CREATURE VERSUS CREATOR

CHAPTER 15

NIGHTMARE VERSUS DREAM

In the first 3 chapters of this book, my main goal was to preach against the sin of rising, the first and the most prominent sin among the human race. The creature rising up out of his Creator-ordained estate is the root sin from which all other sins stem and grow. Thus I purposely did not mention much about the world (the devil’s kingdom) in those first 3 chapters, striving to keep the spotlight sharply focused on the sin of rising. From Chapter 4 on, with Almighty God’s Help, I have preached as hard as I can against the horrible, sinful, evil, and destructive kingdom of the devil, which is “the world” that our God clearly commands us not to love. As best I can discern, all wrongful, sinful rising done by the human creature in this life on earth is done inside Satan’s kingdom, the world. The “world” is most destructive to God’s precious, created human race. And the more intensely any human creature sets himself on rising, the more destruction he brings upon himself and also upon the entire human race. So I earnestly pray that all you have read from Chapter 4 on, has taught you from God many important things you need to know about the “world.” I pray fervently for the Holy Spirit to thoroughly convince you of the importance of the truths that are in this book. Please read the next 4 paragraphs ever so carefully and earnestly pray the prayers amongst them while listening to what God’s Holy Spirit speaks to you about what I write in them. These matters are most pertinent and important to you as you choose what to live for in this life, and thus what you will be judged for when you soon meet Almighty God in Judgment.

Many Christians believe that the higher a Christian can rise (in the world, in worldly status) the more beneficial and useful that high status makes a Christian to the cause of Christ. Many Christians believe that the more money a Christian has, the more beneficial and useful that money makes that believer to the cause of Christ. Thus there are many preachers who boldly preach and promote “prosperity” and “rising” as major themes in their preaching and teaching.

It is true that if a Christian possesses resources and powers such as wealth and status, he or she then has them available to use for God and for good. Also, each of us Christians should surrender our ALL, all we are and all we possess, to our Lord to be used as He guides and directs us to use it. BUT we Christians should NEVER pursue the things of the world (money, status, etc.) with that purpose in mind (to use them for God and for “good”). We should never pursue the things of the world for ANY reason. (And always bear in mind that “the things that are in the world” also include intangible things such as pride, social status, and worldly status.)

“Almighty God, please set me totally straight on the things written in these last 2 paragraphs. Teach me every bit of Divine Truth that is written there and help me to fully believe that Truth that is from Thee. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

To pursue the things of the world (for any reason, no matter how “good” it may seem to be) is to sinfully disobey several clear and grave commands from our Creator. “Labour not to be rich: cease from thy own wisdom.” (Proverbs 23:4) Think long and seriously on those 2 most important commands in that short Scripture and upon their relationship to each other. Here, God clearly forbids us to labor for earthly riches. He then commands us to cease from our own wisdom. On first thought, those 2 short commands in that verse may appear to be unrelated. But I believe God paired them up because they are closely related. I firmly believe that it is our “own wisdom” that tells us to seek for and to chase after worldly wealth and status for the “good” we can do with it. We just naturally think (in our own wisdom) that we could do so much more good if only we had more wealth and power with which to do it. But God commands us to cease from that wisdom of our own.

“Heavenly Father, please help me to labour not to be rich, just as Thou commandest me to do. Please help me to cease from my own wisdom as Thou commandest me to do. Please help me to always walk in the Spirit and not in the flesh, in order for Thy Holy Spirit to always reveal to me exactly what thoughts and desires arise from my own wisdom. Please save me from living according to my own wisdom. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“And seekest thou great things for thyself? seek them not.” (Jeremiah 45:5) Our Creator God gives us absolutely NO permission for any reason at all to set our hearts on rising, seeking great things for ourselves. Almighty God most clearly forbids us from seeking great things for ourselves. Instead, we are to seek to decrease and are to totally leave any and all “promoting” of our beings to our Creator. To set one’s heart on rising, gaining wealth, worldly status, and such, is to set one’s heart on SELF DESTRUCTION. May God help you to fully believe that. For Christians to believe that rising up in the world and gaining worldly wealth better equips them to be of benefit in service to God, and for preachers, Christian leaders (and any other Christian) to proclaim and promote such philosophy cannot help but cause Christians to grow to love the world more and to grow to love the things that are in the world more, and to serve mammon more and to serve God less, if they listen to and come to believe that sinful, worldly philosophy of God’s arch enemy the devil, no matter what “great” Christian is preaching it!

“Lord God, please confirm the truth of these writings to me and instill within me the grave importance of these truths. Help me not to seek great things for myself. Save me from setting my heart on rising. Help me to truly desire to decrease. Please have mercy on me and save me from the folly and destruction that comes from disobeying Thy clear, Scriptural command quoted in that previous paragraph. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“The higher status in the world a Christian achieves and the more money a Christian gains, the more value he is to the cause of Christ.” Tragically, many Christians think like that. Basically that is wrong thinking. Basically what happens is that person and his or her descendents just go straight to the devil due to the influence of the evil power of that money and worldly status in their lives. But I see that mindset growing more prevalent with passing time among Christians and their leaders, especially Christian educators. I believe that the reason Christians think like this above statement in quotation marks is because they love the world, and especially because they love money and the things they can accomplish (even in God’s work) by using mammon. And thus they naturally come to set their hearts on things they can accomplish (for God) by using money. They literally build their “ministry” and all its grand, impressive, physical facilities on mammon. Thus the more mammon given to their “ministry” the bigger they can build that empire of theirs and thus the more they can boast of it. So it becomes a simple math equation to them. “The more money I gain, the greater I can make my ministry.” Thus, such preachers promote the “world” to their listeners, with one goal being for those listeners to gain more of the world (mammon) and then give more of that mammon into those preachers’ coffers. Their desire for mammon and their public appeals for money rise to the forefront, and what a horrible, shameful, disgusting testimony that becomes to everyone one (lost and saved alike) who hears and sees it. It shamefully robs God of the Great Glory due to Him. What sinful rising all that is. I firmly believe it to be most detrimental to the cause of Christ. And how tragic it is to see so many Christians deceived into thinking like that, especially Christian leaders. Because those leaders then put forth great efforts to lead all the flock they have influence upon, in that worldly direction. It is the story of the blind leading the blind and they all soon fall into a great ditch, and great is the fall thereof. Cry out to God to save you from being deceived by such error and to save you from being caught up in it and living it.

“Lord Jesus, please help me to think seriously on these things while carefully listening to what The Holy Spirit speaks to me about them. Right now, I fully open my heart to Thy Holy Spirit for Thee to have free reign to teach me and to convince me concerning these matters. Please help me to listen most attentively to Thy Voice, Lord. Please help me to do right in these matters and to call on other people to do right regarding them, as Thou leadest me to do. I pray this for all other people also. Save us all from the devil and his world. Amen.”

“Love not the world”

Please read the following quotes from a preacher’s sermon promoting rising, worldly status, and such as good and necessary things for Christian believers in their service to God. This was preached about 1980 by the well-known pastor and Christian educator in Lynchburg, Virginia who departed this earthly life in 2007.

“We want to train the best preachers in the world, but we also…want to train the best educators in the world…it is our second largest major…We not only want to train church planters, evangelists, missionaries, pastors, school teachers, principals and superintendents, but we wanted to train here…Scientists who could become Nobel laureates. Scientist who could go into medicine, into every area of science, and make a contribution from within…We wanted to train the artists, the musicians, the athletes. We had a dream to train young champions for Christ…and I am not intending to leave out any field…in every discipline, in every area, to go out and not just to compete, but to excel among their peers…But our calling is not only to have, as we do in our School of Religion, the Bible emphasis, but the championship emphasis in every discipline…We have no intention of being second rate because we are Christian. We have the full intention, as we have in the past, of putting our athletes off our fields and onto major league fields in every sport…Why not? Why should we be anything less than everything God wants us to be? And if it’s Christian, it ought to be better! That’s our dream!…What a dream! What a dream!”

WHAT A NIGHTMARE! At the beginning of Chapter 4 of this book, when I started preaching against the devil’s kingdom (the world), I quoted 3 direly important Scriptures that speak against “the world.” I will quote them again now for you to examine the above “preaching” in light of these eternal Scriptures from God.

“Heavenly Father, please help me to carefully examine the above quoted “preaching” in the Perfect Light of all Thine Scriptures. Please save me from being deceived by man, no matter how great a preacher he is. Save me from being deceived by my own self. And save me from being deceived by the ruler of this present world, the devil. Please cause me to fully realize just how weighty, grave, and eternally important are these matters I am reading of here. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the father is not in him.” (I John 2:15)

“Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.” (James 4:4)

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this. To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)

“Almighty God in Heaven, I now cry out to Thee, begging Thee to teach me the fullness of the meaning of the 3 Scriptures quoted above. Teach me their grave importance personally to me. Teach me clearly just how they relate to all the things that are in my daily life and that are in the world all around me that I am exposed to daily. I pray this for all other people also. Heavenly Father, for the Lord Jesus Christ’s Name’s sake, please save us all from the devil’s world. I most earnestly and humbly pray this in my Lord’s Name. Amen.”

