Ancient of Days Ahnsahnghong

The other day I started thinking about the cross. I was in a history class and we were discussing the methods of torture they used to use for serious criminals. Methods such as beheading by axe or sword, boiling to death, burned at the stake, I mean you, think of it they did it ( And if you think of that you're sick - - just kidding). But the worst method the Ancient Romans used to use was crucifixion. This method was kept for the most severe criminals because it was the most torturous. Some would be there over 6 hours suffering in agony until finally passing away. Then think about it, this is the method that they used to kill our one and only God when He came in the flesh. I wonder how God really feels about the cross. Almost every church that you pass has a cross somewhere existing whether outside or in. Yet that very cross is found all over cemetaries. A place of "life" and a place of "death". Then I started looking through the Bible to see if there's any reference to it and found some pretty interesting stuff.....


In John it says:
"Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life" (John 3:14)

So then I wondered...what does Moses lifting up the bronze snake have to do with Jesus being lifted up on the cross. What is the similarity?

In the book of Exodus chapter 21, it is said that the bronze snake was lifted up to save the Israelites from death. At that time they began complaining while traveling through the desert after being saved from slavery in Egypt by God. So God sent venomous snakes and many died due to their grumbling and complaining. They they realized they pleaded to God to forgive them and God commanded Moses to make a bronze snake and whoever looked at the bronze snake after being bitten would live. Now, obviously the bronze snake that Moses made had zero power, but where did the power come from?
Since God told them they would live if they looked at it, then they lived. Then automatically who should they give thanks to? the bronze snake or God?

Well do you know what those silly Israelites did?

2 Kings 18:1-4
[He (King Hezekiah) did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, just as his father David had done. He removed the high places, smashed the sacred stones and cut down the Asherah poles. He broke into pieces the bronze snake Moses had made, for up to that time the Israelites had been burning incense to it]

What does it mean when someone burns incense to something? worship
from 1446 BC to 562 BC the people were worshiping the bronze snake that God used to allow the Israelites to live. Does that make any sense whatsoever? Yet, as we saw in John what did the verse say? JUST AS moses lifted up the bronze snake, so the son of man must be lifted up.

Then what is it that must be understood from that verse?

Romans 15:4 [ For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us..]

Nowadays every church, every graveyard, and many Christians regard the cross as a piece of holy material. The very object that Jesus Christ was crucified on. Was it the piece of wood that Christ died on that saved us from our sins? or was it the Shedding of his blood and the promise that God spoke that gives us eternal life?

I always think of the scenario in this way. If my dad were killed by a gunman, the one thing I would never want to see again, is a gun. I wouldn't wear one around my neck, or keep one near me in rememberance of my dad. In the same way, our Father, in heaven, was killed by crucifixion, the worst possible way to die, and yet the cross is regarded as something holy and precious. Is it really?

The Prophet Jeremiah spoke about such things:
Jeremiah 10:3-5
[For the customs of the peoples are worthless; they cut a tree out of the forest, and a craftsman shapes it with his chisel. They adorn it with silver and gold; they fasten it with hammer and nails so it will not totter. Like a scarecrow in a melon patch, their idols cannot speak.]

This piece of wood, this idol that Jeremiah is prophesying about is described as a scarecrow...but ..What does a scarecrow in a melon patch look like?



What does that look very similar to?




Jeremiah prophesied that people would make idols out of the crucific, just as the Isrealites during the time of Moses made an idol out of the bronze snake.

Okay, so clearly in the Word of God, the crucifix is considered to be an idol, then is it good to have an idol in the eyes of God?

The very second of commandment of God tells us very clearly
Exodus 20:4
[You shall NOT make for yourself an idol in the form of anything...You shall not bow down to them or worship them]

But what will happen if we do?

Deuteronomy 27:15
[Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol-a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of the craftsman's hands - and sets it up in secret]

So even though I am in a place of worship, if any type of idol is existing, can blessings be received? Not according to the Bible. God said cursed is that man who casts the idol, even if it is in secret. Now this is very serious if you think about it, how many churches have idols? Almost every single one. But is that following the word of God? Can blessings be found in a place that casts idols?


Jeremiah 2:27-28
[They say to wood you are my father, and to stone you gave me birth. They have turned their backs to me and not their faces; Yet when they are in trouble they say, "Come and save us!" Where then are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save you]

Here the book of Jeremiah is prophesying about today. Who died on a piece of wood? Our Father from heaven. What image is carved out of stone that people call mother? The virgin mary. Not only are they idols, but what else does God consider them? Other gods

So Idolatry something that, mind you, is detestable to God, is breaking not only the second Commandment, but also the first, which says "You shall have no other gods before me".

Its incredible how every truth of the Bible has been revealed through the Church of God World Mission Society. I walked around my entire life up until now with a curse around my neck, not realizing I carried around the very thing that God finds detestable.

In the time of Hezekiah's reign, he did what was right in the eyes of the Lord, then what did he do? He smashed every idol, including the bronze snake. This is the history that we must learn from, that through their wrongdoings we may have hope in learning the error of our ways.

Jeremiah 10:1/8
"Do not learn the ways of the nations....they are senseless and foolish; they are taught by worthless wooden idols"