DIET OF
ASSES' HEADS, DOVES' DUNG & BABIES
Publication #52.93
"And it came to pass after this, that Benhadad king of Syria gathered all his host, and went up, and besieged Samaria. And there was a great famine in Samaria: and, behold, they besieged it, until an ASS’S HEAD was sold for fourscore pieces of silver, and the fourth part of a cab of DOVE'S DUNG for five pieces of silver. And...This woman said unto me, Give thy son, that we may eat him today, and we will eat my son tomorrow. SO WE BOILED MY SON, AND DID EAT HIM: and I said unto her on the next day, Give thy son, that we may eat him..." (II Kings 6:24-25, 28-29).
In the nations of plenty it is hard to imagine such a diet as ascribed above; yet in Samaria, it came to exactly that — asses' heads, doves' dung, and babies.
Throughout the scriptures, Samaria and Israel are synonymous names, they both speak of the same people. The book of Hosea makes this clear. Samaria, however, is the name most commonly used concerning Israel when she was involved with idol worship. Idolatry, as in those days, is prevalent throughout the church today. Some may wonder how this could be; but it is easily seen when we understand what "Christian idol worship" is. Any thing that takes the place of Christ is idol worship. One of the primary forms of idol worship is the idol people have in their minds of what God is. How can this be? You ask.
You see, idols do not have to be tangible things; such as, statues, figurines, money, homes, cars, jobs, offices of prestige and authority, etc. Idols can very well be between our ears. When we worship that which we imagine God to be, rather than Him as a living reality of whom we know — that is idol worship. If all we have of God is an image in our minds, and that is what we are worshiping — it is idol worship. Although it is less obvious, and tucked away in our minds, those vivid imaginations can be so real at times that they can be mistaken for God Himself. But our keen imaginations do not make it so. All they can do, at best, is to take over God’s place in the role of creation. That is, we create God in our image and likeness, rather than Him creating us in His image and likeness. There is little wonder the church and the world view Him as a God so vindictive and willing to torment souls forever; for they have created Him in their own image and likeness. That is what they would do to their enemies if the option was given to them. Since they are not given the authority to do so, they relegate it to the god of their own making, and he abides in their own minds, no where else.
Nevertheless, can it be true that the people of this city, the church system of today, is so starved that they have been reduced to eating asses' heads, doves' dung, and their own babies? Yes! They have come to precisely that! They are reaping the rewards of what their imaginary idols have to offer — which is absolutely nothing of real value.
ASSES' HEADS
Rather than eating the rich Word of God's holy Kingdom, the Bread, the substance of Jesus Christ, people are being fed a steady diet of ASSES’ HEADS! This is clearly seen as THE KNOWLEDGE OF MAN, which has been one of the primary food sources to the church for a long time. It has become such a common dish that most have come to like it, especially since it satisfies the carnal man.
Yes, she has amassed great wealth and built a great empire, something her subjects can be proud of, even though they are held captive behind the doors of her unhallowed halls. Her preachers, teachers, and prognosticators may don religious robes and attire of exalted "righteousness." They may be of eloquent speech, possessing the rhetoric of statesmen, making the stoutest of spines to weaken as tingling goose bumps race over their bodies like the rolling waves of a Kansas wheat field. Their words may be powerful. But so much of what they say are nothing more than the knowledge and wisdom of seminary-cloned, self-willed, self-styled, stubborn men of SELF — ASSES' HEADS! Their words are carried by the wind of man's knowledge, sweeping across the emotions and intellect of carnal minds that carry the people in whatever direction the influencing spirit blows.
Regardless of what they say, their words are often born of the spirit that says, "Come hell or high water, we will do it our way!" Without a doubt, a large portion of the visible church has become a twin sister to those Jeremiah soundly rebuked: "A WILD ASS used to the wilderness, in her heat sniffing the wind! Who can restrain her lust? None who seek her need weary themselves; in her month they will find her" (Jer. 2:24, RSV).
