Mat 17
20 Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you.”

2Cor 12:9
But Jesus said to Paul, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

From the two pieces of scripture mentioned above, we are able to deduce that the act of overcoming our trials, is in thinking less of ourselves and focusing our lives more on the Son of God “Jesus Christ”, through whom God creates and restores life in all its holistic essence. It is in counting all we have achieved in the flesh as loss (Phil 3:8) and dying to ourselves and living for the Lord Jesus Christ (Jn 12:24-26) that we enjoy life in all its fullness. Have you ever noticed that people who show-off, put on the poorest show? The thing is we were not made for the purpose to glorify ourselves but to live for the glory of God, and am speaking of those who have been saved by grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Salvation is not about what we have done but about finding refuge in Jesus, learning His precepts & be empowered by His Holy Spirit to exercise His commandments with a new heart that beats for God (Ezek 36:26-27).

Mat 22
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment.

Psalm 2
11 Worship the Lord with reverence
And rejoice with trembling.
12 Do homage to the Son, that He not become angry, and you perish in the way,
For His wrath may soon be kindled.
How blessed are all who take refuge in Him!

Remember how God tells Israel in Deut 7:7 that He did not choose Israel because they were great but because they were the least of all peoples. You know, God is so Sovereign and Mighty that His enemies exists simply because He raises them, like fattening a cow for the slaughter (Rom 9:17, 22). Even Satan does nothing more than further God’s agenda in this world. You might ask, so if everyone is doing the will of God, why are people going to hell? Good Question… well, unlike the serpent in the garden of Eden, we who were made in the image of God are warm blooded, so as to indicate that we won’t adapt to our environment to the extent of succumbing to it. Take Simon for example, whose name means “a reed that sways with the wind” but after his confession concerning Jesus’ true identity as the Son of God, Jesus named him “Peter” meaning ‘rock’ (Mat 16:18), a testimony which cannot be shaken and upon which Jesus shall build His Church. It is said about God that He is immutable (there is no shifting shadow [James 1:17]) and this is how we are to be… holy as God is Holy, that even in an environment of a fallen world we shall be as saints empowered by grace to serve the Lord (Phil 3:14 & 4:13), like the lotus that grows in the marshes. So it is, that from the fall, all men are sinners (Rom 3:23) left with the self-righteousness they chose in Adam to saves themselves while the Saints are God’s elect in whom God overcame sin by the power of Jesus’ blood and reconciled them to Himself (1Jn 2:2). So, the reason people are going to hell is because the righteousness they chose for themselves in Adam doesn’t save them from sin, especially when you consider how self-righteousness blatantly differs from the righteousness of God, revealed to us in Christ.

John 1
18 No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has revealed Him.

Rom 5
17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!

The counterfeit religions of the world have a very misleading view of piety, because their righteousness is not revealed to them through Christ, the only mediator between God & men (1Tim 2:5). As a matter of fact, these religions are driven by the people’s self-righteousness in their wasted attempt to please God on their own terms but truth be told the only god they serve is themselves because if their righteousness is their own, then these fools are a law to themselves & wise in their own eyes. Following Jesus (true Christianity) on the other hand, calls for a piety where the precepts we are to obey are moral (Mat 28:18-20). I really don’t think God is really concerned with the people’s sadistic take on religion, who beat themselves silly, grow an unkempt beard or walk long distances barefoot to the Mosque, temple or monastery. If you think your zeal to not eat pork or drink wine pleases God (Mat 15:17-18), guess what… it doesn’t. What pleases God is seeing you obey His Moral Law, where you first love the Lord with all your strength and second that you love your neigbour as you love yourself (Mat 22:36-40). The religions of the world believe in putting on a show of humility with their attire for all the world to see, while by way of self-righteousness they magnify themselves before God concerning how they merited/attained their jannat/nirvana with their sadistic religious routines. However, the truth is Salvation is about being put right with God… aligning your desires with His by the redeeming merit of the unblemished lamb of God: Jesus, by whose blood we have forgiveness of sins. Salvation is not naturally possible for any person, until the irresistible grace of God converts the person from being self-centered to being God centered. This is true conversion and is only possible by way to repentance, where after God brings the person to realize the futility of his/her self-righteousness, that person submits/lowers/prostrates himself/herself to God, that in truly admitting his/her weakness, he/she may find comfort & refuge in God, through Jesus Christ.

Mat 5
3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

2Cor 7:10
For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death.

To conclude, if we were to look at Eph 2:8-10 and Luke 17: 10, we understand that we are saved by grace through faith and the evidence of our salvation is in the fruits but the merit is of Christ and so if we are to boast, we are to boast in the Lord (Jer 9:23-24) & think less of ourselves to the extent of boasting in our weakness, which is spiritual prostration in revealing how much we really love the Lord our God who is worthy of true worship (Rev 5:8-14 & 7:10). It is therefore in earnestly seeking the Lord concerning the obedience He requires of us, that we can see beyond ourselves and beyond our apostate totalitarian environment, only to realize as Paul did, how helpless we are as sinners (Rom 7:24) and how great the mercy of God is for those who seek Him that where our sin abound, His saving grace abounds all the more (Rom 5:20).

