Part  IV  –  Application to Third Wave Paradigm

Subpart D  – Christian Zionism

Article 3  –  The Mysticism of a Naturalistic Orientation upon the Covenant

By Daniel Irving

a.     Dispensationalism’s Outgrowth; Christian Zionism

b.    The Gentile of Prophecy

c.   Kathryn Kuhlman’s Wayward Dispensational Eschatology

d.   The “Times of the Gentiles”

e.    Our Case in Point:  The Mixture of Spiritual Things with Natural

f.   A Gospel Exegesis on the Satisfaction of the Law

g.  Confidence in Flesh; the False Hope Held Forth by Angels

h. The Damaging Implications of Naturalistic Interpretations Applied to Spiritual Things

Article 3

The Mysticism of a Naturalistic Orientation upon the Covenant

a.  Dispensationalism’s Outgrowth; Christian Zionism

A previous article addressed the modern day error known as Dispensationalism, originally put forward in the 1840’s by John Nelson Darby of the Plymouth Brethren movement in England.  Darby’s system of Biblical interpretation essentially found codification with the introduction of the very popular Scofield Reference Bible prior to World War I.  Through Scofield’s commentaries, Darby’s system of Biblical interpretation was able to dominate Chrisitian perception of the prophetic scriptures throughout the twentieth century.  The system was readily received by evangelicals as a legitimization of the cessationistic[1] opinions of Church leaders.   Strangely, Darby’s teaching made rapid inroads amongst Pentecostals as well, even though the system repudiated the miraculous and supernatural works of the Holy Spirit for the present age.  Indeed, the teaching was even formulated with the intent to undermine Pentecostal teaching from its very origin in the 1840’s.[2]

One of the dangerous outgrowths from the dispensational system of interpretation, is the teaching known as Christian Zionism, which we began to address in the last section of the present article.  While Christian Zionism assumes a variety of forms, the fundamental similarity which its various forms share, is a rigorously literal interpretation of prophetic scripture, particularly as concerning a literal Jewish state and/or Jewish ethnicity.  The teaching asserts that one’s ethnic background has significance in the mind of God and in respect to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  This teaching represents one of the most widespread and accepted heresies in modern times.  The teaching’s point of stumbling is very easily identified by its rejection of Paul’s very clear language when he wrote:

For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.     Rom. 10:12 

Christian Zionism stands in rejection of this basic tenet of the Gospel that God is no respecter of persons, as was established once God made no distinction on the basis of ethnicity when he gave the gift of the Holy Spirit to the Gentiles.

Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, “Of truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.  But in every nation he that feareth Him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with Him.”                                         Acts 10:34-35

To declare, by doctrine, that God has reversed Himself, and that He now renders distinction between Jew and Gentile on the basis of the ethnicity of each, is to opt for the covenant of flesh.  This heresy appears destined to play a key role in the final apostasy that will arise from this world.

b.  The Gentile of Prophecy

The prophecy of Isaiah speaks of God’s purposes in sending Christ unto the Gentiles:

Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth:  I have put my spirit upon him:  He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.              Is. 42:1

The Hebrew word translated Gentiles[3] in the KJV, and nations in the NASV and Interlinear version, is the primary word for both Gentiles and for nations in the KJV.  While there is a definite distinction between the meaning of the English term nations and the English term Gentiles, the OT Hebrew seems to allow no distinction.  Gentile has a prophetic meaning, as does the term Jew have a prophetic meaning, which gives rise to the question; What is intended in prophecy by reference to Gentiles?” 

Upon the preaching of the Gospel in the first-century, the prophetic meaning of a Gentile was made evident when the apostle Paul presented the Jew in spiritualized terms, which served as a contrast to the spiritual meaning of Gentile.  The distinction is not one based upon race or national identity, but is a distinction based upon the principle of circumcision, having its gospel fulfillment in the work of the Spirit upon the heart.   This work upon the heart relates to the subjugation of sin’s power in the believer to the rule of Christ.[4]  Therefore we may understand the prophetic allusion to Gentiles as a reference to the spiritual condition of humanity outside the knowledge of God.  These are brought through that spiritual principle of circumcision, which is the work of the Holy Spirit  performed upon the heart in fulfillment of the covenant made to Abraham.  As this is a work performed by God, it is very possible to walk in a genuine Christian profession and testimony, while having yet to experience this operation of God.  This is why Paul can say of the many of the Christians of Corinth:

Awake to righteousness, and sin not;   for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame.                                         I Cor. 15:34

