The Violent Take the
Kingdom by Force
1 of 2
This greatness of true
manhood is so much to be desired that
‘the kingdom of heaven suffereth
violence, and the violent take
it by force.” Matthew 11:12
God intends that those
who are really serious about storming
the kingdom with all the force of
their being are the ones who truly
enter and experience the deep things
of God, living on a plane that is
inconceivable to the rest of
humanity. They walk on the high
places of the earth, and are fed with
the heritage of Jacob, their father.
(Isaiah 58:14).
“With the great
truth we have been privileged to
receive, we should, and under the
Holy Spirit’s power we could,
become living channels of light. We
could then approach the mercy seat;
and seeing the bow of promise, kneel
with contrite hearts, and seek the
kingdom of heaven with a spiritual
violence that would bring its own
reward. We would take it by force, as
did Jacob. Then our message would
be the power of God unto salvation.
Our applications would be full of
earnestness, full of a sense of our
great need; and we would not be
denied. The truth would be expressed
by life and character, and by lips
touched with living coal from
God’s altar. When this
experience is ours, we shall be
lifted out of our poor, cheap selves
that we have cherished so tenderly.
We shall empty our hearts of the
corroding power of selfishness, and
shall be filled with praise and
gratitude to God. We shall magnify
the Lord, the God of all grace, who
has magnified Christ. And He will
reveal His power through us, making
us as sharp sickles in the harvest
field (RH Feb. 14, 1899).” 5 BC
1089.
Reeds and the
Mark
Jesus asked if the
people went out to the wilderness to
see a reed shaken in the wind. We
must now have a character that
does not bend in the wind. We
much have roots that go far below the
depth of the apostasy and anchor in
the character and personality of God.
We must be anchored far beyond this
earth, to the throne of God. Those
who bend to earthy influence will
receive the mark in their forehead.
Those who allow themselves to be
pressured will receive the mark in
the hand.
We must plow ahead
steadily, as John did, in the
work of preparing a people for the
Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the
clouds of glory, without being
swayed or influenced in the slightest
by the apostasy all around us.
New Wineskins
for New Wine
Apostasy becomes
imbedded in culture, in churches.
Layer after layer of apostasy resting
upon wrong principles and decisions
means that a person such as John had
to scrap altogether even being
around apostasy. That is why
he, at an early age, went and lived
out in the desert, alone with God
–so that only God
would influence him.
There must be new
wineskins for new wine. Matthew 9:
17. The structures of self,
self-esteem, apostasy, and ecumenism
cannot hold the new wine of the
Holy Spirit.
The Greatest
Deception in Jesus’ Day: A Mere
Assent to Truth Constitutes
Righteousness
Unless a man starts
out on the right foot, on the right
premise, in utter self-renunciation
and crucifixion, and Christ is born
in the depth of his soul, everything
else is askew. Of what value is
it for the soul to intellectually
know the advanced doctrinal truth if
the soul is not saved through
self-surrender to Christ?
“The greatest
deception of the human mind in
Christ’s day was that a mere
assent to the truth constitutes
righteousness. In all human
experience, a theoretical knowledge
of the truth has been proved to be
sufficient for the saving of the
soul. It does not bring forth the
fruits of righteousness. A jealous
regard for what is termed theological
truth often accompanies a hatred of
genuine truth as made manifest in
life. The darkest chapters of
history are burdened with the record
of crimes committed by bigoted
religionists.” DA 309.
Built Upon the
Foundation
“Your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of
men, but in the power of God.” 1
Corinthians 2:5.
I have heard people
involved in fanaticism advance highly
theoretical linguistic arguments when
the issue they really needed to
address was, What think ye of
Christ? Let us have all the
advanced developed truth that we can
bear, but let it be built on the
foundation of Christ-the Biblical
Christ and on His Word. A
building not built on the Foundation
will be swept away in the tempest.
All around us buildings are
crumbling. We must be built up in
Him, the Rock of Ages, the
Cornerstone, the Foundation. That is
why the Three Angels’ Messages
begin with the everlasting gospel.
