Revelation 7.

Readers will remember the post: “Jehovah’s Witnesses” Are Terribly Mislead in which commenters lamented the lack of knowledge as to the symbolism of the number 144,000 among other good comments.

I said this:

These are they, best as we can reckon, that were saved, sealed, witnesses of the children of Israel (sons of Jacob) called Jews, that suffered for His name’s sake, spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ up to and through the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD. The 144,000 are Jews! They are not American of Caucasian and African lineage living today; they are not! And, suppose for a moment, they are not, but suppose they are real; if there are only 144,000 thousand of them; why are there millions of them running around?!?

Here we find an explanation of the number as symbolic and an interesting discussion as to who the 144,000 are in history. In the comments conversation over there, I learned something new: the majority view is; that the 144,000 represent the entire church or all those in the church age. That I had not known, but it didn’t change my mind. I remain in the minority view. Read the discussion over there.

Verses 9-10, I think, are the church:

“9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands; 10 And cried with a loud voice, saying, Salvation to our God which sitteth upon the throne, and unto the Lamb.”

Here also is an explanation of who specifically the 144,000 are. “Jehovah’s Witnesses” today are terribly deceived.

There are so few knowledgeable and well-researched web pages about the Bible; it’s disappointing.

Romans 3:10-26 (Psalm 10:6-7, Isaiah 59:7-8)

I went to a Buc-ee’s. It’s quite an operation. One leaves trying to wrap their mind around what is or is not America and wondering what will become of us. The gas was 10 cents higher than the other stations on the Interstate, but nobody seemed to care or notice; it’s a Buc-ee’s, so presumably, that makes it worth it. Without exaggeration, this one must have more than 100 gas pumps, every lane full; cars, SUVs, or pickups with boomers dragging a fifth wheel.

I’m not sure what the attraction is. The people seem to be there only to be there. Everything was slightly overpriced, and although the food looked pretty good, it was only gas station food. But Buc-ee’s is more than a gas station; it’s a relationship. The BBQ sam’mich was going as fast as they could make them by the dozen.

The lady at the checkout, local as they come, said it’s flat out, non-stop; there must be thousands of people coming and going every day. They’ll pay you $20 an hour to work the overnight shift. She seemed a little slow, but professing Christ, she’s my sister and probably has a more faithful love for the Saviour than I’ll ever know. All some need is a crumb from the Master’s table (Matthew 15:27). God rarely calls those from the high lofts – if that’s you, salvation is no small gift; don’t waste it (Luke 12:47-48).

It’s hard to know if the people going there don’t care about inflation and the state of things in the world, or perhaps that’s the point of stopping at a Buc-ee’s on your road trip; to forget the world. There was no sense at all of the death of America or the irony of the place as a symbol and type of the commoditization of the consumer being a nail in the coffin of the West by ending the tangible work of making and building things. The country’s going to hell, actual, but hey, let’s head to the Buc-ee’s out by the Interstate!?!

There’s a section for T-shirts and hats and Buc-ee’s gear. No, I didn’t get a Buc-ee’s T-shirt. Maybe a twinge of regret since I’m not against self-deprecating humor. An area with very overpriced “local” stuff with a State or nearby tourist attraction theme to it. Many self-serve soda dispensers with Buc-ee’s brand of cola, root beer, orange, and the like. They make their own dessert fudge right there and have other areas with things like that. And, of course, a section of regular snacks like Cheeto’s and Coke in a can for those who need a known degree of danger to their health delivered in a familiar size, shape, and color.

On private property, which sole purpose is to make money, it’s often a tricky business, pretending to browse while not angering a money spender. I was quite the novelty among those from far-flung midwestern and northeastern states. A real live Christian, openly discussing salvation in Christ Jesus and handing out literature about the human soul’s condition and relationship to its Creator. A real oddity, curious looks of wonder all around. Christians really exist, rare, but we saw one at the Buc’ee’s, didn’t we, honey, and it asked me about heaven.

“There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” – Romans 3:11

There is none righteous, no, not one. Nobody understands; none seek God, for it’s the Almighty that calls to them and draws them and makes the previously unaware begin to see His purposes; nobody seeks God but that God reveals Himself. You can talk at the Buc-ee’s to a midwestern tourist all day long about Christ, but they can’t hear you until God speaks to them.

