(293) – DRAGON – 5

293 – DRAGON  5

As we have seen in the study “Dragon IV,” Joseph, son of Jacob, was obedient, faithful, virtuous, pure, righteous and holy, and so he was used by Jehovah to take his family into Egypt, thinking that he was doing a good thing, not knowing that he was really taking them to a school of moral and spiritual corruption and also to cruel slavery under the next Pharaoh. The biblical text says the following on the moral corruption: “Neither has she left her prostitution since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her” (Ezek. 23:8). “Yet she multiplied her prostitution, remembering the days of her youth, in which she had played the prostitute in the land of Egypt ” (Ezek. 23:19). And Isaiah says: “Yes, you didn’t hear; yes, you didn’t know; yes, from of old your ear was not opened: for I knew that you did deal very treacherously, and was called a transgressor from the womb” (Is. 48:8). Someone reading this text will think that the people was bad, and that Jehovah was trying to educate them; but this is not so. Let us look at it: “This is what Jehovah who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you says: ‘Don’t be afraid, Jacob my servant; and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen’” (Is. 44:2). “Thus says Jehovah, your Redeemer, and he who formed you from the womb: “I am Jehovah, who makes all things; who alone stretches out the heavens; who spreads out the earth by myself” (Is. 44:24). The people of Israel was conscious that Jehovah was the author of their decadence, for Isaiah said: “OH, JEHOVAH, WHY DO YOU MAKE US TO ERR FROM YOUR WAYS, AND TO HARDEN OUR HEARTS FROM YOUR FEAR? RETURN FOR YOUR SERVANTS’ SAKE, THE TRIBES OF YOUR INHERITANCE” (Is. 63:17). And Jehovah, the potter, who made the vases of dishonor for ruin, answered: “Therefore will I also deal in wrath; my eye shall not spare, neither will I have pity; and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, yet will I not hear them” (Ezek. 8:18 and Rom. 9:21-22).

As to the yoke of the cruel slavery, the Bible text says: “Now there arose a new king over Egypt, who didn’t know Joseph” (Ex. 1:8). This new Pharaoh, seeing the people of Israel multiplying and apprehensive about the future, did two things. He imposed a heavy yoke on them to afflict them (for they built the store cities of Pitom and Ramses for Pharaoh) and embittered their lives with heavy burdens. The second attitude was to order the killing of the male babies to prevent them from multiplying (Ex. 1:9-22). Only one boy escaped, because he was placed in a basket covered with tar and pitch, and set by the banks of the Nile. The daughter of Pharaoh found the boy when she went down to bathe in the river, and adopted him, moved with compassion, and named him Moses. The boy, according to the orders of the daughter of Pharaoh, was nursed by his own mother (Ex. 2:1-10). And Moses was instructed in all the science of the Egyptians (Acts 7:21-22). When he was already 40 years old, he saw an Egyptian striking a Hebrew man of his people, and killed him. When the crime was found out, Moses fled from Pharaoh, who decided to kill him (Ex. 2:11-15). When he arrived in Midian, Moses met the seven daughters of Reuel, the priest of Midian, who gave him his daughter Ziporah as a wife(Ex. 2:15-21). Forty years went by. Moses was 80 years old and pastured the flock of his father-in-law in Horeb. One day, he saw a burning bush that was not consumed by the fire. When he turned aside to see it, the angel of Jehovah called him, and Jehovah introduced himself, appointing him to deliver Israel from slavery. Moses asked: If anyone asks me who has sent me, what shall I say? Jehovah told him: “I WILL BE has sent me”. In the Bibles, it is written, “I AM has sent me,” but the Hebrew renders: I WILL BE. Then Moses said: They will not believe in me (Ex. 3:1-15). Jehovah told them: What do you have in your hand? And he said, “A staff.” Then he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Jehovah said, “Stretch out your hand and grab it by the tail.” And the serpent became a staff in his hand. Then Jehovah told Moses to put his hand into his bosom. When he took it out, his hand was leprous. Then, putting it back to his bosom, it was restored(Ex. 4:1-7). Moses and Aaron went into the presence of Pharaoh and commanded him to deliver the people so that they could worship in the desert. In face of Pharaoh’s refusal, he commanded, and Aaron cast his staff before Pharaoh and his servants, and it became a dragon. The wise men of Egypt also cast their staffs on the ground, and they turned into dragons (Tanin). And Aaron’s dragon swallowed up Pharaoh’s dragons and his sorcerers (Ex. 7:7-13).

Our readers must be shocked, for we read in the Bibles that the rods became serpents. Genesis 3:1says “serpent,” which in Hebrew is NAACH. In Num. 21:4-9, it is written NAACHIM SERAFIM (serpents of the seraphim). These very seraphim were over the throne of Jehovah, in Isaiah 6:1-2. But in Ex. 7:10-11 says “dragon” (Tan, Tanin in the plural).

The rod of Moses was also the dragon, the satan. Moses had the power of the dragon in his hand, but it is written that the rod was of god (Ex. 4:20 and Ex. 17:9). The one that kept this rod, or dragon, was Jehovah. In Num 20:9, it is written: “So Moses took the rod from before Jehovah, just as He had commanded him.” Now, Pharaoh is also dragon. “I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon” (Ezek. 29:3), in the Hebrew, “Tanin Gadol.” As a staff is dragon, Satan is also dragon. As the staff of Jehovah is the dragon, or Satan, it is the power through which Jehovah operates the evil, the plagues, the pestilences, the wars, and the slaughters. Whoever reads the story of Balaam, in chapters22 through 24 of the book of Numbers, is going to read that the angel of Jehovah faced Balaam as an adversary (Num. 22:22 and 22:32). If the angel of Jehovah turns into Satan, it turns into a dragon or serpent, as we read in Rev. 12:9.

And Jehovah took Jacob and his sons, 66 souls in all, who multiplied in Egypt, forming the nation of Israel, approximately 1,500,000 people who got perverted and were condemned by Jehovah (Jude 5).But let us finish this issue of the dragon. Who turned the waters of Egypt into blood? (Ex. 7:19-22). A battle between dragons. Who filled Egypt with lice? The dragon, though, the magicians of Egypt could not do; then Moses’ dragon started to eat the dragons of Egypt (Ex. 8:24). The plague of the pestilence also came from Jehovah (Ex. 9:6). The staff belonged to Jehovah, really, and the staff would turn into dragon. All a dragon does, Jehovah likewise does. In the case of Job, Jehovah used the dragon to try and destroy Job. That was also true of Israel (Amos 9:3).

IT IS DIFFERENT WITH JESUS. HE DESTROYS THE WORKS OF THE DRAGON (1 John 3:8). AND GIVES POWER TO THE CHRISTIAN TO TRAMPLE ON THE DRAGON AND OVERCOME IT (Rom. 16:20 and Rev. 12:9-11).

