Hebrews 11:⁵ By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would not see death; and he was not found because God took him up; for before he was taken up, he was attested to have been pleasing to God. ⁶ And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.”

ENOCH WAS PLEASING TO GOD. What does that mean? Paul said: “So whether we are at home or away, we make it our aim to please him. (2 Corinthians 5:9)”. “Finally, then, brothers, we ask and urge you in the Lord Jesus, that as you received from us how you ought to walk and to please God, just as you are doing, that you do so more and more. (1 Thessalonians 4:1).” Who do you most want to please? When we admire someone, we want to please them. Jesus said, “The Father has not left Me alone, for I always do those things that please Him” (John 8:29). When we admire and revere God, we want to do whatever pleases Him, whatever brings Him joy and pleasure. We know what pleases Him and we try to do that. For example, the Lord is also pleased when we are generous and share with those in need: “But do not forget to do good and to share, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased” (Hebrews 11:16). We don’t just live to please ourselves.

AN ILLUSTRATION FROM MARRIAGE: From GotQuestions.org “The concept of pleasing God can be compared to a marriage. A woman accepts a man’s proposal and becomes his wife because she loves him and he loves her. They are as married and in love as two people can be, yet they seek ways to continue pleasing each other. He brings her flowers, not so that they will remain married, but because he delights in pleasing her. She gives him a backrub and wears the perfume he likes, not so that he will love her but because she loves him. Likewise, once we’ve entered into a spiritual relationship with God, we want to do things that honor and delight Him.”


ENOCH HAD FAITH IN GOD. Pleasing God begins with faith in God. Without faith it is impossible to please God. We don’t know how much special revelation Enoch had from God. Had God spoken to him often? “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of God’ (Romans 10:17) so surely God had spoken to him. He was a descendent in the line of Seth, the godly line, so surely he would have been taught about the one true God through oral tradition. The most basic thing that someone coming to God needs is to believe that God exists, of course. One might possibly believe that God exists and yet not want to come to God, but if you do want to come to God you must believe that God exists in order to be pleasing to God.

HAVE YOU EVER DOUBTED THE EXISTENCE OF GOD? Have you ever been an atheist who denies that God exists? Or maybe a skeptic who doubts that God exists? Or maybe an agnostic who says that we can’t really know if God exists? Do you ever have moments of doubt where you kinda wonder how this omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent, spirit that fills the universe can really exist? I think most of us have those moments. A friend of mine said that when he has such a moment of doubt, he goes to the mirror and looks at his eye! He is thinking about all the complex steps required to see: steps and parts that could not have randomly formed by atheistic evolution. The eye is designed by God. The whole human body with its many systems is designed by God. All the systems have to be present and working for the body to be alive and function (irreducibal complexity). The over 30 physics constants in the universe are finely tuned (such as the “G” gravitational constant in the equation F=Gm(1)m(2)/r^2, or the “C” speed of light in the equation E=mc^2). The periodic table is arranged by atomic numbers with each succeeding element in the table having one extra proton and electron. Atheists say the universe started with an explosion of a few elements (although they can’t say where the elements or the explosion came from). How could a few elements evolve randomly into the precision of the periodic table? Atheists say that the universe began from nothing, but the first law of thermodynamics says that, if there was ever nothing, then there would still be nothing. You can’t get something from nothing. As Hebrews 3:2 says, “every house has a builder”. You would never think that a house just popped into existence from nothing. Atheists say that life had to come from non-living chemicals at some point in evolution, but the law of biogenesis says that you can only get living things from living things. Scientists like Redi and Pasteur showed that spontaneous generation doesn’t happen. Before that, it was thought maggots could come from dead meat (they come from flies laid on the meat which is what Redi showed). I could go on, but the bottom line is that there is no other believable view as to how the universe and well designed life came to be if there is no God. It might take faith to believe that there is a God who created everything, but that is more plausible that not believing in God. There must be a supernatural force outside of nature that created it all, and we call that “God”. Romans 1:20 says that we can see God’s invisible power by what he created and that there is no excuse for not bellieving that there is a god. That is called “natural revelation”. That doesn’t tell us what that God is like. It takes “special revelation” where God speaks through prophets to tell us what God is like and what His will is for us. God has done that also in His Word, the Bible. You can see why David said, “The fool has said in his heart that there is no God.”

