Jesus in ‘Son of God’ (20th Century Fox)

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

“Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jews said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, “Pick up your mat and walk.'”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?” The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had made him well. (John 5:6-15)

Jesus was a lawbreaker. During the days he lived, only “priests” were legally allowed to heal anyone, or declare someone as “healed.”

So when Jesus began his public ministry and arrived on the scene, he started healing everyone in defiance of the “health laws” of the day. He also continually broke the laws on the “Sabbath,” when no one was supposed to work.

And as we see from the passage in John 5 above, he told others to break the law also.

Jesus knew that these laws were preventing people from being healed, and so he disregarded them.

Sometimes he knew that an act of healing was going to cause trouble with the “authorities,” and told people to keep the fact that he had healed them secret to avoid confrontation with the Pharisee party, the majority ruling party of the day.

While Jesus was in one of the towns, a man came along who was covered with leprosy. When he saw Jesus, he fell with his face to the ground and begged him, “Lord, if you are willing, you can make me clean.”

Jesus reached out his hand and touched the man. “I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” And immediately the leprosy left him.

Then Jesus ordered him, “Don’t tell anyone, but go, show yourself to the priest and offer the sacrifices that Moses commanded for your cleansing, as a testimony to them.”

Yet the news about him spread all the more, so that crowds of people came to hear him and to be healed of their sicknesses. But Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed. (Luke 5:12-16)

The law of Moses only allowed priests to declare a leper “clean,” and there were specific rituals required in the Law of Moses. So when Jesus healed this man, he told him not to tell anyone that he was the one who performed the healing. He encouraged him to go present himself to the priest who had legal authority to declare him “healed.”

But the people didn’t listen to him, because the priests weren’t healing anybody in those days. Some even went to the pagan “doctors” and spent money to try and buy healing, but that didn’t work out too well either.

And a woman was there who had been subject to bleeding for twelve years. She had suffered a great deal under the care of many doctors and had spent all she had, yet instead of getting better she grew worse. (Sound familiar to what we are seeing today??)

When she heard about Jesus, she came up behind him in the crowd and touched his cloak, because she thought, “If I just touch his clothes, I will be healed.”

Immediately her bleeding stopped and she felt in her body that she was freed from her suffering. At once Jesus realized that power had gone out from him.

He turned around in the crowd and asked, “Who touched my clothes?”

“You see the people crowding against you,” his disciples answered, “and yet you can ask, “Who touched me?'”

But Jesus kept looking around to see who had done it.

Then the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came and fell at his feet and, trembling with fear, told him the whole truth.

He said to her, “Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering.” (Mark 5:25-34)

Jesus broke the law, again. And a woman walked away healed from a 12-year disease that apparently neither the priests, nor the pagan doctors who took her entire finances, could heal.

Then there were the times where Jesus healed people in the presence of the “authorities,” in direct defiance. And this is why the crowds loved him so much. He was fearless.

On a Sabbath Jesus was teaching in one of the synagogues, and a woman was there who had been crippled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten up at all.

When Jesus saw her, he called her forward and said to her, “Woman, you are set free from your infirmity.” Then he put his hands on her, and immediately she straightened up and praised God.

Indignant because Jesus had healed on the Sabbath, the synagogue ruler said to the people, “There are six days for work. So come and be healed on those days, not on the Sabbath.”

The Lord answered him, “You hypocrites! Doesn’t each of you on the Sabbath untie his ox or donkey from the stall and lead it out to give it water? Then should not this woman, a daughter of Abraham, whom Satan has kept bound for eighteen long years, be set free on the Sabbath day from what bound her?”

When he said this, all his opponents were humiliated, but the people were delighted with all the wonderful things he was doing. (Luke 13:10-17)

This time not only did Jesus break their law, he rubbed it in their faces and humiliated them in public. He made it very clear that he had no respect for their authority at all.

And the result of his resistance and breaking their laws was that people were healed, and delivered from their bondage to Satan.

Things are no different today. “Health” is legally defined by medical authorities empowered by the pharmaceutical industry, and government “health” agencies such as the FDA and CDC are the only legal entities allowed to treat and “heal” people.

But the entire system is not a “health” system. It is a medical system that enriches those who produce and sell pharmaceutical products.

Not only does the current legal health system not heal people, they are now actually killing people by following their own rules and laws, and hospitals have become the most dangerous places in America and the #1 cause of death.

