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The Psalms have a marvelous set of statements which, like so many other divinely engineered patterns found in the Scriptures, embeds the perfect mathematical nature of God within the phrase. In this particular section, we find a series of phrases, which begins with "The Lord," and they are followed by seven features of God's interaction with man. Most Christians, who have done their homework on the inspired Word of God, know the number six represents man, and the number seven is associated with the perfection, completion, and rest, which is found in the LORD's glorious nature. It is in the seventh, where we find the first example of this amazing turning of things "upside down." "The Lord looseth the prisoners [1]: The Lord openeth the eyes of the blind [2]: "the Lord raiseth them that are bowed down [3]: the Lord loveth the righteous [4]: "The Lord preserveth the strangers [5]; he relieveth the fatherless and widow [6]: "but the way of the wicked He turneth upside down [7]." -- Psalms 146:7-9 Apocalyptic Linguistics Unfortunately, many believers have been taught the Word of God is only divinely inspired on a superficial level, and they deny a deeper metaphoric layer of instruction. This nonsense not only serves to subvert the supernatural nature of His Holy Word, it conceals the presence of the Spirit of Antichrist which presently indwells the churches. That wicked seeks to mask the fingerprints of God found on the Scriptures, and this apostasy is manifested every time the False Prophets who lead the "church" reject what such lessons teach us. In the present instance, the turning of things upside down may be recognized as a doctrinal truth which informs us that the wicked will be turned upside down by the LORD Himself. However, we also know that when God puts the wicked down, at the same time, He raises up His chosen. When God destroys the wicked, He always preserves a righteous remnant. Thus, when God says to them which were His people "ye are not my people," He also says to those "which were not my people, Thou art my people." -- Hosea 1:10, 2:23. This is the epitome of a role-reversal, or a turning of things upside down. Those who were chosen are not chosen, and those who were not chosen are now chosen. Another Turning We find another example of things getting turned upside down, when the author of the second book of the Kings of Israel details the judgment associated with the evil reign of Manasseh. His rule brought Israel to such a defiled state that God pronounces another of His reversals, in which He turns things upside down. "Behold, I am bringing such evil upon Jerusalem and Judah... And I will stretch over Jerusalem the line of Samaria, and the plummet of the house of Ahab; and I will wipe Jerusalem, as a man wipeth a dish, wiping it, and turning it upside down." II Kings 21:12,13 Although the line and the plummet (which are construction instruments measuring how upright a construct actually is) are important prophetic symbols, the interesting part is how the LORD's mechanism of judgment and redemption is stated in the fact that He is planning to turn things upside down. Since it is self evident a gigantic carpenter's plumbline did not visibly appear in the sky at Jerusalem's destruction in 70 AD, we can safely say the LORD's figure of speech concerning turning Jerusalem upside down is prophetic metaphor. Once again, we note how the line and the plummet are instruments that measure the uprightness of something built, and they are used in the hands of a carpenter. The fact that this prophecy has a huge allegorical application doesn't necessarily mean that Jerusalem would not be physically devastated, for it certainly was; however, it's critical that we see that the change God has promised to bring, when He turns things upside down, will occur in a way that requires Spiritual discernment. This is confirmed when we move to another verse, found in the writings of the prophet Isaiah, when the LORD uses the same language to describe a judgment when He turns things upside down. "Behold, the Lord maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof." Isaiah 24:1 Although many can see epic tribulational events occurring in such a fashion as to make this description anticipate a literal last day's holocaust, we must also take into consideration Isaiah's second use of the same phrase. Speaking to the LORD the prophet says: "Surely your turning of things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter's clay: for shall the work say of him that made it, He made me not? Or shall the thing framed say of him that framed it, He had no understanding? Isaiah 29:16 An Identity Reversal Here we see the Spirit of the LORD, moving through Isaiah, shifts the emphasis away from the LORD's actual mechanism for turning things upside down, to emphasize the concept of identity. He also confirms the fact that God's sovereignty is related to His divine right to transform the object of his "esteem," in this case, "the potter's clay." As we already know, the picture of the "potter" represents the LORD, and the "clay" is definitely Israel: "O house of Israel, cannot I do with you as this potter? Saith the Lord. Behold, as the clay is in the potter's hand, so are ye in mine hand, O