J. Thomas

January 16, 2024

On Tuesday, January 16, 2024 the Word of the Lord came to me saying:

Too long have My children listened to the whispers of demons in My Name. Too long have the values of the fallen guided the children of light. Too long have My people walked in darkness while calling out My Name into the heavens. This day is the beginning of the end of the lies whispered in My Name.

I will no longer tolerate those who speak the lies of Satan in the congregations called by My Name. I will no longer listen to lessons on leadership, power, control, influence, manipulation, and prosperity. Long have these topics been the stock and trade of false prophets—the teachers and preachers who speak out of the desires of their own hearts and claim inspiration by My Spirit. The blasphemy of the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven this generation, not now nor in the world to come.

All who claim to deliver a word from the Lord that I have not spoken or an instruction to My people that I have not given will be devoted to destruction. I will now free My people from the wolves who are shepherding My flock. For those who speak their own words in My Name, there will be no mercy. I will turn the flocks against the shepherds as I turned Israel against their Egyptian masters. I Myself will send plagues against the shepherds until they release My sheep from their sheep pens. My assaults will be relentless, and My words to the shepherds who lead them are only these: “Let My people go that they may worship Me in spirit and in truth in the wilderness prepared for them.”

I wish to see My people in tents. I will tolerate no more cathedrals. I wish to see My people pray and listen to My voice. I will tolerate no more those who claim to speak to them on My behalf. Even this voice you hear now will not be necessary in the days to come. I will shepherd My people, and I will call out to My flock. My Messiah alone will lead them, and He will come to them as a child comes—humble, submissive, ready to serve, and eager to listen.

If you know of no such children, this is not because My word is false, but because your discipleship is defective. Too long have I tolerated the despoiling of the earth and the corruption of My children. I called out to Abraham in order to preserve through Him a remnant on the earth, a faithful generation, children of righteousness who shine as the stars in the night. But those who call themselves by My Name have worshipped the false gods of this age, and their children have been corrupted by the demons they have worshipped.

No more, no more, children of the earth. My long days of silence and mercy are ended. From the dawn of this new year, 100 days are allotted for preparation for judgment. Repent, My children, if you are My children. Turn from the wickedness of your ways and the licentiousness of your teachings. Why would you be destroyed? Why would you have Me turn My face from you? Judgment is coming on the world. Need the judgment of the wicked consume My people, as well?

Separate yourselves from those who speak in My Name words I have not spoken. You ask, “How will we know Your word?” You will know My word by its fruit. And you ask, “What is this fruit?” It is the fruit of obedience to the words I have preserved through My prophets and apostles. Men have not preserved My word. I have preserved My word. Many have attempted to change it, to alter it, to corrupt it, to pervert it to their own ends. But I have protected it by holy hands and hidden places that those who wished to add and subtract from what I have said have been found out. I conscripted the wicked to prove the truthful witness I have preserved that My people might hear and learn.

Listen to what I have preserved, do what I have asked, receive who I am making you, and you will shine in the dark places of the world. Continue worshipping idols of your own making hidden within ideals, principles, laws, constitutions, and cultures you have made yourselves, and I will leave you to the gods you have chosen—gods which could not save the world in the days of Noah, which could not forestall the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which have lost every nation that they have incited to arise from the beginning to now. Never have they withstood My judgment. They live now only by My mercy.

If you believe they can save you from the curse, then worship them. But those who wish to be called by My Name must separate themselves from false and useless shepherds. Return to My word, and I will speak to you again. Return to obedience, and I will rescue you from the tyranny of your fallen masters. Return to goodness, and I will break the bonds which enslave you to yourselves. May those who have ears to hear, listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches. Selah and Amen.

