Bible Study: May 15, 2024

Tonight we're going to look at Ezekiel 8. Ezekiel 8 is just a fascinating chapter among many chapters in the Bible that are fascinating. In it, God reveals to Ezekiel just the corruption and the abominations, as God calls them, that are going on in Israel, behind closed doors, in secret, as people think. But as he reveals that, and as we look at what's going on in this chapter, it's going to remind us of the things that are going on in the world today.

We live in a land where more and more, as we watch the news and as we look at the various sources of news, we see the corruption of the world around us, and we only see a very, very minor amount of it. Ezekiel knew that there was sin in Judah, and God led them into captivity. He was part of the second exile, as Nebuchadnezzar began to defeat the Jewish nation as a result of their turning from God. But he had no idea, until God revealed to him the depths of it. You'll remember, was it last week, or maybe the week before that we had a Bible study?

We read in Ezekiel 7 the prophecies about disaster coming upon disaster, and the continuing development of God's pronouncement of punishment, and the consequences on a nation that had turned from him. We talked about several phrases that God used over and over in Ezekiel 7. As we get into Ezekiel 8, we see those same type of phrases beginning as God accentuates the reason that he does things and the severity of what is going on in Judah as well.

So let's pick it up in chapter 8. Before I go there, let me just repeat one thing. In Luke 8, verse 17, Jesus Christ says, there is nothing hidden that isn't going to be revealed. And that's a very true statement that applies to us personally, applies to us collectively, applies to the nation as well. Not because God is looking to embarrass us, but because he is very interested in that we recognize our sins and faults so that we can overcome them.

We can't overcome something until we acknowledge it. We can't repent until we're aware of the sin that's in us. And so as these things come upon us, it's because God loves his people and because he wants us to be in his kingdom. He is not willing that any should perish, remember, but that all would come to repentance. And the first step in repentance is being aware of our faults, sins, weaknesses, attitude problems, acknowledging them, and turning and putting those aside and using God's Holy Spirit to develop who he wants us to be.

So that's kind of the gist as we begin chapter 8, as we look at the chapter in verse 1. It says, It says, God is very exact in the time that this came upon Ezekiel. And here, you know, what God is about to do to Ezekiel is kind of reveal something to him.

And you kind of see this pattern of how God works with Ezekiel. Back in chapter 3, you know, chapter 3, we see the same thing as God is working with Ezekiel. Verse 22, Ezekiel says, The hand of the Lord was upon me there, and he said to me, Arise, go out of the plain, and there I will talk with you. So here we have God, you know, Ezekiel feeling, okay, he's sitting in front of the elders. Now, sitting in front of the elders is interesting as we go through this chapter because God is going to reveal what the elders are doing or what they have done is, what they have done in Judah, kind of in this vision to him there.

So he says, I feel the hand of the Lord, I felt the hand of the Lord upon me there. And I looked, and here we have the vision that we saw in chapter 1 of the throne. Again, it says, So here we have God in vision to Ezekiel, and he sees the same thing that he's seeing in Ezekiel when he knows that this is God about to reveal something to him. For those of you who just joined, we're in chapter 8 of Ezekiel, and we're going into verse 3. In verse 3 it says, Can you picture that? Just picking him up.

So here we have God taking Ezekiel out of where he is in vision to Jerusalem to reveal to him what is going on behind the scenes. What is there? And God talks about and Ezekiel sees himself at the North Gate. Now let me bring up a slide here that'll help us visualize a little bit what this looks like. It's not the greatest artist depiction. I hope you can see that. But here you have the abominations of the temple in this graph. You have the arrow there where it says Ezekiel was brought here. Here's a North Gate. And there at the entrance to where the temple is, the outer court, the inner court, and you see those elements of it there, you see that Ezekiel here in verse 3 encounters this image of jealousy. The image of jealousy is an interesting thing. What it means is that there was a pagan symbol. There was a pagan god that was right there. You know, some of the commentaries say maybe it was Baal. Others say it may be a statue or an idol of Tammuz who appears later in this chapter. Others say it might be Ishtar or some foreign god that Israel fell prey to worshiping at some point in their walk with God. And so there at the temple, the place where God dwells, as God takes Ezekiel in vision to the temple, he sees this image of jealousy. It's a great abomination to God. If we turn to Exodus for a moment, if you keep your finger there in Ezekiel 8, we see that this is this image of jealousy or this jealousy that God talks about. Harkens right back to the second commandment in Ezekiel 20 in verse 4. We have the second commandment that God delivered to Moses on Mount Sinai there. He says, When he he wants our love, he wants our complete devotion, he is completely devoted to us. When he enters into a covenant with us, he never leaves us, he never forsakes us, he delivers everything he promises. He is devoted to us and our well-being. We need to be that same way, completely loyal to him. So when we divide our loyalties and we worship other gods or put other gods before God, he is a jealous God, just like a husband would not be happy if his wife was dividing her loyalties between him and another man. Or, if a wife saw her husband dividing his loyalties from her to another woman and trusting in her or doing the things with her, and I don't mean sexual, but even mentally with her, that should be with his wife.

We need to be that same way, completely loyal to him. As God said, if you love me, keep my commandments. And so, as God takes Ezekiel to the Temple in Jerusalem, the first thing they encounter is this image of jealousy.

There's an idol there. And it provokes God to anger, right? Because he wants our loyalty. So we have, all of a sudden, this abomination that's there before God. And behold, it says, behold, in verse 4, behold, the glory of the Lord or the glory of the God of Israel was there, like the vision that I saw in the plain. So again, Ezekiel realizes this is God revealing something to him. And he sees this temple, and he sees this image that's there, something that's dividing Israel from God. Something in the midst, because it's sin and our transgression of God's commandments that separate us from God.

God is there, but he's showing Ezekiel what that is. And he said to me, Son of Man, lift your eyes now toward the north. So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the altar gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance.

Just like—let me put that back up again. I could have lifted up there for a moment. Lift your eyes to the north, and there, north of the altar gate, the gate into the temple, which was the quickest access to the altar for burnt offerings.

So I lifted my eyes toward the north, and there, north of the gate, was this image of jealousy in the entrance. You can imagine what that does to God. You can imagine how that makes him feel to see the betrayal of his people, to have this other God before him, right in the place he dwells. And as we look at these temples and the abominations that are there, bear in mind, there's the temple that God dwelt in in Old Testament times, but today he dwells in us.

He are the temples that he dwells in, individually and collectively as his church. So where there are these gods that stand between us and them, it is quite an affront to God to have that there. And as we are loyal to God, we need to ensure that there is no other God before us besides him. Verse 6, Furthermore, he said to me, Son of Man, do you see what they are doing? The great abominations. And that's that word. We've seen it all the way through Ezekiel in the first seven chapters that we talked about.

The abominations that we talked about, that we went back into Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and the other places in the Bible that chose the sins, the things that God detests that we do, that are abominations before him. And one of them is idolatry. See what they are doing. The great abominations that the house of Israel commits here to make me go far away from my sanctuary.

I've got that underlined in my Bible. We can make God go far away from us. He never wants to leave us. He never wants to depart from us. But if we persist in having other gods there, and insist on the entry to our lives that this thing lies between us and God, he will leave us. He will leave us to the gods that we choose and that he sees that we're choosing, and he'll leave. We'll feel distance from him. The way we get close to God is cast those things away from us, resist them, and overcome them, and go back to God with our hearts, minds, and souls.

