INDEPENDENCE OR DEPENDENCE?

"Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength" Psalm 8:2. The strength is in the mouth of babes; and then it explains of the sucklings.
It is very interesting to notice what Paul teaches about how God’s knowledge is. Paul spoke from a Greek background because he was educated by the Greeks. Notice this very clear expression that we find in Romans 1:20. "For the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead;"
The invisible qualities of God become ours, according to Paul, not by the concepts; not by ideas; not by theology; but by the things that He made—by His works, by His acts. That is how He reveals Himself. And Paul was the one who said this.
Which is the most tangible act of God for us as human beings? Which is God’s most tangible work for us human beings? A Child; an infant. We see how he is born; we see how he is formed; and is the power ours? It is in us, but it is not ours. It is He; and He has given it to us and it’s a reality—it’s an act.
With the birth of a child; with the growth of a child, we should perceive Who is the invisible One. But we have lost that. And the Lord says that the strength, the power is in the child, as a child is born in faith, and we destroy faith, and the wickedness of the parents upon the children is to destroy their faith.
How does a child do to trust in us? And notice how he is born; how is a child fed before he is born? Who feeds him? The mother; and mothers until not so long ago, they did not know hardly anything about how a child was born or how he was fed in their womb. But now we know some of that.
What did Mary know about life while the child was forming within the womb? What did they know? Not even the word for ‘brain’ appears in the Old Testament; because all what has to do with the brain and mind, Old Testament scriptures just place it in the word, ‘heart’.
But a child is born, and he develops in total dependence; complete dependence. Nothing is of the child, nothing pertains to the fetus. It comes to be his, but it is not really his, it’s of the mother. He is formed in the mother, and the mother is formed with him, and the two of them are one.
The principle of unity; how difficult it is for us to understand unity! How difficult it is for us to be one. The easiest thing for us is to break apart. The easiest thing for us is to tear apart; but God created us in unity. And the mother is one with her child. Physiologically speaking, that is a fact. And even though they did not understand and they did not have concepts about that, they lived the experience; they lived the act, because it is the act of God.
Paul says that the invisible One—the power of the invisible One; the greatness of the invisible, the knowledge of the invisible One, become ours through His works—His created works.
Here we have one of His created works—a child. A child not only is a child, he is a son, and we have even lost that reality. A child is a son—he needs to depend. He needs to be educated in faith. He needs to be formed in faith. But in order for a child to be formed in faith, Mom and Dad need to be in faith!
A mother and father who are not in faith, in what are we then? We are in our self! We are not in Him—we are in our self. And we believe in our self not in Him. So we make them independent unconsciously, and the more we teach them concepts and I as a mother am more in my self instead of in Him—thus I destroy the child’s faith.
The child is born and we cut the umbilical cord, but he is yet not independent. He is not independent—because in the works of creation God has put faith in children. And He has put in their lips—in their lips—all a complete nervous process. More than a hundred years ago we didn’t understand any of that. During about six thousand years we hardly understood anything about that. But the psalmist says ‘the strength is in the sucklings’.
Therein lies the power, because the lips—that beautiful phenomenon of the lips—what do the lips of the baby do? What do the lips of the baby seek for? What do the lips of the baby desire? Milk; and he doesn’t know that it is milk. He doesn’t know that his mother is a mammal. He doesn’t know that the mother is the mother. He doesn’t have concepts of a mother. He doesn’t have ideas of a mother, much less, ideas of a father. But it is implicit—the dependence and the faith. And the child comes near and he looks for the breast and he depends from his mother.
But we, instead of giving him the breast and cultivating it—we invented the bottle. And we give him another milk and something different. But because the child depends, because the child believes, even though he doesn’t know what that means, and he is going to take a long time to be able to conceptualize that, because children are sons of acts and of realities, not of abstractions.
So the child receives the bottle and if it is water—he receives water; if it is cow milk—he receives cow milk; if it is soy—he receives soy. He receives it. He doesn’t reject it. He has faith. He is born in faith. He is born dependant.
The umbilical cord—God has extended it. Physiologically and psychologically God has extended it in a marvelous way. And Paul with a Greek mind, Paul with a Greek education, Paul in a Greek culture, he says that the knowledge of the invisible God is clearly seen and becomes ours by the works and acts of God.
Our Lord Jesus said the same, and how did He express it? We find it in John 14:10. And we have lost that knowledge. "Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, He doeth the works."
In the western mind, with our western theologians, here they would have put faith—but the Lord put works; and then He explains it in the next verse: "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me:" Believe me! Trust! And what is the evidence? "or else believe me for the very works' sake."
Here in a child, we have the work. God’s work—a child—just born. He is born in faith. And the wickedness of the parents is to not bring him up in faith—we bring him up in his self, and we do not develop him in faith.
And in this culture, the first thing it has done—is to deny the breast to the child; deny breastfeeding to the child. And today—pediatricians—they are saying that the best milk is maternal milk. Do we need to learn that? It’s implicit! It was made like that! But we don’t believe that that is the best way. We believe in the other milk. And we don’t believe in the implicit work of God’s creation.
Oh, if we would analyze it from a biochemical point of view—what marvelous things are there, speaking from a biochemical point of view. But we have to analyze it and consider it from the point of view of faith, because that is even more beautiful.
And the scriptures say that a child is a son, and that every child should be a son or a daughter. Are we children of God? Are we children of God? Are we His children? Do we understand why we have to become again as children?
I have seen children whose parents deny them breastfeeding, and instead of that, they give them beer. I have seen it! What a crime! But the child who is born in faith—he receives it. He believes. He doesn’t know what believing is; he doesn’t know what faith is; he is far from discerning the concept of faith—but he receives it. He accepts it—because not knowing who is father, as a concept; without knowing who is mother, as a concept; without having the values of father or mother, he has faith! And whatever mom or dad gives him, he accepts it, and he receives it.
Oh, my beloved brethren, if we were children of faith, depending on our God like that! We would receive everything that is His, and we would deny everything that is of ourselves. We would reject everything that is ours and all what is independent of Him in us and we would only receive what is His—implicitly, because that is how God reveals Himself—from faith and unto faith.
But we have lost that knowledge—we are adults. We believe in our selves. We trust in our selves. And we believe in our self, and we trust in our pride. We have confidence in our self-sufficiency. We are children of independence—and independents are lost from God.
What is necessary in order to be a child? For us—two things—but for God it is only one thing—because in Him, nothing is divided. When He conceives life, He gives biological life, but in biological life, His life is present. His character; His being; what He is. But for us, those are two different things. But for God, it is just one thing.
Zacharias and Elisabeth were able to achieve that very same thing, and that’s why John the Baptist was born in the Spirit of God. Because the two of them were offering one to another; Zacharias’ will was the gift—was she—for Elizabeth; and the will, or the self of Elizabeth was the ‘you’ for Zacharias, just as it is in God. He is not self—He is ours. And that’s why He is love; and that’s why He is a gift; and that’s why He is grace; and He has wanted, because He made us in His image, that we might have that very same type of relationship.
Oh, brethren, in the marriage relationship, Zacharias and Elisabeth were able to restore that by faith. Elisabeth was an offering, was a servant—a servant of Zacharias. And Zacharias was a servant—an offering—a gift—a helpmeet, completely for Elisabeth. And both of them were righteous. Zacharias did not live for himself. Elisabeth did not live for herself. One was the counterpart of the other—the image of God. And when they breathed, what did they breathe upon those cells? What did they breathe within that ovary? What was breathed in that male cell? The Image of God!
And when that is not breathed—then what is breathed? Our selfishness—selfishness! And brethren, when you breathe selfishness upon a child; when you breathe your pride upon a child; that is the wickedness of parents that is visited upon their children.
And Holy Scriptures say—what is contained within the breath? For us, in our breath, the only thing that we find is carbon-dioxide; oxygen; hydrogen; gasses—chemistry, and we call that chemistry, inorganic chemistry. But in God, respiration is not only chemistry; respiration has a spiritual element. Follow what He says in Acts chapter 9:1, "And Saul, yet breathing out threatenings and slaughter. . ."
What did Saul breathe? Only hydrogen? Only oxygen? Only carbon-dioxide? He breathed what he was—hatred; selfishness; violence; death; it is within our breath! It is in our spirit. And beloved—our character transpires; our character—smells; and children, while you are asleep, they receive that; they absorb it. All character is of a transcendent nature.
What did our Lord breathe out when He formed man? His being; what He was; He breathed it in. What do we breathe upon the fetus? And once he is born—what do we breathe—in order for us to form him by the grace of God, in His image and likeness.
"I visit the iniquities of the parents upon the children."
But we read so many books on psychology, and the more we read about psychology, and the more we study pediatrics, and the more we study on education, to us, it happens like in medicine—the more we study medicine and the more labs we have—the only thing we have more, is more diseases! We invent drugs and different types of technological apparatus just for business. We do not understand that health is simply harmony with the Word and Will of God!
And we do the same thing with these children—we study psychology; we study pediatrics; and we study all the sciences—and the more we study concepts and ideas—our children are even more destroyed.
