To counter Christian obscurantism, again strenuously imposed on the Russian people, we continue to publish here fragments of our book "Biblical Pictures or What is" God's Grace "?" ... Perhaps, after reading the Bible - the main document of the organization to which they are so obsessively invited - people will think about what is actually written there, and not in the many publicized "interpretations" of the workers of the Christian corporation. Perhaps, thinking, they will ask themselves questions, often bewildered, which will surely arise when reading this document. For example, why are the history, genealogy, cultural tradition and moral norms of the ancient Jews imposed on other peoples with their history, genealogy, cultural tradition and moral norms, often far exceeding those imposed, as sacred? And, having answered this and other questions for themselves, people will decide for themselves whether it is reasonable to join an organization whose main book preaches what it preaches. You can copy our book for yourself without any restrictions on the specified link. We even give free layout and cover for publication in the printing house. Read this book, perhaps it will help you resist the annoying advertising of obscurantism that pours from all the cracks on our heads.

- It was forbidden to erect individual altars and sanctuaries.

- It was forbidden in the desert to eat meat as everyday food. Every animal was to be brought to the tabernacle and sacrificed there.

- It was forbidden to eat the blood of animals.

- False prophets and those calling to convert to another faith (including relatives) - to be stoned. The city, the inhabitants of which began to worship other gods - to destroy, the inhabitants - to cut out, cattle and everything else - to burn.

- It is forbidden to eat meat of animals, birds and fish not permitted by the law.

- Was charged with giving tithes for the Levites.

- Every seventh year is a year of debt forgiveness. Foreigners were forbidden to forgive debts.

- A Jew was allowed to sell himself into slavery to another Jew. In the 7th year, the owner must release the slave with everything necessary to start a new life.

- If the local courts found it difficult to make a decision, then the case should be referred to the Levites.

- Priests and Levites were not supposed to own land plots.

- A small part of them should live at the Temple, the rest - among the tribes.

The next biblical book tells about the war of conquest waged by the Jews under the leadership of Jehovah, who expressed his will exclusively through a new speaker named Joshua. Having mourned the great leader from Pharaoh's slavery and brought into slavery by Jehovah, the Jews began to prepare to cross the Jordan River. So that, finally, the promises of their god, and therefore their dreams, come true.

Chapters 2-6 are devoted to the capture of Jericho, the first city beyond the Jordan, which, in accordance with Jehovah's strategic plan, was subject to destruction and plunder. Spies were sent there, who, thanks to a traitor - a harlot named Rahab, safely reconnoitred and returned to the camp. As you can see, the Bible continues its amazing tradition and reverently preserves the names of its heroes and heroines - traitors and murderers. The king of Jericho, like other various pharaohs, remained unnamed. It is understandable, he is an enemy, and the harlot Rahab is an ally. This would be forgivable for some opportunistic booklet, but you and I are reading the Book of Books, where every word is "holiness", "wisdom" and "purity"!

During the campaign against Jericho of the 40-thousandth army, Jehovah showed another miracle - as soon as the priests entered the Jordan with the ark, its waters were divided and the Jewish army crossed the river, “like on dry land” (ay, storytellers). He ordered to take 12 stones from the places where the feet of the priests stood in memory of this great event. However, this miracle, similar to the one arranged by Jehovah in the Red Sea (only stones were not collected there for memory), was done not at all for the convenience of his sheep. And for what? Simply, there was a good opportunity to play (on paper) with my, as the Bible says, muscle “ so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is strong, and that you may fear the Lord your God all the days”(Joshua 4:24). Jehovah continued to painfully care about his reputation, apparently well aware of the insecurity of his “army”.

Along the way, he decided to correct a great oversight - those born in the desert, horror, were not circumcised. After all, it is impossible to go on the conquest of the Holy Land uncircumcised! And shortly before the battle, he ordered a massive separation of the foreskin with stone knives. Having successfully passed the postoperative period, having celebrated Easter with the fruits of the Canaan land, since the semolina freebie was over, and having received detailed instructions on the siege of Jericho, the Jews began to implement the military plans of the Generalissimo. Here's the plan. They had to all en masse, led by the ark and 7 priests, with pipes to go around the fortress walls of Jericho 1 time a day for 6 days, and on the 7th day they had to go around the city 7 times, blowing trumpets. At the moment when the jubilee horn sounds, everyone should cry out loudly and the wall should collapse. Further, the city had to be put to a spell, except for the harlot Rahab, i.e. simply kill all living things, and all the gold and silver - to the treasury of God, that is, to the Levites.

The destruction of the walls of Jericho. Gustave Dore.

