Apostasy: How it Begins

(Galatians 4)

Don't be led astray and into darkness, prove and know that you have proved the Truth!

Fred R. Coulter—May 16, 2020

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[Transcribed from Video]

I want to bring to your attention a book that you need: Judaism: Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? By Philip Neal {truthofGod.org}. It will strike you absolutely surprisingly how dictatorial that the rabbis are. They actually believe that their thoughts are greater than God's.

Along with it, we have a whole series, and I urge you to get this one: Scripturalism vs Judaism. The treason being is that I've done a lot of reading concerning Judaism in the days of Jesus. This is important to understand. Because the truth of the matter is that you cannot understand the New Testament unless you have a good knowledge of Judaism.

Then if you can find the book and some in-depth reading: Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried and Goldin{amazon.com}. This will tell you everything you need to do every minute of every day.


[Audio begins here]

Now then, what's happening that we don't know anything about that is available to know but no one is bringing it out.

Solomon wrote Ecclesiastes, and it's very important for us to understand that there are many other things going on. They're leaning to the development of the final generation.

Ecclesiastes 1:8: "All things are full of labor; man cannot utter it…"

If you don't believe that, see how many catalogs you can get from various companies, agencies and manufacturers, and see how many things that men invented, developed and are now selling. Look at how many thing we have that we just take for granted.

"…the eye is not satisfied with seeing…" (v 8). What do we have to fill us in with that? Television! Are you tired of looking at it? Maybe some programs, but you're not tired of looking at it!

"…nor the ear filled with hearing" (v 8). Some people are hypnotized by music! The worst ones are those who drive around the neighborhood with the windows down and they have their radios blasting full blast with a big base beat. It vibrates the whole house!

Verse 9: "That which has been is that which shall be, and that which has been done is that which shall be done…"

What has been done in the past that is being done now? I think you're going to be surprised!

"…and there is nothing new under the sun. Is there a thing of which it may be said, 'See, this is new'?…" (vs 9-10).

We have a lot of that! However, we don't know what the world was like before the Flood. We're only told a little bit about it.

  • Why did God have to destroy everything except for what He put into the ark? It said that 'every thought of man was only evil continually!
  • Do we have that today? Exactly!

"…It has already been in days of old, which were before us. There is no memory of former things… (vs 10-11).

Always remember that history is written by the victors! If Hitler would have won, guess what the history books would be like.

Verse 11: "There is no memory of former things…"

  • that's why people make so many mistakes
  • that's why we have the Word of God

The Word of God tells us what we need to do, and be aware of. It tells us Who God is, Who Christ is, and:

  • What is He doing?
  • What is His plan?
  • How do we fit into it?

If we didn't have the Bible What would we know? Nothing!

"…neither shall there be any remembrance of things that are to come by those who shall come afterwards" (v 11).

Now let's look at something that is a typical pattern of this world of religion and Satan the devil.

Delores and I were watching this special on the Vatican, one of the most corrupt places in the whole world! Corrupt in every way! Remember the book, In the Closet of the Vatican by Frederick Martel? Up through the highest ranks they're all homosexuals!

What is the first encounter with homosexuals that God had to take care of personally? Sodom and Gomorrah! You hear a lot about Sodom, but very little about Gomorrah, and you don't hear about the other two cities that were also destroyed! Whenever you have a lot of homosexuality, you have a lot of enablers who stand off from it, and they are not involved in it. However, the enablers also suffer a penalty.

1-Kings 11—Solomon fulfills exactly what he warned of in Ecc. 1. I often have wondered how this happened. Solomon was the son of David through Bathsheba, who was the wife of Uriah the Hittite that Dave had executed in battle. We're not told if she was a Jew, married to a Hittite, or if she was a Hittite married to a Hittite.

Solomon was given one of the best charges in the world to take over after David—and David prepared everything for the temple. David gave him the plans, sent him a lot of gold, silver, iron, brass, and everything they needed to make the temple. David charged his son Solomon: Hear my son, Solomon, keep the commandments of the Lord! Solomon had the best start that you could ever want.

God appeared to Solomon twice because of his humility when he first became king. God appeared to him the second time after the temple was built, and Solomon gave this long tremendous prayer about the temple.

You would think that if man—who had been especially chosen by God, from his chosen King David—would be honest, upright and the best that there ever would be. It turned out that he was the richest and one of the wisest, but also one of the most stupid!

