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Pre-parousia -- The red horse First posted: January 2, 2005
This article is the third in a series of articles dealing with the spiritual events --- as prophesied by the Lord in Matthew 24 --- that are already taking place prior to the coming of the Son of Man. This article will deal with the manifestation of the red horse of the Apocalypse in these latter days.
Index
In Matthew 24:7, the Lord declares the following:
"For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places." (Matthew 24:7)
In our previous article, we shared on the meaning of the first half of this verse. Over the next three articles, we will share on the meaning of each of the three words mentioned by the Lord at the end of this verse: famines, pestilences, and earthquakes.
As we were studying each of these words, the Spirit began to insist that we match them up with the last 3 horses of the Apocalypse mentioned in Revelation chapter 6:
"1And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see. 2And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer. 3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword. 5And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand. 6And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine. 7And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. 8And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth." (Revelation 6:1-8)
In our previous article, the Lord had compelled us to write about the "white horse". As I was typing the article, there was a moment when I felt that we were spending too much time talking about the white horse. However, my natural mind was unable to perceive at that time that the first part of Matthew 24:7 is, in essence, a prophetic reference to the white horse, the 1st horse of the Apocalypse. The three words in the rest of the verse are references to the remaining three horses.
The fact that the Lord spent half of the verse on the first horse (as opposed to a single word for each of the other horses) means that the first horse's "anointing" permeates throughout the other 3 horses. In other words, the first horse serves as the spiritual "theme" in whose context the other 3 horses operate.
The first horse surfaces as the first seal of the book is opened. The book whose 7 seals are opened is mentioned at the beginning of Revelation chapter 5:
"And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals." (Revelation 5:1)
Notice that the book was written both within and on the back side. This points to the following passage:
"15And Moses turned, and went down from the mount, and the two tables of the testimony were in his hand: the tables were written on both their sides; on the one side and on the other were they written. 16And the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God, graven upon the tables." (Exodus 32:15-16)
As we share in a previous article, the "top" side of the tablets represents the "literal words" of God that can be seen on the surface by the natural mind, while the "bottom" side represents the underlying meaning of those words, which can only be understood prophetically. Therefore, the fact that the tablets were written on both sides represents the ability to prophetically understand the underlying meaning of Scripture. The tablets mentioned in the passage above were destroyed by Moses when he descended from the mountaintop and found the people in defiant sin against God. The "replacement tablets" which Moses got when he went up to the mountaintop for a second time differed from the original ones in two ways (Exodus chapter 34):
Just as the Israelites rebelled against the Lord in the desert, so has the Church rebelled against God, and just as the Israelites lost their ability to understand God's written word prophetically, so has the Church lost that ability. This is why most of the Bible has remained shrouded in mystery and misunderstood for centuries:
"10For the LORD hath poured out upon you the spirit of deep sleep, and hath closed your eyes: the prophets and your rulers, the seers hath he covered. 11And the vision of all is become unto you as the words of a book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee: and he saith, I cannot; for it is sealed" (Isaiah 29:10-11)
In these latter days, God is beginning to open the 7 seals, and the true, prophetic meaning of His word is beginning to be revealed to His people (the opening of the seals is already taking place even as we speak). God will open the seals through those who are willing to manifest the Lamb's nature on Earth:
"8And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints. 9And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation; 10And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth." (Revelation 5:8-10) [The word "beasts" is a very poor translation of the Greek word zoon, which literally means "living being"; this word is derived from zoe, which means "life" and is the word used in Greek when the Lord speaks of "eternal life"]
From the passage above, we can infer that there are two (intertwined) prerequisites to being a channel through whom God will open the seals in these latter days:
As these qualities are manifested in you, you begin to manifest the nature of the Lamb, and the one who is worthy will begin to break the seals of the book through you so that the God-potential in others may be manifested.
