Can we hear God's commandment?

A brother once told me that another brother was able to say: “I’m free to have a glass of wine.” To which the first brother inquired: “Yes, but are you free to NOT have a glass of wine?”

This morning I saw the matter of women under their husbands authority somewhat in the same light. Is the husband free to command his wife’s silence? Is she free obey her husband and to be silent? Is the pastor free to command a woman not to teach? Is a woman free to obey her pastor and not teach? Are we free NOT to command? Are they free NOT to obey? Now we are no longer speaking of one glass of wine. 

 “What? was it from you that the word of God went forth? or came it unto you alone?

If any man thinketh himself to be a prophet, or spiritual, let him take knowledge of the things which I write unto you, that they are the commandment of the Lord.” 1 Corinthians 14:36-37

As Christ’s body, bride, and wife to be, we must be free to do what the Lord commands. My sense is that this matter of women teaching and speaking in the church is every bit as important as drinking wine and even more so. Women who are married are to be examples to those who are not, the younger and the widows. If the wife will obey, the children will obey. If not…?

We live in an age of wantonness. Not only women but men are wanton, and even in the church. Romans 13:13; 1 Timothy 5:11. Tozer, Bunyan and others took a stand against wantoness in the church. But do we today? Do we even see the issue? Is our grace cheap? Grace is costly, Jesus paid the high price of obedience unto death, OBEDIENCE unto death >>>---> SO THAT that we might have God’s grace. Bonhoeffer saw it and saw the German church forfeit it’s voice; it had no knowledge or power to stop Hitler. It’s witness was powerless, and a very few Jews were saved from death. We should be LOVING Jews today AND praying God give us divine opportunity to share the Gospel with them. Romans 1:16-17  For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.  For in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith for faith, as it is written, “The righteous shall live by faith.”  Jewish evangelism is being carried out today, and there will be a blessing for those who participate, even in simply praying. It is the stewardship of knowledge and grace we need to be about. We need to be the Bride, but that will not make men and women equal. We are different. God has instructions on how the difference is to operate, how men are to rule and women to obey.

Women chafe under authority every bit as much as men, and yet in the church they are not to usurp it from men. Men can be very cowardly and not be obedient to the Lord, and the gifts the Lord gives lie dormant just as the one talent was buried. God! Help us! We need to walk as Jesus walked, in obedience, not as the world walks. I fear that when women are given power that should not have the church men begin to think and become like women, and even deceived like Eve.

“But if any man is ignorant, let him be ignorant. Wherefore, my brethren, desire earnestly to prophesy, and forbid not to speak with tongues. But let all things be done decently and in order.”

1 Corinthians 14:38-40

If she will not obey and be silent how shall her husband teach her at home? If the man is to lazy to learn from God and from men, and is content to be taught by women, how shall he lead AND TEACH in his home?

“…for God is not a God of confusion, but of peace. As in all the churches of the saints, let the women keep silence in the churches: for it is not permitted unto them to speak; but let them be in subjection, as also saith the law. And if they would learn anything, let them ask their own husbands at home: for it is shameful for a woman to speak in the church." 1 Corinthians 14:33-35

Isaiah 3:12 My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths.

Do I take the matter to far? Am I in eisegesis?

WARNING to the churches on the matter of Anti-Israeli BDS

WARNING to the churches on the matter of Anti-Israeli BDS

Genesis 12 English Standard Version (ESV)

The Call of Abram

1 Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”

This week I learned more on the subject/reality of anti-Israel activity from a friend:

The Church in Pergamum, (Revelation 2:12-17), where satan dwells, and where his throne was built, which was in what is now modern day Turkey, 

(and the throne is now in Germany! http://www.cbn.com/700club/features/churchhistory/pergamon/ez28_seat_of_satan_part_1.aspx) ,

Pergamum's church was guilty of heeding the doctrine of Balaam and Balak. Numbers 25:1-9 and Numbers 31:16. This was a very early example of anti-Israel actions. Satan found a way to curse Israel and after all his blessings of Israel, Balaam did finally curse Israel, see Numbers 31:16. My friend says that anti-semitism causes a church to lose her lampstand. Lampstands are for light, oil light! Church, don't go into darkness by cursing Israel!