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.” – Romans 3:18

Holy God stands before all men, observing their every thought and deed, but neither can they see Him.  So few now care for the things of the Almighty or ever consider His ways. How does a civilization turn Godless and survive?

And so America tells itself what is said by all those about to suffer a fall: “He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.” – Psalm 10:6. A fitting verse for an afternoon at the Buc-ee’s, overwhelmed with abundance.

“Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness” – Romans 3:14. Compare with: “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.” – Psalm 10:7

Is that you, a sinner, dead in your trespasses, self-assured yet utterly self-deceived, blind to God? A man can curse God without ever speaking a word.

“15 Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16 Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17 And the way of peace have they not known” – Romans 3:15-17 (see Isaiah 59:7-8). It is an apt description of the American leadership we’ve come to know, realizing they are taking us where almost none but the hopelessly useful idiot dare go.

The place was packed with people, but there was still room to move and browse. Are they conscience, wandering through life, or simply taking a break from the soon-coming and man-made wreckage?

But I did meet a brother in Christ who was missing several front teeth. I know this because I asked him about his eternal station and saw the biggest unashamed smile light up half complex; that man knows Christ, and from what he’s been saved. It never gets old, that smile of the true believer, the blessing of the almighty by His Spirit living in their heart, the wonderfully fearful, and nowadays ever more rare called of God, appointed unto salvation to service of Him. He moved here from England as a child, an Air Force vet, and a good guy. ‘Round these parts, missing teeth don’t mean dumb; that’s just Hollywood.

His Church is a large one, down to about 50 core people as they search for a new Pastor. As hard as that sounds, it appears to be a good thing: find out who’s committed, purge the chaff, gather the dead branches and burn them up, get new leadership, reset, and serve with purpose. He was there just for the spectacle of it all. Neither of us was disappointed.

We talked by a display of beef jerky, a prominent item, being both road food and guy food. It caught my stomach’s attention. I told him we had about forty; that is the core where I go, serving the Lord with consistent purpose. I’m blessed beyond measure to be among folks who love the Lord, seek the lost with the Gospel, work for Christ with purpose of heart and mind, and are training the young. It’s a rare thing where I go, having been to dozens of Churches, many just like the Buc-ee’s, full of tourists who, for the life of their eternal soul, couldn’t explain the purpose or meaning of what their Church exists to accomplish and why they are there or who profits.

Departing from my new friend and heading for the Beef Jerky counter, I got $15, half a pound worth by weight, of the “sweet and spicy,” which was neither sweet nor spicy. And it got eatin’ in the vehicle on the freeway after leaving; this is what one dutifully does with beef jerky on the road. Not dry, somehow, although under spiced, it was pretty tasty. Since they said we couldn’t eat cows anymore, I ate it all ’till I felt a little gurgly in the belly. I still eat dead cows; price is no object if it means one more good ol’ methane-loaded cow fart to make a liberal cry.

I don’t know if America will make it. I suspect not. But my new toothless Buc-ee’s friend and I, we’ll make it. The rest may burn like a roman candle, but we’d like you to know; that you can make it too.

“24 Being justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus: 25 Whom God hath set forth to be a propitiation through faith in his blood, to declare his righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance of God” – Romans 3:24-25

Via The Gun Feed: antichrist, anti-science, Psychology Today calls for media and “scientific community” whoring for gun control.

The science is abundantly clear: More guns do not stop crime. Guns kill more children each year than auto accidents. More children die by gunfire in a year than on-duty police officers and active military members. Guns are a public health crisis, just like COVID, and in this, we are failing our children over and over again.

The article says guns kill people. Seriously? What about the mental state of the people who take up weapons against the unarmed, especially when the prey are children and women?

Advocating for gun control is the position of the hopelessly ignorant, which must mean that Psychology has no answer as to the causation of the mental or emotional condition of those who commit such wicked and sinful acts. That rag is worse than useless. Psychology isn’t even science.

As TCJ has pointed out at length, claiming inanimate objects cause human behavior is belief in voodoo.

Christian influence isn’t in decline because of a failed eschatological system.

It must be observed that postmillennialism lost favor (and today remains held in disfavor) with conservative theologians for manifestly unorthodox and insufficient reasons. Extra-biblical reasoning, as well as lazy or poor scholarship, has intruded itself into Christian discussions of eschatology. I will highlight four misguided grounds often used for rejecting this hope-filled eschatology. In this article I will focus on: Newspaper Exegesis.

