LOOK UPON ZION
“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities; thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken,” Isa. 33:20.
Of all the Old Testament prophets, Isaiah is my favorite— mainly because he is the easiest for me to understand. I sometimes get lost reading some of the other prophets. I get lost reading from Isaiah, but not as often as I do reading the others.
By the spirit of prophecy God allowed those Old Testament prophets to look ahead and see benefits the saints would enjoy in the gospel day. In this verse and the verses following Isaiah paints a beautiful word picture of the New Testament Church.
Israel had benefits under the Law of Moses which none of the gentile nations enjoyed. If they had observed the Law, they would have been the healthiest, the wealthiest, the happiest, and the best cared for, people on earth. But they did not keep the Law and they lost what they had. God told them that would be the case if they disobeyed.
But even if Israel had kept the Law, they still would not have enjoyed the spiritual benefits the saints enjoy today in the church. The Law of Moses was largely a system of legal restrictions and carnal ordinances imposed on them for that time. It was not intended for our day.
Heb. 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.
The Law Service was fundamentally different from the gospel. Those were carnal ordinances imposed on a natural people and they provided natural benefits. A person did not have to be born of the Spirit in order to enjoy the natural benefits of those carnal ordinances. If he was a natural born Jew, and he would obey the ordinances of the Law, he could enjoy the natural benefits that came with that law. Being circumcised did not guarantee anybody a home in heaven; it just signified he was a natural born Jew, whose parents observed that legal requirement when he was born.
The New Testament church and the gospel are different. There are spiritual benefits in the church which the natural man, the person who has never been born again, can never enjoy.
1 Cor. 2:14, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.
The Law Service with its carnal ordinances far exceeded anything the gentiles had, but it did not compare with the inheritance of the saints in light.
Col. 1:12,13, Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:
The Law Service did not provide the same benefits the saints have in the New Testament Church, but its rituals and ceremonies, its types and shadows, prefigured the church, and they still teach us valuable lessons about the church. The prophets of the Old Testament painted beautiful word pictures of the church. The passage before us is one of those prophecies. All through the years the saints have read those prophecies and rejoiced in the lessons they teach.
But in spite of all the edification and instruction the saints have received from those Old Testament prophecies of the church, that has largely changed over the last one hundred years. Just over a hundred years ago, Cyrus Scofield, John Darby, Arno Gabelein, James Brookes, and others, came up with a new religion called Dispensational/Zionism.
As often as not it is simply called Premillennialism, but that name is not quite adequate; there is a form of Premillennial-ism that has been preached for centuries. John Gill preached that old form of Premillennialism.
This Dispensationalist form of Premillennialism is actually a form of Zionism, and we should not be surprised that it came on the scene about the same time Judaism gave birth to Zionism. It was a brand new thing when Darby, Scofield, and their friends came up with it. The fact that nobody had ever heard of any such doctrine until they came along is an embarrassment to its advocates until this day. If it is true, why had nobody ever preached it? Was the church so totally in the dark until Scofield and his friends came along?
Dispensationalism is simply the flip side of Messianic Judaism. Both of them revere the name of Jesus Christ, but they both look on the gentile church as a stop-gap measure which, they say, God adopted as a fall-back plan when the Jews rejected our Lord, and he was unable to set up the political kingdom he had intended to set up at Jerusalem. Again, if the church is simply a case of God making the best of a bad situation, they cannot explain why it took over eighteen hundred years for anybody to figure that out.
Dispensationalism and Messianic Judaism differ in that Messianic Judaism uses more of the vocabulary of the rabbis. It emphasizes its Jewish element, and insists it is a part of Judaism. It still observes Old Testament practices such as Passover, and it directs its appeals to the Jewish people.
Dispensationalism is different in that it has adopted more of the vocabulary of the Christian religion, and it directs its appeal to Christians, but they are essentially the same thing. They both expect that, when the Lord returns, he will finish what he was unable to accomplish the first time.
They tell us he will establish his kingdom at Jerusalem, and for a thousand years he will reign as a Jewish king with a Jewish bureaucracy, over a political and military Jewish kingdom.
Messianic Judaism has not had much success converting the Jewish people, even though rabbinic literature is filled with complaints about what little success they have had. Most Jewish leaders deny that Messianic Judaism is in any way related to main-stream Judaism.
