God's Law, Civil Law, Sharia Law

Fred R. Coulter—December 12, 2015

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. On the news you hear all the problems with the Muslims and terrorists, and how people think and fight and war and all this sort of thing going on. Actually, a lot of this could have been avoided if they would have followed what God in the Bible says about the nations.

We're going to see a principle that will follow through the rest of the Bible and will be a key in understanding what needs to be done to perhaps temporarilyhold back some of the vicious things that come about because of religion. In the past it's been the Buddhists, the Hindus. Now for the past 1400 years it's been the Muslims, plus the world wars, things like this. All of this applies.

God had to destroy all life with the Flood. After the Flood, God set up a system that would take care of all of the people. Not that they would necessarily all keep His laws. God knows—if anybody knows—that they wouldn't be doing it! How do you keep the world from coming to the situation the way it is now? God did two things!

Genesis 9:1: "And God blessed Noah and his sons, and He said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth. And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every bird of the air, upon all that moves on the earth, and upon all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered'" (vs 1-2).

That's exactly what men have been able to do, go around and explore, conquer and bring dominion.

Verse 3: "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you, even as the green herb…"

Sidebar: Even as the green herb was with the seed in it—qualification. So every living thing does not mean any living thing. It means every living thing that God gave with clean and unclean meats, because we find that Noah offered the offering with clean animals.

Verse 4: "But you shall not eat of flesh with the life in it—which is its blood. And surely the blood of your lives will I require. At the hand of every animal will I require it, and at the hand of man. At the hand of every man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoever sheds man's blood, his blood shall be shed by man—for He made man in the image of God" (vs 4-6).

What is this? This is the giving of civil government! We will see another principle with civil government, with governments in general.

When He did this, He gave them the jurisdiction of taking the life of man or woman who has committed murder. They were to execute them. That's why the mistranslation of the commandment 'You shall not kill.' That's mistranslated; it should be: 'You shall not murder.' There's a difference!

• life for life

We'll look at some of the judgments of God. He gave the covenant with the rainbow, and so forth.  We know this, so we'll just review Gen. 11. This is some 350 years later when this took place at the Tower of Babel. They wanted to build a tower, reaching into heaven.

Genesis 11:5: "And the LORD came down to see the city and the tower, which the children of men had built. And the LORD said, 'Behold, the people are one and they all have one language. And this is only the beginning of what they will do—now nothing which they have imagined to do will be restrained from them" (vs 5-6).

• God had to confound the languages

Then God scattered them into various places in the earth and gave them the inheritance of that land. Let's look and see how He did this.

• God scattered the nations

Deuteronomy 32:7: "Remember the days of old…" That goes all the way back because they had the history of it.

"…consider the years of many generations. Ask your father, and he will show you; your elders, and they will tell you. When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when He separated the sons of Adam, He set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel" (vs 7-8). Everything focuses around Israel and the twelve tribes.

Let's come to Acts 17 where Paul talks about the same thing. When you have nations and when you have tribes, when you have government you have authority. Authority is what you would call suzerainty or rule, and extends to the boundaries. We even have that today. If you're out in the county, beyond the city limits, unless you have created a major crime, the city police cannot come and arrest you. Likewise, the county sheriff cannot come into the town and arrest you without the assistance of the police. That is jurisdiction or suzerainty, or sovereignty.

Acts 17:24: "He is the God Who made the world and all things that are in it. Being the Lord of heaven and earth, He does not dwell in temples made by hands; nor is He served by the hands of men, as though He needs anything, for He gives to all life and breath and all things. And He made of one blood all the nations of men to dwell upon all the face of the earth, having determined beforehand their appointed times… [the rise and fall of nations, according to how 'civilized' they are] …and the boundaries of their dwelling" (vs 24-26). So, God gave the nations.

The ancient nation of Israel was a theocracy, meaning God was Sovereign. Look what God did with all the nations. When He was bringing the children of Israel into the 'promised land,' what did God do to the nations who were there and why did God get rid of them? He gave the appointed times; that means the cycles of ups and down and everything else. You find that they were expelled because of their sins.

