Britain's Shackles Now Shattered

This is from the blog Richard's Watch:

Have you ever felt fetters fall away? The invisible, spiritual sort that satan shackles all those with who allow it a foothold to gain a grip upon their souls. The time that happened to me is etched upon my soul. Upon internally hearing, “Burn what you’ve collected – now!” I took articles from my life spent in occult study into the garden, put a match to them and repented. Immediately, I unmistakably felt heavy chains fall from both wrists! As in Charles Wesley’s glorious hymn ‘And Can It Be?’ – “My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed thee!”

Thus, the following two words circulated by UK Prophetic Words on this theme resonate deeply with me. Although 12 years apart, the timing seems significant (see footnote):

BREXIT and GREAT BRITAIN – THE SHACKLES HAVE BEEN BROKEN!

Kathy Laity (Hephzibah House of Strategic Prayer, Cornwall) Tues 28th March 2017

I’d been agitated all day (as had others on team here) but since midnight was really praying re Brexit. Immediately felt God say “DECREE don’t pray!”.

I started to decree “Brexit shall happen in the name of Jesus!”.

Immediately, I saw a massive sledgehammer slam down on a huge, thick chain link. I kept decreeing. Each time I did the sledgehammer fell. I saw the first link break, then became aware of another. Kept decreeing until it broke, then two further chains. At this point I saw they had been around the legs of a large male LION. Now I could see a thick iron collar, blindfold and muzzle. I kept decreeing. The iron collar opened and dropped off, as did the blindfold.

I could sense the lion’s anger and a roar building. The moment the muzzle fell away it roared mightily, leapt forward and grabbed the enemy, Satan, by the throat, shaking and dispatching it (rather like Aslan with the white witch). I kept decreeing but now the scene changed.

The lion had on a royal red robe, was wearing a crown and had a sceptre of authority. I knew it was releasing MANDATES. There was an immense sense of PEACE, ORDER, and AUTHORITY.

My sense throughout it all was that the LION was representing GREAT BRITAIN (as is often seen on the coat of arms) and that the enemy was responsible for the shackles. The lion’s STRENGTH on being released was immense.

__________

WENDY ALEC: VISION FOR GREAT BRITAIN 15th July 2005 – excerpts:

Then the Lord showed me a large lion – and He said – “This lion represents the nation of Great Britain” – And it was a shocking sight – for where the lion should have been filled out and sleek and gleaming – it was almost a skeleton – and its mane was barely visible – and its coat was covered in mange – and its roar which should have shaken the nations in its power and in its ferocity was strangled and barely audible. And the Lord said, “This represents both the glory of this nation at present and the state of My Church as a whole in Great Britain”. And I saw in great letters – the words – “THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED FROM THE LION – BUT THE GLORY OF THE LORD OF HOSTS SHALL RETURN AND THE LION SHALL ROAR AGAIN.”

And the Lord said – “Bring back My glory – Bring back My glory that your nation may once more walk in the glory of its destiny – and the Church may show forth My glory” – And the Lord showed me huge flourishing green tree that was planted in the European mainland – its huge trunk seemed to be PLANTED in BRUSSELS and the foliage had grown so dense that the trees branches and foliage had grown over the English channel and covered Britain in a great dark shadow and thousands of smaller offshoots and branches had taken deep root in Great Britain – and I saw the roots tangled and grown into London and then through the British Isles up all the way to Scotland.

The Lord said – “These are the deep roots of secularism and humanism that have taken deep root in this nation – these are the roots that are eroding this nation’s faith!” And I saw thousands upon thousands of people bowing in obedience to this tree and the roots were tightly twisted around their ankles – but they seemed totally unaware of this – that they were bound – and so they rejected the faith of their fathers – and I saw a great scoffing and a great decline in the traditions and the foundations of the past – and this mass of people was divided into two camps – the first huge mass of people whose ankles were bound by the gnarling roots of the green tree from Europe were younger and seemed more modern in their approach – and I saw written over their head – ‘UNBELIEF’ – ‘CYNICISM’ – ‘HUMANISM’ – and the foliage and green leaves seemed to shadow their heads – and I sensed that they were being attacked at a cerebral level.”

