(Ver 1.3) This is Part 2 in a very important Prophetic Bible lesson study series concerning the Satanic Agenda Designed to Attempt to Take Control of America as well as the Entire World. Today’s subject is focused on a very specific but significant part of the Satanic plan for Christians. Christians are being targeted in greater numbers today, much like we were when the church first began nearly 2000 years ago. It used to be widely taught in schools and universities that “those who fail to remember history are condemned to repeat it”. It is interesting that this was a quotation given by Winston Churchill in 1948. Since a great number of children in the world are not taught true history, our nations are living in the potential of great coming repetitions of the same past tragedies. There are too many young people that are unaware of major past events like World War II and the Holocaust. Students are certainly not taught about church history and the severe persecutions that they endured. But, as Christians we can clearly read about these coming recurrences of great trouble in the book of Revelation, Ezekiel, Daniel and others.

Today I will be teaching about Satan’s desire to silence the church. We will discover that Satan uses people of power in government as one of the primary methods to attempt to silence the church. If a Christian becomes uninvolved in the political system of a nation Satan has gained a great advantage at ending our voice. Today’s lesson will be split into 3 main sections with a short introduction and conclusion that can be read in succession or independently if desired. Here are the section titles:

1. INTRODUCTION
2. THE CHRISTIAN INVOLVMENT WITH POLITICS
3. PRAYING FOR OUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS
4. SATAN’S REPEATED ATTEMPT TO SILENCE THE CHURCH
5. CONCLUSION

If you are ready to begin, let’s get started.

INTRODUCTION

This Bible lesson series is not intended or purposefully designed to offend anyone, but I have been teaching the Bible long enough to know that this is what will occur with some truths no matter how much love is encapsulated within it. I’ve always been taught that it is not polite to discuss religion or politics at the Thanksgiving dinner table with your family. But these days it seems like if you don’t want to start a war and get a spit bath, we better just not bring up either subject to anyone at anytime. Isn’t that funny that this Bible lesson is about both topics.

Even people that call themselves Christians can easily be offended by the Truth of the Word of God that they do not know or understand. When Jesus walked the face of the earth, His spoken words of Truth offended His own neighbors and relatives (Mat 13:57, Mar 6:4), His Jewish leaders (Mat 15:12, John 8:52), His own disciples (John 6:61), and other people (Mat 15:12). This same pattern of offense continued to happen in the early church days of the Apostles Peter, James, John and Paul and has not ended. Let’s read one foundational confirming scripture that was written by the Apostle Paul:

Gal 4:16  Am I therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?

Speaking truth to people can be a perceived highly invasive force of opposition for those that are closed minded, resistant to change and satisfied with what they believe they currently know. We all need to evaluate our willingness and desire to want to hear and learn more truth and this begins with understanding that only God knows the entire truth. That means I don’t know it all as well as you don’t know it all, can we agree? Always remember what Jesus said in John 8:31-32 “if you continue in my Word, then you will be my disciples and then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free”. There are a lot of Christians today that must think that they are already completely free, but this would require them to know all the truth already. Do you know anyone like this?

The light of the Truth spoken in love is clearly hated by those that love darkness (John 3:19). God’s Word teaches us that the entrance of His Word brings people light to show us the way to life (Ps 119:105, John 5:24). However, a bright light of Truth is normally very upsetting to anyone that is in a deep spiritual sleep of moral corruption and deception. These types of Christians are called carnal because they are dominated by their fleshly nature instead of the Spirit (1 Cor 3:1). God commands these types of carnal Christians in Ephesians 5:14 to awaken out of their dark sleep. Please keep this warning in mind when reading this lesson. Besides the LORD, only the individual Christian can judge accurately if they are willing to learn more from God or choose to remain in their spiritual slumber. If this Bible lesson offends anyone, that could be a sign that Satan has already darkened their mind and taken them captive within his kingdom of darkness.

THE CHRISTIAN INVOLVMENT WITH POLITICS

I received a couple of criticizing comments on the first lesson that you can go and read if you like. It appears that there are some Christians that read the teaching of Part 1 in this Bible Series to be off limits when there are any current political applications of God’s truth which need to be addressed for today. I honestly believe that there are a significant number of Christians that are very ignorant of these subjects in the Bible and especially those Bible verses that are about politics. Please understand that in the Bible we will find a lot of God’s truth discussing politics, governments, kings, leaders, etc. Why would these subjects be unacceptable to teach on as it relates to modern politics, governments presidents, and right government leadership, etc.?   I believe Christians have bought into a lie of Satan if they believe they should not be taught in churches today about these very important subjects. Nothing should be off-limits if it is recorded in the Word of God.

This ignorance of the Word of God is a Satanic plan that he desires for all Christians to embrace so that they will not participate in exercising their God given authority over the political affairs of mankind. In the USA Satan has developed a masterful deception that he calls the “Separation of Church and State (Government)”. He came up with this politically correct name as a plan for removing the Church’s voice from the Government completely starting back in a Supreme Court Ruling in 1947. Satan does not want any DIVINE influence overruling his planned corruption for the coming one world government solution also popularly called the “New World Order” a term that originated after World War I coming from President Woodrow Wilson as he proposed a league of nations to help keep peace. But I first heard the term begin to be promoted heavily from a Republican President named George Bush on TV a little over 30 years ago.   These two Presidents were clearly being led by spirits that were not from God. But this is a plan of Satan to bring together the world under the deceptive promise of peace. If you notice I do my best to tell the truth about anyone regardless of the political party they are associated with. As I said in one reply to a criticizing comment, I am a Christian first and not a part of any political party system. I’ll stand with my God and His Bible over any political party.

Satan desires to remove God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, the Bible, real church Christians and the church pulpit from any involvement in political events. This is one of the key strategies of Satan to take control of ALL governments first and then all the people in the world next. Don’t believe me? Please read Revelation chapter 13 to begin before you continue further. Perhaps we will get to cover this chapter in more depth later in this series or in another series.

Back in 1954 a US Senator named Lyndon B. Johnson who just happened to be a Democrat who later became the 36^th President introduced an amendment for the US IRS taxation laws severely limiting the free speech of ALL church leaders and church organizations. This amendment stipulated that if you were a non-profit 501C3 designated tax-exempt organization, you were unable to endorse or oppose any political candidate. This amendment passed without any debate or opposition from either political party in the USA proving the presence of Satanic corruption was and still is embedded within both political parties. Of course, this was Satan’s plan and there are a lot of lawmakers listening to the wrong spiritual voices on both sides of the aisle.

