Syncretism Part 1

Syncretism: the attempt to reconcile disparate or contrary beliefs, often while melding practices of various schools of thought. This may involve attempts to merge... several originally discrete traditions, especially in the theology and mythology of religion, and thus assert an underlying unity allowing for an inclusive approach to other faiths.
[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Syncretism]










A recent blog on Roman Catholicism prompted some readers of another person's blog to post some negative comments and questions. One anonymous writer accused me of “Catholic bashing.” The post stated, “These smear tactics have no place in these unique times... For you to engage in senseless mudslinging is a waste of time when all Christians will soon be challenged for their convictions.”

Another poster who did provide his name, shared the following:

Million's of Catholics pray to and worship Jesus Christ by name every day. Tradition may have adopted symbols over time but I think that you would agree that symbols do not have mutually exclusive meanings. Many symbols have different meanings to different societies. The symbol of a cross was used before Christ gave it meaning to us now and I am sure that it challenged the meaning it may have had for pagans in the first centuries AD. But do pagan cultures now worship Christ because their form of cross is now largely considered His symbol? No, I don’t think they do. Nor do I think that the use of Fleur-de-lis gives Satan a hold on anyone. (However, I would agree that it may make Satan’s deception easier.)

If a Fleur-de-lis were to be an obvious sign of Satan, it would be dropped in a nanosecond by any and all Catholics. Such as the pentagram or upside-down crosses are. The test, I think, will be when Satan uses doctrines and forms (including symbols) to deceive and those who cannot discern the false message may be lost. If Christ essentially throws entire communities away simply by dint of the form of the worship, then salvation becomes technical and not holistic and meaningful; which goes against the concept of Christ's Grace or Forgiveness. (IMHO)

I very much appreciate your insight, but I would like you to think about how Jesus would look upon faithful members of the Catholic or any other "faith tradition." I think His mercy will be shown to all who believe in Him. To the extent that they have been lied to and deceived in the form of their faith, then I also believe that He knows their hearts and will save those who He has written into the Book of Life. I pray that all with simple faith in Him shall see salvation in His Grace, no matter the form of their faith.

However, having said all that, I do agree that those who believe that the form of faith is the path of salvation may be in for an unhappy revelation.
[Name Withheld]

I would like to assure all my readers that I am not offended, nor angered, when an opinion, or belief contrary to my own is shared. The Scriptures clearly reveal what the mature spiritual response of a minister of Christ should be.

II Timothy 2:24-26
And the Lord's bond-servant must not be quarrelsome, but be kind to all, able to teach, patient when wronged, with gentleness correcting those who are in opposition, if perhaps God may grant them repentance leading to the knowledge of the truth, and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, having been held captive by him to do his will.

I do want to answer the statements of this second man, for they express a mindset that is growing greatly among professing Christians today. Truth has been replaced by tolerance. I find this trend cause for great concern among the body of Christ. This concern has led to this present series of writings on the practice of Syncretism.

If you are still a little unclear as to what syncretism is, I will further define it. In the realm of this current discussion, syncretism is the merging of Christian belief and practice as defined by Christ and His apostles, with extra-Biblical beliefs and practices which often derive from pagan religions. For example, the adoption of the observance of Easter among professing Christians is a manifestation of syncretism. The very name Easter is the English form of the goddess of fertility whose name in other cultures was known as Eostre, Ishtar, Astarte and Ashtoreth.

Understanding this, one can discern that the practice of syncretism was in existence long before the Christian era. The Israelites of the Old Testament were prone to merge the worship of Yahweh with the worship of the gods and goddesses from the nations around them. Astarte and Ashtoreth are both named in the Old Testament, and they are the same as the goddess known by the English name Easter today.

I Kings 11:4-5
For it came about when Solomon was old, his wives turned his heart away after other gods; and his heart was not wholly devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians and after Milcom the detestable idol of the Ammonites.

What was Yahweh’s attitude toward this mixing of the holy and the profane? He was very clear.

Deuteronomy 31:16-18
Yahweh said to Moses, “... this people will arise and play the harlot with the strange gods of the land, into the midst of which they are going, and will forsake Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. Then My anger will be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them and hide My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will come upon them; so that they will say in that day, ‘Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have come upon us?’ But I will surely hide My face in that day because of all the evil which they will do, for they will turn to other gods.”

Yahweh laid upon the shoulders of His ministers the responsibility to teach His people the difference between the holy and the profane. He commanded those who served as teachers to advise the population concerning those things that would bring His wrath upon them.

Ezekiel 44:23
"Moreover, they shall teach My people the difference between the holy and the profane, and cause them to discern between the unclean and the clean.”

Yahweh has not changed today. In this present church age, God has not made any treaty with error. Yahweh has not made peace with idolatrous practices and doctrines of demons. Many Christians have adopted a delusion that God is all mercy, forbearance and tolerance. They have foolishly abandoned the fact that Yahweh is Holy, and His name is Jealous. He will still not abide any admixture of the holy and the profane.

II Corinthians 6:14-17
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said, “I will dwell in them and walk among them; And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.” “Therefore, come out from their midst and be separate," says the Lord. "And do not touch what is unclean; And I will welcome you.”

It has escaped the notice of a great many today that the above words were written by an apostle of Christ to a Christian church. God commands His people today to be separate from darkness, and from the things of Belial (Satan) even as He did in the Old Testament. The above passage is just one of many that speak of God’s abhorrence of mixing together the holy and the profane. Following is another New Testament Scripture relating to this subject.

Revelation 2:20
“But I have this against you, that you tolerate the woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, and she teaches and leads My bond-servants astray, so that they commit acts of immorality and eat things sacrificed to idols.”

In the verse above, we have Christ speaking to His saints in the church of Thyatira. Yahshua declares that Jezebel, a self-professed prophetess, is leading His bond-servants astray. She is inducing them to commit acts of immorality and to eat things sacrificed to idols.

Keep in mind that Revelation is a book where truth is conveyed in the form of a parable. It was not an actual woman named Jezebel of which the Lord was speaking, nor was He referring to the literal act of eating foods sacrificed to idols. Jezebel stands as a symbol of the soulish (feminine) nature of man. The soul of man prophesies many things, and those who are not careful to divide between soul and spirit are easily deceived.

Foods sacrificed to idols are a parable of doctrines of demons. Food is something that people feed upon, and the church feeds upon doctrines. Things sacrificed to idols are impure doctrines that are devilish in nature. We can discern this parable more clearly in the following words.

Hebrews 13:9
Do not be carried away by varied and strange teachings; for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace, not by foods, through which those who were thus occupied were not benefitted.

Observe how these terms teachings and foods are used interchangeably with one another. Consider then the meaning of Christ’s words to the church of Thyatira. There were those present among them that were inducing the saints to partake of “strange teachings” (foods) and actions (immorality) that did not come from Him. Satan was the originator of these things, and Christ’s warning against continuing to practice this immorality (idolatry is pictured as fornication throughout the Bible), and to imbibe these impure foods is clear.

Revelation 2:21-23
And I gave her time to repent; and she does not want to repent of her immorality. Behold, I will cast her upon a bed of sickness, and those who commit adultery with her into great tribulation, unless they repent of her deeds. And I will kill her children with pestilence; and all the churches will know that I am He who searches the minds and hearts; and I will give to each one of you according to your deeds.

This judgment of the Lord was brought about due to the practice of syncretism. The people of God were failing to divide between the holy and the profane. The saints were partaking of unclean food. As I mentioned previously, adopting the pagan celebration of Easter is one manifestation of syncretism. Easter’s origin is as obvious as its name. It has nothing to do with the crucifixion and resurrection of the Son of God. Christ was crucified on Passover and resurrected three days later. These dates do not coincide, and neither do their practices and symbols.
















Easter Bunny and Easter Eggs



















Easter Chick

















Easter Ham

People of God, what do these things have to do with the death, burial and resurrection of Christ? Christ was the Passover Lamb, not the Ishtar Ham. Rabbits and eggs are symbols of fertility. Easter is derived from the ancient Babylonian fertility religion that centered around Nimrod, Semiramis and Tammuz.