Romans 8 (in the context of Rom 5:17)
19 For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. 20 For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope 21 that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

I am prompted to write this because a fellow countryman of mine working in the US sent me this video of Trump choosing Dr. Robert Jeffress to be the embassy in Jerusalem. In that video, I heard Dr. Jeffress speak out clearly against Islam as being a lie from the pit of hell and Judaism’s having no salvation without Jesus Christ. I told this friend of mine that I agreed with whatever was there in that video and that it was Christian culture that has shaped the west, which still remains a conducive environment despite its backsliding into self-righteousness, liberalism and humanism. I do believe in the equality of all people but I believe this equality is determined in the sight of God but somehow liberalism wants to treat all people as equal by equaling their fabricated religious system to the truth about God, which has made the west what it is, a refuge for people, where making a living is easier and the quality of life is better; not because those people are special in and of themselves but because it’s a society is built on the framework of God’s law. I must however say that the Mosaic Law does allow foreigners into its society who must abide by the Civil Law of God Almighty in that land or suffer the repercussion for acting contentiously. Unlike Islam, there is no Jizya levied on them for not being of the same faith. The Moral Law on the other hand requires the tithe to be paid by the believer and not the unbeliever because the more the gospel progresses, the more believers there will be and the more that society shall progress under God, which is unlike the Jizya that keeps the Non-Muslim in their Non-Muslim state to maintain the Jizya coming and thus furthering strife in the land.

Mat 13:32
31 Jesus put before them another parable: “The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a man planted in his field. 32 Although it is the smallest of all seeds, yet it grows into the largest of garden plants and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches.”

I heard my Prime Minister Narendra Modi once say that he wanted to see Mumbai become like Shanghai but I don’t know how that is going to happen with nearly 80% of Indians still worshiping animals, trees & stones. Surely there are many Non-Christians who are very rich but riches is not critical in determining the quality of life. Look at the Middle-East for instance, the Arabs have more money than they know what to do with it, they surely aren’t rich for their ability to enterprise, rather they are rich only for their oil, which makes me sometimes wonder if that is curse or a blessing… looking at all the wars and strife it has caused. Surely, that strife has come to them from God, who converts curses to blessings through His work on the cross (Gal 3:3) and blessings into curses to those who deny the truth of His Son (Mal 2:2/Ps 2:12). Though my country may have some of the most intelligent people on the planet, most of the people who rule over them (politicians) are uneducated, which is not surprising when their gods are animals, trees and stones.

Mat 28
18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Take China for instance, its economy has surged to second place after the USA, because China is where the Gospel is growing the most aggressively in the world. Btw. It might interest you to know that though Gautama Buddha existed from 480 to 400 BC, according to the Tibetan historian Bu-ston, states Warder, the earliest collection of Buddhist text called the Tripataka was written around 1st century AD, a few decades after the gospels. This explains why many of the Buddhist teachings sound a lot like the teachings of Jesus in the Gospel. The Chinese, I think have had enough of this rip-off called Buddhism and they are now after the real thing, which is why they are doing so well. Today, corporations in China are inculcating Biblical values in their employees because they have noticed it encourages the right work ethic, which in turn builds employer-employee relationships and helps businesses succeed.

Romans 3
3 For what if some did not believe? Will their unbelief make the faithfulness of God without effect? 4 Certainly not! Indeed, let God be true but every man a liar. As it is written:
“That You may be justified in Your words,
And may overcome when You are judged.”
5 But if our unrighteousness demonstrates the righteousness of God, what shall we say? Is God unjust who inflicts wrath? (I speak as a man.) 6 Certainly not! For then how will God judge the world?
…
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, 24 being justified [g]freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, 25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed, 26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.

To to love and respect people as you do yourself, is commanded in the Bible (Mat 22:36-40) but it is totally another thing to buy their lies about God by treating it at par with God’s truth revealed in Christ. For how you can consider people’s misplaced sentiments over God’s truth (Rom 3:3), unless you are an unbeliever who has no sight of God in the way you go about life (Jn 3:3). This is the main reason I oppose the mass influx of refugees into the west because it will turn out to be a cultural washout of Christian values in that land. The liberals however support this mass immigration because being self-righteous and godless themselves they couldn’t care any less. Liberals have no sight of God, these fools think of people equality in all the wrong terms especially faith, and they are paying dearly for being so hell-bent on making their country a shit-hole. Take Sweden for example, their homeless are still on the streets while refuges are provided furnished homes, plunging that nation further into debt. Btw. Sweden is now the rape capital of Europe, while in the UK, refugees are feeling so welcomed that they freely barge into people’s homes and gang-rape their daughters and wives, just like the militants do in Kashmir.

