238. The Laws of the Spirit and the Spirit of Harlotry

The old covenant was written on tablets of stone and was given on Mount Sinai. Jesus did not come to destroy the Law or the Prophets, but to fulfill them. Not one jot or one tittle of the law was to pass from the law till all was fulfilled. Matt. 5:17-18. God did not reduce the requirement of the law; the commandment was to be fulfilled. And it was fulfilled in Jesus Christ, who transferred the law of Sinai into His flesh. Therefore, in the new covenant, the law is written on tablets of flesh, that is, of the heart, because it is written, “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws in their mind and write them on their hearts.” Heb. 8:10.

Jesus assimilated the law in His flesh and in His spirit; but He had to depart in order to send the Spirit. He had to go out of the flesh in order to send the Spirit over all flesh, because while He was in the flesh, He was limited. While Jesus was in the world, He did not keep the commandments just as commandments—that was impossible—but He offered Himself in the power of an eternal Spirit. He lived according to the spirit of the commandment, and that was greater than living according to the commandments simply as commandments. So He received the commandment in His spirit. Hence the Spirit is not free from commandments, but full of commandments, and this is the Spirit He has sent into the world.

In the old covenant, people never reached the end of the law. They fell short. And that is why they could not attain to the human excellence, worthiness, and dignity that God had intended for man. And for the same reason God was unable to raise any person from the dead. Full victory in the flesh had to exist before the flesh could be raised up. So when Enoch and Elijah were raised from the dead, they received grace in advance for this resurrection, because Jesus is the resurrection and the life. If Jesus had not been raised up, then neither would Enoch and Elijah have been raised up. When Jesus was raised from the dead, He took many with Him because many of the saints who had fallen asleep were recognized. Enoch was raised from the earth before the first covenant, and Elijah during the first covenant, in order to strengthen the saints of God in their faith in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection because Enoch and Elijah looked unto Him. Their resurrection pointed to the resurrection on the last day. It was God’s mighty work with them, done in confidence in Jesus’ faithfulness, which He had known from eternity.

When Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, He awoke him to an earthly life such as he had lived before. Jesus could not yet awaken him to the final resurrection, as with Enoch and Elijah, because He Himself had not been resurrected. God could have done that to Lazarus, but not Jesus, because He was not yet raised up Himself. But after His own resurrection, Jesus was able to lead others out of death to the resurrection of glory. That’s not to say that Jesus was not able to bring Lazarus to the resurrection of glory while He walked here in the days of His flesh; He would have had to ask the Father to do it. However, Jesus did not do that because the sign that was done was the greatest that could have been done at that moment for unbelieving people—who only looked at things that are seen. They saw Lazarus lying there dead, and they knew there was a stench. Immediately after that, they saw him walking among them, and they could talk with him. It was a sign that served the purpose. They could never have received a better sign.

If Jesus is not resurrected, our faith is in vain. But He is resurrected and has been seen by the saints. The power of His resurrection is working in us through the Spirit He has sent into the world. We have received this Spirit; it dwells in our hearts by faith. It is this Spirit that will lead us to all the truth. But no human being is able to receive all the truth right away. The Spirit brings the truth to us in the form of commandments. This is why Jesus says, “Whoever therefore breaks one of the least of these commandments, and teaches men so, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever does and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.” Matt. 5:19. In light of this, we must ask: What place in the kingdom of heaven will the great crowd of priests and preachers receive who preach a gospel without commandments, a spirit without commandments, and a Christ without commandments?—who preach salvation outside of the commandment rather than within the commandment? I will tell you if you do not know. They will receive no place in the kingdom of heaven. It is the harlot of our time that preaches the gospel without commandments, saying, “You do not, do not, do not have to keep the commandments. Jesus has done that for you, and it would be bondage, bondage were you to try to do so.” These lawless preachers are preparing the way for lawlessness and for “the lawless one.” Whether they do it with good intentions or evil intentions (which I can hardly believe), they are standing in the service of Satan who comes in the form of an angel of light.

Jesus Christ is full of holy commandments, and not even the very least of them is to be broken. “If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love. These things I have spoken to you that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full.” John 15:10-11. Satan wants to steal this joy from the saints; that’s why he allows his preachers to preach a “commandmentless Christ.” People say, “God is good. God is good. Hallelujah!” Of course God is good, but have His commandments in the Spirit been able to make you good? This is the big question. All of the laws from Mount Zion are contained in the laws of the Spirit. Every God-fearing person who has come to any maturity knows that. But for lawless people who want to have a “cheap gospel,” it seems quite appropriate to take away the commandments.

The former Swedish priest N. P. Wetterlund experienced just the same. He says on page 312 in The Spirit’s Company: “A person entered a place where he wanted to be seen as being really evangelical. A basket containing ‘Bible cards,’ with verses written on them, stood on the table. He took one, and the following was written on it: ‘You are My friends.’”

But the Bible verse in its entirety is this: “You are My friends if you do whatever I command you.” John 15:14.

He took only the first half because that was “the gospel.” The last half was not included because that was “the law.” And in spite of the fact that the Lord has said, “The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life,” and thus He has also said that the last part of the verse that the man left out was also “spirit and life,” that is, the gospel.

He took another card and on this one it was written, “The solid foundation of God stands, having this seal: ‘The Lord knows those who are His.’”

