We received the following mass e-mail (images removed):
God has seen you struggling,
God says it’s over.
A blessing is coming your way. If you believe in God , please send to ten people (including me) please don’t ignore this.
You are being tested.
YOU HAVE 20 MINUTES TO TELL FRIENDS THAT YOU LOVE THEM (INCLUDING ME) SO I LOVE YOU! GO!
Victor’s reply:
These messages, which presume to represent goodness, love, and God Himself, come straight from the pits of Hell. They are those things that men savor, and you should know who savors that which men savor:
“From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised again the third day. Then Peter took Him and began to rebuke Him, saying, God be gracious to You, Lord! This shall never be to You. But He turned and said to Peter, Go, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you do not savor the things that are of God, but those that are of men” (Matthew 16:21-23 MKJV).
First of all, does this message apply to everyone, or to everyone on the mailing list, or simply to everyone the sender would like it to apply? Of course, God sees suffering. He sees all things, as we know. But this message presumes to know God’s mind and actually quotes Him: “God says it [the struggling] is over.”
But did God say the struggling for anyone on the mailing list is over? If He did, fine; that would be nice, but did He say it? Or is the sender or relayer of this message putting words in His mouth just to make someone feel good? If you are speaking as a mouthpiece or representative for God, saying He said something when He did not say it, makes you a false prophet. It makes you a liar because you attribute words to Him that He did not speak. Does He say to all, “Your struggles are over”? Try measuring your words or words you say He says by so many things He says in His Word:
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
(15) And it shall be, if you will not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, all these curses shall come on you and overtake you.
(16) You shall be cursed in the city, and cursed in the field.
(17) Your basket and your store shall be cursed.
(18) The fruit of your body shall be cursed, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cows, and the flocks of your sheep.
(19) You shall be cursed when you come in, and cursed when you go out.
(20) The LORD shall send on you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings by which you have forsaken Me.
(21) The LORD shall make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you go to possess it.
(22) The LORD shall strike you with lung disease and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew. And they shall pursue you until you perish.
(23) And your heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth that is under you iron.
(24) The LORD shall make the rain of your land powder and dust. It shall come down from the heavens on you until you are destroyed.
(25) The LORD shall cause you to be stricken before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them, and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a trembling to all the kingdoms of the earth.
(26) And your body shall be food to all birds of the air, and to the beasts of the earth. And no man shall frighten them away.
(27) The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, of which you cannot be healed.
(28) The LORD shall strike you with madness and blindness, and astonishment of heart.
(29) And you shall grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall always be pressed down and spoiled forever, and no man shall save you.
(30) You shall become engaged to a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, and you shall not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, and you shall not gather the grapes of it.
(31) Your ox shall be slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it. Your ass shall be violently taken away from before your face, and shall not be restored to you, your sheep given to your enemies, and you shall have none to rescue them.
(32) Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail for them all the day long. And there shall be no power in your hand.
(33) The fruit of your land, and all your labors, shall be eaten up by a nation which you do not know. And you shall always be oppressed and crushed,
(34) and you shall be mad because of that which you shall see with the sight of your eyes.
(35) The LORD shall strike you in the knees and in the legs with an evil ulcer that cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
(36) The LORD shall bring you, and your king which you shall set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone.
(37) And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word among all nations where the LORD shall lead you.
(38) You shall carry much seed out into the field, and shall gather little in, for the locust shall eat it.
(39) You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but shall neither drink the wine nor gather, for the worm shall eat them.
(40) You shall have olive trees throughout all your coasts, but you shall not anoint with the oil, for your olive shall drop off its fruit.
(41) You shall father sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity.
(42) All your trees and the fruit of your land the locust shall possess.
(43) The stranger within you shall get up above you very high, and you shall come down very low.
(44) He shall loan to you, and you shall not loan to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
(45) And all these curses shall come on you, and shall pursue you and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you.
(46) And they shall be on you for a sign and for a wonder, and on your seed forever.
(47) Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all things;
(48) therefore you shall serve your enemies which the LORD shall send against you, in hunger, and in thirst, and in nakedness, and in the lack of all things. And He shall put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you.
(49) The LORD shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose tongue you shall not understand,
(50) a nation fierce of face who shall not regard the person of the old, nor show favor to the young.
(51) And he shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land, until you are destroyed. He shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you.
(52) And he shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down, throughout all the land. And he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the LORD your God has given you.
(53) And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, which the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you.
(54) The man that is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his sons which he has left;
(55) so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his sons whom he shall eat, because he has nothing left to him in the siege and in the anguish with which your enemies shall distress you in all your gates.