I have written of the origin of these practices elsewhere. If you have not carefully studied these matters and asked God to direct you in knowing whether you should participate in pagan practices which are characterized as food sacrificed to idols, then you should not hesitate any longer in doing so. I recommend to you the following teachings:

Removing the High Places
https://www.heart4god.ws/index_htm_files/Removing%20the%20High%20Places%20article.pdf

Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras), Ash Wednesday, Lent and Easter
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2009/02/fat-tuesday-mardi-gras-ash-wednesday.html

I would also recommend to you the article on Valentine’s Day. Please note, however, that it is necessarily sexually explicit.

Valentine’s Day - Babylon’s Romantic Deception
https://www.heart4god.ws/index_htm_files/Valentines%20Day.pdf

Consider for a moment one of the comments of the man who wrote to me. He stated, “If a Fleur-de-lis were to be an obvious sign of Satan, it would be dropped in a nanosecond by any and all Catholics.”

People of God, this is simply not true. I have watched Christian men who were inordinately devoted to God endure tremendous wrestling of soul and spirit when they began to look at the origins of many of the practices of the PROTESTANT church today. Many of these men in the end chose to maintain what they knew to be Babylonian practices due to the grief it would cause if they were to separate themselves from that which is profane and impure. Many a Christian man will place a desire to please wife, children, parents, brothers, sisters or friends, above a desire to please God.

Even when it becomes obvious that the cause of their wrestling is a pagan rite that was immoral and idolatrous in its origin, a great many will place a desire to avoid suffering above obedience to God. Consider how contrary this is to the pattern of those who will be included among the overcomers in Christ.

Luke 14:26-27
"If anyone comes to Me, and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. Whoever does not carry his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.”

Hebrews 11:24-27
By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter; choosing rather to endure ill-treatment with the people of God, than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin; considering the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures of Egypt; for he was looking to the reward. By faith he left Egypt...

The test always comes to the people of God when the Spirit begins to perform a work of separating them from the works of darkness. By faith Moses left Egypt. By faith we must also leave Babylon.

Revelation 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, "Come out of her [Babylon], my people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues...”

As long as you or I conform to the pattern of this world, and as long as the church embraces the practices of Babylon, there will be no persecution, and no cost to following Christ. It is only the righteous who suffer persecution, and the righteous are those who follow the Spirit wherever He leads, no matter the cost.

II Timothy 3:12
Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Yahshua will suffer persecution.

As long as we remain in Babylon we will avoid the censure of the world, and the attack of Satan. One thing we will not avoid, however, is the judgment of God. He says “Come out of Babylon My people, that you may not participate in her sins and that you may not receive of her plagues.” If you remain in Babylon (which means “confusion, mixture”) you will fall under the judgment of Yahweh.

I have shared previously that I am persuaded that those in Babylon are already partaking of her plagues. I believe one of Babylon’s plagues is a plague of darkness. Those who refuse to leave Babylon will lose their spiritual sight. They will lose all ability to discern between the holy and the profane; that which is truth and that which is error and deception.

One of the principles upon which God’s kingdom operates is found in the following words of Christ.

Luke 19:26-27
"I tell you, that to everyone who has shall more be given, but from the one who does not have, even what he does have shall be taken away.”

Those who are faithful with the little Christ gives to them will be given more. Those who are unfaithful will have even that which was given to them taken away. This pertains to the revelations and truth Christ entrusts to His servants.

If you will not obey Christ when He makes known to you the unclean practices that are defiling His church; if you prefer to remain at ease and to not “rock the boat”; if you console yourself with the thought that so many other Christians are practicing pagan rites and adopting unclean doctrine and they are unconcerned, then why should Christ give you further revelation? Do you not stand to risk even the truth you have received?

I am seeing many losing the truth they once held as inviolable. Some are even coming to reject the truth that there is no other way to God other than through Christ. As the man wrote to me above, “I very much appreciate your insight, but I would like you to think about how Jesus would look upon faithful members of the Catholic or any other "faith tradition."

There is great deception abroad in this hour. Some time back I wrote concerning the deception in the book The Shack. This book has been wildly popular among Christians, yet it espouses a message that there is more than one path to God. It says only that Christ is “the best way.” It denies that He is “the only way.”

See the article Divorced From Truth - Part Two
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/divorced-from-truth-part-2.html

People of God, do not be deceived! There is a cost to discipleship. Following Christ will require you to lose EVERYTHING. You cannot walk righteously and avoid persecution.

If you are not encountering opposition in your life from the world, and an apostate church; if you are not in conflict with family and friends who are not fully devoted to Christ, is it not possible that you have failed to obey the witness of the Holy Spirit in your life?

Syncretism is nothing other than compromise. Are you a syncretist? You are either a syncretist or a saint (a set-apart one).

This topic will be continued in the next post.

Note: The following graphic is provided to understand the symbols from the COEXIST image at the beginning of this post.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

Prophetic Paintings

Joseph Herrin (11-29-2012)

I was blessed this past Saturday to be paid a visit by Joe Boes, a brother from the Atlanta area, and Randy Simmons and Veronica Jones from Macon who both minister among the people on the streets there. It was a good time of fellowship, and my daughter Kristin joined us for lunch.

I had spoken to Randy the previous day and he told me about something out of the ordinary he had come across. There is an old store front in downtown Macon that is partly utilized as a church. Randy stopped by there last week as a number of homeless and other street people frequent the location which is open to the public. In one part of the same building there is an art gallery.

Randy walked over to look at some of the paintings and was surprised to find some by a local artist that had a prophetic theme to them. One image in particular alluded to the judgment of America as her money fails her and the economy collapses.

End of the Road - by Beth Smith

I find it interesting that this painting was done prior to all the recent talk of America facing a “fiscal cliff.” There is an abyss in this picture into which the wealth of the country is falling, and a Wall Street sign, bloodied, and lying on the vanishing bars of gold.

If you look closely at the details of this painting you will see words written on the leaves of corn that are taken from America’s money. Various monetary denominations are listed. In America it seems that money springs forth from the ground like corn. This is a rather apt analogy since the Federal Reserve creates seemingly endless amounts of money out of nothing. It is further significant that the United States experienced severe drought in recent years. America’s corn crops have withered and diminished in a parallel to the wealth of her citizens.

You will also notice there is a scarecrow in the forefront of the picture. He is wearing an Euro emblem on his lapel, the symbol of the European monetary union. The scarecrow is dressed in far better array than is common. He is wearing a rich looking suit with tie and hat. A scarecrow is an interesting symbol to link to the world monetary system. It is basically an empty suit, a term at times employed to describe the soulless bankers and money changers from Wall Street, Fleet Street, and elsewhere. The world money system employs as much fakery and deception as is found in a scarecrow. It also employs fear to keep men and women in subjection. The populace is told to keep their money in the banks where it is safe, causing mankind to become dependent upon a financial system controlled by workers of iniquity.

One prominent feature of this painting is the storm clouds approaching, and the rain in the distance. A storm is truly coming to America and Europe and it will effect all mankind.

You can understand why Randy was surprised to come across this painting in this building in downtown Macon. There was some writing near the painting stating the artist’s name, which also included a statement by the artist. She made reference to painting those things God gave her to paint. She was putting down with brush and paint those visions given to her. The message of God bringing judgment to America, and of impending economic collapse, is not a popular message among Christians. It is rarely spoken of in the churches, and that is certainly true in Macon, Georgia. It is a rare experience to encounter someone else locally who is hearing similar things from the Father.

Randy had snapped a photo of two of the artist’s paintings and told me he would show them to me when he came to visit. I asked him if possible to get the name of the artist, and see if a website was listed. Happily, he was able to find this information and I was led to visit Beth Smith’s site where her artwork is displayed.

While viewing the images of her artwork I was intrigued by another painting there.

