Filled with oppression of strangers. 

Ezekiel 22:7b

Click for a description of the mark of the beast.
Click for a description of the image of the beast.

“…in your midst they have oppressed the stranger…” Ezekiel 22:7b.

The Israelites were abusive and oppressive to anyone who were not Jewish, whom they considered to be strangers. In Jesus Christ, there are no strangers to oppress, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Galatians 3:28 However, that is one lesson that the Jewish people have not learned as they cling to the wholeness of being Jewish. By clinging to their Jewish customs, culture, and their inborn Jewish traits, everyone outside the Jewish culture are strangers.

When nations see other people as strangers based on genetic traits, customs, cultures, or territorial borders, it leads to the oppression of the strangers in the form of divisions, conflicts, and war. We see this happening in the Middle East today with the Israelis being pitted against just about everyone else. The oppression of strangers by the Jewish people also refers to the oppression of Jesus Christ and opposing the flowering of Christianity in their culture. They oppress the Gospel of Jesus Christ by throwing out the entire New Testament. They only live by the Old Testament. By doing that, they oppress the will of God for them to receive Jesus Christ as their Savior and they oppress the presence of the Holy Spirit.

Today, the entity that gives people what to think, feel, do, and say considers strangers to be those who oppose its influence in their life. This entity enables the image of the beast to speak and live through people and it oppresses all the strangers who do not want to live according to its influence. The masses of the global culture are those who allow themselves to be groomed to the mark of the beast by what they say and do. Today’s culture is involved in oppressing the “strangers” who believe in the Living God, acknowledge the need for the forgiveness of sin through Jesus Christ, and embrace the presence of the Holy Spirit. In their feeling of empowerment they boast, “Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?” Revelation 13:4 The “him” in this verse is the beast of the image and mark of the beast.

Jesus Christ says this to us, “‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.’ This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like it: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets.” Matthew 22:37-40

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“….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, 3:1