Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.
- Jesus Christ is with His faithful few the same as when the Church was strong in this world.
- Spiritual uncleanliness fills the churches and the world.
- Before, the Holy Spirit was strong in this world, since then He is being shortchanged.
- The government of the beast and its global culture will be destroyed.
Jesus Christ is with His faithful few the same as when the Church was strong in this world. “In the seventh month, on the twenty-first of the month, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying: “Speak now to Zerubbabel the son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and to Joshua the son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and to the remnant of the people,” Haggai 2:1-2
The first time Haggai brought the word of God to the Israelites was about two months ago in the first chapter of Haggai. He is speaking to the same people, which includes Zerubbabel and Joshua, who were put in charge of rebuilding the temple, and also spoken to everyone else remaining of the Israelites. Today, the Holy Spirit is speaking to those in charge of the churches and everyone else remaining true to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
“‘Who is left among you who saw this temple in its former glory? And how do you see it now? In comparison with it, is this not in your eyes as nothing?” Haggai 2:3
In a sense, Haggai is speaking the word of God to the Baby Boomers of today. As Baby Boomers born between 1946 and 1964, we remember how the world was then and how it is today. As a 1959 Baby Boomer, I remember the strong roots the Gospel of Jesus Christ had all around the nation. We would go out on the street corners with microphone, speaker, horns, and a drum and share the Message of the Cross with the whosoever. I also remember when all of a sudden that type of public ministry was put to an end through city ordinances and public complaints. The Light of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, is no longer found in the churches of today. The Holy Spirit says to us, “…is this not in your eyes as nothing?”
The population boom of the Baby Boomers came about immediately after WW2, and immediately after WW2 the United Nations was established and brought with it the thing which forms what people think, feel, do, and say, as described in Daniel 8. After the United Nations was formed, there was a great falling away from belief in God, people no longer come to Jesus Christ for the remission of sin as before, and the presence of the Holy Spirit is ridiculed, as described in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-12. Today, people are allowing the image of the beast to live and speak through them by the thing which has power over physiology to form their thoughts and feelings. They are conformed to the anti-Christian global culture as they are groomed to the mark of the beast by what they say and do. The Holy Spirit says to us, “…is this not in your eyes as nothing?”
Humanity is no longer looked at as the creation of God whose body is made to be built up as the temple of the Holy Spirit, “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?” 1 Corinthians 3:16 Instead, the thing which forms thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors sits in the human body, the temple of God, as if it is God, “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.” 2 Thessalonians 2:4 Click for a post on the “man of sin”. The Holy Spirit says to us, “…is this not in your eyes as nothing?”
Through Haggai, the Holy Spirit encourages us to be strong in these days when the State of Israel and Christianity are under attack as the goals of the global government of the United Nations are being implemented. We are to continue to work to build ourselves up in the Holy Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, “Yet now be strong, Zerubbabel,’ says the Lord; ‘and be strong, Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest; and be strong, all you people of the land,’ says the Lord, ‘and work; for I am with you,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:4
“‘According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!’” Haggai 2:5 The word of the covenant spoken to us today is summarized like this, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.” John 3:16 “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” John 14:27
“For thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Once more (it is a little while) I will shake heaven and earth, the sea and dry land; and I will shake all nations, and they shall come to the Desire of All Nations, and I will fill this temple with glory,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:6-7
The verse above refers to the end of this world as we know it under the global government of the beast, which is described in Revelation 18, the Seventh Plague in Revelation 16:17-21, and the Seventh Trumpet in Revelation 11:15-19
Coming to the “Desire of All Nations” refers to those who come to God through Jesus Christ and inherit eternal life in the New Jerusalem where the glory of God and the Lamb (Jesus Christ) are the temple.
“‘The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘The glory of this latter temple shall be greater than the former,’ says the Lord of hosts. ‘And in this place I will give peace,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:8-9
The silver and gold refer to everything priceless and precious being in the possession of God, and the only way to access the New Jerusalem is through Jesus Christ by the remission of sin. By the remission of sin, we are given the Holy Spirit who is our guarantee of eternal life, “In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, to the praise of His glory.” Ephesians 1:13-14 The temple within the eternal New Jerusalem is described in Revelation 21.
The temple of the Holy Spirit, our body, is greater than the former temple made with hands before the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The temple of the Holy Spirit is greater than the churches of today. “And Moses indeed was faithful in all His house as a servant, for a testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His own house, whose house we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm to the end.” Hebrews 3:5-6
Spiritual uncleanliness fills the churches and the world. “On the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, in the second year of Darius, the word of the Lord came by Haggai the prophet, saying,” Haggai 2:10
The verse above is three months after the word of God that came to Haggai in chapter one.
