"who is lord over us?"
(Psa. 12: 4)
"The LORD shall cut off all flattering lips, and the tongue that speaketh proud things: Who have said, With our tongue will we prevail; our lips are our own: who is lord over us?" (Psa. 12: 3-4)
"wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?" (Jer. 2: 31)
All unsaved sinners reject the rule of God over them. They say of Christ, the Son of God, "We will not have this man to reign over us." (Luke 19: 14) So, who do they want to rule over them if not the Son of God? Those who believe in government and law enforcement want just and wise rulers. Anarchists want no government at all. Who needs the police? What they want is what all depraved and lost sinners want, though not all will openly acknowledge it; they want to be their own lords and gods. This attitude is reflected in the above texts. "Who is lord over us?" The answer - "we are lords."
Wrote Paul:
"Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." (Phil. 3: 19)
"For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom. 16: 18)
It is ironic that sinners, who think that they are their own creators and gods, are actually servants of "their own belly," the belly being their god. Yes, the belly is part of the person, so a person who serves his belly is serving himself. Still, the irony is evident.
"Whose God is their belly - Who worship their own appetites; or who live not to adore and honor God, but for self-indulgence and sensual gratifications." (Barnes)
Today's eastern and new age teachers tell us to "find the god within you." They talk about the "enlightenment" that comes when they realize or discover that the only gods are they themselves. Therefore, to "adore" God is to adore self. To love God is to love self. To serve God is to serve self. Etc. Also, this thinking makes them see their carnal, sensual, and depraved appetites as things not to be suppressed or controlled, or things wrong or immoral; And why? Because these are the cravings of a god! How can those cravings be wrong?
Vincent's Word Studies - Belly; Romans 16:18. "So the Cyclops in Euripides: "My flocks which I sacrifice to no one but myself, and not to the gods, and to this my belly the greatest of the gods: for to eat and drink each day, and to give one's self no trouble, this is the god for wise men" ("Cyclops," 334-338)."
This is the philosophy of life for the world of blind and deceived sinners.
End Time Anarchy
"wherefore say my people, We are lords; we will come no more unto thee?" (Jer. 2: 31)
All unsaved sinners reject the rule of God over them. They say of Christ, the Son of God, "We will not have this man to reign over us." (Luke 19: 14) So, who do they want to rule over them if not the Son of God? Those who believe in government and law enforcement want just and wise rulers. Anarchists want no government at all. Who needs the police? What they want is what all depraved and lost sinners want, though not all will openly acknowledge it; they want to be their own lords and gods. This attitude is reflected in the above texts. "Who is lord over us?" The answer - "we are lords."
Wrote Paul:
"Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things." (Phil. 3: 19)
"For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple." (Rom. 16: 18)
It is ironic that sinners, who think that they are their own creators and gods, are actually servants of "their own belly," the belly being their god. Yes, the belly is part of the person, so a person who serves his belly is serving himself. Still, the irony is evident.
"Whose God is their belly - Who worship their own appetites; or who live not to adore and honor God, but for self-indulgence and sensual gratifications." (Barnes)
Today's eastern and new age teachers tell us to "find the god within you." They talk about the "enlightenment" that comes when they realize or discover that the only gods are they themselves. Therefore, to "adore" God is to adore self. To love God is to love self. To serve God is to serve self. Etc. Also, this thinking makes them see their carnal, sensual, and depraved appetites as things not to be suppressed or controlled, or things wrong or immoral; And why? Because these are the cravings of a god! How can those cravings be wrong?
Vincent's Word Studies - Belly; Romans 16:18. "So the Cyclops in Euripides: "My flocks which I sacrifice to no one but myself, and not to the gods, and to this my belly the greatest of the gods: for to eat and drink each day, and to give one's self no trouble, this is the god for wise men" ("Cyclops," 334-338)."
This is the philosophy of life for the world of blind and deceived sinners.
