Isaiah, Prophet of Salvation - Part 4

ISAIAH, PROPHET OF SALVATION – PART 4

By Dr. Stephen Jones

Blog Post Date:  6-19-2020

It appears that the first chapter of Isaiah was written as if the prophet and his family were living in Jerusalem. Whether or not they had lived previously in Israel is unclear, but from a prophetic standpoint, it appears that this was so. Isaiah and his son, She’ar-jashub, “the remnant will return,” strongly suggests that he/they represented the preserving remnant, much like Lot had preserved Sodom from destruction.

Only when Lot was removed could God destroy Sodom. So also with Israel. Once the remnant left Israel, it was doomed to destruction at the hand of the Assyrians.

At the same time, however, this “remnant” went to Jerusalem, which preserved that city during the next wave of attacks, when Assyria attempted to conquer Judah. After the Assyrians surrounded the city and threatened its destruction, King Hezekiah sent word to Isaiah, who was in the city, to appeal to God (Isaiah 37:5). Subsequently, God destroyed the Assyrian army, because He could not allow the city to be destroyed while the remnant remained in the city.

Modern Sodom

In today’s world, the principle remains the same. The overcoming remnant is a preserving agent in the midst of Sodom and Gomorrah. Many years ago I came to see that America and the Western nations as well would become Sodom and Gomorrah in order to fulfill Isaiah’s prophecy in the modern world.

In the 1960’s America began to erode the institution of marriage itself by allowing fornication and adultery with no penalty. If people can live together with no marriage commitment, then marriage becomes increasingly irrelevant. It was only a matter of time before homosexual marriages would also be approved. The underlying problem, which began more than a century earlier, was when government began to license marriages.

A license means that government allows that which is otherwise illegal. It also means that the government grants marriage licenses as a privilege, which removes it from God’s jurisdiction and exchanges a God-given right for a government-granted privilege. Once government usurped the right of God, the downward trend began which has now reached its culmination point.

Under the system of government privilege, marriage is now whatever each individual makes it. Now that homosexual marriages have been approved, the ungodly are now pushing to remove age limitations, so that pedophiles may practice their sin without fear of punishment. Others are pushing bestiality as a legal form of marriage, which is a violation of Leviticus 20:15.

The overcoming remnant, of course, does not appropriate government standards of morality but looks to the law of God as their authority. As society degenerates and as governments accommodate their degeneracy, it becomes increasingly important for the remnant to know who they are and which God they serve.

In the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, God removed Lot and destroyed those cities. In the days of Samaria and the House of Israel, it appears that God removed Isaiah and his son, She-ar-jashub, and then destroyed the nation and its capital, Samaria. But what about today’s remnant? Where can they go now to escape Sodom and Gomorrah?

Sodom is now a universal city. Its laws are now near universal, and if any small nation tries to disagree, they are whipped into submission by the mainstream press and blackmailed by the threat of withdrawing “foreign aid.”

Mystery Babylon has become a world-wide empire. To what part of this empire can the remnant go to escape? No, the remnant has no choice but to remain in Sodom. That means God cannot destroy the city by fire and brimstone. The “fire” that is coming is the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. What was literal fire in Genesis is now a spiritual fire under the provisions and promises set forth in the New Covenant.

I believe this is how God will overthrow modern Sodom. Those who have this hope and who believe the promises of God, as Abraham did, have no reason to fear for the future, no matter how bleak it appears. But such faith is rare, because most do not know the promises of God in the New Covenant, nor do they think that God will win this battle. To many, the “solution” is for the Christians to evacuate the earth in a “rapture.” In effect, they believe that Christians will be evacuated even as Lot was evacuated from Sodom before divine judgment hits the earth.

Personally, I do not subscribe to that view of prophecy, as I have explained elsewhere. See…

The Laws of the Second Coming, chapter 13, “The Real Rapture.”

The rapture doctrine is escapism rooted in fear. Those who believe that the church will go through “the seven-year tribulation” (which they believe is yet to come) only set forth greater fear, for they give no hope of escaping the horrible conditions under the rule of “Antichrist.”

My view, of course, is that the “tribulation” is not seven years but 7 x 360 years, dating from the fall of Jerusalem and now coming to an end. We have already lived through this tribulation, and now we have hope of deliverance. Babylon is not rising; it is falling. Times are indeed turbulent, but not because we are losing, but because we are winning.