(292) – DRAGON – 4

292 – DRAGON   4

We recounted how Jehovah took Abraham and Sarai to Egypt, in the leaflet “DRAGON – II”. Because of the famine, Abram went down to Egypt; Sarai was taken as Pharaoh’s lover; Abram became rich through the favors of Pharaoh; Jehovah stroke Pharaoh and his house with terrible plagues; Pharaoh, then, returned Sarai, and Abram went away from Egypt a rich man. Jehovah told Abram that his offspring would wander as slaves in a foreign land for 400 years, and would depart afterwards with great wealth(Gen. 15:13-14). The method used by Jehovah was to cause to happen in the lives of Abram and Sarai what would happen in the time of Moses. Let us see how this picture was fulfilled: Two hundred years later Jacob was more than 100 years old, and his sons went to Sechem to watch over his father’s sheep(Gen. 37:18). Eleven of his sons went, for Joseph, Jacob’s favorite, remained back home. As they delayed, Jacob sent Joseph after them to see if all was well (Gen. 37:13-14). His brothers saw him and conspired to kill him, because they were envious and jealous of him (Gen. 37:18). Reuben, Jacob’s first-born, was against the crime (Gen. 37:21). There came a caravan of Ishmaelite, so Judah suggested selling Joseph as slave. When the idea was approved, they killed a male goat and smeared the blood on Joseph’s varicolored tunic, which was a gift from his father Jacob (Gen. 37:26-31). The perverse sons told Jacob that a wild animal had killed Joseph, and showed him the tunic stained with blood. Jacob tore his garments, and put sackcloth on his loins, and mourned for his beloved son many days (Gen. 37:32-35). The Ishmaelite (descendants of Ishmael, son of Abraham) sold Joseph in Egypt, to Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh (Gen. 39:1). Jehovah blessed everything that Joseph did, and the business of Potiphar, eunuch of Pharaoh, prospered very much (Gen. 39:1-6). The wife of Potiphar tried to seduce Joseph, who, being righteous and faithful, refused. Feeling offended, she grabbed his garment and accused him before Potiphar. Furious, Potiphar sent Joseph to prison. There, in the prison, were Pharaoh’s cupbearer and baker, accused of sinning against the king. The cupbearer told Joseph a dream: “The chief cupbearer told his dream to Joseph, and said to him, “In my dream, behold, a vine was in front of me, and in the vine were three branches. It was as though it budded, its blossoms shot forth, and its clusters brought forth ripe grapes. Pharaoh’s cup was in my hand; and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh’s cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh’s hand” (Gen. 40:9-11). Joseph interpreted it, saying: “This is its interpretation: the three branches are three days. Within three more days, Pharaoh will lift up your head, and restore you to your office. You will give Pharaoh’s cup into his hand, the way you did when you were his cupbearer” (Gen. 40:12-13). And it happened exactly as Joseph had said. Two years passed, and Pharaoh had a dream: “It happened at the end of two full years, that Pharaoh dreamed: and behold, he stood by the river. Behold, there came up out of the river seven cattle, sleek and fat, and they fed in the marsh grass. Behold, seven other cattle came up after them out of the river, ugly and thin, and stood by the other cattle on the brink of the river. The ugly and thin cattle ate up the seven sleek and fat cattle. So Pharaoh awoke” (Gen.41:1-4). And Pharaoh dreamed another dream: “He slept and dreamed a second time: and behold, seven heads of grain came up on one stalk, healthy and good. Behold, seven heads of grain, thin and blasted with the east wind, sprung up after them. The thin heads of grain swallowed up the seven healthy and full ears. Pharaoh awoke, and behold, it was a dream” (Gen. 41:5-7). Pharaoh, disturbed, sent for the wise men of Egypt, but none of them could interpret the dreams. Then the cupbearer remembered Joseph and told Pharaoh how he had been restored in his functions (Gen. 41:10-13). Pharaoh urgently sent for Joseph and told him his two dreams. Then, Joseph, enlightened by Jehovah, who is the author of this remarkable story, self-confidently told Pharaoh: “The dream of Pharaoh is one. What God is about to do he has declared to Pharaoh. The seven good cattle are seven years; and the seven good heads of grain are seven years. The dream is one. The seven thin and ugly cattle that came up after them are seven years, and also the seven empty heads of grain blasted with the east wind; they will be seven years of famine. That is the thing which I spoke to Pharaoh. What God is about to do he has shown to Pharaoh. Behold, there come seven years of great plenty throughout all the land of Egypt. There will arise after them seven years of famine, and all the plenty will be forgotten in the land of Egypt. The famine will consume the land” (Gen. 41:25-30).

And Joseph said to Pharaoh: “Pharaoh took off his signet ring from his hand, and put it on Joseph’s hand, and arrayed him in robes of fine linen, and put a gold chain about his neck, and he made him to ride in the second chariot which he had. They cried before him, ‘Bow the knee!’ He set him over all the land of Egypt. Pharaoh said to Joseph, ‘I am Pharaoh, and without you shall no man lift up his hand or his foot in all the land of Egypt’” (Gen. 41:42-44).

The fields produced in abundance for seven years, and Joseph stored up the grain for seven years. When the seven years of famine came, Joseph gathered the gold of Egypt and of the surrounding nations, and brought it to the hands of Pharaoh (Gen. 47:13-14). After that the livestock was brought to Pharaoh (Gen. 47:15-17), and after that, the owners of land sold their properties for food, and finally, the people became slaves to Pharaoh for food (Gen. 47:19-24).

Now, Jehovah declared that Pharaoh is the great dragon (Ezek. 29:3). In the book of Revelations we read that the dragon is Satan (Rev. 12:9). Pharaoh is a picture of Satan. Therefore, who established Joseph as the lord of all Egypt? It was Satan who said: “Only in the throne I will be greater than you” (Gen. 41:40). The glory of Joseph came from Satan. Joseph worked to increase the riches of Pharaoh, that is, Satan, the great dragon.

Joseph declared to his brothers that they were not guilty of selling him as slaves to the Ishmaelites. The author of the whole project, with all its details, was Jehovah. And he told them that he was placed as lord over Egypt to help them in the time of famine (Gen. 45:1-8).

But the plan of Jehovah was to take the family of Jacob to Egypt, and that was what happened. Joseph sent for his father (Gen. 45:9-10), and Jacob hurried to Egypt with 67 souls of his household (Gen. 46:26). The innocent Joseph thought that he was saving his people from death from the famine, but, on the contrary, he was taking his father and family to be nurtured with the milk of Sodom; for in Revelation, Sodom and Egypt were identical as to corruption of costumes (Rev. 11:8). The project of Jehovah was to destroy the people of Israel before they became a kingdom. Jehovah himself said it: “Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah” (Ezek. 23:2-4). “Neither has she left her prostitution since [the days of] Egypt; for in her youth they lay with her, and they handled the bosom of her virginity; and they poured out their prostitution on her” (Ezek. 23:8). Poor Joseph, who was manipulated into doing evil to his people thinking that he was doing good.

(to be continued in DRAGON – V)

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(291) – DRAGON – 3

291 – DRAGON  3

As we have showed in the leaflet “DRAGON – II”, Jehovah said: “I will open my mouth in a parable. I will utter dark sayings of old” (Ps. 78:2). And the apostle Paul revealed to us a parable of Jehovah in the New Testament: “Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the free woman. However, the son by the handmaid was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar. For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and answers to the Jerusalem that exists now, for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is the mother of us all” (Gal. 4:21-26). In this allegory Paul reveals that the covenant of Jehovah is in this world, and reveals that the people of Israel, which is the people of Jehovah, is slave to the law. The earthly Jerusalem is the basis for this covenant, and Jehovah declares that he lives in the earthly Jerusalem. “For Jehovah has chosen Zion. He has desired it for his habitation. This is my resting place forever. Here I will live, for I have desired it” (Ps. 132:13-14). “Blessed be Jehovah from Zion, Who dwells at Jerusalem. Praise Jehovah!” (Ps. 135:21). “Some of the heads of fathers’ [houses], when they came to the house of Jehovah which is in Jerusalem, offered willingly for the house of God to set it up in its place” (Ezra 2:68). “So you will know that I am Jehovah, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more” (Joel 3:17).