But the second group seemed to be those whose roots and foundations were from the established traditional denominations of Britain – yet they were just as affected as this first group – but I saw written over their head – ‘PRIDE’ – ‘SKEPTICISM’ – ‘CLOSED MINDEDNESS’ and I sensed that the roots around their ankles had bound them in a different manner – that even if they heard the call of the Spirit in these days that the spiritual forces had them so bound that they could not move with the tide and the times of God – and I saw the green foliage literally cover and shadow their foreheads and eyes and I saw the word blinding.”

And I said to the Lord, “Father – what does this mean?” And He said – “The spirits that led Europe into post-Christian decline – have invaded Great Britain over these past decades – and have infiltrated and overshadowed the nation with the same humanism and paganism and secularism – and yet Britain is still so blinded by her roots and her foundations that she is still declaring herself a Christian nation” – but the Lord says that – “She has been shackled by the enemy.” And I said “Lord what can break the shackles?”

And the Lord spoke and said,“The prayers and fervent supplications of My saints in Great Britain – the repentance for the sins of commission and omission on behalf of the governments of Great Britain – on behalf of the people of Great Britain.”

Then as people dropped to their knees all over Britain from every walk of life and denomination – the lion started to change – and He grew strong and sleek and his roar grew stronger. And I saw written in the spirit – “Create in me a clean heart O God – and renew a right spirit within me“. And as the people started to seek the face of the Lord I saw the word ‘COURAGE’ – and I knew that in the spirit realm that Great Britain had been endowed from the beginning of time with the mantle ‘COURAGE’ – and the Lord said,

"LIONHEART".

And God said Britain has yet to move into her end time destiny in the nations – And I saw again in great letters – the words –

“THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED FROM THE LION – BUT THE GLORY OF THE LORD OF HOSTS SHALL RETURN”.

And the lion’s roar by now had gained strength.

FOOTNOTES:

• read this awesome vision in full, with footnotes clarifying date of publication.
• Wendy received it on the 8th day after the 2005 attack upon London Transport.
• Today is the 8th day since the attack beneath Big Ben in Westminster.
• Biblically, 8 signifies resurrection and regeneration, a new beginning!
• nearly 12 years have elapsed since her vision and 12 symbolises government.

D-Day, 2017:  British and American Christianity
England
Veronica West:  A Vision of Britain and the United States

Textual Christianity

This is from The Magpie:

A.W. Tozer is the evangelical answer to the medieval mystics. A self-educated Christian & Missionary Alliance pastor, his many books encourage believers to enter more fully into the life of prayer and a deeper experience of God. Here is what he has to say about revival in his classic Keys to the Deeper Life (1959):

A Revival Right Now Would Be Tragic

 

A religion, even popular Christianity, could enjoy a boom altogether divorced from the transforming power of the Holy Spirit and so leave the church of the next generation worse off than it would have been if the boom had never occurred. I believe that the imperative need of the day is not simply revival, but a radical reformation that will go to the root of our moral and spiritual maladies and deal with causes rather than with consequences, with the disease rather than with symptoms.

It is my considered opinion that under the present circumstances we do not want revival at all. A widespread revival of the kind of Christianity we know today in America might prove to be a moral tragedy from which we would not recover in a hundred years.

What Went Wrong: Textualism

 

Fundamentalism, as it spread throughout the various denominations and non-denominational groups, fell victim to its own virtues. The Word died in the hands of its friends. Verbal inspiration, for instance (a doctrine which I have always held and do now hold), soon became afflicted with rigor mortis. The voice of the prophet was silenced and the scribe captured the minds of the faithful. In large areas the religious imagination withered. An unofficial hierarchy decided what Christians were to believe. Not the Scriptures, but what the scribe thought the Scriptures meant became the Christian creed. Christian colleges, seminaries, Bible institutes, Bible conferences, popular Bible expositors all joined to promote the cult of textualism.