“Be not deceived”

Possibly you believe that the things that preacher promoted in that quote are good and right in the Sight of Almighty God and are not the things of the world spoken against in these 3 Scriptures I just quoted. If you believe that, you need to honestly ask your Creator God if you are deceived about that. It is most detrimental, dangerous, destructive, and deadly for any human creature to be deceived concerning any weighty, spiritual, eternal matters. May God save us all from falsehood, lies, and deception.

“Be not deceived.” (Galatians 6:7) Several other Scriptures throughout the Bible clearly and strongly warn us not to be deceived. Thus you cannot plead ignorance and claim that you were not warned when the time comes that you lamely try to defend your deception.

“Almighty God, please save me from being deceived. Please save me from all falsehood, lies, and deception. Teach me just how harmful and detrimental it is for me to be deceived concerning any spiritual matters. Help me to always walk in the Spirit, to walk in the Marvelous Light of Thy Scriptures, constantly listening as Thy Holy Spirit teaches me about, warns me against, and leads me away from all the cunning enticements, devices, and snares of the devil and his evil world. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“Let no man deceive you.” (II Thessalonians 2:3)

“Heavenly Father, please save me from being deceived by any other person. Set a Holy guard before me against any deception other people may bring my way. Help me to always carefully and prayerfully compare all of man’s much teaching and preaching to Thy Holy Scriptures in order to discern whether or not what man says to me is true. I pray that all other people will do this also. Amen.”

“Let no man deceive himself.” (I Corinthians 3:18)

“Lord God, please save me from deceiving mine own self. Help me to fully believe that my own heart is deceitful and wicked above all things and that I cannot know and understand my own heart by my own ability only. So I ask Thee to have mercy on me and to save me from self-deception. Help me to totally yield myself to Thee for Thy Holy Spirit to continually reveal to me the ways I go about deceiving mine own self. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Constantly bear in mind those 3 Scriptural commands I just listed, God warning and commanding us to not be deceived in any way, by any thing, any one, even by our own self. Listen closely to me now as I tell you something most direly important and dangerous about deception. When people set themselves against God’s Eternal Truth in the Holy Bible, and instead choose to love and embrace falsehood and deceit, and then take on the life task of teaching and proclaiming that falsehood and deceit to others, then in turn Almighty God is known to curse such people by deceiving them Himself. What an awful fate to have that happen to you. You do not want that to be your fate. “And if the prophet be deceived when he hath spoken a thing, I the Lord have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” (Ezekiel 14:9)

“Almighty God in Heaven, please have mercy on me. Please guard over my life to save me from and to prevent me from ever rejecting any of Thy Truth in Thy Holy Bible and instead embracing falsehood and deceit. Please help me to know what a fearful thing it would be for Thee to reject me and to then curse me by deceiving me Thyself. I pray this for all other people also. Have mercy on us all, Lord. Please open our blind eyes to any and all deception in our lives, and save us from it. Help us to repent of and forsake all deception, falsehood, and lies. Help us Christian believers to truly glory in Thy Truth. Amen.”

The Lord God not only deceived the prophet who turned himself to falsehood. But look at what else the Lord God also promises to do to that prophet. “I will stretch out my hand upon him, and will destroy him from the midst of my people Israel.” Don’t you dare let your own wicked heart and the devil team up to convince you that it is wrong for Almighty God to deceive a prophet Himself, and then turn right around and destroy that prophet because he is deceived. The Lord God never does any wrong. That prophet is the one who did wrong by first embracing falsehood and deceit by his own free will and choice. Our Creator God is always right. Anytime there is wrong, it is ALWAYS on the part of the creature. Don’t you dare to ever forget that.

“Lord God, please help me to never lose sight of Thy Perfection, Holiness, and Righteousness. As I read of Thy Severe Punishments in the Holy Bible, please save me from ever finding fault with them. Help me to always acknowledge that we rebellious creatures have done wrong and thus we justly deserve what punishment Thou doest mete out to us. Please have mercy on each of us and guide us into right and Truth. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Listen to me, my friend! The Holy Bible clearly teaches and warns us that our Creator God is NOT a Being to be trifled with! With God as My Helper, my purpose in writing this book is to tell you exactly in what ways we sinful, rebellious human creatures are trifling with our Creator God by rebelliously rising up against Him, loving the world and the things of the world, and by chasing after them, promoting them, and such, to our own destruction. If you do not want to perish, then you must heed Almighty God. Many Christians in both high and low positions promote these sinful, rebellious actions of rising in the world as being good and noble things, not only for everyone to do, but also for everyone to set their hearts and affections on doing to the utmost. I believe such people are terribly deceived. They deceived their own selves. They let other people deceive them. They allowed the devil and his attractive, glittering kingdom (the world) to deceive them. And somewhere along that progressive line of rebellion, their Creator God got fed up with their rebellious fighting against Him, so Almighty God cursed them by deceiving them Himself. Glory be to Almighty God in the Highest for the Great and Glorious Things He hath done! What a tragic lot has fallen upon those deceived souls. My friend, I warn you not to trifle with your Almighty Creator God! Let us cry out to God to save us from falling into the same tragic pit with those deceived people. Because the final end of all this sinful rising is God destroying all those sinful, rebellious human creatures that rise up to war against their Creator God and who embrace falsehood and deceit, and in turn thereby get deceived themselves. You do not want that to be your fate.

“Almighty God, I do cry out to Thee, begging Thee to please have mercy on me and to please save me from all deception. Help me to fully desire to do right in all matters. Help me to hate and reject all falsehood and deception and to fervently love and embrace all Thy Truth. Help me to die to self and to die to all selfish desires. Help me to serve Thee with fear and trembling. Help me to truly fear Thee and to zealously guard myself against rebellion against Thee that would cause Thee to destroy me. I pray this for all other people also. Please have mercy on us all, Lord. Amen.”

This well-known preacher whom I have quoted, I observed his “ministry” for over 30 years. I perceived that he fervently loved rising in the devil’s world. I perceived that he loved much of the world and many of the things in the world. I also perceived that he loved money and loved the many things he could achieve by using money. Masses of people (including me) were deeply repulsed by his constant appeals to the masses for money. Listening to his preaching for more than 3 decades, I heard him preach things that caused me to believe that he was gravely mistaken and deceived regarding various important spiritual principles. “If a Christian will just win souls to the Lord, then God will keep him right concerning his doctrine.” (Many years ago I read such a statement in his preaching. I do not have it available to view now, so I may not have quoted it exactly.) But a Christian believer is deceived if he believes that just because he does right in one area, that will insure that he does no wrong in any other area. That is a deceived mindset that essentially says, “If I do some right, then that ensures me that I will not do any wrong.” Many young Christians heard him preach that statement I quoted above and likely several among them were deceived by it and were influenced to make their life’s goal into one of building all they can onto the devil’s kingdom.

“The deceived and the deceiver are his.” (Job 12:16) Neither the deceived creature nor the deceiver can escape the deadly results of their deception. Neither can they escape God’s punishment that will of a certainty fall upon their deception. Whatever you do, you do not want to stand before the Judgment Bar of Almighty God as a deceiver or as a deceived person.

“Lord God, reveal to me just what a fearful thing it would be to face Thee in Judgment as a deceiver or as a deceived person. Please save me from being a deceiver and from being deceived by self, the devil, or by other people. Please help me to hate deceit and to do right in order not to be deceived by Almighty God. I pray this for all other people also. I especially pray this for Thy preachers and Bible teachers. Please guard them against being deceived and then teaching that deception and falsehood to other eternal souls. Amen.”

“A friend of the world is the enemy of God”

Almighty God spoke the above words written in red, not me. That is a most strong and fearful Scripture. Prayerfully striving to speak only that which is from God, I will now preach about (preach against) what that preacher preached. Before Almighty God in Heaven, I believe I can honestly say I have no fleshly desire to speak against another Christian believer, especially a fellow preacher. I trust I have an unction from God to preach the following and I pray that I am only saying that which God would have me to say, because the church of Christ needs to be clearly warned against any and all falsehood and deception being promoted inside it.

“We want to train the best preachers in the world.” Then please train them to decrease and to allow Christ to increase in their lives. Please train them to love not the world and to love not the things that are in the world, because preachers who love the world are some of the worst preachers in the world. Please train them to keep themselves unspotted from the world. Please train them not to be spiritual adulterers. Please train them not to be at enmity with God by friendship of the world. Please train them not to make themselves an enemy of God by being a friend of the world. Please train them to believe, love, obey, preach, and teach ALL of God’s Holy Bible. Please train them to not be deceived by self, man, or God.

“Almighty God, please help me to listen ever so well, and to listen for all eternity to these things that Brother Richard is saying here. I pray this for all other people on earth also. We all need to know our Creator God to the fullest extent possible in this life on earth. Please draw us all to Thee, Lord, and help us to truly know Thee. Amen.”

“But we also…want to…” And then follows revelations from a divided heart and divided mind inside one Christian believer’s being. It reveals to us a Christian who wants to do some things (possibly many things) that are right in the Sight of God and are profitable to the cause of Christ. But it also reveals a heart that loves the world. I believe his statements also reveal a heart deceived into believing that some things of the world are things of God. I will point that out as I speak about his statements, because that is most tragic deception. Relegating things of the devil and things of the world to be things of God robs God of so much glory. May God open our blind eyes to behold clearly just what a hideous sin this is.

