Ending Western Civilization

Long ago, in an ancient society, a man prepared to slit his son's throat. He had a knife in his hand. His son was laid upon an altar that had wood stacked on it. And the act was to slice the throat and let the blood run out, and then to sacrifice the boy. We all know that event from the Bible as being Abraham about to sacrifice his son.

That was obviously thwarted when God commanded the angel to tell him not to do that. And instead, a physical animal was given. Today, we see nations and bits of nations and groups of people from other nations and various tribes embroiled in a civil war in Syria, where blood is flowing indiscriminately from children, from women, from men, from innocent citizens, where neighborhoods and business districts that were once so beautiful and nice and so supportive of family life are just being indiscriminately rocketed and blown to bits. To where this country, which already has very little in the sense of any kind of rainfall or natural beauty, is just becoming a ghost town, an infrastructure of ruin. And the blood flows and continues to flow, and nobody seems to be able to stop it. And yet, everybody has a desire to come out on top, be it local groups or regional groups or international empires, as it were. Let's go to Leviticus 17 and verse 11. Leviticus 17 and verse 11 says, For the life of the flesh is in the blood. If we think about that, we tend to think of our life being somewhere else, maybe in our thoughts, maybe in that heart, maybe in the lungs or the air. We think of the breath of life. But here God says, The life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar to make atonement for your lives. It is the blood that makes atonement for the life. Why is there so much blood running? And what does this day of atonement have to do with blood? In the year 1450 AD, you would have been considered mad if you had predicted that Europe would one day be more prosperous than China. Eight times more prosperous than China. China in 1450 was the zenith of empires. It was the zenith, the apex of all types of discoveries and abilities. In 1850, one Ming Dynasty ship on the ocean could have held all of Columbus's ships inside it, the Pinta, the Nina, and the Santa Marie. In 1985, a time when most of us were alive, have been alive, who would have thought Chinese citizens would ever become more prosperous than Americans? Once again, you would think a person in 1985 was nuts to think that a culture that was essentially so backward, it was being annihilated by Mao, Chairman Mao, in what was being called the Cultural Revolution, as millions upon millions were exterminated, and China was living sort of in the Dark Age. Well, what's happening in the civilized world? What relevance does it have to God's festival of atonement? I'd like to examine some of these and more in a sermon entitled, Ending Western Civilization. Again, that is, Ending Western Civilization.

Today's world is often described as being comprised of two civilizations. There is the West, and there's the Rest. The West, of course, is modern, has a lot of societal progress, a lot of the technologies and the goods and services that makes it the ideal place to live. And then you have the Rest. These two cultures can essentially be summarized as one is industrialized, capitalistic, free market, and they dress like you and me.

Those are the haves. And then you have the Rest. The Rest are generally steeped in some culture, often an ancient culture, that's trying to be retained. They are in servitude to governments that have domination over them and some ancient form of religion. And these people continue along in a sort of a steady path that they've been on for a long time, and they comprise the have-nots. Now, it's easy to think, well, the West is probably the United States of America and maybe Europe and Britain and some of those other countries, and the Rest, you might say, or it's the East, or the South, or some other place.

What countries today on Earth comprise the West? It might surprise you. Niall Ferguson in a book entitled Civilization makes a good point in that the West today is comprised of people who dress like they do in the West, like you and me. And it has nothing to do with the clothing, but the clothing is merely an outward expression of how people around the world have gravitated from whatever they used to be as a culture, as a society, as a system into what we are today.

In fact, when you think of this country or Europe, what are we? Well, just look at the clothing we're wearing. Where did it come from? Who made it? Who really made the cars that we drive, no matter what the brand name is? Where do those things come from? Where do our goods and services come from? Where do our products come from? Largely, the world has integrated itself into being much the same wherever you go.

If you walk down the streets of Beijing, guess what? They dress like you and me. If you go throughout Russia, they dress like you and me. In the Middle East today, they dress like you and me. And in Egypt, and in Africa, and South America, and throughout Asia, they dress like you and me. This world has become so westernized that most nations have joined Western civilization.