1-Kings 11:1: "And King Solomon loved many foreign women…"

Remember the first thing he did after he was king? Who did he marry? The daughter of Pharaoh!

"…even the daughter of Pharaoh, Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians, Hittites" (v 1).

What did God say about that in Deut. 12? You're not to have intermarriage with the people of the land that you are casting out! But they didn't listen! Neither did Solomon!

Verse 2: "Of the nations which the LORD had said to the children of Israel, 'You shall not go in to them, and they shall not go in to you; surely they will turn away your heart after their gods.' But Solomon clung to these in love"—and had his mind changed!

One thing that stuck out when Delores and I were watching this about the Vatican, there was a certain movement—Opus Dei—within the Catholic Church that wanted to clean up all the corruption that was going on. An independent Vatican bank had no banking regulations over it, and it turned out to be absolutely corrupt! So, those of this bank wanted to straighten it out, so they had certain cardinals that were sworn to allegiance to this bank, even though they had already previously sworn allegiance to the pope. They had them and got them elevated in such a way that they could try and clean it up. But they were never really able to do it the way it should be done.

Do you remember God Father III—they were all involved with this bank with the mafia—and what happened? The pope that followed—Pope John II—how long was his reign? Thirty days! He must one of the Opus Dei who was going to clean it up. As a matter of fact, he said that he was going to. There's no question that he was murdered!

Why do I bring this up? Because that's a typical way that evil comes in! it comes in as appearing good and praising the one whom they're supposed to take down so they won't reveal what they're really up to, and getting into positions of power.

That's happened over and over again even in business, and it happened within Worldwide Church of God! That's how it was taken down, because the leaders were becoming corrupt and easily swayed, so it finally went down.

Look at what happened to Solomon, who started out the very best of any of the kings of Israel or Judah.

Verse 4: "For it came to pass when Solomon was old, his wives turned away his heart after other gods…."

How would we react if any of us had a personal vision from Jesus Christ? We're told, 'I'm going to bless you with everything you need, but IF your heart turn away, I will wipe it off the face of the earth!'—which God did twice!

That's why one of the greatest lessons that we all need to learn: We must constantly be truthful, honest and loving as God wants us to be to Him and to the brethren!

All of those who are elders and teachers need to be the same in teaching the brethren. After Solomon did what he did, what do you suppose the rest of the people did?

It's just like in our generation when Bill Clinton got caught and he said he didn't have sex when he did have sex—not direct—but the kind of sex that no one gets pregnant. So, what happened? There was a rash of that among the teenaged population in America to where what was one of the greatest venereal diseases that they had for a time—gonorrhea of the throat!

Imagine what the population here did when Solomon was doing this. He went after Ashtoreth, the female deity, like the Catholics do today worshipping Mary, the queen of heaven. She never ascended to heaven! She'll be in the first resurrection.

I bring this out because you're going to be surprised at what I'm going to read on a current report.

Verse 5: "For Solomon went after Ashtoreth, the goddess of the Sidonians, and after Milcom, the abomination of the Ammonites; and Solomon did evil in the sight of the LORD and did not go fully after the LORD like his father David. Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh…" (vs 5-7).

What happened? Talk about being hen-pecked by a thousand women! No man on earth must have been hen-pecked more than Solomon. They all wanted their own way! So, they said, 'You have your temple, now you have to build one for me and my god.'

Here's the temple mount, the Valley of Kidron on the east and what is later called the Tironian Valley on the west. On the west there was another mountain and that's where Solomon built all the shrines and altars of sacrifice for the other gods, and that became know as the Mount of Abominations.

  • Why is it that people cannot stay faithful to God?
  • What is it about human nature that always goes against God?

None other than Satan the devil; he's the author of it all! That's what he did!

"…the abomination of Moab, in the hill, which is before Jerusalem, and for Molech, the abomination of the children of Ammon" (v 7). They offered their children!

Once a little bit starts, what does it grow to? We have one Feast that if we keep the right way, we won't let it get out of hand with us: the Feast of Unleavened Bread! 'A little leaven leavens the whole lump' and this is what happened to the whole nation of Israel.

Verse 8: "And likewise he did for all his foreign wives, and burned incense and sacrificed to their gods." Think about how apostate that was!

Look at it today. Have you ever met people that you once knew long ago in the Church? Now where are they? A lot of them are back in the Protestant churches! They didn't learn the lesson that the tree that the world eats of is the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil!

One man who is a minister in the Church and he called and said, 'We go to this Baptist church now, and they have a lot of good things!' I didn't say a thing to him. With that kind of attitude I figured: let him go his own!