The early gentile christians were taken out from a world where the Jews were viewed, as they are today as less than human and responsible for all manner of catastrophes, bad weather, crop failures, earthquakes etc., etc. But as the apostles foretold, anti-christs made there way in to the church starting even before John's death. At one point in the first century, all Jews, including believing Jews were exiled from Rome. But later they were allowed to return because their absence actually had a bad effect on the cities economy! However the gentile believers? apostates? anti-christs? eventually pushed the Jews out of christendom, even changing the sabbath from the 7th to the 1st day of the week. They wanted nothing to do with Jewish christians or Jewish feasts, or Jewish customs. This we call today “replacement theology. It came into the church as what we now call covenant theology.

It is very interesting that the churches which have taught replacement theology are not flourishing and are liberal to the point of admitting practicing homosexuals in the pew and the pulpit!

GENTILE CHRISTIAN FRIENDS, do NOT curse the children of Israel, the Sons of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God is being very mindful of those who hate and persecute the Jews TODAY. God will punish and destroy those nations who curse His Jewish people. If Jews are being chastened severely so that they will return to God for His promised mercy and grace, how then should we gentiles treat them, we who are grafted into the Jewish church of the first century?

We gentiles believers, and non believers frequently find the nations we reside in clashing with one another, why? It could be the people's ignorance of God's plan for Israel and the deceits of sin and satan which leads them to reject, boycott, sanction, divest and persecute these near kin o the Messiah Yeshua!

Zechariah 1:12 Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long wilt thou be unmerciful to Jerusalem, and to the cities of Judah, with whom thou hast been displeased now these threescore and ten years?

13 And the Lord answered the Angel that talked with me, with good words and comfortable words.

14 So the Angel that communed with me, said unto me, Cry thou, and speak, thus saith the Lord of hosts, I am jealous over Jerusalem and Zion with a great zeal,

15 And am greatly angry against the careless heathen: for I was angry but a little, and they helped forward the affliction.

16 Therefore thus saith the Lord, I will return unto Jerusalem with tender mercy: mine house shall be built in it, saith the Lord of hosts, and a line shall be stretched upon Jerusalem.

See also Jeremiah Ch.'s 30-31.

Is prophecy for today?

The primary purpose of Old Covenant predictive prophecy was not to authenticate the prophet. If the prediction came true that did show the man to have heard from God. The primary purpose of prophecy and predictive prophecy then was to lead the people who would hear it to KNOW that Jehovah the Lord IS THE LORD. It was to warn them that things would come because of their sins, and it was to comfort and encourage them in their lives to be faithful and obedient and bless them with the expectation of the future they would enjoy. I don’t think this has changed much, yet we do CERTAINLY know that Jesus is THE Prophet of prophets, the one who Moses prophesied in Deuteronomy 18:

15 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers—it is to him you shall listen— 16 just as you desired of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, ‘Let me not hear again the voice of the Lord my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.’ 17 And the Lord said to me, ‘They are right in what they have spoken. 18 I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him. 19 And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it of him. 20 But the prophet who presumes to speak a word in my name that I have not commanded him to speak, or who speaks in the name of other gods, that same prophet shall die.’ 21 And if you say in your heart, ‘How may we know the word that the Lord has not spoken?’— 22 when a prophet speaks in the name of the Lord, if the word does not come to pass or come true, that is a word that the Lord has not spoken; the prophet has spoken it presumptuously. You need not be afraid of him.

 Today we make much of the prophecy of Joel, which was reiterated by Peter at pentecost (Shavuot):

Joel 2
27 And ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else; and my people shall never be put to shame.

28 And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

29 and also upon the servants and upon the handmaids in those days will I pour out my Spirit.

30 And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.

31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh.

32 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as Jehovah hath said, and among the remnant those whom Jehovah doth call.

I included verse 27 so we could see the result God desired for what was perviously prophesied for the remnant of Israel:

“ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel, and that I am Jehovah your God, and there is none else; and my people shall never be put to shame.”

There it is, God sends prophets so that the people will KNOW Him, and what He is doing, and what He will do. 

