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"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO THE THRONE
Part 155
THE
(continued)
And I
beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon (Rev. 13:11).
In the
nineteenth chapter of the book of Revelation we find that this same beast is referred to. And there we read, And the beast
was taken, and with him the false prophet that
wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the
beast, and them that worshipped his image. These
both were cast alive into a lake of fire that burneth with brimstone (Rev.
19:20). And in Revelation 20:10 we find
mention of him once more: And the devil that
deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are. There is no difficulty in identifying these
two, the beast and the false prophet. The
beast is obviously the first beast, the one out of the sea; and the false prophet is none
other than the second beast, the one out of the earth, having two horns like a lamb, and a
voice speaking as a dragon, who deceives them that dwell in the earth-realm. Therefore we understand that the second beast is
also called the false prophet!
What is a
prophet? We must banish from our minds the
popular conception that a prophet is chiefly a person who foretells the future. True, a prophet also foretells the future; but the
prophetic ministry is broader than that. A
prophet is, according to scripture, one who speaks for someone else. Aaron is called the prophet of Moses
when they two go together before Pharaoh, and
So
this second beast is also a prophet! He speaks
for someone else. His purpose is to influence
the minds of men, to persuade them, to rally them to the cause on behalf of which he
speaks. But he is a false prophet! That
does not mean that everything he says is a lie not all that the serpent told mother
Eve in the garden was a lie but it was truth laced with just enough error to
deceive. That is the purpose of the words of a
false prophet deception! And if we
consider this in relation to the beast now under consideration, we shall find that this is
in reality his character. In the first place,
his very appearance is deceiving. He looks
like a lamb; and one would receive the impression, therefore, that every word he speaks is
the word of The Lamb of God! But he speaks like the dragon, that is, the message
he bears is not in the final analysis the gospel, the
good news of the Lamb of God who takes away the
sin of the world, but is liberally laced with bad
news of threats, intimidation, fear, coercion, control, judgment, hell and damnation.
What beast is
this? Ah, this refers to the false church, one
that outwardly looks like the
The dragon-voice
speaks as loudly now as at any time in all history. If
you do not belong to, or submit to, or bow down to this two-horned beast that now
dominates the lives of dead and living alike, you will find yourself more and more
misunderstood, more and more ostracized, more and more cut off, loudly called a fanatic, a
schismatic, a heretic, a lone ranger, a fool, a false prophet, in error and under the
condemnation and judgment of God. And if you
are in the system and seek to follow on to know the Lord, if you do not heed the counsel
of the Holy Spirit to come out from among them and be separate and touch not the unclean
thing, you will eventually be ignored or rejected, rebuked, denounced, anathematized, and
unceremoniously excommunicated under the deafening roar of the dragons mouth!
When we
understand this, it is not difficult to comprehend the action of the second beast.
Through the
deception of the false prophet the world has been led to believe in a false Christ a counterfeit, cleverly and
subtly foisted off on an unsuspecting Christian civilization. Endlessly, evangelists speak of Jesus,
they praise His name; they talk of sweet Jesus, and sing lyrical,
worshipful-sounding songs about Him. They wax
emotional, crying real tears, as they tell of loving the Lord and how much
Jesus loves everybody yet the picture of the Christ they present is a
horrible caricature of the REAL CHRIST! The
Jesus of whom they speak is not the
one in whom God came reconciling the world unto
Himself. The Jesus they preach is not the one who has been lifted up and will now
draw all men unto Himself. The Jesus they teach about is not the one who is the Saviour of all men and the Saviour of the world. The
Jesus they proclaim is not the one unto whom every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess. No, it is a totally
different Jesus of mens imagination; of historical fantasy; of myth,
legend, folklore, superstition, and fairy tales!