If you have faith and are pleasing to God like Enoch, you probably won’t get carried up into heaven before you die. But one day when you do die, you will be carried up into heaven to be with Jesus forever. You can meet Enoch and talk about his life and his faith. Won’t that be fun?

MANY VIDEOS THINK IT IS! I google youtube and get a wide variety of videos. Sports, songs, shorts, religion, history, travel, AGT, cults, ads, politics, etc. I have to click on Ray Stevens “The Mississippi Squirrel Revival”! But also there are usually videos claiming that what is going on in Iran is the fulfilling of Bible predictions from Ezekiel 38,39.

EZEKIEL 38,39 IS NOT AN ELEPHANT! I will tell you what I think Ezekiel is predicting, but first let me tell you what he is definitely not predicting. An illustration that I use is that if you are looking at a really strange small insect you might not know what it is but you definitely know that it is not an elephant! Ezekiel 38, 39 is not predicting anything past the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple by the Romans in 70 AD. I know that b/c of what Jesus said in Luke 21:²⁰ “But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near. ²¹ Then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains, and those who are inside the city must leave, and those who are in the country must not enter the city; ²² because these are days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled.” This surrounding of Jerusalem had to occur within the generation of those whom Jesus was speaking to b/c he said in Luke 21:³² Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all things take place.” The word for “generation” in the Greek is genea and in the New Testament it always means a 40 year period or the people living in a 40 year period. One usage of the word is in Matthew 1 where there are 42 “generations” from Abraham to Jesus, which covers about 2,000 years. Or Matthew 23:³⁶ Truly I say to you, all these things will come upon this generation” where Jesus is specifically talking about that generation of wicked Jews living at the time he was speaking, predicting the judgement to come on them in 70 AD when a million evil Jews were killed by the Romans.

WHAT DID JESUS SAY ABOUT THE FULFILLMENT OF ALL OLD TESTAMENT PREDICTIONS? But notice what Jesus said: Luke 21:²² because these are days of punishment, so that all things which have been written will be fulfilled.” He is saying that all things which had been written in the Old Testament would be fulfilled by the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. That would include Ezekiel 38,39. So we might not be sure what Ezekiel 38,39 is predicting, but we can be sure that it was not predicting any event past 70 AD! That means it was not predicting what is going on in Iran right now as many claim that it is! It is not an elephant!

HERE IS WHAT I BELIEVE EZEKIEL 38,39 WAS PREDICTING TO HAPPEN IN 70 AD: So what was Ezekiel 38, 39 predicting. Here is my brief belief on that. First of all the time of the fulfillment of Ezekiel 38,39 is “in the latter years” (38:8), “in the last days” (38:16) That phrase “in the last days” used in the New Testament means the last days of the Jewish Age, the time period from 30 AD to 70 AD. The end of the Jewish Age was in 70 AD when the temple was destroyed and when the old covenant “disappeared” (Hebrews 8:13). Ezekiel is predicting a leader God of the land of Magog from the north coming to destroy God’s people Israel. He even said that former prophets had predicted all this. Ezekiel 38:¹⁷ ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?” Several Od Testament prophets predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD at the “end of the age” (Daniel 9,12; Zechariah 14; Isaiah 65,66). But Ezekiel also predicts that God and Magog will be destroyed, after which God will “restore the fortunes of Israel” (39:25) when “I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God (39:29). The pouring out of the Spirit on Israel is predicted by Joel (2:28-32) and Isaiah (44:3 where pouring out life giving water on the offspring of Israel is the pouring out of the Spirit). Ezekiel 37 had predicted the famous valley of dry bones where the bones come to life when God pours out His Spirit on them (37:14). This pouring out of the Spirit is fulfilled beginning in Acts 2 when Peter said that Joel’s prophecy was being fulfilled in the “last days” with the pouring out of miraculous powers on the Jews dead in Judaism who believed in Jesus as the Messiah and came to life spiritually. That would also be the “restoring of the fortunes of Israel: not restoring the physical kingdom fortunes of the whole nation, most of whom rejected Jesus, but restoring the spiritual fortunes of the remnant of Jews who did accept Jesus. It is referring to spiritual blessings in the church kingdom. So Ezekiel 38:17 is predicting that the events predicted in Ezekiel 38,39 would be fulfilled when God poured out His Spirit miraculously on the Jewish church from 30 AD to 70 AD. That would be in total harmony with Jesus’ prediction in Luke 21:22 that “all things written in the Old Testament” would be fufilled by 70 AD.