Christianity is in decline because those claiming to be adherents are not adherents but observers in mind only. They won’t declare the Gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15), rebuking the workers of iniquity for their sin (1 Timothy 5:20), because modern Christians are pseudadelphos – fakes and phonies (Revelation 2:2), theoretical Christians doing the work of Christ nowhere but in the vanity of their deluded heads. Instead of being doers of the word, they are hearers only deceiving themselves (James 1:22), endlessly filling their heads with knowledge they are the disciples of the high-back leather chair (2 Timothy 3:7), their feet are hideously grotesque (Romans 10:15), wicked slothful one talent servants (Matthew 25:26-30) one and all who won’t teach all nations to observe (DO) all that Christ commands (Matthew 28:18-20).

The New Religion are a bunch of losers in retreat because they have latched onto a theory of eschatology from which to derive a lazy and apathetic good for nothing wait for the rapture lifestyle. At the same time, they accumulate comfort and ease in this world instead of building up treasure in Heaven, proving they have a heart problem (Matthew 6:19-21). Of course the gentleman at the linked article is much too polite to put the problem this way, but I’m not.

Note: The cited verses here are not meant to prove or support an eschatology system, but are given for instruction and reproof.

Some are more equal than others.

Seattle police arrested a street preacher on charges of being a risk to public safety for reading his Bible aloud at a public park near an LGBT pride event.

Matthew Meinecke, who identifies himself as The Seattle Preacher on Twitter, was surrounded by Seattle police officers as he was reading his Bible and was subsequently arrested and fingerprinted at a police station before being released.

The preacher also posted a video showing a protester seizing his Bibles and ripping pages while shouting, “Get the f— out of here! Get your holy water off my ovaries, b—-! Get the f— out!”

He was also arrested at a Roe v Wade rally.

“Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.” – Galatians 6:7

Independence Day? America isn’t independent; it’s a primary component of the Global Order. The US has sown its seeds for a century, creating problems all around the world, and it’s going to come back home, all of it. America can’t fight Russia; the proposition is absurd. The US Military isn’t fit. I don’t mean physically fit, although that’s probably true, it’s not fit in any respect; knowledge, equipment, leadership, capabilities. It’s pathetically led, full of soft perverts and freaks at all levels. America is way over its head in UKR.

The continued promotion of the idea of East-West conflict is ruinous. The threat the northern peoples face is from the south, yet our leadership insists that Europe and America be overrun with heathens having no regard for European history or culture. The European peoples are in a deep crisis, and making total war on each other will have disastrous consequences. It’s all being done on purpose and probably can’t be stopped at this point. If not war with Russia, it’ll be something equally destructive and hollowing to civilization.

“37 But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him: 38 That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed? 39 Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again, 40 He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them. 41 These things said Esaias, when he saw his glory, and spake of him. 42 Nevertheless among the chief rulers also many believed on him; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess him, lest they should be put out of the synagogue: 43 For they loved the praise of men more than the praise of God.” – John 12:37-43

In this section of Scripture, we see several prophecies by Isaiah referenced in speaking of the first century Jews being blinded to Christ. Verse 38 of John 12 refers to Isaiah 53:1 and verse 39 to Isaiah 6:9. Verse 42 refers to Isaiah seeing the glory of the Lord; that’s likely Isaiah 6:1.

God has at times blinded the eyes of those under judgment. This is an interesting topic today because so many claim to see, but they can’t, or won’t, discern causality as though they are blind to the sin of America and God’s judgment. Part of the problem is the “end times” prophecy business, and it is a business that has so coopted the topic of God’s judgment that Christians rarely consider that what’s coming upon America is simply a regular judgment of God for our disobedience to Him. The determinations of God for disobedience are horrible and involve pestilences, wars, famines, and the like, often over several generations. The problem in understanding the occasion of judgment is that there are similar features in Scripture when God brings it.

The devil-possessed people running the world aren’t the problem or the cause of the looming judgment of God. God uses human instrumentation to carry out His determinations. Throughout Scripture, God uses the enemies of good to bring wrath upon those He is correcting.

A component of the arriving takeover by those filled with evil is society’s inability to recognize that sin has bloomed both because they allowed it and deserve the consequent corruption. You are perhaps intensely aware of the growing wickedness, but God blinds the eyes of those under His judgment, lest they repent and be saved.