Now, Jesus declared: “You are from beneath. I am from above. You are of this world. I am not of this world” (John 8:23). And he also said: “My Kingdom is not of this world. If my Kingdom were of this world, then my servants would fight, that I wouldn’t be delivered to the Jews. But now my Kingdom is not from here” (John 18:36). And Paul declared: “And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me for his heavenly Kingdom” (2 Tim. 4:18). Therefore they are two kingdoms with two different heads. Jehovah preached only the earthly kingdom, and Jesus preached only the heavenly kingdom, which was never mentioned in the Old Testament. Jesus said:“The law and the prophets were until John. From that time the Good News of the Kingdom of God is preached” (Luke 16:16). When Jehovah called Abram, he was 75 years old and lived in Haran (Gen. 12:1-4). Jehovah called him to show him the land of the Canaanites as an everlasting inheritance. “I will give to you, and to your seed after you, the land where you are traveling, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession. I will be their God” (Gen. 17:8). But Stephen declares another thing about Abram’s calling: “‘Brothers and fathers, listen. The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran,’ and said to him, ‘Get out of your land, and from your relatives, and come into a land which I will show you.’ Then he came out of the land of the Chaldaeans, and lived in Haran. From there, when his father was dead, God moved him into this land [Canaan], where you are now living. He gave him no inheritance in it” (Acts 7:2-5). In Gen. 12:1-4 Jehovah called Abram when he lived in Haran. Stephen, in the above text of Acts 7:2-5, declared that there was another calling when Abram was in Ur of the Chaldeans; therefore Abram must have been very young, for his father lived a long time in Haran, and Abram moved to Canaan only after his death. Certainly it was Jesus, the God of Glory, who appeared to Abraham in Ur of the Chaldeans and preached to him the gospel, as we read in Gal. 3:5-9. And John reveals about this that Abram saw the day of Christ and rejoiced (John 8:56). And Christ also spoke to him about the kingdom of God, the Father, and of the heavenly Jerusalem, and of the resurrection of the saved and the cross, etc. And Abram believed in Christ; therefore, when later Jehovah promised the land of Canaan as an inheritance, Abram received the heavenly inheritance, that is, the heavenly Jerusalem, and did not accept the gift of Jehovah (Heb. 11:8-10). Jehovah, frustrated with Abram’s firmness in the future promise of Christ, took him to Egypt to pervert Sarai there, as a lover of Pharaoh, and gave Hagar to Abram, expecting him to fall because of her. This did not happen, because Abram was righteous. As Egypt was corrupt, as we read in Ez. 23:1-4,8,19,27, if Jehovah took Abram and Sarai to the pigpen, it is obvious that he wanted them in the filth. The slave given to Abram was beautiful and sensual. It was a perfect project to spoil and make the plan of Christ not viable, and configure his earthly plan. The truth is that Abram returned from Egypt as faithful as when he moved to it, and he lived in the land of promise of Jehovah, as in a foreign land, for 100 years, for he went to Canaan when he was 75 years old, and died when he was 175 (Gen. 25:7). And Abraham, for his name was changed, lived in Canaan, the gift of Jehovah, as a stranger and wanderer, longing depart for the heavenly country (Heb. 11:13-16).

The Scriptures say about Pharaoh: “Thus says the Lord Jehovah: ‘Behold, I am against you, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great monster that lies in the midst of his rivers, that has said, “My river is my own, and I have made it for myself”’” (Ezek. 23:1-4). We read about Egypt in the book of Revelations, speaking of the two witnesses of Jesus: “When they have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them, and kill them. Their dead bodies will be in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified” (Rev. 11:7-8). Egypt’s corruption, according to the book of Revelations, was compared to the corruption of Sodom and Jerusalem, the latter fed by the impure milk of Egypt, as we read in Ezek. 23:1-4. And about the dragon, which was Pharaoh, we read:“The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9). This was the scenario prepared by Jehovah to contaminate Sarai, who is a picture of the nation of Israel, just as Abram is a picture of Jehovah himself. Jehovah also introduced the Egyptian slave into Abram’s family. As he had promised a son to Abram (Gen. 15:1-4), for ten years Abram and Sarai, waited for a promised, longed for, son. Finally, disillusioned, Sarai forced Abram to lay with the Egyptian Hagar to bring forth the promised son. The son of Hagar was born, whom Jehovah’s angel named Ishmael, signifying “god is listening”. After his birth, when he was 14 years old, Sarai, without sexual intercourse, miraculously conceived, and Isaac was born, the promised son, who is not a picture of Israel, but of the Church, as we read in Gal. 4:21-26. The picture of Israel is Ishmael. We see that Pharaoh, the great dragon, performed an extremely important role in the project of Jehovah, and that the degenerated influence of Egypt was so amalgamated in Israel’s heart, that it caused the destruction of the two kingdoms. And the book of Revelations, written more than 100 years after Christ, calls Jerusalem, the city where Jehovah lived, Sodom and Egypt (Rev. 11:7-8). As Jehovah calls himself the potter, who makes the people as he wills, like the potter makes the vessel, he is the author of the corruption and destruction of the kingdom of Israel.

By Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(290) – DRAGON – 2

290 – DRAGON – 2

Jehovah called Abraham when he was 75 years old, and was living in Haram. The Bible text says: “Now Jehovah said to Abram, Go out from your country and from your family and from your father’s house, into the land to which I will be your guide: And I will make of you a great nation, blessing you and making your name great; and you will be a blessing: To them who are good to you will I give blessing, and on him who does you wrong will I put my curse: and you will become a name of blessing to all the families of the earth. So Abram went as Jehovah had said to him, and Lot went with him: Abram was seventy-five years old when he went away from Haran” (Gen. 12:1-4).

“And Abram took Sarai, his wife, and Lot, his brother’s son, and all their goods and the servants which they had got in Haran, and they went out to go to the land of Canaan. And Abram went through the land till he came to Shechem, to the holy tree of Moreh. At that time, the Canaanites were still living in the land. And the Lord came to Abram, and said, I will give all this land to your seed; then Abram made an altar there to the Lord who had let himself be seen by him” (Gen. 12:5-7).

“And moving on from there to the mountain on the east of Beth-el, he put up his tent, having Beth-el on the west and Ai on the east… And he went on, journeying still to the South. And because there was little food to be had in that land, he went down into Egypt” (Gen. 12:8-10). “Now when he came near to Egypt, he said to Sarai, his wife, Truly, you are a fair woman and beautiful to the eye; And I am certain that when the men of Egypt see you, they will say, This is his wife: and they will put me to death and keep you. Say, then, that you are my sister, and so it will be well with me because of you, and my life will be kept safe on your account” (Gen. 12:11-13).

“And so it was that when Abram came into Egypt, the men of Egypt, looking on the woman, saw that she was fair. And Pharaoh’s great men, having seen her, said words in praise of her to Pharaoh, and she was taken into Pharaoh’s house” (Gen. 12:14-15). The incredible part in this passage of Abraham’s life is that Jehovah knew that Pharaoh was going to take Sarai for his concubine, that is, a lover, and allowed Abraham to lie. This is evidence that Jehovah planned for Sarai to become Pharaoh’s lover, or else he would not have allowed that lie. Jehovah also produced that hunger that they suffered to force the coming of Abraham to Egypt. To Jehovah, in view of enrichment, the woman is an object of negotiation, and adultery was not considered as that. “And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels” (Gen. 12:16). Sarai’s prostitution was the plan of Jehovah as an instrument to make Abraham rich.