But in God’s word is the revelation of how to educate a child in faith. Ellen White says that the most important thing of a child, and the most important thing in an adult, and through concepts we know what it is—but by works we are totally unable to do it. A child is a son or daughter—when he gives his will. If we do not give our will—then we are orphans. We are not children.
And Ellen White teaches that in higher education that should be performed in the first years of life, what we need to educate, what we need to win, is their will. And all of us have failed in that! Humanity continues failing there. Satan’s plan, he knows that what he has to win in us—is our will.
Satan has counterfeited God’s divine plan. He knows he has to win our will. That’s why we read yesterday that the child Jesus—was always a child—Mary taught Jesus to surrender His will and by faith we should also learn that. John 5:19. "Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he seeth the Father do:"
And then listen to what He says: "for what things soever He doeth,"
Not whatever He thinks. Not all what He feels. It’s not referring to His concepts, because in God, concepts do not exist. There are not ideas separated, because concepts and ideas are Plato’s ideas—Aristotle; but in God it is what He is! And what He is—is what He is! And that’s why Jesus said: "I AM". "I AM"!
What are we? What are we? We are not what we think. What we think many times is beautiful. And that is why Jesus said, "Do as they say—but not as they do!" They had the correct concept, but their works were evil. Correct ideas—and evil works.
How is that possible? Does it also happen in us? Correct ideas—but selfish works? A selfish spirit? Selfish motivations? But with right concepts and good ideas?
And my brethren; these children perceive—they breathe—the nature of the works, and they do not handle concepts. A child is not born handling concepts; a child is born perceiving works, and what he sees—is what he does. Jesus said it here:
"For what things soever He (the Father) doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise." Whom did the child behold? His Father. And what the Father did—he would do it also. And He said, "It is not me—it is He in me." And that’s how we should educate these children. We don’t need books for that—just the Holy Scriptures; the Holy Scriptures.
That was all that Mary needed. And in Mary’s time, I don’t know if Mary had a scroll, because back then, mostly only the Sanhedrin had those scrolls of the law; only the scribes had them.
In the middle ages, where was the Bible? In [some of] the monasteries. The common people did not have access to them; but today we are blest, we have the Holy Scriptures.
Brethren; what Mary had was simply the oral word, but it had become part of her—it was her works—the Word of God. The Word of God was in her and if the Word of the Father is in me, where is my self? Where is my self?
If His Word is really in me—Beloved—the sovereignty of God’s Word is what should posses us. And Mary had that experience. The Father in Him and she was in the Father. That’s a mystery; the mystery of faith and the mystery of the redemptive experience.
John 14:11; "Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father in me:" and if we cannot receive that; if we cannot understand that—then, "believe me for the very works' sake."
"What I do!" Because the invisible One—the knowledge of the invisible One is not of a sensorial nature, it’s through faith. And the evidence of faith are heavens and earth and this—a child,—is the crown of His creation, a human being, the image of God. He needs to develop in faith, but in order for him to grow in faith, Mom and Dad should be in faith.
And the first thing that affects faith is the will. That is why we are children—because we surrender our will. We surrender our will. Ellen White says in ‘Child Guidance’, pg. 178 in Spanish, The mother should be the mind, the appetite, the desire, of the child up to three years of age.
The strength is in the babes. Oh, how many years it took me to start understanding these things, because they taught me that strength and power was in the adults; especially if we had a PhD. But God says that the strength and power is in these children, because they can be taught in faith. They can surrender their will in faith and they can learn to obey instantaneously, before three years of age.
The key for obtaining that is that I, as a father, should be the mind; should be the will; should be the criteria; should be the desire; of the child. Because, when the child is born, he doesn’t know anything, he doesn’t have anything, he can’t do anything. In him there is nothing. He has been created; he has been formed to depend.
When do we make our children independent? When do parents retire from their children in this culture? The Eternal Father has not retired himself from us. Not even though we are enemies of Him. He has not retired. He remains. He continues being a Father, even though we have gone away from Him.
In this culture, when do parents retire from their parental duty?
"Be yourself!" "Be yourself!"
But as parents, we say, "This is not my business—this is your business."
The business of God—is you! And He is an ‘I’ only for you; He is not an ‘I’ for Himself. He is an ‘I’ for you. You are His ‘I’. And we have lost that trust. That’s why we handle concepts; but our will is our self. And in that way—how can we educate children? How can we show them the path of redemption?
Ellen White teaches, that when I am the will of the child; and I am the appetite of the child; and I am the mind of the child; up to his third year of age, in the fourth year, that child is sealed in what you are; if you were really a parent; if you were really a mother according to God’s order.
Experience it! Try it out! Don’t see it as a concept—experiment it. Hannah was able to achieve this. Hannah achieved it. Mary was able to achieve this. Zacharias and Elisabeth achieved it. But we do all what is contrary to that.
Do you know how we educate? We have it here in Proverbs. Listen, how we educate. Proverbs 29:15; "The rod and reproof give wisdom: but a child left to himself bringeth his mother to shame."
Today in the Satanic education, you have to leave the child do what he wants. That’s what Lucifer did in heaven; he did what he wanted to do. The child, until his third year of age, according to the knowledge that comes through revelation—through revealed knowledge—cannot do what he wants to do. And that is our assignment. That is the foundation of higher education.
And Mom and Dad; if we have learned to submit to God’s divine will, and in the right spirit, then God will teach us how to be the mind; how to be the will; how to be the desire; how to be the appetite; of these children unto their third year of life. Because, their strength and the power of them, is, that they know nothing. They don’t understand; they don’t know anything. They don’t posses anything.
And the father should give him the taste; the desire; the values; of truth and what it is—in the first three years. And that implies a communion; an intimacy; a close relationship of father and son. The umbilical cord still continues there, through the will, in the knowledge, and in the desire and appetite; in the mind. And what is in the lips in suctioning from his mother’s breast, continues through the umbilical cord of the will and the desire. In such a way that the child’s taste, and the child’s pleasure, becomes my pleasure; and my pleasure, and my joy, and my taste, is God’s. That’s how we were created. That’s why we were created, and that’s how we are redeemed, and that’s how we are educated.
But we have accepted Lucifer’s plan. What do we do? We please the desire of the child independently. We satisfy his desire. But he doesn’t know how to desire. He doesn’t know how to desire. He doesn’t know what is good for him to eat. He doesn’t know anything. And there is the strength—that since he doesn’t know, then we teach him. But we have to teach him—not concepts—reality! Acts! What God has revealed.
If that is in you, if you are that, if you remain in the word—then the child by faith will also remain in the word, because the child trusts in us.
Could it be more simple Brethren? More simple? It can’t be. And Ellen White adds; "Don’t give anything to your child when he asks for it crying." It says what—God always tells us what.
Oh, when the child asks crying—we run to please him. And we destroy his will. What do we make him into? A little monster in selfishness. And he learns very early to be pleased—to be pampered. And he learns early in life to be the center. But for the child, the center should be the father; the center should be the mother. The center should not be another image. But very soon we make that his center be the television; his own desires; his pleasure; the movie; any other thing except God—because, the most certain thing is that our center as parents—is our own self, and not God.
Do we understand? Why Jesus said, why Jesus told me, "If you do not become as a child, and become a child, you will not enter into the kingdom of heaven".
Emptied of myself; denying myself; in order to receive Him by faith. And my will surrendered—surrendered only to the Lord. "Give me, Oh son, your heart!" That is God’s supplication. "Give me your heart."
God cannot step upon our will; He cannot. If you destroy the will, then you destroy God’s image; the little we still have of God’s image is destroyed.
Ellen White says that in the first three years of life, is when you can conquer the will of the child. And you know what she says, when the human will, unites with God’s will, these children can become omnipotent. Every child; Nicodemus; Peter; Saul; when they surrendered their will, and they surrendered fully to God and God’s will was in them in their sphere.
Daniel was omnipotent and he went down to the lion’s den, omnipotent. His will was in God’s will. His nature was submitted. He became lord of the lions. He became lord of the beasts. And the same Nebuchadnezzar, and the same Belshazzar, trembled before the experience of Daniel, because his will was in God’s will. He was a child; he was a son, because he did not do his own will, only the will of the Father. Oh, my beloved brethren, that’s the experience that you and I have been called to.
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, Your works, oh Lord, Your works speak to us, but Lord, we are so blind, that we think that Your works are our works and we believe that the way we have conceived—that is ours. But Lord, teach us to see Your works, and through Your works Oh, Lord, give us the faith of Jesus. We need the faith of Jesus. We need the faith of Jesus so that we will not trust in ourselves, so that we won’t trust in what we know; so that we won’t trust in what we have; but we will only trust in what You are.
And just as these children, they take hold of the breast, they assume the breast, they depend on the breast. Oh, Lord, teach us to depend on you in the same way, that we might depend on Your Word; that we might depend on Your Revelation, and Your counsel, that our feelings might disappear and only You may be sovereign in us.
Thank You Lord, for Your Word. May we live in Thee, because You have wanted to live in us. We pray in the Name of Jesus:
Amen.

