Sid Roth

Sid: My guest is red hot for the Messiah his name is Al Houghton, I’m speaking to him at Anaheim, California. Al has just written a brand new book it’s called “The Sure Mercies of David” and it’s really not new but it is new to this generation of Christians;  the first church understood it.  Al you said to me before we went on the air that the gospel that is currently being preached is only half of the picture.What did you mean by that?

Al:Sid, what I mean by that was the gospel of Christ is covenantal Jesus came not only as Savior and that’s what the gospel is.  Matthew, Mark, Luke and John paint a picture of Jesus the Savior; now when I went to seminary, got through Bible school that’s all I learned I learned that Jesus of the gospels.  But when I got in ministry the Lord Himself began to introduce me, well actually the way I got in ministry Sid was I met Jesus the Judge, Jesus the Judge is in Revelation.

Sid:You know I have to reflect a little bit, I was in a horrible mess 35 years ago and as a Jewish person involved in the New Age I had never heard anything about repentance.  I knew nothing about repentance. I was told the name of Jesus was higher than the demons that were literally possessing me and trying to kill me. I cried out one day “Jesus help” and I was set free.  Look at the mercy of God, but I knew nothing about repentance until years later.

Al:  That’s awesome, that is deliverance in the Name of Jesus, that’s Jesus in the gospels the deliverer, the healer, the savior.  I tried to argue with God; He was dealing with me to come into the ministry Sid and I said.”Lord I volunteered for a second tour in Vietnam so I could get enough hours to become and airline pilot, okay I laid down that career, but just let me go get my airline transport rating it’s a PhD in aviation that’ll cap off I’ll be able to lay it down then, just let me go do that.Silence.  I went to Olathe, Kansas to take my ATR check ride and you get in a brief oral, I walked in there Sid God took my mind away, I didn’t know who I was, I didn’t know where I’d…

Sid:It reminds me of a professional golfer that went into a tournament, he was called into ministry, he said, “No” to God, he forgot how to swing the club.”

Al:  (Laughing)

Sid:Same deal.

Al:  It was the same deal, I didn’t…I couldn’t put two words together in a sentence. I didn’t know what a WAC chart was it was like a road map for the air.  I could not identify it.  My mind was totally gone, and the FAA instructor asked me three questions, he got mad, upset and he said, “Get the heck out of here and don’t ever come back here until you know the basics!”  I walked out the door totally humiliated as soon as the door closed I heard the Lord “Are you ready to obey now?”

Sid:Hmm.

Al:I said, “Yes, I guess I am.”  (Laughing)  And I forgot that Sid I forgot it through seminary, I forgot it through 7 years of ministry and I focused just on the promise and the blessing and I taught people how to pursue anything they want through covenant and blessing.  And then again I met Jesus the judge, and all of a sudden I started to look at the difference between Jesus in the gospels and Jesus in the book of Revelation.  And Jesus in the gospels stilled the storm, He said, “Peace be still.”  But in Revelation chapter 2 to one of the churches He said, “If you don’t repent I will send a storm, I will send tribulation.”  In John 10:10 “The thief cometh not but to steal, kill and destroy, I came that you might have life and have it more abundantly.”  The devil called a thief there but to the church of Sardis in Revelation 3 verse 3 Jesus said “If you don’t repent I will come to you as a thief.”  So Jesus as both Savior and Judge is what the early church manifest to overcome the opposition and accomplish their assignments.  And I woke up to the fact that I didn’t know Jesus the Judge.We weren’t teaching Jesus the Judge, we had no paradigm for Jesus the judge and we had no access his justice.  So when I talk about Jesus the judge I’m really talking about divine justice.  God is a God of justice and we have a covenant that allows us to go into his throne room and pray and ask Him for justice. And He will stand up at that moment on our behalf and His justice will come; and I had never seen that, I had never taught that, but when I found it lights went off.  I said, “God this is covenant of David Jesus bought and paid for it, Paul had a revelation of it.  He took it too Antioch, I’m convinced the reason they’re fist called Christians in Antioch is because this covenant of sure mercy that says two things.  Number one I will redeem your failure and make it a platform for your greatest success.Number two, I give you access to the throne to bring divine justice into the earth.

Sid:Why is it that this generation hasn’t even heard of it and as a matter of fact if you talk about God’s judgment people get really upset with you and they say “No no these earthquakes and tornadoes and tsunami, that’s not judgment, that’s just the natural decay of the whole earth.  It’s global warming.

Al:  (Laughing)

Sid:I mean and I don’t want to get into the political ramifications but the church is very upset unless God is a sugar daddy and God would never usher in this kind of judgment.

Al:  This comes Sid really from the last 50 years of simply majoring on one part of scripture and that is the gospels to the exclusions of the rest of the Bible.  Even in the New Testament we see Jesus the judge now the fruit of this preaching for 40 years is now we have a church who only knows half of Jesus.  They know Jesus the Savior, they do not know Jesus the judge and we in the fruit of that now for 30 years has been one loss of Christian freedom after another.  When I was a teenager in high school there was prayer before we started every English class, there was prayer before every football game, there was prayer before every assembly.We have lost that right.  When I was in high school we had the Ten Commandments on the Wall, we have lost that right.  We have lost freedom, after freedom after freedom, after freedom.

Sid:What about just the one major sin of abortion, of murder of the innocent?

Al:  The cry, the innocent blood has a cry before the throne and what it cries for is judgment.

Sid:What about… isn’t it true that the last thing that happens to a society before it totally decays and dissolves is homosexuality is on the forefront?

Al:  That is absolutely true and we find it in two places in the scripture.We find it in Leviticus chapter 20 where it gives us a 4 step slide to the loss of a nation in judgment.Number one the first thing in Leviticus chapter 20 is the sacrifice of innocent blood; our children that are lost. And then it goes into witchcraft, New Age, and then the fourth one is the statutorily protection of homosexuality and lesbianism.

Sid:Well if the church continues on its path of just half of the gospel and not the justice of God, what is your prognosis for the United States of America? I can tell you this, with my own eyes in my life time I’ve never seen things turning so rapidly to sin.

Al:  Absolutely, my prognosis is this is based on Leviticus 20 it says that “If we statutorily protect what God hates, if we change our laws.”  Alright there are three barriers to the loss of the land Sid, number one barrier is the conscience of the individual, when an individual sears his conscience then the second one kicks in and that is the corporate conscience of society which are the laws of the land.  Whenever the laws of the land are changed to promote and reflect what God hates you got a third and final opportunity to save the land and that is the church.But when the church begins to ordain homosexual bishops now you’re down to a covenant prophetic remnant and they are the last chance for that nation.  And the only thing we have at this point to use and it’s enough Sid and that is an appeal to the justice of God based on the covenant of sure mercy; have mercy on the nation and bring your justice on the offending parties.  Now that’s the only way to save it.

Sid:Al I’m sorry time is slipping away…