It's interesting, as a traveler who's visited over 50 countries, I find it very difficult anymore to go find any kind of culture. If you go to China, if you go to Shanghai or Beijing, and if you want to see China like you saw it in National Geographic 20-30 years ago, it doesn't exist. It's just not there. You'll crawl around through some back streets that are probably dangerous, and you won't still find it there. Down some historic alleyway, I saw a picture of China, and some Chinese taken long, long ago, and somebody plastered it on the wall, I guess, so that a tourist like me could see what they thought was China.

St. Petersburg, Russia, same thing. No matter where you go, it seems everybody has become like the West. The goods and services, the goods, the things that we have, the services, the companies, have so integrated and so amalgamated that it's not uncommon for us to speak to people on the other side of the globe. When we're looking at a product that is made locally, well, we think it's made locally, it's headquartered locally, but it's manufactured through several countries. It's designed in one. Some of the parts come from another. Those get shipped to another. They get on the nightly overnight mail route that comes through Alaska, that pops from there, Anchorage Airport, just filled with jumbo jets full of goods and services that are going from there across the pole or south to the Americas.

Shipping containers around the world all basically say the same thing. Every port you go to, whether it's Istanbul, whether it's there in China or here in the United States or in South America, they all look the same with the same basic international names on the containers that roll through them. We are now interdependent with each other on this planet. When we look at how Western civilization developed, it begins 500 years ago.

The concept of Western civilization is limited, especially by Niall Ferguson, to the last 500 years. Now, you might think, well, it's dominated by industrial revolution, or it's dominated by this or that. It's dominated by scientific research. Once again, all of that is an amalgamation.

Even things that we describe to the ancient Chinese, they often got from other places. To where what we know today and the knowledge that we know today is really a composite of everything from knowledge from Africa, India, from the Middle East, from the empires that existed anciently and more modernly around the globe.

And people borrow from one another in a system that is known as trading and enterprise. This is a very old system. Western civilization advanced in the last 500 years through plundering, colonization, capitalism and trading. That's how it's really come to the fore. You know, the Europeans, back 500 years ago, enjoyed fighting. They loved to war. If there wasn't a war going on, they would create a war. If there were no wars outside their country, they would create a war internally.

If there were no internal wars, they would have skirmishes just to be killing and letting blood go. That's the history of Scotland, the history of Ireland, the history of England, France, Portugal, Spain, going over to the continent. These people just love to maraud and kill. Throw in a good religion or two, or some other excuse, or marrying across lines, or somebody has some gold and it just ups the ante. Now, there was a founding of what you might call Western civilization 500 years ago that would really embarrass us today in our political correctness.

Political correctness may sound correct, but it still exists just as bad or worse under the surface. Western civilization could be defined as competition with warfare and religion, while you might say other civilizations could be defined as domination, coupled with warfare and religion. So you had the first hand, you had competition, and the other you had domination. If you think of some of the old ancient cultures, they were dominated.

Dominated by some tyrant, by some system that kept people as in serfdom and limited them. The other group, their countries allowed competition. For instance, the privateers, the buccaneers, the corsairs, another name for pirates, which the kings of France and Spain and England funded and authorized to go out and plunder and kill and murder and rape on their behalf of the host country to bring home some of the riches. Now, this was just the Western way. And as these countries came in contact with other countries, the other countries who were dominating and had a little bit of warfare in order to keep their dominance, and they had a religion that helped keep the dominance, they were overwhelmed by this competitive edge of countries whose weapons were escalating and they were developing and they were far superior in their nature.

Their numbers were superior because they came to exploit. They were often just rolled right over. So you could take a country like China in its greatness and humiliate it by a little country like England. Now, I'd like to give an example of this. Cultures that were strong in their original settings were weak when Western civilization came to town. I just this week heard that one of our elders, one of our pastors in United was going to Columbia for the feast.

I thought, well, that's interesting. Mr. Scott Hofker is going to Cartagena, Columbia, and they're holding a feast site there. I don't know anything about Columbia or Cartagena, so I looked it up. I'd like to give you a short history of Cartagena. Cartagena will actually illustrate what I've been saying about Western civilization. Here's a condensed version for your benefit. From Wikipedia, and this is condensed out of Wikipedia, the city began with 200 people 500 years ago, essentially, in 1533.

