And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works. (Revelation 20.12)

Since I announced that I was going to publish Our Sicknesses He Bore just in ebook form, I’ve caught some flak. Some have complained that they never plan to buy a Kindle, or I guess an iPad, or a Nook, or a smartphone, yada, yada, yada. They’re asking me to publish it as a paperback because, well, they like books. But they don’t know what they’re asking. (see Mark 10.38)

++In the ebook publishing world, there are practically no barriers to entry. This weekend we are finishing all the edits to the book and then we’ll email it to our ebook formatter. We should get a proof around the first week in October. Once we have it in Kindle’s format, we’ll be able to upload that day (or the next day, depending upon my schedule). The book will be immediately available to anyone who has a Kindle, or a Kindle app on their iPad or smartphone.

++Compare that to getting a paperback copy out.

++Instead of sending my manuscript to the Kindle guy, I’d have to run off a bunch of copies for a number of publishers. I’d get the manuscript off to them and then have to wait for somebody to pick it off their submission pile. That could take a year or more. Once someone got around to reading it, he might just reject it outright: “Hmm, healing just isn’t all that popular these days.” Or he might want to play around part of it: “Well, most of it is good, but we don’t like the goats. You know, those goats in the Day of Atonement? Who’s a farmer these days? Who’s done any sacrifices? Nobody’s gonna relate.” Or he might say, “Love it, love it, love it. Here’s our contract. What? Yes, you have to give us half of your electronic rights because that’s where the industry is moving. You think we’d pick up your book just for paperback rights? Are you kidding? We’re not even that interested in paperbacks anymore. Where have you been?”

++If I did go that route, I might see a paperback in something like a year and a half. Then, instead of working on He Made Him Sin or another book, I’d have to hit the road to sell my publisher’s paperbacks. Radio shows, book shows, book signings, church appearances, and mom-and-pop shops in the boonies. (read my post about Christian book signings) After so many months of that (if it lasted that long), I’d finally get sit down and write . . . my next paperback. Umm, thanks, but no thanks.

++Even though it looks like the Father decided to stick with paper until the end of the age, Our Sicknesses He Bore will be released just on Kindle’s format for the time being. I might not sell as many books that way, but I’m more interested in writing at this stage in the game. Bookstores only have a few years left in them anyway (talk to me about my film cameras).

P.S. Both Bosworth’s Christ the Healer and Yeoman’s His Healing Power are available in book form. I recommend both (though I’m kind of partial to mine now).You might also like:

• Our Sicknesses He Bore: Close to Finished
• Our Sicknesses He Bore: Let the Buzz Begin
• Hello and Goodbye
• Thoughts on the New Direction
• Dog Days of Summer

++Over the next few weeks, expect to see changes here and there. A makeover is coming, but I need to do a lot of updating in the meantime.

++One change that I know is coming is that this blog will become a little more casual. In the past, I used to spend a lot of time writing and revising my blog posts. They were my primary means of communicating the gospel. Now that I’ve switched over to writing ebooks, I plan to use the blog as a platform for more random thoughts. For instance, last week a friend showed me a video where Creflo Dollar preaches that a Christian has to tithe in order to gain heaven. I’d like to write on that, but it wouldn’t be the stuff for a book or even a lengthy blog post.

++For all you guys that have stuck with me through the years, thanks for hanging in there with yet another swing. I started out the blog as petersmythe.org and now it seems like I’ve come full circle. This one should keep; I can’t take my name off of the book.
You might also like:

• Yes, The Car Has Left the Building
• Hello and Goodbye
• Revving Up the Podcast Machine
• And Then It All Went Kablooey!
• This Site’s A-Movin’

I plan to write more about the book in some future posts, but I thought I’d go ahead and give you the table of contents as it stands now:

The Divine Word

Origins of Sickness and Disease

• The Initial Creation
• Disease: The Sin Connection
• Sin as a Causal Link to Disease
• Healing of the Blind Boy
• Bent-Over Woman

God’s Method of Healing is Spiritual

• Timothy’s Wine
• Hezekiah’s Poultice
• James’s Anointing Oil

The Old Testament

• The Old Covenant
• Promise for the Promised Land
• Types and Shadows of Christ’s Work
• Aaron’s Stay of the Plague
• The Passover Lamb
• The Bronze Snake
• The Healing of the Leper

Distributions

• Elijah and the Widow in Zarephath
• Elisha and the Shunammite’s Son
• The Gospels and the New Testament
• The Healing Anointing Fluxes
• Charismata – Gifts of the Spirit
• Naaman’s Leprosy
• The Blind Man and the Pool of Siloam

Jesus’ Anointing

• How God Anointed Jesus
• Case Study: The Lunatic Boy
• Case Study: The Blind and Mute Man
• Degrees of Sickness and Oppression
• Jesus’ Attitude Toward Sickness
• Two Problematic Translations:
• The Blind Man
• Lazarus

Aspects of the Power

• Still the Need for Faith
• Tangible and Residual Power
• Transmittable
• Gateway to the Gifts of the Spirit

He Bore Our Diseases

• Familiar with Sickness
• Borne and Carried
• The Day of Atonement – Shadow of Redemption
• The Believer’s Ground for Healing

The Apostles

• Matthew – He Bore Our Sicknesses
• Just a Messianic Claim?
• That It Might Be Fulfilled
• Peter – You Were Healed
• Paul – He Became a Curse

Seated with Christ

• Christ is Exalted
• Exalted with Him
• The Believer is to Glorify God in Body
• Spiritual Quickening

The Church’s Commission to Heal

• The Greater Works
• The Church Continues Jesus’ Ministry
• The Healing Anointing Continues

The Need for Faith

• The Mix of Faith
• The Eye of Faith
• Healing is an Accomplished Fact

The Faith that Takes

• Steps to Appropriate Healing
• Receive it.
• Pray it.
• Possess it.
• See it.

