Micah 4: 2,3. Come let us go to the Mountain that He may teach us His ways.

A quick google search and you find that there are 195 countries and roughly 6,500 languages spoken; and yet, God will see to it that they all come to the mountain of the Lord, the house of the God of Jacob. There, they will all be taught His ways, so that they may walk in His paths.

Micah 4:2 NASB Many nations will come and say, "Come and let us go up to the mountain of the LORD And to the house of the God of Jacob, That He may teach us about His ways And that we may walk in His paths." For from Zion will go forth the law, Even the word of the LORD from Jerusalem.

What will they learn?
Some would say, now they will learn to fear God! Is that a valid hypothesis? While it is true that the Bible translators used the word fear as they tried to convey a verbal image of people in relationship with God; however, the word fear is a poor choice especially when the phrase reverence would be better. An example of this can be found in Job 28:28.

God said to us humans, "To be wise, you must have reverence for the Lord. To understand, you must turn from evil." GNB

Most of the translations put it this way, ‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom.”

If I have reverence, then you would think I also had a deep respect, perhaps even a love for the Lord. If I understand this “fear” in terms of being wisdom, maybe then I can better comprehend this unusual relationship with someone I cannot see.

But I must tell you, having lived in an atmosphere of fear all my life, I don't even like the word.

Now, if fear is the way I perceived the father figure in my life, how then would I see God?

Can you understand some of the difficulties many of us go through as we “come to the Lord.” I am sure some have had to set aside great fears to accept such a vast, ominous God coming close to them. The point is, these people in Micah 4:2, regardless of emotional distress or circumstances, are coming before Him.

We assume these that come before God knowing nothing about God.

What do we do when think like that? We forget that every human has the knowledge of good and evil in them, NO MATTER where they come from or what language they speak. Why do you suppose, in the midst of chaos, that some people will do the right thing and help others, even though there is no apparent religious motivation to push them.

What have all these nations, that are coming to the house of the Lord, just witnessed,?
God's wrath being poured out upon the earth, alongside the wrath of humans. Revelation 6 describes seven seals, each of which wreaks havoc on the planet in the form of death; starvation; the waters being made undrinkable; the stars falling from the sky; earthquakes; volcanic activity; and the wrath of humanity against others. While Revelation 7 speaks specifically to beheadings in uncountable numbers.

After all this chaos there is no doubt they need to find out what God's true nature and character are because wrath makes a lousy calling card.

Micah 4:2 MKJV  And many nations shall come and say, Come and let us go up to the mountain of Jehovah, and to the house of the God of Jacob. And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths; for the Law shall go forth out of Zion, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.

“And He will teach us of His ways, and we will walk in His paths.”

This idea of teaching people His way is not a new one.

Deuteronomy 6:1-2 MSG This is the commandment, the rules, and regulations, that GOD, your God, commanded me to teach you to live out in the land you're about to cross into to possess. (2) This is so that you'll live in deep reverence before GOD lifelong, observing all his rules and regulations that I'm commanding you, you and your children and your grandchildren, living good long lives.

And though this passage from Deuteronomy sounds somewhat oppressive, you must remember that we, as followers of Christ, live in the age of grace. A time where our sins are forgiven and our lives are hidden in Christ. No, this life of grace does not give us the right to do as we please, because we are not to cause others to stumble. This grace provides us with the freedom and desire to worship the Father freely.

I am told that I was laid on a blanket at the church my mother attended while my father was in the military during the Korean conflict. So effectively, I was raised in the church. But, that did not make my experience personal. Even without an adult comprehension, I still had this deep reverence for God. I suppose you could say I feared Him, and I would have to agree.

When I gained the freedom and right to drink alcohol I did, and a lot of it. However, there came a time when dad, invited me to a camp with him. There was a speaker there by the name of Jerry Savelle, and God used him to get my attention. In a sense, I began to consume the word in a way I had never experienced before. I could not get enough, and, a short time later, I was accepted into a Bible college. Unfortunately, I got married, and I allowed that woman to destroy all my hopes and dreams. I went through nine years of hell because of her and the enemies schemes against me. Brother Savelle taught faith, and still, to this day, I feel strongly that God desires I walk in faith, but it is not my job to school people in faith; but it is my job to teach you the Bible and allow the faith to grow inside of you.

Once again, several years later, life came to a screeching halt once again, and I lost everything, including my family. The judgmental among us would say, you got what you deserved and maybe so; but out of the chaos I once again began to study my Bible, and I did so with one purpose, to find out what the nature and character of God was. In this way, the deep reverence for God has become a lifelong goal.

Now, when it comes to observing all his rules and regulations I have not been so successful at that, but then, God knew that would happen, and that is why Jesus went to the cross as the sacrificial lamb, to resolve that issue. He died once for all.

Moses's father-in-law, was a smart man because he noticed that Moses was taking all the responsibility and weight upon himself, and paying the price for it. The following is the conversation the man had with Moses.

When Moses' father-in-law saw all that Moses was doing for the people, he said, "What's going on here? Why are you doing all this, and all by yourself, letting everybody line up before you from morning to night?" Moses said to his father-in-law, "Because the people come to me with questions about God. When something comes up, they come to me. I judge between a man and his neighbor and teach them God's laws and instructions." Moses' father-in-law said, "This is no way to go about it. You'll burn out, and the people right along with you. This is way too much for you-you can't do this alone. Now listen to me. Let me tell you how to do this so that God will be in this with you. Be there for the people before God, but let the matters of concern be presented to God. Your job is to teach them the rules and instructions, to show them how to live, what to do. (Exodus 18:14-20 MSG)

Due to some of the teaching the false teachers have instilled, we have not grasped whom Moses was dealing with. These people he brought of Egypt, had been there long enough to effectively be Egyptians in every respect, including the gods they served; and they had to be retrained to serve God. An example I always lean on shows “God's people” dancing and screaming, as they willingly roasted some of their children to the god Molech, an idol that they encouraged Aaron, Moses' brother, to make. If someone would have understood God's ways, then Aaron would have been it. He was there as Moses was brought back to his mother to be nursed until he was old enough to go be the adopted son of some Egyptian princess. When you follow that story, you conclude that Moses was taught who he was by family members, for when Moses rose against the Egyptian for beating one of his people, he claimed their heritage. You don't just absorb this information at birth; it has to be taught. Now he is teaching it to over a million people.

“for the Law shall go forth out of Zion, and the Word of Jehovah from Jerusalem.”

Here we go again, as some will say, laws are restrictive. Not to those who live quiet lives in peace, they aren't. Laws are only tough on those who choose to live willful lives of opposition.

Isaiah 26:9 MSG Through the night my soul longs for you. Deep from within me, my spirit reaches out to you. When your decisions are on public display, everyone learns how to live right.

