The apostate church = God's unfaithful people
Hosea 2:1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
God’s Unfaithful People
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
Your brothers and your sisters are not your mother. The condemnation is not on the believers but on the system. So if the church is apostate, if they worship Mary, or if they celebrate pagan festivals like Christmas and Easter, then that is not the sin of some brother or sister who just got saved, it is the sin that has been hidden in the three measures of meal which has leavened the whole lump.
3 Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.
Why do you think Christianity is losing members? They have been stripped naked. We have seen the lies, the hypocrisy and the sins of many of the Christian leaders and priests. They have also become a dry land. If you go to half of these Christian churches do you come away feeling refreshed and invigorated for the week to come? Over the last couple of years many crazy things have been happening and many people may have gone to church to hear their insight. Yet half the churches will not talk about these things, they have a mandate to not talk about the rapture, not talk about prophecies, not talk about the end times. So like the wise men from the east that came at the time of Jesus and went to Jerusalem these seekers realize these churches have nothing and so they leave and are even warned to not go back with a testimony of how they found Jesus.
4 “I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’
Again, we have to distinguish between the brothers, the sisters, the mother and her children. The Catholic church and the Protestant denominations are like a mother and her children. They all play the harlot. Why is it that the Catholic church controls some of the biggest banks in the world? Why are there denominations with a "billion dollar trust fund"? Prior to the pandemic you might think this is some looney tunes conspiracy theory. However, what happened during the pandemic? How is it that the churches, representing over 50% of America went along with a shutdown without a peep? Granted there were a few pastors and churches who did make a peep, but they did not represent the 50% of America, they were not in these big denominations. Yes, they made the claim that they were concerned about the health and welfare of society, and that is probably true of many useful idiots. But there were certainly enough educated biologists, virologists and doctors in the US to warn that this strategy was counter productive and negative. There were experts at the time who were arguing the shut down should be limited to those who are most vulnerable. If you let everyone else continue to go to school and work we will get to herd immunity quickest. They were censored. This is a standard understanding of how a virus is transmitted, it is "survival of the fittest" at its most basic core. Create an environment where the least virulent strains will be "fittest" and you will eliminate the virus the quickest. All you needed was thermometers at the door to make sure no one entered the building with a fever. The leaders of these churches are supposed to be shepherds of the sheep. Even if they themselves are not well educated on this they certainly have members of the church who are and who they could consult. Instead of guarding the sheep from the wolves they collaborated with the wolves.
6 “Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
We are seeing all kinds of thorny laws being passed which are hedging in these churches. If they don't comply they will be sued. If they do comply it will drive out every real believer they have. The church is supposed to take the narrow way that leads to life, instead they took the broad way which has led them to a briar patch and now they are surrounded by thorns. They thought that if they are good to the world the world will be good to them. The world lies in the evil one, they hate the church, you were played for a fool.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
8 For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
This is what the tribulation is. There will be famine, poverty, and nakedness. The apostate church will become the most despised people. The basic reason most people went there was they wanted "to just get along". "Let's not make waves". Unbelievers are "offended by gospel preachers" so let's not be so offensive. Stop talking about sin, stop talking about judgement and hell. As a result you stopped being a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.
What are the feast days of the apostate church? No doubt Christmas and Easter. I suppose in the US we have other holidays as well, Mother's day, Labor day, Memorial day, July 4th and Thanksgiving. But if we are talking about the apostate church and her "mirth" then we must be talking about Christmas. As one of the songs says "it is the happiest time of the year". It is certainly one of her appointed feasts. Notice, this is not one of God's appointed feasts. There is nothing in the New Testament or Old Testament suggesting that Christmas is an appointed feast of God. This is something that belongs solely to the apostate church. With Easter it comes at the same time as God's appointed feast of Passover and so there is a little overlap and confusion there. But that is not true of Christmas. Also Christmas is the perfect example of how the apostate church "chased her lovers". They claim that this toxic brew of Jesus born in a manger mixed with Santa Claus delivering presents in a sleigh is good for the gospel. The world completely embraces Xmas, the same cannot be said of Thanksgiving. The world hates the idea of "thanksgiving" and wants to call it indigenous people's day, so instead of a day of giving thanks to God it becomes a day of self flagellation for the sins of people committed centuries ago. Now if you destroy all her appointed feasts that tells me no one will be going to the church anymore. It will be deserted. Consider the rapture. Some churches will be raptured in mass. Those would be the ones you would want to go to but now they are all gone. Others will be left behind in mass, why would anyone want to continue to go there? They deceived you, they defrauded you.
12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
I was a stock broker in NYC and one of the largest funds in the city belonged to one of these denominations. They have trust funds where they may have a billion dollars invested. Being tax exempt and being around for two hundred years and you can grow an investment account.
13 I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.
Hosea 2:1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
God’s Unfaithful People
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
Your brothers and your sisters are not your mother. The condemnation is not on the believers but on the system. So if the church is apostate, if they worship Mary, or if they celebrate pagan festivals like Christmas and Easter, then that is not the sin of some brother or sister who just got saved, it is the sin that has been hidden in the three measures of meal which has leavened the whole lump.
3 Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.
