All Evil WILL Be Judged | CultureWatch

All Evil WILL Be Judged

In this life it seems that evil prevails – but justice will come:

We just learned that one famous victim of the infamous Jeffrey Epstein, Ghislaine Maxwell, and their wicked group of sexual traffickers has taken her own life. Just three weeks ago Virginia Giuffre was in a traffic accident in Western Australia and she said she had only ‘four days to live’. Well, now she is gone, having taken her own life.

Let me present the story from one media outlet:

Virginia Giuffre, the American-Australian woman who accused paedophile Jeffrey Epstein of trafficking her, has died by suicide, her family confirmed. Ms Giuffre was found unresponsive in the Western Australian farming area of Neergabby, about one-hour north of Perth, where she had been living. The family announced “with utterly broken hearts” that Ms Giuffre died on Thursday.

“She lost her life to suicide, after being a lifelong victim of sexual abuse and sex trafficking,” the family said in a statement to American news outlet NBC News. “Virginia was a fierce warrior in the fight against sexual abuse and sex trafficking. She was the light that lifted so many survivors. Despite all the adversity she faced in her life, she shone so bright. She will be missed beyond measure. The light of her life were her children Christian, Noah, and Emily. In the end, the toll of abuse is so heavy that it became unbearable for Virginia to handle its weight. We know that she is with the angels.”

Ms Giuffre rose to global prominence after accusing convicted paedophile Jeffrey Epstein of trafficking her to powerful men, including Prince Andrew. She alleged the Duke of York sexually assaulted her when she was 17 at the London home of Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein’s long-time associate convicted of sex trafficking in 2021.

Prince Andrew has always denied all allegations. In March 2022 the Duke and Ms Giuffre reached a settlement out of court. The amount is not known, but it is understood it went to charities. Epstein was found dead inside a New York City jail in 2019 after committing suicide while waiting for trial on child sex trafficking charges.

This is a developing story. More to come. https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/virginia-giuffre-who-once-sued-prince-andrew-for-sexual-assault-dies-aged-41-in-western-australia-family-confirms/news-story/a95f1780d7cb245341e7fca60f002207

There are so many questions of course that arise here. Just how many other victims are there like this, perhaps some of whom we have never heard of? How did Epstein die? Was it really suicide? What about Prince Andrew? Will he get away with all this as well? Evidently there are Epstein client lists available, not only of victims but of the rich and famous (politicians, Hollywood celebrities, and so many others) who took part in this. Will we ever learn who these people are?

And the Christian also has so many questions, although we do have at least some general and broadbrush answers. For example, while we do not have all the details of Giuffre’s situation (and even if this was really a suicide), and so many others like her, we do know some truths:

-Evil exists, and we see evil people doing evil things every single day.
-There are very rich and powerful men (and women) who do some horrific things, and even get away with murder, quite literally.
-There may be no or little justice for their victims in this life, but rest assured they will ALL stand before the living God one day to give an account. Justice WILL be served.

In this life justice too often eludes us. History has always been full of people (mainly, but not always men) who because of their great wealth and inordinate power and control over others can really get away with whatever they like. Whether it is actual murder, or things like sexual trafficking, or countless other crimes against those who are too poor or powerless to defend themselves and get justice, they seem to do great evil with little or no impunity.

It remains to be seen how this very sad story of Giuffre will further develop. But it is so tragic that evil people seem to get away with horrible crimes, but it is the victims who mainly suffer and have to pay the price. But we know that a God of justice WILL prevail, if not always in this life, then certainly in the next.

A biblical case in point

Many stories in Scripture about evil rulers and others oppressing and abusing people can be mentioned. One classic example of this is found in 1 Kings 21 where we read about the evil Ahab, king of Samaria, coveting Naboth’s Vineyard. His equally wicked wife Jezebel urged him on in this endeavour. As we read in verses 7-9:

But Jezebel his wife came to him and said to him, “Why is your spirit so vexed that you eat no food?” And he said to her, “Because I spoke to Naboth the Jezreelite and said to him, ‘Give me your vineyard for money, or else, if it please you, I will give you another vineyard for it.’ And he answered, ‘I will not give you my vineyard.’” And Jezebel his wife said to him, “Do you now govern Israel? Arise and eat bread and let your heart be cheerful; I will give you the vineyard of Naboth the Jezreelite.”

