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[Sagebrush]

WORDS by Eugene McCarley

“Of making many books there is no end;
and much study is a weariness of the flesh”
( Ecclesiastes 12:12 )

“And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast DOWN the TRUTH to the ground and it practiced and prospered.” (Daniel 8:12)

“Be not righteous over much; neither make thyself OVER WISE: why shouldest thou destroy thyself?” ( Ecclesiastes 7:16)

The Apostle Paul, at Mars Hill in Athens Greece, was called, by the philosophers, a “babbler”. The recordings of the lives of the Old Testament prophets delineate quite clearly the ridicule that these men who dared to speak truth in God’s name were treated. It is also recorded how these prophets and apostles reacted, themselves, to the words given to them by the Creator of this universe. It was never an easy and simple task for these men to speak the words given to them by God. Paul was told at the very outset of his ministry, not how successful he would be and how popular his message would be received by the people, but rather how much he would suffer for what he was to do and speak. It eventually cost him his life, as it did many others. Elijah fled into the wilderness for fear of a woman that wanted to take his life and this was immediately after Elijah had just proclaimed the word of the Lord and had called fire down out of heaven in answer to his prayer. He then slew the 450 false prophets of Baal. A great victory for this man of God. Elijah was a man subject to our like passions. He became afraid and fled for his life.

A message was given to the prophet Ezekiel in the form of a book. The book was written with lamentations, and mournings, and woe. He was told to eat this roll (book) and to go and speak to the house of Israel. (He was warned that the people would not hearken unto him) He eats and it becomes in his mouth as sweet as honey for sweetness. But when he went forth to declare the words given to him the record shows that he went forth in bitterness, in the heat of his spirit. This word “bitterness” in Hebrew is marah and it means something bitter, of discontent and heaviness. Habakkuk complained to God that he was always being shown iniquities and to behold grievances and that spoiling and violence prohibited justice from being expressed and to always witness those who caused strife and violence. John in the Revelation was given a little book and also was told to eat it. The contents of this book was to make his belly bitter but in his mouth it was to be sweet.

It is said that if you tell the truth you never have to remember what you said.
People who lie have to remember in detail what they have spoken in order to repeat the story that they have told. People who tell the truth don’t have to conjure up some kind of a correlating story because the telling of the truth will always come out the same. Sometimes it is not always pleasant or easy to tell the truth. After Ezekiel received the scroll, he ate it and it became sweet to his mouth but because of what was in the contents and the message he was to proclaim he says“The Holy Spirit lifted me up, and I went in bitterness, in the heat of my spirit”.

Always, the words of God, once given to the messenger to proclaim are sweetness to that individual simply because it is a direct contact with God. It is God’s word that is to be spoken and this word is hardly ever received, and that by only a few. Take my brethren the prophets and apostles as an example of suffering. Hebrews chpt. 11 outlines those witnesses who suffered because of their loyalty to God. Those of whom the world was not worthy. Paul was in a state of constant conflict and suffering for proclaiming God’s word. No scars, no battle and Paul testified that he carried about in his body these scars for Christ sake. Scars can also be borne by our spirit.

Today from our pulpits we hear only the message of progressive revelations, peace, love, and mixed into this teaching is this UNITY philosophy that is leading us into ecumenicalism which will lead us to a one world church. It is recorded that Ezekiel was caused to eat the book. This is the same word that is used in Genesis 2:5 where it says God had not yet caused it to rain. He was not forced to eat but because he wanted to obey, he ate. Both John and Ezekiel were told to eat the message given to them. This definitely tells us that God was the driving force that caused these men to receive His word. This was a horrific experience for them and I might add that when Daniel the prophet received the word from the Lord it changed his countenance and it made him sick for days.

In the document to follow this preface I intend to discuss words that make up conversations (written or spoken) that disseminate information, words that influence and are involved in the making up of political and religious beliefs. By my doing this and by taking on the task of explaining words I immediately place myself with others that speak and write words.

There are a lot of words written about words. Do the words have any meaning or are they just sounds that have no certain meaning? An excerpt from Hamlet recently caught my eye. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Polonius asked the question of Hamlet.”What do you read, my lord”? Hamlet gives the answer, “Words, words, words.” This seems, to me, an ironic answer implying many words were written and spoken without communicated information. In other words, empty words. But how can words be empty when words do have meaning? This is the problem.

Humpty Dumpty(in “Through the Looking Glass”) said to Alice, “There’s glory for you.”
“I don’t know what you mean by glory,” Alice replied. “Of course you don’t till I tell you.” “When I use a word, said Humpty, it means just what I choose it to mean–nothing more nor less.”
Alice replies and says, “whether you can make words mean so many different things.”

