The Voice of a Prophet is the Sound of the Shout From People’s own Conscience (I)
All Mankind should Pay Attention to the Voice of a Lonely Prophet Who Shouts the Word of God from Conscience.
I had a lot of thoughts by receiving the terrible news about a young boy who killed his parents among recent incidents. What will happen to mankind if moral laws of family relationships are broken? In the faithless world, the last haven is a parent. A parent is the last bosom which receives me with unconditional tolerance and forgiveness no matter what I did. But the bosom is gone, then where will I go? Why are those things that should not exist nor think forever happening? Can this be a problem only for the young boy? Rather, we should think deeply over the lesson of Jesus Christ to ask the people who did not have sins to throw a stone at the woman caught in adultery than judge and condemn the young boy (Jn 8:7).
As this problem is the problem of spiritual world beyond the limitation of human temperance and endurance, the spirits of invisible world try to drag mankind into destruction of disorder and collapse at any rate. Naturally, the young boy who did not have the knowledge of right and wrong in a defenseless state of conscience was just carried away by emotion. We have neglected even minimal education to control emotions. Even if we had established firmly just a wall of conscience for the young boy, this tragedy would not have happened. The world has taught earnestly functional education for make a living, but not education of conscience.
Although our Christianity also has endlessly shouted to love, it was only echo of emptiness before a rapidly changing trend of the world; and our Christianity could not establish at least human ethics and a moral wall of conscience to control emotions by strongly applying it to the spirit. Therefore, many people have answered back with many questions and have refused such as ‘Why should I love others?’, ‘What do I get in return by loving others even though I get hurt?’, ‘I don’t like it.’, ‘I cannot live like that.’ etc. In front of such reality, how can our Christianity establish those people’s conscience?
● The Two Commandments are the Voice of a Prophet crying out of Conscience.
The last prophet of the Law ended with John the Baptist, thus we should pay attention to the voice of a prophet crying out of conscience since Jesus Christ. Why did the last prophet end with John the Baptist? Because Jesus Christ briefly and concisely summarized the demands of Law such as complex and vast knowledge, norms, feasts, etc. as two commandments and gave us as doctrines, Christians do not need knowledge of the Law any more. Such two commandments are as follows: the first commandment is to love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. The second commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. The Law is fulfilled in these two commandments (Mt 22:37-40).
These two commandments are always shouting to love in conscience of Christians. Like this, the sound of the shout from conscience is to return to God as the same as the shouts of many prophets from the Old Testament until John the Baptist. Therefore, Christians should obey the shout of this prophet crying out of conscience. This is the beginning of fear of the Lord and the starting point of Christian faith toward the destination which is love. Like this, the Lord’s command is simple. As already mentioned in the Book of Deuteronomy, it says “This commandment which I commanded you is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it” (Dt 30:11-14, Ro 10:8).
Even now, our spirit always demands in our lives to keep two commandments of the Law first. This is the shout of a prophet crying out of conscience within ourselves. Moreover, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, the second commandment, must be kept by not only Christians but also aliens, i.e., all mankind. Therefore, Jesus Christ commanded ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ as concrete and realistic ways for anyone to keep the command of love in his life (Mk 12:31).
Why did Jesus Christ command it? There is an absolute reason to do it. Just as you act and love, you will be treated as it is, thus Jesus Christ said, “Treat people the same way you want them to treat you” (Mt 7:12). In addition, to prevent human beings from making excuses, and taking tricks and shorts cuts, Jesus Christ said, “Whatever a man sows, this he will also reap”; and “Men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Gal 6:7, Mt 12:36). Christianity must begin from this entrance of the Law to enter the way of salvation, which fulfills the commandment of love, but it did not pass well from the entrance. As a result, such shouts of Jesus Christ were buried in the reality of the world and all faded away; and just remained as empty echoes.
● The Causes and Results of Failing to Keep the Two Commandments
The reason why human beings disregarded and disobeyed the sound of conscience to keep the two commandments; and threw the commandments away is to achieve their own desires, three lusts (the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the boastful pride of life), which is called idolatry. As idolatry is a factor to eternally cause God’s wrath, the reason for people to face disasters and adversity is due to stubborn persistence to fulfill their desire, greed, and lust.