The key, however, is to have a proper understanding of Daniel and Revelation. We must view these books as prophecies of what was then the future course of world history. Daniel focused on the first half of the tribulation (1,260 years), while John’s book of Revelation focused on the last half of the tribulation (1,260 years).

Unfortunately, about 150 years ago men began to set forth the Futurist view of Revelation, wherein most of the events described in the book were said to take place within a mere seven-year period in the future. This view showed remarkable ignorance of history and has contributed greatly to the present condition of the blind church of Laodicea that dominates the scene today.

Appearing Before God’s Face

Isaiah 1:11, 12 says,

¹¹ What are your multiplied sacrifices to Me?” says the Lord. “I have had enough of burnt offerings of rams and the fat of fed cattle; and I take no pleasure in the blood of bulls, lambs or goats. ¹² When you come to appear before Me, who requires of you this trampling of My courts?

Isaiah’s view was a radical departure from the temple system in Jerusalem. No doubt the priests were very displeased with his assessment of their religious system. After all, had not God, through Moses, commanded them to offer “the blood of bulls, lambs, or goats”? See Leviticus 4:4, 23, 32. Had not God Himself commanded all the men of Israel to “appear before Me” three times in the year? Exodus 34:23, 24 says,

²³ Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God, the God of Israel. ²⁴ For I will drive out nations before you and enlarge your borders, and no man shall covet your land when you go up three times a year to appear before the Lord your God.

God said that if they appeared before Him three times a year that He promised to give them victory over their enemies, enlarge their borders, and that other nations would not even “covet your land.” In other words, they would not even have the desire to conquer Israel.

Hence, if any nation desired to conquer Israel, it was only because the people failed to appear before God three times in the year. When Isaiah wrote this, both Israel and Judah were being threatened by Assyria. Therefore, we may say confidently that this law was being violated.

In the case of the Israel, Jeroboam had set up the golden calves in Bethel and Dan specifically to prevent the people from appearing before God’s presence that dwelt in the temple of Jerusalem (1 Kings 12:28, 29). Hence, most of the Israelites were appearing before other gods in alternate locations in their worship of the golden calves.

This was the spiritual cause of Assyria’s coveting the land of Israel.

As for Judah, the priests and people went through the religious motions without really appearing before God in the way that God intended. This problem was more subtle, because it was a matter of the heart. Religion sets forth external rituals and practices, whereas God’s intent is to set up a family relationship and to bring forth sons of God.

The command to “appear before the Lord God” literally reads, “to appear before the face of the Lord God.” The Hebrew word paniym, “face,” seemed redundant to English translators who did not understand the doctrine of God’s face that Paul explained in 2 Corinthians 3:13-18; 4:6. God’s face is His presence. The Hebrew paniym is rendered in Greek as prosopon, which we must understand according to the definition of its Hebrew counterpart.

In other words, to appear before the face of God, Paul explains, is to be transfigured, even as Moses’ face was transfigured when He appeared before God in the Mount. The whole idea of appearing before God three times in a year was to establish the intent of God to bring His glory into earthly faces. This can occur only when we have a face-to-face encounter with God, whereby He transfers the glory of His face to our own face.

Hence, Paul says, we are changed by beholding Him (2 Corinthians 3:18), and Paul says this can only occur when the veil of the Old Covenant is removed from our face so that it is truly a face-to-face encounter.

These things Isaiah prophesied and Paul explained. There are three steps toward transfiguration because these are the steps toward becoming the fully-mature sons of God. The first step is the feast of Passover, where we are first to appear before His face. Passover gives us justification by faith in the blood of the Lamb. Then comes Pentecost, which gives us the infilling of the Holy Spirit, who begins to write the law in our hearts. The third and final step is Tabernacles, after the Holy Spirit has completed His work to bring us to spiritual maturity, where these sons of God are now ready to be “manifested” in the earth.

Isaiah saw the problem in the temple in Jerusalem. The people were coming to the feast in a physical manner but were not truly appearing before God’s face. The reason, Paul says, is because they were appearing before Him with face masks. They came with an Old Covenant veil over their faces, which prevented them from seeing God face to face.

For this reason, their rituals were inadequate. God did not really care if they made the trip to Jerusalem three times a year. He did not really care if they offered the blood of bulls, lambs, and goats. These things were just Old Covenant accommodations, types and shadows of a greater reality that God intended for them. These rituals had failed to teach the people the greater truths that God had in mind, so what was the point in going through the motions of religion?

So Isaiah 1:13, 14 continues,

¹³ Bring your worthless offerings no longer, incense is an abomination to Me. New moon and sabbath, the calling of assembly. ¹⁴ I hate your new moon festivals and your appointed feasts; they have become a burden to Me; I am weary of bearing them.