Notice he says the house of Israel. He's not talking about Judah here. He's talking about the house of Israel. That's all 12 tribes. So, you know, some commentaries, including our UCG Bible commentary, we'll talk about this maybe being reverting back to what Judah was doing at that time that they went into captivity. Others will say it's more a picture of New Testament times. It could be either one of them. Certainly there was corruption in ancient Judah that led to their captivity, corruption in ancient Israel that led to their captivity.

There will be corruption in the land of Israel, the nations of modern-day Israel, that will lead to their captivity. We read about that in chapter 7 last week, in chapter 6 before that. So, there's all these have prophetic implications as well as historical implications because God is revealing a principle here. That he will leave when we sin, when we have other things between us and God, he will go far away.

Just as he did in here, they make me go far away from my sanctuary. Now turn again, he says to Ezekiel, this is a big one, he says. This image is there at the entrance to my temple, that this image of jealousy is there. But there's even greater abominations than this, he says, that my people are committing. So he brought me to the door of the court. You see the door to the court there.

And when I looked, there was a hole in the wall. And he said to me, Son of Man, dig into the wall. So you can kind of just imagine something that with his hands and fingers, Ezekiel digging into the wall, so he can kind of get a view into what's going behind this kind of like hidden room that's there behind this wall in the court. So he brought me to the door of the court, and when I looked, there was a hole in the wall.

And he said, Son of Man, dig into the wall. And when I dug into the wall, there was a door. And he said to me, go in and see. Go in and see the wicked abominations, which they are doing there. Again, God uses these adjectives. Great abominations. Wicked abominations. Go in and see what they're doing, Ezekiel. And so he does. Verse 10. So I went in and saw. And there every sort of creeping thing, abominable beasts, and all the idols of the house of Israel, were portrayed all around on the walls. They had all those things there. They had all those things in front of them. All the gods of Egypt, right? Remember the of Egypt when they went out. All the gods that God exacted vengeance on in Egypt. The frogs and the lice and the locusts. And all those things that the Egyptians worshipped and had made idols of. And God showed he had power of them all. The idols of Egypt were firmly in those people's minds as they left Egypt. That's why when Moses, remember, when he went up to Mount Sinai and was gone for 40 days, what did they do? When they didn't know what to do and they didn't even yet determine that they had to put their trust in God, they reverted back to their old idols. They built that golden calf and worshipped it. You know, you can take Israel out of Egypt, but it takes a while to get Egypt out of Israel. And so it's the same for us. You know, God calls us out of the world. He shows us his truth. He shows us the way to live. He reveals to us what are these idols in the world that we might have, these things that we trust in more than him, whether it be our governments, whether it be our bank account, whether it be whatever it is, you name it, that we put our trust in. God knows, and we see over time, what it is we trust in, and we have to put those aside, use them, enjoy them, but the trust ultimately is in God. But in times of trouble, if we haven't been judicious in removing those gods, what we do is the same thing that we see that the house of Israel is done here in God's temple. They revert back to those gods. So here Ezekiel digs into the wall, and he sees all these things, kind of hidden out there in public, that they're worshipping. They've got all sorts of abominations and things that they're worshipping here. I think that I had a...actually, I do have another slide on this. Let me stop this here. I have a commentary that I thought was pretty good from...I think this is one from Adam Clark.

Now, here's what he says about those images portrayed on those walls that Ezekiel saw. It says, it is very likely that these images portrayed on the wall were the objects of Egyptian adoration. The ox, the ape, the dog, the crocodile, the ibis, the scarabius or beetle, and various other things. It appears...now, this is where he's talking about in the future, right? He says, it appears that these were privately worshiped by the Sanhedrin of Great Jewish Council. And there's a reason that he comes to that conclusion when we read the next verse, which just keeps that in mind.

What he sees is that Ezekiel is seeing something in the future that's going to lead to Judah's demise. It appears that these were privately worshiped by the Sanhedrin or Great Jewish Council, which consists of 70 or 72 persons, six chosen out of every tribe as representatives of the people. The images were portrayed upon the wall as we find those ancient idols around the walls of the tombs of the kings and nobles of Egypt.

So, as archaeologists have gone in and uncovered these things, they see those inscriptions on the walls of Egypt. And this is the same type thing that that God is revealing to Ezekiel here. And if we go back, just with that image in mind, and here they are in secret, behind closed doors in a secret chamber, if you will, worshiping all these gods. They haven't put them out of their lives.

To the world, they're appearing as, oh no, we have no other gods before you. But hidden, hidden behind closed doors, they have all these images around them. And just as I'm speaking, I recall a story about Jacob. And when he was leaving Laven, you know, back in the book of Genesis. And you remember Jacob, he had to leave his parents' house when he tricked Esau out of the blessing. He went to Laven. There he worked for many years, ended up marrying Leah and Rachel, and then left.

God enriched him, and then he left. And I remember there's a verse in the Bible that talks about Rachel. I remember Rachel is the one that Jacob loved. But it said that when she left, she took all the little gods with her. She took all of her father, Laven's, little gods. She didn't let Jacob know, but she couldn't leave those behind. And Laven came after them, and said, okay, you left, I get it, but why did you have to take my gods?

And Jacob, of course, said, we didn't take your gods. But Rachel did. She couldn't leave them behind. And here the people of Israel just can't leave their little gods behind them. You and I need to be asking God, are there any gods between us and you that we need to put away and ask him to take that completely out of our conscience and more and more put our trust in him?

So let's go on and Ezekiel 8. Here, let me see, we were in verse 10. So we have these idols and guys, this is even a go ahead. Brandon, do you have a comment? Oh, yes, sir. I'm a shipper. How are you doing, sir? Okay, how are you? Yeah. So you said that this vision could point to an ancient or future time. Yeah, I think, you know, the commentary seemed to be split. But I think it points to both. I think it's revealing what happened back then and the corruption going forward, too, in a symbolic way.

Okay, the reason why I asked is because I was wondering if the... Oh, I just saw the name. It's right where we... I don't know why I cannot see it. With the elders, what verse was that? Are you talking verse 11, maybe? Is it 11? Yeah, there we go. Thank you. And is it Jaz and Aya? Do we know who that is? No, I don't. Actually, I didn't look that one up. Maybe someone here does know who Jaz and Aya was. Because I was thinking maybe that might be able to, you know, give us a little direction as to if that might have been something that, you know, even if that did happen then.

Yep. If that person's mentioned by name, I would imagine. Yep. Okay. Thank you. Maybe Reggie and Sandy know that answer. I was just going to comment that the commentary, the Bible commentary, says Jaz and Aya means the turtle hears.

Okay. There was somebody in that midst who, in the midst of this group, was still recognizing that God would hear and trying to live what was right is the impression I got from the commentary.

And maybe, yeah, and that's probably correct. And maybe what God is showing that there is always a Jaz and Aya there that is listening, right? I don't know. I should have looked that up. I read right over those names. Savior, you got a comment on that? Not directly in regards to Jaz and Aya, but at this time when Ezekiel was in captivity, were all the Jews in captivity?

Yeah, he was in the second exile. There was one more exile after him. So there were still people there with the temple, etc. So it may have been, as you said, something that was going on at that present time. Right. Could be, yeah.

Hey, Tracy.

Yes, I just looked it up quickly. This is the correct one. It says, I went to see Jaz and Aya, son of Jeremiah, and grandson of Habbas, Zania, and all his brothers.