What did God warn the children of Israel? 'That if you do as they did, I'm going to expel you!' What we have is that God rules over the whole earth. With Israel, He dealt directly with them originally. With the rest of the world, He works through angels, and Satan and his demons. When people give themselves over to evil, Satan and the demons come in and bring it to its full. That has happened in every empire and every major thing that has taken place.

Did it happen in WWII? Yes, indeed! As a matter of fact, if you go on American Heroes Channel you will see the series, the Evolution of Evil of Hitler, Stalin, Mussolini, Mao tse-tung. You could go back and do it of Genghis Khan, Nimrod and all of it.

A theocracy is not what we have today, with the exception of Islam. That would be the key on how can you get the other nations to get along with the Muslims without all of the terrorism and all of the hatred? Remember the image in Daniel. Starts out Babylon, then Media, Persia, Greece, Rome, and down to the feet. It says in the days of these ten kings that they will inter-mix the seed of man. That's what we have today.

Look at America. Look what has happened to us, which is part of the problem, the sins that we have in America. It is said it wouldn't hold together, just like iron and clay do not hold together. Is that what we see? People can't get along? Yes, indeed!

So, here's what God said: He would be their God and they could take God's way to the world (Exo. 19). What a blessing that would have been if they would have done that, take God's way to the world. But they didn't do it.

We have the Ten Commandments. All of these are righteous and good. They have been in effect from the beginning. God knows that the nations of the world will not obey the first four. He understands that. Maybe some individuals will, but for Israel:

• they were to worship the true God
• they were to have no idols
• they were not to take the name of God in vain
• He said, 'Remember the Sabbath Day to keep it Holy'

If they did those things, God would bless them. We've seen that over and over and have given many sermons on it. If they didn't, the natural consequences would come upon them, called curses. We're going to concentrate on the last six commandments.

Exodus 20:12: "Honor your father and your mother…" Do the nations that honor father and mother have a blessing because of that? Always! God is no respecter of persons with any of His laws.

Verse 13: "You shall not murder. You shall not commit adultery. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor. You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his manservant, nor his maidservant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor anything that is your neighbor's" (vs 13-17).

The tenth commandment is property rights. Do we have that today? If you own a piece of land, you have a right to that land, except the tax collector has first call. There are laws that say you can tell him to get off your property. If they don't, you can call the sovereign rulers—the police—because that's what they are, to take care of the evildoer. You may even have to go to court, so you can get an injunction against him that he can't come against you or step on your property.

That became manifest in the Hatfield/McCoy legend that we have in America. Plus it's played out in many other ways.

Here is the thing. God is Ruler in a theocracy. God has given the laws; however, God also set up a system of civil judges in conjunction with the high priest. Keep in mind that all of the judgments that we're going to cover in Exo. 21-23. I'm not going to go through all of them, but you can read them. These are what you could call civil laws, that is laws to help people get along with each other, without going through God.

These laws have very little to do with your worship of God. That is, if you could separate it between religious laws, where you worship God. Sabbath would be considered a religious law. Can you keep the Sabbath without harming other people? Yes! So therefore, there's no civil law against keeping the Sabbath.

We will see that they had a system of judges where they would pay a penalty for how they offended their neighbor. Some people think where it says, 'hand for hand, eye for eye, tooth for tooth,' and so forth, that they actually cut off the hand or gouged out the eye or knocked out the tooth. No, they didn't!

What do we have with Sharia Law? You steal, cut off one hand or one leg. You see, Sharia Law is religious and civil. I'm going to tell you a principle here. In any geographical territory, there can only be one sovereign set of laws. God gave that territory to the people who were in it. He gave them the freedom and the governance to run it themselves. Paul talks about the Gentiles who do some of the things that are contained in the laws of God. He says these are a law unto themselves (Rom. 2).

We will see that God separated the religious law and the civil law at the institution of the Church for very good reason.

Exodus 21:22: "If men strive and strike a pregnant woman, so that there is a miscarriage, and no harm follows…" That is the woman recovers from it or there is a miscarriage and the baby lives, because of an older pregnancy. If the baby dies, that is what we would call today second-degree murder.

"…he shall surely be punished… [No harm follows. He's still going to be punished.] …according as the woman's husband will lay upon him. And he shall pay as the judges determine" (v 22). Civil law!

In the Church today, do we follow that? No, because that is a civil law. Theocracy is Godly law and civil law within one government, within one geographical territory.