“The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.” – Proverbs 16:4

Those used by God in judgment are later the worse recipient of His wrath for it. Though evil may have its day, there will be recompense. Nobody will tell you this stuff. God looses the forces of evil to judge His people, and when He has satisfied His wrath against them, He destroys those evil ones with even greater power.

God blinds the eyes of those upon which He will bring His manifest judgments. The problem in America is Americans! You are the problem. You want everybody else to stop sinning while you maintain yours! The New Religion in the American Church won’t tell you this lest they lose the mortgage money they pay to the Global Banking Cartel, the same people Jesus scourged. The New Religion would empty the “Churches” if they started telling the truth; nobody would believe it. This message, and it’s true, has never been popular. Nobody wants to acknowledge it. Blinded to the reality of the power of the Gospel, they stoned the prophets of old and hanged Jesus Christ on a cross for telling the truth.

God holds back the spirit of antichrist, and that’s the only way an upright civilization exists. God in His mercy sometimes waits for several generations. Still, eventually, God blinds even His own that have warranted the forces of darkness to come upon them that they may reap the whirlwind of their own creation.

So what can Christ’s men do? Plant seeds that later generations will nurture and grow. God’s word indicates that He will always have a people. We must prepare as many who will listen to lead the people back to God. If you know these facts, leave a pure remnant, trained, organized, and equipped to rebuild upon a blessed day that Holy God stays His hand, allowing the wrath and reign of evil no more.

Be the remnant planning, preparing, and training the young so that God may use your children’s children to re-institute just law under God. Perhaps they’ll hear of you, those crazy few who believed the promises of God and refused to let the teaching of Christ die on the vine. Be of those that made a covenant with God to never back down in the face of evil, purposing in your heart never to deny the Lord who bought you. Plant a seed, water, and nurture the next generation teaching them how to build a civil, just, and functioning nation under God. Be the solution, willing never to see the harvest reaped that you’re sowing in this life.

The devil would have no power except that which Christ allows, which means several things. The first is that Christ defeated the devil (John 12:31). Therefore, this must mean that the evil now growing manifest on a global scale is the will of God. And, thirdly if God has loosed evil upon us, it must mean that we deserve it. God is not a petty tyrant. He exacts that measure necessary to work His plan. Here’s the part that you will take the most exception to, since it appears that the judgment of God is upon us through human instrumentation, which is His most often chosen means, then we can correct the course that we’ve taken; to end the judgment. Christians ignore the solution because analyzing the problem is much easier than doing the hard work that Christ commands. “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” – John 14:15

Christians don’t even know what our weapon is and God’s chosen manner to employ it, nor do they know the person who accomplishes the work. Christians in America deny the power of the Word of God and deny that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation; they deny the power of the Holy Spirit as anything other than that annoyance to keeps telling them to stop watching porn, and always they seek to escape the Holy Spirit quenching Him all the day long and living no differently from the lost sinners all around them. They must; we can only recon, be blinded to the Gospel. Saved and blinded, is that even possible? Something is desperately wrong with American Christians.

The Pharisees were blinded, so they rejected the Gospel of Jesus Christ when He would have personally delivered them! And for denying Him, Christ destroyed their religion, country, and entire way of life and scattered them to the wind. And America is doing the same thing, rejecting the word of God, the Gospel as the power of salvation, and the ultimate ally, God Almighty. If only the American Churches would teach this lesson.

Judgment, it would seem, is arriving, and Christians blame the devil by his human agents, or democrats, or anybody else when it’s their fault for unbelief. America is awake to the problem and blind to the cause.

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind: it hath no stalk: the bud shall yield no meal: if so be it yield, the strangers shall swallow it up.” – Hosea 8:7

“But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold.” – Matthew 13:8

“IT seems to me that there is a higher joy in looking at a body of believers than that which arises from merely regarding them as saved. Not but what there is a great joy in salvation, a joy worthy to stir the angelic harps. Think of the Saviour’s agony in the ransom of every one of His redeemed, think of the work of the Holy Spirit in every renewed heart, think of the love of the Father as resting upon every one of the regenerate: I could not, if I took up my parable for a month, set forth all the mass of joy that is to be seen in a multitude of believers if we only look at what God has done for them, and promised to them, and will fulfil in them. But there is yet a wider field of thought, and my mind has been traversing it all this day,—the thought of the capacities of service contained in a numerous band of believers, the possibilities of blessing others which lie within the bosoms of regenerate persons. We must not think so much of what we already are as to forget what the Lord may accomplish by us for others. Here are the coals of fire, but who shall describe the conflagration which they may cause?

