Captivity--The Cause and Solution - NCCG.ORG Ning Network Archive 2008-10

Dr. Stephen E. Jones

11/18/2009

When we look at our present situation in the world, we must always
keep in mind that our captivity to Mystery Babylon did not just
suddenly appear out of nowhere. The bigger context tells us that we
are at the tail end of a captivity that began in biblical times as a
combination of Assyria and Babylon.

Assyria took the Israel captive; Babylon took the Judah captive. With
Israel, it was an immediate iron-yoke captivity; with Judah, they
spent only 70 years under an iron yoke, and the rest under the wooden
yoke until 70 A.D., when their revolt against Rome brought the nation
back under the iron yoke.

At this end of the age, America and most of the world is under the
wooden yoke. In other words, we are allowed to pay tribute to Babylon
without being displaced and deported to other nations. We are captives
in our own land to unseen and hidden money-masters who use politicians
as their "fronts."

The iron-yoke captivity of Israel technically ended in 1776 after
"seven times" of punishment for the sins of Samaria (745 B.C. to 1776
= "seven times," or 2,520 years). At that time, God began to establish
a new nation where we were to recognize His sovereignty over the
nation. Every State constitution in the nation recognizes the
sovereignty of God in its opening preamble, and the Constitution was
written to forbid the newly-created Federal government to get involved
in religious legislation that might interfere with (or overturn) the
religious convictions of each State.

Nonetheless, because Israel's release from captivity in 1776 was not
accompanied by the fulfillment of the feast of Tabernacles, we did not
obtain leaders who were overcomers that could guide the people in
obedience to the laws of God. So it was inevitable that we would
follow the same degenerative path as did the Israelites in the book of
Judges, where "every man did what was right in his own eyes" (Judges
21:25).

When America was founded, many Christians understood that the law of
God was the model for any Christian government. They knew the
essential difference between law and grace and saw no contradiction
between faith and obedience. They knew that we are justified by faith
alone, but the daily Christian life was about learning obedience by
the instructions of the law.

But their understanding was only as good as the people who professed
Christianity. In those days the Roman Church was still forbidding its
members to read the Bible for themselves. So their understanding of
the Word was based fully on what little they were told by the priests.
And because the Church itself had developed its "traditions of men"
much the way the Jews had done in earlier times, they often destroyed
the law in the same manner as well (Matt. 15:6).

Even those who respected the law did not often understand it through
the eyes of the New Covenant. Having lost "Pentecost" many centuries
earlier, most did not enjoy its benefits. Having lost the Sword of the
Spirit, many had taken up the physical sword as their weapon of choice
in establishing the Kingdom of God. In this they were not unique, of
course. Such methods had been long established as virtuous and right
in the sight of God. After all, had not Joshua done so in his conquest
of Canaan?

They did not understand that each Covenant had its own sword. Their
lack of Pentecostal insight caused them to believe that the physical
sword was the weapon of choice. The direct result of this was that
they began to compete for land with the Native Americans and soon saw
them as "the enemy."

Once we view people as "the enemy," we no longer see them as future
Christians. Secondly, we begin to think that "survival" is more
important than giving our lives for the sake of others. It is not long
before we think it virtuous to "kill God's enemies," rather than to
give our lives for the sake of others, as Jesus did. An "enemy" in war
is something less than human.

So the Americans, who had a strong sense of "manifest destiny" in
establishing the Kingdom of God in this continent, conquered by
immigration, which often involved murder, theft, and broken
treaties--all of which are a direct violation of the law of God. The
key problem was that they were Old Covenant Christians who idealized
the methods of Joshua rather than of the New Testament Yeshua.

One thing led to another. One misunderstanding of the divine law led
to another. There were many who opposed banks and usury in those early
years, but ultimately the banks prevailed. Finally, the money powers
consolidated their power in 1914 by means of the Federal Reserve Act.
By 1933 the nation was bankrupt, and the banks foreclosed on the
nation, turning it into a servant of the rising money power.

Then, knowing that the real strength of America lay in its obedience
to God, they began to systematically eliminate God from the Federal
Government and (as much as possible) from the State governments as
well. To prevent a Christian slave revolt, they opened up the gates of
immigration to as many non-Christians as possible in order to dilute
the Christian vote. Pluralism and multi-culturalism became the new
"strength" of America.

And now true Christianity itself is under attack. We are moving toward
the Communist idea of "freedom of religion," whereby churches are only
legal if they are recognized and controlled by the State. Once
controlled, they will have to edit many objectionable laws from the
Bible, so that sinners are not offended.

If this continues, it will become illegal to speak of Christ outside
of one's home or personal property. This was actually the case in the
Greek world of Paul's day.

The next step will be to ban all home meetings altogether. "Freedom of
religion" will be defined as allowing an individual to hold religious
beliefs, but gatherings will be restricted under the Patriot Act, due
to possible "terrorist" activities that might be planned. Only
State-recognized churches will be allowed to gather in groups, and if
they do not edit their Bibles, they will lose their legal status.

We are not there yet, but this is what is being planned. The only
thing that will stop this trend is for the Church to repent of its
lawlessness. It will not help to simply oppose the New World Order.
Behold, I show you a mystery, a secret--God is on the side of the New
World Order. He is the One who raised it up and empowered it to bring
judgment upon the Church for its lawlessness. Instead of fighting the
NWO, we should be repenting before God.

It was the same in biblical days. Israel was brought into captivities
when they rejected Him as their King and Law-giver. God reversed the
captivities when they repented. It is no different today. We must deal
primarily with God, not with men. Fighting the NWO is fighting
symptoms, rather than the causes. We will never overthrow the NWO
without first repenting.

Likewise, I do not think that a national repentance will occur apart
from a tremendous outpouring of the Holy Spirit. We can talk about
repentance and even show where we have gone wrong, but this will not
affect more than a few individuals until God intervenes directly.

God's intervention is sure to come at some point. But He requires
certain things to be in place first. In every past "revival," He has
always prepared the ground before the Spirit was poured out. I believe
that the current preparation is the Joshua-Elisha work that we are
doing even now. To me, it is the key to the future. It is the only
long-term solution to the problem we face today.

You are part of that work, if God has placed this on your heart to do
so. We are all in this together.

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