(56) The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not have ventured to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom, and toward her son, and toward her daughter,
(57) and toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her sons whom she shall bear. For she shall eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and anguish with which your enemies shall distress you in your gates.
(58) If you will not observe to do all the words of this Law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD YOUR GOD,
(59) then the LORD will make your plagues remarkable, and the plagues of your seed great and persistent plagues; with evil and long-lasting sicknesses.
(60) Also, He will bring on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid. And they shall cling to you.
(61) Also, every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this Law, the LORD will bring them on you until you are destroyed.
(62) And you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of the heavens for multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.
(63) And it shall be, as the LORD rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the LORD will rejoice over you to destroy you and to bring you to nothing. And you shall be plucked from off the land where you go to possess it.
(64) And the LORD shall scatter you among all people, from the one end of the earth even to the other, and you shall serve other gods there, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.
(65) And among these nations you shall find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest. But the LORD shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind.
(66) And your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of your life.
(67) In the morning you shall say, Oh that it were evening! And at evening you shall say, Oh that it were morning, for the fear of your heart with which you shall fear, and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see.
(68) And the LORD shall bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I said to you, You shall see it no more again. And there you shall be sold to your enemies for men-slaves and women-slaves, and no man shall buy you.
Your fuzzy little seals, bunny rabbits, butterflies, fairytale angels, and fairies don’t cut it with God. It is all uncastrated adult male bovine excrement. That is what it is and all messages like it. Those who send these messages are guilty of all that is mentioned by God in the above passages – yes, they are.
People who send messages like this sometimes quote this passage to justify themselves:
“Finally, my brothers, whatever things are true, whatever things are honest, whatever things are right, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report; if there is any virtue and if there is any praise, think on these things” (Philippians 4:8 MKJV).
The problem is that while they pick up on “whatever things are lovely,” they ignore the rest of the passage. They interpret in a perverse way the meaning of the words “virtuous,” “pure,” and “good report.” They fail to know and understand what God determines is virtuous, pure, of good report, and worthy of praise.
The truth and honesty mentioned in this passage are the greatest casualties of all. Are the things in these pictures true? Do these pictures represent things as they are? Who has seen them? Where has God ever given people vain thoughts to replace reality? No, these things come from those prophets who cry, “Peace, peace,” when in reality, destruction approaches because people refuse to repent of their sins. They would rather indulge in their vain imaginations.
“Because, knowing God, they did not glorify Him as God, neither were thankful. But they became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened” (Romans 1:21 MKJV).
“For everyone from the least of them even to the greatest of them cuts off a profit; and from the prophet even to the priest everyone deals falsely. They have also healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace, when there is no peace. Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? No, they were not at all ashamed, nor could they blush; therefore they shall fall among those who fall. At the time that I visit them they shall be cast down, says the LORD. So says the LORD, Stand in the ways and see, and ask for the old paths where the good way is, and walk in it, and you shall find rest for your souls. But they said, We will not walk in it” (Jeremiah 6:13-16).
“Too much Scripture! This isn’t what we want! This is law and bondage!” you cry in your heart of hearts. “What’s wrong with blessings and good things, anyway?”
Are blessings and good things indeed coming your way? If you are suffering because of your sins and in depression because of wrongful living, ignoring God and His Law, you will perish in your sins; there is no blessing coming forth.
Do you think that because you believe in God, which this message asks if you do, that you are right with Him? Think again:
“Do I hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful [for example – by passing on this message]? That’s just great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them?” (James 2:19 MSG)
Indeed, recipients of this message are being tested. They are being tested to see if they will believe this garbage and go on in their airy-fairy vain hopes, wishful thinking, and all their daily destructives, passing them on to others, or will they repent when they hear the other side, the Truth, as we write here, and realize there is much more to ending struggles and receiving the blessing of God than by imagining, wishing, or thinking it so?
So I have 20 minutes to tell someone I love them, you say? Who sets the limit? You? Liar! God commands that we love Him and our neighbor 24/7, by a new nature from Him, not by telling our neighbor so, but by speaking the truth and letting him know, for everyone’s good that notions expressed in “A TEST” are abomination to God.
You want love? You want truth? You want escape from your horrid troubles you have brought on yourself and those in your care? Then go to thepathoftruth.com, and there you will find reality. There you will find the answers to questions you ought to be asking yourself. There you will find the answers and rebuke to the harlot religious systems that flatter and promote putrid falsehood as contained in this circulation. There you will find the true path to God, Lord willing; only He can give it.
Victor Hafichuk