“I will tell you this” is a popular intro to answers that can only be lies or cleverly disguised info.  Typically it comes in a conversation with a politician who knows the question has a truthful answer and who knows that the correct answer to the question will show that he or she is irresponsible, corrupt, and perverse. He r she says it any way, providing evidence that a certain amount of consciousness is part of the experience of hell-bound people.

Some people think they know who among the living is going to heaven or hell. What if the same people cannot tell if they themselves are save or lost. The repeated appearance of this preamble – I will tell you this – reminds us of the question of authority posed by Yeshua’s contemporaries.

And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority do you these things? and who gave you this authority?

Matthew 21:23

In order to bring their ignorance and treachery to light our Lord posed a question of his own, promising to answer their question if they answered his.

Was the Baptist a legit messenger or no?

But let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these comes of evil.

Matthew 5:37

Yeshua asked a lot of questions too, but the one about John the Baptist moved things into high gear. If our answer to a closed question (yes or no would be sufficient!) is more than a simple “yes” or “no” there is evil in the making. Was John authorized with his baptism?

The baptism of John, whence was it? from heaven, or of men? And they reasoned with themselves, saying, If we shall say, From heaven; he will say unto us, Why did all of you not then believe him?

Matthew 21:25

A fatal “I cannot tell you …”

A simple “yes” or “no” would have been sufficient.

And they answered Jesus, and said, We cannot tell. And he said unto them, Neither tell I you by what authority I do these things.

Matthew 21:27

Their unbelief and resistance to the Holy Spirit so haunted them that they chose to chart a course to try to hide their true feelings and opinions.

These questioners – chief priests and elders – were themselves on the outside pretending to be in, but they had rejected the most important message since God called Abraham: “the Kingdom is near”. They were satisfied to stay on the path to hell. They imagined that just by saying they were in compliance with God’s will or they loved the Law did not have any weight. John did not buy “We are Abraham’s descendants”, and Yeshua was making it quite clear that John represented the best of Abraham’s expectations, and Moses and the prophets were taking a back seat. The people in Moses seat, the people who gave God’s word faithfully, are all yesterday, not as if they do not exist and provide samples of caution.

What it meant for Jews to repent in the first century

The Law and Prophets (books and persons) are yesterday because the Eternal one is with us in time. The kingdom is near because the king its king has moved from glory to humiliation.

From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force. (Matt. 11:12)  For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John, (Matt. 11:13)  and if you are willing to accept it, he is Elijah who is to come. (Matt. 11:14)

“Hell-bound people” is not a insulting way to talk about humans. Everybody is and deceived by the glitter of tradition and invention. Without hell-bound people there would be no point to the year of release, neither in the agricultural and local sense nor in the spiritual and global sense. John called his generation seed of vipers and the Lord questioned whether a change was possible. It is a question that affects all people who do not believe.

All of you serpents, all of you generation of vipers, how can all of you escape the damnation of hell?

Matthew 23:33

A century ago the Brits found 200,000 Jews in Baghdad. Today there are five remaining. Christians born and raised in Iraq are near extinction. This is the land where Yahweh raised up and chastened kings day back in the 7th BC. This the land where one king decreed to establish a protected status for Judaism.

Therefore I make a decree, That every people, nation, and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, shall be cut in pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort.

Daniel 3:29

Today we see a concerted effort to dull the effect of faith groups. Government support of spiritual life is all lip service. Government defence of spiritual values is required but denied so that the phony world government can make its claim over all souls.

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Let’s pray for disappearing believers. Let us pray for courage for Jews, Christians and all religious minorities. Let us pray too for religious majorities in Canada and the United States whose voice and messsge has been coopted by cheap political slogans and nationalist ideology. Pray for peace to dominate government action.