“Heavenly Father, please guard me against all deception. Please save me from being deceived into thinking that things of the world are things of God. Reveal to me just how greatly that robs Thee of Glory that we human creatures were created to give unto Thee. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

His stated dream is clearly one of getting Christians to strive to the fullest to outdo the devil’s crowd (people of the world) in rising up like Lucifer did and in rising up like the vast majority of the lost human race is now striving to do. His dream is an all out effort to head Christians in the exact opposite direction from the direction God clearly commands us to go; decreasing instead of increasing (John 3:30) and seeking to be the least among men (Matthew 11:11). Tragically, many Christians (including their preachers) are dreaming dreams like that preacher dreamed. In general they have come to believe that it is the most effective way to accomplish the “Christian” work God desires we do on this earth. I believe they are terribly deceived. “Let’s show the world that Christians are just as capable as they are in rising up and becoming great people. Let’s show the devil’s world that believers are not destined to be poor, lowly, nobody, pilgrims and strangers while on this earth. That will make Christianity more appealing to lost people and thus entice them to become Christians.” Such a dream is highly appealing to “our own thinking” and to the wisdom that comes only from our degenerate human mind. “Cease from thine own wisdom.” Just look at how such thinking plainly goes against what is recorded in the Holy Bible.

Simply compare such thinking to Christ’s Perfect Example while He lived on this earth. As our Lord walked this earth, He never promoted such nor did He use such methods. He did not instruct any believer to do so. His disciples did not use such methods. Neither did the local churches in the New Testament. This dream is contrary to the way Christ instructed us to spread the Gospel. In Luke 14, Christ told about the man preparing a great supper and inviting many people to attend. When they refused the invitation because they were interested in other things, no enhancing changes were made in the supper or in the messengers carrying the invitation to make it more appealing to those rejecters. Instead, the invitation was then extended to a different kind of people, more lowly people.

“So that servant came, and shewed his lord these things. Then the master of the house being angry said to his servant, Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in hither the poor, and the maimed, and the halt, and the blind.” (Luke 14:21) The master made no changes in attempting to accommodate those “great” people who refused the invitation. Rather, he immediately ceased dealing with them. By all means, you always keep that spiritual truth in mind. Almighty God soon ceases to deal with and to invite unto Him those rebellious creatures that refuse to come unto Him on His own terms. “For I say unto you, That none of those men which were bidden shall taste of my supper.” (Verse 24)

We believers are duty bound to proclaim the words of the Holy Bible to each and every human creature we possibly can without discriminating as we spread God’s words. But several Scriptures tell us that few wealthy and few highly risen people will receive God’s message to them. Getting the Gospel to every person should be a primary goal of ours. Every human creature should have the opportunity to hear it and then he can choose what to do in relation to it. Next, after preaching to every creature, we should then concentrate on working the fertile soil, the souls who are responsive to the plain, undecorated Gospel message when they hear it. Typically this is the poor, the low class, the down and out, people with low mental ability, the maimed, the halt, the blind, and any such people who do not rise up high in the world. This Scripture in Luke 14, along with other Scriptures, tells us that we can expect to reap the most abundant harvest among such lowly people. We should always keep that in mind as we set our priorities as to how we spend our energies, time, and resources in our labour of love in our Lord’s field of the harvest of human souls. Also keep in mind that to decrease the number of lowly people by striving to raise many of them up to higher worldly status, just naturally decreases the number of human souls who are interested in listening to spiritual things. “And the common people heard him gladly.” (Mark 12:37) Erase the common people from the face of the earth by raising them up to high, worldly status, and you eliminate the people who will hear the Lord Jesus gladly.

“Almighty God, please instruct me and guide me into Thy Perfect Will concerning this. Help me to ever keep in mind how limited I am in time, energy, and physical resources. By Thy Unlimited Power, please keep me in Thy Perfect Will so as for me to expend myself most wisely in labouring for Thee during my ever so short life here on this earth. Help me to see that raising people up in worldly status decreases the number of souls interested in spiritual things. Save us Christians from doing that grave damage to Thy human race here on earth. I pray that all other people will do right in these matters also. Make our hearts one with Thy Heart, O Lord, I pray. Amen.”

Our Lord God never instructs us to sprinkle the glitter of the world onto the Gospel in an attempt to make it more appealing to Christ rejecters set on rising up in the devil’s kingdom. Our Lord never instructs us to strive to rise up highly in the world ourselves in order to have more appeal to the devil’s world as we serve our Lord.

“Heavenly Father, please show me the profound importance of the truth in that last paragraph, and show me exactly what I should do regarding that truth. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Throughout the entire Bible, we see that the majority of the people who believed on God (in any time and generation) were poor and lowly. The New Testament clearly teaches that Christ glories in His body of believers being composed of such people. Therefore we believers greatly dishonour our Lord when we have a goal of making the church of Christ attractive to the world by turning its members into people who have risen up highly in the devil’s world. God forbid that we rob Him of the glory due to Him by doing that.

“Heavenly Father, please send Thy Holy Spirit to confirm in my heart the truth of the things I am reading here. Please teach me Thy Perfect Truth concerning these weighty eternal matters Brother Richard is preaching. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Look around you at the world that has completely shut Christ out and you should be able to quickly discern the reason why they have no room for Him. They have enthusicially chosen the god of Self and are striving with all their might to promote their god of Self by rising up in the world as highly as possible. They are also living to enjoy the things of the world to the fullest extent possible, living for the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life. Their Creator calls on them to repent, to come down, to humble and to abase self, to crucify self, to decrease, and to put self under subjection to the God Who made them. But when preachers and the church have a goal of raising up Christians just as highly as the Christ rejecting devil’s children, that testifies to the world that we also approve of worshipping and serving this god of Self. Please ask God to show you how awful this sin is in His Sight.

“Please show me just how sinful that is, Lord Jesus. Please show me how greatly it displeases Thee. Please teach these important truths to all other people also, and save us all from the terrible sin of worshipping Self, the most prominent sin in Thy creation. Amen.”

By striving to rise up as highly as we possibly can, we Christian believers practically tell the world (the devil’s crowd) that they actually do not have to change gods to become Christians. “Come on, world, and do just as we are doing. Become a Christian by receiving Christ. Then continue your present lifestyle of putting every effort into rising up and making Self into the greatest god possible.” Creator God has only one enemy, the creature. Along that line, I believe that Christianity has a far greater and more dangerous enemy than the sin that results from Christians rising; that enemy being “Self” as it is put foremost in Christians’ lives. That is the starting place for most all sin in anyone’s life. The false god most capable of harming the church of Christ is the god of Self on the throne in believers’ lives. And so many spiritually blind Christians are deceived into believing that it is beneficial to the cause of Christ to raise up this idol god of Self as highly as possible. May God be ever so merciful and gracious to us to cause us to see the Light and to repent of this hideous sin of Self-worship.

“Almighty God, please have mercy on us and do just that. Please shine Thy Light into our darkened hearts, and by that Light please reveal to us the vast error of our ways and turn us to Thee in repentance. Cause us to cease warring against Thee. Cause us to cease being Thine enemies. Teach us how to truly be Thy friends. Teach us how to truly glorify Thee as Thou created us to do. Amen.”

How tragic that many Christians are embracing a wave of “selfism” coming from the pits of Hell and sweeping thru the body of Christ. Christians are attentively listening to deceiving preachers as they proclaim, “You must love yourself and work on improving your self image.” (Sinful, idolatrous, self worship.) These deceivers call on you to stand or sit before a large mirror, point to your image in that mirror, and proclaim to that image, “You are beautiful. You are someone great. You can accomplish anything you desire to do.” Pure, unadulterated idolatry, such Self-worship is. People of the world (children of the devil) have always worshipped this idol (Self) in masses. But in this end-time age, Christians are also coming to worship this idol in mass. And instead of crying out against this gross idolatry, many preachers are fervently calling on Christians to get on the bandwagon and to exert every effort possible to rise up as highly as they possibly can. And God is soon to speak to us severely in His Wrath about it.

“Almighty God, please save us from the idolatry of worshipping Self. Please give us all a most keen awareness and recognition of this awful sin. Please help all of us Christian believers to truly repent of and forsake this sin, for Thy Great Name’s sake. Amen.”

“The tree of the knowledge of good and evil”

“But we also…want to train the best educators in the world…it is our second greatest major.” One of his firstly stated goals was to train the best preachers in the world. And as the church plunges headlong into the world, it begins to just mainly give lip service to such true goals of the church. In reality, such genuine work of the church steadily ceases to be carried on by these Christians intent on rising. Now please think carefully on what he states that he majors on second to training preachers; education (the knowledge of good and evil). When the serpent enticed Eve to look on the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 3:6), how appealing that tree was to her because it was a tree to be desired to make one wise. No other tree in the Garden had that appeal. Apparently that appeal, along with the serpent’s deception and Eve’s own heart’s deception, readily overcame Eve’s holy fear of her Almighty Creator, and she immediately fell.