Oh, okay. Where did you see that? Jeremiah 39, wait a minute, 35-3. Okay. I'm going to write that down and look that up later. Jeremiah 35-3. Okay.

It says, representing all the Rekabite families? Ah, okay. Okay. The Rekabite family, yes. Okay, that's very interesting, yeah. It says, I took them to the temple and we went into the room assigned to the sons of Hanon, son of Igalio, a man of God.

This room was located next to the one used by the temple officials directly above the room of Masiah, son of Shalom, the temple gatekeeper.

Yeah, the Rekabites were quite a people, so that's interesting that God would refer to them in this prophecy of Ezekiel. Yeah, very interesting. May I interrupt? It was Sheldon. Yeah, go ahead, Sheldon.

There were several Jezoniahs, and one of them was called son of Jeremiah, but he was not the same Jeremiah, it was a different Jeremiah. And that man, that Jezoniah, was the leader of the clan of the Rekabites, and he was obviously faithful in that story, but there's another, a couple of other Jezoniahs. So this Jezoniah referenced here, I do not believe is the leader of the Rekabites. Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, I was going to say, because it does say son of Shaphan here. Yes, it does. Yeah, Jezoniah, the son of Jeremiah. Yeah, yeah. This one says son of Jephon. Well, that's, yeah, someone wants to kind of like look that up. Maybe next time we can kind of see where that if there's any references in the Bible to who this Jezoniah son of Shaphan is.

Yeah, hey, Jim. Maybe. Yep, I can hear you. Yeah, if you go to Chapter 11 and read one and two, it will fill it in.

Chapter 11 of Ezekiel. Yeah. Okay.

Oh, here's, here's another Jezoniah, the son of Azur, right? Yeah.

This is a different Jezoniah. Okay, we're gonna, obviously, obviously, Jezoniah is a key to word there, just like Reggie and Sandy said. So, probably that's interesting. Yeah, there is a, there's a key there we need to look at. So.

They gave the wicked counsel in verse two says. Okay.

Among me, myself.

These are the men who devised iniquity. Interesting. Okay. Okay. Very good. That, that, that's quite interesting. I'm gonna circle Jezoniah here. Okay, very good. Anything we'll, we'll go ahead then on verse 11, because in verse 11, there's where we get the 70 that the Adam Clark commentary compares it to the number of the Sanhedrin in temple times, when Christ the Sanhedrin.

So, just reading through that, Jezoniah is not a man of God, right? He's there among these people, maybe a leader of those people who are leading these elders, these elders of Israel into the great abomination that God is calling out here. So, Jezoniah is not someone we would emulate or look at as good. So, Sheldon is right. The Bricabytes, the Bricabytes were a different set of people that did keep God's obvious way and represent them. This Jezoniah is not. Each man had a censer in his hand and a thick cloud of incense went up. They were worshipping those idols on that wall. And so, Adam Clark says the 70, it could be any 70, right? Any 70 elders could refer back to ancient Judah times, could refer to some time in the future. But here you have elders, elders, leaders in the land. It's people who should be examples, and here they are worshipping all these idols of Egypt. And he said, verse 12, Son of man, have you seen with the elders? And notice in this, he's not talking about all the masses of Israel, but he's talking about the elders. Remember Ezekiel's there before the elders, sitting with them at the time God takes him into this vision. And here we have the elders being brought up again. He said to me, Son of man, have you seen with the elders of the house of Israel, due in the dark? When people aren't looking, seen with the elders of the house of Israel, due in the dark. Every man in the room of his idols.

Every man had his own idols, kind of hidden in their house where no one can see. God sees everything, for they say, the Lord doesn't see us. The Lord has forsaken the land.

Well, God does see. He does see what's in our hearts. He sees what's hidden in our hearts. He sees what's hidden in our homes. He sees what's hidden in our minds and those things that we keep there and try to conceal and maybe conceal successfully from the people around us. But we don't conceal it from God. He is looking for our hearts and the purity of our minds and every bit of us that is to be loyal to Him.

So it's just very interesting that, you know, look what's going on in the dark.

Verse 13. So this is a great abomination to God. He says a wicked abomination. This is the second one he specifically mentions.

The third one is coming up. Verse 13. And He said to me, turn again, and you will see greater abominations that they are doing.

It's not enough that they have an image of jealousy at the door to my temple. It's not enough that they have all these idols on their hidden walls and in their dark rooms and places where people can't see.

It's not enough that they're the leaders of Israel, but they're also burning incense to them, consciously worshiping these idols that they have. But there's even greater abominations that they are doing.

So, He, God, brought Ezekiel to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house. You remember—I'll pull it back up again—to the gate of the north gate of the house, to the door of the north gate of the Lord's house.

And to my dismay, Ezekiel says, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz.

So, as you look at this map, you see the image of jealousy. The first thing mentioned in Ezekiel, you see the animal images on the wall sitting there that we just talked about.

Now we have the third one, women weeping for Tammuz.

And Tammuz is an interesting character that goes all the way back to the time of Nimrod.

And maybe someone can fill us in more on the detail of it. But Tammuz—I'm gonna have to look—was the husband, if I recall—he was the husband of Ishtar.

And he died, but there was this ritual every spring where he was resurrected from the dead.

So he's a symbol of death and rebirth, kind of a false Christ. He was resurrected. He died, and then he was resurrected during the days of Unleavened Bread, as you recall.

And here we have this Tammuz who was born, died, and every spring he's reborn. Kind of a false Christ, mimicking what God had done as part of the salvation for mankind.

And this Tammuz has become quite a figure in the people of Israel there. Here's women weeping for Tammuz.

So as the springtime comes around, or as time comes around, they're actually crying for Tammuz. They mourn. They mourn him. But then their mourning turns to joy at the rebirth.

And so it's kind of like the same play that we have where Christ said, you will mourn, you will grieve, but your mourning will turn to joy. Remember he said that?

And so we have this kind of satanic type character who's mimicking what Christ did. And there's a symbol that goes along with it. I'm going to put up here in a minute what a commentary talks about this Tammuz, and a book that people who have been in the church for a long time will remember from the 70s, I guess, called the Two Babylons. It talks about these pagan symbols and how they have survived down through history. We know that down through history there have been pagan celebrations that have been adopted into so-called Christianity. That's where we have Christmas come from. That's where we have Easter come from. And there are symbols that are associated with it. As you've been around and read booklets on the pagan symbols in Christmas, you know about mistletoe and all these other things that are symbols that come from pagan times, even the evergreen tree that is a sign of eternal life that people kind of worship. But let me put up, let me put up, let me see, let me get out of this and put up another thing that talks about a symbol, a sign of Tammuz, and some names you may recognize here. Well, I can get my...

Okay, the sign of Tammuz. This is Ezekiel. Are we in 814 yet? Yeah, women were sitting there weeping for Tammuz. So here's what it says. It says, what does the worship of Tammuz have to do with the sign of the cross? And we all know what the sign of the cross is on the world's churches. They have that process there. According to historian Alexander Hyslop, Tammuz was intimately associated with the Babylonian mystery religions begun by the worship of Nimrod, Semiranis, his wife, and her illegitimate son, Horace. The original form of the Babylonian letter capital T was tau, T-A-U, so you see the symbol on your screen there, identical to the crosses used today in this world's Christianity.

