Inheritance of Lies (By Mike Hein)

 Inheritance of Lies (By Mike Hein)

    Jer. 16:19  “O LORD, my strength, and my fortress, and my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come unto thee from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Surely our
fathers have inherited lies, vanity, and things wherein there is no profit.”   So what are these lies that we have inherited, what areas of life do they affect, how much do they affect our
 lives and do they have eternal consequences?  These are just a few questions that can be asked about these lies but before addressing the questions some back ground needs to be laid.
    In Eph. 6:12 Paul writes, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual
wickedness in high places.”   In Isa. 14:13&14, (speaking of Satan) “For thou hast said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God: I will sit
 also upon the mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”  From these verses we can see that the
issues in life are always spiritual, even though they have physical ramifications as well.  Understanding this reality will help make sense of the events of life.  Satan is our enemy and
wants to cause as much death and destruction as possible.  He wants to rule, not for the purpose of preservation but destruction.   This process, though proceeding predominately in the
spiritual realms manifests itself in the physical world.  In this process I believe that there are three main things that Satan hates above all else.  He hates people holding the knowledge
of God as creator, he hates the law of God and he hates the children of Israel. 
    If Satan can destroy the idea of God as creator then he can offer an alternative to how we got here, I.e. evolution.  When it becomes accepted that we came into existence without God
then God no longer has claim on us nor does He have the right to put restrictions on our behavior and if He exists at all He would simply be another being that has evolved as we have. 
In addition creation is the foundation on which the gospel rests,  if God did not create as he stated then the gospel falls apart.
 



    When it comes to the law it is what God used to bring people to Christ because it shows man his need for a savior.  In Gal. 3:24 it says, “Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to
bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.”  It has been preached for centuries now that Christ did away with the law and we don’t need it any more.  But I would submit
that this is Satan’s way to destroy the path that leads to Christ.  Knowledge of sin comes from the law and with out knowing our lost and sinful condition we cannot know our need for a
Savior.        
 

    When it comes to Israel, they are the crown jewel in God’s plan.  Paul, in Rom. 11:12 says, “Now if the fall of them (Israel) be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them
the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?”  We can see that the gospel going to the gentile world was of incalculable benefit and Paul, through his question indicates that
when Israel finally acknowledges their Messiah the benefit to the world will be much greater, and this is why Satan has and will continue trying to destroy Israel.
 

    So the lies that we have inherited fall into basically two categories.  The first is the attempt to keep people from believing in God through evolution and the second is confusion
within Christianity.  This confusion comes from all sorts of areas including evolution but it all works to make Christians ineffective and even keep some from entering the Kingdom.    
 


    Evolution is considered by most to be scientific and a theory but we will look critically at these two claims.  The definition of science is “knowledge gained by observation.  When it
comes to evolution, life beginning from non-life has never been observed, one specie changing into another has never been observed so the core requirements of evolution are unscientific.
 Darwin, in his trip to the Galapagos Islands
observed finches with different sizes and shapes of beaks but did not see any of them change.  He hypothesized ways that they could have changed but could never test his hypothesis because
it involved millions of years.  The scientific procedure starts with an observation, then an hypothesis, both of which Darwin did, but then follows with experimentation, peer review and the
 hypothesis not being disproved over a period of time can become a theory, none of which happened in the case of evolution.   But lets not quibble over that, the big issue is that there is
no scientific evidence to support evolution.  All the so called support is little more than stories trying to explain how the things in the present got here.  The fallacy of  this process
is that what happened in the past was never observed and is outside the reach of science.  Science is a wonderful tool but it is also limited to the present.  It cannot deal with the past
nor can it deal with unique events.  Science is built on the repeatable test therefore if you cannot repeat an event you cannot address it from a scientific position.  The events that are
said to have caused the evolution of the present world cannot be repeated, making them unique events and were not observed or tested. 
    The radiometric dating methods are all based on assumptions about the past and when used to date the same rock always give different ages, some times ranging into the millions of years.
  The assumptions are, consistency of decay rate, original ratio of parent to daughter material and no contamination or interference with the process over the billions or millions of years.
  Most people are unaware though that there are actually hundreds of dating methods that can be used.  The accumulation of different elements in the oceans, sedimentation of the oceans,
erosion of the mountains, shrinkage of the sun, decay of the earth’s rotational speed and it’s magnetic field and the recession of the moon just to name a few.  All of these other dating
methods give vastly different ages for the earth but all are also based on assumptions about the past.  However these cannot be discounted simply because they differ from the radiometric
methods, they are all equally valid.  What they show is that we cannot address the past with science because it is outside of the capabilities of science unless we can recreate the event.
 In addition there are 6 categories of evolution; cosmic, chemical, stellar, organic, macro and micro.  Micro evolution is not really evolution but variation within a “kind“.  This is an
observable event and has been used by man to produce different types of plants and animals for centuries but it will never produce a different “kind” of plant or animal.  However it is the
thing most often pointed to as evidence of and support for evolution.
 