house of Israel." -- Jeremiah 18:6 By choosing to use the image of the potter's clay, in conjunction with His "turning of things upside down," it is clear that it is Israel which is turned "upside down" and yet, to this very day, most of what passes for Christendom refuses to acknowledge that God has completely refashioned the clay Israel into a people who are now called Christians. The fact is, the majority of believers have been misled on this most crucial issue of their identity, as the false prophets of the so-called "church" have smeared the truth by claiming such a doctrine is something called "replacement theology" thereby twisting the truth of the matter. By claiming the believers belong to a separate group, the so-called "church," and then accurately claiming that "church" did not replace Israel, the Spirit of Antichrist is able to distort the issue, and mislead the flock concerning the true identity of Israel. Since the word "church" is simply a generic noun (note how it is never capitalized as a proper name in the same way Israel is) referencing the assembly of believers, by claiming this "church" is an entity entirely separate from "Israel," the truth of how God refashioned the clay into a Spiritual body through His "turning of things upside down" is effectively sidestepped. Ironically, it was Christ rejecting Israel who clearly understood just how this Gospel, "which was once delivered unto the saints" (Jude 1:3), turned the entire world upside down; but the believers in Jesus Christ are now so inundated in the "falling away" from the truth, they cannot see it. Indeed, it is because the Spirit of Antichrist is already sitting "in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God" (II Thessalonians 2:4), that literally millions of believers stumble on in darkness all the while claiming to know Christ even as they continually refuse to allow the Holy Ghost to lead them back to the Gospel. Israel Turned Upside Down As previously stated, it was in the book of Acts where we see that it was the Christ rejecting Jews themselves who realized that God had turned their chosen status "upside down," and reconfigured the clay into a new vessel a completely Spiritual entity -- which the Apostle Paul said was "a new creature," A body which he labeled The Israel Of God. Galatians 6:15,16. As they attacked the Apostle Paul, who repeatedly taught that Old Testament prophecies directed to Israel were fulfilled in the believers, the Jews themselves announced to the world that God had indeed turned salvation upside down with the emergence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: "But the Jews which believed not, moved with envy, took unto them certain lewd fellows of the baser sort, and gathered a company, and set all the city on an uproar ." "And when they found them not, they drew Jason and certain brethren unto the rulers of the city, crying, These that have turned the world upside down are come hither also." Acts 17:5,6 Here is an irony which is routinely ignored, for it was the physical Israelites who recognized the true threat of the Gospel to their previous standing under the Old Covenant. When Isaiah's prophecy connected the vessel known as Israel to the LORD's turning of things upside down, and God stated that since He was the "potter," He had the authority to reconfigure that vessel in whatever way He chose, this statement in the book of Acts bluntly informs us that it had been accomplished at that time. Few realize the metaphorical dimension in the previously cited verse from II Kings, where God promised to do this amazing "turning of things upside down" in Jerusalem, the very place where Christ said His work was "finished." "And I will stretch over Jerusalem .turning it upside down." II Kings 21:13 The truth is, the process of turning the world upside down removed the standing that physical Israel previously enjoyed, and placed that anointing upon the Christians. But just as Paul repeatedly warned, the last generation of believers would fall away from their New Covenant standing in the truth, and seek to turn the world back the way it was. By denying their own identity as born again Israel, and then relinquishing their chosen people standing back to the now re-gathered physical Israelites, the false prophets of Christendom have turned the world "right side up" thereby undoing the LORD's work. But God is not mocked, and even though physical Israel has risen again to global pre-eminence (thus turning the world right side up from their perspective), God will intervene. "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord." -- Obadiah 1:4 Christians would do well to heed this warning, for God is about to turn the world upside down once again. James Lloyd
See Also
Recognizing Christian Identity
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egular readers of Christian Media know the Word of God is positively overflowing with indicators of supernatural engineering, which are seen in the various prophetic threads running from the Old Testament where it is concealed, and crossing into the New Testament, where it is revealed. With the ominous phrase where the LORD promises to "turn the world upside down," we find yet another example of just how God communicates to those who have ears to hear.