But Dispensationalism has made great strides in converting Christians. They have taken over most of religious publishing, and virtually all of religious broadcasting. It is not easy to find any Christian broadcast on television that takes any other point of view. Unlike Messianic Judaism, they deny they are any part of Judaism, but, as they become more and more sure of themselves, they are taking on more of a resemblance. Several of their television programs display the flag of the State of Israel with its Star of David in their broadcasts. Some of them (John Hagee for one) sometimes wear a rabbinic prayer shawl as they deliver their sermons.
I mention Dispensationalism, only because these Judaizers have been so successful in denying Christians the comfort and satisfaction we have always received from Old Testament prophecies of the church. We read those prophecies and they stir our very soul.
In spite of the beautiful unfolding picture those Old Testa-ment prophets painted of the Church, Cyrus Scofield and his friends tell us those prophets knew nothing about the Church.
They tell us the Lord had no interest in having a church in the first place. They tell us his real intention was to reign as a Jewish king over a Jewish kingdom with a Jewish bureau-cracy, operating out of Jerusalem.
They tell us he was not able to do what he came to do. He was unable to set up that political/military kingdom he wanted so much, because the Jewish leaders would not pitch in and help him. So they tell us he set up the Church instead—as a kind of stop-gap measure—until he comes back the second time to do what he meant to do the first time. They seem to have forgotten that a Jewish one-world govern-ment was the very thing those Jewish leaders wanted, and that was the one thing that would have gained their support. They would have made him a king by force if they had been able to do it.
John 6:15 When Jesus therefore perceived that they would come and take him by force, to make him a king, he departed again into a mountain himself alone.
If he had wanted a political/military kingdom, such as the millennial kingdom most of the television evangelists talk about, that would have been the perfect time. They would have taken him by force and made him a king. They wanted a king who would crack heads, and hurt people. They wanted somebody to help them throw off the Roman yoke. But when the Lord saw what they were up to, he withdrew from their reach.
They had tried it before. That is what the Maccabees were all about. The Maccabees tried to overthrow the Romans in 167 B.C. They tried it again in 70 A.D. That is what brought the wrath of Rome on them, and finally the destruction of Jerusalem. Bar Kochba tried it again sixty-five years later in 135 A.D. There was nothing the Jews wanted more than they wanted a king who would throw off the Roman yoke and set up his own kingdom at Jerusalem.
That is the charge the Jewish elders brought against the Lord, when they brought him before Pilate. He showed no interest in leading a rebellion against Rome, but that did not stop them from making the charge anyway.
Luke 23:2 And they began to accuse him, saying, We found this fellow perverting the nation, and forbidding to give tribute to Caesar, saying that he himself is Christ a King.
Our Dispensationalist friends put themselves in strange company, when they make the same claim about the Lord that those Jewish elders made, when they brought him before Pilate demanding that he be crucified.
Pilate found himself between a rock and a hard place—trying to satisfy both the Jewish multitude and the Roman authori-ties. But he would have had no problem at all, if Van Impe, Hagee, Jeremiah, and their crowd were telling the truth.
Like it or not, Judea was under Roman Law, and if the Lord really did try to set up his own political/military kingdom —under Roman Law—he was guilty of treason. If that had been true, it would have removed Pilate’s problem. He would have had not only the right—but a solemn obligation— to crucify the Lord.
In bringing that charge before Pilate, they effectively put the Lord on trial for treason. But Pilate listened to their charge, and listened to the Lord’s response—and found him innocent.
John 18:33,36 Then Pilate entered into the judgment hall again, and called Jesus, and said unto him, Art thou the King of the Jews?….36 Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence.
If our Dispensational/Zionist friends are right, that would have been the time to prove it. The multitude was there—the same multitude that followed him around, listening to every word he said. If he had even hinted he wanted a political/military kingdom, there were those present who could have given testimony—but not one credible witness could be found.
The Lord explained that he had no interest in that kind of kingdom. His kingdom is not of this world. Pilate listened to him—and acquitted him of the charge.
John 18:38 Pilate saith unto him, What is truth? And when he had said this, he went out again unto the Jews, and saith unto them, I find in him no fault at all.
Pilate was not the most honorable man who ever lived. He had the perfect opportunity to get rid of his problem with a wave of the hand. He could have determined, “This man is trying to set up his own kingdom; he is guilty of treason.” He would have been perfectly justified in delivering him to his soldiers to be crucified. That would have satisfied the Jews, and it would have satisfied his Roman superiors. Instead he infuriated the Jews by announcing,”I find in him no fault at all.”