As you read Revelation chapters 6 and 7, you will see that, as the seals of the book are opened, judgments are released, not "gooey blessings". Why? Because the book contains God's logos words, and, as we have seen before, God's logos word produces judgments (Hebrews 4:12). The Church, under the pastoral matriarchy, has for centuries hated the mere mention of the word "judgment". Pastors' limited view of man as a fumbling and sinful fool (and not as a potential "son of God") has made judgments unnecessary in their minds. Why? Because judgments produce growth (Hebrews 12:4-13), and if we have already reached our maximum growth, what point is there in going through any more judgment-induced growing pains? Since they don't meet prerequisite number 2 mentioned above, pastors do not see any need for God's spiritual judgments.
God created pastors with a predisposition to be sympathetic with other people's suffering, meaning that they suffer when others suffer. Therefore, it takes pastors a certain measure of self-sacrifice to apply spiritual judgments on others, and most pastors are unwilling to make such a sacrifice. Jesus, who was the Perfect Pastor, was willing to hand Simon Peter over to satan to be sifted (Luke 22:31). He was willing to expose Simon to suffering in order to see the potential in him manifested, even if that was not "pleasant" to Jesus Himself. Besides this, most pastors around the world do not see themselves as "sacrificial lambs" called to give their lives to see others manifested (John 10:11). Instead, they expect believers to make sacrifices for them. The pastoral ministry which has ruled the Church does not meet prerequisite number 1 mentioned above. Therefore, God's book of judgments has remained sealed until now.
From all of the above, we can conclude that the book is being opened in these latter days by those of you who are not "uncomfortable" with God's judgments. Since the opening of the very first seal leads to the manifestation of the white horse, we can safely say that the white horse rides out on a well-established foundation of apostolic judgments, since the true apostolic anointing makes us comfortable with God's spiritual judgments.
As you can see in Revelation 6:2 quoted above, the rider of the white horse has a bow. The bow is for the shooting of arrows, which, as we have said before, points to the prophetic ministry. White-horse riders are shooting prophetic arrows into the air from the darkness of anonymity; those arrows are surreptitiously creating doubt in believers' hearts and minds, and they are shaking up the Church's trusted paradigms and doctrines. Through the prophetic anointing on their lives, the white-horse riders are stirring up a spiritual war between God's prophetic nation and the Girgashite nation inside the Church.
Revelation 6:2 also declares that a crown is given to the white-horse rider. The crown speaks of "kingship", which points to the evangelistic anointing, since, as we have said before, evangelists are spiritual conquerors of kingdoms and have a strong warrior nature.
Therefore, we can say that the white-horse is ridden by a core of believers who have an implicit and well-established acceptance of God's apostolic judgments; these believers have a prophetically defiant attitude against human structures inside the Church, and they will be given a strong evangelistic anointing. Based on what we shared in a previous article, this is the exact definition of a spiritual "wild ass". In the latter days, God is raising up wild asses who love His judgments. These wild asses are defying human structures and are being given an evangelistic anointing to take the Church and the world back unto God.
As we said above, the other 3 horses of the Apocalypse are "permeated" with the anointing of the first horse, meaning that the other 3 horses are all ridden in the spirit of a "wild ass".
As we said at the beginning of this article, the Lord compelled us to interrelate the 3 things listed in the second half of Matthew 24:7 with the last 3 horses of the Apocalypse. He also compelled us to associate them with 5 other "triplets". Here, now, is the list of the 7 triplets which we must relate between each other:
This article and the next two will match "famines", "pestilences", and "earthquakes" with one item from each of the other triplets. In this article, we will focus on "pestilences".
The word "pestilence" that appears in Matthew 24:7 was translated from the Greek word loimos. This word only appears 3 times in the entire New Testament. It appears once in Luke 21:11, which is the parallel verse of Matthew 24:7 in the Gospel of Luke. The only other verse where loimos appears is in the book of Acts:
"1And after five days Ananias the high priest descended with the elders, and with a certain orator named Tertullus, who informed the governor against Paul. 2And when he was called forth, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying, Seeing that by thee we enjoy great quietness, and that very worthy deeds are done unto this nation by thy providence, 3 We accept it always, and in all places, most noble Felix, with all thankfulness. 4Notwithstanding, that I be not further tedious unto thee, I pray thee that thou wouldest hear us of thy clemency a few words. 5For we have found this man a pestilent fellow, and a mover of sedition among all the Jews throughout the world, and a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes: 6Who also hath gone about to profane the temple: whom we took, and would have judged according to our law. 7But the chief captain Lysias came upon us, and with great violence took him away out of our hands," (Acts 24:1-7)
In a previous prophetic word, we shared that the apostle Paul was called a "pestilence" (v5) by the religious leaders of his day because he was to them like a troublesome man who was stirring up strife and sedition in what would otherwise be a peaceful and "quiet" (v2) society ruled by a "kind and gentle" man like Felix, whose name literally means "happy". According to Webster's Dictionary, one of the definitions of the word "happy" is "living in concord", and a synonym for "concord" is "peace". Therefore, we can safely say that a "spiritual pestilence" is a person who takes away the peace and who causes internal strife and division.