And so it happened. They walked around the walls, blew into the pipes, shouted in chorus, the walls and crumbled (the paper endured everything again). All the people and animals were killed, all the valuables were collected, and at the same time they cursed those who in the future would be going to restore Jericho. Pay attention to the fact that the defenders of Jericho, during this carnival, sat quietly and patiently waited for the mad conquerors to play enough with pipes and begin to conjure them all (this is how the word “cut” is replaced in the Bible)!

Joshua leaves the harlot Rahab alive. Gustave Dore.

However, the first victory was followed by a defeat. A detachment of 3,000 Jews could not take a certain city of Gai and fled. The loss of Jews amounted to as many as 36 people. The number of Jericho inhabitants killed by Jews is not given. They did not expect a rebuff. They promised them! Right there the heart of the brave warriors " melted and became like water". Joshua tore his clothes and fell to the ground (the Fuhrer turned out to be watery), where he arrived until evening, the elders sprinkled ashes on his head. It became terrifying that the Canaanites would do to them the same way they did to the inhabitants of Jericho.

The Supreme Commander-in-Chief explained this unpleasant moment by the fact that, after all, they did not fulfill the order by 100%. Someone encroached on gold and silver trophies of the gods. They carried out an inspection - the people were lined up according to their knees and families - and the "enemy" was revealed. A certain Achan from the tribe of Judah appropriated some clothes, 100 shekels of silver and an ingot of 50 shekels of gold. For this, Achan, along with this clothing, silver, gold, sons, daughters, oxen and donkeys, was burned and stoned. Only after that " the fury of the Lord's wrath subsided».

Achan stoned by the Israelites. Gustave Dore

N.V.Levashov... OBible

Famous American comedian George Carlin about religion and God:“… Religion is the champion of all times and peoples in false promises and loud statements. Out of competition! "

Screen adaptation of Svetlana Levashova's book "Revelation", film by Arigrad studio "Hidden facts from the life of Jesus Christ and Magdalene"

More detailed and a variety of information about the events taking place in Russia, Ukraine and other countries of our beautiful planet, can be obtained at Internet Conferences, constantly held on the website "Keys of Knowledge". All Conferences are open and completely free... We invite all those waking up and interested ...

We all know people whose lives are a history of disappointments, downfalls and even tragedies that never end. And, on the contrary, there are people whom the problems hardly concern and everything they have is even “too good to be true”. In both cases, invisible forces are at work that shape the fate of every person for the better or worse. The Bible very definitely calls these blessings or curses. They come from the spirit world and behind them are supernatural spiritual forces that produce action. There is one word that sums up the result of the curse: ruin. This can happen in all spheres of people's lives: business, career, health, money, family. A person may even achieve something that seems to him to be a real success, but, nevertheless, experience a crash, never enjoying the fruits of this success.

Throughout his life, such a person feels a struggle against something that he himself cannot understand, something amorphous and elusive, like a shadow.

There are certain signs on the basis of which it can be determined that curses operate in a person's life. These include: recurrent or chronic hereditary diseases, mental and emotional damage (depression, mental illness, fears, obsessive thoughts, including about suicide, hopelessness, seeing the dead, hearing voices, etc.), infertility, a tendency to fetal incontinence, repeated divorce in the family, constant poverty and debt, a history of suicide and unnatural or premature deaths, constant exposure to accidents, etc. When several of these problems are present, or when any of these problems recur over and over again, the likelihood of the curse being applied increases proportionately.

"Damned" in the original Bible means "set apart" from God. And the one who is separated from God does not have His protection and patronage, and therefore the forces of evil rule in his life and Satan is allowed to act. And it is not God who gives the right to Satan to act, and it is not Satan himself who takes this right upon himself. Man himself, being at a distance from God, opens the door to the devil.

But where do curses originate and how from curse to come to blessing? Let's figure it out.

The main and only cause of all the problems of mankind is the fall of Adam. And this is what God did (Genesis 3:17): “... And he said to Adam: because you listened to the voice of your wife and ate from the tree about which I commanded you, saying: do not eat from it, cursed is the earth for you ... ". Thus the Apostle Paul writes: “Through one man (Adam) sin entered the world, and death came with sin, and thus all became mortal, because all had sinned” (Romans 5:12).

The source of a specific curse in a person's life can be hidden, both in previous generations, and be the result of the acts or events of his own life. For instance:

1. Man incurs a curse because of sin before God. Even in the Old Testament, God spoke to His people: “Behold, the hand of the Lord did not shrink to save, and His ear was not heavy to hear. But your iniquities have made a division between you and your God, and your sins turn His face away from you, so that they may not hear ”(Isaiah 59: 1-2).

