Post by Prophetessd on Oct 31, 2004 19:21:34 GMT -5
PREVIEW: Blow the Trumpet in Zion - Kelley Varner
www.KelleyVarner.org
Oct 31, 2004
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION
GOD HATES A MIXTURE
Deut 22:9-11, NIV - Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
The principle is obvious: God hates a mixture! Doctrinally and politically, the holy seed, the unadulterated Word of the Kingdom, has been contaminated, jumbled and muddied by religious tradition!
Throughout America, most of what is coined and passed off as being "Kingdom" is but a dualistic, sin-conscious Pentecostal theology with a Kingdom veneer. Third Day truths are being parroted with a second-day application primarily geared to meeting the needs of men and women, rather than expressing the pure dynamics of a Christ-centered paradigm.
Moreover, real apostles are weary with the "bishop" epidemic. Too many men and women are craving titles and visibility, rather than serving and leading by example. The Scriptures reveal that foundational ministries are essentially under, not over, the people of God. Like the dew of Eden and Hermon (Gen. 2:6; Ps. 133:3), apostles and prophets are to operate with an anointing that flows from the bottom up more than it does from the top down.
Wise, fatherly master-builders are more interested in providing an inheritance for their spiritual children than they are for their sons and daughters to give them money and prestige.
Sensible young men and women refuse to play the game of "rent-a-father," the current futility of long-distance "relationships" without the reality of biblical discipleship. No relationship can be legislated; it must be birthed of and by the Holy Spirit, mediated by Jesus Himself. All else is political and self-serving, just another fad that will soon pass away among those who ever cry for "What's hot? What's not?"
This principle of mixture is best illustrated with one word: Babylon!
Genesis 11:3-4, KJV - And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name…
Babylon, the prototype of pagan idolatry, was an ancient walled city between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the capital of the Babylonian Empire. "Babylon" means, "confusion." Its root word means, "Mixed." "Babel" has also been translated as, "gate of Bel, court of Baal, chaos, vanity, nothingness." In the ancient language of that time, "Babylon" also meant "the gate of God." Thus, the word "Babylon" signifies religious confusion.
God is not the Author of "confusion" (1 Cor. 14:33). His nature is not marked by "instability, disorder, disturbance, restlessness." This word is also rendered in the King James Version as "commotion, tumult" (Lk. 21:9; 2 Cor. 6:5; 12:20). The religious systems of contemporary Babylon are marked by politics and power struggles. This envying and strife is the fountain of "confusion" and every evil work. In a Babylonian church, war is a way of life.
Like Absalom (2 Sam. 18:18), David's arrogant son, rebellious men and women love the sound of their own names. They vainly fashion their worldly political and religious monuments from the brick and slime of their own inflated egos and covert insecurities. They would rather be stamped with their own moniker than be marked by the name of the Lord (Rev. 14:1). Unfortunately, Babylon is ruled by such men and women who value their "image" above integrity.
TRADITION
Matt. 15:9, KJV - But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men..
Mk. 7:13, KJV - Making the word of God of none effect (deprived of force; invalid) through your tradition, which ye have delivered…
The only thing more powerful than the Word of God is tradition!
The Greek word for "tradition" is paradosis (Strong's #3862), and it means, "transmission, a handing down or on; giving up, a giving over which is done by word of mouth or in writing, that is, tradition by instruction, narrative, or precept."
From the decline of the Early Church, throughout the gross darkness (ignorance) of the Middle Ages, and from the days of Martin Luther (1517) to the present, the Body of Christ, His righteous remnant, has been plagued with the traditions of religious mixture.
In the first chapter of the Book of Joel, an invading swarm of locusts had completely devastated the land of Judah. Their blight, accompanied by drought and famine, had withered every aspect of Judah's national existence—economically, socially, and religiously.
Joel 2:25, KJV - And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten…
What overwhelmed and ravaged the Church, carrying her into the Babylonian Captivity of the Dark Ages? What necessitated the restoring of the years of truth from the days of Luther until now? The "locusts" of tradition! These destructive hordes provide an awful picture of the idolatrous, humanistic distortion of two key dynamics:
First, manmade ideas present another image instead of the image of Christ. They present another Jesus.
Second, religious tradition preaches another gospel instead of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
2 Cor. 4:4, KJV - In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Cor 11:3-4 NIV - 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we (the apostles) preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
The teachings of men set forth another or different "image," a Jesus "other than" the apostles preached.
Many of my previous writings declare this basic truth: "Christ" is the image of God, and "antichrist" (something or someone instead of Christ) is any other image! Anything outside of the Christ nature, the new nature of the new creation man (2 Cor. 5:17), is a lying vanity. There are only two kinds of "men" on the planet: Christ and Adam, beauty and the beast!
Gal. 1:6-8, KJV - 6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed (to transpose or transfer, to change sides) from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another (different) gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble (stir, agitate) you, and would pervert (corrupt) the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we (the apostles) have preached unto you, let him be accursed (anathema).
Furthermore, religious Babylon preaches "another gospel" than that proclaimed by Paul and his brethren.
Brothers and sisters, we must repent of this Scriptural negligence. We must forsake the popularity of money-making, "man-centered Christianity," and return at once to the simplicity of the "in Christ" message, the Christ-centered paradigm.
Away with the cowardice of being spiritually "politically correct." Let us burn the soft pews of seeker-sensitive comfortableness and run to the rugged Pauline altar of full surrender, of being completely crucified with Christ. The Day of the Lord has dawned. Every city and tower that men have built in His name that He did tell them to build will be burned with fire!
www.KelleyVarner.org
Oct 31, 2004
CHAPTER ONE - INTRODUCTION
GOD HATES A MIXTURE
Deut 22:9-11, NIV - Do not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled.
Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together.
Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together.
The principle is obvious: God hates a mixture! Doctrinally and politically, the holy seed, the unadulterated Word of the Kingdom, has been contaminated, jumbled and muddied by religious tradition!
Throughout America, most of what is coined and passed off as being "Kingdom" is but a dualistic, sin-conscious Pentecostal theology with a Kingdom veneer. Third Day truths are being parroted with a second-day application primarily geared to meeting the needs of men and women, rather than expressing the pure dynamics of a Christ-centered paradigm.
Moreover, real apostles are weary with the "bishop" epidemic. Too many men and women are craving titles and visibility, rather than serving and leading by example. The Scriptures reveal that foundational ministries are essentially under, not over, the people of God. Like the dew of Eden and Hermon (Gen. 2:6; Ps. 133:3), apostles and prophets are to operate with an anointing that flows from the bottom up more than it does from the top down.
Wise, fatherly master-builders are more interested in providing an inheritance for their spiritual children than they are for their sons and daughters to give them money and prestige.
Sensible young men and women refuse to play the game of "rent-a-father," the current futility of long-distance "relationships" without the reality of biblical discipleship. No relationship can be legislated; it must be birthed of and by the Holy Spirit, mediated by Jesus Himself. All else is political and self-serving, just another fad that will soon pass away among those who ever cry for "What's hot? What's not?"
This principle of mixture is best illustrated with one word: Babylon!
Genesis 11:3-4, KJV - And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them thoroughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for mortar.
And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name…
Babylon, the prototype of pagan idolatry, was an ancient walled city between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the capital of the Babylonian Empire. "Babylon" means, "confusion." Its root word means, "Mixed." "Babel" has also been translated as, "gate of Bel, court of Baal, chaos, vanity, nothingness." In the ancient language of that time, "Babylon" also meant "the gate of God." Thus, the word "Babylon" signifies religious confusion.
God is not the Author of "confusion" (1 Cor. 14:33). His nature is not marked by "instability, disorder, disturbance, restlessness." This word is also rendered in the King James Version as "commotion, tumult" (Lk. 21:9; 2 Cor. 6:5; 12:20). The religious systems of contemporary Babylon are marked by politics and power struggles. This envying and strife is the fountain of "confusion" and every evil work. In a Babylonian church, war is a way of life.
Like Absalom (2 Sam. 18:18), David's arrogant son, rebellious men and women love the sound of their own names. They vainly fashion their worldly political and religious monuments from the brick and slime of their own inflated egos and covert insecurities. They would rather be stamped with their own moniker than be marked by the name of the Lord (Rev. 14:1). Unfortunately, Babylon is ruled by such men and women who value their "image" above integrity.
TRADITION
Matt. 15:9, KJV - But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men..
Mk. 7:13, KJV - Making the word of God of none effect (deprived of force; invalid) through your tradition, which ye have delivered…
The only thing more powerful than the Word of God is tradition!
The Greek word for "tradition" is paradosis (Strong's #3862), and it means, "transmission, a handing down or on; giving up, a giving over which is done by word of mouth or in writing, that is, tradition by instruction, narrative, or precept."
From the decline of the Early Church, throughout the gross darkness (ignorance) of the Middle Ages, and from the days of Martin Luther (1517) to the present, the Body of Christ, His righteous remnant, has been plagued with the traditions of religious mixture.
In the first chapter of the Book of Joel, an invading swarm of locusts had completely devastated the land of Judah. Their blight, accompanied by drought and famine, had withered every aspect of Judah's national existence—economically, socially, and religiously.
Joel 2:25, KJV - And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten…
What overwhelmed and ravaged the Church, carrying her into the Babylonian Captivity of the Dark Ages? What necessitated the restoring of the years of truth from the days of Luther until now? The "locusts" of tradition! These destructive hordes provide an awful picture of the idolatrous, humanistic distortion of two key dynamics:
First, manmade ideas present another image instead of the image of Christ. They present another Jesus.
Second, religious tradition preaches another gospel instead of the Gospel of the Kingdom.
2 Cor. 4:4, KJV - In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
2 Cor 11:3-4 NIV - 3 But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent's cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ. 4 For if someone comes to you and preaches a Jesus other than the Jesus we (the apostles) preached, or if you receive a different spirit from the one you received, or a different gospel from the one you accepted, you put up with it easily enough.
The teachings of men set forth another or different "image," a Jesus "other than" the apostles preached.
Many of my previous writings declare this basic truth: "Christ" is the image of God, and "antichrist" (something or someone instead of Christ) is any other image! Anything outside of the Christ nature, the new nature of the new creation man (2 Cor. 5:17), is a lying vanity. There are only two kinds of "men" on the planet: Christ and Adam, beauty and the beast!
Gal. 1:6-8, KJV - 6 I marvel that ye are so soon removed (to transpose or transfer, to change sides) from Him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another (different) gospel: 7 Which is not another; but there be some that trouble (stir, agitate) you, and would pervert (corrupt) the gospel of Christ. 8 But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we (the apostles) have preached unto you, let him be accursed (anathema).
Furthermore, religious Babylon preaches "another gospel" than that proclaimed by Paul and his brethren.
Brothers and sisters, we must repent of this Scriptural negligence. We must forsake the popularity of money-making, "man-centered Christianity," and return at once to the simplicity of the "in Christ" message, the Christ-centered paradigm.
Away with the cowardice of being spiritually "politically correct." Let us burn the soft pews of seeker-sensitive comfortableness and run to the rugged Pauline altar of full surrender, of being completely crucified with Christ. The Day of the Lord has dawned. Every city and tower that men have built in His name that He did tell them to build will be burned with fire!