enemies of righteousness must come to judgment. The sinless Jehovah cannot be one of the condemnable lots. Why His righteous holiness is eternally a certainty is found in Psalm 45:6, which says, “Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right sceptre.”

*Philosophy, and not His word of the Bible, becomes the Lord’s protocol

                Philosophy of human ruminations is as unfounded, and as it is ephemera. Having successfully carried out the religionification of the Catholicism, the Romish Church taught, unequivocally, a Scripture deficiency, which lays an erroneous claim on the Church’s authorisation to emend the eternal words of the Bible. A retrieval of the rest, from ‘heavy laden’ religious chores, promised by the Lord Jesus, is what popery has unleashed on the Church. The resultant effect of religious importations into a global Roman Catholicism opened the doors for the philosophical Humanism birthed by Brunetto Latini (c. 1220-94) of Italian origin.

                If man, according to Latini’s Humanism, is the god of himself, and as a matter of scriptural fact an individual cannot save himself, then Latini’s humanistic doctrine gets man plunged into spiritual stagnation for onward translation to hellish abode. Humanism, according to Livio Dictionary is “1. the denial of any power or moral value superior to that of humanity; the rejection of religion in favour of a belief in the advancement of humanity by its own efforts 2. a philosophical position that stresses the autonomy of human reason in contradistinction to the authority of the Church.”

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831)

                Hegelianism of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770-1831), German philosopher whose three-stage-process of dialectical reasoning, adopted by Karl Marx came with its own confusion. Hegelianism is the system of logic and philosophy which can be summed up by the dictum that “the rational alone is real”, i.e. all reality is capable of being expressed in rational categories.

Hegelian dialectic is an interpretive method in which the contradiction between a proposition (thesis) and its antithesis is resolved at a higher level of truth (synthesis). Hegelianism makes God the Father the thesis; theoretically, He (the Father) died at the incarnation of Jesus (the antithesis); and at His death on the cross, the Holy Spirit becomes the synthesis of Hegelian dialecticism.

                Man’s philosophy has managed to vitiate God’s, the Creator’s protocol. Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche (1844–1900), a German, worked himself through the Hegelian dialectic and the end result was in his book, “The Madman,” where he surmised, “God is dead!” Nietzsche, together with Kierkegaard, is believed to have co-founded existentialism: ‘a chiefly 20th century philosophical movement embracing diverse doctrines but centering on analysis of individual existence in an unfathomable universe and the plight of the individual who must assume ultimate responsibility for acts of free will without any certain knowledge of what is right or wrong or good or bad.’ Fatalism, predominant in the Orient, is the philosophical doctrine that all events are predetermined so that man is powerless to alter his destiny.

                Rid your mind of unscriptural thoughts. Get born again. Say this simple prayer, believing it with all your heart. Say:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I confess with my mouth that Jesus is Lord and I receive Him now as my Lord and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen!”      

(…to be continued…)

Read part three here

Click here to read the 5th part

WHAT IS MARRIAGE ALL ABOUT? (3)

AND THE TWAIN SHALL BE ONE FLESH

(…continued from part two…)

(3)            What does our traditional belief system on marriage hold? Does a woman not get thrilled by the singular thought of being transformed into a Mrs. Somebody or Someone? She would have shamed her detractors the very second her third finger is a marital ring adorned. It has always been their traditional ‘best days of their lives!’ Another very important issue that finally shuts up the gainsaying mouths of envious enemies is when the protrusion of the stomach engenders a parturition and it is said of her, “She is not an arid ground. She has her own offspring as an incontestable proof!” But I want to believe that the carnal satiation of coition is the best untold story of matrimony. The man, of course and the woman too, now have the spiritual legality to enjoy sex and to the fullest. “Yeah! I can do, have all the sex anytime, day, anywhere, sex! Yes!” Is this what marriage is all about: physical, expression and consummation of carnality?