John 1 (refers to having faith in Jesus)
12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: 13 who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

Col 1
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, 20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

To conclude, it is important to note that this world continues to exist only because God has plans to restore this world in His Son. Unlike the various concocted religions of the world out there, Christianity will not spread under the edge of the sword, nor by way of deception, nor by appealing to the people’s sinful appetite but by the power of God alone.

I am compelled to write on the topic of forgiveness because just like when we speak out against sins like homosexuality, we are told that we must not judge, the world has similarly misconstrued Jesus’ teachings on forgiveness to only suit themselves. After all, the people of the world are gods to themselves, who love to use the Word-of-God to serve their own wicked interests. It’s a very painful thing to forgive the wrong people but the world doesn’t care as long as they can fool the innocent into keeping their guard down, so they can be taken advantage of further. Such is the sadist nature of many people in this world. It’s funny that the world’s people, who have no desire to follow Jesus, with not even an inkling whatsoever of what a Godly demeanor is, can have their heads filled with all these silly notions of religiosity that God requires of the believer, which highlights nothing but their wishful thinking & ignorance. The Bible is available to anybody and everybody who wishes to know God and it is usually lethargic fools who succumb to the world’s idea of forgiveness, which does not serve God’s interest but only the interests of the wicked who delight in sinning against their neighbour. Ideally the Fear-of-the-Lord is the beginning of wisdom but with such humanist teaching flagrantly being taught in Christian circles, what Christians today are learning is not the fear-of-the-Lord but the fear-of-people, which is why the nominal devout Christian is a fool even by the standard of this godless world.

John 20
22When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”

Mat 16
16 Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” 17 And Jesus said to him, “Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven. 18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.”

Yes, I am aware of all the verses that teach us to bless those who persecute us, curse us and speak evil against us (Mat 5:44) and that God shall forgive us only as we forgive those who sin against us (Mat 6:12). I also know that we are taught to turn the other cheek but this is in the context of not returning evil for evil (Mat 5:38-39). For instance if somebody breaks into my house and steals from me, Jesus doesn’t require me to keep the doors wide open thereon, neither am I to break into their house and steal from them to set things even but I have all the right under the moral and civil Law, as provided by God to take action against this person who stole from me. Remember, scripture must be studied and understood in the light of scripture so that we understand the Word-of-God on God’s righteous terms and not on the World’s ridiculous terms. What I am talking about is studying scripture by way of exegesis and not via an eisegesis. We must understand that scripture teaches us to conform to the likeness of Christ (Rom 8:29) in whose image we were made. So, just as there is no salvation without repentance, we are not required to forgive unless the person who has sinned against us is sorry for what he/she has done. In this context, even if the person who has sinned against us apologizes to us seventy times seven (Mat 18:21-22), we are to forgive in imitating the meek nature of Jesus Christ (Is 42:3) but to those hypocrites who are unrepentant being right/wise in their own eyes (Isaiah 5:21), we are under no obligation to forgive them and we can even pray to God asking for His justice that the perpetrator may be softened with humility (Luke 18:7), so those necessary interactions we make with them are bearable or better still that he/she may repent and turn to God through our witnessing for the Gospel.

Luke 19
Jesus entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And there was a man called by the name of Zaccheus; he was a chief tax collector and he was rich. 3 Zaccheus was trying to see who Jesus was, and was unable because of the crowd, for he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree in order to see Him, for He was about to pass through that way. 5 When Jesus came to the place, He looked up and said to him, “Zaccheus, hurry and come down, for today I must stay at your house.” 6 And he hurried and came down and received Him [b]gladly. 7 When they saw it, they all began to grumble, saying, “He has gone [c]to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 Zaccheus stopped and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, half of my possessions I will give to the poor, and if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I will give back four times as much.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, because he, too, is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

The above portion of scripture shows us that an apology/repentance is not an empty word because the Bible requires people (Rom 2:12) to back it up with the action of restitution as you can see (Luke 19:8) and God loves a cheerful giver (2Cor 9:7). Even if you we were to look at the Judicial Law concerning protection of property and social responsibility in Exodus 22, we understand that the Judicial Law demands restitution only because the Moral Law which it serves to hedge demands it. Though the people of the world might have a good laugh on this subject of restitution, it only shows why pagan societies are so inconducive compared to western societies which have been shaped by the Gospel. It is important to note that though Jesus cried out on the cross “Father forgive them for they know not what they do” (Lk 23:34), not all but only those (elect [Acts 13:48]) who repented of their sin were forgiven. For instance: the centurion who stood before Jesus when He breathed His last (Mark 15:39), this centurion exclaimed just as the Apostle Peter did (Mat 16:16)… saying truly this Man was the Son of God. However, in the case of Judas who betrayed Jesus (John 17:12 [below]) and the Pharisees who wickedly tried Him (John 19:10-11 [below]), there was no forgiveness for them and these were handed over to their own destructive lusts (Ps 81:12/Rom 1:24). Judas hanged himself & as for the Pharisees, they saw Jerusalem fall and the destruction of the temple in just a span of 37 years from Jesus’ death. Unless I have to really spell it out for you, Judas and those who wickedly tried Jesus received no forgiveness. The historian Josephus described Jerusalem as having reached a state very similar to what liberal Hollywood portrays as the future of the world (judging from movies like Pacific Rim Uprising, Resident Evil Retribution, Mad Max etc.); 70 century AD Jerusalem not only saw the destruction of the Temple but also the people’s plight reduced to what was prophesied in Isaiah 3. There is one account of this looting party who broke into this woman’s house because they smelled something cooking and when they got in they found a woman cooking her own baby. Though these people had hit an all-time low in their depravity, they left the house being unable to even stomach the idea of woman sharing with them her food which was her own child which she was cooking as food.