Verse 23: And if any injury occurs, then you shall give life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, burning for burning, wound for wound, stripe for stripe" (vs 23-25). All according as to how the judge would judge and give a monetary payment.

Verse 26: "And if a man strikes the eye of his servant, or the eye of his maid, so that it perishes, he shall let him go free on account of his eye.'" Not gouge out the eye of the master, but let him go.

Verse 27: "And if he strikes out his manservant's tooth, or his maidservant's tooth, he shall let him go free on account of his tooth. If an ox gores a man or woman so that they die, then the ox shall surely be stoned, and his flesh shall not be eaten. But the owner of the ox shall be clear" (vs 27-28). 'I never knew it. He was tame all along; this is the first time he ever did it.' Civil law!

These civil laws are sub-laws of the Ten Commandments, namely the last six. The religious laws pertain to the first four. Civil laws pertain to the last six.

Verse 29: "But if the ox was known to gore in time past, and his owner has been warned, but he did not keep it in, so that it kills a man or a woman, the ox shall be stoned, and his owner also shall be put to death" That's clear!

You have to be responsible. If you have an ox that is mean and nasty, and if you don't take care of it so that it doesn't get the people, then you're going to lose your life. What do you think about killing that ox and having a whole lot of hamburger? That would be an easier solution—wouldn't it? Yes, you could do that.

Verse 30: "If there is laid on him a sum of money… [you can pay instead of dying; civil law by a judge] …then he shall give for a ransom of his life whatever is laid upon him"—by the judge. All of these follow along from what the judge will determine.

Verse 31: "Whether it has gored a son, or has gored a daughter, according to this judgment it shall be done to him."

Exo.22 is on thievery. Just think how you could stop thievery today if you did this. Instead of reading the animals, let's look at bicycles, motorcycles, small cars, big cars and trucks.

Exodus 22:1: "If a man shall steal an ox, or a sheep, and kill it or sell it, he shall restore five oxen for an ox… [How's that for justice?] …and four sheep for a sheep. If a thief is found breaking in, and is struck so that he dies, no blood shall be shed for him" (vs 1-2). You can protect your own property. Do we have that today? Yes, we do, civil law.

Verse 3: "If the sun is risen upon him and he lives, there shall be blood shed for him… [you don't have to make a sacrifice] …He shall make full restitution…."

That's what it was based upon because people respond when they must give of their substance. To rob and steal and go spend some time in jail doesn't take very much away from a person. They'll have a record, may have a hard time getting a job. However, don't you think those planning thievery would abandon the thoughts most of the time if they had to pay this way?

• you steal a bicycle, you buy four
• you steal a motorcycle, you buy three
• you steal a car, you buy two
• you steal a truck, you buy two

Now then, you have to look out for fraud. That's why everything had to come before the judge and be sorted out. You can't have an owner saying, 'Look, he took this and he owes me four of them now,' when he never took it. Maybe the owner hid it away someplace or secretly sold it to someone and he said, 'He stole it.' So, you have to have justice in the whole thing.

This is really a whole court system. This is like looking up all the ordinances and statutes of the city or the county or the state or the nation.

Verse 4: "If the theft is certainly found in his hand alive… [whatever he took] …whether it is an ox, or a donkey, or a sheep, he shall restore double. If a man causes a field or vineyard to be eaten, and shall put in his animal, and shall feed in another man's field; he shall make full restitution from the best of his own field, and the best of his own vineyard" (vs 4-5).

That is, let your neighbor bring his cows and his sheep and donkeys into the neighbor's best pastures and let them eat there. See how good these laws are? What it does, it gives everyone a pause to think not to do it because of what it would cost them. What if they had nothing? Then you had a system. They would be indentured servants to work for a certain length of time and the money would go to the one that they stole from. No jails! You either restitute back or you end up in a system of work where they garnish everything you have to pay for what you did.

Verse 6: "If fire breaks out and catches in thorns, so that the stacks of grain, or the standing grain, or the field, is burned up, he who kindled the fire shall surely make restitution." What do we have today? Someone starts a forest fire; they go to jail.

Verse 7: "If a man shall deliver to his neighbor silver or stuff to keep, and it is stolen out of the man's house; if the thief is found, let him pay double. If the thief is not found, then the master of the house shall be brought to the judges…" (vs 7-8).