So she did the dirty work for him, getting false witnesses to frame poor Naboth, bringing false charges against him. As a result he was put to death, and Ahab got what he wanted. But in verses 17-19 we read this:

Then the word of the Lord came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying, “Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, who is in Samaria; behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, where he has gone to take possession. And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord, “Have you killed and also taken possession?”’ And you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “In the place where dogs licked up the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick your own blood.”’”

Some repentance on the part of the king resulted in a brief delay in justice. We read: “I will not bring the disaster in his days; but in his son’s days I will bring the disaster upon his house” (v. 29). In 2 Kings 3 we read about the death of Ahab, but in 2 Kings 9 we finally see the prophetic word fulfilled concerning Jezebel. She was thrown out of a window and died:

But when they went to bury her, they found no more of her than the skull and the feet and the palms of her hands. When they came back and told him, he said, “This is the word of the Lord, which he spoke by his servant Elijah the Tishbite: ‘In the territory of Jezreel the dogs shall eat the flesh of Jezebel, and the corpse of Jezebel shall be as dung on the face of the field in the territory of Jezreel, so that no one can say, This is Jezebel.’” (vv. 35-37)

Justice ultimately prevailed. It may not have come quite as quickly as some liked, but it did come nonetheless. For other evildoers, it may seem like they simply get away with it. Hitler did not have to face a court of law – he took his own life. But he, like Epstein and everyone else, will stand before the Righteous Judge and face the music.

2 KINGS; THE POWER AND FURY (Focus on the Bible Commentaries) by DAVIS DALE RALPH (2009) Paperback by unknown author (Author)

But getting back to the biblical story, Dale Ralph Davis in his commentary on 2 Kings first offers three inferences from the material found in Chapter 9. Let me just list his headings:

-The word of God is the catalyst of history.

-Politics, the realm of the bleak and the boring, stands under the judgment of God.

-Yahweh is vigilant to avenge his suffering people.

As to the fate of Jezebel, he writes:

The demise of the wicked should be the joy of the righteous. It may sound crude put it that way but that’s only because the church has stopped living in, for example, Psalms 83 and 94 and has been sucking up the bland milk of tolerance from the breasts of an anemic culture for far too long. There is no biblical spine in our theology.

Admittedly sometimes we’re a bit shocked by the biblical attitude in these matters. I recall a time when our boys were young and I would read them Bible stories before bedtime. After the story we would pray. One evening the story was about Elijah and Jezebel, and it told about how Jezebel was flipped out of the window to her death. I put aside the little book and we went to prayer. Our oldest boy usually tried to reflect what we’d read in our story in his prayer. And it was so this night. Luke prayed: ‘Dear God, thank you for letting Jezebel die.’ I remember being somewhat jolted by the straightforward gratitude but, thankfully, said nothing. Later I realised that Luke was exactly on target. It is always good news for the saints when their oppressors are judged and removed. That’s the word of 2 Kings 9: ‘Joy to the church – the queen is dead!’

Philip Graham Ryken also comments on her end, and reminds believers today that what God promises, that he will do. He did judge the evil Jezebel, and he will judge again at the end of history:

We have God’s word for it: the day of judgment will be a day of vengeance. Few things are explained as frequently and as fully in the Bible as the certainty of the final judgment. J. I. Packer writes, “When Christ comes again and history is completed, all humans of all ages will be raised for judgment and will take their place before God’s judgment seat. The event is unimaginable, no doubt, but human imagination is no measure of what a sovereign God can and will do.”

Know this: the final judgment will be all for the glory of God. Near the end of his apocalypse, John heard “the loud voice of a great multitude in heaven.” They were crying out:

Hallelujah!

