Woe to those

 Woe to Those

By Richard P. Joseph

11/28/2024

(Unconvicted by a court)Mass murderer, Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood.

Isaiah 5:20-21                                                                                          

20 Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil;
Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness;
Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

 21 Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
And prudent in their own sight!

The prophet Isaiah had strong words for the people of Israel during his lifetime.  The corruption of God’s then chosen people was out of control which led God to lead them into captivity for 70 years by the Babylonians.  They suffered the loss of their temple and homeland but God eventually brought them back for a second chance, which of course, they blew that too.  This was a people who reversed everything that the law of God called for, putting their selfish and sinful life first.  They were a master of deception and called the pure and holy things of God and earth evil, while calling all manner of impurity, evil, sexual perversion and worship of idols good; just like our modern day democratic party and big media do today.  

Recently, Joe Biden, the false president of the United States, honored a mass murderer with the Presidential Medal of Freedom by awarding it to Cecile Richards of Planned Parenthood.   Just like when they commandeered the rainbow, which used to be a sign of peace between God and the earth, and made it into a sign of violent sexual perversion, they now reward a woman who is responsible for the torture and murder of millions of babies, with the Medal of Freedom.   It is as if Joe Biden read Isaiah’s words and purposefully fulfilled them.  This is a perfect example of what Isaiah was warning against.  The Democratic Party calls evil good and good evil.  In today’s, so called,  post Christian era, everything that is evil is called good and everything that is dark is called light.  Children are nothing more than objects to be molested and mutilated instead of nurtured and protected.  Marriage today has no real meaning and the traditional family is scoffed at.  Even the words “planned parenthood” means “plan to not parenthood” as the goal is to slaughter your children.  Young kids are growing up thinking that communism is good and freedom is bad.  So what can be done about it?

Pray, repent and teach.  The iniquity must be broken and the gospel must be taught.  Men must once again take charge over their families.  They must pray and believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ.  They must repent of their sin and they must actively teach their families the gospel of Christ.  Going to church does not replace the man’s job of being the priest of his own family.  He alone is responsible for teaching his wife and his children the scripture.  He alone is responsible for living a holy life.  The change must begin in the family unit.  By the way, a family consists of a father, a mother and their children.  Those that don’t have all of that need to do the best they can without it but the goal is to produce strong, stable families all across this land.  The family unit is the core building block of society.  The stronger the family, the stronger the community the stronger the nation.  The liberals will again attempt to call two perverts a family but woe to them.  Keep the standard and don’t bend.  Keep the faith and don’t flounder.  Keep the truth and don’t be fooled.  Call good, good and evil, evil.  Be brave and stand tall.  Never cower and never back down.

Signs

 SIGNS

BY Richard P. Joseph

10/23/2024

“Sign,Sign,everywhere there’s signs, blocking out the scenery breakin’ my mind.  Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the sign?”  Les Emmerson

Us old folk remember the song “Sign” by a group that I never even knew existed called “The Five Man Electrical Band”.  It was a common hippie song that railed against the establishment but all in all a cool song.  Perhaps the song could be updated to include the plethora of “End Times” signage that we see on the highway and on the internet.  But that isn’t new really, I have been seeing this stuff my entire life.  Every time there is a change in regimes or a new war, or a new dictator, bam, sign, sign, everywhere there’s signs.  

In fact, even where there are no billboards or internet, people wanted a sign.  2,000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth, the Jewish leadership walked up to Jesus and challenged him to provide a sign from heaven for them.  After seeing multiple miracles, you would think “where have you been” but they still asked:

Matthew 16   1 Then the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and testing Him asked that He would show them a sign from heaven. 2 He answered and said to them, “When it is evening you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red’; 3 and in the morning, ‘It will be foul weather today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ [a]Hypocrites! You know how to discern the face of the sky, but you cannot discern the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign shall be given to it except the sign of [b]the prophet Jonah.” And He left them and departed.

Actually, I never caught this before but I think Jesus was actually taunting them when, after being asked to show a sign from “heaven”, he then pointed at the sky and started telling them about how to read the weather patterns.  Then he got serious and informed them that the sign is coming and you won’t like it.  (See my other article “The Sign of Jonah”).  So, which signs are we really looking for today anyhow?