Questions About Healing

Scripture ReferencesYou might also like:

• Healing Book – Table of Contents Preview
• Friday’s State of the Blog
• Podcast Friday: Origins of Sickness and Disease 2
• Clear Thinking About Healing
• Friday Maunderings (With Illy)

++Why an eBook? Why Kindle? Because it’s the wave of the future. Actually, it’s the wave of now. Just the other day I heard about a local lawyer who doesn’t take any papers into court anymore; he takes an iPad. Our supreme court justice reads briefs off a Kindle, and my latest briefs were all electronically filed.

++Right now, most ministries are still in the 50′s. They sign up a bunch of volunteers to set up booths, tables, and what-have-you and then get a bunch more to move their books in. After using even more selfless volunteers to sell’em (the pretty single girls), they call the first guys back to tear everything down and stow the books away until the next big conference (which might be out of town). I once worked it out with a local church we went to and each book sold required something like 40 hours of volunteer time ($15 x 40 = $600 of volunteer time for each $6.95 book sold which brought in maybe $2.00 in profit).

++Kindle books should decimate that outmoded model. All the preacher would have to do is announce his new book from the pulpit and everyone in the audience could download it in less than a minute. No storage, no tables, no booths, and thankfully, no volunteers needed. I’m really surprised that more ministries haven’t taken advantage of the opportunity. (There’s just a pittance of decent ministry books in Amazon’s Kindle store.)

++If you want to be one of the first ones to read He Bore Our Sicknesses, order your Kindle now. They’re already back-ordered to mid-September.

++If you think that ebooks aren’t the future, check out this article about a Barnes and Noble in New York (here).

You might also like:

• Thoughts on the New Direction
• But God Doesn’t Use a Kindle
• Dog Days of Summer
• The Donation Button: A Walk on the Wild Side
• The Donation Button: A Walk on the Wild Side

Frankly, I don’t see where anything is too different from twenty years ago. But what caught my eye in the article was its mention of Anne Havard and her fire for the gospel. The article talks about the loss of her father and a close friend to cancer and gives us this quote, “When Jesus was on the cross crying out, ‘My God, why have you forsaken me?’ Jesus was part of God. Then God knows what it means to doubt.”

Oh brother.

Read the article here.You might also like:

• Sex Offenders and Churches
• Tozer: Preachers as Prophets
• Road to Europe?
• Ross Slaughter: Smart Theological Cookie
• Podcast Friday: An Exercise in Active Christianity

If you emailed me in the past about being one of my reviewers, would you mind emailing me again? You can reach me at info[at}holyghostchristianity.com. Once I finish writing, I’ll send each of you two or three chapters to review. Bear in mind that the reviews aren’t for the faint of heart. I want everything—the scriptures, spelling, grammar, syntax—all checked.

I’ve just started to look into it, but I’m thinking of releasing it at a low price starting out for you guys and then raising the price after 30 days or so. I’ll keep you informed.
You might also like:

• Gospelooza: Kids Healing Service
• Thanks, Reviewers
• Divine Healing: Taking Questions
• A More Deliberate Approach
• Progress

My plan is to continue to publish books on Kindle on all things gospel, but that presents a good thing for the blog. For a few years now, I’ve kept this blog more or less a gospel blog. While I’ve written on other things from time to time, most of my content has involved some kind of scripture or some kind of error. With the new site, that’ll change some. I’ll toe the Gospel line with the Kindle books, but the blog will be more relaxed. And probably a bit more personal. I’ll leave it to the books to do the heavy lifting.

One more thing. If you like the blog posts, but aren’t interested in my upcoming books, download what you want now. When the new site is up, I plan to start fresh.
You might also like:

• Hello and Goodbye
• The Smythe Update
• Friday Notes and Quips
• Dog Days of Summer
• Saturday Morning Maunderings (with Coffee)

++The blog platform is a great tool for letters on the fly, but those aren’t really my bag. I can’t rip off a post on the Word, publish it, and then leave it alone. After I hit the publish button, I find myself re-editing again and again, even when I have another post in the works. Call it blogging exhaustion.

++Moving to e-books lets me do a couple of things. First, an e-book is more project-like than a blogging stream of consciousness. With my blog posts, I wouldn’t wait for my wife to edit anything. I’d just whip away and then frantically try to clean them up before anyone was able to catch any errors. With the book on healing that I’m writing, my wife has gotten the chance to edit every chapter. That has been a good thing. Everyone loves a happy marriage.

++The e-books will allow me—maybe—to reap a small bit of “don’t muzzle out the ox.” For some of my longer posts of the past, I spent days researching the Word, working over the Greek, investigating the latest and greatest preachers on the verses, and reworking several drafts. All without earning one thin dime. While I didn’t mind doing all that, a guy’s gotta eat. If you’ve read my stuff, you know that a call for tithes is out of the question (talk about shooting yourself in the foot).

++I’m probably about two-third’s done with the healing book. When I have it finished, I plan to offer it on Kindle, the iPad, the Nook, and whatever electronic book stream is out there. I hope to have that coincide with the opening of a new site (I’ll post the news of it here). I’ve got a web designer working on it now and she’s said that she’ll have it done around the first week in October. The new site will come with a blog, but it won’t be central.

++The book on healing is just a start. I have some mini-books in mind and then there’s a book on Jesus’ spiritual death that I want to do. I also plan to write some short stories.

++So, in a way, this is saying goodbye. Goodbye to blogging land. But it’s hello to some better writing and, best of all, a better grasp of the Word.

P.S. In researching Full Gospel books on healing, it appears that Bosworth’s Christ the Healer is the only one that’s been published in e-book form. That’s just one more reason to get into e-books. You might also like:

• Thoughts on the New Direction
• Here Come the Bloggers
• Dog Days of Summer
• But God Doesn’t Use a Kindle
• Changes Afoot

• Dog Days of Summer
• New Design in Mind
• Smythe Lite
• Smythe is Online and Gospelooza is Alive
• Still Working

The trend toward consumer-driven religion has been gaining momentum for half a century. Consider that in 1955 only 15 percent of Americans said they no longer adhered to the faith of their childhood, according to a Gallup poll. By 2008, 44 percent had switched their religious affiliation at least once, or dropped it altogether, the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found. Americans now sample, dabble and move on when a religious leader fails to satisfy for any reason.

