God’s temple had become a den of thieves (den of robbers), where abominations were done. And nearly 2000 years later, the people managed to make the church a den of thieves. Instead of regeneration, the church has degenerated and has become defiled through false doctrines. Unclean spirits of darkness have gotten free reign in the lives of Christians. In all three dispensations, the devil has succeeded in misleading people, turning them away from God, and making God’s house a den of thieves, where the devil has become the head. What does the Bible say about a den of thieves? What are the signs of a den of thieves? How has the church become a den of thieves?
God’s house had become a den of robbers
Behold, ye trust in lying words, that cannot profit.. Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery, and swear falsely, and burn incense unto Baal and walk after other gods whom ye know not; And come and stand before Me in this house, which is called by My Name, and say, we are delivered to do all these abominations? Is this house, which is called by My name, become a den of robbers in your eyes? Behold, even I have seen it, saith the Lord (Jeremiah 7:9-11)
In Jeremiah 7:8-11 God reflected the state of His house. God spoke about the abominations, which were done in His house by His covenant people Israel. They trusted in lying words and stole, they murdered, committed adultery, swore falsely, and committed idolatry. The people did all those things, which are evil in the eyes of the Lord, and went after false gods, while saying in the temple they were delivered.
Were they delivered to do all these abominations? Was the house, which was called by God’s Name, became a den of robbers in their eyes?
Was this how they say God and His holiness?
Was God a thief, a murderer, an adulterer, and a liar and His servants thieves, murderers, adulterers, liars, and idolaters? Did God approve of their wicked works? No, of course not!
God’s people ought to be a reflection of their God and His holiness by obeying His word and by keeping the Law of Moses.
God’s people represented God on earth and by stealing, killing, lying, committing adultery, and idolatry, they showed the Gentile nations that their God (and His nature) was like that, and that God approved of their wicked works, while that was not the case.
Through their pride and rebellious behavior they defiled the Name of the Lord and made a mockery of their God for the eyes of the Gentiles and had no holy respect and honor for the Lord God of Israel
The fear of the Lord had gone, and therefore the Gentiles didn’t fear the God of Israel but mocked the God of Israel.
God’s people said they were delivered, but to God, they were dead through their abominations (sins).
They didn’t listen to God, and didn’t obey God, and did not walk in the ways that the Lord had commanded them. But they walked in the counsels and the imagination of their evil heart and went backward instead of forward. Through their lives they defiled the house and the Name of the Almighty God (Read also: What is an evil heart?).
In the dispensation of Jesus, the temple had become a den of thieves
And they come to Jerusalem: and Jesus went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves; And would not suffer that any man should carry any vessel through the temple. And He taught, saying unto them, Is it not written, My house shall be called of all nations the house of prayer? but ye have made it a den of thieves. And the scribes and chief priests heard it, and sought how they might destroy Him: for they feared Him, because all the people was astonished at His doctrine. And when even was come, He went out of the city (Mark 11:15-19, also Matthew 21:12-13, Luke19:45-46, John 2:13-17)
God didn’t approve of the wicked behavior and works of the people, and neither did Jesus approve of the wicked behavior and works of the people. But They revealed that the wicked behavior and works of the people and what happened in the temple were not according to the law (the will) of God.
God spoke through the prophets, but Jesus, the Son, and the living Word of God spoke face-to-face to the people of the house of Israel and made the will of the Father known to them.
When Jesus came to Jerusalem and entered the house of His Father, He assumed to enter a house of prayer. But instead of a house of prayer, Jesus entered a den of thieves, a selling house.
Jesus was a witness to the apostate state of the temple, which was caused by the spiritual leaders (the priests, Pharisees, and Scribes (Sadducees) (Read also: Jesus in the midst of blind leaders).
Jesus was a witness to the trading in the temple. Instead of Jesus being friendly and peaceful to the people, letting the people have their way and tolerating what happened, Jesus made a scourge of small cord and began to cast out the sellers, the buyers, and the sheep, the oxen, and the doves, and overthrew the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of them that sold doves, and Jesus didn’t suffer that any man would carry any vessel through the temple. That is the true Jesus Christ! (Read also: How a counterfeit Jesus produces counterfeit christians).
After removing the sellers and buyers from the temple, Jesus taught the people. Because it’s not possible to teach and certainly not pray, as long as God’s house is defiled. This still applies and therefore this does not happen in many churches.
Well, historical sermons and self-help and motivational sermons are held and the opinions and experiences of motivational speakers are shared and songs are sung. But prayers, as it supposed to be and believers pray as warriors instead of beggars, and spiritual teachings in the Word, so that believers are raised in the will of God and walk as the new creation after the Spirit in agreement with the Word (Jesus), are hardly taken place.
In the dispensation of God and the dispensation of Jesus the law of Moses kept the people in security
In the dispensation of God and the dispensation of Jesus, God was dealing with the old man (fallen mankind), who is carnal and walks after the will and nature of the flesh and does the works of the flesh.
The Law of Moses was a school teacher that kept God’s people (the congregation of God) through obedience to the law.
As long as the people of the house of Israel kept the law, they walked according to the will of God, whereby they were separated from the Gentiles, who served other gods and did the works of the flesh.
But when they rejected the Law of Moses and thereby rejected God and walked according to the will, lusts, and desires of their flesh, they fell into the same sins as the Gentiles and committed the same carnal works, which were an abomination to God (Read also: What are the three dispensations in the Bible?).