If you want to see how God breaks stubborn persistence of people, you will know that by watching how rocks turn into sand. Just as a hard rock slowly turns into fine sand through countless repeated processes of getting caught in a rainstorm with cold and heat; freezing and thawing in long years, God breaks down bigotry and stubbornness of people through the training of pain and suffering. Such training would continue until people realize that a man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God (Dt 8:1-3). Therefore, stubbornness of the one who has suffered in the flesh is broken, only then he has ceased from sin (1Pe 4:1).
Look at Israel. God sent many prophets to deliver God’s will but the Israelites were disobedient and did not listen to it stubbornly. Then, God sighed and lamented that where they would be more stricken again; and the wounds stricken a while ago were not healed yet but they were stricken again (Isa 1:5-6). Like this, God knew human stubbornness and arrogance; and God would hide His face until rebellious, disobedient and stubborn people turned away from sins. God knew the Israelites who had been rebellious while Moses has been alive would surely worship idols apart from the commandment after the death of Moses, thus God made Moses write a song to hand down to his descendents as a firm lesson and a witness against them (Dt 31:12-22).
The content of the song is as follows: Why didn’t God protect His people and why not blessings but curses come upon His people?; Why did the country of the enemy win?; Even though the country of the enemy won, it was not because God was not among them; and God hid His face to His people until sinful people returned. Moses made it a song before he died and God made this song as a witness against them. As this is a song of Moses, it was recorded well in the Chapter 32 of the Book of Deuteronomy. In Deuteronomy 32:5, it says, "They have acted corruptly toward Him, They are not His children, because of their defect; But are a perverse and crooked generation” (Dt 32:5). In Deuteronomy 32:20, it says, “I will hide My face from them, I will see what their end shall be; For they are a perverse generation, Sons in whom is no faithfulness.
Like this, in spite of God’s children, if they are away from the commandment, God would not absolutely response to their cry and hide His face until they return; and proceed that He once promised as it was. Therefore, God hid His face and did not listen to all prayers of Israel for 300 years since the Prophet Malachi. In addition, God has been silent as of today for 2,000 years since John the Baptist as the last prophet. Even when six million Jewish people faced horrible death and tribulation, God did not respond to Jewish people who cried because He was still hiding His face just as He promised. Like this, the reason why God hid His face is God’s implication to return to Him. Like this, God is showing until today too realistic and practical lesson on how to receive training through Israel if Christianity goes wrong.
On the other hand, regarding God is silent and hiding His face just as a God’s promise, people of the world say that there is no God and they are driven by greed and three lusts; and live indulgently with sin and evil as they please as if there is no God. Like this, the results of mankind’s failure to keep the commandment, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, has led to piling up sins and evils, which have brought terrible results such as disasters and tribulation in the world.
Lately, I have seen terrible scenes of the tsunami of Indonesia. The incident in Indonesia is not a coincidence. In 2006, through the message titled, “What is a disaster?” it was already prophesied as follows:
“People should pay attention to Indonesia from now on. Why have they suffered from so many things such as natural disasters? It is due to the deep-rooted hatreds and bitter curses of East Timor against Indonesia. Therefore, Indonesians could never be released from the spiritual slaves of East Timor until those hatreds and curses are paid off.
The borrower is the servant to the lender (Pr 22:7), thus the borrower is deprived of his right by the lender. Even if he tries to make best efforts, he can not be liberated from lender’s grasp until he pays back all his debts. That is why you are told not to commit sins, and not to do anything to be cursed or complained by others. For all who draw the sword will die by the sword (Mt 26:52) and men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken” (Mt 12:36).
Indonesian disasters and tribulations will continue until all of the resentments of East Timor will disappear. Namely, hatreds and resentments will be released only when the last person of East Timor sees that Indonesia is destroyed; and the curses will end only when mercy to forgive emerges from the heart of its people. Until then, the resentments have piled up as high as heaven so that people of East Timor endlessly ask God to plead their case to bring out justice for them, thus there will be no peace but only disasters and tribulations in Indonesia. Even if there is prosperity, there will be negative effects that they cannot enjoy benefit at all except seeing only with eyes like a pie in the sky; and only blessing in wicked diseases (Ecc 5:16). Therefore, they will live in poverty of abundance (Dt 28:47).