This was the initial of Tammuz. Referring to the sign of Tammuz, Hyslop writes. He says that, that mystic tau, that letter, was marked in baptism on the foreheads of those initiated into the mysteries. The Vestal versions of pagan Rome wore it suspended from their necklaces, as nuns do now. There is hardly a pagan tribe where the cross has not been found. The X, which in itself was not an unnatural symbol of Christ, the true Messiah, and which had once been regarded as such, was allowed to go entirely into disuse.

And the tau, that T, the cross, the sign of the cross, the indisputable sign of Tammuz, the false Messiah, was everywhere substituted in its stead. So, you know, you have this false Messiah, the death of Tammuz and his rebirth in the spring, mimicking what Christ did, the true Messiah.

He died and he was resurrected, sins forgiven, and the hope of eternal life that comes with his resurrection. But then you have this counterfeit in the pagan religions of Tammuz. And here in God's house, here in God's temple, physical back in ancient Israel, but with us today, we have people weeping for Tammuz.

And we see this symbol, this kind of universal symbol that adorns much of the many of the churches that teach something different than Jesus taught. Something that he did not teach, that has taken the truth of God and replaced it, substituted holidays like Christmas and Easter, for the days that Jesus Christ observed and taught, like Passover and Pentecost and Trumpets. And the atonement and the Feast of Tabernacles and, of course, the Passover that starts the Holy Day season and replaced those with that.

So, and abandoned what Mr. Hislop says here, what would have been the natural symbol, which in itself was not an unnatural symbol of Christ, and replaced it with this false symbol for Tammuz. And so we have a false Messiah, and we have a counterfeit Christianity that has this symbol on it, according to Mr. Hislop, a historian who did the research on it, and we're just quoting him. But it lends credence to what God talks about and the significance of what we're reading here in Ezekiel 8 in verse 13, when he says, turn again, Ezekiel, and you will see greater abominations that they're doing.

And then he goes to this Tammuz, right? Brought me to the Lord's house, and to my dismay, Ezekiel says. Wow, it's not enough, but now these people are sitting weeping for Tammuz. They're kind of worshiping him, a false Messiah, and they have this symbol everywhere marked on him. And they're to be the true people of God in his true house, where his truth is marked, and we are to worship him in spirit and truth based on his principles, based on what is written in his word, which is the only source of truth on earth.

And so you see this, and then you read what Mr. Hislop wrote, and others have commented on it as well. You can go into Encyclopedia Britannica, and it'll talk about Tammuz, it'll talk about Samaramas and Nimrod. It'll talk about these pagan rituals that went on. And then we see it in the Bible, and it brings it not only what was going on in those ancient times, but also into our time, because these symbols are still with us.

They're still there. They're all around us. Whenever we go out in our car and drive around, we see these things adorning our landscape in a land that God has richly blessed because of the promises he made to Abraham, our poor fathers. In his land that he's richly blessed, we see these things dotting our landscape. So God says this is even a greater abomination, Ezekiel. And Ezekiel is dismayed when he sees it. Tracy, do you have a comment? I don't know if it's any help or not, but in regard to Tammuz and all of those things, there was a book also that made the two Babylon, but there was also one called Babylon Mystery Religion.

It may have been taken off the shelves. At one point, I heard it was taken out somewhere. It was all about the Catholic religion and the Babylon religion going way back. It talked about all of its various symbols and meanings and everything about it. All of it. I remember that book. I still have it in my office. I think it was taken out of print. The two Babylons still is in print, though. I think part of the problem, I'm speaking without really remembering why that other book about Babylon Mystery Religion or whatever it was called, was taken off. It wasn't historically documented as well as the two Babylons, from what I remember.

It's just interesting because it takes it right into what God is talking about here. There's a reason that Tammuz is such a great abomination in God's eyes. Mr. Shlody? Yes. It's Sheldon here. This is the one written by Woodrow. He in this book credits Hislop to the two Babylons. He draws a lot of his research from that one as well. And coincidentally, I'm just reading through this again. We did it when I was in Ambassador College, but rereading it. And it's quite interesting to see that the tie between Ishtar and Artemis and Diana.

Ishtar was Babylonian, God of fertility. Artemis was the Greek name for her, and Diana was the Roman name. So the Greek was Artemis, the Roman was Diana, and her temple was one of the seven wonders of the world at Ephesus. So people made pilgrimages to Ephesus at the time of the Apostle Paul, and Ephesus largely was funded by the pilgrimages to see the temple of Diana, which was the temple of Artemis.

Same thing. And she was the goddess of fertility, and she was based on Ishtar, same god. And ironically, the tomb of the Virgin Mary is in Ephesus. There you go. So when you tie the religions together, and Catholicism really just being a reincarnation of Babylon, it's pretty interesting that the tomb of the Virgin Mary is, or they claim at least, is at Ephesus, which is where the temple of Diana or Artemis was, which is where we were based on Ishtar.

It's an amazing story, dismaying, as Ezekiel was saying, right? Sheldon, when you read all that stuff and you see where things are today, and how all those symbols have just existed through time as a mark of a false religion, something that God was so clearly in his Bible talking about. It is an amazing thing, and they have survived down through history and different names. But there is a mark of things that trace all the way back to Nimrod. And remember Nimrod from the Tower of Babel, and he became a great one, and the world still worships much of what was begun during that time.

So we really do live in a land where those Babylonian symbols are still there. And later on in Revelation, in the time ahead of us, when the time of the Gentiles returns and people are worshipping a false god, we see that God calls that system Babylon. No longer the truth, but a reversion, a reverting back to the time of those times of the idols. So it's a very interesting study. And here in Ezekiel 8, you know, that's why you look at it as a time referring to the ancient troubles of Israel and Judah, who never let go of the foreign gods around them. God keeps chiding them, and he always, and later on in Ezekiel, will see the two things that he cautions Israel about and judges them on, his idolatry and Sabbath-keeping. They didn't keep the Sabbath the way that God said, a sign between him and his people, and they always had other idols that they were deferring to. So, and today we have the same thing happening. We have the same things in modern-day Israel that ancient Israel was guilty of in their time as well.

So, verse 14. We were on that. Again, a very interesting thing. You can do some study on that, and, you know, we could provide more information if anyone is interested on that as well. So in verse 15, and again, God is progressing. Remember, we've gone through three different things, each progressively a greater abomination in God's eyes, beginning with the image of jealousy, still an abomination, still worthy of sin, and the result of sin is, you know, the idols on the wall. Now these women weeping for tammuz. And in verse 15, he says, he said to Ezekiel, Have you seen this, O Son of Man? Turn again, turn again, and you will see greater abominations than these. This is what they're doing behind closed doors. It's in the darkness, in the secrets, recesses of our minds, we would say today, that we haven't turned these abominations away, turned away from them into God. So he brought me into the inner court of the Lord's house. I will pull up the screen again. He brought me into the inner room of the Lord's house.

And there at the door of the temple of the Lord, between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs toward the temple. So they're there in the right hand corner or the right side of this photograph here. They have their back to the holy place. They have their back to God. They're looking out the door to that, to the east.

They are there at the door of the temple of the journal. Between the porch and the altar were about 25 men with their backs toward the temple of the Lord and their faces toward the east. And they were worshipping the sun toward the east. So who these 25 men are, we don't know for sure. One of the commentaries—I think it might even be our UCG Bible commentary—that talks about in the time of the temple, in Christ's time, there were 24 courses.