Now, compare present-day Christians with Eve, considering that preacher’s stated goals in the last paragraph. We Christians, first and foremost, desire to be Christians because we do not want to be tormented in Hell fire for all eternity. We definitely want fire insurance. Then, typically, (after trusting in Christ and becoming assured that we are eternally saved from Hell fire without fail), what is our second goal in life? To eat all the knowledge of good and evil possible for the purpose of equipping us to rise up as highly as we possibly can in the devil’s kingdom, the world, enabling us to enjoy as much of the world and as many of the things of the world as possible, because we dearly love the world and dearly love the things that are in the world. May God open our eyes to see the truth of that, and may He save us from that sin and its following destruction.

“Lord God, please save me from being deceived. Please cause me to know and to understand exactly what motivates me to do the things I do with my life. Please help me to cease all endeavors that are not pleasing to Thee. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“Brother Richard, these many, simple prayers are redundant and boring.” Well, I put them in here, praying that God will lead many people who have never heard anything at all from God’s Holy Bible to see them. And I pray that God will cause such people to pray these prayers from a simple, pure, and honest heart, calling on God in simple faith to work those marvelous things into their own lives and in the lives of all the people in the world. Only a simple minded person would have faith to pray something like that for all people, and to “pray without ceasing” as these little prayers appear so regularly in this preaching of mine. Praying simple, all-inclusive prayers like that is likely to seem boring and useless to people who have risen very highly and therefore have moved on to “greater and more important” things to do with their great lives. “I must decrease.”

“Almighty God, please teach me exactly what I should learn from that last paragraph. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

“I will exalt my throne above the stars of God”

“We not only want to train church planters, evangelists, missionaries, pastors, school teachers, principals and superintendents, but we wanted to train scientists here. Scientists who could become Nobel laureates. Scientists who could go into medicine, into every area of science, and make a contribution from within…We wanted to train the artists, the musicians, the athletes.” Seriously consider just exactly what is the nature of the contributions such people listed above make to mankind. Basically, they raise mankind up. They elevate the human creature and cause him to increase.

“But Brother Richard, he mentioned the field of medicine. People in that field help mankind so much.” Luke in the New Testament was called “the beloved physician.” (Colossians 4:14) So, likely God is not basically against the role of old-fashioned physicians. But Scriptures clearly bear out just how jealous our God is of people trusting in physicians first and foremost instead of trusting in God for their physical well being. “And Asa in the thirty and ninth year of his reign was diseased in his feet, until his disease was exceeding great: yet in his disease he sought not to the Lord, but to the physicians.” (II Chronicles 16:12) I can clearly see God’s jealousy revealed there. And presently, modern medicine is rapidly becoming a most powerful and authoritative god that increasingly does wrong to the human race, and even Christians quickly run to it first and foremost without any thought of first calling on God for healing and help. (Near the end of Chapter 1, I spoke against the field of medicine in a little more depth.)

“Scientists who could become Nobel laureates.” He not only wants to train scientists to do well in fields that he believes benefit mankind. But he also wants to train them to rise up higher than anyone else in their field. “What is wrong with that, Brother Richard?” That desire basically stems from selfish, sinful, human pride. Rising is the starting point of each and every sinful act of rebellion of any creature against his Creator God. Desiring to rise up to the highest point possible, above all other human competitors is the apex of that sin of rising. May God clearly set each of us human creatures straight on that and show us the importance of the Holy Scripture in John 3:30. “He must increase, but I must decrease.”

“Heavenly Father, please show to me just exactly what truth of Thine is contained in what Brother Richard has written here. I pray that Thou wouldest show that truth to everyone everywhere. Amen.”

Secular science is predominately of the world, the devil’s kingdom. So is the field of art. (He mentions training the artists.) He mentioned training the musicians. Apart from Christian believers singing praise to God, most of the field of music is of the devil’s kingdom, coming directly from Satan. Likely all musical instruments that require electricity to make their sounds are “things of the world” that God commands us not to love. In promoting music and art in general, I believe this preacher is promoting the devil’s kingdom, the world. And I ask, does he believe that it is a thing of God? Next he clearly states that he wants to train the athletes. I believe that organized, competitive athletics all originate in the world, the devil’s kingdom. And as I closely listen to him here, I ponder; does he relegate them to being things of God? It sure does sound like he does.

Now just as soon as he mentions “athletes,” watch him go right on into talking about training “champions,” people who will excel above anyone else in their field, thereby rising up to be recognized and hailed by the entire human race as having become the “greatest.” “We had a dream to train young champions for Christ—and I am not intending to leave out any field—in every discipline, in every area, to go out and not just to compete, but to excel among their peers.” He does not intend to leave out any field. And most of those fields lie in the domain of the devil’s kingdom, the world. Does he relegate them to be things of God? And he clearly states that the ones whom he trains to compete in sports, he is not doing it for the purpose of them playing sports in order to have a relaxing, pleasant, recreational pastime to enjoy while getting physical exercise and venting off pent up stress, or such. He is training those athletes to the intent that they win over all competitors and thus be set up on a high pedestal and declared to be the greatest, declared to be champions. What a clear and bold proclamation of the goal of rising up higher than and above all other human creatures. “I must decrease.”

In such a dream, where is a place to be found for the feeble-minded? The person with a low IQ? The weak? The deformed in mind and body? The handicapped? The elderly? The blind? The deaf? The dumb? The spastic? The one with no arms? The one with no legs? The paralyzed? “Brother Richard, many such handicapped people greatly excel in some area?” I know that. But with any and all excelling by us human creatures, it must be promotion from God and must not stem from our sinful, selfish desire to rise. In the vast majority of cases, such excelling stems from the creature’s desire to rise. And this preacher is loudly trumpeting that desire and goal of rising on the part of the human creature. Also, as for Christian leaders who have a goal to train champions in every area to excel among their peers, it quickly becomes difficult for them to place equal value on the lives of “handicapped” people. As this “champion” mindset takes root in and then grows in people’s brains, with passing time it leads directly to Hitler’s depraved, murderous mindset of exterminating (getting rid of, getting out of our way) people with little or no “ability,” considering them deadwood liabilities and obstructions to our determined, insane desire to rise ever so high to become a race of super humans. The more emphasis Christians place on excelling (in the world) the more worthless it naturally makes Christians feel who fail to excel and to rise up in the world. May God open our eyes to see what a dangerous and deadly path we tread when we live to rise. “I must decrease.”

“Heavenly Father, please open my eyes to see the destructive and deadly path this thinking and endeavoring leads unto. Show me how it leads us directly away from our Creator God and right into worshipping the human creature in sinful idolatry. Please show me clearly how this worldly philosophy leads to regarding precious human souls as worthless if they have little or no ability to excel in a worldly manner, and then next leads to eliminating them in some way. I pray that Thou wouldest open the blind eyes of all people to see this sinful, destructive folly, and please save us from being deceived by it and from having anything to do with it at all. Amen.”

Listen to me, my fellow Christian who has failed in your dreams and desires to highly rise due to limited abilities, handicaps, poverty, little education, and such. You can easily be the champion of all champions for Christ. That is most simple to do and it requires absolutely no fleshly striving and effort on your part at all. Our Lord clearly tells us that the least shall be the greatest. Down thru the ages, lowly Christians have been great in God’s Sight. Many of them spent much time alone (possibly bedridden) as an intercessor who sent up thousands of hours of prayers to God’s Throne and did other such things that true champions do for Christ. They were not great in the eyes of most people, but were truly great before God, and therefore will be great for all eternity. So, just because you have little or no ability to rise up in the world, do not despair. That lowly lot in life tends to work in favor of you being truly great, in that it lends to true humility. Please submit your life totally to God for Him to freely work your earthly existence into the great thing that He has ordained for it to be. All Christians who are in God’s Will are more than conquerors! All believers who are in the center of God’s Will are the truly great people on this earth! Amen!

Excelling on a pro ball field, which causes millions of souls to come to love the idol god of sports more than they love God, is not true greatness at all. “Be not deceived.” But an invalid, bedridden Christian constantly offering up intercessory prayer to God in Heaven, now that is true greatness. If you are such a Christian, the devil will try to discourage you when you hear preachers calling on Christians to rise up as highly as possible in the devil’s world in order to become a “champion for Christ.” Such deceitful idolatry that is! The devil will use such preachers’ lies to try to convince you that the lowly path of offering up constant prayer, all alone and hidden from the limelight of the world, is of little or no importance. And thus the devil will try his best to get you to cease your high calling by God as an intercessor to Him. Don’t listen to the devil. You who are uneducated, void of worldly wisdom, weak, handicapped, sick, invalid, poor, and such, can glorify your Creator just as greatly as any other human creature. But the people who attempt to exalt Christ by rising up in the world as highly as possible, simply build more onto the kingdoms of Hell, adding to the devil’s glory while robbing God of the glory due to Him.

“Heavenly Father, please give me pure, undefiled, unwavering faith to believe all of Thy Truth that is contained in these previous statements. Please help me to decrease and to set my heart and mind and my goals in life on those things that are truly great in Thy Sight. I pray this for everyone else also. Turn our hearts to Thee, Lord. Amen.”