WHAT DOES THE BOOK OF REVELATION SAY ABOUT GOG AND MAGOG? One final note since Gog and Magog are mentioned in Revelation 20:⁷ When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, ⁸ and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. ⁹ And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.” Revelation 1:1-3 and 22:6,10 says that the events predicted in the book of Revelation would happen “shortly” for the time is “near”. The book was written about 63 AD, so the events concerning God and Magog in Revelation 20:7-9 had to be fulfilled soon after that. Gog and Magog “surround the camp of the saints (i.e. Jewish people)’ and the beloved city (i.e. Jerusalem). That must be referring to the Romans surrounding Jerusalem (Luke 21:21) and destroying Jerusalem. That would happen when Satan was released at the end of the “1000 years” to get the Romans to attack Jerusalem. The 1000 years is not a literal 1000 years as most teach b/c it had to end in 70 AD when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem. That means that the 1000 years must be figurative of the period from 30 AD to 70 AD, a 40 year period, the period of the last days of the Jewish Age. But did God destroy God and Magog as Ezekiel 38,39 and Revelation 20:9 predicted. Physically, no. Jesus said that his kingdom was not “of this world” (John 18:36) so the church kingdom has never been about physically destroying the Roman empire or any nation. But the evil princes who controlled Rome, and all the evil princes of all the world kingdoms, were judged in 70 AD and their powers conquered by Jesus. In that senese, God and Magog were destroyed in 70 AD (i.e. their spiritual powers). The kingdoms of the world would then become the kingdoms of the Lord and Christ would reign over his spiritual kingdom, the church, forever (Revelation 11:15). He has been reigning over that spiritual kingdom for 2,000 years now.

So I wish people would quit trying to convince others that Ezekiel 38,39 are being fulfilled in the war in Iran right now. If that was true, then Jesus was a false prophet! I feel the need to to defend Jesus’ words!

HOW DO YOU HANDLE A DISAGREEMENT OVER HOW TO BEST DO THE LORD’S WORK? Let’s suppose that you disagree with someone about how to best do the Lord’s work or spend the Lord’s money. Maybe an eldership that is, in your opinion, unwisely spending the Lord’s money on buildings and staff instead of on helping the poor and printing Bibles. You have spoken up boldly and shared your views on how you think things should be done. But those you disagree with do not see the value of your ideas and are not implementing your ideas. Maybe they are even making comments that offend you or hurt your pride. You are tempted to respond rashly and get caught up in a “war of words” with them. That’s probably when you just need to walk away quietly, prayerfully leaving it to the Lord to get things done the way you think they should be done. You can’t make it personal. It’s not about you. It’s. only about how to best do the Lord’s work and spend the Lord’s money. Off course, you could even be wrong in your ideas and the Lord might have a better way that your way.