The God of the
false prophet is an angry God, an exacting God, a harsh and vindictive God. He is the God who has designed eternal punishment and damnation in hell-fire for
the vast billions of mankind who lived and died without the knowledge of God and His Son. In considering the issue of eternal punishment of
the lost, many Christians can only visualize this punishment as vindictive. In
other words, sin and sinners are afflicted by God because of Gods hatred of sin and
His intolerable disposition towards them in their sin.
And this is the impression one certainly receives from
G. H. Lang,
commenting of Revelation 14:10-11 in The Last
Assize, states basically the same thought, though perhaps in less barbaric language:
Mingled unmixed; every ingredient compounded that shall make the punishment fit the
crime; but no element of mercy or alleviation shall
be mixed with this dread draught of the wine of the wrath of God. If the Lamb can look on their torments, shall His
saints be unable to do so? And on this
same passage yet another
I do not
hesitate to tell you that these statements come from men who profess to represent the Lamb
of God but who can deny that IT IS THE VOICE OF THE DRAGON!
Of all the
blasphemous absurdities of the bestial church systems, this is probably the worst, a lie
intended to scare poor souls into her clutches in order to rob them of their dollars, a
lie which makes our God of love to be a hideous monster, an insane and sadistic
monstrosity who takes
Now this leads
us to another point of immense importance, and it is another clue in the identification of
the false prophet.
We often hear it said that the death of Christ was necessary in
order to reconcile God to man. Now this is a pious stupidity, arising from
inattention to the language of the Holy Spirit, and
Being justified freely by His grace through the
redemption that is in Christ; whom God has set forth to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, to
declare His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, through the forbearance
of God; to declare, I say, at this time His righteousness: that He might be just, and the
justifier of him which believeth in Jesus (Rom. 3:24-26).
The following
words penned by George Hawtin are true and graphic on this point. The word propitiate means to appease, to sooth, to cause to be favorably
disposed, and to conciliate. When
The church
all down through the ages, including all evangelicals of the past and present, have taught
that Jesus came to propitiate God and to
endeavor to dispose Him to be kind toward His fallen race.
If you search in a thousand places, I doubt that you will find one man who
does not make this incorrect assertion. How
often I have listened to preachers describe Jesus Christ as a lawyer who stands up before
God to plead our cause and beg for our lives on the grounds that He, being innocent, died
for us and God is propitiated by Him and we are forgiven.
This gross misunderstanding of the truth of propitiation is everywhere
evident in sermons, in writing and in hymns. Notice
how this error is brought out in the words of the following hymn:
Five
bleeding wounds He bears,
Received
on
They
pour effectual prayers;
They
strongly plead for me.
Forgive
him, O forgive, they cry,
Nor
let the ransomed sinner die!
The
Father hears Him pray,
His
dear anointed One;
He
cannot turn away
The
presence of His Son.
My
God is reconciled:
His
pardoning voice I hear.
This is
church tradition, but it is not the truth. The Father did not send Christ to appease
Himself. The idea that God would send forth
His Son to propitiate and appease Himself is exceedingly absurd. The truth is that Christ came to propitiate you and
me that we might repent of our rebellion and iniquity against Him, believe and be
reconciled to God, who has always loved us and been our friend and not our enemy. We might also take notice that in referring to the
scripture, There is one God and one mediator
between God and man, the man Christ Jesus, the
preachers have also turned this backwards and made Christ to be our mediator with the
Father, but that is not what Paul said. He
said that the mediator was between God and man, not
between man and God. So Christ was sent as a
propitiation, a propitiator, or one sent by God
the Father to dispose man to repentance and kindness, love and faith toward God end quote.
What a hideous
affront it is to the God of our salvation to wickedly accuse Him of needing to give His
own Son as a propitiation TO APPEASE HIS OWN WRATH, though this is the inexcusable lie we
hear continually from the pulpit and over the air waves!