Job also had something to say concerning these infamous creatures: "Men remove landmarks (the established boundaries of Christ's Kingdom); they seize flocks (from the sheepfold of the Lord) and pasture them (in their own fields of knowledge). Behold, like wild asses in the desert they go forth to their toil, seeking prey in the wilderness as food for their children" (Job 24:2, 5; parentheses added for emphasis).
Reading on, we see how these present-day leaders cause their converts to become: "...naked, without the righteous garments of Christ, and having no covering they lay cold in the night. They pluck the fatherless from the breast, and take pledge after pledge of the poor. Although the people are starving, their few remaining sheaves (the precious truths they gathered before their capture) are taken from them. What little oil of the Spirit they had is pressed out of them and used within the walls of Samaria to anoint their unholy priests and to burn candles — giving the appearance of God's sanctification. The poor tread out winepress, yet they go thirsty while the wild asses are drunken with the wine. Within the confines of this captive city the dying groan, and the souls of the wounded cry for help; yet God seems to pay no attention to their prayer" (Job 24:7-12, paraphrased) — for yet a little season they must endure the stroke, even as Isaiah prophesied to Israel:
"For the palace will be forsaken, the populous city deserted (of the Spirit and the righteous ones); the hill and the watchtower will become dens...of wild asses...until the Spirit is poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness becomes a fruitful field, and the fruitful field is deemed a forest" (Isa. 32:14-15, RSV).
Hosea, the last prophet to the northern kingdom, spoke accurately of today's religious Samaria: "Israel is swallowed up; already they are among the nations as a useless vessel" (Hosea 8:8). And there is a reason the church has come to this: "For they have gone up to Assyria (worldliness), a wild ass wandering alone; Ephraim has hired lovers (idol worship)" (Hosea 8:9). Religion as a whole has become like the one she has lain with; namely, Ishmael, the father of the Arabic tribes: "...HE SHALL BE A WILD ASS OF A MAN" (Gen. 16:12, Rotherham).
In type of Hosea's wife, we see an epic picture of what has happened to the wayward church. She has truly become a harlot, a wild ass in heat. She has not exceeded man's wisdom, his stubbornness, nor has she resisted his adamant rebellion. Rather than overcoming and living honorably, she has given herself to all the wiles of the flesh. In a word, she has not become one with Jesus, her espoused husband. Neither have we seen her entering New Jerusalem they way Jesus enter Jerusalem of old. He came riding upon an ass and her colt that had never been ridden before — signifying victory over Hagar (bondage) and her offspring, the wild ass of a man. Jesus demonstrated absolute victory over all bondage of that present age (Hagar, the mother ass), as well as the stubborn ass of the new (Ishmael, the colt).
The church of today is overtaken by the spirit of the wild ass of Assyria, but to her surprise, her lover has turned on her. The spirit by which she was lured has now besieged her round about, and she is in want of food. Before the siege she had the best of both worlds, the whoredom of her idol worship and the word of God. But God has gathered her suitor in hostility to her gates, leaving her void of any real word. There is a famine of hearing the word of God and are relegated to eating ASSES' HEADS, DOVES' DUNG, and BABIES!