24 courses that the priests attended to. And we're priests there, so we'd have perhaps 24 priests of the 24 courses, plus the leader of them, could make up who these 25 men are. Again, elders in Israel, leaders in Israel, people who should have been examples to Israel and God's people.

Now these 25 men with their back to God looking out toward the east, worshipping the sun. Most commentaries will say this is an Easter sunrise service that they're worshipping. The one time a year when sunrise is a notable time of worship for those religions that weep for tamoos and that are in, you know, as part of that ilk, if you will.

We know. We know. And if there's anyone new that's on the Bible study with us, we have shown, and the Church proves, and there's one of those 12-minute Bible worldview things at the Beyond Today YouTube site that talks about when the resurrection of Christ was. It wasn't at sunrise on that Sunday morning. It was exactly three days and three nights after Christ was laid into the tomb.

It wasn't laid into the tomb at sunrise in the morning. He was laid into a tomb right before the sun set. So here we have them, you know, doing the one Easter or one sunrise service that the religions of the world still look to and worship. And God is doing this here, and He says this is the greatest abomination of all. But it's sun worship, right? It's sun worship. It's turning their back on God and looking at the sun. So, you know, while that is a sunrise service on Easter, it's still a worship of the times around us. Let's go back to Deuteronomy. Let me see where I put a...yeah, Deuteronomy 17.

Because the elders of Israel, the people of Israel would know you don't worship. You don't worship the heavenly bodies. You don't worship the sun. You don't worship the moon. You know, God says that in the commandments, but He also makes it explicit here in Deuteronomy 17. Let's look at verse 2. Deuteronomy 17 verse 2.

God is serious about the commands that He makes there. Sin is punishable by death. In ancient Israel, it was stoning and death. We know death comes upon us if we have...if we sin. If we repent of sin, if we, as Jesus Christ said, take of the bread of life and live by that bread of life, then we have life in us. If we continue to live of a life of repentance and turning from our ways, the world's ways, the false religion's ways, and turn to God and live by every word of the Bible. So here God says that's even a greater abomination. All of them are worthy of the consequences, which is death, for people who have transgressed those laws. But here in 16, we see that. And here we have those people that have their backs to God, and we see them worshiping the Son.

So God shows Ezekiel this. Ezekiel is just kind of like in dismay. He has no idea what is going on. And as we go through life, and as we live in a world now where we have so many things in our culture that show so many things that are happening in the world. And I've mentioned that they wanted me to get on Twitter just to kind of learn this town hall nature of, or town square nature of Twitter. Boy, you do learn a lot on there. And some of the things that are revealed on there through things that we don't hear about at all begin to kind of show some of the corruption and some of the perversion of the leaders of our land.

And I'll get to that in a minute if we have some time at the end. But here in this chapter, God is revealing to Ezekiel, the people are really wicked. They really have turned from God. They are deserving of the punishment that God is going to bring upon them. That war, the famine, the pestilence, the going into captivity, the death that will come to them as a result of the actions they've committed.

As God goes on in verse 17, then, he says, God said to Ezekiel, have you seen this? Are you looking at this Ezekiel? Do you see what's really going on here? Have you seen this Osanah man? Is it a trivial thing to the house of Judah to commit the abominations which they commit here? Do you think it's anything, oh, big deal? A God is happy just as long as we have his name on it?

No, it's a big thing to God to worship him as he says to worship him and not to adopt the ways of the Gentiles and apply them to him and think that he'll be honored by that. He's not. They have filled the land with violence. And there the word violence talks about unrighteousness. I read one one-word study where it said when we see the word violence here, it's violence is, let me make sure I quote this right and I put my own spin on it, violence represents sin against man. Abominations, sin against God. That's per Barnes notes.

But violence is wrong. It includes the violence we think of, but it's violence against God because when we sin, when we sin, we are not loving our neighbor as ourself. We are not expressing the agape love that God wants us to express. They fill the land with violence. Then they have returned to provoke me to anger.

Indeed, they put the branch to their nose. God says they provoke me. They just keep doing it. They don't understand what they are saying to God by the actions they take. They might say with their lips, I love you. I adore you. I worship you. I will follow you. But their actions tell a different story. Their actions speak louder than their words because God sees that, then he sees what's in our heart.

This branch to the nose is—not the commentaries have really said exactly what that is, but it's some kind of perverse, apparently, thing that the pagans did with whatever it is they did. But it's something very offensive to God.

Indeed, they put the branch to their nose, which shows that they really are filled with this pagan way of life and thought. Therefore, God says, now that you've seen all of this, Ezekiel, now that you see the corruption in the elders of Israel, the leaders of the land, I will act in fury.

My eye will not spare, nor will I have, nor will I have pity, and though they cry in my ears with a loud voice, I will not hear them. Those are pretty stern words from God. They have offended me. They have sinned against me. And though they may cry, God says, I will not spare, and I will not pity. We learned in prior chapters already in Ezekiel what God says will happen to a people that turn from him. We have chapter 8 there that we finished. I want to read through, because we're not going to be able to have a Bible study next week.

Next week we are going to be in Mexico with a pastors conference from all of the Latin American areas. We're not going to be able to do a Bible study next week or the following week. It's going to be three weeks until we'll have another Bible study. But given the fact that we've talked about this, I want to read quickly through the verses of chapter 9 here. That comes to a conclusion about what we've seen, remembering that Ezekiel was sitting in front of the elders, and that God keeps talking about the elders of Israel, who should have been leaders and examples to Israel.

But they are the ones committing these abominations before God. Chapter 9, verse 1. I'm not going to spend a lot of time, because we will come back to chapter 9 the next time we meet and talk about it in a little more detail.

Then he, God, called out in Ezekiel's hearing with a loud voice, saying, Let those who have charge over the city draw near, each with a deadly weapon in his hand. If God sees what's going on, he's about to exact his vengeance. He will not spare, he will not have pity, he says.

And suddenly six men came from the direction of the upper gate, which faces north, each with his battle axe in his hand. One man among them was clothed with linen, and had a writer's encore at his side. He's going to be taking note of people who do something. They went in and stood beside the bronze altar. Now the glory of the God of Israel had gone up from the cherub, where it had been, to the threshold of the temple. And he called to the man clothed with linen, remember the righteous are clothed with linen bright and clean. And he called to the man clothed with linen, who had the writer's encore at his side.

And the Lord said to him, Go through the midst of the city, through the midst of Jerusalem, and put a mark, put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it. The elders are doing all these things behind closed doors.

The people were doing it too, some following the example of the leaders. Because the leaders in the nation, the leaders in the church, have an express responsibility to set the example of God's way of life. We all know that. And in James 3, God says, Don't let many of you be called teachers, because there is a stern or judgment on you, because you are not only responsible for teaching the truth of God, but also living and being an example of the way of life of God. Not meaning that we are perfect and that we never make a mistake, but when we do, we repent and acknowledge it. So God says, Go through the city.

There are people who sigh and cry over everything that's being done in Jerusalem. They see the wickedness in it. And it doesn't make them happy, because they know we should be living God's way of life. And so you have this group of people who want the people to turn back to God. They want the nation to do what God's will is. And they mourn over what is happening in Israel, because they know it is in defiance to God. Put a mark on the foreheads of the men who sigh and cry over all the abominations that are done within it.