Reflecting on the Seasons of Lent and Easter

J. Thomas Johnson

Recently, I took a Lenten quiz, and one of the questions read as follows: Why is the season of Lent forty days? It was a multiple choice quiz, and these were the options:

To represent the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, tempted by Satan
To recall the 40 days and nights the earth was flooded in the Old Testament
To remind us of the 40 years the Israelites wandered in the desert

According to the quiz-writer(s), the correct answer is “a”—”to represent the time Jesus spent in the wilderness, tempted by Satan.” But the quiz is deceptive. “B” is easy enough to dismiss because the earth was flooded for far more than forty days, according to Genesis. It rained for forty days, but the earth was flooded for over one-hundred fifty days. However, “c” is a bit more difficult because it gets at the deeper question as to why Jesus Himself spent forty days fasting in the wilderness.

Why did the Spirit of God drive Jesus out into the wilderness for forty days, where He fasted, was tempted by Satan, and, eventually, ministered to by God’s angels? Well, the answer to that certainly involves the forty years that Israel spent wandering in the wilderness. So, during Lent the Church may be remembering “a,” but Jesus Himself was certainly recapitulating “c.”

There are two passages that help to explain why the Father sent the Son into the wilderness for forty days after His baptism, allowed Him to be tempted by Satan, and required Him to fast and pray. Let’s start with the temptation of Satan. In this aspect of His forty days, Jesus was walking in the footsteps of Israel. Deuteronomy 8:2-3 reads thusly:

²Remember the long way that the Lord your God has led you these forty years in the wilderness, in order to humble you, testing you to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments. ³He humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 8:2-3, NRSV

When Satan tempted Jesus by suggesting that He turn the stones surrounding Him into bread, Jesus quoted verse 3 of this passage. In part, as Israel before Him, Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness was a time of humbling and of the testing of Jesus’ obedience. God was insistent that Jesus, as the representative of Israel, walk in the footsteps of Israel. Where Israel failed, however, Jesus was faithful.

But, why was Jesus fasting? Perhaps this was simply to join Israel in their seasons of hunger in the wilderness. But, I suspect it was more than that. After all, Israel ate in the wilderness. They were fed with manna and, occasionally, with quail. Because of this, I believe Jesus’ fasting was a fulfillment of an act of Moses. The scene has been preserved in Deuteronomy 9:16-19:

¹⁶Then I saw that you had indeed sinned against the Lord your God, by casting for yourselves an image of a calf; you had been quick to turn from the way that the Lord had commanded you. ¹⁷So I took hold of the two tablets and flung them from my two hands, smashing them before your eyes. ¹⁸Then I lay prostrate before the Lord as before, forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water, because of all the sin you had committed, provoking the Lord by doing what was evil in his sight. ¹⁹For I was afraid that the anger that the Lord bore against you was so fierce that he would destroy you. But the Lord listened to me that time also.
Deuteronomy 9:16-19, NRSV

After Israel sinned by making an idol and using it in their worship of God, Moses fasted for forty days and forty nights, interceding for the people and begging God not to destroy them. I believe that we are meant to see Jesus’ forty days of fasting in the wilderness in this light. Moses’s intercession for the people was a foreshadowing of Jesus’ intercession for sinful humanity. Understood in this way, Jesus’ fasted for forty days asking God to have mercy on fallen humanity. And Jesus embodied this prayer entirely, as He laid down His life for fallen humanity on the cross.

As we observe Lent, may we remember that God humbles us to test our obedience. As we observe Lent, may we remember the prayer and fasting of Jesus, interceding for us while we were still sinners. As we remember Good Friday, may we recall the way in which Jesus not only prayed for us, but lived out His prayer by sacrificing Himself for our salvation. And, as we celebrate Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, may we rejoice that God demonstrated His acceptance of these prayers and this sacrifice by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. Praise be to God!

Cause & Effect

J. Thomas Johnson – March 2, 2023

Sometimes I assume I have to choose between what is natural and what is supernatural. If an occurrence has a natural explanation—that is, if something can be explained according to the normal patterns of life on earth or of the universe generally—, then I am tempted to assume that it occurred naturally. If an occurrence has no clear natural explanation, then I am tempted to consider supernatural involvement. This all seems very reasonable to me, but I am becoming increasingly aware of how unbiblical this way of reasoning may be.