God is portrayed by the preachers as so mad at sin and sinners, so violently
angry and beside Himself that He is metaphorically foaming at the mouth with
uncontrollable rage which can only be appeased by looking upon the bloody sweat and cruel,
ugly death of His Son upon a Roman cross. All
sermons and songs that picture God as a God of rage who must be appeased like
a pagan deity and soothed by blood are heathenish and should be piled on a
bonfire and burned. Such may appear on the
surface to be out of the heart of God, but my ear clearly discerns THE VOICE OF THE
DRAGON!
Appeasement is
the basis of the offerings and sacrifices of all pagan religions. In the late 1800s John Alexander Dowie wrote: The religions of the world are worldly, are
sensual, and are devilish for the most part. No
one will doubt that is true in
Can we not see
by this that the Christians have copied the heathen and have made a fiendish devil of
their God, and have then used the sacrifice of Jesus to appease this God who
is more like a
Think of it! That little child whose whole being is susceptible
to LOVE; who is always looking for and wanting LOVE; who is capable of the purest and
fullest simplicity of response to LOVE think of it! marked and stamped with the
impression that God is one to be constantly scared of. As though He is waiting everywhere with a punishing
whip of large dimensions! Such impressions
remain through a whole lifetime as an actual foundation of belief and action. That Wonderful Father! That Gracious Redeemer! That most Loving of all Beings! Oh, how I love Him!
He revealed Himself to me as He really
is! He turned my heart back again and
restored me into His life. God, the Father,
the Most High, sent Jesus the very fullness of His own heart sent Him into
the world to die on
The dragon-voice
proclaims that once a person dies, his or her fate is sealed forever. If anyone has been fortunate enough to have
repeated the sinners prayer one moment before death stole the spirit
away, he is guaranteed, according to the orthodox teaching, that he will go
straight to heaven. Matters not whether he was
truly drawn to the Son by the Holy Spirit, or whether someone convinced him of a
convenient fire-escape; as long as he muttered the correct words before the
final beat of his heart yielded to the stillness and silence of death, his salvation is
eternally secured. But if he has the
misfortune of being a single minute too late in learning about this sinners
prayer his doom is sealed in everlasting
The question is,
does physical death end the availability of Gods
grace? The death that came to
I do not
hesitate to say that there is not one passage of scripture in the whole Bible that
So the church
system concludes that God has both the will and the power to save a mortally
If, instead of
bringing every sin into judgment punishing that sin and correcting the sinner
we imagine the poor sinner suffering the eternal torments of hell with its
unbearable anguish, the agony of unquenchable fire, the pangs of conscience, the taunts of
fiendish demons, one hour of which is more than all his earthly sorrows rolled into one
lengthen this out to endlessness and season it with hopeless despair and its
horrors will be absolutely inconceivable. Though
our lips may be afraid to frame the words, our hearts will whisper, Can such be the final fruit of
Gods great love and His glorious plan? Is
this the result for which He hungered when He purposed
that sin should estrange His creatures from Himself? But
this is far from all! Multiply this single
case by scores of billions of human beings, who
age after age, have been hurdled into this hopeless hell all tortured and tormented
while the ages roll, and roll, and roll
without mercy and without remedy!
If the above
scenario be true then something horrid must have happened to both God and His saints in
heaven! Before the death of these people God
loved them all, and in many instances they
loved each other, saved and unsaved alike, and would have performed a great number of
kindnesses for one another. Many of these had
Christian friends and loved ones who were very concerned about them and prayed earnestly
for them. But now that both saint and sinner
are out in eternity, God and all the saints in heaven have either lost their
love and compassion for their lost loved ones, or else God has brainwashed all the saints
so that they have erased from their memory the fact that their beloved mothers and
fathers, their lovely sisters and brothers, their precious daughters and sons, and their
good friends and neighbors are suffering the most terrible pain and hideous torture for
all eternity. So we see this: there is more love and
compassion in the natural world in God and the saved ones, than there is in the
spirit world.