HOW DID DAVID HANDLE CONFLICT How did David haandle such situations? AI: “David frequently avoided getting “caught up” in petty wars of words, choosing instead to focus on actions, divine trust, or, in moments of crisis, simply walking away. When David visited his brothers on the battlefield, his oldest brother Eliab did not see David’s value and put him down. When Eliab questioned his competence, David did not stand up for his ego. He let it slide. Turn away and don’t spend time trying to prove your value, promote yourself, argue your competence or perhaps respond with an equal amount of negativity. David could have been offended and gotten into a war of words with Eliab but he didn’t. There was a bigger battle of the Lord to fight with Goliath. While Goliath, a giant, spent 40 days issuing threats and insults to “fight with words,” David did not engage in a verbal shouting match. Instead, he made one declarative statement of faith (“The battle is the Lord’s”) and moved immediately to action. Despite being relentlessly pursued by Saul, David refused to respond to the slander and injustice with verbal attacks or retaliation. He maintained his “prudent speech” and refused to take vengeance, often leaving his defense to God. He rashly was about to kill Nabal b/c Nabal had refused to give David’s men food after David had asked very politely and peacefully. Abigail brought David food and asked him not to seek vengeance on her foolish husband. David thanked her and did not attack Nabal. When Shimei cursed David, threw stones, and threw dust at him, David explicitly refused to engage or retaliate. He told his men, “Leave him alone, and let him curse,” choosing not to be dragged into a war of words.  David is often described as looking at problems from God’s viewpoint rather than reacting emotionally to insults. Ask God to give you the wisdom you need to know which battles to ignore at home, school, work, church and everywhere you may find yourself (Joseph Anwana, “The Battle David did not fight”).”

PRAYERFULLY WALK AWAY FROM CONFLICT AND TRUST IN THE LORD You may or may not right now be dealing with a situation like what I described, but I assure you that you will be at some time if you are really concerned about how to best do the Lord’s work and spend the Lord’s money. You must speak up. You must make your arguments. You must try to convince others to see it your way. But then leave it with the Lord. Don’t get caught up in a war of words trying to show your worth or the worth of your ideas. Prayerfully walk away and wait to see how the Lord handles it. Trust that the Lord will bring about the best results.

PAUL’S “SHARP DISAGREEMENT WITH BARNABAS”: The apostle Paul did not always handle such situations well. He had a “such a sharp disagreement with Barnabas” over whether to take John Mark (with them on the 2nd missionary journey that they separated and went different ways. John Mark had deserted Paul and Barnabas while on the first journey. Paul took Silas on the journey and Barnabas took John Mark with him on a different journey. Here are two godly men arguing about how best to do the Lord’s work. That’s understandable and inevitable but when did they resort to a “sharp disagreement” instead of just prayefully discussing it and trying to come to a good resolutiion? BTW it turns out that Barnabas might have been the wiser one in this disagreement. As always, he was the “son of encouragement” ( Acts 4:36 his name translated meant that) and was willing to give John Mark a “second chance” but Paul refused to do that. But 10 years later when Paul was in prison in Rome awaiting his beheading, he told Timothy, “Take along Mark and bring him with you, for he is useful to me for service.” (2 Timothy 4:11) So apparently Paul changed his mind about John Mark’s ability to do the Lord’s work after all. But the Lord used the disagreement to perhaps do a better plan that just Paul and Barnabas taking John Mark on the 2nd journey after all. The Lord multiplied one missionary journey into two journeys, perhaps accomplishing more spreading of the gospel.

HOPEFULLY THIS BLOG HELPS YOU IF YOU ARE DEALING WITH A SIMILAR SITUATION I obviously am caught up right now in a situation like I described, so I am writing this to help me deal with it. My emotions are stirred to got caught up in such a war of words, to try to prove my value or the value of my ideas. Even some anger. I hope I can take my own advice, which is hard to do at times! There’s is someone out there reading this blog who is in a similar situation. I recently personally talked to 3 friends who are dealing with a similar situation. We are all frustrated and don’t know what else we can do to advance our ideas. I will share this advice with them just as I am sharing it with you readers.

