Jubilee 98 and the Water Gospel
In the writings of Micah men had assuredly
plotted upon their beds (as in Amos) and had confiscated the lands. And sure
enough someone would lament this -- WOE to them that devise iniquity,
and work evil upon their beds when the morning is light, they
practise it, because it is in the power
of their hand. Mi 2:1 And they covet fields, and take
them by violence; and houses, and take them
away: so they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage. Micah 2:2 Therefore thus saith the Lord; Behold, against
this family do I devise an evil, from which ye shall not remove your
necks; neither shall ye go haughtily: for this time is evil. Mi
2:3 In that day men will ridicule you; they will
taunt you with this mournful song: 'We are utterly ruined;
my people's possession is divided
up. He takes it from me! He assigns
our fields to traitors.'" Micah 2:4NIV "Therefore you will have no one in the assembly of the
LORD to divide the land by lot." Micah
2:5 Oh, but there is always someone who will try
to revive the legalist, pre-redemptive blood of Christ ritual to
divide up the land into one BIG lot. However, these were the men who
had perverted true worship, had confiscated the lands of the poor,
driven the women from their homes and took away the
blessing promised in the Word for the people. These were the people who had violated the
spiritual principle of the Jubilee and and were busily engaged in
taking the property from the local "tribes." These were the people of
whom Micah said that a prophet of
wine would be just the prophet for
them: Do not prophesy," their prophets say. "Do not
prophesy about these things; disgrace will not overtake us."
Micah 2:6 Should it be said, O house of
Jacob: "Is the Spirit of the LORD angry? Does he do such things?" "Do not
my words
do good to him whose ways are upright? Micah 2:7 Get up, go away! For this is not your resting
place, because it is defiled, it is ruined, beyond all remedy. Micah
2:10 If a liar and
deceiver comes and says, 'I will prophesy for you plenty of wine and
beer,' he would be just the prophet for this people! Micah
2:11 In the following verses Micah promised that
all sheep would be brought "together like sheep in a pen" and "Their
king will pass through before them, the Lord at their lead." There
can be no king without a kingdom. AND I said, Hear, I pray you, O
heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for
you to know judgment? Mi 3:1 Who hate the good, and love the
evil; who pluck off their
skin from off them, and their
flesh from off their
bones; Mi 3:2 Who also eat the
flesh of my people, and flay their
skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in
pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron. Mi
3:3 Then shall they cry unto the Lord, but he will
not hear
them: he will even hide his face from them at that time, as they have
behaved themselves ill in their doings. Mi 3:4 Thus saith the Lord concerning the
prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and
cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even
prepare war against him. Mi 3:5 Therefore night shall be unto you,
that ye shall not have a
vision; and it shall be dark unto you,
that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the
prophets, and the day shall be dark over them. Mi 3:6 Then shall the seers be ashamed, and
the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for
there is no answer of
God. Mi 3:7 In the last days the mountain of the Lord's
temple will be established as chief among the mountains; it will be
raised above the hills, and peoples will stream to it." Micah
4:1 Many nations will come and say,
"Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the
God of Jacob. He will teach us his ways, so that we may
walk in his paths." The law will go out from Zion, the word of the
LORD from Jerusalem. Micah 4:2 Perhaps there have been too many empires built
and temples to house the pagan gods of Solomon. The only solution is
to bypass the unnecessary programs and skip over Catholicism and land
in downtown Jerusalem as the "true Zion" and sit at the foot of the
cross where no worship team would hook up their amplifiers and no
stump speaker would "slaver" over Him. Peter's Water of the Word
Pattern Seeing ye have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart
fervently: 1Pe 1:22 Being born again, not of
corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which
liveth and abideth for ever. 1Pe 1:23 For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower of
grass. The grass withereth, and the
flower thereof falleth away: 1Pe 1:24 But the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto
you. 1Pe 1:25 WHEREFORE laying aside all malice, and all
guile,
and hypocrisies, and envies, and all
evil speakings, 1Pe 2:1 As newborn babes, desire the sincere
milk of the word, that ye
may grow thereby: 1Pe 2:2 If so be ye have tasted that the Lord is
gracious. 1Pe 2:3 To whom coming, as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious, 1Pe
2:4 Ye also, as lively stones, are
built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up
spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. 1Pe 2:5
Each must offer up the fruit of their own lips
else the clergy has again usurped the people's access to God.
No Mercy From Imposed Religious Festivals
with Music Each year troubled and sincere people endure
the shame of the church "exposing" itself before the watching world
as dividers and divided. If the new world order is correct then all
of those old legalists are wrong. Then who could blame any sane
person from steering away from the local church when Jubilee is out
of session? As the watching world sees the churches of
Christ gleefully portrayed as a destructive institution, the people
of God--the laity consumed by the clergy--sit by in amusement or
consternation. The literate know that the flood of meetings and books
just means an ancient battle to the death for turf. In the name of God we just wish everyone would
sit down, shut up and leave the local churches to work out its own
way to project Christ to its share of the world. If we do not then God will do what He has
always done: He will remove His candlestick from the Restoration
movement and give it to someone else not eaten up with pride and ego,
fighting for the best pulpits while the churches hunger and thirst
for the Word and run from "sea to sea" trying to find it. Israel was an ancient wine skin group with
musical worship teams. God said through Amos: I will turn your religious feasts into
mourning and all your singing into weeping. I
will make all of you wear sackcloth and shave your heads. I will
make that time like mourning for an only son and the end of it like a
bitter day. Am 8:10 The days are coming," declares the
Sovereign LORD, "when I will send a famine through the land -- not a
famine of food or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the words of the LORD. Amos 8:11 Men will stagger from sea to sea
(California to Nashville?) and wander (be vagabonds) from north to
east (to and fro), searching (in worship) for the word of the LORD,
but they will not find it. Amos 8:12 Because sermonizing Scripture and putting it
into "soulless versifying" (Albert Barnes) has endured so long, it is
entirely possible that people do not know that they are slowly dying
because they have not been fed -- or taught to eat -- the Word of
God. Because many shepherds have sat down in silence, those trying to
corral all of the strays into a new sheepfold may let the wolves in.
God intended some walls to
stand. Those who volunteer as the
Shepherds are most often the ones looking for something magical and
exciting even if it is from a new wineskin and the many Jubilee-like
movements trying to force the Atonement and restoration. We should remind the watching world that
fledling denomination movements usually sprout up because someone
wants to form a "corporation" or a "ministry" to sell you something
or to enflate some sagging egos. These movements exist in all
religious groups and they will go away in time. Those who depart with
them may have long ago so damaged their souls that they cannot hear
the quiet whisper of the words of Christ and need the crusing sounds
to drown out the signs of a dying "body member." These people do not speak for churches of
Christ too busy doing the will of Christ as they see it to go out
looking for the "lost kingdom" which others have uncovered in a
distant but magical land. Kenneth Sublett
