"Teaching the things concerning the kingdom of God..."
FROM THE CANDLESTICK TO
THE THRONE
Part 150
THE
(continued)
“And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy. And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard, and his feet were as the feet of a bear, and his mouth as the mouth of a lion: and the dragon gave him his power, and his throne, and great authority” (Rev. 13:1-2).
John beholds how out of
the sea there emerges a frightful monster, a beast,
The beast doesn’t remain
hidden beneath the turbulent waters of the sea, but rises up into the
earth-realm in visible manifestation. His
description
We know that the “world”
is a “cosmos,” a system. It is not a
loose-knit, disconnected pile of things like the cast-offs in a junk yard. It
is a highly organized, sophisticated system. It
is a cohesive order organized out of the cunning
and worldly wisdom of the
The
All the
No phase or feature of
the bestial system of the world operates
This beast does not have
your best interests at heart! The
beast is wild. The
beast is predatory, ravenous,
fierce, ferocious, savage, and
bloodthirsty. The beast is mad. There
are many species of insanity. All
sin is insanity, in different degrees. The
carnal mind is an insane mind given wholly to destructive
Have you ever incurred
the anger of men? It is just as
unreasonable, fierce, savage, and untamed as a wild beast! And
the wrath of the world system is a thousand times more
ruthless than the anger of one
man, for it is a very tightly organized network which has risen out of the sea
of mankind’s corrupt heart, and the dragon has given this bestial system his
power, and throne, and great authority! It
should be evident that when the dragon gives the beast his power, his throne,
and his authority, it is not a free grant to the wild beast! You
can be sure that the beast is required to give the dragon something in return. We
can see what the dragon requires of the wild beast when we read what the devil
demanded of Jesus when trying to seduce Him with the gift of all the kingdoms of
the world and the glory of them. The
devil (dragon) said to Him, “All this power will I give thee, and the glory of
them: for that is
Beloved brethren, would you understand the nature of this beast? Here is what the Holy Spirit has taught us concerning it. “If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love its own: but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you” (Jn. 15:18-19). “Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hate you” (I Jn. 3:13). “I have given them Thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that Thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that Thou shouldest keep them from the evil” (Jn. 17:14-15).
As one
has written, “Brethren, since we have accepted the word of God, since we have
followed Christ, since we have sought Him whom it hates, therefore, the world
hates us. Why? Because
we do not belong to the world. The
world may be attractive, the world may project an excellent facade, the world
may appear refined, civilized, and cultured; but brothers and sisters, once you
incur the wrath of man then you
will know what the world is. If you
go along with it all the time the world may seem to be very civilized and quite
refined; but once its wrath is kindled, once you attempt to
We see, then, that we’re not looking for some future, coming antichrist; the beast is already here, and he is the bestial system of the world. Christians everywhere are busy looking for a mad superman like Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Gorbachev, or some other; but men such as these are but small cogs in the great wheel of the real beast. It’s not a single person we’re looking for! The beast is everywhere and we’ve all been contaminated by that system. People don’t even realize that they’re being contaminated as they give heed to the thinking of the world’s political, economic, educational, media, entertainment, military, and social leaders. They’re receiving the system into their minds, then doing the works of the devil because they’re unknowingly adopting his values and agendas.