HISTORY IS FILLED WITH EVIL: History is filled with wars, genocides, poverty, murder, slavery, greed, political power struggles, revolts, racism, etc. It is pretty obvious that God has allowed people to do about what they want to do, whether it could be doing good or doing evil. We know that God was heavily involved in the history of nations in the Old Testament. He foretold the next 3 kingdoms after Babylon, which would be the Medo-Persians, Greece and Rome (Daniel 2) and raised up and deposed rulers to make that happen. The purpose was to bring about the establishment of his eternal kingdom, the church, in the days of the Roman Empire. God’s sovereignty over the nations was obvious and no one could stop it. But notice that in the New Testament, there is no such prediction of who the world powers would be after Rome. Some thought that the book of Revelation predicted the Catholic Church, but that is not true. Revelation was about things to happen soon, but the formation of the Roman Catholic Church was a few centuries in the future after the book was written. Many have tried to say that the OT prophets predicted nations to come in modern history but all have been shown to be false predictions. There are no NT verses that predict historical events after the Roman Empire and after the fall off Jerusalem in 70 AD.

HAS GOD NOT BEEN WORKING FOR THE LAST 2,000 YEARS? So we might ask, “Has God been working among the nations over the past 2,000 years since the Roman Empire? Since there are no verses that answer that directly, we can only speculate based on what we think is the nature of God’s working among men. Could God have worked with nations to control them over the past 2,000 years? Certainly. If so, we are still left with a lot of questions about when and where God worked? Did he providentially help the allies defeat the Germans to stop Hitler? That might make sense since Hitler would have wiped out Christianity if he wasn’t stopped. But then why didn’t God stop Hitler before he killed 6 million in the Holocaust? Why didn’t he stop Stalin from killing millions in the Ukraine? Why didn’t he stop all the other genocides led by evil dictators?

GOD IS CERTAINLY WORKING WITH INDIVIDUALS IN GOOD AND BAD CIRCUMSTANCES: Maybe God did intervene among the nations but we have no prophets to tell us what He was doing. In the OT the prophets would tell the people exactly what God had done, was doing, and was going to do. So we can only speculate about God’s work among the nations over the last 2,000 years since we have had no prophets during that time (in spite of all the false claims of latter day prophets who falsely tried to predict the future). Maybe God has simply quit working at all among nations or even among people on earth. That is what the deists believe about God’s working from the very beginning. They believe that God created everything, but never intervened in any way after that. No miracles, no prophets, no incarnation of His Son, no predicting the future and controlling the destiny of nations. Maybe after God completed His plan, sent Jesus, destroyed death, maybe He just left everything to free will. If you are fortunate enough to hear the gospel then accept Jesus and be saved. If not, too bad. I don’t want to accept that. I believe that has been working providentially among individuals for the last 2,000 years just as He worked with Joseph and Esther. I believe that He is more concerned with how individuals handle circumstances than He is making circumstances happen one way or the other, for good or for bad. Romans 8:28 He will make all things work together for good but that doesn’t mean that He will make all things work out for good as we define good. I believe He is especially working with those who face dire circumstances, giving them hope through the gospel of Jesus and the hope of eternal life. He will no doubt allow wars to continue and yet give hope to those caught up in those wars. That is happening in the Ukraine as as many are finding Jesus through Bibles given them by EEM. The same with Christians in Iran. It is estimated that there are 120,000-500,000 Christians in Iran. I don’t know if God will get directly involved in Iran to give the people a government that is more accepting of Christianity. But I do know that God will work with the Iranian people on the ground to use the war to lead others to Jesus. Pray for persecuted Christians all over the world. Slavery will no doubt continue in spite of efforts to abolish it, but God will give eternal hope to those who can’t escape slavery. Pray for those caught up in the slave trade and human trafficking.

GOD WORKS IN US AND THROUGH US TO ACCOMPLISH HIS PURPOSES: A verse comes to mind. Philippians 2:¹² So then, my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; ¹³ for it is God who is at work in you, both to desire and to work for His good pleasure.” Men will continue to be evil, to hurt innocent people. God is not going to stop that completely. His desire is for people believing in Jesus and receiving eternal life. People have always been more inclined to come to Jesus during bad circumstances. The first century church grew amidst extreme persecution. It got soft when Constantine legalized Christianity and it became popular to be a Christian. The church is still growing best in countries where Christians are persecuted worldwide. The church in the US has become soft bc/ of our materialism, greed, and sinful ways. It doesn’t cost us anything to be a Christian. What we do have in the US is a lot of money. We can help persecuted Christians through various organizations. We can use our money to print and distribute Bibles all over the world through organizations like Eastern European Missions (EEM). Get Bibles to people so that the Holy Spirit can do His work to convince men of their sins and then show them eternal life through Jesus.