            Genesis 2:24 “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” The adjective ‘one’ which is ‘echâd (ekh-awd’) is, properly, in this context: united.’ There is no gainsaying the fact that ‘one flesh’ is truly indicative of the consummation of the conjugal relationship. Their union, however, finds its united strength –spiritually– only in Jesus. Nowhere else. This is the reason why it must (true marriage) be for only Christians. Amen.

            Marriage adumbrates the espousal of the Church to the Lamb. It takes us back to the Garden of Eden when the LORD God is both the Father of Adam and his Father-in-law. How? Adam married God’s daughter. Being created directly by God’s sculptor’s hands Adam became God’s son. The sole desire of the couple must be to God. Is the marriage of Jesus not to the Church? To them, therefore, is the marriage made for. Is the Church made of Muslims, Hindustani, Taoists, Buddhists and other non-Christians? Not at all! Christians are not just church goers. They are the born again children of God, whose sins have been washed away by the precious blood of the saving Lamb.

            The union must serve its purpose. How? Ephesians 5:25 teaches, “Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it.” Love is not a feeling. It is a commitment. A great man of God defines love saying, “A love called out of the heart of the lover on account of the value placed on the object of his love.” For believing the finished work of salvation by Jesus, God places a huge value upon the regenerate soul. The husband, understanding the love of Jesus, goes to do likewise to his wife. The ‘love’ expressed is the Greek agape, ‘an unconditional affection.’ There is, therefore, no excuse for not loving the wife. None whatsoever. Ephesians 5:22 tells the woman, “Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.” What is the Greek word for ‘submit’?  It is hupotassō (hoop-ot-as’-so): ‘to arrange under, to subordinate, obey.’ Hupotassō comes from hupo (under) and tasso (arrange properly). The wife is, ergo, expected to package herself, properly, under her husband.

                Get born again by saying this simple prayer:

“Dear heavenly Father, I come to You now in the name of Jesus Christ. I believe in my heart that Jesus is the Son of God. I believe in my heart that Jesus died for my sin. I believe that You raised Him from the dead. I believe that Jesus is LORD and I receive Him as my LORD and my Saviour. I give God all the glory. Amen”.

Lubricate the new birth by: 1. Praying always (in the name of Jesus) 1Thessalonians 5:17.

2. Read the Bible everyday (Joshua 1:8).

3. Go to Church regularly (Hebrews 10:25).

4. Tell others about Jesus (Mark 16:15).     

(…to be concluded…)

Read the 2nd part here

Read the concluding part 4 here

Tithes Revisited (six)

(6)            The first ever tithe of Genesis 14:20 was in gold (a means of business transaction). Tithes, in Hebrew is ma‛ăśer (mah-as-ayr’) ‘a tenth; especially a tithe’; and ma‛ăśer comes from a root word ‛aśar (aw-sawr’) ‘ten (only in combination), that is, the “tens”; also (ordinal) a “tenth”‘; which also comes from ‛eśer (eh’ser): ‘ten (as an accumulation to the extent of the digits)’. Where ‛eśer comes from is: ‛aśar (aw-sar’) ‘to accumulate; to tithe, that is, take or give a tenth’, and ‛aśar is identical with ‛ashar (aw-shar’): ‘A primitive root; properly to accumulate; chiefly (specifically) to grow (causatively make) rich’. Tithes, therefore, interestingly, means riches. Jacob, having struck a providential deal with God in Genesis 28:22 decided, “….and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” Where do you think Jacob got that prosperity formula from if not from his good grandfather, Abraham? God definitely did not tie him (Jacob) with any tithing law or did He?

Tithing is of the Church!

            This is the most important reason why tithing is of the Church. I did not see it until my Pastor, Rev. Chris Okotie, showed it to the congregation on the 3rd of March, 2019. Let us look at the Pauline Book of Hebrews. “And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. 9) And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10) For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him” [Hebrews 7:8-10]. Now, the ‘here’ of the eighth verse points to the Mosaic instituted Levitical priesthood; while ‘there’ is of the eternal stance of the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek. It is a good thing poring over what one learns from Church, as Rev. Chris Okotie has always enjoined. In my perusal, some questions popped up. Which of the priesthood is nobler, Melchizedek’s or the Levitical order? Of whose priesthood has the superiority, Levitical or the one according to the order of Melchizedek?