The beast has so deceived
the world, including the church. These
days, sin is just as rampant in the church as it is in the world! Whatever
society is doing, that is what the church members are also doing. Whatever
values Dr, Phil or Oprah Winfrey are espousing, these become the values of the
Christian community. Whatever
standards the government legislates or the courts mandate, the church migrates
to those standards. The
beastly system has invaded the church, and the ways of the world have stamped
their mark upon it. The system has
become such a part of us! The
churches operate in the same “professionalized” manner as the world. Religion
has become big business, hyped just
as the world hypes their wares. If
the world has its rock concerts, the church changes the words to Christian words
and entertains their children with the same beat and the same appearance. The
church has not influenced the world, the world has shaped the church! Christians
get all involved in politics, rooting for this candidate and that, for this
proposition and the other, supposing that they can somehow legislate
righteousness in the land. Somehow
they have failed to comprehend the awful truth that nearly all politicians
are opportunists, strategists, deceivers, and liars! They
say one thing to get your vote, and then do another. Nor
do they understand the solemn truth that the gospel is
the power of God unto
salvation — NOT the power of
God unto legislation! Laws
do not change any man’s heart, they merely bring the vengeance of the law down
upon the heads of the evil-doers. THAT
IS NOT THE MINISTRY OF CHRIST! THAT
IS THE
Now if you join yourself
to the world and its value system, and live by its spirit, you can live out a
robotic existence. Someone once
asked the great
If you are one with the
world, you will not be bothered, for the world accepts you and you fulfill its
expectations. But just you try to be separated from the world, just you try to
Oh, how we rejoice with
joy unspeakable and full of glory that the Lord has
Now we come to an amazing
word which may be hard for the natural mind to interpret, but when men seek the
face of the Lord He sends His Holy Spirit to dispel the darkness of the carnal
mind that He may reveal the things that pertain to the
The sword of the Lord is
the word of God, the living and energetic word, the omnipotent word by which He
slays the beast in the sea. When
the bestial nature which once brought forth raging waves of the sea is
conquered, the sea of man becomes peaceful and serene, expressing the peace of
the
“I…saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy” (Rev. 13:1).
Here we are informed that
this beast has upon his heads the “names of blasphemy.” The
King James Bible has the singular form “name,” but in the Greek
Thus we can see that this beast rising up out of the sea symbolized malpractice, that is, he appropriates to himself what belongs to God; he dishonors Him, vilifies Him, shamelessly offends all that is true and godly — blasphemes Him. That is what both the world and religion do — they usurp the place of God in men’s lives, putting their authority above God’s truth, dominating men’s lives through malpractice! They are not doing things God’s way! It is not the Father Himself speaking and acting through them. Rather, it is the elevation of Self to either impress, influence, coerce, or control men. You see this plainly in nearly all the rulers of the world’s systems, and if you refuse their domination you will be persecuted, discriminated against, fined, imprisoned, exiled, killed, or excommunicated! Oh, yes!
The word “world,” as I
have pointed out, translates the Greek word kosmos meaning
order, arrangement, system of things. The
world is a negative thing in relation to God because it is a system organized
outside of the anointing, life, and will of God. Many
Christians have the mistaken notion that
the world is the movie theater, the dance hall, ball games, stylish clothing,
jewelry, makeup, and such like. Others
confuse the world with the earth. But
the world is the present system of things upon this earth conceived by the
carnal mind and generated by the
natural man. The world consists of all that
man has instituted that replaces God in his life. The
present political, economic, educational, and religious systems are
not of God, but of the world. When
people, activities, or things — whether good or bad, beautiful or ugly — enslave
man and usurp God, they comprise the world. Anything
that causes man to disregard the spirit, be removed from the anointing, stop
making progress onward and upward, or be
Let us return to the
thought of blasphemy. I don’t know
whether you have ever looked up the word blasphemy, and what it actually means. You
can look up the Greek word in Strong’s
Even some of God’s elect have been deceived into taking upon them names of blasphemy. The firstborn Son of God, when speaking of the scribes and Pharisees, commanded His disciples, “But all their works they do to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments, and love the uppermost rooms at feasts, and the chief seats in the synagogues, and greetings in the markets, and to be called of men, Rabbi, Rabbi. But be not ye called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and all ye are brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, which is in heaven. Neither be ye called masters: for one is your Master, even Christ. But he that is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whosoever shall exalt himself shall be abased: and he that shall humble himself shall be exalted” (Mat. 23:5-12).
