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Subject 6 : Heretics

[6-22] There Are Mighty Hunters Who Aim at The Souls of Men (Genesis 10:1-14)

 There Are Mighty Hunters Who Aim at The Souls of Men(Genesis 10:1-14)
“Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood. The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations. The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. He was a mighty hunter before the LORD; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.” And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim).”


When the first world was judged by flood, only Noah’s family of eight survived, and so all the tribes in the new world after the flood descended from Noah’s sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Today, I would like to first examine the mighty hunter called Nimrod from the genealogy of Ham, one of Noah’s three sons.


Even Today, There Still Are Mighty Hunters Aiming at People’s Souls


Every one-dollar bill of the US currency has a portrait of George Washington, the first US President, on its front face. On the left side of its back, however, you will find a rather strange design. There you will see the “all-seeing eye,” a shining eye located on top of a quadrangular pyramid. If you look at the circle located at the left side of the back of the one US dollar bill, you will see a pyramid and a triangle at its top radiating gold beams, and inside the triangle, you will see an eye. This design symbolizes the emergence of a new nation yielding mysterious powers. The all-seeing eye is also, surrounded by two inscriptions written in Latin: “ANNUIT COEPTIS” above the pyramid, and “NOVUS ORDO SECLORUM” below. The first inscription means, “Providence has favored our undertakings,” while the second motto means, “A new order of the ages.” Although it’s been only about 200 years since this design was made, just as the above mottos had aspired, the United States has indeed restructured the world order around itself to emerge as the uncontested superpower dominating the entire world. Having assumed the mantle as the police state of the world trying to control and exert its influence on every nation, the United States now keeps a watchful eye over countries with human rights violations and their tyrannical leaders.
In the religion called Christianity, there also are hunters with peculiar eyes. With the all-seeing eye of the Law, they are hunting down people’s souls today. It’s my hope and prayer that from this sermon, you would all come to really understand how these people hunt down human souls. These people hunt down the souls that need not die by making their congregation confess their sins and tying them down with the Law. In other words, by finding out all the sins of their congregation, they ensnare them and bind them with Christian doctrines. They are mighty hunters who monitor their followers with a legalistic all-seeing eye, tie them down with deed-oriented doctrines, and thus lead them to death. Like this, today’s Christianity is hunting down people’s souls armed with special legalistic doctrines to ensnare them. 
There is a man named Nimrod appearing in today’s Scripture passage, and according to the oral tradition passed on among the Evangelicals, Nimrod is said to have married his own mother. However, the only thing that we know for sure from the Bible is that this man was a “mighty hunter” before God. Why does the Bible describe Nimrod as a mighty hunter? That’s because Nimrod hunted people’s souls rather than animals. So what we have to grasp here is that in today’s Christian communities, there also are many mighty hunters like Nimrod mentioned in the Bible, who are stalking countless souls time after time. 
We can see that even today, mighty hunters are preaching their own false Christian doctrines while invoking the name of Jesus, all in order to achieve their goals of hunting human souls. Having fostered personality cults to idolize their own religious founders, they are not only hunting countless souls with unfounded doctrines, but they are also robbing their congregation. Their sole interest is to exploit people’s souls and money, and they are indulging themselves in soul hunting under the pretense of doing the Lord’s work. So their ministry is not the Lord’s ministry, as they’ve rejected the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is the real Truth that they should actually know. 
Spiritually speaking, these soul-hunters have no conviction at all, whose faith is fickle like the bat in Aesop’s Fables. Their faith changes all the time, just like the bat in the fable claimed to be a mammal during the day and a bird during the night. Their faith is marked by confusion, void, and iniquities all the time. Even if they claim to understand the meaning of the baptism Jesus received from John the Baptist, they are neither willing to believe in it wholly nor rely on it, and so they believe on their own that only the blood Jesus shed on the Cross constitutes their salvation. 