When Spanish soldiers arrived and plundered local tombs for their gold. 30 years after its founding, and all the tombs were plundered, the city was then pillaged by the French. So, Spain, wanting to keep control of the city, set about strengthening its defenses and surrounding itself with wall compounds and castles. Years later, someone from the north region of France, a Basque man, attacked. And he destroyed part of the city, after which a fire broke out and destroyed the entire city.

And it was that fire that prompted the starting of the first fire brigade in the Americas. Think of the fire department. Well, that was the first one. It was because a Basque raid on the city ended up later having the city burned to the ground, and so they established a fire department. In 1568, Sir John Hawkins of England besieged the city against the Spanish, but he failed to level it.

Just inflicted it very heavily. So, 20 years later, his nephew, Sir Francis Drake of England, arrived at the powerful fleet and quickly took the city and destroyed one quarter of it, including all the new buildings and the church that had been built there. In time, trade began to increase in gold and silver and in slaves. Catholic monarchs established a court of inquisition there. Remember the Spanish Inquisition?

Well, they had a headquarters right there. The 1700s brought pro-trade policies, returning the city to prosperity again, and it had 18,000 inhabitants. The walls that the Spanish had built, they were rebuilt. The forts were reorganized and restored. The public services and buildings reopened. And by 1710, the city was fully recovered with the establishment of new trade houses and private projects. Trade houses, private projects. That's competition in economics and trade. The city had many new public works projects, among them a new fort, a new hospital, and the full paving of all streets and the opening of new roads.

In March 1741, the city endured a large-scale attack by the British and American colonial troops. Interesting, George Washington's brother was one of the two leaders. Yet they were thwarted by severe weather and disease. Lots and lots of them died from cholera and the ships they attacked at a really bad time of the year. And they didn't do a whole lot of damage there. Afterward, the city grew.

The aristocracy erected noble houses on their lands to form great estates, libraries, and printing establishments were open. When the Spanish defenses were finished in 1756, the city was considered impregnable. Now, in this little town that had been fought over so often, the Spanish took from their gold reserves the equivalent of $2 trillion. Think of the national debt for a minute, and think of trillions. $2 trillion of gold they spent at that point in time redeveloping the bulwarks around that city, and they built six and a half miles of walls and outposts to prevent it from being captured again.

$2 trillion. Of course, they had the gold. They'd been stealing it for years, and there were gold mines down in that area, gold and silver mines. And we move up to the 1800s. November 11, 1811, Cartagena declared its independence. Beautiful day. Four years later, 1815, the city was almost destroyed by Spain, who came to reconquer it.

Almost totally destroyed. After a five-month siege, the fortified city that they had just spent $2 trillion protecting, they then seized it for five months, and the city fell in December. Afterwards, the city became a ghost town. The only people that lived there were 500 poor slaves, and the buildings were all empty. The palaces, the public buildings, became ruins. Many had collapsed walls.

It kind of reminds you of some of the pictures coming out of Syria and other places. Six years later, the nation of Venezuela laid siege to the city for 159 days, and then took it from Spain, who had just taken it back. But the Venezuelans had new politics, and that was dive back into the old ways. No trade, no nothing. And new politics doomed the region to poverty. Famine was a regular outbreak there, along with cholera.

They decimated the city, and it basically disappeared. But after the 1880s, the city began to recover. Foreigners came in and began settling there from Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, China. Other immigrant communities developed over time. Since the 1980s, the population has tripled, due mainly to refugees coming out of the Andes, where civil wars are being fought down in South America. And so the number of people coming to try to protect their lives and their families have swarmed into town. There is a mixture also of competition among businesses at their port, tourism.

Of note, you may remember Cartagena. Now it comes back to mind, because last year, April 2012, at the Sixth Summit of the Americas, the summit was overshadowed by a prostitution scandal involving President Obama's security detail. And so is life in the West. And life in the West has been like this.

And you can see, even today, through oil and greed and various international and banking commodities, that people are still struggling to get power and wealth. And this has spread to many, if not most, of the nations of the world who dress appropriately, like people in the West do. Now, the 500-year-old Western civilization isn't really the issue. That's just kind of an overview.