Although the Christians in Corinth were “Gentiles according to the flesh,” they were made Jews inwardly[5] by virtue of a work performed by the agency of the Holy Ghost.  This turned Gentile into Jew.  Or do we forget Paul’s statement:

For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly; neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh.   But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; & circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.                                                                                    Rom. 2:28-29

Paul became a true Jew for no other reason than that he served God with his spirit.[6]  Therefore it was not his natural circumcision of the flesh, but his circumcision by the spirit that made him truly a “Jew” in the prophetic sense of the term.  Paul’s spirit was now subject to himself to rule over in the power of Christ as his proper head of authority.  Having rule now over his own spirit, his conduct, words, and thoughts now became a matter of choice rather than a matter of compulsion.  Paul had the choice of either allowing sin to dictate over his body, or to impose the rule of Christ over his members.  Hence Paul’s exhortation:

Let not sin therefore reign in your mortal body, that ye should obey it in the lusts thereof.                                                                                      Rom 6:12

Therefore, when we consider Isaiah’s prophecy again in this light, we might see what is prophetically-intended by the “One New Man.”  Isaiah says:

Behold my servant whom I uphold; mine elect, in whom my soul delighteth:  I have put my spirit upon him:  He shall bring forth judgment to the Gentiles.        Is. 42:1

There is a relationship between God and the Gentile established through God’s Spirit having been placed upon His only begotten Son.  When Jesus was anointed as the Christ, this relationship became evident as a progressive revelation of God, as: 1) Jesus Christ is the “servant” of God, therefore, 2) chosen, elect, and in whom God “delights,” therefore, 3) God’s Spirit rests here, for the purpose of 4) effectuating the judgment of God in such a way as to sever sin from sinner.  God’s judgment is extended to unregenerate humanity through the mediation of Christ.  God is able to render judgment on the issue of sin, with the object of salvation for the sinner.

Therefore we perceive God’s plan of redemption as having its object in “My servant” (ie. Jesus Christ, as Messiah – Head) communicated to the Church via the agency of the Holy Ghost which is the symbolism of centrally-positioned feast of Pentecost, (ie. “I have put My Spirit upon Him,”) and communicated particularly unto the “Gentiles” (ie. Messiah – body) which expresses the pre-regenerate condition of the entire body of Christ.[7]  Through the operation of the Spirit of Christ, that work is transacted which brings the true Law of God to bear upon the heart of the sinner.  When this occurs, the Gentile (a figure for the spiritual condition of the unregenerate) becomes a Jew (a figure for the spiritual condition of the regenerate.)  The spiritual man should apprehend the meaning of the Gentile as a reference to a spiritual condition, rather than to mere natural descendancy.  This is the true prophetic meaning of the term Jew.

c.  Kathryn Kuhlman’s Wayward Dispensational Eschatology

This article will use, as a case in point, an interaction that occurred between the well known minister of the miraculous, Kathryn Kuhlman, and another notable individual that came as a guest on her television show during the early 1970’s.

We should first observe that there has been no ministry in modern times more consistently full of the presence and power of God to heal than the ministry of Kathryn Kuhlman.  The few miracle services that were video recorded demonstrate that God still testifies of Himself through the power of miracles of healing, and that He will supernaturally transact in the lives of men.  Ms. Kuhlman was very careful to ascribe the power to God to Jesus Christ as the true object of our faith.  When she walked in the ministration of this gift, she facilitated the work of God to give glory to Jesus Christ.

That being acknowledged, it becomes necessary to observe that Ms. Kuhlman also made forays into teaching.  In so doing, she was not always sound in her doctrine.  In fact, on the authority of Scripture, it would seem reasonable to conclude that Ms. Kuhlman walked in a degree of presumption when operating as a teacher, for Paul writes:

But I do not allow a woman to teach or exercise authority over a man, but to remain quiet.  For it was Adam who was first created, and then Eve.  And it was not Adam who was deceived, but the woman being quite deceived, fell into transgression.                                                                                      I Tim. 2:12-14

While the gifts and ministries operate without respect to male or female through the agency of the Holy Spirit, it does not follow that the gifts and ministries should operate in a way contradictory to  Scripture.  Because there is an anointing of God’s Spirit to heal, or to transact in the covenant, does not mean there is an anointing to do that which runs contrary to God’s express commandment.  Therefore when Kathryn Kuhlman undertook to teach, she was necessarily outside the scope of her calling.  Those who accepted what she said uncritically were likewise engaged in presumption with her.  While she glorified God in properly ascribing His miracle working power to Jesus Christ, the same cannot be said of her efforts as a teacher.  And if she was in presumption in this area, we can reasonably infer that the miracles at work in Kathryn Kuhlman’s ministry constituted no validation of her teachings; which were brought in contradiction to the authority of Scripture, and which sometimes constituted error.

