Beloved Family… as the world anxiously waits to see what will happen after the inauguration of our new president-elect, I’m sure we all realize that the time for the beginning of the massive changes we’ve been anticipating in our FMM material is finally at hand. I’ve made many references to the turmoil, conflict and chaotic uncertainty that the world will experience during the ultimate unfolding of human history as it reaches its Last Days. So today, I’ll elaborate a little on what I see as the root cause of this age-old spiritual conflict.
Several years ago, I heard a teaching by Derek Prince entitled, ‘The Sons of Zion vs. the Sons of Greece.’ In that teaching, he used those two titles to differentiate between people that espouse a world view and priorities and agendas based on the authority of God’s written Word (the Sons of Zion), as opposed to people whose views, priorities and agendas spring from the radically independent, man-derived views of the religion of Humanism (the Sons of Greece). I was able to relate greatly to his personal experiences with Humanism in his earlier years, because the focus and thrust of my educational upbringing was similar to his.
In great part, what has evolved into modern Humanism owes its formation to the vast influence of the perspectives, values and intellectual constructs that flowed out of the philosophical works of ancient Greek thinkers. Their influence developed this phenomenon and enabled it to gain respect and full acceptance far and wide. Now every culture and location is rife with some form of it or another. The military conquests of Alexander the Great served to spread it throughout the ancient world. And another great cause of its dissemination was the constant traffic and social and economic interactions that took place along the trade routes that joined the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. And within the two centuries leading to the coming of Messiah Yeshua to Israel, Hellenism had even penetrated and influenced Israel when she was dominated and ruled by Antiochus Epiphanes. Lawrence H. Schiffman posted an article on the website, ‘Jewish Learning’ on this subject. And this is some of what he had to say:
“Indeed, it was not the Greeks themselves, but the Macedonians, whose civilization was derivative from that of the true Hellenes, who were mainly responsible for spreading Greek culture to the Near East. As Hellenism penetrated each new region, an amalgamation of the Hellenistic with the native took place, and this phenomenon resulted in the many different manifestations of Hellenistic culture observable in the Near East over many centuries.
“It was Alexander’s conquests that made possible the union between East and West, but in fact there were deeper cultural reasons for the ease with which these two civilizations entered into a symbiotic relationship. Greek culture had by this time developed to its pinnacle. It had been liberated from the limitations of geography, and one could now be a Hellene by education and culture, not just by birth. Humanism had resulted from the primacy attributed to reason in Greek thought. Man now was at the center of the cosmos rather than merely of the polis (the Greek city) as he had been earlier.” (Emphasis added.)
As the conquests of Alexander spread Hellenism’s influence, the Roman territories embraced it. And since Rome too was interested in conquest, her invasions of other peoples helped to spread Greco-Roman thinking and culture even further. And so in my personal educational formation, I was saturated with the influence of Gentile Roman Catholic church leaders. Their traditions came from the ‘Fathers of their church.’ Much of the early formation of those men had been based on the thought patterns of men like Aristotle and Socrates, to name a few. And that was the underpinning of what I received during my formative years in the seminary. That entire course of studies was built upon a foundational base of Greco-Roman perspectives and thought patterns, rather than on a Hebraic Biblical base.
And it was only after I was first exposed to Scripture study at the beginning of my eleventh year of seminary training, during which my class was scheduled to be ordained to the priesthood, that I was first exposed to God’s written Word. And something about the Word immediately began to pierce, penetrate and impregnate my heart with ingredients I had never known about before… things that were utterly new and deeply disturbing. This opened up the Hebrew world and culture to me. And it was very troubling because what I saw in Scripture was diametrically opposed to the spirit and thrust of what I had been taught to believe and absorb up to that point! That was the beginning of the end for my days as a priest and as a member of the religious order to which I belonged. That experience led me into a total personal ‘meltdown.’ And the course of my future time on this Earth drastically veered in a new direction when I finally realized and admitted that I was going to have to depart from the only world I knew.
2 Corinthians 5:14-15
For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who died and rose again on their behalf. (Emphasis added.)
The new course that I stumbled onto, and finally began to pursue, led me to an eventual personal encounter with the risen Lord. And then He led me in a brand new direction I would have never been able to find for myself. That ultimately led to where I am today… and it led to the formation of the Christ-Life/Ultimate Journey Ministry, and then to the formation of the FMM Family… and to my Blood Covenant bond with you! And for all of that, I cannot find the words to express how grateful I am to our most merciful Lord.
