The Fall of the west was the process of decline in the Western Roman Empire in which it failed to enforce it’s own rule! Low taxes helped the aristocracy increase their wealth which equaled or exceeded the revenues of the central government. An Emperor sometimes replenished his treasury by confiscating the estates of the “super-rich”, but in the later period, the resistance of the wealthy to paying taxes is one of the factors contributing to the collapse of the Empire. Source: Alexander Dewant, Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Comment: Do we see the pattern here in America now today? The government of Rome could not enforce its own rule! Like a government shutdown! Like not being able to enforce it’s own borders! Unable to enforce laws stopping illegal immigrant incursions with sanctuary cities! Law enforcement under constant threat by violence against them! Low taxes always gets more money into the middle class citizens and the aristocracy! If any government tries to force through laws or policy take the wealth away a collapse is imminent! The left wants socialism but is a proven disaster thoughout history! If the left gets what they want they will soon see they do not want what they get! However it may be too late to turn back! Collapse and chaos! History repeats itself and Lord help us not to do the Roman Empire thing! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Tag: sasse
Only One Way to God! Isaiah 43:11-12
I, even I, am the Lord and beside me there is no savior who can free you and secure you in victory! I have declared confessed and proclaimed and have saved you, and have listened and heard there is no strange foreign god among you: therefore you are my witnesses, saith the Lord, that I am God! Comment: The word saved and savior used in the Hebrew language is the same word Hosanna used in the New Testament! Remember the crowd shouted this word when Jesus made his triumphant entry into Jerusalem! The God of the Old Testament is the same God of the New Testament! The Old Testament points to the New Testament but remember Jesus pointed us back to the Old Testament as He quoted this Book often! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Why is This Not Preached? John 3:16
Why is the unpardonable sin not preached? So what is the unpardonable sin spoken by Jesus in Matthew 12:31-32? We discussed this in a previous post. When you take all the meanings of the word blasphemy in the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament words you are prompted to a decision and answer for the question. Jesus can pardon every sin except one sin! Jesus cannot pardon you from the sin of rejecting Him as Savior! In fact according to the Bible if you reject Him He will judge you at the last day! If a worldly judge offers you a pardon for a crime such as murder will you not take the pardon? Blasphemy is taking the Son of God Jesus Christ at His Judgment Seat and spitting in His face! Blasphemy is cursing His name here on earth and mocking Him telling God His Father that He is a liar and His sacrifice for you is rejected! When we understand this truth other truth’s in the Bible become even more important! You hear from the pulpits often that God can forgive any sin! However this is not accurate! The only sin He cannot pardon is the rejection of the Judge of all the world! Savior or Judge? The choice is yours! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Only One Unpardonable Sin! Matthew 12:31-32
Words of Jesus! Greek Translation Verse 31; “Wherefore I say unto you, all manner of sin or missing the true scope and purpose of finding God and ruining one’s human reputation by evil speaking shall be forgiven unto men, but the ruining of God’s reputation shall not be forgiven unto men.” Verse 32; “And whosoever speaketh a word against the Son of man, it shall be forgiven him, but whosoever speaketh against the Holy Spirit, it shall not be forgiven him, neither in this world, neither in the world to come.” Comment: If you call me a liar and it is not true God can forgive you! If you call God a liar these is no pardon for you! Remember the first example of this in the Book of Genesis! When Satan was tricking eve to take of the forbidden fruit he told Eve God was a liar because God has surely not said you cannot eat this fruit! You will not surely die! Why is sin against God unpardonable? Because He is the only one who can pardon sin! But not against Himself! What would be some examples of calling God a liar today? Not believing the Word of God or the Bible as God has given to us! Mocking Christ and rejecting Him! Trusting anything more than God! Cursing God to attack His character! Attacking His people or believers! Spreading lies about His servants! Trying to destroy Jesus reputation by spreading lies about Him! Doing just the opposite of what God has established as righteous in His Word! Dismiss God’s Word as having no application in the 21st Century! Believing ideologies that oppose Holy Scriptures! The list is much bigger than these but since the Garden of Eden the assault continues on God, His Kingdom and His people! There is one line you can never step over! The Apostle Paul was a defender of Judaism but was ignorant of Christ in the 1st Century! When He saw Jesus for who He really was he repented and became the greatest human promoter of Jesus Christ in history! If you think you have stepped over the line repent turn to the Cross and never look back! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Fools in Heaven? Isaiah 35:8
