April 2003
Dear Brethren:
As we enter another new year in God's calendar and now focus on the meaning of this spring season in God's master plan, it is appropriate we address a topic related to the very meaning of Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread. One significance of these annual spring observances is to remind us God has given a special calling, and we have been set apart for unique spiritual service. When God opened your mind to understand the Truth of the Bible—which your family and neighbors were still blinded from seeing—by that miraculous intervention He made you distinct from the masses of people in this world. Through no act or qualification of your own—and whether you even wanted it or not—the gift of that opened mind segregated you into a special class. Such calling did not make you better in any way, because all eventually will receive that same call in God's perfectly appointed time. But like it or not, the words of Jesus Christ through His last-day ministry affected you in a way that changed your life, and you were set apart thereby from this world.
The calling of God to become a true Christian sets us on a path which is totally at odds with the ways of this world. There is no way to respond legitimately to God's call and at the same time remain enamored with the orientation of this world.
No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon (Matthew 6:24).
Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God (James 4:4).
The very experiences of the Israelites in their exodus from Egyptian slavery is a direct type of the struggle true Christians are required to make in the spirit. Egypt represents this world and the worldly orientation of deceived human beings who are cut off from the true God. God's true people were required to come out of Egypt. Likewise, the only way to cultivate a close personal relationship with that same God today is to reject the orientation sponsored by the god of this world, Satan, the devil—who has deceived all of humanity—and come out of it!
Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers: for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? and what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you, And will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty (2 Corinthians 6:14–18).
Worldliness is anything that is antithetical to the way God commanded man to live. It is any orientation that God considers sin—those practices carrying automatic penalties according to the perfect master design of His universe. To act legitimately upon our calling requires a separation in thinking from the world, which is the embodiment of the way of sin. Accepting Jesus Christ as the only righteous standard for measurement is the message of Passover, and then using that standard—that yardstick—in our lives to eradicate the orientation of this world is embodied in the Days of Unleavened Bread.
Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever (1 John 2:15–17).
The spring Holy Days picture the beginning of God's plan to offer to mankind eternal salvation—a gift that will abide forever. But the singular path to this salvation requires rejection of the things man craves by nature. This is why Jesus Christ is represented as unleavened bread, a bread not common in this world. Leavening represents the carnal lusts which dominate these human minds and drive our natural orientations in life. It is this orientation of sin—worldliness—that we must be willing to purge from our thinking, replacing it with the mind of Jesus Christ. "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" (1 Corinthians 5:8). God's way of life stands in stark contrast to man's natural path of self-destruction.
The challenge for God's people is recognition of those things which are considered worldly and must be rejected. It is easy to acknowledge in principle we must come out of sin. It is quite something else to identify accurately those areas of sin—worldliness—that need purging from our individual lives. This of course is why we are commanded to examine ourselves in preparation for keeping the Passover each year. "But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup" (1 Corinthians 11:28). "Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" (2 Corinthians 13:5).
The problem today is that we live in a world which is so perverse we are easily jaded by the depths of depravity our worldly societies now accept and defend. Things that would have shocked even our great-grandparents just a few decades ago are now so commonplace they do not even raise an eyebrow among most. The broken state of families, sexual promiscuity and every conceivable debauchery, immodesty, indecency, violence, glamorization of crime, lying, cheating, vanity, and every hedonistic pursuit is now "the norm" within our communities at large. This is not to say there was ever a human society in the past that was acceptable to God. But when a culture begins to abandon any pretense of right vs. wrong and drives headlong toward open acceptance of the most overt abominations, we should take special note and not assume we are immune to these societal defects.
Is there precedence in man's sordid history for the rapid degradation we are witnessing with each passing year? There are many Biblical examples of God bearing long with man's sins until such time those sins become so vile and so prolific they are considered "at the full." Notice the events that led to the great flood.
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (Genesis 6:5–7).
God was patient with mankind for nearly two thousand years after Adam's sin. But with the birth of each new generation during that time came more and more flagrant disregard for God's laws, until the pinnacle of depravity was achieved in the days of Noah. Notice the culmination came when "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." This is what it means for a society's sins to "come to the full." The result was God passing righteous judgment upon them and wiping them out of existence.
And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark (Genesis 7:23).
The same formula was used by God in waiting to pass judgment upon the Egyptians. He gave them four hundred years before finally making an example of Pharaoh.
And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance (Genesis 15:13–14).
Part of that same plan revealed to Abram involved the death sentence to be carried out against the Amorites—whom Israel would displace from the Promised Land—but not until centuries after Abraham was dead.
