The Worst War

The book of Judges is a book about wars. It is Jews fighting Amalekites, Canaanites, Philistines. It gives all the statistics of how many were killed, how many were captured. The worst of those wars was the last war in Judges. And the worst war, the bloodiest war with the most fatalities, was not against Amalekites, Canaanites or Philistines, it involved Jews fighting other Jews. What caused Paul the most consternation? Was it being dragged before the Roman authorities, flogged in the synagogue, attacked by mobs in Ephesus? Read his epistles, these things did not cause him the most grief. Persecution is not what distressed him. Rather, it was false brethren, false teachers and false prophets trying to seduce the churches that he planted. I am not afraid of going against Freemasonry, or Rome, or Orthodox Rabbis, or Islam, or New Age, or the homosexuals. The kind of war I dread is when you have to fight against your brethren. In the last war in Judges, they had no choice. A woman's body was hacked into fragments, and divided. And the Body of Christ in the Western world is being hacked to death and divided. We have no choice but to pick up the sword, the body is being hacked to death.

False teachers, false prophets

E. W. Kenyon was the patriarch of the "Jesus died spiritually" doctrines that are being taught today. He said that Jesus did not win the victory on the Cross. Jesus said, "It is finished," but, according to Kenyon, that was not the victory. Jesus died and rose again, but Kenyon says that Jesus descended into hell and became of one nature with Satan. Jesus was born again in hell - that is the 'gospel' of Frederick K. Price, Kenneth Copeland, Kenneth Hagin and Benny Hinn. They believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died on the Cross, but the victory over sin and death was not accomplished on the Cross. The Body is being hacked to death. "You don't have to suffer, God wants you rich." By virtue of the fact that you live in a Western democracy, you are rich. You are better off than at least two thirds of the people in the world. The body is being hacked to death by agospel of mammon which calls itself "Faith Prosperity." But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many fool-ish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith. (1 Timothy 6:9-10). Hebrews 11, the 'faith chapter,' talks more about faith than all the rest of the New Testament put together. It does not mention money once, only alluding to wealth to tell you about those who could have had it, but turned their backs on it for the sake of the kingdom (Hebrews 11:26). The body is being hacked to death. It is very difficult when you have to lift your sword against your brother.

A Long War

Now there was a long war between the house of Saul and the house of David; and David grew steadily stronger, but the House of Saul grew weaker continually (2 Samuel 3:1).

David and Saul both had a common enemy, the Canaanites and Philistines who were over-running the land. The enemy prevailed because the leadership of Israel had become so corrupt. David could do nothing about it until the leadership was replaced. He could not replace the leadership because Saul was God's anointed. He was stuck in a situation where wickedness was prevailing and God's people were being defeated, just like today. God's people are being defeated and there is going to be a long war between the growing house of David and the failing house of Saul.

Believing a lie

If you want to, you can have your ears tickled with blab-It-and-grab-it, Western consumerism, which is all the 'prosperity gospel' is, people trying to redefine the truth of the Bible in light of Western consumerism. The people who subscribe to these errors do so because they want to believe lies.

They did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. And for this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they might believe what is false (2 Thessalonians 2:1011).

But there is something much more difficult and much more painful than that here.

The Jonathan tragedy

We all know the story of King David and how Saul hated him and tried to kill him. The one sticking point was Jonathan. Jonathan loved David. Jonathan knew that Saul had become

corrupt and lost God's calling and blessing. Jonathan knew his father was no good. He knew the house of Saul was under the curse of God. He knew David was right. He knew David was an innocent victim who was being persecuted. He knew David was God's chosen. He knew it all, but Jonathan was too cemented to the house of Saul to make the break.

David is always a type of Jesus.

Jesus said, "He who loves father or mother more than Me, is not worthy of Me" (Matthew 10:37).

That alludes to the situation of Jonathan. Are you part of the house of David or the house of Saul? To be part of the house of Saul does not require you to believe false doctrine yourself. It just means that you are committed to established structures, churches and denominations that have gone into this error. Is your denomination more important to you than what God is saying?