For the past nearly 70 years pastors were preaching in fear of losing their tax-free non-profit designation if they taught anything about what God said about politics in a church. If the preacher endorsed one political candidate or party over any other that would be a clear violation of the US LAW. Wow, that is exactly what Satan wants, a SILENT church! This law was a clear violation of the right of “Free Speech” given to us by our Christian founding fathers in the U.S. Constitution. Thomas Jefferson would be rolling over in his grave if he knew how Christians have been removed from the US government. No one has challenged this silence law in court but if they did and the wrong activist judges were put into place, we would lose this right to voice our beliefs concerning right politics completely.

Recently there has been liberal cities that have started attacking church denominations, home groups and pastors. I heard of one church group that was meeting in a neighborhood home as a group and the city leaders passed laws to stop them meeting using zoning regulations. If only governments in the early church would have thought of this the early church would have never have been able to meet. One Church that I attended in Texas many years ago was attacked by the City Council. We were told that we MUST take down the big Red Cross on top of our Church building because it violated their sign ordinance. I agree that this Cross was a sign but not one that was covered by their law.

Maybe you heard one man running for US President recently threatening churches that he would remove their tax-exempt status if they did not remove their bias and hatred against a small unnamed group that promotes the adoption of 90+ gender designations and abominable sexual relations. This would require churches to permit men to use women’s restrooms and vice versa. This would force the acceptance of these types of sinful people into leadership positions to teach our children their message. These are just a few examples of how the extreme groups are trying to remove all church rights to our Bible beliefs in incremental measures.

A few very radical attorney generals have begun to request copies of every sermon that the preachers in their jurisdiction have preached to their people. They are looking for words spoken by the preachers that they can label as “hate speech” against unnamed false minorities or groups that they choose to label as a minority. Because of the vagueness of these laws almost any selected words could be turned out of context to be labeled as hate speech. These threats would close the doors of many churches and silence anyone that opposed people with a different opinion or belief.   Wow, this is happening right now. There is no way that this would have occurred 50+ years ago in America. I pray that you can see that opposition is growing significantly worse for people standing up with GOD’S TRUTH.

These are just some of the reasons why the Holy Spirit wants this lesson to be published. It is past time for churches and church leaders to stand up for the Truth of God found in the Bible and make sure they are helping teach their people to vote along God designed TRUTH principles, morals and values. Our God and the Bible have a lot to say about rulers, leaders, governments and politics. Let’s go over just a few for my non-political critics that believe I am biased when I teach this subject:

Mar 10:42 But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over (G757) the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them.

I’ll begin with this verse because it is clearly about governments, rulers and politics. The Greek word G757 that was translated as “to rule over” is a political reference to leadership and order. Strong defines this word “to be first” in rank or political order. You see a good government with order is a designed plan of God on the earth because of the need to control and limit the vast numbers of evil people used by Satan.   Fifty days after God delivered the people of Israel from the corrupt rulership government of Egypt, He gives them the law to at least attempt to limit the spread of evil within His nation called by His name. Many years later God implements a system of justice using judges and these judges ruled the people for 450 years (Acts 13:20). But people rebelled and demanded a king and God gives them Saul. After Saul God anoints David to be Saul’s chosen replacement. Then came many other kings some fairly good with others ranging all the way to very evil.   There is a lot more that I could say about these verses, but I’ll try to cover it in a parallel set of verses found in Matthew:

Mat 20:25  But Jesus called them unto him, and said, Ye know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them.
Mat 20:26  But it shall not be so among you: but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister;
Mat 20:27  And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant:

Let me ask you a serious question to begin. Was Jesus biased when he taught us about the subject of politics? That is what He is doing in these two passages found in Mark and Matthew. Jesus is teaching about two opposing types of governments and leaders using examples and descriptions. I don’t believe Jesus was biased except for His dedication to His Father and His Word. If that causes anyone to think that He is biased, then so be it. I believe I am in good company.

If we read the previous context of Matthew 20, we will discover a mother of two sons coming to Jesus to ask him a special political favor. This type of request is exactly what happens in governments today. This woman believes that Jesus will soon establish a new kingdom and she asks for her sons to be given highly favorable positions of authority. Does any of this sound familiar with what we hear in the news today? The subject is clearly governments, authority and power and who should rule in a higher position over someone else. Even though there was no bribe or threat being made in this request to Jesus, she was taking a natural human low road to try to manipulate and control the outcome and achieve this power for her sons.   Wow, if this is not current headline news, I don’t know if you are awake.

What was Jesus’ response to this request for power? Start with verse 25 and learn the contrast between a world Satanic government system and God’s righteous Kingdom system design. Let’s review the world ordered system. Jesus tells them “the princes of the Gentiles (world rulers) exercise dominion over people”.   The key word here is “exercise dominion”. This is the “modus operandi” of any world government being ruled by Satan. If you are unfamiliar with the Latin term “modus operandi” it simply means a standard and accepted “method of operation”. Satan is a follower of concepts, patterns and repeats the same things over and over if it is working for him.

Ok, back to “exercise dominion”. This Greek word G2634 means “to lord against” someone and can be further defined as a power that exercises control to subjugate the people by implied “force” removing their rights and freedoms. Every government in the world operates this way normally but some to greater extremes like North Korea, China, Iran, etc. This is the plan of Satan for the USA and your nation also no matter where you live. When the USA passed the Johnson Amendment, it was the implementation of a designed pattern by Satan to silence the voice of God on the earth.

However, subjugation and control by force are NOT how Jesus and the Bible teaches us about the Kingdom of God or how Christians should react to a message concerning His government at all. Jesus outlines the Divine Order of His Government in Matthew 20:26-27.   Jesus said if you want to be “great” (the highest, the most powerful, the greatest) in the kingdom of God, become a “minister” and a “servant” to everyone they are over. The Greek word translated as “minister” is G1249 and means “become a lowly attendant that runs errands”. And the Greek word G1401 translated as “servant” in verse 27 informs us the greatest leader will be the one that is the “slave” to those that are under them. Wow, that does not sound like very many of our elected Politian’s, does it yours?

Would you agree, if God’s designed good Government principles were in operation in our governments it would be a far better world? We do have this system to look forward to during the millennium reign of Jesus in Revelation 20. But, for now we are going to have to pray and allow the Holy Spirit to help restrain the evil that is attempting to rise.   Please learn from this Bible instruction given by Jesus to know which type of people that we should be voting for in our elections.   What are your leaders doing in your city, county, state or nation? Are they focused upon themselves almost entirely, their power, their ability to get rich and life is all about them? If you say yes, then that should be a major issue! If your elected leader is not your servant working for you, to make your life safer and more prosperous please vote differently next time for someone new.