The doctrines were sound but something vital was missing. The tree of correct doctrine was never allowed to blossom. The voice of the turtle dove was rarely heard in the land; instead, the parrot sat on his artificial perch and dutifully repeated what he had been taught and the whole emotional tone was somber and dull. Faith, a mighty, vitalizing doctrine in the mouths of the apostles, became in the mouth of the scribe another thing altogether and power went from it. As the letter triumphed, the Spirit withdrew and textualism ruled supreme. It was the time of the believer’s Babylonian captivity.

The error of textualism is not doctrinal. It is far more subtle than that and much more difficult to discover, but its effects are just as deadly. Not its theological beliefs are at fault, but its assumptions. It assumes, for instance, that if we have the word for a thing we have the thing itself. If it is in the Bible, it is in us. If we have the doctrine, we have the experience.

The Resulting Revolt: Worldliness

 

Then came the revolt. The human mind can endure textualism just so long before it seeks a way of escape. So, quietly and quite unaware that any revolt was taking place, the masses of Fundamentalism reacted, not from the teaching of the Bible but from the mental tyranny of the scribes. With the recklessness of drowning men they fought their way up for air and struck out blindly for greater freedom of thought and for the emotional satisfaction their natures demanded and their teachers denied them. The result over the last 20 years has been a religious debauch hardly equaled since Israel worshiped the golden calf.

The separating line between the Church and the world has been all but obliterated. Aside from a few of the grosser sins, the sins of the unregenerated world are now approved by a shocking number of professedly “born-again” Christians, and copied eagerly. Young Christians take as their models the rankest kind of worldlings and try to be as much like them as possible. Religious leaders have adopted the techniques of the advertisers;
The radical element in testimony and life that once made Christians hated by the world is missing from present-day evangelicalism. Christians were once revolutionists—moral, not political—but we have lost our revolutionary character. It is no longer either dangerous or costly to be a Christian. Grace has become not free, but cheap. We are busy these days proving to the world that they can have all the benefits of the Gospel without any inconvenience to their customary way of life. It’s “all this, and heaven too.”

Pray for Reformation, Not Revival

 

For this reason it is useless for large companies of believers to spend long hours begging God to send revival. Unless we intend to reform we may as well not pray. Unless praying men have the insight and faith to amend their whole way of life to conform to the New Testament pattern there can be no true revival.

We must have a reformation within the Church. To beg for a flood of blessing to come upon a backslidden and disobedient Church is to waste time and effort. A new wave of religious interest will do no more than add numbers to churches that have no intention to own the Lordship of Jesus and come under obedience to His commandments. God is not interested in increased church attendance unless those who attend amend their ways and begin to live holy lives.

Prayer for revival will prevail when it is accompanied by radical amendment of life; not before. All-night prayer meetings that are not preceded by practical repentance may actually be displeasing to God. “To obey is better than sacrifice.” We must return to New Testament Christianity, not in creed only but in complete manner of life as well. Separation, obedience, humility, simplicity, gravity, self-control, modesty, cross-bearing: these all must again be made a living part of the total Christian concept and be carried out in everyday conduct. We must cleanse the temple of the hucksters and the money changers and come fully under the authority of our risen Lord once more. And this applies to this writer and to this publisher as well as to everyone that names the name of Jesus. Then we can pray with confidence and expect true revival to follow.