Since Micah tells us that Law will go forth, a public display of God's wrath, incurred upon those who have chosen to ignore God's laws, they have seven years of public display to learn how to live right.

I like how Eugene Peterson's Message puts it.
Romans 10:11-15 MSG Scripture reassures us, "No one who trusts God like this--heart and soul--will ever regret it." (12) It's exactly the same no matter what a person's religious background may be: the same God for all of us, acting the same incredibly generous way to everyone who calls out for help. (13) "Everyone who calls, 'Help, God!' gets help." (14) But how can people call for help if they don't know who to trust? And how can they know who to trust if they haven't heard of the One who can be trusted? And how can they hear if nobody tells them? (15) And how is anyone going to tell them, unless someone is sent to do it? That's why Scripture exclaims, A sight to take your breath away! Grand processions of people telling all the good things of God!

One of the things my heart cries for is peace. I am surrounded, just as you are, with violence. Micah 4:3 finally tells us there will be peace, and why.

Micah 4:3 MSG He'll establish justice in the rabble of nations and settle disputes in faraway places. They'll trade in their swords for shovels, their spears for rakes and hoes. Nations will quit fighting each other, quit learning how to kill one another.

• “ He'll establish justice in the rabble of nations and settle disputes in faraway places.”

Again, many assume that means that most people will just be killed off and that is not true. Revelation 22:15 proves that.

Revelation 22:14-15 KJV  Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.  (15)  For without are dogs, and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loves and makes a lie.

If God were to kill off all those who choose to live by their own god's standards instead of His, then these people certainly would not be here.

The general attitude is of most leans toward horrific punishment, like this.
1 Samuel 2:10 KJV  The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken to pieces; out of heaven shall he thunder upon them: the LORD shall judge the ends of the earth, and he shall give strength unto his king, and exalt the horn of his anointed.

But in reality, this is what will happen.
Psalms 67:4 MKJV  O let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for You shall judge the peoples righteously and govern the nations on earth. Selah.

Instead of weeping because God is bringing further harsh judgments, we see the nations rejoicing and singing for joy.

Why do you suppose that is? Could it be that we, just like those rocks Jesus said would cry out, also long for the day of our redemption.

What does redemption mean to a person who has never heard such a message before? Try to picture those people living in what used to be the quiet of a Venezuelan jungle, who has become painfully aware of the encroachment of industrial farming; using a technique that requires that you slash and burn the jungle away so that the wealthy landowner can have it, and thereby obtain more wealth. These people are painfully aware that destructive forces have taken away the beauty they once lived in; and, it seems that everyone, although they may not call Him Jehovah, is well aware of a creator and some form of redemptive plan.

One “brother-in-Christ,” angrily unleashed his voice at me, saying, Jesus can't come back because these people have not received a printed Bible as yet! As though that was mandatory.

What did I just show you from the Message? I showed you Isaiah's words where it says, your decisions (will be) on public display. Do not think that the public display will be reserved for some final day, at the end of the seven years.

Revelation 14:6-7 AMPC  Then I saw another angel flying in midair, with an eternal Gospel (good news) to tell to the inhabitants of the earth, to every race and tribe and language and people.  (7)  And he cried with a mighty voice, Revere God and give Him glory (honor and praise in worship), for the hour of His judgment has arrived. Fall down before Him; pay Him homage and adoration and worship Him Who created heaven and earth, the sea and the springs (fountains) of water.

I have made you aware of the seals that John saw, and how each one brings terrible destruction with it. Each of these is wrath from God upon those who rejected Him (this is a big group which includes the nations and the Jews); those who harmed His people, and those who damaged the earth; and, all will see this wrath. And, every one of these angels announces their actions with a tremendous blast of a ram's horn – a shofar or, as some call it, a trumpet.

When this process begins, there will be no mistaking what has happened.
Revelation 1:7 AMPC  Behold, He is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him; and all the tribes of the earth shall gaze upon Him and beat their breasts and mourn and lament over Him. Even so [must it be]. Amen (so be it). [Dan 7:13; Zec 12:10]

Only moments ago I spoke of the nations rejoicing, and yet here in Revelation I see them mourning and lamenting; which is it?

Maybe Zechariah answers the question best.
Zechariah 12:10 AMPC  And I will pour out upon the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace or unmerited favor and supplication. And they shall look [earnestly] upon Me Whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for Him as one mourns for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for Him as one who is in bitterness for his firstborn. [John 19:37; Rev 1:7]

I have heard this regrettable statement come from the mouths of Bible teachers, “the Holy Spirit will be lifted with the Church!” That concept is far from the truth, as you can see the Spirit of grace and unmerited favor still being poured out on the earth. Zechariah 12:10 and Revelation 1:7 both tell us that every eye will see Him, and shall mourn. Perhaps that mourning is the recognition that our sin put Jesus on the cross. Maybe, it is our sudden understanding that we could have had a relationship with the Father, and we have lost precious years.

I understand lost time because I lost two daughters to foolishness, and, I can tell you that I mourned with tears for some time. A day comes when you have to stop weeping and return to productive life once again, but you never forget.


Jesus wasted no time, and did not stay dead, neither could a tomb hold Him. He exploded from the grave three days later, with life; the promise of the Holy Spirit; empowerment, and the guarantee that He would come back and gather those that long for Him. We like to call that gathering the rapture. But, the story doesn't stop there, as this unmerited favor Zechariah speaks continues to flow toward all people. The prophecies of old, talking to those who would listen, told of what Jesus would do, and then He did it, just as He said. Therefore, we have verifiable testimony that this hope of a life with the Father, we cling to, is real. He is coming back, and my heart cries out for that day.

A look at Micah 3:8 - 12, things to come.

All right, you caught me. I took a short break from studying Micah. Books tend to be difficult primarily because there can be aspects that are not so interesting, repetitive, and long. When any of those three things get involved in writing for a blog, I lose readers. It's sad that few have any interest in knowing what's in this fantastic book we call a Bible. Sure, I have to slog through some tedious stuff, but overall it excites me.

The dive into Micah came out of some boredom that had infiltrated as I had finished a goal and was pondering what to look at next. The interruption of Micah came for several reasons: I needed a break, and my friends started challenging me with questions and ideas about other topics. One of those topics was Judas Iscariot, which I recently posted. The idea behind a character study on Judas was an attempt to break what I see as a spirit of judgmentalism. In truth, we don't know what became of Judas and God, has yet to pass judgment upon anyone, so why do we think He needs our help?

Another question arose, asking me for my take on 2 Thessalonians 2:3. That particular passage does not stand alone, but if you only read one verse that day, and tried to build your life around it, you would believe that the body of Christ is meant to go through God's wrath. Multiple times, throughout the New Testament, using different terminology, we are told that we are NOT meant to endure God's wrath.