What has
happened to cause God and the saints to turn from love and pity for the lost, to a feeling
that the lost are now getting what they deserve and should suffer the torments of the
damned for all eternity? What, I ask, has
happened to God and the saints to cause them to love and seek the lost as long as their
frail, mortal bodies endure, but to turn from that love for the precious unclothed spirit
of the very same man or woman? Can we believe
that God, having created all things for His
pleasure, having so loved His creation
that He freely gave heavens most precious gift, after a few paltry years, the brief
span of a mans mortal existence, throws up His hands in futility and disgust, saying
that He has done all He can and men would not respond, so He must cease all effort, seat
Himself upon His golden throne, and consign His creation to everlasting hell? Yet this is exactly what we are told today! Methinks I detect THE VOICE OF THE DRAGON! The so-called message of salvation as
preached by the church systems today has the outward appearance of the Lamb of God, but it
speaks as the fire-breathing dragon! God is
not that fickle, my friend, and God does not give up that easily! In fact, God does not give up! Neither
is He defeated in any of His plans and purposes! HE
started the whole program of creation, redemption, and restoration, and, blessed be His
wonderful name! He will not cease His work
until He is Victor All in All throughout all the vastnesses of infinity
for evermore!
How often we
have heard preachers warn people that the day of grace will soon be over forever. Now nothing could be
The whole
purpose of this age is to
The
limitation of Gods mercy, if it were possible, would be the condemnation of God
Himself. If there are limits to His mercy, the
Word of God, which says that His mercy endureth forever (all ages), is a lie. The limitation of Gods mercy is a trick of
the dragon, to discredit God and defeat His gospel. The
limitation of Gods mercy makes the disobedience of
His love has no limit, His grace has no
measure,
His power has no boundaries known unto man;
For out of His infinite riches in Jesus
He giveth, and giveth, and giveth again!
EXERCISING THE POWER OF THE FIRST
And he exerciseth all the power of the first
beast before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the
first beast, whose deadly wound was healed (Rev. 13:12).
The first beast
is the bestial world system of man human government and institutions of all kinds. The second beast is the carnal church system of man
religious
Under New
Testament economy the Christ of God was to be the one and only Head of His church. In the days of the apostles, men were made the
children of God by new birth, by the operation of God alone, and thereby taken out of the
nations as a people for His name. The church
was a living organism composed of spiritual members who by one spirit were baptized into one body. It was the operation of God by the Spirit! There was no organization
and nothing to join. The ministries in the body of Christ were
sovereignly raised up and anointed by the Holy Spirit.
With what power, signs, and wonders did they witness to the living presence
of Christ! They were not lords over Gods
heritage, rather they were servants of the
body of Christ. Their authority was not that
of legislated authority, but spiritual authority. Their vocation was not to rule and dominate the
Lords people, but to encourage, admonish, instruct, bless, and build up the saints
in the life of Christ. There was no man-made
structure, no carnal church boards, no dominating hierarchy, only the dynamic presence and
power of Christ manifested in and through the living members of His body!
Today, however,
the beastly system of man-made religion operates on the political level rather than the spiritual plane.
By fleshly domination the false prophet exercises all the power of the first
beast, causing men to pay homage to the system rather
than to the leadership of the Spirit!
FIRE
FROM HEAVEN
And he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down
from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of
those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast
(Rev.
13:13-14).
My hearts
desire and prayer to God is that He will give the spirit of understanding to all who read
these lines. There are commentators who are of
the opinion that we should not think of the beast performing genuine signs, but fake signs
produced either by trickery or by the power of Satan.
