As I began to point out in my previous article, the examples throughout the Bible of the “cup of iniquity” principal are overwhelming. God’s conditions for judgment and forgiveness never change. “…if you do this I will bless…if you do this I will curse…” People do not like to hear that God declares that He will execute judgment. They do not like to admit or declare that God sends a plague or a destroyer. Yet, the evidence in Scripture is abundantly clear. God will forgive if we repent. Likewise, God will increase his chastening if we do not repent. God will bless us for faith, which is obedience or God will cause (some people like to say, God will allow) trouble to come upon us and overcome us with problems, accidents, trials, diseases and even death.
Now let us take a moment and read from the book, “The Complete Family” by Pastor Gary and Joanna Beasley and see the principles of how we as parents are supposed to raise and train our children. This is the same method God uses to love and develop you and I.
USING FORCE TO TRAIN CHILDREN
“Chastise means ‘to inflict punishment or suffering upon, with a view to amendment; also simply, to punish, or inflict punishment on.’ Chastisement is the legitimate physical force parents are to use in correcting or restraining a child's rebellion. Chastisement should not be used for all disobedience. 2 Samuel 7:14, ‘I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men.’
PUNISHMENT FOR VIOLATING STANDARDS.
...First, as God does in the Bible, we are to make the standards clear that children are to obey... The second step is to rebuke the child when he has violated the standard. This is done by telling him what he has done wrong...I would then demand him to admit his sin and ask forgiveness of God. The third step is to forgive him for violating the standard, just as God has forgiven him when he asked. The last step would be to punish. This is to carry out the just penalty for the offense committed. God’s Word outlines this step as needed to cause society to function well. Romans 13:4 says, ‘For he is God’s minister to you for good. But if you do evil, be afraid; for he does not bear the sword in vain; for he is God’s minister, an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil.’ Without punishment for crimes committed, society would be reduced to anarchy. As God’s delegated authority, the parent is the one who must carry out punishment for broken standards. Richard Fugate offers the following differences between chastisement and punishment: ‘Chastisement is the specific use of a rod to inflict pain. It is used to conquer rebellion and force submission to authority. Physical pain should be used only to punish for acts that demonstrate rejection of authority or for the intentional hurting of another person. On the other hand, punishment is the just penalty for any type of wrong done. Its purpose is not to force submission or control rebellion. While chastisement can be withdrawn as soon as a child submits, punishment is the payment that must be made for a specific wrong committed. While chastisement acts as a warning of worse to come, punishment is the final payment. For example: If a child throws a temper tantrum, he is chastised until he comes under control. But, if a child carelessly breaks a lamp, he is punished by paying the penalty for the wrong done; he cleans up the mess and buys a new lamp.’ The penalty for the violation of the standard should be related proportionately and in kind with the violation.” (pp 149, 154-156)
Dear fellow believer, the four steps Pastor Beasley explains above is exactly how God continues to deal with and raise you and I.
2 Kings 22:11-20 reads: “And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest... Go ye, inquire of the LORD for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. So Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam, and Achbor, went unto Huldah, the prophetess... And she said unto them, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Tell the man that sent you to me. Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which the king of Judah hath read: Because they have forsaken me, and have burned incense unto other gods, that they might provoke me to anger with all the works of their hands; therefore my wrath shall be kindled against this place, and shall not be quenched. But to the king of Judah which sent you to enquire of the LORD, thus shall ye say to him, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, As touching the words which thou hast heard; Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the LORD, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before me; I also have heard thee, saith the LORD. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place. And they brought the king word again.”
Ezekiel 6:1-14: “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, And say, Ye mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus saith the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword upon you, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols. And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the midst of you, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. Yet will I leave a remnant, that ye may have some that shall escape the sword among the nations, when ye shall be scattered through the countries. And they that escape of you shall remember me among the nations whither they shall be carried captives, because I am broken with their whorish heart, which hath departed from me, and with their eyes, which go whoring after their idols: and they shall loathe themselves for the evils which they have committed in all their abominations. And they shall know that I am the Lord, and that I have not said in vain that I would do this evil unto them. Thus saith the Lord God; Smite with thine hand, and stamp with thy foot, and say, Alas for all the evil abominations of the house of Israel! For they shall fall by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence. He that is far off shall die of the pestilence; and he that is near shall fall by the sword; and he that remaineth and is besieged shall die by the famine: thus will I accomplish my fury upon them. Then shall ye know that I am the Lord, when their slain men shall be among their idols round about their altars, upon every high hill, in all the tops of the mountains, and under every green tree, and under every thick oak, the place where they did offer sweet savor to all their idols. So will I stretch out my hand upon them, and make the land desolate, yea, more desolate than the wilderness toward Diblath, in all their habitations: and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
Jeremiah 11:17-23: “For the Lord of hosts, that planted thee, hath pronounced evil against thee, for the evil of the house of Israel and of the house of Judah, which they have done against themselves to provoke me to anger in offering incense unto Baal. And the Lord hath given me knowledge of it, and I know it: then thou shewedst me their doings. But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter; and I knew not that they had devised devices against me, saying, Let us destroy the tree with the fruit thereof, and let us cut him off from the land of the living, that his name may be no more remembered. But, O Lord of hosts, that judgest righteously, that triest the reins and the heart, let me see thy vengeance on them: for unto thee have I revealed my cause. Therefore thus saith the Lord of the men of Anathoth, that seek thy life, saying, Prophesy not in the name of the Lord, that thou die not by our hand: Therefore thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold I will punish them: the young men shall die by the sword; their sons and their daughters shall die by famine: And there shall be no remnant of them: for I will bring evil upon the men of Anathoth, even the year of their visitation.”