All of this has to do with judges. When they say, 'That old law cut off a hand, gouge out an eye,' they don't know what they are talking about. Sharia Law says do it.

Then it covers all of those. You can go through and read those. We're just looking at that.

Let's see why and how God did this, what He did based on these verses. What did Jesus say? How should we live? 'Man shall live by every word of God!' You have to separate out the spiritual aspect of the laws of God from the civil aspects of the law that God gave Israel.

If all of the laws in the Old Testament were also followed, the civil laws, and enforced by the Church, would you not have a lot of trouble? Yes, you would! That would break the principle of one sovereign and sovereign sets of laws within a single geographical territory, which God gave to all the nations. They make their laws.

Do we have that in the United States? We have the Constitution! We have state laws, all the way down, but they're all based on the Constitution of the United States, supposedly. Here's we have religion going into other nations. That's the way they look at it. For us it's a way of life.

Matthew 28:18: "And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Therefore, go and make disciples in all nations…'" (vs 18-19). We will see how they were to behave themselves in these nations.

"…baptizing them into the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit; teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. And lo, I am with you always, even until the completion of the age.' Amen" (vs 19-20).

There had to be a separation of what we could call the religious laws and the civil laws. How did God do that? This is the principle that we find here in 2-Cor. 3. Remember, the covenant with Israel had both religious and civil.

Now we are going to see the solution that could be given to temporarily stop a lot of the anger and terrorism that the so-called Islamic radical terrorists bring about. They are bringing about the penalty of Sharia Law, the aspect of the administration of death. That's what they're doing. 'Death to the infidels.'

Within the geographical territory of their single nation, if that's the law, they can carry it out there. But when they go to another nation, and they are in a different sovereign setup of laws, you can't bring a second sovereign within that geographical territory and have them executing different laws. Can't do it!

They can do it where they came from, but not here. That's what God did with the laws of the Old Testament. You could called this the Christian reformation of the civil laws of the covenant with Israel and the civil laws of the nation of Israel and Judah.

2-Corinthians 3:1: "Do we again begin to commend ourselves? Or do we, as some, need epistles of commendation to you, or epistles of commendation from you? You are our epistle, and are inscribed in our hearts, being known and read by all men" (vs 1-2). What are the commands for the brethren?

• in relationship to God, love God with all your heart, mind, soul and being

Does that infringe upon anybody else's life? No!

• love your neighbor as yourself

We will see what God did here. The mistake that the Protestants make is they say that God did away with all of His laws, but He did not!

Verse 3: "For it is manifest that you are Christ's epistle, ministered by us; you were not inscribed with pen and ink, but with the Spirit of the living God; not on tablets of stone, but on fleshly tablets of the heart." Where are the laws of God to be? In our hearts and in our minds. What does that do? That governs our behavior. Our

Love your neighbor as yourself!

Verse 4: "Now we have this confidence through Christ toward God; not that we are competent of ourselves, or credit anything to our own abilities: rather, our competency is from God; Who also made us competent as ministers of the New Covenant; not of the letter… [Exo. 21, 22, and so forth, is the letter, the civil laws] … but of the Spirit; for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life."

What does God grant to us? Repentance and forgiveness! Where was repentance and forgiveness back there? Maybe if there was some kind of repentance, they would pay rather than give their lives.

Verse 7: "Now if the ministry of death…" Or the administration of death. That's what they had with Israel. Civil laws were the administration of death. Is that not within Sharia Law? The administration of death!

"…which wasengraved in stones, came into being with glory, so that the children of Israel were not able to gaze upon Moses' face because of the glory of his face, which glory is being set aside" (v 7). It's being set aside, not enforced. Why? Here is the Church at Corinth that is in the nation of Greece. They have their own sovereignty, their own sovereign rulers. Were they subject to the sovereign rulers? Yes!

God was doing this so that what became known as Christianity would not conflict with the sovereignty of any nation. God set up the sovereignty of the nations and gave them the authority to make their own laws, which if they were in accord with God's laws, would be fine.
Verse 8: "Shall not the ministry of the Spirit be far more glorious?" Isn't it a glorious thing for people to repent, be converted, have the Spirit of God, and change their behavior from lying, cheating, stealing, killing, coveting and lusting, to being honest, faithful, true, loving and kind? Isn't that far more glorious? Look at our prisons filled with how many people. Are they being rehabilitated? Very few!

