This Present Evil World
When the Apostle Paul began his letter to the Galatian Christians, he greeted them with this statement: “Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father: to whom be glory for ever and ever.” (Galatians 1:3-5)
It is not surprising that Paul should refer to the world of his day as evil. He lived in the dawn of the Christian era. The Light that came in Yeashua was only beginning to shine in a dark world. There had not been time for the power of His Gospel to penetrate society as a whole.
But how does it happen, as skeptics like to remind us, that nineteen centuries after Paul’s time we must still admit that this present world is evil? How can the belief exist that Yeashua has already returned, when there is no evidence to support such a belief. Does it mean that Yeashua has failed? That His Gospel is powerless to do what He and His Apostles claim for it? Even the most indifferent Judeo-Christian believers among us are not ready to concede that Christ failed and that His Gospel is inadequate; they will agree with the more plausible explanation that we have failed Him, both in doctrine and in works.
After Paul’s greeting to the Galatians, he continues by saying: “I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: which is not another; but there e some that trouble you, and would pervert the Gospel of Christ.”(Galatians 1:6-7) Here is the crux of he whole matter: “O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should not obey the truth?” (Galatians 3:1)
This present world is in the grip of wickedness because those professing Christianity themselves are not obedient to the truth of the Gospel and the demands of their high calling in Yeashua. They hide in their spiritual foxholes and cry out that same old verse “Thou shalt no kill,” which the enemy uses to their best advantage; and have used that verse to murder over 100-million Christians in this century alone. Much of church history from the start is a record of schism between opposing fractions within the various church groups. Cowards who are scared to death of a fight, deceive others with their lying words and cause a division between those who would fight for their Savior and those who will fight for nothing.
Contenders for the faith once delivered to the saints have always had to battle with those in their midst who would pervert the true Gospel Unfortunately, the situation has changed little in this respect since Jude wrote as follows to those first century church members: “Dear friends. I was just on the point of writing to you about our common salvation, when it became necessary for me to write and appeal to you to come to the defense of the faith that has once for all been entrusted to God’s people. For some people have sneaked in among us; their doom was foretold long ago godless persons, who turn the mercy of our God into an excuse for immorality, and disown our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.” (Jude 3-4, Smith & Goodspeed Translation)
Evil is riding high in our Israel English-speaking lands today because we have not contended earnestly enough for the faith that is in Christ Jesus alone.
The Judeo-Christians have been too ready to compromise; too wiling to accept the subtle suggestion that it doesn’t matter what a man’s faith is, just so he believes in something. This deadly notion is the mainspring of all interfaith movements and subversive cults, that are not deceiving millions of our Israel people and of nominal Judeo-Christians, men and women who ought to be defending the true faith. These unstable people have been ensnared by an easy tolerance of error, as predicted in 2 Peter 2:1-2: “But there were also false prophets among the people as there will be teachers of falsehood among you also, who will cunningly introduce fatal heresies, disowning even the Lord who has redeemed them, and bringing on themselves swift destruction. And in their immoral ways they will have many disciples, through whom the true way will be brought into disrepute.” (Weymouth)
We of the 20th Century have watched this vain philosophy, these fatal heresies, these bod traditions of men, come to full flower. At the same time we have watched “evil men and seducers wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived.” We have watched the bind lead the bind; and now we see both falling into the ditch. We have already passed through two wars of unprecedented scope that promised much and settled nothing; and at this very moment we find our nation the target in a third war which, in many respect, is more treacherous and terrifying than anything the world has ever known.
What is happening to us? And why? What is the explanation of these distressing conditions, which no one seems able to understand or control? The answer for us, if it is to be found at all, is in the Bible. The tremendous issues involved; the problems to be solved, are too vast for human comprehension and ingenuity.
