Talk of JESUS .com

Category: Prophets – Warnings for 21st century ‘christians’

stone carving of the prophet Jeremiah reading Bible - Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel are major Prophets of the Old Testament
Jeremiah by Michelangelo

Old Testament Prophets WARNED Israel, Judah, and neighboring nations about what GOD has planned IF they did NOT REPENT (and they usually didn’t).

How does this speak to 21 c. ‘christians’ in these last days? Are you bold enough to WARN your SOCIAL ‘Friends’ of what Jesus Christ warns? Does the message of a Prophet apply even more to them and US, now? SHARE your scriptural warnings from the Prophets and WITNESS for our LORD, WHO IS and returning… soon.

  • take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    take up a song of mourning: the coastlands shake

    Take up a song of mourning for what God is about to do to you;

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    The earth quakes and Empires crumble

    Take up a song of mourning for all the people shaken and crushed as the Lord makes the earth and sea to quake.
    NOTE 21st c. Gaziantep, Turkiye beyond the path of Paul’s 2nd missionary land journey from Antioch to Derbe with Silas.

    TODAY, we interrupt the earthquakes and witness of Paul’s second missionary journey in Philippi from ACTS of the Apostles to re-post a 4-part series from two years ago.

    Rejoice that I am no prophet

    (For the only prophesy I ever imagined may have been from God has not yet happened.)

    My song of mourning echoes God’s indictment spoken to falling nations of the Old Testament and the New Testament warning of Hebrews. For my own heart mourns ahead for what is to become of this land of so much promise.

    And allow me to add an unpalatable and unspeakable truth: Muhammed was no prophet of God, Joseph Smith was no prophet of Jesus Christ and no political leader I know even comes close to speaking the hallowed word of God.

    Source: Middle East Monitor:

    Gaziantep, Turkiye on March 02, 2023 [Adsız Günebakan/Anadolu Agency]

    SHAKEN! – a 4-part continued warning

    SHAKEN ! PRAYER IN DIFFICULT TIMES – Psalm 60
    SHAKEN! part 1 – Jan. 22, 2021 – “God, you have rejected us – Psalm 60
    SHAKEN 2 “Think carefully about your ways
    January 25, 2021 – ‘Who is left among you who saw this house in its former glory? – Haggai 2:3
    SHAKEN 3 a great cloud of witnesses over our head
    January 27, 2021 – “Today if you hear His voice, Do not harden your hearts.” Hebrews 4:7b CSB
    SHAKEN 4 – His voice shook the earth
    January 29, 2021 – but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” – Hebrews 12:26b

    A song of mourning through Ezekiel

    Picture a Prophet, faithful to the Lord God, lamenting the downfall of nations including his own. Ezekiel speaks a song of mourning for nation after nation and leader after leader.

    WHY have these listened to false prophets?

    What consequence for those who have turned against the LORD.

    The compelling scenes of Ezekiel’s encounters with the Lord God will seem familiar to those of you who have also discovered the Revelation of Jesus Christ to John.

    Most of what God has to say should bring even a 21st century observer of these last days to mourn for the lost righteousness the LORD has intended. Once again the faithful must sing a song of mourning for so many cities and every nation.

    Mar. 16, 597 B.C. – Babylon, led by Nebuchadnezzar beseiged Jerusalem a second time and took captive King Jehoiachin and a group of 10,000, including Ezekiel.

    – Source (paraphrased) John MacArthur :: Bible Introductions – Ezekiel

    .. Such was the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD. And when I saw it, I fell on my face and heard a voice speaking. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will speak with you.”

    And as He spoke to me the Spirit entered me and set me on my feet; and I heard Him speaking to me. Then He said to me,

    “Son of man, I am sending you to the sons of Israel, to a rebellious people who have rebelled against Me; they and their fathers have revolted against Me to this very day.

    Ezekiel 1:28b-2:3 NASB20

    “But you shall speak My words to them whether they listen or not, for they are rebellious.

    Then I looked, and behold, a hand was extended to me;

    and behold, a scroll was in it.

    When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back,

    and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Excerpts from Ezekiel 2

    Ezekiel - When He spread it out before me, it was written on the front and back, and written on it were songs of mourning, sighing, and woe.

    Shall WE speak more woe to those who are perishing?

