The Rapture of the Church is getting closer by the day.  There aren’t any events that must precede it, and the way things are heating up in the Middle East, I can’t imagine that we’ll get through this year without some major confrontation.  The Church’s days on Earth are clearly numbered and whether we’re taken up this year or not it’s certainly not too soon to prepare.

Our preparation is Spiritual, not physical, and that means getting ourselves in a proper spiritual condition to endure the time that’s left to us.  We need to be clear on what we believe and why so we can speak persuasively about it when called upon to do so.  We need to be strong in our faith, both to make our final appeals to those around us who aren’t with us yet, and to remain steadfast in the face of ever more serious attempts, even (especially) by those within the church, to erode the foundations of our beliefs.

With that in mind we’ll begin a study of Paul’s Letter to the Romans, the Gospel according to Paul.  We’ll interrupt the study as current events dictate, to review their prophetic implications, but our focus will be on re-visiting the basics of our faith with the expectation that 2007 will be a year of major prophetic significance.  Think of this as the spiritual equivalent of an athlete going into training to prepare for a big event.

Paul’s Letter To the Romans
Paul wrote his letter to the Romans from Corinth in the spring of 57 AD.  He hadn’t been there yet, but was looking forward to ministering to the Church in Rome.  This letter was intended to lay the groundwork for his visit, to prepare the largely gentile congregation there for his arrival.

After a review of the state of the world, the first eight chapters of Romans deal with doctrine, the building blocks of our faith.  Chapters 9 thru 11 are prophecy, our hope.  And chapters 12-16 focus on application, by which we express our love.  And so the letter can be outlined in accordance with 1stCorinthians 13, faith, hope and love.

The over riding message, woven through out, is that the Gospel is not a set of laws to be obeyed, nor is it a creed to be accepted.  It’s not advice to be taken, a religion to be believed, or a social order to be lived.  It’s a message about a person, a love story written in blood on a cross of wood.  It’s about God who became a man and died for us so that we could live with Him. Let’s begin.

Chapter 1
Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle and set apart for the gospel of God—the gospel he promised beforehand through his prophets in the Holy Scriptures regarding his Son, who as to his human nature was a descendant of David, and who through the Spirit of holiness was declared with power to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead: Jesus Christ our Lord. Through him and for his name’s sake, we received grace and apostleship to call people from among all the Gentiles to the obedience that comes from faith. And you also are among those who are called to belong to Jesus Christ.(Romans 1:1-6)

Right up front, Paul declared who Jesus is; the biological descendant of King David through his mother Mary, herself a descendant of David’s, and the Son of the Living God.  Paul would call Him the visible image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15) and the writer of Hebrews (Paul?) would say that He is the radiance of God’s glory, the exact representation of His being. (Hebr. 1:3)  But the real proof of His deity came in His Resurrection, the Author of life achieving victory over death.

To all in Rome who are loved by God and called to be saints:  Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ. (Romans 1:7)

Paul’s signature greeting, combining the Gentile “grace” from Greek culture with the Jewish “peace” from the Hebrew.

Paul’s Longing to Visit Rome
First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is being reported all over the world. God, whom I serve with my whole heart in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you.

I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong— that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith. I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that I planned many times to come to you (but have been prevented from doing so until now) in order that I might have a harvest among you, just as I have had among the other Gentiles.

I am obligated both to Greeks and non-Greeks, both to the wise and the foolish. That is why I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are at Rome. (Romans 1:8-15)

Paul had not yet visited Rome and neither had any other Apostle.  He had been planning to come, to make sure that their grounding in the Faith was certain.  But he felt obligated to personally deliver the offering he had been collecting for the impoverished church in Jerusalem.  His letter would help prepare them while he finished up his other obligations.

I am not ashamed of the gospel, because it is the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes: first for the Jew, then for the Gentile. For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”(Romans 1:16-17)

This is a major point that Paul drove home repeatedly.  Our righteousness in imputed to us by faith, from beginning to end.  It’s how we are saved and it’s how we live. It’s not by works, lest any should boast. (Ephes. 2:8-9) Nor is it something we acquire over time, by living a certain way.  If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come! God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:17, 21) Our good works are an expression of gratitude for our salvation, not the basis for it.

Some have suggested that Paul wrote three letters based on this quote from Habakkuk 2:4.  The righteous (Romans) shall live (Galatians) by faith (Hebrews). Of course this presumes that you believe, as I do, that Paul was the likely writer of Hebrews.

God’s Wrath Against Mankind
The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse. (Romans 1:18-20)

No one can legitimately deny the existence of God, or even question it.  The creation makes it clear. The fool says in his Heart, “There is no God.” (Psalm 14:1) The heart is the seat of emotion.  Fools make this statement emotionally, because even they can’t make it logically. God’s existence is too obvious.

