Ezekiel 38 Happens AFTER the 1,000 Year Reign of Christ

Many voices are trumpeting the soon-coming invasion of the Holy Land by Gog and Magog and Co.  Even Prime Minister Netanyahu recently said that the invasion was coming soon.   They cite Ezekiel 38 as proof that this war will be started by Russia and Iran in the very near future.

These claims are unfounded and untrue.  Footnotes in most Bibles for Ezk. 38: 2 sends us to Revelation 20: 8, where we see that same Gog and Magog leading other satanically deceived nations.  But when does this happen?  Verse 7 is the first half of the sentence, and it says, “And when the thousand years are expired [the 1,000 year reign of Christ], Satan shall be loosed out of prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations…Gog and Magog, to gather them to battle…and they went up…and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city,” Jerusalem (v. 7-9).

This is after the 1,000 year reign of Christ upon the earth.  Gog and Magog, Russia and Iran and Co., will be used by God that way at that time.  Not in our day, not in our present time.

Here is more proof that the invasion of Jerusalem by Gog and Magog comes not at this time in history.  The Promised Land at the time of the invasion of Gog and Magog will be at total peace (read 1,000 year reign of peace).  The invaders shall find the population living in a “land of unwalled villages.”  They are “at rest” and “dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates” (Ezk 38: 11).

That is the cultural environment that Gog and Magog will find.  The Israeli state today is preparing for war, both its citizens and the army.  They are not dwelling safely and have many bars and gates on their houses and neighborhoods.  No rest and peace are found in the Israeli state.  Rocket attacks have become  a daily occurance.  Fear and uncertainty are a constant, present reality.

This is why I say that the Gog and Magog attack of Ezekiel 38 will be much later in history.

One more reason.  The inhabitants of the Holy Land, who are living in complete peace and rest, will come from all the twelve tribes of Israel.  Right now primarily Jews live in the Israeli state.  True Jews come out of the Kingdom of Judah, whose subjects were descended from only two tribes–Judah and Benjamin.  The other Ten Tribes of Israel  were “lost” to most after the Kingdom of Israel (Ten Tribes) was carried into captivity around 721 B.C.  Members from all twelve tribes will be present at the time of the invasion of the Promised Land.

Furthermore, after the 6th Seal is opened, 12,000 of each of the twelve tribes are sealed (Rev. 7: 3-8; 14: 1-7).  In other words, the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel will be found and will populate Jerusalem during the 1,000 year reign.  Christ said that He was sent to them.  The apostle James wrote to them; “to the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting” (James 1: 1).  Paul said that  “our twelve tribes” were “instantly serving God day and night” waiting upon the promises of God (Acts 26: 7).

If there is an invasion by Russia and Iran, it will not be that which is spoken of in Ezekiel 38.

“Bankers Create Money out of Nothing”–from Quigley’s “Tragedy and Hope”

Professor Carroll Quigley, President Clinton’s mentor at Georgetown, tells how the international bankers have taken over the world in his book Tragedy and Hope.  He was an historian who actually applauded the bankers in their endeavors and was not a wild eyed critic of their “One World Government” aspirations.

Quigley writes in Chapter 20:  “The powers of financial capitalism had [a] far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands, able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole.  This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert by secret agreements arrived at in frequent private meetings and conferences” [emphasis mine].

“Secret agreements”?  “Private meetings”?  “Financial Control” of the world?  This might have been called a conspiracy in the 20th Century, but now it is out in the open.  Read this excerpt from Chapter 5, how “Bankers Create Money out of Nothing”:

“Bankers Create Money Out of Nothing

For generations men had sought to avoid the one drawback of gold, its heaviness, by using pieces of paper to represent specific pieces of gold. We call such pieces of paper gold certificates. Such a certificate entitles its bearer to exchange it for its piece of gold on demand, but in view of the convenience of paper, only a small fraction of certificate holders ever did make such demands.

It early became clear that gold need be held on hand only to the amount needed to cover the fraction of certificates likely to be presented for payment; accordingly, the rest of the gold could be used for business purposes, or, what amounts to the same thing, a volume of certificates could be issued greater than the volume of gold reserved for payment of demands against them. Such an excess volume of paper claims against reserves we now call bank notes.

In effect, this creation of paper claims greater than the reserves available means that bankers were creating money out of nothing. The same thing could be done in another way, not by note-issuing banks but by deposit banks. Deposit bankers discovered that orders and checks drawn against deposits by depositors and given to third persons were often not cashed by the latter but were deposited to their own accounts. Thus there were no actual movements of funds, and payments were made simply by bookkeeping transactions on the accounts.

Accordingly, it was necessary for the banker to keep on hand in actual money … no more than the fraction of deposits likely to be drawn upon and cashed; the rest could be used for loans, and if these loans were made by creating a deposit for the borrower, who in turn would draw checks upon it rather than withdraw it in money, such “created deposits” or loans could also be covered adequately by retaining reserves to only a fraction of their value.
The Dynasties of International Bankers

The merchant bankers of London … brought into their financial network the provincial banking centers, organized as commercial banks and savings banks, as well as insurance companies, to form all of these into a single financial system on an international scale which manipulated the quantity and flow of money so that they were able to influence, if not control, governments on one side and industries on the other.

The men who did this, looking backward toward the period of dynastic monarchy in which they had their own roots, aspired to establish dynasties of international bankers and were at least as successful at this as were many of the dynastic political rulers. The greatest of these dynasties, of course, were the descendants of Meyer Amschel Rothschild (1743-1812) of Frankfort, whose male descendants, for at least two generations, generally married first cousins or even nieces.