To the others, verse said, He said in my hearing, Go after Him through the city and kill. Go through the city and kill. Don't let your eyes spare. Don't have any pity. Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children, and women. They have defied God. They have sinned against Him. They have earned the penalty of sin, which is death. The Bible says it in the Old Testament. It says it clearly in the New Testament. The penalty of sin is death.

Utterly slay old and young men, maidens and little children, but don't come near anyone on whom is the mark. Go through those who are sighing and crying, who aren't participating, but are sorry to see the abominations being worked there. Don't come near any of them. Spare them. They're still doing things God's way. Don't come near anyone on whom is the mark and begin at my sanctuary.

Start. Start the process at my sanctuary. Where, Ezekiel, I have shown you what is going on in the temple. The things that I have done that make me go far, God says, from my sanctuary. So they began where? They began with the elders who were before the temple. Where it all began, who set the example, who in the dark behind closed doors were not obeying God and doing the things that God said.

Even back then. It's kind of a harrowing verse. It's kind of a thing for all of us to think about as we come before God and take His name and say we will obey Him and we will follow Him. We have to do it with our hearts. We have to know and come to learn God's way. We have to, as you'll probably hear, he'll probably get tired of me hearing, doing it carefully, diligently, paying attention to every word and examining ourselves.

Are we doing what God said to do, or are we fooling ourselves because we're not fooling God? And then he said in verse 7, defile the temple, fill the courts with the slain, and then they went out and they killed in the city. It's a harrowing thing, but you and I had the opportunity to know what is it that God wants. We know what His will is.

As we've just come out of the Passover season, of the days of Unleavened Bread season, we continue to remember, as God chose us, sin, or weaknesses, or faults, or attitudes, or whatever it is in our lives, we put them out. We choose Him with eagerness, willingly, and asking Him to just kind of lead us and direct us.

So, next time, next time we will, again, three weeks from today, we will pick it up in chapter 9. We'll go through that a little more slowly, but we'll get into chapter 10 too, which is a note. Well, every chapter in Ezekiel is very interesting.

But it should say something to us today. Let me just talk a little bit about the corruption in modern-day Israel.

We've talked about Luke 8, 17, where Christ says, there is nothing hidden that won't be revealed. We look at the world around us, and now we see corruption in our government, and not on just one side or the other, it's everywhere. We see things. We see truth not being spoken. It's hard to even find what the truth is. And as you go back and you look at some of the things that are there, I do have to wonder what God has in store for America. And Britain and Canada, as He begins to reveal just what is the corruption that is so deep in our lands. Because it is deep. We hear things. The corruption that makes the news that we talk about. But then you have all these things that are going on around child trafficking, sex trafficking, Epstein Islands.

Recently I came across something that I wasn't looking for that showed up on a Twitter thing about the Skull and Bones ceremony that goes on at Yale, where several of our presidents have been. And it's just perverse. It's demonic. And several of our presidents have been participating. They have participated in that. And it makes you wonder, what is going on? What is going on? But what has gone on, I guess.

So when we see what God will, the punishment that will come upon this land, we don't have to wonder. And I have to wonder, is God going to reveal that so that when we read like in Ezekiel 6 and we'll read it again in Ezekiel 20, when God says, they will loathe themselves. When they see what they've done and they recognize the sin and how they have not honored God, even in the slightest form with, you know, for the blessings that He's bestowed upon us.

But turn to all these other evil ways and demonic practices seeking something. Well, who knows what they're seeking or what power they're seeking. But, you know, just keep your eyes open. Keep your eyes open. But everyone draw closer to God. And let's make sure we're letting Him purify us so that when Christ returns, we're there with Him. So let me let me end with that. Brandon, I see your hand up if you got a comment. So yes, sir. Yeah, you know, I saw this movie. It's been out for a while. I want to say it was like 2011, something like that. But it's called J. Goa Change. It's a Quentin Tarantino movie. And it's basically, you know, it's kind of sort of his typical thing. It's like a revenge fantasy movie where there there's this former slave who ends up going after some of the some of these slave masters who are wanted men or whatever.

And there's a certain part in the movie where the the guy who's teaching him how to be, you know, teaching him to be a bounty hunter. He's gonna be a bounty hunter. And he gives him this example of, hey, he's like, hey, what if there's this guy? There's a guy who has a horse that you want to buy. And he won't he doesn't want to sell it to you. And he said, oh, well, I'll shoot him and I'll take the horse.

And he was like, yeah, you could do that. But that's going to cause you just more hardships. He said, what if you offer to buy the farm? And essentially, he was basically, you know, he was trying to get his wife back, basically. But essentially, he was saying, offer an absorbing amount. And then that will make you know, then he might offer you something for the lower for that same absorbing amount.

And I had a thought that that's what Satan does. Like he offers and pushes out something so extreme that it makes other things seem less extreme. And then they end up becoming acceptable over time. You know, so it like, just generationally, even for I would say, even like my dad or granddad, they wouldn't really lean towards having sex outside of marriage, because that wasn't seen as, you know, something that they should do. But then when you offer gay marriage, you're like, oh, well, casual sex doesn't seem such as bad.

And, you know, this on the soul for. And it's like, now there's with the whole like transgenderism when they're like, oh, well, being gay, that doesn't seem quite as extreme now. And I just like, wow. And so for me, I'm like, wow, how much further in life, what you're saying, like, how much further is the corruption that he's going to push to where people like what is going to be the wild, you know, baseline standard of nonsense that we accept before Christ returns? Because it's it's out of control as is, but to think that this is going to get much, much worse.

It's just incredible thought to me. Now, you're exactly right. The world gets worse and worse, right? As a second Timothy, through the third evil imposters grow worse and worse. And it makes you wonder where else? Where is the where is the baseline where God says enough is enough and the world, you know, and everything begins happening quickly.

So, yeah, good thought. Tracy. Yes, I have a question. I'm not sure how to ask. I'm confused about something. So I have to super paraphrase because I do not know the exact words, but there's a place in the Bible that says don't even consider their ways or look to see what they're doing.

You know, it's first I'm talking about. I think you're talking about the last verse in Romans one. Okay, other religions and things. Yeah, you're talking about people that depart from God. And he says, not only do you do those things, but they take pleasure in those that do them. So I think that's the verse you're thinking about. No, there's the one that says that. So we not only don't do these things, we don't even look in to see what these other religions are doing.

Other other pagans are doing. That might be Deuteronomy 12, where he says, don't look and see what the Gentiles do. Don't worship me in that way. Maybe that's what you're thinking of. Probably. My question is this. What is the difference? And this is not an accusatory question. This is where I'm confused. What's the difference in having lessons about other religions versus seeing about what other religions do? You mean like a comparative religion class? Yeah. Yeah. I think the comparative religion class, the purpose of it is to show the difference.

between what they teach and believe than what the Bible teaches. It's just a matter of showing, yes, to show that those beliefs and those religions are completely contrary to the Bible. That's all those religions are. Okay, I just didn't really know how to ask it, but that's what I was asking. Thank you.

Hey, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth, your microphone is off.

Okay, can you hear me? We can, yes.

Okay, I just wanted to say there's a movie that came out in 2007, and it's called From Babylon to America, The Prophecy Movie.

And it kind of chronicles through the Bible all the way from Noah all the way to current day.

And it's called From Babylon to America, The Prophecy Movie, and it was in 2017. And I think it was by a group called The Prophets, The Modern-Day Prophets, or something like that by the name of Tilo.