    When it comes to the confusion within Christianity most of it has to do with the law of Moses or the Old Testament.  One of the most prominent lies in this area is about which day is
the Sabbath.  Most modern Christian believes that the early church, I.e. the apostles, changed the Sabbath from the 7th day to the 1st day in honor of the Lords resurrection.  But this is
 not the case and most Bible scholar will admit that there is no place in the New Testament that would indicate that the Sabbath was changed by the apostles.  (The Sabbath command is a law
 of God and it is important to know that there is one who “thinks to change times and laws”, from Daniel 7:24&25 and it is the Beast power of the end times.)   In addition the Bible never
says that Jesus rose on the 1st day of the week, when the women came to the tomb He was already risen but the time of His rising is never indicated.  The Sabbath was not changed until the
Catholic Church came on to the scene and they indicate in there own writings that they changed the Sabbath because they felt that they had the power and authority to do so.  The Catholic
Church is also the initiator of several of the lies present in the Church today.  Constantine, who started the Catholic Church was a “sun god” worshiper and he introduced several sun god
worship practices into the Catholic religion, Sunday Sabbath being one of them.  The Sabbath is a memorial and the day on which we observe it indicates which God/god we are memorializing. 
In Exo. 31:13&17,  God tells Israel that the Sabbath is a sign between them and Himself, “Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my Sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a
 sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you. (17)  It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in
six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed.”   At this point one could argue, “but that was for Israel”.  In Rom. 11:11-27, Paul describes
 the gentiles are equivalent to a wild olive and Israel the good olive tree and if we are to have life we must be grafted in to the root of Israel, vs. 17, “And if some of the branches be
 broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;” vs. 24, “For if thou were cut out of the
olive tree which is wild by nature, and were grafted contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive
tree?”   Further more Paul in Rom. 2:28&29 says, “For he is not a Jew, which is one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh: But he is a Jew, which is one
inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.”  Paul makes it clear by these two passages that in order to
inherit life we must be grafted into Israel, we must become Israel.  This idea of becoming Israel is contrary to the standard Christian thought, for the modern Christian it is just the
opposite, Israel must become Christian.  While it is true that Israel must become Christian it is not the Christianity of the modern Christian Church which ignores the law of God.   Paul
through out the book of Romans repeatedly warns us against ignoring the law and sinning as if to make grace abound and we know from 1 John 3:4 that sin is transgression of the law.  When
we ignore the law we no longer know what behavior is and is not acceptable to God.  In Matt.  7:21-23 Jesus said, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom
 of heaven; …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.”   In the most straight forward translation of the word, “iniquity” it would read, “depart from me, ye who are
 without law.”  and this law is specifically the Mosaic law.  More over, Paul in Rom. 2:13 says, “(For not the hearers of the law are just before God, but the doers of the law shall be justified.)”  In these scriptures we see the importance of living in obedience even though we are not saved by works of the law, the law is still God’s standard of acceptable behavior.  Some go
 as far to say that we can do anything we want because we are under grace, adopting life styles that are strictly forbidden by God, living in any sort of sin and depravity they desire all
the while thinking that they shall be saved.   It is also important to realize that it is God’s law not Church doctrine that we are to obey.  So if one does argue that the 7th day Sabbath
is for Israel they would be correct but who then is Israel?  Israel is the ones who are grafted in and are circumcised in heart and then we will love the things God loves and hate the
things that He says are abominations to Him, (see Lev. 18:24-30, Deut. 12:29-32, & Deut. 18:9-14).  We know that forsaking His law and adopting pagan practices is an abomination and we know
 that He loves His Sabbaths.  So if we want to inherit the Kingdom of God and eternal life we must come into Israel, for only Israel can enter the Kingdom but all are welcome to enter in. 
   