2 CORINTHIANS 10:1-11 2 Corinthians 10:1 Now I, Paul, myself urge you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ—I who am meek when face to face with you, but bold toward you when absent! ² I ask that when I am present I need not be bold with the confidence with which I intend to be courageous against some, who regard us as if we walked according to the flesh. ³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not wage battle according to the flesh, ⁴ for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. ⁵ We are destroying arguments and all arrogance raised against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, ⁶ and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

⁷ You are looking at things as they are outwardly. If anyone is confident in himself that he is Christ’s, have him consider this again within himself, that just as he is Christ’s, so too are we. ⁸ For if I boast somewhat more about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame, ⁹ for I do not want to seem as if I would terrify you by my letters. ¹⁰ For they say, “His letters are weighty and strong, but his personal presence is unimpressive and his speech contemptible.” ¹¹ Have such a person consider this, that what we are in word by letters when absent, such persons we are also in deed when present.”

THE HISTORICAL SETTING “Paul wrote 2 Corinthians (c. A.D. 55-56) from Macedonia, following a “painful visit” (2 Cor 2:1), Paul faced continued opposition from “false apostles” who attacked his character, motives, and ministry. Paul addressed false accusations regarding his integrity, his changing travel plans, and his refusal to accept financial support from them, which some deemed evidence of not being a true apostle.” (AI) Some had criticized that he was not bolder when he was with them in confronting the false teachers, thus implying that his authority as an apostle was weak. He basically says, “if you want to see me bold, then just wait: I will be as bold as need be when I come”. He hoped the Corinthians would all repent so that he did not have to be bold when he came.

PAUL’S BATTLE WITH THE FALSE TEACHERS IN CORINTH But I want to focus on vs 5-6. Paul is in a battle for the spiritual minds of the Corinthians. Arrogant false teachers were apparently undermining Paul’s authority with the Corinthian church. No doubt they had convincing arguments. They had heretical doctrines that Paul opposed. But they were not just attacking Paul on a personal level. They were attacking his authority as an apostle. The apostles were given the Holy Spirit to guide them into “all truth” (John 16:13). Their preaching and writings would be the standard for truth from the first century on. By Paul’s authority granted him as an apostle he was “destroying all arguments” against him. He was “taking every thought captive”. What does that mean? “Taking every thought captive (based on 2 Corinthians 10:5) is the proactive, spiritual practice of monitoring your mind to intercept negative, doubtful, or ungodly thoughts. It involves actively rejecting thoughts that contradict biblical truth and replacing them with God’s word, ensuring mental, emotional, and spiritual alignment with Christ. Treating thoughts as potential intruders that must be arrested rather than passively accepted. Comparing thoughts to the Gospel and Scripture to determine their validity. ” (AI) The language Paul uses is of a battle in war: “battle, weapons of warfare, destruction of fortresses, taking thoughts captive”.

PAUL’S BATTLE WITH THE FALSE TEACHERS AT CORINTH But I want to focus on vs 5-6. Paul is in a battle for the spiritual minds of the Corinthians. Arrogant false teachers were apparently undermining Paul’s authority with the Corinthian church. No doubt they had convincing arguments. They had heretical doctrines that Paul opposed. But they were not just attacking Paul on a personal level. They were attacking his authority as an apostle. The apostles were given the Holy Spirit to guide them into “all truth” (John 16:13). Their preaching and writings would be the standard for truth from the first century on. By Paul’s authority granted him as an apostle he was “destroying all arguments” against him. He was “taking every thought captive”. What does that mean? “Taking every thought captive (based on 2 Corinthians 10:5) is the proactive, spiritual practice of monitoring your mind to intercept negative, doubtful, or ungodly thoughts. It involves actively rejecting thoughts that contradict biblical truth and replacing them with God’s word, ensuring mental, emotional, and spiritual alignment with Christ. Treating thoughts as potential intruders that must be arrested rather than passively accepted. Comparing thoughts to the Gospel and Scripture to determine their validity. ” (AI) The language Paul uses is of a battle in war: “battle, weapons of warfare, destruction of fortresses, taking thoughts captive”.

