Scripture and Obedience

Today I feel to write about one of the most damaging sins in the Bible, and one that has always drawn particular displeasure from God. I'll start with a passage from Deuteronomy where God is instructing the people by Moses, regarding what to do and what not to do when they went into Canaan's land: "Neither shalt thou make marriages with them [Canaanites]; thy daughter thou shalt not give unto his son, nor his daughter shalt thou take unto thy son. For they will turn away thy son from following me, that they may serve other gods: so will the anger of the Lord be kindled against you, and destroy thee suddenly" (Deut. 7:3,4). It has always been forbidden by God for his people who are in covenant with him to marry anyone who is apart from that covenant. In fact, the prevalence of breaking this commandment led to God's fury being poured out on the whole world with the flood in the days of Noah: "That the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose... And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them" (Gen. 6:2,5-7). Contrary to popular Christian tradition, fallen angels did NOT marry women, but rather the line of godly men which began with Seth, married into the line of women who came from Cain. And the truth is, the fable about fallen angels marrying women actually masks the real truth about God's great displeasure in regard to his people marrying apart from the true faith. All falsehood is designed by Satan to cloud the eyes of God's people to much needed understanding of God's real truths. After the Babylonian captivity of the children of Judah was fulfilled, Cyrus the Persian sent the Jews back to their native land to rebuild the temple that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon had burnt down seventy years earlier (Ezra 1:1-5). After going back to Judah and Jerusalem and being there for some time, it was discovered that many of the men, including priests and rulers, had married women of the land who were not of God's people (Ezra 9:1,2). And what was the solution to this problem? "Now therefore let us make a covenant with our God to put away all the wives, and such as are born of them, according to the counsel of my lord, and of those that tremble at the commandment of our God; and let it be done according to the law... And they made proclamation throughout Judah and Jerusalem unto all the children of the captivity, that they should gather themselves together unto Jerusalem; And that whosoever would not come within three days, according to the counsel of the princes and the elders, all his substance should be forfeited, and himself separated from the congregation of those that had been carried away" (Ezra 9:3,7,8). Marrying apart from the faith was not acceptable to God then, and it is most assuredly not acceptable to God now. And the only way to satisfy God's displeasure with the matter was to put away those whom they had married, and the children born to them by them. Do you think God has softened his view on this destructive sin, seeing that this new covenant was and is predicated on the suffering an death of his only begotten Son? Sound pretty severe? Yeah, it is, but it's not as severe as hell fire. Jesus said that it is preferable to lose a body part and still be saved, rather than to go into hell fire whole (Mk. 9:43). I'm certain that analogy will apply in this case as well.

The biggest problem today with this malady is that the modern Christian gospel of perverseness has totally muddled the view and understanding of what even constitutes this commandment being broken. You are not in covenant with God unless you have been baptized with the holy Ghost [not water], with God's chosen sign accompanying the experience, which is "[speaking] with other tongues as the Spirit gives utterance" (Acts 2:4). There is only "one body" or congregation of God's people in the earth, and it is NOT ANY man-made religious affiliation (Eph. 4:4). It is the body of Christ which we are members of ONLY by means of the SPIRIT baptism, as the scripture plainly states (I Cor. 12:13). And if we are not in the body of Christ, we are NOT in Christ, nor have we "put on Christ" (Gal. 3:27). The scripture clearly tells us, "Now the Lord IS that Spirit," and that we can only get into Christ by the baptism OF that Spirit (Rom. 6:23; I Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27). And for those who want to hold onto the idea that water baptism is what puts us into Christ, the scripture does NOT say, "Now the Lord is that water." For those who can accept the truth of the matter, the apostle stated the following: "Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? ... Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you" (II Cor. 6:14,15,17). But the modern traditions of Christianity have made it far more convenient to the flesh of people for them to "become Christians" without coming fully clean before God and being marked with his stamp of approval, which is the baptism of the holy Ghost by Jesus, with the sign from heaven of speaking with other tongues. So the dilemma we have today is that many who HAVE been baptized with the Spirit have married "Christians" who have NOT been baptized with the Spirit, and do not realize that they have in fact married apart from the covenant. Reason being that the truth of the new birth has been lost in the myriad of perverse doctrines of so called "new birth" methods in Christianity. You will have one person who HAS received the Spirit thinking it is just fine to marry another person who has "become a Christian," but without the baptism of the Spirit. Seeing that both parties believe in the false new birth tradition of Christianity, which is headed up in the saying of "getting saved," neither party knows that this union is not sanctioned by God, and that it will not prosper. So they find out the hard way. But regardless of how long people in this case remain married, it will never be acceptable to God, because HE DOES know that it is illicit. But let me say this before anyone gets too anxious to voice their complaints: If neither the man or the woman has the baptism of the Spirit when they marry, and afterward one of them receives it, the marriage is NOT illicit in that case. That is what the apostle Paul was speaking of in the following passage: "If any brother hath a wife that believeth not, and she be pleased to dwell with him, let him not put her away. And the woman which hath an husband that believeth not, and if he be pleased to dwell with her, let her not leave him. For what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou shalt save thy husband? or how knowest thou, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife?" (I Cor. 7:12,13,16). Now I await the comments of horrified disbelief. And those I will address now: I Corinthians 14:38. Amen.