Is Yahweh dealing with this present evil word? And if so, how? We believe that Peter gives us some light on these questions. In the fourth chapter of his First Epistle, verses 17-18, he wrote: “For the time has come for the judgment to begin with the household of God, and if it begins with us, what will be the end of those who refuse God’s good news? If it is hard for the upright man to be saved, what will become of the goddess and sinful?” (Smith & Goodspeed Translation)
Then in 2 Peter 2:20-21, the Apostle pens an indictment which is peculiarly appliable to our own perverse generation: “For if after men have escaped the corrupting influences of the world through the knowledge of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, they again become entangled in them and are overcome y them, their final condition is worse than their former one. For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of uprightness than after knowing it to have turned their backs upon the sacred command with which they have been intrusted.” (Smith & Goodspeed Translation)
It should be plain to all by this time that Yahweh is dealing with the world in judgment, and that He is beginning with His own household, that is, with nations predomanitly Judeo-Christian in faith and claiming, however unworthy, to be His people. Indeed, it cannot e denied that the tumult of war and distress which has occupied the attention of the Western nations for the past half-century has become at the very time of their most deplorable moral and spiritual deterioration. Surely this strange pattern of history has developed by Yahweh’s design and not by accident. The whole world groans in tribulation because Yahweh’s own redeemed people have been entrusted with sacred obligations to which they have not been faithful.
Isaiah 9 contains the great prophecy pertaining not only to the birth of Christ but also to His Second Advent as King. (Isaiah 9:6-7) Beginning with verse 8, the scene changes to prophecies concerning the non-Jewish thirteen tries of Israel; often referred to in the Scriptures as Ephraim, after they had received the Gospel of Christ which was rejected by the Jews. These Christians clans of Israel are the people to whom Christ gave His Kingdom when He took it back away from the Jews. (Matthew 21:43) The prophet visions a day when these people, too, will not endure sound doctrine. He says that “the leaders of this people cause them to err, and they that are led of them are destroyed.”
Therefore Yahweh shall have no joy in them: “For wickedness burneth as the fire...Through the wrath of the Lord of hosts is the land darkened, and the people shall be as the fuel of the fire...Manasseh, Ephraim; and Ephraim, Manasseh: and they together shall be against Judah. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.” (Isaiah 9:18-21)
In chapter 10, Isaiah tells us how God is going to deal with Manasseh and Ephraim when the time comes for judgment to begin in the household of God. His plan is to raise up Israel’s ancient enemies and use them as a rod of chastisement until His people are ready to walk with Him and do His will. After charging them with unrighteous decrees and grievous practices, Yahweh says through the prophet: “And what will ye do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which shall come from far? To whom will ye flee for help? And where will ye leave your glory? Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fal under the slain...O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send you against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.” (Isaiah 10:3-6)
Thus God proposes to use the rod of Assyria to chastise His erring children. Asshur or Assyria, as used here in regard to latter-day prophetic events, probably refers to Israel’s enemies collectively rather than to one specific people, just as Babylon is used in the Book of Revelation to symbolize all nations and systems that set themselves in opposition to Yahweh and His Covenant Race. We are inclined to forget that Israel’s foes were never exterminated. Their descendants are in the world today. We do not know them as Philistines, Canaanites, Amalekites, Hittites, Edomites (To day known as Jews), Moabites, Assyrians, Babylonians, et cetera; ut under other names they are among the nations, stirring up trouble for Yahweh’s people just as they did in former days. And, as we see in Isaiah’s prophecy, Yahweh still uses these antagonists to discipline His wayward Israel.
When the Bible became an open book, available to people in their homes, it produced most amazing results. There followed in its train a marvelous spiritual awakening, a revival of learning that led to the rise of great universities and the creation of the noblest art and music the world has het known. Under the inspiration and power of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, the world’s finest civilization was born. A new energizing spirit seemed to take possession of the souls of men, giving them the courage to initiate an epoch of thrilling exploration and colonization throughout the desolate heritages of the earth.
Now when all these developments were well under way something else happened. Alien groups with adverse intentions “sneaked in” among these Christian people and began to turn their minds and hearts away from the truth. They were not merely unbelievers, but worse; they were persons with distinctly antichristian motives. Being avowed enemies of Christ, they set themselves to stem the tide of truth, which was spreading abroad rapidly through the ever-increasing circulation of the Scriptures. When driven out of one country, they promptly ensconced themselves in another.