In this transformation, clergy have seen their job descriptions rewritten. They’re no longer expected to offer moral counsel in pastoral care sessions or to deliver sermons that make the comfortable uneasy. . . .

I have faced similar pressures myself. In the early 2000s, the advisory committee of my small congregation in Massachusetts told me to keep my sermons to 10 minutes, tell funny stories and leave people feeling great about themselves. The unspoken message in such instructions is clear: give us the comforting, amusing fare we want or we’ll get our spiritual leadership from someone else.

Congregations that make such demands seem not to realize that most clergy don’t sign up to be soothsayers or entertainers. Pastors believe they’re called to shape lives for the better, and that involves helping people learn to do what’s right in life, even when what’s right is also difficult. When they’re being true to their calling, pastors urge Christians to do the hard work of reconciliation with one another before receiving communion. They lead people to share in the suffering of others, including people they would rather ignore, by experiencing tough circumstances — say, in a shelter, a prison or a nursing home — and seeking relief together with those in need. At their courageous best, clergy lead where people aren’t asking to go, because that’s how the range of issues that concern them expands, and how a holy community gets formed.

I know what he’s saying. In the early 1980s, I was introduced to the Full Gospel with the faith message mixed in. The Word was alive back then. It wasn’t anything to drive 500 miles to a meeting and do that for a week straight. Prayer meetings were weekly and sometimes they’d last into the wee hours. And it was all to learn how to apply God’s gift of faith to our own lives so that we could grow up into spiritual men and bear fruit that would remain ripe well into the Millennium.

As the years went by, the young turks—preachers who hadn’t taken up the shield of faith or trudged through battles with the enemy—grew in prominence. Not knowing the ways of the Spirit, they began slipping in bits of entertainment here and there to substitute for the missing words of knowledge, prophecies, and wisdom. And now the movement has gone so far off the reservation that its proponents wouldn’t recognize the Holy Ghost if he came to church wearing a fedora.

Personally, I don’t see where things will change without a revival outside the tent.You might also like:

• Sex Offenders and Churches
• A Few Good Quotes for Modern Ministry
• The Genius of our Lord
• The American Flag and the Church
• Such a Valuable Redemption

++At the end of the book, I want to have a question-and-answer. Many people have questions about healing and how it operates with faith, but they never have a chance to ask them; preachers run for the hills when they think someone’s coming to ask them anything. Here’s your chance. You can post your questions here or email them to me. I hope to have anywhere from ten to fifteen good questions (the harder the better) to finish out the book.

++The Dallas Cowboys played their first game last night. Football season means that it’s time to write. This season is going to be a little bit different. Stay tuned.

You might also like:

• Healing Progress
• Hello and Goodbye
• Changes Afoot
• Healing Book – Table of Contents Preview
• Saturday Morning Maunderings (with Coffee)

++In contrast to the old covenant Jew, the new testament believer is free with his diet. All food, not just the kosher variety, is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. (1 Timothy 4.5 – “For every creature of God is good [for food], and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.”) But while we may freely eat, that’s not to say that everything is good for the body; all things may be permissible, but not everything is beneficial (1 Corinthians 10.23). Just as gluttony, Christian or non-Christian, will make one fat, a diet short on the necessary vitamins and proteins will make a body weak. Paul’s encouragement of adding wine to a water-only diet falls more into the category of advice for nutrition than some redemptive system for physical healing.

An excerpt from my new book, Scriptural Healing.You might also like:

• Divine Healing: Taking Questions
• Healing Book – Table of Contents Preview
• Our Sicknesses He Bore: Let the Buzz Begin
• Podcast Friday: The Prayer of Faith That Saves the Sick
• The God-Men

On a positive note, Amazon has reported that its sales for e-books have surpassed sales for hardcovers. That’s good news for my book on scriptural healing. I’ve written about three-quarters of a first draft and believe that I’ll have the book done by Christmas (due to some office moves and such, I’m a little bit behind schedule). My original idea was to publish it as a Kindle book and Amazon’s news makes me look like I’m smarter than the average bear (I’ve emailed a few ministries who are into publishing and they told me that they didn’t have any plans to move their books to an electronic format. What’s with that?).

Once I revise my draft (my wife’s given the okay to the first two chapters), I plan to post some excerpts here. Look for those around the first of September.

One other thing I plan to do in the fall is revisit the Jesus-born-again scriptures (I also have about another 30 up my sleeve). This time, instead of just re-posting, I’m going to work them over and get them book-ready. I want to turn those into some kind of e-book so they don’t just die in the archives.You might also like:

• Progress
• Healing Progress
• But God Doesn’t Use a Kindle
• Smythe is Online and Gospelooza is Alive
• The Smythe Update

But with whom was he furious forty years? Wasn’t it those who sinned, whose carcasses fell in the desert? But with whom did he swear that they were not to enter into his rest? Wasn’t it the unbelieving ones? (Hebrews 2.17-18, Smythean)

In Hebrews, the writer spends the first half of the book pleading with Jewish believers not to toss off their faith. He brings up the Israelites in the wilderness and tells his readers that the reason—the only reason—why they didn’t enter the promised land was because of their unbelief. The writer’s remarks are pungent: their unbelief left the Israelites as carcasses in the wilderness.

The Israelites, after being delivered from some of the most extraordinary miracles ever recorded, heard that God had given them the promised land, but they didn’t hearken to it. There were giants in the land, they were scared of them, and nothing that God said was going to change that.

