There are many voices that are saying we need to “rise up” against tyrants, tyranny, the beast system, ect… The reasons vary from one person to another. For some it is the vaccine, for others it is loss of “freedoms,” and other yet say we have “unalienable rights.” This call is to rise up and resist what is going on around us: to resist the corrupt government, to resist restrictions of rights, to resist mask mandates, ect… But does this align with the word of God? Does this align us with the world or with God?
The title of this post is from Luke 9:56 and it is important to read the preceding verses to ensure that we have not taken it out of context.
And it came to pass, when the time was come that he should be received up, he stedfastly set his face to go to Jerusalem, And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him. And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem. And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did? But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of. For the Son of man is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.
(Luke 9:51-56 KJV)
In this passage of scripture we learn a very important lesson that will be the basis of this article. Jesus was rejected by a village of Samaritans and His disciples wanted to destroy them for that rejection. For this Jesus rebukes them and tells them they are not of the Spirit of God even though they thought they were being righteous. And Jesus further clarifies that He “is not come to destroy men’s lives, but to save them.” This shows a great shift in who the enemy is. The enemy is no longer people group, just like the Israel of God is no longer a people group. Both are now spiritual as seen by the warfare that Jesus fought against the wicked spirits, demons and Satan himself.
Think about the spirit behind the exposure of one such “rise up” message from FOJC Radio. The title of the message is “The Father is Not Amish.” Just from the title, you see that he is starting with an extreme. The false dichotomy being setup is: Either you are a complete pacifist, or you will fight and fight physically.
Starting with the thumbnail we have a huge problem. It is obvious from this thumbnail the false dichotomy is set: The fighting Christian or complete passivism. For those that don’t know a false dichotomy is a manipulation tactic that “occurs when an argument presents two options and ignores, either purposefully or out of ignorance, other alternatives.” philosophy-index.com continues “In general, a false dichotomy gives the impression that the two [opposite] options are mutually exclusive (that is, only one of them may be the case, never both) and that at least one of them is true, that is, they represent all of the possible options.” And to further show what side the teacher is on, the is over the United States Constitution with “We the People” magnified. “We the People” and the constitution of the US is a gnostic idea the people have the right to control the outcome of governments which flies directly in the face of scriptures.
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
(Daniel 2:20-21 KJV)
The constitution also claims that we have “unalienable rights” of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.” Do we have these rights? Are they given by God to us? Is our life our own?
What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own? For ye are bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.
(1 Corinthians 6:19-20 KJV)
No, we do not have life a we are not our own, we live not for ourselves but to glorify Christ. Do we have liberty?
Do not err, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning. Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of his creatures. Wherefore, my beloved brethren, let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, slow to wrath: For the wrath of man worketh not the righteousness of God. Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls. But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was. But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed. If any man among you seem to be religious, and bridleth not his tongue, but deceiveth his own heart, this man’s religion is vain. Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.
(James 1:16-27 KJV)
We have liberty only in Christ and not the worldly liberty to do whatever we want, but liberty to follow after Christ and keep His commandments. This is so very different from the liberty spoken of in the constitution. Two down, what about pursuit of happiness?
Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you.
(Matthew 5:11-12 KJV)
Happy is not something we are guaranteed, we are to rejoice and be exceeding glad when terrible things happen to us. Why? Because we know we have a reward in heaven.
Onto the radio show. I will only be dealing with errors within the “message.”
David Carrico, the preacher for this message, starts in Exodus 15:3 to establish that God is a God of war, and so is Jesus.
He then evidences more scriptures like Acts 5:29 “We ought to obey God rather than men.”, Proverbs 29:25 and Matthew 10:28 about fearing the Lord and not man, Exodus 1 and 2 when midwives and Moses’ parents disobeyed the king of Egypt who demanded murder of children, Job 29:17 where Job figuratively describes stopping wicked people from doing wicked things, and many more. This is all to build a case to disobey the government and fight back physically as he stated at 23 minutes and 19 seconds; “Even when monsters come in the shape of beasts the isreal of God will not fear but we will rise up and we will fight and even resist and actually fight if need be.”
He further uses puritan writing to backup his point which sounds like itching ears to me and wildly takes Hebrews 11:32 out of context. He uses Hebrews 11:32 as a call to action and even adds to the scriptures as he reads/interjects into the scriptures. He even begins to read “turned to flight the armies of the aliens” correctly and then “corrects himself to say “returned to fight the armies of the aliens.” Interesting how that error, was an error in favor of his argument.
So lets stop here and analyze what is going on. We should fight physically because old testament people fought physically. We should “rise up” and fight the “beast system”, which is all of this covid shots and restrictions. And the couple new testament scriptures that help his case are that we should obey and fear God and not man. And we should look at the faith of those listed in Hebrew’s.
Should we fight physically beyond direct defense of the weak? Literally someone attempting to rape, murder, maim, injure, destroy, ect.. in a manner that you are able to thwart in the moment. No.
For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.
(Ephesians 6:12 KJV)
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
(2 Corinthians 10:3-4 KJV)
Should we fight governments due to lost “freedoms” or “rights”? No, this would put us against the rulers that God Himself sets up.
Daniel answered and said, Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever: for wisdom and might are his: And he changeth the times and the seasons: he removeth kings, and setteth up kings: he giveth wisdom unto the wise, and knowledge to them that know understanding:
(Daniel 2:20-21 KJV)
Do we disobey if the law, commandment or mandate causes us to violate Jesus’ commandments, YES. But we do not fight it, we do not try to change the rules, we do not attempt to coerce the government into our way of thinking. We accept the consequences of disobeying man and obeying God instead.
David used Acts 5:29 to prove his point to defy the government, but is it in the fighting way that he is talking about. Lets see the verse in context.
Then went the captain with the officers, and brought them without violence: for they feared the people, lest they should have been stoned. And when they had brought them, they set them before the council: and the high priest asked them, Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man’s blood upon us. Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men.
(Acts 5:26-29 KJV)
When an authority tells you to violate the scriptures, as seen above. Disobey them because you obey God over men. The scripture being violated is in Mark 16:15 and is the great commission.
See the thing is, we violate man’s law (and suffer the worldly consequences) only when man’s law violates God’s law. In these instances disobedience is required. Not civil disobedience, not physical fighting, no new age “rising up”.
I could go on for much longer as this only analyzed 30 minutes of his 1 hour plus podcast. However the answer is simple, know what manner of spirit you are by testing it against scripture. David and his podcast do not pass the test of scripture. There is no evidence that the fighting resistance that he talking about, that has lead to killing in the past, is ever mention or even hinted at in the New Testament. As a matter of fact, we are constantly reminded that Jesus and His kingdom are not of this world and that we do not war the way the world wars. We war in the Spirit.
Do not let false dichotomies and extreme straw man arguments deceive you. You neither accept ALL things a government demands if there are things that violate scripture, nor do you fight the government on the things that are wrong. You accept that the Lord is in control and that His will be done in earth as in heaven.
I love you all and pray David repents of this false teaching,
A Family Serving The King