Paul was a pestilence to the Jews because he would go into the synagogues and expose the Word to them in truth. As the Jews would listen to Paul, some of them would realize that Paul was speaking irrefutable truth, which would cause them to question the so-called "truths" which their religious leaders had taught them, and which they had unquestioningly accepted for so long.
In a previous prophetic word, we shared on how the apostle Paul went into the synagogue at Ephesus and created division among the Jews, taking apart those whose hearts were not hardened and teaching them at the house of Tyrannus (Acts 19:8-12). This is a prime example of how Paul acted as a peace-removing, division-causing spiritual pestilence.
As we also share in a previous word, the Lord declares in Habakkuk 3:3-7 that "pestilences" will go before Him as He begins to manifest His Glory on Earth. Just as John the Baptist came before Jesus, spiritual-pestilence believers (like Paul) are coming in these latter days to take away the peace of the well-established religious doctrines and structures, creating agitation and spiritual strife in the atmosphere, as when a woman becomes agitated before giving birth.
"3God came from Teman, and the Holy One from mount Paran. Selah. His glory covered the heavens, and the earth was full of his praise. 4And his brightness was as the light; he had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his power. 5Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet. 6He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting. 7I saw the tents of Cushan in affliction: and the curtains of the land of Midian did tremble." (Habakkuk 3:3-7)
The word "pestilence" in verse 5 was translated from the Hebrew word deber, which is derived from the word dabar meaning "word"; the word dabar is the equivalent in Hebrew of the Greek word logos, which, as we have said before, is called a "sword" in Hebrews 4:12 and is related to the making of judgments. Swords cut and divide, and God's sword is like the scalpel of a surgeon who cuts the cancerous tumor out of a body, separating the "good" cells from the "bad" cells. By their very nature, judgments separate the irreparably bad from what is good and "developable".
Spiritual pestilences come with God's logos word to cut away man's teachings and commandments. They come to separate the hardened supporters of the human status quo from those who truly want to see God's Kingdom established on Earth:
"For there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you." (1 Corinthians 11:19)
The word "heresies" above was translated from the Greek word hairesis, which is the same word which is translated as "sect" in Acts 24:5 above when the Jews refer to Paul as the "ringleader of the sect of the Nazarenes". The word hairesis is derived from the word haireomai which means "to choose, to elect". Therefore, 1 Corinthians 11:19 is speaking of God taking His chosen ones from among the religious structures. Through necessary spiritual divisions, those who are approved are "made manifest".
Most Protestant pastors preach that any type of division is wrong and from the devil. However, such preaching is the reflection of a heart that is ignorant of God's righteous nature and purposes. If these Protestant pastors were right, they would then have to admit that Martin Luther was sinning against God when he spawned the Protestant Reformation that led to the separation of many believers from the catholic church. A Protestant pastor calling any type of division "evil" is like the pot calling the kettle black. The Lord Jesus Himself was a spiritual pestilence to the Pharisees and Sadducees; He caused divisions among the religious circles of His day:
"40Many of the people therefore, when they heard this saying, said, Of a truth this is the Prophet. 41Others said, This is the Christ. But some said, Shall Christ come out of Galilee? 42Hath not the scripture said, That Christ cometh of the seed of David, and out of the town of Bethlehem, where David was? 43So there was a division among the people because of him." (John 7:40-43)
" 44And some of them would have taken him; but no man laid hands on him. 45Then came the officers to the chief priests and Pharisees; and they said unto them, Why have ye not brought him? 46The officers answered, Never man spake like this man. 47Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? 48Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. 50Nicodemus saith unto them, (he that came to Jesus by night, being one of them,) 51Doth our law judge any man, before it hear him, and know what he doeth? 52They answered and said unto him, Art thou also of Galilee? Search, and look: for out of Galilee ariseth no prophet." (John 7:44-52) [ Notice how Jesus caused division among the officers and the chief priests; notice also how He caused division among the top people (Nicodemus is called a "ruler of the Jews" in John 3:1)]
Therefore, we can say that, when Christian pastors preach against any type of division, they are speaking like complete fools, because the man whose teachings they claim to follow (i.e.- Jesus Christ of Nazareth) was a divider Himself.