    Ezekiel 19:

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of Israel..

    ‘Your mother was like a vine in your vineyard..

    ‘But it was uprooted in fury;
    It was thrown down to the ground;
    And the east wind dried up its fruit.
    [fn]Its strong stem [fn]was torn out
    So that it withered;
    The fire consumed it..

    ‘And fire has gone out from its stem;
    It has consumed its shoots and fruit,
    So that there is no strong stem in it,
    A scepter to rule.’”

    This is a song of mourning, and has become a song of mourning.

    Ezekiel 25:
    • Prophesy Against Ammon
    • Prophesy Against Moab
    • Prophesy Against Edom
    • Prophesy Against Philistia

    “So I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful reproofs; and they will know that I am Yahweh when I lay My vengeance on them.”’”

    Could there be a Prophecy Against US?

    “As for you, take up a song of mourning for the leaders of … - Ezekiel
    a song of mourning
    Prophesy Against Tyre
Ezekiel 26

    Thus says Lord Yahweh to Tyre,

    “Shall not the coastlands shake at the sound of your downfall when the wounded groan, when the killing occurs in your midst?

    Lament over Tyre
    “O Tyre, you have said, ‘I am perfect in beauty.’
“Your borders are in the heart of the seas;
Your builders have perfected your beauty.

“Your wealth, your wares, your merchandise,
Your sailors and your pilots,
Your repairers of seams, your dealers in merchandise,
And all your men of war who are in you,
With all your assembly that is in your midst,
Will fall into the heart of the seas
On the day of your downfall.

    ‘Who is like Tyre,

    Like her who is silent in the midst of the sea?

    Ezekiel 28:

    “Son of man, say to the ruler of Tyre, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh,

    “Because your heart is lofty
    And you have said, ‘I am a god;

    I sit enthroned in the seat of gods
    In the heart of the seas’;

    Yet you are a man and not God,

    Although you make your heart like the heart of God—

    debate stage Trump, political idol of the extreme right and Biden, political idol of the extreme left.

    “You had the seal of perfection,

    Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty…

    “Your heart was lofty because of your beauty;

    You corrupted your wisdom by reason of your splendor.

    I cast you to the ground;

    I put you before kings,

    That they may see you…

    “All who know you among the peoples
    Are appalled at you;

    You have become terrified,

    And you will cease to be forever.”’”

    Ezekiel 28:19 Legacy Standard Bible

    Revelation

    The revelation of Jesus Christ that God gave him to show his servants what must soon take place. He made it known by sending his angel to his servant John,

    Look, he is coming with the clouds,

and every eye will see him,

even those who pierced him.

And all the tribes of the earth

will mourn over him.

So it is to be. Amen.

    Could a song of mourning be for US?

    For all the nations have drunk[fn] the wine of her sexual immorality, which brings wrath. The kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality with her, and the merchants of the earth have grown wealthy from her sensuality and excess. - Revelation 18:3 CSB

    The kings of the earth who have committed sexual immorality and shared her sensual and excessive ways will weep and mourn over her when they see the smoke from her burning.

    Revelation 18:9

    Rejoice over her, heaven,

    and you saints, apostles, and prophets,

    because God has pronounced on her the judgment she passed on you!

    Revelation 18:20 CSB

    Washington DC mall
    White House and lightning

    For a nation led by the ungodly was never great

    And a nation will never build again an altar to Molech or a goddess of the virgin Earth.

    Woe, woe, the great city,

    dressed in fine linen, purple, and scarlet,

    adorned with gold, jewels, and pearls;

    for in a single hour

    such fabulous wealth was destroyed!

  • REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    REPENTANCE! Rated ‘R’ – but Not for Revival

    I will ransom them from the power of the grave;

    I will redeem them from death:

    O death, I will be thy plagues;

    O grave, I will be thy destruction:

    repentance shall be hid from mine eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 KJV

    a Gathering of the Dead with NO Hope of Revival

    When the Prophets spoke a convicting word of repentance to the professed chosen of the LORD, WHY didn’t THEY repent?

    Could it be that THEY refused to hear ANY word of conviction – an accountably of the GOD’s indictment of SIN?

    (And like THEM, who among us is not GUILTY of hiding OUR sins from the Lord as we would like to think on occasion after occasion?)