In concentrating, as we must, on the financial or economic activities of international bankers, we must not totally ignore their other attributes. They were, especially in later generations, cosmopolitan rather than nationalistic. They were usually highly civilized, cultured gentlemen, patrons of education and of the arts, so that today colleges, professorships, opera companies, symphonies, libraries, and museum collections still reflect their munificence. For these purposes they set a pattern of endowed foundations which still surround us today.
Bankers Felt Politicians Could Not Be Trusted With the Monetary System

The influence of financial capitalism and of the international bankers who created it was exercised both on business and on governments, but could have done neither if it had not been able to persuade both these to accept two “axioms” of its own ideology. Both of these were based on the assumption that politicians were too weak and too subject to temporary popular pressures to be trusted with control of the money system; accordingly, the sanctity of all values and the soundness of money must be protected in two ways: by basing the value of money on gold and by allowing bankers to control the supply of money. To do this it was necessary to conceal, or even to mislead, both governments and people about the nature of money and its methods of operation.

In most countries the central bank was surrounded closely by the almost invisible private investment banking firms. These, like the planet Mercury, could hardly be seen in the dazzle emitted by the central bank which they, in fact, often dominated. Yet a close observer could hardly fail to notice the close private associations between these private, international bankers and the central bank itself.

Two of the five factors which determined the value of money are the supply and the demand for money. The supply of money in a single country was subject to no centralized, responsible control in most countries over recent centuries. Instead, there were a variety of controls of which some could be influenced by bankers, some could be influenced by the government, and some could hardly be influenced by either.

Central banks can usually vary the amount of money in circulation by “open market operations” or by influencing the discount rates of lesser banks. In open market operations, a central bank buys or sells government bonds in the open market. If it buys, it releases money into the economic system; if it sells it reduces the amount of money in the community. The change is greater than the price paid for the securities [due to the fractional reserve system].

Central banks can also change the quantity of money by influencing the credit policies of other banks. This can be done by various methods, such as changing the re-discount rate or changing reserve requirements. By changing the re-discount rate, we mean the interest rate which central banks charge lesser banks for loans. By raising the re-discount rate the central bank forces the lesser bank to raise its discount rate in order to operate at a profit; such a raise in interest rates tends to reduce the demand for credit and thus the amount of deposits (money). Lowering the re-discount rate permits an opposite result.

The powers of governments over the quantity of money are of various kinds, and include (a) control over a central bank, (b) control over public taxation, and (c) control over public spending. The control of governments over central banks varies greatly from one country to another, but on the whole has been increasing. Since most central banks have been (technically) private institutions, this control is frequently based on custom rather than on law.

The powers of the government over the quantity of money in the community exercised through taxation and public spending are largely independent of banking control. Taxation tends to reduce the amount of money in a community and is usually a deflationary force; government spending tends to increase the amount of money in a community and is usually an inflationary force. The total effects of a government’s policy will depend on which item is greater. An unbalanced budget will be inflationary; a budget with a surplus will be deflationary.
Money Power—Controlled by International Investment Bankers—Dominates Business and Government

On the whole, in the period up to 1931, bankers, especially the Money Power controlled by the international investment bankers, were able to dominate both business and government. They could dominate business, especially in activities and in areas where industry could not finance its own needs for capital, because investment bankers had the ability to supply or refuse to supply such capital. Thus, Rothschild interests came to dominate many of the railroads of Europe, while Morgan dominated at least 26,000 miles of American railroads.

Such bankers went further than this. In return for flotations of securities of industry, they took seats on the boards of directors of industrial firms, as they had already done on commercial banks, savings banks, insurance firms, and finance companies. From these lesser institutions they funneled capital to enterprises which yielded control and away from those who resisted. These firms were controlled through interlocking directorships, holding companies, and lesser banks. They engineered amalgamations and generally reduced competition, until by the early twentieth century many activities were so monopolized that they could raise their noncompetitive prices above costs to obtain sufficient profits to become self-financing.

But before that stage was reached a relatively small number of bankers were in positions of immense influence in European and American economic life. As early as 1909, Walter Rathenau, who was in a position to know (since he had inherited from his father control of the German General Electric Company and held scores of directorships himself), said, “Three hundred men, all of whom know one another, direct the economic destiny of Europe and choose their successors from among themselves.”
The Power of Investment Bankers Over Governments

The power of investment bankers over governments rests on a number of factors, of which the most significant, perhaps, is the need of governments to issue short-term treasury bills as well as long-term government bonds. Just as businessmen go to commercial banks for current capital advances to smooth over the discrepancies between their irregular and intermittent incomes and their periodic and persistent outgoes, so a government has to go to merchant bankers (or institutions controlled by them) to tide over the shallow places caused by irregular tax receipts.

As experts in government bonds, the international bankers not only handled the necessary advances, but provided advice to government officials and, on many occasions, placed their own members in official posts for varied periods to deal with special problems. This is so widely accepted even today that in 1961 a Republican investment banker became Secretary of the Treasury in a Democratic Administration in Washington without significant comment from any direction.

Naturally, the influence of bankers over governments during the age of financial capitalism (roughly 1850-1931) was not something about which anyone talked freely, but it has been admitted frequently enough by those on the inside, especially in England. In 1852 Gladstone, chancellor of the Exchequer, declared, “The hinge of the whole situation was this: the government itself was not to be a substantive power in matters of Finance, but was to leave the Money Power supreme and unquestioned.” On September 26, 1921, The Financial Times wrote, “Half a dozen men at the top of the Big Five Banks could upset the whole fabric of government finance by refraining from renewing Treasury Bills.”
Montagu Norman and J. P. Morgan Dominate the Financial World

In addition to their power over government based on government financing and personal influence, bankers could steer governments in ways they wished them to go by other pressures. Since most government officials felt ignorant of finance, they sought advice from bankers whom they considered to be experts in the field. The history of the last century shows, as we shall see later, that the advice given to governments by bankers, like the advice they gave to industrialists, was consistently good for bankers, but was often disastrous for governments, businessmen, and the people generally.