2. Idolatry is one of the most abhorrent sins before God. It is written: “Thou shalt have no other gods before My face. Do not make yourself an idol and no image of what is in the sky above, and what is on the earth below, and what is in the water below the earth. Do not worship or serve them; for I am the Lord your God, a jealous God, punishing children for the guilt of fathers up to the third and fourth generation, who hate Me "(Exodus 20: 1-5). This includes worshiping images of God in various guises, worshiping icons, animals, statues, etc. Anything can take the first place in a person's heart and become an idol - both his work and his hobbies, and children, and a loved one, and business, and much more, if it comes first in his life. Since, the first place in our hearts was originally determined by God for Himself.

3. One of the forms of idolatry is occultism (witchcraft, fortune telling, predictions, sorcery, extrasensory perception, hypnosis, horoscopes, black and white magic, coding, mind programming, supernatural knowledge or powers that do not come from God, etc.). And turning to the ministers of the occult draws a person into the sin of idolatry: a person, by his actions, incurs a curse on himself and his race and allows the devil to act. When in due time the people of God entered the promised land, God warned them: “You should not be with you who guides his son or daughter through the fire, a soothsayer, a fortuneteller, a sorcerer, a sorcerer, a charm, summoning spirits, a magician and inquiring of the dead; for everyone who does this is abomination to the Lord ”(Deuteronomy 18: 10-12).

Not a single healer, psychic, sorcerer, etc. cannot heal a person from a curse, damage, evil eye. Removing one curse or damage from a person, they induce another. Why is this happening? There is an unclean spirit behind every curse. And if a person frees another person from curse, evil eye, damage and cannot help him fill his heart with a stronger spirit, that is, the Holy Spirit, then such a person will become even worse than it was. Because this unclean spirit will take seven more evil spirits with it, and they will return to this person, and he will have even greater problems than before. This is what the Bible says: “When the unclean spirit leaves a man, he walks through dry places, seeking rest, and not finding, he says: I will return to my house from whence I left; and, having come, finds him swept and tucked away; Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and entering, they dwell there - and for that man the last is worse than the first "(Luke 11: 24-26).

A curse can also come through images and objects used in occult practice and kept in the house or worn on the body: idols, occult objects, talismans, amulets, amulets, Feng Shui items and other Eastern religions, tattoos of various contents. After all, they all carry information that is far from the truth, and it turns out that a person trusts some objects more than Almighty God.

4. Various sins before God can also be the cause of the curse. After all, any sin opens the door for the devil: disrespect for parents, all forms of unnatural or forbidden sexual intercourse, all oppression and injustice, especially directed against the weak and helpless, theft, perjury, unforgiveness, pride, anti-Semitism, etc. as for the latter, then God said of the Jewish people: “He who blesses you is blessed, and he who curses you is cursed” (Numbers 24: 9). Since then, for almost 4 thousand years, there has not been a case when any individual or people cursed the Jews and did not bear God's curse on themselves in return. And since any sin separates a person from God, such a person does not have God's protection. Not only does he incur a curse on himself with his sins, so also curses can come into his life from people who have supernatural power from the devil and those who are engaged in witchcraft, corruption, "bewitching", conspiracies and others who can direct ( even verbally) a curse on his life.

5. There are also curses that a person incurs on himself through thoughtless or conscious negative proclamations: "let my hand dry up ...", "I hate my legs ...", "I have no brains ...", "I am an unhappy person ..." , "Nobody loves me ...", "go crazy ...", etc. Our words have amazing power, and when they are sent to the spirit world, they return to the one who uttered them, producing the declared action. The same power is possessed by correct proclamations, which also do their work in our life, but already aimed at building us. In the book of Proverbs (18: 21-22) it is written: “From the fruit of a man’s mouth his belly is filled; by the work of his lips he is satisfied. Death and life are in the power of the language ... ". In no case should you say negative words about yourself and other people.

6. I would especially like to note the type of curses that are called generic. So, for example, a clan or family is haunted by the same problem: in this house everyone dies at 40, hereditary diseases (especially cancer), divorce in the whole family, everyone always lives in poverty, miscarriages follow the entire clan along the female line , all men in the family are drinkers, etc. These are nothing more than demons who, as a result of the sins of our ancestors and our own, "stick" to the family, bringing misfortune and problems in an invisible way. These hereditary spirits with their "baggage" are passed from parents to children.

Is there a way out from darkness to light, from curse to blessing? Yes, there is a way out! And the Lord gives a person the right to choose: “Life and death I offered you, blessing and curse. Choose life, that you and your seed may live ”(Deuteronomy 30:19). And then the Lord tells us what we need to do in order to be in blessing: to love the Lord, listen to Him and fulfill His commandments. The path of life leads to the throne of God, but only through repentance of one's sins and acceptance of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, who is the path, truth and life. He came in order to set the tormented (bound by the devil) free.