“We had a dream to train young champions for Christ…And I am not intending to leave out any field…in every discipline, in every area, to go out and not just to compete, but to excel among their peers…But our calling is not only to have, as we do in our School of Religion, the Bible emphasis, but the championship emphasis in every discipline…We have no intention of being second rate because we are Christian. We have the full intention, as we have in the past, of putting our athletes off our fields and onto major league fields in every sport…Why not?”

I’ll plainly tell you “Why not?” Because that is a sinful, idolatrous, disobedient act of loving the world and the things of the world that God commands us not to love. That is why not. Because that is sinful rising up out of our God ordained estate. That is why not. The human creature’s explosive and zealous worship of the idol of organized sports is a most frightening, destructive, and deadly force and power to behold. Likely, sports (and similar competitive events like car races and such) send our emotions on an excited high like nothing else in life does. Competition is a most powerful idol god. It is also most destructive and deadly as it injures and kills athletes and kills fans at a car race, and such. Everything God has put into my soul and spirit tells me that we Christians should be against this idol worship and destruction. Thus I shake my head in awed disbelief as I listen to this preacher and world-renowned Christian leader’s stated goal of training Christians to rise to the very top of this worldly competition (in all fields, none left out), and thus be declared as the greatest, most highly risen champions on earth.

“We have the full intention…of putting our athletes off our fields and onto major league fields in every sport.” His Christian college included “fields” for prominent sports competition, that fact alone putting his “Christian college” deep into the world that God commands us not to love. But he is not at all content for their involvement in highly visible sports to end there. Instead he is determined to send his Christian athletes higher up into professional major league fields in every sport. Modern sports have become an idol god worshipped by millions of eternal souls (Christians included) with a consuming fervency unmatched in affection shown toward anything else, including Almighty God. Only eternity will be able to reveal the extent of the damage done by this monster of an idol, and to what great an extent it robs God of Glory due to Him from His created human race. The wide broadcasting of university and professional sports enable millions more souls to bow down to broadcast images of the game, in addition to the fans who attend the game.

Many professional sports have their meets (games) on Sundays (the Lord’s day, the day of our church services), thus doing grave damage to the cause of Christ as masses opt for the game instead of church. I heard an evangelist tell what happened once as he preached the Sunday morning sermon in a fundamental church. One of the evangelist’s helpers was standing in the vestibule along with some church ushers. When the sermon exceeded 30 minutes, an usher stalked over to the helper, grabbed both of his lapels, shook him, and demandingly asked; “Doesn’t he know there is an NFL game on this afternoon?” That attitude is open, blatant, sinful idolatry, right there during Sunday morning church. That usher could not possibly have been giving much of his mind to God at that time. His mind was locked onto the idol god of sports. We Christians should take a strong stand against such sin. But with such open idolatry among fundamental Christian believers, fewer and fewer preachers take any stand against this giant idol. And this well-renowned preacher with this nightmare I am preaching against, has a major goal of training young Christian men to be on major league fields in ever sport, for many Sundays of the year.

That will not only insure that those young Christian athletes miss many Sunday church services, but will also insure that many other Christians choose to watch sports on Sunday instead of attending church. This great preacher who is dreaming this nightmare has his church and his Christian college (which became a university) going all out in their endeavors to commission Christians to be out playing on professional sports fields on Sundays instead of going to the Lord’s house for worship and church services. The devil must be laughing ever so heartily by getting Christian believers to so zealously do his dirty work for him. That is purely the church promoting the devil’s business. That is the church building the devil’ kingdom, the world. Before the age of radio, and then TV, Christians (and everyone else) were farther removed from pro sports. Reading newspaper accounts of games was the extent of involvement for the majority. But now the devil’s electronic age gives everyone a front seat view, resulting in more and more Christians with their eyes and minds on sports on Sundays, alienating them from God on Sundays, even if they are in church a short time that day. It behooves Christians to come out from the world, to be separate from it, and to have nothing to do with the devil’s kingdom. But this great Christian leader has a major goal of promoting that idol god and training Christian men to be the pro athletes who will excel to the highest plain and thus be most fervently worshipped by the greatest number of souls. It is high time for us to cry out to God to save us from this idolatry.

“Heavenly Father, please open our eyes and give us a clear vision of this idolatry. Have mercy on us all and save us from this idol worship and save the body of Christ from promoting this idolatry, thereby causing others to join in this sin of worshiping idols. Amen.”

If all professional athletes are people of the world (children of the devil) that fact alone puts some distance between Christians and this idol god. But if this preacher’s nightmare becomes reality, there will be a good sprinkling of fundamental churches with a church member playing on a pro field a lot of Sundays. That will naturally turn the minds and eyes of those congregations toward that idol on Sundays. The pastor will feel led to wish that player church member well on the field that day, and the pastor may be far enough off base to pray before the congregation for God to bless that church’s athlete’s efforts toward rising high and being an idol to many souls that Sunday, being steeped in idolatry and turning millions more souls in that direction.

Wicked, gross, sinful idolatry that is. Come out of it, fellow Christian! Turn from it! Pro athletes do not devote their life’s energies and full attention to such a mammoth task for the purpose of just earning sufficient food and raiment and being content with that simple sufficiency. They pour their entire being into such a great endeavor for big money and for the fame of having millions of souls idolize them. I believe that, in general, the church declines spiritually when any single believer goes onto a pro sports field. But when a prominent preacher boldly declares, “It is our goal, it is our intention, it is our dream to take the church in that direction,” then that part of the body of Christ is on the brink of destruction.

There is an increasing trend of viewing pro sports in the church house on Sundays. Bring the idolatry right into God’s house, all the while smiling and saying we are doing no wrong. God, the Consuming Fire, is soon to burn all that up in His Great Fiery Wrath, leaving a lot of worldly Christians severely scorched, saved as by fire. “And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.” (II Corinthians 6:16-18)

Back in the early 1980’s, a lowly woman working as a cleaning lady cleaning girls’ dormitories at this dreamer’s college, ordered a box of my books, “A Little Reviving,” and distributed those books to students there at the college in Lynchburg. That cleaning lady called on those students to read those free books for their spiritual benefit. “Take this present, student. It is free to you and will do you much good to read it, at absolutely no cost to you, a financially strapped Christian college student.” Now wasn’t that little ol’ cleaning lady ever so nice and generous to those fine college students? Soon after she gave students those books, she wrote a letter to me here in Japan, saying that a good number of the students who read “A Little Reviving” thought that I was a fanatic. That cleaning lady also wrote to me that a good number of the students called by God to preach or called to some other full time Christian work, ended up changing to a secular, “worldly” curriculum while studying at that college because they did not want to “pay the price.”

Well, why should they maintain any desire to “pay the price” to follow their Lord’s lowly calling when their pastor there at college (and his college teachers and staff) are all proclaiming to the students that a good way to glorify God and to win the world to Christ, is to be the best space scientist, doctor, lawyer, or pro ball player possible? Upon being bombarded with such glamorous, worldly speech by their pastor and Christian leaders (of all people), why would they not look back after putting their hand to the plow, and thus render themselves unfit for the kingdom of God? (Luke 9:62) Why should any of those students want to be a despised and rejected Hell fire and brimstone preacher when that “Christian” college is telling them they can do so much good by getting into the world’s limelight and being acclaimed as “great” by the devil’s world? Why should those preacher-to-be students maintain any desire to take the Gospel alone to the backside jungle, mountain, or desert of some heathen country to there pour out their lives as unsung heroes reaching precious, lost souls for Christ? Why should they be expected to endure such obscurity and suffering when their pastor and college leaders are all putting such an emphasis on being hailed by the world as a champion in some worldly endeavor?? Why shouldn’t they consider me a fanatic for calling on people to zealously serve the Lord God with all their hearts in order to see God send spiritual awakening and revival our way? Their pastors and Christian leaders were programming them, brainwashing them to dearly love the world, set their sights on worldly goals, and aspire to rise up as highly as possible in the devil’s world. And that dreamer of a preacher who headed up all that worldly mess constantly begged anyone and everyone for the much money necessary to fuel his worldly dream. O how he unceasingly hounded people for money. Much shame and disgrace to our Lord God of Glory was in his life’s work and dream. His nightmare robbed Almighty God of much glory.

“Almighty God in Heaven, wake us all up out of our deep, spiritual sleep. Rattle our gourds as violently as necessary to put enough spiritual sense and wisdom into our heads to cause us to see just how awful a sin it is for us to love the world and the things of the world in disobedience to Thy clear command forbidding us to do so. Save us all from loving the devil’s world, dear Lord, I humbly pray. Amen.”