I’ll attempt to make some Bible Truth points about the government of the USA for Christians to consider. Did you know that almost every law passed to give any benefit to an American citizen is designed to cause your dependence upon the government to allow them to control you? Also note that few if any of these benefits are participated in by those that passed the law! Lawmakers have their own retirement, not Social Security. Lawmakers have their own healthcare, not Obama Care, not Medicare, and not Medicaid. If it is not good enough for them why is everyone accepting it? Ask your leaders why something that is promised to be good for you is not acceptable for them? There are a lot of other examples but, you should get the point. Ask yourself, “Who is the servant to who?” Also ask, “Is this benefit making me their dependent slave and a servant of the government? Are these government benefits given to us to obtain our votes so that they can be elected to gain power but with the hidden design for eventually our total dependence and control.

We should ALL be able to see that there are so many elected leaders from both political parties in our nation that do not fulfill their promises made to get them elected.   These are untruthful leaders that mislead us with deception on a pathway into coming destruction. I know not everyone in politics is totally corrupt. I understand that for a good honest elected official it can be very difficult to get positive changes put in place because of all the corruption that is already present. I know there is at least one person in Washington that has been a man of his words. Perhaps you know who I’m speaking of?

There were good people who were exceptions of corrupt politics also found in the Bible. In Acts 13:22 God writes about King David as being a man that was after His own heart. It is amazing to consider the significant imperfections of King David and yet God still spoke very good about him. God blesses the good leaders past or present that are trying to serve like Him despite their imperfections. For example, please read Acts 8:27-30 and see how God sent a prophet to a political man of very high authority from a foreign government because he was seeking after God and His truth with his whole heart. This man was an Ethiopian (a powerful foreign Gentile government official) who came to Jerusalem to worship and learn about the True God. God sent a prophet to help him understand His Word and to preach the Gospel to get him saved and baptized.  That is a great God picked example of a good government man that desired to learn truth, God will bless this type of leader. Let’s vote for these types.

PRAYING FOR OUR GOVERNMENT LEADERS

1Ti 2:1  I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;
1Ti 2:2  For kings, and for all that are in authority; that we may lead a quiet and peaceable life in all godliness and honesty.
1Ti 2:3  For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Saviour;

I believe that every born-again believer should be praying for our government leaders. Also, the church should be praying and asking God who we should vote for before every election. We learn from these verses in 1 Timothy that there are three types of prayer that should be offered up, 1) Supplication (a Petition) (G1162), 2) Worship/Prayer (G4335) and 3) Intercessory Prayers (G1783). There must be a reason why God directs us to pray these three different methods of prayer for these people. I cannot teach the subject of prayer in-depth today. But I will give us a quick review of these prayer types. The first type of prayer mentioned is Supplication. This type of prayer is a legal court type of prayer and it simply means to appeal to the Supreme Judge to present your petition before the Supreme Court of heaven. The next type of prayer was just labeled as “prayer” in the KJV translation and it infers a type of worship to God as being the Supreme Source of the answer we are asking Him for. This type of prayer applies to the Prayer of Faith according to Matthew 21:22 and Mark 11:24 where the same Greek word was mentioned directly or by the derivative root word.

The last type of prayer is called “Intercession”, and this is a very specific request of someone going before the throne of heaven on the behalf of someone else other than the one praying. In this case it could be the intercession for a specific named individual leader in the government. All these types of prayer can and should be applied to the words spoken to God about the government as the Spirit of God leads us.

What if there are wrong godless people that were already elected, what do we pray for them? Obviously, we should still pray for them. But, what specifically should we pray for? Praying and interceding for people in authority whether good or bad should be one of our greatest priorities if we want to preserve our freedoms, rights and a peaceful existence. If we omit this, I believe we are allowing Satan to achieve his will through wrong leaders to attempt to silence us and take control of us.

Another great lesson about how the church should pray for a government official doing evil to them is found in Acts 12. Please, stop and read the entire chapter. I did not place the verses in this lesson because of the length. In this chapter you should have found one evil king named Herod that killed James and put Peter into prison to also be killed because it pleased the people under the king’s rule. This is another great early church example of an evil and wrong godless government and what could easily and potentially happen again soon to us in the modern Church.  In fact, it could be happening in your nation right now, since I have had readers in over 250 nations of the world.

If we read Acts 12:1 we will find a few important words to learn. The first is G5495 which was translated as “hands”. This word is a symbolic reference to a man that had great power. Power is an addictive force that causes even once good intentioned people to become extremely evil. Power is a like a drug addiction. Once it has entangled a politician’s life, the need for more and more becomes Satan’s controlling force. There is a popular quotation that claims, “Absolute power, corrupts absolutely”. If you are observant you will see this is true. The next Greek word is G2559 and was translated as “vex”. This word literally means to injure and do evil against someone like the church. This word speaks to the motivation of Satan to bring fear upon them through the exercise of his power.

In Acts 12:2 we find two more key words to view. The first Greek word is G337 and it was translated as “killed”. This again speaks to Satan’s motivation to eliminate the church. This Greek word means to take people away violently by force. It can literally be translated as “murder”. Murder is not a legal action for a government to take, but Satan does not always have to follow the law. The next key Greek word in verse 2 is G3162 and it was translated as “sword”. This is a Greek word that can be used figuratively for a judicial Verdict used against someone. This is exactly what took place against James the brother of John in this chapter. As the local King, Herod rendered a unjust verdict against a good man without a moral legal case or valid charge against him. Herod committed murder with the legal appearance of justice because of his power, authority and position. This is happening in the world today still.

In Acts 12:3 we learn something else that is extremely important. The Greek word G701 was translated as “pleased” and it means the people were happy and agreeable with his verdict of death for John’s brother James. This is also a pattern of power. People in power normally try to do things that make their subjected people happy.  But most of these are don so that they don’t cost them anything to give away. Did you hear what I just said? If the murder of a man pleases people and makes them agreeable, your ability to remain in power continues until enough people get fed up with the lies and revolt. Because it pleased his people this further motivated Herod to go and take Peter and put him in prison to kill him next.

Notice in Acts 12:5 that the church was in prayer for Peter. This is the exact same Greek Word G5335 that was used in 1 Timothy 2:1 for one of our 3 prayer types for our government leaders. Therefore, that is exactly what we should be doing right now. But then notice how God answered their prayers. While we are never specifically told what they prayed for or said to God, we can potentially learn from how God answered the prayer to apply how maybe we are praying differently than they did. I pray that we are on the same spiritual page of understanding.