When the Sun Goes Down - Beth Smith

I see in this painting images that further speak of the condition of America. The hammock in the foreground bears red and white stripes, just like the U.S. flag. A hammock speaks of a people who are at ease, yet the location of the hammock is quite unusual. It is suspended precariously over the water. As the title of the piece reveals, the sun is setting. The sun is also setting on America as a constitutional republic. Her freedoms are daily being removed by acts of Congress and Executive Orders from the President. The wealth of America is rapidly being stripped from the land.

It seems fitting that no one is figured as lying in the hammock, for the comfort and security Americans once took for granted has left millions with a very unsettled feeling that something dreadful is about to happen. Further supporting this conclusion, we once again see storm clouds and distant rain in this painting. The hammock is positioned in a very perilous place to endure such an onslaught.

Yahweh has used other images involving water to prophesy of those things coming to America. The U.S. Airways jet that abruptly lost all power when striking birds, causing the pilot to perform an emergency landing in the Hudson River, provides a striking image of things to come.

U.S. Airways - Standing on the Wings

Many of the passengers onboard were employees of the banking industry. The flight was heading from New York City to Charlotte, North Carolina which is another major banking hub and the corporate headquarters of Bank of America. The passengers aboard the plane all survived, but they escaped only with the clothes on their backs. Women even had to leave their purses behind. All of these things are symbolic of those experiences which are coming to America. America is being stripped of her wealth even as the gold bars are figured as dropping into an abyss in the painting by Beth Smith.

Hurricane Sandy provided another prophetic parable of that which is coming to America. It is highly unusual for a Hurricane to follow the track of Sandy. It did its greatest damage in an area from Washington, D.C. to New York City. The Manhattan transportation system was shut down. Wall Street had to close due to the storm, and once again we see that a loss of power was a major component of the event. Sandy knocked out power to 80 million people. Over a month later there are some people, particularly on Long Island, who are still left without power.

The parable of a storm coming to America that will leave her powerless, shut down her transportation system, cause a banker’s holiday, and leave millions scrambling to provide for basic necessities, is a palpable one. Even the name Sandy evokes an association with Christ’s parable of the man who built his house upon the sand.

Matthew 7:26-27
"And everyone who hears these words of Mine, and does not act upon them, will be like a foolish man, who built his house upon the sand. And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and burst against that house; and it fell, and great was its fall."

Home Destroyed by Sandy

The home pictured above is emblematic of the fate of America. Her people have failed to listen to, and obey, the words of Christ. The nation has chosen abominations over righteousness. Fittingly, they have chosen a man named Obama to lead the nation. They have done this after four years in which he has proven that he is a staunch supporter of the false religion of Islam, an ardent promoter of homosexual deviance, a champion of abortion, a proponent of globalism, and a faithful servant of the New World Order.

Obama promised CHANGE to Americans during his first presidential campaign, and he promised RUIN in the second. (For an explanation, see the following post.)
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2012/11/thirteen.html

The New World Order can only arise after the old order has collapsed into RUIN. These things are coming swiftly. The Spirit of Christ is declaring this message whether through the artwork of an anointed artist, or through world events.

Disclaimer: The artwork of Beth Smith is shown here by permission of the artist. Please seek her permission before re-posting. The interpretations of her artwork are my own. The artist has not provided any commentary on the paintings other than stating that the visions she paints are from God.

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

New NSA Products Coming to a Home Near You

Joseph Herrin (07-12-2015)

NSA Logo Parody

NSA: National Security Agency
NSA Alternate Acronym: Nothing Secure Anymore

I am not an anarchist, nor am I a rebel. I do not advocate armed resistance against the governments of the world, nor am I a proponent of political activism. Although I often write posts on the actions of the governments of the world, particularly of my home nation the United States, my purpose in doing so has nothing to do with inciting people to engage in actions against the government. Aside from such efforts being vain (for nothing in the political realm is as it seems on the surface), the Christian should see himself as an alien and a stranger in this world, avoiding becoming entangled with worldly affairs which distract from the labors of the kingdom of God.

II Timothy 2:3-4
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Christ Yahshua. No soldier in active service entangles himself in the affairs of everyday life, so that he may please the one who enlisted him as a soldier.

II Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ...

John 18:36
Yahshua answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting, that I might not be delivered up to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm."

My purpose in writing on the affairs and actions of governments is to promote wisdom and understanding among the people of God. It is to peel away layers of deception that the saints in Christ might walk wisely, with their eyes opened to the reality of the world in which they live. The Son of God spoke the following words to His disciples.

Matthew 10:16-17
“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; therefore be shrewd as serpents, and innocent as doves. Beware of men...”

There is no virtue in ignorance. Indeed being misinformed, or deluded regarding the state of this world, can result in much harm to the people of God. The world around us is a very deceptive place. Many Christians are living in a land of illusion, oblivious to the true nature of this dark and evil world. This post is offered to make the reader aware of some developments in the societies in which we live which will undoubtedly affect them going forward.

I have noted a number of new products being released recently that serve a purpose which is hidden from the consumer. These are spy products. They give the government a means to enter into people’s homes, observe all that is done, record every word, giving the global masters insight into the very thoughts which are in an individual’s mind. One remarkable product marketed by Amazon, the world’s largest internet retailer, is Echo. To understand the capabilities of Echo, I am providing the following video. (No longer available)

https://youtu.be/KkOCeAtKHIc

Twenty seconds into the video, the young girl and her father have the following conversation.

Daughter: “Is it on?”
Father: “It is always on.”
Daughter: “Can it hear me right now?”
Father: “No. It only hears you when you use the wake word we chose. Alexa.”

When the wife speaks in an overly loud voice to the device, the husband says, “You don’t actually have to yell at it. It uses far-field technology so it can hear you from anywhere in the room.”

Far Field Voice Technology

Always be heard
Tucked under Echo’s light ring is an array of seven microphones. These sensors use beam-forming technology to hear you from any direction. With enhanced noise cancellation, Echo can hear you ask a question even while it’s playing music.

The dialogue of the Amazon video is disingenuous. When the daughter asks her father, “Can it hear me now,” the answer she receives is not technically correct. In order for Echo/Alexa to know when its wake word has been spoken, it has to be listening all the time. Echo responds only after its wake word has been heard, but it is listening constantly. Since Echo requires a constant internet connection to operate, it is able to transmit what it hears continuously.

With the far-field voice technology, likely developed by DARPA, Echo is able to eavesdrop on every word spoken by every person within its range of hearing. For those unfamiliar with the term, DARPA is the U.S. Defense Department’s research arm. It is tasked with developing a wide range of technologies the government may use for both military and non-military purposes, including spying on its citizens. It is not mere speculation that the technology used in Echo has come from the Defense Department. When Apple released its intelligent assistant for the iPhone, known as SIRI, it was revealed that the technology came from DARPA.

Don't let her dulcet voice and easygoing, eager-to-please manner fool you. Behind Siri, the voice-controlled personal assistant app destined to power Apple's iPhone 4S, lies the heart of a hardened combat veteran. That's because the technology was spun out of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), the Pentagon's high-tech research and development arm.

While Siri was developed as cognitive software with artificial intelligence baked into its code—designed to learn from experience and respond to ever-changing threats on the battle field - iPhone users will find more prosaic uses for it as a hands-free replacement for the touch screen...

Over the last half century, DARPA technology has led to predator drones, night vision goggles, GPS, and even the Internet. It's invested heavily in telesurgery, exoskeletons that function like wearable robots, landmine detection (including one technique that relies on honeybees), a flying car, handheld speech translation, and biosensors, as well the usual deadly array of guns, bombs, stealth planes and missiles.
[Source: http://www.fastcompany.com/1785221/siri-ously-darpa]

The same people who developed the Predator and Reaper Drones capable of firing missiles at human targets, developed the technology behind SIRI and Echo. There is a unified purpose between both the deadly drones and these computer technologies. It is to monitor, identify, and eliminate threats. One can easily envision the technologies being used together. Did you note that DARPA also developed the technology that led to the Internet? The Internet serves a fundamental and irreplaceable function for the masters of the military-industrial complex. It is a treasure trove of data, revealing a wide array of information about the people, companies, and organizations who use it.

