A Case for Praying Against the Wicked
In the hollowed-out landscape of modern Christendom, the command to “love your enemies” has been weaponized into a lethal cliché. It is no longer a call to personal piety but a conversational shield deployed to silence any defense of the faith or the nation. Whenever a voice is raised against the subverters of our civilization, a gaggle of modern ministers inevitably “rattles off” a sanitized version of Matthew 5 to enforce a policy of total, suicidal passivity.
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Should We Pray Against Enemies
Should we pray against our enemies? That is the title and subject I had chosen. Brother Snook covered a little portion of that, and I think it is time for God’s people to realize that we might have other things to pray about, or other people to pray about, than continually praying that God do such and so for us. Perhaps we should pray that God would do such and so to some enemies of the Israel people.
Turn to Matthew 5. Most of you know these verses of Scripture because every time there is any voice in the church raised in opposition to the enemies of Christendom or the enemies of our country, someone rattles off at least a portion of these verses.
Matthew 5:43-44 says, “Ye have heard that it hath been said, Thou shalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy. But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.”
This is usually paraphrased and not quoted exactly by ministers. Whenever they hear any criticism of someone other than their people inside that specific church, they say, “Oh, but we must love our enemies.” As Brother Snook pointed out, the misuse of this quotation, “Love your enemies,” is on the verge of destroying our civilization.
All the way from the criminal to the traitor in this land, we are told that we must love him and treat him just as we would a law-abiding person or a Christian. We are told we must love them regardless of what happens. And all of these verses of Scripture, especially in this end of the age, should be read in the Bible to understand not only what they do say, but also what they do not say.
Before we reread that passage to see what it does not say, turn with me to the parable of the tares in Matthew 13. Jesus was telling what He had identified as a kingdom parable. Starting in verse 24, “Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field.”
Then, of course, He explained this parable in later verses, including verse 37: “He that soweth the good seed is the Son of man.” So we know that the person referred to here as sowing the good seed would, of course, be Jesus Christ.
Verse 25 says, “But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.” So here we find that there is such a thing as the enemy of the Son of man, or the enemy of Jesus Christ, who is responsible for sowing those tares in this parable.
If you will turn to Luke 19, you find a verse of Scripture there which the fundamentalist hardly ever reads. This is at the end of another parable, and it ends with these words in verse 27: “But those mine enemies, which would not that I should reign over them, bring hither, and slay them before me.”
So here is Jesus Christ, the God and Redeemer of Israel, continuing again with kingdom parables, telling stories that have to do with the same subject that we read about in Matthew 13, where He mentions enemies: His enemies, the enemies of Christ. Here He refers to them as “mine enemies,” identifies their actions as those who would not have Him rule over them, and says, “Bring hither, and slay them before me.”
Now, is it not strange that it seems, from these passages, that the God of Israel tells us that all we are to do with our enemies is love them, while He is going to dispose of His? Yet God tells us throughout the Scripture that we are to be likened unto Him, and that He has one rule for righteousness, mercy, and justice. Even so, we seem to have been given another rule here in Matthew 5.
Let us read that verse again. Matthew 5:44 says, “But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you.” You can read that over a dozen times, and you can try it if you wish, and we find that God has given us the word “you” or “your” five times in that verse. I believe that makes it very plain that these are personal enemies.
There is not one indication in those verses, or in that passage, that these would be the enemies of Christ. He speaks of your enemies.
Now turn with me to Psalm 139. Brother Snook alluded to that passage. He did not read it, but we will. This is David, and we would have to consider that David would be writing something that would be pretty much in line with God’s thought. In fact, as you read some of these psalms, you recognize that they are, in effect, the words and teachings of Jesus Christ, the greater David, Christ speaking through David, the mortal David.
Psalm 139 begins in verse 19: “Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men. For they speak against thee wickedly, and thine enemies take thy name in vain. Do not I hate them, O LORD, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies.”
David here is talking about the enemies of God. So you see, apparently there are two kinds of enemies that we can have. We can have an enemy which Christ tells us about in Matthew 5, where He gives us the personal pronouns and continues to speak of your enemy. These are the ones who despitefully use you, but there is no indication that they are the enemies of Jesus Christ, the God of Israel.
But here, when talking about the enemies of God, the psalmist says he hates them with a perfect hatred and counts them as his enemies. If we are to accept the teaching of some people that we must love the enemies of God, we would have to say that David is very, very wrong. In fact, David would stand corrected in practically every church I know of in America today.