 Blessed Abraham of faith.

            “And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better” [Hebrews 7:7]. The blessing from the priesthood of Melchizedek gives him a nobler personality role than, the tithe giving, faithful Abraham. This is the first element of Melchizedek’s superiority. If as verse 9 above, “And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham,” expounds, then Levi, the tithe collector from Jewish votary did not only receive what Abraham, his progenitor, received (the priesthood blessing that makes Melchizedek the better); he has continued to pay tithes, in Abraham, to Melchizedek. This is another fact of superiority of Melchizedek’s office. How do I know this fact? “And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth” [Hebrews 7:8].

                On account of death, the first high priest from Levi, that is Aaron, was replaced. Up until the time of Pauline scripting of the Book of Hebrews, death had brought about an ineluctable replacements to that office. But of Melchizedek, whose natural genealogy the Scripture is silent about, is absolutely antitypical to the office of the Lord Jesus. The Holy Spirit, through Paul, teaches that this king-priest Melchizedek, said to be figuratively living, undying like the eternal Jesus, continues to receive tithes. How is this possible? It is a theological issue. Melchizedek signalizes the true High Priest, even the Initiator of the Old and the New Testaments, the Lord Jesus, the Alpha and the Omega; the One who was, is, and is to come, the Almighty.

               If Christ is our High Priest, and one of His priesthood functions (in order to pour forth His Providence) is a la tithing, and the indubitability of His body on terra firma happens to be Christians, then the only place of storeroom tithe collection is none other than the Church. Where else? Selah!  

(Conclusion)  

Read the 5th part here

Tithes Revisited (five)

Give unto Caesar…..and give unto the LORD….

(5)          A cautious look at tithing informs of its seed-faith stance. Jesus tells us to give in order to receive from divine operation. Paul teaches that the sown seed must die first, as a matter of fact, before its proliferation of scriptural thirty, sixty, hundred fold. Is tithing a giving act? So, where are some teachers getting their theological facts; from this same Bible? I will not encourage first-fruits offering (which some churches practice): for “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” [1Corinthians 15:20]; is a pellucid indication that Jesus is already our first-fruit. Can I give a more satisfying fruit of the Jesus’ kind to God? The Temple, half Shekel, money is meant to be a divine insurance policy that took annual care of the spiritual policy-holding Israelites. When Jesus says, “It is finished,” the main verb, ‘finished’ is teleō (tel-eh’-o) meaning ‘debt paid’ (in full)!

  ”…but I desire fruit that may abound to your account” (Philippians 4:17)

            All these giving, done in faith, are actually business transactions with the Possessor of heaven and earth. For the simple fact that tithes, originally given out of faith, and in theological facticity that Jehovah is the Possessor of the universe and heaven, and an offer devoid of any legality, most definitely makes it an act of faith, without which no man receives anything from God. “The just,” the Bible points out, “shall live by his faith” (Habakkuk 2:4). Christians are connected to their God by faith alone. What about a rich man like Solomon, does he need to tithe, having all his financial needs and wants answered? A Solomon-rich person is still a needy individual. The word of God, “But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body” [1Corinthians 15:38] is what gives the dead rotten seed of faith (your money) the desired body. The seed sown will take care of childlessness, ill health, ignorance, weakness, security et cetera. Amen.

 Benchmark of 10% given takes care of Satan’s cankerworm proclivity

            The tithing benchmark is ten percent, but truth is: Abraham gave more than 10%. The well informed born again Christian makes sure he does not give less than this benchmark. How I know that Abraham gave more than 10% is found in the Bible. “Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils” [Hebrews 7:4]. The noun ‘spoils’ is akrothinion (ak-roth-in’-ee-on) in the Greek and means, ‘top of the heap, the first fruits, best of the booty or crops.’ This needs a bit of explaining. Let me use global currencies of Liberian, Jamaican, USA, Zimbabwean dollars and British pound sterling of the present world economy for clarity.