1Thessalonians 1:10 and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.

1Thessalonians 5:9 For God has not destined us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ,

Romans 5:9 NASB Much more then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from the wrath of God through Him.

So for you to read some passage, or allow someone to convince you, that we are going to have to experience God's wrath is fallacious on their part and it makes them a false teacher.

Just for the sake of clarity, I want to advance beyond 2 Thes 2:3 and show you the entire context up to verse 11.
2 Thessalonians 2:6-11 NASB (6) And you know what restrains him now so that in his time he will be revealed. (7) For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way. (8) Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming; (9) that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders, (10) and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved. (11) For this reason, God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
Note several things here.

• Something is restraining the man of lawlessness, the son of destruction.

That something is the body of Christ, the Church. We have as an anchor, a hope that this life we are living is based on the truth of Jesus words, that He will come back to retrieve us; this catching away is the trigger for all the hell that the seven-year period will bring. A second peculiarity is the multiple names given to this man. It is just one man, called many things, including beast.

• Verse three tells us that the apostasy must come first.

In case you had not noticed, it already has. How many people read their Bible? Religious organizations have blatantly incorporated sin into their doctrinal practices, and most of those who call themselves "Christians" are merely convenient Christians.

• Verse 7 states that “he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.”

See how it is expressed in the singular “he.” The church, which is the body of Christ, is supposed to be one unit in Christ. That is the way God sees it and addresses it. A day is coming when the church will be snatched out of here. That word snatched conveys the idea of a rapid, almost violent removal; not that God is performing some violence upon us, it is more like having someone pull you out of the way of a flash flood. Consider the circumstances with Lot, Noah, and perhaps even Rahab.

• Having been taken out of the way, as verse 7 states, the man of lawlessness will then be revealed.

I have a strong inclination that this man is a Muslim. This kind of talk is not hate speech as some might say; it is a logical path spelled out in scripture, and it points to Islam. The book of Micah communicates it clearly when it calls him the Assyrian.

I repeatedly say we have done ourselves a great disservice because we call the seven years that are coming “The Great Tribulation.”
The Bible never calls the seven years "The Great Tribulation"; it is, however, a time of judgment, and it is the time of God's wrath. This wrath is directed at the Jews for rejecting Him, and the nations for the way they treat God and His people.

The Nations used to mean “them,” as we thought of ourselves as the good guys, but now it can readily be pointing at people within these United States as well, for we are the worst of offenders anymore. Effectively, the nations mean those outside of a relationship with Jesus. When you consider that the nations are having to go through the wrath of God, do not forget that the Holy Spirit will still be here drawing all humanity to Him, and, the veil that has covered their eyes will be lifted. There will be nothing, outside of selfish motives, that would prevent anyone from finding Jesus in this morass that is coming. Sadly, there will be no more grace it seems, and all who come to Him will have to prove their allegiance to God in death.

On that happy note, let's finish chapter 3 of Micah.

The last time we looked at Micah, he was addressing the Heads of Jacob and magistrates of the house of Israel. Why? Because soon the Land of Israel will be so torn up by rockets and invading forces, that you will not be able to measure the land, nor will you be able to stop what is coming. It seems that there will not be the appropriate people left to make sound decisions. While Micah does not mention Ezekiel's prophecy, this sounds very much like what Ezekiel describes in chapters 38, 39 of his writings.

How did Israel's leadership respond?
Just as they would today, and just as a former pastor accosted me by saying, “Don't tell us these things, nothing bad will happen to us.” Micah persisted. No, you are going to be attacked, and they were; they were finally taken captive into Babylon.

Odd how such an admonition could be spurned, especially since Micah pointed out to them that they had already been, in a sense, stealing, looting, and pillaging from the people for years. An example of this kind of talk is seen here -
Micah 2:8-9 ERV  But you attack my people like enemies. You steal the clothes off the backs of people walking by. They think they are safe, but you are there to treat them like prisoners of war.  (9)  You have taken nice houses away from the women of my people. You have taken my wealth away from their small children forever.

Are Micah's words all bad? No, as Micah 2:12,13 have good news for some.
Micah 2:12-13 ERV  Yes, people of Jacob, I will bring all of you together. I will bring together all those in Israel who are still living. I will put them together like sheep in the sheep pen, like a flock in its pasture. Then the place will be filled with the noise of many people.  (13)  The "One Who Breaks Through Walls" will push through and walk to the front of his people. They will break through the gates and leave that city. They will leave with their king marching before them— with the LORD at the front of his people.

The remnant of Israel will be gathered once again.
We are told that theMessiah will put them together like sheep in pen, protected. While it sounds like such a small number it's not, " The place will be filled with the noise of many people.” When we read Ezekiel, we see two-thirds of Israel being killed. With a current population slightly over 8 million, two-thirds slaughter would leave about 2 million people. That's still a lot of people.

Good news is somewhat relative, and this is the lead into Micah 3: 8.

Micah 3:8 ESV  But as for me, I am filled with power, with the Spirit of the LORD, and with justice and might, to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.

Sadly, Micah is not speaking for everyone. Doesn't this sound like the Holy Spirit? He is empowered with justice and might for a purpose; that purpose is: “to declare to Jacob his transgression and to Israel his sin.”
Micah 3:9-11 ESV  Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, who detest justice and make crooked all that is straight,  (10)  who build Zion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity.  (11)  Its heads give judgment for a bribe; its priests teach for a price; its prophets practice divination for money; yet they lean on the LORD and say, “Is not the LORD in the midst of us? No disaster shall come upon us.”

He opens the volley with, “Hear this, you heads of the house of Jacob and rulers of the house of Israel, and ends the chapter with, “on account of you.”
Micah 3:12 NASB Therefore, on account of you Zion will be plowed as a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of ruins, And the mountain of the temple will become high places of a forest.


Not to despair, as chapter 4 paints a picture of majesty and Holy living before God.

You have filled the streets with the dead. Micah 3:1-7

Just last week California had two major fires burning at the same time, and in the case of the “Camp” fire, they lost the entire town of paradise, and I believe Megalia. If they are alive, then they have something to be thankful for, but not much else.
Today 11/22/2018 is Thanksgiving day in America, and I have much to be thankful for. But, I wonder how much worse it is going to get before that day when Jesus comes back for His church. I know many of you don't understand that or care about it, but someday you will.
One of the primary tenets of a follower of Christ is hope. Hope works by faith and this hope is embedded in the fact that Jesus, a believable witness, told us that there is a life with the Father and that He would come back for His church. Moments after Jesus returns for His church the wrath of God will begin to be poured out upon the earth. This wrath will be happening at the same time as man's wrath and greed, which are expressed in death and destruction as well.
You should understand something; we were not promised an escape from things like what we see in Micah. In John's gospel chapter 16:33 we are told, in the world you have tribulation. We do ourselves and others a huge disservice when we call the time of God's wrath the tribulation. Oh, no doubt, it will be a time of great distress, but it is all God's wrath, and nothing to be compared with what we deal with on a daily basis. However, 1Thessalonians 1:10 and 1Thessalonians 5:9 tell us that we have been rescued from, nor are we destined for God's wrath.
Micah 3:1 ERV  Then I said, "Listen, leaders of Jacob and officers of the nation of Israel! You should know what justice is.
Immediately we know who God/Micah is addressing.