If you want to look at Western civ through that line, you'll see all of this stuff that's gone on around the world, the enslavement of the Chinese and the opening of wars by the British, etc., etc. and the colonization, or the slavery, or whatever. And it didn't stop. It's still going on, as brutal as ever, just under cover in many ways.

Western civilization really is nothing more than Roman civilization. If you stop and think about Rome for a minute, the government structure we have, even our Senate, is named after the Roman Senate. And that structure is repeated under various names in other cultures, other nations. Our calendar is Roman. Our money system is Roman. Our economic system is Roman. The religion, Christian religion, is Roman. The warfare is Roman. Our war leaders study Roman war leaders, you know. Learn how to battle better. But Rome isn't really the problem, because Rome was a revision of Greece, which was a revision itself of the Medes and the Persians, which was a revision of Babylon. Let's take a look in Ezekiel 26, verse 7. We'll see some familiar things going on back in Babylon, the days of Nebuchadnezzar. It has a lot to do with Cartahana and Syria, Rome, and other places. Ezekiel 26, verse 7. Thus says the Lord God, Behold, I will bring against Tyre, one small civilization on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, from the north, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, king of kings. Notice that term, king of kings. This would be a mindset of the kings of the earth. This was the head of gold, as it were, the brains of what would later become Western civilization or the civilization of humanity. He'll come with horses, chariots, with horsemen, and army with many people. You might have said ships and planes or boats or whatever. He will slay with the sword your daughter villages in the field. He will heap up a siege mound against you, build a wall against you, raise a defense against you. He will direct his battering rams against your walls, and with his axes he will break down your towers. Verse 11. With the hooves of his horses he will trample all your streets. He will slay your people with the sword, and your strong pillars will fall to the ground. He will plunder your riches and pillage your merchandise. He will break down your walls and destroy your pleasant houses. That's Western civilization. That was Western civilization then. This is Western civilization now, and there's been a nonstop history of similar action in between. So ending Western civilization, as we see in the Bible, as we'll see in a few minutes, is the beginning of another civilization. It's called the Kingdom of God. And this other civilization is going to bring a unique relationship between God and people and between people and people. It's interesting that this day of atonement in the English is at-one-ment, and atonement can only come through an atonement, through a certain shedding of one's blood. And before the Feast of Tabernacles, and the last great day, we have another reminder of an atonement that must take place, that must happen in order for people to be at-one, in order for a new civilization to take place. It's interesting that we don't just roll from the Feast of Trumpets with the Christ Return and the resurrection of the firstfruits and right into the Feast of Tabernacles.

It's interesting also that the Israelites weren't just brought into the Promised Land, but first, blood was shed, blood of the firstborn was shed. And then, right away, things didn't happen for them. It would be some time until they would eventually get to their destination. Just as the fall feasts and another exodus that will take place of people, a remnant of Israel will have a real exodus and be taken right back to Palestine and placed within their tribal boundaries, as God intended. And that is precipitated by the Feast of Atonement that reminds us of the two goats. The two goats that were killed in the Bible on Day of Atonement, one representing Jesus Christ and the slain blood of that Lamb. Because it's the blood that has the life, as He said, and blood had to be given as a payment, as an atoning for the sins of humanity so that that atonement could then take place. Let's take a look at the process in Revelation 18, verses 2-4. Revelation 18, verses 2-4. This angel came and cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, Babylon the Great is fallen is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird. Something wrong with Western civilization, if we want to use that term. With this civilization of competition, of conquest, of religion, self-exaltation. For all nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication. Not just one. All nations have bought into this. All have been, you might call them, Westernized. The kings of the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth have become rich through the abundance of her luxury. And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, unless you receive of her plagues. There is a people that is of God who will join Christ as part of a new kingdom, a kingdom on earth, one that exists now in heaven. But it will come, and it will bring a different mindset to this earth. And we're to have nothing to do with Western civilization. And I'm using that term because that is really what it all becomes by the end. It's an extension of a mindset that goes way, way back. If we go to chapter 19 of Revelation, let's notice as Jesus Christ comes from heaven, He is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, it says in verse 16. And He has a robe that was dipped in blood in verse 13. Blood. Before He came, before He comes, He had to, in a sense, be made the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. He had to shed a blood that the Father accepted and therefore gave Him the right to rule, the right to rule properly, and the ability to bring an atonement for the sins of all humanity. In chapter 19, in verse 19, it says, But it's not over yet. Here comes what we might say is the finish.

