“No Prophecy of Scripture is of Any Private Interpretation”

(An Eschatological Treatise)

by Doug Krieger

BLINDED BY RELIGIOUS ARROGANCE -

What George Davis and Michael Clark are saying in their piece, HOW ARE THE MIGHTY FALLEN (the tribnet highlights article) strikes at core of today’s COMMERCIAL APOSTASY afflicting Church. Moreover, drunk with wine of wealth—they (the false prophets and teachers overwhelming Church) now seek political power which replaces empowering of Holy Spirit.

Beneath crust of today’s “religious commercialism” lies a religious arrogance and pride, coupled with spiritual superiority, that has become bane of Church. This is NOT news—for “Scribes and Pharisees” in Jesus’ time were plagued by this pathology.

They specialized in straining at gnats and swallowing camels (Matthew 23:24), while all time heaping religious contempt upon suffering masses. Their specialty, amidst their horrific hypocrisies and superlative distortions of very Word of God to which they boasted they so rigorously adhered, belied their true condition: “Inside they are full of extortion and self-indulgence . . . . Inside you are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness . . . . Inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness (Matthew 23:25b, 27b, 28b).

The depiction given by Jesus of religious leaders of his day is perhaps one of most intense diatribes ever recorded in Holy Writ (Matthew 23). Jesus spares utterly no contempt, no derisive expression, in deploring their blindness—using word “blind” in His description of these insightful “fools” – another word descriptive of their condition (which Jesus uses in connection with word “blind” – as in “Ye fools and blind!” – Matthew 23:17, 19).

The “Scribes and Pharisees” who sat in Moses’ seat (Matthew 23:2b) had evolved into an elitist cabal of self-righteous religious bigots whose external cups were clean—but whose insides were full of religious filth; whose whitewashed tombs radiated outward beauty, but inside were full of dead men’s bones and corruption; whose outward righteousness simply concealed travesty of their hypocrisy and rebellious condition.

They wore broad phylacteries—while bashing people over head with Law of Moses itself! Theirs was a world of OUTWARD religiosity and hyper-spirituality, full of superficial pomp and complicated circumstance which few, if any—especially themselves—could attain. Alas! They had become “Serpents, offspring of vipers!” incapable of escaping condemnation of hell itself (Matthew 23:33).

Well did Jesus declare of them:

“Whatever they tell you to observe, that observe and do, but do not do according to their works; for they say, and do not do. For they bind heavy burdens, hard to bear, and lay them on men’s shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers” (Matthew 23:3-4).

Indeed, like a blindfolded dolt who grasps tail of a rat and declares: “I have within my hand immensity of an ELEPHANT!” Even so, these “blind leaders of blind” had extrapolated Law to include all manner of extraneous duties and responsibilities, while they “neglected weightier matters of law; justice and mercy and faith” (Matthew 23:23).

Again—straining at GNAT, they swallowed CAMEL! In sum—and to this I refocus upon title of this article—these short-sighted, pharisaical enforcers of their own religious standards, had TWISTED THE SCRIPTURES to such an extent that their original intent had become furthest thing from Almighty’s plan and purpose for His people. They had become, as Paul later explained to Timothy: “Desiring to be teachers of law, understanding neither what they say nor things which they affirm” (I Tim. 1:7). What they were so adamant about is precisely of what they knew least.

ENDURE SOUND DOCTRINE (II Tim. 4:3)

The Way of Peaceful Warrior is a great book that would allow people to see how they can cause change. It is written by Dan Millman who brings us following from another of his books that are all worth contemplation.

"On an otherwise ordinary day, an angel appeared to a young merchant and former camel herder, known by all in city where he was born. The angel's words filled him with awe and dread--it told him that he was to defy his people's ancestral religion, to denounce 360 deities carved in stone and worshipped for centuries, to declare himself prophet of a single God, to abolish a way of life upon which countless lives and beliefs were founded--and establish a new religion out of nothing. Surely, he would be met with incredulity, rejection, violent persecution, and exile. Could his seemingly mad quest bring anything but failure--or at best, a martyr's death?

Or would this mortal, obedient to divine command of an angel, achieve a victory beyond any that reason could have foretold?

He was born in Mecca in A.D. 570. His father died before his birth. His devastated mother, unable to nurse him, named Muhammad and gave him to a nursemaid--a shepherdess in a band of Bedouins. Muhammad spent his first five years with these nomads, living a hardy open-air existence following grazing flocks through desert grass and scrub, sleeping in tents beneath a vast desert sky. Once weaned, he drank camel's milk and ate mostly rice, dates, wild birds, and locusts fried in oil. From beginning, desert claimed Muhammad as its own. He would always be a Bedouin at heart.

At age six, he returned to his mother, but she died later that year. He ended up living with an uncle, a caravan merchant. In years that followed, Muhammad traveled throughout Arabia with his uncle's caravans, learning wisdom of desert, ways of business, and art of war as they fought off bands of marauders. His travels took him into close contact with various tribes and religions--Judaism, Christianity, and Arab sects who worshipped hundreds of gods and goddesses in form of stone idols. These experiences made a deep impression on this thoughtful, introspective youth. From these early threads, tapestry of his fate was woven.

He grew into a handsome young man admired for his strong character, moral integrity, and sharp mind. But he had come to a merchant's life more by chance than choice. Disinterested in money and drawn to solitude, he left caravan to work as a shepherd in desert for months at a time.

When he was 25, Muhammad took a position in a trading company owned by a beautiful woman 15 years his senior. Her name was Khadija. For two years, he led Khadija's caravans throughout Arabia, rising to position of company manager. Not surprisingly, Khadija fell in love with him. Finally, she proposed to him through an intermediary. Their marriage, which blessed them with six daughters, would last until Khadija's death 21 years later.

But almost as soon as wedding ceremony had ended, Muhammad's mind again turned inward. His encounters with so many cultures and religions had planted hidden seeds within him that began to grow. He found himself pondering how 360 stone gods in temple of Mecca could save souls. Such questions drew him to once again search his own soul in solitude of desert.

Muhammad began spending his days in a cave in hills outside Mecca, fasting, praying, and meditating. Sleeping little, he began to enter altered states {Seems a man away from a woman having visions who is a shepherd and poor person, might have begun to prove appealing in literary tradition.} and have waking visions--to experience inner life of a mystic. At times, violent trembling seized him and he lost consciousness. A practical man of robust health who had endured many grueling journeys across desert, he found these phenomena strange and disturbing. But these inner quakes {Buddha's story includes lots of this kind of thing. What would happen to them today?} that he feared might be harbingers of failing health were actually premonitory tremors of a great awakening.

One night in holy month of Ramadan in his 40th year, while fasting and praying in his desert cave, Muhammad heard a voice calling him with great urgency. Looking up in darkness of his cave, he saw an angel standing before him, emanating a dazzling light. Muhammad fainted with fear, when he awoke, he found angel still standing there.

'Read, thou,' angel commanded him in a voice of stern authority.

'I cannot,' Muhammad stammered, for he could barely read.

'Read, thou,' angel commanded him again in verse, 'in name of Lord who created all things, who created man from a clot. Read in name of Most High who taught man use of pen and taught him what before he knew not.'