ANSWERING THE COMMANDMENTS

There is something that I need to experience. Yesterday we read a verse that referred to the ‘shama’ of the Hebrew people. The most important expression for them in their rabbinical tradition, "The Lord our God, He is One". "Hear O Israel, the Lord thy God is One Lord."
Hebrew people never had a problem with atheism. The Old Testament begins saying, "In the beginning—God." The sense that is transmitted in the original language is, "At the head of all things—God."


The Lord—only Him.
Nothing in me—only He; and ONLY Him—that should be our experience.
He says, "All the heart"; "All the head"; "All our mind"; "All our strength"; everything! What remains for me? What for me? The only thing that remains for me—is Him—that’s the only thing. And that’s the experience that I most need.

But it is difficult to understand because the enemy has changed this order. I am the sovereign one. I am the only one—and only I. UP and higher and no one above me! We are atheists—worse than atheists.

And the Lord says, that in our brain; in our head; in all this—only He. It’s difficult to understand this—for us in this Western culture—because what do we have on our minds? What is in our mind? At least we have thoughts of money. Is that what we have on our minds? We have that in our minds—or only He is in our minds?
Therein lies all of our problems! Therein lies all of our problems; because the head, the Lord did not create it for adding; for multiplying; but we do not conceive that! All our head; all our brain; all our frontal lobes; all our capacities; the millions and millions of neurons; only for Him—so that He might be all in all.
It is very difficult to imagine this, but that’s how we were created! We were created for Him, for His glory, for His honor, not for ourselves and the work of the enemy is that I am for myself. And even my wife is for me. So we become lords—we become lords, and human beings are below us. But that is not God’s order. These are not God’s values.
Which are our values? All our values are egocentric—self centered, but all of God’s values are alterocentric—other centered. He has never had things on His head. Never in His mind! In God’s mind, never has He had things. In the mind of God, in the brain of God—only you; only us—that’s what is on His mind. We are His treasure—His only treasure—in His mind.
And He created us in His image and likeness, so that in our heart, in our mind, in every impulse from neuron to neuron, HE should be the impulse; HE should be the motive; HE should be the reason; and HE should be everything. Have we changed that order? And we have problems everyday.
Every day we are more sick and more destroyed, because in our mind, in our neurons, in our brain, in our strength and in all our being, He is absent. He is not real. He is only an idea. That’s why we even have ulcers, and we are sick and our colon is destroyed, because our mind—He is absent from it. My self and my things and all that is a death process.
How were we created? Notice the order of God and God’s values. God’s values should be ours. Psalm 8: and we’re going to read it slowly, this Psalm contains great truths.
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens. Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger. When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained; [then I ask myself] What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?"
What is man? What is his son? That Thou visitest him?
"For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion. . ."
He made him lord—but lord of what? Of the things, but not over human beings. He made him lord over all the creatures that don’t have the image of God in them. So follow the order of God: "over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:"
Everything! All Things! Where do we put all things? Where did God put all things in terms of man’s dominion? Where did He put the things? In his head? In his heart? Things? Where did God place them? Under his feet!
Under his feet—under his feet—cars; the airplanes; our bank account; money; under our feet! Not in the head. He knows if we have them in our head, they will destroy us. Things in our head destroy us. Things should be under our feet and that will make us according to His Image and likeness.
For whom do we live? For things? Do we live for things? Thus we destroy God’s image in us. Who doesn’t live for things? Jesus did not live for things. This is difficult to understand in our Western culture—this fact. But God in His mercy placed under the feet, money and things, because under the foot, in this space, there are no nerve endings. Under our foot; on the bottom of our foot, we have lost sensibility.
Under our shoes we have no feeling. We are not supposed to feel ‘things’. ‘Things’ are not for being loved. We are not to desire things. Things are to serve. They are ways and these means should not have a connection with our mind. Strange! What should be in our mind? What should be in our head? Only one thing—HE! Only God.
Are we atheists? We are atheists and at the same time, theologians—what a contradiction! That’s schizophrenia! And the Lord says: Psalm 8: "Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands;"
In which way? How did He do it? All things! Every thing!
"Thou hast put all things under his feet:"
All things—nothing in his head; nothing in his heart; nothing in his being—everything under his feet. Was God wise? Is He wise? Is He intelligent? Does He know what He has created?
The image of God: and scripture says that Jesus lived the very same experience. He was the image of God. 1 Corinthians 15:27-28; "For he hath put all things under his feet." And He says; "But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put all things under him. And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all."
He! The only ALL; and I—He should be my all! I was created so that He might be my all, and I should not be my all in me. That is God’s creation. And redemption—the purpose of redemption—is to restore this.
But we have changed the order. Follow with what happens when we are in sin. In sin that scale of values is overturned and things are in our head and on our mind; and my neighbor is under my feet. We don’t feel—we don’t feel them. We cannot love them. We cannot comprehend him and we cannot receive him. He is a stranger and we separate him and we break apart, because in our values, our values have become just material.
Our interests are in things. Our interest is not He. He is an interest that is just an idea. But the materialized and concrete interests are things. Have we changed the order? Have we changed the values? And Jesus said, "Wherever your treasure is, there also will be your heart."
Which is our treasure? And it should be something very concrete, not a text, not a poem, not a Bible verse, it should be a reality. In Jesus it was a reality. Jesus’ treasure—you are His treasure. Human beings are the treasure of Jesus. "For him I descend. For him I humble Myself. For him I empty Myself." For him He took upon Himself human nature—fallen human nature. "And for him," He said, "I accept the cross. For him I die. My blood, I give for him."
The values of Jesus are not things. Things were under His feet. In the order of redemption, values are changed. And that is the work of the gospel. It is the work of God—to change our values. And if we permit that to Him, He can do it! That is His work. That is why He came to redeem us, in order to change our values.
Back to Psalm 8:7; "All sheep and oxen."
All! In the days of Abraham, in the days of antiquity, how did they estimate richness? Oxen; cattle; sheep; camels; all that was equivalent to richness and wealth. In that time, the verb ‘to have’, ‘having’, still did not exist. In linguistic study, values in terms of ‘having’ come in later. The verb, ‘to have’, was non-existent, because in the beginning of man’s history, people did not ‘have’. Adam did not ‘have’. Eve did not ‘have’. The values of ‘having’ things, I have; I acquire; I possess; this is mine; and then I put a fence—that was non-existent. It was absent and studies on linguistics resister that fact.
But in the measure that we degraded ourselves; the more we made ourselves selfish; the values of having things were incorporated even in our language patterns and grammar. And grammar began to place adjectives that were possessive, and pronouns that were possessive and then ‘Mine’ appeared. But in the beginning, that was nonexistent.
That’s what linguistics studies show, because things—how were they manifested? ‘This’—for the service of; ‘this’—to help someone. ‘Things’ were for service; they were means of service and help. The verb ‘having’, ‘possessing’, was something abstract. It was not something concrete. But for us with our Western mind, it is difficult to fathom this. It’s difficult to imagine, and to be it—impossible.
In Genesis chapter 1, there is no competition. In creation there is no competition. In creation, you don’t acquire; you don’t posses. In creation, you only serve; you only serve.
And God made His first work in the first day and He did not make it for Himself. He didn’t create it for Himself. For whom did He create His first work? For the crown of His creation. And then He created on the second day, and He didn’t make those things for Himself either. He made it for man. And in the third day He created more, and what was the purpose of the things created on the third day? For mankind.
How many bananas from earth has God eaten? How many fruits has He begun to import from earth to heaven? Nothing! All He made it for us—for us. Fourth day, fifth day and sixth day—and then He called man and He told him, "all these things; all these things; all what I have created, is under your feet. Handle it. Take care of it. Use it. But don’t love it."
Without loving it; without wanting it; can we imagine that? Handling things; without loving them? Taking care of things without loving them. Why?
Fathers and children are distanced, parents and their children—why? Do you know why? Because parents—very soon we have things on our head. We don’t have time to have communion with a son. We don’t have time.
I have time to get things. I have a lot of time—for things; but I don’t have time for human beings. I don’t have time; not even to hear them on the phone, I don’t have time. We don’t have time, not even to greet each other and encounter each other, we don’t have time. For what is time? For things.
God did not great time for things. He created time in order that we might become; time is for being, just as He is. It is within time that we love; it is within time that we comprehend; it is within time that we forgive; and it is within time that we humble ourselves. In time, we dispossess ourselves, and in time we surrender. Time is to become as He is. Time is the matter of the spirit; so that we might come to be in His image and likeness.
But in this Western culture—no one has time; and much less for Him. We don’t have time for Him. For what is time? And we say that time is gold, why do we say that? Because, time for us, is in order to obtain spaces; time for us, is for acquiring things; and for us, time is to possess things. And we, we transform time into a slave; we have enslaved time, in order to acquire and possess.
And if we don’t acquire and posses, then, we are worried; we are burdened with anxiety. We get stressed out. None of us here should have that kind of stress. What is the cause of stress? Things in our head. Things in our head.
God in me does not produce stress. What is it that produces stress? What produces anxiety? What produces ulcers? What damages the colon? When I have things in my head and not God in my head! If He were in my head then I would have life and health and peace, harmony and reconciliation. But the more things I have—the less I am.
The more I have, the less I am. The more anxious I am of having things, the less capacity I have of being. And in that way, man degrades himself—he degrades himself—more; and he corrupts himself; because God’s scale of values is different.
The Lord, knowing these things from creation, even when He created us, He placed things under our feet and He, He was in our mind! That’s God’s order and He is not going to change it. He is not going to change it. Redemption—what redemption achieves, is restoring that order.
Why can’t people sleep? Why do we have insomnia? Why do we run around all day long—up and down—and the great concern of people is working twenty years, thirty years, and then they are so anxious for their retirement. They are worried about their retirement—with how much will I retire? With social security; with a company; with how much? And then we add it up and we figure out how much is it that we are going to receive.
And the enemy has invented the rental plan. People like to like off rents. Oh my friends, this Western culture, contrary to God’s plan—in God’s economy, within the sphere and context of sin, God did not create the plan of rents.
What is God’s plan? The plan of sweating; that is God’s plan. But we don’t understand that and in this culture the enemy has invented some jobs where we don’t have to sweat. Not even in agriculture do you sweat nowadays. That’s the enemy’s plan. The tractor has a tremendous cabin with air-conditioning, and who works? The machine, but not man. And we don’t understand where we are.
God said, "With the sweat of thy face." Within the context of sin, heaven knows that I need sacrifice—self sacrifice—every day! Every day. Until when? Until this body becomes dust again; until that moment. And when is that moment? Until death. But we don’t understand that economy. People want to live off just rents; sitting down; eating; without any pains; without sweating; just sitting down.
In the Old Testament, God said every seven years, we’ll have a sabbatical year; and you will not plant, you will not plant anything. The land will rest. And at the same time that the land is resting, you are going to forgive your brother. And what you have leant to your brother, on the seventh year, will be forgiven, pardoned.
People, do we understand that type of economy? Do we understand that economy? Because God’s economy, the divine economy, is not on the foundation—is not based on making wealth—taking advantage of the need of my neighbor.
All Satan’s economy, a man becomes wealthy based on taking advantage of some one else’s need. That is satanic economy, earthly and diabolic. When you do marketing, in the science of marketing, and in the science of administration, what do they teach you? We have to create a need. And they have created in us millions of needs.
And after you create a need, then, make a crisis of shortage. So the people that produce, put away the things, and they create a shortage, so that you will develop more anxiety.
Some years ago there was a strike in Venezuela. There was no ice. And the people were willing to kill in order to have ice. Did they create that need in us? We need the refrigerator? We need the freezer? We need the cold water? And we depend on that and we depend on those needs, and those needs materialize in our mind, and when we don’t have them—we stress ourselves. We become anguished. We can’t live.
What happens in our stomach? What happens in our stomach and in our colon? We destroy ourselves. An economy of needs. When God created, He did not create needs. What He created was abundance; completely bountiful.
How much oxygen did God create? How much water did God create? How much land did God create? How much atmosphere did God create? No shortage of anything! And for whom? In an experience completely other centered. So that humanity would never loose His values; so that in our head, in our mind, in our being, only He should reign. Because when He is the only one present, the manifestation, the reality that He is in me is that my self is you and not myself am I. And my relationship, my relationship—my basic relationship is to love my neighbor as myself. That’s the Law of God. That’s the principle of the Law.
And we have come to the moment in which our neighbor—human being—is a thing also, is also a thing. We possess him and we are lords over him. And we place him under our feet and we treat him under our feet—even our wives or our husbands in this Western culture—wives; children; mother in law; human beings under our feet. We have become materialized.
And when people approach marriage, human constitutions say—I don’t know what the American constitution says on this—but the Columbian constitution says that the marriage is a contract. It’s a business, between two. Oh, my beloved, marriage is God’s image. Marriage is I, a gift, a complete gift—totally—my mind; my heart; my brain; all my faculties; my pocket; my money; all what is mine—an offering for him or her.
That is God. And the Lord finishes shedding His blood because in Him, things are not on His head. What is in His head is you and me. And when He lost me, and when I went astray and when I became His enemy—then He shed His blood for me, in order to restore me.
Which are Jesus’ values? Those are the values of the Kingdom of God. And my beloved brethren, under the latter rain; the experience of the latter rain, is a change of values. God in the head, and if God is in the head, the next thing in me is my neighbor and I disappear.
Haven’t you seen God’s Law? Have you seen God’s law—have you seen it? We divide it and in the first section, in the first, second, third, and fourth commandment, Who is present? Him. He—is in the fourth commandment, in the third, in the second, in the first commandment too. And in the sixth commandment, and in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth commandment—my neighbor—the other one.
Where am I? Where am I? Where I am I?? Even in the family we have destroyed the Law of God. And my beloved, let us think on these things, let us meditate on these things. It’s my need—it’s my need—that He might be in me; only He in me; nothing else than He in us—the hope of glory.
In the primitive church, see what happened, in the primitive church under the outpouring of the Holy Spirit—the reality of the Spirit—what does the reality of the Holy Spirit do? Acts chapter 4—we can read two verses—first we will read in chapter 2:44, Ac 2:44-47 "And all that believed were together, and had all things common; And sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men, as every man had need. And they, continuing daily with one accord in the temple, and breaking bread from house to house, did eat their meat with gladness and singleness of heart, Praising God, and having favour with all the people. And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved."
Acts 4:32, "And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common."
What type of economy? What type of economy? The economy of the new creation.
Acts 4:33-35, "And with great power gave the apostles witness of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus: and great grace was upon them all. Neither was there any among them that lacked:"
What was the result of the power of the resurrection—neither was there any among them that lacked.
"for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need."
The early rain; how are the 144,000 going to live? Only with a concept? Or with a reality. God is the only One who should be in us. Let us pray:
Heavenly Father;
We thank Thee for Thy word and we ask forgiveness for our up-side-down values, and we pray that you might always be on our head and our neighbor as our self—and that we might learn to handle things according to Thy creation. We ask that these things might not be hard for us, because if we love Thee with all our heart, our mind and strength, then these things will not be difficult for us to grasp and understand that if we make the kingdom of heaven our treasure and the first thing, then all things whatsoever are needed shall be added to us. May we by faith understand the principle of God’s economy and God’s plan of redemption; God’s plan of health and living and eternal life. We pray in the Name of Jesus: Amen.