    Some have argued that we cannot know which day is the Sabbath because we don’t know if the days of the week have ever been messed up so the day God rested may not be the 7th day anymore
, so it doesn’t matter which day we observe.  However, this is a straw man argument because it is the pattern that is important.  If, and we do, follow a seven day week we will always have
 a first day of the week so we can then count to seven and find the Sabbath.
    The argument against the law in general has been made by saying that Jesus did away with the law because He fulfilled the law so we don’t need it any more.  (Here I will restate that it
 is important to know that there is one who “thinks to change times and laws”, from Daniel 7:24&25 and it is the Beast power of the end times.)    However all that is necessary to debunk
this idea is to look up the definition of the word “fulfill”.  Fulfill means “to bring into it’s full effect”, a synonym used in the definition is “to make manifest” which means to “remove
obscurities“.  So if we understand our own language we can easily see that the idea that Jesus did away with the law is also an inherited lie.  Jesus came to remove obscurities from the
law so we could understand it and He came to  “be” the full effect of the law.  Consider Deut. 12:32, “What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor
diminish from it.”  If Jesus was sinless, which He was, and sin is transgression of the law, (1 Jn. 3:4),  would He have added to or diminished from the law?  Would He have changed the law?
  Could He have changed the law and NOT been a false prophet?  If He had added, diminished or changed the law He would have been in disobedience and sin.  He could not be the Lamb that
takes away the sin of the world.
            When one comes to the place of accepting the fact that Jesus did not do away with the law the most important step has been taken.  However, because there is so much paganism
woven into the fabric of Christianity it can take a lot of time and effort to weed it out.  Things such as Christmas and Easter, which have nothing to do with Jesus were both pagan holidays
 (of different names) long before Jesus was born.  In general the holidays held by the Catholic and Protestant churches are all of pagan origins.  Another issue caused by being divorced
from the law is that our thinking is based on the wrong foundation.  Even when we think we have Biblical support for the things we do it is most often wrong because our understanding of
the scripture comes from a pagan perspective.    
    When God lead the children of Israel out of Egypt to Sinai what culture did they have?  The answer is, not one that God held acceptable.  In the giving of the law at Sinai God essentially created the Hebrew culture.  I use “Hebrew” because the root from which it comes means “to cross over”.  Abraham “crossed over” when he left his home country and God was calling
Abraham’s descendants to “cross over” from paganism into a Godly culture.  The law given at Sinai governed every aspect of the Hebrew’s life, social, moral and religious.  There is no other
 culture that has been created by God so it should be clear which set of rules we should be following.  Further more in Rev. 21, we see that there are 12 gates in walls of the New Jerusalem
 which are named after the 12 tribes of Israel, 
there is not a gentile gate.
    Some of the things that have been dealt with are not direct lies that have been inherited but rather the foundational principles which proper understanding must be based on.  These
lies can affect every area of our lives and do indeed have eternal consequences.  Scripture shows that those who do not have the law are in very great danger of being disqualified from the
Kingdom regardless of the works they have done during there life time, (Matt. 7:21-23).  Prayerful consideration of one’s own life practices and greater knowledge and proper understanding
of scripture will reveal the areas which need to be brought into line with Biblical principles.  The straight and narrow way is not a path traveled in one step but takes a life time to
travel and that process must bring us daily into greater harmony with the will of God, loving and hating those things which He loves and hates.