Just because you may see some good things, that may even be in accord with the Word of God, does not necessarily mean that it's something you should do. It can lead to another trap!

Sidebar—on how the Catholic Church works this: they have Catholic charities to help the poor. Can you point to the Bible and see about 'helping the poor, the widows and fatherless'? yes!

This is how they cover a lot of their sins, politics and thievery. But like with Mother Teresa, they had a money raising thing in New York City that they would send out for helping the children in India and all these poor, starving little children, and they get them with this gaunt eyes and thin limbs and hardly any clothes on them. People send in money like crazy, but where did it go? It went to the Vatican bank! What did they do with the money? They invested it in the stock market!

If they would have taken that money and invested it and take all the profit from that to say, 'Here's a continual investment that will be used, and any profits from it goes to the poor, widows and everything. That would be a different story!

But a lot of the money in the Vatican bank went to also finance mafia things. Why is that whenever a mafioso is buried there's always a Catholic priest there. Nothing knew under the sun!

Verse 9: "And the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned from the LORD God of Israel who had appeared to him twice and had commanded him concerning this thing, that he should not go after other gods…" (vs 9-10).

God told him not to do it! I'm sure that there were prophets that God raised up to tell Solomon not to do it.

"…and he did not keep that which the LORD commanded. And the LORD said to Solomon, 'Since this has been done by you, and since you have not kept My covenant and My statutes, which I have commanded you, I will surely tear the kingdom from you and will give it to your servant'" (vs 10-11)—and God did after Solomon died! For the ten tribes of Israel, for 232 years they didn't have a single righteous king.

  • How did they start out?
  • Did they start out with repentance to God? No! They started out with two golden calves: one in Dan in the north, and one in Bethel in the south.

Bethel means house of God!

So, you can see how societies get all led astray from what is right. Let's see a repeat today by different people, different characters, but the same result! This is gong to be quite a surprise to you. What was one of the things that Martin Luther had on his 95 Thesis that he nailed to door of the Wittenberg Cathedral? Mary worship as one of things you shouldn't do!

Luther—middle 500s A.D.—here we are 20 years into the year 2000 and here's the headline:

Lutherans Now Promoting Praying to "Mother God" After Wiping Israel From NT by PNW staff, May 15, 2020 {https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4048}

Once you take the Word of God and you make it in your mind and practice and worship not the Word of God, and you have commentators, theologians and experts tell you—because they're not converted and don't fear God—that you don't have to keep the Laws of God!

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America continues to stir up controversy with it's "progressive policies"…

That's satanic!

…and are pushing members who want to hold to sound doctrine no choice but to leave the denomination.

So, there are some people who believe in the Truth to enough degree that they don't want to go along with it. But the problem is that they've already been removed from God, from Sabbath to Sunday, for how many years?

Several weeks ago the Danish Bible Society, which is run by the Evangelical Lutheran Church, came under heavy fire for the Danish "translation" of the Bible…

Denmark! They didn't even connect Dan with one of the tribes of Israel!

…that virtually wipes out "Israel" from the New Testament.

In the Greek New Testament, the word "Israel" occurs more than 60 times, however it is found only once in the new Danish version called Bibelen 2020….

What does it say in the last verse of Revelation? Woe to those who add to or take away!

…That's right, just once. And that one occurrence is a direct quote from an Old Testament verse. Otherwise, "Israel" is gone.

How important are the book written by the Churches of God about American and Britain and the ten tribes in prophecy? Those are so important, but how is that labeled by the 'religious community'? Oh, there's nothing to that, you don't have to pay any attention to it!

The reason for this the society argues is that Christian readers must not connect "Israel" in the New Testament with the nation of Israel today….

You must connect it with the tribe of the Jews! You must! And the Levites who are with them and a few of the Benjaminites! They have no understanding of the ten tribes of Israel in the end-time. 'A little leaven leavens the whole lump' and look where it goes!

The ELCA has long promoted the idea of "replacement theology"…

Which is that the church replaces Israel! NO it doesn't!

The covenant that God made with Abraham runs through the covenant that God made with Israel and through the promises given to the 12 tribes of Israel (Gen. 49; Deut. 33) for the last days. Look at all the prophecies in Isaiah that are for what we know as the Millennium. The Church has not replaced Israel!

