Jephthah, Mighty Man
of Valor
page 2 of 2
Many Thrust
Out Today
There are a host of
valuable lessons from the experience
of Jephthah applicable today. A
multitude of true and faithful
Israelites have been
thrust out, driven
away. I watched it start with
the removal of men from the Structure
who dared to stand up for the right
and against wrong. In the 1970s and
1980s, a massive purge of faithful
from positions of leadership took
place. From academy principals up to
the dean of the Seminary, and
positions as high as vice-president
of the GC, it happened.
The Dragon
Wages War Against the Remnant of the
Seed of the Woman
There was something
far, far deeper going on than just a
policy matter, just a different
approach to adapting to change, a
getting rid of the old
guard. This was war-a war
against the remnant of the seed of
the woman-a war about by Christ in
the first recorded sermon that He
preached to Adam and Eve after their
sin, a war spoken about in Revelation
12:17: and the dragon was wroth
with the woman, and went to make war
with the remnant of her seed, which
keep the commandments of God, and
have the testimony of Jesus
Christ. What the Structure
hated about these men was that these
men hated sin, hated Satan, and
hated rebellion against God.
With awed yet
exultant spirit he [John the Baptist
in the desert] searched the prophetic
scrolls the revelations of the
Messiahs coming, the promised
seed that should bruise the
serpents head. DA 103.
Christ Declares,
I Will Put Enmity
This verse,
Revelation 12:17, ties in directly
with Genesis 3:15: And I will
put enmity between thee and the
woman, and between thy seed and her
seed; it shall bruise thy
head and thou shalt bruise His
heel.
The word translated
enmity means in Hebrew
enmity,
hatred The basic verb
from the noun here is derived means
to be hostile to,
to treat as an enemy.
[TWOT]. Every person who still
retains the enmity of the seed of the
woman, placed in the heart of Christ,
the enmity and hostility against
apostasy, the enmity and hostility
against rebellion, the enmity against
sin, becomes the target of
Satans enmity.
Raw War
Against the Remnant of the Seed of
the Woman
It is the seed of the
woman, those who hate sin, Satan, the
world, self and sin, those who are
hostile to apostasy, whom Satan wars
against by his forces that have taken
over the Structure with ecumenism,
Church Growth, Willow Creek,
Neural-Linguistic Programming, the
Purpose Driven Life, Pantheistic New
Age, self-esteem, rap and rock music,
New Theology, Celebration, and all
the rest of the package of the
devils three-demon ecumenical
movement of Revelation 16:13.
It is raw war
against the remnant of the
seed of the woman-those who still
retain the enmity against sin and
rebellion-hostility implanted by the
Holy Ghost and Christ. And
that great fact can never be
forgotten or diminished in its
clarity and power.
It is Christ Himself
Who Implants Hatred Against the
Serpent
Christ, the seed of
the woman, is the One Who puts
enmity-hatred-against Satan, sin,
rebellion, and all that pertains to
Satan. The remnant of the seed of
the woman are those who
still retain that hatred against the
Serpent, a hatred planted in the
heart by Christ Himself.
The incarnation
of Christ is a mystery. The union of
divinity with humanity is a mystery
indeed, hidden with God, even
the mystery which hath been hid from
ages. It was kept in eternal
silence by Jehovah, and was first
revealed in Eden, by the prophecy
that the Seed of the woman should
bruise the serpents head, and
that he should bruise His heel.
6 BC 1082
The Purge Turns to
Church Members Who Dare to Manifest
Hostility Against Rebellion
By the mid-1980s, the
purge turned to the disfellowshipping
of those who dared to stand for the
right and confess the Biblical
Christ-and those who dared to hate
sin and oppose rebellion against God.
Forces of satanic power had
taken over the highest echelons of
the Structure and were seeking to rid
the Structure completely of those who
still were the remnant of the seed of
the woman.
Rise of the
Independents
To provide a spiritual
home for these, many independent
ministries came into being, upholding
the true faith, and the true gospel
orientation of full surrender to
Christ. Scripture warns us to have
the patience of the
saints, for time has lingered,
and many Independent ministries have
been seduced by the Structure with
promises of favor and access if
they will drop their hostility
against Satans rebellion.
Others have lost their orientation,
some have just collapsed internally,
some have been threatened with death
with a mysterious Masonic death code,
some have gone back for social
reasons, choosing the fellowship of
man above the fellowship of Christ
and His sufferings. It is the same
kind of attrition that took place in
Nazi Germany with those who dared to
stand up against the takeover of the
church by the forces of Nazism.
However, others, the
true remnant of the seed of the
woman, have remained faithful to the
Lord God of heaven, who looks
lovingly upon them for their
steadfastness.
Lesson From Jephthah
1.
Jephthah kept his faith under the
most difficult personal
circumstances, and in a place that was
removed from an Israel that was in
deep apostasy. He did not go into
apostasy or fanaticism.
2.
In a land removed from the rest
of Israel, he developed character,
strength, fortitude, faith and
courage, as God gave him training for
what lay ahead.
3.
Jephthah knew the history of
Gods true people. It was very
important to him, especially when the
crisis broke. He maintained the
orientation of true faith. His
faith went deep below the apostasy of
Israel, anchoring in the Rock, Christ
Jesus. The experience of true
Israel he cherished and loved, and
the day would come when he would be
catapulted to the realm of
international affairs, when he could
repeat that history by heart for all
Israel and all the enemy to hear in
his challenge to the sons of Ammon.
4.