It is written: “for the end of the law is Christ, to the righteousness of everyone who believes” (Romans 10: 4); “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law. He Himself bore the curse in our place, as it is said about this: “Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree” (Galatians 3:13); “He Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, might live to righteousness: by His stripes you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). The essence of Christ's atoning death is to accept the curse upon Himself.

It is necessary to admit that you yourself cannot be freed from the power of sin and its consequences (neither from your own, nor from generic ones), that you yourself cannot be saved either from curses or from eternal destruction. Because every person will appear at the judgment of God, and his fate will be determined only by one thing - whether he belongs to Jesus Christ.

What should be done to be freed from the curse and enter into blessing? First of all, you need to humble yourself before God, admit your sinfulness and repent of your sins. To accept Jesus as our Lord and Savior, because only through Him we become heirs of the Kingdom of God, sons and daughters of the Most High God: "For you are all sons of God by faith in Christ Jesus" (Galatians 3:26). Start attending a meeting of believers, where the truth about the living God and Savior Jesus Christ is preached, read the Bible, and pray. Reach out to ministers of the Christian church who have been exposed to the truth about blessings and curses and accept their help in prayer for deliverance. Next, we must close all doors for the devil in our life, and open for God, fulfilling God's commandments and His will, written in His Word (Bible).

But what to do, you ask, if a person repented of the sins of his and his ancestors, and goes to church, and reads the Bible and prays to God, and turned to the ministers, and they prayed for him separately, and he attended the service of breaking curses many times, and yet ... there are problems. After all, the New Testament repeatedly confirms: “If we confess our sins, then He, being faithful and righteous, will forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1: 9). How do you find the answer?

Even in the Old Testament, God said: “The soul that sins, it will die; the son will not bear the fault of the father, and the father will not bear the fault of the son, the righteousness of the righteous remains with him, and the iniquity of the wicked remains with him. And the wicked, if he turns from all his sins that he did, and observes all my statutes and acts lawfully and righteously, he will live, he will not die. All his crimes, which he did, will not be remembered to him ... ”(Ezekiel 18: 20522). And the New Testament says: “Do not fall under someone else’s yoke with unbelievers (sinners), for what is the communion of righteousness with lawlessness? .. And therefore come out from among them and separate yourself, says the Lord, and do not touch the unclean; and I will accept you. And I will be a Father to you, and you will be My sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty "(2 Corinthians 6: 14518). God says that not only repentance is necessary, but union with God, which will help to bring your life completely in harmony with the Word of God, so that you will never return to the works that sinners do. And this is a process ...

The victory that Jesus Christ won has already been granted to all believers in Christ so that they can live in blessing, the greatest of which is the Lord Himself! But their task is not only to accept this victory, but also to keep it!

Prepared by Irina Andreichenko, Irina Boyarskikh based on the book by Derek Prince “Blessings

and curses "and the sermon of pastor Vadim Shipilov" From curse to blessing "

First, you must define the very concept of a curse. By curse, I mean an evil, destructive force that can act for a short or long time on certain areas of a person's life. God is always the initiator of curses in the Bible.

The Old Testament talks a lot about curses. Perhaps the most famous passage is in Deuteronomy: “If you don’t listen to the voice of the Lord your God and you don’t try to fulfill all His commandments and His decrees that I command you today, then all these curses will come on you and befall you. Cursed you [will be] in the city and cursed you [will be] in the field. Cursed be thy barns and thy storehouses. Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, the fruit of your oxen and the fruit of your sheep. You will be cursed when you go in and cursed when you go out ”(Deut. 28: 15-19).

Further to the end of this chapter there are enumerations of curses in various spheres of life: health, finances, family, society, etc. Note that the main condition through which believers could fall under the curse is: “If you do not listen to the voice of the Lord your God and you will not try to obey all His commandments and ordinances. " Refusal to obey the will of God revealed to man brings curses. The converse is also true - through humility and obedience, various and abundant blessings come to the believer's life.

This was the revelation of Moses. Do curses apply to us New Testament believers? First, I want to look at the position of those respected interpreters of Scripture who claim that curses, in principle, cannot apply to any believer.

Most often, the text from the Epistle to the Galatians is quoted: "Christ redeemed us from the oath of the law, becoming an oath for us - for it is written: cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree, so that the blessing of Abraham through Christ Jesus spread to the Gentiles, so that we receive the promised Spirit by faith" (Gal. 3: 13,14).