• The heads of Jacob
• The rulers of the house of Israel

What is the assertion? You, of all people, should know what justice is!
Justice is the Hebrew word mišpāṭ: A masculine noun meaning a judgment, a legal decision, a legal case, a claim, proper, rectitude. The word connotes several variations in meanings depending on the context. It is used to describe a legal decision or judgment rendered: it describes a legal decision given by God to be followed by the people. Word Study Dictionary
You have to assume from Micah's words, that Jewish leadership knows what they did wrong. Isaiah denounced the house of Jacob on a previous occasion.
Isaiah 58:1 MKJV  Cry aloud, do not spare, lift up your voice like aram's horn, and show My people their rebellion, and the house of Jacob their sins.
However, the context for Isaiah 58:1 comes from Isaiah 57 verses 20, 21.
Isaiah 57:20-21 MKJV  But the wicked are like the troubled sea, which cannot rest, and its waters cast up mire and dirt.  (21) There is no peace, says my God, to the wicked.
Here Israel, the northern and southern kingdoms are told they are wicked.
Malachi 2:17 AMPC  You have wearied the Lord with your words. Yet you say, In what way have we wearied Him? [You do it when by your actions] you say, Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord, and he delights in them. Or [by asking], Where is the God of justice?
Pay attention to the words of Malachi, but note the italicized words. Those words were added for clarity, and yet we have many in the Congress and the Senate of the United States still telling us that the brutal killing of unborn babies is appropriate, while conveniently putting someone in prison for life because they killed the mother of an unborn child. Which is it, we can't have it both ways?
Civility alone shouts out that you should not openly call for the assassination of the president, and yet these public officials do just that. I am intentionally vague here, but there is no doubt that we too are living in this wickedness now, especially is we, by our actions, say“Everyone who does evil is good in the sight of the Lord and He delights in them.” This will come to a violent end for those who choose to live in such perversion.
The one last passage before I move on. While it is clear that God is going to remove all the beneficial aspects, pay attention to verse 5 where it says, “the youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable.” Here in America, we have this stupidity called Antifa. These “youth” and they are not all youth; some are merely the down and out that want to make some fast money, are blockading roads and attacking people for reasons that change in accordance with the most recent sign one of them is carrying.
Isaiah3:1-5 NASB For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah Both supply and support, the whole supply of bread And the whole supply of water; (2) The mighty man and the warrior, The judge and the prophet, The diviner and the elder, (3)The captain of fifty and the honorable man, The counselor and the expert artisan, And the skillful enchanter. (4) AndI will make mere lads their princes, And capricious children will rule over them, (5) And the people will be oppressed, Each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder And the inferior against the honorable.
Micah 3:2 now paints an even more gruesome picture.
Micah 3:2 NET.
yet you hate what is good,
and love what is evil.
You flay my people's skin
and rip the flesh from their bones.
Isaiah3:14-15 MKJV  Jehovah will enter into judgment with the elders of His people, and their kings; for you have eaten up the vineyard; the spoil of the poor is in your houses.  (15)  What do you mean? You crush My people and grind the faces of the poor? Says the Lord, Jehovah of Hosts.
Ezekiel11:6-7 MKJV  You have multiplied your dead in this city, and you have filled its streets with the dead.  (7) Therefore so says the Lord Jehovah: Your slain whom you have laid in her midst, they are the flesh, and this city is the pot. But I will bring you out of her midst.
Joseph Benson's commentary claims that Micah 3:2 is “an allusion to lions bears, or wolves, which devour the flesh, and break the bones of the defenseless lambs.”
“Your slain whom you have laid in her midst, they are the flesh, and this city is the pot.”
Micah 3:3 NET.
You devour my people's flesh,
strip off their skin,
and crush their bones.
You chop them up like flesh in a pot --
like meat in a kettle.
“All these words (we see in Micah 3:3) are metaphorical expressions, to signify the oppression of the people by their heads, or great men; and, how they, by one means or another, deprive them of their substance and divide it among themselves.” “So, even though it is written for the purpose of expressive style, the overall impact is still the same, as it is a horrendous depiction of how they treat people; God's people.”
I wanted to think these words were entirely symbolic, but what did Saul, the Pharisee do? He pursued the Jewish converts, reasoning that he was doing the Lord's work. He had people locked up in prisons; and, he held the cloaks of those stoning Stephen, which made him an accomplice to their crime of murder.
Acts 22:3-4 KJV  I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.  (4) And I persecuted this way unto the death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women.
When Pilate wished to free Jesus Christ because He had done nothing contrary to Roman law, it was the Jewish council that persisted until the Romans carried out their wishes. Because of their hatred and tenaciousness Jesus had the skin flayed from His back, ribs, and legs. It was the Jewish high priest that put the perfect lamb on that cross that day.
Micah3:4 MSG The time's coming, though, when these same leaders will cry out for help to GOD, but he won't listen. He'll turn his face the other way because of their history of evil.
The NASB says it like this:
“Then they will cry out to the LORD, But He will not answer them. Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.”
This usage of the phrase, “they will cry out,” leaves you hanging as you try to figure out, once again, to whom he is speaking. This is a good reason to have other translations, and, as you can see Eugene Peterson sorted it out and declared that “these leaders will cry out for help to God, but He won't listen.”
“Instead, He will hide His face from them at that time Because they have practiced evil deeds.”
We make the assumption that all of Israel has practiced evil deeds, when that may not be true. When Elijah cried out that he was the only one left, the Lord told him, no, I have reserved other. So the idea that they have all practiced evil is not right. Is it possible then that Jewish leadership has bullied most of Israel into a false belief and misunderstanding of God? Absolutely.
“Thus says the Lord concerning the prophets who lead my people astray.”
Obviously, this happens; it is happening today, all around us.
Micah 3:5-7 NASB Thus says the LORD concerning the prophets who lead my people astray; When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, "Peace, "But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war. (6) Therefore it will be night for you--without vision, And darkness for you--without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, And the day will become dark over them. (7) The seers will be ashamed, And the diviners will be embarrassed. Indeed, they will all cover their mouths Because there is no answer from God.
“When they have something to bite with their teeth, They cry, "Peace," But against him who puts nothing in their mouths They declare holy war.”
One might read this and interpret it as people who are no longer starving. How easy it is for them to cry peace. I am not sure this makes sense, but these same people are declaring a holy war against the one who did not put food in their mouths.
The Amplified translation adds some clarity as it refers to the false prophets and leaders.
“Thus says the Lord: Concerning the false prophets who make My people err, when they have anything good to bite with their teeth they cry, Peace; and whoever gives them nothing to chew, against him they declare a sanctified war.”
This entire scenario has a soap opera feel to it, as these characters are willing to chew up those who do not take care of them in some lucrative manner.
Perhaps I can understand this idea of biting with their teeth from Ezekiel's words.
Ezekiel13:19 NASB "For handfuls of barley and fragments of bread, you have profaned Me to My people to put to death some who should not die and to keep others alive who should not live, by your lying to My people who listen to lies."
Breton's is a translation that I do not refer too often, but in this case, it gives clarity.
Ezekiel13:19 Brenton  And they have dishonored me before my people for a handful of barley, and for pieces of bread, to slay the souls which should not die, and to save alive the souls which should not live, while ye speak to a people hearing vain speeches.
The “they” in this sentence is Jewish leadership. The essence of the passage wreaks of graft and collusion. In this verse they are doing it for barley and bread; in a sense, food in their mouths while most are struggling to survive. Keep in mind that the Northern Kingdom, Israel, and the Southern Kingdom, Judah, had been under attack for some time; first at the hand of the Assyrian and then the Babylonian kingdoms.
“Therefore it will be night for you--without vision, And darkness for you--without divination. The sun will go down on the prophets, And the day will become dark over them.” Micah 3:6
Albert Barnes commentary
“In the presence of God's extreme judgments, even deceivers are at length still; silenced at last by the common misery, if not by awe. The false prophets had promised peace, light, brightness, prosperity;” and yet, what befell them all, trouble, anguish, darkness, and fear.”
This idea of the day being dark over them, may not lend itself entirely to things like uncertainty, perplexity, and big troubles. The prophet Joel adds to our understanding.
Joel 2:1-2 NASB Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD, is coming; Surely it is near, (2) A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.
Certainly much of this prophecy is metaphorical; however, even though much has been fulfilled, it will again see fulfillment at some point. For the day of the Lord is coming!