John 17
12 While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is lost except the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.

John 19
10 Then Pilate said to Him, “Are You not speaking to me? Do You not know that I have power to crucify You, and power to release You?”
11 Jesus answered, “You could have no power at all against Me unless it had been given you from above. Therefore, the one who delivered Me to you has the greater sin.”

To conclude, it is rather ironic to notice those who believe that one must forgive even when the other is not sorry, extend this idea to their doctrine thinking, genuinely believing in the Gospel can exist without repentance unto Christ (Jn 12:24-26). However, God doesn’t rebuke His people for praying to Him for justice, when the world has dealt unjustly with them individually or collectively (Rev 6:10). The Bible also teaches that the Gospel is veiled from the unbeliever (2Cor 4:3) by his/her own unrepentant nature (Mat 11:20). So, if we who are made in the image of God, are taught to imitate God, in His likeness as revealed to us in Christ, we are not bound to forgive those who aren’t sorry, just as God does not forgive those who do not repent & believe in the Gospel.

John 8
31 Then Jesus said to those Jews who believed Him, “If you abide in My word, you are My disciples indeed. 32 And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

James 2:14-17
What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

As a reformed Christian believer, I do believe that “justification is by faith alone” but very often we have humanist fools who differentiate faith from works because somehow, they want to credit the salvation God offers us in Jesus Christ to the works they do by their own volition. So, they like to see faith separate from works because they would like to see this all coming from their own volition. After all, their faith exists because they choose to believe from their own free will and since this faith arises from their own volition it must not reflect their depraved spiritual condition, lest their faith be proven counterfeit. It’s as Jesus says that you can tell a tree from its fruit (Mat 7:19-20), a good tree bear good fruit and bad tree bears bad fruit. As for most unbelieving goats (self-righteously stubborn humanists) who are wise in their own eyes, they subconsciously realize that if faith and works are not considered separate, then their wicked lives would prove that their faith is useless and so they fool themselves into believing that faith and works is separate in the sight of God.

Titus 1
13 This testimony is true. For this reason reprove them severely so that they may be sound in the faith, 14 not paying attention to Jewish myths and commandments of men who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure, all things are pure; but to those who are defiled and unbelieving, nothing is pure, but both their mind and their conscience are defiled. 16 They profess to know God, but by their deeds they deny Him, being detestable and disobedient and worthless for any good deed.

If you were to read the account of the fall of mankind in Adam as reported in Genesis 3, you would notice that what Adam willingly chose over the righteousness of God was the righteousness of self. In Adam, we have this natural apathy for the truth about God and His righteousness (Is 5:20) but in Christ the elect are spiritually reborn (Jn 3:3), being given this living hope which is from God (2Cor 4:8-10). It’s very important that scripture be understood in the light of scripture because when you look at scripture like Phil 3:14 in the light of Phil 4:13 or for that matter Eph 2:10 in the light of Eph 2:8-9, we understand that works is simply the evidence of genuine faith. This is why on one hand the Bible says that without faith it is impossible to please God (Heb 11:6) while on the other hand it says that faith without works is dead (Jam 2:26).

Eph 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

The faith and works argument is very much like the grace and law argument. The humanist however argues that faith and works are separate because he/she foolishly believes faith & works are actuated by his/her own free will and not by the Sovereign will of God as the Bible teaches (Eph 2:8-10). When it comes to grace and law, the humanist goes on another wild goose chase because he/she believes that the grace he/she receives in salvation is a license for him/her to live as he/she pleases (Rom 6:15). However, grace seen from a Biblical perspective teaches us that saving grace is that unmerited favour by which God turns us around from ourselves unto Himself (Jn 12:24-26) because truthfully, we are not God but God is God. It is therefore in turning to God that we learn there is standard we are to live by. The Moral Law is the very nature… the very image/character of God in which we were made (Gen 1:26). Imagine the immense privilege we have been given by grace (unmerited favour) to share in the very nature of the Almighty Triune God! Though we are not under the Law but under grace (Rom 6:14), those who won’t live by the Law shall perish apart from the law (Rom 2:12-16) because if we won’t glorify God by conforming to the image of God-the-Son (Rom 8:29), we have no right to the life offers us in Himself (Jn 14:6). The Bible says that the Law is like a mirror, which the elect look into and make amends in their own nature (Jam 1:23), in willingly conforming to the nature of Christ as revealed in scripture. The aspect of grace is in this, that Christ died for us while we were still sinners (Rom 5:8) that we may not just share at His table but also share in His nature. A nature which is now a Law we live by! Still, we are justified through faith alone and not by works because if we were justified by our works then the salvation we have in Jesus would not be by the power of God but by the power of our own will, and this blasphemes the redeeming merit of Jesus Christ who secured for all His people, salvation in all its fullness which is lacking in nothing. I hope you are able to see how works identify genuine faith by which we are justified just as the Moral Law identifies with saving grace by which we are saved. By grace alone… through faith alone… in Christ alone!

