A RECKONING ON CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS AND THE END OF DAYS: TRUTHS, MYTHS, AND ENTERING THE LAND OF PROMISE

SCRIPTURE. “And the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward.” – DEUTERONOMY 2:2-3, AMP

QUOTATIONS

COLUMBUS. “At a very early age I began to sail upon the ocean. For more than forty years, I have sailed everywhere that people go. I prayed to the most merciful Lord about my heart’s great desire, and He gave me the spirit and the intelligence for the task: seafaring, astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, skill in drafting spherical maps and placing correctly the cities, rivers, mountains and ports. I also studied cosmology, history, chronology and philosophy.” – Christopher Columbus, ‘Book of Prophecies,’ 1505; edited

BRECKER. “Christopher Columbus and his brothers were no different from many of the Spanish adventurers of the time. They were a roughhewn lot, who wrote the rules by which they lived. As with their fellow Conquistadores, they had a code of honor that sadly did not include the Indians. Since most of the Indians were never baptized, killing or enslaving them was not considered sinful. Human life was cheap to them, as they lived and died by the sword.” ― Captain Hank Brecker, ‘The Exciting Story of Cuba,’ 2015; edited

DE LAS CASAS. “And the Christians, with their horses and swords and pikes began to carry out massacres and strange cruelties against them. They attacked the towns and spared neither the children nor the aged nor pregnant women nor women in childbed, not only stabbing them and dismembering them but cutting them to pieces as if dealing with sheep in the slaughter house.” – Fr. Bartolomé de las Casas, ‘A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies,’ 1552, cited by Katie Halper, “Five Scary Christopher Columbus Quotes,” ‘Raw Story,’ Oct. 17, 2017; edited

Selah.

1. FIRST THOUGHTS

RECKONING. “A summing up or appraisal; a settlement of accounts, as between two parties; the working out of consequences or retribution for one’s actions.”

I began to draft this piece on October 12th, 2022, not realizing that it was coincidental with our national observation of Indigenous Peoples Day. Wikipedia informs us that it is a holiday in the United States that celebrates and honors

Native American peoples and commemorates their histories and cultures.

It began as a Counter-Celebration held on the same day as the U.S. federal holiday of Columbus Day, which honors Genovese-born explorer CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS’ arrival in the Americas on 1492 of that day. Some people reject celebrating him, saying that he represents “the violent history of the colonization in the Western Hemisphere.”

PURPOSE. I have been led on the dauntless task of sorting through some of the rather messy histories and opinions of this enigmatic man, and the immeasurable impact his epic voyages have had on the Founding of America. Even more daunting, I will for the first time address what may have been portended for the role that our Nation would play in the very Last Days prophesied by Scripture.

I will attempt this in TWO MAJOR SECTIONS that deal with the American Founding. (1) The somewhat Corrected Conventional View. (2) The somewhat Speculative Prophetic View. While a good deal of what follows certainly flows from my own theological and historical perspectives, I promise you it is steeped and simmered in over 40 years of prayerful research, thoughtful reflection, and later in life ‘discernment.’

1. THE CONVENTIONAL VIEW

What follows will be A SUMMARY of what I have been taught as a Christian for the last 35 years as the true and accurate perspective of the American Founding, and parenthetically, the nature of Christopher Columbus’ personal character.

I will borrow heavily in this section from the work of the well-regarded DR. STEPHEN FLICK, historian and theologian and head of the Christian Heritage Fellowship. His information-rich Compendium is entitled, “America’s Founding Fathers and the Bible,” in the ‘Fellowship’ online journal (Nov. 26, 2021; edited).

• INTRODUCTION. “Contrary to the contemporary mantra that America was birthed as a secular nation, the historical evidence demonstrates that America was founded by Christians who wished to enjoy the liberty to freely express their Christian faith. Lamentably, Christians have forgotten and neglected the Christian heritage bequeathed to them by America’s Founding Fathers and have allowed Secularists to disparage and deny what was given to them at such a great price.” DK. You will note here that Dr. Flick lays all blame for such dark condition at the feet of the unsaved “Secularists,” never at the Church.