Natan Sharansky stated that voting in an election did not make a democracy. Was he correct or was he not correct? In Iraq they held elections and Saddam stayed in dictatorial power for years. Come to your own conclusion. Today, as even in the past, treaties and agreements appear not to be determined (DEFINED) by what the words plainly stated, but how they are perceived by a particular reader. This is the reason and the cause for confusion in our world today. Words have no inherent meanings or common understanding. As at the Tower of Babel, communication becomes next to impossible and the action which we expect should follow upon words are not taken. But words do have meaning and whether one abides by what the words say is of no consequence as to the truth of the words. “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.”

Humans just happen to be the only creation of God (on earth) who express themselves to one another in sounds that make up words. (There is one group of people I have heard of that express themselves to one another in “clicks” of the tongue instead of words.) In this discussion I will not try to determine for the reader as to the origin of the many languages spoken. This is not a study of language per sey. It is a discussion on how people express themselves with words and the results that come about by using certain words. I expect politicians to lie and spin words, I do not expect theologians to lie and spin the meaning of words. Today we are bombarded with this very thing, lies and the spinning of words in the theological realm. This is nothing new to the history of mankind but in our day and age it has become the norm instead of the exception. I am not so foolish as to believe that what I write here will have any influence to change this very thing. Also, I am not a language expert, I only understand English and the foreign words that are translated into English.

Dialogue (conversation) with another person is very difficult without words. Signs given by the hand can be used and there is a language among the deaf that is used today to convey meaning. But again, here, I am addressing only spoken or written words. The KJV of the Bible contains a little over 700,000 words to express itself to the reader. As I will be dealing with the English language the following information might be of interest. The first modern English dictionary ( Samuel Johnson-1755) contained about 50,000 terms. Webster’s American dictionary, (1828) included about 75,000 words. By the 1960s dictionaries contained 155,000 plus words. One has over 460,000 entries and the words keep growing..

This is truly a perilous time we live in and this will grow in intensity until someone comes and straightens out the confusion that has overtaken the human race, and my main purpose in this paper will be to deal with those in the religious field of Christianity. I am a Bible believer so therefore I evaluate these theologians by the written Word. I use this word theologian to mean preachers and teachers of the Bible. After all did not Jesus say--“ For by thy WORDS thou shalt be justified, and by thy WORDS thou shalt be condemned.” (Matthew 12:37)

I am convinced that all of the words that have ever been spoken on this subject have already been spoken or written. Today we are just getting a different slant (although using the same identical words) on what was written and was spoken in days gone by. I do not pass the final judgment on these people, I only evaluate what they say and teach. I also know that the many words we hear today will be said again tomorrow and the next day and the next day.

It is almost inconceivable to the human mind that people can be moved in a certain direction of action by the mere speaking of words. Men speak words and other men follow the words, even to their death. Men act on what they say and say what they believe and the words used express how they conceive things to be. This is all done and executed through language and we are identified by what we believe and say. If we are vague in our belief then our identity becomes shrouded and it becomes difficult to establish who we really are and what we might stand for. Actors and hypocrites do not enter into this discussion as it is only real people and their speech that are of importance even though these kinds of people do have influence on some people. If we are not clear about what it means for something to be true, any statement concerning what truth is will be empty and will conjure up more meaningless and perplexing questions.

Today we have become broader and more inclusive in our belief system. The words to describe our position have become more complicated due to the fact that there is the spinning of words to define our base. How do you define “IS” or what is “pornography” and again what defines “marriage”? Even those who are staunch and unflinching in their beliefs and are so vociferously expressed from a pulpit will modify their statements when found to be politically incorrect. Words are like rocks, when thrown are difficult to retrieve. As a matter of fact you can’t do it because you have to spin your statement to mean something other than what you had already spoken. Out of the mouth will come the words that define who we are and it is not unscriptural to separate oneself from those who are double-tongued in their speech. You can never know where they stand and you can never depend totally on what they say. “ A double minded man is unstable in all his ways.” ( James 1:8)

The second Vatican Council was held in 1962-65. Prior to this council the first Vatican Council (1869-70) was held. In the year 415 at Chalcedon (in Asia Minor) a group of bishops met together which, basically, gave these bishops the governing power over the Church as it was set up at that time. Keeping in mind that in 325 the Emperor Constantine, of the Roman Empire, had integrated the philosophy and teachings of these Church Fathers into his entire realm. The “Church” and the bishops were to become the controlling factor in what the Bible said. At the first Council (1869-70) the laity (every day common members) were instructed not to read the Bible by themselves. The intended reason behind this edict was that the people might understand what they were reading without any input by the bishops. The sole interpretation of what the scriptures said was left entirely up to the hierarchy of the Church. The Pope, to this day, is still the authority on the meaning of what the words say in the scripture. It was at this first council that the infallibility of the Pope was established. Men gave up their lives in order to bring the scriptures to the ordinary man. One hundred years before Luther nailed his thesis on the church door at Wittenberg John Wycliffe began to translate the Bible into the English language. This, the Roman Church would not stand for. Death ensued for all who would question the authority of this man made religious system.

