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SELAH 8
Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said to them 'Peace to you'
" Now as they said these things, Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them and said, `Peace to you'. "
These opening words come from the last chapter of Luke's Gospel. The whole of this chapter 24, which centres on events following the crucifixion of Jesus, has a message for His disciples in the events of today following (dare we say it?) the `crucifixion' of Jesus in the modern institutional Church - and that `institutionalism' goes beyond the historic churches! We say chapter 24 is pertinent today, for a brief summary of this chapter shows unbelief, anxiety and fear in uncertainty:
" The women went to anoint His body for burial . . . the stone was rolled away . . . no body was in the tomb . . . the angel spoke of their unbelief . . . `Why seek the living amongst the dead . . . He is risen . . . do you not remember?' . . . The eleven disciples, apart from Peter, did not believe! The two on the road to Emmaus did not believe . . . Jesus Himself drew near them . . . but their eyes were restrained. They did not know Him . . . a reprimand came, `O, foolish ones, slow of heart to believe' . . . Jesus broke bread with them . . . then their eyes were opened and they knew Him . . . The two returned to Jerusalem and to the eleven disciples and spoke to them . . . then Jesus Himself stood in the midst of them, and said, `Peace to you' . . . and they were terrified . . . `Behold My hands and My feet, touch Me' . . . Still they did not believe but belief was rising in joy and wonder with Him in their midst' . . . then, `Do you not remember what I told you as written in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms concerning Me?' . . . Then He opened their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures . . . `and you are witnesses of these things . . . Behold I will send the promise of My Father upon you' . . . and they worshipped Him . . . and were continually in the Temple, praising and worshipping God."
Why, then, is chapter 24 of Luke's Gospel pertinent to today's disciples of Jesus? We hardly need write the answer! Apostacy and unbelief in the institutional churches leading to ritual and entertainment to cover over and deaden spiritual life, and division and unbelief in National Life leading to who knows what? But to continually major on the present will only deepen unbelief as all that is familiar unravells at the end of what is the last 40 years Probation Period which has led to captivity. At such a time doubt, anxiety and insecurity rise up and deaden spiritual and natural life. It was then Jesus stood in the midst of them, and said, `Peace to you'. At such times all disciples of the Lord Jesus need to remember the past when God reached down from His Eternal into our natural lives and we were born into His Eternal Kingdom, which gave us sure and certain hope for the future. Therefore the past and the future now become our present and Jesus stands among us today, saying `Peace to you'.
What, then, of the natural world which we have been `born out of'? For that we need to step back into history and to the 14th century, back to when the Roman Church, under the total authority of the Pope, claimed supreme authority over the whole Christian Church - this authority was based on forged Documents, of which there were many in those times! The main two of those forged Documents `proving' this total authority lay first in what is known as `The Donation of Constantine'. This was said to have been written in the 4th century, stating that the Roman Emperor Constantine bestowed on Pope Silvester 1st the right to wear the Roman Imperial Regalia and bequeathed to the Pope Rome and all its Provinces, together with the title `Pontifax Maximus'. The Pope was now the supreme head of the Roman State and Church!
The second forged Document, known as `The Pseudo Isodorian Decretals', was said to have been written in the 9th century and was a collection of letters, one of which was a letter from Pope Clement 1st to the Apostle James saying that the Apostle Paul had given to Pope Clement 1st `the Key of the Kingdom of Heaven' in AD 94, and he had passed on this `Apostolic Succession'. These forged Documents were used to confirm and support the Popes' total authority of State and Church power. This now established, through forgery and trickery, a Universal Catholic Church in which all temporal kings and princes were subject to the Universal Imperial authority of the Pope. By the 14th century a Universal Catholic spiritual and temporal Kingdom of God was established under the rule of the vicarious presence of the Pontifax Maximus. Into that totally corrupt world came Martin Luther, when in 1517 he pinned his 95 Thesis to the door of Wittenberg Castle Church door. The Roman Church and State crumbled `suddenly'!
