Study-Grow-Know Ministries: Recent Episodes
Some argue that we are able to be saved because God grants us something called "prevenient grace." This is the belief that God grants us the ability to believe Him prior to our coming to Him for salvation and without this prevenient grace, no one could be saved at all. The truth of the matter for me, is that all people have the ability to believe what they read or hear from any source. Those who come to God in faith believing that He exists and has made salvation available to us do so because of their decision to believe Him. This is exactly what the thief on the cross experienced, while his counterpart a few feet away did not. It was solely a difference in belief regarding Jesus.
It seems to me the very plain teaching of Scripture includes a physical return of Jesus, where every eye will see Him of those living at the time (Daniel 7:13; Matthew 26:64; Mark 14:62; Revelation 1:7; Revelation 14:14). Seeing Jesus is not in the mind's eye or somehow spiritually. It is a literal event when He physically returns so that the entirety of the world will finally understand that God is in control. That much is clear and obvious. To attempt to turn this obvious meaning into a spiritual return is repugnant to me.
We have two choices in life. One, we can continue to try to do things our way, mistakenly believing that we control our own destiny and the things that happen in life. Two, we can come to the true realization that we are not in control at all and that everything that happens to us happens because of God's plan. If we try to live the first option, we can quickly grow conceited in the belief that we have it going on; that our decisions are what matters and above all things, we walk in a path that we have developed for ourselves. If we live with option number two, we will more quickly come to the end of ourselves, realizing that the very breath we breathe is on loan from God Himself.
In the book, The Gospel for Disordered Lives, the authors expose the way Satan works to defeat the believer. In chapter 8 titled, Battling Satan and His Demons, they discuss biblical counseling and how it involves spiritual warfare against evil forces that hate us and who are stronger than the folks counselors counsel. This actually applies to all Christians, whether it is recognized by them or not.
In Ed Welch's book, Side By Side, in his last chapter, he writes about keeping the story in view. By that he means that we should try to continually focus on the big picture regarding our salvation. Welch compares our past, which is filled with sin and failure to our ultimate future in Christ. But he also points out our present situation and how much God pursues us daily.
The king seemed interested and wanted to see the scroll so he sent for it. The contents of the scroll was read before the king and all the princes gathered. After 3-4 columns of the scroll were read, the king took a knife and cut off what had been read and tossed the words in the fire near him. Eventually, the entire scroll was burned up after it had been read. This act was one that showed King Jehoiakim's view of God and His Word. He didn't care. He resisted God. V24 tells us that neither the king or princes were afraid at all. They were defiant in their rebellion of God!
I've been doing a good deal of thinking lately about why God seems to delay in meting out justice at times, yet at other times, He seems to move fairly quickly to resolve something. There are many examples in Scripture where God's patience seems to have no end in sight, then He finally moves. In other examples, it only takes a person one misstep and God reaches out to deal with it. Why is that?
We are responsible to "put off" and "put on" with the help of the Spirit within us. We must make the active decision here. Tim notes that when we angrily react to something, we are not using faith at all. We are simply being pushed by our feelings. If we consider the state of much of society, we see large portions of the population devoid of self-control. They simply react to whatever circumstance they encounter, usually in anger. Reacting like this is not loving.
The problem though is God always sees through our charades and caricatures. He wants us to stop doing that and by faith, cease from self-effort and simply live His will in His strength. This is probably the most difficult lesson of Christianity to learn and it is fully tied to our sanctification. We must learn to enter into His rest and that only comes when we stop trying to get things done using our own power.
In Jeremiah 33, we see that the prophet Jeremiah was still in prison but received another message from the Lord. God promises to fight for Judah and announces that her enemies would end up dead. None of this is based on Israel's response to God because they continued in their rebellion and disobedience, which is why God needed to purge once again rebels in that nation. However, He was also looking forward to a time when another Israelite generation would exist, a generation that would be obedient to Him. Because of this, the Lord would bring about Judah's healing and prosperity.
The book of Hebrews contains warnings to its readers in Hebrews 2, 4, 6, 10 and 12. It is extremely easy to miss the point of the warnings by taking from them meaning that doesn't belong if people fail to comprehend the background and context of the situation. I don't have time or space to go over each chapter and every verse. Suffice it to say that Hebrews opens with the writer expressing the fact that Jesus is supreme and His supremacy is over all things and all religious systems, including the Mosaic sacrificial system. This point is brought out in various ways throughout Hebrews and we need to take note of it.
Regardless of what you might believe about a Christian and self-defense, I still insist that being aware of your surroundings is the first and best alternative to being oblivious to what is going on around you. I contend that if a person is fully aware of what is going on around them, the chances of them being the victim are slimmer. Too many people walk through life clueless. They are lost in thought, lost on their phones or simply unaware of what might be transpiring around them. People who are aware do not often become victims. If you do not believe Christians have the right to defend themselves, then at least be willing to be thoroughly focused on what is going on around you. This alone is likely to make you much less of a victim.
Jeremiah had been imprisoned at this time by King Zedekiah for preaching against Jerusalem saying Babylon would destroy the city. It's also interesting that God prompted Jeremiah to purchase land from his cousin while in prison. This was a test by God because the land was already in possession by Nebuchadnezzar. God commanded Jeremiah to take the Land even though Nebuchadnezzar was ready to take Jerusalem! (v25) Kind of weird but if we consider that God was essentially telling Jeremiah that He would be victorious over Nebuchadnezzar after He finished using the king for His purposes for Israel. In essence God is saying that the Land would come back to Israel eventually.
We've already begun to see God moving. Aside from our time spent with Erich, just hanging out with him and helping him through situations, his neighbor and her son really care about Erich. They are Christians and have invited him to their church. We've encouraged them to keep doing that and we've encouraged Erich to go. She loves Erich because he reminds her of her younger son. She is such a major help to us and suggested Silvia take power of attorney over Erich's medical situation if Erich approves. We discussed it to Erich and he is fine with it so we've begun the process. This will be a load off his mind as Silvia can keep up to date with his medical situation, make appointments for him and stay in touch with doctors who oversee his care. This is also a tangible way to love Erich because he is clueless about this situation. He didn't even know how to set up his voice mail so we got that set up for him.
If we are not careful, we believers can easily become legalistic in our approach to living for God. I've attended churches in the past who were right on doctrinally. I could go down the list and go, "Yep, yep, yes, that's right" etc., but in numerous cases, the people themselves were somewhat cold, legalistic in their approach to service and to God. Why? I believe it's because they failed to recognize the connection between having a heart of flesh (created by God), which more naturally prompts a person to live accordingly versus doing things with little to no desire but doing them because you should. There is a world of difference between these two things.
I asked my wife if she ever felt as though she was kind of hovering between earth and heaven; not fully here in this life, but not yet in heaven? The reason I asked was because that's the way I've felt and I thought that was a bit strange. Her answer surprised me. She stated without hesitation that she certainly did feel as though she wasn't fully grounded in this life anymore because of the fact that she looked forward to being with our Lord in heaven. This does not mean (for me or her), that we do not like this life. It simply means that we both understand there is a higher calling on our lives and it will only find its full meaning when this life ends and we are both safely and permanently with our Lord. While we see tremendous evil occurring throughout society, we also know it has not reached its zenith yet, but will one day. This is certainly part of the reason that we both feel somewhat of a disassociation between life here on earth and what it so to come in eternity.
In Luke 7:36-50, we read the very tender story of a woman who had the audacity to anoint Jesus with very expensive perfume oil. This was done by her as an act of pure love (in preparation for His death as it turns out). The most amazing thing here? She went into the home of a Pharisee to do this! Her very presence in Simon the Pharisee's home meant it created a huge social problem for him. She would have been considered "unclean" and therefore, his home would have been considered that as well, due to her presence.
God had decreed that King Nebuchadnezzar would reign and any nation that did not willingly come under his rule would be punished "with the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, until I have consumed them by his hand." This message also summarized the content of chapters 7-10. If the Judahites continued to reject the LORD, and disobey the Mosaic Covenant, He would destroy the temple and Jerusalem completely. The temple would suffer complete destruction, and Jerusalem would become a curse, namely, an object of ridicule and an example of horrible suffering. Jeremiah also warned the people about the false prophets and told them not to listen to them. Theses prophets were lying by saying the people of Judah would not serve Babylon. It's what many wanted to hear (including the king), but it was not the truth.
We should also always let go of and deny the temptation for revenge or vengeance. In truth this can only be done through our willingness to do so and the cooperation or practice of it over time with God's help. This can become easier to do over time. It's not as though people will stop offending us through words or actions, is it? As time progresses, while it's doubtful we will be perfect at forgiving right out of the gate, we need to consciously decide to obey God in forgiving (or forbearing), in each instance, fully leaning on God for His strength and empowerment to do so.
Because of who God is, His great love for us and His willingness to forgive us for all the offences we have committed, are committing and will commit against Him, a great portion of that salvation is the ongoing forgiveness He extends to us. He did not have to do that, yet He did. How can we not offer quick and total forgiveness from the heart to those who harm us in one way or another?
Jeremiah 23, 24 and 25 deliver stern warnings of judgment against corrupt leaders, false prophets, and a disobedient Judah, culminating in the prophecy of a 70-year Babylonian captivity. Interestingly enough, in the midst of these threats, God promises to raise a Righteous Branch (Messiah) from David's line. Further, God will restore the remnant, while also pronouncing judgment on Babylon itself as well as other nations that set themselves against Israel.
Here's insight that may help. Your love for God and other people will grow to the degree that you understand what you have been saved from. The more we gain understanding and enlightenment on just what God has saved us from, the greater our love and our devotion to God will become. This is what grows our love for Him, resulting in a true desire to be more obedient to Him in all things. This then, in turn, causes us to be greater evangelists for God, presenting the Gospel to people we come in contact with throughout the day. Why? Because of our increasing love for God and them.
Jesus was never captivated and controlled by fear, worry or anxiety. He had a completely different perspective than we often do and He simply continued on, loving people by doing loving things for them in spite of how He might have been tempted to think and feel. I'm quite sure that Jesus was tempted time and time again to give into the fear of many circumstances (real or imagined) as we are today, yet He never followed the urges to protect self (Hebrews 4:15) by giving into fear leading to worry and anxiety. As believers, we need to act in a way that shows our love for God and others. We cannot do that and engage in fear, worry or anxiety. The two - love and fear - are opposed to one another. We can do one or the other, but not both at the same time.
Imagine what it must have been like to see the armies of Babylon gathering outside the walls of Jerusalem? God had warned and warned, yet to no avail. The Babylonians were hardcore soldiers. They not only knew how to fight, defeat and slaughter their opponents, but they knew how to build siege ramps that allowed them to climb over any way. So even though Jerusalem was surrounded by a huge wall, Nebuchadnezzar's armies would gain access over it. So imagine how that felt to the people inside Jerusalem. Daily they heard the noise and saw the effort put in by Babylon's soldiers to build the ramp that would allow them to gain access to Jerusalem. Imagine the terror the people of Jerusalem felt.
Many in Israel wanted Jeremiah dead because of what he said. They wanted to kill him because of words which happened to be truth that they did not like. We see this happening today as well in and outside Christendom as people do not want to hear the truth. Moreover, truth is attacked and negated throughout society because it is inconvenient and people do not want to hear it. In response, Jeremiah offers laments to God and asks that He rebuke the people strongly. Jeremiah was angry at the state of Israel and wanted God to act based on what He promised to do to that nation.
For those Christians who believe that the Christian's job is to change the tone of society by preaching the Gospel to people with the result being conversion, I'd like to respectfully ask that they think again. By being involved in transforming society, the focus shifts from the person of the unbeliever to the condition of society. While theoretically yes, people who become Christians can have a positive effect on society, there is no guarantee that this will happen.
According to (Patrick M.) Wood, Trump's Genesis Mission EO colludes with and gives tremendous power to the people behind artificial intelligence (AI). In fact, it's on steroids and of course, the way it is highlighted by the White House[2], it sounds so beautiful and "America-First." However, as Wood notes, it's the furthest thing from actually being America First. It will usher in a tremendous amount of control over all of our lives. AI will have access to any information about us on the Internet and won't even have to deal with getting approval first.
Immediately after Rob and Michelle Reiner's souls left their lifeless bodies, they instantly understood the things they had put stock in and believed wholeheartedly here in this life, were nothing but lies. The firm belief that there is no God and that man invented God, not that God created man, was immediately seen for what it was - a lying deception from Satan himself. Imagine the unparalleled terrifying emotional trauma of understanding with near-precision accuracy the Truth that they now face. When they crossed over from this life to eternity, they instantly knew God lives and they were going to answer to Him and Him alone.
It is difficult for us to admit we are needy, to admit that we need to go to God immediately, every time, instead of relying on Self, which is thoroughly opposed to God and His Word. Going to God is primary. Going to other believers asking for their help in prayer and support is secondary, but also important. Too often we refuse to do that because we don't want to be seen as weak, ineffectual or lacking faith. In our Tuesday night Bible study group, we routinely share prayer requests and praises. It brings us together in reliance on others. Paul talks a great deal about this in his two letters to Corinthian believers.
We Christians are not islands. Our lives touch other people. What happens to us and how we react to situations speaks to other people - both Christians and non. We need to remember that God ultimately wants to be glorified in and through us. In order for that to happen, things must come into our lives that do not seem palatable at first. Even though our fist inclination is to try to push away from those things, God has important plans for them. He wants us to grow in our faith and exhibit greater trust in Him. We cannot do that without the downward pressures of unpalatable situations and our response to them. Will we allow what is initially perplexing to create despair/depression within us or will we do as the three men in Daniel 3 did? If we fail to focus on the hope we have in Christ Jesus, we can easily become despairing/depressed.
But if it isn't wars and rumors of wars mentioned by Jesus (Matthew 24:6; another form of violence), full-on deceit crafted by Satan and his angels, often using human wolves to deceive the true flock of Jesus exists (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Corinthians 11:13-15), false teachers leading to the one final man of lawlessness/Antichrist are clearly here (2 Thessalonians 2), there's been a tremendous increase in natural disasters (Matthew 24:7b-8), like the typhoons that just hit the Philippines with some of the highest winds ever recorded, increasing persecution of Christians (Matthew 24:9), increasing lawlessness in general and apostatizing of those who have called themselves Christian (Matthew 24:10-12), and much more.
In this section, God warns that those who trust other men are cursed. Those who trust God are blessed. God says we cannot know our hearts (v9) because it is so deceitful, yet we are too often led by it. God knows each heart – He sees the truth. The Judahites continued to ask "Where is the fulfillment of God's Word? (v15). Jeremiah asks God to bring shame to those who persecute him (v18).
Doesn't this remind you of Jesus' words when He said, "...whoever hates his life will keep it for eternal life," (John 12:25). It's the same thing. Job came to the point of hating his own life because he saw such sin in it when compared to God and His holiness. This is what each and every authentic Christian needs to realize. Understanding the weight of our sin has a wonderful effect. It helps us realize just how much God gave that we might have life eternally. Without this growing realization, we will continue to cater to Self continually. With this growing understanding, humility will replace our self-centered satisfaction.
Paul is so good about getting to the heart of the issue, isn't he? We can all relate to what he is stating. We want to do what is right, what pleases God, but we are too often bound by our sin nature. It seems to control us way too often. Yet, Paul, while pointing out how bad things can be for him within, looks to Jesus as the only true Redeemer. Jesus, through the empowering of the Holy Spirit, will create within us truly clean hearts, hearts given to serving God, not our sin natures. But of course, our job is to actually go to Him during those times when we are torn and being dragged toward fulfilling the desires of our sin nature. It truly is a battle and the battle is won in our minds when we deliberately turn our backs on our sin natures and the temptations promoted by it, instead, looking to Jesus as our true Source of strength. He will overcome in our lives if we deliberately turn to Him. Sometimes, all we can do is plead with Him to help us and He will follow through.
The opposite of being disciplined is being lazy. There's too much of that going around, even among Christians today. Paul could have just coasted. After all, he was saved, right? Why did he work so hard to bring about the change in his life that God wanted? By that I mean why did he make the strong effort to cooperate with God the Holy Spirit in order to become the person God wanted him to become? The answer is much more simple than the process itself. Paul did this because he wanted to bring glory to God and he understood that whatever he was going through, it was because God ordained it and in every situation, he wanted to respond in a way that pleased God. Because of that, he literally disciplined himself - his thoughts, his actions and his words - so that he relied heavily on the power of the Holy Spirit to create in him (Paul), what was good for edifying others and glorifying God. This meant constant growth and change for Paul.
The warning signs for the people of Judah are signs for us as well. They continually failed to obey God. Instead they embraced the lies of the false prophets. The people of Judah fell away because they embraced lies that pulled them away from God and they had no interest in repentance and returning to God since they convinced themselves they were doing nothing wrong. They didn't care how often God gave them chances.
Ultimately, God looks upon individual believers through the eyes of pity or compassion. He certainly understands our frame and remembers we are simply dust. At the same time, He will do what is needed in our life to bring us back to the narrow road that leads to life eternal when we fail to stay on that road. This is the difference between Israel and the Church. With Israel, God often dealt with those people as one nation. If the leaders were corrupt, He would bring judgment eventually onto the entire nation. Though some within that nation might be spared from the true harshness of His judgment because of their individual loyalty to God, ultimately, He was judging that nation. Where the Church is concerned, God deals with individual Christians within the Church who go astray or require judgment for sins undealt with that keep them from fellowship with God.
In spite of how bad things looked for Israel during Hosea's time as a prophet to that nation, God continued to hold out hope. He always pointed them to the day when Israel, as a nation, would return to Him, embrace Him wholly and live for Him as well as they had lived apart from Him prior.