Mat 22
36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

To conclude, remember how Jesus cursed the fig tree for not bearing fruit that the Lord of lords may eat and be satiated (Mark 11:12-25)? This is very much along the lines of Mat 7:21 where Jesus says not all who call Him Lord shall enter His abode but only those who do the will of His Father because just like faith and works aren’t separate, so too recognizing Jesus as Lord over our lives is not separate from obeying His Commandments/Law in our lives.

I have a theory with enough Biblical support to decode the number of this man who is 666 from Rev 13:18. I have reason to believe that this man is fallen Adam, who was deceived by Satan to receive his own righteous standard which was passed down to all his progeny through procreation. This nature of rebellion against God that comes from men who are each a law to themselves from fallen Adam is the spirit of Anti-Christ (1Jn 4:3 & 2Jn 1:7).

Deut 6 (Christ Law)
8 And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes.

Rev 13 (Anti-Christ Law)
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name.

Have you ever wondered, what it is to be a law to yourself, it is to be a god to yourself because you are answerable to none but yourself for everything you do and this is what happened in the fall (Gen 3:5-6). The whole world however has been deceived in Adam because nobody is really answerable to only to himself, he in fact stands accountable to that ungodly peer pressure, which determines his survival in it. So, if you look at Rev 13:16-17 above, you understand that godless societies exude that unholy fear by which it’s members are forced to yield for the sake of their survival, because their members are mere existentialists, estranged from God, knowing nothing more than their own existence. God’s Law on the other hand was revealed to us men through Christ (Jn 1:18), which in the Old Testament was through the Angel of the Lord a.k.a. the Son of God and in the New Testament through Jesus Christ (Gal 3:19). This Law is the very nature of God, whose image we were made in and whose character we were made to represent in our being through in His Son Jesus Christ (Col 1:16-20). Now, what exactly is this Law?

Mat 22:36-40
36 Master, which is the great commandment in the law?
37 Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.
38 This is the first and great commandment.
39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself.
40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.

This is the Moral Law of God, whose interest we are to serve before our own. So, if you were to look at this in the context of the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: 1-17, you would notice that this Law reflects the first four laws of the Ten Commandments instructing the Saints to fiercely love God with all their strength and second to love the people in our environment as ourselves. This Law as Jesus has taught us is not merely exercised in deed but also in thought (Job 31:1/Mat 5:17-20 & 27-28), which is metaphorically referred to as binding the Law to your forehead and right arm. Now if you were to take a look at the Ten Commandments, you will see what makes up the anti-Christian law, because Biblically a three time reference signifies fulfillment, so the number 6 representing the six laws to do with our neighbour, mentioned thrice i.e. 666, signifies an unsaved people (Rev 13:8) who are each a law to themselves. This is how a godless syndicate works in society, where neither grace nor deserving justice is entertained because surely you know what it is to be at the mercy of people and you know how senseless violence promotes that unholy fear by which these godless syndicates bring its people to remain committed to their cause for the sake of their own survival, being convinced by the awe in which they are brought to stand of ungodly syndicates who are recognized for their wickedness both in thought and deed (Rev 13:12-15).

Psalm 14:10
The fool has said in his heart, “There is no God.”
They are corrupt, they have committed abominable deeds;
There is no one who does good.

Psalm 84:10
For a day in Your courts is better than a thousand outside. I would rather stand at the threshold of the house of my God Than dwell in the tents of wickedness.

