Broad meadows

In the last writing I wrote of much of the church not giving proper due to the Old Testament, with some leaders actually calling for getting rid of the Old Testament and others treating it as something irrelevant to our lives. Just dusty old history with basically everything pointing only to Christ therefore it has no prophetic value other than Christ.

This brings to mind the letter to the Ephesians that the Lord had the Apostle John to write in Revelation 2. The church was working hard, but had lost its first love. The church needs to realize that there is a profound amount of prophetic information in the history of Genesis and the rest of the law and prophets. My main fallout with my previous church revolved around this and what the implications were. In treating it as only history and not the profound prophetic story it tells, and not using it in a way that is consistent with what it claims about itself to better understand what is the most difficult book in the Bible to interpret, the book of Revelation, but actually leads it away from what Revelation and other parts of the Bible itself clearly states.

A good chunk of the book of Revelation is about the future history of the church. And when reading the letters to the seven churches, you see the churches of the Ephesians and in Smyrna were hardworking churches committed to Christ. The Ephesians, however had wandered from their first love. The threat from Christ was a removal of their lampstand. Presumably meaning they wouldn’t be part of His church anymore.

Other parts of the church has gone much further and not in a good direction. In Revelation 2, John writes that Pergamum and Thyatira were accepting sexual immorality, something that obviously is still considered sinful and to be abstained from by the context. They too were threatened with being rejected as part of the church. So how does the Bible define sexual immorality? Leviticus 18 gives the list of what is sexually immoral:

‘No one is to approach any close relative to have sexual relations. I am the LORD.
“‘Do not dishonor your father by having sexual relations with your mother. She is your mother; do not have relations with her.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s wife; that would dishonor your father.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your sister, either your father’s daughter or your mother’s daughter, whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your son’s daughter or your daughter’s daughter; that would dishonor you.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with the daughter of your father’s wife, born to your father; she is your sister.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your father’s sister; she is your father’s close relative.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your mother’s sister, because she is your mother’s close relative.
“‘Do not dishonor your father’s brother by approaching his wife to have sexual relations; she is your aunt.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your daughter-in-law. She is your son’s wife; do not have relations with her.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your brother’s wife; that would dishonor your brother.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with both a woman and her daughter. Do not have sexual relations with either her son’s daughter or her daughter’s daughter; they are her close relatives. That is wickedness.
“‘Do not take your wife’s sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living.
“‘Do not approach a woman to have sexual relations during the uncleanness of her monthly period.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with your neighbor’s wife and defile yourself with her.
“‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with an animal and defile yourself with it. A woman must not present herself to an animal to have sexual relations with it; that is a perversion.
“‘Do not defile yourselves in any of these ways, because this is how the nations that I am going to drive out before you became defiled. Even the land was defiled; so I punished it for its sin, and the land vomited out its inhabitants. But you must keep my decrees and my laws. The native-born and the foreigners residing among you must not do any of these detestable things, for all these things were done by the people who lived in the land before you, and the land became defiled. And if you defile the land, it will vomit you out as it vomited out the nations that were before you.
“‘Everyone who does any of these detestable things—such persons must be cut off from their people. Keep my requirements and do not follow any of the detestable customs that were practiced before you came and do not defile yourselves with them. I am the LORD your God.” Leviticus 18:6-30.

I would call special attention to the following: “‘Do not give any of your children to be sacrificed to Molek, for you must not profane the name of your God. I am the LORD.
“‘Do not have sexual relations with a man as one does with a woman; that is detestable.” Leviticus 18:21 & 22. It was predicted and it has come to pass. There are sections of the church that have accepted both abortion and same sex relationships and do so at the risk of losing all that they have worked for. That’s right, abortion is considered sexual immorality and murder. More on this topic in the next writing.