Dispelling some myths - Jonah. Chapter three.

When I was a child watching cartoons on the television, there was a character named Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties. Every week he would get caught up in some suspense with the bad guys, and end up hanging off a cliff or trying to save his girlfriend Nell, who was always put in some perilous situation. The drama was quite intense, and they always left off with, “will our hero save her in time?”

Well, this story about Jonah is not so different, as Jonah is thrown into a turbulent sea. No one reading this thinks he has a chance. Then, a massive fish swallows him whole. How often does that happen? And, contrary to what we see in Pinocchio, there is no chance of survival in the belly of any fish. Therefore, Jonah, whom we have previously demonstrated from scripture, dies. God, however, in the form of the hero, comes to the rescue and brings him back to life.

God's call comes to Jonah a second time. He gets up, walks an incredible distance to Nineveh, and declares that their destruction will come in forty days. He does not give them an option, and yet the entire town repents and acknowledges God. Having spent enough time around pastors. You would think anyone doing the preaching would be elated to have a whole community change their lives and come to repentance, but not Jonah.

So, let's go back to where we left our (dead or dying) “hero,” Jonah, as he says -

“But I will sacrifice to You With the voice of thanksgiving. That which I have vowed I will pay. Salvation is from the LORD.” Jonah 2:9 NASB

I am splitting Jonah 2:9-10 to make a point. When we read, we ignore small details, such as what Jesus said about Jonah.

Matthew 12:39-40 CJB He replied, "A wicked and adulterous generation asks for a sign? No! None will be given to it but the sign of the prophet Jonah. 40) For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the depths of the earth.

One of these details, as you see above, is the idea that Jonah was a sign, and that sign had everything to do with him being in the belly of a fish for an exact length of time. Because some will only read this and not the previous posts, I repeat the understanding that Jewish tradition taught that the soul did not leave the body until it had been dead for three days. Jesus, contrasting himself to Jonah, spoke volumes to the scribes and Pharisees when he said this. They immediately understood that Jonah was, without a doubt, dead.

So, where does that leave Jonah? Dead, in the belly of a great fish.

Jonah 2:10 Then the LORD commanded the fish, and it vomited Jonah up onto the dry land.

Lacking details, we are left to speculate as to when Jonah is brought back to life. Perhaps the answer lies in Jonah 3:1-2. The NASB entitles this next section; Jonah Goes to Nineveh, and thus chapter three really begins.

Did God merely throw Jonah aside? The obvious answer is no. However, there are those that would preach such a message, emphasizing how God now has to get another person to do the job you could not, or would not do. In the judgmental minds of many, God had every reason to reject Jonah? And yet He did not. No, God wanted and needed this man; even more, God needed Jonah's current experience. Hence, we get the notice that the word of the Lord came to Jonah the second time.

Jonah 3:1-2 NASB Now the word of the LORD came to Jonah the second time, saying, 2) "Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you."

There is one other aspect of this story that I have recently become aware of, and that is The fish god Dagon.

“Dagon figures into the story of Jonah, as well, although the deity is not mentioned by name in Jonah’s book. The Assyrians in Ninevah, to whom Jonah was sent as a missionary, worshiped Dagon and his female counterpart, the fish goddess Nanshe. Jonah, of course, did not go straight to Ninevah but had to be brought there via miraculous means. The transportation God provided for Jonah—a great fish—would have been full of meaning for the Ninevites.” From the article “Who was Dagon in the Bible?” As posted on www.gotquestions.org.

Just moments before he had been dead in the belly of a fish, and now we find him on the beach lying face first in the hot sand. For all, we know God saw fit to have witnesses to the event. God says arise, and almost simultaneously, Jonah, suddenly aware that life has come surging back into his body, begins to respond. The brain that should have been irreparably damaged now hears the voice of God, as He says, “Arise, go to Nineveh the great city and proclaim to it the proclamation which I am going to tell you.”

Arise is the Hebrew word qûm: A verb meaning to arise, to stand, to stand up. The basic meaning of this word is the physical action of rising up.

So, although the implications of raising Jonah from the dead are there, it is not clear from these words alone. What am I suppose to believe about this, that a dead man was told to get up and go to Nineveh, or that Jonah never died? Neither of these scenarios is plausible. At some point, life came back into Jonah, and the beach is the only practical place for that to happen.