But in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, everything changed. The Holy Spirit is not dealing with the old man, but the new man (through faith and regeneration in Christ). At least, that should be the case.
The dispensation of the Holy Spirit and the state of the church
The new man no longer lives under the Law of Moses and no longer needs the Law of Moses, because through regeneration in Christ, a change of nature has taken place and the laws of God, that represent His will are written upon the heart of the new man. The nature of the new man does automatically the will of God, just like the nature of the old man does the will of the devil (Read also: What happened 50 days after Passover?).
As the old man obeys the sinful nature of the flesh and does the will of the devil, the new man obeys the holy nature of the Spirit and shall do the will of God and fulfill the law (the moral part of the law, which represents the will of God).
But this change rarely takes place. Mainly because false teachers have entered the churches and have misled the believers and led them astray with their false doctrines (Read also: False doctrines that are an insult to God)
Since many believers don’t truly become the new man but remain the old man, the same things that happened in the temple and the same works that were done by God’s people in the Old Covenant, still happen in many churches and are still done by God’s people (Read also: Why Christians go back to the Old Covenant?)
God’s people were delivered from Egypt by their God. God had revealed Himself to His people by the many signs, wonders, and deliverance from the power of Pharaoh, and He made His will known by giving His people the law. But instead of being full of joy and grateful and yielding to God and loving Him by obeying His commandments, God’s people were rebellious and ungrateful and murmured and complained and desired to go back to their old life in Egypt, even if that meant that they had to live in slavery. God’s people wanted to do the same works and live the same lives as the heathens and nothing has really changed.
Despite the great redemptive work of Jesus Christ, the reconciliation with the Father, and the inheritance of the Holy Spirit, many Christians are still ungrateful and murmur and complain and want to have the same things and live the same lives as the world, whereby they walk after the flesh and persevere in sin.
Through the influence of the world and false doctrines and the absence of the new birth, sanctification, and walking as the new man, many churches are defiled, and also in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit, God’s house, the church has become a den of thieves.
What are the characteristics of a den of thieves according to the Bible
My face will I turn also from them, and they shall pollute My secret place: for the robbers shall enter into it, and defile it (Ezekiel 7:22)
And as troops of robbers wait for a man, so the company of priests murder in the way by consent: for they commit lewdness (Hosea 6:9)
What are some characteristics of a den of thieves according to the Bible?
- The leaders of a den of thieves are robbers. They are covetous and with their feigned words make merchandise of the believers and through their lawlessness and with their lying words they kill souls (a.o. Ezekiel 7:22, Hosea 6:9, 2 Peter 2:3)
- The people trust in lying words that can’t profit
- The people are traders and the house of God has become a selling place (Matthew 21:12-13, Mark 11:15-19, Luke 19:45-46, John 2:13-17)
- The people steal (commit fraud, refuse to give tithes and offerings, tax evasion, undeclared work, etc.)
- People kill (hate, abortion, euthanasia, suicide, murder)
- People commit adultery, both in the spiritual and in the natural realm
- People swear falsely (lying, breaking a promise or breaking a covenant (a.o. God’s covenant in Christ, marriage covenant)
- People commit idolatry; Eastern philosophies and religious and their practices, like (transcendent) meditation, mindfulness, yoga, martial arts, Reiki, Acupuncture, new age doctrines and methods (humanism, mind control, the law of thought and attraction)
Has the church become a den of thieves?
According to the Bible and the characteristics of a den of thieves, we can conclude, that even in the dispensation of the Holy Spirit many churches have become a den of thieves.
Therefore it’s time for a spiritual clean up and sanctification of the churches and that spiritual leaders are appointed, who no longer obey their flesh, but obey the Word and the Holy Spirit and remove all the things that don’t belong in the church.
It can not be that because of weak leaders, the prideful and rebellious people are dictating what to do and with their sins defile the whole congregation and sometimes even put a blood guilt upon the congregation.
Because even in the New Covenant this is possible.
It’s a lie of the devil, that everything is allowed and people can keep sinning without any consequences (Read also: Can you keep sinning under grace?).
Is someone delivered from the power of the devil, sin, and death if someone keeps doing the works of the flesh?
Is someone delivered from the power of the devil, sin, and death, through the death of the flesh in Christ and the resurrection from the spirit from the dead, if someone keeps doing the works of the flesh?
If a person says to be saved and delivered and belongs to God, meanwhile practicing the abominations of God, like lying, stealing, idolatry, witchcraft, fornication, adultery (divorce), living together unmarried, having a sexual relationship(s) with someone who isn’t your spouse/with someone from the same gender/with children/with animals, killing, drunkenness, wantonness, drugs use, etc. Then the person is not delivered from the power of the devil, sin, and death, but the devil, sin, and death, still reign and still have power over the person.
The person has not become a new creation, but is still the old creation, who does the will, lusts, and desires of the flesh.
Are you saved by Jesus Christ to do the abominations of God?
In the Old Covenant, the congregation of God said they were saved, meanwhile, they lived in disobedience to God’s word and the Law of Moses and did all the abominations of God, and lived as the Gentiles.
In the New Covenant, the congregation of Christ says to be saved, meanwhile, they live in disobedience to God’s Word and the Holy Spirit and keep doing the abominations and keep living like the world.
Therefore repent and lay down the works of the flesh, while it’s still possible, and follow Jesus with your whole heart, and submit to Him, and obey the Holy Spirit, and be loyal to Him.
‘Be the salt of the earth’