PAUL’S AUTHORITY AS AN APOSTLE Oh how this applies to our spiritual warfare today. The Bible is the inspired, God-breathed word of God. The original manuscripts were infallible and error free. We have over 5,000 ancient manuscripts that allow us to say that we have 99% accurate copies of the originals. Paul’s was of equal authority to the original 12 apostles. 2 Corinthians 12:¹¹ I have become foolish; you yourselves compelled me. Actually I should have been commended by you, since I was in no respect inferior to the most eminent apostles, even though I am a nobody. ¹² The distinguishing marks of a true apostle were performed among you with all perseverance, by signs, wonders, and miracles. “Jesus appeared to him on the road to Damascus, qualifying and choosing him to be the apostle to the Gentiles. The Corinthians had seen his apostolic miracles that he did in their presence, They should not have listened for a second to the arguments of the false teachers against Paul’s apostleship. Paul’s letters were inspired by the Holy Spirit and fully authoritative on all matters of Christian living and doctrine. But apparently some of the members had been swayed by the false teachers We are dealing with that same situation today. Many today say that Paul’s writings are not authoritative. The big issue is the LGBTQ issue. Paul plainly and clearly condemns homosexuality as a sin (Romans 1:26-27; 1 Corinthians 6:9; 1 Timothy 1:10). The LGBTQ supporters say that Paul was just homophobic and that we don’t have to follow his teaching. They say that he does not have the authority of an apostle. They might argue that we only have to listen to the words of Jesus and not Paul. So we present arguments to counter their claims, but it seems as if we are losing the battle over Paul’s authority. What’s even more distressing is that many preachers and churches don’t respect Paul’s authority and writings as an apostle either. The recent Methodist church departure from the truth illustrates that.

TAKING EVERY THOUGHT CAPTIVE But there is a more personal application of 2 Corinthians 10:5-6 “taking every thought captive”. Am I aware of the battle for control of my thoughts and mind? Do I recognize thoughts that cause fear, anxiety, or disobedience to God, and then treat them as dangerous enemy intruder that must be taken captive instead of allowing them to roam freely in my mind? Do I replace negative, false, or unhelpful thoughts with biblical truths? Do I actively reject the thought and replace it with a positive, constructive, or truthful one? I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of bad thoughts that come to my mind every day. But I don’t always fight to capture and destroy those thoughts. I know they are wrong but I just allow them to occupy my thoughts for a while. I’m always thinking, “what can I do to capture such bad thoughts when they attack”? Of course, quoting Scripture is good. That is what Jesus did when he was tempted. Surely the thought entered his mind about how good some homemade fresh bread would taste if he turned those stones to bread, especially since he had been fasting for 40 days. But he quoted Scripture, “Man shall not live by bread alone” to counter Satan. David said in Psalm 119:11 “Your word I have hidden/stored in my heart, that I might not sin against You”. Maybe it would be good to visualize something else when a bad thought enters. Maybe picture Jesus on the cross dying for me so that I would not let sin master over me.  

I hope this helps me most of all, but I hope it helps you also.

JESUS READS FROM ISAIAH 61 IN THE SYNAGOGUE: Luke 4:¹⁴ And Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about Him spread through all the surrounding region. ¹⁵ And He began teaching in their synagogues and was praised by all.