In Jeremiah 9-10, we learn that God is not at all pleased with how low the Judahites had sunk. They had learned a great deal from Gentile nations and none of it was good. If they weren't trying to depend upon help from these nations in fighting their enemies, they adopted many of the standards and protocols of those neighboring nations and empires. The biggest problem Judah had was it's tendency to worship idols. The prophet Jeremiah loved his people so much, he wished he had more tears to shed (v1) for them. His tears is what earned him the nickname "the weeping prophet."
Reading through the Old Testament and even the New, it is clear that Satan hates those who stand with God against malice, hatred and all manner of sinful corruption that plagues much of humanity. The apostles did not die quietly from old age. Many were brutally murdered. The prophets of old did not retire and draw from their pensions while living in relative ease. They were often treated brutally and even martyred for daring to speak God's Words to people, words that those people found offensive.
God reminds the people to go find Shiloh where the Tabernacle stood because Shiloh had been destroyed due to Israel's evil. The LORD was ready to cast the Judahites out of the land to the north as He had done with Israel. God would send them into captivity by Babylon because of their continued disobedience and flagrant idolatry. God appears to have made up His mind with finality (v16) and tells Jeremiah to not pray for them. In essence, Jeremiah's prayers would not help at all.
Some people enjoy going onto their social media accounts simply to create problems because they can do so often anonymously. They then sit back and watch the fireworks as it gives them a sense of power. In fact, it seems clear only a few years ago that people would say on their social media accounts what they'd never say to another person face-to-face. Now? Seems as though anything goes. People are divided today by political and ideological lines and the resentment one to the other is often very deep and visceral. Because of social media, some of my friends and I often started butting heads figuratively speaking because of politics and then eventually went our own ways, never to talk again. This seems to have been the goal too.
So once leaders turn their backs on truth, advocating lies, this results in that society exhibiting and experiencing far more wickedness, bitterness and hatred ending in a growing callousness toward one another. Eventually, sin ceases to be called sin. It is embraced as good and that society begins living a Romans 1 life. Even while doing that, it still often sees itself as "innocent" of being evil in spite of the many examples from that society that exist on a daily basis. These become actually willfully indulged in by many to most within that populace. Once the rejection of God's morality is complete, there is little left except for God to judge that nation.
One thing this has taught me is that Babylon and its proponents play for keeps. It appears to be coming to a point where Babylon is not going to put up with pesky conservatives/Christians much longer because there is too much for them to lose. Babylon isn't playing to lose. Of course, the Bible tells us that at one point, during the coming Tribulation, that the system of Babylon will be killed, as it will no longer be needed (Revelation 18). Of course, God is allowing all of this for His purposes and glory regardless of how difficult that is for us to accept. The momentum is building, giving Babylon its growing power. That power will attempt take down anyone who stands in its way.
Jeremiah is made up of 52 chapters and represents one of, if not, the longest book in the Bible regarding text. Below are some facts surrounding the prophet Jeremiah and the book he is known for writing. In the coming weeks, as we go through the book of Jeremiah, we will most likely cover a number of chapters together, rather than go over one chapter per week since it would take a year to do so. This look at Jeremiah will be a bit cursory but will cover major aspects of the book and we'll find out how it applies not only to the nation of Israel but to believers today as well.
But in hell and eventually the Lake of Fire, which burns into perpetuity, the constantly burning fire will torment, but not purify. The reason it cannot purify the souls housed there is due to the fact that those individuals will continue sinning in eternity. The unrighteous person does not stop sinning once this physical life is over. They will continue sinning even after they arrive to eternity. The fires of the Lake of Fire/hell, will never be able to refine or purify those sinners there because of their continued sinning throughout all eternity.
Here's what I'm saying...we actually can see the character of our Lord in other believers to a small or great degree (depending on the person), if we will look for it. Sometimes, it stares us in the face for 40 years without us knowing it. While I've always loved my wife and will continue to love her, I've simply not noticed that Jesus lives within her and is expressing His character through her to other people and me. I've always seen her as pleasant, sweet, loving and attractive. Yes, she is those things and some of those things may be due to her own innate personality. However, it seems ultimately very clear to me that since she is a believer and Jesus does live within her because of the Holy Spirit, He is clearly expressing His character through her personality. He wants to do that with every believer. Some of us offer more roadblocks to Him unfortunately.
There were also numerous times when God said that things would happen "soon." Isaiah is filled with words from our Lord that appear to indicate things will occur "soon," and yet, in some cases, hundreds of years if not a few thousand years passed before His Words were fulfilled. When we hear "soon" from someone, we think not long in coming. Yet, from God's perspective, "soon" may not mean that. He talks about the Millennial Kingdom and the blessings for the nation of Israel as happening "soon," but we are still waiting. From His perspective, the timing is His and His alone to determine and it is compared to eternity not time as we understand and live it.
There's something happening that most cannot see because it is hidden under the surface. Artificial Intelligence (AI), is more and more included in the design of too many things: cars, appliances, telephones, TVs and too many other things to list. People are using AI to help write their papers or books. AI is being used as part of company coding that unfortunately, has had some very negative effects, which we'll get to in a minute. We are losing freedom in huge steps due to the Internet, which can be hacked. Yet most of us are completely unaware that this is the case. The reason? Because we do not see any real physical signs of the digital prison being built. Oh sure, when we go to stores, we see those cameras, but we tell ourselves those are to stop shoplifters. They do work for that purpose, but they go well beyond that purpose too. Maybe we no longer see the cameras.
Certainly, to be clear, things are ramping up and each day brings us one day closer to the Rapture and/or the start of the Tribulation (if you do not believe the Rapture precedes the Tribulation). However, we cannot know the day or hour of those events. We can know the times and the seasons but that is all. That still should not pull us away from the God-given task at hand, which is to live lives that glorify Him and we do that by dying to our own self will and reaching out to the lost.
If God is love (He is), we who call ourselves believers, Christians and followers of Jesus must also live lives of love. It all starts and ends with forgiveness. If we cannot truly forgive, we are simply not loving others. God did not have to, but He chose a way to forgive those who come to Him in faith through His Son's sacrificial life, death and resurrection. That forgiveness granted to us is permanent, unfailing and results in our true justification before Him. How can we call ourselves believers and followers of Jesus if we cannot forgive (love), as He forgives us?
If God literally lives within us, then why aren't we living a life of power that enables and compels us to be imitators of Jesus in the way He lived, by loving God and loving others? Doing the Father's will was what He loved and He considered it food (John 4:34). What does that mean except that He was so filled with the desire to fulfill every aspect of the Father's will, even when it meant sorrow, pain, discomfort and ultimately, death?
Today, we spend a good deal of time seeking things that have some value, but compared to God and eternity, have little to no value really. God tells us we should not glory in any wisdom we might have. We should not glory or praise ourselves because of any strength or might we believe is ours. We should also not glory in any riches we have acquired. None of these things have any real staying power, no real eternal worth. We can lose them in a moment. Of course, this does not mean that if the Lord has given us wisdom, might and even riches, that these are necessarily bad things. They are not, but when we focus on just those things, we are missing something very large and very eternal.
Jesus continually expresses His love for us. It wasn't a one time deal at the cross, though clearly that action as He hung on Calvary's cross was the expression of His love like no other. However, just because He has gone into the heavenly realms and now sits at the right hand of the Father until His enemies are made His footstool (Psalm 110; Luke 20; Hebrews 10), does not mean that His love for His own is no longer seen in the way He cares for His own. He didn't change His demeanor toward us because He is now again exalted in heaven. He. Loves. Us.
Jesus' heart of unrestrained compassion knew what people needed and in effect, knew what they were seeking even if they did not fully comprehend it themselves. He was angry at what sin had done to their hearts and minds as well as the world in general. He was angry that this world was under the sway of the evil one. Yet, what overwhelmed Him was His deep sense of compassion that literally rose up from His bowels and yet, was met with resistance, complacency and even rebellion leading to outright rejection. He knew they were spiritually blind and He so desperately wanted them to see the truth...but they were unwilling.
The other day, in church, as our pastor walked up the two stairs to the platform, I pictured Jesus sitting on those steps and me walking over to Him. I took a seat on the floor and looked up at Him. He looked at me and sincerely and compassionately asked, "Fred, how are you doing?" This was not a vision. It was my imagination, yet it concurs with Scripture because of how much He cares about you and me. He didn't ask me because He wouldn't have known. It was His way of drawing me out, telling me it was safe to share with him by deepest, darkest thoughts and concerns. He knows them already yet does not reject me.
n my last article, I spoke of being in the Word. No one will completely master His Word in this life though I'm amazed at the ability of some to quote it verbatim. If we are honest with ourselves, we will be forced to admit that we probably do not read or study it enough. We also do not likely apply ourselves to memorizing parts of His Word to carry it in our hearts at all times. We may not even think about it or contemplate it enough throughout each day. We become what James 1:24 says; we look in the mirror, walk away and immediately forget what we look like. It takes effort to dwell on, contemplate and remember God's Word even after we are done reading it and walk away from it.
As a Christian, do you find yourself not talking to Him about what concerns you, preferring instead to keep it to yourself and handle things on your own? How can we think we will get to know Him when we do that? God allows trials and issues to come our way so that we will take them to Him, so that we can see Him actually work in our lives. When we see Him moving and taking care of things, this increases and strengthens our faith in Him.
By the time of Malachi, Israel had literally become numb toward God, having gotten to that point by deliberately and continually moving from faithful and obedient to becoming full faithless and disobedient. They eventually became bitter toward God. Can you imagine that? They actually harbored animosity and bitterness toward the God who had rescued them from Egypt and many troubles after that.
Over the years, as I have faced situations that have caused anxiety in me, sometimes, I have submitted myself to the Lord for His keeping and His guidance. On other occasions, I have only half-heartedly done this and it usually resulted in works of the flesh. The problem for me has usually been the fact that I tend to feel as though I'm sinning because the anxiety is getting to me. Doesn't the Bible tell us that God will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is set on Him (Isaiah 26:3)? So when I'm not at peace within, I feel as though I failed. This is wrong. When we are not at peace within, it essentially means that God is trying to get our attention so that we can bring our cares and concerns to Him for Him to deal with for us (1 Peter 5:7).
I thought about David's reaction and his desire to have his sins blotted out, to be washed thoroughly from his iniquity and to be cleansed from his sin. Commentators believe this occurred just prior to the birth (and death), of Bathsheba's child. During those months, he had apparently hardened his heart toward God and his own moral failures. Yet, the Psalm shows the process that David finally went through in order to regain the closeness with God he had experienced prior to his sins.
I'm quite certain that there are good people trying to get into the USA. Unfortunately, those people are nearly completely eclipsed by those whose intentions are not good and in any case, everyone coming into the USA by illegal means is breaking America's laws. Turner seems to be saying that we should set all this aside and simply view them as people in need. Of course, their biggest need is salvation. I'd agree with that, but there's more to it than that.
This is how far the Israelite society had fallen because of their continued rejection of God and His truth. They didn't want to do things His way. They wanted to do things their way, much like the way global society today is doing things. God out. Self in. They think because there has been no immediate reckoning, that God either doesn't hear, or worse, doesn't exist. This is the exact same type of thinking that Israel entered into and because of it, got themselves in serious trouble time and time again.
Zechariah 14 is a powerful and dynamic chapter that speaks of the Day of the Lord and the ultimate victory of God over evil. It serves as a reminder to all believers of the hope and redemption that is to come through Jesus Christ. The imagery of judgment, deliverance, and worship points to the final fulfillment of God's promises to his people. As we await the return of Christ, we can take comfort in the knowledge that God is sovereign and will ultimately triumph over all.
Israel's problems came from the fact that they often wandered from God, literally turning their backs on Him, to worship false gods (demons). While they often continued to observe the sacrificial system, their hearts were not in it. They simply went through the motions of worship to check things off. God saw their hearts, that they were far from Him. Because they had turned their backs on Him, He chose to turn His back (temporarily) on Israel in order to refine and purify those within Israel who were dedicated to Him.
Let's go back to realize something Gideon did not. The reason it appeared to Gideon that the Lord had forsaken Israel is simply due to the fact that Israel had forsaken the LORD. I find it fascinating that God did not directly respond to Gideon's question, but simply tells him to go and save Israel from her oppressor, Midian.
Though Israel endeavored to follow this judge or that judge's leadership, as soon as that judge died, the people of Israel reverted back to their former ways and began again to worship foreign gods (v19). It is amazing to me that God continued to put up with that and if not for His unconditional covenant with Israel, He would have completely wiped that nation off the face of the earth. He did not do that though He often destroyed many within Israel because of how they rejected Him continually.
I've said this before and it bears repeating. I knew that the Left would try everything they could to stop Trump from doing what he could to make America great again. I'm not an idiot and neither are you. We know that whatever Trump accomplishes will only be due to God's allowing him to accomplish it. However, Satan doesn't give up. He doesn't need a break, nor does he even stop when he knows he's losing. He keeps on going, doing whatever he can to throw a monkey wrench into the works.
By the time the coming Tribulation begins, I'm guessing that much of the human population on earth will be either demonized outwardly or fully possessed. Demons seem to be coming out of the woodwork in preparation for what is coming to this earth. However, during the Tribulation, they actually do come out of the woodwork in several of the judgments God pours out on the earth.
In truth, it is not just that Israel rejected the Good Shepherd, but that Israel then embraced/will embrace Worthless Shepherds throughout her history and will do so a final time in the future! This recounts the events of the Messiah's first advent and death, followed by the destruction and dissolution of Jerusalem and Israel as a nation in AD 70. (The video did not turn out, so there is only audio for this particular message.)
Understanding what Satan is attempting to accomplish and will be allowed to accomplish through those sold out to him, sets us free from the worry that fear can create. We are not meant to live forever in this life. The fact that God physically expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden so that they could not eat of the tree of life after sinning proves that He doesn't want us to live eternally in this life, in our sin. We will all pass from this life to the next and as Christians will be given immortal bodies forever free from sin. It will be then that we will live forever as He originally intended.
Zechariah 11 deals with the problems that Israel would face. The prophet was speaking a hundreds of years before Roman armies surrounded and sacked Jerusalem, but his words came to fulfillment. While many conservative commentators believe there was partial fulfillment of Zechariah's prophecies in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem (AD 70), the full and final aspect of this fulfillment will not occur until the coming Tribulation period of seven years, leading up to the physical return of Jesus to this planet.
This entire incident has become another "stone of remembrance" for me. Silvia and I can look back at this situation and know beyond all doubt that God oversaw it and was fully in the details. Even though we had our own plans, God interrupted us with His plans. He knew what was going to happen with my wonderful wife and He deliberately had us in the right place at the right time for medical care.
For Christians today, we are all fully under the blood of Jesus. Without it, we have zero protection from God's wrath. With it, we are fully protected from it. However, the same temptation exists today for all Christians that existed for Nadab and Abihu. That is, the tendency to take God for granted or to allow our arrogance to move us away from how God expects us to live in this life. It is a constant battle for the Christian, isn't it? Thank God He does not deal with us as He dealt with the Israelites under the Law!
But nuancing is one excellent way to hide actual truth, by dressing it up as something it's not. Off the top of my head, I can think of numerous leaders within Christendom who routinely nuance things. It makes them sound very intellectual and who doesn't like to listen to an intellectual? Of course, Jesus was the most intelligent and intellectual of all, yet aside from the fact that He often presented truth in parabolic form, He also spoke plainly. I do not consider Jesus to be a nuancer. He was not cunning, crafty or subtle in His approach to people and most certainly not where God's Word was concerned. He spoke the truth and only the truth. He didn't soft soap it or cunningly attempt to hide the often brashness of God's Word. He spoke truth and let the chips fall where they might.
This promise to gather Israel is repeated throughout Scripture: Deuteronomy 30:1-6, Jeremiah 23:1-8, Jeremiah 32:37-41, Ezekiel 11:16-20, Ezekiel 36:16-28, etc. Though Israel (Jews) have been scattered throughout the nations, they will remember God and come back to Israel. This is happening today and has been for a number of decades since 1948 (in unbelief). Hence, this is only partial fulfillment of these prophecies and the final fulfillment will be in belief!
In verses 11-17, God's final deliverance and blessing of Israel will happen when Messiah returns. God will, with finality, save His people (the final Jewish remnant). Jesus will destroy all of Israel's enemies upon His return through judgment and then He will also judge all nations (Matthew 24:31-46).
Ultimately, salvation is saving us from death on the negative side, but it is also bringing us back to the intended creation of God originally, Human 1.0. We will eventually get there but it is our job to assist God by submitting to Him and His will on a daily basis so that the characteristics of godly love will be shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5).
Zechariah 8 reveals God's jealously for Zion (Jerusalem and all of Israel), while Zechariah 7 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to avoid God's punishment. Zechariah 8 reveals that God wanted Israel to live righteously to receive God's favor. In Zechariah 8:2, God explains that His jealousy for His people created great wrath within Him! Essentially, God, the perfect Father was dealing with recalcitrant and wayward children! God wanted their obedience…from the heart! He asks and expects the very same from all Christians as well.
Please notice specifically verse 15 where the Lord tells Jacob that He is "...with you and will keep you wherever you go...I will not leave you until I have done what I have spoken to you." So, we see God promising to be with Jacob and to not leave him. That's an important fact in understanding what happened when Jacob wrestled the angel/God, so please keep that in mind.
Globalists don't take kindly to defeat and I believe with Satan's empowering (and God allowing), globalists will move the world much closer to the start of the coming Tribulation. I'm not going to discuss dates or timing because no one knows. I simply think, based on what I see coming (using the phrase figuratively, not literally), that 2025 won't be a great year. Of course, had Harris won the election, 2025 would be an absolutely appalling year, so we dodged a bullet of sorts.