The Reformation therefore came into history, and out of this came Protestantism - the temporal kings and princes now sought independence from the claims of the Roman Church and began to form Nation States and National Churches to confirm their claims as Sovereign Anointed Heads of their State Churches. In return the National Churches, subservient to those anointed kings, received the protection of the State - there was no longer a spiritual Universal Catholic Kingdom of God on earth subject to its King in Heaven! The Reformation brought a new individual and personal awareness of God, whose disciples now faced the wrath of the temporal Church and State. Those disciples, gathering together in small groups in order to study the Scriptures, to pray and worship their God, faced ongoing persecution from both Church and State. Thus there was no longer a Universal Catholic Church to speak against and to provide a check against the excesses of kings and princes who were no longer under the ever-present threat of ex-communication - that is the cutting off of a wayward king from all the spiritual services and sacraments of the Roman Church.
And so there came about the concept of `Throne and Altar', with kings and princes (the Throne) turning to their subservient national Churches (the Altar) for the sacraments but leaving - as was intended by the Lord of the Church of the Redeemed - individual living stones being built into the Body of Christ as witnesses to the Risen Lord Jesus, who alone offers Salvation. Just as the Reformation destroyed the Universal Catholic nature of the Church - albeit that Roman Catholicism had thoroughly corrupted the purity of the `universalism' - so the Protestant Movement which came out of the Reformation began the `secularisation' and subsequent destruction of the spiritual and natural nature of Universal Catholic Christendom. In its place came institutionalised national Churches subservient to the `Throne' and enjoying State protection and status. But we do not limit these comments to the `historic Churches' alone, for subservience with the underlying protection and benefits can be seen today in the neo-institutionalised Church groups.
It could be truly said that the historic and the `neo-historic' Churches prepared the way for liberal social democracy to take root in the Western nations - albeit at the expense of the Scriptural truth that all men are born equal through the soveriegn Word of God, when He said, `Let Us make man in Our image and after Our likeness', He also gave all men the ability to make moral choices to enable them to enter that ` equality' through acceptance of Jesus Christ as the only way to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ'. Liberal social democracy inevitably lost its high ideals of the care of the many, becoming the benefit for the few. So too the Universal Catholic Church was broken into many churches and sects which came into competition with each other - often in open conflict, with only a tacit acceptance of the one universal catholic Body under the care of One Shepherd for salvation of the many!
This is where we are today: In this country our National Churches, closely tied into a National State and its laws, cling to a false belief in a Judaic/Christian heritage as their institutionalised-secularised life gives them protection but also the ongoing destruction of their spiritual life. In 1571 it took one person to nail his 95 Thesis to the door of Wittemburg Castle Church, which in turn broke into pieces the powerful structure of the Roman Catholic Universal Church. In our time such a `one person' could not achieve such a movement. Today it would take countless numbers of such people, for there are countless numbers of individualist churches and sects that have `doors of iron' which no nails could penetrate with the Word of God. An impossible task? However in 1967 Jesus, the Lord of the Church of the Redeemed, released a last Fourty Years Probation into His Universal Catholic Church through a world-wide move of the Holy Spirit - it was this One Holy and Righteous Person Who nailed His Word to the iron doors of His Church. This final move did break into the institutionalised Churches as the wind of the Holy Spirit touched and renewed the lives of individual people. But, as in past Probations, this move slowly turned into apostacy and final `captivity in Babylon' where today's remnant `by the waters of Babylon, sit down and cry as they remember Zion'.