Such advice could be enforced if necessary by manipulation of exchanges, gold flows, discount rates, and even levels of business activity. The powers of these international bankers reached their peak in the last decade of their supremacy, 1919-1931, when Montagu Norman and J. P. Morgan dominated not only the financial world but international relations and other matters as well.

On November I l, 1927, the Wall Street Journal called Mr. Norman “the currency dictator of Europe.” This was admitted by Mr. Norman himself before the Court of the Bank on March 21, 1930, and before the Macmillan Committee of the House of Commons five days later. On one occasion … Mr. Norman is reported to have said, “I hold the hegemony of the world.” It might be added that Governor Norman rarely acted in major world problems without consulting with J. P. Morgan’s representatives.”

This is but a short piece of Quiqley’s 1,300 page epic.  To read more, go here: http://www.wanttoknow.info/articles/tragedy_hope_banking_money_history

“The truth shall make you free,” said the Savior Christ.  He knew about “them,” of course, and encouraged His followers to “know them that labor among you.”  This knowledge is especially important for these latter days.   KWH

Coming to Grips with the Sovereignty of God

     To fully understand the vision of the immortal sons and daughters of God, one must come to grips with God’s sovereignty.  God is totally in control.  He is sovereign.  He rules.  He is in complete charge of every-thing that is happening in our respective lives.  He is the Supreme Authority in everything that is happening to any and everyone here on earth.  And He does as He pleases without our permission.

     God is in complete control of everything that is taking place in and through the governments of man here on earth.  He is ruling as I write this and as you read this.  Nothing is happening at this instant here on earth that He is not aware of and that He has not ordained and pre-determined to happen.

     He is in total charge of the powers that be here on earth.  “The powers that be are ordained by God.”   He has provided for their rise to power and has helped them to accumulate wealth and influence.  Everything that is happening at this instant, or that ever has happened, is a result of God’s sovereign desire and control.

     The old hymn goes, “Thou art the Potter, I am the clay…Have thine own way…” We sing it, but what His awesome sovereignty entails escapes our little finite minds.  Our Creator is the Divine Potter at His wheel.  He sits down, and with the earth He has created, He fashions containers from clay, vessels to be used at His convenience and His discretion.  He is in charge of making the vessels   and  pots.   He  molds  and  shapes  these  human beings in accordance with His own desires and purposes.  They, for the most part, do not understand most of the time what He is doing, for His ways are difficult for His creation to comprehend.  He is the Potter  and is fashion-ing from the same lump some pots to be used for everyday water containers and wash pots.  And some are done with the Master’s finest touch to be beautiful and of fine design, fit for the use of being kings and queens.  And some clay vessels may never make it to the kiln for firing.  Some are shaped and then returned to the original large lump, never to be fashioned like that again.

     But some people do not like the way life is treating them.  In other words, they do not like the cards that God has dealt them.  When they find out that God is the one in control and has mercy on whomever He desires to have mercy, they do not like it.   They lash out at Him and His sovereignty and say, If He made us this way, “then why does God still blame us?  For who resists his will?”  To which the apostle Paul replies, “But who are you, O man, to talk back to God?  Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, Why did you make me like this?  Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?” Romans 9:18-21, NIV. 

     Remember.  He is sovereign and can and does do what He wants to do with His creation.  But we humans think that we are in charge of our own lives.  No matter how insignificantly we stride upon the world stage, we think that we are formidable and of great importance. 

     And those humans whom He  has chosen to be kings and rulers in the world system—how high and lifted up they stand.  Take King Nebuchadnezzar as an example.  He was the famous king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire that ruled from 605-562 B.C.  His experiences with Yahweh are written down by Daniel the prophet.  Through these  experiences,  Nebuchadnezzar  learned  that  God is sovereign. 

     The king’s pride had puffed him up.  He was the absolute   ruler   of  an  incredibly   rich   empire.   His city Babylon was itself a wonder of the  world.  But the source of all of those earthly blessings was lost upon him.  He did not acknowledge who had enabled him to acquire untold wealth and power as the “head of gold” of the Babylonian Empire. 

   Nebuchadnezzar actually thought that he had on his own strength gotten all the power and riches.  “Is not this great Babylon; that I have built for the house of the kingdom by the might of my power, and for the honor of my majesty,” he boasted one year after being warned in a dream that he would go insane and become beast-like for seven years.  This warning was “to the intent that the living may know that the most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will, and sets up over it the basest of men.”  Daniel 4:17, 30.

     God had given him warning in a dream and the dream came to pass.  Nebuchadnezzar was smitten with insanity for seven years.  And at the end of the seven years of living like a beast out in the courtyard, he began to sing a different tune.  “I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and he doeth according to his will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of earth: and none can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest thou?” Daniel 4:34-37.

     Here was the most powerful man on earth exclaiming that God is sovereign and that we earth-dwellers better realize that He rules right here on earth.  He found out the hard way.    Kenneth Wayne Hancock (from the book The Unveiling of the Sons of God found here:   http://www.yahwehisthesavior.com/unveiling.htm )

Four Misconceptions About Christianity–When the Earth Was Created, Pre-Adamites, Noah’s Flood, and the Difference Between Jews and Israelites

Fundamentalist Christianity teaches four misconceptions that provide gainsayers ammunition to challenge the veracity of the Bible[1].

The Creation of the Earth–When?

First, they claim that the earth was created 6,000 years ago.  Actually, this is when God created Adam, as biblical chronology supports.  As Frederick Haberman points out, “The Word says, ‘In the beginning God created,’ but it does not say when that beginning was; neither does modern science know.”  It is common knowledge that this earth is extremely ancient in man’s time, in the millions and not thousands of years old.