The Church covenant is in addition to Israel, though a good number—perhaps the majority—of the first converts were Jewish and later the Gentiles and some of the tribes of Israel. There's a good deal of history to show that right after the time that Paul was in prison in Rome, when he got out the first time, that he actually went to the British Isles and they had a church at Cornwall established by Joseph of Arimathea and Paul went there. John Guenther has that all in the history that he just sent to us.

 "The ancient Israelites are not linked in any substantive or material way to the contemporary, modern state of Israel…."

If that is so, why are they called Jews?

"…The biblical narrative of Israel has almost nothing to do with contemporary Israel other than the intentional manipulation of sacred texts to justify a political project."

  • Why do they say that?
  • What is a typical thing that most detractors always do? The ones who are detracting from, they accuse them of what they are doing!
  • Isn't that is what is happening to day with the President? Everything that they were doing they accuse Trump of doing!

So, they do it here!

There are other significant problems with this translation, including the removal of words like "sin," which becomes watered down to a mere "mistake." 

Now the church is raising red flags with it's promotion of praying by addressing God as "Mother" instead of Father…

Remember one of the first unisex New Testaments that came out where they said that 'we have to incorporate 'uni-gender.' How they handled it with the Father is instead of 'our Father' it's our 'mother/father' and the reader can make up his mind what he wanted to choose.

Here's the prayer, and remember what Paul said about receiving a different spirit:

 "Mother God, you have fed us with the nourishment of your spiritual food.

Where does that different spirit come from? It is a spirit and it's satanic and demonic and supernatural! So, yes, if they're deceived into believing these things, then they will think that God is working with them. But it's not the true God, it's the 'god of this world.'

"…Raise us up into salvation and rid us of our bitterness, so that we may share the sweetness of your holy word with all the world"…

The presiding "bishop" of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America, The Rev. Elizabeth Eaton, has expressed her belief that although Hell may exist, it is entirely empty because "God doesn't give up on those who reject Him." The statement came from a recent interview for the podcast "Face to Faith."

Last year, Westview Lutheran Church in Boulder, Colorado ordained the nations first transgender Latina pastor while The Park Church, a Lutheran ministry in Greenpoint, Brooklyn held it's first Drag Queen Story hour with Drag Queen "The Rev. Yolanda" who is known for her "Church With A 2 Drink Minimum" slogan.

In other words, you must come here and get drunk!

Rev. 17 shows an historical projection of Babylon the great coming from ancient Babylon coming down through all time to ours. This is why John became so astonished!

Revelation 17:1: "And one of the seven angels who had the seven vials came and spoke with me, saying to me, 'Come here; I will show you the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters; with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication'"

That means that they recognize them, work with them and it's all part of the civilization. Also, in this special that we were watching, they showed precisely how Mussolini and the Vatican work and how precisely that Hitler and the Vatican worked together. It was no surprise to the Catholics that Hitler was exterminating the Jews. They wanted that. But they're always two-faced, so when they were about ready to get caught the Catholics started all of these things of helping Jews escape.

But they didn't tell you about how they helped all the leading Nazis who were involved in it escape. They came down through Europe into Northern Italy, get their identification changed and guess where they went? Argentina and Chili!

"'…with whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and those who dwell on the earth were made drunk with the wine of her fornication'" (v 2).

  • What did the drag queen say? A minimum of two drinks!
  • What if you have four or five?
  • Do you suppose you're drunk?

What they say today is that if you have a 'buzz' you're drunk! "…the wine of her fornication"false doctrine; idolatry!

Verse 3: "Then he carried me away in the spirit to a wilderness; and I saw a woman sitting upon a scarlet beast that had seven heads and ten horns, full of names of blasphemy."

I'm going to show you a little later that all religions are coming home to Rome! Guess which church you would least think would come to Rome? The Mormons!

Verse 4: "And the woman was clothed in purple and scarlet, and was adorned with gold and pearls and precious stones; and she had a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominations and the filthiness of her fornication; and across her forehead a name was written: MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF THE HARLOTS AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH" (vs 4-6).

All the daughters are coming back to Rome! Not to be ruled over by mother, but everybody together! What is that going to form into? The one-world religion! It's going to come like we have never expected! It's going to be something! We will connect this with Galatians 4!

(go to the next track)

Verse 6: "And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints…" [that shows that down through history this system has been working] …and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. And after seeing her, I wondered with great amazement."

Here's John seeing this vision of what the world is going to be like 1900 years after him. He was astonished!

Verse 7: "Then the angel said to me, 'Why are you amazed? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her… [they're together, religion and government] …which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not, but is about to come up out of the abyss and to go into perdition" (vs 7-8).