After Abraham became rich and Sarai was morally stained, Jehovah struck Pharaoh and his house with great plagues on account of Sarai, Abraham’s wife, “And because of her, he was good to Abram, and he had sheep and oxen and asses, and men-servants and women-servants, and camels. And the Lord sent great troubles on Pharaoh’s house because of Sarai, Abram’s wife. Then Pharaoh sent for Abram, and said, ‘what have you done to me? why did you not say that she was your wife? why did you say that she was your sister? so that I took her for my wife: now, take your wife and go on your way’” (Gen. 12:17-19).

Now, if Jehovah had power through the plagues to force Pharaoh to return Sarai to Abraham, her husband, why did he allow Abraham to lie and Sarai to be taken to the house of Pharaoh as a lover? The answer is conclusive. It was his secret plan. This immoral and dishonest episode was a picture of something. “And Pharaoh gave orders to his men, and they sent him on his way, with his wife and all he had” (Gen. 12:20). “Abram went up out of Egypt: he, his wife, all that he had, and Lot with him, into the South. Abram was very rich in livestock, in silver, and in gold” (Gen. 13:1-2). One thing was clear. Dealing with getting rich, everything is valid to Jehovah, even selling a woman to prostitution; finally gold and silver have much value to Jehovah, for he is god of the gold and the silver(Hag. 2:8). The greatest blessing of Jehovah to a man was the gold and the silver, and the glory of this world. We read about David, the chosen of Jehovah: “Now David the son of Jesse reigned over all Israel. The time that he reigned over Israel was forty years; he reigned seven years in Hebron, and thirty-three [years] reigned he in Jerusalem. He died in a good old age, full of days, riches, and honor” (1 Chr. 29:26-28). We read about good king Jehoshaphat, king of Judah “Therefore Jehovah established the kingdom in his hand; and all Judah brought to Jehoshaphat tribute; and he had riches and honor in abundance” (2 Chr. 17:5). Hezekiah was a wonderful king, too, faithful to Jehovah. We read about him:  “Hezekiah had exceeding much riches and honor: and he provided him treasuries for silver, and for gold, and for precious stones, and for spices, and for shields, and for all kinds of goodly vessels” (2 Chr. 32:27). Solomon declares that the blessing of Jehovah is riches without trouble. “Jehovah’s blessing brings wealth, and he adds no trouble to it” (Prov. 10:22). Jehovah gave and still gives everything that Jesus tells us not to seek after. “Don’t lay up treasures for yourselves on the earth, where moth and rust consume, and where thieves break through and steal” (Matt. 6:19). A very rich young man once approached Jesus. He was also very religious and faithful. He continuously kept the precepts of the law. He tithed, gave to the poor and fasted, according to tradition. This young man asked Jesus: “What do I still lack [that I may have eternal life]? Jesus said to him, ‘If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have, and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me’” (Matt. 19:16-21). The young man went away.

The fact is that Jesus’ concept of richness and glory is not the same as the concept of Jehovah.

But let us return to the story of Abraham and Sarai. Jehovah caused the hunger where Abraham lived to force him to go down to Egypt and to deliver Sarai, his wife, to Pharaoh, king of Egypt. Jehovah created allegories and parables with live people. Paul revealed this in the epistle to the Galatians: “Tell me, you that desire to be under the law, don’t you listen to the law? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the free woman. However, the son by the handmaid was born according to the flesh, but the son by the free woman was born through promise. These things contain an allegory, for these are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children to bondage, which is Hagar” (Gal. 4:21-24). Jehovah also took Abraham to Egypt to give him Hagar, which is the picture of Israel, for she is the covenant of Sinai and of the Law, which begets slaves. By this he introduced in the plan of the Father, which is the celestial Jerusalem, his own plan, the earthly Jerusalem. The project of the Father was the celestial heritage. Jehovah interposed the earthly heritage. Egypt is a picture of the world, and Pharaoh is the great dragon, according to the prophet Ezekiel (Ezek. 29:3). And the dragon is Satan (Rev. 12:9). Therefore, Sarai was a lover of the dragon, that is, Satan, the king of this world (Luke 4:5-8). And the dragon, that is, Satan, made Abraham rich for the love of Sarai. Then, Jehovah struck the dragon with great plagues as if he were not the author of the demonic event. Later, Abraham says to Abimilech, king of Gerar, that Sarah is his sister. Then Jehovah protects Sarah by threatening of death Abimelech and his house. With this he convinces Christians that he keeps his servants from evil. But he did not keep Sarai from Satan, the dragon.

 

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(289) – DRAGON – 1

289 – DRAGON – 1

Jehovah declared: “I will pen my mouth in a parable; I will utter dark sayings of old” (Ps. 78:2).And Jehovah used living people to make the enigmas, which constituted his particular treasure. These are his words about Israel, his people: “For their vine is of the vine of Sodom, of the fields of Gomorrah. Their grapes are grapes of gall, their clusters are bitter. Their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps. Isn’t this laid up in store with me, sealed up among my treasures?” (Deut. 32:32-34). It was sealed, because the fact would only happen in the future, 800 years later, in the time of Isaiah, who said to Israel, from Jehovah: “Hear the word of Jehovah, you rulers of Sodom! Listen to the law of our God, you people of Gomorrah! ‘What are the multitude of your sacrifices to me?’ says Jehovah. ‘I have had enough of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed animals. I don’t delight in the blood of bulls, or of lambs, or of male goats’” (Is. 1:10-11).

The first allegory or parable of Jehovah was the one of Adam and Eve. It begins like this: “Jehovah Elohim formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul” (Gen. 2:7). The first thing we should notice is that this man Adam was created from death, because dust, in Jehovah’s allegoric language, is death. In Psalm 22:15, we read:“My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death”. And when Adam was condemned to death, Jehovah dictated the sentence, saying: “By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return” (Gen. 3:19). Formed from the dust, Adam was created as a mortal being. The Psalmist say: “What is man, that you think of him? What is the son of man, that you care for him?” (Ps. 8:4). “I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die?” (Is. 51:12).

Adam, in the paradise of Eden, was not mortal. While eating of the tree of life he would live. The very moment that the tree of life was forbidden to him, he died, because he was mortal. The life was in the tree, not in Adam (Gen. 3:22-23).

Let us tell the story of Adam and Eve. In Gen. 2 the Hebrew words to designate god are Jehovah Elohim. Jehovah is the name agreed upon by the theologians to translate the Tetragrammaton. We say, “agreed upon” because the Tetragrammaton, that is, the four consonants that compose the Tetragrammaton do not have a translation. So, we have Jehovah, or Yahweh. The other Hebrew word is Elohim, which is translated gods, for it is in the plural. The singular would be El, or Elohe. Then, it is literally JEHOVAH GODS, for they were many. Let us relate the episode: “Jehovah God planted a garden eastward, in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed” It was a garden of delights, where Jehovah Elohim made the tree of life to grow in the middle of the Garden, and also the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Gen. 2:9). It was the garden of Jehovah, where he came to walk in the afternoons. “A river went out of Eden to water the garden; and from there it was parted, and became four heads. The name of the first is Pishon: this is the one which flows through the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold; and the gold of that land is good. There is aromatic resin and the onyx stone. The name of the second river is Gihon: the same river that flows through the whole land of Cush. The name of the third river is Hiddekel: this is the one which flows in front of Assyria. The fourth river is the Euphrates” (Gen. 2:10-14). What wonderful garden. Four large rivers with many rapids, waterfalls, rich land, flowery and perfumed. The scent of the flowers and fruit attracted and delighted the eyes and the senses. The garden was walled in. The waters of Pishon sparkled with nuggets of gold and precious stones. All the animals in the garden were tame. There were all kinds of birds that filled the air with melodies and colors (Gen. 2:19). When Adam saw that all the animals had their companion, he felt lonely (Gen. 2:20).