Now, it must be said that Galatians 5:20 speaks of "heresies" (hairesis in Greek) as one of the works of the flesh. However, it must also be mentioned that "wrath" is included in that list, and the Scriptures constantly refer to the "wrath of God". The book of Revelation alone speaks of the "wrath of God" 9 times (Revelation 14:8,10,19, 15:1,7, 16:1,19, 18:3, 19:15), and, in all 9 cases, the same Greek word (thumos) that appears in Galatians 5:20 is used. Therefore, the word "wrath" in Galatians 5:20 speaks of wrath against God's truth and purposes, not of wrath against things that oppose Him. Otherwise, God would be sinning every time He is wroth. The Greek word echthra (translated as "hatred") also appears in Galatians 5:20, but James 4:4 declares that friendship with the world is echthra (i.e.- "enmity") with God. Therefore, what may externally appear as "friendship" is really "enmity" in God's eyes if it opposes His truth and purposes. In the same way, a "heresy" is only a work of the flesh when it is trying to separate people from God's truth and purposes. If it is actually drawing people unto God, it is really "union" in God's eyes, even if it may externally seem like "heresy" and "division" to those who are not in the Spirit. Remember, Scripture revolves around God's spiritual truth, not around human institutions.
Acts 24:5, quoted above, says that Paul was a "mover of sedition". The word "mover" was translated from kineo, which literally means "to set into motion", and is the word from which "kinetic" is derived. The word "sedition" was translated from stasis, which literally means "a standing". In other words, Paul was a person who set into motion "stands". He moved or "agitated" people into taking a stand against the accepted religious structures and tendencies.
Therefore, we can say that a spiritual pestilence comes to challenge believers to buck the trend, to become like a salmon that swims against the Canaanite trends of soul communion and the Hivite trends of effeminate delight. A spiritual pestilence is a salmon-begetter.
Having said all of the above, it becomes evident, that the horse of the Apocalypse that fits in perfectly with the "pestilences" of Matthew 24:7 is the red horse:
"3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. 4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword." (Revelation 6:3-4)
Spiritual pestilences are given the "talent" to "take peace from the earth", i.e.- to destroy the believers' satisfaction with Girgashite methods of earthliness. Spiritual pestilences are also given the "talent" to produce "mutual killing", which speaks of their ability to end the believers' happiness with Canaanite soul communion. As we have said before, Canaanites hate judgments; they do all they can to stop judgments in order to forge a soul-oriented harmony. Spiritual pestilences, however, come to reinstate the sanity of spiritual judgments, which leads to righteous believers making judgments and to unrighteous Canaanites making counter-judgments induced by desires of personal revenge, not a zeal for justice. This is what the "killing of one another" refers to.
Spiritual pestilences, i.e.- red-horse riders, are also given a "great sword" (Revelation 6:4). This speaks of the truth-based sword of pestilence which they will be given to cut and divide in order to separate the righteous from the unrighteous.
"1In that day the LORD with his sore and great and strong sword shall punish leviathan the piercing serpent, even leviathan that crooked serpent; and he shall slay the dragon that is in the sea. 2In that day sing ye unto her, A vineyard of red wine. 3I the LORD do keep it; I will water it every moment: lest any hurt it, I will keep it night and day. 4Fury is not in me: who would set the briers and thorns against me in battle? I would go through them, I would burn them together." (Isaiah 27:1-3) [Notice how this passage speaks of a "great sword" as well and of a vineyard of red wine, which points to the red horse]
[The word "red" in Revelation 6:3 was translated from the Greek word pyrrhos, which is derived from the word pyr meaning "fire". Therefore, it makes sense that the passage above speaks of the Lord burning the briers and thorns in Isaiah 27:3.]