One of the erroneous teachings maintained by Ms. Kuhlman was that doctrine commonly held in her day known as Dispensationalism, a doctrine most commonly held among Baptists.  Ms. Khulman was an ordained Baptist minister,[8] and true to the Baptist tradition, she was also a strict dispensationalist, which necessarily confounded a right apprehension of prophetic scripture.

During the third episode Ms. Khulman’s television series, I Believe in Miracles, and after declaring that God is about to bring to a close the present dispensation; the dispensation of the Gentiles, Ms. Khulman shakes her finger at the camera, and emphatically asserts her dispensational theology, saying in her characteristically slow cadence:

Very soon now, we’re going to have the great catching up; the rapture of the Church.  Following that, God, for seven years will keep his earthly covenants to an earthly people, the Jews.[9]

We might notice there is very little in this statement that can be found in Scripture, as neither the Lord nor did His apostles speak of any “seven years,” nor do the sciptures ever use the term “rapture,” nor is any “earthly covenant” promoted in the New Testament as a basis for hope.  While the Lord did speak of the gathering together of His elect at His appearing, He did not speak of a rapture as is meant by dispensationalists, ie. as a sudden “catching up” of believers as a separate event preceding the Lord’s coming at the end of the age.  The “rapture” teaching is a peculiar brainchild of Dispensationalism, and is false teaching.[10]  Although she was by no means an originator of Dispensationalism, her clearly anointed ministry was used to foster this error, and encouraging the Church toward naturalistic misapprehension of prophecy and doctrine.

d.  The “Times of the Gentiles”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbS6-D9C7QE&feature=youtu.be

However, there is one allusion made by Ms. Khulman which actually has place in Scripture, ie. the principle of there being a “time of the Gentiles.” [11] The Lord did tell us there would be a period He called “the times of the Gentiles” after which His coming would occur.  We further gather from Revelation chapter eleven, that the Gentiles shall trample upon the things of God.  Both the Lord’s words and Revelation chapter eleven clearly indicate this period of the Gentiles will have an end.  The Lord said of that time:

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations; And Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.                              Luke 21:24

What was this “time of the Gentiles?”  We know that the Lord’s words did have a literal fulfillment in 70 A.D., when the Roman army under Titus, surrounded Jerusalem, and made an end of the Jewish nation.  This led to the great Jewish Diaspora, wherein the Jewish people were scattered away from Palestine, into other parts of the world.  The nation and state of Israel was dissolved.  Nonetheless, even after two thousand years, many retain their identity as Jews. 

We might ask ourselves then, how it was that some of those dispersed were able to maintain their Jewish identity despite being dissolved as a nation and scattered throughout the world.  The answer, would have to be their adherence to a way; a way that had been Divinely overthrown when God revealed the Cross as that principle dissolving distinction between Jew and Gentile.

The Jewish nation, as a natural state, rejected Christ.  This rejection of Christ is even what became their natural and corporate identity.  Their own Torah had warned them against transgressing against “innocent blood.”[12]  We read in Matthew’s gospel that . . .

When Pilate saw that he could prevail nothing, but that rather a tumult was made,  he took water, and washed his hands before the multitude,  saying, I am innocent of the blood of this just person: see ye to it.  Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.                                    Matt. 27:24-25 

Despite the warnings of Moses, those claiming stake under the Law were eager to shed the blood of the righteous just as their fathers had done before them.  After crucifying the Lord, the Jewish nation turned against the children of God that were being brought forth through faith in Jesus Christ even in their own midst within the city of Jerusalem.  The prophecies of Jeremiah warned the nation repeatedly against the principle of “shedding innocent blood in this place.”[13]  And so, Stephen became the first of many sanctified Jews, as true spiritual Jews, who would follow the Lord in death at the hands of those in rejection of Christ.  Those made innocent through faith in Christ, would follow their Lord’s example on the Cross, resulting in Jerusalem continuing its practice of shedding the blood of the innocent.  These were innocent by identification in God’s Innocent One, the Lamb without blemish.  This principle of the righteousness of God conferred upon those who believe and keep His commandments is expressed by John:

Little children, let no man deceive you:   he that doeth righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous.                                I John 3:7