That expression no fault at all indicates that he could not find the slightest hint that the Lord wanted to be a political king. Instead he tells them, “Take ye him and crucify him; for I find no fault in him” (John 19:6).
That may sound like he is saying, “He is innocent, but go ahead and crucify him anyway,” but that is not what he was saying. He was saying, “I find no fault in him—so if you want him crucified, you will have to do it yourself.” They all knew it was not lawful for them to put any man to death (ch. 18:31).”
Pilate not only found the Lord innocent of the charge, he was mocking them when he told them to crucify him themselves. They all knew what the consequences of that would be.
In John, chapter seventeen, the Lord prayed, “I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do (John 17:4), and on the cross “he said, It is finished, and he bowed his head and gave up the ghost” (John 19:30).
The Lord said he finished the work. Our friends can argue all they want to that he wanted to set up a Jewish kingdom, with a Jewish bureaucracy, but he could not get the job done. The Lord said he finished the work he was given to do. I believe the Lord knows whether he got the job done or not.
Those who tell us the Lord wanted to set up a kingdom, but set up a church instead, go on to argue that, since the Lord did not mean to set up a church in the first place, none of the Old Testament prophets wrote anything about the church, or knew anything about it. They wonder how could the prophets write about the church, when that was not what the Lord meant to do?
Some of the most beautiful, heart stirring descriptions of the Church are found in those Old Testament prophecies. They describe the Church as a beautiful garden, as the spotless and pure Bride of Christ, as a city situated on the highest mountain, and on and on. We read that poetic language and it feeds our very soul.
But over and again our Dispensationalist friends tell us, “Don’t touch that verse; that is a Jewish text. It does not belong to you. That will not be available until the millennium.” They take verse after verse away from the hungry and thirsty child of God, and toss it over into their millennial never-never land.
They take all the Old Testament, and huge parts of the New Testament and, to all intents and purposes, declare it off limits to gentile believers. They tell us those are Jewish texts. They do not apply now. They applied to the Jews until they rejected the Lord, and they will apply again in the millennium. Until then, we gentiles are just place holders.
Luke tells us it is not so. He tells us the pouring out of the Spirit on the Church at Pentecost was the fulfilling of prophecy. It was not an emergency Plan B the Lord adopted when he failed to accomplish Plan A.
Acts 2:16 But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel;
17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon 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 And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy:
But we have taken enough time looking at those who would deny us the benefit of ever so much of the Bible. We need to get back to what the Bible does teach. Those disputed texts do belong to believers—both Jew and gentile. Gentile believers have a claim to all scripture, not just that tiny portion these people would allow gentile believers to claim.
2 Tim. 3:16 All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:
In spite of what our friends tell us, Paul tells us that all Scripture is profitable, not just that little portion that has not been reserved for the Jews only. The Old Testament prophecies are filled with beautiful, poetic expressions that feed our hungry souls. In one of them Isaiah tells us:
Isa. 12:3, Therefore with joy shall ye draw water out of the wells of salvation.
How very often we have drunk and rejoiced at those wells of living water. God’s Spirit stirs in our hearts, and for a moment it seems that heaven comes down. But our Dispensational/Zionist friends tell us those wells of salvation do not belong to gentiles. They tell us that is a Jewish text—Isaiah could not see the Church; he was talking about artesian wells that will spring up all over the land of Palestine in the millennium.
But by way of explanation the Lord told the woman at the well:
John 4:10,13,14 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water….Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again: But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.
John 7:38 he that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
That is one of those gotcha texts. If our friends sneak past Isaiah, the Lord catches them at the well. The Lord tells us this well is in the very belly of the believer; our Dispensation-al/Zionist friends tell us the well will be in the ground in Palestine at some future date. I believe the Lord knows where the well is.
When the Holy Spirit was closing out the Bible, he showed John “a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God, and of the Lamb,” Rev. 22:1. That river starts out in Heaven’s pure world above, and it springs up in the heart of every heaven-born soul. It strengthens and upholds him in the desert of this sinful world below. Our Dispensationalist friends take that which is spiritual and uplifting and they make it Jewish and carnal—and entirely out of our reach.
We live in a sinful and dangerous world, but the Bible often speaks of the church as a haven of safety, a fortress.
Psa. 48:12,13, Walk about Zion, and go round about her; tell the towers thereof. Mark ye well her bulwarks, consider her palaces; that ye may tell it to the generation following.