And thou shalt go to thy fathers in peace; thou shalt be buried in a good old age. But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full (Genesis 15:15–16) [emphasis mine].
God is very patient to work His perfect will in dealing with man. Because of that, human beings become complacent, thinking they are getting away with something as they descend deeper and deeper into depravity without the immediate "wrath of God." But the fact God does not always act quickly should never be mistaken for His winking at sin. Any sin—no matter how small or large—makes us guilty and subject to the death penalty. But God has shown He often allows human beings time to hang themselves with their own ropes before acting in dramatic fashion. After four hundred years of tolerating the increasingly abominable practices of the Amorites, God commanded Moses to wipe them out, root and branch.
And the LORD said unto me, Behold, I have begun to give Sihon and his land before thee: begin to possess, that thou mayest inherit his land. Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain: (Deuteronomy 2:31–34).
Such accounts make many so-called Christians doubt the fairness and love of the God of the Old Testament. They do not believe any human society is worthy of extermination. But it is the very Being who became Jesus Christ—the Savior they claim to love—who ordered Israel to totally annihilate these heathen peoples whose sins had come to the full. Are we more fair than God? Or is the real problem that we have a tendency to judge sin by a different standard than does God? When we realize how long God bore patiently with those pagan societies before finally passing just sentence upon them, how can we fail to recognize the incredible longsuffering and forbearance of that Creator?
The cities of Sodom and Gomorrah became the epitome of human depravity which God ultimately consumed in righteous judgment. The story of Lot also highlights an important warning for all of us today who are living in a world which is fast approaching the same abominable state.
When Abram and Lot were forced to separate, Lot was given his choice of lands. Notice how he made the decision where to settle his family:
And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; . . . (Genesis 13:10–11) [emphasis mine].
How did Lot choose? By evaluating the kind of people who lived in the region? No, he was seduced by the outward appeal and beauty of the land which appeared like the very garden of Eden. He was led by his carnal senses to make a selection. His choice was even compared to Egypt, a land with great outward attraction and yet a society God condemns as the epitome of sin. "Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom" (verse 12). What did God say about this city Lot had selected for residence? "But the men of Sodom were wicked and sinners before the LORD exceedingly" (verse 13). In fact the name, Sodom, is synonymous with one of the most vile acts of perversion a human being can commit (Leviticus 20:13, Deuteronomy 23:17). What made Sodom so evil was not that it was the only place where such abominations were ever practiced. No, these perversions were common in much of the pagan world. But indications are these sins had escalated in Sodom to become militantly practiced in the open with absolutely no regard for even a pretense of morality. By the time Lot chose to settle there, God considered the sins of Sodom as "nearing the full," just as we saw recorded about the days of Noah, where ". . . every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). This is why God determined utterly to destroy Sodom and make an example of it.
This is the very orientation of mind prophesied to exist in the last days, even among some of those called to a knowledge of the Truth.
Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet. And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; (Romans 1:21–28) [emphasis mine].
This passage is not a condemnation of deceived peoples of the world, even like those of Sodom. This is a much greater indictment of those who have no excuse for being trapped in such gross perversions, because they know better, having been called out of this world. But how could such spiritual blindness ever befall any whom God has called?
Was Lot's Family Affected by Worldliness?
Was it possible for Lot and his family to live in the filthy society of Sodom and not be affected by its gross lawlessness? It would appear not. Notice what God records about the events leading to Lot's miraculous rescue. Recall from Genesis, chapter nineteen, that two angels from God came to Sodom to help Lot and his family escape before God destroyed the city.
Lot, not knowing these men were angels, nonetheless invited them to stay the night, to protect them—as strangers—from vulnerability in the wicked city. Then notice what takes place that night:
But before they lay down, the men of the city, even the men of Sodom, compassed the house round, both old and young, all the people from every quarter: And they called unto Lot, and said unto him, Where are the men which came in to thee this night? bring them out unto us, that we may know them (Genesis 19:4–5) [emphasis mine].
Notice first this mob was not just made up of juvenile delinquents running the streets looking for mischief. Such is certainly common in most cities. What made Sodom so uniquely evil was this bent toward violent marauding and victimization of the weak and defenseless as practiced by young and old alike! The elders of the city—who should have been those who had learned more wisdom through the years, even through hard lessons—had learned nothing, and were as hardened to sin as the young ones. This indicates a culture which had progressed over time to produce young hedonists who grew into old libertines, who rather than teach the next generation any sense of morality, encouraged them in ever-increasing debauchery. By the time of this episode in Sodom's final day of existence, the entire society was deemed by God as irretrievably corrupt. God had already tried them and passed judgment:
And the LORD said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not, I will know (Genesis 18:20–21).