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. (Romans 1:21-23)

Ancient man gave images he carved himself the credit due to God.  He cut down cedars, or perhaps took a cypress or oak.  He let it grow among the trees of the forest, or planted a pine, and the rain made it grow.  It is man’s fuel for burning; some of it he takes and warms himself, he kindles a fire and bakes bread. But he also fashions a god and worships it; he makes an idol and bows down to it. Half of the wood he burns in the fire; over it he prepares his meal, he roasts his meat and eats his fill. He also warms himself and says, “Ah! I am warm; I see the fire.”  From the rest he makes a god, his idol; he bows down to it and worships. He prays to it and says, “Save me; you are my god.” (Isaiah 44:14-17) We laugh at such silliness.  But we’ve gone one better.  We give the credit due to God to … nothing.  Random chance is responsible for the universe, and for mankind. It all just happened.

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion. (Romans 1:24-27)

We took the Lord’s crowning creative achievement, human life, and called it an accident, the product of chance. It had no origin, it has no destiny, and therefore is of no value, we said.  And so God said, “Fine.  You say life has no value so I’ll make sure you treat it with contempt and suffer the consequences.”

The sacred act of procreation has devolved into casual sex.  It’s not a freedom, it’s a curse that brings huge increases in abandoned children, teen suicides, and broken homes.  In parts of Africa there’s a whole generation missing due to AIDS, with babies being raised by grandparents.  For others the gift of life has become a harbinger of death.  Abortion is not a choice, it’s a consequence of poor choices that not only ends a child’s life but puts the mother’s at risk as well.  Homosexuality is also a deadly sin, with homicide and suicide rates many times the average, and life expectancy 2 to 3 decades shorter.  These are not just sins, they’re judgments.  And public acceptance of them has always been a sign that a society is in the final stages of decay.

Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they are senseless, faithless, heartless, ruthless. Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.(Romans 1:28-32)

You don’t have to look very far to see the evidence of this.  Demand for the acceptance of pagan religions and alternate lifestyles, forbidding public displays of a Christian nature, the lack of integrity among public officials and in the corporate world, the treatment of personal tragedy as entertainment and the mockery of justice are but a few of the signs.

Things are hardly better on the religious front.  We have church without Jesus, the exploration of other paths to salvation, evangelical homosexuals, and the elevation of Mary in some Charismatic circles. Surveys show that 54% of pastors have purposely viewed pornography in the past year and it’s estimated that three pulpits every week are made vacant due to sexual sin of some form.

Paul wrote this letter in 57 AD, and after nearly 2000 years nothing has changed.  If anything, it’s worse. His message is as real to us as it was to them.  The lesson for us is found in looking for the remains of 1st Century society.  There are none.  The mighty Greek and Roman cultures are gone, crushed under the weight of their own depravity.  How can we expect anything less?

As it was in the days of Noah, every inclination of the thoughts of  man’s heart is only evil all the time.  (Gen. 6:5) But just as He did then, God is doing now.  He’s sent another Ark, the Ark of our Salvation.  And while the judgment’s coming soon, the Ark is ready to receive us now.  The door is open, and it’s time to get on board.  There’s no limit, for “Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” (Romans 10:13) Tell your friends while there’s time.

Over the past few decades, a new history of Biblical times has emerged promoting the idea that early Israelites worshiped both a God and a Goddess. This new history contends that the goddess part of their worship was suppressed as the Israelites became a more patriarchal society, and that Jewish history and scriptures were altered to eliminate any reference to it during the reign of King Josiah (640-609 BC). According to some, this suppression became outright oppression when Christianity came along and the followers of Jesus demanded that the Lord be seen as a celibate deity instead of the sexual man they insist He really was. It was then, they say, that goddess worship became subject to punishment resulting in the church sponsored execution over several hundred years of nearly 5 million women for practicing witchcraft.

Today, Even The Past Is Uncertain

The feminist authors of this new history make the claim as did the secular humanists before them that the male God was a relative late comer on the scene, the humanists saying that religion was a by-product of the same evolution that produced man and the feminists claiming that mankind appropriately worshipped a female deity long before the male God came along.

According to these feminists the cause and effect relationship between sexual intercourse and conception was not always known. Therefore the birthing of a child, an exclusively female act, was viewed as a supernatural gift from the Great Mother goddess to her favored female children. Later, as the connection was made, a male god was added to the mix but in a subordinate role.

Early human society reflected this hierarchy, they say, with women being dominant just as their female deity was dominant. Men grew jealous of this dominance, especially where it involved creating new life, and fought to gain control of other aspects of society. As they did, the female deity was “demoted” and the so-called curse of Eve was contrived as a punishment to women for Eve’s sin. (For example, it’s claimed that midwives’ efforts to moderate pain in childbirth were outlawed by the male dominated religion that required women to suffer in Eve’s place.)