Serpents in Scripture primarily point to the Girgashite spirit, since Girgashite means "clay dweller" and serpents literally dwell and move in the "clay" or "earth". However, serpents also represent something else. The Hebrew word that was translated as "serpent" in the verse above is nachash, which is derived from another almost identical word meaning "to practice divination". This word appears in passages such as the following:
"And Laban said unto him, I pray thee, if I have found favour in thine eyes, tarry: for I have learned by experience that the LORD hath blessed me for thy sake." (Genesis 30:27) [The phrase "I have learned from experience" was translated from the word nachash for "to practice divination"]
"Is not this it in which my lord drinketh, and whereby indeed he divineth? ye have done evil in so doing." (Genesis 44:5)
When one studies the context of the two passages above, it becomes evident that the word nachash speaks of people who use lies and deceptions to maintain possession of other people and prevent them from leaving their side. Therefore, we can say that a "serpent" is a person who uses Hittite deception to maintain their "communion-oriented", Canaanite possession of others. It makes sense that serpents are related to Hittite spirits, since serpents are by nature stealth operators that "sting" with their sharp bite. It also makes sense that serpents are related to Canaanite spirits, since serpents are known for their "dancing" abilities.
Therefore, we can infer from Isaiah 27:1-3 above that the "great sword" of the red-horse rider comes against man's earthly Girgashite structures and against man's Canaanite attempts to maintain people under those structures.
Now that we have associated "pestilences" with the red horse, we must associate them with either Cain, Balaam, or Korah, who are mentioned in Jude 1:11:
"Woe unto them! for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core" (Jude 1:11)
Revelation 6:4 declares that the red-horse rider is given the "talent" to have people "kill one another" (we are speaking in the Spirit here). Therefore, it seems like the one most likely to be spiritually associated with the red horse is Cain, since Cain killed his brother Abel. As one studies Cain, it becomes evident that God is sending the red horse out to attack the spirit of Cain.
As we shared in a previous prophetic word, Cain was a man who stubbornly continued to offer God "fruits of the ground" as sacrifice instead of blood sacrifice like his younger brother Abel. Cain saw that Abel's sacrifice was pleasing to God and that his wasn't. Yet, the man persisted in offering the sacrifices that he thought were the most appropriate unto God, instead of accepting that his "sacrifices methodology" was all wrong. Cain represents all the leaders (and believers in general) who are diehard Girgashites that stick to their methodologies and traditions.
The "spiritual Cains" are people bent on their ways. This is why Jude 1:11 speaks of "the way of Cain". Cain hates it when his younger brother, the prophet Abel, proves him wrong:
"45Then answered one of the lawyers, and said unto him, Master, thus saying thou reproachest us also. 46And he said, Woe unto you also, ye lawyers! for ye lade men with burdens grievous to be borne, and ye yourselves touch not the burdens with one of your fingers. 47Woe unto you! for ye build the sepulchres of the prophets, and your fathers killed them. 48Truly ye bear witness that ye allow the deeds of your fathers: for they indeed killed them, and ye build their sepulchres. 49Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute: 50That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation; 51From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation. 52Woe unto you, lawyers! for ye have taken away the key of knowledge: ye entered not in yourselves, and them that were entering in ye hindered." (Luke 11:45-52)
The word "lawyers" in verse 45 refers to the "teachers of the Law", and therefore points to Girgashite teachers who have a literal understanding of Scripture and are bent on their traditions. These "lawyers" were spiritual "Cains". This is why the Lord speaks of the blood of Abel in verse 51. Notice that God speaks of Abel as the first slain prophet. As we said above, Cain is a diehard Girgashite, and, as such, he completely dislikes prophets like Abel, because Girgashites and prophets do not get along.