A Christian Cult 
I Should go to Dairy Queen More Often
Preach the Gospel; If Necessary, Use Words 

Prophets and Quantum Physicists

Frieze of the Prophets by John Singer Sargent

This is from the blog One on one with Franco:

Theoretical physicists and quantum physicists are some of the scientists who attempt to pull back the veil and peak into the unknowable. In the Old Testament, that was the role of prophets. What I’m calling the unknowable, could probably be better phrased. Unknowable is not a good word here. What might be a better way to say it is to say that these people, seated in our four-dimensional world, are attempting to peer into the fifth dimension and beyond using the limited tools we have at our disposal. It is clear to me that the creator, through the Holy Spirit, is constantly broadcasting truth, inspiration which some are able to capture with our imagination, mind, and spiritual gifting. Some are aware of this source outside of ourselves, while others believe they are themselves the source. And some even believe that they are making up thoughts through random or deterministic firings of the neurons in their brains.

Remember the Flat-landers living in their two-dimensional world? (see Dimensions 1 – Heavenly Coordinates) They were experiencing another world having a third dimension, and were incapable of conceiving it with their limited abilities and understanding. In the same way, we are at a loss when conceiving of other worlds, other dimensions beyond ours. God is a case in point. We experience him only in limited ways, and only a few are able to believe. Believe in what? Believe in the invisible, untouchable, almost unknowable. That is why Jesus had to take flesh. The Kingdom (the supernatural, other-dimensional world) was then actually here. In other words, the realm of the supernatural world and our natural world (having three dimensions of space – width x height x depth or x,y,z coordinates – plus the fourth dimension of time) were at last co-existing in the being of Jesus, whom we describe as fully man, fully God. This inter-penetration of natural and super-natural worlds changed the playing field drastically. After this occurrence, man has the possibility of receiving the code or DNA of what we call heaven, but which we can call equally well the other dimensions.

The problem we have is that we lack a language adequate to communicate this peek we get of the other realm. A few years ago I was visiting my mom in Italy, couldn’t sleep, and wound up in the middle of the night listening to lectures by a quantum physics professor in Bombay, India. Fortunately it was in English, but the communication problem didn’t end there. I was fine for the first lecture, which I thought was going to continue in kind. It was an introductory lecture on the subject of quantum physics. I was feeling kind of proud of myself, that I was able to follow the discussion. By the second lecture, however, the professor made the point that words were not adequate to discuss the subject of this quantum world. We’ve all heard of the inability of English to describe snow in its many forms, whereas the Eskimo language has countless special words to accomplish this.
It turns out that physicists have developed the language of mathematical expressions to communicate about the realities of a world beyond the Newtonian three dimensions, and even the Einsteinian relativistic world beyond the four dimensions. Needless to say that after the second lecture I was forced to drop out of school. It might as well have been a course taught in German or Chinese.

My point is that we must be very patient as we attempt to communicate on such a topic. Sadly, our failure to communicate is not just our lack of knowledge of higher math. Some of us have learned a peculiar language we shall call Christianese, and we expect to be able to speak it to anyone without ever thinking that it is a foreign language to most. Actually, Christianese is to the language of the Bible as pigeon English is to English. It is a bastardization of a rich, complex, meaningful, multi layered language. Thus, everybody loses.

The failure of science and religion to integrate is historic. Galileo was convicted of heresy by the Catholic Church when he theorized that the Earth revolved around the Sun and not the other way around. This was a massive failure caused by the ignorance of the church to even know it’s own sacred text. Back in 1633 the church had the power. Starting with the Age of Enlightenment, the tables have been turned and the church is now powerless, and to a large extent irrelevant to much of the world. Both scientists and Christians do not speak the same language. Moreover, both sides have adopted mostly myopic, circular, limited points of view and communication is largely impossible. Both science and Christianity are also, at some level, both motivated by political control issues, both fearing the loss of something if they put their heads together.

Practitioners of both sides are victims of shallow understanding of their own fields, let alone that they are usually almost totally ignorant of the other’s discipline. Most Christians have never really studied their bible, relying on a light, pigeon-ized version of Christianity that is a result of mostly narrow-minded, denominational interpretation of Biblical revelation. On the side of science, we have students turned out as scientists and engineers who know little even of quantum, theoretical, and other bleeding edge fields of physics. Moreover the provincial, almost superstitious mind set brain washes students into towing the doctrinal line in universities much as the denominations do in their seminaries.