First, God’s answer of their prayers sent an angel to get Peter out of prison in the middle of the night before he could have  been killed the next day (Acts 12:6). I believe that this was an example of God’s justice to an unjust imprisonment. I believe that whatever the people in the church prayed it brought about a change in natural justice by His higher courts of spiritual justice. Next, we read about something radical that happened. What happened to the unjust, unfair, evil king that was coming against God’s righteous people to please most of his followers? Did you see it? In verse 21, Herod is sitting on his throne in his fine royal robe giving a speech to the people and the people are claiming that he is a god. The next thing that happens is potentially the work of the same angel of the LORD that freed Peter. Whoever the angel is he strikes the evil king Herod down dead and worms ate his body. I think this must have been a different type of prayer meeting the church was conducting than what we have been praying based upon the divine answers given. Remember this is the church age when this occurs. This occur during the 2000-year time of God’s Divine Grace. Also remember the N.T. says 2 Peter 2:9 that “God is not willing that any should perish but all come to repentance”. Wow king Herod dropping dead appears to contradict a lot of the extreme Grace message, doesn’t it? There are no contradictions in the Word of God. The only contradiction is based upon our lack of understanding of the entire Truth.

No, Grace, Fair Judgment and Justice can co-exist and does every day in heaven. I do not have the time to teach this subject in the amount of detail that it deserves in this lesson. I pray that I will be able to teach this more in the future. I will wind down this topic with this thought, Peter wrote about God’s desire for man to come to repentance to change their evil ways. We also know that God has infinite knowledge of the future knowing the end from the beginning. God knew if the continuation of the life of Herod would only bring unjust persecution and deaths to His bride or if Herod would eventually repent in the future. Therefore, a prayer from the saints in the church for His justice may have resulted in the death of Herod, God knowing that he would never repent. It is possible that these church prayer warriors could have been petitioning God for Justice and for God to avenge them of the injustice being done. What are a lot of Christians asking God for today? Are you praying and asking God to only bless your enemy? Could that be resulting in more severe and unjust consequences for the church? Let me give you a prayer example that Jesus taught us. I believe this is important and should be considered in our modern prayer discussion:

Luk 18:1  And he spake a parable unto them to this end, that men ought always to pray, and not to faint;
Luk 18:2  Saying, There was in a city a judge, which feared not God, neither regarded man:
Luk 18:3  And there was a widow in that city; and she came unto him, saying, Avenge (G1556) me of mine adversary (G476).
Luk 18:4  And he would not for a while: but afterward he said within himself, Though I fear not God, nor regard man;
Luk 18:5  Yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her, lest by her continual coming she weary me.
Luk 18:6  And the Lord said, Hear what the unjust judge saith.
Luk 18:7  And shall not God avenge his own elect, which cry day and night unto him, though he bear long with them? 
Luk 18:8  I tell you that he will avenge them speedily. Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?

We know from verse 1 that this parable is about prayer and appears to be a type of prayer that not too many Christians are praying in the church today. I believe in this parable that God uses a contrast comparison in the parable to 1) a “Christian” praying to the “Just God who is the Supreme Judge” for a judgment against their adversary and this is contrasted with the opposite types of 2) the parable “widow woman” asking an “unjust human judge” for vengeance against her adversary.   The only common thread between the two opposing examples is that both plead to a court for justice and get their answer. Do you see it?

I’m going to go to the last verse next to help confirm that this is a prayer for the modern Church. We know that this parable is speaking of the New Covenant people in the church age because Jesus asks, “Nevertheless shall he (Jesus) find faith on the earth when I return”. Both translated words “He” in verse 8 should be capitalized. We know these “He” words, the first refers to “God the Father” who is also referred to as the “righteous judge” and the second “He” refers to the “Son of Man” also known as Jesus (God the Son). The “them” in this verse refers to saved Christian prayer warriors because only saved Christians have the potential to possess the type of faith that Jesus is coming back for and expecting to find on the earth at the termination of the church age. Ephesians 2:8 says by grace are we saved through faith…”. Ephesians 2:8 and Luke 18:8 have the same Greek Word G4102 translated as “faith”. Therefore, we know the type of faith that Jesus is seeking of is only found in the church saved Bible believer.

We know this parable is a contrast comparison of a good judge verses an evil judge because we can read verses 6 and 7. We know that in verse 6 there is a symbolic unjust judge. We know in verse 7 he is compared with the Supreme Just God. That makes the parable a contrasting comparison and not two judges of the same type, morals and character. Notice what Jesus said in verse 8 about how God will answer a prayer from a Christian that is asking for Him to avenge them of their adversary. Then remember, God is just, God is fair, God is all knowing, and God is all powerful and we are informed that He will avenge us speedily. Wow, isn’t God awesome? Let’s back up in the parable to a few other key words that need to be brought into our discussion.

One key word given here in this type of prayer is G1557. This word was translated into English as “avenge”. This word literally means a request for a verdict that gives our adversary “punishment that is inflicted upon them as vengeance for their wrong criminal unlawful acts” done to the one asking for the verdict. This Greek word literally means LORD GIVE ME JUSTICE for the wrong done to me. Wow, that is just a little different than how we normally pray, isn’t it? My main point is that this type of prayer is a valid type of New Covenant prayer for Christians even in the Church age of Grace since Jesus has not yet come to get us and take us out of this world. Therefore, since Jesus has not come to the earth looking for faith, we can pray this prayer example now.

Another key word found in this message from Jesus is the Greek word G476. G476 was translated as the English word “adversary”. This is a very important name and title for Satan in the N.T. This Greek word literally means “our spiritual opponent in a lawsuit”. It is only used 4 times in the N.T. and I believe every reference is to a legal matter in a court setting. It is also noteworthy that 1 Peter 5:8 written to Christians from God clearly defines who our adversary is and calls him the “devil” (Satan). Because we know this now it should dramatically change our method of praying for unjust evil situations on the earth.

Finally, please do not misunderstand what I am trying to say. According to Ephesians 6:12 we are not in a physical battle. We also know from Romans 12:19 that Christians do not attempt to get personal vengeance against anyone because God says this is His responsibility. Therefore, I believe that it means that we are normally not going to pray for God to kill any human. Ephesians 6:12 informs us that our spiritual battle is with Satan and spirits in the unseen realm. These spiritual beings are the source for all human conflicts of evil opposing good. Therefore, when we pray for God to avenge us of our adversaries, I believe the prayer is not directed at the natural people being used for evil even though God has the choice to answer this way if He sovereignly chooses.