Jesus passed on his authority to his disciples, and we see the exact same things happening with his disciples after Jesus left the earth and ascended to heaven. The disciples of Jesus were also not authorized by the law to “practice healing.”

But they did anyway, right in the Jews’ own temple, in direct defiance of their authority.

The next day the rulers, elders and teachers of the law met in Jerusalem. Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and the other men of the high priest’s family.

They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: “By what power or what name did you do this?”

Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: “Rulers and elders of the people! If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a cripple and are asked how he was healed, then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.

He is “‘the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone.’ Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.”

When they saw the courage of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled, ordinary men, they were astonished and they took note that these men had been with Jesus. (Acts 4:5-13)

As this text shows, the disciples of Jesus who carried on his healing ministry with the authority of Jesus, were not educated men. They were common blue collar workers, many of them fishermen by trade.

But resisting the tyrannical authority of their day, they spread the message of Jesus and his power to heal throughout Jerusalem, all Israel, and to the far corners of the earth.

All of the principles in these stories are in place today, as we are all living in the age of the New Covenant. But religion, and especially the “Christian” religion, has robbed the biblical stories of all their power, when in fact the power and authority of Jesus are just as available to his disciples today as they ever have been.

We just need to resist the authorities and the dominant culture that recognize them as “authorities.” The current Satanic medical system has become more evil than ever before due to COVID protocols that are now forced on patients for economic gain, where real cures are banned.

You couldn’t pay me to walk into a hospital today. I would prefer to die in my home if my time is up, than to visit one of these killing centers and pay them money to harm or kill me.

Jesus is still in the healing business today, and I have trusted him for decades now, long before COVID, and have not purchased health insurance for over 25 years.

Those who have trusted and enslaved themselves to the medical system their whole lives, are paying a very hefty price today for their faith in that system, a system that is threatening their jobs, threatening their ability to participate in society, and threatening their very lives.

Jesus was NOT a Pacifist – He was the Resistance

I must have spent more than an hour trying to find a fitting image for this section, illustrating the two recorded instances where Jesus walked into the Temple of Jerusalem, and used a whip to chase out the Jewish businessmen and bankers.

But every image I could find was so wimpy, typically reflective of our culture today and its view of Jesus. Here is one of the passages:

When it was almost time for the Jewish Passover, Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple courts he found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money.

So he made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables.

To those who sold doves he said, “Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market!”(John 2:13-16)

Here’s the other one:

On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple area and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.

And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: “‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.'”

The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. (Mark 11:15-18)

Most of the art work I found representing these events showed Jesus all by himself, holding what looks like a bunch of string and herding animals out of the temple.

Pathetic.

The second account was right at the end of his ministry, before he surrendered himself to the authorities to be executed. He had just made a triumphal entry into Jerusalem riding a donkey, the prophetic sign of the Messiah.

He had almost the whole city backing him. Almost all of them did not fully understand just what being the prophesied “Messiah” entailed, however, as they were expecting him to remove the corrupt Jews running their nation, and rebel against the rule of the Roman Empire of which they were a vassal state, an occupied territory.

Note that in the Mark passage it states that he: “would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts.”

That is quite a feat! The temple in Jerusalem was huge, so he obviously did not do this alone, but had people supporting him and disrupting the activities of the temple during a national holiday where people from all over the world were visiting.

They very clearly upset the economic activities that everyone was accustomed to during the national feasts, such as the Passover, and simply took over.

There were obviously those who resisted Jesus, which is why in the first account it states that he made a whip of cords to drive all the merchants, and “money changers” (Jewish bankers) out of the temple.

Pictures and even film dramatizations of this event are woefully inadequate. They typically just show Jesus, all by himself, walking around and tipping over tables that had coins on them, with people looking astonished.

Really? If someone had a business that peaked during the religious festivals, do you think they would just stand back and look astonished at someone disrupting their business and profits??

Not a chance. The temple actually had its own security force, the Temple Guard (John 7:32), so this was a major takeover of the temple that undoubtedly involved hundreds, if not thousands of people on Jesus’ side. It may have even included some of the Roman soldiers, as Jesus had healed some of their family members. (See Matthew 8:5-10)

Jesus was most certainly not a pacifist. In fact, we know that at times his disciples were armed. The sidearm of those days was referred to as a “sword.”