Isaiah had a remarkable understanding of the New Covenant. His perspective differed sharply from that of the priests in his day. He knew that keeping new moons, sabbaths, assemblies, and appointed feasts were all to be kept in a New Covenant manner—otherwise, they were “a burden” to God Himself. God was “weary of bearing them.” He was tired of such activity.

The purpose of the feasts were to teach men the path to sonship. If the feasts failed to accomplish that, then they were religious acts of futility giving men a false sense of religious satisfaction.

Understanding Today's Underlying Issues

UNDERSTANDING TODAY’S UNDERLYING ISSUES

By Dr. Stephen Jones:  6-12-2020

Blog Post Date:  6-13-2020

The year 2020 is starting to heal blindness and to give 20/20 vision to many people.

Passover saw a covid-19 (plague) lockdown, which suggested the fulfillment of Exodus 12:22.

Pentecost is the celebration of the giving of the law (and Israel’s rejection of the law). It is the day God came down as fire and spoke the Ten Commandments. So now we are seeing the fires of the rioters and the rejection of the police departments (law enforcement).

That makes me wonder what we might see in phase three: Tabernacles.

The Longer View

Look at what has happened since the demolition of the Twin Towers on September 11, 2001. That was a pivotal event not only in American history but also in prophetic history. It was the end of 3 years since the humbling of King Ahab (Clinton) on September 11, 1998. Clinton fulfilled the role of Ahab found in 1 Kings 21:29 and 22:1, something we discerned in 1998.

The question was WHY did this happen? What was the hidden agenda, the goal, the motive? This was not done by a bunch of half-trained Saudi pilots. This was an inside job headed primarily by Vice President Cheney. The explosives in Building 7 had already been put into place earlier when they took down that building. Their reported excuse was that the building was unstable, so they “had to take it down.” But bringing down a building with explosives takes time. They certainly did not do all that after making a last-minute decision!

General Wesley Clark later revealed in many public interviews that the Pentagon had decided to go to war to “overthrow 5 countries in 7 years.” He asked the other generals, “Why?” They said, “We don’t know. It seems that if all you have is a hammer, ever problem looks like a nail.”

Well, we are now far enough along in the progression of time to begin to see the reason for all those wars. The wars were designed to cause chaos in Islamic countries to cause millions of refugees to flee into Europe and America, so they could be used to set up colonies with the help of certain political parties controlled by those who had caused the wars in the first place.

The overall goal was to settle America with people who knew little or nothing about the American form of government and its Constitution. By fast-tracking them to citizenship without having to learn how Liberty is defined and set forth in the Constitution, these people could be used to change the entire form of government into traditional forms of strong-man government.

The Islamic settlers were brought to America in the Obama years, knowing that he was a secret Muslim. The people were settled in many cities across Europe and America in large groups so that they would not be integrated with the general population but would retain their “culture.” Essentially, they would become a country within a country, which could then be used to create Islamic colonies with their own government, their own sharia law, and their own police force.

That is where we are today. That is why the peaceful protests were hijacked as a vehicle to cause chaos and eliminate the police departments. The more important question is who will replace the police departments??

They are already talking about replacing the police with neighborhood patrols. You can bet on it that these will be members of Antifa and other domestic terrorist organizations. They are planning to carve out their own independent “free state” territory as a home base that will then be expanded as they gain support from those who do not realize what is happening to them.

Seattle has just seen this happen. The hill overlooking the downtown area is called Capitol Hill. Antifa has now set up a perimeter, with signs proclaiming, “You are entering Free Capitol Hill.”

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/tyler-o-neil/2020/06/09/antifa-militants-seize-seattle-police-hq-set-up-autonomous-zone-n512621

This is a classic definition of an insurgency, complete with sedition and treason by the ruling Democratic Party in Seattle and the state of Washington. The only reason it is not a Civil War is because the State or Federal Government has not yet attacked them.

Our Attorney General in Minnesota wants to do the same in Minneapolis, first among the Somali community and perhaps in the black communities as well. The City Council (including Ellison’s son) has already voted to disband the police department and to replace it with unnamed Antifa members. Ellison is a prominent leader of Antifa and is the head of at least 2 other domestic terrorist groups in America.

https://operationdisclosure1.blogspot.com/2020/06/the-truth-about-george-floyd-antifa.html

This insurgency is well organized. It is not a spontaneous, grass-roots movement. Antifa was founded in the 1930’s as the paramilitary wing of the German Communist Party. Those were the days when the Communists (left wing International Socialists) were fighting the Fascists and Nazis (right wing National Socialists). Its original flag is similar to its modern flag:

A more recent photograph of Antifa shows a slight change, because they reversed the image of the flags and added the color black. But it has been a Communist organization from its inception. Therefore, the goals of Antifa are not merely to oppose Fascism but to restore Communism.