We ought to regard the Christian Church, not as a luxurious hostelry where Christian gentlemen may each one dwell at his ease in his own inn, but as a barracks in which soldiers are gathered together to be drilled and trained for war. We should regard the Christian Church, not as an association for mutual admiration and comfort, but as an army with banners, marching to the fray, to achieve victories for Christ, to storm the strongholds of the foe, and to add province after province to the Redeemer’s kingdom. We may view converted persons gathered into church-membership as so much wheat in the granary. God be thanked that it is there, and that so far the harvest has rewarded the sower; but far more soul-inspiring is the view when we regard those believers as each one likely to be made a living centre for the extension of the kingdom of Jesus, for then we see them sowing the fertile valleys of our land, and promising ere long to bring forth some thirty, some forty, some fifty, and some a hundredfold. The capacities of life are enormous, one becomes a thousand in a marvellously brief space. Within a short time, a few grains of wheat would suffice to seed the whole world, and a few true saints might suffice for the conversion of all nations. Only take that which comes of one ear, store it well, sow it all, again store it next year, and then sow it all again, and the multiplication almost exceeds the power of computation. Oh, that every Christian were thus year by year the Lord’s seed corn! If all the wheat in the world had perished except a single grain, it would not take many years to replenish all the earth, and sow her fields and plains; but in a far shorter time, in the power of the Holy Spirit, one Paul or one Peter would have evangelised all lands. View yourselves as grains of wheat predestinated to seed the world. That man lives grandly who is as earnest as if the very existence of Christianity depended upon himself, and is determined that to all men within his reach shall be made known the unsearchable riches of Christ.

If we whom Christ is pleased to use as His seed corn were only all scattered and sown as we ought to be, and were all to sprout and bring forth the green blade and the corn in the ear, what a harvest there would be! Again would it be fulfilled, “There shall be an handful of corn in the earth upon the top of the mountains;”—a very bad position for it,—”the fruit thereof shall shake like Lebanon: and they of the city shall flourish like grass of the earth.” May God grant us to feel some degree of the Holy Spirit’s quickening power while we talk together, not so much about what God has done for us as about what God may do by us, and how far we may put ourselves into a right position to be used by Him.”

[…]

“Ye are not under the law, but under grace:” hence you do not obey the will of God because you hope to earn heaven thereby, or dream of escaping from divine wrath by your own doings, but because there is a life in you which seeks after that which is holy, pure, right, and true, and cannot endure that which is evil. You are careful to maintain good works, not from either legal hopes or legal fears, but because there is a holy thing within you, born of God, which seeks, according to its nature, to do that which is pleasing to God.”

-Charles Spurgeon, The Soul Winner, excerpts Chapter 11, https://thesoulwinner.org/

Yes, what he said!

“The fruit of the righteous is a tree of life; and he that winneth souls is wise.” – Proverbs 11:30

We’ve long held that reliance on government is a religion. This piece with video explains it well.

Since the birth of totalitarianism in the 20th century much has been written about this form of rule and millions have read George Orwell’s depiction of it in the classic novel 1984. But what is often overlooked is that totalitarianism is more than just a political system, it is a fanatical religion, and this religion is spreading across the globe with a ferocity not seen since the mid-20th century. In this video we are going to investigate the religious nature of totalitarianism in the recognition that we must know our enemy if we are to defeat it. Shortly after fleeing Nazi Germany, the political scientist Waldemar Gurian wrote the following:

“The totalitarian movements that have arisen after the First World War are basically religious movements. Their aim is not only to change political and social institutions, but also to remodel the nature of man and society.”

Waldemar Gurian, The Totalitarian State

Note: The linked site has videos about religion. This post does not constitute agreement with their theology.

Many thousands in America profess baptism as the evidence of salvation and even the means of salvation. It breaks the heart. This problem exists across the former Bible Belt and elsewhere. When asking the reason for men’s hope of eternity, we run across those professing baptism as their knowledge of salvation. In response, we can ask, why did you decide to get baptized?