THE SECOND COMMANDMENT: PART 2

The work that all of us have is to live the principles. Each one of us has to discover them. The Lord has revealed them in His Word. But let me ask a question: In what moment did Adam see his own face?
In what moment did Adam see his own face? Or did Adam die without seeing his own face. Have you ever seen your back? I don’t know if mirrors are a curse. Who invented mirrors? Did Adam have a mirror? How did he see his face?

The problems related to form that we find in the 2nd commandment, we can solve them with the 1st. "Thou shalt have no other God before Me."
What does it mean ‘before Me’?

What does it mean ‘before Me’? What is the only thing that should be before me?—only Him—as a reality—not as an idea.

And humanity—and we are included—we have lost that. And once we have lost this, we make another image, and the image that we make now, is worse than the images of the Canaanites. The Canaanites had the sun before them; they had the moon before them, and the stars.

We don’t have before us the sun—and we hate that, and we are far from idolatry. We are even farther from idolatry than the Jews, but what is in front of us is worse than what the Canaanites had, because what is in front of us is my self.

There is the mirror. What do we do with the mirror? Who is pretty? Who is grand? Who is the one who adorns himself? Who admires himself? Who exalts himself? Who is ‘I’? Who is before me? Only Him! It is the 1st commandment.

We have in front of us—our car; our house; or our girlfriend. What is it that is an obstacle so that I can experience the ‘shama’ of the Old Testament? The only thing that man should experience—and for us who have a Western mind it is difficult to understand this.

Deuteronomy 6:4, 5; "Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD: And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

Heart; soul; might; not with 50%; not with 80%; Total! Everything! Nothing for me—nothing in my heart for myself; nothing of my soul for myself; nothing of my might for me—nothing for self—everything for Him!

Have we practiced this? That was the great teaching; that was the curriculum that the Lord gave every father and mother in a family to teach to their children. What the parents had to teach to their children, was that He who made the heavens and the earth is the only thing that should be in front of us. There were no mirrors!

Is it simple? Very simple—and we don’t understand this! We can’t imagine life without mirrors. We cannot conceive life if we don’t have things in front of us. We see the latest model, and we say, "Wow"! We see the latest airplane, and we say, "Wow"! We see the building, and we say, "Wow"! We see the computer, and we say, "Wow"! We are surprised; we admire it and we are surprised—of the things—but not of Him. We have lost this.

The Lord taught His people to not loose Him as a reality. He should be in front of them—all the time—and look what the ‘Shama’ says: "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. 6:6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:"
Verse 7-9: "And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt bind them for a sign upon thine hand, and they shall be as frontlets between thine eyes. And thou shalt write them upon the posts of thy house, and on thy gates."

That is the curriculum—there was no more, no other curriculum for Israel. We don’t understand this. And the enemy has made a tremendous development in advertisement so that we will loose the image of God. The image of God is my fellow man—my fellow man.

When the Lord created Adam & Eve, the first relationship that the male had, that Adam had, was with his Lord. When the Lord made the man, his bond was with his Creator. When the Lord created Eve, her first bond in relationship was with her Creator. Wasn’t it like that?

God made man with His hands—He made man. He gave him His Spirit–and Adam saw the Lord. The first thing that Adam beheld was the Lord. Our first relationship should be with the Lord. Father and Mother need to teach their children that their first relationship is with the Lord. If our first relationship is with the Lord, our second relationship will be with our fellow man, and in the case of the family, with the wife.

But who is the mediator? Who should be between both of them? Who was first?—the relationship with her or the relationship with God? He should always be in first place—always. That’s the way He created us. And since we’ve lost it through sin, by faith—He should be the first. And if He is the first, He has to be the bridge and any relationship between human beings cannot be direct.

We destroy ourselves because our relationships are direct. The 1st commandment says that my relationship should be with Him—He should be in front of me. And if He is in front of me—what am I going to do with her? How should I treat her? How am I going to treat the others? How am I going to treat my enemy? If God is in front of me; have we lost that?

Who is before us? Who is before me? Myself? Myself? We need images, and the first image—the only image—is myself! Even in grammar that is written with an iron chisel—our first pronoun should be plural—us; we. But it is not us or we; I do; I eat; I work; I think; I am; I have; I. Grammar has placed us in front of ourselves.

How easy it is for the enemy to destroy us! Only through the mercy of the Lord can we experience His Law. The 1st commandment is the crucifixion of self—the 1st commandment. And if we break the first commandment, the rest—the rest are already broken; because whoever transgresses one—is guilty of breaking all.

In the Old Testament is a testament of blood. The New Testament is the confirmation of that blood. God’s relationship with us, after sin, was through blood and humanity doesn’t understand that. But each of our relationships with our fellow man should be a relationship in blood; because in order for the Lord to restore us—the only way He could use to restore us and reconcile us—was through the price paid in blood.