The principle of those standing in rejection of the Gospel rising to become the implements of Satanic persecution of the body of Christ is expressed in the revelation given John:

And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.                                                                                      Rev. 12:17

Satan cannot prevent the processes of faith in the Church.  He cannot prevent the kingdom of God.  All he can do is persecute the Church and kill the body.  Having been revealed through their crucifying of Christ, those in rejection of Christ proceeded to persecute His Church.  They persisted in the act of “shedding of innocent blood” against which they had been warned by Moses.[14]  In so doing, the Jewish nation heaped upon itself wrath through occupying their own day of salvation with persecution and murder of the Lord’s body.  Paul writes concerning the Jewish nation:

Who both killed the Lord Jesus, and their own prophets, and have persecuted us;  and they please not God, and are contrary to all men: Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles that they might be saved,  to fill up their sins alway: for the wrath is come upon them to the uttermost.      I Thess. 2:15-16

Consider that Paul himself was not only a natural Jew, he had also been directly engaged in the persecution of the early Church.  Yet he was saved from wrath.  How?  Not through his adherence to Judaism, but through his putting off any natural hope in order to take on a spiritual hope.  As to the orthodox Jews, Paul refers to them as “dogs.”[15]  Very strong words!  He writes to the Church:

Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the concision.  For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit, and rejoice in Christ Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh.                           Phil. 3:2-3

“Dogs” stand as a metaphor for inveterate sinners.[16]  Notice that Paul uses the metaphor of “dogs” in reference to those having their “confidence in the flesh.”  But before we conclude that Paul is casting the Jews as inveterate sinners, consider something else he writes, when he refers to himself and to Peter as:

  We who are Jews by nature, and not sinners of the Gentiles.             Gal. 2:15

How is this contradiction to be resolved?  By understanding Paul’s meaning as spiritual.  He who puts off the old man through faith in Jesus Christ is the real Jew, as revealed by the Gospel.  “For we are the circumcision, which worship God in the spirit.”   Paul utterly repudiates his natural  Jewishness as having any benefit before God:

Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.    If any other man thinketh that he hath whereof he might trust in the flesh, I more:  Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin,  an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;                          Phil. 3:4-5

Paul even mentions his persecution of the Church in his zeal for the Torah.  By so doing, he found himself condemned, but for the intervention and mercy of God.  Paul found his salvation to reside in the revelation that all his Jewishness and zeal for the law constituted “dung” to be cast off through the power of faith in Jesus Christ.  He writes: 

Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:                    Phil. 3:8-9

Clearly, Paul, as a Jew, considered himself a “dog” at such time his confidence was in his birth, his heritage, his education, his accomplishments, his attainments in Judaism, or even his own moral righteousness.  Being a Jew meant nothing.  In fact, it was worse than nothing because it provided a false basis upon which he might have been tempted to rely, rather than upon the work of the Lord Jesus Christ made effectual in his own life via the Spirit of God.

How was Paul able to make this radical transition from a fleshly dog to a true Jew?  Through the open door of faith; that time afforded the sinner to repent; the open door afforded to the Gentile.  Therefore Paul, as a natural Jew, but a spiritual Gentile, was made a true spiritual Jew through faith.  This is what Jesus meant by the “times of the Gentiles;” that dispensation of God that is the Gospel; the body and blood of Jesus Christ as atonement for sinful flesh; the open door for the sinner, if he will repent.

This dispensation of the Gospel is called the “times of the Gentiles,” after which, there is no “rapture,” nor is there any seven year period that God will suddenly reverse Himself and begin to regard the fleshly ethnicity of men again, or change His mind concerning the merits of the Judaistic forms of service and worship.  For these things were done away in Christ.  They were eradicated as having standing before God.  Indeed, they constitute symbols of things upon which the Divine wrath abides.

So what occurs after the Gospel dispensation?  Exactly what the Lord said, would come.  The End.  The final apostasy, resulting in the end of natural things.  For what is left after God’s provision for sin and the hope offered man to share eternity as part of Himself has been rejected?  Once God closes the door upon those whose confidence in the flesh resisted God’s call to repentance, then the end shall come.  Therefore Jesus said that after this “time of the Gentiles:”

. . .  there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.  And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.  And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.    Luke 21:25-28

No “rapture;” no seven year period wherein God reverses the Gospel message to become a respecter of persons with an apparent preference for the natural Jew, but rather, the Lord’s coming.  And His coming will mean the destruction of these false confidences.[17]

e.  Our Case in Point:  The Mixture of Spiritual Things with Natural

As stated earlier, Kathryn Kuhlman was a strict dispensationalist.  Dispensationalism involves a literalistic and naturalistic orientation upon the scriptures; one aspect of which, is to retain the significance of the natural Jew in terms of the prophetic writings.

