NOTES ON THE AMERICAN PRIESTHOOD: GOD’S FIERY WARNING TO THE SHEPHERDS OF HIS FLOCKS

SCRIPTURE. “‘And now, this commandment is for you, the priests. If you do not listen, and if you do not take it to heart to give honor to My name,’ says the Lord of armies, ‘then I will send the curse upon you and I will curse your blessings; indeed, I have cursed them already, because you are not taking it to heart.’” – MALACHI 2:1-2, NASB

QUOTATION. “In thinking of America, I sometimes find myself admiring her bright blue sky — her grand old woods — her fertile fields — her beautiful rivers — her mighty lakes, and star-crowned mountains. But my rapture is soon checked, my joy is soon turned to mourning. When I remember that all is cursed with the infernal actions of ‘Slaveholding, Robbery and Wrong’ — when I remember that with the waters of her noblest rivers, the tears of my brethren are borne to the ocean, disregarded and forgotten, and that her most fertile fields drink daily of the warm blood of my outraged sisters, I am filled with unutterable loathing.” ― FREDERICK DOUGLASS, “Letter to William Lloyd Garrison,” Jan. 1, 1846

FIRST THOUGHTS

My reason for selecting the fiery barb from Frederick Douglass is both careful and strategic. Like him, but nearly 180 years later, I have also come to an ‘Agonizing Reassessment’ of my view of my home country, the United States of America. As a mixed-race citizen with Spanish-Sephardic, Mexican and English-Scottish ancestry married to a Filipino wife, I have had to confront what I see as several nearly fatal Fractures in the American Founding that I have buried for most of my seventy-nine years.

Until DONALD TRUMP rose to political and ecclesiastical power by 2017.

And I could bury the truth no longer. Therefore, I offer this painfully conceived essay on America’s Christian Leaders in 2023. As with most of what I write these days, it will not be an easy read.

THESIS. While I do not believe that Mr. Trump is the cause of today’s American Collapse, I do believe that he has given permission, if you will, as the ‘Spiritual Gateway’ to all that is dark in our past to come to the surface. Thus, we now witness Materialism, Nativism, Racism, Hyper-Nationalism, Lawlessness, and Civil War-like Division in America in unprecedented measure.

Worse, we now have a Church headed by what C.S. LEWIS once described as spiritually impotent pastors, who pave the way for the ‘Great Apostasy of the Last Times’ foretold by the Law, the Prophets, the Apostles and the Messiah Himself. Though Lewis was describing the general culture of his time of 80 years ago, his comments now fall hard and heavy upon the American Pastor today.

“In a sort of ghastly simplicity, we remove the organ and demand the function. We make ‘men without chests’ and expect of them virtue and enterprise. We laugh at honour and are shocked to find Traitors in our midst. We castrate and bid the Geldings be fruitful.” ― The Abolition of Man, 1943; edited

This in tandem with the rapid ‘Rise of Antichrist’ in our midst, parading up and down our sacred sanctuaries with hardly a sniff from our Priests and Prelates. This can only lead to devastation unheard of in our entire history, beloved.

II. THE ZADOK REMNANT

A year or two ago I was visiting a local church as a guest and heard a young, long-hired preacher who was mentored by DAVID WILKERSON teach excitedly about “The Zadok Priesthood.” Without exaggeration, many days after I drafted the first rough version of this Commentary I heard, nearly straight out loud: “The Zadok Priesthood!”

As I dove into it, I quicky grasped why the Lord had led us to this special group that constituted the Priesthood of King David at the pinnacle of his 40-year rule over Israel (l090-970 BC). So have I gone to the original manuscript of David Wilkerson published by his legacy organization, World Challenge, titled, simply: “The Zadok Remnant” (2002, edited).

FAIR WARNING. Now you should all understand at this point I will depart from my pedantic lecture style here and likely sound downright, ‘Preachy,’ since I am closely following David Wilkerson’s Sermon. Not an apology, however, just “fair warning.”

THE PROMISE. “Then a man of God came to ELI and said to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: Why do you kick at My sacrifice and at My offering which I have commanded in My dwelling, and honor your sons above Me, by making yourselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My people Israel? Behold, the days are coming when I will break your strength and the strength of your father’s house so that there will not be an old man in your house. And you will see the distress of My dwelling, in spite of all that I do good for Israel; and an old man will not be in your house forever. Yet I will not cut off every man of yours from My altar that your eyes may fail from weeping and your soul grieve, and all the increase of your house will die in the prime of life … ‘But I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest’ who will do according to what is in My heart and in My soul; and I will build him an enduring house, and he will walk before My anointed always” (1 Samuel 2:27, 29, 31-33, 35).

