►|Wednesday/January 22, 2014|Part Three of END TIME SERIES► DANIEL 2&3. ||Message Five: Three Hebrews didn't worship the King's Image/Statue Made of Gold (Daniel 3:1-18)
Surprisingly, not to long after his dream & its interpretation by Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar became rebellious against God. How did he do that?
Remember, the Statue he saw in his dream had its head made of gold (representing the Kingdom of Babylon); Chest & arms made of Silver (Kingdom of Medo-Persia); Belly & thighs made of Bronze (Kingdom of Greece); Legs made of Iron (Roman Empire) & its feet with 10Toes made of Iron & Clay (Ten Divided Kingdoms, working together with the Anti-Christ). Then Christ would come & destroy all the preceding kingdoms right from the feet (the last kingdom) to establish HIS EVERLASTING KINGDOM. So, in order to prevent any kingdom, including that of Jesus Christ, from overthrowing his kingdom (the head made of gold in his dream), the King Made a giant statue with Gold - from head to foot. Thus, he wanted his kingdom to rule forever - never to be overthrown by kingdom. He put the golden image at Dura, demanded all to worship it, at the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, psaltery, dulcimer, & all kinds of musick. And anyone who failed to bow should be killed.
Note this, in Revelation 13:11-15, a 2nd beast came out of the earth, did a lot of miracles, deceived many people, saying to them dwelling on earth that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live....that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.
Lesson One: Making Statue/Image&Demanding everyone to worship it, else suffer death. All the kingdoms, especially the first (Babylon) & the last (10 Divided Kingdoms ruling together with the Anti-Christ) love making images & demanding people to worship it. Any religion or church that directly or indirectly places emphasis on images/statues, is not worshiping the True God but an idol. The devil is smart; he knows if he tells people to worship a statue dedicate to himself, a river or a god, many Christians will not do it. So to outwit many believers, he introduced it into the Church; statue of Mary, Fatima, St Peter, St. Paul - U name it! And many people are directly or indirectly praying & worshiping these statues. Again, the devil knows if he tells people to observe pagan festivals, many Christians will not obey him. So what he did was to use Constantine & other world leaders to give the festivals Christian names. ''Christianizing'' paganism & ''paganizing'' Christianity. Be careful, Christmas, Easter, Halloween, Valentine's Day, Super Bowl, St. Patrick's Day etc are not from Christ. Idolatry can also take the form of valuing Life, wife, family, job, properties, Money, fame/popularity, food etc more than God. Anything we, directly or indirectly, bow down to (value More than God) is an idol.
Lesson Two: Music & Instruments: There is no problem with these things when used at church service BUT they have high potency to shift our focus from God. Something is fundamentally wrong with any Church that believes its service is goin' to be a boring one without music/instrumentalists. It is sad many people are deceived. I was also deceived at a point in time, to think that without music/instruments, church service would be dull. Glory to God for teaching me that MUSIC, if it's to be sang/played, is to ADORE HIM (GOD) & NOT US. Today, many Church services have been turn into entertainment ground. The world & entertainment have subtly reared their ugly heads into the Church. Sometimes, it's difficult to know the difference between a Church service & club; believer & unbeliever. That's why Jesus is calling His people to Come Out (Revelation 18:4).
Among thousands of people who were carried into exile in Babylon, only three (Shadrach, Meshach & Abednego) WERE BOLD TO SAY THEY WON'T BOW - Even at the Cost of their lives. The rest were all COMPROMISERS. For Fear of Death, they compromised & committed idolatry, which God hates. That's why God laid on my heart to share yesterday that, we can't be True followers of Christ if we fear Death. The three Hebrews said they won't commit Idolatry because their God would deliver them; BUT EVEN IF THEY'RE NOT Delivered, They WOULDN'T SIN AGAINST THEIR GOD. We must also say same; That Our God can deliver us from any problem but EVEN IF HE DOESN'T DELIVER US, WE WILL NOT DENY HIM.
God willing, tomorrow, we shall see the Consequence of the Choice they made (For Not Bowing to the King's Statue/Image).
Samuel Kwasi Forkuo
ALL GLORY TO GOD
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