Concerning the soulish wisdom of wild asses, let us borrow from J. Preston Eby: "...All that is not of life, of the Spirit, is merely the good of man — soulish. How much of our religious exercises have been soulish! I can tell you of a truth that most of the ‘power’ in the modern ‘revival meeting’ is nothing at all but soul power. Have you not noticed yourself that in many church services, revival meetings and crusades a kind of atmosphere is first created psychologically to make the people feel warm and excited? A chorus is repeated again and again to warm up the audience. The people are feverishly urged to `get into the spirit' of the meeting. Some stirring stories are told. Special music is sung. The people are instructed to stand up, sit down, say `Amen!' and ‘Praise the Lord!’ When the atmosphere is thoroughly heated up, the preacher will then stand up and preach. If he does his job skillfully he can anticipate a large ‘altar call.’ These are methods and tactics, but they are not the power of the Holy Spirit! Many preachers today think they have power (even many so-called sons of God); but they are merely employing psychological soul power to influence people and manipulate congregations. Many have become self-made experts in manipulating people and crowds. The Bible Schools of Babylon's religions offer a course for ministerial students called homiletics. Homiletics is the art of writing and preaching sermons. The sad truth is that the vast majority of religious activities is just that — an art. You can go to school and LEARN HOW TO DO IT! How to prepare sermons. How to speak persuasively. How to use gestures. How to tell jokes. How to preach. How to stir people by the skillful use of sentimental stories about death, repentance, hell, heaven, needs, miracles, etc. This all seems so desirable, so good! But I say to you that you can learn these very same psychological techniques, apply them in the business world, and sell vacuum cleaners! The fact is, most all salesmen employ these same proven procedures of presentation, sentimentalism and pressure to sell insurance, automobiles, real estate, and thousands of other items daily! They don't need any Holy Spirit to do that! All that is necessary is some good human personality mixed with some proven techniques and one can persuade people to buy almost anything! These are means and methods, but they are not the power nor work of the Holy Spirit. They are no more spiritual when used religiously than they are when employed commercially. In the Kingdom of God they are flesh! To which our Lord says today, as He did to Peter in that long ago, ‘Get thee behind Me — SATAN!’" — End quote.
Due to the spirit of idol worship, the gates of the visible church of today are presently closed to the Spirit of revelation and present truth. Hence, as starvation sets in — the city is consigned to eating asses' heads and doves' dung and babies.
DOVES' DUNG
DOVE'S DUNG — residue of the departed dove! This is what many are living on today — DOVE'S DUNG! With the church as a whole, there is very little reality of the glory of Christ. There is virtually nothing remaining of that tremendous day in 1906 on Azusa Street. From a single church in Los Angeles, heaven's Dove spread its glorious wings across the nation in great proliferation. The presence of the beauty of the Lord was everywhere. Untold power of His majesty, tongues of godly men and angels, and glorious prophecies were in abundance. Miracles of all kinds were common place, and countless numbers of souls were added to the Church daily. A similar visitation of the Spirit came in 1948 and continued into the 1950. This is known as "Latter Rain." It was during this flight of the Dove that not only was the baptism of the Spirit rekindled and miracles came again, but the revelation of Sonship was given. But it did not last, for the gentle Dove of God is easily wounded. When men put their soiled hands to building their own kingdoms, or they attempted to finish in the flesh what began in the Spirit, the Dove flew away — leaving only its remains, memories of the faded past, dung.
Memories of the past, tremendous as the events were, are just that — memories, and they possess no life for today. They may be pleasant to reflect upon, but to apply yesteryear’s glories to what God is doing today is nothing more than eating DOVE’S DUNG, and the church of modern Samaria is presently living on this lifeless commodity. With some, it is their main course, and they pay a fair price for it.
There is a time for warm reflections, and to recall the days of God's glory — to encourage, to lift, to edify, or to admonish, to exhort, to lay examples for corrections, etc. To live in the past, however, is another story. Generally speaking, there is very little life to be had in the past, regardless of the richness it contained at the time. Since most of the nutrients were used up long ago, when the Dove was present, a steady diet of the past not only lends itself to sickly weakness in the body, but it becomes very nauseating to most people. Therefore, when we prepare a dish for others, let it be a fresh word for this day. Let it be the beauty of present truth. Let it be God's reality, His pure essence, His sweet fragrance, His Logos, the Christ of the living God — Jesus our Lord. Let it be the precious Dove of God; but please, let us not offer a plate of warmed over dove's dung, for the sons of God will not eat it! They will not eat it!
