An amused, and possibly angry, reader once asked me if I actually believed that obedience to God’s Word is to any degree involved in my salvation. I responded that MY SALVATION DEPENDS TOTALLY ON MY OBEDIENCE TO GOD’S WORD. This woman could not believe that anyone could obey God’s Law/Word/Truth/Gospel and that He required such obedience in order to be saved. She, like the vast majority of her fellow salvation seekers, believes that man’s faith and God’s grace have already secured her (and their) salvation. A church “truth” states that, knowing that salvation seekers cannot possibly obey the Law, Jesus died so that believers would not need to obey God in order to be saved. Church doctrine states that, having “taken Jesus as my Savior,” THE FIX IS IN. “Only believe” (and repent) is the mantra of those who characterize themselves as saved sinners. Jesus, they proclaim, was OBEDIENT FOR US. Knowing that we could not obey God, the Messiah OBEYED IN OUR STEAD. And Satan smiles.

Contrary to this perverted bit of theological “truth” (Gal. 1:6-9), Scriptures such as Romans 5:21 and 6:22 remind us that THE END RESULT OF RIGHTEOUSNESS AND HOLINESS ON OUR PART IS SALVATION. Christ’s death enabled Truth seekers to receive His Holy Spirit so that we can “… overcome (Satan) even as I (Jesus) overcame (him)” and earn the right to “… sit with Me on My throne” in the Kingdom of God (Rev. 3:21). Read James 2:10,(14),17,18,20,24,26. If salvation is the result of faith alone, why do we need to do WORKS (obedience to God’s Word) and produce FRUIT (Rom. 7:4,5) in order to be saved? We are told repeatedly by Satan’s false prophets that, having completed a prescribed ritual and repeated a prescribed prayer, we are instantly saved and born again, therefore we need only to believe that “truth” and remember to repent after each inevitable sin. Because Adam made sin a natural part of the human condition, we can only submit to it, repent, then, thanks to Jesus, prepare to repeat it again, and again, and …. If this is true, why do we crucify Christ anew each time we sin (Heb. 6:6). If His death paid for all of our post-justification and conversion sins, as we are assured, why does He need to be spiritually re-crucified each time the saved soul sins? We are taught that sin is a non-issue for one who is “saved.” As one woman said, “Don’t worry about sin; God will forgive you.” She died in her sleep a few weeks later FOR NO MEDICAL REASON. Which came as no surprise to me in that God had shown me that He was going to kill her for blaspheming His Holy Spirit.

The story behind her death, as well as the deaths of two other people, needs to be repeated for those who are not familiar with it. The Lord had told me that if the lady mentioned above would allow me to pray for her He would heal her of a severe injury. He had placed me in her presence to bear witness of His Word, specifically the importance of observing His 7th day Sabbath. Being a pillar in her church which does not believe in divine healing, she reluctantly allowed me to administer healing to her. I prayed and she was instantly and totally healed. Shocked by what had happened, she accused me of using witchcraft to heal her, thereby blaspheming the Holy Spirit–the power behind the healing. She was one of three people whom God told me He would kill, which He did shortly the revelation in each case. In two of the cases their relatives told me that the doctors could find no medical reason for their deaths. They simply stopped living. In the third case I did not talk with a relative. I was told by a friend that he simply “dropped dead,” or words to that effect.

In the case of the blasphemer, God revealed to me in a vision that, before He killed her, He was going to attack her stomach over a period of time and that she would never be healed of that infirmity. Over the following weeks she was hospitalized three times for intense stomach pain. She would be rushed to the hospital where they would treat her problem and send her home, only to have her return shortly thereafter–EXACTLY AS THE LORD SHOWED ME IN THE VISION. Shortly after the third hospital stay she died in her sleep. God has revealed to me that there will be many more such things taking place in the near future as He pours out His wrath on sinning mankind–especially the church whose people have no excuse for their sins in that they have “the oracles (Words) of God” (Rom. 3:1,2). The problem, of course, is universal ignorance of that Holy Word combined with universal rejection of what little Bible owners know about that Word.

“Unto whom much is given, much is required” the Lord tells us in Luke 12:48. The so-called “Christian world” has been given much, as had her Israelite ancestors. Notice whom God caused to be defeated, enslaved and scattered throughout the earth in times past–HIS CHOSEN AND GREATLY BLESSED PEOPLE–THE 12 TRIBES OF ISRAEL. Because America was populated initially by the physical and spiritual descendants of those Israelites, and being equally blessed as they were, the Lord is going to punish all of the modern day “Christian nations” as He punished ancient Israel, and for the same reason–rebellion against His “holy, just and good” Law (Rom. 7:12). Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Today. By reading Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28 and Revelation 3:14-18 one can see why the Lord is going to punish the end-time (Laodicean) church and the nations that host her. We are witnessing the beginning of His final “voices” (curses) now. Read The “Voices” of God. Key word–Voices.

As the church races ever farther into apostasy (falling away from God–2 Thes. 2:3), she is pulling her host nations along with her as they rush as one into Satan’s religious sewer. Jesus warned that only a few salvation seekers would resist his (Satan’s) call (Mat. 7:13,14; 22:14). As I have noted in previous series, before God takes His Very Elect saints to their place of safety, there will take place a world-wide spiritual war as the devil’s Catholic/Protestant Church System, empowered by the world’s international, national, state and local governments, will come against God’s people in an all-out spiritual war. At the appointed time the Lord will take His tiny church to “her place” of safety (Rev. 12:6,14) where He will provide for and protect her over the following 3 1/2 years during which the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord will turn the earth into a living hell. Read about this horrific period using Tribulation as the key word.

Question: WHY IS THE LOVING GOD NOW POURING OUT HIS WRATH IN WHAT HE DESCRIBES AS “THE BEGINNING OF SORROWS” (MAT. 24:3-8)? We are witnessing the effects of His anger each day on the evening news, on the front pages of newspapers and the covers of magazines. The title of this series tells us why: DISOBEDIENCE TO HIS LAW WHICH IS GOD’S DEFINITION OF SIN (1 JN. 3:4). In the follow segment we will study numerous verses in which He reminds mankind of His Law and His commands to obey it. Throughout the Holy Scriptures we are told that in order to be the temple of His Holy Spirit and to receive eternal life and rebirth upon the return of Jesus Christ, WE MUST OBEY GOD’S TEN COMMANDMENT LAW IN BOTH LETTER AND SPIRIT. Only those who do so are His people indeed. Read Jn. 8:31). Law breakers (“workers of iniquity”–Lk. 13:27) are not His disciples indeed, but are false disciples. Such people will not rise to meet Him in the clouds upon His return, descend to earth where He will establish the Kingdom of God. Read The Three Resurrections and The Kingdom of God. Key words–Three and Kingdom respectively. L.J.