Interesting.

And then he did a second movie called From America to Babylon, Making the Mark. And he went in depth of what 666 actually was referring to the Pope.

And I thought it was very, very... those two movies that they did were very, very interesting.

Is that on Netflix by any chance?

No, no. I have these on Amazon Prime.

Oh, okay, okay.

On Amazon. But I think they're on YouTube. You can get them, you know, you can watch them on YouTube and stuff like that.

Yeah, YouTube has a lot of that stuff these days. Yeah, okay, very good.

I'm sorry, one more time, the titles of those movies kindly? Miss Elizabeth? Yes, From America to Babylon, Making the Mark. And the other one was...

From Babylon to America.

Yes, From Babylon to America.

Thank you.

Yeah, one was 2017 and the other one. Yeah, From Babylon to America, the prophecy movie, that was 2017.

And then the other one was made in 2019. It was From America to Babylon, Making the Mark.

And they credit both of these movies as documentaries.

Because he goes through the scriptures.

That would be interesting. Yeah, okay, very good.

Okay, thanks, guys.

Hey, Xavier.

Hi, brother. Two comments, one secular and one biblical.

In regards to what Sister Tracy said earlier, maybe she's talking about Ephesians 5, verse 11 and 12, where it says, Have no fellowship with the unproofed works of darkness, but rather expose them.

For it is shameful even to mention the things done by them in secret.

Okay, yeah, that may be exactly what Tracy was thinking about. Yeah, that's Ephesians 5, you said?

Yeah, and then the secular one is the current...

Portrait? Okay. The image of the King of England, very red.

And what people are doing with the picture is showing some very interesting imagery that are not very sound.

The current portrait? He had a new portrait revealed yesterday that was in three years in Painted.

And his wife said the painter got him very well. Really? Yes. I'll have to look at that one, the official portrait of King Charles. Okay. Yes. Yeah, another, especially when they put the point of sight itself.

Yeah, that's interesting. These portraits and things that people post are very revealing at times. Yeah, that's quite interesting.

Charles, how are you doing tonight?

I'm doing good.

I was curious, because John Miller, how's he doing? Because he went over to Germany on the 7th. Yep. And so a week later, I was curious, he was supposed to get treated for Lyme disease. Yeah. I'm curious if you heard anything about it. Yeah, just this afternoon, I saw...

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, I'm sorry.

Oh, yeah. I saw a note from him.

Come on. Okay. I don't know. Okay. Someone talking bigger. Someone talking bigger. Oh, it's my... Oh, about that. Okay. I hear myself. That's disgusting. I'll talk anyway. No, there was a... There was a...

Okay. Let me mute everyone for a minute so I don't hear myself. I don't like to hear myself. Okay. Yeah, there was something that came from John Miller today that said he had had his first treatment. And for a while, he had had a brain fog. And after that first treatment over there in Germany, he's actually thinking clearly again. So, that's a major step, he said. As he talked to the people who treated him, they said, yeah, that's unusual to have. And in fact, that's soon. But he's feeling very good about it. He's going to stay over there in Germany until the end of the month, if I remember right. So, he's got another two treatments to go with that. But so far, so far, things are looking up for him. So, we can continue praying for him. But, yeah, it looks like God is answering those prayers for him.

Okay. Okay. Sorry, real quick. I just looked up that image Xavier was talking about, and boy, that's quite jarring. It's quite jarring. I'm going to have to look that up here as soon as we're done here. Yeah, it legitimately looks like he's in a bath of blood, pretty much. What are they thinking? I have no idea, but that's... wow. Wow. Okay, Bob and Nanette. Yes, good afternoon, Mr. Kennedy. I heard something about that... mentioned about America, the Babylon. Are you talking about the booklet? No, she was talking about a movie, a movie that's on Amazon Prime. Oh, okay. Yeah, I don't watch movies. It's a documentary. It's not like... I don't think it's a fictional movie. I think she said that it was based on scriptures that this group took from the Bible, whatever the name of that group was. Oh, yeah, the six years ago. Okay, thank you for the clarification. I thought you were talking about a booklet or something. Nope, nope. Hey, Dave.

Thank you, Mr. Shaby. Good evening again, everyone. So one of the things that came to my mind when you were going through the Sunrise Service, it reminded me one time before I was in the church, I went to a Sunrise Service for Easter. And I remember the pastor had us turn and face towards the rising of the sun before the sun came up. And he wouldn't start until right when the sun was coming up. And we had to face the rising of the sun, and he went through the whole service.

And that is exactly what we just read tonight. It's the exact same thing. One of the things that came to my mind is thinking, well, that wasn't the Catholic Church. That was a Protestant Church. That was a Methodist Church. So it's not just the Catholics, but it's also, we have to be aware of those daughters.

We have to be aware of not just the Catholic Church, but the Protestant Churches. Because, sure, Satan allows them, in a sense, to have some of the truth. But God wants us to not depart to the left or to the right, but only stick with the truth. And we have to be very careful always with what we're allowing to come into our minds, what we're even doing. And that's just the point that came into my mind when you were going through that section there. Yeah, that's a very good point. And those daughters of Babylon that you refer to, to keep in mind, too.

That's all the churches, because they have followed the Catholic lead in most of those areas. Hey, Fred, how are you doing tonight? Oh, good. Yeah, I'm doing good. Since some of us came out of false churches, right, and we know the truth now, there's a scripture that's quite profound. And I think it's in 1 John. And I just lost the first part of it. But the ending says, we're not to go to them because there is no truth in them. So I don't think, from a personal point of view, that we should even look to other churches on anything, unless, as you said earlier, we are doing a steady and comparative religion.

And that scripture is pretty strong. It says, there is no truth. That means none. Do you have a comment on that? No, I agree with you. There is no truth in it. We should not ever look to the way other churches do things. The Bible tells us exactly how to worship Him and what we should do. And that's what we should do. One of the verses when we were looking at Nehemiah, and we looked at Ezra ahead of time, was when they were building the temple.

And the outside said they wanted to participate with Ezra to build the temple. He said, we don't need your help. God will provide everything we need. And I look at the same way. God provides everything we need. In the Bible, we don't need to look to how the outside churches do things. Christ leads. Christ provides. He will direct us if we just let Him do it. But we don't have to look at the world around us and see how they do things.

We have to do it the way He does. I totally agree with you. Hey, Brandon. Hey, sir. I just wanted to pop in real quick and say, Dave, you play a great fish, buddy. I saw the video on the UCG website. Okay. Thank you. Reggie. Reggie and Sandy. What really interested me, Mr. Shavey, is that we attended our grandson's college graduation this past Sabbath. One of the faculty members addressed the graduating class, and they were stating that you are our future, and you're the ones that are going to be the leaders of tomorrow.

Our educational system is educating our kids and everything now in the modern theories of evolution. That reminds me of America as being Babylon. We're actually in a time in which we acknowledge our human resources instead of God. We're rapidly going the way of depending on ourselves instead of looking to God. The Babylon is very prevalent, and we have to be on guard on the things that are being taught in our educational institutions. You're absolutely right. Parents need to be on guard as kids go to high school at universities to be monitoring what they and reminding them where the truth is.

I'm taping something tomorrow for one of those little segments we do on artificial intelligence. The point is that we don't want things artificial. We want real intelligence. The real knowledge is in the Bible, not in AI. Not in the intelligence or the wisdom of man. Okay, Dale. Good evening, Mr. Shabian, everybody. I was just going to say, in 2 Kings 25 verse 23, there's a jazzaniah that seems to be connected as one of the conspirators to kill the governor of Gedaliah, who is the governor of Judah.