I mentioned what I had found about Jonah, to a dear friend. Without my prompting, he added, it is possible that the person who witnessed Jonah being spewed onto the beach may have been an Assyrian. It is possible that this person quickly jumped on his camel and rode back to Nineveh and told them about this fish man, and that he is headed this way. Considering that on two maps, the distance from the ocean to Nineveh is at least 300 miles at its shortest distance. Where is Jonah, with no money or food and water, going to get provisions for such a journey? That is unless someone who believed in fish gods told everyone he met what he saw and that the man was coming. Not knowing any of this Jonah may have approached wells and asked for a drink, only to encounter fearful looks as they backed away and left him to help himself. Vendors in the marketplace may have pushed their children behind their backs handing the man anything he wanted.

Why is any of this important? Because Jesus told the Pharisees, they would get no sign but the sign of Jonah. If I were looking for signs: getting spewed dead, onto a beach, by a whale, and then being brought back to life, while potentially having someone witness the event, then relating what they saw to the target audience, that a fish man was coming could be considered a sign.

Did Jesus, who compared Himself to Jonah and some significant sign, have any signs of His own? Without a doubt, as the sky went dark at midday; no bones were broken, just as prophecy said; he was beaten beyond recognition as scripture told us; the stone that covered His grave was rolled away and, he arose from the dead, just as he said he would.

Note one other thing here. God tells him “and proclaim to Nineveh the proclamation which I am going to tell you.” Jonah does not even know what the message is going to be. Surely it will be ominous and quick in coming.

Jonah 3:3 MKJV And Jonah arose and went to Nineveh, according to the Word of Jehovah. And Nineveh was a very great city of three days' journey.

Once he arrives at Nineveh, where he is to proclaim a message that only then will he be privy to, we are made aware that the town takes three days to walk through, and God has made it clear that all of Nineveh would hear the message.

Jonah 3:4 MKJV And Jonah began to enter into the city a day's journey, and he cried and said, Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Jonah's word for the people was perfect by his standards - “Yet forty days and Nineveh shall be overthrown!” He wanted them dead.

I mentioned how the worship of Dagon is not revealed to us in this story.
Is it something we should ignore? No, for it answers many questions. For example, how would an Israelite walk unscathed through a land of savages that have a record of killing his people? Had I not stumbled upon the information about Dagon, the fish god, I cannot say I would have even thought to pursue such a lead, even though it has always troubled me. Knowing that they worshiped a fish god, and Jonah was spewed from a fish, he would have instant credibility, as apparently Jonah's god had greater power.

The response to what Jonah said was instantaneous.

Jonah 3:5 NASB Then the people of Nineveh believed in God, and they called a fast and put on sackcloth from the greatest to the least of them.

I always thought that the people responded in kind, as the king covered himself in ashes. It seems that the king followed the lead of his people.

Jonah 3:6 NASB When the word reached the king of Nineveh, he arose from his throne, laid aside his robe from him, covered himself with sackcloth and sat on the ashes.

Why being covered in ashes represents some form of remorse, I don't know, but it seems to be universal.

Jonah 3:7-8 NASB He issued a proclamation, and it said, "In Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles: Do not let man, beast, herd, or flock taste a thing. Do not let them eat or drink water. 8) "But both man and beast must be covered with sackcloth, and let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

What are the mandates this king made?

• Nobody and nothing are to eat or drink.
• Man and beast must be covered in sackcloth.
• And let men call on God earnestly that each may turn from his wicked way and from the violence which is in his hands.

The alarming aspect is the recognition, on the part of the Assyrians, that this message was a direct result of their wickedness and the violence of their hands. The next thing we see is often used as a truth we apply to our own lives. Regardless of who said it, it does demonstrate the nature of God, something Jonah understood.

Jonah 3:9 NASB "Who knows, God may turn and relent and withdraw His burning anger so that we will not perish."

The Ninevehites were right, for God has relented on multiple occasions.

Jonah 3:10 NASB When God saw their deeds, that they turned from their wicked way, then God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them. And He did not do it.

We will deal with Jonah's response to all this mercy in the next chapter. It is the reason Jonah ran from God and His potential message in the first place.

Now, what do we do with the disappointment we feel as God shows someone mercy, when we, by our judgment, believe they deserve nothing less than hell's flames?

Don't think this kind of logic is so odd, I wasted most of my life, dwelling on the painful repayment process several men owed me for the damage they did to me as a youth in the church. This entire train of thought falls under the category of un-forgiveness, something we come to realize is a waste of energy, as we grow in the knowledge of the God we serve.

Reread verse ten. The writer used the word relented.

Relented is the Hebrew word nâcham. It means to sigh, that is, breathe strongly; by implication to be sorry, that is, (in a favorable sense) to pity, console or (reflexively) rue; or (unfavorably) to avenge (oneself).

So, while God may have had pity or consolation toward Nineveh, that did not mean that He forgot what He said.

The Prophet Nahum seems to speak in code about the destruction of Nineveh. Although the entire book of Nahum is as the Amplified Bible calls it, "THE BURDEN or oracle (the thing to be lifted up) concerning Nineveh [the capital of Assyria]." We are not given clear details as to why Nineveh was brought to ruin, and, we are not given details as to who conquered them, nor how. And yet, history demonstrates that God's judgment did come to pass against them.

Nineveh shall be overthrown!

Nahum 3:7 NASB "And it will come about that all who see you Will shrink from you and say, 'Nineveh is devastated! Who will grieve for her?' Where will I seek comforters for you?"

Regardless of when it happened God stayed faithful to His word. Still, the purists will say, Ah, but God said forty days! For a God that lives outside of any known dimensions we have, time means nothing. One of the places in scripture this is evidenced is in Daniel's prophecy about the Messiah's return for His own. It is expressed in terms of 70 weeks of years. We, the church, are stuck between the 69^th and 70^th week, a time period that has now lasted over 2000 years. Does this bother God at all? No, as He is appropriately waiting for the full number, which only He knows, to come into the kingdom.

Again, just because we have no details in scripture about some items, is no reason to ignore historical background information, or the lessons we are meant to learn. A common thread we all fall prey to - whether you are a follower of Christ, or, as the Jewish mind thinks, an idolatrous Gentile - is the foolish belief that just because you did not get caught, then God must not care or see. Oh, He sees everything, for there is nothing that is hidden from His view. And, I think Jonah came to understand this concept clearly.

Is the Great White Throne only a death sentence?

My father recently went to the hospital for brain surgery; fortunately, it was successful, and he will regain, in time, motor skills that the tumor had taken from him. We went to visit him after the surgery while he was still in intensive care. Though groggy from the anesthesia and morphine they were giving him for pain, and still he had the awareness to fire off a statement/question at me about the end of time, specifically, the Great White Throne. He said something that is a common belief among those at the Monday morning Bible Study. He opened with, "I know you don't agree with me, but, I believe that everyone who presents themselves before that throne is non-Christians and that they are all sent to the fires of hell." Considering what he had just come through, it was good to have him back.