We’ll look at three sections of Scripture often misapplied to salvation by baptism.

Acts 2:14-40 is a sermon preached by Peter at Pentecost. We’ll start in verse 36.

“36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. 37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do? 38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

– Acts 2:36-38

Starting in verse 14, Peter has preached the Gospel under the power of the Holy Spirit. This sermon was among Jews who had taken the curse upon themselves and their children for the blood of Jesus Christ (Matthew 27:25).

Jesus gave himself to be a ransom for all. On the cross, Jesus gave up the Ghost having commended His spirit back to the Father. The Holy Spirit of God makes the lost sinner aware of their sin and the cross.

Arriving at verse 37 of Acts 2, it says they were “pricked in their heart.” They were convicted of their sin and came to believe that Jesus was the resurrected Christ of God. What does the Holy Spirit by Peter tell them to do? Repent. Surely they couldn’t go back and un-crucify our Lord. And anyway, He is alive! He was resurrected! Repentance is a change of mind by a change of heart upon conviction. What’s to repent about? Being convicted (pricked) in their heart by the Holy Spirit, they have to change their mind about who and what Jesus is. They were to repent of the greatest sin of all, rejecting Jesus Christ after having heard the Gospel.

Next, Mark 16:16: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.”

Please read it carefully. Belief is the first thing. If you believe in Jesus, you are commanded to get baptized. If you have been baptized (or any other ceremony, rite, or ritual) without belief, you are damned because of your unbelief. “…he that believeth not shall be damned.” The function of the ceremony doesn’t damn you, nor does it save, a man is damned by unbelief, condemned already (John 3:18), and nothing can save their soul but faith in Christ (John 6:47). If you believe in Jesus, you should be baptized as soon as is practicable.

In First Peter chapter 3, start reading in verse 12. Context is king. We’ll take a look at a few things beginning from verse 16.

“16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. 17 For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing. 18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19 By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20 Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. 21 The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.” – 1 Peter 3:16-22

In 1 Peter, there is bad news and good news. The bad news is, for those thinking a tub of water can save their soul, 1 Peter 3 is written to believers about first-century persecution of the church. And some may not like this, but 1 Peter is probably written to Jews (1 Peter 1:18), although we can and should make application from this section of Scripture where appropriate.

The Gospel of Jesus Christ is woven into this book of Scripture by the Holy Spirit at the hand of Peter. In Chapter 1, verses 18-19, we learn that the audience of this letter is redeemed, believers.

In our text, we learn they have a “good conscience” (1 Peter 3:16); although they are spoken of as evil by persecutors, they are spreading the “good conversation” (the Gospel and manner of living) in Christ. They’re sharing the good conversation, proclaiming Christ in word and deed by the Holy Spirit, while being falsely accused of some evil thing. Americans are so far from this, but your day is arriving. If you haven’t already, you’ll soon face the choice: go underground or take the abuse. We pray you to do the latter keeping a good conversation in Christ.

As many sections of Scripture do, Peter looks back at the flood because it is constructive for teaching.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:8. Two chapters before the flood Noah got saved the exact same way all men get saved, by the grace of Almighty God.

Although we believe the flood happened, the typology and symbolism of Noah and the flood are just that; not a mode of salvation but instruction in righteousness, lessons in His grace, and forgiveness toward those that love Him and keep His commandments. And well understood is the judgment against every living thing for all the world had turned to sin and violence (Genesis 6:11-13) rejecting Holy God. Noah, having been saved by the grace of God (Genesis 6:8), being a preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5), the world was overflown by the flood as the judgment of God against the wicked. Those at the flood had told God to depart and that He couldn’t do anything for them; they had made themselves a god, condemning themselves to darkness and eternal death.

Here is 1 Peter 3:20-21 (no markings): “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ” – 1 Peter 3:20-21

Even if you say, wrongly, that Noah is the like figure and not the overflowing of water, Noah had already been saved by the grace of God before the flood. They were saved as a practical matter, not spiritual salvation, by having a boat. The flood buried the sins of that whole world, so too, the sins of the believer are symbolically (a like figure) buried with Christ in baptism (Colossians 2:12). Having been forgiven of our sin and saved by Jesus Christ, baptism is (the answer of a good conscience toward God); baptism is a figure of our salvation representing the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ for the believer.