By Zechariah 7, the people had been captive in Babylon for roughly 68 years, just shy of the requisite 70 years. Because they had been forced out of their Land, they wept and fasted each year to remember the event. The trouble was that though they were remembering the event with weeping and fasting, God had not necessarily told them to do that. Beyond this, had they lived in obedience to Him, they would not have been removed from the Land forcibly and there would have been no need to fast and weep for their loss. They brought it on themselves by their refusal to live as God wanted them to live. But instead of recognizing this fact, the people sent a couple of representatives to "inquire" of the priests and ultimately, of Zechariah the prophet regarding their weeping and fasting over that event.
If you help people who need help, simply because you are in the position to be able to help them, they will begin to question within themselves why you are helping them. They may not understand at first, because maybe no one has helped them before. It feels weird to them, though at the same time, it is uplifting to them as well.
Today's Christian need to stop and consider how difficult life was for the average Christian during the first and second centuries. We Christians in America have no real understanding of that because we are simply not physically persecuted like they were then. We might be politically persecuted (oh, woe is us!), but Christians are not accosted on the street for being Christians, neither are we gathered, lined up and executed for our faith as Christians are today in Nigeria and now in Syria by Islamic jihadists who are attempting to bring in the final Islamic Caliphate.
God in Christ is absolutely worthy of our praise. In fact, as the song says, He is worthy of all our praise. He controls all that we can and cannot see and He does so for His glory. I still have difficulty appreciating what life will be like when I am there with Him. It is difficult for my mind to see because I'm not there yet. There is so much in this life that seeks our attention and desires to be enthroned in our hearts. This is the difficulty of living in sin-laden bodies in a world that is cursed. In spite of our salvation, we remain destined to die because of the corruption of our flesh. Yet, that is also a blessing in disguise because death will free us from everything that seeks to destroy us.
I don't know about you, but I am tired. I have not found a way to consistently and permanently separate myself emotionally from the evil that exists in this world and the plan that God has for it. In essence, I strive to balance the good with the constant bad and while I try to seek the things I believe are more altruistic, it seems glaringly real that evil appears to have the upper hand, at least in this life. Theologically, I know this is not true. Yet, try as I might, it is difficult to come to terms with it.
In my opinion, all of this clearly indicates to me that we are living in the last days. The proliferation of biblical error is growing, replacing the truth of God's Word with a social gospel that literally only has the capacity to divide people by race, gender and ideology. If a Christian does not study and know God's Word, they have zero chances of seeing the error.
Throughout Scripture, God gives us glimpses (sometimes more than just glimpses), into the future where He promises to right wrongs, to rework and recreate things and in general, make life very pleasant for those allowed into the Millennial Kingdom. Zechariah 6 is merely one case of many where the curtain is pulled back from the future and we are enabled to see a glimpse of what to expect then.
n interesting note here is that while verse 7 tells us that after the chariots went north, God's spirit was quieted. What was/is north of Israel? Babylon, Assyria, Syria and ultimately Moscow, Russia. We know the Medes-Persians conquered and absorbed the Babylonian Empire so while the fact that God's Spirit was quieted is important. Yet, at the same time, we know that even though Ancient Babylon was destroyed, the system that undergirded Babylon has remained to this day and it will once again rise in importance during the coming Tribulation period. This is clear in Revelation 18:2-3.
It appears that God, in preparation for His coming judgment and purge, is allowing all forms of unheard of evil to rise to society's surface. It is out in the open and there is no way to put everything back in the bottle. Society is becoming worse because of what is happening and it's not merely transgenderism but many other things. Things will come to a climax during the coming seven year Tribulation period but we are certainly seeing things happening now. The only reason I can discern that God is allowing all of it is due to the fact that He will purge the people who live in a way that essentially calls God a liar.
I've come to the conclusion that by thinking about or discussing the evil nature of many of those events and gatherings, we actually end up giving glory to Satan, who created those things. While God created sexual union between a man and a woman, Satan has sought to distort that union as much as possible. Because of that, everything is on display today. Because it's so openly seen and discussed, people become a bit enamored with it (because of its prurient nature), even when speaking against those things. They simply don't need to be listed, discussed or thought about.
Though Zechariah saw the visions he did not understand their full meaning. Zechariah asks, "What are these, my lord?" (v. 4; also 12-13). The two Olive trees represent Joshua and Zerubbabel, who are the prototype of the two witnesses of Rev. 11:3-12 and it is also important to understand that only as human beings, Joshua or Zerubbabel represent Jesus – the true Priest-King – that a person is able to fulfill this vision at all. Ultimately, in their fullest sense, the "two olive trees" represents Christ, the Lord's Priest-King (cf. Ps. 110:4).
The filthiness of Joshua's rags reference Israel's stain of her national sin. Joshua stands in for Israel the way Jesus stands in for us now. Interestingly enough, God removed Joshua's guilt and Satan is silenced. He has no rebuttal because he clearly understands that God fully pardons Joshua the way He will fully pardon Israel's sin in the future as God pardons the sins of the unbeliever who comes to God in faith in the finished work of Jesus on Calvary's cross. Satan cannot dispute this.
This vision of Zechariah 2 speaks of the day when God in Christ will restore both - during the Millennial Kingdom. The nation of Israel, and Jerusalem itself. This vision speaks to fact that Jerusalem would have a large population, and---God Himself will physically protect Israel from all harm. Two great affirmations are in this third vision- Our Lord's return will be glorious -2-1-9- and Our Lord's future blessings will be glorious -2-10-13-.
God will answer the prayers of His children in the way He sees fit- in the way that best fulfills His will. I'm-not-a prophet and I've never claimed to be. But simply basing things on God's Word and the examples of how He has done things in the past, helps me understand that this appears to be His chosen method of directing human history to accomplish His will without it being obvious.
This exploratory mission by the riders seems to be related to the rebuilding of Jerusalem and other cities in Judah. Their purpose was to examine the work of God's people to see what they were doing. Interestingly enough, many monarchs used messengers on steeds to travel throughout their kingdoms and report back. God does the same-not that He needs to do this because He already knows all things, but it is a sign of His direct involvement in the affairs of Israel and the world.
All of this should be comforting for the Christian because it is extremely easy to get caught up in the worry, the frustration, and the concerns of this world. We do so because we are not appreciating the fact that nothing happens here without God's permission-approval. But if we are worried, it means we are not trusting God and His purposes. If we are frustrated, it means we are unable to see God's hand in the situation. If we are bogged down by the cares of this world, our focus is not on God but on situations that might occur.
But let's not kid ourselves, please. Things will continue to worsen. This is the spirit of Babylon and though the original Tower of Babel was destroyed and the original city of Babylon -as well as the kingdom itself-, was completely destroyed in ancient history, the ideology they were built on has never been destroyed. It has remained and Satan has continued in the spiritual realm to grow the spirit of Babylon throughout the world in order to gain control of the entire world in the final one world global order of Daniel 2.
Like many prophets of the Old Testament, the message Zechariah gave to the people of Israel-Judah was one of hope but required something from them. Like most today, people often do not want to repent because it means relying on something or Someone outside themselves for deliverance. Ever since the fall, humanity has become more and more inward, conceited and arrogant, following in the footsteps of Satan himself.
And so it goes from one empire to another. Following Nebuchadnezzar's death, eventually his grandson Belshazzar -Daniel 5-, took the throne. He made a huge mistake, one that appeared to be either unforgiveable to God or God simply knew the king would not repent of his wickedness. This resulted in God's judgment using the Medes and Persians. They were upcoming while Babylon was on its way to being destroyed.
Recently, I had the opportunity to help a grandmother, who is a widow and raising two grandsons. Both grandsons have somewhat serious learning disabilities and the youngest one tends toward violence as well. The widow's husband died a number of years ago and the widow lives on a very small pension of just over -800-month. The -mobile- home they were living in is coming down around them -or should I say, was---.
Recently, I had the opportunity to help a grandmother, who is a widow and raising two grandsons. Both grandsons have somewhat serious learning disabilities and the youngest one tends toward violence as well. The widow's husband died a number of years ago and the widow lives on a very small pension of just over $800/month. The (mobile) home they were living in is coming down around them (or should I say, was?).
To simply gain a better mental picture of what they envision, all we need to do is look at Revelation 6 and following where we see specific judgments being poured out starting with Seal 1 and going from there and the result of those judgments. By the time we arrive to the 5th seal of Revelation 6, there are obviously tons of people who have been martyred. This particular chapter is filled with destruction and death. I've always thought that God precipitated these judgments (and that could still be the case), but now I wonder if He simply doesn't choose to use situations created by humanity to use as His judgments?
Why does it appear that in most cases, God is simply silent and/or aloof? Why does it appear as though the evil people in the world control the rest of the world and they have full stomachs and never have a need they cannot fill? But for the rest of us, we often struggle to make ends meet, we are on the receiving end of globalist schemes and from every corner, we are pressed down and often forced to do things "their" way or pay the consequences. Why doesn't God step in sooner to right wrongs and correct evil and inaction?
If you listen to people today who are so deceived by every lie imaginable, it is easy to understand why they believe those lies based on Paul's words. Many of those people are almost giddy in their embrace of lies and they seem always on the edge of insanity. They can go off on anyone who holds a differing opinion, either verbally, physically or both.
I'm coming to the conclusion that God wants the same thing for all His children living today. We know we are facing difficult times and for many, this may be dire now. Daily I read from the prophecy "experts" one more thing that is creating undue hardships for many. It's not so much "prophecy," but simply news they're reporting. It's funny though how rarely do I read from many of these same people (not all!) that God has a plan for His people, that He is using these difficult times and circumstances to draw us closer to Him so that we can benefit from our relationship with Him and become an encourager to those who have not yet understood what God is doing. By the way, it's not merely words that encourage. It's actions.
Shortly after I became a Christian at the age of 13, I began to sense some type of call to ministry. It was weird because no one in my family served as a pastor or evangelist or even a missionary to a foreign country. I wasn't sure if my -calling- was simply a response to the truth of the Gospel and wanting to present it to others or if it was something that God was nudging me toward.--Over the decades since that time, I've served as a youth minister, an associate pastor and even as a youth director-janitor in a church. It was interesting that in all those service opportunities, the only direction I received from any pastor I served under was to pursue my masters of divinity degree because if I was really called into the pastorate, I would need that. It made sense. I already had a bachelors in Bible degree.
In the meantime, might I suggest that you simply do what you can do for yourself, leaving all the rest to God. If you have extra cash to be able to stock up on perishables -including vitamins and other supplements since they usually have a two-to-four year shelf life-, then do that. If you cannot do that, do you really believe God will ignore you, not hear you and not provide for you-- He knows your circumstances better than you do.
Here Paul expressly speaks of a -man of sin-son of perdition- who would rise to power, oppose everything that is God and exalt himself instead -as Antiochus IV did-. He will even do what Antiochus previously did by going into the Jewish Temple, sit inside the Holy of Holies -possibly on the Mercy Seat on top of reconstructed Ark of the Covenant-, and declare to the world that he is God. Obviously, in order for this to occur, the Jewish Temple must be rebuilt during the coming Tribulation period. Antichrist will then confirm a covenant with Israel for seven years.-Neither Antiochus in 167-168 BC or Roman Emperor Vespasian in AD 70 fulfilled all aspects of this prophecy. This will be fulfilled in the future.
I cannot think of a better use of fulfilled prophecy than in evangelism, can you-- This is why we need to study and know it as best we can. This is why we should be mentally prepared for the time when prophecy is fulfilled. The world will see the reality of the attempted attack on Israel led by Gog -a title, not a name-, and the results of it. They will not understand exactly what just occurred. Christians will be on hand to explain it but I believe they will have a very short time to do so because of the rise of the physical Antichrist, who will redirect everyone's attention to something else.
People today - both within and without the Church - are so opposed to anyone who does not agree with them that the vitriol directed toward opponents is constant and visceral. What would have been unheard of to utter to someone in public is now the new normal. There is no relief in that exercised passion because people refuse to find common ground. This applies to politics as well as prophecy.
Just as Hezekiah had no clue how God planned to thwart the Assyrians, he only believed -based on Isaiah's message from God-, that God would somehow stand against Assyria. I'm sure God surpassed Hezekiah's thinking in a very powerful way that it was unmistakably God's work and left the king in absolute awe. Do you think he forgot that instance any time soon afterwards--
I have found that the more I focus on the corruption, evil and the terrible events occurring in the USA and the world, I tend to think that I have to solve those problems. This, as I mentioned, gets my brain going and I end up using a good amount of energy trying to -figure- things out, when in point of fact, I don't need to figure anything out at all. It's all God. He will lead me. He will help me make decisions. He will provide for me, but He really needs me to get to the end of myself in thinking that I need to actually come up with solutions to problems. I can't do a thing when it comes to the upcoming presidential election or WWIII. I have zero control. God does have control over it and His purposes will prevail, period.
The end of the Book of Daniel provides several questions and answers. They point to the fact that Daniel simply could not grasp all that was revealed to him. However, in our day, as we are much closer to the return of Jesus physically, things are making much more sense. As the prophetic Word unfolds, it will lead us to the seven-year Tribulation ended by the physical return of Jesus, who will then judge the nations and prepare for the Millennial Kingdom.
Daniel 11-36-12-4 highlights several things- The Coming Ruler -36-39-, Attack Against the Ruler -40-45-, Deliverance of Israel -12-1-3- and-End of the Vision -12-4-.
First and foremost, Babylon is an ideology or worldview and mindset. It is also a serious religion. This just happens to be the same religion of the current set of globalists who are doing their level best to gain control of the entire world. That control will allow them to rule over the rest of humanity. As I've mentioned many times, they long for a two-tiered system- the lords and the serfs.
There appears to be a very intricate invisible system created by Satan to gain control of humanity and use humanity to overthrow God. This has always been Satan's plan and I believe it's why he first went after Adam and Eve, not only to make them fall, but to enslave them and use their progeny to attack God. Satan uses people, though he hates us with a strong passion, to do what he can to bring about a coup de gras to destroy and replace God. This is what Satan's entire plan is all about in a nutshell. It has taken him this long to get the world to this point from the failed Tower of Babel but we appear to be here once again.
Daniel 11-21-25 highlights Antiochus IV Epiphanes, who is a biblical type of Antichrist. What we see in this section is how Antiochus deceived people to gain their favor, only to turn on them to destroy them later. This will be magnified by a great degree by the coming man of sin- Antichrist.
God sees all of this. He keeps track of everything. He is also powerful enough to provide for His own and see us through the darkness in spite of what Satan is allowed to bring to fruition. But if we are unwilling to exercise faith and trust in Him, we will not receive what God wants us to have.
What will the demeanor and demeanor of the unsaved be as they stand before God in judgment-- Will they hate God-- Will they resist Him still or will the truth create abject humility before Him or will they grudgingly acknowledge Him as Lord of All-- --How will understanding this situation cause Christians to be better witnesses of His love to the lost in order that their eyes might open in this life and embrace the only salvation that is available--
Verse 11 reveals what will occur in Daniel's near future and it almost seems like a soap opera as we read it.--Historically, in this verse, the King of the South -Egypt- was Ptolemy IV Philopator -222-203 B.C.- who attacked Antiochus III -King of the North, Syria-, on the southern borders of Israel, specifically at Raphia in 217 B.C. Initially Ptolemy was successful, but as Jerome tells us, Antiochus nearly lost his entire army and was almost captured as he fled.
Consider this please. God made all of Creation including all human beings to reflect His intended purposes. He made all things for-His glory, which means in part that our lives should always glorify Him in thought, word and deed. This is how we were made and this is how Adam and Eve lived until their fall. In fact, it's how Lucifer-Satan lived until his fall as well.--Sin blinded us to the main purpose of our life here. Instead of living lives that bring glory to God continually -as authentic Christians will do in eternity with Him-, sin makes us believe lies, causing us to think that God is there for us, to make our lives happy and complete. The problem is that He most certainly wants us to be fulfilled according to His will, but that only comes when we do things His way starting with receiving His salvation. Since He created us to glorify Him and we often don't, we are ruined. We don't glorify Him because we are blinded to the fact that this was our supreme purpose in being created in the first place.
But in reality, Babylon in some form will rise physically in the soon coming years and will serve as the-center of the coming ESG, DEI and social credit scoring system for the entire world's population. How else would it be possible for Antichrist with False Prophet to force everyone to take the mark -Revelation 13-16-17-, if this was not the case-- Because of this coming system in Babylon, they will be able to enforce-their will digitally so that anyone who does not have the mark won't eat, buy or sell. It's all coming together. I don't know exactly-when-this will all occur and cannot give a date. It is certainly being built now, thanks to the way the world caved with C0V hit.
However, if we go through life completely unaware of what God has personally revealed in His Word -or allegorize His text-, and is designed to occur as well as what He is allowing-to occur, we will simply not be prepared for those events when they start to take place. We will not have done any preparation for anything and will be forced to deal with events as they happen instead of using foresight to prepare for their arrival. It is clearly not the way Jesus expected His disciples -and us-, to handle the future that He took the time to tell them -and us- about. How many times did Jesus say, -Do not be alarmed--- -Matthew 24-6-.
King Jehoshaphat learned he had erred by siding with King Ahab, who resolutely stood against the Lord. Because of that misstep by King Jehoshaphat, Jehu announced that -the wrath of the Lord is upon you.- This wrath would come later in the form of invasion and commercial reversals for Jehoshaphat. But notice that never did God leave or forsake Jehoshaphat. Never.