Salvation and glory and power belong to our God,

for his judgments are true and just;

for he has judged the great prostitute

who corrupted the earth with her immorality,

and has avenged on her the blood of his servants. (Rev. 19:1–2)

It is so sad that Giuffre had to go through all that she did. It seems like for her there was no real justice. But rest assured: full justice, and just deserts, will be meted out to every man, woman, and child. The Christian knows that there is a double work of justice to be aware of:

At Calvary, Jesus died for our sins, so that those who come to him in faith and repentance can receive mercy instead of justice. They can receive pardon instead of punishment. But all those who refuse this offer of grace today will face the full justice and wrath of God in that day.

We all must choose wisely here. In the meantime, we can keep the family of Giuffre in our prayers, and all those others who suffered so greatly at the hands of Epstein, Maxwell and the sex traffickers. Their sins will NOT go unnoticed and unpunished.

[1875 words]

The post All Evil WILL Be Judged appeared first on CultureWatch.

Who Ya Gonna Call? | CultureWatch

Who Ya Gonna Call?

Who do you depend on for truth?

Let me begin this article by mentioning two quite recent incidents. As so often happen, several unrelated things will nicely coalesce and result in – you guessed it – another article. Thus this piece. The first episode was simply what I read in my morning Scripture reading, primarily in 1 Kings 22, where the wicked King Ahab gets two different sets of advice.

He wanted to know if he should go to battle against the Syrians, and so he asked a bunch of prophets. Some 400 of them said, ‘Yep, fine, go for it, and you will have a cushy victory’ (my paraphrase). BUT, there was a slight problem: one prophet, Micaiah, a true prophet of God, contradicted what the false prophets had said. (More on this story in a moment.

The second incident from today was this: I just returned from having my eyes checked. It had been four years since I had last tested them, and over time it can be hard to notice whether they are in slow decline or not. Thankfully the optometrist said there was very little change, and my current reading glasses should be just fine. It is always good to know I can still see, and that I do not need to dish out more money to get new glasses.

In both cases one could rely on subjective and unreliable means, or turn to more reliable and objective ones. An optometrist was better placed than I to determine the real condition of my eyes. And a true man of God provided an objective and reliable word of God over against that of the lying prophets.

Before discussing this further, let me briefly mention one aspect of this story that can seem somewhat strange. It is said of the false prophets that a deceiving spirit was sent to them by God (verses 18-23). That can certainly sound troubling to believers today, but I have already penned an entire article on that difficult passage. See here for how we might understand this: https://billmuehlenberg.com/2017/04/23/difficult-bible-passages-1-kings-2221-24/

But it is this issue of who we will turn to and who we will rely on when it comes to important matters that needs to be further discussed. As to our health, generally speaking you want reliable experts, be they doctors, dentists or what have you, to give you a more accurate picture of your condition. Relying on your own subjective feelings and guesses may not always be that helpful.

And this is certainly the case when we want to know God’s will. While most of us will not be asking God whether we should go out and do battle with a pagan king, and whether we will win or not, we all have plenty of important issues that we want some solid guidance on. In these areas the real Christian will want something more than mere hunches, emotions, or whims. He will want the sure word of God.

But as we find in various Old Testament stories, an evil ruler who is hellbent on doing what he wants instead of what God wants, will readily give ear to false prophets and other ‘yes men’. They will tell the evil king what he wants to hear, instead of what God wants him to hear. As John Davies comments, “Ahab exemplifies all who seek to manipulate the word of God, to screen out what they regard as unpalatable, and to place personal agendas above truth.”

Bear in mind that true prophets are seldom popular. Indeed, we can bank on this reality: If we speak truth to power, if we stand by the word of God even when it is risky and costly to do so, we will likely have to pay the price for this. Recall what happened to Micaiah (verses 26-28):

And the king of Israel said, “Seize Micaiah, and take him back to Amon the governor of the city and to Joash the king’s son, and say, ‘Thus says the king, “Put this fellow in prison and feed him meager rations of bread and water, until I come in peace.”’” And Micaiah said, “If you return in peace, the Lord has not spoken by me.” And he said, “Hear, all you peoples!”