    Are those ancient LEADERS and PEOPLE of Judah, Israel and the nations JUST LIKE US?

    Repent therefore, and turn back, that your sins may be blotted out - Acts 3: Peter preaching repentance
    Repentance!

    Repentance oft’ served bitterly in the King James

    (Of course most shepherds of Christ's 21st c. churches resist a call of evangelism by reading the KJV. Most will not preach any convicting word of God given to fallen people through His PROPHETS from ANY translation of the Holy Bible.) 

After all, who comes to church to REPENT?

    The Prophets use severe terms that a pastor hardly dare preach

    – the ‘R’ rated word of the LORD –

    NOT ever to be spoken to a sweetened Sunday flock of young christians, gracefully posing alongside a remnant of the faithful, as sinless sheep.

    AND IF you are not repentant about your continued sins against Him don’t think that your preferred personal designation of ‘King Jesus’ will save you from the grave.

    We certainly wouldn’t want our Jesus-lovers sent home sorrowful [נֹחַם] over our sin.

    Yet this is exactly the other meaning of the repentance of which the Prophet speaks in saying that the LORD will hide YOUR sorrow from His eyes.

    Hosea and other ‘minor’ prophets will often rail on bitterly in a specific call of repentance.

    The LORD reminds Israel through Hosea’s words and obedient unexpected actions of their former disobedience to obey their promises to Him.

    The LORD’s word by the mouth of His Prophets may not only be bitter and offensive, but rated ‘R’ in the church gathering of culturally inclusive Sunday audience.

    So would you with ears to hear prefer to hear the LORD in easier English than the King James? 
(Any translation of Scripture can be convicting to a heart open to receive the word of the Lord.)

    It is your ruin, O Israel,

    That you are against Me, against your help…

    I gave you a king in My anger
    And took him away in My wrath.

    Hosea 13:9.11 LSB

    The LORD laments over Israel when He sorrowfully gave them Saul as a king —

    and then David, a man after God’s own heart

    — and Solomon who built the Temple

    — and his sons who as kings of Israel and Judah lost favor, because these kings and their subjects most often refused to repent.

    Returning to Hosea's calling and also the King James:

    Hosea 1:

    The word of the LORD that came unto Hosea, the son of Beeri, in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and in the days of Jeroboam the son of Joash, king of Israel.

    The beginning of the word of the LORD by Hosea.

    And the LORD said to Hosea,

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    • Would you like to go tell your President or king THAT?
    • Dare you call your congregation and country ‘children of whoredoms?’ [v.2]
    • Will you warn them “.. ye are not my people, and I will not be your God?” [v.9]

    AND from there, the LORD gets even more graphic in HIS imagery of nakedness of the sin of his CHOSEN PEOPLE who bear witness to HIS NAME (supposedly).

    IS THAT how we witness JESUS when we whisper to Him gracefully on Sunday?

    “‘King Jesus,’ WE love what you have done for US,”

    Christ gets little mention.. no honor.. no priority in six and a half days of our weekly life?

    When do YOU ever Talk of JESUS outside of the walls of a ‘worship’ service?

    Roger@TalkofJesus.com

    Repent & Turn back to your Savior

    Here’s the idea of Repentance when you have an argument with God:

    COMPLAINT!
    Job 6: “my complaint is just.’ BUT finally the LORD answers Job in a whirlwind (think tornadic pillar of fire!)

    Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

    Job 42:6

    And Job was a righteous man!

    But to the unrighteous kings, princes and people God warns Israel and commands his last Prophet of Israel, Hosea:

    Go, take unto thee a wife of whoredoms and children of whoredoms: for the land hath committed great whoredom, departing from the LORD.

    Hebrew – נָחַם

    KJV Translation Count — Total: 108x
    The KJV translates Strong’s H5162 in the following manner: comfort (57x), repent (41x), comforter (9x), ease (1x).
    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to be sorry, console oneself, repent, regret, comfort, be comforted

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Repent – Greek – μετανοέω

    Do you recognize the comfort of having your guilt removed by God when you repent of sin?

    Of course YOU are not alone. For your witness of Christ our Savior ought to be that WE are included with THEM in that all have sinned [Romans 3]. JESUS paid the full price the justice of God requires (even for repentant sinners like you and me).

