By Sister Heather Harris, and Brother Michel Lankford
During the last few weeks and months have been terrifying. The Coronavirus, that swept through China first, and now is sweeping all over the world has caused more division than ever.What do I mean? Well, let’s take one group in particular. The “Hebrew Roots” people. The ones that claim that they follow the WHOLE Bible and are followers of Messiah. This is the group that wear the tzittzits, observe the 7th day Shabbat, and abstain from eating pork, shellfish, and the like.
These people believe with all their hearts that they are the “special, chosen ones” from Yahweh, and that their eyes have been opened to the whole truth. Therein lies my issues.
For most of the people in this group, they were raised in the traditional church, and believed the lies that are perpetuated by the church. Things like the rapture, dispensationalism, the law being done away with, sloppy grace and others. When they found out that the WHOLE Bible is in fact, valid and applicable to our lives today, the switch went on. Many were hungry for the truth.
The problem is that the truth of Yahweh and His word wasn’t enough to contain them. They went deeper, searching out ALL the things they have been lied to about. Many have turned to this deep knowledge of all “inner secrets” and focus all the “lies” we are told by governments as well. It’s not difficult to find those who believe we have been lied to about:
- The shape of the earth
- Chemtrails in the sky
- The founding of America as a Judeo/Christian nation
- Who “Israel” is (and if your skin color means you are in or out)
- Vaccines and their real agenda
- Technology such as 5G
- Whether or not Corona virus is “real” and “the danger of it”
In short, they believe that everyone lies, everything is a lie, and therefore must be exposed and challenged. No matter what you say to some of these people, it’s a lie, and you are foolish for believing them. You just aren’t as “woke” as they are. Perhaps you need to study more Hebrew, or just watch this youtube video and you’ll know.
At what point does this information change your life? How does knowing that the earth is flat or a globe change you, and make you want to turn from your sinful nature? How does knowing that they are spraying the sky with chemicals to hurt us show the love of our Father that makes sinners want to repent? How does knowing the “agenda 21” and the evil behind that cause us to want to give up all we have for someone else? As far as I can tell, it doesn’t. Not a single bit.
Now, hear me out for a minute. I’ll admit that I am still “new” at all things spiritual. I was raised in the Pentecostal church, having my eyes opened to Torah only 10 years ago. In that time, I have been part of several groups of fellowships with some really nice people. People that would be all happy to see you on Shabbat, ask how your week was going, and really dig into Scriptures. Well, only the parts they liked anyway. The ones were it talked about nephilim, how big Og of Bashan was, and how it related to all the Agenda 21 crap going on today.There was no talk of how to overcome sin, how to heal a broken heart, how to deal with wounds buried deep down. And when you left that gathering, there was no contact until the following Shabbat, except to let you know “we’ll be meeting at this house and bring all organic, non GMO foods that are seasoned with essential oils only”
It wasn’t until about 3 years ago that I met someone who took the time to take me by the hand, and SHOW me how to live out the Word. How to really read what Yahweh wanted from us, and how to overcome sin, hurt, and really live. So, maybe only 3 years of overcoming makes me unknowledgeable about the “deeper things” that others know about.
But, I can tell you that the attitudes I have been seeing on social media are sickening. Believers being more worried about their lives being inconvenienced than whether or not they could infect someone. “It’s all a coverup”, “It’s an agenda”, “It’s all media induced panic” are the flavors of the day.
Are they right? I will give you this…it could all be part of an agenda to remove liberty from us once and for all. To make vaccines mandatory, and thereby issue the mark of the beast. Maybe the Coronavirus IS covering up testing that is REALLY hurting or killing people.
I don’t care.
The fact is that people are dying from this, and millions of others are scared. So afraid of being quarantined for an indefinite amount of time that the toilet paper, the hand sanitizer and bottled water are in scare supply. So afraid of the unknown that mob mentality is the order of the day on the news, in the grocery stores, and all over social media. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of moderation here. You are either “woke” and living life as normal, complaining that your favorite restaurant is closed, or you are living in absolute fear, sanitizing the bottom of your shoes.
Where’s the hope? Where’s the believers in Messiah pointing the way to them, and showing them “Hey, yes, this is scary. Yes, the government lies and wants to control us, but we have HOPE. We don’t have to worry about what man can do to us. Here’s how you can have that same hope”. Where are the ones that are humbling themselves, and praying?