Actually, none.  You see, Jesus told those particular priests that “they” will see a sign in their lifetime.  Jesus never told anyone to wait thousands of years before they would see any signs, they were all imminent.   The sign would be very similar to what Jonah went through as he was in the belly of the sea creature for three days and three nights then came out a more bold and obedient servant of God.  While Jesus was always obedient, he entered the grave as a lowly criminal, according to the law, but was raised a conquering king.  This sign happened in the year AD 30.  The other signs that Jesus warned about were also to happen within that generation.  Jesus predicted the “End of the Age” was to come during the lifetime of the apostles.  In Matthew 24 Jesus told what signs to look for and then he said; “Matthew 24: 34 Assuredly, I say to you, this generation will by no means pass away till all these things take place.”

So what is my point?

The point is, all of the signs that we were to look for have already been completed 2,000 years ago.  We, today, are the beneficiaries of those signs but we do not need to observe any more signs necessarily because all prophecy has already been fulfilled by AD70 when all of those signs came into fruition.  There are no new prophecies today and no signs to observe, just be fruitful in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.  People are actually sitting in their pew waiting for something that we already have, the Holy Spirit.  Instead of running and working in God’s kingdom, people are taught to sit around and wait for the big Jesus to fly out of the sky and start killing people like Stalin, Hitler and Mao did.  This is a very useless and dangerous doctrine that needs to be exposed.  Quit floundering in the darkness and start basking in the light.  Stop waiting and start moving.  Start drinking and stop thirsting.  Jesus really did what he said he would do, so just believe it and live. 

The vineyard

 The Vineyard

By Richard P. Joseph

10/10/2024

Isaiah 5:1-2  Now let me sing to my Well-beloved
A song of my Beloved regarding His vineyard:

My Well-beloved has a vineyard
[a]On a very fruitful hill.

He dug it up and cleared out its stones,
And planted it with the choicest vine.
He built a tower in its midst,
And also [b]made a winepress in it;
So He expected it to bring forth good grapes,
But it brought forth wild grapes.

Throughout the old testament the prophets used the euphemism of a vineyard to represent Israel.  This was God’s garden that he planted among heathen nations and called it his own. He put his people in to tend it expecting good fruit but it constantly produced rotten fruit.   Vineyards were a very important industry in the ancient world.  It not only brought forth fruit to eat, it also gave the common drink of the day; wine.  Most people are aware of those things but what many people don’t know is that the leaves are also highly sought after for food.  If you go to any Middle Eastern restaurant you will find a dish called “grape leaves”.  Growing up in a Middle Eastern family, grape leaves were a common dish for us.  It usually is ground lamb, pine nuts, spices etc rolled up in a grape leaf.   This is better known today but when I was a child, Middle Eastern cuisine was not as common as it is today.  But I digress.  The new testament stays on task and uses the vineyard scenario in the same way as the old testament prophets used it, except this time it comes with judgment attached.  

One of Jesus’ first open miracles involved wine.  In John chapter 2 we read about the wedding at Cana.  John tells us that “after 3 days” Jesus was at a wedding in Cana, where John also tells us that he revealed his “glory”.  In ancient Hebraic literature, numbers usually have double meanings.  This was the third day since Jesus began gathering some of his disciples but it seems that 3 is an important number as Jonah was 3 days in the belly of the fish, Jesus was three days in the belly of the earth where he showed his glory by his resurrection from the dead.  As the story goes, Jesus’ mother prompted him to perform the act of changing 6 jars of water into wine.  Now we have the number six to deal with.  Six is usually the number of men; or in other words, a number of incompletion.  When they ran out of wine at the wedding, Jesus turned six pots of water into wine.  When they tasted the wine the master of the wedding exclaimed;  And he said to him, “Every man at the beginning sets out the good wine, and when the guests have well drunk, then the inferior. You have kept the good wine until now!”   The six pots represent the Law which is now being replaced by Grace.  In other words, the law was being fulfilled right before their eyes and the New Covenant was upon them.  The old covenant was inferior to the new covenant.  The good wine was preserved for last.  The new covenant is the new wine.  