  • What are we seeing with these things taking place?
  • Where does it come from? Satan the devil, out of the abyss!

Satan is bringing this whole system out!

"…And those who dwell on the earth, whose names are not written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world… [to write the names of those are worthy] …shall be astonished when they see the beast that was, but is not, and yet, is. Here is the mind that has wisdom: The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. And there are seven kings; five are fallen, and one is, and the other has not yet come; and when he has come, it is ordained that he remain a little while. And the beast that was, and is not, he is also the eighth, and is from the seven, and goes into perdition" (vs 8-11).

Everything that you see going on goes right to that same thing. Look at all of the government buildings in the world, nearly all of them—especially in the Western world—are patterned after Rome.

Did you know that in the Congress of the United States, the emblem of Mussolini's Italy is there? It's a round shaft with an axe on the head of it! That's right up front where the Speaker sits, somewhere close to there.

Everything that we have here, the roots go back to Rome, even thought it started out Protestant. Look at the Supreme Court. It is true that Catholics in America are different than Catholics in other countries. But how many are Catholic. I think about six of them. What is being brought in? You must sacrifice some of your freedom for the greater good of the society! That is Roman law!

Let's see what they will do with some of these cases coming up. By the way, with this giving money for charitable institutions during this pandemic time, 12,000 Catholic institutions received money.

Verse 12: "And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings, who have not yet received a kingdom, but shall receive authority as kings for one hour with the beast." That's very short time!

  • How is that going to come out?
  • How is that going to be?

It's basically this: I think that the world government is coming about in a much different way than we have supposed. We have supposed that because they have been building the world order they way they have been doing that it will be all set and everything will be in place. Well, there's one man—Donald Trump—who is tearing it all down! He's doing a pretty good job of that! So, how will this come about? When the Beast Power comes on the scene, and he is so great and the world will come after him—because Satan is going to make them come after him—and that's when the world government will come to the fore!

That's when all of these other religions will be with the pope. In Rome the Mormon Church has built a great 5,000 sq. ft. temple! Most people don't know it, but there's a Hindu temple, a Buddhists temple, Islamic temple and a Chrislam temple; all in Rome! Sound a little like daughter's coming home?

Verse 13: "These all have one mind…"—or purpose. Who is going to make them think that way? God is going to let Satan take care of that for Him!

"…and shall give up their power and authority to the beast. These will make war with the Lamb, but the Lamb shall overcome them; for He is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those who are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful.'" (vs 13-14).

That's when we come back to the earth to take over the earth! This goes clear to the end-time. Remember that Satan is always there!

Have memorized 2-Corinthians 4:4? "Whom the god of this age… [Satan] …has blinded the minds of those who do not believe, lest the Light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ…"

2-Corinthians 11:1: "I would that you might bear with me in a little nonsense; but indeed, do bear with me. For I am jealous over you with the jealousy of God because I have espoused you to one husband, so that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ. But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness…" (vs 1-3).

How does craftiness work? He covers the sin with that which looks good! That's how he always does it!

"…so your minds might be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For indeed… [and we've seen this happen] …if someone comes preaching another Jesus… [any version of Jesus that's the different from what the Bible teaches] …whom we did not preach, or you receive a different spirit, which you did not receive…" (vs 3-4).

What is moving the Lutherans to worship a 'mother god,' a spirit? That's read and they feel it! When they do it they feel good. There's the 'good' side of Satan to lead people into abominations and deeper sin.

"….or a different gospel, which you did not accept…" (v 4).

  • Isn't this new Danish Bible a different gospel?
  • The homosexual Bible?
  • The neuter-gender Bible?

We've got this wonderful booklet by Joseph Ackermann—New Testament Scriptures Compared—that compares 27 modern translations with the Faithful Version, and the King James, showing what they've taken away and what they have added.

If you buy a new Bible today, you don't know how it's been translated. But Satan has his people on the translating committees.  Who are those? The Catholics, homosexuals, lesbians! They're all there! That's why the Bible is coming out the way that it is today.

"…you put up with it as something good" (v 4). They never tell you that they're going to lead you away from God, and 'I'm following Satan the devil and we're all ending up in the Lake of Fire!'

How many followers do you think that they would get with that? Nobody! They come and say, 'Look at this modern age, we need to understand this.'

Verse 13: "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers who are transforming themselves into apostles of Christ." Doesn't the pope say that he is the final word of every Christian in the world? Yes!