They would revise this and say, “Well, David was mistaken. He did not understand that these people were the victims of their society.” Or they had not had a good upbringing, or they might have been raised in a log cabin, and of course, then they were criminals. Right? They did not understand that. But David said that those who rise up against God and those who take His name in vain speak against Him wickedly. David counted them as his enemies, and he hated them.
Let us turn back further in the Psalms and find what David says. There are a number of references in the first two psalms specifically. We will read just a few. Psalm 5:8 says, “Lead me, O LORD, in thy righteousness because of mine enemies; make thy way straight before my face.”
Then he describes these enemies: “For there is no faithfulness in their mouth; their inward part is very wickedness; their throat is an open sepulchre; they flatter with their tongue.” These must be rather wicked people to be described that way by David.
Then he says, “Destroy thou them, O God; let them fall by their own counsels; cast them out in the multitude of their transgressions; for they have rebelled against thee.” David did not pray to God for relief from his own personal, private enemy. If you read the historical books of Scripture, you know that David settled with some of those enemies in different ways, including outright forgiveness in some cases.
In some cases, he forgave them if certain things transpired, and they would not be punished. But in the case of those who conspire and rebel against God, David apparently felt it was scriptural and right in the sight of God actually to pray that God destroy them. As we read in the other psalm, he said, “I know you are going to destroy them.” Here he actually prays that God would do such and so.
Psalm 10 begins: “Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble? The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined. For the wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.”
Notice this little phrase: “The wicked boasteth of his heart’s desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.” During the last two years, many of us have come to realize that we are ruled in this land by a group of people who seem to believe that thievery is a good thing for their reputation and promotion in government. In fact, they actually praise men who are sometimes later exposed as being deceived.
You can read in the newspapers almost every month in America today of some man who was arrested for a crime. He had a few pounds of marijuana, or he stole a hundred dollars in some grocery store, and they will give him one, two, three, five, or ten years in prison. Arizona recently passed a law requiring a mandatory five years in prison for robbery with a gun.
We have situations here, and I know you have them in California because I read about them all the time, where men called bankers use their banks to swindle millions of dollars from people. In some cases, they take so much money out of the bank they operate, and sometimes even preside over, that the bank collapses.
Not too long ago, one man was convicted, and I cannot give you the location, but the total amount that he supposedly took out in fraudulent loans and so on from his bank amounted to over $13 million. He received a sentence of eighteen months in prison, and apparently most of the money was gone, perhaps overseas in Switzerland or wherever it might be.
The whole nature of our government seems to be turned toward protecting the covetous, and we have ministers who praise politicians that you and I know are criminals. I listened to one man on the radio not too long ago, and he repeated three times so his listeners understood it: “I want you to understand I love the president of the United States.” He was, in effect, praising him and saying that, as a minister, he certainly loved our president.
Well, some of you know that we have not had a president who has looked after the poor, the righteous, and the ways of the good people in this land for about two generations, and it is getting worse with each succeeding president. But here David is talking about this situation where the wicked bless the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.
Psalm 10 continues: “The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts. His ways are always grievous; thy judgments are far above out of his sight: as for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. He hath said in his heart, I shall not be moved: for I shall never be in adversity.”
I think it is of great significance that the communists and the Antichrist actually have a song they sing, and you know about it, titled “I Shall Not Be Moved.” Here David says of the wicked, those who hate God and those who do cruel and vicious things, that they actually say and believe this.
Psalm 10 continues: “His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.” Verse 13 says, “Wherefore doth the wicked contemn God? he hath said in his heart, Thou wilt not require it.” In other words, the wicked say, “We can do such and so because God is not going to punish us for doing it.”
Have you ever thought that this really is the great theme of the fundamentalist churches today? They say, “God is not going to punish you for whatever you do.” And here David says, “This is what the wicked say.”
Verse 14 says, “Thou hast seen it; for thou beholdest mischief and spite, to requite it with thy hand: the poor committeth himself unto thee; thou art the helper of the fatherless.” Then this good, godly man says in verse 15, “Break thou the arm of the wicked and the evil man: seek out his wickedness till thou find none.” These are actually prayers that David is making.
We see them in all of these first passages, the first ten chapters specifically. I do not want to read any more. You know what I am talking about there. But I want to call your attention to some things that you may have seen recently, and I think they are good subjects for prayer for the destruction of the wicked by God’s people.