Earthquakes
Predicted by Scientists
Scientists are now
predicting a massive earthquake with
a 32-foot shift of the tectonic
plates along the San Andreas fault,
which runs right through Loma Linda
and up the coastline of California.
Thirteen million
people will be affected. On scientist
said it could happen tomorrow, it
could be happening right now. The
science of earthquake prediction, it
was noted, in 1906, the time of the
San Francisco earthquake, was like
driving a car with a mud splattered
windshield. The scientist said that
now that the windshield is crystal
clear, with a thousand times better
prognostication.
The Cascadia
Subduction Zone
A recent production of
the Weather Channel, “It Could
Happen Tomorrow,” deals with an
overdue impending earthquake along
the Cascadia subduction zone, along
the coast of Oregon and Washington.
This series of
productions by The Weather Channel
(“It Could Happen
Tomorrow”) has scored an
amazingly accurate prediction
regarding a hurricane hitting New
Orleans. One of this series was
released regarding New Orleans and a
killer Hurricane about 3 or 4 months
before Katrina. It was remarkably on
target.
The coming Cascadia
subduction earthquake, once again, is
long overdue. The last major
earthquake in the area was 300 years
ago. No one can tell when it will
come. There will be no warning at
all, the scientists say.
Every year the Pacific
tectonic plate slides under the North
American, plate 5.5 centimeters more.
The pressure builds and builds, and
suddenly will be released in a
tremendous earthquake. The fault line
is the Juan de Fuca. A magnitude 9
earthquake is predicted. The
earthquake will go on for an
estimated ten minutes. If it is going
to happen, the question is when. The
shift on the ocean floor will unleash
fifty-foot tsunami waves.
February 27, 1964, a
9.2 magnitude earthquake occurred at
Kodiak, Alaska. That earthquake was
due to an identical geological
scenario to what exists along the
coast of Oregon and
Washington….and identical to the
same geological features along
Sumatra with the December 26, 2004,
Indian Ocean tsunami.
Going With the Flow
A reed shaken in the
wind represents people who bend in
whatever direction the wind is
blowing. If they read in the church
periodicals about how wonderful
self-esteem is, they believe it. If
the Purpose driven Life Seminars are
held, they attend. If they read the Review
editorial advancing political
correctness, they buy it without
critical reflection. If special music
is hard rock, they approve-or at
least say nothing. If NLP training is
given the elders, that is fine. If
the youth have a rap concert that is
all right. If the eleven o’clock
service is Celebration, that is
great. If they hear the
government/media complex version of
9-11, though it defies all truth,
fact, and reality, they go along with
it.
Moved Off the
Foundation
Reeds shaken with the
wind. Removed off the Foundation. The
training of conscience to receive the
mark of the beast in the forehead. Or
perhaps they are disturbed by it all,
and say nothing, but just go along
with it. Reeds shaken with the wind.
Trained to receive the mark of the
beast in the hand.
Immoveable as
the Rocks and Mountains
“In our
character building we must build on
Christ. He is the sure foundation-a
foundation which can never be
moved.” SD 155
Not so John. No reed
shaken in the wind. No circumstance
shaped him. Only God, and the Spirit
of God. Rather, he was as immoveable
in conscience and spirit as the rocks
and mountains of the wilderness. He
knew God, and he knew God’s
sacred truth, which he practiced.
He That is
Least in the Kingdom of Heaven is
Greater than He
“And he
that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he.” Matthew
11:11.
Viewed from the
perspective of man, John was the
extreme of the extremes, the radical
of the radicals. Viewed from
God’s perspective, John was the
greatest man born of woman-a man who
was dead center on target. Viewed
from the perspective of man’s
judgment, John’s parents were
radical-they were different from
almost all the other priests. They
walked in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord, blameless.
Luke 1:6. However, even the radical
departure from the surrounding
apostasy was not enough for John. He
separated even from relatives to go
to live in the wild wilderness, a
desert land of rocky caves and wild
ravines, so that no alien
influences would shape his perception
of God.