I, however, after reading my Bible, have concluded, that my understanding is in complete opposition to theirs. And, I believe I can prove my point through some logical reasoning amidst scriptural backing. With that being said, let's tackle this false notion about the Great White Throne judgment from several directions.

First, he used the term belief.

So, what is a belief? Webster's dictionary conveys a generalized explanation of belief that has more to do with a feeling; however, it also has more concise definitions, which I will address shortly.

Feelings do not buy you anything, and our relationship with Christ and the Father, are through faith alone.

Feelings are solely yours, and, though your beliefs may be based on truth, they are most often anchored upon how someone made you feel. In this case, the Bible study leader either, made the men feel good about sending everyone to hell, or, because he raises his voice unnecessarily and slams his hand down on the table he intimidated the men into thinking he was correct in his assumptions, or, they have become inculcated simply because of the repetition of his false teachings.

What I just described is precisely what false teachers do, and you can find this defined for you in 2 Peter chapter 2.

Continuing with Webster's definitions. A belief is:

1. A state or habit of mind in which trust or confidence is placed in some person or thing.
   There it is, the basis for the belief of many. Since many Church members won't open their Bibles and read them for themselves, they are compelled to accept, as truth, anything the Pastor, or, in this case, Bible study leader, tells them. In doing so, they have placed their belief in a person, trusting that the teacher has their information correct, and their best interests at heart.
2. Something believed; especially: a tenet or body of tenets held by a group.
   Sadly, most of the men at morning Bible Study, agree, (almost with a stupor,) with the convictions of the leader and the former elder, who is allegedly keeping false teachings restrained. Since the old elder rarely ever disagrees with what is being said, then he too must believe this garbage. So, what do I gather from this? That the group, in the majority, hold to false beliefs and refuse to accept the truth from the Word, when it is set out before them.
3. Conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence.
   To have a conviction of the truth of some declaration does not work for me, especially in our morning Bible study. The leader can speak with confidence, and yet because he does not apply the notion of context nor allow for similar passages to help define questionable matter, he rarely has a shred of evidence to back his statements. The men sitting there may feel some sort of conviction of the truth (typically some misplaced sense of justice.) But again, he has no evidence for his brash statements.

I won't burden you with any more examples, but suffice it to say that most of these men fall under all these categories in some way. Sadly, this is the way far too many people acquire their belief systems. Once it became possible for me to attend on a regular basis, I did, and it is because of that involvement, that I can speak from first-hand experience about what is said there.

The leader(s) declare that everyone going before the Great White Throne is sent to hell. Note that I wrote leader(s) and not the leader. That is because one man, (the former church elder,) has been involved with the church in a teaching role, for over 50 years, and never challenges false teachings.

What is their basis for thinking that God would send all before the Great White Throne, to hell?
I can tell you from experience that this comes uniquely from Revelation chapter 20. So, what do we see in this chapter?

Revelation 20:11-15 NASB 11 Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled away, and no place was found for them. 12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds. 13 And the sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and Hades gave up the dead which were in them; and they were judged, every one of them according to their deeds. 14 Then death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire. 15 And if anyone's name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

Verse 11 refers to “Him who sat upon it” (“it,”is the Great White Throne.)

So, who is the Him being referred to? Since we have conclusive evidence, let's look at that.

Revelation 1:1 tells us that the entire book of Revelation is The Revelation of Jesus Christ,

The whole book of Revelation is about Jesus, even if we perceive Him to be God, for that is who He is. So, the person sitting on the throne, doing the judging, is Jesus Christ.

In Revelation 20:12 we are told that John saw, “the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne.” As a student of scripture, you have seen the dead popping up at every turn. It becomes necessary to sort this all out, and we will attempt to do that.

Revelation 20:4-5 NASB Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years. 5 The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed. This is the first resurrection.

All this takes us to the next point.

While God's wrath will be more than enough to get people's attention, there will be a secondary reason for the deaths of people on the earth, and that would be the wrath of Satan, as displayed through those who still choose to serve him. Currently, Islam and your neighborhood bully sufficiently fit those descriptions. Revelation 20:4 portrays an innumerable amount of people, who stand their ground, refuse all three aspects of worshiping the beast, and are beheaded because of their refusal. All these components feed into the dead.

But there is one catch. All those beheaded for their testimony, are deemed to be the martyred, saints and are raised to life again upon the return of Jesus to the earth, this is spelled out for us and called the first resurrection. These martyred saints are not reckoned among the numbers brought before the Great White Throne but sit in judgment over the planet during the thousand-year reign.

So, who then is left to be judged when the Great White Throne gets set up?

There is no good way of approaching this without scripture, so here goes. There has already been a game-changing event, and it happened when Jesus voluntarily put himself on that cross and died as the price necessary for the redemption of the entire world. Paul, in Ephesians 4, gives us a small glimpse into what happened during those three days we "thought" Jesus was dead.

Ephesians 4:8 KJV Wherefore he saith, When he ascended up on high, he led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men.

What does Paul mean when he says, “When he ascended up on high.”? He is talking about Jesus dying. Hung on the cross until dead, and then speared by a Roman soldier to make sure, he was declared dead and put in the grave. Then the amazing happened, for He went into hell, stripped the keys to death, hell and the grave from Satan, set the captives free, and apparently took them into heaven with Him when He rose from the dead.

Captives? I can look at this two ways:

First, no one, including Israel, received Jesus as their savior, as we can. Israel only had the option of making sacrifices for their sins. Lacking this personal relationship, is it possible that these old testament saints may have been included among captives? Most religious zealots would consider this idea preposterous, so let's ignore that feasibility for a moment, and assume that God somehow included the Old Testament saints among the church, and caught them up in the rapture.

If the possibility of catching the Old Testament saints up in the rapture is valid, then they would not have been included among those captives that Christ set free. The captives then were those that died from the beginning of time, as we know it. But then this logic also creates problems, for Christ, as we saw in Ephesians 4:8, preached to the captives. If the old testament saints, and anyone else there were capable of hearing His voice, you would think that they would have accepted Him as the Messiah, and therefore received Him. So, by this logic, they too would no longer be included among the dead, but be in heaven already.

As you ponder the logic of a situation, what do you do with the person who, when confronted by the slain Messiah, God himself who now lives, and yet still chooses to ignore His voice, perhaps thinking that there will be another opportunity? This is unimaginable, and yet a possibility. And, what of Judas Iscariot, a man who most send off to a fiery hell for his betrayal. Wouldn't he too have heard the voice of the Messiah?

This only leaves us with the second option, and that is the dead who have died out of a relationship with the Father since His resurrection. Since we have had over two-thousand years to supply that number, it could be quite significant.

So, an aspect of this belief that everyone called to the throne of judgment is sent to a fiery hell lies in the terminology “dead.”

