“No good deed goes unpunished” (Clare Boothe Luce). We live in a world that praises selfish ambition, instant gratification, wealth and power. Truth and honesty is rarely rewarded and selflessness and personal sacrifice is often viewed as weak. Spiritual elation and devotion to Elohim is seen as a result of superstition and ignorance, and being book smart is superior to the wisdom of the previous generation. We live in a world where vice is often valued and encouraged and values are often unmerited. We mistake humility for weakness, and self-control for misinformation or fanaticism. Love is about what we can get from the object of our affection, such as elation, happiness, security, and passion, but we are often unwilling to sacrifice our desires for those we love.
In this world, we are all about what we can get. How much we can earn in our jobs, in our worship we want a free ticket to the pearly gates, we are in relationships because of what we can get instead of what we can give, we do charity and other goodwill for personal gain or fulfilment. We live our lives based on what feels nice, tastes good and makes us happy. We are all about image and we shun going against the crowd, even when we know they are wrong. Most of us are unaware that our belief system has been hijacked, and many of the things we suffer in our lives are as a result of a warped value system that is becoming more and more debased with each passing generation. We are also unaware that this is being done to us through agents (natural or supernatural) who are working for our destruction.
Whether we believe it, or not, there is a war going on for our souls and one day we are going to have to choose a side. However, how can we know which side to choose? After reading the paragraph above, how many of those vices listed there did you think were normal behaviour and are to be valued? This demonstrates the depth of programming that we are all victims of through entertainment, the family, the education system, the workplace, and even the church. The only way to address this and to find the correct path to life, true liberty and the Kingdom of Heaven, is by first realising that we live in an upside down world.
When we get to the question regarding our faith, our value system is even more upside down than for the atheist. The reason for this may be the fact that this is an area of our lives that is under the most vicious spiritual attack. All of our misconceptions about faith and righteousness are as a result of intense and intelligently orchestrated church programming. According to our favourite pirate, Jack Sparrow, “up is down and down is up”. In order to fix our misconceptions we must capsize our mental boats and plunge headfirst into the waters of our value system. Only then will we realise that we have been living in an upside down world all along, and looking at things right side up now is more than a little strange. It goes against everything we have ever believed. It is different, scary and takes a whole lot of faith and self-discipline to maintain.
Let us look at a few examples of some of our doctrines that have been reversed. First, the issue of the Sabbath. The most common objections that we hear against keeping the Sabbath is that it is a burden, and a yoke, and that it has been done away with and has been replaced with Sunday worship in celebration of the resurrection. Let us examine these arguments: that the Sabbath is a burden and that it was done away with.
First, is the Sabbath a burden? Let us look at what the Sabbath is and what it symbolises. The word “Sabbath” means “rest”, literally. In the Biblical sense, this is a weekly rest from work. That means that every week, it is your religious duty to take a day off. If you were in a workplace setting, and you told your coworkers that you were taking a day off every week, no one in their right mind would respond by saying, “Oh no. You don’t need to do that. It is a burden. Jesus came so that we could work all seven days per week, without a day for rest.” In fact, the typical response would be, “Lucky you, you got vacay!” It is unfortunate that the typical response to those who keep the Sabbath is, “It is good to take a day for rest, we should, but we can choose any day of the week. In fact, choose a day that is convenient to your employer, and not so much for yourself, because that will be seen as being selfish and as poor work ethic.” The problem with this though is the fact that, generally speaking, those who do not regularly practice keeping the Sabbath often end up not taking a day of rest any at all. In addition, on Sundays, it is often necessary to wake up early, prepare breakfast and a large afternoon dinner, which often involves doing a bit of last minute shopping and cleaning to welcome your guests for the afternoon after church. Then after the meal, usually this would be the time to do the ironing and making preparations for the work week. They really are not setting aside a single day for rest. Also, why not Saturday? Why does it have to be some other day of the week? However, when it is a Saturday, it is considered a burden and selfish behaviour? The reason for this may be the fact that Saturday had been made into a major commercial day from antiquity. This was done for a reason. In this upside down world, the original day for rest, since creation, was changed to the busiest day of the week. Coincidence or ingenious manipulation?
This brings us to the next argument. Was not the Sabbath day done away with? Anyone who claims that anything that had been prescribed by Elohim for the good of mankind to be “done away with” is under a major delusion. Elohim does not change and cannot change. For him to change, every minute law that holds the universe together, even the religious laws, must also change. Scientists will be quick to point out that the laws of the universe are so delicately balanced that even a slight change in one element will cause major global catastrophes. The physical laws cannot change and neither can the spiritual. Yeshua himself said that until heaven and earth pass away, not one "jot or tittle" from the Law would change (Matthew 5:18). Paul has also warned against those who will come preaching another gospel and that the Law was “done away with”. That is, those who preach a doctrine of lawlessness (2 Corinthians 11:4, Galatians 1:7, 1 John 3:4). He warned about the spirit of lawlessness over and over in his letters (Romans 6:9, 2 Corinthians 6:14, 2 Thessalonians 2:7, Hebrews 1:9, 1 John 3:4). The heresy that began during Paul’s ministry is the very doctrine that is prevalent in most churches today; that the law had been “done away with”.