Sid Roth was thirty-one years of age when he appeared as a guest on Kathryn Kuhlman’s television show I Believe in Miracles in the early 1970’s.  Ms. Kuhlman introduced Roth, a new Jewish convert to Christianity, by the description made of him in the Washington Daily News as classed with “other very prominent young men in business in our nation’s capital as “white collared Jesus Freaks.”  Ms. Kuhlman welcomed him with the accolade:

And you’re a great success both as a Christian and as a stock broker; a very successful Christian and a very successful stock broker.[18] 

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Etqm9rZSpqU

Only a year had passed since Roth’s conversion to the Christian belief system.  He related to Kuhlman his former years as an occultist:

You see, being a salesman in sales, I’ve read every book on positive thinking.  I began to believe that the man, the individual, can do anything.  So what God did was he backed me into a corner; He stripped me of everything.  He got me involved in the psychic world.  And I didn’t realize I was tying in with the Devil when I got involved in astrology and in mind control activities.[19] 

Kuhlman asks Roth, “How did you ever get involved with that?”  Roth replies:

I was looking for power.  I found a power there.  I found astrology isn’t fake.  It works. . . . I was looking for power and I found it.  Let me tell you about some of the things I was able to do, and I’m not saying that I’m bragging, I’m trying to explain it to you.  I was able to open up a dictionary and ask myself a specific question and just turn at random and point to a word and I’d have an exact answer to my question.  I was able to close my eyes and someone would give me the name of someone I’d never heard of before and I could describe them and tell you what was wrong with them physically .  I thought this power was really tremendous.  I began to be able to impose my will on people.  Then all of a sudden within me, a feeling said, “Where is the power coming from?”  And I went to the instructor that taught me the course, and I said, “Where is the power coming from?”  And he didn’t know, so he sent me to the instructor for the whole east coast for this particular course, and I asked him the same question, and he wasn’t able to answer my question.  And I remember at the time I had met a lot of born again Christians, and they started telling me about Deuteronomy 18, in which the Lord Jesus Christ forbids having anything to do with this sort of activity.  And I asked him about it at the time, and he said to me, “Sid, the only evil is in your mind. That’s the only hang up.  There’s no such thing as the Devil.”  And I walked away from that man, not being completely satisfied because although he told me what it wasn’t, he didn’t tell me what it was.  He didn’t tell me who I was tied into.[20]

After having an experience at a seance wherein he saw an apparition of himself rise up from his own body, and upon being warned by other spiritists to the effect that the soul sometimes does not find its way back, Roth began to become fearful concerning his occult activities and began looking to the Christian faith for answers.  He asked his wife, who had converted away from the Christian faith to Judaism, to pray for him.  One day, Roth walked into a bookstore and picked up a book entitled, The Bible, the Jew, and the Supernatural.  The book convinced him that many Jewish celebrities, including Brian Epstein of the Beatles, had lost their lives through dabbling in the occult.  Its’ author, famed New York Times reporter, McCandlish Phillips, writes:

If you are a Jew, there is a risk for you in involvement or experimentation with certain areas of the supernatural beyond the degree of risk run by a Gentile, as great as that is.  A Jew who steps into these areas for whatever reason is more likely to experience destructive effects of his person immediately, or very soon, than a Gentile is.  The door that can never be opened again slams shut faster on a Jew than on a non-Jew.[21]

Given his ethnicity as a Jew, Roth felt that although it was a sin for any man to dabble in the occult, the sin was even greater for the natural Jew, as descended from that ethnicity which had been divinely appointed as the custodians of God’s law exemplified in the Torah, and who should know better than to transgress God’s strict laws against occult practices.