Why do you think Christianity is losing members? They have been stripped naked. We have seen the lies, the hypocrisy and the sins of many of the Christian leaders and priests. They have also become a dry land. If you go to half of these Christian churches do you come away feeling refreshed and invigorated for the week to come? Over the last couple of years many crazy things have been happening and many people may have gone to church to hear their insight. Yet half the churches will not talk about these things, they have a mandate to not talk about the rapture, not talk about prophecies, not talk about the end times. So like the wise men from the east that came at the time of Jesus and went to Jerusalem these seekers realize these churches have nothing and so they leave and are even warned to not go back with a testimony of how they found Jesus.
4 “I will not have mercy on her children,
For they are the children of harlotry.
5 For their mother has played the harlot;
She who conceived them has behaved shamefully.
For she said, ‘I will go after my lovers,
Who give me my bread and my water,
My wool and my linen,
My oil and my drink.’
Again, we have to distinguish between the brothers, the sisters, the mother and her children. The Catholic church and the Protestant denominations are like a mother and her children. They all play the harlot. Why is it that the Catholic church controls some of the biggest banks in the world? Why are there denominations with a "billion dollar trust fund"? Prior to the pandemic you might think this is some looney tunes conspiracy theory. However, what happened during the pandemic? How is it that the churches, representing over 50% of America went along with a shutdown without a peep? Granted there were a few pastors and churches who did make a peep, but they did not represent the 50% of America, they were not in these big denominations. Yes, they made the claim that they were concerned about the health and welfare of society, and that is probably true of many useful idiots. But there were certainly enough educated biologists, virologists and doctors in the US to warn that this strategy was counter productive and negative. There were experts at the time who were arguing the shut down should be limited to those who are most vulnerable. If you let everyone else continue to go to school and work we will get to herd immunity quickest. They were censored. This is a standard understanding of how a virus is transmitted, it is "survival of the fittest" at its most basic core. Create an environment where the least virulent strains will be "fittest" and you will eliminate the virus the quickest. All you needed was thermometers at the door to make sure no one entered the building with a fever. The leaders of these churches are supposed to be shepherds of the sheep. Even if they themselves are not well educated on this they certainly have members of the church who are and who they could consult. Instead of guarding the sheep from the wolves they collaborated with the wolves.
6 “Therefore, behold,
I will hedge up your way with thorns,
And wall her in,
So that she cannot find her paths.
7 She will chase her lovers,
But not overtake them;
Yes, she will seek them, but not find them.
We are seeing all kinds of thorny laws being passed which are hedging in these churches. If they don't comply they will be sued. If they do comply it will drive out every real believer they have. The church is supposed to take the narrow way that leads to life, instead they took the broad way which has led them to a briar patch and now they are surrounded by thorns. They thought that if they are good to the world the world will be good to them. The world lies in the evil one, they hate the church, you were played for a fool.
Then she will say,
‘I will go and return to my first husband,
For then it was better for me than now.’
8 For she did not know
That I gave her grain, new wine, and oil,
And multiplied her silver and gold—
Which they prepared for Baal.
9 “Therefore I will return and take away
My grain in its time
And My new wine in its season,
And will take back My wool and My linen,
Given to cover her nakedness.
10 Now I will uncover her lewdness in the sight of her lovers,
And no one shall deliver her from My hand.
This is what the tribulation is. There will be famine, poverty, and nakedness. The apostate church will become the most despised people. The basic reason most people went there was they wanted "to just get along". "Let's not make waves". Unbelievers are "offended by gospel preachers" so let's not be so offensive. Stop talking about sin, stop talking about judgement and hell. As a result you stopped being a witness of the Lord Jesus Christ.
11 I will also cause all her mirth to cease,
Her feast days,
Her New Moons,
Her Sabbaths—
All her appointed feasts.
What are the feast days of the apostate church? No doubt Christmas and Easter. I suppose in the US we have other holidays as well, Mother's day, Labor day, Memorial day, July 4th and Thanksgiving. But if we are talking about the apostate church and her "mirth" then we must be talking about Christmas. As one of the songs says "it is the happiest time of the year". It is certainly one of her appointed feasts. Notice, this is not one of God's appointed feasts. There is nothing in the New Testament or Old Testament suggesting that Christmas is an appointed feast of God. This is something that belongs solely to the apostate church. With Easter it comes at the same time as God's appointed feast of Passover and so there is a little overlap and confusion there. But that is not true of Christmas. Also Christmas is the perfect example of how the apostate church "chased her lovers". They claim that this toxic brew of Jesus born in a manger mixed with Santa Claus delivering presents in a sleigh is good for the gospel. The world completely embraces Xmas, the same cannot be said of Thanksgiving. The world hates the idea of "thanksgiving" and wants to call it indigenous people's day, so instead of a day of giving thanks to God it becomes a day of self flagellation for the sins of people committed centuries ago. Now if you destroy all her appointed feasts that tells me no one will be going to the church anymore. It will be deserted. Consider the rapture. Some churches will be raptured in mass. Those would be the ones you would want to go to but now they are all gone. Others will be left behind in mass, why would anyone want to continue to go there? They deceived you, they defrauded you.
12 “And I will destroy her vines and her fig trees,
Of which she has said,
‘These are my wages that my lovers have given me.’
So I will make them a forest,
And the beasts of the field shall eat them.
I was a stock broker in NYC and one of the largest funds in the city belonged to one of these denominations. They have trust funds where they may have a billion dollars invested. Being tax exempt and being around for two hundred years and you can grow an investment account.
13 I will punish her
For the days of the Baals to which she burned incense.
She decked herself with her earrings and jewelry,
And went after her lovers;
But Me she forgot,” says the Lord.