Also, East Timor should not teach its people hatred but must tolerate and forgive Indonesia for the existence and prosperity of East Timor in the future. To solve evil with evil without forgiveness and reconciliation will result in destruction of both sides. Since East Timor is a Christian country, I firmly believe that it will win with love, forgiveness and tolerance. This is the path of prosperity for East Timor.
Moreover, if the United States wants to keep its prosperity, the resentments accumulated in the history of the past must be resolved one by one with forgiveness and love of reconciliation. In the United States, the resentments created by black slaves, the forced immigration of Native Americans, etc. have been planted just as they were, thus they have been floating in the sky of the US. As resentments were planted, God’s wrath has set on fire hills and fields (Dt 32:22); and hurricanes have blown horribly until the resentments are completely released. If they do not release their resentments and keep them in their heart, security and continuous prosperity cannot be absolutely expected as endless confusion in America as long as there are such hatreds. For that reason, supremacy and racial discrimination must not be allowed. The reason why Israel has faced tribulation until today is not equality but due to Zionism. Like this, supremacy and racial discrimination only aggravate hatred and antagonism, thus the entire nation will be confined in disasters and tribulations.
Now, look at the reality of the U.S. In the mean time, the U.S. has been the envy of whole world and a country of dreams. However, Americans see that scorn, contempt and exploitation which they had done to black slaves in the past are pouring back to America but they do not realize it. The reason is that racial discrimination and unilateralism have boomeranged on America just as they were. When the one who had been forgiven ten thousand talents did not forgive his fellow servant who owed him a hundred denarii as written in the Bible, the salvation was nullified because he discarded the Lord’s grace of salvation together with the commandment of love, which he must have kept and went back to old habit again. For that reason, we must realize that there is a law of ten thousand talents in the Bible, which is to pay all back again until the last cent.
Furthermore, how will the recent Rohingya case in Myanmar be resolved? They should not argue with each other by justification that there is no fault. Regardless of whether right or wrong, the justification only amplifies resentment and hatred as endless conflicts and it does not help at all in solving problems. The end is only mutual destruction. Until the last person of the Rohingya forgives people of Myanmar, they will keep on biting and devouring each other due to resentments and they will be eventually destroyed by each other. This is the truth, thus they must reconcile with each other. This is the only way for Myanmar and the Rohingya to have mutual benefits. As long as there are no sincere repentance and reconciliation, the resentments will be surely repaid by disasters for a long time and there will be absolutely no prosperity and the bright future in Myanmar.
Regardless of an individual or a nation, the borrower who did sinful things and evil like this becomes the lender’s slave (Pr 22:7). People must know that until the borrower pays back all his debt, he is degraded to a slave who is treated at the lender’s will. Therefore, the Bible says “Owe nothing to anyone except to love one another (Ro 13:8). In other words, if human beings kept only the commandment, “Love your neighbor as yourself.”, then each individual or nation would have prevented the disasters of such curses and tribulations.
Today, all national leaders of the world must pay attention to such a fact. In other words, they must know that the ruling ideas of each country should start from a minimum code of the Law, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, in order to lead the nation to be secured and prosperous. When the Law was obeyed, even the Gentiles benefited equally. The reason is that the Gentiles and guests were already allowed attending when the law of curse and blessing were proclaimed at Mount of Ebal and Mount Gerizim, respectively according to the command of Moses (Jos 8:33-35).
This symbolizes that the Law is applied to not only people of Israel but also any human beings. Therefore, the world leaders should know what the Law is for the interest of their countries first of all. Without knowing this, the country will be always driven into evil such as misfortune, fight, oppression, etc. The results only lead to endless poverty, despair, disasters of darkness and tribulation just as the promise of the curse, which was proclaimed at Mount Ebal.
● Mankind should Repent and Return to the Two Commandments which is the Sound of Shout from Conscience.
The only emergency exit for mankind to escape from disasters and tribulations is sincere repentance and alms. Specially, Christian repentance is so important. The standard of repentance must begin with repentance through sincere fasting. The Chapter 58 of Book of Isaiah says about the fasting which God chose.