Jeremiah 13:25-27: “This is thy lot, the portion of thy measures from me, saith the Lord; because thou hast forgotten me, and trusted in falsehood. Therefore will I discover thy skirts upon thy face, that thy shame may appear. I have seen thine adulteries, and thy neighings, the lewdness of thy whoredom, and thine abominations on the hills in the fields. Woe unto thee, O Jerusalem! Wilt thou not be made clean? When shall it once be?”
Jeremiah 14:1-12: “The word of the Lord that came to Jeremiah concerning the dearth. Judah mourneth, and the gates thereof languish; they are black unto the ground; and the cry of Jerusalem is gone up. And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads. Because the ground is chapt, for there was no rain in the earth, the plowmen were ashamed, they covered their heads. Yea, the hind also calved in the field, and forsook it, because there was no grass. And the wild asses did stand in the high places, they snuffed up the wind like dragons; their eyes did fall, because there was no grass. O Lord, though our iniquities testify against us, do thou it for thy name’s sake: for our backslidings are many; we have sinned against thee. O the hope of Israel, the saviour thereof in time of trouble, why shouldest thou be as a stranger in the land, and as a wayfaring man that turneth aside to tarry for a night? Why shouldest thou be as a man astonied, as a mighty man that cannot save? Yet thou, O Lord, art in the midst of us, and we are called by thy name; leave us not. Thus saith the Lord unto this people, Thus have they loved to wander, they have not refrained their feet, therefore the Lord doth not accept them; he will now remember their iniquity, and visit their sins. Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence.”
Jeremiah 16:10-13: “And it shall come to pass, when thou shalt shew this people all these words, and they shall say unto thee, Wherefore hath the Lord pronounced all this great evil against us? or what is our iniquity? What is our sin that we have committed against the Lord our God? Then shalt thou say unto them, Because your fathers have forsaken me, saith the Lord, and have walked after other gods, and have served them, and have forsaken me, and have not kept my law; And ye have done worse than your fathers; for, behold, ye walk every one after the imagination of his evil heart, that they may not hearken unto me: Therefore will I cast you out of this land into a land that ye know not, neither ye nor your fathers; and there shall ye serve other gods day and night; where I will not shew you favour.”
NOTE: The people could not even recognize sin any longer as their fathers had forsaken truth and rebelled. Now their children continued to reject truth and in the end, became worse than their fathers.
II Thessalonians 2:10-12 warns: “And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie; That they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Jeremiah 18:1, 7-17: “The word which came to Jeremiah from the Lord, saying…At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to pluck up, and to pull down, and to destroy it; If that nation, against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. And at what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a kingdom, to build and to plant it; If it do evil in my sight, that it obey not my voice, then I will repent of the good, wherewith I said I would benefit them. Now therefore go to, speak to the men of Judah, and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, saying, Thus saith the Lord; Behold I frame evil against you, and devise a device against you: return ye now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good. And they said, There is no hope: but we will walk after our own devices, and we will every one do the imagination of his evil heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord; Ask ye now among the heathen, who hath heard such things: the virgin of Israel hath done a very horrible thing. Will a man leave the snow of Lebanon which cometh from the rock of the field? Or shall the cold flowing waters that come from another place be forsaken? Because my people hath forgotten me, they have burned incense to vanity, and they have caused them to stumble in their ways from the ancient paths, to walk in paths, in a way not cast up; To make their land desolate, and a perpetual hissing; every one that passeth thereby shall be astonished, and wag his head. I will scatter them as with an east wind before the enemy; I will shew them the back, and not the face, in the day of their calamity.”
