Recently somebody who went by the name of "Refiner's Fire" (ironically) condemned my writing style as a stumbling block:
Did you plant the seed of "truth" in this person, or did you turn this person away with your words? Yes, I know people need to hear the "truth", but how can they, if they are getting nailed across the head with a 2x4 by your writing style?
Have you never read where Paul, like Yeshua, must have offended some? "Have I therefore become your enemy because I tell you the truth?" (Galatians 4:16).
There are plenty of others who write in a more gentle style. That is their prerogative. I don't speak against their approach, since the Bible basically teaches "different strokes for different folks." After all, tough love is tough love.
Have you never read where Yeshua spoke of how some will make up any excuse under the sun regardless of the effort to reach them, whether we dance for them or mourn?
Luke 7:31-35
31"To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other:
" 'We played the flute for you,
and you did not dance;
we sang a dirge,
and you did not cry.' 33For John the Baptist came neither eating bread nor drinking wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' 34The Son of Man came eating and drinking, and you say, 'Here is a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and "sinners." ' 35But wisdom is proved right by all her children."
If somebody is of God, or being called by God, they can get good and angry like Herbert W. Armstrong did with his wife with her seventh day Sabbath "fanaticism" -- mad enough to check it out, which he did, and then he saw she was right! And he was humble enough to admit it and submit to it and turn from pagan Sunday to the holy Sabbath.
My responsibility is to share the plain truth of the Bible as God has given me to understand it. How folks respond to the plain truth is not my responsibility. It is between God and them. That being said, I believe the time of "soft spoken" ministers is about up, and that we need more refining fire ministers (not dying embers) or refining fire servants of God (not dying embers) willing to turn over a few tables and kick a few chairs and drive out some men and animals from the Temple courtyards with a whip in hand, turning heads and raising eyebrows, as necessary.
The Two Witnesses of Revelation 11 certainly won't speak in pretty platitudes and the whole world will hate their guts and wish them dead! Those who simply want to hear smooth things will continue to hear smooth things from their false prophets and lying ministers.
Isaiah 30:9-11
9 These are rebellious people, deceitful children [1 John 2:4],
children unwilling to listen to the LORD's instruction.
10 They say to the seers,
"See no more visions!"
and to the prophets,
"Give us no more visions of what is right!
Tell us pleasant things,
prophesy illusions.
11 Leave this way,
get off this path,
and stop confronting us
with the Holy One of Israel!"[by replacing him with a Gentilized Jesus, a counterfeit gospel and a different spirit]
2 Timothy 4:3-4
3For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. 4They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths [like Christmas and Easter].
Since our countries are incurring the wrath of God, and soon will suffer divine punishment for our pagan holidays like Christmas pretending to be Christian -- part of our national idolatry and immorality we must confess and forsake to avert a nuclear holocaust -- it's time to love and obey God and:
Isaiah 58
1 "Cry aloud, spare not; Lift up your voice like a trumpet; Tell My people their transgression [the Church and Synagogue], And the house of Jacob [the family of Israelite nations - all Twelve Tribes of Israel] their sins. 2 Yet they seek Me daily, And delight to know My ways, As a nation that did righteousness, And did not forsake the ordinance of their God. They ask of Me the ordinances of justice; They take delight in approaching God.
Folks who continue in their pagan ways and hollow days will be left without excuse. God won't go for the lame excuse, "Well, we didn't appreciate how folks like David Ben-Ariel came across." God will simply say, "Why weren't you like the noble Bereans and look and see if these things were so and act accordingly?"
Acts 17:11
11Now the Bereans were of more noble character than the Thessalonians, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
Enough excuses!
Revelation 3:19
As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and repent.
David Ben-Ariel is a Christian-Zionist writer and author of Beyond Babylon: Europe's Rise and Fall. With a focus on the Middle East and Jerusalem, his analytical articles help others improve their understanding of that troubled region. Check out the Beyond Babylon blog.