My wife and I have recently started praying differently for God’s justice to be leveled against the workers of iniquity in our government. We learn from Psalm 89:14 that Justice and Judgment are the foundation principles of God’s throne. Therefore, we pray that God’s will (Justice and Judgements) that are done in heaven be carried out here on the earth as Jesus taught us to pray in Matthew 6:10.   We pray and petition heaven for justice for the people of God that are being persecuted, lied about, unjustly condemned, imprisoned and killed by governments to be given fair justice. Please be radical and join us in this corporate type of request for justice if you believe the Lord is leading you to do the same. Please don’t just pray this because I asked, this is between you and the LORD only.

Ok, I probably offended a lot of people that call themselves a Christian already. But that is OK, people did not call me to teach the Bible, and I do not teach the Bible to satisfy anyone but God to who I will give an account and be judged for what I have said. If you are not happy with what I believe the LORD has given to me to say, please go seek and read whatever your eyes desire to see. God promised that we will each individually find whatever we desire and are specifically asking, seeking and knocking for (Mat 7:7). However, in this promise God does not promise that what we will be seeking to find will be the truth. God only promised if you seek evil you will find evil, if you seek good you find good, if you seek lies you will find lies and if you seek truth you will find truth. I pray that you are understanding.

I would strongly suggest that our prayers to God begin by asking Him to reveal His truth whatever it is to us. Pray and ask God to open our eyes and ears to understand His truth. Then we must expect Him to answer.  I’ll leave this section discussion with a reference to this type of prayer being prayed in the book of Revelation by people that were left on the earth after the rapture occurred. These people became radically saved and were severely persecuted by Satan even unto death:

Rev 6:9  And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
Rev 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Is it possible that this type of prayer was what was prayed at the beginning of the church when James was killed unjustly, and Peter was about to be killed unjustly? In fact, remember this is the time when Stephen was also unjustly killed in Acts 7 and many church members were being imprisoned unjustly by Saul of Taurus. Why not plead the blood of Jesus for the injustice being done and cry out for heavenly justice? Can you tell me what is wrong with that type of prayer based upon what we have learned so far? That is enough about a potential new way to pray. Let’s move on to a new subject of our political discussion.

SATAN’S REPEATED ATTEMPTS TO SILENCE THE CHURCH

It was Satan’s plan in the early church to shut the mouths of those that taught the truth about Jesus. If this message of truth got out to ALL the world, Satan could potentially lose his powerful control of mankind. Therefore, he is highly motivated to stop the spread of the message of Jesus to the world. This plan was recorded in the Bible and documented in early church writings. These strategies have not ceased to occur even today. We can observe this in so many nations of the world. Open Christianity has been outlawed in nation after nation. Bibles have been outlawed and not allowed to be taken into many nations. It has almost become a crime to mention the Bible in any public school in America to chilren. Why is this? What threat does a peaceful and loving real Bible believing Christian with their Bible present to Satan? Think about that! What harm is given to anyone by sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ? Satan is obviously very fearful of this message of love, grace and forgiveness and he is using people with power to try to silence it with laws, threats and violence. There are numerous nations where Christians are literally imprisoned because of their faith. There are also many other nations where they are literally slaughtered. Almost none of this is reported by the current news media. I wonder why? What spirit do you believe these news organizations are being led by?

These physical, mental, emotional and legal attacks used to potentially silence Christian people come from many religious and non-religious people in authority. We can read in the Bible that even those in the government specifically came against Christians and this movement is growing today.   Many times, these attempts of evil were based upon false accusations before unjust, unbalanced and unfair kangaroo courts. Perhaps some may not understand what a kangaroo court represents. This is a court setting held by a group of people in power in order to place someone on trial to find them as a fixed “guilty” especially without any appropriate evidence. In other words, the verdict was already predetermined before the trial began. The trial and predetermined outcome was just the faked appearance of justice for the punishment phase also predetermined.  Wow, this is happening right now in our Congress. Using these methods of unlawful convictions, the threats of imprisonment and even death are legitimatized by an unjust legal verdict removing the need for evidence or the due process of law. People in the early church were being convicted based upon hearsay and false testimony (Mar 14:56). These tactics have not changed from the early days of the church. We can observe this going on today right in front of our eyes.

It is increasing today that threats of evil come against anyone that will stand-up for the truth and whatever is honest, right, just and good. We can clearly see this in the world today if we do not have our heads figuratively buried in the sand. One group of growing extremism is calling those that do not agree with them very accusatory false names like “liars”, “haters”, “bigots”, “racists”, “Fascists”, “Nazis”, “Russian Agents or Spies” and other misguided untruthful accusatory names designed to destroy their character and reputation. But God warns us about this tactic many times in His Word.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:25, “If they have called the Master of the House, Beelzebub, how much more them of His household”.

We will in this part of the study dig deeper into detail on one chapter of the Bible (Acts 4) and then I will give an overview comparison of this to another chapter (Rev 2) example of how Satan repeats the same plans over and over against Christians. Acts 4 contains some of the most relevant tactics of Satan that are still being used in modern times. We will be able to observe how the Holy Spirit recorded events at the beginning of the church that are still repeating today at the end of the church. Almost everything in human history goes in repetitious cycles. Let’s observe one of the first recorded persecutions of the disciples of Jesus after He arose from the dead and ascended into heaven. We will be focused upon chapter 4 of the Book of Acts.

But before we go into a verse by verse detail, it is advisable for us to go back and read chapter 3 first, in order to find the context of chapter 4. When we do this, we learn how Peter and John were seen entering the Jewish temple in Jerusalem through a gate called “Beautiful” where a lame man sat daily. Everyone knew this lame man because he was there begging constantly for years since he was young. The lame man looks upon Peter and John expecting a coin gift and Peter says, “silver and gold we have none today, but what I have I give you in the name of Jesus get up and walk”. That was my paraphrase. The lame man received his strength to walk and went leaping into the temple praising God greatly. Wouldn’t you do the same? It is obvious that this got the attention of a lot of people and Peter begins to preach Jesus to everyone. Many even believed the message. Now we get to chapter 4 and the work of Satan in the mind of the religious leaders and rulers of the people that were also present.

Act 4:1  And as they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, 

Acts 4:1 begins by describing the governing class of ruling elite politicians that entered the temple where the Jesus Bible lesson was being given out by Peter. This group of individuals were ranked in varying degrees of power and divided by varying degrees of bias based upon different beliefs. This sounds very much like the US Congress and Senate to me. For example, we have the High priest that was of the most powerful ranking official class to be present. This we could analogized to be like the Speaker of the House or the Senate Majority leader. Then we have sublevels of authorities of members of the synagogue mentioned below the High Priest named as “captains”. These were high ranking governor like individuals in the temple that could be analogized to be like the powerful committee chairs in the House of Representatives and the Senate. I hope you understand the comparisons being given. I did not write the book of Acts; I’m only reporting the truths that still applies and are parallel truths seen today in one government. Your government if you are from another nation probably has similar power levels of organization. Please, understand that I am NOT saying the US House and Senate is a Jewish Synagogue. I am only comparing the organization levels given by God to what still exists today.