Sidebar: I rue the day when things are so bad that they can't feed them any longer and have to let them go. That's what Sadam Hussein did to the American troops. He opened up the jails and they had a doubly terrible time.

Verse 10: "And even the ministry of condemnation, which had glory, was not glorious in this respect, because of the surpassing glory of the ministry of life. For if that which is being set aside came into being through glory…" (vs 10-11).

God is not doing away with it. He is setting those civil laws aside so that there will be no conflict in any nation where they go to preach with the sovereign civil authorities. Can't have that!

"…to a much greater degree that which remains is glorious. Now then, because we have such hope, we use great plainness of speech; for we are not like Moses, who put a veil over his face, so that the children of Israel could not gaze to the end upon the glory that is now being set aside. But their minds were blinded; for to the present hour the same veil has not been removed, but remains at the reading of the Old Covenant; which veil is removed in Christ" (vs 11-14).

That means that you look at the laws of God, which have to do with personal behavior, all of them.

• first of all, love toward God: the first four commandments
• love toward family and neighbors: the last six commandments

If you are keeping those, do you present any threat to any society on the face of the earth? No!

However, if you came in with the laws—some of them I just read—and you set up a separate jurisdiction, a separate suzerainty within another sovereign territory, then you have the conflict. Today that's the conflict with Sharia Law. They have not separated it.

(go to the next track)

God is the One Who established the nations and gave them the authority to make their own laws. Hopefully, they would make them after God's laws, but they would have to choose to do so. God was not going to force it upon them.

Likewise with the Church; the Church was not given the authority of the ministry or administration of death. That was given to the civil authorities. What they decide in their country, and maybe even if they have religious laws and worship some other god, like we have with Islam and Allah, they may combine them together into one system.

The problem with Islam is they have never made the separation for those going to other countries, which are under other sovereign nations and the suzerainty of the laws of that nation.

Let's see how Paul writes of it in Rom 13. God commanded the apostles to go into all the world and that comes down to all of us.

Just think how quickly we would be wiped out as a group if we said, 'All right now, we know Christmas is a sin. We know the Christmas tree is the symbol of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. We know that it's satanic to its core; therefore, every member of the Church is ordered to go out and get blow torches and go around to every place where they see a Christmas tree and burn it to the ground. If anyone interferes with you, turn the blow torch on them.'

How long do you think that it would last? It wouldn't last. They'd have the police out there. Look what happened in San Bernardino, how quickly they had how many policemen and squad cars, and riot gear, and terrorist gear, to go after the thing there. What happened there was with Sharia Law, those two or three took it into their power to execute these people because they were infidels, according to Sharia Law.

However, according to the law of the United States, they are citizens in good standing and if they want to have a Christmas party, they have a Christmas party. We won't do that. We can condemn doing it, but we do not bring the authority of correction to condemnation and death.

Here is how we are to look at civil government and the civil laws. Remember where Paul wrote to the Romans—so this is to Rome—and the Romans were really strict with their laws. They had the execution by crucifixion for the worst of criminals.

Romans 13:1: "Let everyone be subject to the higher authorities because there is no authority except from God…" It may have been infiltrated and taken over by people who are following Satan, and it has become excessively oppressive and dictatorial, like happened in WWII, shooting and killing all the Jews and Russians. Then the Russians coming in, killing all the Germans, and everything. See how it spins out of control.

"…and those authorities that exist have been instituted by God" (v 1). Whether it is righteous or whether it has evolved to be evil. It's up to the authorities in whatever country or geographical area for a sovereign and sovereign laws, to make whatever corrections are necessary. That's why today we have:

• legislative powers
• executive powers
• judicial powers

Verse 2: "So then, the one who sets himself against the authority is resisting the ordinance of God…" That's exactly what Islam is doing with their radical terrorism. They are going against the God of heaven who put them in the country that they are in and they, unfortunately, have a religion that is theocratic. They are acting as judge and executioner over people they have no jurisdiction over. That's why they are called terrorists.