Hollywood has given us hints of what the powers-that-be are up to. In the movie Captain America - The Winter Soldier it is revealed that the government is identifying human targets that pose a threat to their power. The plan is to eliminate these threats BEFORE they commit a crime, or some actionable offense against the government. The Internet has been used to gather information on all people, and a special algorithm has been developed to analyze the information to identify threats.

In the narrative for this movie, the following section describes an encounter where Agent Sitwell reveals to Captain America the nature of the software program that analyzes all the collected data on the Internet to identify threats to SHIELD/HYDRA.

“Zola’s algorithm is a program for choosing Insight’s targets,” Sitwell spit out...
“What kind of targets”? Cap asked.
“You!” Sitwell yelled, waving his hand, “A T.V. anchor in Cairo, the Under-Secretary of Defense, a high-school valedictorian in Iowa City..., anyone who’s a threat to Hydra. Now, or in the future...”
Cap glanced at me, his forehead creasing, “How could it know?”
“How could it not? The 21st century is a digital book! Zola taught Hydra how to read it. Your bank records, medical histories, voting patterns, e-mails, phone calls, your... SAT scores! Zola’s algorithm evaluates people’s past to predict their future.”
“And what then?” Natasha tried to clarify...
“What then!” Cap repeated forcefully.
“The the Insight helicarriers scratch people off the list,” Sitwell spit, “a few million at a time.”

Added to the list of data sources one could mention “your private conversations,” for the government has been monitoring them for years. Cell phones are one of the chief sources for this monitoring, for people tend to carry them everywhere they go. The government is able to activate the microphone in a cell phone at any time, and listen in, even when the individual is not making a call. I have mentioned this capability in the past, as well as other means by which the government spies on the public.

A Word to the Wise - Big Brother is Watching You
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-word-to-wise-big-brother-is-watching.html

A Little Birdie Told Me
http://parablesblog.blogspot.com/2013/06/a-little-birdie-told-me.html

What the government is aiming for is a total surveillance state. They do not want there to ever be a time when people are not being monitored, their location and actions unknown. Products like Amazon Echo are advancing this total surveillance state, giving the government entrance to places people once thought was their private sanctuary (and many still do). Amazon Echo is a fantastic product. It offers a wealth of functionality for a small price. I myself would like to have many of the features that it makes available. It would be nice to say a word and play a song, start a timer, or add an item to my grocery shopping list. These “smart” capabilities come at a price, however. The price is a loss of privacy, for every word spoken in range of the Amazon Echo will be monitored.

The government and media are always playing deceptive games with people. They disclose some NSA spying program, suggesting that the government is collecting “meta-data,” but not recording actual conversations. You can be assured this is not the truth. The disclosures of government capabilities are usually twenty years old, with the current state of technology never being disclosed. In this way they shape the thoughts of the populace, steering them away from the enormous scope and capabilities of the government’s spying apparatus today.

Don’t plan to purchase the Amazon Echo? How about upgrading to Windows 10? It will turn every desktop computer, laptop, tablet, and phone that it is installed on into something far more capable than Amazon Echo. Instead of Alexa, there will be Cortana. The software will use the computer’s camera to perform facial recognition and iris scanning to know precisely who is sitting in front of the computer screen. The microphone will be always on so that it can be voice operated as a person speaks the wake word “Cortana.”

“Let me tell Cortana more things about me so I can have more of that proactive interaction.”

Who are you really talking to when you share all these personal things about yourself? NSA? CIA? FEMA? DHS? FBI? The answer is, “All of the above!”

Cortana

The EYE is watching YOU!

The Windows 10 software and its capabilities are awesome. They include many features that computer users would want. It was reported by the Seattle Times that Microsoft spent $10 billion dollars developing Windows Vista which was released in 2005. 10,000 employees worked for five years developing that iteration of their operating system. Forbes reported that Microsoft would spend $1.5 to $1.8 billion just on marketing for Windows 8 when it was released in 2012. How many billions of dollars did Microsoft spend to develop Windows 10, only to offer it as a free upgrade to virtually anyone who has a computer capable of running it? I have not seen the figures, but it must be an enormous amount.

This begs the question “Why?” Why are companies like Microsoft and Amazon investing so much in these technologies and selling them so cheaply? If you understand the nature of the global corporate governmental cabal, you already know the answer. The powers-that-be control both the corporations and the government. They are pursuing the same goals. DARPA gives the technology to corporations like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and others who implement the technology for the government. The government passes along multi-billion dollar contracts to these corporations, insuring that they don’t lose money.

A few years back I read a news article that revealed that Jeff Bezos, the CEO of Amazon, was attending CFR meetings (Council on Foreign Relations). He has been listed as an attendee of the Bilderberg meetings. The list below is from the 2013 meeting, a time when both Amazon Echo and Windows 10 were in development. You will find among the Bilderberg attendees the name Craig J. Mundie. He is listed as “Senior Advisor to the CEO, Microsoft Corporation.” His responsibilities actually go far beyond this, for he is the Chief Research and Strategy Officer for Microsoft. Where do these men get their marching orders? From the global leaders at CFR, Bilderberg, and similar groups.

http://genius.com/1837452/The-bilderberg-group-list-of-attendees-for-2013-bilderberg-group-meeting/Jeff-bezos-founder-and-ceo-amazoncom

Craig J. Mundie, Microsoft

Note that Mr. Mundie is also listed as “a member of President Obama’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.” Equally disturbing, he has reportedly advocated that all individuals be licensed to use the Internet. Government and industry are working hand in hand.

So the next time you read about some great new product being offered, think long and hard about the repercussions of bringing it into your home and using it. “Be wise as serpents, yet harmless as doves. Beware of men!”

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

Interracial Relationships - Right or Wrong?

Joseph Herrin (03-13-2014)

Recently I have had several people write to me on the subject of interracial relationships. This is a subject I have encountered repeatedly throughout my years of ministry. Not having a published teaching on the subject, I have found myself having to construct a response from scratch each time the topic crops up. Since I find myself once more having to write on this issue, this time to answer the inquiry of a man in prison, I believe it would be profitable to post something publicly.

Let me begin by stating that not all people who think interracial marriage is wrong harbor enmity in their hearts toward people of other races. There are a small percentage of people who sincerely think marrying a person of another race is not God’s will, while they have no qualms with being friends, attending church, or otherwise associating, with people of other races. In my estimation those who hold this view comprise a very small percentage of all those who disapprove of interracial relationships. I have observed that most who disapprove of interracial marriage harbor some prejudice against people of other races. I believe it is proper, however, to make a distinction between a disapproval of interracial unions and racial prejudice, for although they are frequently found together, it is possible for these beliefs or attitudes to be distinct from one another.

The Merriam Webster Dictionary defines the word “Prejudice” in the following manner.

Prejudice:
:an unfair feeling of dislike for a person or group because of race, sex, religion, etc.

: a feeling of like or dislike for someone or something especially when it is not reasonable or logical

: preconceived judgment or opinion (2) :  an adverse opinion or leaning formed without just grounds or before sufficient knowledge 

:an irrational attitude of hostility directed against an individual, a group, a race, or their supposed characteristics 

Racial prejudice, consequently, would be defined as “prejudice against, or hostility toward, people of another race or color or of an alien culture.”

I was born in America’s Deep South, an area that has garnered a reputation for being marred by deep seated racial prejudices. This prejudice is primarily associated with tensions between the white and black races. In other parts of America racial prejudice may be between those of Hispanic descent and those of the white or black races. Because America is a great melting pot of the various nationalities of the world, and these nations have often tended to congregate with members of their own races, one can observe racial prejudice among a great variety of people groups. It is not just a white/black phenomena.