Mat 10
28 Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

If we were to look at Ps 14:10 & Mat 10:28 in the light of Psalm 84:10, you would know how critical it is to remain devoted to God even in the face of affliction. If we were to look at the definition of Israel as given in Gen 32:28, we see God’s sovereignty in the salvation of His elect in this, that the godly are sanctified in the furnace of affliction which is the world, and prevail by the power of Christ… just as Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego did walking with the Son of God (Angel of the Lord) in the furnace of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:25). The Church, which comprises of both New Testament and Old Testament saints is the spiritual Israel (Eph 2:11-13), that thrives by the Spirit of Christ even in the furnace of affliction. For Jesus is that seed of Abraham (Gal 3:16), which germinates in the hearts of God’s elect in calling them out of the world and adopting them into the family of God. This seed of Abraham, is the Spirit of Christ by whose power the individual who is called unto God, successfully resists the nature of fallen Adam, which is so naturally prevalent in the world that the Bible refers to it as that broad road of destruction (Mat 7:13). Surely this nature of fallen Adam is Satanic and resisting this nature (James 4:7) in the world is not to merely to fight against flesh and blood but to wage war against the spiritual forces or darkness (Eph 6:12) but as always there is hope for the elect in Christ, as mentioned in Rom 8:38-39. It was through the Son and for His glory that all creation came into being (Col 1:16), a glory which He shares with God the Father and God the Holy Spirit and it is through His Son that God promises a complete takeover of this world (Col 1:20/Dan 2:44-45). For there shall come a time when this world shall stop glorifying His good justice under the deception of the anti-Christ and be transformed to glorify His mercy and grace in Jesus Christ (Jn 3:16-18) as prophesied in Isaiah 11, for in this God delights, seeing His image restored in mankind by the redeeming power of His Almighty Son.

Happy Ending… (for the Godly)!

Prov 26 (Old Testament)
4 Do not answer a fool according to his folly, or you yourself will be just like him.
5 Answer a fool according to his folly, or he will be wise in his own eyes.

Very often when I correct people on their lifestyle choices, I am supposedly schooled on what the Bible teaches concerning YOU SHALL NOT JUDGE. I happen to understand that people find their security in numbers (not in God) and when I express my disagreement on homosexuality, abortion, Islam, Hinduism and Buddhism, I suddenly see people who claim to believe in “live and let live” turn fascist, from a sense of insecurity that undermines the sweet lies they have been living by, which helps them maintain their complacent and lukewarm nature towards the truth about God (Rev 3:16). The road to damnation is indeed broad (Mat 7:13) thanks to the fall of mankind in Adam, and for the many who swim against the flow by the redeeming power of Christ, these are labeled by the world as homophobic, Islamophobic and haters of humanity, but God has already warned us in His word (Prov 26:4 & Mat 7:6) of the kind of backlash we would suffer in coming after him (John 15:19). This is the cost of discipleship which we are to take into account when we take that decision to carry our crosses and follow Jesus (Luke 14:26-33), lest we be the soil where our spiritual growth is choked by the worries of the world being unable to bear fruit in Christ (Mat 13:22), which brings God-the-Father to prune these away in His time (John 15:1-6). Surely the cost is great (Mat 5:11-12) but the harvest is priceless (Mat 13:44) [afforded to us who persevere by the redeeming power of Jesus Christ (Phil 3:14 & 4:13)] and justifies the cost in every way because the Triune God Almighty is deserving of such sincere worship in truth and in Spirit (John 4:23-24).

Mat 7 (New Testament)
1 Judge not, that ye be not judged.
2 For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.
3 And why beholdest thou the mote that is in thy brother’s eye, but considerest not the beam that is in thine own eye?
4 Or how wilt thou say to thy brother, Let me pull out the mote out of thine eye; and, behold, a beam is in thine own eye?
5 Thou hypocrite, first cast out the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye.
6 Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you.

Taking a look at the Mat 7:1 presented above, we see that the context in which we are told not to judge is in the sense that we are to practice what we preach. Take for instance, liberals in the USA who speak out against “gun violence” because the death toll in 2018 is so far 2,213 with 3,772 injuries on the whole while these same liberals actually support abortion, where these licensed murders across USA alone is 166,971 in 2018 so far. So, when you consider the reasons for abortions are: 0.3% in cases of rape, 0.03% in cases of incest, 0.1% in cases of risk to maternal life, 0.8% in cases of risk to maternal health, 0.5% in cases of fetal health issues and 98.3% being elective due to socio economic reasons; you understand how much these liberals value their fun and how little they value their God given responsibilities, which as opposed to gun-rights is not in the interest of helping civilians defend themselves in the case of a threat. So, for the liberal fool who does not fear God (Prov 1:7) it really is no big deal to hide a mountain behind a molehill by justifying abortions with reasons like rape, incest and maternal health. Now, if liberal hypocrisy allows them to do that, it therefore is well within their lifestyle of double standards to vouch for gun-control to make their self-righteousness look good being estranged from God and all truth. However, it is as the Bible says in Prov 8:36 about these humanist fools that: those who hate God eventually love death in any and every form.

Ezek 3
18 When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; and thou givest him not warning, nor speakest to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life; the same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood will I require at thine hand.
19 Yet if thou warn the wicked, and he turn not from his wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but thou hast delivered thy soul.

Eph 2
8 For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.