Adam was not the first

Second, Adam was not the first homo sapien created.  There were indigenous races scattered all over the earth.  No one knows for sure when God created them.   Some of these pre-Adamic people were living literally around this new Garden of Eden, planted by God and tended by Him in preparation for Adam’s new home.  Adam and his descendants were a brand new creation of mankind.  To them God gave the knowledge of the arts of civilization–astronomy, architecture, agriculture, law.  They would be eventually dispersed to bring civilization to many parts of the earth.  Isn’t it interesting that the historical record starts about the time of the biblical creation of Adam–about 4,000 years B.C.?

To those who doubt this, I ask you two questions about Cain, the murderous son of Adam.  Why was Cain deathly afraid of being cast out of the Garden after his murder of Abel?  Cain cried out to God.  “My punishment is greater than I can bear!  Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground…I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond [wanderer] on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me” [2].  Who were these people that Cain was afraid of?  The very fact that he was afraid of being killed by someone “out there” outside the Garden proves that there were other men before Adam’s family was created. Cain had a cozy little set-up there in the Garden.  All was taken care of; he was blessed and nurtured there.  Now he knew that being cast out, he would become like the other hunter-gatherers; he would be a “restless wanderer” like  them with no stable home.  He would be cast out into a hard nomadic life, a life full of danger and desperation.  The second question is the age-old one: Where did Cain get his wife?  That has now been answered.

Noah’s Flood

Third–and this is a huge sticking point to so many who have been taught this since infancy–Noah’s flood was not worldwide, but a local one.  Genesis is the book of Adam and his offspring. Genesis 5: 1 says, “This is the book of the generation of Adam.”  In other words, Genesis is not a record of the hunter-gatherer nomadic tribes that trod the earth before Adam was created around 4,000 B.C.  It is a record of Adamite man and his world.  So when Genesis states that the whole world was flooded, it is talking about Adam’s offspring’s world.  But when we have been programmed to believe that the Bible teaches that Adam is the father of all men, then understanding languishes.  “A universal Deluge is contradicted by many statements of Scripture and impossible to harmonize with the chronology of the Old Testament, to say nothing of the physical impossibilities and consequences” [3].  According to scripture, the patriarch Abraham is standing in the illustrious courts of Pharoah a mere 300 years after the flood of Noah.  A total worldwide flood would have rendered the earth so destitute that it would take much more than 300 years for new civilizations to arrive again.

Moreover, this same “whole world” concept is spoken of in the New Testament.  The scripture states that the Romans “taxed the whole world” during the time of Jesus’ infancy.  We know, of course, that it was only the Roman world that was taxed, not the Americas or China.  But the Roman world was their world.  Does that make the Bible inaccurate?  No.  Seen in this new light helps dissolve all the inconsistencies used in arguments against the veracity of the Bible.  One other thing to consider in this third point.  God’s Law of Harvest states:  Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.  According to this law, there is no way that all the races of the world could possibly come out of the loins of Noah and his wife Naamah.  It is totally impossible!  The Chinese have chinese babies that greatly resemble their parents.  The same for Africans, Indians, and Western Europeans.  Something is off somewhere.  Getting rid of this misconception clears up much.

The Difference Between Jews and Israelites

“The fourth great stumbling block to the critics of the Old Testament has been the assumption that God’s chosen people, Israel, were the Jews,” writes Haberman.  The children of Israel were comprised of the offspring of the twelve sons of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel.  Jacob, of course, was the son of Isaac and the grandson of Abraham (Gen. 12).  One of Jacob’s sons was Judah.  Like his brothers, Judah and his offspring inherited some of the Promised Land in Palestine.  It is Judah’s descendants that began to be called Jews about 500-600 B.C., more than 1,000 years after Judah’s father Jacob/Israel was born.  Therefore, Abraham was not a Jew!  So, all twelve tribes were Israelites, but only one major tribe came to be called Jews.  It is like, all Texans are Americans, but all Americans are not Texans.  And to complicate matters even more, 90% of modern day Jews are descendants of the Khazars, a Turko-Mongol tribe in south central Asia, who converted to Judaism about a thousand years ago [4].  And now they claim to be the true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel and receivers of all the blessings promised to Abraham and his posterity! The truth is that they are not out of the loins of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob/Israel.[See Gen. 35: 9-12].

It is difficult to figure all this out.  It takes much study, but it is well worth it to get the truth.    KWH

1. Frederick Haberman, Tracing Our Ancestors, p. 163.
2. Genesis 4: 14
3. Haberman
4. Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe, a history of the Khazar conversion to Judaism

Praise God by His Name YAH

The translators of the King James Bible substituted the title “the LORD” (in capital letters) for the Hebrew name of God–YHWH, pronounced Yahweh by most scholars.  Over 6,700 times did they do this–except for one instance. 

The verse is found in Psalm 68: 4. “Sing unto God, sing praises to His name: extol Him who rides upon the heavens by his name YAH, and rejoice before him.”  

The prophet King David of Israel, inspired by the Holy Spirit, tells us in this verse to “sing praises to His name.”  And then he tells us how to do this properly.  He gives us the exact name of God right after the commandment.  We are to extol and praise Him “by His name YAH.” 

We are to address God and use His true Hebrew name YAH or YAHWEH in our praise of Him.  In fact, the Spirit of God Himself speaking through David gives us a command.  “Sing praises to His name…extol Him by His name YAH.”  It could not be plainer in English.

But very few people know about this.  And many who hear this for the first time immediately have doubts.  They will say, “The LORD just wants us to praise Him.  He doesn’t mind us saying ‘the LORD.’”  And yet this scripture is perfectly clear.”