The scriptures teach us that there is a God in heaven and there is a Mediator and Intercessor between God and man. Between God and man He placed a Mediator. For us in the Western world, that’s an interesting—a very nice concept. But for the Lord, it is not a concept—for the Lord, it is a reality. He doesn’t look at me—He looks at me through the Mediator. He doesn’t treat me directly—He does it through the Mediator.

We treat each other without a mediator. Husbands and wives treat each other without a mediator. They receive each other without a mediator; and what is the result? Contradiction! And fights! And they destroy themselves—there is no mediator.

The Lord—in the context of sin—when He sees a man, before him is the Mediator. Have we lost this reality? That is why it is so difficult for us to forgive. That is why it is almost impossible for us to justify a sinner. We look for a mediator to separate things; because the only thing we take care of is our things and not people. So people look for a mediator to see who ends up being the owner of the house, and who will stays with the car, and who will stay with the money.
How different is our God! Because human beings without a Mediator—what do we have in front of us? The Lord? Jesus? Or self? Is it simple? That’s the 1st commandment. The 1st commandment is the assurance for all the rest. "Thou shalt have no other God before Me." Only Him!

The enemy has made theology a concept that we have in front of us. And we have the concept in our head but the reality is something different. The enemy, after creating concepts and making us lose reality—he then makes us actors. And today, almost every human being is an actor.
The actor says, "I love you! I love you! I can’t live without you!" and cries. He even gives gifts. Isn’t that the way it is with girlfriends and boyfriends? Many of us arrived to marriage in this way. Actors—what is an actor? A specialist in pretending. A specialist in pretending.

"I love you!" it’s a lie. What is it that he wants? He wants something—a part of that person, to use it in a selfish way. And the enemy has translated that into images. The idols of the Old Testament and the images of the Old Testament, were harmless and they degraded the man and they corrupted man—the images of the Old Testament—they didn’t have any reason to be.
Let’s read Psalm 115, beginning with verse 3; "But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased. Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands. They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not: They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not: They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them."

Those idols degraded the people of the Old Testament, but those idols were harmless in relation to the ones we have today. Actors are the idols of young people, and even of older people. The television, those are our actors and our idols.

How do people sit? Have you seen how people sit watching what is in front of them? They sit on the edge of their seats, and they look, and they feel, and they see, and sometimes they even have a heart attack! They are living—what are they living? What is in front of them—idols; images. How many of these images are true? How many of them are true? How many of the images on television are true? They are false—modern idols—modern images; and there is the movie: "I love you! I live for you!" Is that true, or is it a lie? But we live it—we live it—a lie.
"Thou shalt not make thee any graven image"; what should be in front of me—only the Lord.

And in the Lord—in the Lord, I can treat my fellow man, in the Lord. In our marriage relationship—our marriage relationship should be an indirect relationship, because it should be through the Mediator, the One Who is in front of me—the One Who made heaven and earth.
We lost that—and we destroy our fellow man. Where did we learn that? Where did we learn that—with Hollywood? Hollywood is a great teacher. I don’t know what judgments God will bring upon Hollywood, because they have destroyed the Law of God in a dimension because now modern idols have mouths and they speak; they have hands and they move them; they have feet and they walk.

Fifty years ago, movies were just black and white, and now—red; white; yellow; and all the colors and all the movements and people think that that is more real than the Invisible that made the heavens and the earth. Our reality is only sensorial. It is almost impossible that our reality can be by faith.

My beloved; He who made the heaven and the earth, transcends my feelings, He goes beyond my sensorial capacity. My senses, after sin, can not perceive it, and the Lord knows that any physical figure would destroy human beings.

Jesus said: "in Spirit and in Truth it is necessary that you should worship me", in Spirit and in Truth—very interesting! He said first, "in Spirit", and then He said, "Truth". He didn’t say "Truth" first, He put Spirit first.

In John 1:14, when the scripture tells us that the Word was made flesh and abideth with us, and we saw His glory as the only begotten of God—full; full of what? Of concepts? Of philosophy? Of theology? Of ideas? Full of grace! Full of grace!

And in the original, when it says full, John in 1:14 uses the verb ‘plero’, and the verb ‘plero’ means so full—so full, that it overflows. And that is where the word ‘plentitude’ which in English is complete fullness, comes; so full that it overflows; but not only does it overflow, it floods the space—it inundates the space.

Jesus, my beloved, was a flood of grace; of love; of mercy; His image and likeness flooding this world—and then He was full of grace and truth. So that we would have Him in front of us, and that any other thing—any other thing—would cease to exist.

I don’t know who invented mirrors so I can see myself; I can behold myself—and I see a hair, and I see a blemish, and I see a wrinkle, and I want to take it off. I see I am ugly or I’m not looking very good—who is in front of me? For the Lord, nobody is ugly. Nobody is ugly for the Lord. A black man is beautiful for the Lord, with his thick lips, with his flat nose; he is beautiful for the Lord. For the Lord, nobody is ugly. A white man for the Lord is beautiful, because he is the image of God. A Chinese, African, anybody, is beautiful.

What is the only thing that is ugly to the Lord?—sin and wickedness and iniquity. But for us, people are ugly, for us and the Greeks taught us that and not God’s revelation. For God, human beings are His image. To rescue him and to restore him, and to reconcile him, and to restore His image and likeness in us, He shed blood—He shed blood; His own blood, to restore the image of God. That’s why between Him and us, between Him and your life, between Him and your enemy, is blood, and we haven’t understood this.

We like the concept. We manage it as a concept, but not as a reality. And that has been Satan’s masterpiece; his work of spiritualism—to convert this into an idea and a concept, but not the reality of His blood and His relationship with us.

What is our reaction when we see blood? What is our reaction? When we see that someone’s blood is spilling out on the road in an accident—how do we react? What was the reaction of the Heavenly Father when He saw the hands of His Son—with His hands with the nails on the cross—so He could reach a sinner and restore His image? In us—with the price of blood—for Him, my beloved, that is not an idea; that is not a theory; that is not something that is up in the air; that was real—He lives it. That is His life. That is Him—an offering, to give Himself to our selfish hearts.

Our selfish hearts have lost this vision. The enemy has placed papers and images; pictures; videos; movies, even movies of Jesus. Is that person Jesus? It’s false! Maybe he even gets drunk. He might even be an adulterer—he’s divorced—and now he says he’s Jesus? And we sit down in the chair and we believe it’s true.

What is in front of us? "Thou shalt have no other God’s before Me." Our Lord Jesus said that we needed to manage this in Spirit and in Truth. How difficult that is for us. Do you know why? For us what is real, what is concrete, is what we see; is what we hear; is what we smell; is what we taste; and what we can touch. That is real for us.

For us, if we cannot touch it; if we cannot hear it; if we cannot see it; if we cannot taste it; if we cannot smell it; it is not real. And all of our educational system of knowledge is based on the senses. That’s our education. Our education goes to where our sensorial perception can go and from there onward, there is no more faith—we cannot believe because we cannot experience it with our feelings—with our senses.

Very soon religion became sensorial. In all of the different religions; in pagan religions, in Christian religions, in the Jewish religion and what came a reality was the space, and that’s why the Samaritan woman asked "Where Lord? Where Lord?" The space—and we are children of space. We lost the reality of being children of the Spirit.

But the Lord wants and He has purposed that we should be children of Spirit and Truth. And the scriptures teach us—let us see what the scriptures say: 2 Corinthians chapter 4—Paul is going to help us—verse 18; "While we look not at the things which are seen,"
What is it that we see? What can be seen. What we can see. That is what we see. But Paul tells us here, "Look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen:"
And he tells us why; "for the things which are seen are temporal;" Everything we see; everything that I see—even my son—is temporal. He will cease to be; and what ceases to be—is not true.

What is it that will never cease to be according to the scriptures? According to the scriptures—and we have a text for that—a Bible text. The Bible tells us; prophecies will cease; science will cease; tongues will cease; but love will never cease. Love that has an end—never was love. True love will never end. True love never ceases.

Those things that have an end pertain to my sensorial perception. The boyfriend; he tells her, "I love you!" it’s a sensorial perception and its base is a selfish one—"I want her for me!" An actor—what he is saying—is not what he is. And after he is satisfied, "Out!" And now another one. That’s the ‘love’ that we see in this world—it’s spiritualism. It’s not a reality.

Love is not temporal. It is not confined to space. It goes over my sensorial capacity. It’s His love; that’s the love that the Lord wants; that’s the love that the Lord wants to give to us. It is His love and it is a fruit of the Spirit; it’s not one of my fruits—it is His fruit.

And He says, "look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen—which are not seen—are eternal." Eternal!

The question is my brethren, what is easier—to stop seeing what I have seen during the past forty years; what is easier? To stop seeing fifty, sixty, seventy years—seeing things here on earth—and the Lord tells us we have to stop looking at the things which are seen. What is easier—to stop seeing what we see—or to see what we have never seen? What we have never seen. What is easier? And that is the job we have; that’s the work we have to do and the Lord is revealed there; "Thou shalt have no other God before Me."

My beloved, do we really believe that He made the heavens and the earth? Do we really believe that? Do we believe like David?

When I see the works of Thy hands—the moon; the stars and the heavens that Thou hast made, and I ask myself, who is man? Who am I—that I should pretend to place my pride and my self sufficiency and destroy my fellow man and feel angry towards him and destroy him, because Who is God? I am God! I am God. Is that our reality? The concept is Him but in reality I am God, because I destroy my fellow men who He has bought with His nail-pierced hands.

My dear ones, who is before us? Who is before me? He who made the heavens and the earth and He tells me, "To your fellow man, I crowned him with glory and with light and I made him lord over creation."