How shall we then ever recognize that there is no contradiction between science and Christianity. I only wish I could speak both languages so much better!

Werner Heisenberg, Father of Quantum Physics

A Prophet's Eyes
Wearing a Rough Garment
Physical Sight and Spiritual Sight

Full of the Holy Spirit

This is from the Pioneer Library:

In the Old Testament, most instances of being filled with the Spirit involve outward ministry and potent action. But Jesus is full of the Spirit, and goes to the desert to be tested and tempted.

The filling of the Holy Spirit does not just prepare us to preach and do miracles. In his Passion week, Jesus told his disciples many roles that the Holy Spirit would fulfill: “He shall bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you.” “He shall glorify me.” “He will convict the world of sin, righteousness and judgment.”

The Holy Spirit also helps us to minister to the Father. He is “the Spirit of sonship, whereby we cry, ‘Abba, Father.’” (Rom. 8:15) Any believer that is full of the Holy Spirit has a full-time ministry, because the Holy Spirit is in them to help them minister to the Father.

There are two Greek words translated ‘worship’ in the New Testament. One means to bow, to personally prostrate yourself in homage. The other means to serve, in a liturgical sense, fulfilling a role in a temple or church worship ceremony. Revelation 22:3 uses this word when it says “his servants shall serve him, and they shall see his face.”

John was exiled to Patmos, a Greek island measuring only a few miles from end to end. The island is volcanic and mostly lifeless. But John wrote, “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day.” (Rev. 1:10, ESV) Whether or not anyone else was with him, John could walk in the Holy Spirit and worship the Father. Even in exile, he had a full-time ministry as far as God was concerned.

Jesus went to the desert, full of the Holy Spirit. That means that the Holy Spirit is with me and in me even when I am ministering to no one except the Father. Exile and desertion can never take that away.

Fasting is a ministry to the Lord—not just a spiritual warfare tactic. Our fasting is misguided if we only think about what we are going to get out of it, and not about ministering to the Father.

Now we know that when we walk alone, he is not merely preparing us for something more important that we will do. If we are ministering to the Father, we are already fulfilling our most important calling. Oswald Chambers said, “Prayer is not preparation for greater work. Prayer is the greater work.”

This desert, this place of solitude, is our greatest work. Our greatest calling is simply to know him in prayer and praise.

Father, thank you that I can know you and walk in your Holy Spirit, even in solitude, even in conflict. Teach me that my first and greatest ministry is simply to know you.

Amen.

Killing the Prophets

"The Murder of Zechariah" by William Brassey Hole

This is from The Book of the Bee: 

CHAPTER XXXII

OF THE DEATH OF THE PROPHETS; HOW THEY DIED, AND (WHERE) EACH ONE OF THEM WAS BURIED.

 MANASSEH the son of Hezekiah slew Isaiah with a wooden saw; he was buried before the outfall of the waters which Hezekiah concealed by the side of Siloah⁶.

   Hosea the son of Beeri, of the tribe of Issachar, (was) from the town of Be`elmâth. He prophesied mystically about our Lord Jesus Christ who was to come; saying that when He should be born, the oak in Shiloh should be divided into twelve parts; and that He should take twelve disciples of Israel. He died in peace, and was buried in his own land.

   Joel the son of Bethuel (Pethuel), of the tribe of Reuben, died in peace in his own land. Others say that Ahaziah the son of Amaziah smote him with a staff upon his head; and while his life was yet in him, they brought him to his own land⁷, and after two days he died.

   Amos (was) from the land of Tekoa. The priest of Bethel tortured him and afterwards slew him. Others say that it was he whom Ahaziah the son of Amaziah⁸ killed with a staff, and he died.