Why won’t people receive this?  Christ asked the question this way. “Why do you also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?”  We are commanded to “praise Him by His name YAH.”  He went on to say, “You have made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.”  And, “In vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men”  (Matthew 15: 3-9). 

 We all learned to say, “Praise the LORD” instead of “Praise YAH” because of traditions handed down to us.  And the sad irony here is that we all have literally praised YAH in Hebrew when we said, “HalleluYah.”  This Hebrew word means–you guessed it–Praise YAH!

It takes a real hunger and thirst for God to be able to be open hearted enough to say, “I was in error.  This is true and I am receiving it and walking in it no matter what the world may think or say.”  KWH

Husbands, Be Not Bitter Against Your Wives–Conversations With the Seer

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

I barely had enough time to sit down, and before I had spoken a word, the Seer asked, “Troubles with the wife?”

“Yes.  How did you know?”

“The Spirit, if your heart is attuned, picks up on these things.  It’s really not difficult to discern because ‘all things come alike to all.’  We all come up the same way” [1].

“My wife is always bringing me down.  It’s frustrating.  I’ll get a wonderful revelation about God, and I am so enthused, and I try to share it with her, and all she has to say is, ‘Yeah, that’s great, but would you help me, please?  Could you do something around here?  Help straighten up the house.   Check on the kids.’   Things like that.”

The Seer just looked at me as if looking through a window at the wind blowing through a white oak tree.  “We on our spiritual walk back to the Father’s heart must not get too heavenly minded to be of any earthly good.”

I looked at him as if he were speaking Chinese.  “What?  What do you mean?”

“It is all about taking the heavenly things like love and mercy, and putting them into action here on earth.  Christ did it and then taught it” [2].

“She makes me mad,” I continued.  “It’s like she deliberately throws on me all this negativity, like a wet blanket.  Instead of rejoicing with me, she just smothers me.  I try to correct her and get her to stop, but that just sets her off and we start fussing and fighting.”

“Oh, you mustn’t try to stop her,” the Seer said.  “Goodness, no.  Never try to prevent someone from doing God’s will.”

“God’s will?”  I asked.  “A wife so earthly minded that she can’t get past the pots and pans and diapers is doing God’s will?”

“They are your pots and pans and your children’s clothes.  Let me explain what is spiritually happening.  God Himself has created your wife exactly the way she is in every respect.  He has made her to be your absolute complement.  She, with all her faults and all her many unappreciated virtues , is exactly what the Great Physician ordered–for you and your perfection.”

“My perfection?” I asked.

“She’s your help meet, isn’t she?” [3].

“Yes.”

“Well, then, she is being a good help meet because she’s helping you meet God.  Look.  She is merely speaking what is in the script written by God–as if He had with a thoughtful quill inked upon her DNA the lines she speaks to help you mature spiritually.  And her reactions to you and her ‘negative’ comments to you about your ways are all ordained, scribed, and orchestrated by God to get a rise out of you.”

“It does that,” I said.  “But she should be honoring her husband and not putting him down all the time.”

“You don’t need a wife that praises your every word or whim.  That would not bring you to perfection.  In fact, it would ruin you for God’s purposes.”

“I still don’t get it.”

“You see,” the Seer continued, “You have many faults that must be purged out of your life before full spiritual maturity comes.  God uses wives to help us grow from a babe in Christ to a young man.  A ‘woman shall be saved in child bearing’ [4].  She not only rears your earthly children, but also helps to rear the spiritual child of God in her life–you, her husband.  She cannot change the way she has been created.  She is saying exactly what the Father has entrusted her to say to you.”

“It just makes me mad,” I said.

“There.  Right there in that thought–that unjust anger is an example of the kind of things that God desires to erase out of your life.  And your wife will continue to bring it out–not to be mean, as you suppose.  She has to.  She doesn’t even realize that God is using her for the purpose of burning out the dross that lurks around your new faith.  Yet, she will continue saying her lines as a faithful player on the stage of life–until you get it.”

“Get what?” I asked, still not understanding the depth of the matter.

“When you finally understand these words I’ve spoken and believed them–then you will have gained several precious life lessons.  Number one.  That God is totally sovereign and in complete control.  He uses anyone and anything He desires to effect a change in one of His chosen ones–one of His elect sons of God.  Two.  God’s ways are not our ways.  We would not perfect us the way He does.  We would much rather sit in the sunshine munching Oreos as the way to make big changes in our life.  Third.  We need to be grateful for God’s love to us.  He has chosen us as His offspring.  He did not have to pick us to reveal Himself in us.  So, just be grateful for your wife and don’t be bitter towards her [5].  God is using her to do a great work in you.”

“It doesn’t seem so great right now,” I said.

“When you receive this truth that I’ve shared with you, you won’t get angry and frustrated with her.  You’ll know the truth that it is all God’s doing, flowing out from His heart of love.  Right now you are buffeted for your own faults [6].  What will you do when you are persecuted unjustly?”

“I don’t know.”

“When it happens, just know that it is still God doing His work of perfection in you.”  The Seer paused.  “But, enough of this now.  Tell me.  What is you wife’s favorite candy bar?”

“Almond Hershey.”

“Tell you what.  Go buy her one.  And with no fanfare, hand it to her and tell her that you love her.”

I did what He said.  And that little gesture generated a smile on her face that said, “He understands.”  But all I understood that day was the magic of chocolate.  She would receive several Almond Hersheys throughout the years.  But it would take decades for me to finally understand and appreciate the message he gave me that day.       Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Eccle. 9: 2
2. Acts 1: 1
3. Gen. 2: 18
4. I Tim. 2: 15
5. Col. 3: 19
6. I Peter 5: 19-21

The Armor of God–Conversations With the Seer

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

“The last time we talked, you mentioned the armour of God.  I have been thinking about it a lot lately.  And I’ve been studying it out.  But I’m really having difficulty grasping what it means, ‘to put on the whole armor of God.’” 