My beloved, What a Father! What a Savior! What a Creator! There is no one more than Him. He who is more, the only one who is more—I am not less, I am not less—He is more to him by faith. To the invisible, we should see Him not with these eyes, through the eyes of faith that transcend the temporal.

When that reality is true in us, He’s going to come to get us and He will take us to live with Him forever. May the Lord keep you and permit us that only He will be in front of us. We cannot see Him but He is there and He is more real than what is in front of my eyes. It’s an experience by faith and by faith we are justified. By faith we receive Him. By faith we will be a new creation.
May the Lord bless us!

THE SABBATH EXPERIENCE

For me Time is a mystery. I would like to understand Time. But for me Time is, but I cannot really give a concept on it—it is. Do we see it? Or we can’t see it? Time has a mystery tied to it, because Time is like air, it enters everywhere—it is everywhere—Time.
Sabbath belongs to all of humanity. It’s the gift that God has given to all humanity. Whether they accept it or not, all human beings enter into the Sabbath, all of them. Even in prison there is Sabbath.
Sabbath is redemption; the Sabbath experience is a redemptive experience. If we follow what God is showing us here in the scriptures, Sabbath is liberty; Sabbath is dignity; Sabbath is restoration; Sabbath is gospel.
Let us read the commandment in Exodus 20:8 "Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9 Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10 But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:"
And the Lord then says why: 11 "For in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that in them is, and rested the seventh day: wherefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day, and hallowed it."
The Lord set apart the Sabbath. He did something special with the Sabbath. The word for ‘sanctify’ is to cut off, to separate, and to consecrate with a specific objective— and within the context of sin, in order to redeem us, in order to restore us. Last night we mentioned that Sabbath is a plural experience because no one can enter into the Sabbath experience alone. He who enters into the Sabbath experience alone, that is the Sabbath of the Pharisee. To the Sabbath we cannot enter alone.
Someone is affected positively by keeping the true Sabbath. Someone is touched by keeping the Sabbath, because the Sabbath experience is a redemptive experience; it is an experience of sanctification; it’s an experience of forgiveness; it’s an experience of reconciliation and no one is reconciled alone.
Reconciliation is not an egotistical, selfish experience. Reconciliation is an experience that is alterocentric, other-centered, because in order to reconcile—when we were created we were in harmony, we were reconciled to God, with our neighbor and with nature. But when we sinned, we lost that reconciliation and harmony. But when we come to the fountain, when we come to the Sabbath, whence are the waters of rest, we are reconciliated.
If we are not reconciliated, then we are not in the Sabbath, because Sabbath is Shalom, Sabbath is peace, Sabbath is harmony, and the Holy writings teach that even the cattle, the beasts, that are within our courtyard, that are within our house—and we don’t understand this, because nowadays we don’t have cows or horses or cattle inside our house.
In this Western experience, we should place here something different. Instead of putting there your cattle, you should put your dog—your dogs, or your cats, because the beasts should also experience the affect of the Sabbath experience of reconciliation.
In the book of Jonah, the Lord finishes the book of Jonah with a special conciliation that we seldom take into account. But in Jonah the Lord says, when Jonah rejects God’s reconciliation; when Jonah rejects forgiveness; when Jonah wants the Ninevites to be condemned and he is disappointed because God forgives Nineveh. Jonah is angered with the Lord and the Lord teaches him that lesson with that plant.
Then the Lord concludes: Jonah 4:11 "And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than six score thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle (animals)?"
Also many animals—why does the Lord include in the Sabbath experience even the animals? Because no one who participates in the true Sabbath experience remains the same. Who ever enters into the Sabbath experience, and enters in time with the Lord, what the Lord gives to the sinner on the Sabbath day affects nature; affects my son; affects my daughter; it touches my wife; it affects the family; it touches everything that is within your house—because Sabbath is a redemptive experience. And Redemption, at least at the minimum, happens between a you and an I.
What happened in creation when Adam and Eve sinned? What happened with the flowers? What happened to the animals? What happened with relationships? What happened between Adam and Eve? The scriptures say, "Thou shalt have dominion over her." "And your desire shall be unto him". Were the relationships affected? Was God’s image affected? Was the true principle of authority and dominion broken down? Were faith, trust and affection affected? Was individuality affected? Did we usurp the individuality?
This participation of the Sabbath is to restore all that within your sphere—in your home. Here Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7, that the faithful, he that is faithful, sanctifieth the unfaithful. 1 Corinthians 7:14 teaches that the faithful, he who believes, he who has experienced—and you know that we Westerners have difficulty with the word ‘believe’, because for us to believe is just to assent with our mental faculties. But for the oriental mind, believing is not just saying yes with their mental faculties, believing is obeying. Believing is to work. To believe is to live—believe.
But Plato taught us that believing was just to say yes with your head, while with your hands you say no; with your works you say no; but with our head we continue saying yes but with our works we are saying no. In reality we are not doing it, but in thought and in an abstract way, we are saying yes.
That is the spiritualistic dichotomy that Satan taught Greek philosophers. In matter of knowledge we are children of the Greeks. The Lord, Who is not Greek, Who gave His message in the Oriental semantics, for Him, to believe is to live! And when Paul says in 1 Corinthians 7:14, "For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy."
The experience of sanctification is an experience that has radio-active properties. Each human being can irradiate—he can radiate either sin, or righteousness. He can radiate selfishness or other-centeredness. He can radiate hatred or love; resentment or forgiveness and hope. And in our eyes we radiate, in our countenance we radiate, and when we touch, we are radiating; in the tone of our voice we are radiating.
The Sabbath experience is an experience—a plural experience and it has no trace of selfishness. That is why whoever enters into the Sabbath, dignifies, lifts up, places up, his fellow man. Oh, in marriage relationships, we who are married should experience—we should experience once again the new encounter experience—from Sabbath to Sabbath.
What happens in the marriage relationship? Does it become common? Do we become indifferent? Does it become so common that she—that she is just she, and I, I am I. But in the Sabbath experience that has to be redeemed, if it is the true Sabbath experience. If through the week, I have not treated her as in the image of God, I have not received her as in the image of God, then, I have destroyed her dignity. I have destroyed her value. I have underestimated her life. And in the Sabbath experience, that should be redeemed. That must be restored, that has to be reconciled.
Human beings today, when we are not reconciled, we sleep giving the back to each other; And others, they change beds; and still others, they change rooms. Others who have more facilities of space, one will be in the second story and the other one in the basement. That is humanity without the Sabbath. That is human beings without being reconciled. That is humanity without sanctification.
And beloved brothers, within the true Sabbath, the beast participates in that experience. If I am in the real Sabbath, what should my companion experience, when I participate of the sanctification? Sanctification is radiation and no one remains the same. And if uranium and radium, the inorganic elements, that are not alive, that don’t have the image of God, have the capacity of radiating and having rays that are admitted from them, and even of producing cancer and destroying the cell, what can the love of God do when it is constituted into the human experience and the Sabbath experience?
That’s why we find the commandment, "Thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy servant, nor thy maid servant," and on few occasions does the scripture make a difference between feminine gender, because that was the culture, in their culture people were in complete satisfaction in the rupture that had happened when Adam sinned.
When Adam sinned and when Eve sinned, when they disobeyed, the way they treated each other changed. He usurped dominion over her, not by Divine will—it was a consequence of sin. Rupture between man and woman is not the Word of God—it’s a consequence of sin. When she became her own center, and when he became his own center, there was a true rupture. And he had dominion over her. In Genesis 1 and in Psalm 8, the dominion and government and strength over, is upon things—over things, not over persons.
In the image of God, between persons, only love, only trust, only hope, only kindness, and the fruits of the Spirit—love—nothing else, between two, but it was lost after creation. Sabbath restores it, and the animals experience it, if you enter into the real Sabbath experience. And if the dogs and the cats should experience it, what should the unbeliever experience who is living with the believer? There should be a radioactive power, the radiation of the Holy Spirit and of the truth because God’s love is radioactive.
The gospel is radioactive—"I am not ashamed of the gospel because it is the power of God." The original word says ‘dunamis’ and from dunamis comes the word dynamite. It’s power! It’s radioactive! It transforms, it changes, it penetrates, just as time penetrates everything and enters like air into everything. In the same way God has wanted to enter into us in the Sabbath experience in order to perform redemption and sanctification, remission and forgiveness, complete reconciliation.
Have we lost that Sabbath? The Jews lost the Sabbath; the Pharisees lost the Sabbath but they believed that they were fulfilling the law.
Sabbath is dignity. There are some verses here in Deuteronomy that are very special. We are happy—many are happy because the laws of the Old Testament were nailed to the cross. But the principles that are behind the symbols of the ceremonial sabbaths are still valid. The external form died, but the principle never dies. But the Jews were specialists in keeping the external application—having destroyed the principle. But the principle never perishes.
Follow on the principle of the Sabbath here in Deuteronomy 15; "At the end of every seven years thou shalt make a release. 2. And this is the manner of the release: Every creditor that lendeth ought unto his neighbour shall release it; he shall not exact it of his neighbour, or of his brother; because it is called the LORD'S release."