In Matthew chapter 20 we read about Jesus’ parable of the vineyard.  The Jews of that day immediately knew that Jesus was referring to Isaiah chapter 5.  I encourage you all to read that entire chapter.  The reason you need to read it is so you can experience it like the Jews did when they heard it.  Us living 2,000 years later in a different culture and usually a poor understanding of the old testament scriptures, never really get the full effect of what they got.  Many today think “oh what a nice story” and then, by using relative thinking, come up with a myriad of different interpretations that have nothing to do with the original, and true, interpretation.  As soon as Jesus started in with his parable about a vineyard, the Jews knew something bad was coming, and that is because they had most of the old testament memorized, unlike us today..  In this parable, the owner of the vineyard hired workers in the morning, then more throughout the day, even until evening.  He then paid them all the same price.  The workers that were hired first did exactly what we probably would have done and said “hey, we worked all day and got the same pay that those that only worked one hour, what gives?”.  The owner then told them that he gave them exactly what he agreed to give them so he did them no harm but he, as the owner, can give to others whatever he wants.  He then said “ So the last will be first, and the first last. For[d] many are called, but few chosen.”  This represents that those that were called first, the Jews, were now given the same pay as the new gentiles that would be taking over the vineyard.  In order to press this point, Jesus gave two more parables about the vineyard. 

Here is the next parable Jesus gave;

Matthew 21:28 31 28 “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ 29 He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. 30 Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. 31 Which of the two did the will of his father?” 

This parable shows how one of the sons, those that lie and say they will obey God, are not really following God but those that actually “do” the will of God are those that please God.  Therefore, just because someone is a Jew, doesn’t mean they are doing God’s will.  In this parable, both sons are Jews. This is why the apostle Paul said "all Israel is not Israel", meaning that it is by faith you are saved, not by blood line. Then Jesus hits them with yet a third parable.  

Again, I encourage you to read Matthew chapters 20 and 21 to get the full effect.  In this third parable the owner (God) lends his vineyard to workers and goes into a far country.  He sent servants (prophets) to check on the vineyard during that time but the workers mistreated and killed them.  He then sent his son (Jesus) and they killed him because they wanted the vineyard for themselves.  But Jesus himself went into a far country (heaven, then returned in AD70) and punished the evil vinedressers and handed the kingdom over to another nation (the church).  

At the last supper, Jesus initiated this transaction by passing around the cup of wine and told his disciples that this is the cup of the blood of the new covenant.  The entire new testament is really the story  of eschatology.  It is entirely about the old covenant being complete and of the new covenant beginning.  It is the story of completion.  It is the story of a transfer of power.  It is the story of the last being first and the first being last.  But what is my real point in this article?

My point is to help Christians understand the bible the way the original audience saw it.  We need to experience it just like they did.

When Jesus gave the parable of the vineyard, he was really saying “hey priests, Isaiah 5 is being fulfilled right before your eyes”.  In Luke chapter 4 Jesus outright informs them that the scriptures are being fulfilled right at that time. 

 And He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” 

When Jesus was on the cross he cried out in a loud voice so all could hear, letting the onlooking priests know that they just fulfilled Psalm 22.  

Mark 15:34  And at the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?” which is translated, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”

So as you read scripture, look back and reference it with the old testament scripture that it most likely originated from.  Put yourself in their shoes and see what they saw.  Know the old (original) testament well so that you can recognize the passages when you see them in the New (fulfilled) testament.  Do not rely on modern methods of relative interpretation.  Find out the original and true interpretation, and the bible will begin to open up like a movie. 

If it feels good, do it!

 If it feels good, do it!

By Richard P. Joseph

9/23/2024

John Adams is one of my favorite historical figures.  To me, the portly 5’7” man stands larger than life.  There were many great figures of our American Revolution including Samual Adams who seemed to be the instigator, George Washington, who was the might, Thomas Jefferson, the articulator and then there was John Adams, the one that all of those efforts seemed to be resting upon when it came right down to producing a product.  Adams was the product himself of a long line of Puritan Christians who would not, and could not, bend under pressure.  He held fast to his Christian morals at all cost and proved himself one of the most disciplined men of all time.  And while not all Americans stood as fast as Adams, there was a time when many Americans did hold to those same Christian morals as Adams held to.  