For example, in 1632, twenty-one years after the publication of the King James Bible. Baruch Spinoza, a Jewish philosopher, was born in Amsterdam. His parents belonged to a group of emigrants who fed from persecution in Portugal and Spain and sought refuge in the Netherlands. No one man has been more responsible for the widespread sabotage of the Bible, in great universities and theological seminaries, than Spinoza. Professor George Burman Foster, himself a faithful disciple of “liberalism,” tells us something of Spinoza’s methods in a Decennial Publication of the University of Chicago.
He wrote: “Spinoza, who after all is the father of modern speculation, is also the father of Biblical criticism. He found it advisable to limit his investigation and doubt to Old Testament Books. His merit lies, not in the finality of his findings; for almost none of them was final, but in his method, and in the necessity which he imposed upon the modern world of critically investigating each book anew. He pointed out the marks of the later origin of the Pentateuch and of the historical books. He detected the contradictions, aberrations, and gaps of these writings. He considered the prophetic books as ‘incomplete and unordered collections of older fragments.’ Subsequently the English and French freethinkers took their cue from him...
But the successors of Spinoza did not limit Biblical criticism to the Old Testament. The peculiar relation of the first three gospels to one another, and to the fourth, invited criticism to the gospels. In reference to the first three, Eichorn’s hypothesis of an Urevangelium, Gieseler’s of a common oral source. Schleiermacher’s of several written sources; these, with their permutations, limitations and combinations, shattered faith in the orthodox conception, partly of the genuineness, partly as for the trustworthiness, of the synoptics. In addition, the outer evidence for their genuineness was thought to be anything but satisfactory.” (The Finality of the Christian Religion, pp. 94-95)
Does this seem irrelevant and unimportant for our modern age? If so, consider the fact that Spinoza’s system influenced the trends of theology and philosophy which developed in the large universities of Western Europe through such men as Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Strauss, Graf, Wellhausen and many others. The one great Christian nation of Germany; the Germany of saints and martyrs, of peerless Christian poets, musicians and artists, succumbed to the sweeping apostasy of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, which gripped the Protestant churches like a deadly plague. From there it spread to the educational centers of the British isles and he United States. Spinoza’s influence on Christian theology has been so evident that in the latter half of the past century Professor Henry B. Smith said, “The great alternative of our time is Christ or Spinoza.”
Now multiply he influence of Spinoza by literally thousands of the same type of false teachers who, a the present time, occupy top posts in leading educational institutions all over the globe and you will begin to understand who “justice sandeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street.” (Isaiah 59:14)
By deceptively creating he impression that they alone have enough ability to cope with such subjects as the political and social sciences, economics, and the fine arts, these anti-Christian teachers have been ale to invade, even our church-supported colleges and universities, to the everlasting shame of trustees and parents who call themselves Christians. As a result of this intrusion, our young people have been indoctrinated with Marxian theories under he guise of political science. Constitutional government, as the basis of a free society, is ridiculed and debased by these intruders; on the other hand, Socialism/Communism is exalted as the chief end and glory of mankind.
Ancient Israel’s enemies have moved in on modern Israel. The remnants of Philistia, Canaan, Assyria, Edom (The Jews) and Amalek (Also the Jews, because their grand father was Esau, and Esau later became Edom) are with us yet; though they are minority groups in all nations, they remain as of old aggressive, domineering and possessive. Any country that permits them to rise to power loses its freedom and its soul. It has happened already to many countries in Europe and Asia, both large and small. It is happening here in America.
The whole movement has developed now into gigantic worldwide conspiracy. Read Psalm 83 for the pan and a list of the peoples involved in it, there you will find the very same enemies, which were absorbed in Jewry by intermarriage (Ezra 9-10; Neh. 13), and by conquest. The Psalm is pleads with Yahweh not to keep silent about this matter. He says: “For lo, thine enemies make a tumult: and they hat hate thee have lifted up the head. They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones. They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation.” (Psalm 83:2-4)
Unquestionably these “hidden ones” are the Christian branch of Israel who do not know they are Israel; they cannot be Jewry, for the Jews have always claimed to know their identity.