Then notice the fact that there is one type of major political party that was directly named to be present called the “Sadducees”. I labeled this group to be analogous to a political party because that is exactly how it fits in the discussion of the Bible. This group of men followed common leaders, teachings and beliefs that were separate and opposed to another type of political group of leaders, beliefs and teachings called the “Pharisees”. We can read in Acts 23:6 how Paul uses the differences between these two belief groups as a basis for his legal defense. These truths are very parallel to what we have in the United States with our two dominate political parties called the “Democrats” and the “Republicans”.

The differences in Sadducee and Pharisee beliefs could be labeled as their “party platform”. A “party platform” is nothing but a list of beliefs, values and actions that a group publishes for people to garner support from likeminded people currently in or not in their organization. The Sadducees had a set of beliefs that are documented in the Bible and the Pharisees beliefs are also listed in the Bible. If you go on the internet you can read the Democrat Party Platform and the Republican Party Platform, and I highly recommend that you do this before you vote for anyone. These opposed belief statements from the Bible are parallels of truths to modern times. It is outstandingly amazing if you go and read and study this in the Bible.  By voting for a political party you are aligning yourself with their moral standards and beliefs.  This makes you one of them by association and this is what happened in the Bible with the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Which side people selected to be on was their own personal choice.

Act 4:2  Being grieved (G1278) that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 

Verse 2 says these elite leaders were in “anguish” with what was happening in their temple. Isn’t that amazing that they were not super excited about the great miracle that God had just performed? This miracle could be seen with their own eyes and by everyone that entered the temple for years! No, this Greek word translated as “anguished” means they were “worried”. What could they be so worried about? This is still the identical motivation of elite leaders today. These men were very apprehensive about potentially losing their position of power, respect and authority. They know that a miracle occurred, but they also knew that they personally had not done anything to make it happen. So now they realized that they were not going to receive the honor or the praise for it being done. Do you remember that Herod in Acts 12 did not give God the glory when people said he was a god? Aren’t these Jewish leaders in Acts 4 doing the same thing? Why weren’t they struck dead? I notice there was no prayers going up to heaven in this chapter, but that is enough of that subject for now.

Therefore, I believe that these Jewish leaders in Acts 4 thought a new leader named Jesus may take away their position of influence and power. Worry is a fear-based emotion of a potential shift of their power to be taken away from them and given to the name of “Jesus” that was being taught and believed upon by people that concerned them the most. Remember all these new believers in Jesus were previously dependent upon the Jewish leaders for their religious provisions. But now they were looking to Jesus. This is exactly what is happening in our world of politics today. There are people on both sides of every political system living in constant fear that they will lose their powerful position if people like or can get more from someone else that is better than what they can provide.

Here is something else that was greatly bothering the mentioned political party of the “Sadducees”. These people did not believe in the resurrection from the dead. Peter was teaching something that contradicted their teachings and this demeaned, degraded, humiliated their beliefs, teachings and positions. Peter said Jesus of Nazareth that they had killed was raised from the dead and by His name was this lame man made whole. Can you see the analogy being applied to today’s politics?

Many Christians today, are teaching what some politicians think is a revolting message that when a woman is pregnant that this is not a blob of lifeless tissues, but rather he or she is a living and developing human child that is a separate and a new life apart from the mother’s life. The mother is just the container vessel and supplier of nourishment for the developing new boy or girl. This truth offends people who believe they can kill this child right up until and now after they are born. The same types of God Bible truth subjects that were offending people back then in the early church are still very offensive to people now.

Act 4:3  And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold (G5084) unto the next day: for it was now eventide. 

We are up to verse 3 now. Immediately after hearing what was being taught about Jesus and how this lame man was healed Peter and John were seized by force and put immediately in prison without a trial or any legal due process. Wow, wow and wow again. Could this be happening again today in the USA? Did you hear what one political party said lately? A few of them were asking who could we get to go into the White House and put our President in jail? It doesn’t seem to matter that there was no crime, no trial or no legal due process. They just said go throw him in jail because we don’t agree with what he is saying and doing, and he must be doing something illegal. Can you read the Bible and tell me this is not a parallel of events happening again with the exact same desired outcome being expressed because of a differing belief system? I pray that we all wake up very soon. I believe that our God wrote these things in the Bible for such a times as this. Let’s read verses 4 through 7 next.

Act 4:4  Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.
Act 4:5  And it came to pass on the morrow, that their rulers (G758), and elders, and scribes,
Act 4:6  And Annas the high priest, and Caiaphas, and John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the kindred of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem.
Act 4:7  And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, By what power, or by what name, have ye done this? 

Verse 4 through verse 7 are the beginnings of the mock trial designed to search for a crime to condemn the good men of GOD! The trial looks so good and honest on the surface. The main problem is that there are nearly 5000 people that believed the teachings of Peter and John and these ruling class elite leaders must be very careful what they do and how they do it. Whatever is done by these rulers must take on an outward appearance of being legitimate, just, legal, fair and right. Otherwise there could be a revolt against them to cause a rapid loss of their power. That sounds so familiar.

Verses 4 and 5 list the judges by name. Do you think I should do that today? I try not to use names to be less offensive, but God does not do this. I think wise and informed Christians know what God is talking about in this lesson. The unnamed key players in today’s modern mock trial are looking for a crime to remove their hated elected leader very similar to Peter and John two of the founding fathers of the Church of Jesus Christ. Is any of this news being accurately reported on in the unnamed news organizations?

Verse 7 informs us the prisoners were brought out of the jail and set before the judges and the questioning begins to find something to accuse them of. Like I said before, this is nothing but an attempt in Acts 4 to investigate in order to search for any possible accusation that could be leaked to the press and spread to the people to justify the death of Peter and John. Peter and John were asked a very direct question of their authority to do this miracle. There is an implication that they were out of line and possibly abusing this authority.   The parallels are amazing. Now Peter is permitted to testify and answer the question.

Act 4:8  Then Peter, filled with the Holy Ghost, said unto them, Ye rulers (G758) of the people, and elders of Israel,
Act 4:9  If we this day be examined (G350) of the good deed done to the impotent man, by what means he is made whole;
Act 4:10  Be it known unto you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom ye crucified, whom God raised from the dead, even by him doth this man stand here before you whole.
Act 4:11  This is the stone which was set at nought of you builders, which is become the head of the corner.
Act 4:12  Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.
Act 4:13  Now when they saw the boldness of Peter and John, and perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marvelled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus. 