At the beginning of all Scriptural Probations there is an awareness of God's Righteous Holiness in His Temple. In simple terms there is a re-discovery of the wonder of His Word, which causes a great hunger for more understanding of Scripture, a great desire to grow closer to Him in the purity of His Word, which is enlightened by the Holy Spirit who reveals Jesus who draws us to Abba Father. At that time the Lord raised up many anointed teachers and prophets who satisfied that hunger, but fifty years on from that move of the Holy Spirit that generation has largely gone home for their reward and the anointed and rich teaching has mainly seeped away through Revisionist Progressive Moral Relativity in a generation which has not known those earlier days! So we must turn to consider this `Revisionist Progressive Moral Relativism' to find its root so as to cure this disease. For that we turn to Scripture, and for this `in Brief' we need go no further back than the sixth chapter of the Book of Genesis, where we read:
" Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. And the LORD said, `My Spirit shall not strive with man forever . . . .'. There were giants (in Hebrew, Nephilim, the fallen ones) on the earth in those days, and also afterwards when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth . . . . So the LORD said, `I will destroy man, whom I have created, from the face of the earth . . .'. "
The story of Noah's ark and the great Flood is of course very familiar - only Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives (8 people in all) together with two of each kind of animal and bird were kept safe within the ark. But within the narrative in which the Nephilim are mentioned, it says: `There were Nephilim on the earth in those days, and also afterwards'. How could this be, as all apart from Noah and his family were destroyed in the Flood? For that we need to turn to Genesis 9, where we find that after the Flood, "God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them, `Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth'." Now we move on to verses 20 through to 27, where we find Noah drunk and `uncovered in his tent'. Two of his sons, Shem and Japheth, covered their father's nakedness with turned-away faces, but the third son, Ham, performed a homosexual act upon his drunken father, who upon waking knew what had been done to him. `Then he said, `Cursed be Canaan: A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren'. However the LORD had previously blessed all three sons, which could not be revoked by a Righteous God, and so the sin of Ham was passed on to Ham's son Canaan, and we hear Noah speaking to Ham: `Cursed be Canaan: A servant of servants shall he be to his brethren'. Then he (Noah) said:
" Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem . . . . . . may God
enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem. "
(The following chapter 10 shows the so-called `Table of the Nations', which records the people that came from these three sons of Noah). From Shem came the Semites, out of whom the LORD chose the Hebrews to be His special people. From Japheth came the Caucasian people, seen particularly in the Western European people who have received material and spiritual blessings whilst dwelling in the tents of Shem. Upon entering their land the Israelites were commanded to destroy all the Canaanites, for from them had come the `afterwards' Nephilim, but all Noah's sons were blessed and told to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. However the Israelites did not obey this command of God, and so the Nephilim multiplied and were fruitful through the offspring of Canaan!
It is here we find the root of all that has followed on from the Flood when all mankind was destroyed, apart from Noah and his family `and the afterwards' which came through the sin of Ham. The Nephilim still roam the earth, the offspring of `the sons of God, who came into the daughters of men who bore children to them'. Within these Scriptures we also see the blessing of Shem and Japheth - Japheth's blessings have come through dwelling in the tents of Shem. Once again we must repeat that this country's so-called Judaic/Christian heritage lay in the blessing of the LORD upon Shem, that is, Israel, and the offspring of Japheth, the Caucasians dwelling in their tents, and not through the `national culture' of these Isles! Today the sons of God still seek the attention of `fallen man' in order to destroy the purity of natural man - and it is here we have the disease which comes from the root of Ham's sinful act upon Noah. From those early Canaanites came the Phoenicians, who were pushed out of the land and settled on the coast of north Africa. Modern archaeologists have unearthed many artifacts of their worship in the form of a gross sexual nature beyond the usual pagan acts of idolatrous worship. This Canaanite line has continued throughout history and is still manifest today - especially in the line of Japheth, the Western nations, who as they once again withdraw from the blessing of `the tents of Shem' have entered the curse upon Ham's son Canaan.
In modern terms it is this which has caused the `breakdown of families' that is increasingly seen in the Western nations. This is not a new `thing' for us for we have written earlier on this subject in our `Triology histories' on Islam, Christianity and, lastly, Judaism. In the second `history' we stopped at the Reformation with the comment that all which followed after this immense shock to Universal Catholic Christianity was simply the breakdown of the One Body of Christ - we believe we used the expression, stones, pebbles, scattered on the seashore of Christendom, too numerous to count. In these last centuries of history as the Western nations have moved into liberal, democratic forms of national government, so it is for Christianity which has been broken down through the Reformation into becoming the religious moral arm of the various nations. Christianity has therefore become thoroughly secularised, conforming to the secular national culture of democratic nationalism, thereby losing sight of the spiritual Universal Catholicism of the Kingdom of God on earth with its message of the Gospel of the Kingdom freely offered to all people. Sadly, not all will accept that offer!