Upon accepting that what he was doing was sinful, Roth said in his mind, “God you’re the only one I can turn to.” He states that upon thinking these words, “He was there.” [22]  Upon Roth’s expression of his gratitude for Jesus Christ having come into his heart, Kathryn Kuhlman looks into the camera and excitedly says:

Do you know that this is a very successful stock broker who is talking.  This is a businessman from our nation’s capitol.  A successful stockbroker.[23]

Sid Roth speaks further about his relationship with Christ, after which Kuhlmann says to him:

You depended on the intellect for so long didn’t you?  You’re a brilliant young man.  For the very short time I have had an association with you, Sid Roth, you’re a brilliant young man.  You’ve always known you had this ability when it would come to the mind, and you sought everything through the mind.  But you don’t get this experience through the mind.[24]

An intriguing encounter was occurring during this televised interview.  For the man speaking with Kathryn Khulman, Sid Roth, would go on to become one of the most prominent leaders of the present day Prophetic movement, and the formulator of a key heretical teaching within that movement, known as The One New Man doctrine, addressed in an earlier section of this article.

f.  A Gospel Exegesis on the Satisfaction of the Law

While Kathryn Kuhlman’s statement that we do not come to faith in Jesus Christ through mere natural means is certainly true, there seems a disturbing undercurrent to what Ms. Kuhlman is communicating.  For consider, that she has just praised the brilliant natural mind of this young Jewish man; a man whose natural reasoning had led him deep into occult practices and into consorting with demons.  This young Jewish man has just explained to Ms. Kuhlman his reasoning in choosing to terminate occult practices, which began when he had doubts about the source of the power.  Presumably, prior to having these doubts, Roth perceived the power as originating from himself in some way.  When he realized the power was originating rather from outside himself, and that other entities may be responsible, he wanted to know who these entities were.  He did this because he developed a rational fear of where he might be going, realizing he was not the one in control of the power.  His decision to cease operating in the occult was made when he could not be “completely satisfied” in this regard.  And so, Sid Roth was disabused of the hope of satisfying his quest for power through recourse to the occult.

On the other hand, we might consider that the occult, was not Roth’s original error.  Although he violated the Torah, his underlying transgression, in terms of the Gospel, was the inward defilement of lust for power over men.  He states, “I was looking for power.  I found a power there.  I found astrology isn’t fake.  It works. . . . I was looking for power and I found it.”  The occult was only the means employed; outward actions forbidden by an outward code.  Therefore, we might ask whether the true Law of God, as that which is internal and spiritual is requited when the sinner desists from the unlawful means of satisfying his carnal lusts and ambitions.

Is God’s Law satisfied?  The answer is that it depends.   For we must understand clearly that there is no virtue in a sinner desisting from sin.  For God has declared, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”[25]  Just as Adam’s death was occasioned from the act of a single sin, and it did not matter whether he chose to sin no more, so is the same true for his posterity.  Sin is not atoned for by its discontinuance.  Rather, sin is atoned for as a transacting work of the Holy Ghost through the means of faith in the blood of Jesus Christ.  While John’s gospel-demand for an outward and demonstrative repentance, and the renunciation of outward and demonstrative acts of sin, is certainly the necessary antecedent of forgiveness and God’s mercy, this is not how sin is put away.  The Law is not requited through the unilateral act of saying it be so.  There is more required than the mere mouth’s profession.  The Law is satisfied through the real presence of the Holy Ghost, communicating faith in the blood atonement to the man, and through nothing less.  This is the repentance that God will give.  This is the repentance by which sin in the warp is purged and its bondage broken. This is the repentance that ratifies and fulfills that which might formerly have been a mere volitional change of mind.  

Therefore, let us ask the question again;  Was the Law of God, as that which is internal and spiritual, requited when Mr. Roth desisted from the unlawful means of gratifying the carnal lusting that led him to consort with demons?  According to the Gospel, the answer is “Yes,” if the Holy Spirit was the motivating agency.  Only the Spirit of faith in Jesus Christ can justify, as Paul writes:

. . that is, the word of faith which we are preaching, that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.      Rom. 10:8-9

Might we do one without the other?  That would miss Paul’s conditions of “salvation.”  To “confess with one’s mouth” without “believing in one’s heart” is of no justifying value as void of the Holy Spirit’s agency.  That would be to have a form of godliness, while denying the power thereof; the vain religion we are commanded to “turn away” from, whether it comes in the name of Jesus Christ or not.[26]  On the other hand, what if the call of God is upon us so that we believe, but do not profess?  Does this constitute “salvation”?  The inference from the apostle’s words is that it does not.  One form of faithlessness holds to the semblances while resisting the true agency of God’s Spirit.  The other, leads us into idolatry, and runs us into the danger of apostasy, because where there is no faith, even be there a confession, something that is not Christ will surely find its way into the void.  We will do service to that in which we trust. Therefore, where there is faith in Jesus Christ, there will be wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption.[27]  Where this is lacking, there will be worldly-mindedness, continuance in sin, reprobation, and perdition.  The void of faith will be filled by Satanic influences, profess Christ as we might.