Human scholarship says that Hellenism is a product of Greek thought. But if you have a Biblical worldview perspective, you know that Hellenism’s origin came out of a source that greatly predated the Greek world. It is the product of the Serpent, and was first introduced to the first two human beings in the Garden of Eden!
Genesis 3:1-5
The woman said to the serpent, “(God’s Living Word tells us that) From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.’”
“The serpent said to the woman, “You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil! (Emphasis added.)
At that moment, the Serpent introduced the idea and practice of mistrusting God and contradicting and changing His Word, instead of being and doing what He originally designed and created us to be – His living image and likeness! The Serpent convinced our first parents that they would be much better off if they deviated from God’s Word… and severed themselves from His ways… and they believed him. So they disobeyed the Word and became radically independent agents. The Serpent made that kind of rebellion sound like glorious freedom. But actually, he was urging them to commit suicide – by cutting themselves off from their one and only Source of Life! And because they believed the Serpent rather than God’s Word, they did cut themselves off from God and began to rely on their own human perspectives, intellectual musings, imaginations and feelings. The Serpent convinced them that their intellects were equal to God’s Mind, and that they had just as much of a right to be the ‘measure of all things’ as God had. In addition, he led them to assume that… if they would dare to move out on their own… they could equal God’s level of wisdom and insight, and be forever free to see to their own wellbeing and fulfill their own personal interests, as they thought best.
Yes, the Prince of Darkness was the one that drove that demonic wedge of doubt, suspicion, rebellion and disobedience into the human minds of our first parents. That’s what God’s written Word reveals. And He also revealed that when they severed themselves from the Word, the human nature of our first parents became mortally wounded, both spiritually and physically. From that moment on, a lethal virus entered their human DNA. And that is what is passed on to each newly conceived human child… generation after generation.
Now, every human child has that demonic ‘virus’ automatically downloaded into his or her ‘onboard computer’ at conception. It is the ‘I’ll do it my way virus’… which separates our minds and hearts and wills from our Creator’s mind, heart and will. And that prevents us from knowing or trusting him. The distance it creates between us makes it impossible for us to hear God’s voice or follow His ways. It prevents us from being aware of God and His protective warnings. So, instead of being born into union with God through His Word and Spirit, we’re born trapped in a state of slow Death… a living Death that has twisted our human nature into something far less than what God originally made us to be. Instead of being able to serve as God’s image and likeness, we’ve devolved into deformed creatures that are naturally, inherently selfish, self-centered, rebellious, manipulative, predatory, controlling, and utterly self-destructive! And so, our natural, instinctive philosophy of choice is… some form of Humanism! Now, instead of allowing God to create us in His image and likeness, we take it upon ourselves to create gods of our own – in our image and likeness!
So Humanism existed long before the Macedonians came into being. The Greek philosophers merely worked out some highly disciplined thought patterns by which to develop and elevate man’s Self-adoration into a high level of ‘enlightened’ human respectability and supremacy. But in Truth, it is nothing more than Serpent-induced rebellion against the Living God!
Psalm 149:1-2
“Praise the Lord! Sing to the Lord a new song, and His praise in the congregation of the godly ones. Let Israel be glad in his Maker; let the sons of Zion rejoice in their King.”
An Iowa journalist by the name of Robert Leonard commented recently on the current political climate in America. He wrote an article that was posted in the New York Times, entitled, ‘Why Rural America Voted for Trump.’ He identifies himself as a lifelong liberal Democrat who always had a hard time understanding how and why conservative, right wing type Americans can be the way they are and think the way they do. But during the recent political process leading up to the nomination of the next president, Mr. Leonard had an enlightening experience. During a talk he heard while he attended a Republican political caucus, he suddenly began to gain some insight into the reasons for the deep cultural, social and political rift that has so obviously taken hold of the United States. He began to see that it’s not just a disagreement between local or geographical customs and attitudes… it goes much deeper than that. And, hopefully, the day will come when Mr. Leonard will soon begin to realize that this Great Divide is the result of the fact that there are two completely different human races that populate the earth, instead of just one.