• JAMESTOWN COMMANDMENTS. “From July 30 to August 4, 1619, the first Representative Legislative Assembly to ever gather in America convened in the [first] Church at Jamestown, Virginia. The governor, six counsellors, and twenty burgesses gathered in the choir loft at the east end of the church where Canon Law number 82 of the Church of England stipulated … ‘that the Ten Commandements [sic] be set upon the East ende of every Church and Chapell.’ The Bible approved for use within Anglican churches at the time of the Assembly was the Bishops’ Bible of 1602.” DK. Colonial historian DR. KEN CURTIS of California State University at Long Beach, writing for the online magazine, ‘Christianity’ (Apr. 28, 2010), however, cautions this: “Among the first settlers to begin the Jamestown settlement in 1607 was the REVEREND ROBERT HUNT. As the first colonists landed on Virginia soil, one of their first acts was to join Rev. Hunt in a communion service, yet the lives of these earliest colonists lacked a strong Christian commitment. Their squabbling, pride, arrogance, and greediness almost wrecked the settlement.”

• DOCUMENTS. “Read the historical documents proving that the Founding Fathers did truly create the United States of America based on God and Christian principles. Read all 50 State Constitutions. Each State did invoke God in their State Constitution,” including the Barbary Treaties and the personal correspondences of the Founding Fathers. DK. During a semester long sabbatical I took while working as professor at Regent University in the 1990s, I did much of that on a dare from fellow faculty member GARY T. AMOS, professor of law and government and author of ‘Defending the Declaration’ (1996). Beginning with the Magna Carta of 1215, I read through the Western Common Law Tradition to the First Virginia Charter of 1606 to the Massachusetts Bay charter of 1620 and then to the thirteen Founding Charters of every colony and more. I can testify firsthand to each one being centered upon the Jewish biblical tradition and Christian political philosophy.

• CONTINENTAL CONGRESS. “On June 12, 1775, the Continental Congress issued one of its first Fast Day Proclamations when JOHN HANCOCK of Massachusetts was president of Congress. Hancock, one of the wealthiest Americans of his day, was the son and grandson of Christian ministers and was personally a deeply committed Christian. But this proclamation issued by the Continental Congress over the next decade was only one of the proclamations asking states to fast, pray, and give thanks to God.” DK. All accurate, all true, although Christian historian GARY SCOTT SMITH notes however that although “Hancock’s vanity, lavish lifestyle, and some of his business practices conflicted with Christian principles, his faith appeared to be genuine” (‘Faith and Freedom,’ July 1, 2010; edited).

• CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION. On June 28, 1787, DR. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN rose on the floor of the Constitutional Convention and addressed himself to “Mr. President”—the chairman of the Convention, GEORGE WASHINGTON … Mr. Franklin attributed the rancor in the Constitution Convention to the fact the members had failed to earnestly seek God’s guidance. He believed greater progress would be made in their efforts if they began each session by seeking Divine guidance.” DK. Baylor University’s distinguished professor of history, THOMAS S. KIDD in their ‘Alumni Magazine’ (Fall 2017), reminds us that Franklin “described himself in his autobiography as a ‘thorough Deist’ who as a teenager had rejected the Puritan faith of his parents.” And further, that “few convention attendees supported the [prayer] proposal. A couple of devout delegates seconded his motion, but it fizzled among the other participants. Franklin scribbled a note at the bottom of his prayer speech lamenting, ‘The Convention except three or four Persons, thought Prayers unnecessary!’”