Isa. 26:1, “In that day shall this song be sung in the land of Judah; We have a strong city; salvation will God appoint for walls and bulwarks.”
He goes on to say,
Vss. 2, 3 “Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee; because he trusteth in thee..”
Our friends may think that perfect peace is reserved for the Jews of some future day, but for two thousand years, Christians have enjoyed a kind of peace in the church that cannot be found anywhere else. We do not have to wait for some millennial never-never land to reach the safety of those bulwarks. The Lord is a wall of strength, safety, and peace to his people today.
The Church is a haven of safety in which to raise our children. I cannot think of a safer place in which to bring up children.
Psa. 84:3, Yea, the sparrow hath found an house, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, even thine altars, O Lord of hosts, my king and my God.
It is impossible to exaggerate the blighting effect that doctrine has had on Bible study. It takes what is sweet and soul cheering, and makes it carnal and dry—and out of reach.
In our text Isaiah tells us to “look upon Zion.” The first duty of the preacher is to point us to the Lord. That was the message of that first old Baptist preacher.
John 1:29, “ The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
We must never forget that our first priority is to keep our eyes on the Lord. Peter would not have gotten in trouble when he walked on the water, if he had kept his eyes on the Lord. He would have remembered that the winds and the sea obey him. It was when he saw the wind boisterous around him, that he began to sink.
Heb. 12:1, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith….’
Looking to him, trusting him, and relying on him is our one refuge. Nothing takes precedence over keeping our eyes on him—and pointing the Lord’s people to him.
But, beyond pointing the Lord’s people to look on the Lord, we point them to the Lord’s church—that haven of safety the Lord has prepared for us here in this life. We need to point out the safety of Zion—the Lord’s church. .
In the old days, when Indian attacks were a problem, our ancestors built forts for safety, and when it was known the Indians were raging, they ran for safety to the fort. They might survive on their own outside the fort, but it did not make a lot of sense to stay outside, when danger was around. And it does not make a lot of sense to stay outside the church, when we are living in a dangerous world. You may survive outside the church, but you are in far greater danger when you are outside the fold—outside the bulwarks.
“Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities.”
The church is a place of solemnity—that is to say, the church is serious business. It is not a place for frivolity and carnal entertainment. Much of the religious world has forgotten that. Their prime concern is what will bring in the crowd. So they come up with every kind of activity to keep the people busy and entertained. They seem not to realize that all that activity has totally replaced the very reason the Lord provided the church in the first place.
The Lord provided the church as a place to get away from the world—he did not intend for us to drag the world in after us.
Just before the Lord was crucified, there were some Greeks who came with the request, “Sirs, we would see Jesus.” With all the activity and entertainment connected with the estab-lished religion of today, you are likely to see everything but the Lord.
When Isaiah refers to Zion as the city of our solemnities, he is not losing sight of the fact the church is a joyful place. When we behave ourselves aright, and when we see the church for what it really is, the church is the happiest place in this world. God does not intend for us to go around with an expression that looks like we are practicing for a funeral.
There are not many themes we find scattered all through the Bible more often than we find instruction that God’s people are to be a joyful people. God’s people have the right to be the happiest people in the world. Knowing what God has done for us, and knowing what is waiting for us in just a little while, we should be beside ourselves with joy.
2 Cor. 1:24, “Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy.”
Ministers of the gospel are helpers of your joy in that the gospel is not a long burdensome list of legal restrictions and prohibitions. It is rather the good news of what God has done for us. The only true service is that which springs from a heart of gratitude. We are far less likely to indulge in sin at the same time we are rejoicing in the Savior’s love.
Psa. 24:9, “Lift up your heads, O ye gates, even lift them up ye everlasting doors, and the King of Glory shall come in.”
The people of God have every right to rejoice; the very King of Glory is our Savior and our best friend. Our joy is the most full when we have our eyes on him.
1 John 1:4, “These things write we unto you that our joy may be full.”
But do you tell me your life is in turmoil? There is trouble on every side, and you have no idea how you are going to cope with the situation. Listen to what the Lord says to you about that very situation. David says:
Psa. 23:4, “Yea, though I walk through the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for thou art with me. Thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.”
Rom. 14:8, “For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, or whether we die, we die unto the Lord, whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord’s”
With the Lord’s hand over me I can’t lose. If I live, I am in his hand. If I die, I am in his hand. Live or die, I am his.