The position is that whoever is in Christ is free, so there can be no curse - such a person is blessed, period. Many examples of obvious curses in the lives of believers are usually answered that such people have weak faith or a "wrong" relationship with God.

Sometimes a text from the prophet Ezekiel is quoted: “And the word of the Lord came to me: why do you use this proverb in the land of Israel, saying:“ the fathers ate sour grapes, but the children's teeth were set on edge ”? I live! saith the Lord God, - they will not speak this proverb in Israel ahead of time. For behold, all souls are Mine: as the soul of the father, so the soul of the son is Mine: the soul that sins, that soul will die ... The soul that sinns, it will die; the son will not bear the fault of the father, and the father will not bear the fault of the son, the righteousness of the righteous remains with him, and the iniquity of the wicked remains with him ”(Ezekiel 18: 1-4, 20).

I even heard such an interpretation: supposedly through Ezekiel, the Lord completely canceled the curses that He had spoken about earlier through Moses.

Allegedly, from the time of Ezekiel, Israel, and then the Church, lived outside of curses. A very strange interpretation, if only because the entire history of both Israel and the Church is full of evidence to the contrary and is in clear and obvious contradiction.

Let me now express my point of view. First of all, nowhere does the Lord cancel His Word. The prophets supplemented the revelation of Moses and looked into the distance into the era of the New Testament, but did not cancel anything from the Law. Even Christ did not do this: “Do not think that I came to break the law or the prophets: I did not come to break the law, but to fulfill it. For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not one jot or one tittle will pass from the law, until all is fulfilled ”(Matthew 5: 17,18).

What was Ezekiel talking about? First, it is not so much about curses and blessings as about one of the principles of God's judgment. This principle can be expressed as follows: God's judgment is individual. The Lord judges each of us individually, not collectively. The New Testament affirms this principle in many places. For instance: "Who will reward everyone according to his deeds"(Rom. 2: 6), “for all of us must appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ, so that each may receive [according to what] what he did while living in the body, good or bad” (2 Cor. 5:10) and others.

Secondly, it is impossible to interpret the text of the prophet Ezekiel without considering the text of another great prophet parallel to him: “In those days, they will no longer say:“ the fathers ate sour grapes, and the children’s teeth are set on edge ”, but each will die for his own iniquity; whoever eats sour grapes, his teeth will be set on edge. The days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not the same covenant that I made with their fathers on the day when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; They broke that covenant of mine, although I remained in union with them, says the Lord. But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put My law in their inward and on their hearts I will write it, and I will be their God, and they will be My people ”(Jer. 31: 29-33) ...

The Prophet very clearly says that deliverance from the inherited curse will be possible only in the future, namely in the times of the New Testament, when the Lord promised to give people a new heart and a new spirit.

In addition to the individual sin, there is also the corporate sin of society. The punishment for this sin, like for any other, does not come immediately, but as it matures. For example, all of us living in modern Russia experience a certain negative influence on the part of long-dead people who, with fire and sword, planted the ideology of communism. One can also note the sins of the "brilliant society" during the autocracy, without which, of course, there would be no talk of revolution.

So, Jeremiah, together with Ezekiel, foresaw that a completely different spiritual era would come, when believers who love God would have the opportunity to leave the zone of damnation. Glory to our Lord that this era has come!

However, the curses did not automatically disappear after the death and resurrection of Christ. So the epistles of the New Testament continue to mention them, although much less often than it was in the OT. Thus, in the first chapter of the famous and most beloved epistle, the Apostle Paul speaks three times about curses: “But as they, knowing God, did not glorify Him as God, and did not give thanks, but vanished in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened ... then God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, so that they defiled their own bodies. .. God gave them up to shameful passions: .. And as they did not care to have God in their minds, then God gave them up to a perverse mind - to do obscenities "(Rom. 1: 21-28).

Then he writes his decision about the grievous sinner of the Corinthian community: « surrender to satan for the wasting of the flesh so that the spirit may be saved on the day of our Lord Jesus Christ "(1 Cor. 5: 5).

Here is what is said about those who spread heresies: “But even if we or an Angel from heaven began to preach the gospel to you other than what we preached to you, let it be anathema... As we said before, [so] and now I say again: whoever preaches the gospel to you is not what you have received , let it be anathema» (Gal. 1: 8.9). Anathema is the most powerful proclamation of a curse in the New Testament. By the way, the following text belongs to the apostle Paul: "Who does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, anathema, maranatha"(1 Cor. 16:22).

And here is what the apostle says about people who, at the time of the coming of the Antichrist, will not accept the love of truth for their salvation: “And for this, God will send them an action of error, so that they will believe a lie, so that all who did not believe the truth, but who loved untruth "(2 Thess. 2: 11,12).