I thought that might be of use to mention that. That's interesting. That jazzaniah is very interesting that shows up in Ezekiel and that it's spread throughout the Bible. One other brief comment, if I might. When they, greater abominations just seem to get worse and worse. One, of course, to turn their backs, to worship the Son, to turn their backs on God. Maybe you could help me there. There's a scripture, I think, in the Old Testament, maybe Deuteronomy, where it talks about if someone appeared before the king, right?

And then they left the king, departed. They weren't supposed to turn their back as they walked away from him, right? For one reason, they might expose part of their body. So they're supposed to, in other words, back away from the king. And I think that continues up to this day, right? The British strong, for example, if someone appears before the queen or the king now, but when they depart from the king or queen, they're supposed to back away and not turn their back in the other direction.

Interesting. Yeah, I hadn't thought of that that way, but you're right. Yeah, that's interesting. They probably take that from that Ezekiel. Don't turn your back on God. Yeah, interesting. Thanks. Thanks for the study. It's been great. Hey, Brandon. Yeah, I've definitely been enjoying the videos that you've been putting out weekly on Beyond Today.

Well, so one quick comment, one quick clarification. So the fish I was referring to that Dave played, it was a camp video. I was watching some UCG videos with Caden, and so he played the... there was a fish on the wall, and Dave was the fish.

So I saw the credits and I saw Dave's name. I was like, Oh, that's what that voice sounded familiar. So that way, nobody thinks I was just talking wild stuff. And then the thing where you talked about technology, that thing is getting scarier by the day, the AI and the chat GPT and all that. I heard... I saw a video because there's a big...

P. Diddy, I guess, is going through a lot, whatever, wild stuff. And there was some... supposedly there was a song that Justin Bieber did that was talking about this interaction, but it was actually a...

So basically it was a fake. It was a fake, but it sounds just like him. And so, you know, you know, guys tell us like test the spirits and see where they come from, because somebody can take a soundbite, just a soundbite of your voice and then have you making a sermon, a quote unquote whole sermon about why we can keep Christmas now.

They could take just off a soundbite. So we were like, man, we have to be diligent to the utmost when it comes to all of this stuff and make sure that we are just basically with a fine tooth comb, because that stuff is... it's out of control. It really is. It is. And it's going to lead to confusion. I mean, I agree with you on that. That technology is already there. You can make me or anyone say anything you want us to say, right? Which leads to confusion. We're just going to have to be people that if we hear things, we're going to have to pick up the phone or call and say, did you say that? Did you say that?

Because I, you know, I mean, I think I think what can happen here in the future is confusion. If people just believe anything they say, because the technology is there, it can look and sound exactly like the person, even to the point their lips move.

And you would not know the difference. So you're going to have to pay attention and we're going to have to pick up the phone with each other.

And anybody is free to call me if they...

I was going to say, please do. Follow me. Who knows? Yep. Hey, Dave. Okay. Just two quick things. Okay. The first one is to follow up about that. Just a tip, if anyone calls you and if they say, is this Dave Pramar or whatever your name is, don't say yes, because they can be recording your name, you saying yes to use that for some kind of other kind of access. So if someone you don't know calls and says, you know, is this Dave Pramar, I don't say yes. I would say, I can hear you, you know, or something like that. I can hear your voice or something. I don't say yes or no, because they can record that and they can use that against you.

The second thing was, okay, so yeah, I found that picture as well of Charles and I took a quick snip of it. If you want, I can share it. It is real.

It's strange. It's a strange picture. I'm looking at it right now and I don't get why they would do that. Yeah, and why his wife thinks that's cool, right? Yeah, that's kind of weird. You might put that on there. When we post this Bible study, it'll be audio, but I'll send you the three things. You could attach that picture, since it's part of our discussion here that'll be online, but you can post that along with it. I think people would be interested in that. Do you want me to share it now or just wait? Oh yeah, if you've got it, go ahead. I'd like to see. I got it. It's just a really strange... Isn't that odd? Yeah, that is weird. I mean, yeah.

It's even weird when they put the same picture beside itself. Yes, I saw that one too. It's just... It's weird. I don't get it. Yeah, that is. Yeah, okay. Kind of reminds you of that one where President Biden remembered he did some kind of news conference and he had the red lights in the back, and that was kind of really weird too. Yeah, but that's strange. Who's that person? Sam Smith or something? Remember he also did some kind of... Yeah, yeah. He did a satanic thing with the red background and everything. Yeah, yeah. Red is an interesting color. Tracy, hi. Hello, sorry. One last question. So I have a lady in here, an employee here. She's a seven-day advent. As she was torn between working on the Sabbath to take care of people versus not working on the Sabbath. My answers to her... I didn't think fast enough to say, God help me. My answers to her were very weak, not strong, not adamant. I feel guilty about that. Should my answers be quite adamant and strict and like, no, we don't work on this Sabbath regardless, even though you're helping people, there's other people to help, and no, you don't do that. That's wrong. She was asking for herself, not for me, but how do we answer people like that?

I mean, if it's an emergency situation, right, you certainly would help someone. Like if you were going along somewhere and you saw someone that had a need, right, got an accident, needed to help, you would do that. But to do this part of work and say, I'm helping people, no, you shouldn't do that. You shouldn't do that. Okay, that's what I should have told her, which I didn't. Oh, it's here again. You can clarify if you want. Okay, thank you. Okay, that's all for tonight. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thanks, Tracy. Hey, Elizabeth. Yes, hello. That picture, does that have something to do with him supposedly being related to Count Dracula or Blod the Impaler? Because that's his...he brags about being related to Blod the Impaler. I've heard that. The whole Dracula thing. Yeah, that is kind of a strange picture. That might be what he has in mind, and why he likes it. Yeah, because that's out there. Okay, thank you. Just one, Tracy, you might, you might, in order, I guess, in order to be adamant, but yet, you know, gently encourage for maybe that person to, to pray about a solution as far as to not working on the Sabbath. You know, yes, she has, she's gonna have to end up standing on her ground. But, you know, you know, I just, this is being cautionary with your, with your words, because, you know, the Bible says that when we do give the answer, we give it in love, you know, we give it gently and respectfully.

I got the idea she was asking for permission more than anything. Okay. And I, but yeah, I try to be very gentle and not offend people knowing that they don't really want an answer for the right or the wrong of it. They just seem to be looking for an escape route. And since I keep the Sabbath very strictly here, they, she came to me and I thought, wow, I know what I would do, but I don't know what to tell her. She should do. Or what is right to do. Yeah. For her. Yeah, she was looking, it sounds like she was looking to you for justification for what she was doing, maybe so. Yeah. Okay, very good. Anything else? Anyone? Okay, then let us call it a night. Thank you for being here. Thank you for the participation. I think a very good discussion.

We will miss being with you the next two Wednesdays, but whatever three Wednesdays from now are, let me look at my calendar here, it would be June. Wow, looks like, wow. Looks like the fifth. June 5th, yeah, okay. So June 5th will be the next time we'll be together. So, okay, well, very good. Okay, well, good night, everyone. Thank you. Have a good night. Have a good night, y'all. Good night, everyone. See you. Bye. Good night. Have a good night.