                In the days of Abraham the dollar of Zimbabweans will go to the very bottom of the booty because of its lowest value. Liberian or Jamaican dollars heap (depending on the more valuable between them) comes next atop the least in value Zimbabwean dollar. The almighty US dollars takes its heap valuable position above the various dollars. The sterling quality of the British pound occupies the akrothinion displayed position. It is from the pounds sterling that Abraham gave his tithe. Supposing Abraham’s display of the booty from his conquest is two million of each currency, totalling ten million, a tithe of £1,000,000, from the two million pounds is definitely more than 10% of all five national currencies, considering the international strength of the British pound sterling.

                Customarily, the Greeks selected from the topmost part of the heaps and offered this to the gods.

  “…if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing…”

                It would not come as a surprise to me if some people should ascribe this Greek connection, to assume an inference to its heathen practice and a consequent vitiation of tithing. Those who preach or teach against tithing know very little about theology or are antagonists of the truth. Even if the universal historicity of tithing is heathenish, does the Bible not make it pellucid enough to whom Abraham gave the tithe? Even if the world’s economic system of tithe adoration had been to Lucifer, and Abraham decided to honour the Possessor of heaven and earth, Almighty Jehovah Jireh, with his own substance, what makes it a scriptural anomaly for Christians to do the same knowing, especially, of “prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it,” of Malachi’s prophecy? Selah!  

 (…to be concluded…)

Read part 4 here

Read the concluding part 6 here

Tithes Revisited (four)

(…continued from part three…)

4)              When Abraham offered the first ever tithes it was in an acknowledgement that the LORD God is the Possessor of the heavens and the earth. The giving, premised on this instance, he must give it to a priest. This Melchizedek, a priest and a king, prefigured Jesus, our High Priest and King. To consummate His adumbration, Melchizedek brought wine and bread. If the tithe had served as Jesus’ adumbration, there would not have been any need to pay tithe since His emergent incarnation would have taken care of it.

JEHOVAH, Abraham understood, is the POSSESSOR of the heavens and the earth.

                Abraham’s tithe is a sermon in praise of the Most High. It was a faith act, intended to keep him in riches. Christians, having received much, ought to give appreciatively more. Tithing, though not compulsory, is obligatory (akin to the half shekel expected to insure the life of an Israelite for a year –Exodus 30:11-16). Out of that which Abraham earned he took, to honour the LORD, his God, by faith. God did not thunder a threat of impoverishment to coerce father Abraham.

                The man felt obliged to perform a faithful act of giving. The bread and the wine were presented to foretell the breaking of His body and the offer of His blood for our redemption. It was, therefore, apropos when at the Last Supper, the One Melchizedek prefigured, had to perform the ritual of the new covenant: the harbinger of the eternal life mystery. Amen.   

                This is the pedagogical significance of Paul’s Hebrews chapter seven. Verse seven says, “And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better.” The blessed, less, being Abraham, makes Melchizedek, the blessing priest, superior in this scriptural context. If the scriptural pellucidity, as concerning Melchizedek’s role, is in a contextual adumbration of Jesus Christ, his antitypical High Priest, does it not tell us that just as Levi metaphorically paid tithes, not to the legality of the Aaronic order, Abraham actually paid it to Christ, the Eternal head of the Christian Church?!

Gave not by the legalism of Mosaic Law

                Abraham was not prompted by the legalism of Mosaic Law. Abraham did not handover the tithes of his volitional drive to Aaron who, together with every priest of his progeny, did die (read verse 8). He paid it to the Melchizedek i.e. the ‘immortality’ in representation of Christ. If the appropriation of faith in Jesus is what makes one a Christian, then it is quite germane to say that Abraham’s faith in Jehovah makes him a Christian. Jesus, in Melchizedek, received the tithes from Abraham, a type of a Christian. Abraham’s tithes was not of an extraction of legality.