It is the work of these conspirators, which Isaiah describes in his tenth chapter; see how the Assyrian boasts of his victory over Yahweh’s people: “For he saith, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I am prudent: and I have removed the bounds of the people, and have robbed their treasures, and I have put down the inhabitation like a valiant man: and my hand hath found as a nest the riches of the people; and there was none that moved the wing, or opened the mouth, or peeped.” (Isaiah 10:13-14)
Now drop back to 1914 and review the steps y which the international plotters have carried out the villainy outlined in this prophecy. Using the military prowess of the Prussian element of Germany as a spearhead, these conspirators set out to destroy Christian civilization. Step by step they removed the bounds of free nations, robbed them of their treasures and put down the inhabitants. Only divine foreknowledge could have so accurately pictured the economic power of the shrewd internationalists who have surreptitiously bankrupted all nations and now hold virtually all governments at their mercy. Note the statement, “my had hath found as a nest the riches of the people;” this indicates that the plotters are in position to steal the resources of a country and use them to further their own schemes through manipulation of federal controls, trumped up emergencies and confiscatory taxation. “I have gathered ALL THE EARTH;” thus the conspiracy is worldwide in scope. “There is none that moved the wing, opened the mouth, or peeped;” here is a perfect description of the intimidation and fear which is so effectively silencing opposition in all nations, including our own.
These destroyers, many of them holding high government positions, have stolen our resources and put them at the disposal of our enemies in Russia, China and elsewhere. The American taxpayer’s money is being used to bolster Communism and Socialism all over the world. When Congress was debating the question of giving Britain four billion dollars of so-called Marshall Plan aid, Winston Churchill urged Washington officials not to grant the request; he said it would be used to establish a Socialist/Communist regime; and how right he was!
The various administrations have granted billion after billion to the little bastard state, known as Israel, in both money and military supplies. And when the Jews get these gifts, they pay America and its people back by buying Congress and their votes; and they sell the military weapons to our enemies. Proving them to be the traitors they are.
As we have seen, it was Germany that became the center of international intrigue and supplied the military might for waging two devastating wars against Ephraim and Manasseh (The United States and Britain). What a price the German people (Whom many believe to be Judah) have paid, and are still paying, for that defection from their glorious Reformation heritage! So it is with all peoples who consort with Yeashua’s enemies after they have once known the way of uprightness through His Gospel.
New York City, Washington, D.C., Moscow and Tele Viv, under the control of the Jews, are now the centers of world intrigue. It is here on the soil of our own beloved America that the United Nations Organization has been set up to abolish the sovereignty of this great Republic and make every citizen subservient to a super world government ruled by godless tyrants. How can we expect Yahweh to spare us from the tribulations of war abroad, revolution at home, and economic ruin, when we are so reckless with our safety as to permit such a conspiracy right in our midst? Beware, also, when the international clique begins to build up an “indispensable” man with the idea of inveigling both Republican and Democrats to nominate him for President. If this happens, the United States will be plunged headlong into a military dictatorship.
Be assured that Yahweh will continue to flay us with the rod until we come to our senses. The tragedy is, however, that so many of our sons must perish before professing Christians discover the cause of our troubles. How many more are yet to be sacrificed? Only Yahweh knows! Isaiah 10:16-19 indicates that we shall be brought still lower into the valley of slaughter and despair before the day of Yahweh’s intervention.