God certainly confirmed what He already knew, because He knows the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:10). Sodom was to be destroyed for the full measure of her sins. But how did living in that society and being saturated with such evil affect Lot and his family? Notice next how Lot responded to the assault of this vicious mob:
And Lot went out at the door unto them, and shut the door after him, And said, I pray you, brethren, do not so wickedly. Behold now, I have two daughters which have not known man; let me, I pray you, bring them out unto you, and do ye to them as is good in your eyes: only unto these men do nothing; for therefore came they under the shadow of my roof (Genesis 19:6–8).
How could a righteous man like Lot be so numbed to sin as to suggest turning his own daughters over to these criminals? A number of commentators attempt to justify this by many contrived explanations. But the truth is, although Lot was not partaker of the evil lifestyles of the Sodomites, he had nonetheless become tainted by long-term exposure to the influence of such abominations. Notice first that God did call Lot a righteous man.
And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy [conduct] of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;) (2 Peter 2:6–8).
So Lot knew the difference between right and wrong, refused to practice their evils, and was even vexed daily by that environment. For that, he is called righteous. But the fact still remains he chose to continue living in that despicable city! He could have extracted himself and his family from that influence at any time, but he did not. And although he was intent on keeping himself pure from the practices of his neighbors, in the heat of battle—when he was taken off guard on the night of that assault—his own actions show the degree to which his orientation nonetheless had been infected.
After the angels make themselves known to Lot as messengers from God—striking down these criminals with blindness—they tell Lot they have been sent by God to destroy the city, and admonish him to warn his married daughters and their husbands. His sons-in-law however laugh at the warning. Then notice what occurs in the early morning, as the angels are adjuring Lot and his family to flee for their lives.
And when the morning arose, then the angels hastened Lot, saying, Arise, take thy wife, and thy two daughters, which are here; lest thou be consumed in the iniquity of the city. And while he lingered, the men laid hold upon his hand, and upon the hand of his wife, and upon the hand of his two daughters; the LORD being merciful unto him: and they brought him forth, and set him without the city (Genesis 19:15–16) [emphasis mine].
God was telling Lot to be urgent to get out and save his life. But Lot lingered, obviously concerned for his home, possessions, and family members who were still there. They had become attached to that worldly city, although in mind hating its most vile fruits. The angels literally had to grab them by the hands and drag them out of the gates! It was because of the infectious worldliness that God had to manifest great mercy to Lot at this moment. Once outside the city, the angels commanded them to flee to the mountains and not to look back! But how did Lot respond?
And Lot said unto them, Oh, not so, my Lord: Behold now, thy servant hath found grace in thy sight, and thou hast magnified thy mercy, which thou hast showed unto me in saving my life; and I cannot escape to the mountain, lest some evil take me, and I die: Behold now, this city is near to flee unto, and it is a little one: Oh, let me escape thither, (is it not a little one?) and my soul shall live. And he said unto him, See, I have accepted thee concerning this thing also, that I will not overthrow this city, for the which thou hast spoken. Haste thee, escape thither; for I cannot do any thing till thou be come thither. Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar (verses 18–22).
Lot was still acting without faith, and concerned more about his personal future than being grateful for God's deliverance. He was not willing to really believe God would take care of him and his family, and attempted instead to pull himself up by his own bootstraps. Even so, God patiently honored Lot's wishes and allowed him to go instead to Zoar, even though this later proved to be no blessing to him, and Lot ended up in the mountains where God first commanded him to go (verse 30).
The sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar. Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven; And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground. But his wife looked back from behind him, and she became a pillar of salt (verses 23–26).
So Lot's wife was much more guilty than the rest of the family because she was so attached to the city of Sodom she could not help but linger, watching and mourning for the loss of that worldly society she loved so much. God therefore allowed her to pay with her life, and thereby become a testament to the rest of us as a pillar of salt.
The lesson for us is this: No matter how much we are aware of the difference between right and wrong in our societies—and no matter how much we love God's Truth—it is still very possible for us to become affected unknowingly by the worldliness in which we are enmeshed.
Should we therefore try to extricate ourselves physically from the modern world so as to live a godly life—perhaps like certain devout religious sects have attempted? Let Jesus Christ answer that:
I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth (John 17:14–17).
Jesus Christ did not intend that the called separate themselves physically and live as hermits in the wilderness. That would be taking us "out of the world." We must continue to live "in this world," but as true Christians avoid being "of the world." This is a key test of God's people. Because of the weaknesses in our own carnal minds—which have a natural proclivity to embrace the evils of Satan's culture—we must be ever diligent to guard against such insidious indoctrinations. God intends for us to face certain temptations and build the necessary character to resist being pulled in. Learning how to be "in the world" and yet not truly "of the world" is not always an easy delineation to make. It takes wisdom—godly wisdom through the Holy Spirit—to know how to traverse that narrow path and avoid falling into the ditch on either side.