Even at this very moment, these people are lost in their grievous delusion and deep confusion. They are trying to be saved from all the sins of this world and their sins without relying on the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that Jesus has given to us humans. They are mighty soul-hunters who say two different things with one mouth. Their ministry is neither for the sake of the righteousness of God nor for the salvation of the souls of their congregation, but its sole purpose is to satisfy their carnal lust and enrich themselves to gain wealth and honor in this world. Since they are ministering like this, they are actually killing not only their own congregation’s souls, but also countless others souls that want to believe in Jesus. They are committing the same sins committed by Jeroboam, who considered other people’s souls as nothing more than instruments to attain his own glory. In other words, among today’s Christians, and even among those who call themselves leaders in their respective denominations, there are many people who are unintentionally killing countless souls from their ignorance of the gospel of the water and the Spirit spoken by the Lord. What is more saddening is that there also are many people who, like Nimrod, hunt souls even as they know the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
You have to realize here that many of the so-called spiritual leaders in Christian communities across the world are actually worshiping golden calves as their gods, just like Jeroboam did. Although these false prophets may seem to be leading people to believe in Jesus as their Savior, in reality, they are just obstructing them from accepting the God-given gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. As they preach the Word of God by mixing it with their own carnal thoughts, all that they are doing is just confusing their listeners and ultimately turning them into heretics. Even though such people dominate Christianity as its religious leaders, spiritually speaking, they are harlots and mighty hunters. They are nothing more than heretics, who follow the very sins King Jeroboam had committed against God. 
Many preachers teach falsely that everyone can be saved as long as he believes in Jesus as his Savior, regardless of whether he knows the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit or not. Although these people claim to believe in Jesus as their Savior and preach so, they do not know the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that the Bible speaks of throughout the entire text. Therefore, as they are incapable of teaching their congregation properly what the gospel of the water and the Spirit is, they have ended up reducing Christianity into a mere religion in today’s world, even though Jesus Christ is supposed to be its Master. That is why, when people are ensnared by these false prophets they are robbed in both body and spirit to fall into destruction in the end. Once trapped by such mighty hunters, no soul can ever escape from them but only face his certain death.
Among us as well, there were some people who had escaped from the grips of such heretics, but I saw few of them able to lead their lives of faith properly. Anyone who is ensnared by such mighty hunters is as good as dead, even if he is still alive physically. These hunters have absolutely no compassion for the soul. That’s because they are not just ordinary hunters, but they are killers of human souls and their faith. Even now, these mighty hunters are lurking around us looking for their prey. 
We must be mindful of the sins of Jeroboam and be vigilant. Today’s fallacious Christians leaders are deceiving their congregations and corrupting their faith, so that they may see golden calves as their gods, bereft of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Spiritually speaking, they are opportunists like bats. We know very well that these people do not believe in the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit. Even worse, they claim to have been born again by believing only in the blood of the Cross not the gospel of the water and the Spirit. This claim itself is the very evidence proving that they have turned into heretics. 
Although they all deny this, Christian leaders today have turned into heretics before God. Under the pretense of serving the Lord, they insist on the congregation to offer their material belongings to them, and when this is not enough, these heretics even coerce their followers into taking out bank loans to make donations. So ensnared by such false prophets, their followers are bound to be buried knee-deep in debt throughout their entire lifetime. Yet despite this, these believers trapped by such soul-hunters have no regrets, since they think that their offerings were for God. On the contrary, they are actually grateful, thinking that the bank loans they took out and offered to their pastors would not have to be paid back if Jesus returns soon. However, sooner or later they all come to realize that they’ve been deceived by swindlers, and so they end up falling into bitter grief and emptiness, only to face spiritual perdition. Because they do not know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they are forever imprisoned in spiritual death. It’s all because they’ve been deceived by heretics.