The Seer smiled at me and said, “It is difficult to grasp the heavenly things with a mind that is thinking on an earthly plane, and next to impossible to comprehend spiritual things with a finite mind.  It is difficult to understand because of unbelief.”

“But I believe,” I blurted out.

“You want to believe desperately,” the Seer said.  “I will grant you that, and that is good.  But wanting to believe and actually believing are two different matters.  Belief in the armor’s efficacy brings the ability to grasp its power.  It all goes back to trusting in His word.”

I was really confused now.  “Well, what is the armor of God exactly?”

“First, the armor is spiritual.  The apostle likens it to literal devices like shields, armor, a breastplate, a helmet, and a sword.   Through this extended metaphor, we take away the idea of a spiritual, protective layer.  It is the armor of God (Eph.6: 11-18).  And God is Spirit [1].  He is also truth.  Therefore, it is the armor of the Spirit and truth and light.  And we are to ‘put on the armor of light [2].’”

“And what is light?” I asked.

“Light is the life of God.  If you want to see light, then look at the Light in action by studying Christ.  Because ‘in Him was life; and the life was the light of men’ [3].  God dwelt in the Son of God fully [4].  God is life and ‘this life is in His Son.  He that has the Son has life’” [5].  When we truly receive this truth in our hearts, then we receive the secret to answered prayers [6].”

“Wait a minute.  I didn’t get all of that.  Let me see if I got this right.  God is the Spirit of Truth, which is light and life.  And the fullness of life and light dwelt in the Son of God.  And if we believe that, then we receive the same light and life of God, too.”

“That’s right,” the Seer said.  I don’t know if I was seeing things or not, but his smile radiated a glow of inner light.  He continued, “For, you see, since God dwelt fully in Christ, if we reject the Son of God, we reject the Father, as well, because the Father was inside the Son” [7].

“But how does all this tie in with the armor of God?”

“The armor of God is not some equipment that God possesses that He wants to give to us.  No. 

“The armor of God is God Himself!  It is a spiritual protective covering comprised of the invisible Spirit of God Himself.  Since His Spirit is truth, when we know and then believe the truth, we are believing God.  And by believing, God comes down into us.  When you believe the truth, the truth (God, Spirit) takes up His abode in us, and we become one with Him.  In other words, by believing all this truth how that the Father dwelt fully in the Son, giving light and life to the world–this truth is God, and through faith or belief of this truth, the Spirit of God comes into our hearts and minds.  This is the armour of God–God’s Spirit in our hearts and minds.”

We just sat there for what seemed an hour.  Finally I said, “I understand it now, but why haven’t the preachers told us about all this?”

“The only part of the apostle John’s writings they quote is John 3: 16.  They stay clear of the rest of his gospel and his three letters to the churches.”

“But why?  Why don’t they preach it?”

“Either they don’t know what is in John’s writings or they don’t have it in their hearts because they don’t believe it.  Either way, they will have to give an account to God about it.  I would like to think that the vast majority have not been taught these truths.  They have been taught old leaven from a hundred years ago.  There is no new light in them.  They are still preaching what their grandfathers did in the 1950’s, and they are proud of that fact.  Spiritual stagnancy is equal to spiritual bankruptcy.  However, ’when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth’ [8].  But there I go quoting more of John’s gospel–the part they don’t like to read or quote.”

“He will guide you into all truth?” I asked.

“It is the ‘unsearchable riches of Christ’ [9].  ‘All truth’ are these unsearchable riches.  And if those  preachers are not leading their flocks into more and more astounding and fresh truth, then it is safe to say that the Spirit of truth does not reside in them.  Because that is the sign that a person has the Spirit of truth.  At least that is what John said.  And I’m sticking with him.”

“This is a lot to take in,” I said.

“We will save some for later,” the Seer said.

“There’s more about the armour?”

“It’s the unsearchable riches.  Remember?”

1. John 4: 24
2. Romans 13: 12
3. John 1: 4
4. Colossians 2: 9
5. I John 5: 11-12
6. I John 5: 14-15
7. I John 2 23
8. John 16: 13
9. Ephesians 3: 8

The Fall of Tiger Woods–From a Biblical Perspective

Tiger Woods and his fall from grace has been a shocking revelation to everyone.  How does one go from demi-god to goat in a few days?  From a squeaky clean cultural icon to the butt of late night jokes?

Many are asking, Why?  Why, Tiger, did you do it?  You are worth a billion dollars.  You have a beautiful wife and gorgeous kids.  You own mansions in every corner of the world.  You who are so high up on the pedestal of man’s adoration–what could have possessed you to do such things?

Many excuses have been offered by the press.  He had lived a sheltered life.  Golf was his only world, and he didn’t have a normal childhood.  His “dating life” growing up was skewered because of his early celebrity.

Please.  Enough of man’s sappy wisdom.  What is the raw straight truth as to why he did it?

The Scriptures of truth speak of a corrupt spiritual condition we are all born with [1].  We are born with an old sinful nature.  And this old heart is incorrigible.  You can dress it up nice every Sunday morning, change  the music that it listens to and the books that it reads, but if still alive and given the chance, it will sin.  It cannot change itself.  Try as we might, we cannot effect a lasting change for our old sinful nature.  It has to be stopped, but we in our own power cannot change ourselves [2].

And when you add riches to this old nature, self-deception increases dramatically.  In the mind of man, riches give power, and power gives license to do, they think, whatever they want to do.  They think, “I have money and power and fame.  I’m somebody special, and I am above the law”, especially the moral law of the universe placed there by the Creator.  The “deceitfulness of riches” has tainted the rich man’s mind, deceiving him into thinking that he alone decides what is right or wrong personally for himself [ 3 ].