Nevertheless, the time will come when Manasseh and Ephraim will cry out to Yahweh, “It is enough,” and call upon Him for deliverance. When that day comes. Yahweh will deal with the destroyers who imagine they are lords of the whole earth. When they have accomplished His purpose Yahweh declares that He will punish them for their arrogant boasting and “high looks.” Therefore, thus saith Yahweh: “O people of mine who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of Assyria, when he smites you with the rod, and lifts up his staff against you, as did the Egyptians! For in a very little my fury shall cease, and my anger shall come to an end. Then shall the Lord of hosts brandish over him a scourge like that with which he smote Midian at the Rock of Oreb: and his staff that was over the Sea shall be lift up against him, as he did against the Egyptians. And on that day shall his burden pass from your shoulder, and his yoke be removed from your neck.” (Isaiah 10:24-27, Smith & Goodspeed Translation)
The important thing here is; What is this scourge that is to be brandished over the enemies of Yahweh’s people? It is to be like the scourge, which was used to smite the Midianites at Oreb and the Egyptians at the Red Sea. A review of these stories shows that Divine intervention is the scourge which subdues the enemy and saves Israel. Concerning Midian at Oreb, it is stated in Judges: “The Midianites and the Amalekites and all the children of the east lay along in the valley like grasshoppers for multitude; and their camels were without number, as the sand by the seaside for multitude.” (Judges 7:12)
Gideon, of the tribe of Manasseh, was directed of Yahweh to use strategy by which he routed the great host with three hundred men; AND NEVER LOST A MAN. The clever use of trumpets, pitchers and lamps threw the enemy into such confusion that “all the host ran, and cried, and fled...and the Lord set every man’s sword against his fellow, even throughout all the host.”
What consternation and remorse await the people of Yahweh when they realize that the bloodshed of these past 100 years has been a needless sacrifice! Then we shall see that our bitter losses are the result of carelessness and stupidity; of our refusal to repent and ask Yahweh to show us the way to peace and safety. At any moment during these agonizing years of wars without and treason within, Yahweh would have brandished a scourge over our foes, if only we had known His Word and believed Him and called upon Him.
“Sing aloud unto God our strength: make a joyful noise unto the God of Jacob. Take a psalm, and bring hither the timbrel, the pleasant harp with the psaltery. Blow up the trumpet in the new moon, in the time appointed, on our solemn feast day. For this was a statute for Israel, and a law of the God of Jacob. This he ordained in Joseph for a testimony, when he went out through the land of Egypt: where I heard a language that I understood not. I removed his shoulder from the burden: his hands were delivered from the pots. Thou calledst in trouble, and I delivered thee; I answered thee in the secret place of thunder: I proved thee at the waters of Meribah. Selah. Hear, O my people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken unto me; There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt thou worship any strange god. I am the LORD thy God, which brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I will fill it. But my people would not hearken to my voice; and Israel would none of me. So I gave them up unto their own hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels.
Oh that my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways! I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand against their adversaries. The haters of the LORD should have submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for ever. He should have fed them also with the finest of the wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.” (Psalm 81)
Besides the necessity of repenting and turning to Yahweh in wholehearted obedience, is there anything else we can do as individuals to help this present evil world? Two thins come to mind. First, know the enemies of Yeashua; find out who they are and watch their trends; learn to recognize the anti-Christ spirit. Second, consider Isaiah’s statement that “the leaders of this people cause them to err.” Since this is the case, obviously we should throw out these faithless leaders; ALL OF THEM, in federal, state, county, city, and church. By clinging to petty party labels and loyalties in state affairs, and blind allegiance to denominational programs in the church, good men and women have unwittingly promoted and financed the downfall of Christian civilization. When will we ever wake up and grow up? But there is one thing to keep in mind: THE PEOPLE ARE NOT ALL ASLEEP, THEY SIMPLY DON’T CARE AS LONG AS THEY HAVE MONEY IN THEIR POCKETS AND THE PROSPECT OF GOING TO BED WITH THEIR NEIGHBOR’S WIFE.
The hour is late, the night is far spent. Evil has progressed beyond human control. The job is too big for us. But it was to this very end that Yeashua “gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world.” (Galatians 1:4) It is our blessed privilege to accept Him and His deliverance. It is our privilege to pray. At least we can let Him know that we are willing to help, for He may yet use us in cleansing the land, as He used Gideon at the rock of Oreb. (Taken, in part, from “This Present Evil World,” by C.R. Dickey, Destiny Letter - No. 4, P.O. Box 177, Merrimac, Massachusetts 01860-0177, (978) 346-9311)