Now we could say, okay, there it is. There's the end of Western civilization. And yet, that in itself would have accomplished nothing. All that was done in itself would accomplish nothing. And you can prove that simply by looking in the next chapter and seeing that once Satan is released, he goes right back and does it again. And goes through all the nations of the world, and they just cave, and they come back to fight at the camp of the saints. And before you can really have tabernacling with God, you have to take another step. Another step has to be taken.

Because to end Western civilization, you have to end the mindset of the philosophy that built it. And that is competition. That's advancing the self. All you have to do is look back at Lucifer and see that he had that competitive mindset of self-advancement, and he was ready to fight and war and take and plunder. And he wants to kill and destroy. That's what he's about. Let's go to Genesis 3, verse 5. Western civilization began a lot farther back in time than Babylon, farther back in time than even Babel, from which it was named. Genesis 3, verse 5.

The one who became Satan said, For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened. This is about you. This is about promotion of the self. You will be like God. You will advance, knowing good and evil. So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and aid, and she gave to her husband, and he ate. And Western civilization was born. And it grew. Chapter 4, verse 4. Abel brought of the firstborn of his flock, and of their fat, and the Lord respected Abel and his offering. But he did not respect Cain. Cain was very angry. His countenance fell. And he went into competition mode. He went into battle mode. Verse 8. Cain talked with Abel his brother. It came to pass that when they were in the field, Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.

Brother against brother. Man, created man against his creator. This is the instigator, the result of the instigator. In chapter 10, in verse 8, it simply says, Cush begot Nimrod, he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

Mighty one. A mighty one who then was challenged in competition by other mighty ones. He was a mighty hunter before the Lord.

So Babylon's roots were Babel, Nimrod, warring and conquering. It says in verse 32, Is God the author of division? In contrast, it says in Isaiah 43 and verse 9, That is what we are going to do at the Feast of Tabernacles. Gather the nations and let the people be assembled. We have this feast around the world with brethren from every conceivable background and nationality and culture and roots. And we are being brought together as one, not being chopped up and divided.

God's coming kingdom is what this verse in Isaiah 43 and 9 is referring to. Ultimately, it pictures a time when all nations will be gathered together and the people will be assembled. God's goal was shown by Jesus Christ in John 17 verse 20. John 17 verse 20 through 23. Let's not forget what the purpose of your life, my life, is through God's eyes. John 17 verse 20.

I and them and you and me that they may be made perfect in one. Oneness, atonement, at onement, through the atoning of Christ's blood. It must have the blood in order for it to take place. The name of the festival comes from the Hebrew word expiation or the Greek word reconciliation. It's a reconciling. It's a bringing together. It's an expiating of sins, but a bringing together of people. And that happens in this two-part process. Leviticus 16, 9, and 10. The two goats were selected by lot. The one was sacrifice, representing Jesus Christ. The other was let go in the wilderness, representing Satan the devil. The first one we see, 1 Peter 2, verse 24 and 25.

Let's notice here towards the end of the Bible, 1 Peter 2 and verse 24.

Who himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness, by whose stripes you were healed, you were reconciled, restored, because, like sheep, you were going astray, but have now returned to your shepherd and overseer of your lives, your souls. So the first part, the first goal, represented him who restores and reconciles us to God. And the second part is through the removal of the Babylonish system and its leader. Let's go to Ezekiel 28, verses 14 through 16. Ezekiel 28, verses 14 through 16. We'll see this happen just as we see Jesus Christ come back and through his blood make atonement, or through the atonement that he's made by his blood, make reconciliation with all peoples and nations. So we will also see the second goat, the Azazel goat, that's let go.