Hearkening isn’t hearing and it isn’t mental assent. It’s hearing the voice of the Lord and then acting on the truth of that word. In America, we see a lot of mental assent. People call themselves Christians without knowing anything about the Righteous One who came to be made a curse for them. Others claim that the believe in divine healing, but prayer for healing is more of a pretense of spirituality than it is a whole-hearted reliance on the finished work.

Like it or not, the sine qua non of the gospel is belief—bona fide belief. God’s power is only dished out to the extent that you hearken to his word.You might also like:

• Healing Book – Table of Contents Preview
• 2 Corinthians 5.21 – A Tale of Two Goats – Of Curses and Snakes
• Reconstructing Word of Faith Theology – Part 4
• Soul Consciousness
• Friday Nights with [Favorite Preacher]

Fair enough, but the “punishment device” had to include the nailing of his hands and feet. That doesn’t sound like a pole or pike to me.You might also like:

• 1 Peter 2.24 – Bruise Solo
• 2 Corinthians 5.21 – A Tale of Two Goats – Of Curses and Snakes
• Reading the Word Literally
• 1 Peter 3.18 – Jesus Made Alive in Spirit
• Theological Bias in Translation

This Faith teachers’ belief that Jesus became sinful indicates a gross misunderstanding of the Old Testament concept of substitutionary sacrifice. The Levitical concept of substitution, which is the background of Christ’s atonement, was based on the perfection and holiness of the sacrificial victim. The sacrificial animals chosen for the sin offering were to be a bull “without defect” (Lev. 4:3), a goat “without defect” (Lev. 4:23), and a lamb “without defect” (Lev. 4:32). The person presenting these holy offerings would lay his hand on the animals to symbolize the transfer of his sin and guilt (Lev. 4:4, 24, 33). This transfer of sin was symbolic, not literal. Kenyon’s doctrine of Identification would claim that at the moment of transference of sin, these animals became unholy, that they became sin. Just the opposite was true. At the moment of transference, the offering became holy to the Lord; anybody who touched or ate the sin offering also became holy (Lev. 6:25-27, 29). The sacrificial animal did not become sin, sin was symbolically imputed to it. It was a substitute for sin: a holy offering that atoned for sin by virtue of its perfection and consecration to the Lord.

These Levitical concepts of substitution and imputation are the background of 2 Cor. 5:21. Jesus did not literally become sin; sin was symbolically imputed to him. (D.R. McConnell, A Different Gospel, Updated Edition, at 125).

We use McConnell’s criticism because it is touted to be some of the best scholarship refuting the “He Made Him Sin” doctrine (“based on careful historical and biblical analysis,” at least according to Amazon), and, frankly, he is about the only well-studied source that we can find that refers back to the Old Testament sacrifices in his treatment of 2 Corinthians 5.21 (kudos to him for that). In reading McConnell’s piece on the faith teachers’ “gross misunderstanding” of the Old Testament, there are four things that stand out: his analysis of the sacrifices, his lack of reference to the Day of Atonement offering(s), the lack of scripture directly underpinning his claim of symbolism, and his subjugation of New Testament realities to Old Testament shadows.

Ordinary Sin Offerings

In his lambast (he did say “gross misunderstanding”), McConnell states that the Levitical sacrifices were based upon “the perfection and holiness of the sacrificial victim.” The “He Made Him Sin” doctrine really isn’t inconsistent with that. 2 Corinthians 5.21 reads, “the one having known no sin” which is completely consistent with the Levitical animal “without defect,” whether it be a bull, a goat, or a lamb.

Where we diverge from McConnell is that while he mentions “consecration to the Lord,” in the last sentence of the paragraph, his analysis seems to skip over the sacrificial ritual to get to the eating. McConnell rightly says that a person would lay hands on the animal, confess the sins at issue, and that sin was transferred to the animal (we’ll deal with symbolically later). But then he says, “At the moment of transference [of sin], the offering became holy to the Lord; anybody who touched or ate the sin offering also became holy (Lev. 6:25-27, 29).” The big gap that McConnell leaves out between the laying on of hands and the eating is the sacrifice ritual itself.

Tanks, Padre.

Hey, come back here! Where do you think you’re going?

Padre, you just laid your hands on me goat. So, now I’m taking me ‘oly goat ‘ome and I’m eatin’ ‘im there. I gots to eat ‘im at ‘ome. We gots company comin’.

You can’t do that! We haven’t killed it or sacrificed it yet.

That’s okay, Padre. You got lots to do and that sacrifice stuff looks something awful, all bloody and all. I just take ‘im ‘ome. Hey, how ’bout comin’ over for dinner? This ‘ere ‘oly goat is gonna be plumb good.

Leviticus 6.25-27, 29 (the eating and touching part) speaks only of those animals that have been “offered for sin.”

Speak to Aaron and to his sons, saying ‘This is the law of the sin offering: in the place where the burnt offering is slain the sin offering shall be slain before the Lord; it is most holy. The priest who offers it for sin shall eat it. It shall be eaten in a holy place, in the court of the tent of meeting. Anyone who touches its flesh will become consecrated . . . Every male among the priest may eat of it; it is most holy.” (NASB) (emphasis supplied)

McConnell’s claim that “at the moment of transference, the offering became holy to the Lord” cuts the ritual of sacrifice off at the knees. That’s not to say that the animals weren’t separated to the Lord upon presentation, but it does show a flaw in McConnell’s criticism. The Word only calls holy the animals that went through the entire ritual (no “can I have a bite of that?” before the sacrifice). Consequently, the animal is deemed holy by virtue of the entire sacrificial ritual, not just by its own perfection.

Why is this important? It is important because McConnell cuts out the action of God in the sacrifice (where is the blood man?). Scripturally, hands are laid on animals for the transference of sin, the animal is sacrificed, God atones (or covers) the sin, and then the animal is deemed holy and everyone that eats (partakes) of it is holy. There is no scriptural support to say that the animal is deemed holy after only the laying on of hands with no sacrifice. That might make for an Eddie Murphy movie, but it’s a cloud without rain.