Cain finds it incomprehensible that God would be pleased with his younger brother Abel, because Girgashites believe that "seniority", "experience", and a higher "hierarchical level" are the key to determining who is right and who is wrong. Why? Because they have placed all their eggs on the "methodology" basket. They blindly believe in the hierarchies set in place by the methodologies. Their obsession with time and their incessant tendency to look to the past (without ever looking forward) makes them "ancestor-worshippers" who believe that, the older you are, the truer your words must be.
Cain finds it difficult to accept his mistakes, even if God Himself proves him wrong:
"6And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? and why is thy countenance fallen? 7If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him." (Genesis 4:6-7)
Here, the Lord is saying to Cain, "Wouldn't I accept you if you did what is right, just as I do with your brother Abel?" Cain's internal response always is, "But I am right. My way is the right way. I am older than that young punk Abel, and older people know better. I don't understand why God doesn't get that!!"
Genesis 4:9-15 shows that, even after he was confronted by God, Cain remained completely unwilling to admit his wrongdoing before the Lord. Cain showed no fear of the Lord whatsoever.
"10As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one: 11There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. 12They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one. 13Their throat is an open sepulchre; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips: 14Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness: 15Their feet are swift to shed blood: 16Destruction and misery are in their ways: 17And the way of peace have they not known: 18There is no fear of God before their eyes." (Romans 3:10-18)
This passage points to Cain and to the red horse in many ways:
Romans 3:14 above says that their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness. The word "cursing" must be understood in the context of the following passage:
"12For the sin of their mouth and the words of their lips let them even be taken in their pride: and for cursing and lying which they speak. 13Consume them in wrath, consume them, that they may not be: and let them know that God ruleth in Jacob unto the ends of the earth. Selah. 14And at evening let them return; and let them make a noise like a dog, and go round about the city. 15Let them wander up and down for meat, and grudge if they be not satisfied." (Psalm 59:12-15)
Notice that verse 12 speaks of evil men who curse, but verses 13 through 15 proceed to curse such men!!! This shows that Romans 3:14 and other such passages are not referring to any cursing per se, but rather to the type of cursing that belittles the spiritual potential in other people. When you say that someone is not "spiritually relevant" and never had a potential to begin with, you are cursing them, and that type of cursing is abhorrent to God. Cain killed off Abel and didn't think twice about it, because he considered that the loss of little brother Abel would not be relevant. In that sense, Cain cursed Abel way before committing the literal act of killing him.
"47Then answered them the Pharisees, Are ye also deceived? 48Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? 49But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed." (John 7:47-49) [Notice how the chief priests and Pharisees cursed the "average folks" by belittling them, insinuating that God could not reveal Himself to such "lower caste" individuals. This is the type of cursing that Romans 3:14 refers to.]
The bitterness that Romans 3:14 refers to is not what preachers constantly speak of. Many pastors preach entire sermons on the "bitterness of un-forgiveness", but they never preach those sermons from a solid Scriptural basis. The very few times when they do quote a passage from Scripture, they always take the verses out of context. Not too long ago, I even heard a so-called "prophet" take a passage of Scripture to insinuate that we as believers needed to "forgive" God when He applies His laws on us. Such idiotic teachings ignore the fact that it is impossible to forgive someone who has not sinned against us. Therefore, we cannot "forgive" God, because He never has done, is not doing, and never will do anything unjust or unrighteous against us. When the Bible speaks of bitterness, it is generally in the context of someone who is unwilling to accept God's righteous judgments. Ever since man fell, man's soul has a natural tendency to bitterly hate God's judgments, and that bitterness is prevalent in God's Church. God has prophesied in Exodus 15:22-27, however, that He will remove the Church's bitterness against His judgments when the trees that have made themselves lords over the Church are cut down (Zechariah 11:1-3, 1 Peter 5:2-3); those pastoral trees have trained believers into hating judgments, and, when they fall, the bitterness will disappear.
Cain became bitter against God, not because he needed to "forgive" God, but because he was too proud to admit his sin. What Cain needed to learn was repentance, not forgiveness, but, as Isaiah 59:12 quoted above declares, his pride got in the way.