Those two races are utterly different from one another, not in their physical makeups, and not merely because of what they choose to focus their intellects upon… they differ because of the essential state of their human spirits! The spirits of one race are connected and obedient to God’s Living Word! And the spirits of the other race are not connected to Him. On the contrary, the second race is trying to get away from anything that might pertain to some kind of ‘religious’ faith. They refuse to look to anyone or anything outside of their own intellects and sensory faculties! They pursue a radically independent, self-actualizing kind of existence. The following is a quote from Mr. Leonard’s article:
“Political analysts have talked about how ignorance, racism, sexism, nationalism, Islamophobia, economic disenfranchisement and the decline of the middle class contributed to the popularity of Mr. Trump in rural America. But this misses the deeper cultural factors that shape the thinking of the conservatives who live here.
“For me, it took a 2015 pre-caucus stop in Pella by J. C. Watts, a Baptist minister raised in the small town of Eufaula, Okla., who was a Republican congressman from 1995 to 2003, to begin to understand my neighbors — and most likely other rural Americans as well.
“The difference between Republicans and Democrats is that Republicans believe people are fundamentally bad, while Democrats see people as fundamentally good,” said Mr. Watts, who was in the area to campaign for Senator Rand Paul. “We are born bad,” he said and added that children did not need to be taught to behave badly — they are born knowing how to do that.
“We teach them how to be good,” he said. “We become good by being reborn — born again.” He continued: “Democrats believe that we are born good, that we create God, not that he created us. If we are our own God, as the Democrats say, then we need to look at something else to blame when things go wrong — not us.”
“Mr. Watts talked about the 2015 movie theater shooting in Lafayette, La., in which two people were killed. Mr. Watts said that Republicans knew that the gunman was a bad man, doing a bad thing. Democrats, he added, “would look for other causes — that the man was basically good, but that it was the guns, society or some other place where the blame lies and then they will want to control the guns, or something else — not the man.” Republicans, he said, don’t need to look anywhere else for the blame.”
Beloved, this is a pretty simple and clear explanation of the difference between those with a Biblical worldview, and those with a Hellenistic worldview. The Sons of Zion and the Sons of Greece live in two different kingdoms, two different dimensions! And that is why they can’t agree on anything. And that is why our country is so drastically divided. And when I see that Great Divide that tears human societies in half, I can’t help but remember what Father has been telling us through His written Word. In the book of Judges, after Israel had derailed so badly and was not able to finish the job of taking the Land of Promise away from the Canaanites, this is how He summed up their situation:
Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.
Beloved… this text tells us that the chosen people of God were doing exactly what the Serpent had told Eve to do in the Garden! And it also gives a great insight into what God-less Hellenistic viewpoints and man-adoring assumptions lead people to do… even to this day! Hellenism is the exact opposite of what God’s Living Word reveals to His chosen ones concerning the attitude He requires all humans to have in relation to His Living and written Word:
Deuteronomy 6:4-9
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way and when you lie down and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates! (Emphasis added.)
Matthew 10:32-39
“Therefore (says God’s Living Word made flesh) everyone who confesses Me before men, I will also confess him before My Father who is in Heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in Heaven. Do not think that I came to bring peace on the earth; I did not come to bring peace, but a sword. For I came to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man’s enemies will be the members of his household. He who loves father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me. And he who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. He who has found his life will lose it, and he who has lost his life for My sake will find it!” (Amplification and emphasis added.)
The Humanists enthrone their own radically independent, God-ignoring human nature in the highest place. In that sense, they take the God of the Bible out of the picture, and insert themselves in His place. And that is nothing less than a form of religion… false religion… idolatry! When Man makes up a god or gods to suit himself, he is making himself out to be ‘The Measure of All Things.’ And regardless of what that false religion is called or what it advocates… in essence it is the religious practice of Self Adoration – the worship of Man! But God demands that our self-exaltation be crucified! And He had to send His own Living Word to become one of us and be crucified, so that He could make Full Atonement for all of our rebellion against Him before God’s Truth and Justice!
And now, beloved… the time for that self-exalting viewpoint and all of its practices is rapidly approaching the moment of its final demise! That’s why the Gospel warns all fallen flesh: “Repent… for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand!” The Return to Earth of the King of the Kingdom of Heaven is fast approaching! And when He finally arrives, He will confront, expose and confound every one of those who oppose and defy His Authority. And as that awesome turn of events is taking place, the Sons of Greece will see all of their false gods, false religions and delusionary philosophies crumble to dust, and all of that will forever disappear into oblivion! And only what is True and Eternal and truly from Almighty God will remain.