                What can one learn from this verse, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit” [John 12:24]? We know that Jesus was talking about Himself, but why would the seed die before it bears fruits? The death of the sown seed brings human effort to an end so that God will take the credit for its germination. The death of Jesus led to the Resurrection, which is solely of Divine operation. Is this not also of the seed of faith that we drop into the offering bag? Should you not see it well enough, let us look at another scripture.

                1Corinthians 15:36-38 read, “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die: 37) And that which thou sowest, thou sowest not that body that shall be, but bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other grain: 38) But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him, and to every seed his own body.” What you give to God must die first. It must cease to be called yours before God can do something about your request. To prosper, you must give your substance, tithes inclusive. Abraham, who first gave the tithes, was being made to start the life of faith on behalf of man all over again, since we know that Adam had bungled it. He gave out of faith. Why? Christians must live all their lives in absolute faith.

                Melchizedek brought the bread and wine which sealed the New Testamentary order, which came from the beneficence of the Lord Jesus. A freewill engendered another. Melchizedek brought the communion elements which did rejuvenate the communion that Christ had with the sinless Adamic family in the Garden of Eden, when He came to them every cool of the evening. Praise the Lord. Tithes, as Rev. Chris Okotie puts it, truly belongs to the Church! Amen!!       

  (…to be continued…)

To read part three click here

Read part 5 here

Tithes Revisited (three)

(Continued from part two…)

(3)

                “But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept” [1Corinthians 15:20]. We do not only have Him as our firstfruit, the Lord Jesus performed a miracle with us as we read from James 1:18, “Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures.” The physical encapsulation of the spiritual connotation of the firstfruit is presented in tithing: consummated in sacerdotalism.

 Jesus owns all!

             Everybody is of the knowledge that it is good to give and if Matthew 6:33 enjoins, “But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you;” and, it is clear that giving is a righteous deed, then tithing should be availed. Take a good look at Pauline didacticism to the Christians of Corinth. 1Corinthians 9:5-14. Verse 5, “Have we not power to lead about a sister, a wife, as well as other apostles, and as the brethren of the Lord, and Cephas?” Pauline erudition begins with the right to be involved in conjugal relationship as other apostles. His ebullience is leading somewhere. 6) “Or I only and Barnabas, have not we power to forbear working?” Barnabas and he can decide not to work again, and depend on the church for sustenance.

“Bring…tithes…into my storehouse…” THIS IS “THE HOUSEHOLD OF GOD CHURCH”

                Verse 7 of 1Corinthians chapter 9 reads, “Who goeth a warfare any time at his own charges? who planteth a vineyard, and eateth not of the fruit thereof? or who feedeth a flock, and eateth not of the milk of the flock?” Effective rhetorical questioning needing not any answer for the obviousness. 8) “Say I these things as a man? or saith not the law the same also?” The apostle’s teaching, in all honesty, is far from being arbitrary. Moses is his scriptural reference. 9) “For it is written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox that treadeth out the corn. Doth God take care for oxen? 10) Or saith he it altogether for our sakes? For our sakes, no doubt, this is written: that he that ploweth should plow in hope; and that he that thresheth in hope should be partaker of his hope.”

                As God cares even for the domestic animals, so much more should He be expected to cater for the vineyard toiling ministers with the tithes and offerings of the congregating saints. 11) “If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnal things?” Any big deal taking your tithes for our upkeep? None, Paul and I believe. What the apostles render is eternally greater than the ephemera carnality of their material offering substances.

                Verse 12, “If others be partakers of this power over you, are not we rather? Nevertheless we have not used this power; but suffer all things, lest we should hinder the gospel of Christ.” Moving towards the didactic crescendo, Paul reminds them of the legal claim he possesses, more than the Old Testament priesthood, over the tenth part of their substantial worth. 13) “Do ye not know that they which minister about holy things live of the things of the temple? and they which wait at the altar are partakers with the altar? 14) Even so hath the Lord ordained that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel.” The tithes that have been brought to the temple form a good part of the things found on the altar of the Temple. God’s storehouse has not crumbled. Or has it?

