Idolatrous Jerusalem ~~~~ by: Jo Smith ~~~~ Oct 16, 2020

This passage in John 4 gives us an astonishing, but ignored, look at the ignorance concerning the present earthly Jerusalem.

John 4: 14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

15 The woman saith unto him, Sir, give me this water, that I thirst not, neither come hither to draw.

16 Jesus saith unto her, Go, call thy husband, and come hither.

17 The woman answered and said, I have no husband. Jesus said unto her, Thou hast well said, I have no husband:

18 For thou hast had five husbands; and he whom thou now hast is not thy husband: in that saidst thou truly.

19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet.

20 Our fathers worshipped in this mountain; and ye say, that in Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship.

21 Jesus saith unto her, Woman, believe me, the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father.

22 Ye worship ye know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.

23 But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

24 God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

25 The woman saith unto him, I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things.

26 Jesus saith unto her, I that speak unto thee am he.

Samaria was the capital of the ten tribe Israel.  That nation began worshiping in another place other than Jerusalem when they broke away from Judah.  This woman is from Samaria.  She says to Jesus, our fathers worship in this mountain and you Jews say the place to worship is in Jerusalem.

Now that is what they all thought.  But Jesus astounds this woman with something completely different from either of those ideas.    In doing so He is saying that neither of those thoughts are right.  If they are not right in the sight of God, then they are wrong and is idolatry. 

Jesus said, the hour now is when the TRUE WORSHIPPERS shall neither worship in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem.  Neither one.  Neither means not the mountain and not Jerusalem.  Yet all this time both nations had set up a CERTAIN PLACE WHERE PEOPLE HAVE TO GO TO WORSHIP GOD.

Jesus said, that is not right. He would say the same thing to all the churches today which tell their people, ‘you MUST be here to worship’.  You MUST not miss one service.  You must go somewhere to worship.  I have heard this with my own ears as a preacher told someone YOU MUST GO SOMEWHERE.

Jesus said this is not true.  In neither place.  He said the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship him.

He said,  God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth.

Never had he told this to anyone before that God is a Spirit.  Therefore you MUST worship him in spirit and in truth.  This does not mean in that mountain or at Jerusalem.  That is not spirit and it is not truth.  This is what Jesus is revealing to this WOMAN.

But the main thing here is that he showed it is wrong to think you must be at any certain place to worship.  That is a man-made thing that God hates.  God hates your appointed feasts, which means a set time and place to do this.  Jesus knew this Scripture and therefore knew it was wrong to think one must be in Jerusalem to worship.  That is idol worship.

In Spirit and in truth can be done anywhere at any time.  It must be this way.  This is all that God accepts.  You cannot get God to accept you in your lies and everything about the modern churches is LIES.  Same as old Jerusalem, it is idolatry.

So all those hoards of people flocking to a church building each week, and all those hoards of people flocking to old Jerusalem, thinking they are worshiping by standing at a man-made wall and jerking their heads back and forth, putting a fake written prayer inside that brick wall, is worship, and is accepted by God, are in total, complete error and idolatry.

It is devil-worship.  It is Adam worship;  worshiping a man.  A man-made wall; city.  People are so foolish they think that if they write a prayer and stick it inside that wall this will get God’s attention and get him to answer.  It is lies of the devil.  It is not truth and it is not in Spirit.  So they do call Jesus a lie.

If Jesus said, not at Jerusalem, then to think it is at Jerusalem, is to call Jesus a lie.  How blind can people be?

God wants us to worship him daily.  Not once a week, or as in the case of old Jerusalem, once a year.

Right now there are three major ‘religions’ established and active in old Jerusalem.  Not one of them is a true religion.  There are the Jews and their idolatry.  The men wear some silly hat.  The women must do a certain way.  They have their silly chanting and jerking of the head as they pray at that wall.  It is just idolatry.  God is not in any of that stuff.  The old Jews killed millions of animals there and God hated every bit of that.  His word says so.  He even asked them, Who required this of you.  Hebrews 10 said he never had pleasure in this.  It was and is idolatry.  God has never accepted the blood of an animal.  He hated that stuff.  Adam set this up. 

Then there is Islam.  The men get together and stick their back ends up in the air and their heads to the floor.  They must do this at certain times and a certain number of times a day.  They make the women cover up from head to toe.   None of this is true worship.  It is carnal mess that has nothing to do with true worship so it is idolatry.  They think that what they do in the flesh is what counts.

They there is the catholic stuff.  They carry around an idol on a pedestal and have many kinds of idol stuff they do.  None of it is true worship.  So see, this city is filled to the over-flowing with idols.  The churches today are filled to the over-flowing with idols.

They go against all that Scripture says.  God said do not offer anything to me as worship  that I did not command you.  Do not add to my words or take away, even one word.

Yet everything they do is picked up from the heathen.  God said do not look at how the heathens worship their gods and try to do this to me.  So they look the other way, go right ahead…decorate their green trees when God forbids it.  They keep birthdays when God cursed it. etc.  halloween, the worst of heathen mess.  Their entire way of life is idolatry.  They have a set time and place, which Jesus clearly denied.  Jesus clearly said not so.  So are they obeying God or Jesus?  Not at all.  They are worshipping satan. 

They are all looking for the building of a third man-made temple and think they can’t worship right till they have that.  Yet true Christian teaching from the NT said that God is against man-made temples.  God said your body is the temple.  Jesus is our temple.  So to look for and long for another man-made temple, thinking then you can worship, is totally IDOLATRY.  It is against Jesus and our bodies being a temple for the Holy Ghost.  All of those man-made temples, what God calls palaces, was idolatry.  God hated it all the time and said he is going to destroy them.  He said he hated the palaces of Jacob.  This means those fancy temples.  He sent men in to both old Israel and Judah to destroy their man-made walls and palaces.  Yet they rebuilt them just as a man rose up and rebuilt Jericho.  God said, cursed is the man who rebuilds Jericho.  When He curses a place he does not want anyone to rebuild it.

So don’t you see that everything any of these people do is devil worship?  It could not be clearer.   Jesus showed this woman at the well, that the water he gives is spiritual.  It is inside us and lives inside us.  This never runs out.  To think you must run to hear this man or that man at this building or that building, is to deny this.  It is devil worship for it rejects what Jesus said.