Lift up your eyes. While I believe it is good to know what satanic globalists are attempting to accomplish throughout this world, our focus should be on God and what He is doing. This goes a long way in relieving the pressure and frustration from the type of things happening in the world that can potentially negatively impact us. Focusing on those things can also cause us to become worried and even take our eyes off the Great Commission of Matthew 18.--We are here for a purpose and it is to bring glory to God. By shifting our gaze to Him and His purposes, the things that Satan is doing will be noted but will not overcome us.
Let's stop here and remind ourselves that all of this was completely new to the prophet Daniel because all of it was in Daniel's near future, compared to the latter half of Daniel 11, which speaks of events that will occur at the end of this age. All of this proves that God and only God knows the future because He-determines-it. He doesn't have to go against people's free will to get His will done. All He needs to do is find someone who is predisposed to go in a certain direction and use that person to accomplish what He will accomplish.
I believe we are now living in the days Daniel and other prophets saw occurring far down the road from their perspective. Because of what is occurring today as God's prophetic calendar unfolds, as noted it can be a bit unnerving as we try to remain strongly anchored to God in spite of everything that is now happening. The difficulty for the Christian during these times, is to continue persevering in God's will in spite of the -tornadic- spiritual activity all around us. Because all of it has been previously revealed in His Word, we have no excuse to not understand it. It should prompt us to fall on His mercy and understand that His purposes will be accomplished. During the process, He will not ignore His own who humble themselves before Him and continue to seek His will daily.--God has done us a tremendous supernatural favor by taking the time to stoop and reveal His future will to us. He has done this over the centuries through numerous prophets, including Daniel. To ignore the writings of these godly men is to suffer for it. Forewarned is forearmed.
If you find yourself acting like a deer in the headlights of an approaching vehicle, don't beat yourself up about that. Simply recognize that this is the first step in helping you to understand that you - by yourself - cannot do this alone. We-need-God every day and throughout each day. He is attentive to our needs and wants. He cares deeply about our frailties and our concerns. He wants what is best for us. You cannot fear situations and God at the same time. You'll fear one or the other. Which do you choose--
Verse 12 confirms that we should not give up in prayer because we do not know what may delay a response to our prayers. The angel tells Daniel he was dispatched the first day Daniel began to pray. The term -withstood- can mean - -be in the way- or -prevent by force.- In essence, the angel was telling Daniel that there was some sort of battle being waged in the heavenly realm between the angel and likely a fallen angel or demon who was fighting against Cyrus to keep God's will from unfolding with respect to Jeremiah's prophecy concerning the end of the 70 year captivity.
So, while Israel is starting to show signs that it is learning to rely on itself -and will eventually and ultimately come to rely on God alone-, more headway needs to be made clearly. In essence, it seems clear that God's plan is to put Israel on one side of the aisle completely alone and ultimately vulnerable, while all other nations actively stand against Israel -or don't care and won't help Israel-. Why-- Because it will force Israel to come to her knees before God, to learn to depend solely and only on God Almighty, the very Creator of Israel.
So why is society so unable to think clearly, to see reality-- Even though more people appear to be waking up to some truth, by and large, society as a whole continues to walk the path of deliberate obfuscation. Moreover, they are content with it. Why-- Well, it seems to me that at least five things are happening throughout the world now that are creating this global problem of complete blindness to truth and reality. Those five things are highlighted in Scripture.
To sum up, a total of 490 years are set aside to deal with Israel's sin and rebellion. After the second set of weeks-sevens -the 62-, there is a break or gap in which several things occur that lead up to the actual beginning of the Tribulation period when the Antichrist brokers or confirms a peace deal with Israel and Arab nations. Once the Antichrist confirms this peace treaty, it will be then that the final week-seven begins, which is called most commonly, the Tribulation period. This period of time is still in front of us.
My point is really simple. God wants us to understand that regardless of what we may think of individual Jewish people and whether or not we support Israel's ability to defend itself, the nation of Israel is the nation that God created and raised up in order that He would bring the Messiah-Savior into this world. If not for Israel, would Jesus have even been born as a man-- God's plan was to create a nation that would literally be a light to the world- a nation where God could work to reach all of humanity. Is Israel perfect-- Absolutely not and in fact, most of Israel -including her leaders-, are completely blind still to the truth of what God has done and continues to do. This blindness, as Paul says, is temporary in order to bring in the full number of Gentiles, but God has not completely forsaken Israel.
The Seventy -weeks- of Daniel 9, what do they stand for-- How can we learn from there where we are on God's prophetic timetable-- Do those weeks apply to us today or in the future or have they all been fulfilled--
In Matthew 24, the Olivet Discourse, Jesus issues several warnings for His disciples and ultimately for believers today. What are some of those warnings and how are we meant to react to them----We look closely at Matthew 24-4-13 to learn what Jesus is telling us and why He is doing so.
Daniel had obtained and been reading a copy of Jeremiah's prediction concerning the length of the captivity of Israel-Judah once captured by Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar. Because of his study, Daniel understood the 70 years to be a literal 70-year period. Since the end of that 70 years was approaching, Daniel began to pray.
Interestingly, Bossche also notes that he -...learned that the virus had to slow down its spread and is now awaiting rising temperatures to be able to select a highly virulent lineage-- Originally, he thought that later in the fall new variants with severe virulence would visit society but now he believes it'll happen much sooner, as temperatures begin to rise due to the coming months of summer.
Most conservative Bible scholars believe verses 20-22 have been completely fulfilled in history. The sticking points of disagreement occur with verse 23 and following. In my opinion, verses 23-25 could represent a near-far view. The near fulfillment sees Antiochus IV as the historical persecutor as in vv 9-14 -MacArthur-. Antiochus as king in 164 BC was -in the latter period of their rule.- Rome conquered Greece in 146 BC and Antiochus died -broken without human agency- from insanity and disease of the bowels.
In order to create a compliant society, one fit for the governance of the coming self-worshiping Antichrist, the world must be prepared in their minds and outlook. Their thinking must be adulterated and changed so that they will comply to messaging presented fearfully. Revelation 13 tells us that one day, a true son of Satan will step up to rule over the entire world in the final human-led global kingdom. During that time, he will cause everyone to take a mark on their hand or forehead that promises allegiance to him and allows them to buy and sell. In other words, by their visible outward sign of allegiance, people will be able to participate in society. Those who do not take the mark will become marked in another way by becoming the hunted. Those who do take the mark -just like those who took the jab-, will call for the government to come down on those who do not participate in taking that mark.
Antiochus IV was the 8th king of the Seleucid dynasty and he ruled as king from 175 to 164 BC -1 Macc 1-10- 6- 16-. He conducted military campaigns in all those directions. Here in Daniel 8, the vision begins to focus on future Israel and the Jews. In fact, much of this vision is future to Daniel, but the second half of the chapter is still yet future from our perspective. Antiochus was especially vengeful against the Jews whom he persecuted brutally -Constable- and Whitcomb notes he was one of Israel's worst persecutors ever.
It is obvious to me that the presence of the Church in this world -the invisible true Church-, acts as a dam against things becoming exceedingly bad in this world all over as they will during the Tribulation. It also seems to be clear that until the Holy Spirit is out of the way -meaning no longer operating through the present Church-, the Antichrist cannot be revealed. The Church effectively blocks the Antichrist from being revealed. That's how I understand it and I realize there are many who disagree with me on that.
All the earth shall become the 11th horn-fourth beast for a time, times, and half a times - three and a half years total from midpoint of Tribulation -2 Thessalonians 2-- the second half of Tribulation. Jesus refers to this as the Great Tribulation in Matthew 24. This is a truly global government at this point and the question to ask is how does the world get to that point--
It is impossible to avoid all the signs occurring throughout society. These signs, precipitating changes for the worse globally, are at our doorsteps. If I didn't think they were not actually affecting change, I wouldn't bother to highlight them. Unfortunately, it is the exact opposite. These changes are-occurring, creating a more favorable situation globally for the technocrats to continue their push.
In his recently published book, The Evil Twins of Technocracy and Transhumanism, Patrick M. Wood outlines the process that has been used by technocrats throughout the years to create a new economic system based solely on scientism -not actual science-. Wood includes plenty of factual details related to exactly how technocrat globalists have taken control over and manipulated the existing economic system for themselves and where they are going with it.
It is completely understandable why Daniel and other prophets -including the apostle John-, were often somewhat confused by the visions and dreams they received related to the end times. Consider the amount of technology we have today compared to what Daniel and John had during their day. They had no electricity, no cell phones, no computers, no cars, planes or things like that. What they actually saw in their visions might have easily included aspects of future technology. I can see why that may have been confusing to them and kept them from seeing things as we can see them during our day.
You'd all agree with me that God is good. He is so very good and we will not begin to fully understand that until we are in His Presence. However, we can gain strong personal glimpses of His goodness now and those glimpses are designed to increase our faith in Him. Why-- So that we can move with passion toward Him more each day. It is in and through this process that God grants us the thing we need most, aside from salvation. That is wisdom. Without wisdom we cannot make a simple decision. We cannot know the way to go. We cannot please Him. He wants us to have all that we need for life and godliness and the first order of business after we receive salvation is gaining more and more wisdom.
If all of the above becomes true this year or next, it tells me we are the last generation of Christians living before our Lord returns. It also tells me that globalists have been given the go-ahead to destroy the financial system that has always been based on some form of capitalism, replacing it with -stakeholder capitalism.- This stakeholder capitalism only sounds good. In reality, it simply means that the only ones who will continue to enjoy capitalism without any limitations are globalists who have been busy manipulating the world's societies and financial systems for their own benefit since the very early 1900s, at least in modern times. It's been going on for quite some time actually. This is often referred to as the -Great Taking- by many people because globalists seriously intend to take everything from us. Don't worry though, they tell us even though we'll own nothing, we'll be happy...
Regarding this fourth beast, note that there are the original ten horns. However, among them comes an eleventh horn. This eleventh horn -uproots- -kills--- three of the original ten horns and becomes the 8th. This simply means the ten horns will gain power as kings first and then Antichrist will rise up as 11th, deal with three and becomes the 8th. So it appears that the world will be divided into ten sections as one new world order still yet future.
It seems clear to me that God has abandoned America because we have abandoned God. We left Him first and that can be clearly seen by just how bad society has become. This is so much like what we read throughout the book of Deuteronomy, when Moses recounted Israeli's history and prophesied about how Israel would in the future turn from God to idols. Even though America is not Israel, there are parallels highlighted showing what happens when a nation or a person deliberately turns from God -Romans 1-.
New research shows that those who received the COVID shots emit a fluorescent orange glow in their faces that is visible under a UV light of 365 nano-meters. And those who have been exposed to shedding emit this glow around their nose. -The Reese Report-
Let's also remind ourselves that it is abundantly clear from Scripture that prior to the Antichrist taking his position as final human world ruler over humanity, the world must become unified as one global government ruled by ten kings. Once the ten kings take their positions of rule each over a tenth part of the earth, then the Antichrist make his move to gain supremacy over the ten kings. This will put him in conflict with three where he will uproot them, leaving seven. Antichrist will become the eighth though in reality he will exercise supremacy over the seven. This is still future.
Is there anything else that helps provide clarity for this particular subject of giants-- Yes, there is always circumstantial evidence found within the realm of archaeology. Joel Kramer has a wonderful YouTube channel called Expedition Bible.-2- He is an actual archaeologist and has lived in the Middle East -mainly Israel-, for the past few decades. There, he does most of his expeditions and his discoveries are fascinating.
For instance, it was common knowledge apparently to these men that Paul was the human author of Hebrews. Yet, today, Christians debate and discuss it and come to their own conclusions and stand by those conclusions, but here we find that the early church fathers understood that Paul wrote it. Why didn't he include his name as the author as he did so often-- No idea, but the absence of his name did not mean to the first and second century church fathers that Paul didn't write it. He did write it, but simply withheld his name and it's likely due to the content of the information, which ultimately is about Jesus.
Sin corrupts and the more sin is obeyed, the greater loss of freedom and ability to seek God until a point of no return is reached. Because of the efforts of the fallen angels, the human genome was fully corrupted and irredeemable. We are quickly moving to a point in the future where the exact same situation will occur. Is there any reason to think that God would not send His wrath in the form of judgment because of it, as He did thousands of years ago during Noah's day--
Daniel 6 highlights Daniel's integrity and leadership. He is noticed by Darius as Darius wants to make Daniel head over all governors and satraps. This creates animosity toward Daniel from the satraps and governors, who find a way to eliminate Daniel using the laws of his own God. While it appears they are initially successful, God has other plans.
I believe we are coming to a day - and probably very soon - when all of the evil and corruption that undergirds global society now, will rise to the top with the revelation of alien beings, who will tell us what they can do for us if we will simply follow their dictates. They will promise to eliminate the problems that exist throughout the earth. They will usher in some form of temporary peace. They will share technology designed to ensnare us to willingly submit to their leadership.
I started thinking of that situation and realized what it was - it was actually a form of isolation that is creeping into society in general, keeping people from other people. We are being trained to do without interaction with real people. This is what AI is creating and it's also why far fewer people are needed in this world. Going into any other store, there would be workers - clerks, managers, stockers, etc. You'd interact with them at some point and continue doing and being a human being among other human beings.
Nebuchadnezzar's grandson, Belshazzar is judged and found wanting by God. The Babylonian Kingdom is taken from him and given to the Medes-Persians. The big lesson is that we should do everything we can to grow in humility. Nebuchadnezzar did this. Belshazzar did not and it not only cost him his kingdom but his life.--God chooses to whom He grants permission to reign over all or part of the earth. It is His to determine.
What is happening throughout the world is par for the course. It is due to the constant removal of God from His rightful place. As Paul notes, too many people today are -always learning- but never truly gaining the truth -v 7-. Instead, they chase after error believing it to be truth. Then they dig their heels in when it's shown from God's Word they are wrong. They become condemnatory toward those who question their credibility. It is the quickest way for the Christian to become embroiled in sin and out of fellowship with God.
The humbling of proud rulers is a recurrent theme throughout Scriptures. Interestingly, Nebuchadnezzar was not killed by his enemies as has happened many times throughout Scripture and history. God protected Nebuchadnezzar for His purposes and glory. God literally stepped in and kept the empire's affairs under control.-This allowed Nebuchadnezzar to pick up at that point when he came to himself. One can only wonder if Daniel himself helped protect the king and encouraged others in government to prepare for the king's return--
As far as I'm concerned, the actual Daniel existed and lived during the time of Israel's captivity in Babylon. During that time, both he and King Nebuchadnezzar received dreams and visions that were explained by Daniel prior to their happening. In fact, numerous chapters in Daniel have yet to be fulfilled. They remain in front of us.
But Satan has a huge problem. Before this can occur, something needs to happen. That problem is the fact that God's Church, Christ's Bride is in the way. Now, as I've also stated often, no one knows the exact day or time that the coming Tribulation will officially start. Stay away from those think they know. We only know the event that will kick that period of time off. We do not know on what particular calendar day it will occur until it does.
Gnosticism has its roots all the way back to the Tower of Babel and the mystery religions propagated by Nimrod and his wife. The one major benefit they had going for them is that everyone on the earth spoke only one language -and I'm guessing it was Hebrew, but have no proof of that-. The other asset was that everyone on the earth then lived on the plain of Shinar, which is where Nimrod began to build his -stairway to heaven,- Babel.
I cannot imagine that 2024 will be easy. This November we've got a presidential election and it seems clear enough that the powers that be cannot allow Trump to be part of that process. Whether or not their efforts backfire remains to be seen, but they're certainly trying every fascist move they can try.
Like all cults that eventually get so weird only the most diehard brainwashed members continue to stay with them in spite of their crazed beliefs, Montanus also got to a point where he made some seriously audacious claims. Fortunately, many Christians then fully rejected him then because of it. But his error came back almost 2,000 years later with the Azusa Street Revival, which began the modern Charismatic Movement in America in 1906. It morphed into several things over the decades with the latest version today being the New Apostolic Reformation.
By and large, the early church fathers were confident that the Rapture would occur and then, the Tribulation would begin. As Gnosticism and other errors began to creep into the visible Church, the Council of Constantinople -AD 381-, allegedly condemned and abandoned Pre-Millennialism and began moving toward Amillennialism, even though church fathers had taken the time to warn their flocks against this error. It is fascinating that regardless of how well the ancient church fathers fought against error, many errors eventually became part and parcel of the official doctrine of the church by the third and fourth centuries. It makes sense that Satan would do whatever he could to create this problem.
It is safe to say that if the ancient church fathers gained their knowledge regarding the Scriptures from the apostles, by and large, the same ancient church fathers would then simply pass along what they had personally learned from those apostles. Interestingly enough, we see this very clearly as we study the church fathers' writings.
Satan has deceived his human Luciferian servants into thinking that he is the god, that he has humanity's best interests at heart and he teaches human beings how to become god themselves. In a nutshell, this coming hierarchy will be the absolute inversion of Christianity, which we know to be the truth God has revealed to us through God the Son. The coming hierarchy is nothing but lies masquerading as truth and its deception is gaining serious momentum in global society.
The author's point in all this is to say that after we have lived this life in full, with all its pitfalls, foibles, problems, sin and darkness, we will come out at the other end of it in glory, with the full realization that we will never ever want to stray from Him again...ever.
The picture of true love that Paul describes is based on a heart that literally seeks greater and greater humility, steadily becoming more and more like Jesus Himself- That person is wholly affected because they've come to understand that the more humble they become, the more they become like Jesus- Isn't that the very essence of being and living life as a Christian--
One day, I know that I will see Him face to face and my faith will become sight. At that point, faith will no longer be needed because it will be replaced with unquenchable facts- facts that will never be withdrawn or changed. I will see His wounds. I will see His face. I will sense His deep love for me. I will feel the blessing of His Presence, His Lordship, His deity, His beauty. I will willingly fall at His feet and kiss those feet as Mary did when she broke open that alabaster container of oil.