Although I was born in the state of Georgia, the land of my father’s family for many generations, I was not raised in the South. My dad joined the Air Force when he was young, and was transferred to the Pacific Northwest. My formative, early school years were spent in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon up until my Sophomore year of High School when my family moved back to Georgia. I cannot remember observing any racial prejudice as a child. Although my father was raised in the Deep South, I cannot ever recall him speaking a word of prejudice.

It came as a shock to me to move back to Georgia in my second year of High School. Before I observed any racial prejudice, I encountered the cultural disdain of Southerners for Yankees. This was not directed at me particularly, but rather it was often observed as the students my age made comments about people from the northern states. I had never heard the word “Yankee” used as a slur before this time, and I found it very odd. I thought all Americans were considered Yankees, as this name was first used by the British during the American Revolution as a slur against the American colonists. The colonists turned the tables on the British by wearing the name as a badge of pride.

Back in Georgia, I learned very quickly about the Mason Dixon Line. If you are not a Southerner, you may be unfamiliar with this phrase. The Mason Dixon Line is named after two British surveyors hired by the Penn and Calvert families to mark out the boundaries of their corresponding states of Pennsylvania and Maryland in the 1760s. Later, the term Mason Dixon Line was used to describe the border between northern and southern states in the American Civil War. If you lived north of the line, you were considered a Yankee. If you lived south of it, you were a Rebel.

Mason Dixon Line

Curiously, people from the northern states don’t seem to carry as much antipathy towards Southerners as Southerners do for Northerners. I had never heard anyone from the north use the term “Rebel” as an epithet when referring to a citizen of the southern states. It was very common in the South, however, to hear Northerners reviled as “Yankees.”

I was quite naive when it came to the subject of racial prejudice. I had not observed it growing up in Oregon. This was largely due to the absence of other races in the suburbs that I was raised in. After moving to Georgia I began to hear people use the “N” word when speaking of members of the black race. I viewed these manifestations of racial prejudice as evidence of someone exhibiting a very carnal nature. I assumed that “Christian” people would not do so, or certainly would not do so openly. How wrong I was.

When I was not long out of High School my family attended a very traditional Southern Baptist church in the town we were living in. There was a historically black college in the town, and the new assistant pastor, who also served as the youth and young adult minister, asked me to ride with him to pick up a couple of Nigerian exchange students who were attending the college. After a couple weeks of doing this, the associate pastor gave some excuse about not being available to pick them up and asked me if I would do so myself. I was happy to comply.

When I drove up in my car in the parking lot of this Southern Baptist church I noticed that other church members were staring at us. They continued to do so as I walked with these two college age men over to the church sanctuary. I sat down alongside them on one of the pews about half way back in the sanctuary. It was a large pew and the church was crowded, but I was surprised to see that no one else sat on the pew with us. I was pretty slow to realize what was going on. It actually took me a few weeks before I realized that the church members resented me bringing black college students to the church. I was astonished as this realization dawned upon me. I thought that these professing Christians would want to be active in evangelization of all people, and to welcome all comers to the church. I remember expressing to another person at the time that I thought it was as absurd to resent a man for his skin color as it was to dislike him for his shoe size.

These Nigerian college students would come over to my parents’ house after church. My older sister and I would spend time with them. One of the young men told me that he did not relate well to the black students at the college. He said his family life in Nigeria was more akin to that of the suburban white American than it was to the black culture of America. The great tragedy is that these young men had come to the American South in the 1980s to find that the white churches did not want them to be there.

I was offended at this revelation, and indignant that anyone who called themselves a Christian should behave in such an unrighteous manner. According to my understanding there were only two types of men in the world. There were those who were born of Adam (carnal men), and those who were born again of the Spirit of Christ (spiritual men). I deemed it to be common sense that Christians would embrace one another, no matter what their national or racial origin. To this day I consider it to be one of the most fundamental and tragic failures among Christians for them to manifest a spirit of prejudice toward another race of people. I will not prove deficient in laying a Scriptural foundation for this conclusion.

When a lawyer asked the Son of God what was the greatest commandment in the Law, Yahshua replied:

Matthew 22:37-39
“'You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.' This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'”

Of course, lawyers like to have things buttoned down. They look for loopholes. The man then asked Yahshua, “Who is my neighbor?” This proved to be the occasion in which Christ spoke the well known parable of The Good Samaritan.

Luke 10:30-37
"A certain man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho; and he fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went off leaving him half dead. And by chance a certain priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him, and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return, I will repay you.' Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." And Yahshua said to him, "Go and do the same."

I recently came across a modern day example of this as I was doing some Internet research. The KKK (Ku Klux Klan) was holding a rally in an American city. A large number of protestors numbering in the hundreds showed up at the rally. They greatly outnumbered the Klansmen. The protestors were of different races. Some of the protestors saw a white man standing and observing the proceedings who was wearing a Confederate Flag shirt. He had cut off sleeves, and Nazi tattoos on his arm. It was assumed that this man was a member of the Klan, which multiple sites are reporting as being unfounded.

The crowd began chasing the man and eventually caught him and knocked him to the ground. Some of the protestors began kicking and pummeling the man.

Seeing what was happening, Keshia Thomas, an 18 year old black woman, intervened to shield the man from his attackers. She positioned herself over the man, and warded off his assailants.

Although the man likely harbored prejudice in thinking the white race is superior, Keshia Thomas had compassion on him as he was being assaulted. She said it was wrong for a man to be attacked for his beliefs, no matter what they were. 

One website reported the following:

After the incident, she didn’t hear a “Thank you” from the man she protected. But she did hear from someone close to him. Reflecting on the incident today, Keshia told a local news station that months after the riot, a younger man came up to her in a coffee shop and thanked her. He turned out to be the victim’s son:

“Thanks,” he said. “For what?” Keshia asked. “That was my dad,” the man replied.

Learning that the man had a son, Thomas said, gave her a greater perspective on everything:

“Imagine what would have happened if they had killed his father out there. That would have just been another person filled with anger, hate and revenge.”

Whether or not she is a Christian, this young woman fulfilled the command of Christ that day to “love your neighbor as yourself.” Race proved to be no barrier to her compassion for another human being. How much more should this be true of those who are born again of the Spirit of Christ?

A Christian may acknowledge that they are to love all men, no matter their race, skin color, language, or nationality, but what about marrying someone of another race? Doesn’t the Bible forbid interracial marriages? The technical word for marriage, or cohabitation, between two people of different races is “miscegenation” (from mixed + genus - a class or group of individuals). There have been a number of Christians throughout the centuries who have taught that God forbids such unions. This teaching continues to this day as the correspondence I receive demonstrate.

One of the common arguments I encounter is that in Genesis we are told that God created every creature “after its kind.” The argument follows, that men and women should only mate with their own kind. Such an argument strikes me as ridiculous for we are told that God created only one man. He did not create multiple men who were of different types. Furthermore, we are told that Yahweh took a remnant portion of the man and formed woman. Adam and Eve were the first man and woman, and Yahweh created no others on this earth. Eve became “the mother of all living,” and Adam was her only husband.

As one looks further down the history of mankind it is shown that approximately 1,500 years after Adam’s creation that Yahweh destroyed the earth with a flood. Once more the creation was reduced to a bare minimum. Only those animals that Noah took on the ark survived to repopulate the earth, and Noah’s family (his wife, his three sons and their wives) were left of mankind to repopulate as well. Anyone who accepts the Bible account as true has to concede that there is only one “kind” of man. We are all descendants of Adam, and we are all descendants of Noah through his three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 9:19
These three were the sons of Noah; and from these the whole earth was populated.

In Genesis chapter 10 we are provided with the table of nations. Yahweh tells us what nations came from each of Noah’s sons. In chapter 11 we are told how the descendants of Noah, who were initially all one people with one language, were divided into nations and tongues at the tower of Babel. This is the beginning of the separation of the races of mankind. This separation became further established when Yahweh divided the earth itself, for it was formerly one continent as even scientists have affirmed. This single continent is referred to as Pangaea by geologists. Having divided men into groups and scattered them across this single continent, Yahweh then divided the earth itself.