[Note: This presents a shadow sequence for Jesus: presentation w/o defect --> laying on of hands --> death --> [scapegoat] –> blood on Mercy Seat]

Day of Atonement

While McConnell rightly goes back to the Old Testament for the underpinnings of 2 Corinthians 5.21 (again, kudos), it is quite a wonder why he does not link the Day of Atonement as the verse’s OT backdrop (see Lev. 16). The Day, as the writer of Hebrews calls it, was a once-a-year ritual and the only day that the High Priest entered the Holy of Holies (behind the Temple veil) to sprinkle the sacrificial blood on the Mercy Seat itself. It is such a compelling and direct shadow of 2 Corinthians 5.21 and Jesus’s own sacrifice (cf. Hebrews 10.20 – veil of his flesh) that we want to flesh it out in a stand-alone essay.

Symbolically Imputed

McConnell makes quite the deal about sin being symbolically imputed on the sacrifices. In fact, the foundation of his entire invective against the literal reading of 2 Corinthians 5.21 is based upon a theory of imputation. The first thing to note, however, about his “[t]his transfer of sin was symbolic, not literal” is that there is not a single direct scriptural reference supporting this all-important claim, doctrine, or whatever you want to call it. Instead, McConnell assumes that imputation is there and the priests knew it, the people knew it, the sinners knew it, maybe even the goats knew it, so we should know it.

As the priests killed the animals (real), emptied their blood (real), and offered their blood (real) there’s a real good question of whether McConnell is square-on with the God-created sacrificial realities. While we can’t go back and interview the Levitical priests of the period on whether everything was just symbolic, we do know from tradition that people were so scared of running into the scapegoat, who sometimes wandered back to town ((cf. Lev. 16.22 – “the goat shall bear on itself all their iniquities to a solitary land”), that they began making the goat’s handler throw it off a cliff . As for me and my house, count us in with the terrified Israelites.

But even if one clings white-knuckled to the idea of imputation in the OT, that doesn’t mean that OT imputation translates directly into the New. The NT adamantly states that the Law served only as a copy and “shadow” of the real thing:

For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very form [image] of things – (Hebrews 10.1, NASB) (emphasis supplied)

Now if He were on earth, He would not be a priest at all, since there are those who offer the gifts according to the Law; who serve as a copy and shadow of the heavenly things – (Hebrews 8.4, NASB) (emphasis supplied)

For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have no occasion sought for the second. (Hebrews 8.7, NASB)

NT realities cannot be subjugated to OT shadows. So, at least for this writer, if someone wanted to argue ad nauseum about symbolic imputation on the lambs, bulls, and goats in the OT, yeah, okay, it’d be a yawner. 2 Corinthians 5.21 and the rest of the NT is all about the real deal.

[Note: Joseph Rotherham says this in his Emphasized Bible:

One of the most striking and significant facts in the language of Leviticus and of the O.T. generally is that the sin-offering and the guilt-offering are in the Hebrew called simply "sin" and "guilt" - the victim being called by the name of the offence which it bears and for which it dies. . . . The ancient usage was intensely dramatic; it led the offerer, as he viewed his substitute, to exclaim, "There goes - there dies - my Sin!" (Appendix at 920)

This language speaks more to identification than it does imputation.]You might also like:

• The Resurrection and the Blood – Part 3
• 2 Corinthians 5.21 – A Tale of Two Goats – Part 3
• The Resurrection and the Blood – Part 5
• 2 Corinthians 5.21 – A Tale of Two Goats – Part Catorce
• 2 Corinthians 5.21 – A Tale of Two Goats – Azazel

But when evening came, they brought unto him many demonized–and he cast out the spirits with a word, and all who were sick he cured: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken through Isaiah the prophet, saying, Himself our weaknesses took, and disease bare. (Matthew 8.16, 17, Rotherham)

There are preachers in today’s pulpits that say that Matthew 8.17 was meant to only apply to Jesus’s earthly ministry and that a 21st century Christian has no business believing that it’s applicable for the Body of Christ today. Phooey on that.

In 1995-1996 I suffered through enough tests and trials to make anyone’s hairs stand on end. Things were so bad that one of my buddies, a Word of Faith guy who wouldn’t dare speak a negative word over anything, started calling me Job. One of those tests was in the form of hypothyroidism. I don’t remember exactly why I went to the doctor (hadn’t been since before I was ten), but he performed a routine blood test and discovered that my thyroid was a great deal out of whack.

He prescribed synthroid and told me that I’d be taking it the rest of my life (hypothyroidism is supposed to be a lifelong illness). I took the pills faithfully every day and went in for a blood test every year to regulate the medicine. I did that for a number of years.

On April 19, 2005 at 8:00 p.m. I applied Matthew 8.17 in prayer to that illness (don’t ask me why it took me until 2005). Below are the results of my latest blood test. I haven’t taken synthroid or any other thyroid medication in years.

[Note: A lot of Full Gospel Christians call a positive doctor's report an "evil report" on the basis of Numbers 13.32 ("And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had spied out"). My doc is a great guy and if this test had come out positive, it wouldn't have been an "evil report." God called the spies' report evil because he had already told them that the land was theirs to possess and they repudiated that promise. God didn't promise anything to the giants or my doctor.]

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Once Dick Clark welcomed in 1989, some of the prophecy guys began stretching verses like rubberbands into 1989, 1990, and even 1991. We saw mashups of the Jewish calendar, the historical calendar, and some Vulcan-like Bible interpretations, all to keep everyone rapture-ready. The whole movement finally petered out; people had to get back to work. (My Generation had moved on to U2′s I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For by then.)