The Desert
Solitude a Welcome Escape
“It was a lonely
region where he found his home, in
the midst of barren hills, wild
ravines, and rocky caves. However, it
was his choice to forgo the
enjoyments and luxuries of life for
the stern disciple of the wilderness.
Here his surroundings were
favorable to habits of simplicity and
self-denial. Uninterrupted by the
clamor of the world, he could here
study the lessons of nature, of
revelation, and of Providence. The
words of the angel to Zacharias had
been often repeated to John by his
God-fearing parents. From childhood,
his mission had been kept before him,
and he accepted the holy trust. To
him the solitude of the desert was
a welcome escape from society in
which suspicion, unbelief, and
impurity had become well nigh
all-pervading. He
distrusted his own power to withstand
temptation, and shrank from constant
contact with sin, lest he should lose
the sense of its exceeding
sinfulness.” DA 101, 102.
“That
Which is Highly Esteemed Among Men is
Abomination in the Sight of God”
To man, this man who
had spent his life ‘in
solitude…meditation and
prayer” was insane, they said,
“He hath a devil.” To God,
this man was the greatest among men
born of women.
The Glory of Being
a True Disciple
Jesus declared,
“Verily I say unto you, Among
them that are born of women there
hath not risen a greater than John
the Baptist: notwithstanding he
that is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he. Matthew
11:11. Great though John in his
faithfulness, his radical departure
from apostasy, his grasp of the glory
of God in the might of the Holy
Spirit, he that is least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
The least person in the
kingdom of heaven is granted, through
the power of the infinite Christ, a
greater revelation of the glory and
might of the character of God than
John, the greatest born of women. Therefore,
the kingdom of heaven takes a man
infinitely farther down the path of
the radical knowledge of God than
even John, the radical of radicals.
If John was radically different from
his wicked generation, even more so
is the member of the kingdom of
heaven.
The Kingdom of
Heaven is Gotten by Force
Listen carefully to
what Jesus now says regarding the
radical nature of John and the even
greater radical nature of those who
are in the kingdom:
“And from the
days of John the Baptist until now, the
kingdom of heaven is gotten by force,
by violence, (to apply force, to
enter forcibly, passive from here
means to be violently treated, to be
oppressed, to suffer violence) and
the violent, the one who uses
violence, they that thrust men,
snatch it, rob it, take it by
force.” Matthew 11:12.
Jesus declares that if
you think that John, who lived in the
wild desert all his life, one who is
a greater than a prophet, greater
than all born of women, a man who
scorns the luxury and conventions of
men who wear soft clothing, is
radical, the least in the kingdom is
greater even than John, and it is men
of violence, spiritual violence,
who take the kingdom-men who storm
the kingdom with all the spiritual
force at their command.
Seek the
Kingdom of Heaven With Spiritual
Violence
“With the great
truth we have been privileged to
receive, we should, and under the
Holy Spirit’s power we could,
become living channels of light. We
could then approach the mercy seat;
and seeing the bow of promise, kneel
with contrite hearts, and seek the
kingdom of heaven with spiritual
violence that would bring its own
reward. We could take it by force, as
did Jacob. Then our message would
be the power of God unto salvation.
Our supplications would be full of
earnestness, full of a sense of our
great need; and we would not be
denied. The truth would be
expressed by life and character, and
by lips touched with the living coal
from God’s altar. When
this experience is ours, we shall be
lifted out of our poor, cheap selves
that we have cherished so tenderly.
We shall empty our hearts of the
corroding power of selfishness, and
shall be filled with praise and
gratitude to God. We shall magnify
the Lord, the God of all grace, who
has magnified Christ. And He will
reveal His power through us, making
us sharp sickles in the harvest field
(RH Feb. 14, 1899).” 5 BC 1089.
“For all the
prophets and the law prophesied until
John.
“And if ye will
receive it, this is Elias, which was
for to come.” Matthew 11:13, 14.
Here is the living incarnation of the
fulfillment of the prophecy of
Malachi.
“He that hath
ears to hear, let him hear.”
Matthew 11:13-15.