·        FOUNDER’S QUOTATIONS. “Early in the twentieth century, secularists, atheists, and others despising America’s Christian Founding Fathers began to disparage the character of those who birthed America as an independent nation. This attack upon the Christian origin of America only intensified throughout the twentieth century, editing the Christian influence out of school textbooks. For this reason, it is incumbent upon American patriots to set the facts straight.” DK. A responsibly researched Britannica essay penned by Church historian DAVID L. HOLMES (Dec. 21, 2006) argues, as have I, that a true, orthodox Christian Theism often overlaps with and often becomes indistinguishable from Classical (or even Nominal) Deism. “The sweeping disagreement over the religious faiths of the Founders arises from a question of discrepancy. Did their private beliefs differ from the Orthodox teachings of their churches? On the surface, most Founders appear to have been Orthodox (or ‘right-believing’) Christians …But the widespread existence in 18th-century America of a school of religious thought called Deism complicates the actual ‘beliefs [and lifestyles’] of the Founders.”

CAVEAT EMPTOR [“Let the buyer beware!’]. Permit me to state The Lesson here as plainly as possible after over 40 years of studying these matters: ‘Historical Revisionism’ can be found on both sides of the political spectrum, Left and Right.Even this cursory treatment today I believe has demonstrated that.

Case in Point: Would you likely have been a slaveholder in the 18^th century, beloved, or an abolitionist? While hypothetical, I find copious ‘excuses’ written that it was the nature of the times that permitted it. Selah.

1. THE PROPHETIC VIEW

Let me confess openly that my entire Christian Framework has been under major, even radical reconstruction since the year 2015. For reasons that I think all of you already know concerning what has happened to America, the Political Nation and the Protestant Church during the last seven years. T

To a second and terribly unsurprising point: ‘We are a very different America’ in 2022 than we were in 2015.

CRACKS IN THE FOUNDATION. As a Scottish-Hispanic Jew of Christian faith married to an American born Filipino-Portuguese of Christian faith, one of the great agonies of my matriculation during this seven-year period of time has been to look through ‘different eyes’ at what I will argue is a pristine, ‘Whitened’ version of our Founding and our Future.

Jamestown as Harbinger. America was inarguably settled by White “Explorers” [or were they, accurately, “Conquistadores”] who were overwhelmingly aggressive toward the Native peoples who had lived here for centuries. Physical violence followed after a brief period of rapprochement, with the first official Anglo-Indian War taking place in 1622 at Jamestown.

According to TWO HISTORICAL ACCOUNTS including that of Wikipedia (Sep. 9, 2022) and History.com (July 26, 2022), what we have been taught about our early settlers is not quite what The Reality was.

“Upon the settlement’s founding in 1607, the local indigenous tribes were willing to trade provisions to the Jamestown colonists for metal tools, though by 1609 governor of the colony JOHN SMITH had begun to send raiding parties to demand for provisions from local indigenous settlements. These raiding parties burned down settlements which refused their demands, and frequently stole provisions, leading to resentment towards the colonists and precipitating conflict …

In October 1609, Smith was forced to return to England after sustaining a serious injury in a gunpowder explosion. In the months after his departure, [the Powhatan Chief] ordered his men to attack the Jamestown fort, beginning the first of the Anglo-Powhatan Wars, and Jamestown endured the so-called ‘starving time’ over the winter of 1609-10, during which several hundred colonists died.”

THE FOUR FRACTURES. It was these clearly colonist-provoked aggressions that led to the infamous Slaughter of 1622 led by Powhatan Chieftan OPECHANCANOUGH, who had pretty much had enough from the White “Christian” Europeans. And so it would go straight through the coercive “Manifest Destiny” Narrative of 1845, through today’s lamentable Indian Reservation system, replete with poverty and addiction and violence and death.

So, to the sordid details.

• SLAVERY. “The Constitution’s biggest flaw was in protecting the Institution of Slavery. Many constitutional provisions did this. Article 1, Section 9, prohibits Congress from banning the importation of slaves until 1808, and Article 5 prohibited this from being amended. Article 1, Section 2, provides that, for purposes of representation in Congress, enslaved black people in a state would be counted as three-fifths of the number of white inhabitants of that state. Article 4, Section 2, contains the ‘Fugitive Slave Clause,’ which required that an escaped slave be returned to his or her owner. Ultimately, it took a Civil War and constitutional amendments to eliminate Slavery. But racial inequalities that can be traced back to slavery have existed throughout American history and persist today.” – ERWIN CHEMERINSKY, “Constitution’s Biggest Flaw? Protecting Slavery,” [UC] ‘Berkeley News,’ Sep.17, 2019; edited

Amendment 13, Section I. “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, ‘except’ as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.”