Since the day you could buy Hal Lindsey’s The Late Great Planet Earth for less than a nickel, there’s come the Third Wave—a clique of so-called prophets whose prophecies come so fast and furious that you have to have an unlimited texting plan just to get them all. These guys somehow still fill the seats though Balaam’s ass seems to have had keener spiritual perception. Here is one of their recent prophecies:

I’m seeing something very strange right now. God said, “They’ll say, ‘It shall contain no water because of such and such a place and such and such a thing.’” I don’t even know what I’m talking about, but geologically – God said, “I will prove them wrong. Why? Because I created the earth. I know what to do and I know how to change it and I know what it can yield – from the water will come the oil,” says the Spirit of God. America, rejoice – this is your day.

Here’s another:

God has revealed to me that beginning in March 2010, and continuing throughout the decade, there will be a massive Reformation, in power as the time of Martin Luther during the 16th century.

Whatever.

I don’t discount the present-day ministry of the gifts and “offices” for a New York minute. Prophets and prophecies have never made it on to my endangered species list. Over the years I’ve been lucky enough to see some of the real deals come to pass, both in my personal life and in the body of Christ in general. And they’re always a rush (especially the personal ones) because they show that the Bible isn’t a dead letter.

A couple weeks back, a group of us started talking about America’s role (actually, its non-role) in Bible prophecy. One of our prophecy gurus brought up A.A. Allen’s 1954 prophecy about America. We all wondered what in the world was going on with his Statue of Liberty? What was she doing in the Gulf of Mexico? Back in Allen’s day, the gulf coast was a backwater—the last place you’d look for anything to do with America’s future.

No doubt Allen was an eccentric. He lived and preached like a used car salesman, preaching that Jesus Christ was the same, yesterday, today, and forever while hawking Miracle Valley with anointed water. But, really, when has God ever used corporate types? Moses said no to Egypt’s Polos, Dolce & Gabbanas, and Oakleys to go live on the back side of the desert with a bunch of malnourished sheep. And he was a murderer to boot, as was David. Paul, it seems, couldn’t get along with anybody and Jesus called Peter Satan after Peter said, “I’m not going to let you die.” None of the Lord’s own were neat, clean, or spiffy; they were whole-hearted eccentrics whose left field antics left the home team staring at their socks.

In some of Allen’s meetings, he’d be carried away in the Spirit, seeing a vision about a person needing healing or whatnot (happened with Branham too). In one stark example, he was carried away in the middle of a sermon to a hospital room in Tennessee. There, he saw a little baby that had been born with 26 separate illnesses and the doctors were telling the baby’s mom that she couldn’t have any hope that it’d live. The baby was healed of all those illnesses in that service. (Hear about it here.)

In 1954, Allen was carried away in the Spirit for a prophecy about America. Two years ago, most of us would have labeled it Looney Tunes. Today? You decide. Here it is:

My Vision of the Destruction of America By A. A. Allen July 4, 1954 Atop the Empire State Building

As I stood atop the Empire State Building, I could see the Statue of Liberty, illuminating the gateway to the new world. Here, spread before me like an animated map, is an area 60 or 80 miles in diameter. I was amazed that the Spirit of the Lord should so move me, there atop the Empire State building. Why should I feel such a surge of His Spirit and power there?

Giant Telescope

Suddenly I heard the voice of the Lord. It was as clear and as distinct as a voice could be. It seemed to come from the very midst of the giant telescope; but when I looked at the telescope, I knew it hadn’t come from there, but directly from Heaven. The voice said, 2 CHRONICLES 16:9, “For the eyes of the LORD run to and fro throughout the whole earth, to shew himself strong in the behalf of them whose heart is perfect toward him. Herein thou has done foolishly; therefore, from henceforth thou shalt have wars.” Immediately when I heard the voice of God, I knew this was a quotation of scripture; but never before had a thing come to me so forcibly by the power of the Spirit.

Automatic Clock

The ticking of the telescope stopped. The man before me had used up his dime’s worth. As he stepped away, I knew that I was next. As I stepped to the telescope and dropped in my dime, immediately the ticking started again. This ticking was an automatic clock which would allow me to use the telescope for a limited time only. As I swung the telescope to the north, suddenly the Spirit of God came upon me in a way that I had never thought of before. Seemingly, in the Spirit I was entirely caught away. I knew that the telescope itself had nothing to do with the distance which I was suddenly enabled to see, for I seemed to see things far beyond the range of the telescope, even on a bright, clear day. It was simply that God had chosen this time to reveal these things to me, for as I looked through the telescope, it was not Manhattan Island that I saw, but a far larger view.

North American Continent

That morning much of the view was impaired by fog; but suddenly as the Spirit of the Lord came upon me, the fog seemed to clear until it seemed that I could see for thousands of miles, but that which I was looking upon was not Manhattan Island. It was all of the North American continent spread out before me as a map is spread upon a table. It was not the East River and the Hudson River that I saw on either side, but the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans; and instead of the Statue of Liberty standing there in the bay on her small island, I saw her standing far out in the Gulf of Mexico. She was between me and the United States. I suddenly realized that the telescope had nothing to do with what I was seeing but that it was a vision coming directly from God; and to prove this to myself, I took my eyes away from the telescope so that I was no longer looking through the lens, but the same scene remained before me.

Great Cities

There, clear and distinct, lay all the North American continent with all its great cities. To the north lay the Great Lakes. Far to the northeast was New York City. I could see Seattle and Portland far to the northwest. Down the west coast there were San Francisco and Los Angeles. Closer in the foreground lay New Orleans at the center of the Gulf Coast area. I could see the great towering ranges of the Rocky Mountains and trace with my eye the Continental Divide. All this and more I could see spread out before me as a great map upon a table.

