Condemnation or Gospel Death or Life

Becky McLendon

Self-righteousness is as rebellion, and rebellion is as witchcraft. It is a witchcraft spirit that wants to do away with the ideas of “church,” Christmas, and even the word Christian. This self-righteousness has eaten of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and sets out to condemn and judge the whole world according to that knowledge. This time of year we are inundated with articles about the “evils” of Christmas and later on in the year, we will hear once again about the “evils” of Easter. Everyone who is a Christian has been made well aware of the “pagan” origins of the “days of observance,” yet do we realize that buried in these “holidays” is the light of Jesus Christ? Perhaps it is the only light that some people ever see? Face it, no matter what, there WAS a birth, and there IS a resurrection! And the LIGHT is come.

Look at the great darkness that would be on the earth if everything that might have even a little light in it were done away with by the heathen and the Pharisees. Those that want total darkness would do away with it, whether they be heathen or religious. They have never been able to tolerate the light. Now we are trying to dishonor and kill the very mother that gave birth to us.

The wicked Herod tried to kill the baby Jesus, and religion nailed him to a cross, both trying to get rid of Him. Now the same things are happening. On the one hand you have the ACLU working overtime trying to remove all icons of Christianity from the public arena. On the other hand you have the “out of Babylon” religionists, devoid of the spirit of God, declaring that all icons of Christianity are to be removed from the Christian arena. ACLU has tried to remove the word of God from the public arena, and now we have religionists running about trying to remove the Bible from the people’s hands, because it is a “faulty translation.” People are being condemned because they don’t use certain translations of the Bible. Interestingly the arguments that ensue are over English translations. It is as if the only Bible worth reading is written in English. I haven’t seen arguments over the “Spanish” or “German” Bible. Maybe they also exist.

People are told they are going to go to hell if they observe certain holidays because they do not fall on “accurate dates,” and they serve merely to Christianize pagan practices. They are also led to believe they are going to hell if they have the wrong “bible.” They are all told to come out of Babylon, but never given a place to go to. This Babylon that we are all coming out of is the very mother that gave birth to us! We saw the Light in Babylon, and THERE IS A TINY LIGHT STILL THERE.

For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2 COR. 4:6

Think what darkness there would be on this earth if we didn't have reminders, signposts. At least people are turned to thoughts of Jesus during these times. Some actually “hear” the gospel at these times, even through a simple Christmas card that depicts one occasion that impacted the whole world for all generations. I, for one, “heard” the gospel in my spirit at a Maundy Thursday observance where the “Easter” hymn, “Were You There When They Crucified My Lord?” was being played! I sat in darkness and saw a great light.

The people which sat in darkness saw great light; and to them which sat in the region and shadow of death light is sprung up. MT. 4:16

Caterpillars that eat away the good foliage don't want any light; neither do moles...that "undermine" the garden. They only want to eliminate and destroy what remains.

So, with the ACLU and the “out of Babylon” religionists (who are both still sitting in darkness and death) taking away the “icons” of Christmas, Easter and the word of God, reminders of the light which is God’s love, are removed from the sight of those who walk in darkness. When light is snuffed out, love is snuffed out and replaced by materialism. If merchants made billions with the Ten Commandments we would still have them on display in public. Only money has saved Christmas and Easter. And it keeps religion going too.

Rebellion controls self-righteousness and says, “I am holier than thou. Don't touch me I am holy.” It says, “don’t touch, don’t eat, don’t drink, or you will be condemned.” Rebellion and self-righteousness says, “ I thank God I am not like that miserable sinner over there. I have ‘come out of her,’ and made myself holy.” The sad thing is, many of these have “come out of her,” but have no where to “go” when they come out, for they did not come out of her IN CHRIST. They came out of her, trying to "do" the righteousness of God. God leads believers out by His spirit into a place of growth, not a place of grumbling and complaining "Have you brought us out here to starve us to death??"

Rebellion and self-righteousness sets itself on the throne that only the lord can occupy and makes the whole temple an abomination and desolation. If you have taken yourself out of “Babylon” or the “system” or whatever you want to call it, but were not led out of it by the holy spirit of God in peace, then you are set upon the throne of the temple speaking blasphemies and false testimony. If you have prided yourself in coming out of something, but have not humbled yourself to enter into Christ, you have not come out of anything. You have put yourself deeper into the things of darkness than you have ever been.

The activities of the ACLU are the same as the activities of the religious holier than thou! They are identical spirits coming straight from antichrist. Antichrist is not the pope, it is not some political figure, it is not some evil demonized crazy dictator. The antichrist stares back at us in the mirror, taunting and laughing in derision until we submit to the fire of the Holy Spirit and become the Lord’s ashes. Then he cannot touch us.

If we preach the gospel of condemnation that says, “If you don’t stop this or start doing that, you will go to hell,” we are no better than the ACLU that wants to snuff Jesus out. Jesus came to save, not condemn.

So where do we who truly believe fit in the lives of men? If there is no place for Jesus there is no place for us. We do not live in the "night”. Nor do we desire the "night,” for our kingdom has no darkness. The light is as the noonday sun. Our kingdom is not of this world so the world cannot find any place in us. The light we walk in dispels all darkness that comes our way. Even in the middle of Christmas, Easter, godless systems, and the bleak public hillsides.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. MT. 5:14

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness! MT. 6:22,23

We are called to be the light that shines out of the darkness. We are called to preach a gospel that is really and truly good news. We are called to be HIS witnesses, not false witnesses.

A false witness testifies of things he has not seen: things that have not been revealed by the spirit of God to the spirit of man. Therefore, the false witness blasphemes the Holy Spirit by sitting on the throne that rightly belongs to the Lord. The false witness may speak the right truth, but through the wrong spirit. Truth spoken from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil brings death. Many people who call themselves believers do just this. They get a bit of “knowledge” in their heads, and decide for themselves that this is a vital “truth” and then begin beating everyone else up with their knowledge. This “knowledge comes from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A true witness speaks from the tree of life, and his words (more than likely the identical truth that the false witness speaks) bring life to those who hear. Christ only comes to His temple by revelation not study and debate.

Whenever religionists point to things and say, “oh don’t touch, don’t do, don’t eat or you will go to hell,” they are speaking out of the puffed up knowledge of good and evil. They put themselves up as gods sitting in judgment.

The gospel says to us: “I come as one who loves you in a way that no other has loved you. I say unto you to lay hold of Christ…grab the hem of that garment and press in through the crowd and the noise, saying, ‘if I but touch His garment, I shall be healed; if I become one with Him, I shall be whole’.” Only then will our land be healed.

Let all that you speak, all that you believe, all that you do be born out of a deep conviction through the revelation of our Lord, which is Jesus Christ by His spirit. All else is in vain, even if it is “true.”

AMEN AND AMEN.