Hebrew Translation: “And a highway shall be there, and a pathway of life, and it shall be pronounced and proclaimed. The way of holiness set apart and sacred, the morally unclean shall not pass over it, but it shall be for those men who are wandering to and fro in the earth, though fools stupid and silly shall not go astray.” Comment: If you were a Jew living 700 years before Christ in Israel and read this verse from Isaiah what would you think? Maybe Isaiah should be sawed in two as King Manasseh did! To the Jews keeping the law was essential for salvation! Moses gave them the law from God! The problem was no one could keep the law! Not even Moses! So the Jews must have asked who is going to provide this pathway to life? If not the law then who? No human could do this! Who is going to proclaim this pathway to life? Surely keeping the law is the pathway to holiness! How could this pathway be established for wayfaring men wandering to and fro in the earth? How could this pathway be made for fools? God could not be talking about the gentiles? Gentiles are for the firewood of Hell. Gentiles are unclean! How can God make a way for them and include us? They do not keep our laws! When Jesus arrived in Bethlehem 700 years later it was even more perplexing for them! A Jew one of us born as God into humanity to establish this pathway? Certainly he must be a sinner just like us? Crucify Him! Now He has become a sacrifice for us? How did we do this? Jesus has power over death, hell and the grave! He raises the dead! The blind see! Is this the pathway Isaiah was talking about? If not Him who else could it be? James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Money & Evil Isaiah 45:1-4
Hebrew Translation: Verse 1 “Thus declares the Lord to His set apart anointed, to Cyrus whose right hand I have conquered to subdue Gentile Nations before him; and I will loose the loins of idol Kings to open before him the two leafed gates and the gates shall not be shut.” Verse 2 “I will go before you and make the large swollen prideful, upright, lawful and honest.” Verse 3 “And I will give you the treasures of falsehood, ignorance, blindness and judgment and the hidden riches of secret places, that thou may discern and understand that I the Lord which proclaim thee by thy name and the great God of Israel.” Verse 4 “For Jacob my servant’s sake and Israel my chosen. I have proclaimed thee by thy name; I have surnamed thee though thou has not understood me.” Comment: God has enabled King Cyrus the Persian King or Iranian King to conquer the surrounding nations including Babylon to take all their wealth to return the Jews back to Israel from 70 years captivity to rebuild the Temple and the city at Jerusalem! All was paid for by King Cyrus to free them from their captivity! My Bible says the wealth of the wicked is laid up for the righteous! (Proverbs 13:22). Remember the Jews were taken captive by the Babylonians because they had become wicked! All the Temple treasures were taken and the city of Jerusalem was burned down! After their repentance during their 70 year captivity the treasures of wicked nations were used to return them to Israel. Cyrus also returned all the Temple treasures that were taken to Babylon! This cycle repeats itself! Then remember the Temple was destroyed again in 70 A.D. by the Romans! Jesus predicted this in 30 A.D. The city was burned, the Temple destroyed and the treasures hauled back to Rome along with 100 hundred thousand Jewish slaves! The treasures and free labor was used to build the Roman Colosseum. Christians were martyred in this Colosseum. So the Jews and the Christians were both persecuted! Today Israel stands as a vibrant prosperous nation! America a gentile nation defends her! Jesus said that it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than a rich man to enter Heaven! So why strive to be rich? If you will serve God in righteousness and not lust after money God will take that ill gotten gain from the wicked and store it up for you! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Prepare You a Way! Isaiah 40:3
“Prepare a physical pathway for the Lord, make upright and just in a wilderness a highway for our God.” Comment: This Old Testament prophecy was also quoted in the New Testament in several places! In (John 1:23), John the Baptist quoted this scripture to the religious and political leaders explaining what he was doing and why! The word “way”, used in the New Testament means a road in which one travels. Here is the real deal. We as believers had a way prepared for us to find God! The message you received about Christ may have come from a Evangelist, Pastor, teacher, Priest, prophet, elder, parent, grandparent or a missionary! They prepared a way for you to find Christ! We are to return the favor! You are preparing the way for others as you preach His Word! You may be doing a Bible study, prayer group, web site, Blog, audio or video tracts, prison ministry or a Pastor of a local church. You may be a missionary in a foreign land! You may distribute Bibles, Gospel tracts or do hospital and nursing home ministries. You may be doing a food kitchen or clothing distribution for the poor. Just like John the Baptist you are preparing the way for people to find Christ! At Jesus first coming John the Baptist prepared people to receive Christ! However today Christ’s second coming is even more important to prepare people’s hearts because His second