Verse 14: "And it is no marvel, for Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light." That's why they don't comprehend what coming on!

The light that Satan has is the light of darkness. What did Christ say about the light? The eye is the light of the body, and if your eye be filled with light, great is the lightness! But IF the light that be in you is darknessif you have thatyou're not going to follow the Truth!

As we get into Gal. 4 and read it, let's understand that the New Covenant is through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, His shed blood. He was raised from the dead, and sits at the right hand of God. Our part is repentance and our sacrifice is baptism! We're joined to the death of Christ, so we both have a death covenant. His was for the sin of the world, and ours for our own sin, and to get rid of the old self.

But since we need to grow in grace and knowledge, we come out of the watery grave and we walk in newness of life by loving God and keeping His commandments. Our relationship with God is spiritually direct! There's no man in between! The only one who is in between is Christ!

  • No man!
  • No minister!
  • No evangelist!
  • No pope!
  • No cardinal!
  • No Imam!

Nothing!

All the other religions of the world have men between them and God! Who fills in that space? Satan and the demons! This is why this is such a fantastic thing wit the New Covenant. This is why Satan likes to come in to pervert it.

Galatians 4:1: "Now then, I say, for as long a time as the heir is a child, he is no different from a servant, although he be lord of all."

Paul is comparing our lives before we're converted to a child. Now we become the begotten children of God.

Verse 2: "But he is under guardians and stewards until the time appointed beforehand by the father. In the same way, when we were children, we were held in bondage under the elements of the world" (vs 2-3).

We lived the way the world lives. We didn't know the elements of bondage that were there; not until we got involved in it.

Verse 4: "But when the time for the fulfillment came, God sent forth His own Son, born of a woman, born under law." He had to be subject to under law because He could not sin!

Sidebar: I'm going to do a sermon on what did Mary know. We don't know how much she knew, but I was reading in the Greek just a couple of days ago John 2 with the wedding at Cana. They ran out of wine and she came to Jesus and said that they ran out of wine. What did Jesus say to her? My hour, My time, has not yet come! Why did He say that to her? Makes you wonder how much did Mary really know! I don't know, but she must have known something for Him to say that.

What did He do? He turned it into wine!

Verse 5: "In order that He might redeem those who are under law…"

So, if under law means commandment-keeping, how are you redeemed from commandment-keeping? It can't be! Under law means that you're in the world subject to all the Laws of God all the time. You're a sinner, so Christ had to come under law and never sin. Now you understand how great a job that was!

"…so that we might receive the gift of sonship from God" (v 5).

The Protestants only have the first step: forgiveness of sin. But it's never forgiven, because they don't baptized anymore. They say that once you say this little prayer, you're saved forever. Therefore, all those who do that, there can't be anyone who falls away. But that isn't true, because the Bible talks about those who fall away.

Sonship! That direct contact with God! More than that, we receive the Spirit of God the Father and Jesus Christ!

John 14—we've covered this before, but it is worth repeating often for us to really grasp the whole point of the New Covenant:

  • the Spirit of God
  • God in us
  • Christ in us

so that we maintain that relationship with God!

John 14:21: "The one who has My commandments and is keeping them…'"

God is working on an individual level with each one of us. He's the only one who has the power to do that. That's a fantastic thing.

"…that is the one who loves Me, and the one who loves Me shall be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will manifest Myself to him.' Judas (not Iscariot) said to him, 'Lord, what has happened that You are about to manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?'" (vs 21-22).

It's going to happen by the circumstances in your life and by you coming to God and really knowing that you need God. Then you come to baptism after that. When that happens, God manifests himself to you by letting you know you're a dirty, rotten sinner and you need God! Before you didn't think so. You were 'good, I'm kool!' Whatever it may be.

What's going to happen is that you're going to manifest yourself to us and not to the world. Here's how it's done: It's a spiritual interaction!

Verse 23: "Jesus answered and said to him, 'If anyone loves Me, he will keep My Word…' [and that's the whole message of Christ] …and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him."

The New Covenant is different from the Old Covenant in that. They did not have the Spirit of God within them, and not only do we have the Spirit of God, we have the two factors of the Spirit of God:

  • the begettal from God the Father to be His future sons and daughters
  • the Spirit of Christ to develop the mind of Christ

Those two work together! What did Jesus say about the Father and Him, we are One! That is a special relationship with God. Only those who have the Spirit of God can have that relationship with Him. That is the great thing that it's talking about there.

