Previously: Citizenship matters
Now we come to the city of man. We have already seen how Jesus identified the worldly Jerusalem with the city of man: the worldly Jerusalem stones the prophets and kills those who are sent to her. The worldly Jerusalem refuses to be gathered under the Lord’s wings. The evidence for a distinction between the citizens of the city of God, and the citizens of the city of man, even among the Chosen People, are all through the New Testament:
“But when he [John the Baptist] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism, he said to them, “You brood of vipers, who warned you to flee from the wrath to come? Therefore bear fruit in keeping with repentance; and do not suppose that you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham for our father’; for I say to you that from these stones God is able to raise up children to Abraham. The axe is already laid at the root of the trees; therefore every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire.” Matthew 3:7-10
“Now when Jesus heard this, He marveled and said to those who were following, “Truly I say to you, I have not found such great faith with anyone in Israel. I say to you that many will come from east and west, and recline at the table with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven; but the sons of the kingdom will be cast out into the outer darkness; in that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 8:10-12
“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. But he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter; and his praise is not from men, but from God.” Romans 2:28-29
“I know your tribulation and your poverty (but you are rich), and the blasphemy by those who say they are Jews and are not, but are a synagogue of Satan.” Revelation 2:9
And it is not only Jews who are in danger of believing they are of the city of God, only to find out they are of the city of man; according to Jesus it is Christians as well:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. (22) “Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ (23) “And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'” Matthew 7:21-23
In Revelation 11 we find more characteristics of the city of man:
“When they [the two witnesses] have finished their testimony, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will make war with them, and overcome them and kill them. And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which mystically is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was crucified. Those from the peoples and tribes and tongues and nations will look at their dead bodies for three and a half days, and will not permit their dead bodies to be laid in a tomb. And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and celebrate; and they will send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell on the earth.” Revelation 11:7-14
The great city which is mystically – or spiritually – called Sodom and Egypt is the city of man. Sodom was destroyed four millennia ago and has not been rebuilt. But its spiritual characteristics were great wickedness and immorality, so much so that there was only one righteous person in the whole city – Lot. Jesus told us that it would be like the days of Lot before His return. And today we even see those who practice sodomy as ministers, not just unreproved members, but unrepentant ministers, in the counterfeit church!
Egypt was never a city, but it was the country which enslaved Israel, and it is likened to the kingdom of darkness from which believers in Yeshua are also redeemed. The city of man venerates the age- old serpent as its mentor and guide. The city of man honors man’s ways, not God’s. The city of man comes up with its own definitions of sin and righteousness, which fly in the face of God’s which have existed from the foundation of the world. The city of man does not practice the revealed will of the Father. The city of man stones those who speak the word of the Lord. The city of man kills those whom the Lord sends, to warn it of its ways, that they are in conflict with the King of the Universe. The citizens of the city of man — the citizens of this earth, the world which is opposed to God — are tormented when the truth about God and man is spoken to them, and they celebrate over the misfortune or death of the citizens of the city of God.
The beast that arises from the abyss, from whence comes Islam, will rule the city of man as king. He, or it, will kill the citizens of the city of God, whether Christian or Jew. Those citizens of the city of man will also be of every tribe and tongue and nation, just as those citizens of the city of God are. And the citizens of the city of man will rejoice and make merry when the citizens of the city of God are slain.
As we sit on the threshold of the seventh millennium, the millennium of the sovereignty of Yeshua Messiah the King of kings, let us each ask ourselves: where is my citizenship? Let us be as Abraham: doers of the word of the Lord, and so become his children indeed.
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