Some of the very same tenets pushed by those who had embraced either Theosophy or Buddhism during Pember's day -more accurately reflected today as New Age-, are the exact same tenets being pushed today. This is not by accident, but by design.
We continue in Daniel 4 with the prophet Daniel explaining the meaning of Nebuchadnezzar's dream to him and the ramifications of it. Daniel closes his interpretation with an exhortation to the king to begin living righteously and to take care of the poor as a changed life may avert God's coming judgment on Nebuchadnezzar.
For Jesus, it was the joy that He knew He would experience by successfully navigating the upcoming illegal trials, the beatings, the mockings, the brutal death on the cross itself and the separation from His own Father. It was that joy that He beheld that gave Him what He needed to look beyond the actual downsides associated with His upcoming death on the cross. He succeeded because He fixed His gaze on the solution that the Father provided rather than the temptation.
God tried to teach His complete sovereignty to Nebuchadnezzar -Daniel 2-3-, but the king had not learned his lesson. Verse 17 states God's supremacy over all Creation - the theme of the entire book of Daniel. The king asks Daniel to interpret the meaning of the dream. The soothsayers were unable to offer any type of explanation or interpretation. Nothing at all.
Humility is not inherent within us. We are not born with humility, but must actively seek humility. Humility is outside Self. It is not part of Self at all. It must be sought by us and in all situations. We must also understand that Self is resident within to keep us from seeking and gaining more humility. It's one or the other- that simple.
Walking the difficult path of the Narrow-Humility Road requires constant communion with God. It requires us to be involved in His Word- reading it, memorizing it and repeating it to ourselves. Walking down the path of humility means we think of ourselves last or better yet, not at all as we submit to Him and His will at every turn. Anyone who says this is not difficult is either lying to themselves or deceived because it is-sometimes tremendously difficult to live out, practically speaking. Self yearns to be exalted and hates to admit failure. Refer to Luke 22-39-44 to remind yourself of Jesus' own struggle, yet without sin.
Because God saved the three young men, Nebuchadnezzar then saw their God as superior to all Babylonian gods. He ultimately acknowledged their God as superior over his own god, Nebo. Because of this, Nebuchadnezzar issued a new rule that all should respect Yahweh and say nothing derogatory. This is another proof that Nebuchadnezzar was supreme ruler, answering to no one on earth. He could make laws by himself that no one could set aside.
This innate rebelliousness that all Christians have to some extent or another, was something that Paul could not get rid of within himself either. It is resident, with layers upon layers of sinfulness seeking its own way. This is the constant tension caused by our own inner sin nature and the impact God has on us through the new life within us led by the Holy Spirit.
So I thought about those three young men, their demeanor and their response. I looked again at the confidence in which they spoke, not being rude or disrespectful, but clearly placing a far higher allegiance on being faithful to God than doing something that would save their physical lives, but potentially ruin their relationship with Jehovah. In our modern day, it's a bit mind-boggling to consider being faced with something like this and setting the danger aside to see the greater goal- that of loving God more than life itself. How exactly did they do that--
Nebuchadnezzar used this statue and the worship of it as a test of his subjects' loyalty to him and his kingdom. Babylonians were polytheists, worshiping many gods. This was simply a representation of another god -Nebuchadnezzar--- that they were to worship on pain of death.
Over the past few years, gaining control over people was through the C V jab that has placed these nano-bots inside millions of people throughout the world from the jab. These nano-bot structures actually build things inside the person. Under a microscope, Dr. Milhalcea notes that the actual assembly can be seen, as millions of tiny circular-looking bio-nanobots light up and-or blink proving they are foreign bodies that appear to have sentience. This is what people have allowed into their bodies because of the fearmongering from those in power that caused most to believe if they did not get the jab they would without doubt, die from C V. This has proven to be false repeatedly, but it is routinely ignored by those in power and the media.
As far as the Roman Empire is concerned, as we look at history, we can see that both the United Stage and Two Division Stage has already occurred. Prior to the division of the Roman Empire into an east and a west, it was a united empire. However, though some believe that the -ten division stage- -ten toes-, has already occurred in history, in my opinion and that of other conservative biblical scholars, it has not yet appeared. In essence, we are still waiting for that empire to position itself on the world's scene. As we've noted numerous times previously, we believe that this is what is in process right now through various efforts of globalists who march to Satan's drum beat. Text in Revelation 13-1-2 informs us of this coming -ten toes- -or in Revelation, ten kings-crowns-horns, as its the same thing-.
Nebuchadnezzar reasoned that if they could tell him what he actually dreamed, then they'd probably be able to tell him what it actually meant. He didn't believe he was asking for a great deal in reality. After all, the wise men made their living providing on a supposed ability to contact the gods and learn secrets from the spiritual realm. Certainly, some god would be able to provide that information requested of the king.
Another pet peeve I have is accomplished liars. These people lie when their mouths are moving. It doesn't matter what they talk about either. Since their consciences have been thoroughly seared, they can tell the most ridiculous lies with a completely straight face and eyes that don't give it away. Why-- Because they've conned themselves into thinking that lies are necessary to get the average people to do what they want them to do.
Official government mouthpieces previously told us that the mRNA jab would only remain in your body for a short period of time. But that was a complete lie according to new data. In fact, we now know the jab contains actual DNA, not just RNA. A recent article written by Dr. Ah Khan Syed highlights this fact and its inherent dangers. -4- The article, Plasmid DNA in Pfizer and Moderna injections can enter the nucleus of our cells in 5 different ways, informs us that DNA is included in the mRNA jab at roughly 30- and then notes that it can clearly gain entrance into the nucleus of our cells. Once there, that DNA remains permanently and creates all sorts of health problems, including -turbo- cancers. Please read the linked article.
Ultimately, one of the main points of Daniel 1 is that God blessed Daniel's commitment even in a seemingly minor manner and even though it seems clear Daniel was already wise, God increased Daniel's wisdom in response to Daniel's faithfulness and loyalty and did so for His purposes. Daniel and his three friends are models of how to be and remain faithful to God in difficult times. When the world wants us to go their way, God wants us to remain faithful to Him regardless of the cost to us. In truth, this is the difficult part of being a Christian because the world is always pulling us one way -toward sin-, while the Holy Spirit within us is always prompting us to follow God more closely.
As we focus on God's sublime care and concern for His own, we should take great comfort in knowing that God preserves us in the midst of troubling times. In fact, God always preserves us whether we are fully aware of that or not. He preserves us to the day when we will see Him face to face and He preserves us in the midst of all the trials that the enemy can throw at us. This does not mean that we ourselves will not experience difficulties. It means we will not experience His judgment and He will make a way for us to continue to receive His blessings in the midst of His judgment.
Because of what God says to me in His Word, I have an obligation to continue pursuing truth. I also have an obligation to push the negativity away and the only way I know how to do that is by continual praise. I must be deliberate in my praise of Him and folks, I'll be the first to admit that oftentimes, when I begin praising Him, it feels so absolutely fake, as though I'm simply saying words. Eventually though, I find myself getting caught up in praise and focusing more on Him and not on the circumstances.
The problem for Daniel and his friends became,-how to participate in Babylon society without actually assimilating into Babylonian culture, which would be sin because of all the ungodly practices of Babylon-- We Christians have the same problem today, which is why Daniel has many lessons for us as well, besides the obvious prophetic illustrations.
Let me break it down for you. Dr. Buckhaults is first of all, trying to be extremely generous in his assessments, trying to avoid the implication that the DNA he found in the jab serum vials was deliberately placed there. He prefers to believe that the reason foreign DNA was found in the serum is due solely to incompetence.
One of the main purposes of Daniel is to give hope to Israel. Because of their constant rebellion and backslidden condition, many devout Jews were tempted to think God had abandoned them. -Daniel's purpose in writing blended the two themes of prophecy and right living from the heart. Daniel wrote first to show God's future program for the nation of Israel -in light of her rebellious nature-, during and after what is known as -the times of the Gentiles.-
Today's society is built on a foundation without God and we know that this foundation cannot last long -Matthew 7-. God eventually- throws those societies over to themselves so they will become worse and worse through complete moral decline, ultimately resulting in God's necessary judgment for that society.
In Revelation 22-20-21, Jesus reminds us He is -coming quickly- and because of that, we should always be ready for His return enough to say, -Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus-- God's grace is forever with us as His children in this life and throughout eternity. The last word of Revelation -and in essence, the entire Bible-, is -Amen- - -so be it--
Through all of this, people in charge learned immediately that most in society would obey every order issued without hesitation. Those who obeyed would then, often with hostility, unleash their ire on those who did not obey. Fear does things to people and in this case, people feared death so much that they were willing to hate on anyone who did obey the mandates issued by Fauci, Birx, and other unelected bureaucrats.
The Pfizer CV jab has introduced the HIV-infected green monkey DNA into the human cellular structure that ultimately changes human DNA to something other than what God created or intended it to be. Is it safe to say then that people who have taken the jab ultimately become a human variant themselves, something less than human-- They are changed to their genetic core. They are not what God created or intended. They become something far less and it appears to be irreversible.
Think of the fact that the world will have lived through absolute righteousness with the world being somewhat rebuilt and food tasting as it's never tasted before. Though there will be plenty of resurrected people who no longer have a sin nature, people who are born during the Millennial Kingdom will still be born with sin natures and will still need to come to repentance and receive salvation in Jesus. It seems that there will be multitudes who live as they're supposed to live during this 1,000 years, but do so because of outward pressures to do so. It won't come from their hearts. This proves that the heart of man is desperately wicked and can only be changed by God's grace.
All of these things - the lack of discernment, the problems with a growing number of Christian leaders, etc. - all provide telltale clues that God's Word is coming to fruition. People today - both inside and outside of the Church - are more concerned with racial reconciliation, embracing homosexuals, lesbians and transgenders and doing whatever they can to impoverish their congregations by not actually preaching God's Word, but preaching around it- using a Scripture here or there as a spring board into brainwashing attendees rather than edifying them.
I personally believe God created animals that humans ultimately domesticated and become pets to enhance our lives. I know some folks are not animal lovers. To each their own, but I believe they're missing some wonderful blessings. Since adopting Scooby, we've learned a lot about him as he's acclimating himself to us and us to him. I'm not sure what he went through for the first five months of his life before we adopted him, but I'm thinking not much of it was good at all except for the boy in his life and possibly the grandmother.
I've always been a glass half empty kind of person. Always. It's simply my nature and I realize it largely has to do with impact my parents made on the way I saw the world and think in general. I'm not blaming them. I'm simply saying that whether or not they realized it, they tended to pass down to me -and my sister-, the negativism that was rife in their own lives and between my mother and father. That negativism was alive and often fearful to me and so based on what I saw and experienced from a young age, my negative patterns of thinking developed. The adage, -you live what you learn- is very true.
Bottom line for me is that Christians today will very likely feel the uptick of -persecution.- Here in the USA, that means as we stand against LGBTQ- we will be demonized for it. As we resist the wave of Marxism in all its tenets -i.e. Critical Race Theory-, as it tries sweeping across our communities, we will experience the wrath of the Left increasingly. We can somewhat guard against that if we are further away from the larger cities, but it will still likely find us where we live. We will also likely have to deal with more health -pandemics- with officials issuing more health mandates to gain more control of society. You need to decide now how you will react to those mandates.
What if the first horse and rider represent something else, other than the Antichrist-- What if without this particular horse and rider, the other seals -2, 3, and 4-, could not really occur-- Everything then is based on what the first horse and rider will be and do. By the way, I will state this up front as well. I fully believe the first four seals all clearly pave the way for the man of sin-son of perdition-Antichrist to rise to the top of the heap. If not for the opening of the first four seals -Seal 1 especially-, I don't believe Antichrist would have an opening. The first four seals lay the groundwork, building on the previous seal, making his appearance a reality. Each seal does something to global society that pushes the world toward the point where Antichrist can and will make his appearance.
Revelation 18 and 19 teach us because God is holy, righteous, perfect in judgment, the world will reap the consequences of their sin and denial of God. As Christians, we need to practice living lives that reflect our fear of offending God, the only wise God, the only God. We must design our lives so that our love for God and our growing fear of offending Him by sinning would take over our lives allowing us to live the way He wants us to live, so that He and He alone is glorified. We must decrease and He must increase. We cannot love or fear offending Him enough in this life. We can simply submit to Him and endeavor to live the way He would have us live.
In conclusion then, I believe it is very possible we are seeing and experiencing aspects of the second seal of Revelation 6. The contents of the third seal may be just around the corner, with the fourth seal naturally following that. Again, while I could be 100- wrong, it seems to me this scenario is very possible while we are still before the official start of the coming Tribulation period. If the first seal had a built in, obvious timeline or specific starting point where the rider on the white horse does something very specific that cannot be ignored, then we could correlate the first seal with the actual start of the Tribulation. It seems to me that the first seal provides a general view of the things that will occur, but no specific point we can look to as we can in Daniel 9-24-27 or Zechariah 9-9-10.
Unless the Lord intervenes, it clearly means that the world will be thoroughly overcome with evil and bring global society to the door of the coming Tribulation. We can give into the fear of what lies ahead or we can simply see it for what it is - warning signs that inform us - and do what we can to mitigate the effect of what is coming. Huge corporations are currently downsizing by closing stores, laying off employees and taking other cost-cutting measures to save a dollar. If this continues or even speeds up, it will create at the very least a trickle down series of downturns and at worst, possibly an avalanche of downturns, which will leave no one untouched by the fallout. Charles Hughes Smith goes into some detail regarding this problem, including what we may see in the near to far future and it's not pretty, in his article, The Coming Crisis of Cities- Reinvention or Bankruptcy.
Asaph understood - he had an epiphany and realized that God held Asaph up. God guided him through life, helping him maneuver through the difficulties, while the arrogant rich had only themselves and their money to rely on. They could not cheat death though because they will die. The globalists of today who want trans-humanism to keep them alive forever here on this planet, but they will one day die. They cannot escape that.
Daily, I read of folks - young, old and very young - who are simply dying. The response from medical community is -Gee, we are simply baffled.- Mark my words folks. When the numbers of sudden deaths increase to the point where they won't be able to hide it any longer, they will use those numbers to scare society into believing that another -pandemic- is upon us. They will turn a deaf ear to anyone who asks about whether or not the excess deaths are representative of the vaxxed or unvaxxed communities. In fact, those folks who dare ask that question will be emotionally and verbally eviscerated into silence and then censored and banned. There are things you are not allowed to ask today.
People are walking through life blind to what Satan is creating and we know his house is built on lies because that's his native tongue -John 8-44-. I guess this should not surprise me, but it still does. According to Scripture, there will come a time in global society where the world will become one ideologically and religiously, which means a cooperative global turning away from God and His truth to deliberately embrace satanic error -2 Thess 2-11- 2 Timothy 4-3-.
All of the above takes time. It cannot occur in one event on the timeline. I don't know where we are in the process because I cannot see behind the scenes in the spiritual realm and no one else can either. Like everyone else, we are left to try to look at conditions in the world and determine if the Bible speaks to those things. Beyond this, I don't even know if Antichrist has been born yet because I have no idea who he is though I believe he has but in this case, belief is not fact. If he has, then we are somewhere on that timeline above. But again, the question is what exactly does the first seal reference--
What I find absolutely fascinating though -and this is recent for me-, is that the first several seals that are opened in Revelation 6, in essence, could be occurring now. Let's take a look and find out why I think that this may be the case.
Please note- due to the increased exposure during filming, the screen itself was washed out so viewers will not be able to read the contents. However, the PDF of the PowerPoint is included here as the Transcript. Our apologies and we will get this straightened out with our next video. Thank you for understanding.--In this video lesson, we cover Revelation 18-9-20, where we learn about how the world reacts to the destruction of Babylon and what it means for them as well as what it means for God and believers.
There are many examples of how God chose specific people in Scripture for specific purposes at specific times. You and I are here on this earth now because God has willed it. He has important work for you and me to accomplish. We do it by relying on His strength and direction and by remaining free of the world's stain. As we trust Him, He opens doors for greater work. We cannot shrink from the times in which we currently live. Yes, it may be tiring and frustrating but God should guide us, not the world.
The unbiblical part of what Nouwen said is that they can come -whether they know about Jesus or not,- which is 100- incorrect. Ultimately, Nouwen's false statement is based entirely in New Age tenets tenets. This has been part and parcel of the New Age since its inception and goes back to the mystery religion of Babel -Genesis 11-. Jesus said very clearly, -I am the way, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me the Son,- -John 14-6-. The New Age argues that's not what Jesus meant. They say we need to dig much deeper to uncover the actual meaning. No, Jesus spoke plainly and people wanted Him dead because of His claims. They did not misunderstand Him.
The main problem with Spiritual Formation - whether anyone wants to agree with this or not - is the idea that our spirituality is achieved through a process of techniques administered in union with the indwelling Holy Spirit and verified by our feelings. Please refer to the second quote above and please note specifically where Portland Seminary states that -...the traditional practice of scriptural reading, meditation and prayer - are good...-, which implies that there is something that is better than just reading the Word and praying to God. This is completely absurd to think that reading the Bible is only -good- but not really good enough- This de-emphasis on God's Word is telling.
While Ancient Babylon fell to Cyrus -539 BC-, this fall did not fulfill Old Testament prophecies about Babylon completely -Isa 47-11 and Jer 51-18-. John describes the upcoming fall of Babylon through the eyes of the onlookers on earth.--Since Babylon's creation, with beginnings back to the Tower of Babel, it has risen to heights of idolatry and luxury, which will reach its pinnacle during the coming Great Tribulation. Then, it will BE the center for false worship and economic prosperity. It will also become the actual prison for demons against their will -v 2- Isa 13-21-22- 34-11-17- Jer 51-37- and implies there is something physical about it. However, when God destroys it, it will become utterly desolate.