Verses 28 to 32 speak to our time. Or do they? That is the controversy regarding prophecy today. CERTAINLY they speak to the day of pentecost on which Peter quoted Joel’s prophetic word. For there on that day the Holy Spirit WAS poured out. Jesus had instructed them to wait for Him and for His power from on high. He came! "Veni, vidi, vici!” 

But is prophecy for today, are prophets still given as gifts to the church? 

Ephesians 4:11-16

11 And he gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;

12 for the perfecting of the saints, unto the work of ministering, unto the building up of the body of Christ:

13 till we all attain unto the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a fullgrown man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:

14 that we may be no longer children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error;

15 but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him, who is the head, even Christ;

16 from whom all the body fitly framed and knit together through that which every joint supplieth, according to the working in due measure of each several part, maketh the increase of the body unto the building up of itself in love.

Numbers 11:24-29

24 And Moses went out, and told the people the words of Jehovah: and he gathered seventy men of the elders of the people, and set them round about the Tent.

25 And Jehovah came down in the cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the Spirit that was upon him, and put it upon the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the Spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, but they did so no more.

26 But there remained two men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the Spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but had not gone out unto the Tent; and they prophesied in the camp.

27 And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp.

28 And Joshua the son of Nun, the minister of Moses, one of his chosen men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them.

29 And Moses said unto him, Art thou jealous for my sake? would that all Jehovah's people were prophets, that Jehovah would put his Spirit upon them!

1 Samuel 10:10-12

10 And when they came thither to the hill, behold, a band of prophets met him; and the Spirit of God came mightily upon him, and he prophesied among them.

11 And it came to pass, when all that knew him beforetime saw that, behold, he prophesied with the prophets, then the people said one to another, What is this that is come unto the son of Kish? Is Saul also among the prophets?

12 And one of the same place answered and said, And who is their father? Therefore it became a proverb, Is Saul also among the prophets?

Acts 2:16-21

16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

    and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams;

18 even on my male servants and female servants

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above

    and signs on the earth below,

    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

20 the sun shall be turned to darkness

    and the moon to blood,

    before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

Acts 2:16-21

16 But this is what was uttered through the prophet Joel:

17 “‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares,

that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh,

and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,

    and your young men shall see visions,

    and your old men shall dream dreams;

18 even on my male servants and female servants

    in those days I will pour out my Spirit, and they shall prophesy.

19 And I will show wonders in the heavens above

    and signs on the earth below,

    blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke;

20 the sun shall be turned to darkness

    and the moon to blood,

    before the day of the Lord comes, the great and magnificent day.

21 And it shall come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.’

WHY would God have stopped giving prophets, or gifts of prophecies via the sons and daughters of Israel and their servants? And WHY would we dare to forbid them? The purpose of prophecy is to warn, to encourage and has been to predict future events. I can see something in the teaching that no future predictions of events are needed. We have enough prophecy in the Bible to communicate to those unaware. But I can’t understand how a gift that is given to build and equip God’s church can be declared as eliminated on the basis of one scripture passage. (1 Corinthians 13:8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away.) I think it may be that we do not have many prophets after the apostles died because the church rapidly apostatized  into the whore of Babylon. If that shakes you up, good. I think it is so! 

Revelation 19:9 And the angel said to me, “Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.” And he said to me, “These are the true words of God.” 10 Then I fell down at his feet to worship him, but he said to me, “You must not do that! I am a fellow servant with you and your brothers who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God.” For the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.  “

…the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy. 

Revelation 12:11 And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, and because of the word of their testimony; and they loved not their life even unto death.

Do you have a word of testimony? I pray you do! It is an overcoming testimony and defeats satan, for the testimony of God’s people is that by the grace of God which is the blood and death and rising of Jesus they do escape the destiny of satan and receive in the Messiah everlasting life! Is that testimony prophecy? Is your testimony predictive of your future? I pray it is predictive even if you don’t call it prophetic. 

Numbers 11:29 And Moses said unto him (Joshua), Art thou jealous for my sake? would that all Jehovah's people were prophets, that Jehovah would put his Spirit upon them!