Gigantic Hand

As I looked, suddenly from the sky I saw a giant hand reach down. That gigantic hand was reaching out toward the Statue of Liberty. In a moment her gleaming torch was torn from her hand, and in it instead was placed a cup; and I saw protruding from that great cup a giant sword, shining as if a great light had been turned upon its glistening edge. Never before had I seen such a sharp, glistening, dangerous sword. It seemed to threaten all the world. As the great cup was placed in the hand of the Statue of Liberty, I heard these words, “Thus saith the Lord of hosts, drink ye and be drunken and spew and fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send.” As I heard these words, I recognized them as a quotation from Jeremiah 25:27. I was amazed to hear the Statue of Liberty speak out in reply, “I WILL NOT DRINK!” Then as the voice of the thunder, I heard again the voice of the Lord saying, “Ye shall certainly drink” (Jeremiah 25:28). Then suddenly the giant hand forced the cup to the lips of the Statue of Liberty, and she became powerless to defend herself. The mighty hand of God forced her to drink every drop from the cup. As she drank the bitter dregs, these were the words that I heard: “Should ye be utterly unpunished? Ye shall not be unpunished, for I will call for a sword upon all the inhabitants of the earth, saith the Lord of hosts” (Jeremiah 27:29)

War, Destruction

When the cup was withdrawn from the lips of the Statute of Liberty, I noticed the sword was missing from the cup, which could mean but one thing. THE CONTENTS OF THE CUP HAD BEEN COMPLETELY CONSUMED! I knew that the sword merely typified war, , and destruction, which is no doubt on the way. Then as one drunken on too much wine, I saw the Statue of Liberty become unsteady on her feet and begin to stagger and to lose her balance. I saw her splashing in the gulf, trying to regain her balance. I saw her stagger again and again and fall to her knees. As I saw her desperate attempts to regain her balance and rise to her feet again, my heart was moved as never before with compassion for her struggles; but as she staggered there in the gulf, once again I heard these words: “Drink ye and be drunken and spew and fall and rise no more because of the sword which I will send among you” (Jeremiah 25:37).

As I watched, I wondered if the Statue of Liberty would ever be able to regain her feet, if she would ever stand again; and as I watched, it seemed that with all her power she struggled to rise and finally staggered to her feet again and stood there swaying drunkenly. I felt sure that at any moment she would fall again, possibly never to rise. I seemed overwhelmed with a desire to reach out my hand to keep her head above water, for I knew that if she ever fell again, she would drown there in the gulf. “Thou shalt not be afraid for the by night, nor for the arrow that flyeth by day, nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness, nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday” (Psalms 91:5-6).

Black Cloud Rising

Then as I watched, another amazing thing was taking place. Far to the northwest, just out over Alaska, a huge, black cloud was arising. As it rose, it was as black as night. It seemed to be in the shape of a man’s head. As it continued to arise, I observed two light spots in the black cloud. It rose further, and a gaping hole appeared. I could see that the black cloud was taking the shape of a skull, for now the huge, white, gaping mouth was plainly visible. Finally, the head was complete. Then the shoulders began to appear; and on either side, long, black arms.

Skeleton Destroys Multitudes

It seemed that what I saw was the entire North American continent, spread out like a map upon a table with this terrible skeleton-formed cloud arising from behind the table. It rose steadily until the form was visible down to the waist. At the waist the skeleton seemed to bend toward the United States, stretching forth a hand toward the east and one toward the west, one toward New York and one toward Seattle. As the awful form stretched forward, I could see that its entire attention seemed to be focused upon the United States, overlooking Canada at least for the time being. As I saw the horrible black cloud in the form of a skeleton bending toward America, bending from the waist over, reaching down toward Chicago and out toward both coasts, I knew its one interest was to destroy the multitudes.

Mortal Agony

As I watched in horror, the great black cloud stopped just above the Great Lakes region and turned its face toward New York City. Then out of the horrible, great gaping mouth began to appear wisps of white vapor which looked like smoke, as a cigarette smoker would blow puffs of smoke from his mouth. These whitish vapors were being blown toward New York City. The smoke began to spread until it had covered all the eastern part of the United States. Then the skeleton turned to the west and out of the horrible mouth and nostrils came another great puff of white smoke. This time it was blown in the direction of the west coast. In a few moments’ time the entire West Coast and Los Angeles area were covered with its vapors.

Then toward the center came a third great puff. As I watched, St. Louis and Kansas City were enveloped in its white vapors. Then on they came toward New Orleans. Then on they swept until they reached the Statue of Liberty where she stood staggering drunkenly in the blue waters of the gulf. As the white vapors began to spread around the head of the statue, she took in but one gasping breath and then began to cough as though to rid her lungs of the horrible vapors she had inhaled. One could readily discern by the coughing that those white vapors had seared her lungs. What were these white vapors? Could they signify bacteriological warfare or nerve gas that could destroy multitudes of people in a few moments’ time? Then I heard the voice of God as He spoke again: “Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty and maketh it waste and turneth it upside-down and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof. And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her ; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him. The land shall be utterly emptied and utterly spoiled, for the LORD hath spoken this word. The earth mourneth and fadeth away. The world languisheth and fadeth away. The haughty people of the earth do languish. The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant; therefore, hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate; therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned and few men left” (Isaiah 24:1-6)

As I watched, the coughing grew worse. It sounded like a person about to cough out his lungs. The Statue of Liberty was moaning and groaning. She was in mortal agony. The pain must have been terrific, as again and again she tried to clear her lungs of those horrible white vapors. I watched her there in the gulf as she staggered, clutching her lungs and her breast with her hands. Then she fell to her knees. In a moment she gave one final cough, made a last desperate effort to rise from her knees, and then fell face forward into the waters of the gulf and lay still as . Tears ran down my face as I realized that she was ! Only the lapping of the waves, splashing over her body which was partly under the water and partly out of the water, broke the stillness.

“A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them”. Screaming of Sirens Suddenly the silence was shattered by the screaming of sirens. The sirens seemed to scream, “RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!”

Never before had I heard such shrill, screaming sirens. They seemed to be everywhere to the north, the south, the east, and the west. There seemed to be multitudes of sirens; and as I looked, I saw people everywhere running, but it seemed none of them ran more than a few paces, and then they fell. And even as I had seen the Statue of Liberty struggling to regain her poise and balance and finally falling for the last time to die on her face, I now saw millions of people falling in the streets, on the sidewalks, struggling. I heard their screams for mercy and help. I heard their horrible coughing as though their lungs had been seared with fire. I heard the moanings and groanings of the doomed and the dying. As I watched, a few finally reached shelters, but only a few ever got to the shelters.

