Certainly Upon Us
Spiritual birth does not save your bacon. The Presence of the Holy Spirit does not free you from the Devil’s authority. Rather, the Holy Spirit empowers you to rise to a higher authority within his domain. It is not automatic. You must seize the Covenant and change your life’s orientation. This is a process that will last as long as your life in this world; it is never complete while you breathe. The Covenant is Christ’s personal authority on this earth.
The common mainstream conception of serving Christ bears little resemblance to the Covenant. Yes, there is some overlap, but the mainstream notions about what it means to live a righteous life is a man-made standard that reflects western mythology. That standard is not what Jesus taught.
The confusion comes from relying too much on English translations of Scripture that were produced with varying incomplete understandings of the Hebrew outlook and cultural orientation. There is a huge difference between what the Hebrew audience heard listening to Jesus teach versus what modern Americans perceive when reading it in English. Instead, Americans are trapped in several centuries of Enlightenment religious notions read back into the Bible.
The Lord has been highly indulgent about this issue. He has granted far more protection for His Elect than is warranted by their actual obedience in contrast to what the Covenant actually requires. Most of the time, the Elect stumble into partial obedience quite by accident, as a result of doing the best they can with such a deeply flawed understanding. Religious leadership is to blame, so the Lord has been merciful to His flock.
I can assure you Satan and his allies know the difference. During times of tribulation, they are increasingly freed to enforce the Covenant more accurately. That’s what they do; they harass and oppress those who step outside the Covenant boundaries. It is virtually unknown to Christians today just how much blessing they could have if they were more accurately observing Christ’s law. It has been two millennia since anyone has taught the meaning of Christ’s Covenant in terms of how He actually revealed it.
That revelation came in the context of God’s original covenant with Israel. The Covenant of Moses was everything to the people of Israel. It was their whole identity; it distinguished them from the other nations around them. Without that distinction, they were no different from the pagan nations God delivered to His Elohim Council. Worse, departing from the Covenant was departing from God’s promises and His favor. When that covenant was ended on the Cross, it was displaced by the institution of a new and better one. This new covenant is not about the rules, but about the one fundamental command that we must love our covenant brothers and sisters as Jesus does. This is our identity as followers of Christ.
Everything else in the Bible is just commentary on what it looks like to obey His law. It presumes that you will ditch your human identity, every element of it, and embrace His. It assumes you know that your convictions are His voice in your heart. It assumes you will instinctively form extended family households of faith, bound by His blood sacrifice that bought you, not any human blood kinship. His law further assumes you will form communities along Hebrew feudal lines. In other words, if you have not formed a tribal clan of faith, you are not under the Covenant of Christ.
We can talk all day long about why America is going down the tubes. Have a look at this analysis by Brandon Smith. It lays out some of the mechanics of how our national economy was hard-wired to break down the moment anyone interferes with the globalist agenda. For example: all that foreign aid? If those dollars do not leave the US and go to those countries, then those dollars stay here -- waaaay too many dollars for our economy to absorb without causing inflation. In theory, those dollars should be invested in growing our national productivity, but we all know that won’t happen. No, we will have runaway inflation.
But what really matters here is that God’s patience with His own Elect will run out. It doesn’t take much for a paltry few obedient Elect to provide the hedge of protection and save the whole country. Because too many of us are chasing a false Enlightenment image of Christ -- a pagan idol in effect -- our fragile hedge of protection as a nation is going to be overwhelmed by testing and tribulation. It’s not merely a problem with our nation being founded on rejecting the Covenant of Christ, but that the protection that should have come from the presence of His Elect is also absent. The Elect cannot provide it; they don’t even understand the Covenant.
Thus, God is going to check to see who has the Blood of Christ on the portals of their lives, and those found wanting will be subject to all the chaos of the Devil and his allies finally harvesting the souls trapped in his lies. That includes the Elect who are not observing the Covenant. They will suffer in this life all the sorrows reserved for the Damned. They won’t stand out; they lack the identity that marks them as servants of Christ.
Stop chasing the lies. We’ve said enough here about the Covenant and what it requires. If you feel totally lost, take a look at the Covenant of Noah as a starting point. It will give you some idea of what following Christ looks like. Also, look up the Didache; it’s not a bad guide. Get ready to ride out the storm, because it is certainly upon us.