Genesis 10:25
And two sons were born to Eber; the name of the one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided...

As these families of mankind lived in isolation from one another they developed their distinct identities. The influence of their particular gene pool, diet, activity, climate, geography, amount of sunlight, and even the effects of sin, are some of the factors that have shaped these families, causing them to take upon their characteristics. Christians who would look at the differences among the races of mankind and doubt that this great variety could be the result of environmental and lifestyle factors over the course of a few thousand years, have the testimony of Scriptures to overcome. In Paul’s famous speech to the Athenians at the Areopagus, he stated:

Acts 17:26
He made also of one blood every nation of men, to dwell upon all the face of the earth - having ordained times before appointed, and the bounds of their dwellings 
[Young’s Literal Translation]

One young man wrote to me the following question:

If Adam was white, where did blacks come from?

The question itself presupposes a fact that is likely false. The Genesis account says nothing of Adam being a white man. The actual name “Adam” gives us a clue to his coloration, for Adam means “ruddy,” or “reddish in color.” It is far more likely that Adam’s skin tone was what some would describe as a “mid-brown” tone, perhaps having the coloration of a native of India.

If someone cares to have it explained to them how genetic diversity has developed, there are plenty of resources online to study. For example, the following webpage explains how differences in skin color manifest.

http://christiananswers.net/q-aig/race-skincolor.html

There are some very strange, even profane, teachings being set forth for the origin of the races today. One of the popular teachings I encounter is referred to as “the serpent seed doctrine.” This doctrine suggests that Cain was the offspring of Satan having sexual relations with Eve. Usually, this doctrine suggests that either a particularly evil race of men, or the black race, resulted from this illicit union. Of course, then the adherents of this doctrine have to find ways to explain how this race survived the flood of Noah’s day, for they were not members of Noah’s family.

This is actually an ancient teaching. It was present among the Gnostic heresies of the early church age, and is found in the occult teachings of the Kabbalah. Despite the fact that this doctrine is easily refuted by a study of the Bible, there are teachers today who continue to find a following as they teach these deceptions. In the book of Genesis God has told us that Cain is the offspring of Adam and Eve.

Genesis 4:1
Now Adam had relations with his wife Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have gotten a manchild with the help of Yahweh."

You would think that this Scripture alone would end all dispute on the matter. It presents such a clear declaration of Cain’s parentage that there is no possibility for it to be misconstrued. When I shared this Scripture verse with one man who is teaching the serpent seed doctrine, his reply to me was, “I don’t care what the Bible says. God has given me revelation that the serpent seed doctrine is true.” There is no longer any basis for agreement when a man rejects the authority of the word of God.

II Timothy 3:16-17
All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work.

There are other Scriptural proofs that all the races of mankind have descended from Adam, obviating 
the possibility of a serpent race of men. One key passage is contained in Paul’s discourse to the Romans about the origins of sin.

Romans 5:12
Through one man sin entered into the world...

Romans 5:16
For on the one hand the judgment arose from one transgression...

Romans 5:17
By the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one...

Romans 5:18
Through one transgression there resulted condemnation to all men...

Romans 5:19
Through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners...

If there exists a race of men that did not come through Adam, all of these statements are false. There must be more than one man through whom sin entered the world, and there must be more than one transgression, for each race must fall individually.

I trust these proofs are sufficient for any with an honest heart and a love of truth to discern that there has ever only existed one race of man since God formed Adam. What men call races today are actually variations in a single race. There are genus level differences among the one Adamic race, the human race. Neither are there multiple “kinds” of men, according to the Biblical meaning of the word in the first chapter of Genesis. Yahweh created only one man who stands as the progenitor of all others.

Let us move on to another objection. Some suggest that the prohibitions Yahweh placed upon the descendants of Abraham to not intermarry with the nations of Canaan among whom they dwelt is a pattern that all are to follow.

Deuteronomy 7:1-4
“When Yahweh your God shall bring you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and shall clear away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, and when Yahweh your God shall deliver them before you, and you shall defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them. Furthermore, you shall not intermarry with them; you shall not give your daughters to their sons, nor shall you take their daughters for your sons. For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods; then the anger of Yahweh will be kindled against you, and He will quickly destroy you.”

A critical part of understanding the relationship of this prohibition to the church under the new covenant is revealed as one examines the reason Yahweh provides for this restriction. He has said, “For they will turn your sons away from following Me to serve other gods...” It must be noted that Yahweh says nothing about the physical incompatibility, or the racial diversity of these nations. He does not forbid the descendants of Abraham to intermarry with these seven nations because of their skin color, the condition of their hair, the hue of their eyes, or any other physical feature. The prohibition is completely due to the idolatry these nations have embraced.

We find this same prohibition in principle in the New Testament.

II Corinthians 6:14-16
Do not be bound together with unbelievers; for what partnership have righteousness and lawlessness, or what fellowship has light with darkness? Or what harmony has Christ with Belial, or what has a believer in common with an unbeliever? Or what agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God...

The apostle Paul writes much about marriage when he addresses the church in Corinth. Paul, though a Jewish believer of the tribe of Benjamin, is the apostle to the Gentiles. The word “Gentiles” literally means “nations.” Rome was a great melting pot of nations similar to America today. There was much diversity among the citizens of Rome, and in the churches to whom Paul ministered. Nevertheless, the apostle never forbids the members of Christ’s body to marry people of other nationalities. His only prohibition is that they cannot marry an unbeliever.

I Corinthians 7:39
A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.

This phrase “only in the Lord” means a Christian woman can marry only those who are members of the body of Christ. The pattern we see between the Old and New Testaments is “first the natural, then the spiritual.” Yet even under the Old Covenant Yahweh’s grace was present. The doctrine of a pure Jewish race is actually a myth. There were numerous occasions of the descendants of Abraham marrying people of other nations. This is true even of the lineage of Christ.

Abraham was an Aramean. When he chose a wife for his son Isaac he did so from among his own people. Abraham sent a trusted servant back to his ancestral home to choose a bride from among his relatives. Rebekah was the daughter of “Bethuel the son of Milcah, the wife of Abraham's brother Nahor.” In turn, when Isaac’s son Jacob was in search of a wife, he too went back to the land of his kin and married Leah and Rachel. From this point forward we no longer read of Abraham’s descendants returning to take wives of their Aramean kinfolk. Many of their wives were taken from the nations around them On occasion they were even taken from the seven nations with whom Yahweh had forbidden them to marry.

Joseph was sold into Egypt by his brothers. When he was thirty years of age Pharaoh gave him a wife, Asenath, the daughter of Potiphera, the priest of On. Egypt was not one of the seven nations of prohibition, but neither was it a Hebrew nation. Joseph’s Egyptian wife bore him Manasseh and Ephraim whose descendants became two of the largest tribes of Israel. Similarly, we are told that Judah married a Canaanite woman.

Genesis 38:1-2
And it came about at that time, that Judah departed from his brothers, and visited a certain Adullamite, whose name was Hirah. And Judah saw there a daughter of a certain Canaanite whose name was Shua; and he took her and went in to her.

Shua bore to Judah three sons, two of whom died. Shelah, however, lived and became the father of one of the families of Judah, along with Zerah and Perez who were descended of Tamar whose ancestry is not given.

Furthermore, we are told that Rahab the harlot from Jericho was taken in among the people of Israel. This Canaanite woman married Salmon of the tribe of Judah and became the mother of Boaz. This is the same Boaz spoken of in the book of Ruth. It is from Rahab’s lineage that David descended, and from David that Yahshua descended.

Matthew 1:5-6
And to Salmon was born Boaz by Rahab; and to Boaz was born Obed by Ruth; and to Obed, Jesse; and to Jesse was born David the king.

Not only was Boaz descended from Rahab the Canaanite, but he married Ruth who was a Moabite.