“Thus says the Lord of hosts: ‘Now, ask the priests concerning the law, saying, “If one carries holy meat in the fold of his garment, and with the edge he touches bread or stew, wine or oil, or any food, will it become holy?”’ Then the priests answered and said, “No.” And Haggai said, “If one who is unclean because of a dead body touches any of these, will it be unclean?” So the priests answered and said, “It shall be unclean.” Haggai 2:11-13
In the Old Testament, there were many laws about keeping what is considered Holy from coming in contact with anything not considered Holy. The Holy meat was consecrated and considered Holy and wasn’t allowed to come into contact with other foods not consecrated. Also, if someone came into contact with a dead body and touched something consecrated as Holy then the Holy thing would become unclean.
As followers of Jesus Christ, we are consecrated to God through Jesus by the remission of sin and are considered Holy in the eyes of God as we live for the testimony of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are set apart from the ways of the world which are dead to God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit. We are alive to God through Jesus Christ and walk on the narrow way to eternal life, “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:” 2 Thessalonians 2:13 Mainstream society walks on the broad road to destruction and eternal hell.
We are consecrated to God and set apart from the world by believing in God, acknowledging our need for the remission of sin through Jesus Christ, and embracing the presence of the Holy Spirit within our life. That process of sanctification is our life of Holiness. “Therefore if anyone cleanses himself…, he will be a vessel for honor, sanctified and useful for the Master, prepared for every good work.” 2 Timothy 2:21 We do not want to touch the unholy and cause our spirit to deny God, we do not want to deny what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross, and we do not want to ridicule the presence of the Holy Spirit in our life.
We want our body to be consecrated as the temple of the Holy Spirit and not to be contaminated by the thing which sits in the temple of God, our body, by forming what we think, feel, do, and say. It enables the image of the beast to live and speak through people in every city around the world, and their masses dominate the churches. By what they say and do, they corrupt belief in God, they misconstrue what Jesus Christ did for us on the Cross to atone for sin, and they throw mud at the Holy Spirit. They pollute the life of Holiness. They are conformed to the anti-Christian global culture as they are groomed to the mark of the beast by what they say and do. “Then Haggai answered and said, “‘So is this people, and so is this nation before Me,’ says the Lord, ‘and so is every work of their hands; and what they offer there is unclean.” Haggai 2:14
Since Jesus gave His life for me,
Should I not give Him mine?
I’m consecrated, Lord, to Thee,
I shall be wholly Thine.
My life, O Lord, I give to Thee,
My talents, time, and all;
I’ll serve Thee, Lord, Thine own to be,
I’ll hear Thy faintest call.
My all, O Lord, to Thee I’ll give,
Accept it as Thine own;
For Thee alone I’ll ever live,
My heart shall be Thy throne.
Before, the Holy Spirit was strong in this world, since then He is being shortchanged. “‘And now, carefully consider from this day forward: from before stone was laid upon stone in the temple of the Lord— since those days, when one came to a heap of twenty ephahs, there were but ten; when one came to the wine vat to draw out fifty baths from the press, there were but twenty.” Haggai 2:15-16
As followers of Jesus Christ, from this day forward we should consider how the temple of God was built up during the days before the establishment of the United Nations in 1945, as described in Daniel 8. Since those days, building up the temple of God through the Holy Spirit has come up short. People are not able to draw from the New Wine which refers to the Gospel of Jesus Christ to bring reconciliation to God through the Lord Jesus. We know how things were before in America because there is practically a church building on every street corner. If someone were to argue about America being founded on God and His Son Jesus Christ, the question to them is, “Where did all the churches come from?”
Nowadays, nations around the world are coming up way short in building people up as the temple of the Holy Spirit. The USA itself has fallen far away from the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The Message of the Cross is no longer found in the churches, government lawmakers no longer include the values of the Bible in their policies, the educational system rejects the teachings of the books of the Bible, and every sector of society rejects Christianity. There is no place to draw the New Wine which refers to reconciling to God by the remission of sin through Jesus Christ to receive the Holy Spirit.
“I struck you with blight and mildew and hail in all the labors of your hands; yet you did not turn to Me,’ says the Lord.” Haggai 2:17
The “labors of your hands” refers to what people do to improve their own life and to make the world a better place. They put their faith in human effort while turning away from belief in God and rejecting His Son Jesus Christ who atones for sin. They serve the creature human being and all the creation of this planet while rejecting the Creator God.