Above the moaning and the groaning of the dying multitudes, I heard these words: “A noise shall come even to the ends of the earth, for the Lord hath a controversy with the nations. He will plead with all flesh; he will give them that are wicked to the sword, saith the Lord. Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Behold, evil shall go forth from nation to nation, and a great whirlwind shall be raised up from the coasts of the earth, and the slain of the Lord shall be at that day from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth. They shall not be lamented, neither gathered, nor buried; they shall be dung upon the ground” (Jeremiah 25:31-33).

Rocket Missile Attacks

Then suddenly I saw from the Atlantic and from the Pacific and out of the Gulf rocket-like objects that seemed to come up like fish leaping out of the water. High into the air they leaped, each headed in a different direction, but every one toward the United States. On the ground the sirens screamed louder, and up from the ground I saw similar rockets beginning to ascend. To me these appeared to be interceptor rockets although they arose from different points all over the United States; however, none of them seemed to be successful in intercepting the rockets that had risen from the ocean on every side. These rockets finally reached their maximum height, slowly turned over and fell back toward the earth in defeat. Then suddenly the rockets which had leaped out of the oceans like fish all exploded at once. The explosion was ear-splitting. The next thing which I saw was a huge ball of fire. The only thing I have ever seen which resembled the thing I saw in my vision was the picture of the explosion of the H-bomb somewhere in the South Pacific. In my vision it was so real that I seemed to feel a searing heat from it.

Widespread Desolation

As the vision spread before my eyes and I viewed the widespread desolation brought about by the terrific explosions, I could not help thinking, While the defenders of our nation have quibbled over what means of defense to use and neglected the only true means of defense faith and dependence upon the true and living God the thing which she greatly feared has come unto her! How true it has proven in Psalms 127:1: Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it; except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.”

Then as the noise of battle subsided, to my ears came this quotation: “Blow ye the trumpet in Zion and sound an alarm in my holy mountain; let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the Lord cometh, for it is nigh at hand. 2. A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains, a great people and a strong, there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations. 3. A fire devoureth before them, and behind them a flame burneth; the land is as the Garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness, yea, and nothing shall escape them. 4. The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run. 5. Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array. 6. Before their face the people shall be much pained; all faces shall gather blackness. 7. They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war, and they shall march every one on his ways, and they shall not break their ranks. 8. Neither shall one thrust another; they shall walk every one in his path; and when they fall upon the sword, they shall not be wounded. 9. They shall run to and fro in the city; they shall run upon the wall; they shall climb up upon the houses; they shall enter in at the windows like a thief. 10. The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark,, and the stars shall withdraw their shining (Joel 2:1-10).

The Silence of

Then the voice was still. The earth, too was silent with the silence of . Then to my ears came another sound a sound of distant singing. It was the sweetest music I had ever heard. There was joyful shouting and sounds of happy laughter. Immediately I knew it was the rejoicing of the saints of God. I looked, and there, high in the heavens, above the smoke and poisonous gases, above the noise of the battle, I saw a huge mountain. It seemed to be of solid rock, and I knew at once that this was the Mountain of the Lord. The sounds of music and rejoicing were coming from a cleft high up in the side of the rock mountain.

Hidden in the Cleft

It was the saints of God who were doing the rejoicing. It was God’s own people who were singing and dancing and shouting with joy, safe from all the harm which had come upon the earth, for they were hidden away in the cleft of the rock. There in the cleft they were shut in, protected by a great, giant hand which reached out of the heavens and which was none other than the hand of God, shutting them in until the storm be over passed.

. . .

Some scientists have wondered out loud whether BP will ever be able to cap the well, whether we’ll be stuck with a billow of oil for decades to come. Some have pooh-poohed that idea. But the New York Times is reporting that contingency plans are already being put in place in case the relief wells don’t work. See the article here.

Paul Krugman, an economist and op-ed columnist for the New York Times, has recently written that he believes that America is in the early stages of a third depression (not recession). Read his column here.

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So far, I’m up to 12,000 words and I just have stepped into the crucifixion. I figure that I am a third done on length. I plan to do a couple of revisions before I call on my review board. That might take till September, depending on my work schedule.

Again, thanks for volunteering and you’ll be hearing from me soon.You might also like:

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In one of his campaigns, he took an Israeli girl who later became his wife’s maid. One day, as the girl was helping Naaman’s wife, she talked about Naaman. She said to her mistress, “Would to God that there was a prophet in Samaria so that Naaman could be healed.”

Her statement is striking.

Under the Old Covenant, the distributions of the Spirit (Hebrews 2.14) rested on the prophets, priests, and kings. The girl’s Would-to-God shows that the healing anointing on the prophets was readily discernible by all the Israelites, even when Israel had a healing covenant (Exodus 15.26).

Where is that anointing today? We’ve seen it before: just look up William Branham on YouTube. We also saw it with Smith Wigglesworth, who raised more than fifteen people from the dead. But where is it now?

A couple of years ago, my wife and I would drive three and a half to four hours to see a man who reportedly has it. We had heard stories about some healings in the man’s ministry that would set your hair on fire. But in the meetings we went to, his preaching was off kilter and he seemed to be more interested in raising money for a church building than he was bringing a healing anointing to the people.

Acts shows us that prophets didn’t die out at the end of Malachi. Agabus was a prophet who predicted Paul’s imprisonment and famine in the land. Paul, himself, was a prophet who carried with him the same kind of healing anointing that Elijah, Elisha, and Jesus did (see Acts 19.12 – aprons and handkerchiefs that had touched him were brought to the sick).

Would to God that there was a prophet in the United States today.You might also like:

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