PRÉCIS ON THE FORGOTTEN GOSPEL: GOD’S NON-NEGOTIABLE REQUIREMENT OF OBEDIENCE

PRÉCIS ON THE FORGOTTEN GOSPEL: GOD’S NON-NEGOTIABLE REQUIREMENT OF OBEDIENCE

SCRIPTURE. “Blessed [happy and sheltered by God’s favor] is everyone who fears the Lord [and worships Him with obedience], who walks in His ways and lives according to His commandments.” – PSALM 128:1, AMP

KEY TERM: “WALKS!” ‘Halak’ [הָלַךְ]: “A primitive root, ‘To keep apace, behave [rightly];’ as the blowing of the wind; in the ways of the Lord; movement like the flowing of a river; to proceed or go [where God commands]; to depart or go away from [the world]; to live a moral and religious life; lit., to walk with or go after the Lord in one’s integrity; to traverse or travel [in a way pleasing to God].”

QUOTATION. “No man is allowed to be a judge in his own cause, because his interest would certainly bias his Judgment, and, not improbably, corrupt his Integrity.” ― JAMES MADISON, The Federalist Papers, 1787-1788; edited

COMMENTARY. “‘Blessed is everyone that feareth the Lord.’ – Be he who he will; of whatsoever nation, Jew or Gentile; of whatsoever sex, age, or condition, high or low, rich or poor, Acts 10:35; such an one is blessed now, and will be hereafter.

‘That walketh in His ways. – Which God has prescribed and directed His people to walk in, His Ordinances and Commands; which, to walk in, is both pleasant and profitable: It supposes life, requires strength and wisdom; and is expressive of progression, or going on and continuance in them: And where the true fear of God is, which includes every grace, and the whole of religious worship, there will be a conscientious regard to the ways of God: ‘Such avoid evil, and do good, because of the fear of God’(Job 1:1).” – JOHN GILL, An Exposition of the Old and New Testament, 9 vols., 1746-1763; edited

DK’S TAKE. Again, I shall drive straight to the point established in numerous previous Commentaries: There is virtually no fear of God in the American Church. To use the common Catchphrase: ‘They talk the talk (and that, only partially), but do not nor cannot walk the walk.’ Thus, the current Religious Condition in our Nation is that of pervasive and proliferating Corruption.

So long as the Church refuses to be the Church, we shall surely plummet ever downward into what conservative Jewish American historian GERTRUDE HIMMELFARB described in the title of her landmark work: ‘The Abyss.’

She writes: “In its sentimental mode, Compassion is an exercise in moral indignation, in feeling good rather than doing good … ‘In its unsentimental mode, Compassion seeks above all to do good.’” – On Looking Into the Abyss: Untimely Thoughts on Culture and Society, 1995; edited

Which in its turn immediately takes us to the ancient Jewish Prophecy: “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, and to love kindness and mercy, and to humble yourself and walk humbly with your God?” – MICAH 6:8, AMPC

The Talk is cheap. The Walk will cost you everything! But win you the Favor of Yahweh.