Jehovah brought Adam to a deep sleep in order to make his happiness complete. While he slept, he took one of his ribs and made a woman, and brought her to Adam (Gen. 2:21-22). Adam was amazed. The woman was beautiful, with her hair flowing in the breeze. Adam, fulfilled, said: “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh. She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken out of Man” (Gen. 2:23). What bliss. It was heaven on earth. What else could one desire? The couple was completely innocent and pure. They did not know malice or knew the difference between good and evil. They were like two children who needed someone to care for them.

As we have said, Jehovah used to walk in the garden of delights in the warm afternoons (Gen. 3:8).

There was one flaw in that garden of delights. Jehovah Elohim, when he created the animals, also created the serpent, a venomous animal among all the other animals, and inside the garden. Another thing difficult to explain is that Jehovah Elohim went away from the garden and left these two children in the company of the serpent by themselves. It was a talking serpent and very astute. Taking advantage of the innocence of the couple, it convinced Eve to eat from the tree of science of good and evil that had been forbidden by Jehovah Elohim (Jehovah gods). The serpent convinced Eve to eat by saying that she would not die, but that she would become like Elohim. Eve, deceived, ate it and gave the forbidden fruit to her husband, and he also ate (Gen. 3:1-6). After they ate the forbidden fruit, Jehovah Elohim came to condemn them, and the condemnation of the woman was: “To the woman he said, ‘I will greatly multiply your pain in childbirth. In pain you will bring forth children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you’” (Gen. 3:16). To Adam, Jehovah Elohim said: “To Adam he said, ‘Because you have listened to your wife’s voice, and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, “You shall not eat of it,” cursed is the ground for your sake. In toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Thorns also and thistles will it bring forth to you; and you will eat the herb of the field. By the sweat of your face will you eat bread until you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken. For you are dust, and to dust you shall return’” (Gen. 3:17-19).

But what the serpent is? “The great dragon was thrown down, the old serpent, he who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world. He was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him” (Rev. 12:9). Satan, the dragon, or the serpent, was created wicked and evil from the very beginning. We read this in John 8:44 and 1 John 3:8 and Gênesis 3:1-5.

Our question is: If no human father leaves his innocent and uninformed little children in the hands of a wicked criminal, how did Jehovah Elohim abandon Adam and Eve in the corrupt and deceiving hands of the dragon, that is, Satan, or the Serpent? He certainly wished the fall of Adam and Eve, for the serpent, rather, Satan, which is the dragon, was cunning and knew good and evil, the same way as Jehovah(Gen. 3:22). Adam and Eve were totally blind and defenseless, for they did not know either good or evil. They were cast into the mouth of the dragon on purpose, and they were condemned as guilty — something that does not seem fair. What is even worse than all of this is that all their offspring were also condemned (Rom. 5:12).

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(288) – THE RESTORATION OF SATAN

288 – THE RESTORATION OF SATAN

According to the gospel preachers Satan, or the devil, is bankrupt. James in his universal epistle tells us:“Submit, therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” James 4:7). How can this be? Satan, who is the devil, according to Rev. 12:9, the destroyer of the human race, who violated the Garden of Eden without permission, and by his cunning and wisdom overcame the man Adam and established his kingdom of death, which remains until today, now runs from the Christians like a coward? It is obvious that Christians will argue that Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary narrowed the devil to this miserable state. The apostle John describes this truth, saying: “They overcame him because of the Lamb’s blood, and because of the word of their testimony. They didn’t love their life, even to death” (Rev. 12:11).

According to the New Testament and especially the book of Revelation, Satan will be forever destroyed. John, in Revelation, explains that there will be a time of a thousand years, in which an angel with the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the abyss, and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he should not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; then he will be released for a short time (Rev. 20:1-3).

“And after the thousand years, Satan will be released from his prison, and he will come out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war; the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. They went up over the breadth of the earth, and surrounded the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. Fire came down out of heaven from God, and devoured them. The devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and sulfur, where the beast and the false prophet are also. They will be tormented day and night forever and ever” (Rev. 20:7-10). What is the lake of fire? The same John explains.“Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire” (Rev. 20:14).

It is thus very well explained and very clear that Satan will be done with and condemned forever. This is the way Jesus Christ expresses himself concerning the final destination of Satan and those that follow him in evil. “Then he will say also to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire which is prepared for the devil and his angels” (Matt. 25:41).

The Old Testament describes a completely different destiny for Satan. According to the Old Testament Satan will be restored to his old function. After falling into sin, Eve accused the serpent before Jehovah, saying that she had been deceived “Jehovah said to Abram, after Lot was separated from him, “Now, lift up your eyes, and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward” (Gen. 3:14). It is obvious that the serpent is Satan (Rev. 12:9; 20:2). And what is the meaning of the dust? David answers: “My strength is dried up like a potsherd. My tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth. You have brought me into the dust of death” (Ps. 22:15). Dust is death, and to be dust is to be Satan’s food, for Satan has an empire: the empire of death. In the letter to the Hebrews, we read: “Since then the children have shared in flesh and blood, he also himself in the same way partook of the same, that through death he might bring to nothing him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might deliver all of them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Heb. 2:14-15).

What Christians do not notice is that death reigned until Jesus, and therefore Satan ruled sovereign over all, the kingdom of Jehovah, which is Israel, included. “For if by the trespass of the one, death reigned through the one; so much more will those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17). The Jews were all dead. “Another of his disciples said to him, ‘Lord, allow me first to go and bury my father.’ But Jesus said to him, ‘Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead’” (Matt. 8:21-22). And life came with Jesus Christ. And he said: “Most certainly I tell you, he who hears my word, and believes him who sent me, has eternal life, and doesn’t come into judgment, but has passed out of death into life” (John 5:24). If the one who believes in Jesus goes from death to life, it follows that all are dead. The Jews did not believe in Christ; on the contrary, they condemned him; therefore they are dead as the rest of the men that did not believe (Rom. 5:12). They are all dust, Satan’s food, and members of his dark kingdom.

When Jehovah made the promise to Jacob, he said: “Your seed will be as the dust of the earth” (Gen. 28:14). Jehovah was making the revelation that the seed of Jacob would be an offspring of dead people. It is enough to consider that the Arabs, Ishmael’s offspring, son of Abraham, are over a billion people, and the Jews, remnants of Isaac, Ishmael’s brother, are 14 million. The rest died; they all became dust. Germany alone, in the Great War, killed six million Jews. This tragedy is called the Holocaust.

Now, Jehovah revealed that he is going to create new heavens and a new earth. The text says: “For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy. I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in my people; and there shall be heard in her no more the voice of weeping and the voice of crying. There shall be no more there an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days; FOR THE CHILD SHALL DIE ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD, AND THE SINNER BEING ONE HUNDRED YEARS OLD SHALL BE ACCURSED” (Is. 65:17-20).

In the new heavens and new earth that Jehovah promised to create there will be curses. Will there be death? And this will be for all eternity, for the verse 18 declares that that new heaven and the new earth will be perpetual, that is, eternal. Unbelievable, but Jehovah will establish curse and death in his future kingdom and in his new created earth, therefore eternal curse and eternal death. The text ends with the following words: “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; AND DUST SHALL BE THE SERPENT’S FOOD” (is. 65:25).