Verse 24: "The one who does not love Me does not keep My words, and the Word that you hear is not Mine, but the Father's, Who sent Me."

Isn't that something? All of these teachers that are coming along and saying that we'll do this and that's fine, let's all get together and do these things together. That's a wonderful thing, and all people need to be of one spiritual mind. You can be in different Churches, but we all accept each other.

That's not the way! God's way is entirely different. In order for us to receive the sonship, Paul brings it out in:

Romans 8:8: "But those who are in the flesh cannot please God…. [that is someone who does not have the Spirit of God] …However, you are not in the flesh…" (vs 8-9).

Even though you're still living in a fleshly body, how is God looking at us? If we're faithful and loving Him, He's looking at us and what He's going to make us at the resurrection. That's quite a thing!

"…but in the Spirit, if the Spirit of God is indeed dwelling within you…. [notice the parallel with what Christ said in John 14] …But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ…" (v 9).

That's part of the Spirit; Jesus said that 'We will come and make Our abode, or dwelling place, with you.

"…he does not belong to Him. But if Christ be within you, the body is indeed dead because of sin; however, the Spirit is life because of righteousness. Now, if the Spirit of Him Who raised Jesus from the dead is dwelling within you… [that second part of the Spirit] …He Who raised Christ from the dead…" (vs 9-11). The Spirit of the Father! So, the Holy Spirit consists of from the Father and of the Son.

"…will also quicken your mortal bodies because of His Spirit that dwells within you" (v 11). That is the spirit of sonship!

Verse 14: "For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are the sons of God."

Reverse it: as many as are notled by the Spirit of God, these are not the sons of God!

No one can do a nice little prayer like they do in Protestantville, and think that they're really converted.

  • they may have a good feeling in their heart
  • they may be doing some things that are right
  • they may make some changes to their lives

But they don't keep the commandments of God starting with the main one: Sabbath!

Verse 15: "Now, you have not received a spirit of bondage again unto fear, but you have received the Spirit of sonship, whereby we call out, 'Abba, Father.'" {tie in with Gal. 4:6} There are two words for son:

  •  'huios'—can mean either male or female
  • 'tekna'—meaning your own begotten children

Remember the account of Zacharias and Elizabeth? She was the to be the mother of John the Baptist! In the Greek word for her being childless, it is 'ateknos'—without children! Here we have the word 'tekna' referring to us:

1-John 3:1: "Behold! What glorious love the Father has given to us…" This is the New Testament, the New Covenant coming from God the Father and Jesus Christ!

"…that we should be called the children of God…."—the 'tekna' meaning begotten by God! The King James says 'adoption' (Rom 8). It's not adoption! Adoption is that you take someone who has been begotten by someone else and take them as your own child. But they never have any of your genes or chromosomes.

Your 'tekna' have genes and chromosomes from mother and father. What do we have with the 'tekna'of God? Our genes and chromosomes that we have, plus the begettal of the Father for sonship.

"…that we should be called the children of God! For this very reason, the world does not know us because it did not know Him. Beloved, now… [at this time] …we are the children of God…" (vs 1-2)—the 'tekna'; different from anything with the testament with Israel. This is what is so important.

We have that direct connection with God the Father and Jesus Christ in heaven above, that we can call out at any time 'Abba Father' and God will hear us! God will help us!

"…and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be; but we know that when He is manifested, we shall be like Him, because we shall see Him exactly as He is" (v 2).

This becomes important, because when these false teachers come along and bring things that they say you must do in order to be saved, this is what was happen here in Galatia:

Galatians 4:7: "So then, you are no longer a servant, but a son. And if a son, you are also an heir of God through Christ."

We're joint heirs with Christ!What has He inherited? All things! The reason that we're joint heirs is because we'll be in the first resurrection. All of those who are in the second resurrection—or even during the Millennium—will not be joint heirs with Christ. That's why this is so important, and why Paul is so strong against these false prophets.

Verse 8: "Now on the one hand, when you did not know God, you were in bondage to those who are not gods by nature"—the gods of Babylon the Great! Those are all idols, or demons and satanism!

Verse 9: "But on the other hand, after having known God—rather, after having been known by God—how is it that you are turning again… [back to] …to the weak and impotent elements, to which you again desire to be in bondage?"

Put that whole thing together. When they didn't know God, they were in bondage to those things, which are not "…gods by nature.…to which you again desire to be in bondage?"