Like the kings of old, who did whatever came into their mind because they had the power, Tiger Woods has succumbed to the same temptations.  Like a classic tragedy worthy of the name, Tiger’s tragic flaw has been exposed, and it is his downfall, even as we speak.  And so we all can fall, if we are not sober and vigilant, always on guard against our formidable adversary, the devil [4].  And this enemy does not have a forked tail and horns; he has a forked tongue that lies to us in our thoughts and will lead us away from everything that we love or should love–especially our Maker.

Tiger’s sin?  He confessed already his “infidelity,”  which is a cleaned-up synonym for adultery.  Committing adultery is breaking one of the Ten Commandments, and breaking those is sin [5].   And there is a reason why God commanded us to not do this act.  For sin will bring reproach and eventually destroy a person.  “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace to any people” [6].

Sin is a spiritual condition that we are born in, but we are not destined to remain in it!  That’s the good news.  Christ’s whole message for us in the personal realm is that He came to eradicate sin out of our lives [7 ].  He did this at the cross by taking our sin upon Himself as the sacrificial Lamb of God, and dying.  And when He died that day roughly 2,000 years ago, our sins, along with our old sinful nature, died with Him!

And when we believe that He rose from the grave, we then receive a new heart, a sinless heart, a new spiritual nature, a new life–in Him.  And He then gives us His Spirit, and by faith in His power, He keeps us from falling.  We are now “raised to walk in a newness of life”.  The old sinful life is gone, “for he that is dead is freed from sin” [8].

But this will only happen when a person is sick and tired of the sinful life they have been living.  And this usually happens when they hit rock bottom.  When a person gets to the putrid bottom of the spiritual gutter, and they have had enough of the swine-pens of sin, then they can finally hit the Rock of our salvation.

Riches, however, prevent one from hitting rock bottom.  That’s why Christ said, “How difficult it is for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven” [9].  Why?  Because his riches tell him that it really isn’t that bad.  Yeah, you made some mistakes, but nobody’s perfect, right?  Look at me.  I’ve still got my money.  I’ll patch it up.  Hey, life is good.  Minor bump in the road.  That’s all.

And so,to the rich, this truth about how to really repent from sin and sinning becomes so much nonsense and foolishness.  Yet Tiger needs this message today.  I’m sending it out into the blogosphere.  Do you think he’ll ever get it?

Do you think anyone will get it?  I do.  Because of our destiny in Him.              Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Romans 5: 12
2. Romans 7: 17-20
3. Matt. 13: 22
4. I Peter 5: 8
5. I John 3: 4-5
6. Proverbs 14: 34
7. Romans 6: 6
8. Romans 6: 4-18
9. Matt. 19: 23

The Greatest Hit of the Ages–The Called According to His Purpose*

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.”  I Samuel 9: 9)

One time I asked the Seer, “What is life all about?  What’s really going on?  Why are we here?”

And then the Seer answered in a sweeping monologue.

First of all, there is a Creator, a Supreme Being with a plan and purpose.  Modern man will just have to get over it and accept that there is Someone higher in the food chain.  Just look around.  Things that are alive come from living things.  If anything ever lived, it owes its existence to something else that was living–of its own kind.  Every living thing reproduces itself.  Since every living thing gets its life from another living being, then an Initial living being, a Supreme Being, had to have given life to all the living.

It is only logical.  Two pieces of granite cannot reproduce.  Only the living things of creation are reproducing, and their pro-creating drive has been ignited by the Creator, the Life Giver. 

But the kicker, though, is that the Creator has put in motion all this reproduction as a type or metaphor of what He is doing with Himself.  The Creator’s plan and purpose is written into the quintessential  action of every living thing–procreation.  His plan and purpose is written into nature, and it is just waiting there to be deciphered.

So what does the secret writing of both nature and the scriptures reveal as to what God is saying?  Answer:  Hey, creation, I’m reproducing Myself, too!  You didn’t think I was going to let you have all the fun of raising a family, did you?  I have a family, too.

And this is how I am going to do it.  My essence is Love.  And I desire to magnify and reproduce Love.  So, in order to reproduce the real Spirit of Love, which is Me, I will create a special being that can contain Me. 

I’ll create this special creature, the human being, male and female.  And I will place within them both a desire to procreate.  I will make them capable of loving with a heart that longs for love.  And their lives will be like a play, lived out on the stage of this earth.

But this play will seem like a tragedy in the first few acts, for the human beings will have tragic flaws.   As my crowning creation, humans will be extremely complex characters.  In their inner being, they will want to do good, but their innate selfishness will thwart their intents to do that good and right thing.

Some humans will eventually come to their wit’s end.  They will do craven acts of unkindness, driven by the first nature I have given them.  Their foolish and selfish heart will drive them to cheat on their spouses, steal from their fellow humans, and tell falsehoods to further their own selfish desires.  And other sins they will do.

But some will feel horrible about their actions.  Their consciences will torture them.  They will long to do good, despite succumbing to the temptations of the old nature.  It is from these who feel the need to repent that I will choose to reproduce Myself in.  They will know that they have done wrong and will search for a place of repentance and redemption as desperately as a lost man in the desert seeks water. 

And they will find forgiveness of all their past evil deeds and thoughts.  Then I will give them of My Spirit, which is their new seed beginning in the garden of their hearts.  And through this new spirit within, they will blossom in love.  And this love will be shed abroad, by them forgiving their fellow human beings–especially those who are still using them for their own selfish desires. 

They will learn to bless those who hurt them and persecute them.  They will love their enemies and do good to all unenlightened human beings.  They will forgive everyone in their old Adamic past, and they will reach out and love any and all.  And they will love Me who gave them a new chance–an opportunity to become one of My children, one of My princes or princesses.