   Obadiah from the country of Shechem was the captain of fifty of Ahab's soldiers. He became a disciple of Elijah, and endured many evil things from Ahab, because he forsook him and went after Elijah. However he died in peace. After he followed Elijah, he was deemed worthy of prophecy¹.

   Elijah the fiery, of the family of Aaron, (was) from Tashbî², a town of the Levites. When this (prophet) was born, his father saw in a dream that one was born, and that they wrapped him in fire instead of swaddling bands, and gave him some of that fire to eat. He came to Jerusalem, and told the priests the vision that he had seen. The learned among the people said to him, 'Fear not, thy son is about to be a fire, and his word shall be like fire, and shall not fall to the ground; he will burn like fire with jealousy of sinners, and his zeal will be accepted before God.' He was taken up in a chariot towards heaven. Some say that his father was called Shôbâkh³.

   Elisha his pupil, from Abêl-Mehôlâh, (was) of the tribe of Reuben. On the day of his birth a great wonder took place in Israel; for the bull⁴ which they worshipped in Gilgal lowed, and his voice was heard in Jerusalem. The chief priests in Jerusalem said, 'A mighty prophet is born to-day in Israel at this time, and he will break the images and idols to pieces.' He died in peace, and was buried in Samaria.

   Jonah the son of Amittai⁵ (was) from Gath-hepher⁶, from Kûryath-Âdâmôs⁷, which is near to Ascalon and Gaza and the sea coast. After this (prophet) had prophesied to the Ninevites in the time of Sardânâ⁸ the king, he did not remain in his own land because the Jews were jealous of him; but he took his mother, and went and dwelt in Assyria. He feared the reproach of the Jews, because he had prophesied, and his prophecy did not come to pass. He also rebuked Ahab the king, and called a famine upon the land and the people. He came to the widow of Elijah, and blessed her, because she received him, and he returned to Judaea. His mother died on the way, and he buried her by the side of Deborah's grave. He lived in the land of Serîdâ, and died two years after the people had returned from Babylon, and was buried in the cave of Kainân¹. This (prophet) prophesied that when the Messiah should come, the cities of the Jews would be overturned.

   Micah the Morashthite (was) of the tribe of Ephraim, and was slain by Joram the son of Ahab. This (prophet) prophesied concerning the destruction of the temple of the Jews, and the abrogation of the Passover on the death of the Messiah. He died in peace, and was buried in Anikâm.

   Nahum, from the city of Elkôsh, (was) of the tribe of Simeon. After the death of Jonah this (prophet) prophesied concerning the Ninevites, saying, 'Nineveh shall perish by perpetually advancing waters, and ascending fire;' and this actually took place. He prophesied also concerning the Babylonians, that they would come against the Israelitish people; and therefore they sought to kill him. He prophesied that when the Messiah should be slain, the vail of the temple should be rent in twain², and that the Holy Spirit should depart from it. He died in peace, and was buried in his own country.

   Habakkuk (was) of the tribe of Simeon, and from the land of Sûâr (Zoar)³. This (prophet) prophesied concerning the Messiah, that He should come, and abrogate the laws of the Jews. He brought food to Daniel at Babylon by the divine (or, angelic) agency. The Jews stoned him in Jerusalem.

   Zephaniah (was) of the tribe of Simeon. He prophesied concerning the Messiah, that He should suffer, and that the sun should become dark, and the moon be hidden. He died in peace in his own land.

   Haggai returned from Babylon to Jerusalem when he was young. He prophesied that the people would return, and concerning the Messiah, that He would abrogate the sacrifices of the Jews. He died in peace.

   Zechariah the son of Jehoiada returned from Babylon in his old age, and wrought wonders among the people. He died at a great age, and was buried by the side of the grave of Haggai.

   Malachi was born after the return of the people, and because of his beauty he was surnamed 'Angel.' He died in peace in his own land.