The Sabbatical year, the seventh year was a year of forgiveness. Just as the Jubilee—the experience of the Jubilee, was an experience of forgiveness. All scripture is saturated with justification. All scripture is saturated with forgiveness, because for the Lord, sin—sin is absurd. It has no explanation. It has no reason of being. It is irrational. It is crazy. He cannot conceive it. Sin is so terrible, that it is absurd. And the only thing He could do with sin was to justify it.
For us that is very difficult to understand, very difficult; because what we do with the sin of someone else—we recognize it; we sentence it; we accuse him; we condemn him; and we send him to jail; because it’s sin—it’s evil. And then we think that that is our righteousness.
But in God’s righteousness, instead of defending the norm, He defends the image of God because the price is not in the letter of the law; the price is living and is in the person. But for us it is very difficult to handle that. But the Lord has opened the way to forgive what is absurd in me, to forgive my sin–my iniquity, even the depths—even my very depths.
In this world people forgive anything except money. But in Sabbath, the Lord made provision within Sabbath for forgiveness. Sabbath is forgiveness; Sabbath is justification; Sabbath is hope; Sabbath is life; and that is why Sabbath is rest. It is Shalom.
There are many things that could be said here in the following verses of Deuteronomy 15, a principle is revealed of what God’s character is. Every ceremony of the Old Testament, every statute of the Old Testament, reveals an aspect of God’s character that should be in us. Not the external form but the principle.
Notice what happened here in verse 12; never was it God’s plan—never was it God’s plan that woman should be less than man. That man should be lord, and the other slave. Never was that God’s plan. That has never been the Lord’s plan—that is the result of sin. Things became degenerated in our social status in such a way that in the days of Jacob, he bought his wives, and the fathers, the parents accepted the culture that their daughters were things, and they sold them. They negotiated with them and they exchanged them. Strange! It’s the consequence of sin.
The Lord in His mercy redeems that in the Sabbath experience. Notwithstanding that cultural problem the Lord enters into time—He’s Immanuel with us and He teaches
us that thy maidservant, that your servant, in the Sabbath experience, no longer is a servant—he’s the image of God.
Perhaps here we don’t see that because in this culture, you don’t have many maids or servants. In the days of Abraham Lincoln that was finished. But in spirit, there is still slavery. But in our Latin countries we still have servants and rich people, the wealthy people they hire servants. Have you seen the maidservant’s or the servant’s room in the house of the wealthy? Have you seen them? What type of rooms are they? The tiniest; the smallest; the least comfortable—there in the back—"He’s just the servant". He’s not the image of God—he’s the servant. He has the worst because he’s a servant. How do we look on him? How do we look at him? That’s not God’s plan. That isn’t God’s character.
In the Sabbath experience, he who keeps the true Sabbath, he who experiences it, that when sunset on Friday arrives, of every Sabbath, he stops being a servant—his social status is not that of a servant on Sabbath. His social status is the image of God; and he receives the same things that the lord of the house receives.
And that’s why the scriptures says nor thy servant, nor thy maidservant, because your servant and your maidservant on Sabbath, they are reconciled, they are restored. the experience of the Sabbath is a plural experience. It’s not a selfish experience—what I am and what I receive from Him, who comes and visits me, is the same participation that I give to others in the spirit, in the influence and the way that I treat others in the reality and not the concept.
And the servant and the maidservant also experience it and they hope for the Sabbath; they yearn for the sunset on Friday because in that moment he prepares himself because no longer is he a servant, no longer is he a slave, he’s the image of God. He has been dignified, he has been lifted.
No one enters into the Sabbath alone. Your peace, your reconciliation, your forgiveness, your righteousness, your sanctification, is a radioactive power and it touches all that are within your home, including the animals, even the foreigner and if it includes the foreigner of course it includes your family in greater proportion.
What type of relationship should happen between husbands and wives in the Sabbath experience? If we have taken away from her, her dignity during the week and if we have exerted dominion over her or she over him? Sabbath restores all that.
Deuteronomy 15, Verse 12: "And if thy brother, an Hebrew man, or an Hebrew woman, be sold unto thee, and serve thee six years; then in the seventh year thou shalt let him go free from thee."
Liberty—Sabbath is liberty; but not only liberty, because liberty alone, without dignity, is not liberty according to the Lord. For us, liberty is just to break the chains and that’s what human law does. It removes the chains. The Negro is no longer the slave and the white man is no longer the lord over the black man.
But only the chains; God goes beyond that. Not only the chains but He gives value and the Lord restores and dignifies—He dignifies his fellow man. Here what He says: 13 "And when thou sendest him out free from thee, thou shalt not let him go away empty:"
If you let him go empty, then he will become a slave again. He will have to look for some other chains.
14 "Thou shalt furnish him liberally out of thy flock, and out of thy floor, and out of thy winepress: of that wherewith the LORD thy God hath blessed thee thou shalt give unto him."
Today we don’t have lambs, flocks, we are vegetarians—what do we have? What do we have, what do we have in abundance that she doesn’t have? That he doesn’t have? What do we have in abundance that the wife doesn’t have? That the husband doesn’t have? That the son, or the servant, that the animal doesn’t have? That the foreigner doesn’t have? And in order to dignify him, it’s not just to rent the chains asunder. It’s not only the status, also internally, his dignity which is God’s image.
Oh my beloved, God’s liberty, God’s liberation, God’s reconciliation, God’s sanctification, is totally different to these selfish concepts that I have; from His reality who is God, that descends in the Sabbath and enters with me in my time and he visits me in my home to restore His image in me. And once He restores it in me—what do I breath? What do I breathe out? What influence do I impart? What do others receive from me? The same thing that I receive from Him.
And what is life eternal? And this is life eternal that they might know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou has sent.
Oh beloved, how did Jesus handle the Sabbath? And the Pharisees did not understand Jesus’ Sabbath, because on Sabbath, Jesus dignified people. Jesus liberated people. Jesus reconciled the people. Not on paper, not in the letter of the law, with the human being; with your son; with your daughter; with your servant; with your maidservant; with the animals—with the flock—with the cattle; with the foreigner.
The Jews had destroyed the Sabbath and they had made it into a private experience; into a selfish experience—a totally egocentric experience. And they thought that they were in the truth.
The Lord came and He broke all that apart, and they didn’t understand. Do we understand why the Sabbath is the Seal? It’s not just a matter of time. It’s much more than time. And time for me is a phenomenon—it’s a mystery. And in time—it is that events happen. In time—it is that prophecy is fulfilled. In time—prophecy is developed. In time—creation was done and in time—redemption was done. In time—the cross took place and in time—we are redeemed.
The Lord knew that we would be busy in our selfish works: on Sunday—I work for myself; on Monday—I work for myself; on Tuesday—I work for myself; Wednesday and Thursday—I work for myself and Friday—I work for myself; and perhaps on Sabbath I continue thinking on myself. The Lord knows that we need a rest from our self and He has given us the Sabbath; so that we might rest from our self; so that we might rest from sin; so that we might rest from what is ours; we might leave our things aside which is sin, iniquity and we might experience Him.
We work differently from God, because God worked on Sunday—not for Himself—but for us. And He worked on Monday—not for Himself—but for us. And all His work is not for Him—it’s for us. Ellen White says that Jesus did nothing for Himself. All was done for others—every day, every day.
Heaven does not work; heaven does not work. Have you known the origin of the word ‘work’? It is a Latin word, ‘travail’ instrument of slavery. Heaven does not work. God does not work. Jesus does not work. Jesus serves. The Lord serves; every work of God is a work of service. And the work of the 144,000 will be a complete work of service.
They have not lived for themselves—they lived for others. They have experienced the great universal law of service—I, for you not I for myself.
Have we rested from our self? And each moment we live in function of others and not in relationship to ourselves. That is the foundation; that is the base of the divine economy. The foundation of our economy is selfishness—it is the base. But in the foundation of the divine economy, other-centeredness is placed—totally opposite foundations.
Sabbath is the Seal of the experience of other-centeredness; where God in His mercy, knowing our fallen condition, and knowing that everything that is ours, rotates around myself and that I am the center and everything I do I do it for myself and with difficulty do I do something for someone else.
The Lord, Who prophetically knew that as we drew closer to the end of time, the only thing ours would be the cares of this world; the cares of this world. Who doesn’t live for himself? And our excuse is "I don’t have time", that’s our excuse; "I don’t have time". "I am too busy." "I am too busy in my business." And God, understanding that human condition, gave us a fountain—a Sabbath; and every six days we would have a special fountain in the midst of the desert, so that He might lead us by still waters; so that we might enter into His menuha—the rest from myself. The rest from ‘I’ being the center; and for that—time.
It’s in time—it’s in time that I can rest from myself. It’s in time that I lay aside myself. It’s in time that I renounce to myself by God’s grace.
Oh my beloved, the enemy has said that Sabbath is just a rule; that Sabbath is legalism. But Sabbath is grace! It’s mercy. Sabbath is love. He has given it to us because of man—it is for man. It is for you; it is for us; it’s a gift; it’s His mercy; it’s His grace; it’s part of His gospel because He is love. And comprehending our human condition and all our processes, He has given us a break, a rest, a fountain of rest.
And the word ‘menuha’ that is translated as ‘rest’ is a state of harmony—a state of peace; resting in Him. He—assuming our lives. Isaiah 58:12, 13; "If you keep thy foot . . . Not doing your will. . . and not speaking your words. . . and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour Him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words:
14 "Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it."

