Reversionism. Falling Away From The Lord

HOS 4:1, Hear the Word of the Lord, you citizens of Israel [Northern Kingdom] because the Lord has a case[indictment] against the inhabitants of the [land] client nation, because nothing of faithfulness or doctrine taught, nothing about grace is being applied; there is no knowledge of God in the land.

Just as God had an indictment against the Jewish client nations, so today he has an indictment against a Gentile client nation, the United States of America. This is because nothing of doctrine is taught. There is no demand for Bible teaching in time of apostasy. As a result, nothing of grace is being applied. Grace and doctrine go together. When they are both gone, that is one of the reasons for the five cycles of discipline.

HOS 4:2-3, Instead, there is lying [dishonesty], deception, homicide, stealing, rape, therefore blood touches blood[idiom for perpetual violence]. Therefore, the land mourns, and all who live in it languish along with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air.

The phrase the land mourns means the people are miserable under the cycles of discipline. No one is enjoying anything or having any fun.

Everyone is murmuring and complaining. Social life, business life, and spiritual life are gone; there is nothing but abject misery. There is nothing but discontent and grief. Complaining is the outward effects of an inward sin.

JOB 7:11, “I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”

LAM 3:39 teaches that complaining is an indictment against god and His plan.

LAM 3:39, Why should {any} living mortal, or {any} man, Offer complaint in view of his sins?

NUM 11:1, Now the people became like those who complain of adversity in the hearing of the Lord; and when the Lord heard it, His anger was kindled, and the fire of the Lord burned among them and consumed some of the outskirts of the camp.

Notice that when the people complained it displeased the Lord. You wouldn’t want to do that, would you?

PSA 77:3, “When I complained my spirit was overwhelmed.”

Overwhelmed (grows faint) – ataph clothed with depression.

So complaining makes people depressed and weak and also the word means causes them to be failures in life. Complainers are usually failures. A client nation that rejects God is filled with believers who complain.

Jud 16, These are grumblers, finding fault, following after their own lust; they speak arrogantly, flattering people for the sake of gaining an advantage. 

Complainers walk after their own lusts, and their mouth speaks great swelling words, complimenting people for the sake of personal gain. Complainers usually complain because they’re lust has not been fed.

Psa 144 tells us that happiness belongs to those who don’t complain.

PSA 144:9-15, I will sing a new song to Thee, O God; Upon a harp of ten strings I will sing praises to Thee, Who dost give salvation to kings; Who dost rescue David His servant from the evil sword. Rescue me, and deliver me out of the hand of aliens,

Whose mouth speaks deceit, And whose right hand is a right hand of falsehood. Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, And our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace; {Let} our garners be full, furnishing every kind of produce, {And} our flocks bring forth housands and ten thousands in our fields; {Let} our cattle bear, Without mishap and without loss, {Let there be} no outcry in our streets!

How blessed or happy are the people who are so situated; How blessed are the people whose God is the Lord! Complainers are no fun to be around they live in self-pity and self-induced misery.

1SA 1:16, Count not thine handmaid for a daughter of Belial: for out of the abundance of my complaint and grief have I spoken hitherto.

Complaining causes believers to speak the wrong way and the wrong things.

PSA 55:2, “Give heed to me, and answer me; I am restless in my complaint and am surely distracted,”

PSA 55:17, “Evening and morning and at noon, I will complain and murmur, And He will hear my voice.”

JOB 7:13-14, “If I say, ‘My bed will comfort me, My couch will ease my complaint, Then Thou dost frighten me with dreams And terrify me by visions;

Here Job describes complaining as it relates to the subject of bitterness.

JOB 7:18, That Thou dost examine him every morning, And try him every moment?

That’s a false statement, God doesn’t examine Job every morning and try every moment.

So what’s the problem?

The problem with Job at this point is the fact that he is double-minded. Job has doctrine but he also has to deal with bitterness. Bitterness can come from the intensity of suffering of mind and body or from something that is difficult to bear, something that causes animosity and reaction. Bitterness is inconsistent and irrational. It is a major cause of problems in any kind of human relationships. Bitterness destroys the spiritual life.

Suffering causes bitterness to people who do not understand problem-solving devices, a fortiori principles, an the number one priority to relationship with God. Ridicule is also a source of bitterness, LAM 3:14. The people ridiculed Jeremiah because of their bitterness toward him.

LAM 3:14, I have become a laughingstock to all my people, Their {mocking} song all the day.

When truth is taught, people often react in bitterness. The bitter soul rejects Bible doctrine which is the only solution to bitterness.

JAM 3:14, But if you have bitter jealousy and strife in your right lobe, do not be arrogant and do not lie against the truth.