Therefore, the question for Mr. Roth becomes plain.  Upon what would he place his confidence?  Ms. Khulman saturated this young man in praise for his brilliant (Jewish) mind upon which he trusted, but which, in fact, led him into consorting with occult forces, and nearly to his damnation.  But listen to her final statement:

Sid Roth, you’re a brilliant young man.  You’ve always known you had this ability when it would come to the mind, and you sought everything through the mind.  But you don’t get this experience through the mind.[28]

g.  Natural Confidence as Coming under the Authority of the Law

In his letter to the Colossians, Paul is writing to an assembly of believers which had been influenced by Jewish Christians to regard the things of the Law as somehow a significant component of their salvation.  Paul writes to them that their faith is not subject to outward codes and natural principles.  He writes:

  Wherefore if you be dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world,  why, as though living in the world, are you subject to ordinances, (Touch not; taste not; handle not;)                                           Col 2:20-21

Prior to the circumcision of Christ, man’s confidence resides in the flesh as pertaining to things outward and natural, rather than having an orientation toward things spiritual.  Those things spiritual are wrought in God through His revelation of His Son.  In this way, God’s Son is birthed within our humanity.  The natural man has his orientation upon the material things of this natural world.  For instance, in the same chapter where Paul discusses what is the true (ie. spiritual) circumcision, he also writes that our death with Christ is a death died to this world.  Through this death, our confidence may be rightly orientated toward the Person and agency of God, rather than in the person and agency of men.  Our confidence may become rightly placed.

With the revelation of Christ, comes the discarding of what was formerly our strength in this world, to take up a strength that operates by an inverse principle to that of our own; the strength of God that comes through means of Faith.  We discard the flesh as our governance, ie. that spirit which formerly allowed us to succeed in the world via natural strengths and natural principles that do not (and neither can) subject themselves unto God.  Those trusting in the flesh may maintain the advantage over men, but they are not open unto God.  They retain the foreskins of their heart, concealing themselves from close examination of their inward motives.  Therefore they have freedom to dissimilate.  The show they make in the flesh is a false representation of the true state-of-affairs within.  They may project such noble things as; sincerity, integrity, confidence, eloquence, etc., but they conceal something inwardly that is growing increasingly foul and corrupt; a foundation that is bound to collapse when pressed in judgment.  For our behavior and words (the mark of our hand and forehead) sits upon a spiritual foundation.  That foundation is either founded in Law, with its trust in flesh and its animation in natural things, or it is founded in Grace, which animates those that have been disabused of their hope in the natural.

If our confidence is founded in Grace, then it is founded upon the spiritual principle inaugurated in the blood of Jesus Christ.  If it be founded in Law, then it is a foundation that remains subject to the angelic authorities which stand sentinel over natural things; a system which God has a declared an end to.  Therefore in the same breath that Paul warns the Colossians away from natural principles of the Law, he also warns them away from fascination with angelic beings.  He writes:

Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels,  intruding into those things which he hath not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, And not holding the Head, from which all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered, and knit together, increaseth with the increase of God.                                                                                     Col. 2:18-19

As these words come within the context of opting for natural principles, they infer an association between: embracing natural principles of Law, and the fellowship of angels.  While these things played a role prior to the coming into of Faith, they become increasingly corrupt as the day of salvation is put off.  Recall that . . .

. . . before faith came, were kept under the law, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed.  Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ, that we might be justified by faith.  But after that faith is come, we are no longer under a schoolmaster.                                              Gal. 3:23-25

Stephen tells us (as we are also told in other places of Scripture) that the Law was even received through the mediation of angels.  Stephen speaks to those:

Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.                                                                                      Acts 7:53

Perhaps then, we may perceive the innate futility in persisting within a spiritual principle we can in no wise fulfill.  For Stephen speaks not only to those Jews who were about to make him the first Christian martyr, but even to all humanity, Jew and Gentile alike, when he calls out those “Who have received the law by the disposition of angels, and have not kept it.”  For Paul maintained that the Gentiles themselves were possessed of the law; it having been impressed upon their conscience.