Here’s a news flash: the governments of this world are evil, corruptible, corrupted, and want to control you. The enemy wants you to turn from YHWH and be destroyed. The Bible prophecies show that the age we are living in will get worse and worse as time goes on. Yes, they will institute a mark (known as the mark of the beast) that will make it impossible to buy or sell anything. Yes, it could come from vaccines, or mandatory laws surrounding that. Now let’s move on to dicussing things we can actually do something about.
What’s your point?
To the man who just lost his wife recently, and now is raising their two young sons on his own, how does THAT information comfort his heart? To the woman who has to sit with her elderly father through a window because all visits to nursing homes have been cut off, do you think she finds solace in “the government’s out to get you”? To the elderly couple who can’t afford to get a month’s worth of TP or food all at once, does knowing that vaccines are evil put food on their table?
We are supposed to be the hands and feet of our Messiah, yet we are sitting on our blessed assurances and allowing the world to die without hope. We are smug in our knowledge that we “know” all the things, yet we aren’t comforting the sick, visiting the widows, or building up the weak.
The fact is that the coronavirus, (COVID 19), does not scare me. The national panic scares me, but what scares me worse is the attitudes and behaviors of those who consider themselves covenant believers in YHWH and Messiah. Let’s say for the moment that all of your knowledge and all of your conspiracy and fear mongering is correct and accurate. Even if you are right, where is the love? I see how most of you behave when someone thinks differently than you do on Facebook about any of these things. In my own personal experience, based on what I have experienced for myself on social media the vast majority of you get vulgar. You are rude. You resort to name-calling and insulting people. Where’s the love? I respectfully remind you of what Scripture says. Please pay attention:
As It Is Written:
(1 Corinthians 13:1 NKJV)
“Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I have become sounding brass or a clanging cymbal.
“And though I have the gift of prophecy, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and though I have all faith, so that I could remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:2 NKJV)
One of the characteristics of love is that love is NOT rude. Love DOES NOT puff itself up at the expense of someone else, (1 Corinthians 13:4).
So, even IF you understand all of these mysteries, and even IF you are right about all of these hidden conspiracies, if you are arrogant, rude and unloving in the way that you treat other people, according to the Bible, you amount to NOTHING. So, even if you think you are enlightened and, “WOKE,” but then you are arrogant, rude, nasty, and mean to other people, you are nothing. So, please be careful how you treat other people with your oh so enlightened knowledge.
The tragic irony of it all is that many of you get involved in all of these conspiracy discussions in an effort and the hope to make certain that you are not deceived. You then get rude and arrogant and nasty to other people, so that you become nothing, as God defines the term, but you still think you’re something, because of your knowledge, and so you end up actually deceiving yourselves, in your zeal to show that you are not deceived, (Galatians 6:3). It’s a tragic irony.
As It Is Written:
(Galatians 6:3 NKJV)
“For if anyone thinks himself to be something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself..
Let’s have a quick reminder of some of the key ways that we are supposed to treat each other.
- Live in peace with one another, (1 Thessalonians 5:13-15).
- Admonish the unruly. A ton of you, “WOKE,” and, “ENLIGHTENED believers on Facebook are being very unruly. You are rude, arrogant, prideful, unloving, and by your every word and statement, you prove that you are more interested in puffing yourself up, rather than being interested in the genuine well-being of the person you are addressing. Please Repent.
- “Encourage the fainthearted.” It DOES NOT say, mock the fainthearted. It doesn’t say, insult the fainthearted. It does not say, call the fainthearted filthy and vulgar names, or call them stupid, because they are not as WOKE as you BELIEVE you are.
- Help the week. It doesn’t say, mock the weak. It doesn’t say insult the week. It doesn’t say to gloat and exalt yourself and your strengths over those who are weak, does it?!
- Be patient with EVERYONE. How patient are you really? How patient are you with people who are not as WOKE as you are? How patient are you with people who look at certain facts and draw a different conclusion than you do? How patient are you with people who disagree with your conclusions, and see things another way than you do? Do you really care about the person you’re communicating with, or do you mainly care about puffing yourself up, and being polite with only those who agree with you and will stroke your ego? It says be patient with everyone; not just those people that you like; not just the people who will agree with you and stroke your ego, but everyone. How are you doing with that?
Are you treating the other person the way you would want to be treated yourself, (Matthew 7:12)? Are you treating people the way you want God to treat you, when you are not as WOKE as Elohim is? From some of the comments that I’m seeing and the way that you treat people, some of you need to stay off of Facebook declaring what you know, and work on your character for a while, until your behavior and the way that you treat people can glorify our Father who is in Heaven, and won’t be an embarrassment to Him by the way you treat people.That’s why the body is so broken. We aren’t functioning as a body, but as separate members, all wanting to be the “number 1”.