We must intimately know and
cherish the history of Gods
truth and Gods dealings with
His people revealed in the Bible, the
Spirit of Prophecy, and history. Such
knowledge of the history of
Gods people in the bible, of
the Waldenses, the Sixteenth Century
Reformation and the rise of the true
Seventh-day Adventism are crucial for
our times and the days ahead.
5.
He did not return to an apostate
Israel, but a spiritually revived
Israel came to him, returned to him,
for help in the hour of crisis.
Taught by Christ and the Holy Spirit,
he was following the divine
principles that God would state to
Jeremiah in Jeremiah 15:19: let
them return unto thee; but return not
thou unto them. As Elijah,
John the Baptist, Noah, Daniel, and
Jesus revealed, one man following God
is the norm, and not an entire
nation-church following apostasy and
Baal.
6.
Jephthah did not dilute his faith
in the slightest. He would not even
go with the elders until he had
their most solemn oath that they
would bring him back into a situation
in which the faith that he
stood for would be guaranteed by them
putting him in a position where as
judge he would be the determiner of
the faith of Israel. Only
then, did he go back and serve as
their general and judge.
7.
Jephthah was not going to fight a
war just so Israel could go back into
rank apostasy. There had to be a
guarantee that Israel would be placed
under his judgeship, guaranteeing a
new, faithful Israel, at least in his
time.
8.
Having that guarantee, that he
would be recognized as the one who
determined the faith of Israel as
Judge, he had the greatness of soul
to accept the responsibility and
fight for faith and Israel.
9.
For his faithfulness, God was
with Him, and the Spirit of the Lord
came upon him, giving him victory in
the war, and a judgeship over Israel
for years after the war.
10. However,
even then, after the war with Ammon,
the battle was not over. The
Ephraimites challenged Jephthah with
death by fire, accusing the
Gileadites, who with Jephthah at
their head won the victory over
Ammon, of being fugitives from
Ephraim. Jephthah had to fight a
bloody civil war with Ephraim in
which 42,000 Ephraimites fell, to
establish his judgeship over all
Israel. Judges 12:1-7. Such are the
battles of faith.
God Must Be God
Both John and Jesus
Made God to be God in their life, not
the church.
God, To Be God to Us,
Must Be the Absolute Center of Our
Lives
Our faith, our
religion, is only of the true nature,
when God is God to us-that is, He is
the great center, the One alone whom
we worship, the only One that we seek
glory or honor from. The pen of
Inspiration, commenting on the change
required by the lessons of Christ in
the disciple of Christ declares,
In order to be honored by
Heaven, they must sacrifice the honor
of men. If they obeyed
the words of this new rabbi, they
must go contrary to the opinions of
the great thinkers and teachers of
the time. DA 241.
Crucial point: It
was the religious
leaders of Gods
professed people, that
they must go contrary to in order to
be honored by Heaven. It was not
some hazy religious leader out
there somewhere.
Truth was
unpopular in Christs day. It is
unpopular in our day. DA 242.
Idolatry of the Church
When the church
becomes the center of focus instead
of God, we are involved in idolatry,
and we will ultimately join with, and
side with, all other idolatry. The
training of ministry now across
denominational lines, instead of
focusing on the salvation of the
soul, focuses on body
life, or the life of the
church, church growth, a
management by objectives approach to
growing the church, where
whatever increases church growth is
good, whatever decreases it is
bad-thus setting up a false standard
of right and wrong. This has, of
course, led to the Schuller New
Reformation of self-esteem,
which is an abomination to God, but
which is loved by the lovers of self.
This has led to Neuro-linguistic
Programming to bring to heel those
who do not submit to the authority of
a church run amok. This has led to
pantheism for the youth, rock and
rap, and a host of other features of
apostasy.
Vibrant Growth
However, the true
believer focuses his soul on God, the
Living God, Who sits on the throne of
the universe. Every day is the
vibrant with growth in God, and
increasing true faith and the
knowledge of God in others, growing
in Gods Word, in Gods
truth, in Gods love, in faith
of Jesus.
Christs
Withdrawal From Judea Repeated Over
and Over Again
Gods truth must
be exalted above ecclesiastical
authorities and the
church: As the light and
life of men was rejected by the
ecclesiastical authorities in the
days of Christ, so it has been
rejected in every succeeding
generation. Again and again, the
history of Christs withdrawal
from Judea has been repeated. When
the reformers preached the word of
God, they had no thought of
separating themselves from the
established church; but he religious
leaders would no tolerate the light,
and those that bore it were forced to
seek another class, who were longing
for the truth. In our day, few of the
professed followers of the Reformers
are actuated by their spirit. Few are
listening for the voice of God,
and ready to accept truth in whatever
guise it may be presented. Often
those who follow in the steps of the
Reformers are forced to turn away
from the churches they love, in order
to declare the plain teaching of the
word of God. And many times those who
are seeking for light are by the same
teaching obliged to leave the church
of their fathers, that they may render
obedience. DA 232.
Heaven Must Be Exalted
Above Earth
These words are divine
truth, not to be dismissed on any
account. Heavens light and
truth must take its place above every
other institution, religion, or
ecclesiastical body. Christ Himself
is the Good Shepherd. He must be
followed alone. No turning
back. He is the One Who is the
Way, the Truth, and the Life. The
same decisions for Him and His truth
made by the disciples, the Waldenses,
and the Reformers, must be made
today. Christ and His honor, His
Word, comes first of all.
John the Baptist went
into the wilderness to get away from
all distracting, weakening, and
degrading influences. He wanted God
alone to shape his perception of
Gods greatness, glory and power
in wonder and awe. God alone was to
be His teacher teaching him through
revelation-the Word, through nature
as natures God, and through
providence.