THE CURSE. We find here a curse upon one priesthood – and the prophetic raising up of ‘An enduring, Holy-Remnant Priesthood [Zadok].’ Eli represents a ‘Cursed Priesthood,’ a priesthood of self-centered servants of God. They are called priests, but lightly esteem the work of God. They do not like the ministry of correction. Their spiritual children become wicked because of their lazy lifestyles and their refusal to cry out against sin. They “make themselves fat with the choicest of every offering of My (Gods) people” (verse 29). Eli saw iniquity in his sons who brought a curse on themselves, “[but] he did not rebuke them” (1 Samuel 3:13). For this God said, “I am about to judge his house forever.” And his house was judged! The glory of the Lord departed from Shiloh, the Ark was captured, and he and his sons died.

ZADOK’S PRIESTHOOD. He was one of those who came to DAVID in Ziklag. Zadok and his entire house rejected SAUL and gave their hearts and allegiance to David. Not once did he ever look back. He proved to be righteous because ‘he proved to be faithful!’ He was there when David needed him! And when so many others were being carried away with the Rebellion of ABSALOM, Zadok remained faithful through it all. A whole nation was in rebellion, but ‘in Gods house there was a Holy Remnant.’ At the very seat of evil and disobedience, where Absalom committed lewd acts with concubines on the palace housetop before the nation, there was ‘Faithful Remnant Priesthood’ untouched! Zadok stayed true – holy, committed, blameless, and faithful! He knew God’s Word; he trusted his life and future to it – David was the only king! (Note, David is a type of Christ).”

ABIATHAR’S PRIESTHOOD. He was pious, dedicated, at peace with God, and his very name suggests great reverence for His lordship. He is also with David and Zadok on the other side of Kidron. Abiathar wanted nothing to do with Absalom’s Rebellion. He and his son appeared to be just as faithful as Zadok. He appeared outwardly holy, blameless, and faithful. So why did the prophets ignore him, speaking of Zadok as the example of the Holy-Remnant priesthood? “Now ADONIJAH the son of Haggith exalted himself, saying, ‘I will be king … ‘And he had conferred with JOAB the son of Zeruiah and with Abiathar the priest; and following Adonijah they helped him.’ But Zadok the priest, BENAIAH the son of Jehoiada, NATHAN the prophet, SHEMEI, REI, and the mighty men, who belonged to David, were not with Adonijah. And Adonijah sacrificed sheep and oxen and fatlings by the stone of Zoheleth, which is beside En-rogel” (1 Kings 1:5, 7-9).

THE JUDGMENT. “And you shall say to the rebellious ones, to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, Enough of all your abominations, O house of Israel, when you brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in My sanctuary to profane it, even My house, when you offered My food, the fat and the blood; for they made My covenant void – this in addition to all your abominations … They shall bear the punishment for their iniquity. And they shall not come near to Me, nor come near any of My holy things, they shall bear their shame … I will do to the house which is called by My name, in which you trust, and to the place which I gave you and your fathers, as I did to Shiloh. And I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers, all the offspring of Ephraim’” (Jeremiah 7:14-15; Ezekiel 44:12-13; 44:6-7).

WILKERSON’S WORD. “The worst punishment, the most horrible shame upon a man or woman of God, is to minister in the flesh with no anointing. Their houses are like Shiloh – ‘The glory has departed!’ Their message is chaff and Gods Holy Presence has gone from them. Yet – they are still appointed to minister to the house but are also abandoned by the Lord. Think of it – appointed as ministers to a house of rebellious children even though they are idolaters. Horrifying truth! This is the offspring of Eli – The Abiathar Priesthood! Isaiah called them dumb dogs who are greedy, dreamers who love to slumber, shepherds with no understanding (Isaiah 56:10-11). An appalling and horrible thing has happened in the land: ‘The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests rule on their own authority; and My people love it so! But what will you do at the end of it?’ (Jeremiah 5:30-31). Compromising, idol-loving, indulgent, sensuous Christians have been appointed shepherds just like themselves. There is a whole Priesthood; ‘the Offspring of Eli,’ appointed to feed the idols enthroned in the hearts of Christians with divided hearts” (c. 2002).

DK. Right about here I can of no better place than to say: “‘Selah.’ Pause, and think carefully about all that.” The Reason: Because I am convinced down to my old bones that this is a Prophecy to the American Church of 2024. Not a single doubt in my mind, following an excruciating, seven-year Review of the State of the Church today.