If I lose everything—even life itself—that defeat becomes my greatest victory. I lose all I have in this world, only to wake up in a far better land. I doubt I have had any more problems than most everybody else ( even though I sometimes think I have), in the midst of it all, I realize that any difficulty I have is but for a moment.
2 Cor. 4:17, “For our light affliction which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
Sometimes we suffer for truth’s sake, but if we suffer for the Lord’s sake, what a great honor and privilege that is. Not everybody is so honored.
Acts 5:41, “And they departed from the council, rejoicing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name.”
“Thine eyes shall see Jerusalem, a quiet habitation.” That expression connects with the previous thought. The church is a quiet habitation. A lot of noise and hoopla is totally out of place in the church.
Hab. 2:20, “But the Lord is in his holy temple, let all the earth keep silence before him.”
That thought does not go down well with a lot of people. They are convinced they need to compete with the entertain-ment world for greater attendance, and they adopt essentially the same methods to bring in the crowds. Some of them have entertainment that looks for all the world like what you would find at a rock concert. It does not sound very much like what Habakkuk was talking about.
We need to realize what the church is all about. We need to realize that we are in the presence of the Almighty. There is a reverence, a solemnity that goes with standing before God.
Notice also that he says the church is “a quiet habitation.” A habitation is where you live. We do not live in the meeting house, but we are a part of the Lord’s church, no matter where we may find ourselves, and it behooves us to live as members and representatives of his church. Your neighbors may not pay any attention to the church, but they do pay attention to you. You are often all they know about the church, and we should conduct ourselves every moment as if we were in the meeting house.
“A tabernacle that shall not be taken down.” It was in the nature of the Tabernacle that it was put up, and taken down, and moved from place to place, but Isaiah refers to Zion—to the church—as a tabernacle that shall not be taken down.
The church does move from place to place in that local church do die out, and other local churches spring up, but the church live on–it is not taken down.
I recall once, when I was a small boy, an aged minister visited our church, and he was called on to pray. I have always been more than a little embarrassed at my own efforts at public prayer, but that good brother prayed a beautiful prayer. In the course of his prayer he came over the expression, “Thy church, Oh, God, will stand forever.”
It has been more than sixty years since I listened to that old brother pray, but until this day, I can still hear his voice, and I can still remember the feeling that came over me, at the realization of what he was saying—and the conviction with which he said it. He had no doubt the church will be here when the Lord comes again in the clouds of glory.
The Lord’s church continues to stand. It has stood for two thousand years, and we can be sure it will still be standing when the Lord comes again. Paul tells us:
Eph. 3:21 Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.
In their thinly veiled disdain for the Christian Church, our Dispensationalist friends tell us the church will ultimately apostatize and the Lord will then return to his first love, the Jewish people. But the Bible teaches no such thing. Paul tells us the Lord will be glorified in the church throughout all ages.
If the Lord is glorified in the church throughout all ages, you can be sure the church will stand throughout all ages. The church may look vulnerable to the world, but it has the protection of the Almighty behind it. They may put us out of our meeting places, and they may lock up our pastors, but God will have a church in the world when he comes again.
“Not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.” There are those who are dissatisfied with the church the way the Lord set it up. They would like to remove the stakes, and break the cords, that secure and stabilize the church, but those principles the Lord provided for the church are sufficient to
govern his people in every day and age.
Governments change; technologies change; men change most everything they can change. But fundamentals do not change. God does not change. Human nature does not change, and those principles God has provided to guide his church do not change.
If God has called for a practice, there will never arise any need to change that practice. To argue that we need to change those practices God called for is to argue that some thing or some situation has arisen that God did not foresee.
On the other hand, over the ages, we have ourselves devel-oped customs and traditions that we have attached to our worship. Those traditions often become so much a part of our way of doing things that we cannot imagine any time when it was done differently. Those customs sometimes change and they need to. Some of them should never have been started in the first place.
We make a mistake when we confuse those customs we have developed with the fundamental principles God has laid down in his word. We should hold our own traditions with a very light hand, but far from changing God’s order of things, we should spend our time studying our Bibles and endeavoring to direct our way ever more closely to God’s revelation.
It appears to me that if we were as determined, and as dedicated, in doing the very best we can in those endeavors we know are required of us, we would not have a lot of time and energy to develop new methods of our own.