• SLAUGHTER. “From the time Europeans arrived on American shores, the Frontier – the edge territory between White man’s civilization and the untamed natural world – became a shared space of vast, clashing differences that led the U.S. government to authorize over 1,500 wars, attacks and raids on Indians, the most of any country in the world against its Indigenous people. By the close of the Indian Wars in the late 19th century, fewer than 238,000 Indigenous people remained, a sharp decline from the estimated 5 million to 15 million living in North America when Columbus arrived in 1492 … The bloodiest and most defining illustration of racial predilection is in the genocidal ‘Trail of Tears’event of 1838, in which President Andrew Jackson authorized the Cherokee people to be forcibly taken from their homes, incarcerated in stockades, forced to walk more than a thousand miles, and removed to Indian Territory, now Oklahoma. More than 4,000 died and many are buried in unmarked graves along ‘The Trail Where They Cried.’”- cf. DON L. FIXICO, “When Native Americans Were Slaughtered in the Name of ‘Civilization,’” ‘History,’ Oct. 25, 2021; EDITORS, “Trail of Tears,” ‘Cherokee Museum,’ ret. Oct. 16, 2022; edited

• STEALING. “The United States conducted an extended campaign of territorial acquisition against its southern neighbors in three premeditated and ruthless military operations — the expropriation of Florida from Spain in 1819, the covert political and military machinations in Texas that ultimately led to annexation in 1845, and the infamous War of the United States on Mexico in 1846 that ended with the ignoble ‘Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo.’ The ‘Gadsden Treaty of 1854,’ secured by bribery and extortion, transferred even more Mexican territory into U.S. hands. The great American land-grab was one of the most successful in history — by the end of this thirty-five year period the United States had stolen more than 2.6 million square kilometers (over one million square miles) of land and the birthright of the Mexican people. The driving force of American imperialism in the South and Southwest was to establish an empire for the institution of Slavery.” – RICHARD D. VOGEL, “Stolen Birthright: The U.S. Conquest and Exploitation of the Mexican People,” ‘Houston Culture,’ 2004; edited 

• SACRILEGE. In a somewhat tangentially related Fissure in our Foundation is America’s long history alongside ‘Freemasonry.’ Beginning with GEORGE WASHINGTON, our first president who had reached the level of Master Mason, a large number of other presidents followed in suit. Here’s a taste of what ‘Freemason Core Beliefs’ involve from one of their elite leaders named BRO. WAITE. ”The Secret Tradition is concerned with The Vision that begins in faith, and with its attainment, by the opening of that door which gives upon the Infinite. In the sacred mysteries of long ago, the existence of ‘that door which gives upon the Infinite’ was known to all people; the Divine Nature of Man was recognized as the ‘Hidden Light,’ as they called it. Those who so desired could undertake the task of preparing themselves to explore those ‘deeper layers of consciousness’ and thus to serve in the Inner Sanctuary through which Divine Forces were distributed for the helping of the world.” – BRO. EDITH ARMOUR Edith 33°, ‘Universal Freemasonry,’ Sep. 27, 2018; edited

DK’S SUMMARY. At considerable risk of offending many if not most of my readers, my admittedly Severe Reexamination of virtually all things theological and all things American since the rise of Trump’s Treachery of both institutions, have led me to reconsider some of my Earlier Presuppositions. To the extent that I offer these TENTATIVE CONCLUSIONS for your thoughtful and prayerful reflections.