Ezekiel 28, verse 14. You are the anointed carer who covers. I established you. You are on the holy mountain of God. Verse 15. You are perfect in your ways from the day that you were created till iniquity was found in you by the abundance of your trading. Trading. Competition. Commerce. Trade. He was trading back then. There was some sort of a trading going on with a third of the angels. In order to get him advanced, you became filled with violence within and you sinned. What does God do with that? Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God and I destroyed you, O covering carob, from the midst of the fiery stones. So there we see some of the background of what this day pictures. It pictures the atoning of sins, as it reflects back to the Passover, that is necessary for the people of the future to have a relationship with God. And they will walk a similar path, after a similar exodus, in a resurrection that we portray on the eighth day of the feast, for all humanity to have their names written in the book of life because of the blood of the Lamb, because of the atoning sacrifice. And there also will be this removal of the influencer of sin and a restoration between God and man that will go on forever. Eventually, in the spirit realm, the Father comes down from heaven and He will dwell with men, former men and women, in His family. He'll be our Father and we will be His children. So, in conclusion, what is the message of atonement or atonement have to do with you? Let's go to Ephesians 4, verses 20-32. Ephesians 4 begins in verse 20. You know, we are to be preparing as a bride, a bride at one with her husband, a bride who is submissive and in all ways fits into her husband's plans. Ephesians 4, verse 20. And we ourselves can't just look through our eyes or look out the window of the church and say, oh, well, this is all going to happen to them and this is all about what's going to happen prophetically. Well, this is also about you and me because we need to be at one and we are fasting today to humble ourselves and to repent of our sins, which can be removed daily through the blood of the Lamb, the life that was given for yours and my life. Ephesians 4, verse 20. You have not so learned Christ. Not like Western civilization. No. If indeed you have heard Him and have been taught by Him, as the truth is in Jesus, that you put off concerning your former conduct the old man which grows corrupt according to the deceitful lust, to come out of her, my people, come out of Babylon, come out of that system, that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind with the Holy Spirit, that you put on the new man which was created according to God in true righteousness and holiness. Therefore, putting away lying, which is part of trading and commerce, each one speaking the truth with his neighbor. For we are members of one body. We're not competing with anybody. Be angry and do not sin. Do not let the sun go down on your wrath. Nor give place to the devil. But pray daily, in fact, to be delivered from the evil one and not succumb to temptation.

Let him who stoles steal no longer. Verse 29, Let no corrupt word proceed out of your mouth. Verse 30, Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by which you are sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking be putting away from you with all malice.

We went to a baseball game recently. The United States team and Canada playing baseball. Oh, it doesn't get better than that. It should have brought apple pie. Except, I love Canada. Our first daughter was born in Canada. We've lived in Canada. We're going there for the feast this year. The United States, we were born here. Does it get better than this? Well, as one team made any progress, the other team fans booed. Blue Canadians had brought a bunch of blue Canadian fans. Boo! When the other team made any progress, those booed. And it was boo, boo, boo, boo, boo. It was terrible. All the people you love, you want to get along, they're booing each other. At the end of the game, Canadians won. American team. Canadians lined up on the field, and they congratulated themselves, and they shook hands, and they thanked each other. Where's the other team? They're gone. What is this? Don't have malice and clamour and bitterness, but be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another. Remember? The blood of God atoned for our sins. We need to forgive one another as God and Christ forgave you. We should cease being agents of competition, of self-advancement, of division of any kind, inside the Church, outside the Church, of any unloving of others. Rather, we need to have a different mindset, that of the coming kingdom of God. I'd like to conclude by reading 1 John 2, verses 15-17. I hope that as we spend the remaining hours of this holy day, we can dwell on what we are supposed to be doing, what we are agents of, to truly come out of this world, literally, physically, mentally, in every way possible. 1 John 2, verse 15. Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, it is not of the Father, but it is of the world. And we know who the God of this world is. And this day pictures, in part, the removal, the binding of the God of this world. And the world is passing away in the lust of it. But he who does the will of God abides forever. Verse 27. But the anointing which you have received from God abides in you. And you do not need that anyone teach you. But as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things and is true, it's not a lie, just as it has taught you, you will abide in him. And now, little children, abide in him, that when he appears, you may have confidence, and not be ashamed before him at his coming. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteousness is begotten of him. Happy Feast of Atonement.