In verse 8 we read that Peter was filled with the Spirit of God and is permitted to answer in his defense. Let’s move to verse 9. Peter reveals that they are being “examined” for doing something “good” to a lame man.   This Greek word G350 translated as “examined” means to be “interrogated”, “investigated” and even “judged” for doing something miraculous to a man that gave praise to God for his miracle.

I’m going to readdress the motivation of the leaders. I already believe that they were acting in the fear of losing their power, but what else could they lose? If Jesus could heal, save and forgive people they were no longer needed. Peter very clearly says that he was being asked by what means the lame man was healed and this implies the rulers were very concerned that the common people of that day could view this good act as not coming from them and this made them look unneeded. Again, this is like a loss of their power and an end to control of the people under their rule. If people look to politicians or even religious leaders as their savior, source and supply for their human needs, they are under their control. But if these people looked to Jesus or anyone else as their source and supply for their needs to be met then their power is removed.  Do you understand the comparison to what is happening now within the USA politics? Which political party wants to give away everything for free? How does all of this modern free stuff correspond to the Word of God and the promises made to Christians? If Christians only depend upon God, politicians become unnecessary.

Verses 9 through 12 contain the description of Peter preaching the Good News of Jesus Christ to the leaders of Israel. However, this message was not received as Good News because it threatened their powerful position of prestige.   If only political leaders then and now would be humble enough to give someone else the glory for them doing something good to or for someone else, what a more heavenly like place, we would live in.

Notice what verse 13 says. Verse 13 begins with “When they saw the boldness of Peter”.   This Greek word G3984 is amazing. This Greek word is defined by Strong as “all out spokenness”, which in other words means to not be intimidated by the power of the leaders to speak bluntly, boldly and very frank to them. It implies Peter was speaking with great confidence to very educated leaders while they knew he was not educated to their levels. Wow, again and again. Is this what is happening today? We have a President that is without fear, very bold, very blunt and to the point and is not afraid of any charge being attempted against him by educated men who most went to big law schools. I know he is not Peter, but the parallels here in the Bible are not given to us by a coincidence.

We know from reading this account the religious elite leaders looked down on Peter and John as being inferior outsiders. We can clearly see the superior attitude being displayed by them throwing Peter and John into their prison. Now think about what is happening in Washington D.C. today. We have a lot of highly educated leaders that believe they are above the President in status because he has never been elected to anything before, didn’t study and get a big law degree and is not a part of their secret club. They are clearly very fearful of a man that does not play the system and is not dependent upon powerful controlling interests given to control him. Remember when a man offered Peter money for the ability to lay his hands-on people to give them the Holy Ghost? What did Peter say to the man? Peter simply said, “Your money perish with you…” (Acts 8:20). That does not sound very politically correct or Presidential does it? Does it even sound like a Grace Teacher today? I don’t think so. These words of Peter would have been a highly offensive tweet in today’s standards.

If you are offended by the comparisons being made here, I am not going to apologize for it, because they did not come from me. I believe that it was the Holy Spirit that gave me this lesson that you should be concerned with. Stop, pray and ask the Holy Spirit to show you the truth.   He will do it if you listen to Him.

Act 4:14  And beholding the man which was healed standing with them, they could say nothing against it.
Act 4:15  But when they had commanded them to go aside out of the council, they conferred among themselves,
Act 4:16  Saying, What shall we do to these men? for that indeed a notable miracle hath been done by them is manifest to all them that dwell in Jerusalem; and we cannot deny (G720) it.
Act 4:17  But that it spread (G1268) no further among the people, let us straitly threaten (G546) them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.

I find verse 14 an amazing fact of Bible truth. When the unsaved world is faced with a real known miracle standing right in front of them with many witnesses to confirm the miracle, there is not much they can say publicly against it. The truth makes people either be silent or they can change the subject to detract from the good done by someone using distracting untruths. This is what is happening in our political world. One political party cannot admit the good that someone has done for the nation, so they detract from that with other subjects that make him look bad.

Let’s move to verse 15 now. Notice when a public statement is not good to be mentioned because of the advantage it gives to the one that did good, they are forced to leave and begin to plot behind their backs in private to come up with Satan’s next steps to take. This is also happening in the House of Representatives in recent months. It is a game that they believe we are stupid enough to believe. Of course, there are a large number that do agree with it.

We are given limited insight into the elite ruler’s private conversations and planning session in verses 16 and 17. They begin by asking the same question that is being asked today about our President “What can we do to these men?” Wow, things have just not changed. Remember I have said this before, but God’s Word teaches us “The thing that has been is that which shall be again; and that which was done is that which shall be done again; there is nothing new under the sun” (Ecc 1:9). Almost all human history repeats itself in patterns again and again. Why is this? Primarily because of a spiritual being that has been here on the earth since the first man was placed in the garden. Satan knows exactly what will work because most humans are unaware of what has already occurred in previous generations.

In verse 17 the leaders come to the final decision in the next phase of Satan’s plan. This was a secret agreement that they will all in unison threaten these good men and command them not to speak any more about this name. This is a very common tactic of Satan led extremism in the USA and probably where you live. If an extremist cannot win the argument with truth, reason and logic, then the only means at their disposal becomes loud orders and violent threats for any non-compliance in the future. If anyone speaks the truth but it does not agree with the popular beliefs of the ruling majority, power is wielded against the speakers to administer threats against them.

This Greek word (G546) that was translated as “straightly threaten” literally means to be “a menace” towards someone.   To be a menace simply means to be a person that is likely to harm another by threatening danger and injury to them. Remember who was talking to them! These menaces were the people that had recently condemned Jesus to die on the cross and He was guilty of absolutely nothing. Do you think they should be taken seriously? Peter and John certainly knew who they were speaking to.

Let’s move on now to how the plan of Satan was carried out. We will also be proving that this was the devil that was carrying out his plan through these ruling elite men:

Act 4:18  And they called them, and commanded (G3853) them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus. 