Of course when these evil folks run with ungodly counsel and refuse to listen to the living God, their end will be as sad as it will be predicable. What we read in verses 37-39 is certainly hardcore: “So the king died, and was brought to Samaria. And they buried the king in Samaria. And they washed the chariot by the pool of Samaria, and the dogs licked up his blood, and the prostitutes washed themselves in it, according to the word of the Lord that he had spoken.”

So many lessons for us today can be found as we read a chapter like this. Pagan leaders as well as church leaders both need to pay attention here. John Davies goes on to say this:

Civic leaders love to enlist the aid of religion in the furtherance of their agendas. Particularly when the church is in some way beholden to the state (through establishment, tax concessions or other privileges), the temptation for the church to cooperate and go along with state initiatives, toning down its message rather than speaking fearlessly in the name of the living God, can be strong. Even the pressures within the church to achieve a consensus or ‘unity’ at the expense of truth can prove too much for many. Thank God for those who are prepared to stand alone, if need be, and declare what God has revealed.

1 Kings (EP Study Commentary) by John Davies (Author)

Yes, the need for church leaders in particular, and all Christians in general, to proclaim the word of the Lord bravely and consistently is always something we dare not shy away from. As Dale Ralph David comments:

Whatever word Yahweh gives a prophet, that is what the prophet must speak. The prophet is not at liberty to massage or shape or bend, let alone pervert, that word. The word of Yahweh is a given and must be passed on as given. The true prophet of God is in bondage to the incoercible word of God. The word of Yahweh is free; The servant of Yahweh is in bondage to it. Ahab cannot comprehend the sovereign freedom of Yahweh’s word.

He is not alone. You are a pastor. Before use sits a nice, romantic, post-modern couple who want you to perform their marriage. One of them, a professing Christian, is a member of the church you serve; The other, you have divined by question and conversation, is not a Christian. You tell the latter so and then inform the couple that Scripture does not allow you to join them in marriage (inferring from 1 Cor. 7:39, for example). But, they say, they were going to attend church here (the suggestion being that now they won’t do so). You realize, don’t you, that the member’s family [also members] will be irate over your refusal? Don’t you know there are other clergy who have no such scruples? While you may have your opinion about what the word of God requires, why do you have to be bound by that? Aren’t a lot of these things open for reinterpretation? On it goes. Men and women still don’t understand that the word of God is not under your control but that, contrariwise, you are in bondage to it. This blows them away. The pressure to compromise the word of God may come at the gate of Samaria – but it repeatedly comes in the pastor’s study. Micaiah would understand, for he knew that the loneliness of Yahweh’s man is the corollary of the freedom of Yahweh’s word.

The point is always the same: Who ya gonna call? Who are you going to rely on? Who are you going to believe? Who is your ultimate authority? Is it God and his word, or a host of slick and clever-sounding religious types that assure you that whatever you want to do is just fine, so go for it? David Lamb puts it this way:

Like Ahab, we are often faced with a choice of who to believe, when we hear contradictory messages, whether it be from a friend, a pastor, or a politician. And like the prophets of 1 Kings 22, we are often in positions where we can choose to speak truth. While it would be nice if it were always easy, speaking the truth is often painful. The truth can be painful to hear because everyone wants to hear optimistic messages (like Ahab). But if you look at the messages of the prophets of Scripture, many of them were pessimistic. Barnes captures the prophetic perspective well: “The default position, if you will, is pessimism; optimists must prove the divine inspiration of their words!” Before they give good news, biblical prophets often give bad news, which should make us suspicious of people who only tell us what we want to hear. We can be like Ahab, listening to advice from multiple sources, then only following the message we want to hear because it seems less painful. But as we see in this story, that approach is foolish. The painful truth in the short run would have saved Ahab’s life in the long run.

The false prophets were a recurring problem in Old Testament times. They are still a problem today – both within and without the church. Those outside the church are many, and simply tuning into any mainstream media outlet will expose you to all sorts of them.