Those who are tricked into supporting Antifa seldom understand how they are being used. They should know that whenever Communism has succeeded, they have always killed those who supported their revolution. Why? Because they figured if they would betray their own country, they would later betray the Communists as well—especially after discovering how they had been tricked and used for a secret agenda.

So this is the background behind the present insurgency. The Democratic Party has taken up its banner, and Antifa is the paramilitary wing of the Democratic Party in America. Trump has smoked them out into the open, after they failed to remove him from office with the Russia-collusion hoax and the impeachment attempt in January.

Insurgency is their last option before they lose the election again in November 2020.

If they really believed their own polls (which claim that Biden is ahead of Trump), they would not feel the need for such drastic action. But they know that the polls today are no more valid than they were in 2016 which showed Hillary to be far ahead of Trump. Polls are used to sway public opinion, rather than to report public opinion. It is much the same with the fakestream news that has degenerated into sheer propaganda.

So that is the current “state of the union.” America is moving from a propaganda war to an actual insurgency. If and when the legitimate powers of government fight back, we will then move into the third phase of open war. If it is short, it will be called a “mass arrest.” If it takes longer, and if there is fighting in the streets, it will be called a “Civil War.”

Since phase 2 is connected to Pentecost, I wonder if phase 3 will be associated with Tabernacles.

The Solution

Clarifying a problem is important, but it is more important to offer a solution.

The biblical solution is found when we study the origin of Pentecost and its historical problem in the church, beginning with Mount Sinai. The Israelites refused to hear God’s voice at that original Pentecost when God spoke the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:19-21). By refusing to hear His voice, the people lacked faith (which comes by hearing—Romans 10:17).

So that generation died in the wilderness without receiving the promises. The problem was that they set the pattern for future generations and for the church itself. Hence, the church has again rejected the law, and only the overcomers (the Calebs and Joshuas) will inherit life in the First Resurrection.

I have learned in past decades that the world follows the example of the church—not individual Christians, but the church as a whole. Hence, when the church decided to become a beast system that valued power and money more than the character of Christ, the world breathed a sigh of relief and continued acting like a beast.

When the church hierarchy followed the pattern of King Saul (who was crowned on Pentecost), the people became slaves to men. God intended that church leaders would set the people free through the principle of the Jubilee.

This was also expressed biblically in terms of Old Covenant bondage (Hagar) in Galatians 4. It meant that most of the Christian people would not be taught the difference between the two covenants and would end up fleshly, Old Covenant believers while thinking that they were actually children of the New Covenant (Sarah).

When the church aborted and miscarried the Manchild, the world agreed and passed laws allowing abortion on demand. (See my booklet, The Prophetic Roots of Modern Abortion.)

And now the world is again following the example of the lawless church by working to abolish the police departments while burning down buildings and businesses. Just as the church replaced the law of God with traditions of men, i.e., man-made laws, so also Antifa wants to replace all biblically-based laws with man-made laws (such as sharia law).

Church lawlessness has empowered world lawlessness. Church traditions have destroyed the law of God, and so the world agrees with this principle. That is being reflected in the anarchy, the chaos, the move to defund and/or abolish the police departments, and ultimately to replace God’s rights with the rights of men to rule themselves as their own ambitious leaders see fit.

The intent is to get rid of the grand American Experiment whereby all men were created with certain inalienable rights that originate with God, and declaring that governments did not grant rights but were authorized only to protect the rights that God has given mankind. The forces of atheistic Communism and its Antifa branch wants to return us to the laws of men, claiming that God’s laws are oppressive. They want to depose God and deprive Him of His rights to rule. They claim that “enlightened” men are the ones who can grant rights.

But if men can grant rights, men can also remove those rights and put men into bondage. The main point of the American Revolution’s primary document, the Declaration of Independence, was to recognize God as the Grantor of Rights. The Constitution and every other law was supposed to be rooted in that great truth.

That is what is at stake today. We are seeing a great power struggle between Government under God and atheistic Socialism and Communism. The good news is that God wins in the end, and that the end is near.