As we evaluate ourselves in preparation for Passover, how much have we already been tainted in mind by the evils of this world? Are we really that much different than Lot? How much have we become calloused to the ever-increasing blatancy of sin around us by virtue of repetitive exposure? Remember the old adage about the frog in the pan of hot water? Toss a frog into a pan of boiling water, and he will immediately leap out of it. But start him in a pan of warm water and slowly turn up the heat to the same level, and he will sit still contentedly until he cooks to death. Why? Because the gradual increase of the heat is only subtly detected over time. So it is for each one of us as we continue year after year in a society where the heat of sin is slowly being escalated. When we compare things only in the short term, the level of sin today is not that much greater than last year. By degree, next year may only be a little bit worse than this year. But as asked earlier in this letter, how would our great-grandparents view the changes which have taken place over the last seventy years? How many years does it take for that slowly-escalating sin to come to the full in God's eyes? At what point will we be at the time in history where God judges this world to be as in the days of Noah?
But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be (Matthew 24:37–39).
The sins of this modern world are gradually filling to the full. Are we in a position to recognize objectively that steady escalation, or have we been lulled to sleep by the graduation of those degradations over several decades? Have we become numbed and nonplused by the things God Himself considers heinous? It is time we all evaluate more closely the ways we may have already allowed this world to affect us.
We have written in recent months to confirm the faith once delivered to the last-day Church on a variety of topics involving worldliness, like holidays, marrying in the church vs. outside, appropriate attire for men and women, make-up, diet, etc. These are all issues that are more outwardly discernable. How we each react to these revealed standards may be telling as to our current level of worldly saturation. If God's standards seem out-of-date and prudish, is that not a sign we have already absorbed someone's alternative standard of right and wrong? Are we really comfortable with that as the people of God?
But these outward issues are not the only ones we should examine. What about the television shows and movies we choose to watch? What about the books we read, the music to which we listen, people outside the church with whom we may choose to spend time, and other influences to which we subject ourselves? If we really stop to evaluate honestly, can we say before God, the things with which we are filling our minds are helping us avoid being "of the world"? Or are we making it even harder to keep our minds under control in these difficult times? We should not avoid these hard questions, even if it may require breaking some difficult habits to put away worldliness. An old Danish proverb purportedly says, "Though the bird may fly over your head, let it not make its nest in your hair." We each need to take responsibility for the influences we allow in our lives. We do have a great deal of volition in making these decisions.
The world we now live in is not going to prevail. The time is soon coming when this Satan-inspired society will come to a violent end.
And he cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, and the kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth are waxed rich through the abundance of her delicacies. And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of her plagues. For her sins have reached unto heaven, and God hath remembered her iniquities . . . Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her. And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning, Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come (Revelation 18:2–5, 8–10).
The people of the earth will wail and grieve for the destruction of a world they love so much. But as the most blessed people on the face of this planet, we have been called by God to come out of Egypt as manifested today in this Babylonian system. If we are taking our calling seriously, we must be urgent in evaluating our relationship to and our dependance upon that corrupt system. Will we also wail and mourn at the destruction of Babylon the way Lot's wife lamented for Sodom? Or will we take hold of ourselves now and rule these minds through God's Holy Spirit?
I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your [spiritual] service. And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God (Romans 12:1–2) [emphasis mine].
If we are focusing our minds on the right things, our hope will be found in the coming Kingdom of God—the spiritual Promised Land which awaits the Israel of God. We will not be obsessed with the luxuries of Egypt or Babylon, and idolizing the carnal things of our former lives. We have been called to be citizens of a very different empire.
For our [citizenship] is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself (Philippians 3:20–21).
Let us not be taken off-guard by the impending doom of Satan's world. Its end will be dramatic, and very sudden.
And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting, and drunkenness, and cares of this life, and so that day come upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch ye therefore, and pray always, that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man (Luke 21:34–36).
As we prepare once again for the Passover season, may we all take stock of our current level of attachment to this world, and renew ourselves in heartfelt appreciation for the hope of salvation God has granted us through knowledge of the new world that is coming very soon. Focusing on God's plan of salvation through His commanded Holy Days is an anchor that can help us avoid becoming captivated again by the deceitfulness of this world.
May you all have a very rich and rewarding spring Holy Day season.
| Your friend and devoted servant in Christ, |
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| Jon W. Brisby |
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