Remember different liquids represent the Holy Spirit in different aspects. In this case it is oil, which speaks of the anointing. The Holy Spirit really was poured out on the house of Saul. It was authentic, but if something ends in the flesh, it does not matter if it began in the Spirit or if it was always in error to begin with.

I do not doubt for one second that thirty years ago there was a genuine outpouring of God's Spirit.

I know that was true, but I am just as convinced that it went into the flesh a long time ago. Every single Charismatic movement in the history of the church has ended the same way. The Montanists - experiential theology, Muenster Anabaptists and early Pentecostals - crazy doctrines, Quakers - inner light. It is always the Spirit and the Truth. But they said, "Give us the Spirit, we don't want the Truth." The word of God tells us what is flesh and what is Spirit.

Ending in the flesh

As you did not obey the Lord and did not execute His fierce wrath upo Amalek, so the Lord has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the Lord will also deliver Israel along with you into the hand of the Philistines, therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the Lord will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines (1 Samuel 28:18).

Saul lost his anointing. He started out with the calling, with the anointing, but God rejected him.

Go, strike Amalek.

Then Samuel said to Saul, "The Lord sent me to anoint you as king over His people, over Israel; now therefore, listen to the words of the Lord. "Thus says the Lord of hosts, 'I will punish Amalek for what he did to Israel, how he set himself against him on the way while he was coming up from Egypt. Now go and strike Amalek and utterly destroy all that he has, and do not spare him; but put to death both man and woman, child and infant, ox and sheep, camel and donkey'" (1 Samuel 15:13).

But Saul did not do it.

But Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good, and were not willing to destroy them utterly; but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed. Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying, "I regret that I have made Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me, and has not carried out My commands." And Samuel was distressed and cried out to the Lord all night (1 Samuel 15:911).

The ancient enemy

Amalek, also known as Agag, was an ancient enemy. The enmity goes back to the time of Moses; it resurfaces in the person of Haman, a descendant of Agag, in the book of Esther.

This enmity had persisted over hundreds of years, back to the Babylonian captivity.

The old enemy remains the enemy. It does not change. Saul was told what Moses was told, what Joshua was told: These are your ancient enemies, get rid of them.

Who are our ancient enemies? We are told in the New Testament that we struggle not against flesh and blood. As Christians, we love our enemies. There is a big difference between loving people in false religions, and loving the false religions. We are to hate idolatry, sin, and superstition. I hate Roman Catholicism because it is leading people to hell by the tens of millions. Saul tried to keep the parts he thought were acceptable. Saul tried to make peace with the ancient enemy.

When you try to make peace with your ancient enemy, the ancient enemy comes back and devours you, just like it did in the book of Esther. You can look back and see in history that more Bible believing Christians were killed by Papal Rome than were killed by pagan Rome. John Bunyan called it a "Two Headed Giant" - one called Pagan, and the other called Pope!

You may say, "They did that five hundred years ago, they did that sixteen hundred years ago, but they would not do that in the 20th century!" Hitler, Himmler and Goebbels were all Catholics, and most of Hitler's deputies were Jesuit educated.

Franz von Papen, vicechancellor to Hitler and a privy chamberlain to Pope Pius 12th, said, "The Third Reich was the first power in the world, not only to recognize, but also to put into practice the high principles of the Roman Catholic Papacy."

Joachim von Ribbentropp, Hitler's advisor in foreign affairs and Papal Envoy, said, "Adolph Hitler is the envoy of God." Some believe that they would not do that in the 20th century. Saul thought that Agag would not do what they did in the days of Moses. Esther did not think that Haman would have done it either.

The Roman Catholic Church condemns those who say the Church must not use violent force. There are pictures of nuns marching with Gestapo officers to get Jewish children and take them out to be killed.

The simple basic constitutional principle of Roman Catholicism is always the same. Rome has not changed; Agag has not changed.

Come out of her, My people.