These Mighty Hunters Have Turned into Heretics Unwittingly, for They Do Not Know the Gospel of the Water and the Spirit


Many Christians today have turned into heretics before God unintentionally without even realizing it themselves. As they have not even received the remission of their sins, they are preaching false Christian doctrines to potential converts, and so they are actually killing souls rather than saving them. So even as they go out to evangelize the whole wide world, they are not actually saving more souls, but they are in fact killing them without even realizing it themselves. Right now it’s beyond their wildest imagination to think that they are actually heretics in God’s sight. They don’t even realize just how fallacious their ministries are. Today’s Scripture passage shows that such people are mighty hunters, but they themselves are completely oblivious that they’ve turned into such mighty soul-hunters. There was a time when I couldn’t quite understand this passage, but now I know exactly what it means. Now that I know the gospel of the water and the Spirit and have been saved by believing in this gospel, then I can discern clearly who are the mighty hunters like Nimrod. 
I know a heretical group in Korea, which stemmed from the Evangelicals. If we were to describe them, we would just have said that they were wicked men. But this is not how the Bible describes them; instead, the Bible writes that Nimrod was a mighty hunter before God. Even now these Nimrod-like people are obstructing the servants of God who preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit. As we are spreading the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit to everyone, they are afraid that their own fortress built with sand would all crumble down, and that’s why they are standing against us and obstructing this true gospel from being spread. However, the gospel of the water and the Spirit we are preaching will devour all the false doctrines they are preaching. 
It’s true that unlike us, they are powerful and rich. But even so, it’s a completely foolish act for them to try at this time to make us their prey. Mounting all kinds of personal attacks on us, they are trying hard to draw us into their denominations to rob our souls and our possessions, but this is actually nothing more than a foolish attempt. It’s quite obvious that they are trying to take away the saints of our Church just to exploit them. They want to draw more people to their fold only to squeeze out even more money, just as so far they’ve been robbing their own congregation. But we see that once they can no longer extract any offerings from some of their congregation, they forsake them as if they were old shoes. That’s why it’s so absolutely imperative for all of you to no longer be deceived by the heretics who don’t believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
These heretics teach their congregation to act in strict adherence to the Law. When some of the female members of their congregation came to church with lipstick on, they used to rebuke them harshly, saying, “What’s this red thing on your lips? Did you eat raw meat?” They are prone to judge their congregation’s faith by outside appearance and wealth. They approve their church members’ faith as long as they give a lot of offerings, even if the female members have to give up makeup to save enough money. So women in this denomination don’t put on lipstick when they go to church, but they put it on as soon as they come out of their church. It’s not only ridiculous and even pitiful to see them being so ignorant of the righteousness of God, trying so hard to establish their own human righteousness instead, and putting so much emphasis on a legalistic life of faith in hypocrisy. 
Among the members of such denominations, many end up losing everything under the pretense of offerings and leave only after going completely bankrupt both materially and spiritually. Actually, to be more accurate, they don’t so much leave, but they are driven out. As the poor souls are ensnared by mighty and evil hunters, they are ruined in both body and spirit. 
These false prophets are jealous of the fact that we are spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to people all over the world. In contrast, I would extend my sincerest welcome to any gatherings even though they are not from us, as long as they believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit and preach it to everyone. And I would praise God for this. Why? Because if there is another gathering that spreads the gospel of the water and the Spirit apart from ours, we would be strengthened even more and also share fellowship together. Wouldn’t it be so wonderful, since we would be able to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit with more resources in terms of both time and finance? How thankful would we be if there were other groups that are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit? Don’t you agree? How many people do we get to meet in a week and preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to them? Just how many people can we really reach? We can’t reach that many. When would we then ever finish spreading the gospel of the water and the Spirit to everyone in the world? Yet the spiritual swindlers not only dislike the fact that we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, but they attack us on completely ridiculous grounds. 
Today’s Christianity is filled with so many people like these. Even though these false prophets claim to lead countless people to believe in Jesus, they actually just exploit their souls for money instead of preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So given this, what else could they be but mighty hunters before God? Even when they get a chance to hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit, they have no desire to understand, nor believe in it, and instead they continue believing only in the blood of the Cross. I have every confidence to say that such people are all heretics, just like Jeroboam. We come across many such heretics routinely among this world’s Christian leaders. Although they purport to introduce countless people to Jesus, they can’t actually preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit, which is what really washes away everyone’s sins. Instead, they believe that only the blood of Jesus constitutes the gospel of salvation. They believe so because that’s what they’ve been taught by their leaders, who have claimed to have received the remission of sin just by believing in the blood of Jesus alone. 