This is a very important and totally misunderstood and misinterpreted by the Protestants. Verse 10: "You are of your own selves observing days, and months, and times and years." Protestants interpret it this way: Paul is telling them that they don't have to keep the Holy Days or the Sabbath.

  • Do the Holy Days and Sabbath come from those who are not gods? No!
  • What comes from those who are not gods? Sunday-keeping, Easter, Christmas, all of the pagan days under different names in different generations throughout history!

Verse 10: "You are of your own selves… [not by command of God; not by command of Paul] …observing days, and months, and times and years…. [going back to the pagan beliefs they had before] …I am afraid for you, lest somehow I have labored among you in vain. Brethren, I beseech you, be as I am…" (vs 10-12).

How was Paul? Loving God, keeping His commandments, keeping His Sabbath, preaching the Gospel!

"…for I also am as you are: you have not wronged me in anything. Now you know that at first I preached the Gospel to you in the weakness of the flesh" (vs 12-13).

Paul is reminding them; remember what you came out of, remember when I came to you. They were going back to the things that they were doing before, with one addition: circumcision!

We'll cover circumcision next time, because the hardest thing in the world to fathom is Jewish paganism still requiring circumcision. That's a strange mixture. That's why I've said that you need to have Scripturalism vs Judaism {transcript book & CDs}. I explain in great detail there how that in Egypt there were Jews—remember that they say they are Jews but are not; we have to be a Jew in the heart—that is like Christ—who had a temple in Egypt at Leontopolis.

The way this sect came about was that after Antiochus Epiphanies had desecrated the temple and offered swine on the altar of God, that the Levites got rid of the high priest, because he was a renegade, very pagan, and was not following God. His name was Onias II a legal descendant from Aaron, but so corrupted that they didn't want to have him as high priest again. So, they took a leading Levite called Hyrcanus and he exiled Onias II to Egypt. The king of Egypt welcomed him and gave him an abandoned temple in Leontopolis, Egypt.

He knew that he could offer animal sacrifices there, but he had a religious service with meal/bread offerings, drink/wine offerings and incense. Where do you see that today? Catholic Church, because they had a great Jewish pagan—but still requiring circumcision—movement there in Egypt and Alexandria.

Have you ever read anything by Philo? That will blow your mind if you start reading that! When I was doing this series—Scripturalism vs Judaism—I do a lot of reading that covers all of that.

Sidebar: Can you think of one man in the book of Acts who was a very great speaker but he only knew the baptism of John? Apollos! Where did he come from? He turned out to be pretty faithful, but we're not told if he remained faithful! This shows that there were a lot of those coming out of Alexandria into where Paul was preaching, and bringing the things listed out here in Galatians, observing pagan observances, but being circumcised. An amazing mixture!

Protestants have it totally wrong! This is not saying that you don't have to keep the Sabbath or Holy Days. This is saying to stop keeping the days that you did before your were converted. Just exactly like today, we have churches in Southern California that used to be of Worldwide Church of God, and they printed out their little thing with the Holy Days listed on the front side and on the backside they have Halloween, Christmas and Easter. They do all of them.

Today, we have in Southern California churches just like it was in Galatia. Just like Solomon did, brought in paganism! Brought in other changes, and that's why it's so important for everyone who is in the Church of God to have proved and know that you have proved that this is the Word of God in Truth! This is what we are to do. Everything else here comes around like a nice little good thing we're going to do and then a little leaven leavens the whole lump!

Scriptural References:

  • Ecclesiastes 1:8-11
  • 2 Kings 11:1-2, 4-11
  • Revelation 17:1-14
  • 2 Corinthians 4:4
  • 2 Corinthians 11:1-4, 13-14
  • Galatians 4:1-5
  • John 14:21-24
  • Romans 8:8-11, 14-15
  • 1 John 3:1-2
  • Galatians 4:7-13

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

  • Deuteronomy 12
  • Genesis 49
  • Deuteronomy 33
  • John 2
  • Galatians 4:6

Also referenced:

Books:

  • Judaism: Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? By Philip Neal {truthofGod.org}
  • Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried and Goldin{amazon.com}
  • In the Closet of the Vatican by Frederick Martel

Booklet: New Testament Scripture Comparisons by Joseph Ackermann

Sermon Series: Scripturalism vs Judaism {Transcript Book with CDs}

Article:
Lutherans Now Promoting Praying to "Mother God" After Wiping Israel From NT
by PNW staff, May 15, 2020 {https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4048}

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 5/19/20

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