It’s amazing to see the extent to which people are self-centered that they will actually use the “Word of God” to excuse their sin and hear nothing that will make them feel uncomfortable in their sin. To add to this, you also have foolish sympathizers who will senselessly side with the #LGBT and every other apostate religion saying, it is not for you but for God to judge. On the contrary, in bearing witness to the Gospel we who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as called upon by God to judge these godless fools that they may repent unto Christ and not perish forever in the fires of hell (Acts 2:38). Also, knowing the kind of hypocrites unbelievers are, these same people who tell us to keep our mouths shut concerning their sin are very capable of telling God on the day of judgement that there was no one to correct them and show them what is right when they were alive and well upon the earth, else they would have turned from the sin and believed the Gospel. Surely, God is sovereign and God is good, and it is in His sovereignty and He decrees us to speak out against the sins of the world (Ezek 3:18-19/Eph 2:10) and call them to repentance that they may believe and live a holistic life, delighting no longer in their sin but in the righteousness of God revealed to us in Jesus Christ.

Numbers 11 (Old Testament)
16 The Lord said to Moses: “Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the tent of meeting, that they may stand there with you. 17 I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take some of the power of the Spirit that is on you and put it on them. They will share the burden of the people with you so that you will not have to carry it alone.

Luke 10 (New Testament)
After this the Lord appointed seventy-two[a] others and sent them two by two ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. 2 He told them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into his harvest field. 3 Go! I am sending you out like lambs among wolves.

If you look at the scripture mentioned above you will understand that preaching of Gospel is based on the understanding that you one must repent in order to believe in the Gospel and unless one does not realize his/her sinful nature before the divine majesty and holiness of God, there really is no truth in the saving faith a person has received. Remember, Jesus came to called call sinners unto Salvation and not self-righteous fools, who are wise in their own eyes (Luke 5:32). So, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit are not called to tell sinners of the wonderful plans God has for their lives despite their sin as though God Almighty exists to wait on their every need in exchange for some religious attention. Instead, we who are filled with the Holy Spirit are given a living spirit to pursue the righteousness of God and His Gospel, and in doing so, call out the grave nature of the people’s sin that they may repent and turn to God, for as much as God is glorified in His good justice as He does so in His great mercy, it is in His mercy in which He delights, because it is by the power of His resistible grace that He draws people unto Himself in Christ, propitiating/overcoming their sinful nature by the power of Jesus’ blood and in doing so conforming their nature to His own likeness, because that is how we were made… in His image (Gen 1:26/Rom 8:29).

Rev 13 (look at this in the context of John 16:7-15)
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let the one who hears say, “Come!” Let the one who is thirsty come; and let the one who wishes take the free gift of the water of life.

I would like to conclude by simply saying this, the thoughts of the world and ways of the world, is nowhere compared to thoughts of God and ways of God, which as Isaiah 55:8-9 describes is as different as the high heavens over the earth. So, for a person who is fallen in Adam, who is a god to himself/herself, he/she naturally likes to use every wicked instrument in his/her arsenal to rise over and belittle his neighbour, and we know that is wrong because the truth is no man/woman is God, except of course for Jesus who is the God-the-Son incarnate as Man to be that unblemished sacrifice for all sin. For most part when Christians point out the sins of people in this godless world, they perceive it as belittling and what further agitates them is that there is absolute truth in that discerning judgement, which the unbeliever finds it very hard to deal with. So, the unbeliever finds it very hard to die to that that god-identity he/she has of himself/herself (John 12:24-26) and prostrate (bow out) before God and His righteousness revealed in Jesus (John 1:17) who truthfully is God. Yes, the Christian lifestyle is one that is set against the grain of this unbelieving world but God has promised in His word that He is going to reclaim this world to Himself in His time (Dan 2:31-45 & Col 1:16-20) and unbelief is only here to make hay while the sun shine because God sovereign making the rain fall and sun shine on the righteous and the unrighteous alike (Mat 5:45).

Have you ever thought of what distinguishes a land? It is its inhabitants! And have you ever wondered what distinguishes these inhabitants in their land? It is its belief system, which becomes the law of the land, so to speak. Many times, I happen to come across some serious drama in the news over Muslims who put their religion before their nationality, and I totally get it because the Sharia Law they choose to go by, is fascist & lacking in liberty with every intention to replace the law of the land. However, the humanist/democratic law we are under isn’t much good either because though such a system is supposed to treats all people equally, it appeals to those who are in power to govern that land/nation. Did you know, according to the Oxfam India report: 58% of India’s wealth is owned by only 1% of its population? Now, if you were to read Rev 13:12 where the beast of the land (Apostate Religious Power) brings the people to adhere to the beast of the sea (Apostate Political Power), you understand that Hinduism devised such a thing as the caste system so as to keep the rich & powerful, rich & powerful. Democracy is a sham because it is blind to God who exist and so it attempts to govern its people by appealing to the kind of power it is familiar with, which is the pull of the upper crest of society. Hence there is really no equality in democracy because those who favour it are either those who are blind to God and fooled by its promise of equality or those in high society who don’t fear God and use democracy to further their own vested interest. Think about it, in a world where it is each man to himself, how can democracy ever be about people equality? Who really are you fooling… an unbelieving people?

1 Pet 3
15 But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear: 16 Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ.

Mat 10 (Jesus instructs His disciples)
37 He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. 38 And he that taketh not his cross, and followeth after me, is not worthy of me.