“Is this not the fast which I choose, To loosen the bonds of wickedness, To undo the bands of the yoke, And to let the oppressed go free And break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, And bring the homeless poor into the house; When you see the naked, to cover him; And not to hide yourself from your own flesh? Then your light will break out like the dawn, And your recovery will speedily spring forth; And your righteousness will go before you; The glory of the Lord will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the Lord will answer; you will cry, and He will say, ‘Here I am’ (Isa 58:6-9).
The fast which God choose can be summarized by two things. These are forgiveness and reconciliation; and alms of compassion. In other words, we should erase and destroy the bonds of wickedness to bind our neighbors in our hearts with hatred, disappointment, complaint, resentment, grievance, criticism, curse, judgment, condemnation, an evil thought to revenge, grudge, etc.; and release them with sincere forgiveness and blessing. And we must reconcile with considerable compensation for the sins, forgiveness and compassion. Such forgiveness and reconciliation replace God’s wrath with grace of salvation.
Moreover, alms wash off iniquities cleanly and establish the foundation of donors firmly (1Ti 6:19). When Christians give alms, what they should pay attention to is that love and alms among people excluding the first commandment are only worldly humanism. Therefore, Christians must keep the two commandments together by faith. Like this, only repentance, i.e., sincere forgiveness and reconciliation which are true meaning of the spiritual fasting whom God choose, and alms relieve God’s wrath; and they are the only emergency exit to escape from tribulations.
Now, human beings must at least return to the commandments of Law, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. The God’s voice is not far away but within our conscience. In other words, the voice of prophet is the voice of conscience that cries out with loud voice to love all the time within ourselves and we should not leave the voice of conscience.
The result of human beings to leave this voice of conscience is only led to disasters and tribulation by biting and devouring each other with endless hatred and hostility. We must turn off the switch of such disasters and tribulations right now. In order to do that, we must live a life as a terminator with love, who terminates everything before us and our nation with forgiveness and reconciliation. By doing so, we must clean up all the things of the past and move forward to a new era. Furthermore, in order not to tarnish the conscience of our descendents, we must at the very least educate them endlessly the word of the Law, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’, to be inscribed in their conscience.
Mankind who is living today must pass down this lesson to the descendents even in unavoidable suffering now. Moreover, spreading this word is an absolute duty for all Christians who live in this age and churches. He who has an ear, let him hear by bearing in mind what the Spirit says to the Christians and churches.
O Lord! What You are commanding us today is what everyone knows and it is not beyond our reach nor it is difficult for us. Conscience is a prophet that delivers the word of God who is always shouting near us. However, as Israel had done, we have also lived by killing the prophet like this just like the Old Testament era. I repent that our Christianity has neglected this word compared with its importance and has not taught it for 2,000 years.
Now, please, allow all mankind to know all things away from the Lord’s commandment which is ‘Love your neighbor as yourself, are idolatry and lawlessness; and all the results are vain efforts and only harvesting the fruit of futility just as the law of justice, which God has promised to many prophets since Adam.
The reason why our mankind could not keep the commandment was due to three lusts for our own satisfaction, thereby greed, discrimination and supremacy made us like that. Furthermore, rather than observing the Lord’s commandment, even Christians were always intoxicated with comfort in abundance, thus they left the Lord and neglected it. Like this, You, Lord, know very well that our human beings, all of us, are made of sins and transgressions. Therefore, we are human beings. Please, forgive us.
Oh my Lord! Please, allow the sincerity and conscience of mankind to revive and rise, starting from the spirits of seeing this message. Furthermore, as You put breath into dead dry bones so that they came to life and rose, please work as the same way on the sincerity and conscience of all mankind centered on our Christianity. Those who have ears and those who fear the Lord heard this word, thus they must spread this word to their neighbors and their brothers so that they would not let anyone live a life of self-indulgence. Moreover, I sincerely pray in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that the mercy of God will be given to those who are obedient to this word even in tribulation.
All of us know very well that “A man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.” And we heard this word so that we will spread it to our neighbors. Please, forgive us.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah! To God alone, be glory forever!
The grass withers and the flowers fall but the word of our God stands forever. Amen.