In 1Thessalonians 4:13, Paul, in trying to bring some comfort about the dead and our being caught up to heaven, explains by calling those that have died, asleep.

1 Thessalonians 4:13 NASB 13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brethren, about those who are asleep, so that you will not grieve as do the rest who have no hope.

Just to make sure that you associate asleep with death Paul uses the Greek word nekros for dead instead of koimáō meaning asleep. It is just a few sentences later, in verse 16, that he conveys that those are the "asleep in Christ" he just spoke of, are simply dead. Dead or asleep, it is all the same, and at the catching away of the Church, those "dead" will rise first.

1 Thessalonians 4:16 NASB 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

Revelation 20:5 Tells us,

The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were completed.

The word dead, used here in Revelation 20:5 is nekros. The Prophet Daniel conveys an alternate view,

Daniel 12:1-2 NASB "Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued. 2 "Many of those who sleep in the dust of the ground will awake, these to everlasting life, but the others to disgrace and everlasting contempt.

Sleep, as used in verse 2, is the Hebrew word yāšēn: An adjective designating someone as sleeping. It refers to persons in a sleeping state or condition of seemingly sleeping, being inactive. When I apply this understanding to Daniel 12:2, where many are sleeping in the dust of the ground, then it lends itself to the idea of involuntary inactivity.

In a state of inactivity, the dead, we are told, have no thought.

Ecclesiastes 9:5 CJB For the living know that they will die, but the dead know nothing;...

Psalms 6:5 NASB For there is no mention of You in death;...

Whether they be dead from the origin of time, or merely those since Christ's ascension into heaven, does it really matter? Many will not go up in the rapture as those who have died in Christ. Therefore, our immediate assumption would be that they will only go to hell. Others will come later, in the form of those who choose to fight against God at the end of the seven-year period. While more will die during the thousand-year reign, there is the uncountable number of deceived, who attempt to kill Christ in the last battle at the end of the thousand-year reign. 

Once again, the assumption is that they all go straight to hell, as those who have died without Christ. 

But then you now have another problem as Matthew 25 verses 31-46 describe an entirely different scenario; one in which, Christ, seems like a gracious shepherd who still cares about the flock, and judges the crowd gathered here (the nations,) and shows many of them mercy.  

While we don't have the process explained to us, He is showing mercy because of their small acts of kindness. In a sense, those He calls sheep have acted as Jesus would have, and in so doing, displayed the nature and character of the Father, God. A benefit, we the religious community apparently cannot give them, because they did not jump through all the religious hoops that most of us have. In acting this way, we have set ourselves up as harsh judges, in opposition to the Father's wishes and character, which we are supposed to display.

A contrast and comparison between the Great White Throne of Revelation 20 (the judgment of the dead,) and the Final Judgment of Matthew 25, (the Judgment of the Nations.)
Revelation 20 - The Great White Throne – The gathering of the dead.	Matthew 25 - The Glorious Throne – The judgment of the nations.
Great White Throne - Great is the Greek word mega meaning large, or physical magnitude. White means white, and Throne is the Greek word thrónos; A seat, usually high and having a footstool, a throne as the emblem of royal authority.	Glorious Throne – Greek, the word is doxa; glory (as very apparent), in a wide application (literally or figuratively, objectively or subjectively): - dignity, glory (-ious), honour, praise, worship.
Revelation 20:12 And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne. Since we have learned that the dead are merely asleep and know nothing, that does not exclude them from the nations. The nations are merely those outside of a relationship with God. John, in Revelation 20, unlike the strictly Jewish crowd that Jesus was speaking to, John was writing to Jewish believers. We now have a third people group to consider, the church. Anyone out of the original two groups who accepts Christ into their life moves into the group called the Church. Setting aside such prejudices continued to be difficult for the early church, which for many years was a Jewish one.	Matthew 25:32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him The understanding we apply to Matthew 25 comes from the idea that Jesus was speaking to a strictly Jewish audience. His audience only concerned itself with two people groups, the Jews, and the nations, for at this time there was no church. Since the Jew deemed those among the nations to be idolaters, those from the nations were utterly lost as far they were concerned. The Law and the prophets considered the dead as knowing nothing, while the righteous were understood to have a reward. So, for Jesus to describe the nations before this throne was a given. And the Jews saw no difference between a live gentile and a dead one.
In Revelation 20, although it appears to be God, it is Jesus. Revelation 1:1 tells us that the entire book is a revealing of Jesus. Therefore it is Jesus on that throne.	In Matthew 25 the judge is presented a gentle shepherd. In John 10:11 Jesus said, I am the good shepherd. Do we believe that? Many do not, and anxiously look for an ominous, wrath-filled God, which they seem to find in Revelation 20, as they choose to ignore that this is Jesus alone.
In Revelation 20 we see books opened. Among those books is the book of life. From all these books the dead were judged.	In Matthew 25 there is no mention of books from which to judge. There is, however, this: Matthew 25:32 "All the nations will be gathered before Him; and He will separate them from one another, as the shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. What does he use as the basis for separation? I think it is rather apparent even if the passages do not speak of them. These are not indistinguishable cattle, they are people; people of every race and color. In reality, no real distinction, and yet He, finds a difference and separates them, calling some sheep and the others goats.
People from this group were judged according to their deeds, nothing more.	People from this group were judged according to their deeds, nothing more.
Revelation 20 focuses on those not found in the books	Matthew 25 focuses primarily on those who were found in the books. We know this because their deeds were recorded.
In Revelation 20, those not found in the books were sent to a fiery hell. While it makes no mention of anyone that might have been found in the books. Does that lack of mention exclude some from not being found in the books, like we see in Matthew's account? No, and it points out the preposterous attitude we convey when we speak of a God that opens such “useless” books, if He, the one who knows the beginning from the end, knows full well whose names are written and where. It merely promotes the idea of a mockery on God's part, and that is not an aspect of His nature.	In Matthew 25, the sheep were given entrance into the kingdom of heaven because of their acts of kindness (works.) While the goats were sent off to eternal punishment.
Something to consider: Both of these groups were judged according to their deeds (we could probably use the words, works, or acts of kindness, instead of deeds.) And, there is entirely NO mention of judgment for sins. Why would that be? Because all sins were forgiven on the cross; and, as much as we might say it from a pulpit, we do not believe it. I know this because we employ the word sin perpetually in religious gatherings, and the terminology is always used as a motive and method of control. Not even God needed to do that. Whether you believe that these two events are the same matters not to me, but what does matter is our flagrant regurgitation of distorted and false teachings that misrepresent the nature and character of God. This is the garbage drives people away from the one thing our hope is based in, the God of grace and mercy. If we are going to make nervy statements, then keep them based in truth. And by the way, the only basis we have for truth is the Word of God, not what you feel or believe simply because your companions believe someone's garbage.