   The Jews stoned Jeremiah the son of Hilkiah in Egypt, because he rebuked them for worshipping idols; and the Egyptians buried him by the side of Pharaoh's palace. The Egyptians loved him much, because he prayed and the beasts died which used to come up from the river Nile and devour men. These beasts were called 'crocodiles.' When Alexander the son of Philip, the Macedonian, came (to Egypt), he made enquiries about his grave, and took and brought him to Alexandria. This (prophet) during his life said to the Egyptians, 'a child shall be born--that is the Messiah--of a virgin, and He shall be laid in a crib², and He will shake and cast down the idols.' From that time, and until Christ was born, the Egyptians used to set a virgin and a baby in a crib, and to worship him, because of what Jeremiah said to them, that He should be born in a crib.

   Ezekiel the son of Buzi was of the priestly tribe, and from the land of Serîdâ³. The chief of the Jews who was in the land of the Chaldeans slew him, because he rebuked him for worshipping idols. He was buried in the grave of Arphaxar, the son of Shem, the son of Noah.

   Daniel (was) of the tribe of Judah, and was born in Upper Beth-Horon. He was a man who kept himself from women, and hence the Jews thought that he was an eunuch, for his face was different (from that of other men), and he had no children. He prayed for the Babylonians, and died in Elam, in the city of the Hôzâyê¹, and was buried in Shôshan the fortress. He prophesied concerning the return of the people.

   Ahijah (was) from Shilo. A lion slew this prophet, and he was buried by the oak at Shilo in Samaria.

   Ezra the scribe was from the country of Sâbthâ², and of the tribe of Judah. This (prophet) brought back the people, and died in peace in his own land.

   Zechariah the son of Berachiah, the priest, was from Jerusalem. Joash the king slew this (prophet) between the steps³ and the altar, and sprinkled his blood upon the horns of the altar, and the priests buried him. From that day God forsook the temple, and angels were never again seen in it.

   Simon the son of Sîrâ (Sirach) died in peace in his own town.

   Nathan died in peace.

   Here ends the first part of the book of gleanings called 'the Bee.'

   To God be the glory, and may His mercy and compassion be upon us. Amen.

   Again, by the Divine power, we write the second part of the book of gleanings called 'the Bee,' regarding the Divine dispensation which was wrought in the new (covenant).

___

Prophets killed in the Old Testament:

Isaiah
Amos
Micah
Habakkuk
Jeremiah
Ezekiel
Ahijah
Zechariah

___

This is an excerpt from The Book of the Bee:

Chapter XLI

OF JOHN THE BAPTIST, AND OF THE BAPTISM OF OUR LORD 

When John rebuked Herod, saying that it was not lawful for him to take his brother Philip's wife, he seized John, and cast him into the prison called Machaerûs¹. And it came to pass on a certain day, when Herod on his birthday made a feast for his nobles, that Bôzîyâ, the daughter of Herodias, came in and danced before the guests; and she was pleasing in the sight of Herod and his nobles. And he said to her, 'Ask of me whatsoever thou desirest and I will give it to thee;' and he sware to her saying that whatever she asked he would give it to her, unto the half of his kingdom. She then went in to Herodias her mother and said to her, 'What shall I ask of him?' She said to her, 'The head of John the Baptist;' for the wretched woman thought that when John should be slain, she and her daughter would be free from the reprover, and would have an opportunity to indulge their lust: for Herod committed adultery with the mother and with her daughter. Then she went in to the king's presence and said to him, 'Give me now the head of John the Baptist on a charger.' And the king shewed sorrow, as if, forsooth, he was not delighted at the murder of the saint; but by reason of the force and compulsion of the oath he was obliged to cut off John's head. If, O wretched Herod, she had demanded of thee the half of thy kingdom, that she might sit upon the throne beside thee and divide (it) with thee, wouldst thou have acceded to her, and not have falsified thy oath, O crafty one? And the king commanded an executioner, and he cut off the head of the blessed man, and he put it in a charger and brought and gave it to the damsel, and the damsel gave it to her mother. Then she went out to dance upon the ice, and it opened under her, and she sank into the water up to her neck; and no one was able to deliver her. And they brought the sword with which John's head had been cut off, and cut off hers and carried it to Herodias her mother. When she saw her daughter's head and that of the holy man, she became blind, and her right hand, with which she had taken up John's head, dried up; and her tongue dried up, because she had reviled him, and Satan entered into her, and she was bound with fetters. Some say that the daughter of Herodias was called Bôzîyâ, but others say that she also was called by her mother's name Herodias. When John was slain, his disciples came and took his body and laid him in a grave; and they came and told Jesus.