If they want to do that back in their home country, and if that's what they do, I would suppose that back in whatever Muslim country there is, you see someone with a missing hand, you tell yourself, 'I don't want to be stealing; I don't want to lose a hand.' It could be handled a different way, but that's the way that they have chosen to do it. But they can't come here and bring that law here.

However, if they want to do what God did with Israel and Judaism, separate out the civil laws from, as we could call it, religious laws or the laws of theology of worshiping God, then we would not have the problem if they did, like we're reading here.

If they came to America or Europe, or whatever country, and are informed what the laws are. 'You're coming here, you're living under this Constitution, and here are the laws, and you will keep them. The laws that you exercised back where you came from have no valid force for killing anyone or executing anyone, or destroying anyone, or taking anyone else's property that you might do from your home country and your home religion.'

Sidebar: Most people don't know that all Islamic worshipers, whether radical or moderate, or whatever, worship a stone. In that box in Mecca that they all go around, there's a meteorite in there. The Muslims that go around there to get real close, they can reach out, there's a little hole right in that box, and they can touch it, and that's a magical thing for them. They condemn idolatry, but they perform idolatry five times a day.

Since God is not their God, if they want to worship Allah, without interfering with the lives of any other people, in America they are allowed to do so. But to go into any church and start shooting the machine gun and killing people, they are not allowed to do that.

However, when a nation reaches a certain point, there is correction that comes and God sends the enemies to bring it! If they wanted to try and fix the situation, they would have to separate it out and have everyone coming into the country sign, under penalty of expulsion or death, that they could not execute any of the civil laws from their former country in the United States, or whatever other country they would go into. That might solve it temporarily for a short period of time.

Verse 2: "…is resisting the ordinance of God; and those who resist shall receive judgment to themselves." From whom? The authority!

Now just to give you an example. If a policeman tells you, 'Put your hands behind your back, I'm going to put the handcuffs on you.' No, I won't do it. You start fighting him. He has the authority to use whatever force is necessary to make you put your hands behind your back and get handcuffed. A lot of these things that you have seen with those who resist the police, nothing would have happened to them if they would have just obeyed. That's what God says.

If they tell you, 'If you keep the Sabbath, we're going to kill you,' that's a different story.

Verse 3: "For rulers are not a terror to good works…" Is there anything that true Christians do that is contrary to the laws of God and the laws of the land that is evil? No!

You may resist against vaccines, because once you know what's in them, who would ever even want them. You refrain from keeping Christmas, Easter, New Years, and all of that, but you don't go out and machine gun people who do. You obey the laws and you do good.

"…Do you desire not to be afraid of the authority? Then practice good, and you will have praise from it… [that should be told to every Muslim] …For he is a servant of God to you for good…" (vs 3-4). God instituted it for good. However, when it becomes more and more evil, it has to get much stronger in dealing with it.

"…But if you are practicing evil, have fear! For he does not wear the sword in vain because he is a servant of God, an avenger for wrath to the one who is practicing evil" (v 4). They aren't looking for decent citizens who are obedient to the law of the land to do them in.

Verse 5: "Consequently, it is necessary to be subject to authority, not only because of wrath, but also because of conscience." This is how it should be with the Muslims.

You want to come here, you can keep all of your laws concerning how you worship Allah. You can pray five times a day. You can bow to Mecca five times a day. If your women want to wear gunnysacks with eye slits, they can do it. If you want to wear a turban, you can do it. If you want to have a beard that hangs down, and you trip over it with your feet, you can do it. Those are the 'religious' practices.

If you want to have, like the Catholics have rosary, the Muslims have prayer beads, too. If you want to have that, that's fine. If you do that, you will prove that your 'religion' is a religion of peace, would you not? Do no harm to your neighbor.

How would the Muslim like it if the Christians came in and said, 'You're a Muslim,' and shoot them all down? No!

Verse 6: "For this cause, you are also obligated to pay tribute… [tax] …for they are servants of God…" Did God give to King Saul the authority to collect from the people in addition to tithes and offerings? Yes, ten percent! Solomon wasn't happy with that, he took more.

"…for they are servants of God, continually engaged in this very thing" (v 6). The best policemen are those who follow this. As one man said, 'I am here to take the bullet before you.' You've got to commend him for that.