We suppose that we are all certain that our feet are on solid ground until it becomes obvious that ancient things do not necessarily take the lead. This pattern is established in the election of Jacob over Esau and Joseph and Judah over Reuben. The unique history of Israel does not make it either to first place nor do any of the attempts to make Israelite life the foundation for spirituality. To be the one and only is not a goal and existing in a state of never achieving – compliance with the covenant – is the same as being dead.

The end of the fulfilled

When solutions are needed for what to eat and drink we search the Bible. When correction is needed for interpersonal problems we search. If we wanted to learn how to build and maintain the ancient symbols of God’s dealings we search the law. If we want to be hip to salvation and searched the law we would find that salvation and its happiness lie decidedly outside and apart from law and prophets. Israel is without controversy the unique vessel of God’s dealings with humanity in preparation for Messiah. The chosen people are still alone and unique but certifiably dead. The fulfillment of divine sayings arrives when death, its sting and power are shown the door.

But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who has abolished death, and has brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

2 Timothy 1:10

A child’s game of we win and you lose has become the standard of good governance. No just person creates a narrative to make the same point for every defence and expect respect. Preachers do it and it gets amens. Christians are not taken in by cleverly designed political or religious talking points. Who gets these loose cannons?

For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.

2 Peter 1:16

This is Peter’s affirmation of the gospel over the traditional narratives which have no eternal outcomes. The usual defence of faith in Peter’s experience was not based on glory and virtue but law and personal performance. Peter had a contrasting message of divine power and promises as the operational elements.  It was not law and prophets that brought revelation and redemption, and no argument, long or short, can turn law and prophets into functional components of eternal salvation. Christ calls them all thieves and robbers.

The boom from infancy

The church was young when a fabulous talking point was introduced. The attempt to circumcise people turning to Christ and compel them to observe Mosaic tradition failed, and the church has ever since been drifting into the same rejected and one-way lanes. We reject circumcision but we keep grounding morality in the same eclipsed law and by adopting symbols of Jewish life and by building concepts even from the planks in a wide range of political views.

Patriotism – reverence for flag and country – turns out to be abominable foundation for a healthy society because it is idolatrous. Nationalism is a shallow pool in which many are swimming. No talking point can ever bring Christ and any secular power into an intimate partnership. The kings of the earth are all in Herod’s image. They oppose the virtue and interests of the Saviour of the world even though at times there seems to be mutual aspirations and methods.

3. According as his divine power has given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that has called us to glory and virtue: 4. Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these all of you might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

2 Peter 1:3-4

The freedom that Peter’s generation claimed was a hollow shell. The bondage that followed them around could not be denied, yet they proclaimed that they had never been in slavery. They boasted about the perpetual condemnation of the law as if it was a key that opened prisons. The law is not a document arising from free choice and it is not a document that makes men free moral agents.

Repeat until they think it is true

We have escaped.   Real freedom and real life come from Christ. His gifts are not loans or trials. We do not have to prove anything to anyone.  God has taken charge of his work, and the mystery of salvation is unfolding just as it should with no real help from anyone. Salvation is of the Lord. The lies we have told ourselves are coming out to haunt ua. The hateful policies of the GOP and the shallow sloganism of the evangelical church are out in plain sight with the sudden recognition that words matter. 

Our best words are chiseled and dangerous slogans. The cannons of the truth warriors are sounding like popcorn. They do not have the distinct certain sound of good news.

• die and go to heaven
• once saved always saved
• perfect obedience to all God has said
• walking in victory
• love is a thing we do
• God is love is commandment-keeping
• Grace and faith save us
• Grace, faith and works save us
• The new covenant is identical to the old

There is no national repentance coming. 2 Chronicles 7 is a fake revival model. People have been justifying lying, rape and abuse for so long that now the cannons are firing blanks. So little of what they say has a straight line to the death, burial and resurrection of Yeshua we wish they did not want to talk. So little of what the sworn officers of state say stands the test of fact and constitution we know that many are unaware of their perjured condition. Let them pop away. Ear plugs anyone?