_____ 

Matthew 23: 29-36:  "Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous,   And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets.   Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets.   Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers.   Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?"

"Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:   That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.   Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation."

Josephus on John the Baptist
Shiloh
A Prophet's Eyes
How the Apostles Died
Wearing a Rough Garment
John MacArthur Rebuked by a Prophet
The Spirit of a Prophet

Martyrdom of the Apostles

“If ye were not strangers here, the dogs of the world would not bark at you”

--Samuel Rutherford

Death of John the Baptist

Dimensions 1 - Heavenly Coordinates

Representation of the first four dimensions (Wikipedia)

This is from the blog One on one with Franco:

“In physics and mathematics, the dimension of a space or object is informally defined as the minimum number of coordinates needed to specify any point within it.”¹   It seems clear then, that God being infinite and eternal, or beyond time, would necessitate infinite “coordinates” to be defined.   By definition, in-finite, cannot be defined.   Hence He exists in infinite, un-limited dimensions.   Can we not say that the entire Bible is a document from beyond time and space attempting to give sufficient “coordinates” in order to reveal God Himself to a people trapped in only a few dimensions?

If our senses were limited to perceiving only a two-dimensional reality having only width and height, what would we understand of the three-dimensional world we coexist with?   Would a square express anything of what a cube is? When a sphere came through our perceived world, we would witness a point, then a growing circle, a shrinking circle, and finally a point that disappeared immediately. We would insist that spheres are circles, and we would make up a mathematics and geometry that is capable of explaining only two-dimensional phenomena.   This is the premise of a classic book written by Edwin Abbott, appropriately titled, Flatland.

Now consider yourself as a three-dimensional being, trying to explain to those Flat-landers all about the world you live in, and how your world interpenetrates theirs. You would attempt to explain reality as you know it – an arguably “deeper”, richer reality – in words that might be understandable to the Flatlanders.   You would reach in to their world to demonstrate your love for those beings, and every time, they would consider the event a miracle from another world.

Doesn’t that pretty much characterize the Bible?   A document by a many-dimensional creator to people stuck in a three-dimensional reality (plus time)who don’t have much of a chance to really understand him.   How would you explain that you are beyond time, in this reality you call eternity?   How would you explain that they have freedom to believe him or not, but that you knew/know/will know what they did, are doing and will do.   Can you just imagine the wild theories about freedom, or lack thereof?   A group calling themselves Calvinists would venture that because you, the creator, knew before a man chose to believe you, you could never undo the choosing.   Another group would venture that man has ultimate freedom to choose and to un-choose.   All the while, your explanations would seem ambiguous and contradictory because there are not enough coordinates in a two-dimensional world to explain fully a three-dimensional world.

One of the greatest leaps in scientific understanding occurred in 1905 when Einstein added the fourth dimension to his thinking and conceived of the theory of relativity.   In one fell swoop, man’s awareness transcended the laws of Newtonian physics and Euclidean geometry to embrace a world in which time and space are as elastic as a rubber band.

Today theoretical physicists and quantum physicists seem to agree that our world exists in about ten dimensions.   They seem to agree that we can only detect about 5% of the mass in the universe.   Is it not clear that there is a reality out there… and in here?… that transcends what our five senses can detect?

¹ Wikipedia: see “Dimensions”

Never the Same--Michelle Krubeck
A Red-Letter Day
Blaise Pascal

Albert Einstein, 1879-1955