Throughout the 20^th century, preachers who dreamed such worldly dreams greatly increased in numbers, as the devil’s world grew to greater magnitude and power than ever before, blinding so many Christians’ eyes with its glaring bright glamour. As those worldly preachers preached such philosophies of the devil straight from God’s pulpit and gladly taught the devil’s doctrines for him (devil lackeys) at “Christian” colleges, no doubt they erased a lot of truly great potential Christian preachers and leaders from the face of God’s earth, as they brainwashed God-called preacher boys into forsaking their Heavenly call to preach, and convinced them to exchange their glorious calling from Almighty God in Heaven for filling a slot in building the devil’s glittering and glamorous kingdom on this earth. Under such worldly influence at “Christian” colleges, young preacher boys give up thoughts of bearing a heavy cross, walking the meek and lowly path, daily spending hours interceding in prayer, and such. Some of the preacher boys give up their plans of serving God for absolutely no worldly fame, recognition, or compliments during this life. Thus untold millions of souls remain untold of the saving grace of their Creator God in the fields that are white unto harvest but where the labourers are ever so few in number. In reality, such a dream is a horrible nightmare that is most damaging to the cause of Christ, and most severe is God’s Judgment on the Christian believers who are foolish enough to dream such dreams from the devil. May God awake us out of our spiritual slumber to save us all from such nightmares.

“Heavenly Father, please make all of us Christian believers aware of the reality and truth of what is being said here and save us from the deceit of believing that we become better equipped to serve Thee by rising up in the world. Please open the eyes of all the Christian leaders who promote such worldliness and cause them to see their grave error and the much harm that it causes to the body of Christ. Amen.”

“He that hath no money, come ye”

If such worldliness is your dream for causing Christianity to have an impact on the world, and if you want every Christian possible to get in on it, then why not give the above Biblical invitation to it? Why not “freely give,” as your Lord commands you to do in Matthew 10:8? His dream is founded on unrighteous mammon. It is founded on filthy lucre. Without money, big money, this dream cannot be made into reality. Young men and women who do not have the money to pay the high tuition at his college cannot enter into his dream. I know that such Christian colleges give scholarships, loans, and such. But, still, basically much money is required for anyone to enter into this dream. What Bible teaching that is provided at such a Christian college bears a price of tuition on it, typically a high price because of the fancy buildings and facilities that the owners and operators take such fleshly pride in. His dream has a most high monetary price tag on it.

Christian education typically rides upon unrighteous mammon, all way down to the lowest school grades. Christian school operators call on parents to send children to their school’s clean environment instead of sending their little ones to the degenerate jungles of the public schools. In general, that is commendable. But some Christian educators will soon make Christian education into an idol and declare; “The Christian school is the only place for your children.” And with such a statement, they ignore and deny the family lifestyle most commonly portrayed in the Bible, that of parents rearing their own children at home. Except for rare cases like Hannah dedicating Samuel to the Lord and taking him to the house of God as soon as he was weaned for Samuel to live there in God’s house, the prominent Bible example is that of parents keeping their children at their abode and rearing them with the family daily together at home. Preachers should preach from the Bible that the home (and its surrounding farmland) is the God-ordained place for parents to rear their offspring. Preachers should greatly exalt and glorify this God-ordained place (the farm) for the family to daily live together. May God save us all from dreams of rising and may He help us to keep our eyes firmly fixed upon what He ordained for us in His Holy Bible.

“Lord God, please help us all to keep our eyes firmly fixed upon Thee. Help us to daily study Thy Holy Scriptures, believe them, and live by them. Save us from being entangled in the world. Save us all from loving the world and exalting the devil’s world. Save us from pushing our young ones to rise up in the devil’s world. Save us all from the destruction that surely comes from loving the world. Amen.”

Thoughts of the children’s welfare are one cause of Christian educators making such false statements as, “The Christian school is the only place for your children”. Dreams of their coffers being steadily enhanced by more students paying that big monthly tuition payment is another reason some Christian educators proclaim such falsehood. They loudly toot their horns as they declare that they are training up the children in the way they should go. But they merchandise that training, the financial income being a most important part of it.

“Christian”

“Why should we be anything less than everything God wants us to be?” Well, Mr. Dreamer, you should quote these things that God wants us to be directly from God’s Holy Scriptures so that we will clearly know exactly what things you are talking about and also know that they are truly things that God wants us to be and that you are not lying about those things. “Anything” and “everything” are most wide and vague terms that you use in this pep rally speech of yours tooting the “things” of the world. And in this promotion speech of yours, quoting God’s Holy Scriptures to authenticate your words is something that you did not do.

“Heavenly Father, as we listen to the much hot air coming from many “preachers,” please help us to always carefully examine it and to judge it by Thy Holy Scriptures to discern whether or not it is from Thee. Have mercy on us all and save us from man’s deception that is so prevalent in this end time, perverse generation. Amen.”

“And if it’s Christian, it ought to be better! That’s our dream!…What a dream! What a dream!” May God save us all from such a nightmare. What a nightmare! The word “Christian” appears only twice in the Bible (King James Version 1611) in Acts 26:28 and I Peter 4:16. The word “Christians” appears only once in the Bible, in Acts 11:26. In each of these 3 references, the word is used as a noun describing a person or people who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. The word “Christian” is NEVER used in the Bible as an adjective that modifies or describes some thing, action, or principle.

However, modern day Christians are fully persuaded that they can freely use the word “Christian” as an adjective, tack it onto anything and everything that is of the devil’s world to modify that worldly thing, and thereby change that worldly thing into something that is of God. Then they call on Christians to put all effort possible into promoting that “something” that is of the devil. First, we call the eating of the tree of knowledge of good and evil by the much nicer sounding name of “education.” Then when secular education sinks deeply into sin’s miry pit, we set up “Christian education” and call on Christians to come worship it. We establish “Christian sports” and have no problem in getting masses to worship that Christian “thing.” And it is no time at all before we can boldly lie and proudly declare about most any WORLDLY thing that we have set our hearts upon, “Why should we be anything less than everything God wants us to be? And if it’s Christian, it ought to be better!” Thus we label as “Christian” the things of the devil’s world that we have set our hearts upon and have come to love. And upon putting such a nice label upon these ungodly things of the enemy, we then set out to promote, enhance, and add much magnitude and glory to them, all for the glory of the devil’s kingdom. What abominable perversion that is in Almighty God’s Sight and how it all stinks in His Holy nostrils. May Almighty God have great mercy on us all to save us from such deception and to set our paths aright.

“Heavenly Father, please do have mercy on us all, and save us from such terrible deception. Please set our paths aright to follow Thee wholly with a single eye, heart, and mind and with absolutely no love for the devil’s world or for the things that are in the world. Amen.”

“We have no intention of being second rate because we are Christian….And if it’s Christian, it ought to be better!” That preacher plainly proclaimed that we Christian believers should do a better job in building the devil’s kingdom than the devil’s own children do in building the devil’s kingdom. What a shocking and deplorable mission that preacher had in his life on earth. How that mission so greatly glorified the devil’s world and robbed our Creator God of the Glory due to Him. Fellow Christians, let us oppose with all our might, that philosophy that comes from Hell. Let us obey our God Who commands us, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world.” “Be not conformed to this world.” “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you.”

Many modern day Christians have little or no knowledge of exactly what the world is, and what the things of the world are, that God commands us not to love. One main reason for this lack of essential Biblical knowledge is that it is no longer being preached. Instead, preachers are promoting the world and the things of the world because they have come to love them so fervently, along with coming to love the sin of rising and promoting it also. Thus the body of Christ is rapidly becoming void of any knowledge of what the world is and what the things of the world are. What a sad spiritual state that is. Every aspect of racing toward fun, fame, fortune, status, and such is of this world, the devil’s kingdom. How it behooves all us believers to constantly call on God to save us and our families from the devil’s destructive, deadly world. We must meditate in God’s words day and night in order to be able to recognize that which is from the devil.

“Lord God, help me to live in Thy Book, studying Thy Scriptures, meditating in them day and night to have Thy Holy Spirit teach me their meaning and to be full of knowledge and wisdom from above. Save me from spiritual ignorance. Save me from all deception. I pray this for all other people also. Turn all our hearts to Thee, Lord. Amen.”

“Labor not to be rich.” “And having food and raiment let us therewith be content.” These Scriptures clearly oppose the desire in our sinful human heart to rise up in this world, and our desire to rise definitely opposes these commands from our God. Therefore we are without excuse before God our Judge for our sinful disobedience in these serious matters. God help us to obey these important commands. “Set your affections on things above, not on things on the earth.” That nightmare of a dream naturally takes one’s affections off of heavenly things and firmly attaches one’s affections to the things on the earth. But being obedient to this important command will stifle our desire to rise, and awaken us from this nightmare of a dream.

“Lord God, please help me to fully obey these 3 weighty commands of Thine quoted here. Help me to labor not to be rich. Help me to be content and most thankful to Thee for sufficient food and raiment. Help me to set my affection on things above, in Heaven, where I am seated with Christ. Help me not to set my affections on things on the earth. I pray this for all other people also. Please turn all our hearts to Thee and away from the devil’s world. Save us all, Lord, we pray. Show us Thy Great Glory and draw us unto it. Amen.”

“Thou, being a man, makest thyself God”

Do you ever stop to consider just exactly why the Lord Jesus Christ was murdered by sinful men??? Sure, He came to give His life a ransom for many. But the Just God would never provoke man to commit murder. So when God the Son comes into this world for the purpose of giving His life as a ransom for many, exactly what kind of Being must He be to ensure that fallen man will rise up against Him and murder Him without any just cause and with God doing absolutely nothing at all to provoke man to commit this murderous deed? Did you ever stop to think how “awkward and embarrassing” it would have been for God the Son to come to this earth to die for sinful mankind, but then fallen mankind just leaves Him alone and does not kill him? So how can God be assured that fallen man will murder Jesus without any provoking from God the Father, the Son, or the Holy Ghost? Think on just why men were so determined to kill the man Jesus, as you study the reason in the following Scriptures.

“Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.” (John 5:18) “Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Before Abraham was, I am. Then took they up stones to cast at him: but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple, going through the midst of them, and so passed by.” (John 8:58-59) “Jesus answered them…I and my Father are one. Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him. Jesus answered them, Many good works have I shewed you from my Father; for which of those works do ye stone me? The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, makest thyself God.” (John 10:25a, 30-33) “The Jews answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die, because he made himself the Son of God.” (John 19:7) “But he held his peace, and answered nothing. Again the high priest asked him, and said unto him, Art thou the Christ, the Son of the Blessed? And Jesus said, I am: and ye shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven. Then the high priest rent his clothes, and saith, What need we any further witnesses? Ye have heard the blasphemy: what think ye? And they all condemned him to be guilty of death.” (Mark 14:61-64)

The man Jesus was wrongfully killed simply because He claimed to be God. Tho He never wronged anyone, men hated Him so intensely for making that claim, determined to kill Him for it, and would not rest content until they had done so.

Studying Luke 23:1-5 and John 19:12, we see that when those murderers brought Jesus before the Roman ruler, Pilate, they changed their tune and pushed the theme that Jesus was a king. They lied about Jesus, saying that He was perverting the nation and forbidding Jews to give tribute to Caesar, a Roman ruler. They knew that Pilate had no interest in Jesus claiming to be God and that Pilate would not execute Him for that claim. So they tried to convince Pilate that Jesus was a rival to Caesar and was trying to set Himself up as an earthly king. But that wasn’t their main concern at all. In fact, the Jews anxiously awaited the coming of the promised Messiah, thinking that He would set them free of Roman rule when He came to earth. The reason they hated Jesus so and determined to kill Him was because He claimed to be God. And that is the theme they pushed before the Jewish high priest.

Likely you know all that. But I was leading up to this. Why didn’t the people of Egypt rise up and kill the Pharaohs who claimed to be gods? Why didn’t people rise up and kill King Nebuchadnezzar who became so “god-like” in his pride that God turned him into a creature like an animal in order to abase him? (Daniel 4) In Acts 12:21-23, as King Herod made his great oration, sitting upon his magnificent throne arrayed in his impressive royal apparel, causing the crowd to shout, “It is the voice of a god, and not of a man,” why didn’t some man kill Herod for being set up as a god? Almighty God in Heaven immediately killed Herod for becoming a god. “And immediately the angel of the Lord smote him, because he gave not God the glory: and he was eaten up of worms, and gave up the ghost.” Why didn’t some man first kill King Herod before God had to do it? Why did not the Japanese people rise up and kill one emperor after another as each of them set himself up as a god and commanded that nation to worship him (until he got dethroned in 1945)? Throughout all of history, men and women have set themselves up as God (or a god) and multitudes of miserably deceived souls delighted to worship them as such. Rarely was one of them killed for making that claim. Instead, that claim gained them great favor with the masses. So just why, when the One True God came to this earth in Person, did people decree that He must be killed for making that true claim??? The reason was, they so hated Jesus for making that claim because He was so “un-God-like” in their eyes. That reason is most important to you, so please meditate seriously on it to learn what lifestyle for you will be pleasing to your Lord Jesus. It is a must that you glorify your Creator God while here on this earth. And I am now speaking of the most basic way in which we glorify Him.

“Lord Jesus, please help me to now be attentive to Thy Holy Spirit to learn what I should. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

Yes, the man Jesus could multiply a few loaves of bread and a few fishes to feed a great multitude. He could walk on water. He could heal the sick and even raise the dead. One would think that all the miracles He wrought were certain proof of His claims of Deity. But, because my Lord and my God was the lowliest Human Creature ever on the face of this earth that He created, that made His claim of being God most repulsive to these people who were proud, who loved rising, and thus required their God to be a great Being instead of being humble and lowly. O how repulsive was His lowly state to them, and they just would not accept such a lowly Being as God. “We will not have this man to reign over us.” (Luke 19:14)

When Christ came to earth the first time, He did not set up His Kingdom and make everyone obey His every command. He came lowly and did not rise up to any high status in the eyes of the world. He did not amass wealth. In fact, we have no record of Him ever touching money. I do not believe that His Voice had that powerful ring to it of earthly authority that is typical of kings and strong leaders. He did not raise up an earthly army. He did not ride in a chariot and was not attended by numerous servants. Rather he was a Servant to all. He did not build a king’s palace and reside in it. Instead, my Lord had no place to pillow His Head. He never tried to excel at all in anything pertaining to the devil’s kingdom, the world. He did not rise in the eyes of worldly men and women.

Throughout history, multitudes have accepted the claims of various fallen men and women who claimed to be God or a god. But because Jesus was the lowliest Person that His created human race has ever seen, the rebels among them exploded with anger each time He made the claim that He was God. And as quickly as they could, they murdered Him for making that claim. It was impossible for their rebellious hearts to accept that claim from my lowly Jesus. Their hearts’ wicked condition was what ensured Him of giving His Life a ransom for me. O how I love Him for having trod the lowliest path possible while on this earth. He did so JUST BECAUSE HE LOVED ME WITH THE GREATEST LOVE THERE IS.

“Lord Jesus, please touch my heart with Thy Tender and Great Love that I am learning of by reading what I have just read. Teach me the great depth of the Truth that You had to become the lowliest Being ever to walk this earth in order to give Thy Life a ransom for me. Please forgive my wretched, sinful being for not loving Thee with all my heart, tho Thou art most worthy of that love. Please help me to make Thee as dear and precious to me as I should. Please forgive me of my wicked sin of not desiring to be lowly like Thee. Instead, I have set my heart upon rising up as highly as I can in this life. Please forgive me and change my heart to what it should be. Please help me to truly want to be Christ-like in all aspects of my life. I pray this for all other people also. How great Thou art, Lord! Amen.”

“Walk humbly with thy God”

When God trod His earth in Person, He presented to mankind the most lowly Being ever to grace the face of this earth, because that was the kind of God that we needed to see and we needed to pattern our lives after that Perfect Example. Now as for us Christian believers, it is no small matter that we have been given the power to become the sons of God. God has made us believers into kings and priests. Therefore it can accurately be said that we are the greatest creatures, the most God-like creatures, seen on the face of God’s earth, because God is not presently seen visibly here on the earth. So, just exactly what kind of creature does that behoove us to be throughout our short stay in this life on earth? The same kind of being that our Creator God was while He lived here on earth for a short lifetime; the lowliest being possible.

“Heavenly Father, please help me to fully yield my entire being unreservedly to Thee for Thee to mold me and make me into the exact creature that Thou wouldest have me to be during my short life here on earth. I pray that all other people will do this also. Amen.”

Christ not only died for fallen mankind. There is another important reason for the way He died when He came to this earth. He died for God. He died maintaining God’s reputation. Rebel sinners did not get together and say, “Let’s kill that Jesus so He can give His life for this lost human race!” Rather they said in effect, “Let’s kill Him so He can die for claiming to be God!” That aspect of His death is most important for us to bear in mind also. Don’t forget that Christ died for God, upholding God’s reputation before rebellious man who only wants to know and worship the one god of SELF. Had Christ not properly maintained God’s reputation, He would not have been murdered by men and therefore would not have paid our sin debt in our stead. You must daily live in this deep Truth.

“Lord God, is this all true that is written in that last paragraph? If so, please reveal to me to depth of the Truth of it, firmly convince me of it, and help me to live properly in regard to this Truth. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

And now our Precious Lord calls on us believers to follow in His Footsteps, filling up that which is behind of His afflictions and sufferings. He leads us along the lowliest path. And that is the path we should desire to trod, instead of dreaming that we can rise up as highly in the devil’s world as any of the devil’s children can. For us Christian believers to strive to rise up as highly as possible in the world is to crucify Christ afresh, because He died for being the lowliest Being. And each of us believers should desire to, submit to, and strive to be the lowliest human creature in existence, even knowing that the children of the devil will desire to also kill us for being that instead of crowing us for it.

“My Precious Lord Jesus, please help me to totally die to my own self’s will and totally yield my life to Thee for Thee to make it into a life that will greatly glorify Thee while I live here on this earth. Help me to truly glory in being humble and lowly like Thee. I pray that all other people will do this also. Amen.”

Few Christians have any desire at all to be treated like our Saviour was treated by sinful men while He was on earth. Instead, we desire to gain the favor of the world and to be held in high esteem by the devil’s children. So we dream these dreams (nightmares) of making ourselves as great as possible according to the standards of the world. We think that by doing so we can reach a greater number of them for Christ. But tragically the result is Christians becoming much more worldly, bringing on great spiritual decline in the body of Christ. And with passing time, these worldly Christians will cease to reproduce Christians, but will rather come to produce infidels instead.