Strangely, I'm at peace over this and it probably has to do with the fact that things have progressed too far along to go back. We cannot overturn what God has said will occur and is going to allow. While we might not like it, we cannot overthrow it and why should we want to if God has determined it-- It reminds me of the time Babylon's Nebuchadnezzar conquered Judah-Jerusalem and took captives back to his Babylonian Kingdom -2 Kings 25-. If you'll recall, through mainly Jeremiah at the time, God specifically told those in Judah that they should not resist and should simply go to Babylon into captivity. They should also seek peace in Babylon during their captivity so that they would have peaceful lives while there. God promised to release them from that captivity after 70 years, which meant a new generation would go back to Judah. Interestingly enough, there were false prophets in Judah who said God would provide the victory over Nebuchadnezzar in a short time, not 70 years. There are many false prophets today who tell us good things about what's coming -including a major revival-. Ignore them. God will deal with them.
Decades ago, globalists were pretty quiet about what they were trying to accomplish. They worked quietly behind the scenes with their chosen politicians or CEOs of corporations. They've used predictive programming in Sci-Fi movies that put their plans in front of our faces. However, anyone who talked about it openly as a real scenario that would be put into place was considered a conspiracy theorist. Today, globalists themselves actively talk about it, even engaging with so-called hand picked journalists in interviews, revealing what they're working toward. Recently, in a short video shared by Dr. Robert Malone, Klaus Schwab spoke of the need for absolute transparency with banking and how it will -integrate- with an individual's personality. He also states that if we have nothing to hide, we'll be fine. Isn't that special-- Never mind privacy. That's going out the door. Digital IDs, CBDCs, 15-minute Cities, and all the rest will be put into place and drastically change your life and not for the better.
It's coming to a point where the attacks against Christians and the truth we espouse -by our lives or words-, will put targets on our backs and we will be fair game for the godless. Do we shrink from telling the truth to -save- ourselves or do we continue to tell the truth in spite of consequences-- It's not easy. It can make us feel uncomfortable and physically unsafe, but we need to ask God to give us the conviction to state the truth all the time and to override our uncomfortable feelings about that. I don't want to stand before Him one day knowing that I kept my mouth shut because I wanted to save myself from problems.
Most people don't like to even sneak a peak too long at negative offerings. They prefer to push that aside and focus instead on those things they see as good and uplifting. The trouble is that we must, at times, delve into the negative or the -doom and gloom- because it is there that our direction lies most of the time. Simply ignoring what may well be the inevitable does nothing except allow people to pretend all is well. Then when things actually do go south, They won't have a proper response to it because they're completely unprepared.--Too many choose to ignore all the signs that point to the coming reality. This applies to many Christians, largely due to the fact that they are woefully unaware of the prophetic portions of Scripture that specifically deal with the character and nature of the last days prior to the return of Jesus. Most pastors won't touch the subject either.
It is difficult to look at society and not see increasing demonic influence. I always find it fascinating when Christians fail to see the connection between the increase of evil in society and the increase of demonic activity. I suppose it's due to the fact that we cannot see demons or the activity within the spiritual realm. That's probably a good thing, but because we cannot, we rely too much on what we can physically see.
The conclusions Wolf comes to are all based on the facts and data from Pfizer itself. Because of that released Pfizer data, Wolf understands how the jab was designed and what it was designed to do. In essence the jab was designed to be a Trojan Horse taking control over Americans who participated in rolling up their sleeves and submitting to the CCP -Chinese Communist Party-. Please take the time to watch the video and decide for yourself.
The beast was, is not, will rise from the pit, and go to destruction is the pinnacle of the empires in totality. In essence, the coming Antichrist will somewhat resurrect the old Roman Empire, what many commentators refer to as the revised Roman Empire. It is revised because it is raised again but it changes as well. This is clearly seen in Daniel 2 where Nebuchadnezzar has a dream about the statue, with Babylon being the head of gold, all the way to the feet and ten toes. The ten toes corresponds with the ten horns here in Revelation 17 and clearly shows that at some point, this revised Roman Empire that will most likely start in Europe will be ruled over by ten -kings- or powerful globalists. Once Antichrist begins his rise to power after the revised Roman Empire comes into existence, he will then wrest control from these ten kings -three of which he will likely get rid of either by deposing them or killing them-, and take charge as sole ruler and at that point, his kingdom will incorporate the entire world.
We seem to be moving to a time when the powers that Satan has ordained -and God has allowed-, are gaining unimaginable power over the lives of average people -global society-. There are major pushes to bring into fruition CBDCs -central bank digital currencies-, to replace all other hand held money. Cash appears to be on its way out along with the US Dollar. If things continue as they are, there will be hyper-inflation and a complete devaluation of US currency. Leo Hohmann just published an article -1- about these situations that are occurring and the effect they may have on average people like you and me. It's worth reading and if only half of what he says happens, many will be taken completely off guard.
The other morning as I ate breakfast, reading through 2 Kings 1, 2, 3, I found myself saddened to the point of tears. This is where Elijah goes to heaven in a chariot of fire and Elisha gets a double portion of Elijah's spirit. My sadness was due to a number of things- the kings of Israel had an absolute lack of love for and loyalty to God to the point where one chose to seek information from demons. That king had an illness from which he died because he would not seek God for answers. That resonated within me because of what the leadership of the USA has been doing and continues to do by rejecting God completely.
Babylon has literally come out of the closet and is in society's face. Globalists smugly dare the world to try to push back against it. As Christians, do we need to be concerned about it-- A quick glance at Scripture tells us that Jesus did not hesitate to tell His disciples and apostles what would happen to them at the end of the age -prior to His physical return-. He didn't sugar coat it nor did He hold back that information. He didn't want them to dwell on it or live in fear of it, but He clearly wanted them -and us-, to be aware of what would occur -Matthew 24-4-8, 25-.
Today, we Christians must not be lulled into sleep by a -woke- world. We must remain true to God's Word and His purposes. We cannot and dare not hate those in the world but we can hate what they traffic in and what they call -good- though it is -bad.- We need to call out the lies in a way that invites people to turn to the Lord in repentance. We must continue being lights to the world and preach the Gospel to the lost with our lips and with our lives. This is our calling and we cannot shirk it. If we do, we will end up being embarrassed when He does return. We will understand that we will have not lived in a way that brought Him glory.
In Romans 1-20-23, Paul goes onto explain that we can know God exists because His attributes are clearly seen in His Creation. It is inherent in each person. Because God knows His attributes are clearly visible -and He did that so there would be no excuse-, it means that people who reject Him do so deliberately. Because of this, God is righteous and just in eventually giving them over to become fully enveloped by their growing delusion so that they cannot see truth at all.
These seven bowl judgments of God are symbols of His power and justice. He is demonstrating that He is in control of all things. He is a just and righteous God and will not allow those who reject Him to go unpunished. God is love, but He is also a righteous judge who will ultimately bring justice to those who oppose Him. In the end, we must all stand before God and give an account of our actions. May we all seek to live our lives in a way that honors and pleases Him.
To approach God, we must be honest. He sees our dishonesty anyway, through our lies and excuses just like Adam and Eve. The serpent is the only one who did not offer an excuse. In fact, never replied to God and note God never asked the serpent a question. Both Adam and Eve had excuses for their sinful behavior. Yet, God's love was abundantly apparent. He gave them-eternal hope that day in the garden, that they would be extricated from their circumstances and it would come through a Savior.
As if all this is not enough to become incensed over, the Levite has the audacity to bring the concubine home, then he uses what happened to her -as if he really cared-, to exonerate himself- Instead of giving her a proper burial, to show some sense of honoring her, he cuts her up into 12 pieces as though he's cutting up an animal sacrifice and sends one piece to the elders of each tribe of Israel. They get the message and wonder aloud what to do about it.
Now Micah was by no means innocent and clearly deceived because he rejected God's rule. He knew what he was getting and incorrectly believed that God would bless him because he now had a Levite in his house. He was clearly deceived into thinking this but why-- It all started back in Judges 17-3 when we learned Micah had a habit of worshiping idols and using divination to gain knowledge and -wisdom.- Too many Christians can't find their way around the Bible, but they all want God to -speak- to them and above all things, -bless- them.
This world is on the brink of global conflict. Biden continues calling for the overthrow of Putin. If world war actually does break out, we can conclude that there will be tremendous famine, disease and pestilence along with huge shortages of everything people have gotten used to having in life. I have no clue how this will end. I'm simply providing what I believe to be possible insight into the increasing global problems we will all likely face.
This episode continues our Walk thru Revelation series, by taking time out to look into Daniel 2 and the four kingdoms highlighted there after King Nebuchadnezzar has his dream that troubled him. Daniel is called upon not only to interpret the dream, but to tell the king WHAT he dreamed- --The progression of kingdoms, starting with Nebuchadnezzar's Babylonian Kingdom, ends with the physical return of Jesus destroying that final Gentile kingdom standing at the time.--These specific kingdoms are listed due to their connection to and dominance over Israel.
This growing dependence on feelings is really a snare that easily draws people away from actual truth. Because so many people tend to go by how they feel, they often become successful hypocrites, yet unable to see their hypocrisy. They fail to see that their feelings are taking them down the wrong path and end up being living contradictions. Content with who they are, they firmly believe they are not only not hypocrites but righteous. This perceived righteousness often creates within them a level of righteous indignation and even hostility toward those who do not agree with them.
Continuing in our study in Revelation, we finish up the section of Living in the Last Generation. We will pick up next time with Times of the Gentiles that will lead us up to Revelation 4.---The beginning of the video says -Part 1,- but that is incorrect as I forgot to update that. This video is actually the third and final portion of Living in the Last Generation. I apologize for any confusion.-
Joshua led the Israelites to victory one after another against many kings and nations in the Promised Land. The cycle was interesting. Israel would fight and overcome, then fight and overcome, fight and overcome some more and then rest for a while. There might be a short or long time of no wars for Israel. Then they'd be back at it, fighting another enemy that God tasked them with conquering.
Do we neglect God by giving into the temptations of our flesh, which make us feel good for a few moments but remove us from fellowship with God- We need to be willing to seriously consider what we do, what we say, and what we think always reminding ourselves about our fear of -offending- the Lord.
In our most recent Sunday evening Bible study class, on Revelation, we went over the way the Bible reveals its truth to us and last night, we picked up where we left off from the last time when we covered the first three Birth Pangs spoken of by our Lord in His Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24. In fact, what is interesting is that I pointed out that it is nearly impossible to stay on top of everything that is happening throughout the world due to the speed with which things tend to change from one day to the next.
So here's this beast who was very human-like -eyes of a man, mouth, etc.-, and these pompous words he speaks will be motivated by his spiritual union with Satan, his spiritual father. Daniel tells us this, then describes what he sees next, this time in the heavens. Thrones were placed and the Ancient of Days -Jehovah God-, took His seat. Why does He take His seat- Because He is getting ready to judge. In fact, the entire description of Him reveals that He is dressed for judgment and ready to issue His judgments.
Christians need to develop a very healthy, growing fear of -offending- the Lord, which will provide us with thick skins and foreheads made of diamond, harder than flint -Ezekiel 3-9-. That is where I believe it starts as we know from Scripture -Proverbs 1-7-. That fear of God doesn't just happen. It must be coaxed into being and I firmly believe God creates it within us in response to the our desire to have it.
The world is watching another war unfolding in the Ukraine, part of old Soviet Union. On the surface, it seems Putin wants Ukraine back under the Russian umbrella. I have not said anything about this conflict because there is just way too much contradicting information out there, making it difficult to find the truth. In fact, without going into detail, some of the headlines and images coming out of Ukraine purporting to show conflict have been proven to be from 2021 or earlier.
In fact, the Bible describes a future time in Revelation 13 where it appears that all forms of democracy will be eradicated globally and without the mark of the beast, no one can buy or sell. This is the total absence of freedom because of Marxism- something Satan has used for generations to thwart God's purposes and destroy humanity. But what is coming will envelope the entire world.
In continuing our walk through the book of Revelation, we take a turn through the Olivet Discourse -Matthew 24-, where Jesus provides a great deal of information on near events and events far down the timeline -both from His perspective-. Once we've completed this area of Scripture, we'll head back into Revelation 4.
Sometimes, Satan will bring up a memory of some stupid deed in my life to cause me to squirm. The more I focus on it, the greater the squirming becomes. God doesn't want us to waste our time because those things are forgiven and should be forgotten. Now, if it's something that I've never confessed to Him before and something that I recently did, then I need to adopt an honest attitude of repentance. But then once I repent of it, then I need to go on my way understanding that God has forgiven me. There's no need to continue to beat myself up over something that I cannot go back and change.
So far, we've covered the introduction to Revelation and the seven churches, which includes Revelation 1-3. From here, we will actually move to the Olivet Discourse -Matthew 24, Mark 13 and Luke 21-, for a few weeks, then move back to Revelation 4. The reason we'll do that is because there are many things in the Olivet Discourse that Jesus outlines that connect with the last generation and coming Tribulation that will occur throughout the entire world.
Today, too many preachers present messages that actually oppose and deny God's Word. Christians are told we need to -get along- with and embrace all people of the world, regardless of their ideological beliefs, even if those beliefs oppose God's truth. When Christians do not bow the knee to this tyranny, those encouraging Christians to -blend- with the world then become full-blown haters, seeking to cancel anyone who does not comply.
The coming Antichrist will be no slouch. He will be very intelligent and will have a desire to bring about peace in the Middle East that allows the Jewish people to build their Tribulation Temple. It will seem to the world that he does this because of his concern for peace in the world, but in reality as Paul tells us in 2 Thessalonians 2, he will do it so that he can do exactly what Antiochus Epiphanes IV did in 168 BC but on a far grander scale.
In this second video we look at the seven Churches of Revelation 2-3. We did not get to finish covering them so in the next video we will finish Sardis, Philadelphia and Laodicea then move into the events leading up to the Tribulation period.
A good thing to keep in mind is that while walking through Revelation, we will be at times, detoured to other Bible books and-or chapters to help bring out the full meaning of the text in Revelation. So don't be alarmed or think we're getting off track when we do that. For instance, while the book of Revelation reveals the 21 judgments of God in detail, starting with the First Seal -the white rider-, it does not provide specifics as to the exact incident that begins the Tribulation period, though it is clear that this rider on a white horse is there at the start of the Tribulation. To provide further details on the actual beginning of the Tribulation period, we will need to explore several sections of the book of Daniel.
The religious false teachers of Peter's day all came to their predetermined fate based on the way they lived and lies they professed. In Romans 1, Paul deals with the downward trend of unchecked wickedness and depravity in any society that always leads to extinction. It starts with lies replacing truth and resultant glorification of depravity lived with abandon- embraced, imbibed and seen as -wokeness-- a perfect description of today.
Why does God send this delusion- Specifically, God sends this delusion -or deluding influence that hypnotizes-, because people -...refused the love of the truth that would have saved them.- That's it right there and it is in preparation for the coming -man of sin- or Antichrist, who will lead the final Gentile global kingdom.
What I've noticed is that many of these -liberal- theologians had such a gentle, easy-going demeanor. This was generally the case in the 1970's when they were simply trying to introduce error into an otherwise biblically-based school or church. Now of course, with both aberrant theologians and politicians, the attacks are much more visceral and obvious. They're not gentle or -nice- anymore and certainly not willing to engage in actual discussion. They don't want to waste time with that anymore. They simply call out, denigrate, cast aspersions and call for censure against those with whom they disagree.
Yes, God told Jacob he had -prevailed- in his struggle with God, but obviously, there is no way that Jacob would have prevailed against God if God had not allowed it. Surely, Jacob's physical attributes were nothing against God Almighty, even in human form. I might be willing to admit that Samson might have a chance physically against God, but even that seriously stretches credulity, doesn't it- No mere mortal, however, well-built, however strong, would ever truly prevail against God.
Given the situation that exists in society and depending upon where you live, what is the Christian to do- I know of no other action in response to all of this except to submit ourselves to God for His perfect will to be lived out in and through us.What else is there to do- I firmly believe as we do this, He will create within us a discernment that will allow us to see things more clearly, from His perspective.
In my view, this is referring to the last -head- of this beast, which is the Roman Empire. Here is where it gets a bit interesting. There are seven -heads- that John sees when this -beast- comes up out of the sea. When Daniel saw this beast, it did not have seven heads, but it did have 10 toes. This specific beast now has seven heads and ten horns with a crown on each horn. Therefore, in my view, these seven heads all belong to the final beast, which is representative of the various stages that Rome went through as it began to grow into an empire until it will become the final, revived Roman Empire.
The same people who are telling us that everyone MUST be vaxxed to stop CV from killing other people seem unconcerned about those aborted, who die from drug overdoses, in car accidents, or from cancers or most of all, the 36 million people who died in just one year from starvation throughout the world. It might be easier to believe they really were concerned about our health and welfare if they expressed the same worry about all other death categories. Unfortunately, their silence speaks against them.
When we consider the reality of menticide and how it has taken over society today, then look afresh at Paul's and Peter's words, the meaning of what they are saying comes alive in a new way. Both Paul and Peter tell us what society will be like toward the time prior to and including the Tribulation. However, they don't necessarily specify how-or why society becomes like that. Yes, Paul deals with a general downward trajectory found in societies in Romans 1. In 2 Timothy 3 and 2 Peter 3-1-4 the apostles explain in general terms why people are what they are and why they come to reject God as they do. But understanding what menticide is and how it works in society gives us greater understanding of what is actually going on in the world now. In essence, losing the ability to think rationally, critically and logically -menticide-, is the process that has brought society to the point we are at now. This is preparing the world for the appearance of the man of sin -2 Thessalonians 2-. Menticide has created a delusion that most have fully embraced -2 Thessalonians 2-11-.