While you are influenced by the values of the upside down world, this all makes little sense because in this world truth is stranger than fiction. Things had been upside down for so long that it is difficult, and sometimes even impossible, to see truth when it is staring us right in the face. It is often easier to just believe the lie. In the words of Joseph Goebbels, “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
If our truth compass is not pointing true north, how then do we discern truth? The answer is to think logically. Logical thought is one of the instruments that were taken from us by the church through indoctrination. We are told that heaven and the way of Elohim are outside of our logical capacity – we cannot understand them with our limited human minds. However, this is yet another lie. No religion is more logical than the one that Elohim gave to us. He expects us to use our logic to discern good from evil in our walk with him. We are told to investigate the Scriptures and our doctrines, and to judge the prophets and their teachings (2 Timothy 2:14-16, Deuteronomy 13).
The ability to discern a thing depends heavily on our ability to think logically. Unlike what many of us have been told, we do not walk with blind faith, but our faith must be founded on evidence (facts) of things that are spiritual (the unseen) (see Hebrews 11:1-6). It is not surprising, therefore, that in this upside down world that we are told to not trust our logic. This is one of the major arguments held by supporters of atheism, whose adherents often criticise religious observers as superstitious and uneducated because, and they are correct here, most of what these religious people believe are illogical. Take for example again how the Sabbath is perceived. A day for rest, which is perceived as a burden and a yoke – something to be rescued from. In reality, however, the Sabbath is a symbol of liberty not only from daily work, but also from the burden of sin. That is right. There is no liberty in sin in the right side up world. Sin is bondage and the Torah (the Law of Elohim) is true freedom. In order to escape the traps of the upside down world and its false value system, we must begin an investigation into all that we had been taught as “truth”. You will be shocked to find that most of what we actually believe to be true are actually lies.
Let us take a moment to investigate another popular church doctrine logically, “justification by faith”. Are we justified by faith only, by works only, or by both? Paul stated in James 2:26 that faith without works is dead. Which works is he referring to here? Moreover, does he mean that we have to do “works” in order to be saved? The “works” he discusses here is the observation of the Torah, the Law, not just the 10 commandments, but also the whole law – all 613 of them. He is also not an advocate for the justification by works only, for clearly he stated earlier in the text that we cannot work ourselves into the kingdom (Romans 3:27-28). Actually, the problem with the interpretation of this text is the mindset that we were programmed with. First, we believe that following the Law is a bad thing, and second we believe that we are so sinful that we are unable to keep all the Laws anyway, so why bother. Both are misunderstandings of what the Scriptures teach.
We are justified by faith, because we are unable to qualify ourselves for the kingdom, not because of our sinful state, but because of how inheritance usually works. No matter what state we may be in, justification must be a gift, as inheritance is a gift. However, does this mean then that we should not observe the Laws of the Kingdom? Absolutely not! It is because of our faith in our justification that we endeavour to observe the Law (to do works). In other words, we observe the Law as an act of love for Elohim and not as an act of duty (which is what advocates for the “justification by works” teach). We cannot earn our salvation and our belief alone will not take us to the kingdom, “You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble!” (James 2:19, NKJV). Our faith must be evidenced by our obedience to His Laws. We must bear the fruits of the Spirit. We are only able to do this through obedience to Elohim’s commands. Yeshua said in John 14:15, 21, and 15:10 that the only people who will be saved are those who love Him and keep (guard) His commandments (His works). Therefore, if works is a consequence of our faith, then we really need to have both in order to be saved. Justification is a gift to us from Elohim, but our works are a token of our gratitude to Elohim after we have accepted His gift of salvation.
In conclusion, we can see how our worldview will alter how we understand and respond to Biblical teachings. We must remember to remember to test everything that we hear and test it against our logic, as well as what other Scriptures teach in both Old and New Testaments. This is important as many false teachings that exist in our churches today are sustained by rejecting the validity of the Old Testament, which stands to explain the context of the New Testament. All Scripture must agree for it to be valid; for Isaiah 28:10, 13 states that precept must be upon precept, as truth must be in agreement with everything. Only lies have exceptions and excuses. The truth speaks unequivocally for itself.
We hope that you have been blessed by this teaching, and we hope that you will investigate all that is written above and match it to what the Scriptures reveal and not according to our world worldview. For “the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it?” (Jeremiah 17:9, NKJV), but test these words by “rightly dividing the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15, NKJV).
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