    Remember therefore from whence thou art fallen, and repent, and do the first works; or else I will come unto thee quickly, and will remove thy candlestick out of his place, except thou repent.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:5 KJV – THIS to the 1st c. CHURCH at Ephesus 
    Shepherds of 21st c. churches also resist the New Testament repentance of preaching Jesus' Revelation of THE END to sheepish christian congregations more entertained than revived.

YES, JESUS is KING of Kings and Lord of lords! Is your worship of the KING appropriate to His call to obedience?

    Lexicon :: Strong’s G3340 – metanoeō

    Outline of Biblical Usage [?]
    to change one’s mind, i.e. to repent

    to change one’s mind for better, heartily to amend with abhorrence of one’s past sins

    “Repentance (metanoia, ‘change of mind’) involves a turning with contrition from sin to God; the repentant sinner is in the proper condition to accept the divine forgiveness.” (F. F. Bruce. The Acts of the Apostles [Greek Text Commentary], London: Tyndale, 1952, p. 97.)

    Source: BlueLetterBible.org

    Repent ye G3340 therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

    Acts of the Apostles 3:19 KJV

    This is how Peter and the Apostles preached.

    Peter Replied: Signs Preached from Solomon’s Porch
    Yet Peter replied also inviting their response.

    Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.

    Acts 4:4 KJV

    Revival?

    I shall ransom them from the power of Sheol;
    I shall redeem them from Death.
    O Death, where are your plagues?
    O Sheol, where is your sting?
    Compassion is hidden from my eyes.

    Hosea 13:14 ESV

    Aren’t followers of Jesus — Ἰησοῦς His NAME means: “Jehovah is salvation” — ransomed from the cost of sin and the power of Sheol by the price He paid on the Cross?

    Since JESUS IS GOD, aren’t His followers redeemed by Him from Death?

    Whoever is wise, let him understand these things;
    whoever is discerning, let him know them;
    for the ways of the LORD are right,
    and the upright walk in them,
    but transgressors stumble in them.

    Hosea 14:9 ESV – the Prophet’s closing cautions to the wise in the Lord.

    The root of revival is ‘to live!’ – חָיָה

    Yet Hosea warns that transgressors will stumble into Sheol and Death.

    AND David sings out in Psalm 37: He Will Not Forsake His Saints

    v.38 But transgressors shall be altogether destroyed;
    the future of the wicked shall be cut off.

    Shall the transgressor of Christ’s grace receive carte blanche revival from the grave without witness of the saving Cross of JESUS?

    In fact, what did the King of kings and Lord of lords have to say about such revival?

    Gospel Truth (and the Way and the Life)

    “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord.. And then will I declare to them,

    ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

    Matthew 7:21-23 excerpt ESV

    The word for lawlessness Jesus uses is: ἀνομία – anomia – its definition:

    contempt and violation of law, iniquity, wickedness

    When a man thought a family obligation should delay his discipleship to the Lord Jesus he received an unexpected answer from the Son of Man who could actually revive the dead:

    And Jesus said to him, “Follow me, and leave the dead to bury their own dead.”

    Matthew 8:22 ESV

    NO, I do not believe that we will have REVIVAL in the Church (people, and not the building of certain Shepherds) WITHOUT first witnessing the fruit of REPENTANCE by the crowds from which Jesus fled.

    What do YOU think, my fellow follower of Christ Jesus?

    Repentance OR Revival?

  • Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Scandalous Faith – a Millstone around our neck

    Lent 2023 AD + 

    Original post date: 29 March, in the year of our Lord 2022

    Today’s topic is scandal!

    ASH WEDNESDAY in the year of our Lord 2023, we begin with TODAY’S subject:

    cross hanging from car mirror - Christians wear a symbol of a scandalous faith in Jesus Christ as God and Lord

    Christians in the shoes of Jonah

    Repent, Jonah!

    It’s raining and you are NOT Noah who will save only his own family from the flood.

    The ground is shaking in the year of our Lord 2023 and you are NOT Abraham who will rescue only his family from the evil and the fate of Sodom or the judgment of Gomorrah.

    This is what the LORD of Heaven’s Armies says:
    “I, myself, have risen against Babylon!
    I will destroy its children and its children’s children,”
    says the LORD.

    Isaiah 14:16 NLT

    Yet the Prophet Jonah REFUSED to preach to the few who could be saved from the wrath to come to the city of destruction.

