PRETEND AUTHORITY
Herod Antipas was anxious to see Jesus. He was a famous man
and had “entertained” the multitudes for quite some time. “When Herod saw
Jesus, he was exceeding glad: for he was desirous to see him of a long season,
because he had heard many things of him; and he hoped to have seen some miracle
done by him” (Luke 23:8). Everyone wants to be entertained and Jesus had become
quite famous. The “miracles” that Jesus had done were sleight of hand to Herod.
By that time, the notoriety of Simon Magnus was known throughout the empire, and
Jesus was said to be better than Simon! It was Jesus’s time to demonstrate that
Israel’s Got Talent.
“The Jews and said unto him, ‘What sign shewest thou unto
us, seeing that thou doest these things?’ Jesus answered and said unto them, ‘Destroy
this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (John 2:18-19). By that, “Jesus”
would be tested by Herod. He would have to wait awhile for the “magic show” for
the Temple would not be torn down for seventy-years, and ultimately the Jews were
responsible for the destruction of their own holy property. (Did the American
mobs copy the zealots that caused Titus to destroy their own temple? They were
surely oblivious of that, but mobs cause authorities to react. Now the mob cuts
out the middlemen by destroying their own buildings.)
The first temple, Solomon’s, was destroyed by the Suleucid
Empire and Judaism outlawed. The Maccabee family gained the independence of Judea
for a short while. They rededicated the Second Temple which had mostly been destroyed
when Babylon defeated and dispersed the Jews.
Solomon dedicated his Temple to God (1 King 8:62-64), but God
was there filling the Temple with His Holy Spirit. The Second Temple was
dedicated, but God was not there, and its improvement and enlargement by Herod
was done without the Presence of God. The “holy” temple was an unholy place, but
the Jewish people depended on it for their existence.
One excuse for Jesus’s indictment was that he was going to
tear down their precious temple. Jesus, they believed, would displace the Kingdom
of Herod with the Kingdom of Jesus. They had expected a “soldier king” on the
order of Hasmoneus.
Rather, they had gotten a priest on the order of Melchisedec:
11 If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? …17 Thou art (Jesus) a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec. (Heb 7:11,17)
The high priest would be upset; he was a Levite of the Aaronic
priesthood, and here was Jesus; ready to overthrow the high priest. Not only
that, but Antipas finally saw Jesus, not as the “court jester” but a pretender
to His throne. Jesus came to be both King and Royal Priest! Like the high
priests before him, Herod saw Jesus as a threat to his power. Herod, like the
high priests and the mob, needed a pretense for Jesus’s indictment. As
Jesus stood before Herod, the chief priests and scribes, “stood and vehemently
accused Jesus.” It is supposed that Jesus’s “trick” would involve tearing down
the Temple that Herod the Great had built, and the chief priests and scribes had
a passion for that Temple building. Of course, the “trick” that Jesus would
perform was reality and it would be done shortly, not right then. He allowed Himself
to be torn down and rebuilt in three days. Of course, that refers to His death
and resurrection. Pass the cup, please. No! Jesus would perform that miracle;
Simon Magus was nowhere in sight.
Simon Magus was tolerated, unlike Jesus. History revealed
that Simon could levitate (fly) and even proclaimed himself the “Christ.” Simon was the founder of Anti-Christianity (aka
Gnosticism). In 1945, the Gnostic Gospels were found in Nag Hammadi, Egypt.
Those false gospels made Jesus a licentious phantasm, yet millions of people to
this day accept them as truthful, while at the same time deny the true Gospels.
That was Simon’s trick, but he wasn’t there to compete with Jesus, although
later on he did with Paul, as is written, “There was given to me a thorn in the
flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me” (2 Cor 12:7). It is deduced that
Simon was Paul’s “thorn” because he had his own travels around the empire much
like Paul. Much of Paul’s preaching was against Gnosticism and false prophets.
Herod, however, would not tolerate Jesus. Herod and his personal
guards disparaged Jesus with contempt (Luke 23:10) and made Jesus a pretend
king just like him (Luke 23:11). That Jesus would tear down the Temple and
rebuild it in three days was absurd! Herod would not even test Jesus or His Power.