The entire world is suffering from these mighty hunters of such faith. By preaching their false gospels and fallacious doctrines, they are preventing countless Christians from actually receiving the Holy Spirit into their hearts, thus rendering it all in vain for them to believe in Jesus. If anyone has sin in his heart, then the Holy Spirit cannot dwell in his heart, even if he believes in Jesus. Yet right now, many Christians believe only in Jesus’ blood on the Cross and as a result, they are attending church without even realizing that they themselves are turning into mighty hunters before God. All of them must wake up as soon as possible and realize that their faith is going astray. Even now, they must turn around and believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
Even at this very moment, just how many false prophets are turning people into their followers and robbing them of their possessions? We must be able to see clearly the fraud committed by heretics. Just how abominable are these mighty hunters in God’s sight? It would be so much better for them not to preach at all to anyone, rather than preaching a false gospel instead of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Far from preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, the real gospel of salvation, they are actually preaching a false, half-gospel to those who desire to believe in Jesus, thereby killing their souls. These people must repent, return to the God of Truth, and receive the true remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. They are the mighty hunters before God, and they are the wretched ones who cannot help but be cursed forever along with the Devil. Even now, they travel all over the world looking for lost souls, and yet when they find them, they actually preach a false gospel. When viewed from the light of the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit, these people are so ridiculous. The problem is that there are so many such people around us. Spiritually speaking, these people are Ham’s descendants. 
Those who will be cursed by God stand against His righteousness to the very end. The righteousness of God is manifested in the gospel of the water and the Spirit God has given to us. Those who are now standing against the gospel of the water and the Spirit are actually standing against the righteousness of God out of their ignorance. Today’s soul-hunters are ignoring the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit that holds the righteousness of God, and this is committing the same sin as ignoring God. They are also God’s enemies, having joined the rank of mighty hunters like Nimrod. Even so, we must still have compassion for them, and we must guide them to the right path so that they may also receive the remission of sin through the gospel of the water and the Spirit.
When we receive the remission of sin by believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit, at first it seems as though our blemishes and weaknesses are exposed even more. That’s because all this time our fundamental wickedness and our fleshly thoughts had been hidden in our hearts, and it’s only now that they are finally exposed. So some people look down on the faith of the righteous just by looking at their visible shortcoming of the flesh, but in doing so, they are actually standing against the righteousness of God to be forever cursed in the end. Ham committed such a sin. When Ham saw the nakedness of Noah, his leader and his father, far from covering it up, he made a big fuss out of it. As Ham thus ignored the spiritual authority God established, he was cursed by Him, and that is why his descendant Nimrod became a mighty hunter before God. Like this, anyone who doesn’t believe in the righteousness of God is forever cursed both in body and spirit.
For everyone alike, unless you believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit with your heart, your soul cannot receive the remission of sin, and you will instead, be cursed by God. People turn into mighty hunters preaching a false gospel before God because they are either ignorant of the gospel of the water and the Spirit, or they don’t believe in it even as they know it. We should never allow ourselves to live this kind of life before God. We must never permit ourselves to turn into the Devil’s servants by following the evil practices and false faith of these mighty hunters. No matter how insufficient we may be in this world, we are still God’s people and His servants, for we are preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Even if it takes a long time for the gospel of the water and the Spirit spread by us to reach everyone all over the world, we must continue to devote all our energy to proclaiming this true gospel. Today’s Christians, by preaching a false gospel in the name of Jesus, are actually killing people’s souls; they must all realize their sins as soon as possible and turn around. 
God had said to Noah and his sons, “Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood” (Genesis 9:3-4). This passage means that we should not spread a false gospel to hunt down human souls. If you enjoy meat, then in the course of eating it’s inevitable to have at least some trace of blood that’s left on the meat. So this passage does not actually mean that you shouldn’t have any blood, but it means that you should never kill anyone’s soul. We must never allow ourselves to turn into evil hunters before God only to kill people’s souls. However, even at this very moment, false gospels are being spread all over the world along with the gospel of the water and the Spirit. And because of these false gospels, countless souls are perishing away needlessly.