BABIES
The church's diet of asses' heads and doves’ dung has been horrendous, but there is more. Some are so starved for flesh that they resort to anything to get it: "...Give thy son, that we may eat him to day, and will eat my son tomorrow. So we boiled my son, and did eat him..." (2 Kings 6:28-29). Rather than eating the flesh of Jesus they eat their newborn converts. In this starvation, they strangle the innocents before they can grow up and mature as a son of God. The life of those born in today’s Samaria is snatched from the breast and snuffed out before it hardly begins. It doesn’t take long before they lose their identity in Christ, and all that can be seen of them is another infused Baptist, Pentecostal, Catholic, Mormon, Jehovah's Witness, Independent, etc. They eat their own babies, swallowing them, and nothing remains but the host that has eaten them.
Can there be anything more desperate or deplorable than a person cannibalizing their baby to save their own miserable existence? Yet it is seen in abundance in today's Samaria. The same women of history rises once again to perform their terrible deeds. With their appetite and dark, visionless condition, they perceive no light at all; and without the flesh and blood of Jesus to sustain them, they fulfill the words of scripture by progressively eating not only their babies — but more:
"Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye devour widows' houses....ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" (Mat 23:14-15). "For ye suffer, if a man bring you into bondage, if a man devour you..." (2 Cor. 11:20). "But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another" (Gal. 5:15).
Also, "Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour" (1 Pt. 5:8). "And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven, and did cast them to the earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born" (Rev. 12:4).
You may have an idea of who the devil is, and you may be right; but I can tell you there is more to it than what Samaria has taught. The father of the Pharisees, as Jesus told them, was the devil, and I don’t think He was suggesting they were born from some diabolical conception with their mothers. Other than their spirits, thoughts, and attitudes being that of the devil — that which is inspired by the devil, i.e. the carnal man — their fathers were the Pharisees before them. Sure, there was a spiritual thing working in them, and it was not good; but the devil walking about as a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, also came in the form of men. Both, the devil as a lion and the dragon, seek to devour, for they are one and the same. We read in Isaiah 9:15 that the prophet who teach lies is the tail. Therefore, the lying prophets (preachers, teachers, etc) draw unsuspecting Christians from the heavens in Christ, while the entire system of religion devours them. If you want to see the devil, take a good look at the church system and you will see him swishing his tail of lying prophets throughout the heavens and entangling men’s minds with carnal precepts.
While rejecting the vibrant, living Word of Jesus Christ — the devil, the lion, the Pharisees, devour those held behind their gates of religion. They refuse the flesh and blood of Jesus. Not only are the leaders devouring the people and making them twofold more the children of hell than themselves, the carnal souls in the church are reduced to spiritual cannibalism. They are boiling their own sons and eating them — and they thought it such a hard saying when Jesus said, "Eat My flesh and drink My blood." O church of God, what have you come to?
Something so repulsive, however, may not look so bad when thine eye is evil, for thy body also is full of darkness, as Jesus said to the Pharisees; but "The light of the body is the eye: therefore WHEN THINE EYE IS SINGLE, thy whole body also is full of light" (Lk. 11:34). In Christ there is but ONE MIND, in Christ there is no darkness, in Christ there is naught but illumination, in Christ there is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Simply put — IN THE SINGLE EYE OF CHRIST there is LIGHT, LIFE and LIBERTY! In Him there is no darkness, no death, no starvation — and especially, NO DIET of ASSES’ HEADS, DOVES’ DUNG, or BABIES! Praise God for the banqueting table of Jesus Christ! With a single eye we have pure communion! We eat of His rich, indissoluble life of the ages!
Brethren, the word of deliverance has been proclaimed to those held captive in Samaria, and the gate-keepers have denied it and mocked those who prophesied it. However, we can be assured, when the Lepers of Samaria (the Sons of God), stand at her gates with the riches of the Kingdom in their hands — there will be deliverance. Every so called apostle, prophet, preacher, pastor, and teacher will be trampled by the great exodus. The watchmen who walk the imprisoning walls of that city shall see the riches of the Kingdom — but they will not partake of it! So says the word of prophecy!
Elwin R. Roach
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