Ruth 1:3-4
Then Elimelech, Naomi's husband, died; and she was left with her two sons. And they took for themselves Moabite women as wives; the name of the one was Orpah and the name of the other Ruth.

The Moabites were not among the seven nations the Hebrews were forbidden to intermarry. They were descended from Lot when he impregnated his oldest daughter after they fled from Sodom. She became pregnant and bore a son named Moab. Although Ruth, as a Moabite, was a distant relative of Abraham and his descendants, for Abraham was Lot’s uncle, she was not a Hebrew.

It is also recorded that Moses, the Law giver, married a Cushite woman.

Numbers 12:1
Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Cushite woman whom he had married (for he had married a Cushite woman).

Many Christians do not understand the dynamics of what is being declared in the verse above. Miriam and Aaron disapproved of Moses’ wife because she was a Cushite. The Cushite’s were descended of Ham, the son of Noah that dishonored his father resulting in a curse upon his descendants (specifically upon Canaan).

Genesis 10:6
And the sons of Ham were Cush and Mizraim and Put and Canaan.

The descendants of Cush settled in what is now known as Ethiopia. They have traditionally been among some of the most dark skinned people on earth. Miriam, Moses’ older sister, disapproved of his marriage and criticized Moses. Yahweh, however, reproved Miriam for her presumption and she was stricken with leprosy for seven days.

One should not forget the Shunammite who is the lover of Solomon in The Song of Solomon. She describes her skin as being dark as the tents of Kedar. She was referring to the black goat hair tents of the Bedouin people.

Black Bedouin Tents

Song of Solomon 1:5
“I am black but lovely, O daughters of Jerusalem. Like the tents of Kedar. Like the curtains of Solomon.”

When one looks at the entire testimony of the Bible, there is found no prohibition forbidding a Christian to marry a person of another race (nationality). If a man or woman has been born again of the Spirit of Christ their identity is no longer a terrestrial one.

II Corinthians 5:16-17
Therefore from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh... Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.

As those who are born again of the seed of Christ, we are members of a new race of mankind. We are made one through Christ.

Romans 12:5
So we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.

I Corinthians 12:13
For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit.

Ephesians 4:4-6
There is one body and one Spirit, just as also you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in all.

It was in understanding this truth at a young age that I was so astonished at the prejudice and lack of love manifested by those who called themselves Christians at that Southern Baptist church many years ago. I continue to be grieved in spirit when I observe any Christian manifesting an attitude of racial prejudice. We are called to something much higher.

I am not a Jew by natural descent. I am from the nations, from the Gentiles. If Christ had died for Jews only, I would be lost without hope, as would millions of others. If the Son of God had not appointed apostles, prophets, and teachers to be sent to the Gentiles I would suffer a tremendous loss, and so too would other Gentile believers. It seems unconscionable to me to not demonstrate the same love and acceptance of people of all nations as Yahshua has done.

I John 3:18
Little children, let us not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days. 

Heart4God Website: http://www.heart4god.ws    

Parables Blog: www.parablesblog.blogspot.com    

Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063

Internment Coming (Updated)

Joseph Herrin (02-17-2021)

Stockade Doors at Andersonville Civil War Prison

In 1999 Yahweh instructed me to begin using my first name, which is Joseph. Up until that time (I was 38 years old) my family and friends had all called me by my middle name of Bradley, or the shorter version Brad. The Spirit of Christ made it known to me that my first name was significant, and I was to use it. In the years since I have experienced many things that parallel the life of Joseph the son of Jacob. One of those parallels was being cast into jail.

Yahweh has testified to me for some years that I have been called to walk as a forerunner and explorer. I have been called to experience things that many more saints must endure in days ahead. Even as Joseph was a slave and prisoner in Egypt, and later his brethren were made slaves in the same nation, so too have I been selected by the Father to experience a number of things before my brothers and sisters in Christ in America. The time is coming when many of God’s people will have to pass through experiences similar to what I have passed through in the last 20+ years. In the book of Revelation the following words are written concerning the last days before the return of Christ.

Revelation 13:9-10

If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.

Did you note the last sentence? “Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.” These words are written to Christians, members of the body of Christ. Some are destined for captivity, and some are destined for the sword. To pass through these experiences while remaining steadfast will require both faith and perseverance.

Had you told me years ago that I would twice be brought before a judge and put in jail in America because my conscience would not permit me to disobey the will of the Father, I would have found such things hard to imagine. “What, here in America where most citizens self-profess to be Christians? How can these things be?” Let those with understanding hearts consider that Joseph was sold into slavery by his brothers who were shepherds put in charge of their father’s flocks. Joseph had earlier brought a report to his father of his brothers abusing their duties as shepherds of the flock. These things are a spiritual parable.

In the days at hand it will be brother who delivers up brother to death and imprisonment. Many who occupy positions as shepherds of the flocks of Christ will be the very ones to deliver the sheep over to the government for persecution.

Mark 13:12-13

"Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and have them put to death. You will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.”

Both those who are part of the saints’ natural and spiritual families will turn against them. The disciples of Christ who are surrendering their lives to be led of the Spirit will be persecuted by those relations, both natural and spiritual, who have not embraced a Spirit led life.

Galatians 4:29

But as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

There are Christians who walk according to the flesh. They will persecute their brothers and sisters in Yahshua as certainly as those who are strangers to the Spirit of Christ. For this reason, Christians must walk wisely in coming days. They must be wary of carnal brethren.

I do not doubt that those who read this blog will have a difficult time conceiving of a day approaching swiftly when they will be in peril of captivity, or death. I speak with assurance, knowing those things I have passed through, and the testimony of the Spirit that I have been chosen as a forerunner, that such things are indeed coming to the people of God.

I found it very sobering today to watch the following video. I urge you to watch it prayerfully. Understand that America has been given into the hands of evil men skilled in destruction. Liberty is about to be removed that the saints might be induced to grow in faith and perseverance, separating themselves from all sin. Although those who would persecute Yahweh’s remnant have evil in their hearts, God intends the experience for good. This was Joseph’s confession, and one I have myself echoed.

Prolonged Detention

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http://youtu.be/8mPZlysCAm0

An hour is approaching when the government will pro-actively arrest people. They will use profiling to determine who poses a threat to national security. Christians who hold allegiance to God, rather than the immoral government of man, will be among those deemed as threats. If you oppose abortion, homosexuality, or stand for truth and righteousness, you will face the threat of indefinite detention without trial or appeal.

The imprisonment many of God’s people will have to endure in the days ahead will be worse than what I passed through. As a forerunner I was given exceptional grace. When my Christian brothers and sisters were living lives of ease and pleasure, I was enduring reproach and persecution. This too was Joseph’s experience. His brothers were living as the prosperous sons of a wealthy father when Joseph was enduring slavery and imprisonment. Eleven sons of Jacob had great liberty and were following the course their soul dictated while Joseph was confined and restricted. Yet the day came for them to endure the same. They were enslaved and placed under harsh taskmasters and their labor was bitter. Yet, even in this, Yahweh’s eye was always upon them. The people multiplied greatly.

The Scriptures testify that there is an afflicted path that leads to life and few there are who find it. The apostle Paul declared:

Acts 14:22

"Through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God."

Is your faith strong enough to endure persecution? Can you remain steadfastly committed to obedience to Yahweh when you have home and possessions stripped from you? Will your faith remain steadfast when your obedience to Christ results in captivity? The days ahead will try many men’s hearts. Yahweh will not subject His children to such things for their destruction, but rather for their spiritual welfare.

James 1:2-4

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

Following is the post I shared three years ago on this topic. As stated, I was not aware that some months later I would be cast into prison. I believe in sharing this message again, there are those who read this who will find themselves in a matter of months facing similar things. I would assure you that as God was with Joseph in prison, and He was with me in both of my times of captivity, so too will He be with you. Be strong and courageous. Nothing can separate you from the love of Christ.