Recently I’ve been considering the fall of the walls of Jericho in Joshua chapter six. The Scriptures tell us that God told the Israelites to march around the city once each day for six days. Then on the seventh day, the Lord told them to march around the city seven times, with the priests marching before the Ark of the Covenant blasting the trumpets the whole time. Following the seventh time around the city, after the priests had released a long blast from the ram’s horn, the people were to shout a great shout, and the walls of the city would fall. The Scriptures tell us that this occurred precisely as God had described, and the Israelites took the city. What the Scriptures don’t say is whether anything ‘natural’ occurred at the same time.

For what I consider to be dubious reasons, most contemporary critical scholars have rejected the Bible’s date of Israel’s conquest of Canaan (i.e., 1406 B.C.) and have preferred a date of 1250 B.C. There is little archaeological evidence of a major settlement in Jericho in 1250 B.C. But, during the period in which the Bible indicates Israel came into the land, there is evidence of such a settlement. Assuming that the Bible is right both about the dates and about the events surrounding the fall of Jericho, how precisely might the walls have fallen?

Biblical historians who accept the Bible’s dating for the conquest of Canaan have suggested that an earthquake (or a series of earthquakes) might have led to the wall’s collapse. The Jordan River Valley is part of a large fault line sometimes called the Syrian-African Rift. In the last 2,000 years earthquakes have been recorded as causing landslides that have blocked the Jordan River’s flow and as having done substantial damage to human-made structures. Since the conquest of Jericho was preceded by the miracle of the Jordan River’s waters stopping for Israel to cross over, some historians have suggested a large earthquake followed by several aftershocks might have led to the fall of Jericho’s walls.

We don’t know if that is what happened, but if it were, would that mean these were not miracles—that is, that God was not involved? No. Permit me to explain.

According to the Scriptures, life is unnatural. According to Genesis, the natural state of things is lifelessness, formlessness, emptiness, darkness. God imposed life on lifelessness by speaking. For Christians, the universe is not natural, but a miracle, and life along with it. Order and life have been imposed on disorder and lifelessness by God. Nature is supernaturally sourced and supernaturally maintained.

Perhaps, then, it is not surprising that the Scriptures often describe events as both natural (that is, as consequences of cause and effect) and as supernatural (as intended by God). How many earthquakes might Jericho have withstood during its history? We don’t know. However, on that day in the late 1400s B.C. God did not allow the walls to remain standing. Was this a consequence of building on a fault line? Yes. Was this judgment? Yes. Was this the fulfillment of God’s promise to Israel? Yes. As Christians we don’t choose between these interpretations. They were all true simultaneously.

Consequences of poor decisions are both natural and forms of divine judgment. The earth has been created in such a way that God can bring judgment through its design. God does not need to circumvent creation in order to use it for His purposes. God can and has worked through the very mechanisms of nature that He has created and that He maintains. As has always been true and remains true today, consequences can be both natural and forms of divine judgment simultaneously. Perhaps we should look for God’s communications and activities in the natural consequences of our choices and not only in the inexplicable or exceptional aspects of life on earth.

Contentment

J. Thomas Johnson

February 8, 2023

In Numbers 21 we find the people of Israel falling back into a common complaint against God and against Moses. Numbers 21:4-5 reads:

⁴From Mount Hor they set out by the way to the Red Sea, to go around the land of Edom; but the people became impatient on the way. ⁵The people spoke against God and against Moses, “Why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness? For there is no food and no water, and we detest this miserable food.”
Numbers 21:4-5, NRSV

Wandering in the wilderness between Egypt and the land of Canaan for forty years must have been a tedious misadventure. Of course, Israel was wandering in the wilderness by choice in that they had refused to trust God to bring them into the land of Canaan. Even so, forty years of wandering aimlessly must have been a struggle even if it had been deserved.

Since they were cursed to wander, they could not settle down. So, everything from their Tabernacle to their homes to their possessions had to be mobile. I’ve met a few people in my life who prefer to live that way, but for most of us, living out of suitcases is not something we’d want to do for forty years. I suppose Israel’s growing frustration is not hard to understand.