And they will walk on this earth, shining forth this spiritual light of My own reproductive perfectness.  For I will multiply Love, which is my nature, through their realization of the great deliverance I have brought them through.  They will be fountains of forgiveness, shedding forth the refreshing water of life to all so called.

And in due time, I will change these redeemed ones into my immortal offspring.  For they will be those human beings who have believed My word.  In the face of all the gainsayers, they will have persevered despite the doubts of those who persisted in pernicious ways.

And then I said, “So this is what the Bible is all about.”

“Exactly.  It is not about sanctimonious ceremonies in “castles midst the poverty” once or twice a week.  It is about Life, an abundant Life, a life that will last forever.  It is all about God sharing Himself with His creation.  And this Life is the play foreseen and written by God and revealed to a few.  It is a real play produced and directed by God.  He wrote it eons ago, and we as the principal players in this drama should submit to the Director.  The sooner we do, the sooner we will be a part of the Greatest Hit of the Ages.”     Kenneth Wayne Hancock

*Romans 8: 28-30; Ephesians 3: 11-19

The Battle in the Mind–The Weapons of Our Warfare Are Not Carnal [Conversations With the Seer]

(Formerly in Israel, if a man went to inquire of God, he would say, “Come, let us go to the seer,” because the prophet of today used to be called a Seer.  I Samuel 9: 9)

I didn’t have to say anything.  I’m sure that my countenance said it all.   The Seer once told me that my face telegraphed quite clearly what was in my heart.  And yet he asked, “What is troubling you?”

I said, “I’m not sure.  I think some doubts are creeping in about God and things.”

“Doubtful thoughts are a formidable weapon that our enemy uses.  They are like mortars hurled at us during those long blackouts that we must endure.”

“It is worse at night.”

“Yes, under the cover of darkness, the doubtful thoughts charge onto the battlefield of our mind.  And the battle insufferably rages on.  Two opposing armies of thought are clashing.  Each is establishing a beachhead in our mind.  Both are digging in for the long haul.  Both are vying for the spoils of our souls.  They do it, first, by controlling our thoughts.  And then our thoughts grow wings and fly past our lips as utterances.  And finally, our words materialize into actions that either justify us or condemn us [1] .  You must know that there is a battle raging.  Make no mistake about it,” the Seer said.

“It’s good to know about the particulars of a war.  When I was in Vietnam, I asked many fellow soldiers and officers, ‘Why are we here?’  And, you know, not one of them could tell me why we were killing and being killed in that hot, muggy hellhole.  Not one.”

“Of course, that is a different kind of battle.  This battle in your mind that I speak of, however, is over our very existence, both present and future.  The outcome of our own personal battle will answer one of two questions.  Will we finally realize that we are created by God, who has a definite will and purpose guiding every human being, which culminates in our surrender to Him?  Or, will we remain adamant, ruled by a secular humanistic delusion, and persist in pretending that we are our own god, serving our own selves, and thereby forgetting the ‘Rock from whence we are hewn’?”

“No wonder I feel torn up inside.  Thoughts and doubts are whirling and churning inside of me.”  I heard a rooster crow and looked out the window at the golden red mist of light in the east.  I hadn’t slept all night and had waited until his lights had come on to come over and get some help.

The Seer continued.  “Yes.  A war is being fought inside of you.  It is the War of the Wills.  God’s will is fighting your own will.  And your own will for your life is being fed and reinforced by the enemy of God.  The “prince and power of the air” [2] supports your determination to hang on to your own purpose for your life.  And our old man’s purpose looks at everything through this prism–what’s in it for me?  You see, God’s thoughts for His creation is opposed to man’s thoughts about himself and his purpose on earth.”

“What are man’s thoughts about himself?”

“In general, the prevailing wind blowing in the politically correct arena is that we are just animals with higher intelligence, that there really is no personal Creator who has a will and purpose for us.  God’s thoughts toward us are that mankind is a special creation, formed and shaped in every way by the Creator for a highly specialized purpose: to be the dwelling place, the temple for God to reside in.  He grants to some eternal life, so that they can house the Eternal One.”

“How does this tie in with the battle?”

“This great destiny of eternal life will be given to those who win the battle staged in the theater of our minds.  For the Creator does not just go, Poof!, and we all are miraculously transposed into gentle, smiling, sweet little humanoid robots who go about saying, ‘Praise the Lord!  Praise the Lord!’  Oh, no.”

“How does He do it then?”

“First, God has given us everything needed for victory–weapons, armor, food.  Yet He has allowed a sly and cunning spiritual enemy to be able to speak to us anonymously by injecting thoughts right into our own brains. It is so deceptive that humans think that these thoughts are coming out of the ether of their own minds.  Because, after all, they reason, I don’t believe in a world of spirits, where a diabolical spirit would do that to me!  And, anyway, if a God of love existed, He would not put those He loved through all this mental anguish and suffering.”

The Seer stopped to emphasize the point.  “That right there.  That thought is an example of the ‘cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive’ [3].  And yet, there is a great paradox at work in this battle.  In the world of man’s wisdom, when you surrender, you lose.  But in this battle, when we surrender to God and His plan, we win!  And through our victory, we realize that when we surrender to Him and His will and purpose for us, then we enlist in His army and begin to march forward helping others in the battle they are fighting for their very souls.”

The truth is that, although of course we lead normal human lives, the battle we are fighting is on the spiritual level.  The very weapons we use are not those of human warfare but powerful in God’s warfare for the destruction of the enemy’s strongholds.  Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God.  We even fight to capture every thought until it acknowledges the authority of Christ [4].           Kenneth Wayne Hancock

1. Matthew 12: 37
2. Ephesians 2: 2
3. Eph. 4: 14
4. II Corinthians 10: 4, Phillips