As I read through the two volume work of Page Smith’s biography of John Adams, and Original Intent by David Barton, one theme seems to repeat itself, that Christian morals are a necessity in order to keep a nation from falling apart.  John and Abigail Adams, who both spent much time in France, were disgusted with the products of the so-called “French enlightenment”.   The American revolution produced a nation faithful to Jesus Christ whereas the French revolution did quite the opposite; it rejected the gospel and embraced the darkness of man’s own morbid mind, producing a sexually promiscuous society that degraded their once Christian moral fabric.  That perversion is still very active today in France.  On page 915, Page Smith summarized that the American nation could recover after a tough presidential campaign for the simple reason that “among Americans there was a common consensus-common traditions and ideals- that lay deeper than the transient passions of party and faction.  As long as that remarkable consensus held fast, the nation would somehow endure.”    We now, in the 21st century, seem to have lost that common consensus.

Beginning in the 20th century, specifically in the 1960’s our common Christian heritage came under intense assault.  This attack was very reminiscent of the French enlightenment.  The hippie mantra of “If it feels good, do it”  was code for “Reject Christ and the established order” or in shorthand “stick it to the man”.  This was America's sexual revolution which produced all manner of debauchery, disease, sin, illegitimacy and social entropy.  It has finally matured and now, in 2024, we are on the cusp of losing our once great nation.  We are now in a free fall moving quickly into atheistic communism.  Once Christianity is rejected, our moral compass fails and all sense of freedom is lost.  Oppression and poverty is then the only possible option.  Freedom is unique to Christianity and once Christianity is replaced, so is freedom.  It is a scientific and mathematical equation that cannot be reworked into another product.  Just like a chemical reaction, it must absolutely work 100% of the time.  

Christianity + acceptance=Freedom and prosperity.

Christianity + rejection=oppression, suppression and poverty.

My favorite John Adams quote is one that he said during a speech to the Massachusetts Militia;

“We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion…Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other.  

What Adams is basically saying is that our constitution allows so much freedom that the only citizens that are able to live under it are those that have strong Christian morals.  Once those morals are absent, we must live under a dictator.  There is no other choice.  The hippies finally grew up and became our presidents and our legislators and our judges.  We are in the beginning stages of communism.  In fact this article will be banned on many platforms.  This is how communism works.  There is no freedom of speech, no freedom to defend yourselves and no incentive to improve your lot in life; in other words “social entropy” and death.  

We were all warned by God about social degradation in the bible and especially in God’s law.  Most people think God was joking when he gave Moses the ten commandments.  The fifth commandment reads like this;

Exodus 20:12 “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

Most people only read the first part but you seldom hear the second part which ties your national existence in your homeland to the honoring of your parents.  In other words, once the family structure and order is compromised, your country becomes exposed and then deposed.  Moses warned the Israelites about this in the book of Deuteronomy and they didn’t listen and their days in their promised land was cut short in AD 70.   In today's hippie generated society, many kids don’t even know who their father is.  And even if they have a father, he isn’t doing his job of disciplining and teaching his children the ways of the eternal God.  In fact, it is now offensive to even say that a dad is necessary.  I can go on and on about this subject but suffice it to say that our national existence is inextricably tied to our moral fabric.  This really is an existential threat.  We will absolutely lose our nation if we do not have a massive great awakening immediately.  I hope and pray that that won’t happen but I can’t bend the rules of science, I can only follow the laws of nature and nature tells me that we must reverse our moral compass in order to survive this coming onslaught.   

 To sum this article up, I will now quote the giver of life himself;

Matthew 7:13-14

13 “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it. 14 [c]Because narrow is the gate and [d]difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it.

Isaiah 2

 Isaiah 2

By Richard P. Joseph

8/31/2024

Wherever the gospel is believed by a new convert who has no biblical training, they are usually encouraged to read one of the New Testament gospels first.  That is a good thing.  The gospels are written in story form and are not that hard to grasp, well, so it seems.  While it is not that difficult to follow the basic story of a man named Jesus of Nazarath from his miraculous birth to his death, burial and resurrection, there is yet very much that goes right over the new, and many times even long time, believers' heads.  This is because the New Testament is written in the same type of vernacular that the Old Testament was written in, including cultural nuances and beliefs.  Therefore, it is very necessary that all believers, new and old, get familiar with the Old Testament and its historical setting, otherwise they fall into the common trap of misunderstanding the New Testament.  I just happen to be going through the book of Isaiah at this time and would therefore like to share just a tidbit from chapter 2.  