Even more, the lands through which they were travelling were quite arid. Oases were few and far between, and they often found themselves wandering into areas with little or no potable water. And to top it all off, for forty years, with very little variation, they ate the same food. It was miracle-food, of course, provided to them six days every week by God Himself. When they first ate it, they marveled at it, found it delicious, and gave thanks to God. But after a few decades, eating the same food for every meal every day became distasteful to them.

Israel wanted new and different tastes, but God gave them only manna. Israel wanted houses and lands, but God gave them only tents and sandals that never wore out from walking. Israel wanted water whenever they were thirsty, but God gave them only enough water to survive. So Israel grumbled. Many of the people wanted a God who was less stingy and more gratuitous in His provision for them. Why did God care for Israel in this way?

Later, near the end of their time of wandering, Moses told the Israelites that God cared for them in this way, “to humble you and to test you, and in the end to do you good” (Deuteronomy 8:16b, NRSV). When the Lord leads us through lean times, arid lands, and monotonous repetition, we, too, might allow those seasons to humble and to test us that they might do us good. The Apostle Paul provided similar encouragement when he wrote:

Of course, there is great gain in godliness combined with contentment; ⁷for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it; ⁸but if we have food and clothing, we will be content with these.
1 Timothy 6:6-8, NRSV

May we find contentment in obedience to God and His watchcare in these days. May we not be like our ancestors whose eyes were fixed on that for which they wished, rather than on that which God was then providing them. Amen.

~ J. Thomas

When Is New Year’s Day?

J. Thomas Johnson

January 6, 2023

As we enter into another year on the Western Calendar, I have found myself puzzling over dates. As Christians we are offered no less than four options for the celebration of the beginning of the new year.

When God first delivered the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt, He commanded the people to consider the month of Nisan as the first of months and to celebrate the Passover on the 14^th day of Nisan. In 2023, the first day of the month of Nisan will begin at sunset on March 22. Will that be New Year’s Day?

Furthermore, God commanded the Israelites to keep record of years in seven-year cycles. And those years were to be reckoned in relationship to the festivals of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. Because of this, contemporary Judaism celebrates the beginning of the new year on Rosh Hashanah. In 2023, Rosh Hashanah will be celebrated from September 15-17. So, does Rosh Hashanah mark New Year’s Day for Christians?

Then again, on the Christian Calendar the Church Year begins with Advent. The first Sunday of Advent this year was November 27, 2022. So, was New Year’s Day for Christians actually six weeks ago?

And, of course, the Western Calendar tells us that New Year’s Day falls on January 1^st (i.e., the 8^th day of Christmas on the Christian Calendar). So which are we to choose? And that leads me to perhaps a more foundational question: why mark time in this way at all?

Why do we feel compelled to make changes in the dawn of a new year? Is that just a random superstition, or is there some Christian foundation for the practice? If we look at the three religious options we have been given for marking a new year, we see that each of those options is tied to a new beginning.

Passover was a new beginning for the people of Israel as God delivered them from slavery in Egypt. Rosh Hashanah was an annual new beginning for the people of Israel as the sacrifice of Yom Kippur atoned for the unintentional and unknown sins committed in the previous year. And Advent is a new beginning for all of humanity that culminates in the birth of Jesus for the salvation of the world.

As Christians, when we think of a new year, we think of a practice articulated well by the Apostle Paul in Philippians 3:12-14:

¹²Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. ¹³Brothers and sisters, I do not regard myself as having taken hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 3:12-14, NASB

For Christians, time is marked by God’s interventions in history to free us from the past and transform us for the future. As you enter into this new season, may you find renewed strength in Jesus to leave the sins and rebellions and missteps of the last season in the past, under the atoning blood of Jesus.

Of course, we must settle the past by repentance and any necessary reparations we might owe to others. So, we must begin there. But, then, we must release who we’ve been and follow God into who we are becoming in Him.

May the Lord strengthen you to pursue righteousness and holiness in the days to come as God continues to work to transform us into beings who reflect the likeness of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.