But that is not what the seal says. It says: “The Lord knows those who are His,” and, “Let everyone who names the name of Christ depart from iniquity.” 2 Tim. 2:19. Here again, he had cut this verse in two and thrown away the part that touched on “the law.”

And it was the same with the other cards. They all consisted of delightful excerpts and trimmed-down selections from both the old and new testaments. And there you had an entire basket full of “the pure gospel,” completely pure and “untainted” by God’s commandments. And people lived on this, and became so very ‘evangelical’—at least in their words—so much so that their mouths were as wide open as the top of a boot.

Here we have the “evangelical” falsification of “the law of the Spirit.” They pluck out the “glorious expressions of grace” from the whole Bible. And that is what they call the gospel. On the other hand, they call the commandments of God, in both the old and the new testament, including Jesus commandments, “laws.”

The same priest says on page 320: “And the harlot evangelists still travel around and chase the law out of the country as if it were a wild beast, and as if evil itself lay in God’s commandments.”

That’s how matters stand in Sweden. But how is it in Norway? Have all the harlot evangelists here passed away? Oh, that we might be rid of them! No, doubtless it is they who are arranging and leading almost all religious activity in our country. This is because they can use carnal authority and carnal anger when things get difficult, and then the godly have to draw back for the commandment’s sake. Those who are without commandments are left with the power, and they have others of their kind across the border. It was this harlot spirit that crucified the Lord of glory, Stephen, and many other saints. And now they all say, “If we had lived in our father’s time, we would not have done so.” But just recently we had a certain Hans Nielsen Hauge—what did the harlot do with him?

The priests and authorities, in perfect agreement, persecuted him and put him in prison so that he suffered and lost his health. But now they are raising up monuments to him, just like the Jewish harlot raised up monuments over their prophets whom they had stoned. It is the harlot who throughout the centuries has persecuted the saints of God, but just as the Jewish harlot did not personally crucify Jesus, but convinced the civil authorities to do it for her, so it has been throughout the ages. And naturally, all of them have said, “If we had lived in our father’s time, we would never have done that.” But now the harlot has powers from the East keeping her in check so that her authority to persecute the saints has been reduced. Soon she will even be thrown down from the back of the beast, where she is sitting like a queen. Her marriage with the spirit of this world will soon come to an end, to the great joy of all the heavens, because powers are rising up now that will lay the harlot desolate and naked, eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. Rev. 17:16. That will be quite another thing than sitting as a queen arrayed in purple and scarlet and adorned with gold, precious stones, and pearls, having in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. Rev. 17:4. But of course, the harlot herself cannot see who the harlot is because she is rich and mighty, just like the church in Laodicea. Rev. 3:14. But the saints of God know who she is because all of them have had dealings with her. She is good friends with the spirit of the world, and she always works to thwart the power of the saints because she sits as a queen herself. She thinks she knows everything between heaven and earth, but she does not know how close she is to her end.

“And I heard another voice from heaven saying, ‘Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.’” Rev. 18:4.

Where then can one find the harlot in order to go out from her? She is found in all religious camps, and she is very plainly found in the Roman Catholic Church as well as in the Lutheran State Church, where ungodly people are heavily involved in all the leadership and the direction of the church. She is everywhere where Christ, He who is the only Lord and Master, is pushed aside when He comes in the person of His lowliest little ones. Jude 4. Therefore, go out from her because she will cripple the work of sanctification in you and hinder the liberty Christ is giving you. The harlot’s effect on people is to make them stupid, something which Anti-Christian spirits use as a weapon. Let us go out from her because she is maturing more every day for her final judgment. Our fellowship with the Father, the Son, and His saints will be more than enough for us. There must be a gathering of all upright people from all denominations when the harlot’s judgment comes. If people’s eyes are not opened before that day, they will be then. The fire of judgment will drive out God’s elect. But it is not exactly praiseworthy to remain in Sodom until the fire starts raining down from heaven. That shows that you have many precious treasures to forsake, and that you are not a first-class Christian.

We would rejoice if the Lutheran church was like Luther. In his time he was an instrument of God against the entire Catholic harlot world. But now the church that bears his name needs a new Luther, who is able to rescue those of the congregation who are upright. This does not only apply to the Lutheran church, but also to the smaller churches and fellowships. Almost all of them had a good beginning, but apostasy came as soon as they began to make a living and a business from the kingdom of God, with its grace and gifts. The kingdom of heaven requires sacrifices, and if these are absent, the harlot appears and requires payment for her efforts. She demands well-paid positions that require an education. But since true spiritual education is hidden, just as the life of Christ is hidden, people resort to human education. This kind of education does not meet the mark, since, as a rule, it is educating the old Adam. The education of the Spirit takes place through sacrifice, and the sacrifices must be chosen by God Himself. During this process the old Adam with all his theories will lose his life. But in most cases, he is not willing to do that, and so he becomes a harlot priest instead of a priest of God. A priest must be able to offer up sacrifices, but all of the sacrifices now lie in the body, and that is a problem for people who would rather preserve their lives. For the same reason, no one can be a priest without bringing sacrifices, and that means that most of the so-called priests are laymen compared to the priests who are educated by God. The school for God’s priesthood takes place in the activities of daily life. Faithfulness in that school makes us priests forever, and there is no age limit. We hope that a few such priests can be found within the priesthood, but then they will not be priests because of their schooling but because they offer up spiritual sacrifices.