So, we can draw a certain conclusion: the principle of God's curse for violating the will of God revealed to man works both in the Old and New Testaments. In fact, a curse is a blessing, since it is a powerful signal to a person: you are going in the wrong direction! Turn around and do the will of God!

Imagine a situation when a person is given a good car, a goal of movement is set, but he left the highway and drove along the road, the end of which is an abyss. If in this case mechanisms are turned on that prevent a person from going further, for example, the car constantly breaks down, the person is physically ill, then is all this evil or good?

Of course, curses can only act in the spiritual, or rather in the carnal sphere of the life of a believer. Curses have nothing to do with the revived spirit, because “We know that everyone who is born of God does not sin; but he who is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one does not touch him ”(1 John 5:18).

If the principle of blessing and curse is not abolished in the New Testament, then how can we interpret the above text: “Christ redeemed us from the oath of the law, becoming a curse for us - for it is written: cursed is everyone who hangs on the tree - so that the blessing of Abraham through Christ Jesus spread to Gentiles so that we may receive the promised Spirit by faith ”(Gal. 3: 13,14).

Here is a wonderful promise for those Christians who realized that a certain curse is at work in their lives, found its root, repented and now want to live in the freedom of the Spirit and in blessing.

Christ has made those who are sanctified forever. He did absolutely everything for our complete salvation, but our responsibility is to enter into our salvation by faith. This principle applies to all aspects of the great exchange of the Cross. For example, we believe that by the stripes of Jesus we were healed (1 Pet. 2:24), but do sickness no longer touch our body? Does healing happen without a struggle of faith? Moreover, this struggle is often fierce, and sometimes lost ...

This was the case even in the days of Moses and Joshua. The land was given to them by God, but they had to come into possession of it through a hard and stubborn struggle.

The foregoing is fully true in relation to curses. They are, of course, defeated by Christ at Calvary, and when we do the will of God, there should be no place for any curse in the life of the believer. But of course, this does not always happen automatically. Diseases, demons, and curses usually don't go away without a fight.

Thank God that Christ has already done everything for our complete victory! Let's fight and win!

Oleg, Krasnodar

How to understand the curses in the Bible contained in Psalm 108?

Hello. The question was prompted by the reading of Psalm 108, or rather, curses in the Psalms. The psalmists sang about their faithfulness to God and His covenant. It is precisely the zealous desire to defend righteousness that explains the words of curses that are often found in their texts. They prayed that God would “break the arm of the wicked and the wicked” (Ps. 9:15), “break their teeth” (Ps. 57; 6) and “pour out His wrath on them” (Ps. 67: 22-28) ). Such "requests" were dictated not by personal revenge, but by a protest against those who, being deprived of honor and conscience, respond to good with evil and betrayal (Psalm 108: 4-5), and most importantly, a fervent desire for God to condemn sin and confirm His work on earth. Of course, the prayer life of Christians is different from that of the ancient Jews. But, praying for the fulfillment of God's will or for the imminent coming of Christ, we also pray for the completion of the judgment on the wicked and for the reward of the righteous. Question! The Bible says that all scripture is divinely inspired, useful for edification, etc. Thus, the Bible teaches us to curse those who rebel against God, doing evil to good people and the righteous. But this statement cannot be true, because it contradicts the very teaching of Christ, who called upon his followers to love their enemies and not to repay evil for evil. He taught to bless, not curse. If the Jewish teaching demands an eye for an eye retribution for the evil done, then why are these non-Christian postulates recommended for Christians to read? Following the logic of the interpretation described above, one can curse the government that does evil to its people by issuing anti-popular laws and not performing properly the functions of protecting and ensuring the well-being of people. You can curse pagans, heretics, criminals only because they do evil. Reading the psalms, which according to the teaching of the church are Divinely inspired scriptures, Christians pass what they read through their hearts and accept the way of thinking that they see in the Holy Scriptures. Why, tell me, tempt people with such contradictions? Why teach people one thing, and immediately show the completely opposite?

Hello! First, I want to tell you that Psalm 108 is traditionally considered prophetic, in it the holy prophet David predicts the betrayal of Judas Iscariot, and his curses refer both to Judas Iscariot himself and to those responsible for the crucifixion of Christ, which is confirmed by the holy Apostle Peter in Acts apostolic. Secondly, I will give you the words of St. John Chrysostom, who, in his conversation on this psalm, writes:

“The same can be said here, that is, under the guise of a curse, a prophecy was compiled, which means and foretells the events that had happened to Judas, and then touches on another subject, namely: he speaks against some people who rise up to the priesthood, so that we they knew how great evil is to rebel against the priests of God and use deceit and untruth against them. What has been said here is nothing more than a suggestion that will befall those who offend their neighbors and rise up with treachery and malice against people who have done nothing wrong. If the psalmist asks that his children also be punished, do not be embarrassed by this, beloved; Here he calls children those who themselves participate in the vices of such people. "

And he further writes: "Here the power of punishment and the duration of torment are shown, and together it is suggested that the misfortunes of all people come from themselves, from their own guilt, when they themselves reject good by their deeds and actions and subject themselves to punishment."