From all of the above, it becomes very evident that Cain had what 1 John 2:16 calls "the pride of life":
"For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world" (1 John 2:16)
The word "life" above was translated from the Greek word bios, which refers to "biological existence". This word also appears in the following verse (translated as "living"):
"And a woman having an issue of blood twelve years, which had spent all her living upon physicians, neither could be healed of any" (Luke 8:43)
The woman with the issue of blood spent all her bios trying to find a natural solution to her problem (because she discarded the spiritual root of that problem). She stubbornly stuck to her faith in the good old methodologies which her natural mind understood. It was only after 12 years of God's judgments on her life that her "pride of life" was finally broken, and she began to seek the Lord's supernatural response, which not only dealt with the physical problem but with the spiritual root as well.
The "pride of life", therefore, speaks of a stubborn determination to continue relying on human methodologies and traditions, even when God is continually proving them to be false. Since Cain is proud and stubborn as a mule, God is sending red-horse riders with "wild-ass determination" to destroy the way of Cain inside His Church.
Adopting the "pride of life" involves a willful and deliberate decision. As we have seen before, the will resides in the heart, meaning that the "Cains" of this world have a proud heart that stubbornly persists in relying on earthly methods.
The name "Tertullus" that appears in Acts 24:1 quoted above literally means "triple-hardened". Based on what we have shared before, we can say that, out of the 3 parts of the soul, the mind is the one "closest" to the material world, the emotions are the soul's "middle", and the heart is the "deepest" part because it's the part closest to the spirit. Many times, an evil dart will be deposited in our minds; if we allow the dart to persist in the mind, it will penetrate the emotions; if we don't cut it off at that point and allow it to fester, it will penetrate into our hearts. Therefore, we can say that the "Cains" of this world are "triply-hardened", because they have allowed the hardness to penetrate through all three parts of the soul, all the way to the heart.
Matthew 4:1-11 says that Jesus was tempted by satan to ...
Of these three temptations, the one most related to Cain is temptation #2:
"5Then the devil taketh him up into the holy city, and setteth him on a pinnacle of the temple, 6And saith unto him, If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down: for it is written, He shall give his angels charge concerning thee: and in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone. 7Jesus said unto him, It is written again, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." (Matthew 4:5-7)
The word "tempt" in verse 7 was translated from the Greek word ekpeirazo, which only appears in 4 New Testament verses. It appears in Matthew 4:7 and Luke 4:12, in the context of Jesus' temptations. It also appears in verse 25 of the following passage:
"25And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? 26 He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? 27And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself. 28And he said unto him, Thou hast answered right: this do, and thou shalt live. 29But he, willing to justify himself, said unto Jesus, And who is my neighbour?" (Luke 10:25-29) [In the verses that follow, the Lord narrates the story of the "good Samaritan", which speaks of the importance of seeing the value of someone whose inherent potential is not visible to the natural eye. In other words, it speaks against Cain's "cursing"]
Notice how this passage once again speaks of "lawyers" (i.e.- "teachers of the Law"), as was the case in Luke 11:45-52 studied above. Notice also how this lawyer could not admit that he had wrongly underestimated Jesus' wisdom, which made him ask another question to "justify himself" (v29). Just like Cain, this lawyer simply could not admit that he was wrong. Notice also that the question he asked ("Who is my neighbor?") has a similar "spiritual sound" to Cain's question "Am I my brother's keeper?" in Genesis 4:9 (which Cain also asked in an effort to justify himself when God confronted him by asking him where his brother was).
The only other passage where the word ekpeirazo appears in the New Testament is the following:
"Neither let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted, and were destroyed of serpents." (1 Corinthians 10:9)
Notice how this passage speaks of "serpents", which points to the connection between Cain and serpents that we saw above. The God of Israel is a God of sweet "spiritual ironies". He uses literal "serpents" to bring judgment against spiritual serpents. He is using the very people whom Cain has cursed as Cain's judge and destroyer. He is using those whom Cain sees as "ground-level", "low-in-the-hierarchy" serpents as the very vessels of Cain's destruction. Hallelujah!!!