How my heart is pained
when I see men of God taking upon themselves the titles of
My heart is full today
and I could passionately plead the cause of this issue, but I doubt that I, or
many others, could express the penetrating truth of it more powerfully than
brother Larry Hodges did some years ago in one of his Shofar
Letters wherein he wrote, “There
is no point in mentioning names here, but men and women you would think should
know better have begun to aspire to titles, theological degrees, and recognition
of men. The reasoning is, as I was
told by one of them, that ‘a
doctor’s degree will open doors for us that would
“I definitely felt the
“Please understand that I
have no quarrel with anyone who has gone to college and has earned a doctorate,
or any other degree required to do his work. Nor
do I believe that God places a premium on ignorance or that a lack of knowledge
is somehow a virtue. What I’m saying
here is that such things are in an altogether other
realm than the
“While some in the ministry are succumbing to the allure of fame and recognition: to the titles, collars, and garb of man’s religion: and to the money, popularity, and acceptance of approval; many others, most of whom are not even involved in what has come to be known as pulpit ministry, are quietly going about their Father’s business in some out of the way, back-water place designed of the Lord just for them. Little do they realize that just as Moses must have his backside of the desert experience prior to setting God’s people free, so must God’s sons in the making have theirs’ prior to setting creation free! The sons will not come on the scene from an accredited institution of higher learning. They will not be thrust forth from the stained-glassed, deep-piled carpeting of the air-conditioned Cathedrals of Babylon. Nor will they burst on the scene from among the vaunted ranks of the well-known. This I declare to you without equivocation! When the sons of God step out on the world stage for the first time, they will have nothing else to recommend them in any way whatsoever except the nature, power, and authority of the Lamb!
“I recently picked up a
Christian magazine, probably one of the very best out, and began reading an
article on dying to self and what it means. Please
believe me when I tell you that I have no bone to pick with the author on a
personal level. I don’t even know
the man. I am simply speaking of
facts and of a condition which prevails throughout ‘Christendom.’ As
I read the article, I became aware that my spirit was Amening everything. ‘This
is great!’ I thought to myself. ‘Thank
God, the idea that it’s not in
greatness but in nothingness is finally getting through.’ I
found that as I read, I could say Amen to every paragraph, every sentence, every
word. It was truly on the mark and
very encouraging to me. Then, at the
end of the article, the publisher or someone with the authority to do so, had
footnoted the article with the man’s credentials.
“‘So what’s wrong with
that?’ you may ask. IT
ISN’T ACCORDING TO THE MIND OF CHRIST OR TO THE MESSAGE THE MAN HAD WRITTEN! Do
you realize what this means, saints of God? It
means that there is a mentality in the church in this hour, and especially
in the ministry, that has all the
right words, all the right phrases, understands the doctrine, has an anointing,
believes what it is teaching…up to a point, but
is still locked into another (Babylonian) mode of thinking and expression. I
heard one famous preacher preaching that there are no famous preachers in
“It is not possible to come into what God is about to do, that is, come into fullness, while still retaining the old life with its pattern, structure, and methods. There are some in ministry in this hour which see the handwriting on the wall but cannot bring themselves to actually fall into the ground and become nothing, to become hidden in obscurity and die! They cannot bring themselves to let go of the fame, the recognition, the adulation, the money, the life of an order that they know is passing away. They know it is passing away but seem to somehow believe that if they can just say the right things and present themselves in the light of present truth, that they will be able somehow to come into what they know God is now doing without loss or a real death to self. King Saul thought this also. It didn’t work then and it won’t work now.
“They know, as well as king Saul knew, that God will not establish the present order as His kingdom. They know that the command has been given by God to slay Amelek (flesh-self) utterly and spare him not, and they even preach it. If you ask them if they are making war with Amelek in utterness they will tell you, ‘Yea, I have performed the commandment of the Lord’ (I Sam. 15). If that is so, then what meaneth this bleating of the sheep in mine ears and the lowing of the oxen which I hear? What is this odious, sickening stench which comes to our nostrils if it is not the very king of Amelek himself — the well-namedAgag!
“These have spared the
king alive and the best of
the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to
the Lord! Even
though God is asking for obedience and not sacrifice, they are intent on
bringing over into the
“There are a great many
precious brethren who are laboring in obscurity and are not seeking to be seen
and known of men. Some of them have
at one time been well-known and have willingly let go of it or are taking steps
to curtail that method of ministry. We
have no axe to grind with
J. PRESTON EBY
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