For when Gentiles who do not have the Law do instinctively the things of the Law, these, not having the Law, are a law to themselves, in that they show the work of the Law written in their hearts, and their conscience bearing witness, and their thoughts alternately accusing or else defending them,                 Rom. 2:14-15

Therefore, while we may not be subject to the mosaic covenant as natural born Jews of old,[29] we all nonetheless operate under the spirit of the Law[30] along with the rest of humanity.[31]  And what does this moral law tell us, but not to steal, not to kill, not to commit adultery, etc.  While we may have a fairly good track record of avoiding outward violations, we know from the Gospel that what God is primarily concerned with is the heart, ie. that which is inside the cup.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be clean also.                Matt. 23:26

Our own works simply will not prevail in the day our conscience is borne upon by the weight of God’s immutable Law.  In that day, no angelic being will intervene to save a man on the day he stands alone with his conscience in the wake of damnation.  The Law governs those whose orientation resides in natural principles and who place their confidence in natural things.  Upon those who trust in flesh, the curse of the Law resides:

Thus saith the Lord; Cursed be the man that trusteth in man, and maketh flesh his arm, and whose heart departeth from the Lord.                        Jer. 17:5

While these may be children of Abraham in regards the profession of their mouth, the true children of Abraham are those known of God as justified by the principle of faith; the true child of Abraham was Isaac.  His other child was Ishmael; the child of the bondwoman.  These are the prophetic “children of the flesh,” of whom Paul refers when he writes:

That is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.                   Rom 9:8 

Neither are these “children of promise” the natural offspring of Isaac. Paul is speaking spiritually of those receiving the Gospel, toward which the natural offspring of Isaac (ie. the Jews) were the primary antagonists.  Those who continued to assert their national heritage as a thing of significance, were apostate, as they continued to exalt what God had declared null and void through the Cross.  Therefore Paul tells the Galatians that those who continue to emphasize fleshly forms and service, are, in fact, antagonistic to the Cross of Jesus Christ, and therefore to the Spirit of God:

  As many as desire to make a fair shew in the flesh, they constrain you to be circumcised; only lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.  For neither they themselves who are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised, that they may glory in your flesh.  But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.  For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.                        Gal 6:12-15

h.  The Damaging Implications of Naturalistic Interpretations Applied to Spiritual Things

To assert that being a natural Jew means anything under the new covenant, is to assert Christ did not do what He did.  What He did, was to nullify the role of flesh in God’s purposes.  This is why to lay significance upon the flesh is to walk in contradiction to the Gospel and in contradiction to the witness of the Holy Ghost; something that if persisted in, results in apostasy from the Gospel.  The Jews were engaging in such apostasy through glorying in their ancestry.  But the Gentiles were as well, glorying in flesh.  Recall that Paul had to rebuke the Corinthians for exalting men because of their fleshly abilities.  He warns them that God has chosen rather the “base things of the world, and things which are despised:”

That no flesh should glory in his presence.   I Cor. 1:29 

To glory in flesh violates principles of the new covenant whether we are Jew or Gentile.  Paul continued this rebuke in his second letter in the wake of men who were being elevated before the Corinthian assembly as objects of fleshly demonstration.  These, Paul referred to as “false apostles, deceitful workers”.[32]  Why were they “false apostles and deceitful workers?”  Paul tells us:

Seeing that many glory after the flesh, I will glory also.           II Cor. 11:18 

The false workmen were those finding significance in their fleshly pedigree and fleshly abilities; things nullified through the principle of the Cross. 

Returning to our case in point, we might find Ms. Kuhlman’s words to Sid Roth perplexing.  Rather than disabusing Mr. Roth of his carnal trusts, she oddly praises the brilliance of his mind.  While she rightly states that faith is not within the realm of the natural mind, she does not challenge his underlying error tying significance to his status as a natural Jew.  While she rightly states the case for Faith as NOT a matter of the intellect, and in so doing, gave glory to God, the same cannot be said of her doctrine; a doctrine which, in fact, supported Roth’s false assumptions, and which would lead to his prominence as a teacher of heretical doctrine, The One New Man.  Recall her words:

Very soon now, we’re going to have the great catching up; the rapture of the Church.  Following that, God, for seven years will keep his earthly covenants to an earthly people, the Jews.[33]

What began as a novel doctrine arising in the 1840’s, at the same time as Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventism, and Christian Science, was able to take deep root in the thinking of orthodox Christianity through the Scofield Reference Bible.  The teaching of Dispensationalism undermined the work of the Cross, through subordinating the Person and work of the Holy Ghost to natural and fleshly principles, and through that teaching, Christian Zionism was able to achieve credulity so as to establish itself as the “orthodoxy” of the twentieth-century.  Today there are signs suggesting that Christian Zionism may be on its way to becoming empowered much as the Prosperity Message of the latter twentieth-century was empowered.  If so, this false teaching stands to emerge as the final apostasy.