Neither did he understand that Jesus’s “trick” would be sacrificing Himself to
death and then resurrecting! People to this day still fail to understand that, and
that happened but was no trick. There was no stand-in (no Judas) and no
phantasm. Jesus did it all and paid it all!
Herod lived a fantasy. He lived as if he was king
just as Annas as if he was still high priest. Sinners are guilty too;
they live as if they are gods. Herod was not truly a king and Annas not
a high priest. Caiaphas allowed Annas to live that fantasy, and Caesar allowed
Herod to live his. Judea was Herod’s and Annas’s “autonomous zone” but they
really had no power there. Ironically, what little power they had was thanks to
the Roman government turning a blind eye, and Pilate placating those pretenders.
Is that much like the Seattle autonomous zone where inane and insane pretenders
pretended that they had power. Was not their power vested in the police who
placated them, and the mayor and governor who let them pretend?
Where was Caesar when all this was happening? He was in his
capitol waiting for Herod and Pilate to control the mob. He was waiting
patiently just as President Trump has patiently awaited on Washington State to
regain their empire. Again, there is nothing new under the sun.
Herod had not even allowed Jesus to explain Himself. How
would Jesus destroy the Temple and rebuild it in three days? He ridiculed that
as absurd. Even God could not do that! That would be less believable than Trump
as a “Russian Spy.” Herod is typical of Hillary Clinton, the pretend “President.”
She keeps insisting that she won fairly and is the rightful heir to Obama. Take
your meds, Hillary, and write your grand speeches. Take your meds, Herod, and
make Jesus a pretend king like yourself!
Pilate and Herod became friends that day; the day that Jesus
was ridiculed for sacrificing Himself for them. Jesus is always ridiculed, and
His Power denied. He is accustomed to that, and even today, pretend
important people still do that. Discerning Christians all along realized that
first the mob came for statues of confederate heroes, and next would come statues
of American heroes. They knew soon they would come for the “statues” of Jesus —
the Bride of Christ herself — the Church, and now they have. It remains Jesus
who the mob is after and the Church is in the way. What should Christians do?
Pray and fast because the Church is inhabited by demonic spirits and, “This
kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting” (Mat 17:21).
Pray first for the heretical mainstream churches that allow the
propagation of abortion, same-sex marriage, and other Nicolaitane doctrines that
God hates so intensely (Rev 2:6). Pray also that demonic spirits be cast out of
the mob into real pigs, according to Scripture, not the policemen. Is
that not what the mob is doing? Casting their demons into the “pigs” (policemen)
just as Jesus did with them in the country of the Gergesenes (Mat 8:32)? The
policemen do not have the demons; the mob does.
What did Herod do with Jesus? Realizing that he had no real
power, he also feared that if he freed Jesus, the mob would turn on him. Few
had any respect at all for this pretend king and would not have tolerated his
fake form of justice or his pretend policemen. Herod knew that the only power
that He had was the same as Pilate — only the power authorized by Caesar, and Caesar
would allow both to be pretend leaders. Before, Herod and Pilate, both
pretending for power, had enmity for each other. “That very day Pilate and Herod
became friends with each other” (Luke 23:12). They pretended together as if
they were kings. The common enemy had brought them together.
The mob today is made up of diverse groups of people. For
the purpose of destroying Trump, the day that George Floyd was killed, they all
became friends. Why? They all have a common purpose. Like Herod and Pilate, their
purpose was control. Jesus stood in the way of Herod and Pilate. For the mob
today, their purpose is to control the masses, and who stands in the way?
First, the police but also the American “Caesar”, Donald Trump. In the end,
Jesus stands in the way because He is true King, and Trump merely anointed for
a few years.
Herod did put on a great performance. The crowd surely
laughed wildly when the carpenter Jesus was made to wear royal remnant as if He
is truly King. Herod laughed at Jesus and Jesus surely bowed to him. In the
end, “Every knee shall bow to me (Jesus), and every tongue shall confess to God”
(Rom 14:11) for Jesus is even “King of kings and Lord of lords” (1 Tim 6:15).
Herod, Pilate, Annas, Caiaphas and even Caesars will bow to Jesus on that Great
and Terrible Day… a terrible day for them!
(picture credit: "Hamilton" Republic World)
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