The Rapture will happen when one thing occurs- the fullness of the Gentiles comes in -Romans 11-25-, otherwise known as the last Gentile to be saved into the Church, prior to the Tribulation. God will then say, -It's time-- and He calls His Bride home. Following the Rapture, the raw, unfiltered evil currently held back by the restraint of the Holy Spirit working through the Church will flood the world. Even a cursory reading of Revelation reveals that things become exceedingly evil during the Tribulation -Revelation 6-19-, and the time immediately leading up to it -2 Timothy 3-. I personally believe we are seeing that evil beginning to leach into society now.
How they have tried to make the EU work, but it is splintered with countries leaving and wanting to leave. When Antichrist resuscitates the old Roman Empire, the world will be absolutely astounded. One future man will do what many have tried and failed to do -including the UN-. He will not simply revive it, but will-empower-this -beast- -revived Roman Empire-, with tremendous substance. The rest of the world will look on in wonder, probably wanting very much to be part of it.
Is Jesus preparing a place for us on this earth- Absolutely not. He is in the third heaven now where the throne of God exists and it is there that He is preparing a place for us. So when the Rapture occurs, He will re-enact the Jewish wedding ceremony by simply stepping out of the third heaven, to come toward us, a horn will blow and a voice of the archangel will cry out and all who are part of the authentic Church, the Bride of Christ will hear it, will then be -caught up- -rapturo- in the clouds to be with our Lord, our God, our Savior and our Bridegroom forever and ever we will follow Him back to heaven, and we will see for the first time the place Jesus has prepared for us-there.
Salus is clear that he believes Israel is not living securely now, which he thinks, will eventually usher in this Psalm 83 Israel-Arab conflict and produce that -security- for Israel. He says the Hebrew -yashab betach--means a -...security that is accomplished through military defeat.- Salus even states, based on this thinking that -...at this point and time I don't see that Israel exists.- The problem is that author, Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum says otherwise, that essentially Israel is secure in their ability to defeat their enemies, just as they did during the Six Day War -my paraphrase, from his book-The Footsteps of the Messiah-. Israel most certainly exists and even the ungodly UN admits that fact. Israel appears secure in the sense of being able to defend itself against her enemies as we've seen in recent history time and time again.
The acting and cinematography of the movie is very well done. Kudos there. The music, the narration by Kevin Sorbo, all good. The problem is what I've noted above. I think they could have done better and for that reason, I give the movie a score of 3 out of 5 and that's being gracious.
We noted that we could very well be on the cusp of the final-revised-Roman Empire coming to the fore, led by Satan, who will give his power and authority to his spiritual son, Antichrist. We see that what is going on in the world now has to do with the fact that a great deal of control is being exercised over the entire global society. Some nations are obviously having more success corralling, containing and controlling the people of that nation. Globalists seem to be chomping at the bit to maintain their grip through their agents like Dr. Anthony Fauci, and successfully gain full control by implementing a digital vax passport, gaining full control over the monetary system and eventually place themselves as world leaders over every national culture. They are making the most of COVID, throughout the world- not letting a good crisis go to waste.
I can see no other reason for this continued push toward tyranny except that he and others are working on behalf of globalists -who work on behalf of Satan-, in order to install a final world order over which they will rule. This is why I began writing the series Daniel 7 and Revelation 13. In fact, the study of End Times is what motivates me to help people understand the times in which we live. We need to see the signs and live accordingly. I really don't think there's that much time left, but I hope I'm wrong.
Since the Mediterranean Sea is most likely in view, the reference then might simply extend and incorporate the Mediterranean World itself, not necessarily the entire world. The -winds- express God's judgment and how He uses those heavenly and earthly forces to bring about His own will in influencing the nations.-1- Interestingly enough, the first four beasts-kingdoms were centralized in roughly the same area of the world. Only the revived Roman Empire will likely incorporate the entire world.
This isn't much different from what Adam and Eve complained about shortly after the discovery of their own sin, stemming from embracing the serpent's lie -Genesis 3-. It's always someone else's fault. It wasn't Adam's. It wasn't Eve's. The only individual who did not offer an excuse then was the serpent.
But the big question is if this particular one-world order that is spoken of in many sections of both the Old and New Testaments is to occur, how will anyone know when it has actually-begun- Is there some type of signal or event that will occur globally that will be the red flag to tell the world that the Tribulation has in fact, begun- I believe there is and I've spoken about this before but it is not the Rapture -which we will get into in another part-.
The idea that you have to take a hospital to court to force them to use a drug that may save a life says a great deal. Remember, this man was on his deathbed, with very little hope of survival. How could Ivermectin make that situation worse- But do you want to bet that the hospital continued treating other CV patients the same way they were treating this other patient instead of being willing to try Ivermectin on all of them-
As I write this, it is December 1 and I can honestly say I'm over most of it. My smell has returned for the most part though it's not 100- yet. My cough is not nearly as persistent as it was and the congestion is nearly gone. Of course, added to this illness is my annual bout with molds in the environment due to allergies so that doesn't help either.--If I were to categorize COVID for me, I'd have to say it's worse than a cold, but not as bad as the flu. I never felt that I needed to stay in bed. I never even got close to the point of going to the hospital and in general, though the symptoms were somewhat annoying, I was able to carry on with my life and do the things that I needed to do.
That word is pharmakeia-in the original Greek, which is where we get our modern words pharmacy, pharmacist-and-pharmaceutical. The main push today is from the pharmaceutical companies. They are the ones pulling the strings and their puppets like Dr. Anthony Fauci are pushing the schemes, all this on behalf of the globalists -in my opinion-, ten of whom will become -kings- for a short while until the coming Antichrist removes three of them -Revelation 17- Daniel 7-24-. Apparently, the three kings Antichrist gets rid of will not willingly bow to him, so he kills them, leaving seven, with him becoming the eighth -Daniel 7-7-8-, as I've written about previously...
Then on top of this, we have the ongoing vaccine situation. Scientists and medical experts are now discovering that there is indeed a potential connection between the heart problems many are experiencing after their first or second jab. Turns out that it's very possible that the mRNA vaxxes actually -dramatically increase inflammation of the endothelium and T cell infiltration of cardiac muscle and may account for observations of increased thrombosis, cardiomyopathy, and other vascular events following vaccination.- This is based on a recent study reported in AHA Journals. Yet, we are told just the opposite, that it's actually CV, not the jab, that is causing the heart issues in children particularly. Recently, I've also read that the heart problems being experienced by unborn children is due to -climate change,- which is amazing since that was never a thing before. It seems the absurdity of the Left knows no bounds, but obviously, they're trying to get ahead of the narrative about heart problems and deaths.
While the Bible does not directly speak of vaccinations, there are actual-principles-that the Bible-does speak to, which can easily be adopted to specific situations without doing damage to the integrity of the biblical text. I will reserve my comments in this article to biblical text, though I could easily invoke numerous amendments of the US Constitution.
Paul speaks of the Great Delusion, while today's globalists speak of the Great Reset. Are they one and the same-
The root problem for Sodom was the same problem that permeates society today as the author of the article points out and of which I have discussed at length previously. There was no fear of God for those living in Sodom as there is no fear of God for the intellectually dishonest and godless of today. The one thing they do greatly fear though is COVID-19 and dying from it, which has caused them to see unvaxxed and unmasked people as the problem for society. For these folks, being vaxxed is everyone's -duty- and those who do not fall in line to roll up their sleeves and take one for society do not deserve to continue to be part of it.
King Ahab is a perfect example of the way evil people see the righteous. They hate us with a bold, nearly uncontrollable hatred. They gnash their teeth at us because they have aligned themselves against God and in doing so, have partnered with Satan and his demons and that is how those supernatural beings react to the righteous. It is a deep, deep hatred and if they had their way, they would not only set upon us and destroy our physical lives, but they would drag us to hell with them. Fortunately, they can only do the first part if God allows and they will never be able to fulfill the second part. When we die, we die in victory, immediately to be in our Lord's Presence forever and ever.
With everything happening today, it appears the attempts to control all people and aspects of life has become clearly obvious for many. People in powerful positions are dictating to the rest of us and if we don't like it, then we should simply opt for the CV jab. Then and only then can we get back to -normal.- But this normalcy or -freedom- is not freedom at all. The goal is to micromanage all aspects of people in global society and to do that, all people must first be controlled. This should not be that difficult to see, yet too many are not seeing it, relegating people like me to the -conspiracy- files.
So what is your focus- Is it focus on evil people and the evil they create or is it instead to focus on God, His love, His, justice, His promises and His sovereignty- That is our choice and what we do with that choice determines whether we live in freedom and praise or overwhelming fear, anger, and defeat in this life.
Note that there were Israelites who heard God's complaints and knew He was right. Because of their fear -of offending- the Lord, they humbled themselves and turned their backs on corrupt practices. They-heard-what God said, meaning they agreed with Him and took it to heart. In essence, they repented of their previous attitudes and chose to have a renewed attitude. To help them remember, they wrote a book of remembrance and they took the time to meditate on His Words.
To date, my wife and I know of nearly 10 people personally who have died-after-taking the jab. The latest one just died this week, October 6. He was in fairly good health for his age and took the vax earlier this year. By April, he began having severe problems with an increase in specific proteins in his blood. Doctors of course were -baffled.- They didn't really know what to do though they knew what the problem was and what it was doing. This is because doctors have for too long been trained to treat symptoms-not the actual problem that creates the symptoms. So another soul is dead, gone into eternity and people around him still don't get it. Apparently, shortly before he died, he started feeling better, even started driving again and interacting with other people -he and his wife literally hid inside their home for over a year in abject fear of CV-. Then, he took a serious turn for the worse. I don't know if he was hospitalized, but apparently he went downhill very quickly.
Antichrist will be fully empowered by Satan, which will give him the ability to use marvelous signs and wonders and deception to deceive the masses. The difference between then and now is that many of us understand what is coming and we see shades of it happening now. Because we see what's coming, we are on our guard and aware of the possibility that what is happening now with respect to the CV19 situation, things could quickly move to the point of no return where people throughout society -including within the USA-, will be little more than cattle, shuffled here and directed there.
So while Habakkuk cried out to God much the same way that we do now, what was God's response- Unfortunately for Habakkuk -and us-, it was not what the prophet wanted to hear. Habakkuk wanted God to intervene and make things right. But God will not simply do that without pouring out His judgment first. In other words, God makes things right via-judgment.
I'm very concerned about the government mandating some medical procedure, essentially stating that if you don't submit to the experimental vax, you'll lose your job. The government has absolutely no right to do that. In essence, our government is mandating a fully EXPERIMENTAL injection that still only falls under EMERGENCY USE AUTHORIZATION from the FDA. This should be enough to NOT have any legal leg to stand on regarding Biden's mandate. It goes against the Nuremberg Code among other things. I cannot be forced to accept an experimental injection that only has emergency authorization, period.
So here we see three separate examples of government mandates and three separate responses to these mandates. The truth is that these four men did not consider their lives worth saving, but entrusted themselves to God for His will to be accomplished.
So the messenger tells Daniel what is to occur and even though no names are mentioned in the text, it has been relatively easy for historians and Bible experts to ascertain who these individuals were in history. The end of Daniel 11 is believed to provide details of the rise and fall of the future final global ruler, Antichrist after highlighting the failures of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, a type of Antichrist. Even if you disagree that this last section of Daniel 11 foretells of the Antichrist, surely you stand in awe of the accurate information contained in Daniel 11.
The tragedy of Jesus' words in Matthew 24 are stark and real. No one expected the flood during Noah's day, especially considering that God watered the earth with a mist daily. What was rain-- No one expected God to destroy Sodom or Gomorrah with fire and brimstone due to their lawlessness and wickedness. It wasn't just homosexuality and homosexual rape. That existed because that society had gone downhill for some time and that was the natural devolving as Paul tells us in Romans 1.
Many of the saints of old are heroes to us for their faith, their resolve and their clarity in seeking and even knowing God -to the degree with which He can be known to us-. But what of Christians today who are too often sidelined and sidetracked by things in society- I must include myself in that because there have been times when I know I have not been as faithful to Him as I ought to have been.
The best thing we can do is pray. What does God want from us- How can we seek change in the face of growing fascism- What should my demeanor be- In the end, we may end up losing but it won't be because we did not-try-to resist tyranny. If we comport ourselves correctly even if angry, those who we stand against -and remember, our fight is not against flesh and blood but all the spiritual powers and wickedness in the spiritual realm- Ephesians 6-12-, will at the very least get the message and their accusations against us will not be validated, even if God allows them to win.
The final global empire is in front of us and because of that, it is sometimes difficult to believe that our -dear- leaders actually want the best for us in spite of what people may want to believe. In reality, the controllers work in conjunction with Satan -whether they do so knowingly or unknowingly-, to help bring a new world order -NWO- to fruition.
How can God spare a nation that has wandered so far away from the moral fiber it once had- How can God ignore the continued sin that is piled up along with the constant mocking of God- How can the United States not fall under God's condemnation for the USA's continued movement away from God that has defined the USA for too many decades- How can God look aside and not notice the level of debauchery and sin that has so gripped America- What some think is God's -absence- is the same -grace- that kept God from judging Israel for so long, yet eventually, His judgment-did-fall.
That brings me to the COVID-19 injections. For a long time now, -fact checkers- have been telling us that graphene oxide-is-not among the ingredients in these injections. To continue to claim otherwise, they say, is the stuff of conspiracy theories. The problem with this is the fact that not one of the manufacturers of the CV injection has listed all-of their ingredients on the information sheet that comes with the injection-s-, and they don't have to either. They're simply not telling people what is in their concoctions because of -trade secrets- and -patented- information.
When the 6th Trumpet judgment seal occurs, another one-third of the 6-billion-people are killed-or die or another 2-billion-people are killed leaving 4-billion-remaining. This does-not-include those who might die from the wars of the 2nd Seal or the results of Seals 5 and 6 or Trumpet judgments 1, 2, 3, or 4. Conceivably, there could be many deaths attributed to these particular judgments. If the fresh water is poisoned, what will people drink -3rd Trumpet-- With the burning of 1-3 grasses and trees -1st Trumpet-, mountain hitting the ocean -2nd Trumpet-, the entire ocean becomes blood -2nd Bowl-, all freshwater poisoned -3rd Bowl-, oppressive heat from the sun -4th Bowl-, many more may also die.
Though Jeremiah knew God was with him, would provide the exact words He wanted the prophet to utter and would protect him -from danger, the reality is that it would be a very difficult ministry for the prophet. As we see throughout the books of Jeremiah and Lamentations, nothing changed as God's Judgment poured out. The result of that judgment was traumatic and terrifying. Our world today, including the United States, is resolutely moving in that same direction.
Jeremiah is a book that warns of God's judgment on a wayward nation that refused to truly, from the heart, bow the knee to Him. This would of necessity result in obedience to Him. We see examples of people throughout Scripture who stood out for their loyalty, commitment, love, devotion and fear -of offending- God. These people were considered righteous by God Himself -cf Hebrews 11-. It seems that the majority of people in the biblical text were not loyal or committed to God, did not love, have devotion for, or a fear -of offending- God. Yet, many of these same people certainly gave themselves to going through the motions, didn't they-
If each person threw away their mask, refused to wear one, stopped shopping or eating at places that demand masks or vaccine passports, it would not take long for the world to move the problem of CV-19 out of the way. Some restaurant owners and employees are rejecting orders to demand vax passports.--What is your response- What are you willing to do- You probably don't mind when you see other people resisting, do you- -Oh, that's for them, not me.- Yet, you benefit from their actions, don't you-
As demons- step up to impersonate the -aliens- who have allegedly been behind the -evacuation- of millions of -malecontents- -Christians-, across this planet, the people of earth who remain after the Rapture occurs, will begin jumping for joy- Those rotten Christians with their bad -karma- and fascist thinking were powerful enough to keep aliens from revealing themselves and from allowing planet earth to evolve to the next spiritual plane, apparently. Thank -god- those nasty Christians are finally gone and people will conclude the evacuation was a form of -judgment- on Christians. Interestingly enough, there will still be pastors and Bible teachers left behind who were never authentic Christians in the first place and will continue their false expositions of Scripture.-I believe the coming Rapture will result in total compliance to the coming global empire. All for one and one for all.
I don't believe CV-19 will create for the elite what they are hoping for and working toward because too many people are refusing to buy into it. The awareness of the flaws of the CV narrative is growing. While the elite might be stupid enough to try force things here and there, I can only imagine what would happen in parts of the USA if they tried that, not to mention they'd have to have every law enforcement officer including sheriffs on the elite's side. Does anyone think this will actually happen over a virus-
The book of Jeremiah is filled with remonstrance, anger and promises of judgment, but it is also filled with the promise of future reconciliation and perfect peace with God, the Creator of Israel. It is easy to forget this latter reality because so much of the book focuses on what no one likes to have to experience- God's judgment. No authentic Christian will ever experience God's wrath, just as Jeremiah did not.
America has-not-been judged yet. It has not been overtaken by any foreign power...yet. That is still to come. Yet, people think God will intervene and spare the USA His judgment. Why would He if He was willing to judge Israel- How is the USA better than Israel- How can this nation escape when we constantly adore those who stand against God's revealed moral code- In short, we cannot.
I find it fascinating that decades ago, when news traveled very slowly, Orson Wells' -War of the Worlds- radio broadcast was accepted as absolute truth at the time by many people. All they had was radio and their neighbors. People panicked and some even committed suicide from what I've read. Since news traveled so slowly, it took time for folks to realize the broadcast was simply theater. Behavior -scientists- studied the effects of that broadcast to determine how people react to fear-driven narratives.