Many popular apostate “Church Leaders” have exaggerated the message of mercy, compassion and grace. They also diminish the importance of the Ten Commandments, thus having turned the character of Jesus into a cartoon or fairy tale such as the Pink Panther, Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny or other figures of no consequence.
Matthew 5:17-19 reads: “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfill. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”
We see here that Jesus not only renewed but enlarged the everlasting covenant, not deleting any of the previous conditions and requirements. Please read Matthew 22:37-40, James 2:8-11, John 14:21-24, John 15:14, and Hebrews 8:10. Paul is clear in Colossians chapter 2 that laws nailed to the cross were ceremonial laws (shadows). They were temporary until their meaning was fulfilled when they became obsolete. However, God’s character and personality manifested in the Ten Commandments are everlasting, and no man has authority to change them without being guilty of idolatry and rebellion! Most Christians would say it is a sin to have other gods, to make graven images, or to take the Lord’s name in vain. They would say it is wrong to dishonor your parents. They would say that a Christian should not kill, commit adultery, steal, lie, or covet.
THERE COMES A POINT OF NO RETURN!
Jeremiah 7:16: “Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up cry nor prayer for them, neither make intercession to me: for I will not hear thee.”
Jeremiah 11:11,14: “Therefore thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will bring evil upon them, which they shall not be able to escape; and though they shall cry unto me, I will not hearken unto them…Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear them in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.”
Jeremiah 14:11-16: “Then said the Lord unto me, Pray not for this people for their good. When they fast, I will not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt offering and an oblation, I will not accept them: but I will consume them by the sword, and by the famine, and by the pestilence. Then said I, Ah, Lord God! Behold, the prophets say unto them, Ye shall not see the sword, neither shall ye have famine; but I will give you assured peace in this place. Then the Lord said unto me, The prophets prophesy lies in my name: I sent them not, neither have I commanded them, neither spake unto them: they prophesy unto you a false vision and divination, and a thing of nought, and the deceit of their heart. Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the prophets that prophesy in my name, and I sent them not, yet they say, Sword and famine shall not be in this land; By sword and famine shall those prophets be consumed. And the people to whom they prophesy shall be cast out in the streets of Jerusalem because of the famine and the sword: and they shall have none to bury them, them, their wives, nor their sons, nor their daughters: for I will pour their wickedness upon them.”
Jeremiah 30:12-15: “For thus saith the Lord, Thy bruise is incurable, and thy wound is grievous. There is none to plead thy cause, that thou mayest be bound up: thou hast no healing medicines. All thy lovers have forgotten thee; they seek thee not; for I have wounded thee with the wound of an enemy, with the chastisement of a cruel one, for the multitude of thine iniquity; because thy sins were increased. Why criest thou for thine affliction? Thy sorrow is incurable for the multitude of thine iniquity: because thy sins were increased, I have done these things unto thee.”
Ezekiel 5:11-12: “Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God; Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I also diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A third part of thee shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee: and a third part shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them.”
Yes, dear saint, God’s word is so clear. The Lord warns, rebukes, and forgives if there is repentance but continues to chasten and punish where rebellion continues.
TO BE CONTINUED
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In August of 1995, in obedience to the Lord, I moved back to America to prepare to warn this nation of what is to come upon the people and country of the United States of America in 1998 through 2008. The Lord warned of: STOCK MARKET CRASH, NUCLEAR ATTACK, CIVIL UNREST, SOCIAL SECURITY COLLAPSE, NATURAL DISASTERS, CHEMICAL/BIOLOGICAL/NUCLEAR TERRORISM, MAMMOTH TIDAL WAVES, EARTHQUAKES AND ERUPTIONS THROUGHOUT THE UNITED STATES. In the Pacific Northwest where our offices are located, the Lord said specifically that MT. RAINIER WOULD ERUPT, THE 520 BRIDGE WOULD COLLAPSE and THERE WOULD BE A POWERFUL NORTHWEST EARTHQUAKE.
The cover of the Discover Magazine for November, 1999, read: “America’s Most Dangerous Volcano - When Mt. Rainier blows - and it will - 100,000 people will have less than an hour to get out of the way.” On August 30, 1999, WorldNetDaily.com carried an article entitled: “The Threat of Bio-Terror in the U.S. - 120 American cities training medical strike teams.” The Seattle Times News dated Monday, September 29, 1997, page A2, reported: “...In Moscow - in real life - generals, security officials and government spokesmen argue about whether scores of nuclear bombs the size of a suitcase are missing...” The first decree signed by President Vladimir Putin of Russia was a new National Security Doctrine lowering the threshold for the use of nuclear weapons. It allows Russia to use her vast nuclear arsenal to repel armed aggression.
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