I've recently been told - again - that drinking alcohol in any amount is wrong for the believer in Yeshua to do. At least this time the fellow who told me this said that he could not say drinking wine was a sin.
For anyone who is truly interested in studying this issue with due diligence I want to recommend to resources. First a book (pictured above) by author Ken Gentry. This book is extremely exhaustive and yet very easy to understand. He tackles arguments from those in opposition and each chapter is designed to deal with specific issues involved in the subject. This book can be found HERE. Secondly, I would like to recommend three sermons preached by Pastor John Weaver of Freedom Ministries. If you haven't heard Pastor Weaver preach you are missing out majorly. Few preachers even think of venturing into some of the subjects this man teaches about. His Sermons can be found HERE. Matthew Janzen
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While studying to teach the book of Ruth at the local congregation I attend, I noticed something in the first chapter that spells out for us what is happening today in the lives of so many individuals who attend churches - false repentance. What I mean is this; there are multitudes of people who feel a worldly sorrow for doing "bad things" and these people may even weep buckets of tears over what they have done. However, in the end they always go back and do the same things all over again.
What caught my attention (in this regard) was the account of Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth in chapter 1 of the book. As Ruth, after losing her husband and two sons, journeys back to Bethlehem, she (weeping) tells her daughters in law (Orpah and Ruth) to stay in the land of Moab rather than coming with her. All three of them weep and the two daughters say that they will go with Naomi. Shortly thereafter the discussion continues and Orpah and Ruth cry some more. This time Orpah goes back to Moab, but Ruth clings to Naomi, venturing to an unknown land, people, god, etc. We hear much of Ruth after this, but Orpah travels into the oblivion and is never - to my knowledge, mentioned in Scripture again. Orpah had false repentance. Yes, she cried tremendously, but there was still a longing to her to go back to what she was used to. I think Naomi may have been testing the two girls to see where there heart was. If they truly wanted to turn their life over to the Elohim of Israel they would continue on with this bitter 'ol woman that Naomi was at the time. As we know, Ruth did stay with Naomi and made awesome promises too her and to Yahweh. Orpah went back to her old ways. Do we not see this happening with people today? We see people who have committed sin, sometimes heinous, and they feel sorry for what they've done, but it's not a righteous sorrow. They still do not realize that they've wronged the sustainer of them and the universe. They ask for prayer, cry sometimes greatly, and you think that something great has happened. You may see them for a little while at church, but soon thereafter you don't see them anymore and they go back to their old way of life. What happened here was visible repentance, but not true repentance. They didn't change their direction; they didn't really have an encounter with Yahweh in their heart of hearts. On the other hand we may experience true repentance with people who never even shed a tear. I'm not against crying, I'm just saying someone can really have an encounter with God and it be a "dry encounter." Crying and outward sorrow doesn't automatically equal true repentance. If a person is practicing sin and they confess, repent, and believe and you begin to see a true change in a persons life, but they never weeped over their sin, don't be presumptuous and think that they weren't serious enough. Yahweh works with different people in different ways. If there is a change of life then it is Yahweh. If they stay on the Biblical course then it is Yahweh. If it seems like they are sorry but they continue to do the things that God hates then it was a work of man. Matthew Janzen If there was ever a passage that is extremely relevant to this day and age it is 2 Timothy 4:1-4. Here Paul (the apostle) encourages young Timothy to proclaim the truth message - preach the word - as some translations put it. He tells him to do so whether it's convenient or not. The KJV says whether it is in season or out of season. I take him to mean most likely when it is popular or when it is not popular. Whatever the case, it is the word that must be preached. This is an oddity today, because most men who call themselves (or whom others call) pastors do not preach the word, they preach a "get rich quick" or "self esteem" message that is about as shallow as possible. In such, people are becoming less and less capable of listening to a genuine sermon/bible study becaue they think a sermon is a 20 minute lesson that exalts mans "goodness" and contains a hint of Scripture here or there.