Even for us, who are now preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit, many shortcomings are apparent in our flesh. Yet despite our insufficiencies, the gospel preached by us is now being spread all over the world vibrantly, all because this gospel has the power. I thank God for this wonderful blessing. It’s now only a matter of time before the gospel of the water and the Spirit covers the entire world. So I ask you not to despair even in your hardship, but to serve the gospel together with us until the day the Lord returns. 
The gospel of the water and the Spirit must be preached to all the so-called renowned Christian leaders across the world. I say this to my coworkers as well, underscoring just how important it is to preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to all theologians everywhere in the world. These people still have not heard of the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I would like to ask them, “Have you really heard the gospel Word of the water and the Spirit?” Even now, everyone throughout the whole world must listen to the gospel of the water and the Spirit, believe in it, and thus be truly saved from the sins that are in their hearts. 
However, for those who are hunting people’s souls to satisfy their own carnal lust, unless their hearts make a fundamental departure from their flawed beliefs, they cannot reach true salvation no matter how often they hear the gospel of the water and the Spirit. So the false prophets abiding in Christian communities have no intention of believing in the gospel of the water and the Spirit that we are proclaiming all around the world. Nevertheless, the gospel Truth of the water and the Spirit is now covering the world. There still is a chance for even the false prophets to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. I hope and pray to God everyday that He would also bless them to be able to believe in the gospel of the water and the Spirit. 
God blessed two of Noah’s sons, Shem and Japheth. Spiritually speaking, we the believers in the gospel of the water and the Spirit are the descendants of Shem and Japheth. The gospel of the water and the Spirit is now covering the entire world. On the other hand, however, you should also realize that there are mighty hunters in this world. In today’s Christian communities, those who neither believe in nor preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit given by the Lord are all mighty hunters. In other words, if Christians themselves are killing another soul with a false gospel, then none other than they are the mighty hunters before God. Whoever stands against the gospel of the water and the Spirit is a mighty hunter before God. Such people are all false prophets in God’s sight. When Jesus returns, our Lord will judge them justly. No Christian ever should spiritually allow himself to turn into a mighty hunter before God. We now have the duty to also preach the gospel of the water and the Spirit to such people. 
Even though it may seem as if we haven’t achieved much before God, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is actually being spread into the far corners of the world, thanks to God who has blessed us both materially and spiritually. Having now been translated into most major languages, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is being proclaimed all around the world. God is blessing everyone under the heavens through us who are insufficient. God blesses the descendants of Shem and Japheth. In contrast, He curses everyone who is like Nimrod. They are mighty hunters before Him. And even now, their spiritual descendants are preaching a false gospel to countless souls. 
I’ve learned many things while preaching the gospel of the water and the Spirit. Before, I used to believe that every Christian was a good person, but now that I know better, I’ve come to realize that there actually are many mighty hunters among Christians who kill other souls. The mighty hunters are those who hunt down other souls. They are professional religionists who hold clergy positions in Christian communities. For the sake of their material wealth, they are exploiting countless souls and killing them, all the while invoking the Word of God. 
However, even though our number is small and our abilities are limited, God has blessed us so much that through us, the gospel of the water and the Spirit is reaching every corner of the world with a tremendous impact. So we should all be thankful to God for this. Even if you can’t directly get involved in the work of spreading the gospel, if you unite your heart with the righteousness of God, then He will bless you to be able to preach the gospel all across the entire world. 
I give all thanks to God for giving us the gospel of the water and the Spirit and saving us from the sins of the world. Until each and every person living on this planet comes to know the gospel of the water and the Spirit, we must all carry out God’s work by our faith in His righteousness. Hallelujah!
 
This sermon is also available in ebook format. Click on the book cover below.
Heretics, Who Followed the Sins of Jeroboam (II)