III. THE TEACHING

KEY TERM: “CURSE.” ‘Meerah’ [מְאֵרָה]: “From the primitive root, ‘Arar’ [אָרַר], meaning ‘to inflict a curse or bind with a spell;’ also, to hem in with obstacles; to render powerless to resist; [punishment delivered by God toward those who choose to wander away from the Law]; to utter a wish of evil against one; to imprecate evil upon; to call for mischief or injury to fall upon; to execrate.”

COMMENTARY. “‘If ye will not lay to heart’ – Namely, the rebukes addressed to them, ‘to give glory to God.’ For the glory of God is the end and aim of the priesthood. This should be the principle and rule of their whole life, ‘to the greater glory of God.’ [If not], ‘I will send the curse upon you,’ namely, that which He had threatened in the Law upon Disobedience; and will ‘curse your blessings,’ will turn your blessings into a curse. He does not say, I will send you curses instead of blessings, but I will make the blessings themselves a curse. Psalm 69:23. ‘The things which should have been to their wealth became to them an occasion of falling:’ To the proud, the things which lift them up; To the gluttonous, their abundance; To the avaricious, their wealth; which, if used to the glory of God, become blessings, do, when self not God is their end, by God’s Dispensation and Providence, become a curse to them. ‘The goods of nature, the goods of fortune, the goods of the Church allowed to you, I will turn to your greater damnation, permitting you to abuse them to pride; and your damnation shall be the more penal, the more good things ye have received from Me. Whence Christ declares in the Gospel (Luke 12:48): “Unto whomever much is given, of him shall be much required. ‘”

‘Yea, I have cursed them’ – (literally, it), i.e., Each one of the blessings, ‘already.’ God’s Judgments as well as His mercies are individual with a minute care, showing that it is His doing. ‘The Curse had already gone forth’ and had begun to seize upon them from the time that they began to despise His Name. His Judgments do not break in at once, but little by little, with warnings of their approach, that so we may turn to Him, and ‘escape the wrath to come.’” – ALBERT BARNES, Notes on the Old and New Testament, 1884; edited

DK. A pseudonymous author named THIRD HELIX published this brief synopsis under the title, “The American Church is Apostate” on December 27, 2015. He listed Three Categories of our Departure from Orthodoxy.

Epistemology (How we know things).
Soteriology (How we’re saved).
Ecclesiology (How we understand the role and function of the Church).

He notes, importantly: “These three areas together encompass the entire life of the Christian Religion, and each informs and is informed by the other two. They’re a Tripod, and our concept of ‘Faith’ is the Hub at which the three legs intersect and support each other, and everything we call ‘Christianity’rests atop that Hub, supported by the three legs. ‘If our concept of ‘Faith’ is faulty, the Tripod collapses and our understanding and practice of Christianity falls with it.’”

AMERICAE ECCLESIAE IGNORANS. He concludes, insightfully, that today’s Keepers of God’s Truth have lapsed into a Heresy called, FIDEISM: “An epistemological approach that contrasts Faith with Reason as a path to knowledge. If we’re ‘saved by grace through Faith, Reason doesn’t factor, according to Fideism. This is in contrast to ‘Evidentialism,’ which is an epistemological approach that says a belief or conclusion is only valid if it’s supported by sufficient reason and evidence.”

That is to say: Faith and Reason are both required for Wisdom.

By bloody contrast, I give you DONALD JOHN TRUMP’S stupefied, easily seduced, fully blasphemous MAGA Christian Nationalism-Qanon Conspiracy Church. The Church that in my studied view constitutes the very seedbed of ‘The Harlot of Spiritual Babylon’ (cf. Revelation 17:3-6).

ILLUSTRATION. God is going to punish American Pastors with a blistering series of Judgments specified in the first two sections of this essay. ‘And Why,’ you ask? I dare to answer you straight from the mouths of a typical MAGA Pastor promoting the near God-like characteristics of the False Messiah, Donald Trump.