But within the church we also have those who love to tickle the ears of the people telling them what they want instead of what they need to hear. It could involve telling their listeners that they can live a life of luxury, comfort and problem-free living. Or these church leaders will simply go along along with the world’s agendas, refusing to speak out on the important issues of the day, such as the sanctity of life or the importance of biblical marriage and family.

Dangerous and deceptive voices are everywhere to be found. And when you are uncertain about who to believe – about which way to go – then more than ever we need to make God and his revealed truth our true and final port of call.

So who are you gonna call?

[1728 words]

The post Who Ya Gonna Call? appeared first on CultureWatch.

Devotional for November 12, 2024 | Tuesday: True and False Prophets

1 John 4:1-6 In this week’s studies on truth and error, we see that there are only two responses as to who Jesus Christ really is.

Theme

True and False Prophets

In these verses John deals with this problem of the need to discern teaching in the church and, therefore, also with our own need to exercise such discernment. His reply has three parts. First, there is the command to test those who claim to be inspired. Second, there is a standard to be used in testing them. Third, there is an application of these ideas to the problem of distinguishing between true and merely professing Christians. In this last section John deals once more with the radical distinction between the church and the world and shows the relation of each to the apostolic doctrine. 

The contrasts in this section are therefore between the Holy Spirit and false spirits, belief and unbelief, and in a summary way (v. 6) between truth and error. 

John begins with the statement that there are false prophets as well as true prophets and with a command for Christians to distinguish between them. At the same time he indicates what the important point is in such distinguishing. It is not whether supernatural phenomena are present, for the devil can also appear to do miracles. It is a question of the source of the prophet’s inspiration. Is it of God? In that case, the prophet is a true prophet. If it is not of God, then he is not to be believed or followed, however great his wisdom or however striking his activity. 

When John says that many false prophets are gone out into the world he is not necessarily thinking of his day alone. Indeed he would know that there have always been false prophets and that God’s people have always had the task of distinguishing between those who are of God and those who speak either of themselves or by the power of the devil. The Old Testament contains a magnificent example in the case of Micaiah and the prophets of King Ahab, recorded in 1 Kings 22. King Ahab of Israel had been trying to persuade King Jehoshaphat of Judah to join him in battle against Syria in order to annex a piece of real estate known as Ramoth-gilead, but Jehoshaphat was skeptical. He wanted to ask whether the venture was blessed by the Lord by inquiring of a prophet. When he expressed this desire Ahab responded by calling together four hundred of the court prophets, who then testified: “Go up; for the LORD shall deliver it into the hand of the king” (v. 6). 

At this point Ahab was pleased; but Jehoshaphat was dissatisfied, for he sensed that these men were merely paid mouthpieces kept by Ahab for propaganda purposes. Jehoshaphat asked, “Is there not here a prophet of the LORD besides, that we might inquire of him?” (v. 7). Ahab admitted that there was a man named Micaiah, but he said that he hated him because he never prophesied anything good about Ahab. Ahab did not want to hear Micaiah. Nevertheless, at Jehoshaphat’s insistence this unpopular prophet was called.

At first the prophet ridiculed the kings, saying word for word exactly what the false prophets had prophesied. But everyone understood what he was doing, and Ahab finally called, “How many times shall I adjure thee that thou tell me nothing but that which is true in the name of the LORD?” (v. 16).

Study Questions

1. What are the three parts of John’s instruction for how to discern teaching in the church?
2. List the contrasts in our passage.
3. When trying to distinguish teaching, what is the important point we need to remember?
4. When Jehoshaphat asked Ahab for prophetic confirmation of Ahab’s plan, why was Jehoshaphat displeased?
5. Why did Ahab hate the prophet Micaiah?
6. Why would Micaiah prophesy as he did toward Ahab?

Application

For Further Study: Download for free and listen to James Boice’s message, “Man’s Doctrine, God’s Doctrine.” (Discount will be applied at checkout.)

https://www.thinkandactbiblically.org/tuesday-true-and-false-prophets/

October 19 | 1 Kings 22; 1 Thessalonians 5; Daniel 4; Psalms 108–109 (Part 1)

the last chapter of 1 kings, 1 Kings 22, many believers find troubling. For here God himself is presented as sending out “a lying spirit” (22:22) who will deceive King Ahab and lead him to his destruction. Does God approve of liars?