• America’s Founding was not as ‘Christian,’ as most of us have been taught.
• Indeed, America’s Founding had Deep Structure Fractures at its base.
• As American history proceeded, those Fractures became increasingly strained.
• By 2020, as the culture became intensely secularized, those Fractures began to fold and buckle and break under the weight of American Apostasy.
• Today, God is now weighing America in His Final Balance, to see if we shall return to our First Love, or invite His Final Judgment.

This is to the very best of all of my spiritual and scholarly abilities, where we are as a Nation and where we are as a Church. But for those who remain faithful, there is a much brighter message and a much brighter future that I will detail in the Last Sections.

1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “And the Lord spoke to me, saying, ‘You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward.” – DEUTERONOMY 2:2-3, AMP

It was on the morning of Saturday October 8^th when I was awakened to a very ‘still small Voice’ whispering: “Deuteronomy 2.” As is always the case with me, I immediately doubted that was the Holy Spirit and wondered if it was just me and the Sonic cheeseburger with onions I had eaten the night before.

As it turned out, I would discover a rich and powerful Encouragement from the Lord to us all in this one small verse.

KEY TERMS. as is also my practice, I turn now for a brief treatment of the Core Ideas that we can derive from this scripture. First with the drilldown of the Hebrew terms used, and then with an insightful Commentary from the theologians.

• CIRCLED. Taken from the Hebrew word, ‘Sabab’ [סָבַב]: “To turn about; go around; Surround; change direction; well, to be comforted; to march or walk around; to circle about; to circuit; come about; enclose; bring over to allegiance; to lead; besiege; to return; to arise.”

• LONG ENOUGH. The term used here in the Hebrew is, ‘Rab’ [רַב]: “Abundant, sufficient, plenteous; much, many or great; substantial; myriad or many days; more numerous than; exceedingly, enough!; related to ‘the deep,’ or ‘gold;’ increase, mighty; princely; master or chief; elder [or eldership]; captain [or captaincy].”

• TURN NORTHWARD. Here we have the Operant Command, from the word, ‘Tsaphon’ [צָפוֹן]: “Toward that which is unknown, dark or gloomy; also refers to that which is hidden; to cross a northern boundary; has been heretofore covered over [by God]; reserved or previously denied; kept secret or a secret place (designed to protect); imp. danger or risk.”

COMMENTARY. “[VV. 2:1-7] Only a short account of the long stay of Israel in the wilderness is given. ‘God not only chastised them for their murmuring and unbelief, but prepared them for Canaan;’ by humbling them for sin, teaching them to mortify their lusts, to follow God, and to comfort themselves in him. ‘Though Israel may be long kept waiting for deliverance and enlargement, it will come at last.’ Before God brought Israel to destroy their enemies in Canaan, ‘He taught them to forgive their [non-Jewish] enemies in Edom. They must not, under pretence of God’s Covenant and conduct, think to seize all they could lay hands on. Dominion is not founded in grace … Religion must never be made a cloak for injustice … Use what thou hast, use it cheerfully. Thou hast experienced the care of the Divine Providence, never use any crooked methods for thy supply. All this is equally to be applied to the experience of the believer.’” – MATTHEW HENRY, ‘Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,’ 6 vols., 1708-1710; edited

So very many RICH LESSONS for us today, beloved. ONE: The Israelites as with the Christian Church today is for all intents ‘nearing fulfillment’ of its course of preparation; The Great Sifting is almost completed. TWO: The time has come therefore to “Turn Northward,”meaning that the people of God are now to make final plans for actual ‘Entry into The Promise.’ THREE: For the Jews, this was a command to “Cross the Jordan” into “The Land Flowing With Milk and Honey” (Exod. 3:8); for us, it is our “Last Battle for Truth” just before we are “Removed to Paradise.” FOUR: As with the Jews before us, however, we are not to harass nor dominate or displace “those outside” (1 Cor. 5:12), while holding each other inside God’s House to severe account for maximum effectiveness in battle.

THE APPLICATION. I had mentioned in my announcement of this commentary, that I had received a special “Quickening,” for lack of a better term, as to its importance of substance and moment. In short: The Lord is, I sincerely believe, commanding those of us who still remain with Him to: “MAKE READY!”