In verse 18 the accused men of God are brought before the kangaroo high court again to hear what was privately decided concerning them. After entering the court room, they are immediately commanded NOT TO SPEAK at all in the name of Jesus. The Greek word translated as “commanded” in verse 18 is a very fascinating confirmation of the devil’s work being involved here against Christian voices. This Greek word is G3853 (parangelos) that is derived from the combination of G3844 (para) and G32 (angelos). The first Greek root word G3844 means to be “near” or “beside” as in someone or something that is standing beside someone else. Now ask this question who is being stood by and what or who is it that is standing near them? The next root Greek key word will reveal this “who is standing near” to the rulers is G32 (angelos). This Greek word is normally translated as “angel” in the N.T. and it means a messenger. We all should know that there are both good and evil “angelos” in the Bible.   Wow, this knowledge should turn on some light bulbs in our brains if we know a few related Bible verses.   For example, 2 Corinthians 11:14 teaches us, “Satan is transformed into an angel (G32=angelos) of light”. Now we must understand who is doing the speaking here to figure out who this angelos is standing beside! The answer to who this angel is standing by we can find is the leaders and rulers of the Jewish synagogue that are judging in a legal trial against Peter and John. Let me give you another very key and important set of Bible verses that confirms what is happening in Acts 4:

Rev 2:9 I know your affliction and distress and pressing trouble and your poverty–but you are rich! and how you are abused and reviled and slandered by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.
Rev 2:10 Fear nothing that you are about to suffer. [Dismiss your dread and your fears!] Behold, the devil is indeed about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested and proved and critically appraised, and for ten days you will have affliction. Be loyally faithful unto death [even if you must die for it], and I will give you the crown of life.

Jesus speaking to Christians in the church of Smyrna are being commended for enduring the trials being placed upon them, by who? Notice the six identical components found in Acts 4 to the story being revealed to us in Revelation 2. There are 1) Christians in both, 2) there is persecution/tribulation done against Christians in both, 3) there is prison in both examples, 4) there are Jewish leaders directly stated as judges in Acts 4 and implied to be judges implementing the tribulations in Revelation 2, 5) there is a synagogue where these mock trials are occurring in both and 6) there is a direct reference to Satan being the angelos (G32) of evil in both. Do you think this is a coincidence? Most intelligent Bible scholars will say there is no such thing as “coincidences” in the Bible, there are only “God designed incidents” given for us to discover. Praise the LORD! This information appears to confirm the repetition of the same strategies of evil against good people in both chapters.

Who were these Jewish men in Acts 4 imprisoning and placing on trial? They are speaking directly to Peter and John (two of the Christian foundations of the church). We know the church of Smyrna are just believers in the same church. Therefore, we understand who the good people are because they are on God’s side (Peter, John, church). What was the message of the Jewish men in Acts 4? Was the message a good work and word from God about God?   Obviously NOT, since the Jews were demanding “never preach in the name of Jesus anymore to any man”. It is very clear to me that the Jews in Acts 4 were being used by the wrong messenger (angelos) who was bringing them a warning from Satan telling them to shut up about teaching the name of Jesus. Can we agree that Acts 4 is an early attempt of Satan to silence the Church and it is a very similar pattern to what Jesus said about the church in Revelation 2?

Are not these plans, schemes and tactics happening after the death burial, resurrection and ascension of the LORD Jesus? Hasn’t Satan already been defeated? Yet, Christians are still being persecuted and tribulation is still a part of the people’s life in the church!   Is it possible for this to reoccur again today? Not only is it possible it is happening. This is amazing, this is exactly what is happening today in our world. We can learn from this story that this is one of the primary tactics of how Satan is working in modern times. Let’s finish our chapter in Acts 4:

Act 4:19  But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
Act 4:20  For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard.
Act 4:21  So when they had further threatened them, they let them go, finding nothing how they might punish them, because of the people: for all men glorified God for that which was done.

Back to Acts 4:19, Peter and John answer back the command to be silent with a very bold declaration. They said, “Whether it be right in the eyes of God to listen to your words more than unto God, you judge”. Wow, what wisdom God gave these men to speak to judges that were supposed to be fair to them and do what is right based upon God’s law. Then they continued with, “For we cannot, but speak the things which we have seen and heard”. In other words, they said “We can’t lie or be silent just because you say to”. I’m not going to compare the wisdom of our President to the wisdom of these two Spirit filled men named, Peter and John. But, the boldness of the president to speak what he sees and hears is amazingly similar against the other political party’s attempt to silence him and remove him from office by force. Our president is far from a perfect man but thank God that He still uses people like that to accomplish His purpose. You can find it over and over and over in the Bible. If God could not use imperfect people, I would NOT be able to teach the Bible, because I have made a lot of mistakes in my life.

I have never seen any president accomplish more positive things in the face of overwhelming resistance, rebellion and injustice in my life. If you don’t agree, that is your choice. I would recommend that you research the accomplishments before you pick up stones to throw at him. No other president has placed more conservative judges in the federal courts than he has. No other modern president has done as much for the nation of Israel as he has. No other president has done as much for saving unborn indefensible children than he has. Also, this president has given an order against the Johnson Amendment to be ignored. Therefore, Christian leaders are free to preach political truths without the fear of losing their non-profit status. That is God, believe it or not. Even if you are a little baby Christian these accomplishments are enough to give God praise for.

By verse 21, Peter and John were finished tweeting their response to Satan (that was just a joke but I’m sure it offended someone). Please lighten up and put down your stones. See some humor in what is being taught here it will help it go down better. Anger only cause hatred, strife and division. But we can see in verse 21 that Satan was not done tweeting back at them and he had more threats of violence that will be carried out if they do not learn to agree, conform, shut up and obey. The Greek word translated as “threatened” is the same word G4324 we looked at earlier and it still means “to menace”. That is a demonic characteristic if I have ever heard one. John 10:10 says, “The thief comes only to kill, steal and destroy…”. That verse is a perfect description of what a menace does to a human.

CONCLUSION

There is so much more to learn from the Bible on this subject of God and politics as it relates to power that is used by Satan to try to silence God’s people. I would recommend that you go through the Gospels accounts of the trial of Jesus to see the strategies of how Satan plotted to constantly try to trap Jesus into saying something that could be used to accuse him. Then discover the plan to capture Jesus in the secret of night and take him before a fake court trial with witnesses that could not agree. Then there are the hearings before the Roman Governor Pilate to be executed. Learn how the crowd put pressure on the Governor to kill Jesus even allowing a bad man named Barabbas to be freed. Please go read this story because it could happen again to someone you know.

There are also many more chapters in Acts that God gave to us about the strategies that Satan is trying to reuse today to silence the Church. I would recommend that you go read each one where there is a mock trial that takes place, any unjust imprisonment of a teacher of the Word of God, look for anytime when someone is stoned or killed and look up the words that are selected by God in Greek dictionaries like Strong’s. There is so much written on this subject of Satan working through political leaders to come against righteous believers that we can’t cover it all in one Bible lesson. But that is all I am going to teach on this subject for now.

I thank you for taking the time to read and study the Bible with me today. I pray for my readers and ask God to bless you with the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. I thank you if you do the same for me and my family. I welcome your comments and prayers. God Bless you and keep you until next time.

If you would like to continue reading in the series please go to “Part 3‘.