You are in trouble if you’re relying on a tub of water to get you into the final resurrected estate. We beg of you not to rely on water baptism for salvation. Rely upon the earnest of the promise of the resurrection, which is the Holy Spirit in the heart and soul of the believer. Baptism is in response to a “good conscience toward God.” We’re sure the lost sinner is condemned for eternity (Romans 8:1), as in the days before the flood; what conscience does a lost man have toward God?

“Not the putting away of the filth of the flesh”!!! Salvation is not by quitting sin. You are a sinner; you can’t stop your own corruption, although the saved believer should try to live upright before God, seeking forgiveness all the day long, praying to holy God to deliver us from our desire to sin! Salvation is of the soul; the resurrection by the Spirit now is also a type of the resurrection of a new glorified (sinless) body.

“Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like [the believers baptism is a figure, type, or symbol] as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.” – Romans 6:4

“that like” as Christ was buried into death and raised from the dead, baptism is a ceremony representing our burial (the old sinful dead man) with Christ and resurrection into a new spiritual life as His disciple. Baptism is a serious thing and a great celebration. It’s a first work of obedience toward Christ that God will honor and use to grow the newly converted.

This post is about the doctrine of salvation by grace, the hope being that it will help you who are assuming baptism is sufficient for salvation. Call upon the Holy One and be saved. And it may help you, who, as a witness for Jesus Christ, must account for the need of grace through faith to those souls putting their eternal hope in a ritual or rite with water. As the Lord’s Table does not save, neither does baptism; these are ordinances of observance for believers in the New Covenant.

“Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Apparently, that means pornography everywhere, Islam co-equal with Christ, sodomites dominating public policy, and communistic fascism as the form of government and society.

Christiandom is so overrun with easternism that Christ’s people have lost knowledge of what Christianity is. In easternism, yin and yang exist, and the living soul ostensibly interacts in every aspect of life, aware they should choose the good thing in what they are doing.

Christians in the west are living the same way. They move within work, home, entertainment, government, business, culture, and other spheres of life, accepting the evil, thankful for Christ perhaps but not enough to know that all aspects of creation are His. Christians have authority in these realms but have, in an eastern way, decided to accept being with the evil, never trying to change those environments by their works for Christ.

Communists fully expect their converts to change everything about themselves and take over every aspect of life on earth. So too, the Musselman is expected to radically transform and conquer everything in their path. Even “atheists” demanding separation of church and state get it; they are set for the conquest of the government sector and, through its law, imposing their religion on the whole country.

Only modern Christianity expects nothing of its “adherents” but an occasional visit to a corporate location for a pop phycology pep talk and leave a check – thanks for coming. Not even easternism is this dilapidatedly lame and willfully ineffectual. Christians are the only ones who deny the notion of operating and dominating all domains of life and society, and they are wrong; that’s not what the Bible teaches or what Christ said.

Communism, Islam, and atheism are frauds of Christ’s kingdom power on earth. The church has completely lost the mandate given to the disciples and retaken by the reformation. Christ expects you to be fully converted to the way, everything about you changing from the heart outward. And under His commission, we are to teach all people of every nation to obey Him. The scriptures are about theological penetration into the whole of society that you might not sin against God, to further that it may go well with you in the land.

Christians shouldn’t care what the Supreme Court says. They are part of the communist regime that claims false rule over Christ’s domain. Christ’s people shouldn’t care what the left thinks about the separation of church and state. Those words are not in the Scriptures.

Only Christians with an actual mandate from the creator Himself, written instruction on how to carry it out, and the indwelling Holy Spirit to lend weight and power to the mission have authority to take every domain on earth for their King. Christians are supposed to be priests and kings. The kings of this world are supposed to be Christ’s men doing His good pleasure. The church is supposed to take over the state, and since Christ’s men aren’t doing it, the devil’s minions will.

There is no such thing as separation of church and state. (Here, we use the word religion broadly, meaning belief system.) There can’t be. Whatever the prevailing religion a majority of society holds, even entertainmentism as Americans today have, will permeate everything in that society. Society is made up of the people; what lives in their heart of hearts is that society’s religion and every aspect of that society begins to reflect the belief system. The government is people (insert Soylent Green joke); they have the prevailing faith system whether anybody likes it or not. That religion is supposed to be Christian, according to God Almighty.