Bitterness and jealousy go together. A bitter person is a jealous person and causes strife. And when you are bitter, you actually tell yourself lies that are totally against the reality of doctrine and that’s what it means when it says–lying against the truth. Bitterness causes stress and complaining which is why Job said in 7:11, “Therefore, I will not restrain my mouth; I will speak in the stress of my mind, I will complain in the bitterness of my soul.”
Job would not restrain his mouth. The word anguish in JOB 7:11 is the Hebrew noun tsar which means stress. Job has converted adversity into stress in the soul through the use of bitterness. The result is complaining. The bitter soul is self-destructive. Bitterness motivates complaining and is self-destructive. All people who habitually complain are bitter people; they have no self-esteem. Most people think they have a right to complain. And complaining becomes a habit to those who habitually think only of themselves.

If this continues long enough, then JOB 10:1 occurs where Job literally will say, “I loathe my own life; I will give full vent to my complaint; I will speak in the bitterness of my soul.” You build up a self-righteous house of cards, and then you hate what you have done; you hate yourself.

Bitterness also motivates gossip and the creation of the public lie, PSA 64:3, “They have sharpened their tongue like a sword. They aimed their bitter speech like an arrow.”

The bitter soul is contagious and pollutes others in HEB 12:15, “See to it that no one comes short of the grace of God and that no root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by it many are polluted.” Grace-orientation and bitterness cannot co-exist. A bitter soul is a troubled soul. One bitter person contaminates many others in his or her periphery. The contamination occurs when you either believe the garbage coming from the bitter soul or react to the bitterness of another person. You can be in the presence of a bitter soul and not react.

When we react to the bitter soul of someone else, we lose spiritual strength. You are just as bad as the person with bitterness, when you react to them. When we react to a bitter or angry soul, we have failed as much as they have failed. So, you are defiled or polluted when you react to the bitterness in your own soul or the bitterness expressed by someone else. The more things in life to which we react, the more things in life that cause us to react. The more things that cause us to react, the greater our vulnerability to reaction. And you can actually react your way into a psychotic or neurotic believer.

Impersonal love is the problem solving device to deal with bitterness and anger in others. It avoids reaction to the bitter or angry soul. So bitterness is self-induced misery, as well as chain sinning. Bitterness is misery to others in your periphery. Bitterness means revenge motivation. But two wrongs never make a right. And you cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. The bitter soul contradicts the PPOG and must be removed from the life of the believer.

EPH 4:29-31, Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, that it may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice.

The sin of anger is a part of bitterness. You do not get angry unless you have bitterness in your soul. In anger, you react to someone you love.

Wrath is a strong hatred and resentment. In wrath, you react to someone you hate.

Clamor is loud, noisy, vociferous or boisterous confusion and quarreling.

Therefore, bitterness produces slandering others.

So a bitter person is a malicious person. Bitter people amplify the flaws of others out of proportion; they have multiplied them beyond reality. All of this comes back to increase the bitterness in their soul.

EPH 4:31-32, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. And be gracious to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.

Bitterness produces a hardness or harshness totally incompatible with grace orientation and contradictory to the PPOG. You cannot be grace-oriented when you are bitter, hateful, anger, or cruel toward someone. You have no right to bitterness. Bitterness assumes that you are right is someone else is wrong. Therefore, bitterness is divorced from reality.

Beware of always thinking that you are right and others are wrong. Bitterness refuses to take the responsibility for one’s own sins or failures and attaches the blame to others. Therefore, bitterness motivates revenge, which is a cop out of vindictiveness, an evasion of one’s responsibility, a compromise with doctrinal principles related to God’s grace. The result of bitterness plus vindictiveness is an arrogant, malicious resentment, an unforgiving mental attitude of resentment, and irreconcilable enmity which makes a person hard, unbending, and locked in self-righteousness. This is not the mandate of the Word of God, but evil. This is the antithesis of forgiving as Christ has forgiven in
EPH 4:32, And become gracious to one another, compassionate, and forgiving each other, just as God also by means of Christ has forgiven you.

Being kind is gracious action toward one another–the interaction of impersonal love among members of the body of Christ as the royal family of God. Being compassionate is the capacity for impersonal love for all mankind based on maximum metabolized doctrine circulating in the soul.

When you forgive someone, you forget it and move on, and you are never motivated by bitterness, implacability, vindictiveness, hatred, or any other reaction to seek revenge. The recovery from Bitterness is found in ISA 38:17, “Behold, bitterness became deliverance to me. In Your love You have delivered my soul out of the pit of destruction; for You have cast all my sins behind my back.”

Isaiah rebounded.