Verse 7: "Therefore, render to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honor to whom honor." That doesn't mean you get involved in any of their religious practices at all. That isn't sanctioning Christmas, or Easter, or anything like that.

What do you do when someone says, 'Merry Christmas'? I'm telling you this because I know it's an evil thing! NO! What do you do? You just say thank you and go on! That's all you do. You don't go up there and say, 'Let me tell you about Christmas. Did you ever know this?'

Now if someone says, 'I'm tired of this Christmas thing. It's just all about money. It's really not about God.' Then you can say, 'You're right, and let me tell you a little more.' That's a different story. Or if they say, 'I'm tired of going to church on Sunday. I really need to go someplace where I can hear the Word of God.' Now, I can help you out on that. Different story.

Verse 8: "Do not be indebted to anyone for anything, unless it is to love one another. For the one who loves another has fulfilled the law."

Notice what he says here. This is how the Church people are to treat people in the world, not bring in the laws of the Old Testament with the enforcement of the administration of death. Here it is:

Verse 9: "Because it says, 'You shall not commit adultery. You shall not commit murder. You shall not steal. You shall not bear false witness. You shall not lust.' And if there be any other commandment, it is summed up in this saying, even by this standard: 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'"

Here's what the Muslims ought to do, v 10: "Love does not do any wrong to its neighbor; therefore, love is the full expression of God's Law. Now consider this, knowing the time, that it is already the hour that we should be roused out of sleep…" (vs 10-11). And so forth, and get up and do the things you need to do.

Romans 12:17: "Do not render to anyone evil for evil…" There's a lot of talk that Islam needs a revolution in its religion. This is the solution, right here.

"…but be prepared to do what is right in the sight of all men. If possible, as much as is your part, be at peace with all men (vs 17-18). If Islam is a religion of peace, why wouldn't you want to do that?

Verse 19: "Beloved, do not avenge yourselves; rather, leave this to God's wrath; for it is written, '"Vengeance is Mine! I will recompense," says the Lord.' Therefore, if your enemy is hungry, feed him…" (vs 19-20). Down there in San Bernardino, did they come in with extra food for everyone? No, they came in with machine guns.

"…if he is thirsty, give him drink; for in doing this you will be heaping coals of fire on his head. Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good" (vs 20-21). That should be their tactic. They're not doing it.

2-Peter 2:11: "Angels, who are greater in strength and power, do not bring a railing condemnation against them before the Lord." In other words, we should not take anything into our hands to bring condemnation to them.

Verse 12: "But these—as irrational brute beasts, born to be caught and destroyed…" That's what has to happen to the radical Islamists. There it says right here.

1-Peter 2:15: "For so is the will of God, that by doing well yourselves, you may put to silence theignorance of senseless men; as free, and not using your freedom as a cover for evil, but as bondslaves of God. Show honor to everyone. Love the brotherhood, revere God and honor the king" (vs 15-17).

If the Muslims would do this, all of them, all the radicals, wouldn't their lives be a whole lot happier, if they weren't just filled with hate and rage and all of these things? Yes, it would! Then people would say, 'Well, you know, Islam is a religion of peace.' But I doubt if they will do that.

This would be a nice Scripture if the radical Muslims would do this, 1-Peter 4:15: "Assuredly, let none of you suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or an evildoer, or as an over-lording busybody in other people's lives. Yet, if anyone is suffering as a Christian, he should not be ashamed; but let him glorify God because of this… [since God is judging us for our behavior]: …For the time has come for judgment to begin with the household of God; and if it first begins with us, what will be the end of those who do not obey the Gospel of God? And if the righteous are saved with much difficulty, what will become of the ungodly and the sinner? For this reason also, let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in well doing, as to a faithful Creator" (vs 15-19).

That would be a temporary solution for the Muslims. However, it probably will not happen with this exception. We know that there is coming a one-world government.

Let's come back here to Rev. 13 and let's see something. [speculation]: What if all the governments of the world finally could get rid of as many of the terrorists as possible? And after nothing but war and bombs, and everything in the Middle East that they finally get tired of so much blood, guts, gore, and death? Temporarily, for a short period of time? It talks about the beast. It shows there they are worshiping Satan the devil; the whole world follows him.

Revelation 13:3: "And I saw one of his heads as if it were slain to death, but his deadly wound was healed; and the whole earth was amazed and followed the beast. And they worshiped the dragon, who gave his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who has the power to make war against him?'" (vs 3-4).