As much it is the fear of the Lord and not the environment I grew up in, that taught me to honour my parents (Exo 20:12), it is my identity in Christ and not so much the people around, that teaches me to be good and responsible Indian (Rom 13:1-3). Jesus says whoever is not with Him is against Him (Luke 11:23) and so a government that does not rightfully identify itself with Christ (Is 9:6), stoops to pleasing its people by licensing their sins against God like with murder by way of abortion, LGBT rights etc. while dealing severely and even executing those who commit treason against the interests of the State. Unlike democracy, Biblical theocracy teaches us to put God first because it is when God is first that we understand what people equality is really about (Mat 22:36-40). If God is not first in our lives then what’s first is ourselves, and our neighbours are simply people we deceitfully use to serve and further our own interests. Such is the curse, mankind bears from the fall of Adam, that in receiving our own righteous standard, we have become gods to ourselves (Gen 3:4), chiefly serving our own interest in everything we do. But, if God is first, the playing field is automatically leveled and you learn to love your neighbour as yourself, which in turn makes you a good citizen. Knowing creation reflects the glory of God, so then as much as the planets in our solar system revolve around the sun and moths hover around a burning bulb, the point of reference (Ps 89:15) or shall I say the cornerstone of all life is always God (Acts 4:11).

Gal 3
6 Even so Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness. 7 Therefore, be sure that it is those who are of faith who are sons of Abraham. 8 The Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, “All the nations will be blessed in you.”
….
16 Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, “And to seeds,” as referring to many, but rather to one, “And to your seed,” that is, Christ.

Act 4
8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers and elders of the people, 9 if we are on trial today for a benefit done to a sick man, as to how this man has been made well, 10 let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ the Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead—by this name this man stands here before you in good health. 11 He is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which became the chief corner stone. 12 And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.”

Yes, we still do have liberal hypocrites like Lord Acton who justify their poor stewardship over what they have been given charge of, with statements like “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” but we also have godly dissidents like Deitrich Bonhoeffer, who take life like a bull by the horn or shall I say take up their cross and follow Jesus in saying “Silence in the face of evil is evil itself: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.” So, our purview of life in this world, is dependent what we turn our ears too (Luke 12:34). Are we moved by unholy fear to be discouraged by life’s perils from those who are poor stewards (Mat 25:24-29), or are we willing to take a stand for what is right and listen to those who encourage us in living for the glory of God? Make no mistake, a leadership which operates to appease corrupt people in power and not God in His righteousness, is akin to Hitler’s leadership over Nazi Germany which thought it was right to kill over 6 million Jews in supposedly purifying the Aryan Race in Europe or even President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan for that matter, who enlisted the help of the Arab Militia, to wipe-out over 300 thousand non-arab ethnic people in the Dafur region of Sudan.

Ezek 36
27 And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my judgments, and do them.
28 And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your God.
29 I will also save you from all your uncleannesses: and I will call for the corn, and will increase it, and lay no famine upon you.

Though the above verse was spoken to the nation Israel before they were to move into the promise land, we understand this applies to all whom God calls to Himself in His Son Jesus Christ (Col 1:16-20) because the spiritual Israel are a people who God sanctifies in the afflictions of this world, while the spirit of Jesus ennobles and sustains them through every fiery trial as He did with Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego in the fiery furnace of Nebuchadnezzar (Dan 3:25). So, as I have said before, a person will either live their life to please God and serve His interest or he/she will live their life pleasing people so as to serve their own interest, and the latter is what is happening with people who are running the country here in India. Under the pretext of serving the people and pleasing the masses with what they have done for the country, politicians are lining their own pockets with taxpayers’ money; even in the army where soldiers claim to give their lives for their country, when these rise up the ranks they reveal their true colours with every kind of multi-crore scams that squanders their countrymen’s money, whose livelihood they have sworn to protect. Even if I was to consider the many who gave their lives for their country or any other righteous cause in India, it in no way excuses a person from living by a standard, where pleasing the people is prioritized over pleasing the Triune God Almighty, because one cannot value what he/she is given, over God who has given it to him/her freely, according to His will, that is unless he/she is what colloquially referred to as a Namak Haram.

Psalm 37
3 Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
4 Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
5 Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.

To conclude, sometimes I think we only boast of our rich diversity to mask our differences. Just take a look at the news, the people of the North East are like legal aliens in other parts of the country. People from Uttar Pradesh and beaten up by political activist in Maharashtra for simply making ends meet in the city. If you go down south to Tamil Nadu, there is contempt for the Hindi language and they will either speak to Tamil, Malayalam or English but not Hindi. It’s almost like India as a country has over 1.3 billion conflicting interests pulling it in different directions and I believe this will be the case for so long as it is: to each his own but a day is coming when the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth like the waters covers the sea (Hab 2:14) and all the earth shall know the truth about God (Heb 8:11). The sooner that happens, the better it will be for us because nothing will streamline progress in India like its people aligning their hearts to the truth about God (Ps 37:4).