Some who interpret the book of Revelation historically tell of Roman priests
who, with the aid of fireworks, made
Such deceit may
have been practiced. The
This is better
understood once we see that the Lords people
are in
Let us now
notice that even in
My beloved
brethren, I am as much opposed to religion and man-made, organized, carnal minded, fleshly
religious systems as any man alive today. This
has been my passion since that blessed day when the voice of Christ bade me, Come
out of her. At the same time I recognize
that the redeemed people of God constitute the church, and I recognize the church as being made up of those who are the Lords
people. I thank God for the church, the seven golden candlesticks! It will greatly aid our understanding to see how
the Lord Jesus, the Son of man clothed in the garment of His priesthood, with eyes of
discernment like
In chapters two
and three of the Revelation we see the seven conditions within the seven churches, good
and bad, positive and negative, spiritual and carnal, commendable and reproachable. The Lord is in the midst of every one of these
conditions! He walks in the midst of the
churches, in the midst of their love, strength, patience, righteousness, truth, and
faithfulness, and also in the midst of their weakness, faults, failures, carnality, false
doctrine, nakedness, rebellion, and shame. The
Lord is there in the midst of every condition! In
the midst of images, crucifixes, candles, incense, holy water, ritual and ceremony, the
Lord walks! In the midst of man-centered,
flesh oriented programs and promotions, the Lord walks!
In the midst of a distorted gospel, false teaching the prophetess
Jezebel the Lord walks! In the midst of
organization, man-made structures, and grasping after men to draw them into the system and hold them in its clutches, the Lord
walks! He condescends to come down into the
midst of all this religious foolishness and
live and walk and move in their midst to bless
men right where they are. What love! What matchless love! We
cannot deny that He is there, touching men, saving men,
Here is the
beast out of the earth, the caricature of the Lamb of God, the beast with the
dragon-voice, the enemy of all that is pure, the enemy of the anointing, the bondage of
the captives, and yet Jesus Christs love is such that He will walk in the midst of
it, ministering to the captives! He will touch
its ministries, move by His Spirit among the people, bless their feeble efforts, fill with
His Spirit, impart gifts and graces, show signs and wonders and miracles, manifesting His
presence and His power there in Life! As
a friend of ours once said, What a God you are to allow yourself to be brought down
so low IN ORDER TO SERVE! The church system
has some truth but it is truth twisted, perverted, tangled, garbled, grotesquely
represented, but truth all the same. How
willing He is to start where we are, to condescend to stoop
to our depths and meet us there, only to raise us from that to a higher
realm!
Many, however,
are not ready to be raised to a higher realm. Yet
we behold the loving kindness of the Lord! Can
we not see that the church systems use the
blessing of God, they use the anointing of the
Spirit, they use and abuse the gifts, anointing, and power of God, in
order to bring men under their domination, build their movement, and establish their own
kingdom. Fire from
heaven! Can it be that the fire the
beast calls down from heaven in the sight of men is truly heavenly fire? Our
The answer is
not long in coming! And deceiveth
them that dwell on the earth by the means of
those miracles which he was given to do. Can
we not see by this that he uses or mis-uses this
power in order to DECEIVE! All through the
scriptures miracles and blessings were esteemed to be the vindication, validation, and
proof of the truthfulness of the prophets message.
God confirmed the word of Elijah by sending down fire from heaven and
consuming the sacrifice, the altar, and even the dust!
The ministry of Aaron the high priest was validated by fire from heaven
consuming the burnt sacrifice upon the altar!
But here in our
Well did George
Hawtin admonish: Set not your heart on miracles or signs or wonders. You will be deceived if you do. Refuse to fellowship with the harlot system on the
basis that some of her cardinals or bishops speak in
tongues. Many thousands are being deceived
by this and are already falling into the clutches of a world church system. Personally I am extremely skeptical about all the
movements of this present hour the World Council of Churches, The Ecumenical
Movement, the Charismatic Movement, and the mass meetings of world
It has been my experience that God is thoroughly pruning His sons in this hour that they may be able to bear and bring forth an abundant harvest of kingdom fruit. He not only prunes away from us the sins and works of the flesh, but a great deal of religiousness and religious activities and those involved therein as well. There was a time when we made the circuit, speaking for the Full Gospel Business Mens Fellowship and various churches in the Pentecostal and
To be continued
J. PRESTON EBY
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