It is obvious that, death being present, dust will be Satan’s food, for he feeds on death, as we have seen above. Be amazed, readers, for Satan is part of the future kingdom of Jehovah and will eat dust for all eternity. In text of Isaiah we get to know that Satan will not be cast in the lake of fire, as it is written in the book of Revelation. To Jehovah, Satan will be restored to the old function he had in the Garden of Eden, for all eternity.

 

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(287) – THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH

287-THE GLORY OF JEHOVAH

Let us define glory according to the human conception. To men, glory is honor, fame, celebrity acquired through works, accomplishments, virtues, talents, etc. Artistic glory. Leonard da Vinci became famous through his art. Picasso did, too. Literary glory. Luiz de Camões was the greatest of all Portuguese poets, the author of the epic poem “OS LUSíADAS”, which focused the story and the glory of the Portuguese kingdom. Machado de Assis is one of the glories of the Brazilian literature, the great novelist of Rio de Janeiro. Brazil has a constellation of great poets. Olavo Bilac, Guerra Junqueira, Gonçalves Dias, and many others: the glory of the Brazilian literature.

The glory of a leadership is to keep the nation’s social and economic balance; to rule the nation always seeking the well being of the people, promote the intellectual, scientific and moral development of the people, and so on.

The governments, in general, place great value in the human life, whose non- alienable rights are: “LIFE, FREEDOM, ACQUISITION OF HAPPINESS”. Even the criminals have their rights respected. This May of 2004 there was a huge rebellion in the house of custody of Benfica, in Rio de Janeiro, in which 30 criminals were killed, slaughtered. The secretary of Public Safety made a pronouncement in the radio saying with great satisfaction: “No criminal was killed by the policemen; they were all killed by the very criminals”. He meant by this that the Rio de Janeiro Police respect the lives of criminals.

Let us talk about Jehovah god, who values his glory very much. He declared the following: “I am Jehovah. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another, nor my praise to engraved images” (Is. 42:8). Jehovah means that the glory of his righteousness and kindness is such and so sublime in relation to man, that it cannot be shared. And he complements by saying: “I bring near my righteousness, it shall not be far off, and my salvation shall not wait; and I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory” (Is. 46:13). And more: “For as the belt clings to the waist of a man, so have I caused to cling to me the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah, says Yahweh; that they may be to me for a people, and for a name, and for a praise, and for a glory: but they would not hear” (Jer. 13:11).

Jehovah gets special pleasure from showing his own glory. Solomon finished the building of a sumptuous temple in Jerusalem. In the day of the temple’s dedication the priests brought the Ark of the Covenant of Jehovah to its proper place, to the inner sanctuary of the house, to the most holy place, under the wings of the cherubim (1 Kings 8:6). “And it came about when the priests came from the holy place, that the cloud filled the house of the Lord, so that the priests could not stand to minister because of the cloud, for the glory of the Lord filled the house of the Lord” (1 Kings 8:10-11). Moses wrote in a book the statutes and judgments of Jehovah, and read them to the people, who promised to keep them. Then Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on the people. The text says, afterwards: “Then Moses, Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up. They saw the God of Israel. Under his feet was like a paved work of sapphire stone, like the skies for clearness. He didn’t lay his hand on the nobles of the children of Israel. They saw God, and ate and drank” (Ex. 24:9-11).Then Jehovah told Moses to go up the mount. “Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of Jehovah settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The appearance of the glory of Jehovah was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel” (Ex. 24:15-17). There is one thing, though, that mars the glory of Jehovah: the fact that he connects his glory to the plagues of Egypt. He declares: “Because all those men who have seen my glory, and my signs, which I worked in Egypt” (Num. 14:22). Plagues have never increased the glory of anyone. More so as Jehovah was the one who changed the hearts of the Egyptians to hate Israel (Ps. 105:23-25). It is comparable to the policeman that protects and encourages the criminal through bribes, but afterwards, when the cheat is found, kills the criminal. Jehovah says, then, that to hurt the prefabricated criminal reveals great glory. This is unacceptable. Jehovah should have changed their hearts to love and not to hate, for John says, “God is love” (1 John 4:8). And “Love does no wrong to a neighbor” (Rom. 13:10). How can a god live and teach love if he changed the love that the Egyptians had for Israel because of Joseph in hatred? Now, the true God is love, and because he is love, he wants to give eternal life to all men, and for this very reason the apostle John says: “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). Jehovah declared another thing: “I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and he will follow after them; and I will get honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies; and the Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah” (Ex. 14:4). And Jehovah commands Moses, saying: “Lift up your rod, and stretch out your hand over the sea, and divide it: and the children of Israel shall go into the midst of the sea on dry ground. I, behold, I will harden the hearts of the Egyptians, and they shall go in after them: and I will get myself honor over Pharaoh, and over all his armies, over his chariots, and over his horsemen. The Egyptians shall know that I am Jehovah, when I have gotten myself honor over Pharaoh, over his chariots, and over his horsemen” (Ex. 14:16-18). If Jehovah were not the author of the hatred of the Egyptians, even then there should not be any glory in destroying a spiritually blind people, but after turning their hearts evil, he hardens them to afterwards kill them. This shows a total lack of love and kindness.

The Bible reveals that darkness stand for the evil works. “This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil” (John 3:19). It reveals that darkness is connected to the evil power of Satan. Jesus said to Paul: “to open their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God, that they may receive remission of sins and an inheritance among those who are sanctified by faith in me” (Acts 26:18).

When Jehovah dictated the Law on Mount Sinai, Moses declared the following words to the people: “It happened, when you heard the voice out of the midst of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; and you said, ‘Behold, Jehovah our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of the fire: we have seen this day that God does speak with man, and he lives’” (Deut. 5:23-24). Does Jehovah manifest himself in glory in the midst of darkness? I always thought that the glory of the true God would be manifested in light. Jesus Christ manifested himself in light on the mount of transfiguration (Matt. 17:1-2). And Jesus said: “I am the light of the world; he who follows Me shall not walk in the darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12). And John testified about Jesus, saying: “There was the true light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). And Paul tells us: “and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil. 2:11). If the glory of God the Father is manifested in Jesus, who is the true life, certainly the glory of Jehovah, which was manifested in darkness, had nothing to with Jesus, but with Satan (Acts 26:18), or with the powers of darkness that want to destroy the Christians (Eph. 6:12).

We, on the other side, walk in the light with Jesus, for we do not hate anyone, pursue anyone, or revile anyone, for the mission of the Christian is to love the lost, just as God has loved them (John 3:16-17).

 

 by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(286) – THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN

286 – THINGS WHICH EYE HAS NOT SEEN

The great apostle Paul makes the following astonishing declaration: “Things which eye has not seen and ear has not heard, and which has not entered the heart of man, all that God has prepared for those who love him” (1 Cor. 2:9). What is Paul saying? He is saying that the things God prepared were never seen by any man and were never heard by the human ear before the time when Christ incarnated. These were things so different from the things of this world’s realm that they could never come up to the heart of any man, that is, they are totally foreign to the things of this world. This leads us to conclude that the things that the eye has seen, and the ear has heard, and have come to the heart of man, God has not prepared.