The setting is instructive. For once, the kingdom of Judah and the kingdom of Israel are pulling together against the king of Aram, instead of tearing at each other’s throats. Jehoshaphat, king of Judah, comes across as a good man who is largely desirous of adhering to the covenant and being loyal to God, yet is a bit of a wimp. He treats the prospective military expedition as if it were an adventure, but he does want Ahab, king of Israel, to “seek the counsel of the Lord” (22:5). After the false prophets have finished, Jehoshaphat has sufficient smarts to ask if there is some other prophet of the Lord, and Micaiah surfaces. Yet despite Micaiah’s warnings, he goes off with Ahab, and even agrees to retain his royal robes while Ahab’s identity is masked.

But the heart of the issue turns on Micaiah. Observe:

(1) Implicitly, Ahab has surrounded himself with religious yes-men who will tell him what he wants to hear. The reason he hates Micaiah is because what Micaiah says about him is bad. Like all leaders who surround themselves with yes-men, Ahab sets himself up to be deceived.

(2) When Micaiah begins with a sarcastic positive prognostication (22:15), Ahab instantly recognizes that Micaiah is not telling the truth (22:16). This hints at a conscience more than a little troubled. After all, God had previously told Ahab that because of his guilt in the matter of Naboth, dogs would one day lick up his blood (21:19). He thus expected bad news someday, and at a deep level of his being could not really trust the happy forecasts of his domesticated “prophets.”

(3) When Micaiah tells him of impending disaster, he also provides a dramatic reason for the coherence and unanimity of the false prophets: God himself had sanctioned a deceitful spirit. Ahab’s time has come: he will be destroyed. God’s sovereignty extends even over the means to send Ahab’s tame prophets a “strong delusion” (compare 2 Thess. 2:11–12). Yet the fact that Ahab is told all this demonstrates that God is still graciously providing him with access to the truth. But Ahab is so far gone that he cannot stomach the truth. In a ridiculous response, he believes enough of the truth to hide his own identity in the hordes of common soldiers, but not enough to stay away from Ramoth Gilead. So he dies: God’s sovereign judgment is enacted, not least because Ahab, hearing both the truth and the lie, preferred the lie.¹

---

¹  Carson, D. A. (1998). For the love of God: a daily companion for discovering the riches of God’s Word. (Vol. 1, p. 318). Crossway Books.

Warring Against God

What a great comfort we receive in the knowledge that we belong, in both body and soul, to a sovereign God, who is by his very nature a merciful, gracious, loving God. His promises are for the good of His people. We may suffer in this life, and often we do. God does not promise that life will be easy. What God does promise that that He is faithful to His decrees.

Now a certain man drew a bow at random, and struck the king of Israel between the joints of his armor… and the king was propped up in his chariot, facing the Syrians, and died at evening.  (1 Kings 22:34-35)

The archery reference in this passage may be obscure at first glance, and yet the background is very familiar to us. At this point we see Ahab, the king of Israel in cooperation with Jehoshaphat the king of Judah, both at war against the nation of Syria. Prior to this battle, the prophet of the Lord had warned King Ahab that if he went into battle, then he would be killed.

Now we remember Ahab as the weak and wicked husband of Queen Jezebel, the same royal family which vigorously sought to destroy the Prophet Elijah. God had promised to punish Ahab for his wickedness. Scripture tells us the pride precedes destruction (Pr. 16:18); in the case of Ahab, his pride told him that God had no authority over him, and on that same day he was killed.

Ahab had a plan; he would go into battle as a common soldier, and asked the king of Judah to be dressed in full royal apparel. The scheme was that Syria would mistake Jehoshaphat for Ahab, and the result would be that Ahab would live, while Jehoshaphat would be killed.

A brilliant plan! But a plan that makes God to be small and man to be great.

A certain man drew a bow at random. What an interesting line!

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