“I struck you with blight and mildew and hail” refers to the corruption of spiritual Holiness which is a result of turning away from what God offers us through Jesus Christ. The temple of the Holy Spirit has become filled with spiritual withering and death as the thing forming what people think, feel, do, and say sits in the temple, our body, as if it is God. Click here for a post on the “man of sin”. 2 Thessalonians 2:4
The “hail” is the judgment coming to the global government of the beast, and already we see the Fourth Plague of global warming in the world. Global warming is instrumental in bringing the collapse of the power center of beast, which is the power behind the global government, as described in the Fifth Plague. When the power center of the beast collapses, the thing which forms thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds will no longer exist. There will no longer be uncanny knowledge, nor extraordinary skills and talents, nor heightened intuition, no more amazing physical abilities and feats, no more uncanny authority over others, etc. The image of the beast will be powerless to live and speak through people, and the mark of the beast will no longer be able to hold people to a specific station in life. After that, comes the Battle of Armageddon as described in the Sixth Plague.
“‘Consider now from this day forward, from the twenty-fourth day of the ninth month, from the day that the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid—consider it:” Haggai 2:18
We must consider our life and the state of the world today according to the day “…the foundation of the Lord’s temple was laid”. That is the day which Jesus Christ came to this earth to give us the Holy Spirit by atoning for sin on the Cross. Our Lord Jesus came to make us the home of the Holy Spirit so that we can have fellowship with the Spirit of God.
“Is the seed still in the barn? As yet the vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit. But from this day I will bless you.’” Haggai 2:19
As we consider the foundation of the Lord’s temple, which builds our body as the temple of the Holy Spirit, we have to ask a question. “Is the seed still in the barn?” Is the seed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ implanted within us and within the global culture? Or is the barn of our soul filled with the thoughts, feelings, words, and behaviors of the anti-Christian thing which has power over our physiology? It’s obvious that the seed of the word of God is not yielding the fruit of the Spirit in this world today. The “…vine, the fig tree, the pomegranate, and the olive tree have not yielded fruit.” Even so, from the day we come to Jesus Christ for the remission of sin, God will bless us with the Holy Spirit and eternal life.
The anti-Christian global culture hides behind the fig leaf of humanism for its clothing as it lives by the thing forming thoughts, feelings, words, and deeds. For example, the killing of the unborn is called “Reproductive Rights”, etc. A ton of humanitarian and churchy sounding words are used to cheat us out of our reward in Jesus Christ. They worship angels instead of Jesus Christ as they intrude into the unseen realm in controlling thoughts, feelings, behaviors and words. They exalt themselves within the carnal mind as they throw the Gospel of Christ to the ground, as quoted below,
“Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.” Colossians 2:18-19
The government of the beast and its global culture will be destroyed. “And again the word of the Lord came to Haggai on the twenty-fourth day of the month, saying, “Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah, saying: ‘I will shake heaven and earth. I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms; I will destroy the strength of the Gentile kingdoms. I will overthrow the chariots and those who ride in them; The horses and their riders shall come down, every one by the sword of his brother.” Haggai 2:20-22
The scripture above is referring to the Day of the Lord, Click here for a post on the Day of the Lord. That day comes at a time when the Holy Spirit is no longer present in the spirit and soul of people and the cities around the world are filled with lawlessness. People in every city around the world have discarded the need for the Spirit and welcome into their temple, their body, the thing which gives them what to think, feel, do and say, as quoted below,
The “he” in the following verses is the “man of sin”, the “lawless one”, or the “son of perdition”. “…who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.” Click here for a post on the “man of sin”.
The “He” in the following verse is the Holy Spirit who restrains sin, lawlessness, and perdition of humanity. “For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way. And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.”
2 Thessalonians 2:4-8
The verses below mirror the word of the Lord given to Haggai,
And the armies in heaven, “clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses. Now out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it He should strike the nations. And He Himself will rule them with a rod of iron. He Himself treads the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And He has on His robe and on His thigh a name written:
KING OF KINGS AND
LORD OF LORDS.Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, “Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, [i]free and slave, both small and great
Revelation 19:14-18
Global warming is instrumental in bringing the destruction of the global government which renders the power center of the beast powerless and ushers in the Battle of Armageddon. Click here to read a post on that.
“‘In that day,’ says the Lord of hosts, ‘I will take you, Zerubbabel My servant, the son of Shealtiel,’ says the Lord, ‘and will make you like a signet ring; for I have chosen you,’ says the Lord of hosts.” Haggai 2:23
Zerubbabel was made a signet ring because he put his effort into building the temple of the Lord. In other words, after thousands of years, Zerubbabel remains an inspiration through the Holy Spirit for us to be built up as the temple of the Holy Spirit by living for Jesus Christ. Those of us who hold to the testimony of Jesus will inherit eternal life in the New Jerusalem, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. John 3:16
“….to you who do not hold to her teaching and have not learned Satan’s so-called deep secrets,“
‘I will not impose any other burden on you, except to hold on to what you have until I come.’”
“I am coming soon. Hold on to what you have, so that no one will take your crown.”
Revelation 2:24-25, 3:11
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