1. What is it that the eye has seen and the ear has heard? The people had seen Mount Sinai in fire, and the darkness, and the gloom, and the whirlwind and the blast of the trumpet, and the sound of words, which sound was such that those who heard it begged that no further word was spoken to them, for they could not bear the command that if even a beast would touch the mountain it should be stoned. The vision was so terrible that Moses said: “I am full of fear and trembling” (Heb. 12:18-21). Certainly this terrible show had not been prepared by God, the Father of Jesus and our Father, for the things that he prepared for the ransomed no eye has seen, and no ear has heard.
2. What else has the eye seen and the ear heard? The people saw the terrible plagues with which Jehovah hurt all the land of Egypt: the plague of the waters of Egypt that turned into blood (Ex. 7:19). The plague of the gnats (Ex. 8:17). The plague of the flies (Ex. 8:21-24). The plague of the pestilence on the animals (Ex. 9:4-7). The plague of the boils (Ex. 9:8-12). The plague of the hail(Ex. 9:23-26). The plague of the grasshoppers (Ex. 10:12-15). The plague of darkness (Ex. 10:21-23). The tenth and last plague was the death of all the first-born of Egypt, when the people of Israel saw the dead and heard the great cry (Ex. 12:29-30). Certainly, God the Father did not prepare those horrible plagues and mourning, for the things he prepared no eye has seen, and no ear has heard, from the creation of the world.
3. The people of Israel just come out of Egypt saw the Red Sea open in two. The waters looked like two high walls on both left and right sides; and the people passed through the dry sea all night. The people also saw Jehovah pulling away the wheels of the chariots of war of Pharaoh, and causing a big confusion. The people heard the noise of the disaster; then saw the sea closing in on and destroying Pharaoh’s army. The Egyptian’s dead bodies washed on the seashore were a macabre show, but all of this was not prepared by God, our Father, for the things that he has prepared for those who belong to him the eyes have not seen, and the ears have not heard (Ex. 14:21-31).
4. The people of Israel wandered in the desert for 40 years before they entered Canaan, the Promised Land. Because they did not believe, there were 40 years of punishment and suffering, until that whole generation that left Egypt died in the desert (Num. 14:28-34). Obviously that it was not the God revealed by Jesus who prepared this funereal pilgrimage of 40 years, in which 100 to150 people died daily. One more grim show.
5. A pillar of cloud guided the people wandering aimlessly for 40 years day by day. The Bible text says: “Jehovah went before them by day in a pillar of cloud, to lead them on their way, and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light, that they might go by day and by night: the pillar of cloud by day, and the pillar of fire by night, didn’t depart from before the people” (Ex. 12:21-22). Jehovah went before the hearse. The people walked night and day, sentenced to death. They left Egypt with the promise of a peaceful place of rest, and now walking to the funeral march. They kept falling and dying of hunger and thirst, scorched and shriveled by the burning sun. The God and Father could never be the author of such atrocity, for only good comes from him (James 1:17). And God the Father is the savior of all men (1 Tim. 4:10). And they saw and heard many things more.

What is it that, to the days of Christ, the eyes have not seen and the ears have not heard? That “GOD IS LOVE” (1 John 4:8). Love, which is gracious, “is patient and is kind; love doesn’t envy. Love doesn’t brag, is not proud, doesn’t behave itself inappropriately, doesn’t seek its own way, is not provoked, takes no account of evil; doesn’t rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails” (1 Cor. 13:4-8). Such a contrast! The god of Israel was wrathful and angry (Deut. 32:22; Ps. 7:11; Hos. 13:11).

What else have the ears not heard and the eyes not seen? That God loves his enemies. And if he loves them, he is not an enemy to any one, for he is love (Rom. 5:8-10; 1 John 4:10).

Are there more things that the eyes have not seen and ears not heard? Of course there are. It is not necessary for a sinner to be destroyed by fire as in Sodom and Gomorrah, for they can be born again(John 3:3-6). The criminal converted to Christ can become a new creation. Paul Tells us: “Do not be deceived … nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor slanderers, nor extortioners, will inherit the Kingdom of God. Such were some of you, but you were washed. But you were sanctified. But you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus, and in the Spirit of our God” (1 Cor. 6:10-11).

What else? The new birth is a new creation, and those who were birthed again by the word of truth are the first created by God the Father (John 3:3-6; James 1:18). The old man, descending form Adam, ceases to exist to let a new man come to light, righteous and holy (Eph. 4:22-24).

What else has the eye not seen and the ear not heard? The apostle John says: “And this is the eternal life, that they may know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent” (John 17:3). To see god, in the Old Testament, meant to be condemned to death (Ex. 33:18-23). To see God, in the New Testament, is to have eternal life. “This is the will of the one who sent me, that everyone who sees the Son, and believes in him, should have eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 17:22). And Paul says: “For our citizenship is in heaven, from where we also wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ; who will change the body of our humiliation to be conformed to the body of his glory, according to the working by which he is able even to subject all things to himself” (Phil. 3:20-21). Before Christ the ear has not heard and the eye has not seen any of these things. GLORY BE TO GOD!

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(285) – CIRCUMCISION 2

285 – CIRCUMCISION 2

Jehovah declares that he is the creator of man on the earth. “Thus says Jehovah, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker: ‘You ask me about the things that are to come, concerning my sons, and you command me concerning the work of my hands! I have made the earth, and created man on it. I, even my hands, have stretched out the heavens; and I have commanded all their army’” (Is. 45:11-12). “I have made the earth, the men and the animals that are on the surface of the earth, by my great power” (Jr. 27:5).

Jehovah declares also that the sperm of the man he created is impure. “If any man has an emission of semen, then he shall bathe all his flesh in water, and be unclean until the evening” (Lv. 15:16).Someone will say: The sperm became unclean after the fall of Adam. We counter-argument remembering that the text reveals that man becomes unclean when the seed of the copula gets out, that is, before it got out man was not unclean; therefore man was clean, but the seed was unclean. This happens once more in verse eighteen. “If a man lies with a woman and there is an emission of semen, they shall both bathe themselves in water, and be unclean until the evening” (Lev. 15:18). Women were clean and became unclean because of man’s sperm; therefore, the sperm is by nature unclean. It was created unclean by Jehovah.  This is the reason why children are born unclean, both male and female; for the seed from where they come is unclean by nature (Lev. 12:1-8). This is also why we read in Job:“Who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean? Not one” (Job 14:4). Job was not saying that the mother is unclean. The mother is clean, but the seed is unclean, and the child is going to be born unclean. Both men and women become unclean when they degenerate. “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good” (Ps. 14:3). They became unclean because they went astray. There is one verse that says, “The fool has said in his heart, ‘There is no God.’ They are corrupt. They have done abominable works. There is none who does good” (Ps. 14:1). We conclude that the uncleanness came from corruption. The result of the analyses is as follows: All men are clean, but they carry an unclean seed (sperm). Also man and woman became unclean by the corruption of their practices.

Jehovah took the descendants of Jacob as his people: “Yet listen now, Jacob my servant, and Israel, whom I have chosen. This is what Jehovah who made you, and formed you from the womb, who will help you” (Is. 44:1-2). He calls this people “children”: “You are the children of Jehovah your God: you shall not cut yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for the dead. For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God, and Jehovah has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth” (Deut. 14:1-2). Before Jehovah took them for children, though, he led them to Egypt, and there the people became perverted; therefore he was unclean. The prophet Hezekiah declared: “The word of Jehovah came again to me, saying, Son of man, there were two women, the daughters of one mother: and they played the prostitute in Egypt; they played the prostitute in their youth; there were their breasts pressed, and there was handled the bosom of their virginity. The names of them were Oholah the elder, and Oholibah her sister: and they became mine, and they bore sons and daughters. As for their names, Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem Oholibah” (Ez. 23:1-4). It becomes very clear that Jehovah begets unclean children, for he took them to Egypt to get perverted. How can Jehovah beget and take unclean children for himself?