1 Peter 1:24-25
“All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls off, but the Word of the Lord endures forever! (Emphasis added.)
Beloved, this conflict over the Word of the Living God is what underlies and energizes the enormous split that exists in this land from coast to coast, and all around the world! You see it taking place throughout all of Scripture. That is basically what keeps dividing our senate and house of congress, and it even divides our own families and our synagogues and churches! Everything that Man has created in opposition to God’s Living and written Word continually strives against God and those who embrace, follow and obey His Word. And this is why so much contempt and violence are always directed against the disciples of the Word! God’s people are always caught in the middle of the turmoil of that to-the-death struggle! And I believe that the intensity of the conflict will deepen and expand in all directions in the very near future.
Matthew 24:29-31
But immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light, and the stars will fall from the sky, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken. And then the sign of the Son of Man will appear in the sky, and then all the tribes of the earth will mourn, and they will see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of the sky with Power and Great Glory. And He will send forth His angels with a great trumpet and they will gather together His elect from the four winds, from one end of the sky to the other.
Matthew 24:45-51
Who then is the faithful and sensible slave whom his Master put in charge of his Household to give them their food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his master finds so doing when he comes. Truly I say to you that he will put him in charge of all his possessions.
But if that evil slave says in his heart, ‘My master is not coming for a long time,’ and begins to beat his fellow slaves and eat and drink with drunkards; the master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour which he does not know, and will cut him in pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
Beloved Family… this is the time when we must become deeply aware of how much God loves, cherishes and honors those that are His. He selected us from the midst of all the fallen children of Adam. We were no better than any of the others. In fact, we were just as Sin-full and guilty and corrupt as anyone! But in His Mercy and Grace and Wisdom, He chose us and sent His Word to call us and summon us to follow Him out of the clutches of the Serpent and the allurements of fallen flesh and the corrupt systems of this fallen world. And He has a specific purpose for choosing and blessing us. He separated and led us into a barren place of stark wilderness to deal with our hearts! He has to deliver us from being so wrapped up in ourselves! He has to train us to repent of that, so that we could abide with Him, and to get to know Him, and to embrace and absorb and embody His ways. He is transforming us into His own image and likeness… so that we may be His demonstration models for all the others! He wants them to see the difference between our race and theirs, so that they can see how desperately they need God’s Salvation!
At the right time, when our training is complete, and the D-Day Hour arrives… He will extend His Mercy and Salvation to the entire world by pouring out His Spirit on all flesh! Then, through His well-trained disciples, He will begin to lead countless numbers of His former enemies out of the disintegrating world of fallen Self-adorers… and He will fill them with His saving Love and Light and they too will become His own regenerated sons. He plans to reach out to more and more people… through us! When His Light is free to blaze forth from within us… Father can pierce, penetrate and impregnate the innermost being of His former enemies with His Truth, Reality, and Eternal Life! This is how He will fulfill and complete His Plan of Redemption and Restoration! And when Yeshua’s former enemies recognize Him for who He really is… they will come running to join ranks with us… as His devoted servants!
So beloved… remain deeply rooted and established in your God-given Blood Covenant Ground. Stand fast against the futile fury of the powers of Darkness until it is fully exhausted. Their time is very short, and their resources will soon be totally spent. Then they’ll be powerless to continue their rebellion. And the Sons of Greece who hear, believe, obey and repent will transform into Sons of Zion. And God’s Kingdom and Family will grow exponentially… to our Heavenly Father’s Eternal Glory!
John 15:7-11
If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. My Father is glorified by this, that you bear much fruit, and so prove to be My disciples. Just as the Father has loved Me, I have also loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love; just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you so that My joy may be in you, and that your joy may be made full.
Our Boot Camp training is transforming us into vessels of Honor, Praise and Glory for our Father! Through us, His Word and Spirit will love, obey and exalt Him. Yeshua is ready to produce all of the necessary Fruit… and His true disciples will bear that fruit for Him… in the midst of their situations, circumstances, issues and interactions with the fallen people of this world, to their Heavenly Father’s Delight!
Matthew 5:14-19
You are the Light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your Light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in Heaven!
“Do not think that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish but to fulfill! For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke shall pass from the Law until all is accomplished! Whoever then annuls one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the Kingdom of Heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Emphasis added.)