Businesswoman Looking up at Camera and Standing Outdoors Surrounded by a Large Group of Business People

                The Church of the New Testament is authorised to receive the tithes in order to “open the windows of heaven, and pour out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it” by the One who made the promise. Amen. “In the morning sow thy seed, and in the evening withhold not thine hand: for thou knowest not whether shall prosper, either this or that, or whether they both shall be alike good“ [Ecclesiastes 11:3-6]. Every avenue of giving is an opportunity to sow seeds and should be explored (not in foolishness) by a wise child of God.

(…to be continued…)

Click to read part two

Read part four by clicking here

Tithes Revisited (two)

 Solomon in the Temple which houses the treasury

(Continued from part one…)

(2)          Now look at what he said in the 19th verse of Philippians chapter four, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” Is tithing an act of giving? Was tithing a route to the prosperity of Israel, God’s children? If Christians do have a better covenant of progeny, the only thing that can abolish Christian tithing must come from the express instruction of HIS protocol, the Bible. Nowhere in scripture is tithing forbidden after Christ’s resurrection. If God’s instruction is, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house…,” we understand that the storehouse is in the Temple i.e. the New Testament Church. Amen!

               When the Temple curtain tore in two at the death of Jesus, the Holy Spirit left the Jerusalem Temple. After the Pentecostal inaugural establishment of the Church, HIS place of assemblage with God’s children had always been the Church auditorium. That which was put in the storehouse must continue lest we be found guilty of “robbing God.” Amen. ‘Storehouse’ of Malachi 3:10 is ôtsâr (o-tsaw’): ‘a depository.’ Three verses prove that ôtsâr is of the temple.

Abraham brought the spoils; Melchizedek gave the communion of covenant.

                1Chronicles 9:26, “For these Levites, the four chief porters, were in their set office, and were over the chambers and treasuries of the house of God.” ‘Treasuries’ is ôtsâr in Hebrew. ‘Treasure’ is in the Book of Nehemiah 10:38, “And the priest the son of Aaron shall be with the Levites, when the Levites take tithes: and the Levites shall bring up the tithe of the tithes unto the house of our God, to the chambers, into the treasure house.” Nehemiah 13:12 reads, “Then brought all Judah the tithe of the corn and the new wine and the oil unto the treasuries.” Ôtsâr is the same Hebrew for ‘treasuries’ in Nehemiah 13:12. Malachi 3:8, “Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings.” If a refusal to handover tithes and offerings constitute robbery of God’s property, and I give out only my offerings am I not a thief in tithing? Selah!

            Those two things (tithes and offerings) keep the bodies and the souls of the children of Aaron together. It keeps them out of hunger. Their priesthood was a full-time job. Numbers 18:21, “And, behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tenth in Israel for an inheritance, for their service which they serve, even the service of the tabernacle of the congregation.” The Christian headship of the Church is full-time, because God’s call is without repentance.

 The holy of holies

                Numbers 18:20, “And the LORD spake unto Aaron, Thou shalt have no inheritance in their land, neither shalt thou have any part among them: I am thy part and thine inheritance among the children of Israel.” For the physical sustenance of Aaron, who is expected to be limited to ecumenical work, Solomon says, in Proverbs 3:9, “Honour the LORD with thy substance, and with the firstfruits of all thine increase:” By definition the word ‘proverb’ is: ‘a short saying that stood for a whole discourse, the words of which are metaphorical.’

                King Solomon is quoted, in 1Kings 4:32, to have reeled three whole thousand proverbs and additional one thousand songs. The breath involvement of the Divinity makes Solomonic wise documentation of an eternal consequence. A proverbial ‘substance’ must include your tithes. Hôn (hone), a noun masculine, is the Hebrew rendition of ‘substance,’ meaning: ‘wealth, riches,’ which definitely comes from the sweats of energetic business act. The king of proverbial utterances went on to divine the outcome of giving in the next verse 10, “So shall thy barns be filled with plenty, and thy presses shall burst out with new wine.” Tithing? It is not compulsory for those who hate to have affluence. Verse 9 mentions the giving of ‘first fruits’ which is not to be made practical for a good scriptural reason.

(…to be continued…)

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