Based on all of the above, it becomes evident that temptation #2 is the one connected to the spirit of Cain. A closer look at this temptation solidifies the connection even more. satan takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and says to Him, "Throw yourself. If you are the 'Son of God', if you are at the pinnacle of the Church's religious hierarchy, then the angels are of a lower rank than you, meaning that they are there to tend to your every whim, and they are under the obligation of catching you before you hurt yourself. Throw yourself, because you have been given independent biological life, and you have the prerogative to do whatever you want with that life. God has to adapt to what you want, not vice versa. If you decide that 'jumping' is the way to go, go ahead, jump! Do it your way! God has the obligation of adapting to your way, because he gave you the prerogative of independent life."
To this, Jesus replies, "You shall not tempt the Lord your God". Why? Because satan was telling Jesus to see the angels as "lower-class servants" whom He could force to come to His rescue if he felt the "urge" to jump off the temple top for no good reason at all. It is like the king who rings his "servant-calling bell" just because he enjoys seeing his servants drop all that they are doing and hurry to his side to ask what he wants. Therefore, satan (cursed be him) was really asking Jesus to put the angels to the test. In Jesus' ears, however, this was equivalent to putting God to the test:
"Neither can they die any more: for they are equal unto the angels; and are the children of God, being the children of the resurrection." (Luke 20:36) [The word "children" is a mistranslation of the Greek word huios, which literally means "son"; huios is the word used in the New Testament when referring to Jesus as the "Son of God"]
"17But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work. 18Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God." (John 5:17-18)
Notice that Luke 20:36 equates "angels" with "sons of God", and that John 5:18 equates a "son of God" with God (let him who has spiritual ears hear). Therefore, tempting the angels was equivalent to tempting God. In other words, Jesus did not yield to satan's temptation of seeing others as "inferior" to Him. Jesus never stopped seeing the God-potential of his brethren, and, when He was resurrected, He rejoiced that we could now be "sons of God" as He is:
"Jesus saith unto her, Touch me not; for I am not yet ascended to my Father: but go to my brethren, and say unto them, I ascend unto my Father, and your Father; and to my God, and your God." (John 20:17)
Hebrews chapter 1 does speak of "angels" as not being like the "Son of God", but, the first few verses clearly indicate that the word "angel" (which literally means "messenger") is used throughout that chapter to spiritually refer to the Old Covenant messengers, i.e.- the ministers of the Old Testament that existed before the New Covenant was established.
Fellow believer, if you are to be a red-horse rider, you must maintain the same attitude that Jesus had: you must see the God-potential of your fellow brother and sister and never assume that there are "spiritual castes" below you. If you see tempting an "angel" as equivalent to tempting God Himself, even when you are a son or daughter of God, you will become an instrument through whom God will spiritually destroy the "Cains" inside the Church.
So far, we have seen that the red-horse riders are men and women that are considered as "pestilences" by their elder brothers "Cain", as was the case with Paul in Acts 24:1-7. Obviously, the fact that Ananias and the elders called Paul a "pestilence" shows that they thought little of him; otherwise, they would have called him an "adversary" or a "rival". Ananias and the elders saw themselves as the people at the pinnacle of the temple being pestered by a lowly angel who refused to let things be. Therefore, we can safely say that red-horse riders have an appearance of "weakness" about them. However, they are endowed with spiritual attributes that are invisible to the natural eye. They have the ability to "take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another", and they are given a "great spiritual sword" (Revelation 6:3-4).
As we saw above, the "great sword" speaks of a judgment anointing that allows red-horse riders to cut and divide, which points to the apostolic ministry. Therefore, red-horse riders are believers whose authority to judge is constantly questioned. The red horse is ridden by "man-apostles", i.e.- apostles cloaked in human weakness.
As we have said before, the "lion" in Scripture speaks of judgments, meaning that the red-horse riders are "Man-Lions".
Out of the 7 triplets mentioned above, we have related the following items from each triplet:
Fellow believer, we pray that you will become a "spiritual pestilence", a red-horse rider through whom God will destroy the spirit of Cain inside the Church and its heart full of the pride of life. We pray that you will overcome the temptation to jump off the temple's pinnacle to tempt the "angels", so that you will be a Man-Lion through whom God will restore His Church.
{The next article is titled "Pre-parousia -- The black horse"} |