God has preserved his church in every day and age, and he will preserve it until he comes again in the clouds of glory. The church often looks vulnerable, and it looks especially vulnerable at this time. Our congregations are getting older and smaller. One by one, little churches are closing their doors, and we wonder what is in store for us.
But at the same time our congregations are getting older and smaller, I look over the country, and I see a steady stream of able, dedicated young men being called and sent out to preach the gospel. If God is still calling preachers, he has a work for them to do, and a place for them to preach.
There are few things that encourage me more than all the young preachers God is calling and sending out. If I sit in the congregation and listen to young men one half, or perhaps, one third my age, who can preach circles around me, I thank God for them.
My generation is dropping like flies. My day is almost done; and at best it will not be long until I will only be a faint memory, if even that. But I gain comfort in knowing that the truth I have tried to be faithful to proclaim will survive, and the Lord’s church will survive. The Lord’s church will go on. It has always survived, and it always will.
The church may look weak and defenseless to the world, but the Lord tells us it is a strong city. It is strong enough that it has stood for two thousand years—in spite of every effort by the adversary to do away with it. It is so strong the gates of hell cannot prevail against it.
Matt. 16:18, And I say unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.
That does not mean that the forces of hell are not out in full force against the Lord and his people. They are. Just this week in Phoenix Arizona, a pastor was arrested, fined twelve thousand dollars, sentenced to two months in jail, and placed on three years probation—for the high crime of preaching the gospel on his own property. The large number of officers who went to arrest him looked, for all the world, like a SWAT team storming a terrorist compound.
His house sits on four and a half acres of land, so there is no problem with parking. With that much land there is no problem getting away from any possible fire. And, with no windows in the meeting place, it is unlikely the neighbors could hear the preaching from that distance. But the local authorities in Phoenix treated him as if he was a danger to society.
This case and others like it point up the fact that the forces of evil will strike us at the point they think they can gain the greatest advantage. It is much easier for them to take over City Council than it is to move Washington to act. Satan is the most effective when he works through unelected bureaucrats, and local officials. He can buy bureaucrats and City Council members for less money than he has to pay for Senators and Representatives.
Bureaucrats issue their regulations with essentially no oversight from Washington, and local officials adopt zoning ordinances to hinder churches from meeting or putting up meeting houses.
Not long ago, the Supreme Court handed down the Eminent Domain ruling that allows local governments to condemn and take private property, and turn it over to private companies for development. They often condemn and take church property, and then limit the number of churches that are allowed to be rebuilt in that area.
In the Phoenix case, the city claimed they took action against that group, because they had not applied for a meeting permit. The city of Yuma, Arizona took exactly the opposite approach. In Yuma, Centro Familiar church did apply for a permit. They were a growing church with over 400 members. They bought an abandoned two story J C Penney’s building in a blighted section of town. The building had stood empty for twenty five years, and more than seventy percent of the other buildings in the area were vacant.
But because it was a church, the city refused to issue the necessary permit. The city said that at some point they intended to develop the area into “an entertainment scene, thriving with pubs, restaurants, theaters, shops, etc.,” and they said a church seemed out of place in that environment. The church had to give up the building they had already bought, and they had to move several times before they found a permanent meeting place. They found it necessary to move eighteen miles out in the country.
By the time they found and purchased a permanent meeting place, they had lost more than half their members, and because, for a time, they were paying for two meeting places, they were financially in distress. At last report, the church was still surviving, in spite of the efforts of the local government to close them down. That sort of thing is happening all over the country, and because the News Media refuses to report it, most people are not aware of what is going on.
To give just one other illustration, it is virtually impossible for any new congregation to buy property and put up a meeting place in New York City. Property simply costs too much. For generations churches have been allowed to rent meeting space in public schools, when the classrooms are standing empty on Sunday mornings. It was a convenient arrangement. The churches had places to meet, and the school system received much needed revenue.
But, as of this past January, the Zionist mayor, Michael Bloomberg, put a stop to that. He evicted the churches from meeting in school rooms.
It could hardly be a question of separation of church and state. Those who attack the church like to use that as an excuse, but that is clearly not the case.
There is also a shortage of classroom space in New York City, and it is just as expensive to buy property to build schools as it is to build churches. At the same time Mayor Bloomberg has tossed the churches out of school classrooms, many New York students are required to attend their regular classes in the Sunday School rooms of local churches.