¹⁶ And He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up; and as was His custom, He entered the synagogue on the Sabbath, and stood up to read. ¹⁷ And the scroll of Isaiah the prophet was handed to Him. And He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

¹⁸ “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me,
Because He anointed Me to bring good news to the poor.
He has sent Me to proclaim release to captives,
And recovery of sight to the blind,
To set free those who are oppressed,
¹⁹ To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

TODAY THIS SCRIPTURE HAS BEEN FULFILLED IN YOUR HEARING: ²⁰ And He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant, and sat down; and the eyes of all the people in the synagogue were intently directed at Him. ²¹ Now He began to say to them, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Can you imagine shock and anger when Jesus said that he was the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:10-3? Luke 4:²⁸ And all the people in the synagogue were filled with rage as they heard these things; ²⁹ and they got up and drove Him out of the city, and brought Him to the crest of the hill on which their city had been built, so that they could throw Him down from the cliff. ³⁰ But He passed through their midst and went on His way.” “In the post-exilic and intertestamental periods, these verses in Isaiah 61:1-3 were viewed as promises for a future time when a Davidic ruler would bring restoration. The community at Qumran (Dead Sea Scrolls) specifically held an eschatological, messianic view of this passage, connecting it with the end-times redemption of Israel.” The Jews in the synagogue in Luke 4 considered Jesus’ claim to be the fulfillment of Isaiah 61:1-3 to be blasphemous. They had aready rejected Jesus as the Messiah b/c he did not bring a restoration of the physical Jewish kingdom. Instead, he preached a spiritual kingdom, the church, to be established soon.

THE ANOINTING OF JESUS WITH THE SPIRIT AND HIS MISSION: Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61:1 The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,
Because the Lord anointed me
To bring good news to the humble;
He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted,
To proclaim release to captives
And freedom to prisoners;
² To proclaim the favorable year of the Lord.”

Jesus was anointed with the Holy Spirit. Acts 10:³⁸ You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power, and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” That allowed Jesus to give “recovery of sight to the blind” and to preach the gospel that freed people from the spiritual prison of sin. “The “favorable year of the LORD” (or “acceptable year”) in Isaiah 61:2 refers to a spiritual era of divine grace, restoration, and freedom from captivity, modeled after the Old Testament Year of Jubilee (Leviticus 25).” (AI) “Every 50 years (the year of Jubilee), Israelites returned ancestral land to original owners, cancelled debts, released slaves/indentured servants, and allowed the land to rest without sowing or reaping.” (AI)

GLADNESS AND. EVERLASTING JOY: Isaiah 61 goes on to describe the joy of those who would be freed by Jesus from the captivity ot sin. Isaiah 61:2 “And the day of vengeance of our God;
To comfort all who mourn,
³ To grant those who mourn in Zion,
Giving them a garland instead of ashes,
The oil of gladness instead of mourning,
The cloak of praise instead of a disheartened spirit. 7 Everlasting joy will. be theirs.”

Jesus would bring a “day of vengeance” on the Jews who had killed the saints, prophets and apostles, but the remnant who accepted Jesus as the Messiah would have gladness and everlasting joy. We Christians should be the happiest people on earth, even in the midst of sad earthly troubles. We might not can laugh on the outside due to pain and sadness, bur we can still have joy on the inside.

TRY TO PICTURE THIS OCCASION IN THE SYNAGOGUE: THE CHOSEN EPISODE Can you picture Jesus standing up in that synagogue to read from the scroll of Isaiah, and then after. reading Isaiah 61:1-3 he hands the scroll back to the attendant and sits down? All eyes are staring at him as he says, “Today this Scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing.” Can you picture going with the mob as they carry Jesus to the crest of a ciff to throw him off for blasphemy? But the mystery of how he “passes through their midst” and goes on his way. How did he do that? Did God supernaturally stun the crowd, freezing them long enough for Jesus to pass through them and escape?

Here is the Luke 4 synagogue incident from “The Chosen”.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dyHp0TovnUQ&t=6s I strongly suggest that you watch this. It is interesting how it picture Jesus “passing through their midst”. He simply tells the rabbi, “This isn’t going to happen: not today”, and then he just walks through them and no one tries to stop him.