In the New Testament it is completely different. For someone to be a child of God the Father, they have to be born again. “As newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word, that you may grow thereby” (1 Peter 2:2). This new birth is operated by the Gospel — that is, the good news of Christ — and by the Holy Spirit. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Jesus answered, “Most certainly I tell you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he can’t enter into the Kingdom of God! That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:5-6). This is why Paul tells us:“Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new” (2 Cor. 5:17). In the New Testament those children of Jehovah are not children of God.

But Jehovah planned a way to differentiate his children from the other peoples, whom he rejected. This was the circumcision. It all started with Abraham. Jehovah said to the patriarch: “This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your seed after you. Every male among you shall be circumcised. You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskin. It will be a token of the covenant between me and you” (Gen. 17:10-11). This covenant will be eternal (Gen. 17:13). “The uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin, that soul shall be cut off from his people. He has broken my covenant” (Gen. 17:14). To Jehovah the uncircumcised were unclean; therefore, circumcision would sanctify. “Awake, awake, put on your strength, Zion; put on your beautiful garments, Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into you the uncircumcised and the unclean” (Is. 52:1). It is obvious that the circumcised were sanctified in the flesh. Jeremiah reveals that there was flesh that was sanctified (Jer. 11:15). They were the circumcised of Jehovah.

The New Testament, though, brings to light a surprising revelation about circumcision. “Circumcision is nothing, and uncircumcision is nothing” (1 Cor. 7:19). If circumcision is nothing, why did Jehovah value it so much? If it is nothing it has lost its value. Why did Jehovah declare that it was a perpetual covenant? Perpetual things do not cease. Paul broke Jehovah’s covenant, and had to die (Gen. 17:14).But Paul continues: “For in Christ Jesus neither is circumcision anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new creation” (Gal. 6:15). The circumcision of the flesh is to the old carnal creature subject to the passions of the flesh, what Peter calls corrupt desires (2 Pet. 2:10). Paul declares that the desires of the flesh deceive the Christian, in Eph. 4:22-24, for the born again man is created in true justice and holiness.

Faith put an end to circumcision. “There is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith, and the uncircumcised through faith” (Rom. 3:30). And Paul ends by saying: “For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God” (Rom. 2:28-29).

To the spiritual men of the faith in Christ, Paul says: “You were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ” (Cl. 2:11).

 

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira

(284) – FOUNTAINHEADS 6

284 – FOUNTAINHEADS  6

Love is a word stemmed from the Greek “caritas”. The Greeks saw in love a unitive and harmonizing power, and understood it on the foundation of sexual love, political concordance, and friendship. Hesiod and Parmenides were the first ones to suggest that love is the power that moves things, and keeps and leads them together. Empedocles recognized in love the power that keeps all things united, and in discord, the power that separates them. Plato gave us the first treaty on love, in which he focus that love is the desire to acquire and to conquer what one does not have. In the second place, love aims at beauty, which is the desire for good; and in the third place, love is the desire to conquer death, and is, therefore, the way by which the mortal being seeks to save himself from mortality, leaving after him, in place of what grows old and dies, something new, in his likeness, that is, a child. In the fourth place, Plato distinguishes as many forms of love as forms of beauty, beginning with the sensible beauty and ending with the beauty of wisdom. Aristotle engages in the positive consideration of love. To him, love and hatred as all other affections of the soul belong not only to the soul as it is, but to men as he is formed of soul and body, and is therefore weakened with the weakness of the union of soul and body. He also says that love that is connected to pleasure can begin and end easily. Aristotle declared that God, as first motor, moves the other things as “the object of love,” that is, as the term of desire that things have of reaching perfection. These philosophers all lived before Christ. Let us mention some who lived after Christ. Descartes, French philosopher of the 6^th Century, said that love is an affection, and depends on the body, differently from judgment, which also induces the soul to, of its own accord, adhere to things it judges good. Love is distinct from desire, which is directed to the future. Descartes rejects the medieval distinction between concupiscent love and benevolent love, in which concupiscent love seeks its own good and benevolent love seeks the good of its neighbor. To him, this distinction relates to the effects, not to the essence of love. Leibiniz, who came soon after him, expressed clearly that, when one sincerely loves someone, one does not seek his own good; neither seeks pleasure outside the love of the beloved, but seeks his own pleasure in the satisfaction and happiness of this person. According to Leibiniz, love removes the contrast between two truths.

There were many other thinkers and philosophers, both ancient and modern who occupied themselves with, and wrote about love. All these intellectuals formed a rich fountainhead for humanity. The psychic intellectuals found in this vast fountainhead a fountain of knowledge about the beauty of love, the power of love, the virtue of love, and the multifaceted grace of love.

Let us talk now of another fountainhead whose source was not in the heart, or in the mind of man, but in the heart of God, the Father, and was manifested to us by Jesus Christ, his Son, in the person of the Holy Spirit. This love, descending from the heart of God by the Holy Spirit, makes man perfect; and Paul, who received this love when he believed in Jesus, declared: “Put on therefore, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, a heart of compassion, kindness, lowliness, humility, and perseverance; bearing with one another, and forgiving each other, if any man has a complaint against any; even as Christ forgave you, so you also do. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection” (Col. 3:12-14). Fantastic. The love of God, communicated to men by the Holy Spirit, makes man humble, meek, longsuffering, and gives him a heart of compassion, that is, whatever the offense or the insult, the one who is offended forgives with a heart of compassion, with humbleness and meekness. It is love, which makes it possible for us to bear the heaviest burdens, that is, the heaviest and most painful cross, the element that makes us like Christ. Jesus loved men so much that he gave his life, nailed to a cross. He said: “Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). And he further said: “Therefore the Father loves me, because I lay down my life, that I may take it again. No one takes it away from me, but I lay it down by myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. I received this commandment from my Father” (John 10:17-18). Jesus did not lay his life because the Father told him to do it, but because he loved the lost, the thieves, the unfaithful, the homicide and adulterers, the liars, the prostitutes, all of them. He said: “For the Son of Man came to save that which was lost” (Matt. 18:11). This kind of love, the philosophers and poets have not fathomed, because it has never occurred to men. The love taught by philosophers is very attractive, and it is filled with maxims of rare beauty, but it does not exclude the law. When an enemy hurts the law of men he is imprisoned or killed, but love as revealed in Jesus Christ is so powerful that it cancels out the law of god. Paul declared by the Holy Spirit:“Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for he who loves his neighbor has fulfilled the law. For the commandments, ‘You shall not commit adultery,’ ‘You shall not murder,’ ‘You shall not steal,’ ‘You shall not give false testimony,’ ‘You shall not covet,’ and whatever other commandments there are, are all summed up in this saying, namely, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ Love doesn’t harm a neighbor. Love therefore is the fulfillment of the law” (Rom. 13:8-10). This is wonderful! Love shed in the heart of the Christian from heaven is more powerful than the law, and deprives the law of its power and force. Love cancels law. But it cannot be the love that is birthed in the heart and mind of man, or intellectuals, for, as we have already said, this love is under the law and does not abolish it. Jesus, speaking of the celestial love, said: “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor, and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who mistreat you and persecute you, that you may be children of your Father who is in heaven. For he makes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the just and the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward do you have? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? If you only greet your friends, what more do you do than others? Don’t even the tax collectors do the same? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect” (Matt. 5:43-48). This is the fountainhead of Jesus Christ, which makes Christians perfect, as God is perfect, and therefore cancels law. And if it makes man perfect, this man is also like Christ in perfection.“…until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13). And there is more: This love from heaven, infused in man by the Holy Spirit, brings to man the eternal life, and for this reason John declares: “We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brothers. He who doesn’t love his brother remains in death” (1 John 3:14).

by Pastor Olavo Silveira Pereira