“At a December rally in Coralville, Iowa, the REV. JOEL TENNEY spoke ahead of Trump, telling the several hundred supporters gathered that he wanted to talk to them “As a pastor … We have witnessed a sitting president [Biden] weaponize the entire legal system to try and steal an election and imprison his leading opponent, Donald Trump, despite committing no crime. We must re-elect President Trump for the third time. The upcoming election is part of a spiritual battle with demonic forces at play (His voice trembling at times like a tent revival preacher behind a Trump-emblazoned podium). ‘When Donald Trump becomes the 47th President of the United States, there will be retribution against all those who have promoted evil in this country.’” – DAN GALLO ET AL., “A Spiritual Battle,” NBC News, Jan. 10, 2024; edited

While these MAGA Christian ‘Shepherds’ constitute a vocal minority among today’s American Priesthood, the vast majority of the rest remain in the most Cowardly Silence I have ever witnessed in my 42 years as a Christian educator. And I could make a formidable case for the entire history of American Christianity.

Do you still wonder why God’s Outrage at His own House is palpable at this point, and why our current False Christ with an unending, viciously crooked smile is an Abomination to Him? I pray not, beloved. I pray not.

IV. LAST THOUGHTS

To repeat: I purposely began this Commentary by quoting Frederick Douglass, who was convinced in the 19^th American century and I in the American 21^st century that ‘America has frankly never been, quite right.’ While I believe many great things have come from this Grand American Enterprise, considerable Historic Darkness has also mingled much Leaven into the whole loaf, rendering us more fractured today than perhaps ever before.

For some reason, this Scripture came to mind about this point: “And as you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, ‘it will be a divided kingdom;’ but there will be in it some of the durability and strength of iron, just as you saw the iron mixed with common clay.” – DANIEL 2:41, AMP

AMERICAN REBELLION. This has always been a part of our spiritual and political DNA, but different manifestations of it yield very different fruit. That first shot fired at Lexington and Concord on April 19, 1776, led to untold Freedom for an American people that set the standard for nations around the world.

Unless of course, you were Black, or Native, or Mexican.

Later a much ‘Different Insurrection’ took place in the heart of the Nation in Washington DC’s National Capitol on January 6, 2021, when a new kind of American Super Patriot tried to overthrow the very Government that it had fought for 245 years earlier.

‘The Contrast’ here is stunningly, dangerously breathtaking. And nearly unbelievably, it is the American Church that has led the way for this Second Rebellion, a revolt not only against the United States Constitution, but against both the King and Kingdom of Jesus Christ!

AMERICA’S LAST DAYS. I have used that subhead before, most carefully and accurately, to describe our Future Prospects if we continue on this mad dash toward a Tyranny that mounts itself atop increasing Anarchy that shall prove its bedmate.

A recent CNN analysis of that future was posted on New Years Day by UK born American journalist, STEPHEN COLLINSON, senior reporter of politics and the White House. I appreciated his assessment of the road ahead ‘if Donald Trump wins a second term.’

“America and the world could look glaringly different by January 1, 2025, depending on the outcome of a momentous crush of conflicts, pivotal global elections and geopolitical forces that will create critical moments in the year ahead …

The most foreseeable global shock of 2024 would be the election of Trump, who would become only the second US president to win a non-consecutive term. The ex-president is already openly telling us that he intends to subject US democracy and the American-led global order to its greatest test. The Republican front-runner vows to use the authority of the presidency to wreak ‘Retribution’ on his enemies and gut bureaucracy to make the government an instrument of his personal power.

Comparisons to Nazis [may be] overblown at this point, but Trump’s rhetoric – including his labeling of political opponents ‘Vermin’ and warnings that immigrants will pollute the blood of America – do recall [Hitler’s] 1930s demagoguery and augur potentially America’s most extreme presidency. Abroad, Trump is signaling he’d ditch Ukraine to cozy up to autocrats like Russian President Vladimir Putin, and his hostility to alliances could even endanger NATO.” – “What’s At Stake in 2024,” Jan. 1, 2024; edited

KELLY’S CODICIL. Again: Following over seven years of the most intensive study, review and reconsideration of all things American and Ecclesiastical, that I have ever conducted, I conclude that we are about to enter upon a ‘Darkness’ that the world has not seen since the German Reich of World War II.

The GOP, MAGA Church and Trump’s Base hardly yawned when Trump told SEAN HANNITY on, of all days, December 7 (2023), that he’d be “A Dictator” on Day One of what many of his followers term, his “Second Coming.”

The Historic Pivot that shall determine where we go remains: THE AMERICAN CHURCH! Based on what I have seen in recent years, short of Divine Intervention or massive Spiritual Awakening, we will go the Way of Sodom and the Way of Gomorrah, even ‘Babylon the Great.’

There is precious little time left, beloved. Who then shall we finally serve, Pastors and Priests: ‘God, or The Beast?’ In just a few short months, we shall know, once and for all.

YOUTUBE: https://youtu.be/DkcZoXm9r-c