Chapter 2, like many other chapters in Isaiah, are messianic in context.  Isaiah, not only addressed many issues of his day, also prophesied about future events, most notably the coming messiah.  

I encourage you to have the 2nd chapter open as I highlight some of the passages.  You need to read the entire chapter to get the full effect.  

Isaiah starts out by identifying the subject matter right off by naming Judah and Jerusalem.  He is not talking about the United States, or Russia or China, he is talking about the land that he lived in and the land that would be affected by the coming Messiah which concerns this prophecy.  Although this prophecy would eventually have worldwide concern, the starting place would be the land of Judah.  He then identifies a certain time frame; “the latter days”.  Out of context, this could mean anything but in context it only means the latter days of Judaism.  He then talks about the mountain of the LORD’S house would be “on top of the mountains and hills.  In other words a lofty and lifted up place as if it is a spiritual dwelling, not physical.  And all the nations will flow into it.  It will be a place that will judge the nations as if it will be the international law and it will be a place of peace.  He then goes into a judgment of the people of Israel and deems them idolaters and full of Eastern mysticism. He then says in verse 12

For the day of the Lord of hosts

Shall come upon everything proud and lofty,

Upon everything lifted up—

And it shall be brought low—

Whenever you see “the day of the LORD” that is a statement that refers to God’s judgment.   John the Baptist warned that that very judgment was now (in his day) upon the nation of Israel.

Matthew 3:10 And even now the ax is laid to the root of the trees. Therefore every tree which does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 

Isaiah 2:19 gives a vivid description of the terror that will come upon them in the latter days.

They shall go into the holes of the rocks,

And into the caves of the [f]earth,

From the terror of the Lord

And the glory of His majesty,

When He arises to shake the earth mightily.

Revelation 6:15-16 sounds a lot like this prophecy.

15 And the kings of the earth, the great men, [j]the rich men, the commanders, the mighty men, every slave and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and in the rocks of the mountains, 16 and said to the mountains and rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb! 17 For the great day of His wrath has come, and who is able to stand?”

There were two great judgments that occurred after Isaiah’s day upon Jerusalem.  The first was the Babylonian captivity in 586 BC and the second was the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in AD 70.  In both cases the Temple was demolished, famine and pestilence ensued and most of those that did not perish were taken away as slaves.  During the Babylonian crisis, the Jews were allowed to return to their homeland after a period of 70 years which the prophet Jeremiah foretold.  The second crisis had no return date, it only had an expiration date.  As predicted by Isaiah and others, the fall of Jerusalem during the time of the messiah would be a final act.  It would close down the Mosaic economy and usher in the messianic kingdom that has no end.  That is why Isaiah’s prophecy has a spiritual tone to it.  It is not predicting an earthly physical kingdom but rather it is talking about a spiritual kingdom that has no end and cannot be infiltrated by evil.  While religion has been fully invaded and infiltrated by evil, the kingdom of Jesus Christ can’t and never will.  While all of the Old Testament prophets addressed the concerns of their day, they often would see into the future of a different kind of world.  They addressed the physical worldly kingdoms of their day but could see a day when a spiritual kingdom would unite, not only Jews, but also all the peoples of the earth.  They would no longer have to fight over a piece of land, they would actually inherit the earth.  They would no longer slave under an earthly king but be ruled by justice and righteousness by their heavenly king.  We would be united by the blood of the lamb, not the blood of war or the bloodlines of men.  In this kingdom we will beat our swords into plowshares and our spears into pruning hooks.  While the physical world around us can’t understand what is going on in our kingdom, we can understand it.  The physical world around us will always hate us and use every source at their disposal to destroy us but it can never be done.  We are in the everlasting kingdom of Jesus Christ.  Read all about it; in the old and new testaments!

Isaiah 2:4

He shall judge between the nations,

And rebuke many people;

They shall beat their swords into plowshares,

And their spears into pruning [a]hooks;

Nation shall not lift up sword against nation,

Neither shall they learn war anymore.