Those who opt to not take the jab should not be treated as -UNCLEAN- and pushed to the edges of society, limited in movement. This is criminal, in my view. The Nuremberg Code goes against it. Nature goes against it. The Bill of Rights goes against it, yet more and more politicians are encouraging private businesses -including hospitals-, to mandate all employees receive the injection.
What pregnant woman actually looks forward to the pain of delivering-her child- She-does-however, look forward to the time immediately-after delivery, doesn't she- She perseveres through the pain for the blessing she knows will come.
Christians cannot afford to ignore what is happening in society. To do so won't make it go away. We cannot pretend that things are fine. It is exceedingly important that in spite of this growing final dictatorship, authentic Christians must realize that we already have absolute and complete victory in Jesus- There is no better truth that we can cling to in today's constantly shifting culture of lies. Do you believe this- Are you courageous in Christ- Do you rest in Him- Do you fear offending Him or are you more afraid of what people can do through government or your job or something else-
In order for a majority of people to come to the point of willingly embracing this coming final world government, deception through lies must be used to make that happen promoted with a massive fear campaign. In effect, the final empire's full foundation will be lies that cause tremendous fear. This will allow globalists to reach their goals as they believe those goals have been revealed by Satan.
The gathering of the final rulers and the building of the final one-world empire -the Revised Roman Empire- Daniel 2-, is underway in earnest. This move toward global unity is happening politically, socially and within Christendom, the latter by hired frauds and wolves in pulpits who began leading churches away from conservative theological moorings. This all adds up to the falling away spoken of by Jesus, Paul and Peter. The world is falling away from all truth.
It's one thing to read these words and even agree with them, but it's quite another to put them into practice. But Paul assures us that this process--and it-is-a process- of renewing our minds comes from creating a habit of it. We can be guaranteed that we will not be able to do these things if we do not start from the correct place and practice it daily. It simply will not happen. We might be able to stop telling lies, we might be able to stop stealing if that's what we did before Christ, we might be able to control our tongues some of the time but not always and unfortunately, we will never come to a place in this life where we will no longer grieve the Holy Spirit. So is Paul pushing us to seek something we cannot attain- No.
We noted in order to live correctly -thought, word and deed-, there must be a change in us first and foremost. Scripture tells us -and Paul states in the above three passages-, that this change has already occurred within us when we became Christians. While God did not-remove our sin nature -which won't happen until after this life-, He-did-place within us the new man-creation and it is on this new creation we must seek to live in unity. We must allow this new creation to live its temperament out in our lives.
As most grandparents, my wife and I take delight in being with our grandchildren and watching them play and grow and it is interesting that they grow automatically. What we can do is ensure they are fed with quality food and given ample opportunities to play and be creative in a safe environment. These are really indirect things that are done because their DNA is already programmed for them to grow physically over time.
Abiding in Christ is, in fact, the natural result of receiving salvation. To continue abiding in Christ, effort on our part must be made, just as effort is needed in our human relationships.
The snares of death are all around us vying for our attention and embrace. They appeal to our natural tendency to embrace ungodly fear. The only solution for that is to live in-the fear of -offending- the Lord. That is the only solution I am aware of. We need to replace ungodly fear with godly fear. That is a decision we must make not once, not twice, but daily often throughout the day.
We hear a good deal about God granting the desires if our heart but what does that actually mean- Is God waiting to give us whatever we desire or is there something else biblically at play here-
In reality, as I've said before, Eschatology -the study of end times-, is not a hill to die on, at least not for me. Yes, I have strong opinions about what the Bible says regarding the end times and I tend to take Scripture -literally,- meaning in its most plain and ordinary sense. Others believe they have good reason for seeing end times events as allegorical or symbolic. I'm reminded that God expects not unanimity, but unity. When we disagree over things that are not hills to die on, we need to agree to disagree and carry on in the cause of Christ. Can we do that-
The false prophets Jesus mentions are here now. I just came across another person yesterday, named Mike, who at first seemed to be genuine. I listened to his 15-minute video where he made several claims related to CV-19 vax. He said the vax was rolled out initially with about 20- of the people getting the real thing, while 80- received saline. He said over time, this 20- will be increased with successive booster shots until most or all of those who received the saline vax will receive the real thing. Since most who received a saline version experienced no negative symptoms, they will without hesitation go back for all boosters, getting the real thing, ultimately resulting in forms of prion disease -like Mad Cow- over the next 3-5 years. Sounds plausible and a brilliant way to do it, if that's what they did.
There appears to be a growing discernment dearth, for the lack of putting it another way. Christians, by and large, are failing to see the signs. I'm guessing it's because they are failing to read His Word or have that Word expositionally preached. For too long, it seems that seeker-sensitive churches have -warmed hearts- while not educating believers or professing Christians. The result is a growing tide of church-goers who cannot distinguish between truth and lies.
Over the past few months, I've begun to wonder how much different my life would have been had I become occupied with the fear of the Lord in the same way that Jesus is said to have -delighted- in the fear of the Lord-
Authentic righteous zeal can only result from the heart that fears -offending- God. If it does not stem from that starting point, it is a put on- pretend. While that may look good to others, it does not impress God because He sees the heart.
Psychology teaches, as Cloud points out, that people need-to learn to love themselves more than they already do. Psychologists believe and teach that people who fail to love themselves -or they'd say, have the- proper amount of self-esteem-, are causing great harm to themselves and others because of their emotional bondage to a flawed ideology. That flawed ideology is the biblical concept of depravity, sin and rebellion against God. This is actually the root of Satan's first temptation, teaching Eve that she needed to love herself more, to take care of her own felt needs by rebelling against God.
The goal of every Christian - I believe - should be to have such a desire to-never-OFFEND God that this desire produces within us the necessary ability to not offend Him. It simply makes more sense to me to understand the fear of the Lord in terms of desiring not to offend God rather than simply the more general -fear of the LORD.-
Society is inundated with pronounced, growing abject evil that is being normalized and we don't understand why people cannot see it. We need to remind ourselves of Paul's words about God sending the world a strong delusion so that they will believe the lie -2 Thessalonians 2-11-. The -lie- here likely refers to all lies that usher in the final global kingdom to be ruled over by Antichrist. This strong delusion is going to be a major impetus in bringing forth the NWO and Antichrist. We cannot force people to see truth, but of course we need to tell them anyway.
All this is to say that global society is quickly moving toward the time when all will be in place to allow the final global kingdom of Daniel 2 to come to the fore. There is nothing we can do to-stop-this from happening and we should not spend our time or energy trying to stop it from happening. God says it will-happen just like the previous kingdoms came and went - Babylonian, Medo-Persian, Grecian, and Roman. God has a number of purposes in allowing these kingdoms to come into existence and the entirety of the Bible lays it out.
Whether God chooses to take vengeance on the wicked in this life or when they stand before Him is immaterial. But we can rest assured that it will be accomplished. There is a rising tide of evil acts in society committed by people who are clearly sold out to evil itself. These people have no consciences anymore because any conscience they did have was seared long ago. They have become brutes -2 Peter 2-12-.
People have a great ability to fool other people. In fact, there's an entire industry built around that ability and it's called-acting. Top paid actors pull in millions of dollars for every project they're involved in. Apart from all those actors though are every day people who are still able to act and often do so every day. They pretend to be one thing when they are not. They pull the wool over the eyes of other people. The best of these people are sometimes referred to as con artists because they have perfected ways to manipulate people through expressed words and apparent feelings. There are many examples of people being conned out of fortunes by brilliant con artists.
As expected, Fauci is claiming things are being taken out of context. From my reading of many of them it appears that at the very least, Fauci lied to the public on numerous occasions regarding the efficacy of masks. It is also clear that though medical doctors told Fauci in emails about the use of medications that would help protect people against the CV-19 virus. Yet, instead of promoting those things, Fauci downplayed Hydroxychoroquine and other treatments to push a vaccine that, for all intents and purposes, is really gene-therapy.
We live on several acres in the country. There are a ton of trees in our county that are very old. Limbs often simply fall to the ground, sometimes taking out electric wires. When that happens, electricity goes out. We knew of this possibility when we moved in so we had a plan that included buying a decent sized generator and installing a transfer plug so that when it happened, we could be back up and running in mere moments.
In other words, Job was admitting that it was best if he said absolutely nothing except to clarify his own position before God Almighty. Does this not take your breath away- Do you not see yourself doing the same thing-
The fear of the LORD is the true basis for living the Christian life where the rubber meets the road and in a way that pleases God. That, I believe, is how we are -filled- with the Spirit and empowered to live a life that brings Him much glory. It is not some ethereal, mystical -infilling- that we are to look for, but a real understanding and growth of the fear of the LORD that transforms us from within-so that our lives become more naturally filled with His character and likeness. Because the changes come from-within-us, living the Christian life becomes far more natural to us.
Everything we fear actually becomes the very thing we-worship, because we are giving precedence and importance to that thing or person, whether or not we are willing to admit that. We must-work to actively fear the LORD and by doing so, will push out everything else that vies for our attention and adoration.
But what is interesting about Job is even though he feared the LORD at the outset, God allowed Satan to put that fear of the LORD to the test. What is fascinating about the whole thing is that Job came out of the entire situation with an even greater-fear of the LORD- This should speak to us all as a reminder that-we can-never-fear God enough in this life. There is always another level of fearing the LORD that we must seek to develop. In fact, our fear of the LORD will not be perfected in this life, but only when we receive our glorified bodies and our sin natures are removed.
I tell you this so that your main focus will be the cultivation of the fear of the LORD. As a result, whether you find you have immense empathy for people and a desire to help them or you react toward sin the way Nehemiah did, we should always realize that without fear of the LORD, these things are often done from our flesh.---Teach me Your way, O LORD- I will walk in Your truth- Unite my heart to fear Your name.- -Psalm 86-11 NKJV-
Nehemiah's first reaction is one of righteous anger and he remonstrated against those Jews who had created such heavy financial burdens for their Jewish brethren. But what he said next is the main-reason for his anger.
Nehemiah moved ahead with the king's permission in spite of the terrorist threats from his enemies he encountered. In fact, not only did Nehemiah not-give into his enemies, but what is interesting is how he stationed some men as guards and soldiers who carried spears and arrows in case of an attack by their enemies. The men who were directly working on the wall had a trowel in one hand and a sword in the other, also prepared to immediately be able to defend themselves in case of attack.
Only as Christians are taught doctrine, theology and all aspects of Scripture, will they be in a far better position to go into the world when they leave church and be ready to provide an answer to anyone who asks about the hope that we have in Christ. We should do this with gentleness and respect -1 Peter 3-15-. In that verse, Peter also tells us to -sanctify- our hearts, meaning we should actively and continually separate our hearts to God, ridding ourselves of the things in this world that compete for God's attention. This must be taught and lived by each Christian in order that they might become better evangelists. Obviously Christians have a responsibility to study the Bible on their own as well.
I've often wondered what Potiphar and his wife may have thought once Joseph became second in command -if they were still alive by that point-. I'm quite sure they must have been shaking in their shoes fearing some sort of retribution by Joseph for how badly they had treated him. Yet, the situation is really never mentioned again nor does it appear that Joseph nurtured any sort of resentment in his heart toward them. The fact that years later, he could so fully forgive his own brothers for the part they played in selling him into slavery tells us that Joseph was a man of mercy and truth. This is exactly why Joseph is a-type-of Christ in Scripture.
In 2 Chronicles 33, we read of horrible king Manasseh, who began his reign at 12 years-old and ruled for fifty-five years in Judah. He was thoroughly idolatrous, even offering his own children to Molech. He also used witchcraft and sorcery -v 6-. He was very likely originally advised by counselors who were evil themselves. However, as he became an adult, he alone bore the responsibility of his actions that ultimately caused God to send Assyrian armies to Jerusalem to take Manasseh captive.
The reason -pride goeth before destruction- -Proverbs 16-18-, is due solely to the fact that pride replaces fear. The two cannot coexist. It is one or the other. Which lives in you- Which lives in me- We cannot have both. We either want to live in fear of the Lord or we will live in proud ignorance.
How many times have I not seen that key in Scripture- the -fear of the LORD-- Here it is again.-Fear the LORD. Could it be any plainer- We know that children often love their parents and are loved by those parents. However, there is an element of fear in that relationship that often works to keep children from being rebellious or recalcitrant. As I've noted before, it is a fear based on a bit of self-preservation for not wanting to come under a parent's disciplinary action. As children grow into adults, this often refines itself so that adult children fear causing their parents grief or sadness.
Wealth -success- today is often seen to mean that God has His hand on that person's life. I know of pastors of smallish churches who consistently preach the Word in and out of season. Their ability to exegete and expositionally preach the Word is a true gift from God and something they have dutifully fanned into a flame. Yet, these pastors, who work hard to care for -not lord over-, their flocks do not minister to thousands and thousands of people. Compared to seeker-sensitive churches who boast thousands of people every Sunday, these pastors and their churches are not -successful- by the world's standards. How about by God's standards- Are they doing what they are supposed to be doing- It seems so even though they have far fewer numbers to show for it.
Our relationship to God should reach a point where we move past simply fearing-His chastisement, to fearing His sorrow when we grieve Him. Consider the difference. On one hand, I fear the consequences of chastisement that the Lord might send my way if I sin willingly. On the other hand, I am now coming to realize that my growing fear is-how my sin will grieve Him -Ephesians 4-30-. Yes, He may choose to send chastisement my way in response to any unchecked sin in my life, but that would be fully deserved, wouldn't it- My increasing overriding goal though, is to simply not deliberately sin so that I do not cause Him grief. I fear-doing that- I'm sure you see the difference.
Global unification is happening, politically and religiously. The New Age movement in all its forms is the main catalyst. It's all being done for the -good- of humankind, we are being told. Cashless society is almost here. Vaccine passports are coming and with them, very likely some sort of implant option. International travel to Europe will be excluded for those who do not have a vaccine passport. The tremendous debt that began under the last several presidents continues under Biden and there will come a reckoning. The USA's southern border is so porous that it's a wonder anything and anyone is kept out. Our country is being deliberately overwhelmed financially and politically and an overwhelmed system cannot continue to operate, eventually failing. That is the goal and God is allowing it. Now is the time to come out of Babylon.
Jesus lived to fear the Lord. Verse 3 of Isaiah 11 tells us this very truth- -And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord -ESV-.- Much of Isaiah 11 is ultimately referring to the time when Jesus returns to this earth and establishes His Millennial Kingdom. However, when Jesus lived His earthly life several thousand years ago, He did this exact same thing. He judged not by what He saw outwardly, but by what He saw inwardly in people. This was the result of His delight in the fear of the Lord. This fear blessed Him with a resultant righteousness and godly knowledge. Do you want that-
It is important to understand that the New Age firmly believes their revealed knowledge to be true. Of course, it is NOT true in any way, shape or form. However, there is a grain of truth in what they teach, just like there is a grain of truth in what Satan teaches. But as a grain and not the whole, everything they teach is based totally on lies.
If Satan were to be successful, he would actually destroy Christianity and God. Of course, he can't do this, but those involved in today's mystery religions believe he will. Why- Because Satan has-told-them so and they believe it and have joined with him to make this happen.-His followers are united in their belief that Satan -Lucifer-, is the true -light-bearer-- the good-guy. Jesus is the bad-guy.
Many portions of Scripture speak of how obedience to God looks. In verses leading up to Isaiah 58-11 we learn of several ways to obey God. Proverbs 1-7 says, -The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge- but fools despise wisdom and instruction.- Would you consider yourself a fool or wise- It is easy to determine. Do you fear-the LORD God- Do you hold Him in absolute, profound and reverential awe- Do you strive to obey His commandments so that your relationship with Him grows and deepens and so that He can recreate within you the character of His Son, Jesus-
With respect to present or future events, God is saying, -Don't fear- I am in your life as God-- The meaning here is that because He is our God -a condition signalling our-relationship-to and with Him-, we should not settle for fear or anxiety in our lives. Instead, we should look to Him and away from Self. Doing so puts a different perspective on things. Job learned this very clearly toward the end of the book of Job.
Of course, what is just as concerning, if not more so, are the many leaders within Christendom who have not yet physically left the faith, but have remained, teaching heresies to followers, which results in creating heretics. This latter group may be far worse than the first, though both are clearly problematic. While the first group has at least been honest enough to admit their own failure to believe truth and have, realizing they cannot remain, the latter group has walked away from the truth and replaced it with lies, yet they remain in positions of authority within Christendom.
God wants us to -sit down- on the inside by empowering us to live as He would have us live. Interestingly enough, if we actually learn to biblically fear-God, we will, I believe, at the same time, be learning to -fear not- or to -rest in Him- as He works in and through us for His good pleasure.
The evil of so many kings of Israel-Judah tends to shock us because this was the nation that God-created, revealed Himself to, and gave His Law to so that they would be a light to the world. We wonder how after experiencing so many blessings and miracles came to a point of rejecting God- It is the same reason people do so today- it is due to our sin and our unwillingness to live in fear of the Lord that would cause us to live godly lives, which is seen in obedience to Him. This puts us at odds with God. Even as Christians, if we are not careful to nurture our relationship with God, we will fail.
But in spite of all the terribly godless things Ahab did during his 20-year reign, probably the thing that most disturbs me is Ahab's tacit approval of the murder of Naboth -1 Kings 21-, to take Naboth's vineyard-land. Here was a godly man of Israel simply trying to live in obedience to God because he obviously feared God, which enabled him to stand up to the king. How else could he have stood up to Ahab- Obeying God was far more important to Naboth.