So the traditional Orthodox understanding of this psalm is as follows: it is a prophecy about the betrayal of Christ by Judas Iscariot and a warning to those people who are malicious on their neighbors in order to turn them away from sin by reminding the punishment of God to traitors and evil-doers to their neighbors.

Thirdly, you know that the Psalter is still the Old Testament. And we must understand that this is the old life of mankind, which Christ fulfilled and gave us the New Testament. And if the Church uses this psalm in worship, then it must be understood correctly. By reading this psalm, the Church reminds us of what we left, from which Covenant Christ brought us to the New, but this “Old Testament” must also be understood correctly. The prophet David may be a saint, but he also sinned. He was wrong, and his mistakes are an example to us too.

And once again I will suggest you reread the interpretation of Psalm 108 of John Chrysostom. And, in particular, the words cited above: “Here the power of punishment and the duration of torment are shown and together it is suggested that the misfortunes of all people come from themselves, from their own guilt, when they themselves reject good by their deeds and actions and expose themselves punishments ".

In the Holy Scriptures the word "curse" is mentioned more than a hundred times. However, this has nothing to do with invented "spoilage" or "evil eye". After all, the main reason for all troubles lies in the unwillingness of the person himself to abandon the slavery of sin.

From a fallen angel to fallen people

Today you can meet people who are very afraid of falling under the curse, considering it some kind of evil fate. In fact, the presence of this fear is caused by a lack of faith in God's love.

From a biblical point of view, cursing is the opposite of blessing, the greatest sin against the commandment to love God and neighbor.

It should be noted that the very concept of "curse" appeared in the distant Old Testament times. Its active use in human life occurred as a result of the infamous fall of our first parents in Paradise.

After Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit at the instigation of a fallen angel, the first verdict in biblical history was pronounced: “And the Lord God said to the serpent: Because you have done this, you are cursed before all cattle and before all the beasts of the field; you will walk on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life ”(Genesis 3:14).

This phrase concerns not only the punishment of an unreasonable animal. This is primarily about the state of the self-humiliated Satan (by that time already cast down from heaven): he was doomed to crawl on the earth, feeding on human vices and atrocities that are the result of his insidious wiles.

After Cain killed his younger brother Abel, God passed a harsh sentence on the murderer himself: “And now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother's blood from your hand; when you cultivate the earth, it will no longer give its strength to you; you will be an exile and a wanderer on the earth ”(Genesis 4: 11-12).

Here the curse is directed directly at a person: it consists in the sterility of the soil and homeless wandering. Until the moment when the eldest son of Adam committed such a grievous deed, the earth served him as a source of food and a place of dwelling. Subsequently, being stained with the blood of an innocent sufferer, she turns into an instrument of punishment for the murderer, depriving him of his natural gifts.

Post-flood verdicts

Having survived the worldwide flood, the human race was cursed in the person of Noah's youngest son, Ham. Seeing the nakedness of his father (drunk with wine and asleep in the tent), he with mockery and mockery told his brothers Japheth and Shem.

When Noah woke up and found out about this, he immediately pronounced a verdict on the seed of Ham: “And he said, Cursed is Canaan; he will be a slave of his servants to his brothers ”(Genesis 9, 25)... History has shown the fulfillment of this formidable prophecy: the descendants of Ham were killed or enslaved first by the sons of Shem (during the conquest of the Promised Land), and then by the tribes of Japheth - the Persians, Greeks and Romans.

In the future, the attitude towards damnation was not only associated with many life situations, but was also based on Jewish legislation. A typical example is a contractual relationship with God: in case of keeping His commandments, the Israelites were promised a blessing, and in case of violation - a curse.

So, before entering the Promised Land, all 12 tribes of Israel entered into the Covenant (Old) with God. For this purpose, one part of the people (representatives of the six tribes) stood on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, and the second (representatives of the other six tribes) - on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curse.

They were cursed for grave sins: idolaters, cattle-lovers, adulterers, murderers, cursing parents, unrighteous judges and other violators of the Law of God.

