Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
by Elinor Montgomery
January 21, 2013
Is it possible to receive an ‘A’ rating on a test and yet fail the same test? Most of us would respond that this would not be a possibility, rendering the very purpose of the test pointless, if such could happen. Yet, I can assure you, it is not only a possibility, but a fact that an ‘A’ rating can also be a mark of failure.
Let me explain myself by relating to you a story I read about a magi or a magician who fell out of favor with his king and was sentenced to die. Using gold ink on purple parchment (no black and white for him), he wrote a note to the king, which read as follows: “My king, spare my life for a year’s time and I will teach your horse to talk, and if I do not succeed, then I fail, but if I succeed, then I have earned my liberty.”
Now, let’s not forget he was a magician who was speaking here and he was a ‘trickster’. Perhaps his name was Jacob, like Abraham’s grandson whose name meant ‘trickster’. The king agreed, believing it would be revealed to all just how much of a fool this man really was – magician or not.
A friendly duke confronted the magician, calling him exactly that, a fool, rather than a magician of the king, saying that it was impossible to teach a horse to speak. The wily magician merely replied, “I have gained a year of life and any number of things can happen in a year. For instance, either the king or I may die, and who knows for sure whether or not, in a year’s time, a horse may be rendered able to speak?”
This philosophy has turned our modern-day churches of religious Christianity into ‘A’ ratings, doomed to failure. They are churning out innocents, marked for the chopping block, believing that if they are the best they can be, doing more good than evil, that they will appear good in God’s eyes. They think they can tip His scales of judgment in their favor to receive an ‘A’ rating, not understanding that His judgment requires perfection for a passing mark. Only 100% will do, not 97%, 98% or even 99%. He requires perfection in man’s nature, in order to receive an ‘A’ rating from Him.
God gave the Ten Commandments as the guideline for His marking system and then proceeded to show us that not even Israel could receive anything other than condemnation in the Law. Adam and Eve had not been able to hide their shame from God in a cover-up, nor will their descendants of the human race be able to cover over imperfection with good works, the works of their own hands, to create a counterfeit for perfection, with imperfection.
It is popular in Christian church circles to teach that one can earn one’s way to heaven by doing good works, while demonstrating an attitude of tolerance for all the other religions of this world. The aim of such a doctrine is to move the world toward an all-inclusive plan for peaceful co-existence. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is no mention found in the Bible of a ‘good-old-boys’ club or a ‘good-old-girls’ club, other than perhaps that of the religious Pharisees whom Jesus labeled as being a den of vipers belonging to their father, the devil. Jesus said that He did not come to bring peace, but a sword (see Matthew 10:34).
Just a minute here! Did the Pharisees not have an ‘A’ rating in accordance with their being keepers of the Law? Did they not, symbolically speaking, teach the horse to speak? Not according to Jesus; they were nothing more than white-washed tombs on the outside with dead men’s bones on the inside. But were they not good men, you might argue, worthy of an ‘A’ rating by keeping the Law? According to Jesus, they were not good men, ‘old-boys-club’ or otherwise, as they shaped the destiny of a nation doomed to disappear for nearly 2000 years.
How about the Christian church today? Would Jesus recognize its doctrine of rewarding good works and promoting tolerance for all religions, by giving an ‘A’ rating to the men who make it the church of their choice, while ignoring the true church that stands on truth, giving out no such rating for any such doctrine? The true apostolic church has no options for choice, for there is only one church as the church of Jesus Christ. He has most definitely stated that He is the way, the truth and the life, and no one has access to the Father, except through Him (see John 14:6). He gives no option for multiple choices or multiple religions.
Those of the true church stand on the recognition of sin for what it is, confess it before God and, in man’s own inability and weakness, rest in the strength of Jesus to keep the Law 100%. The true church trusts in no good works of their own hands, but rather, in the hand of Jesus for entrance into the kingdom by way of the cross. There is no curve of rating on His way or path. The way is straight and the job of the true church is to call out to the lost to get off the curve and onto the straight path, which the Lord God has created through the spiritual seawaters of this world.
Man ignored just one commandment of God and ‘zap’; he was ensnared in the net of the seawaters, which would overcome him. He made one mistake, but that was all it took to be trapped in the pit of death. Being good could never cut away the ropes that bound him. Would you not be foolish to believe that a man can teach a horse to talk in one year? Maybe you can get some kind of reprieve in this world, but you still are bound by the ropes of death and there is nothing you can do about it, except be holy in 100% of your conduct; for God is 100% holy, not just partly so (see 1 Peter 1:15-16).
This is where Jesus comes in to save us from the condemnation of the Law, the nation Israel included. There is no Hebrew way to heaven and no Hebrew-only Messiah belonging to Israel, any more than He belongs to the Christians. All of them will put Him to the cross by building temples as ‘good-old-boys’ and ‘good-old-girls’ club houses, better labeled as religious service clubs for the ruler of this world, their father, the devil.
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the Lord. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9).”
Let’s see what God is really telling us! Is He not saying that, as sinful men trying to get to heaven in our own goodness, it is like trying to be a match for God’s holiness by pole-vaulting from earth into heaven? You can certainly practice your good works and win the Olympic, pole-vaulting, gold medal of this world, but no matter how great your performance and margin of victory, they will never pole-vault you from earth to heaven, to receive a gold medal from God for your performance. In fact, those practicing the witchcraft of the magician and his magic, have a greater likelihood of teaching the horse to speak than those, counting on their good deeds for an ‘A’ rating from God, receiving anything other than the mark of failure.
Reference: When the Best Isn’t Good Enough – page 1536 of the John C. Hagee Prophecy Study Bible.