Paul knew that such times would come, therefore he writes to Timothy that the time will come when people will not be able to tolerate sound doctrine. Does this sound familiar? It surely should because there are thousands of people in the church-world today who do not tolerate sound doctrine. They pick their "home church" based upon programs, music ministry, number of people, how good they feel, etc. They should rather ask themselves if the true message of Scripture is being taught from the pulpit and if God is being glorified rather than man. If a preacher never preaches expositorily or exegetically; if a preacher never teaches deep bible study; if a preacher's messages are always titled "You Can Make It" or "Living to Your Fullest Potential," the chances are you are going to one of the visible "Christian" churches in the world rather than to a true Christian assembly. Paul tells Timothy that people will heap to themselves teachers having itching ears. The HCSB says that these people have an itch to hear something new. This translation then gives a footnote that says "or, to hear what they want to hear." People run to find a multitude of professing teachers so that they might be able to find a few that will lie to them and make them feel better about their sin. How often this is the case today. Paul concludes by saying they will turn away from hearing the truth and turn aside to myths/fables. It is sad, but such happens so very often with people today. Paul tells Timothy in verse 5 to basically persist in teaching properly. He says that Timothy must keep a clear head, endure hardship (persecution for teaching Scripture), and continue in the work of the ministry. If you are a teacher out there, Pauls words are calling out to you today, and if you are a listener out there who wants there ears tickled, repent and turn to Yahweh's truths before you are cast into the eternal fire prepared for the Devil and his angels. Matthew Janzen I was going back over Exodus 11 and 12 this morning in final preparations for a Sabbath sermon, and I noticed something I had never noticed before. It is amazing how that you can read a text for so many years and yet miss something very profound.
In Exodus 11:6-7 we have Moses talking to Pharaoh about what is going to happen in the final plague in Egypt. It is the plague where the firstborn in all of Egypt will perish, that is, unless the command to apply blood to the door of the house is obeyed (see Exodus chapter 12). In Exodus 11:6 Moses says that there is going to be a great cry of anguish throughout Egypt. This cry would be something that had not occurred before nor would occur again. It would be the cry of all the families in Egypt that awoke when their firstborn died during the middle of the night. Imagine thousands of people dying at one singular time all over an entire nation. Moses then states this in Exodus 11:7: "But against all the Israelites, whether man or beast, not even a dog will snarl." I read this one time, and then I went back again a read it a few more times. I was thinking to myself, "What in the world does this mean?" It even made me chuckle a bit. The literal reading from the Hebrew is "not even a dog will move/point its tongue," and most commentators regard it as an idiom meaning something like this: when the Israelites leave they will not have to deal with the grief from their firstborn dying. This means that there will be no dogs howling as is customary for dogs to do when someone in the house is hurt or in need. However, I think there is another meaning (or a two-fold meaning) here that becomes apparent with a bit of study into the worship of the Egyptians. The Egyptians worshiped a multiplicity of gods and in bringing the plagues on Egypt Yahweh was executing judgment on all their gods (Exodus 12:12). One of the gods Egypt worshiped was named Anubis and was the Son of a major god named Osiris. Anubis was depicted as either a dog (jackal) or at least a man with the head of a dog. He was actually called "barking Anubis" by the Egyptian people. Egypt even had a city named Anubis after the name of the god. Anubis' name actually means something like, "Lord of the Place of Embalming," or "Lord of Death." It was believed by the Egyptians that Anubis was the god that carried them to the underworld when they died. It is quite probable that what Moses meant in Exodus 11:7 is that there would be yet another judgment on one of Egypt's gods. Just as the "powerful" sun god "Ra" was shown to be powerless when there were three days of darkness in Egypt during the ninth plague, Yahweh was now mocking Anubis through His prophet Moses by telling them that even Anubis would not be able to stop the exodus from the land of Egypt, controlled by Yahweh's ultimate power. Even Anubis, the "lord of the dead" couldn't keep Yahweh's Israel people from leaving Egypt. Very interesting to say the least. Matthew Janzen |
AuthorBlog by Matthew Janzen. Lover of Yahweh, Yeshua, my wife and 5 children. All else is commentary. Archives
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