Satan brings a counterfeit of everything. Is he going to be able to bring a counterfeit peace? It says no war! Who is able to make war against him? How is that going to happen? We have wars everywhere! How is that going to happen? We don't know! But this tells us it's going to happen. There will be a space of time when there is no war when the beast comes into power. How long will that last? We're not told!

Just think about it. All the efforts of all governments together, working with the beast, taming radical Islam, no war anywhere; no one can make war against the beast. 'We'll bring in this whole new world system. We'll all get along and even the Muslims would agree to it,' for however long they're capable of doing it.

1-Thessalonians 5:1: "Now then, concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, there is no need that I write to you; for you yourselves understand perfectly that the Day of the Lord will come exactly as a thief comes by night" (vs 1-2).

How can Jesus come as a thief by night if there's nothing but fighting and warring going on? It's going to have to be in a time of peace. They won't expect it because their efforts have brought about a peace. It's going to be like anything that men think they could do. They think it's going to last.

Wouldn't that be a miracle? Wouldn't men say, 'Hooray, after all these thousands of years, we now finally have it together'? 'We have a world government. We have a world leader and he's such a mighty man. Look at what he's able to do. He's able to make all the nations cease war.' That would be something!

There would be people saying, 'He's the messiah.' What is he going to do? He's going to go sit in the temple of God and say he is God. 'That's where he deserves to go—right? If he can be such a man to stop war? Who has ever done it?' That's the abomination of desolation! That kicks off the fierceness of the Tribulation.

Verse 3: "For when they say, 'Peace and security'…"

Dolores and I were talking about that this morning. Has there ever been a time that we haven't been at war? Has there ever been a time when there has not been a war somewhere? No! Think of what a satanic miracle that would be!

In the seven last years, what if that's good for three and a half years? After one year, what would people say? 'Look, we haven't had a war for a year. No terrorists attacks, no blowing up anything.' Then it goes to two years. 'Boy, we must have really found the right solution. Look at this. Isn't this wonderful? Everybody loves each other. Nobody's killing each other. No wars! Never in the history of the world has it ever been that there hasn't been any war. This must be the long-awaited messiah. He must be God. Everybody's worshiping him!'

"…then sudden destruction will come upon them… [When he goes into the temple and says, 'I am God.'] …as travail comes upon a woman who is with child; and they shall by no means escape" (v 3).

That's just something to think about, because there has to come a time for those two events to take place:

• that no one can make war against the beast
• he has dominion over the whole earth

—over every tribe, nation, language and people.

This is a worldwide event. Just think of all of those people who think 'by human might, by human power, by our intellect, by our way of doing things, we have brought this about. What a miracle that this is.'

What if it lasts into the third year? People will be happy and celebrating. 'Look at how wonderful this is and how nice this is.'

Then Satan possess the beast and he goes into the temple and says, 'I am God!' That's what Satan has always wanted to be. Then it all comes unglued. All of the armies that have been idle now get active and start. Now the war begins.

Possible! Would that not be the grandest deception to come on the world? Yes, indeed! Would that not be something to where who are preaching Christ and the return of Christ would say, 'No, no, Christ is coming from heaven.' No, no, no, He's not coming from heaven.

When it starts, they'll say, 'It's aliens. We've got to fight them and get rid of them. We've brought this peace and now here they're coming against us.' And it's the real Christ!. And the angels of God!

So they will fight to the very end to keep what Satan brought them in deception. There you have a quick summary of the rest of the book of Revelation. So, peace!

Scriptural References:

• Genesis 9:1-6
• Genesis 11:5-6
• Deuteronomy 32:7-8
• Acts 17:24-26
• Exodus 20:12-17
• Exodus 21:22-31
• Exodus 22:1-8
• Matthew 28:18-20
• 2-Corinthians 3:1-8, 10-14
• Romans 13:1-11
• Romans 12:17-21
• 2-Peter 2:11-12,
• 1-Peter 2:15-17
• 1-Peter 4:15-19
• Revelation 13:3-4
• 1-Thessalonians 5:1-3

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Exodus 19
• Romans 2

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 12-21-15
Formatted: bo—12-23-15

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