Protestantism destroyed that Universal Catholic understanding which is still seen in a corrupted form in Roman Catholicism. The Reformation was a true move of God to enable His people to destroy the false `Canaanite idolatry' so as to enable all true disciples of the Lord to worship Him individually . . . no longer was there the need of priests . . . no longer was there the need to seek spiritual and secular power over kings and princes for all were one in the Body of Christ, universal and catholic. But then they found themselves once again enslaved, this time in national churches as kings and princes sought spiritual recognition for their Sovereign States and Principalities, thereby forming a national and thoroughly secularised Kingdom of God! By doing so the unclean ` Canaanite spirit' entered the life of the Nation State and the National Churches. Acceptance of Religious Nationalism meant acceptance of the laws of liberal democratic nations which are increasingly opposed to God's Laws. And so with no Universal Cathholic spiritual witness to the nations in which the Lord's people live, this last Probation period before He comes for His people has drawn into the spiritual life of the Church the `spirit of the Canaanites'. And as it has been with all Probations, the Church has ended up in a captivity as real as the Babylonian captivity was for Judah. This is the root issue that faces the Church of the Redeemed today! It is not Brexit . . . it is not restoring the Judaic/Christian heritage of a seclar nation . . . it is not protesting against unscriptural permissive laws, but it is for understanding and active participation in the Lord God's blessings on `Shem, and Japheth's blessings in the tent of Shem'.
How, then, can we draw this somewhat lengthy `In Brief' to a meaningful close? We could elaborate on the sexual perversions of today's `Canaanites', or rather point to the root of this `spiritual Canaanite attack' by the sons of God - that is, the dark spiritual powers that still seek to destroy God's purpose through unspiritual mankind. Throughout the ages the central interest of the sons of God has been `desire', and through that desire `Lucifer, son of the dawn' sought to separate Noah's three sons from God's purpose that they should be `fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth' with Godly men saved through the Flood. Two of Noah's sons were righteous but the third son Ham gave in to desire and so once again the curse of Canaan entered into `history'. We recall some thirty-five years or so ago Christians in Ireland, deeply concerned with the violence in that island, sought the Lord for the natural root cause of it so as to defeat the spiritual power that was at work there. Reserach found that Northern Ireland had been mainly settled by Presbyterian Scots during the 16th-17th centuries. Under the title of `The Covenanters' they swore to uphold the Protestant Presbyterian religion, and troops were sent to Northern Ireland to aid their people in repelling the Irish Catholics. The Covenanters entered into a sworn legal Covenant signed with their own blood, believing that such a Covenant sealed with blood would be eternal. Therefore with this understanding those modern Christians, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, came together in prayer and proclamation, declaring to the spiritual realm a Higher and more Perfect Covenant! This led to repentance and restoration amongst those on the Irish border. Sadly, this understanding has faded with the passing of time and the `Canaanite spirit' has once again brought conflict and division.
Those considering the UK `Chequers Deal' with its Irish Backstop Agreement, need to understand that these matters can only be dealt with by Christians who fully understand and accept the one Body of Christ. The same problem exists in Scotland for there is a cultural divide between the Highlands and the Lowlands. Historically, in the 17th century Scotland was under the de facto Government of the Scottish Covenanters, which led to vicious wars between the Presbyterians and the Roman Catholics. Look again with `spiritual eyes' at the problems in the former USSR, for once its imperial power was broken various ethnic identities re-emerged. May we also mention the Basques in Spain . . . Greece and Macedonia . . . the Balkans and the Balkan `minor' States? The European Union is but a political construction which is now revealing that ethnic cultures are more real than artificially created Nation States - or in the case of the EU it is an imperial throwback - and dare we mention the mighty United States of America?
The liberal democratic nations have only been in existence since the 16th century, but before that kings and princes ruled over many culturally diverse peoples. History reveals that imperial rule - or indeed politically constructed Nation States - have a short time of glory, as do artificially created State Churches! The Canaanite spiritual powers have been, and still are, working through man's desire, seeking power through division, and only in the Kingdom of Christ Jesus can be found God's Purpose. Indeed, as the Koheleth said: `To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under Heaven'. The nations are being shaken and will give way to an awakening of the great and diverse ethnic cultures of the world as the national imperial powers, formed by the `Canaanite spirit' of desire and division, fail. Into that `awakening' will come `the man of sin, the son of perdition' who will seek to rule over the many culturally diverse peoples mentioned earlier. Those who live and witness in these Isles will do well to work within the Lord's Purpose through proclamation, and in prayer entreat our Lord to end the divisions in this Land and then work to bring back this country to live in the blessings of Shem's tent! We end as we began:
" And as they said these things Jesus Himself stood in
the midst of them, and said to them, `Peace to you'. "
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You may E-mail us at: derek@northernstyletrust.com or Telephone (01493) 444494 (UK)
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