“Heavenly Father, please make us all aware of this grave danger here and save us from going down this worldly path into infidelity. Wake us from our spiritual slumber and make us alert, Lord. Amen.”

“Of whom the world was not worthy”

This dreamer’s nightmare is wrong because it makes the devil’s world worthy of Christian believers. Down thru the ages, most people who have stood on God’s Side accomplished the great, God-glorifying deeds recorded in Hebrews 11:33-35. “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again.”

Verses 35-38 tell us how the devil’s world treated these victorious conquerors of God. “And others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment: They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (OF WHOM THE WORLD WAS NOT WORTHY:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth. And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better things for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.” (Hebrews 11:35b-40)

All down thru the ages of history, most believers who have chosen the lowly pathway have received such abuse from the devil’s world as that recorded in the above Scriptures. Tho the devil’s world treats God’s children in such an awful fashion, still the world is not worthy of us. “Of whom the world was not worthy.” By being lowly, we are in disguise to the eyes of the devil’s crowd. They rarely recognize us as joint heirs with Christ to all the riches that God the Father hath bestowed upon Christ. People of the world cannot possibly fathom the truth that we who are the lowliest of Christians are the greatest people now and forever. (To God be the glory for that greatness!) We who are pilgrims and strangers here on earth are most repulsive to and a thorn in the flesh to the devil’s crowd because we do nothing to encourage them in making Self into the greatest god possible and do not join in their rat race of running over everyone trying to get on top of everyone else. Therefore the people of the world despise our presence on the face of the earth and would love to see us removed from their presence. Down thru the ages, they have regularly done that removing by means of banishment, imprisonment, torture, murder, mass murder, and such. That is what the devil’s children did to our Saviour also, of course. The devil’s crowd has always warred with God’s saints, so we today are to expect no different treatment from them ourselves.

“O Lord, teach me! Teach me thoroughly and completely from what I am reading here. Teach me the eternal importance of these truths. Show me how far out of line my heart, life, and desires are regarding these truths that glorify Thee so greatly. Change me for good to do right in these matters, Lord, I pray. Create within me a pure and upright heart. I pray this for all other people also. Amen.”

But during all their fierce striving and warring against their Creator God by attacking His saints living on the earth, the devil’s gang is completely blind to the truth that our Heavenly calling is so high, holy, and glorious that it renders them absolutely unworthy of us. “Of whom the world was not worthy.” God forbid that we His children forsake our high and holy calling in exchange for stooping ever so low as to take on the same goal of the devil’s crowd, that of giving our all to raising up the god of Self as highly as possible inside the devil’s kingdom and to building the devil’s kingdom into the most glorious kingdom possible. Because by doing so, we lower ourselves so much that we make the devil’s world worthy of us. What great eternal loss that brings to the Christian believers who so greatly dishonour their God in this life by loving the world and the things that are in the world. O how that robs God of glory due to Him from us.

“Save me, Lord, please! Save me from forsaking my high and holy calling of walking humbly and lowly on this earth as Thou didst and save me from exchanging that precious calling for a calling from the devil’s world to destroy myself and my descendants in the mad quest to rise up as highly as I possibly can in the devil’s world. Please show me the fullness of the meaning of the truth that the devil’s world is not worthy of me, a Christian believer. Please save me from making the devil’s world worthy of me. I pray this for all other people also. Smite us all and slay us with Thy revealing Light. And by Thy Pure Light, guide us into right, Lord, I pray. Amen.”

“Of whom the world was not worthy.” My brother and sister in Christ, how dare you set your heart on destroying that glorious testimony by living to rise as highly as possible in the devil’s world? How dare you shame your dear Saviour so, Who was killed in such a torturous way for being the lowliest Being ever on this earth? Just what is wrong with making your Precious Lord Jesus your one example in life? What is wrong with making the Lord Jesus proud of your life here on the earth instead of striving to make the devil’s crowd proud of your great worldly accomplishments in this life? Just what do you have against doing right? Just why are you opposed to hating the world and the things of the world and are opposed to loving your Lord Jesus with all your heart? Cry out to God to save you from dreaming nightmares like that dreamer did.

“Almighty God, I cry out to Thee to save me from dreaming such ungodly nightmares. Help me to truly desire to be like my humble and lowly Saviour. I pray that all other people will pray thusly to Thee also. We all so badly need Thy salvation from our own selves. Amen.”

“Lowly”

O how we need to serve the Lord God with fear and trembling. O how we need to set our hearts on being humble and lowly. We need our spiritual eyes opened to see how deadly it is for us to set our hearts on rising up in the world and to see just how incapable we are of handling and coping with worldly success. Just today (March 19, 2008), I heard news of a young lady committing suicide in her mid twenties. About 1994, at age 12 or so, she flew an airplane across the US. Soon after that, she flew a plane across the Atlantic Ocean. I think the newscast said that she set records of being the youngest person to fly across the US and across the Atlantic. She rose up ever so highly and ever so quickly and early in her promising life. What great things we would expect the future to hold for such a great achiever as she. But she then took her own life in her mid twenties. Why? The newscast said she was constantly depressed. Remember chapter 11 of this book where I preached against the devil’s water of the world and how it cannot possibly satisfy us, but rather makes us more thirsty the more we drink of it, till it finally drives one to suicide. Flee from it all. Seek the humble and lowly path of our Saviour that leads to pleasures forever more, in this life and in the life to come.

“Lord God, please guide my steps into life everlasting and away from the devil’s destructive world. I pray this for all other people also. Keep us all in Thy Perfect Way, Lord, I pray. Amen.”

We need to realize fully what a great, destructive threat we become to our own being, to our own precious family, and to all of God’s creation on this earth when we set our hearts on rising as highly as possible in this life. God save us all from dreaming such a nightmare. Long before man was ever created, God had created other “heavenly” beings, assigning to each of them a specified rank and position of power. Apparently all went perfectly well in all of God’s creation until one creature set its self on rising higher than the place his Creator ordained for him. Was it the lowest creature who was not satisfied with his low estate? No. It was the highest creature who could not rest content with the highest created estate and instead wanted to be like the Most High God. And just look at all the havoc his rebellion and rising has caused in God’s universe. We are absolutely wrong to think that rising up in the devil’s world better equips us to serve God. Overall, the opposite is true. Rising hampers and destroys our ability to glorify God. What a nightmare it is to see the devil deceiving many preachers and church leaders and getting them to set their sights on rising up in the devil’s world and on calling on the body of Christ to do so too. That robs the church of so much spiritual power and glory.

In general, the human creature does not handle promotion well at all. We should not seek promotion. If God chooses to promote us in any way, we should humbly thank Him for it, and submit that risen position to God to be used for His Glory alone. Always bear in mind that rising and promotion naturally invites disaster and is a potential threat and danger not only to our own selves but also to all of this earth. Many Christians mistakenly believe that we will just naturally draw more people to get saved and to love God if we are highly risen in worldly status. But that is most destructive, faulty thinking. Deception from the devil, self, and other people is what causes us to think like that. Love of the world and love for the things of the world help bring on that deception. Instead of people coming to love God more when they look upon highly risen Christians, other people generally come to love the sin of rising more. They come to worship the idol of Self more. And they come to love the world and the things of the world more. May God open our blind eyes and turn us from heading straight to our destruction.

“Lord God, please open our blind eyes to enable us to see that Thou doest not need the glitter and glamour of the world to draw men unto Thee. Save us all from this impure mixture of leaven in our religion. Please help us to highly exalt Thee by shunning the sin of rising and by hating the devil’s world and the things of the world. Amen.”

The body of Christ suffers greatly when individual believers go all out to rise up as highly as possible in the devil’s world. But when the preachers and church leaders start calling on believers to do that “for God’s glory” and start using all the church’s resources available to promote it, then it will certainly cause much grave damage and loss to the part of the body of Christ that chooses to go that wrong way. What awful shame and disgrace it brings to our God of Great Glory Who commands us to “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world,” when preachers and Christian leaders dream such nightmares, proclaim those nightmares as their life’s goal to all who will listen, and then spend their life’s energies in making those nightmares into reality and in calling on everyone else to get on the bandwagon of this nightmare madness. By the grace of God, may such dreamers be awakened from their worldly nightmare, forsake it, and turn to right.

“Where there is no vision, the people perish”

“Heavenly Father, please help all us Christian believers to glorify Thee as we should. Please give us a clear understanding of how that it robs Thee of glory for us to gain the glory of the devil’s world. Show us just how much we are disobeying Thy command to love not the world, neither the things of the world. Help us to know the wonderful joy, peace, and contentment that come from decreasing. Please make us all truly willing to be just as humble and lowly as Thou wouldst have us to be. Awaken us out of our deep spiritual sleep and slumber to save us from dreaming nightmares from the devil. Give us spiritual visions from our Lord God. Without a proper vision, we perish. Give us the vision from Heaven that we presently need. Save us from the counterfeits of the devil who would have us to dream nightmares of rising up to add all the glory possible to his kingdom. Cause all Thy preachers and Christian leaders to become fully aware of their weighty duty to lead their flocks into Thy paths of righteousness and to lead them away from the destruction of the devil’s world. Amen.”

(This is the end of Chapter 15 of Creature Versus Creator)

Chapter 16

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