Then Simon Peter, who had a sword, drew it and struck the high priest’s servant, cutting off his right ear. (The servant’s name was Malchus.)

Jesus commanded Peter, “Put your sword away! Shall I not drink the cup the Father has given me?” (John 18:10-11)

Jesus had to surrender himself as the perfect blood sacrifice to complete the Law of the Old Covenant, as the “lamb of God” to take away the sins of the world and break Satan’s power, so Peter’s timing here was off. It was not the right time to fight.

But he clearly drew his own sidearm, showing that Jesus was totally fine with his disciples being armed.

Just before this event happened, earlier that night, here is what Jesus said to his disciples:

Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”

“Nothing,” they answered.

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.

It is written: ‘And he was numbered with the transgressors’; and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.”

The disciples said, “See, Lord, here are two swords.”

“That is enough,” he replied. (Luke 22:35-38)

So at least two of them were apparently armed, but not for an armed resistance against the Roman army or Temple Guard, but probably for personal protection after Jesus was arrested.

Jesus made it clear that he himself did not need protection with man-made weapons. He could have obliterated his enemies without even breaking a sweat.

“Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” (Matthew 26:52-54)

What About Other Scriptures that Seem to Teach Pacifism?

Many religious leaders and teachers claim that Jesus was a pacifist based on other parts of the Bible that they think teach this, such as Paul’s writings in Romans 13, or Jesus’ words during the Sermon on the Mount where he said “turn the other cheek” rather than strike back at someone who hits you, or even the words I quoted above when he was being arrested where he said: “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword.”

But the problem with taking specific verses out of the Bible in isolation and then building a doctrine around them, is that one misses the totality of Jesus’ teaching as contained in the four gospel accounts of the New Testament.

For example, in the Luke passage above that I quoted where Jesus is talking to his disciples and giving them instructions on the night he was going to be arrested, he said:

“When I sent you without purse, bag or sandals, did you lack anything?”

“Nothing,” they answered.

He said to them, “But now if you have a purse, take it, and also a bag; and if you don’t have a sword, sell your cloak and buy one.”

There were two different sets of instructions for two different periods of time and two different circumstances. The first event he is referring to is this one when he was beginning his ministry:

Now after this the Lord appointed seventy-two others, and sent them in pairs ahead of Him to every city and place where He Himself was going to come.

And He was saying to them, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore plead with the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.

Go; behold, I am sending you out like lambs in the midst of wolves. Carry no money belt, no bag, no sandals, and greet no one along the way.

And whatever house you enter, first say, ‘Peace be to this house.’

And if a man of peace is there, your peace will rest upon him; but if not, it will return to you. Stay in that house, eating and drinking what they provide; for the laborer is deserving of his wages.

Do not move from house to house. Whatever city you enter and they receive you, eat what is served to you; and heal those in it who are sick, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’

But whatever city you enter and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘Even the dust of your city which clings to our feet we wipe off in protest against you; yet be sure of this, that the kingdom of God has come near.’ (Luke 10:1-11)

But in the second circumstance and time period, the time for teaching people about the kingdom of God was over, and it was time for Jesus to be arrested, which would also lead to persecution towards his disciples. So he gave his disciples very different instructions, including being armed with swords.

Likewise in the teaching of Jesus about the “kingdom of God” during the Sermon on the Mount (see Matthew chapters 5 through 7), he was contrasting the Law of the Old Covenant with the new way of life under the New Covenant. The emphasis of the Law under the Old Testament was often retaliation, such as “an eye for an eye” or “a tooth for a tooth.”

And while Jesus was not invalidating laws such as this, he was pointing out that as his death would pay the price for all injustices, that on a personal level we do not have to seek revenge or retaliation, but can demonstrate forgiveness and love through non-retaliation.

It is a general principle, but certainly not a doctrine to enforce for every circumstance.

Paul taught this also in his letter to the Romans:

Never repay evil for evil to anyone. Respect what is right in the sight of all people.

If possible, so far as it depends on you, be at peace with all people.

Never take your own revenge, beloved, but leave room for the wrath of God, for it is written: “VENGEANCE IS MINE, I WILL REPAY,” says the Lord.

“BUT IF YOUR ENEMY IS HUNGRY, FEED HIM; IF HE IS THIRSTY, GIVE HIM A DRINK; FOR IN SO DOING YOU WILL HEAP BURNING COALS ON HIS HEAD.”

Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:17-21)

This is a general principle under the New Covenant, and a very good one at that!

But notice how Paul preferenced this teaching: “If possible, so far as it depends on you…”

However, we all know that there are circumstances where it is not possible, and it does not depend upon us, and in those situations we may need to take action to defend ourselves or others who are helpless.

Likewise in Romans 13 where Paul teaches about “being subject to” the government authorities, he is writing this letter to believers in the city of Rome whom he had never met, and was obviously dealing with their specific situation at their specific time, as they were residing in the capital city of the entire Roman Empire at the time.

Among Jews living during those times there were factions, often referred to as “zealots,” who only believed in a Jewish State and therefore would fight against Roman rule. Paul’s description of that Roman rule was obviously specific to that time period, as he wrote:

For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil.

Do you want to have no fear of authority? Do what is good and you will have praise from the same; for it is a servant of God to you for good.

But if you do what is evil, be afraid; for it does not bear the sword for nothing; for it is a servant of God, an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil. (Romans 13:3-4)

This description of the Roman government at that time, from Paul’s perspective, is certainly not true of ALL governments for ALL time.

Who could possibly think, for example, that the current government in the U.S. is “a servant of God to you for good” or “an avenger who brings wrath on the one who practices evil”?

Paul himself did not follow this principle all the time in his own life.

Once when he was in the city of Damascus, the governor tried to arrest him:

In Damascus the governor under King Aretas had the city of the Damascenes guarded in order to arrest me. But I was lowered in a basket from a window in the wall and slipped through his hands. (2 Corinthians 11:32-33)

Paul resisted, and escaped. Different time, different location, different circumstances.

If you want other examples in the Bible of righteous resistance, where God blessed believers for breaking the law, then see the examples of Daniel and his friends who served in government:

When the World is Against You – God’s Power to Intervene for Those Who Resist

and the example of the midwives in Egypt who broke the law and refused to kill babies:

The Path of Resistance is a Lonely One – Whom do you Fear?

Resisting evil and trusting in God is a common theme throughout Scripture.

Conclusion: Resist or Die

Many of you reading this today are facing very difficult choices. You face losing your job, losing your ability to participate in society, losing your family and friends, if that has not already happened.

But if you are a disciple of Jesus Christ, and his Spirit lives in you, the choices are actually very simple. We are called to be that light in this world, shining in the darkness, resisting the forces of evil that are bent on destroying us or forcing us to comply with the Satanic world system.

We have been warned that this day was coming, as it has been written in the prophecy of John for over 2000 years now:

He also forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name. This calls for wisdom.

If anyone has insight, let him calculate the number of the beast, for it is man’s number. His number is 666. (Revelation 13:16-18)

You can debate whether or not this mark is a physical mark or not (I don’t believe it is), but in the end it doesn’t matter. Because you only have two choices either way: comply and be part of the Satanic system, or resist and fight it.

Resisting and fighting is the only option for a true child of God who is a co-heir with Jesus Christ. And it is far more important today to be sure you are a child of God, and that his mark and seal rests on you. See:

The Seal and Mark of God is Far More Important than the “Mark of the Beast” – Are You Prepared for What’s Coming?

Most Christians are not going to make it, as most churches and their leaders are encouraging their members to comply and get a COVID-19 shot.

They are no different than the religious leaders of Jesus’ day, who also knew the Scriptures, but were not saved by them.

You diligently study the Scriptures because you think that by them you possess eternal life. These are the Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life. I do not accept praise from men, but I know you. I know that you do not have the love of God in your hearts. (John 5:39-42)

The main part of Jesus’ ministry when he walked the earth in the flesh, was disobeying the health laws and healing people in direct defiance to their “authority.” He used his own Messianic authority to heal, and that healing is still available to us today.

I do have an entire article on this subject I wrote 10 years ago, if you want to explore this truth more:

The Authority to Heal

I have been a faithful watchman for over a decade now, explaining how evil the medical system is, with its Satanic roots, and warning people that this day was coming.

I myself will not obey any health laws but will continue trusting in Jesus to take care of my health. And if anyone comes and tries to force me to comply, I will resist, and I will also help others in my community to resist, especially the children and helpless, and I will not hesitate to use my “sword” if need be, with a clear conscience that God is leading me to resist.

I’m on the winning side. How about you?

Comment on this article at Created4Health.org