Along Came Josiah

Before the time of King Josiah, they say, the Israelites worshipped El as God and his wife or consort Asherah, as Goddess. (I first read of this idea in James Michner’s “The Source”, a novelized history of the Middle East. Asherah, of course, was the Canaanite goddess of fertility; named Isis in Egypt, Astarte or Ishtar in Babylon, Aphrodite in Greek, and Venus in Roman mythology.)

Feminist writers claim that during Josiah’s reign, this practice was officially banned but the people simply changed Asherah’s name to Shekinah and continued as before. This quote from a current New Age web site is revealing.

“Shekinah – also spelled Shekhina, Shekhinah, Shekina, and Shechina – is known in the Qabalah, an ancient form of Jewish mysticism, as one of the emanations of God and the actual Presence of God. The belief was that one could not see God in Its fullness, but could see the emanation of God, Shekinah. When Moses asked to see God, it was Shekinah that he saw. Shekinah is also the consort, or Bride, of God. As such, she is Mother to us all, just as God is our Father.”

“In earlier times, God was seen as either dwelling in the clouds or in high places like mountains or very high hills. With the construction of the Ark of the Covenant, and then the construction of the Temple, a part of the Godhead came to dwell in the Ark and then in the Temple. This could not be the male God, the God of the Sky and of High Places. So Shekinah, formerly known as Asherah, a Goddess of Earth and Sea, came to dwell in the Ark of the Covenant and then in the Temple.”

“Unfortunately, Shekinah has been all but lost to Christianity. Elements of Her remain in Mother Mary, who was perhaps Shekinah’s incarnation. Mary Theotokos, as She is called, actually held the presence of God (Yeshua) within Her. She is known as the Queen of Heaven, but she is the representative of God to us and delivers our prayers to Him, according to Catholic tradition. Her apparitions are much more frequent than the apparitions of Yeshua, and the Father never appears. It seems that She is truly His representative to us, because (as we know) She is His Bride.”

“The union of Shekinah and El was never more evident than in the Sabbath. She is known as the Sabbath Bride, or the Sabbath Queen. Each week on the Sabbath, God and Goddess, El and Shekinah, act out the Song of Songs. One rabbi called that holy book the “Holy of Holies” of the Bible!”

The DaVinci Code

This thinking formed the basis for much of what author Dan Brown set forth in his novel, The DaVinci Code, carrying it to its current feminist conclusion that Jesus had a wife (Mary Magdalene) and at least one child, who escaped to France after the crucifixion. The DaVinci Code is a great work of fiction, and as a devotee of suspense novels I enjoyed it. But it is fiction. I’m astonished at the number of “Christians” who apparently believe it contains a legitimate view of Israel’s early religious history, as well as a deeper look into the earthly life of our Lord Jesus. All right, so most of us know that this is just a story made up to create an alternate reality so pagan feminists can refute Judeo-Christian theology. And the fact that it’s presented by “scholars” as being pre-Hebraic shouldn’t surprise us either. Secular Humanists have long contended that all mankind was originally pagan, so that’s nothing new.

So What’s The Big Deal?

Aside from the fact that so many “Christians” are wondering if this stuff is true, the big deal is that Shekinah is an extra-biblical term used by Rabbinic scholars to describe the Holy Spirit of God. Christians use the term Shekinah Glory in reference to Old Testament appearances of the Holy Spirit. The name comes from the Hebrew word shachan, which literally means “to dwell” and gives rise to the descriptive phrase, “He Who dwells between the Cherubim,” used of God during the time He lived among the Israelites in the Tabernacle and later in Solomon’s Temple. It is true that at times in early Jewish history the people were seduced into idolatry, often involving the pagan goddess Asherah, but these periods of unfaithfulness never failed to anger God, and always brought His wrath upon them. King Josiah is credited with bringing them back to the worship of God from one such period, and ushering in a time of great revival and blessing for the Southern Kingdom. (2 Kings 22-23) Saying that Asherah and Shekinah are one and the same, and that the One we know as the 3rd member of the Trinity was really God’s female sex partner, acting out the Song of Solomon with Him in the Holy of Holies every Sabbath is the highest form of blasphemy, since the Bible says that sexual sins are the worst of all. (1 Cor. 6:17-19) Asserting that the Bible and all other historical accounts were purposely altered to deny this claim is an ingenious way to deceive people, because if all the existing records are false how do you prove them wrong?

That’s Not Right

But the multitude of errors the feminists committed in presenting their case (the claim that the name Jehovah combines the male and female words for God, when it was really an invention of the King James translators in 1611; the claim that Mary Magdalene was from the “other royal tribe” of Benjamin; the identification of Pneuma as the female “holy soul” counterpart to the male Holy Spirit, etc.) shows that they are either biblically ignorant (and hope you are too), grossly anti-semitic, or more likely both. This is the very kind of claim that led Jesus to condemn the Pharisees, saying, “And so I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come.” (Matt 12:31-32)