Meaning, nearly all the gathering forces and events in fulfillment of ‘The Birth Pangs’ are coming to completion. This in anticipation of the explosion of God’s Wrath upon America and the whole world as we approach The Sixth Seal of Revelation chapter 6.

We are getting very close indeed beloved, and our Faithful King is exhorting His faithful subjects to trim their lamps, hoist their sails and set their houses in order for His stupendous, catastrophic and world-shaking Return. 

Selah.

• LAST THOUGHTS

Thus has the Lord’s Winnowing Fan largely done its Final Work: ‘To separate’wheat from chaff, the genuine from the pretentious, gold and silver from the wood and hay and stubble.

JOHN THE BAPTIST declares it at Messiah’s First Advent, to be completed in the Last Days just prior to His Second Advent.

“His winnowing fan (shovel, fork) is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clear out and clean His threshing floor and gather and store His wheat in His barn, but the chaff He will burn up with fire that cannot be put out.” – MATTHEW 3:12, AMPC

COMMENTARY. “‘Whose fan is in his hand’ — That is, the Doctrine of the Gospel, which is of such a nature as effectually discovers what is the real disposition of the hearts of men, and ‘perfectly distinguishes between the Hypocritical and the Sincere.’ Perhaps, also, the Baptist might refer to the persecutions and tribulations which should attend the preaching of the Gospel … ‘He will thoroughly purge his floor’ — His Church, at present covered with a mixture of wheat and chaff. As if He had said, Though, for the present, the good and bad, the fruitful and unfruitful, are joined together in the visible Church, ‘yet in due time He will sever [the chaff],’ (Malachi 3:2-3); and rid His Church of all hypocrites and ungodly persons. ‘And gather his wheat’ — The, truly Pious, into His garner — Will lay them up in Heaven as His peculiar treasure. ‘But the chaff’— Those who have only a show of religion, without the power, and produce not the fruits of righteousness, ‘He will burn with unquenchable fire’ — He will treat them as men do the refuse of the floor. ‘He will destroy them’ as worthless and unprofitable trash.” – JOSEPH BENSON, ‘Notes on the Holy Bible,’ 5 vols., 1811-18; edited

• THE CHAFF. From the Greek word, ‘Achuron’ [ἄχυρον]: “A stalk of grain from which the kernels have been beaten out; straw broken up by a threshing-machine; as diffusive, or to shed forth [‘that which is unusable’]; accustomed to being driven away by the wind; in common language, the word is applied to the husks when separated from the corn by thrashing, riddling or winnowing; Refuse; worthless matter; especially that which is light, and apt to be driven by the wind. In Scripture, false doctrines, fruitless designs, hypocrites and ungodly men are compared to chaff Psalms 1:4; Jeremiah 23:28; Isaiah 33:11; Matthew 3:12.”

• THE WINNOWING. “John the Baptist, like the Prophets of israel’s history, called the people to repent of sin and live in faithfulness to God. Unlike those others, his message was that the Messiah, who would bring the Kingdom of Heaven to earth, ‘was near’. The Messiah would Baptize those who followed Him with the Holy Spirit and Fire, but He would also bring Judgment on those who did not follow Him (Matthew 3: 1-2, 11) … In John’s metaphor, ‘the Wheat’ represents those who repent and follow the Christ, ‘the Chaff’ symbolizes those reject Him. John declares the Unbelievers will burn with unquenchable fire, referring to the Eternal Judgment of God’s Wrath mentioned by the Old Testament Prophets (Isaiah 34:10; Jeremiah 7:20), as well as by Jesus (Matthew 5:29).”– S. MICHAEL HOUDMANN, ‘Bible Ref., ret. Oct. 18, 2022; edited

DK’S TAKE. Now to restate an old controversy in the American Church, I’d say about two thirds of the theologians consulted on this matter argue that the Chaff is not the particular individual that is burnt up but only ‘the sin.’ This is the presupposition of the Once Saved Always Saved position pioneered by Bishop Augustine and John Calvin. This is a position that I reject. A sizable minority of the theologians consulted on the other hand, take the more Traditional position that Chaff refers to ‘the individual’ who rejects Christ.