Some of you have heard of what is called the Jews for Jesus movement. They have had quite a bit of publicity in the United States. Some of those people, by the way, have been on our local Christian radio station and interviewed, and the announcers, to tell you the truth, almost unbelievably fawn upon them. They have in their studio this converted Jew who believes in Jesus, and they get very excited.
Here is some of their publication material, and I understand from the source from whom I obtained these that they are primarily used for distribution on college and high school campuses, especially college campuses. Here is one titled “Passover.” It has cartoons and words, and I am going to read to you what the Jews for Jesus distribute to our nineteen-, twenty-, twenty-one-, and twenty-two-year-old young people on college campuses. It says inside, and it is partially illustrated:
“Pharaoh said, I don’t know you, but since you are living in the land, you can be my slaves. Make bricks for me and I’ll let some of you live. Now, Pharaoh didn’t even know the Jews, but more important, he didn’t know that the Jews were God’s chosen people. He thought he could do what he wanted, and he did for a long, long time. However, the cry of the Israelites came up before God. So God sent Moses to say, Let my people go.”
Then they have a drawing showing four or five people with chains, and they are saying, “I thought that it was rather insolent, disrespectful, and otherwise obnoxious for Moses to behave this way.” Pharaoh said no, no, ten times no. He should have had the good sense to say yes from the beginning. As it was, all the Egyptians got boils on their bodies, frogs in their soup, darkness over their land, and all kinds of other tsuris, which is apparently a word that means trouble according to the footnote, just because Pharaoh said no to God.
In the end, things got so heavy that Pharaoh finally had to say yes, though he still really did not want to. You would think that some nations would learn a lesson from history, but they do not. They still say no with regard to the Jews. What is worse, they do not even know that they are saying no to God. The Hamans, Herods, and Hitlers of the world still think they can foil the plans of the Almighty.
Then this is on the last inside page: “God created the Jewish people to bless the nations. Genesis 12:3. It was through the Jewish people that the Bible came into being. It was through the Jewish people that God demonstrated his faithfulness. It was through the Jewish people that the Messiah, Jesus, came to earth to save everyone from sin and death. And so, unless you want to be plagued by God, you’d better be nice to the Jews.”
Now, I would say that this kind of thing would gain no headway on any college campus in America except that the fundamentalist churches and ministers have conditioned these young people back home to accept this as if it came directly from God. Our people are being conditioned to worship the Jews.
Most of you know, from at least a little examination of all the Antichrist activity in this United States and around Christendom, that it is Jews who are behind all of the things which are working to destroy Christendom. All the way from communism to the organizations in America that try to take the Bible from us and corrupt it, we find the Jew. Yet we are told we dare not do anything with him. If we get a little more serious about it, they say, “Oh, remember, you are supposed to love your enemies.”
Well, these people happen to be, as you know from the Scripture and from what is going on in America today, the enemies of God. When I was in Florida about three months ago, someone brought this to our meeting in Fort Lauderdale. It was an advertisement in the local newspaper for a Jack Van Impe meeting. “Come and hear Jack Van Impe.” You will notice it has the word “Shalom” and the six-pointed star up in the corner. The message is “The Middle East and World War III,” and it says here, “Dr. Jack Van Impe at our Jewish Appreciation Night.”
I have something else here we are going to reprint, and I think this is as good a place to read it as any. Some of you may or may not have heard of this. It was given to me by a lady from our church. You perhaps have seen the magazine. The title is People. This is an issue with Billy Graham’s picture on the front cover, dated December 22, 1975.
Now I want to read some questions from this interview, along with Billy Graham’s answers. Think with me as you hear this question: “Have you been surprised by your success?” Answer: “Extremely. There were two men who were the keys to my impact and success. One was William Randolph Hearst. I never met him, but I was told by William Randolph Hearst Jr. that one night in 1949, his father came with Marion Davies to a service out of curiosity, went back to the office, and sent a two-word teletype to all of his newspapers: Puff Graham. The next night, the place was crawling with reporters and photographers. I said, What happened? They said, You’ve just been kissed by William Randolph Hearst.”