coming will not be as Savior but as Judge of all. This makes our mission very important! John sacrificed his life for his mission but today the stakes are even higher! Even more is on the line today! At Christ’s second coming there will be no more choices available to you! Your eternity will be locked in forever! We cannot afford to play church! We must play for keeps! No business as usual. Each day that slips by begs the question what did I do today to prepare the way for others? Will we be able to answer Christ at the Judgment Seat with confidence and assurance that we did all we could to reach the lost? Was our heart in the world or in Heaven? If our destination is Heaven then think about Heaven! We cannot work our way to Heaven but we can prepare a way for others! Go out into the whole world and preach the Gospel. At marriage we say, “I do.” When we join the military we say, “I do.” Then the sacrifices begin! Jesus on the Cross said, “It is finished.” May the God of Heaven give us the grace to finish the highway to Heaven for others and receive the rewards Christ has promised us! Nothing could be more rewarding than to be in Heaven and witness others coming in after us who we have helped to prepare the way for them! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Pride! Isaiah 39:1-2
The Babylonian Ambassadors came to King Hezekiah in Israel to give him gifts for they had heard he had been sick. Hezekiah showed them all the treasures in the Temple and government treasuries! He gave them a tour of all his stuff! Isaiah inquired after they left and asked the king who were these people and what did they want? After Isaiah learned who they were he warned the King he had made a grave error! He told the King the following generations would be taken captive to Babylon as slaves and all their wealth carried away! Pride before the fall? It is good to give a testimony to people for how God has blessed you! However some will become jealous and try to steal your goods! Sometimes treasures can draw the wrong people into your life! If you have a loyal faithful friend when you were poor they will be faithful when you are rich! Someone like Jesus! Remember Job after he lost it all? Miserable friends! God recovered Job! The real treasures God has given us can never be taken away! We have this treasure in earthen vessels! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Free at Last! Isaiah 43:18
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.” Comment: This is great! I can forget my mortgage payments! My credit card payments! My utility bills! No more taxes! Even better than Trump! No more insurance or car payments! No more rent! No more nagging wife or condemning husband! No more diapers! No more toxic supervisor! I feel like I have died and went to Heaven! This verse in Isaiah is not a prison escape plan! What Isaiah is really saying is do not let your past sin become your present sin! Repent of it and come into 2018 clean without the sin and bondages of the past coming with you into the new year! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com
Looking Forward! 1 Esdras 5:38-39
When the Jews returned from Babylon captivity by the favorable Decree of the Persian King Cyrus they met many challenges to rebuilding the Temple in Jerusalem! Here is a quote from verses 38-39. “Since they were unable to prove their ancestry, they were not allowed to function as Priest’s. Nehemiah the governor told them that they could not eat food offered to God until there was a High Priest who could use Revelation and Truth.” Comment: Ancestry was everything to the Jews! Tradition was the foundation of their life and worship! If you could not prove your ancestry as many Jews could not after returning from 70 years of Babylonian captivity you could not participate in Temple worship! Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Moses were in the Religious Hall of Fame! Rightly so! Jesus really threw the religious Jews a curve ball when He told them they must be born again! Jesus the High Priest with Revelation and Truth was looking them in the face but they did not get it? The religious leaders seemed blind? Yet the simple Jews such as Peter saw the light! How far does Jesus ancestry go back in time? All the way back to the Garden of Eden with Adam and Eve! Remember the Tree of Life in the Garden? His humanity took their sin and fast forwarded it to you and me! His Divinity delivered you and me from sin! His humanity was sacrificed for you and me! Jesus was a Jew and of the tribe of Judah! That is prophetic! Ancestry.com should be renamed Death.com! Why were the Persian Kings (Iran), favorable to the Jews? The 3 wise men were from Persia! King Cyrus and Darius were favorable to the Jews! Why? God spoke to them! Why is present day Persia (Iran), not favorable to the Jews but want to destroy them? Very simple! Islam that came along in 650 A.D. Islam has given all of its followers a religious backing to kill. The Persians also invented the crucifixion so they prepared the method for the sacrifice for Jesus! Let us look forward! Is your name written down in the Book of Life? (Revelation 3:5) Are you born again? Washed in His blood? Jesus promised us to go prepare a place for us! Then He would return the second time to earth! He promised to send His Holy Spirit to us until He returns! When Satan tries to remind you of your past remind him of his future! Remember the Cross and move forward! James and Hamsa Sasse. GodWhoisGod.com