End Time Anarchy
"In the same manner nevertheless, also these who are beguiled with sensual images and carried away to an impious course of conduct, defile indeed the flesh, and set at naught authority, and speak evil of preeminence." (Wuest Translation)
The words "despise dominion" (KJV) are also translated as "reject authority," "defy authority," "reject Lordship," "despise lordship," "set at nought dominion," "lordship they put away," etc.
Reject (set aside) from "atheteo," meaning "to set aside something that is established (like authority). To do away with what has been laid down." Atheteo is used by Jesus addressing the Pharisees and the Scribes who rejected authority declaring "You nicely set aside (reject = atheteo) the commandment of God." (Mark 7:9)
Authority ("Lordship") from "kuriotes," from kurios (Lord, owner, master) and means lordship, ruling power, one who possesses dominion, authority or magistracy.
More is involved in "rejecting authority" than rejecting governmental or civil authority and rule, but includes rejecting parental authority, even landlord authority, and rulers of business, as we see prevalent even today in 2020. It is more than a rejection of the rule of God. Of course, rejecting legitimate governmental authority is to reject God as Paul taught in Romans 13.
Peace Taken
What is a "civilized society"? Check the dictionaries and encyclopedias and you will find it defined as "characterized by taste, refinement, or restraint," and as having "law and order." On the other hand, uncivilized means savage, amoral, lawless. Under the red horse rider "civilization" will give way to a savage and disorderly state. It will in many ways be a "kill or be killed" state, where "might makes right" and where no one is safe. Vigilantism, or taking justice into one's own hands, and private revenge, will be commonplace. It will be like the "wild west" in days when states were territories filled with murderers, bushwackers, etc., and where men out of necessity carried guns to defend themselves. With many nations having outlawed gun ownership, one wonders how people will kill each other during the time of the red horse rider. In areas around the world today, where guns are few, people will no doubt use other means to kill each other.
The first question in our previous list of questions for study was: "What is meant by the taking of peace from the earth?" The second was connected with it - "Is the removal of peace in politics alone, or in other areas?" So also is the third - "Is the removal of peace worldwide?" Let us address these three questions in our musings.
Everything in the book of Revelation is happening on a global scale. Those commentators who think the red horse rider has already come and gone (Preterist and Historicist views) limit the fulfillment to a limited territory of the earth (land) such as to the land of Palestine, or to Israel, or to the Roman Empire, etc. Only the Futurist sees the fulfillment as yet unrealized and that it is global in its extent. The slaughter and bloodshed under the red horse rider is worldwide. This is clear because the judgments of the Apocalypse are all worldwide. So, not only is the murder universal but so is the loss of peace.
The bloodshed under the red horse rider is not the result of nations warring against nations, for that has been occurring since Revelation was written, and for the past two thousand years (since Jesus warned of the continuous presence of wars up until his return in his Olivet sermon); wars between nation states have been occurring before the second seal is opened. It cannot therefore be the precise kind of killing occurring under the red horse rider.
Race Wars
"And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows." (Matt. 24: 6-8)
The Greek word "ethnos" ( translated "nation") does not primarily refer to a political state. The word means "a multitude of individuals of the same nature or genus," or "a tribe, nation, people group, or race." The word denotes ethnicity, not necessarily a nation state or political entity. So, "nation warring against nation" may allude to ethnic groups within one political state fighting each other, or what we call "race wars" or "ethnic conflicts." We could justly translate as "race shall rise against race."
The loss of peace that the world will begin to experience when Christ returns, via his precursory judgments under the doings of the four horsemen, will not be limited to the mere political area, to wars between nations, for the reasons stated. It is a total loss of peace.
Many commentators think that the red horse rider brings a final "world war" between nation states and that the bloodshed is therefore primarily confined to soldiers rather than civilians. But the words "that they should kill one another" seems to put the murder and killing on a very local level, where neighbor is killing neighbor, in a kind of gang warfare.
Notice that Jesus says that the warring between races marks "the beginning of sorrows." This is what we see in Revelation chapter six with the opening of the first seals. But, as Jesus said, "the end is not yet." The "end" or culmination comes at the end of the Book of Revelation. The coming of the four horsemen represent the "beginning of the end."
No comments:
Post a Comment