Internment Coming

Joseph Herrin (08-12-09)

Those things written here are shared as a word of prophecy for the body of Christ in America. There are times when I have a profound sense of the Father ordering my steps to communicate some truth, and the past couple days have brought forth a sobering message.

Randy and Kathy Furman, a precious brother and sister from Arizona, were in South Carolina to visit family. Since they were “close” by, they decided to drive down to Georgia and spend a day and a half with me...

As I considered what sites I might take Randy and Kathy to visit, one in particular came to mind, and it did so with a force that I recognized to be the inspiration of the Spirit of God. I sensed that we were to go together and visit Andersonville National Historic Site.

http://www.nps.gov/ANDE

Andersonville is the site of a Civil War prison where Union troops were held in a large walled stockade. It has become associated with the greatest abuses of one American against another. The camp was operating only 14 months, and in that brief time 13,000 Union troops died. Among the causes of death were starvation, disease, exposure, vermin, and harsh treatment.

At its peak in August of 1864, 32,000 men were crowded into an area consisting of 26 acres.

Conditions were so terrible that they were burying up to 100 men a day in mass graves.

Lest some think it was only the South who treated their prisoners badly, they need only look into the history of Camp Douglas in Chicago, or Elmira Prison in New York. At Camp Douglas, the Union general in charge intentionally kept the men in a malnourished state to make them “manageable.” Starving and thirsty soldiers were warned that they would be shot for transgressions as slight as eating snow to quench their thirst. They were routinely tortured by hanging them by their thumbs, or making them “ride the rail.”

Riding the Rail

This form of torture would often leave men crippled, and it caused extreme pain to the genitals.

This inhumane treatment of one American by another was not widely known among the public. The media in that day did not have the scope and immediacy that is common today. Undoubtedly, if more had been known about what was going on inside these prison camps, there would have been significant public outcry.

We live in an hour in which there is less outrage by the public over inhumane treatment of mankind. The recent revelations of the shocking abuses at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq, and the blatant and unapologetic endorsement of torture techniques such as waterboarding, have caused only a modest outcry. Even when it became known that President George W. Bush had authorized torture to be used on suspected terrorists, the employment of stress positions, sleep deprivation, and waterboarding continued unabated.

Such things do not bode well for the things that millions of Americans will soon suffer at the hands of their brothers. The concept in the minds of many that such atrocities could never happen in America, for we are too civilized, are instantly shattered when one takes a visit to Andersonville. The truth is, Americans have already manifested the willingness to treat one another in the most cruel and careless manner, and the Spirit is testifying that days akin to the great Civil War are returning to America. This time things will be much worse.

I have cited on numerous occasions the parallels between Abraham Lincoln and Barack Obama. The Obama campaign made much of the similarities during the Presidential race. Both men were Illinois politicians. Both came to power at a time when the nation was facing a great crisis. Both men were tall and lanky. Barack Obama even took his oath for the Presidency with his hand upon the same Bible used by Abraham Lincoln.

The Spirit has been testifying that America is about to experience a great fall. The Union will disintegrate. The country will be divided. The evidence of the fault lines upon which the fractures will occur are already visible. The recent democratic ads characterizing conservative protestors at town hall meetings as “the mob” reveal that the division is observed from the grassroots to the halls of Congress. Barack Obama’s ill chosen words saying that Cambridge, Massachusetts police acted stupidly in arresting a black Harvard professor resulted in a storm of response that was very much polarized along racial lines. This past week a prison in Chino, California was destroyed by inmates who rioted along racial lines, Hispanics against African Americans.

As millions of jobs are being lost and people’s unemployment benefits are ending, the number of unhappy, and often angry citizens of this nation are increasing. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of the state of California, is proposing the early release of over 27,000 criminals from state prisons to reduce the budget for the Department of Corrections. These criminals will be turned back out on the streets in a state where employment is hard for skilled laborers to find. Those who are unskilled and have a criminal record will have little chance of finding employment, and crime will escalate.

I can foresee the day fast approaching when states petition the Federal government to use military bases and Federal troops to hold those they can no longer care for. Many of the pieces are already being set in place to pave the way for the government to begin acting as one massive police state.

One of the first acts of the current 111th Congress was to pass legislation to authorize and fund regional detention facilities across the nation. The legislation can be read at the governments websites.

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c111:H.R.645:

An internet article reports the following:

Yes, U.S. Officials Are Quietly Preparing for BIG Trouble Ahead

A new report by the Army War College's Strategic Studies Institute states flatly the U.S. military must prepare for "a violent, strategic dislocation inside the United States" that could be provoked by "unforeseen economic collapse" or "loss of functioning political and legal order."

Late last year, The Washington Post noted the incoming Obama Administration is going to "earmark" at least 20,000 troops returning from Iraq to deal with "domestic emergencies." Since then, the Army Times has broken the story that the domestic emergency army unit has been increased to 80,000 troops, who are being trained right now in Georgia.

[Source: http://www.silverbearcafe.com/private/04.09/pandemonium.html]

Returning to the witness of the Spirit of Christ concerning these things, my friends who went with me to visit Andersonville had been reading the book The Heavenly Man, and had brought it with them. This is the remarkable story of a Chinese Christian who was arrested by the government and imprisoned. This is a scenario that is soon coming to America.

Yun's book claims both extreme persecutions and miracles of deliverance similar to ones found in the Biblical narrative. Despite a life of poverty in China, he since has spoken to thousands internationally, possibly millions, with the gospel message. Seen as a rebel among some Chinese for not joining the 'official' government-controlled Christian organization (see: Three-Self Patriotic Movement), he was imprisoned and tortured by the government authorities. His book claims that he became a highly wanted man across several provinces. He was finally arrested and sentenced to many years in prison. However, Yun continued his ministry while in prison, with more claims of miraculous results. As a result, many prisoners and even some prison officials reportedly became born-again Christians. Apparently, while he gained increasing favor from some officials, he also became a target of increased persecutions by others. He was repeatedly beaten and became severely malnourished. It is claimed that while in prison, Yun undertook a total fast without food or water for 74 days.

After many years in prison, he escaped from Zhengzhou Maximum Security prison from which it is reported that nobody had previously escaped. He described how he heard the voice of the Holy Spirit, telling him to simply walk out the heavily guarded prison gate. Risking being shot to death on the spot, he wrote later that he obeyed the voice, and walked straight through several prison doors that were somehow left open in front of many prison guards, across the prison yard and finally out of the main gate. Yun stated that it was as if he had become invisible to the guards who stared straight through him. Although many expressed doubts that such a thing could happen, some prison guards had apparently lost their jobs for this 'embarrassing mishap.' It is reported that the official investigation by the Chinese Government concluded that "Yun received no human help in his escape." It is claimed that these reports have been also confirmed by numerous prisoners who occupied the same prison cell as Yun. Apparently, he remains the only person to have escaped from this notorious maximum security prison.

[Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brother_Yun]

Our visit to Andersonville was a very sobering one. It was not a feel-good jaunt in the sunshine. A museum with many exhibits from prisoner camps across the world is located on the property. A film is played that shows the terrible suffering that many have endured, with personal testimonies and appalling photographic evidence...

It is difficult to comprehend those things that are coming to America, but the Spirit of Christ is testifying of them. He is speaking to His people that they might prepare their hearts and lives for the days ahead. Many are even now being directed by the Spirit to make preparations to flee in coming days. It is necessary that all the people of God be wholly surrendered to the direction of the Spirit. It is in God that we will find our safety and refuge.

The series I have published on Living Epistles - Testimonies of Faith, is intended to promote the faith of God’s people. We live in a nation where faith has been infrequently exercised. This must change. Will your faith be adequate to carry you through the days of distress that are approaching? If you are unsure, then begin seeking the Lord now that He might direct your steps to a more robust, practical faith. He is faithful, and His eyes are ever upon His children.

May you be blessed with peace and understanding in these days.

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Mailing Address:
Joseph Herrin
P.O. Box 804
Montezuma, GA 31063