It is said that the pen is mightier than the sword, but more often than not it takes the sword to implement the pen. Secular history is inundated with this fact. In one way or another one will find that in someway there will always be some kind of “belief” difference in the cause of wars amongst man. The information contained herein is only for the reason to inform, nothing else. It really should be noteworthy to the reader that this entire organized religious system that is now manifested before our very eyes today is built on philosophies that began since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden. ALL one has to do is read church history. Just read it and come to your own conclusion. Just make sure that the closures you come to are based on FACTS. Do not search only for those ideas that fit into your frame of mind.

During the last sixty years or so, (I saw much of this myself and in fact was well on my way to becoming a part of it) the most susceptible to the schemes of the hawkers and charlatans have been those people who claimed to be Christians. These hawkers all have an agenda–money and power. They use their interpretation of scriptures (usually from a version that fits their need) to convince the uninformed that what they are espousing is the word of God. The minds and the words that proceed from the mouths of these charlatans are like the wandering stars of the heavens. They will do anything, say anything in order to con the people into supporting them.

It is heart rending to watch the people fall almost into a mesmerized state of mind (and body) as they are captivated and held spellbound by the speaker who is leading them. They are like lemmings following the Pied Piper of Hamelin to their destruction. They are intrigued by the sound that comes from the piper’s pipe and they follow wherever it leads them. They love the sound. They allow themselves to be completely spellbound and bewitched by the “siren “ song of words that flow from the mouth of the alluring seductor.

The world is steeped in spiritual darkness and each culture seeks to find a light to bring them out of this blackness. This shows me that mankind is not only a physical being which seeks to satisfy the wants of the flesh, but also a spiritual being that seeks something outside of this materialistic body. Again, all one has to do is to look at the different methods of the different religious cultures of this world that show this thought to be true. From the healing of the sickness of the body interwoven into the spiritual realm of a person one can witness the entering in of different spirits (of some kind of manifestation) that possess and take over the physical body. Witness this flagellation and the cutting of the flesh to draw blood. Witness the ritual that allows one to enter into shamanism and this will substantiate what I am saying. Therefore, is it any wonder, is it difficult to accept the premise (based on these facts) that the whole of mankind is now under some kind of deception that comes from outside of the man himself and that a greater deception is being witnessed by those who inform themselves about what God has to say about these things?

This is why I am writing this paper. But I am no fool. I do not expect very many people to pay any attention to these word and the reason being is that they do not believe the WORDS that have already been written concerning this subject. The “GREAT DECEIVER” will have no obstacle in his way to deceive a multitude of people in his time as the ground work has already been lain for his great lie to be believed. He will stamp truth to the ground and try and destroy all those who will not go along with his great lie. The evidence for this statement is very plain and clear. It is not my opinion.

Since the English language contains an incalculable number of fixed combinations and nuances of meanings I concern myself in this paper with only the general vocabulary of the English language. It is the nuances of the words that are used that are the cause of our problem in having dialogue with one another. This, in and of itself, is the basis for discord amongst the human race.

“ BUT LET YOUR COMMUNICATION BE, YEA, YEA; NAY, NAY:
FOR WHATSOEVER IS MORE THAN THESE COMETH EVIL.” ( Matthew 5:37)

“The snow crowned summits fail to set Him forth .
Depths unfathomed are to shallow to express the wisdom and knowledge of the Lord
Earth’s ponderous wheels would break-her axles snap
If freighted with the load of deity-
Space is too narrow for the Eternal’s rest.
Time is too short a footstool for His throne.
How then can I declare Him–where are the words?
Silent I bow-humbly I adore.....”
Charles Spurgeon

Please keep in mind as you read what is to follow that it is not with ease or exhilaration of spirit that I do so. It is above my pay grade to pass sentence on the people who partake of what I write about. My purpose and underlying motive is to inform my family, not to convince and convert other people to my way of thinking. Been there, done that. If someone asks me I will answer. There is an uncertain sound that is going forth today from hierarchy of the “born again” Christians and these are the people I am concerned with. A bleating of the sheep (1st. Sam.15:14) which was a sound not to be heard is coming from the camp. As there was a sound that was heard by Moses and Joshua as they descended the mountain which could not be deciphered at first as to what it really was, so is this strange sound going forth today.

There are many “trumpeters” today but, “If the the trumpet give an UNCERTAIN SOUND, who shall prepare himself for the battle?” (1st. Cor. 14:8)

Eugene McCarley
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"And those from among will rebuild the ancient ruins; you will raise up the age-old foundations; and you will be called the repairer of the breach, the restorer of the streets in which to dwell"-Is. 58:12

[jrdull]

Silent; I bow...
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jrdull