ANYTHING BUT SECRET

In the early 1500s, the Aztec empire was one of the most powerful and sophisticated civilizations in the western hemisphere. However, within one year's time this mighty nation of over two million people was conquered and enslaved by just six hundred men. How did it happen?

The Aztecs had a prophecy about Quetzalcoatl (kèt-säl´ko-ä-tal), a legendary feathered god-king who was light skinned and bearded. It predicted that he would return to Mexico from across the sea and that he would come in the clouds from the east to save them.

Well, in 1519 Spanish galleons arrived in Mexico carrying a group of conquistadors led by Hernando Cortez. When the Aztecs saw these ships with their billowing sails, they thought it looked like clouds. Cortez heard about the Aztec legend from some Indians who lived on the shore and decided to use the situation to his advantage. He astutely assumed the mantle of deity to befuddle superstitious King Montezuma II.

While the king was waiting to receive him with honor, Cortez marched his army right into the center of the Aztec capital. By the time the people realized that Cortez was not the savior they were expecting, it was too late. The conquistadors proceeded to plunder, enslave, and kill the Aztec people. An entire nation was deceived and destroyed-in part because the prophecies of their god's return were so ambiguous that almost anyone could have served as a counterfeit.
In the near future, Satan will attempt to personate Jesus and counterfeit His return to earth. But God's people need not be deceived. When the disciples asked Jesus for the sign of His coming and the end of the world, the very first thing He told them was to be on guard against impostors. He said, "Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many." Matthew 24:4, 5.

Christ then proceeded to give His followers a wealth of information about His second coming so there would be no doubt as to how He would return. Jesus not only wants us to know that He is coming and that He's coming soon; He wants us to understand the manner of His coming.
The reason this is so important is because Satan will soon attempt to personate Jesus and counterfeit His return. And to pave the way, Satan has introduced a strong delusion to the Christian world that has been almost universally accepted in mainline churches. I am speaking of the popular teaching regarding a "secret rapture."

The secret rapture theory was designed to lull God's people into a false sense of security and to prepare them for this final master deception. Jesus warned, "If any man shall say unto you, Lo, here is Christ, or there; believe it not. For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matthew 24:23, 24.

Satan's deceptions will be strong and convincing, but Christ has given us ample information to help us discern truth from error.

Not a Secret
Will there be a rapture? Yes. Will it be a secret? NO! Rapture means "to be carried away with power," and it is true that when Jesus comes we will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). But many have come to believe that this rapture will take place quietly-that faithful Christians all around the world will suddenly disappear and that life here on earth will continue for a seven-year period of tribulation. During this time, they say, many will be converted and have a "second chance" at salvation before Christ's final coming.

Although the secret rapture scenario may appear comforting at first glance, there is absolutely no scriptural support for it. The Bible plainly teaches that when Jesus comes again, every one of our senses will be bombarded with evidence!

His Coming Will Be Literal
"And when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight. And while they looked stedfastly toward heaven as he went up, behold, two men stood by them in white apparel; Which also said, Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into heaven." Acts 1:9-11.

Heaven-sent messengers told the disciples that Jesus would return to this earth in the same manner He left. Christ left in the clouds, and He will come back in the clouds. He was visible when He left, and He will be visible when He comes again. He had a real body when He left, and He will return the same way.

His Coming Will Be Visible
"Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him." Revelation 1:7.
"For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:27.

"And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory." Matthew 24:30.

When Christ comes, it will not be merely a local sighting or an isolated event. It will be visible across the entire world.

His Coming Will Be Audible
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.

"The Lord shall roar from on high, and utter his voice from his holy habitation; he shall mightily roar upon his habitation; he shall give a shout." Jeremiah 25:30.

"Our God shall come, and shall not keep silence: a fire shall devour before him, and it shall be very tempestuous round about him." Psalm 50:3.

Christ's second coming will be loud! There will be shouts and trumpets and all kinds of noise. No one will accidentally miss it or be able to read about it in the newspaper the next day.

His Coming Will Be Emotional
"Men's hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory." Luke 21:26, 27.

"And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the Lord; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation." Isaiah 25:9.
When Christ returns, it will be an emotional day for the wicked and righteous alike. The lost will experience indescribable fear and anguish, while the saved will experience the perfect joy of eternal salvation.

His Coming Will Open the Graves
"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day." John 6:40.

"For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ's at his coming." 1 Corinthians 15:22, 23.
"For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord." 1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17.

This is the Bible's description of the rapture. The dead in Christ will rise by His power and will meet Him in the air. Afterward the faithful who are still alive will also be caught up. It will not be a secret!

His Coming Will Destroy the Earth
"The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly. The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again." Isaiah 24:19, 20.

"And the heaven [sky] departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places." Revelation 6:14.

"And there were voices, and thunders, and lightnings; and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great. And the great city was divided into three parts, and the cities of the nations fell: and great Babylon came in remembrance before God, to give unto her the cup of the wine of the fierceness of his wrath. And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found." Revelation 16:18-20.

This world will be uninhabitable by people after Christ comes. His coming will shake the very foundations of the earth.

His Coming Will Mean Final Judgment
"For the Son of man shall come in the glory of his Father with his angels; and then he shall reward every man according to his works." Matthew 16:27.

"And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be." Revelation 22:12.

It is at Christ's return that we will receive our final reward. Each person's decision will have already been made; there will be no second chance to convert. The time to make a decision to follow Christ is now!

Basis for Confusion
With so much evidence in the Bible as to the manner of Christ's coming, where do people get the idea that the rapture will be a secret event? As with most deceptions, the secret rapture theory is based on a few texts which have been taken out of context. There are two main concepts in Scripture that have been used to substantiate a "secret" rapture.

The primary one is that Jesus will come as "a thief in the night." The secret rapture theory assumes this means that Christ will come secretly to steal away the righteous and carry them quietly to heaven.

Christ's coming is described as "a thief" several times throughout the New Testament. Let's look at one of these passages and see if it describes a secret rapture. "But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up." 2 Peter 3:10. That doesn't sound like a secret event to me!

In describing His return as a thief, Christ did not intend to show that it would be quiet, but that it would be sudden and unexpected-that the wicked would be taken by surprise. He said, "If the goodman of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched, and not have suffered his house to be broken through. Be ye therefore ready also: for the Son of man cometh at an hour when ye think not." Luke 12:39, 40. Likewise, Paul told the Christians in Thessalonica, "But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief." 1 Thessalonians 5:4. God does not want His followers to be surprised. He wants us to be watchful and ready.

The second concept used to support a "secret" coming is found in Luke 17:34-36: "I tell you, in that night there shall be two men in one bed; the one shall be taken, and the other shall be left. Two women shall be grinding together; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two men shall be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left."

Secret rapture proponents say this passage proves that the saints will suddenly disappear from the earth when Jesus returns. But let's take an honest look at the evidence and see what these verses actually teach.

In Luke 17:34-36, Jesus employs some of His favorite symbols to illustrate a simple point. At the end of time, there will be just two groups of people living upon the earth-the lost and the saved.
Two men in one bed. A bed generally connotes sleep, and Jesus used sleep as a symbol of death. He said to the disciples, "Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep." "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead." John 11:11, 14. In the resurrection at the last day, there will be two kinds of people sleeping in the grave-the lost and the saved.
Two women grinding together. In Bible prophecy, a woman is a symbol of a church (Jeremiah 6:2). Grinding grain represents working with the Word of God. When Christ comes in glory, there will be two kinds of churches-the false and the true. Both will be outwardly doing the same thing, but only one will be redeemed.

Two men in the field. The field represents the world (Matthew 13:38). When Jesus comes again, there will be two kinds of missionaries laboring out in the field-the false and the true. This is why He said, "Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity." Matthew 7:22, 23.

The Devil's Hidden Agenda
The devil knows that Jesus is coming back and that his time is short (Revelation 12:12). He has been sharpening his skills of deception for 6,000 years, and his last masquerade will be his masterpiece. One day soon, Satan is going to attempt to personate Christ Himself. And Jesus warns that he will do such a convincing job that, if it were possible, even the very elect would be deceived. "For false Christs and false prophets shall rise, and shall shew signs and wonders, to seduce, if it were possible, even the elect." Mark 13:22.

Satan is not an ugly, grotesque, bat-winged creature wearing a red leotard. He's an angel-a beautiful, powerful angel. And the Bible makes it clear that he is able to transform himself and appear in different forms. "For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light." 2 Corinthians 11:13, 14. We must not underestimate how convincing and overpowering Satan's final deception will be. I'm sure he will even quote Scripture, as he did while tempting Christ in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-6).

The devil also has the ability to create the illusion of miracles. You will remember that when Moses went in before Pharaoh to plead for the children of Israel, the magicians of Egypt were able to duplicate the first few signs from God (Exodus chapters 7, 8). Satan is in the business of deception. And we know that he is saving his greatest deception of all for the last days. We need to know how Jesus is coming, or we will be deceived.

The Bible is very clear that when Jesus comes back, His feet never touch the ground. It says the righteous will be caught up to meet Him in the air (1 Thessalonians 4:17). This is why Jesus emphatically warns us, "Therefore if they say to you, 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out; or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!' do not believe it. For as the lightning comes from the east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be." Matthew 24:26, 27, NKJV.
Satan cannot replicate a worldwide, cataclysmic event the magnitude of the real second coming. But if he can seduce Christians into believing the secret rapture theory, he won't have to. He can simply show up around the world in various places, perform great miracles, make TV appearances, and thereby deceive the entire world.

Every general knows that the key to victory in battle is to maintain an element of surprise. Many battles have been won because of a clever diversionary tactic. While one army was distracted and looking at the diversion, the enemy came up from behind to conquer them. In the devil's final assault, he will do the same thing. The archdeceiver has always wanted to be God. Now he knows that he is doomed, but his last taunting gesture against heaven will be to personate Jesus and receive the worship of a lost world.

Sadly, the devil is not the only one who likes to masquerade as God. Many people who claim to be Christians have never come to the place where they are willing to make a complete surrender and allow Jesus to be Lord of their lives. They still want to be in charge. They call him, "Lord, Lord," but do not obey Him.

Friend, is Jesus your Lord? Are you submitting to His will now, or are you masquerading as your own master? No man can serve two masters (Matthew 6:24). It must be Jesus or yourself. He will soon come in glory for all to see. Will you give Him the crown, throne, and scepter of your life now?