In other words, Billy Graham’s answer to his success is not to say, “Well, God has blessed my ministry.” He said, in effect, “No, William Randolph Hearst kissed my ministry.” Now there is one more. He said there were two. Who was the other man? Answer: “Henry Luce. At Bernard Baruch’s suggestion, Mr. Luce got on an airplane and flew to Columbia, South Carolina, where I was preaching, and spent three days with me. We stayed in the same house. He wanted to see if I was real. We would sit up until 2:00 a.m. talking. After that, I was on the cover of Life two times and the cover of Time once.”
What I am reading to you is that Billy Graham is known as the spokesman for Christianity today because the leader of Western Hemisphere Jewry, Bernard Baruch, picked him out to do what he is doing in America today. And God help kingdom ministers who do not recognize that Billy Graham is the enemy of the children of Israel and of God Almighty.
He was not chosen by God. He admits himself that his success came from two men, William Randolph Hearst and Henry Luce. But can you imagine the busy publisher of Time-Life magazine taking three days off unless he had to accept the orders of Bernard Baruch and say, “Go see this man. We can use him”?
Now, I know from the messages you have had here before, and praise God for every one of them, that God Almighty is going to work a work in this land. God Almighty is going to cleanse this nation of its enemy. But I think it is about time that Israel began to recognize that there are many people in this land and in Christendom who pose as Christians, but who are not Christians, and are instead the enemies of Jesus Christ.
Find out where it came from. Find out who promotes them. Find out whom they promote. Jesus Christ said, “By their fruits ye shall know them.” You know, and I know, that if you reach a Billy Graham convert with the gospel of the kingdom, it is a very strange circumstance. Their eyes and ears seem to be closed by some strange force. Once they accept the doctrine preached by Billy Graham, they are practically closed in their minds to the Bible truth.
Billy Graham has been in and out of scores of American cities and supposedly has brought millions of people to Christ. His doctrine is very similar, or almost identical, to that preached in most churches in America. And what is happening to America? We are going down into sin and corruption. America is not being converted by this gospel preached by the man chosen by Bernard Baruch to be the spokesman for Christendom.
If there is anyone in this room who does not understand who Bernard Baruch is, he is a Jew. During his lifetime, he apparently was the boss man of all Jewry in the Western Hemisphere. They called him adviser to presidents. Many of us suspect that Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Harry Truman were under the direct orders of Bernard Baruch. They could not do anything unless Bernard Baruch told them what to do.
Turn with me to Jude. This is the small chapter at the very end of the New Testament, the last letter. Verse 3 says, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.”
In other words, when I wrote to you about the salvation that comes through Jesus Christ, the salvation which came to Israel, it was also necessary that I exhort you to earnestly contend for this faith which was once delivered unto the saints. Here is the reason, from verse 4: “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Now, we err when we think that the denial of Jesus Christ comes only from people who stand up and say, “I do not believe in Christ.” In fact, the greatest denial of Christ, and the most deceptive denial, comes from the man who says, “I believe in Christ,” and then proceeds to teach false doctrine in the name of Jesus Christ.
Denying the truth and the preaching of the gospel is the most effective, deadly, satanic method of denying Christ. We are told in this letter, the very last letter, that we must earnestly contend for the faith because this has happened.
Turn with me to 2 Corinthians 11. I want to close with this admonition from the Scripture. Paul wrote a whole chapter here, mostly talking about himself, because these people seemed to be turning to other men. Verse 3 says, “But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”
Here is the way they would be corrupted, from verse 4: “For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” In other words, notice that Paul’s worry was not that the atheist would come to you and convince you that Jesus Christ did not exist. Paul’s concern was that they would come to you and corrupt the gospel of Christ by preaching another gospel.
Then he tells them in the last part of verse 4, “which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him.” The margin says it should read, “You might well bear with me.” In other words, you stay with me and my gospel when these other men come preaching something else. Then he gives some of his own experiences here to prove partially why they should stay with him.
Then he says this in verses 13-15, speaking again of those who had come and preached another gospel and another Jesus: “For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ. And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.”
In other words, we are warned in the Bible itself that the greatest danger to Christendom would come from men who came in the name of Jesus Christ, preached a corrupted gospel, and led Israel away from the truth. I say they are the enemies of God because they are trying to frustrate His plans. They are trying to destroy the Israel people with their false gospel.
I think it is about time that, instead of praying for that kind of minister, Israel began to pray, “God, shut them up. Get them out of the way that Your word may have free rein in the land of Israel, because God’s word will deliver this nation.”
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