Now then, here’s the difficult matter before us. It does not matter to me, or I daresay, to Yeshua, what the individual calls himself who does The Rejecting. Christian. Pagan. Secularist. Agnostic. Atheist. Scientist. Theologian. Pastor. Priest. Or Prelate. God doesn’t care what label you attach to yourself.

What He cares about a very great deal are TWO THINGS: (1) What is in your heart, unto belief or unbelief; and (2) whether or not your belief leads to pattern of obedience to God.

REJECTION. There are any number of ways to reject The Christ, the most fundamental of which is to repeatedly ‘Reject His Truth.’ Not only the Truth that He is the Messiah, but also His Full Gospel, the Canon, living by or not living by those Core Teachings and Doctrines of the Church.

The REV. DR. TODD A. LINN, pastor of First Baptist Church of Henderson Kentucky, offers us a rather harrowing view of “The Dangers of Rejecting Christ” based on HEBREWS 10:26-31. Delivered on July 22, 2018; edited.

• THE CALAMITY OF IT (VV. 26-27). “For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the Truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a certain fearful expectation of Judgment, and fiery indignation which will devour the adversaries.”

• THE SEVERITY OF IT (VV. 28-29). “Anyone who has rejected Moses’ Law dies without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.  Of how much worse punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son of God underfoot, counted the Blood of the Covenant by which he was sanctified a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of Grace?”

• THE FINALITY OF IT (VV. 30-31). “For we know Him who said, ‘Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,’ says the Lord. And again, ‘The Lord will judge His people.’ It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” 

I have purposely not quoted or rendered an interpretation to the passages. I want you to read them and let God speak to you in the deepest part of your soul. We can debate Eternal vs. Conditional Security until all the cows on a thousand hills come home, or until Messiah explodes into the clouds at His Return.

But better than that, just read His Words, confess them, believe them, and obey them.

OBEDIENCE.  Now returning one last time to our Scripture for today in Deuteronomy 2, let’s recall The Promise to those who choose the Narrow Way, the Higher Way, the More Excellent Way: “You have circled this mountain long enough, ‘turn northward.’”

Make that read, as Christian life coach and author, DR. JOHN W. WORLEY teaches it in his sermon, “Turn North” (‘Sermons Faith Life,’ 2008; edited) as we conclude with his Basic Premise: All of us have a Mountain to compass.

(1) ‘The North’ represents to us a hidden, secret, mysterious, heretofore unknown or scary place in God. (2) ‘The Enemy’ has tried to block this ground from us by continuously blocking our path to it, by claiming the Northerly Direction as his own. (3) On a more positive note … Yet God says, ‘It’s time to turn north.’ Though Turning North may involve hard fighting, it also promises great victories.

CODA. True to the metaphorical meaning here for us today, I rather love the way  Dr. Worley concludes his wonderful Lesson with allusion to the Original Story Narrative from CALEB AND JOSHUA as they prepared Gods people for their Promise of ‘Going Home:’

“Let us go up at once and possess it for we are well able to overcome it … Neither fear ye the people of the land for they are bread for us, their defense is departed from them and the Lord is with us, fear them not … Only do not rebel against the LORD. And do not be afraid of the people of the land, because we will swallow them up. Their protection is gone, but the LORD is with us. Do not be afraid of them.” – NUMBERS 13:30, 14:9

THE RECKONING. God’s Calling America and the Church to account is now underway. For all of those who are ‘Reprobate,’ there is still a little time to Return to the King of Truth, or Perish. For all the ‘Remaining’ of Jesus Christ, something indescribably wonderful is Coming!

So let us not grow faint nor fearful nor weary of welldoing now. We are almost Home, beloved. Selah.

Ever your servant, DK

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