    CROSS Remember man that you are dust and into dust you shall return

    Ashes of Ash Wednesday + a Preparation of Repentance

    So YOU claim to be an evangelist of JESUS to the nations?

    GO into all the world and preach Good News, the Gospel of forgiveness and eternal life for those who will REPENT of their sinful past and FOLLOW Jesus Christ as our Lord.

    The Good News of Jesus’ death and resurrection, however, becomes BAD NEWS to any who turn the other way – in the direction away from God’s grace.

    Such bad news for evangelicals! christians who suddenly turn in the other direction + a direction of SELF and a gospel of what God has done for ME (and should do for you).

    • Have you turned to a path AWAY from the word of God, even like Jonah?
    • Won’t sailing away from the command of the Lord have dire consequence?

    I WON’T PREACH THAT, Jonah responded by sailing away from the command of God.

    But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness

    1st letter of Paul to the church at Corinth 1:23 KJV

    Christians proclaim a scandalous faith. Our Cross worn as jewelry may well be a millstone worn around our neck.

    Repent, Jonah! Lest Christ who hung on a Cross hang a millstone around your neck.

    For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish foolishness;
    but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.

    1 Corinthians 1:18 KJV

    Jesus Warns disciples

    As we have learned in ACTS of the Apostles, disciples are followers of Christ Jesus.

    Evangelical christians who claim His Name but turn away from God’s command become obstacles to the Lord saving others from the cities of destruction.

    At the moment Jonah turned away from Nineveh even this Prophet of God was not an obedient disciple ‘chosen‘ for eternal life.

    A last-days appeal to the Evangelical

    Evangelicals who claim other cause of the world above Christ cannot boast of the burden of the millstone placed around their necks.

    And evangelicals who embrace condemned cultures of the cities of destruction without revealing the cost of the Cross may find the weight of the Cross around their neck weighing down their witness with veiled hope while singing of ME and JESUS.

    Scandal – Do you recognize it in the warnings of Jesus?

    Luke 17:

    Then He said to the disciples, “It is impossible that no offenses should come, but woe to him through whom they do come!

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones.

    Luke 17:2 NKJV
    Rembrandt - Jonah before the walls of Nineveh

    “Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.

    Luke 17:3

    But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he became angry.

    Jonah 4:1 NKJV

    Then the LORD said, “Is it right for you to be angry?”

    So Jonah went out of the city and sat on the east side of the city. There he made himself a shelter and sat under it in the shade, till he might see what would become of the city.

    – Jonah 4:4-5

    The Millstone

    “It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck..

    • Does this punishment (even self-inflicted) remind you of Jonah?

    And he said to them, “Pick me up and throw me into the sea; then the sea will become calm for you. For I know that this great tempest is because of me.”

    Jonah 1:12 NKJV

    So what’s the scandal?

    Returning to the Gospel of Luke (NASB20) and Jesus’ warning:

    “It is inevitable that [temptations to sin] stumbling blocks come, but woe to one through whom they come!

    σκάνδαλον – skandalon

    the movable stick or trigger of a trap, a trap stick

    (And evangelicals with ears to hear, now hear this:)

    any person or thing by which one is (entrapped) drawn into error or sin

    Scandal: fig. applied to Jesus Christ, whose person and career were so contrary to the expectations of the Jews concerning the Messiah, that they rejected him and by their obstinacy made shipwreck of their salvation

    Is your faith scandalous because you dare Talk of JESUS?

    ‘But I have a few things against you, because you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who kept teaching Balak to put a stumbling G4625 block G4625 before the sons of Israel, to eat things sacrificed to idols and to commit sexual immorality.

    The Revelation of Jesus Christ to John 2:14 LSB
    + for one of the most influential churches of 1st c. AD Christianity at Ephesus

    OR will your reluctance to share the Good News of Christ, including the cost of His CROSS, leave you in the same boat as Jonah?

    ‘Therefore repent. But if not, I am coming to you quickly, and I will make war against them with the sword of My mouth.

    ‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.

    Revelation of Jesus Christ to the Apostle John 2:16-17a LSB
    Your comment on this post and these Scriptures encourage the witness of this author. RH  (original post date 29 March in the year of our Lord, 2022)
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