After the Israelites completely destroyed Jericho, their commander Joshua pronounced the following words: “... cursed before the Lord is he who will rise up and build this city of Jericho; on his firstborn he will lay his foundation, and on his youngest he will set his gates. "

A very interesting case happened with the prophet Elisha, whom little children called bald. His reaction to this bullying was very violent: “He looked back and saw them and cursed them in the name of the Lord. And two she-bears came out of the forest and devoured forty-two of them ”(2 Kings 2:24).

The long-suffering Job, finding himself in the hardest life situations, cursed his birthday. And another prophet cursed not only his birthday, but also the man who brought his father the good news of the birth of his son - the future prophet Jeremiah.

However, even in those distant times, the faithful Jews did not attach importance to all kinds of "corruption" and "evil eye". This is stated in the Proverbs of King Solomon: “As a sparrow flies up, as a swallow flies away, so an undeserved curse will not come true” (Prov. 26: 2).

Excommunication

In New Testament times, the attitude towards cursing changes: Christ redeemed us from the oath of the Law, taking upon Himself all our sins. And, of course, whoever did not accept the Savior automatically falls under the condemnation of the Law of God. That is why the Apostolic Epistle (in Church Slavonic) says: “Whoever does not love the Lord Jesus Christ, be damned, Maran-afa” (1 Cor. 16:22).

In the Russian translation, instead of the phrase "cursed," the word "anathema" is written, which means "excommunication" or "curse." However, this verse is about the self-condemnation of the sinner, and not about the desire of Christians to curse someone, since the main purpose of the Church is to bless and save, not to curse and reject.

"He who does not love God, he excommunicates himself from Him even before the Last Judgment."

As for the expression "Maran-afa", it (from the Syrian language) is translated as "Come, our Lord!" Thus, the apostolic phrase mentioned above should be understood as follows: whoever does not love God, he excommunicates himself from Him even before the Second Coming of Christ, i.e. long before the Last Judgment.

Here is how Saint Theophan the Recluse says about it:

“The essence of Christianity in combination with the Lord is essential. But who is in the combination, how can you not love the Lord? If someone does not love the Lord, then it is a direct sign that he is not in union with Him; and if he is not in union with Him, then he is alien to Christianity, alien to the body of the Church, self-excommunicated from it, although it bears the name of a Christian, - anathema and therefore excommunicated from the body of the Church ... ”.

If a person is outside the Church, which is the Body of Christ, then he himself deprives himself of both Divine grace and salvation for Eternal Life. Therefore, you need to pay attention not to the threats of someone's external occult actions ("spoilage", "evil eye", etc.), but to your inner state.

If a person is at peace with God, then he is not afraid of anything in this life: “The Lord is my light and salvation, so who am I to fear? The Lord is the bulwark of my life, so who should I fear? " (Psalm 26: 1).

A case from one's life

In the life of Elder Paisius the Avyatogorets, a case is described about the amazing paralysis of a young man: for many years his body was like a wooden one and did not bend at all ...

Here is how the elder himself testified about it: “I started asking questions and found out that someone had cursed this young man. What happened? And here's what: once he was driving to school, got on the bus and collapsed on the seat. At the bus stop, an elderly priest and one old man entered the bus and stood next to him. "Get up," someone told him, "give way to the elders." And he, not paying attention to anyone, collapsed even more. Then an old man standing next to him said to him: "This is how elongated and you will remain forever - you will not be able to sit." And this curse worked. You see how: the young man was with an impudent person. “Why am I,” he says, “going to get up? I paid for my place. ” Yes, but the other also paid. An elderly, respected man is standing, and you, a teenager, are seated. “This is what happened,” I told him. - To become healthy, try to repent. You need repentance. " And as soon as the unfortunate man understood and realized his guilt, he immediately became healthy. "

According to Paisiy Svyatogorets, a curse is valid when it is a reaction to injustice. For example, if a person curses their abuser, then the words spoken in terrible anger can have real power. The one on whom the curse is directed is tormented only in this life. And the one from whom the curse emanates runs the risk of subjecting himself to torture not only on earth, but also in eternity (if he does not repent and confess in the church).

“Cursing the person who offended you, you seem to take a gun and kill him. By what right do you do this? Whatever your offender does to you, you have no right to kill him. If a person curses someone, it means that there is anger in him. A person curses another when, with passion, with indignation, he wishes him harm ”,- said the Athos ascetic.

According to the elder, one can free oneself from the curse only by confession and repentance. In his story, he refers to those who have experienced similar incidents: “People who suffered from the curse, realizing that they were cursed because they were guilty of something, repented, confessed, and all their troubles stopped. If the one who is guilty says: “My God, I have done such and such injustice. Forgive me!" - and with pain and sincerity will tell about his sins in confession to the priest, then the Lord will forgive the repentant, because He is God. "

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