It is safe to assume that when the churches finished up and left the schools on Sunday Morning they took their religious material with them. It is also safe to assume that the churches that still rent their Sunday School rooms to the school system do not remove their material just because the school students were on their way. The school students are required by law to attend classes in an environment where religious material is lying all around. There is no way you can make the case a matter of separation of Church and State, no matter how someone may try to make that case.
District Judge Loretta Preska has issued an injunction against Mayor Bloomberg, and the churches are, for the moment, allowed to use the classrooms, but it is fairly certain that Bloomberg and his allies will carry the case all the way to the Supreme Court.
Mayor Bloomberg and like-minded people are trying to destroy the Christian religion, but that is nothing new. The church has had its enemies from the very first. They have tried to destroy the church in every age. They have always failed, and they will continue to fail. Studying the history of the church is both depressing and encouraging. It is depressing to read of the many bloodthirsty campaigns that have been launched for no other purpose than to do away with the witness of the gospel, but it is encouraging to read that, regardless of how determined the enemies of God may be, they have always failed. They always will. History is filled with stories of the church surviving in spite of every effort to do away with it.
One of the most inspiring stories from history has to do with a little church in the realm of Theodosia the Byzantine Empress. Theodosia thought the little church was disturbing the peace of her people, and she sent out a general at the head of an army to do away with it.
When the army arrived on the ground, the general had all the members of the church rounded up, and he placed their pastor at the head of the crowd. He commanded the congregation to stone their pastor to death. He managed to get them to pick up the stones, but no matter how much he threatened, and harassed them, he could not get them to throw the stones.
Finally he got first one, then another, of his own soldiers to do the job.
After the preacher fell dead, the general asked if there was still anybody who believed what that man had preached. If there was, he should come forward and take his place. One by one, the members of that little church stepped forward, and, one by one, they died where they stood. They had rather die right then, than deny their Lord.
That Byzantine general watched as, one after another, those faithful believers calmly stepped forward to suffer martyrdom for their Lord, until, finally, he could not take it any more, and he commanded the stoning to stop. He went over, and in a flood of tears, he fell on his knees before what was left of that little congregation, and said, “Tell me about this Jesus.”
The stoning stopped, and the church survived—some of them did anyway—but now they were without a pastor. What would they do? Facing such persecution as they were, where could they find a pastor willing to suffer shame for the Lord’s name. Where could they ever find a pastor willing to put his life on the line by preaching the gospel in the very realm where the Empress had forbidden it under pain of death.
But God’s ways are higher than our ways “as high as the heavens are above the earth.” God knew what he was doing; and he already had a man to take on the job. Where would he find a man like that. I have an idea some of you have already guessed who the new pastor was going to be.
The new pastor of the little church was that same Byzantine general who oversaw the stoning of the old pastor. Can you imagine how humbled the new pastor was—how devastated he was—by the memory of what he had done. God knows how to humble a man in a way he is not capable of humbling himself.
There is no job too hard for the Lord. When he gets ready to provide us with a pastor, he will do it—even if he has to reach right into the ranks of the enemy to do it.
God said this tabernacle “shall not be taken down.” God will have a church in the world, when he comes again in the clouds of glory.
As I sit here pounding out these words, I thank the Lord he led me to his church. I cannot claim to have had the experience that old Byzantine general had, but I pray that, until I am too old and too feeble to preach, the Lord will give me the same grace to defend his cause.
Our Dispensationalist friends may be convinced the church is only a stop-gap measure, and it will apostatize after all. They can tell us the Lord did not want a church in the first place, but don’t you believe it. The Lord has promised to be with his people in the church. He is a refuge to us, and a shelter from the storm. The church has been a haven of rest to me, and I am sure it has been to those of you who are reading these lines.
Psa. 62:2, From the end of the earth will I cry unto thee, when my heart is overwhelmed; lead me to the rock that is higher than I. For thou hast been a shelter for me, and a strong tower from the enemy.
Isa. 32:2, And a man shall be as an hiding place from the wind, and a covert from the tempest; as rivers of water in a dry place, as a shadow of a great rock in a weary land.
Our friends can tell us all they want to that those texts belong only to the Jews, but I am not willing to give them up.
Prov. 23:23, Buy the truth and sell it not, also wisdom and instruction and understanding.
Those old Testament prophecies of the church feed my hungry soul, and it will take more than a few confused and disillusioned Dispensationalists to take them away from me.
THE END