Looking Further East

Last week I mentioned that our imaginations have been hijacked when dealing with some bible prophesy due to the anti-christian sentiments of Edward Gibbon and his 1,000 year premature pronouncement of  the death of the Roman Empire. Because Gibbon put the death of Rome in Rome and not in Constantinople I believe we're looking too far west when we try to imagine the outcome of end times prophesy.

Currently I'm reading the two books that raise a LOT of questions. These books being the Bible (as always) and A Woman Rides The Beast by Dave Hunt. If you read the bible in a spiritual manner your view of God and the way he wants to be worshiped evolves always for the better, and if you read A Woman Rides The Beast in a Berean manner (looking up references and making decisions for yourself) your view of how the Catholic church wishes to be worshiped evolves too. A Woman Rides The Beast is an excellent historical exploration of the multitude of sins of the Roman Catholic Church, however if you are prone to anger I suggest you do not read it. Dave Hunt postulates that Mystery Babylon of Revelation 17 & 18 is the Vatican, and he makes a very good case, and he may be 100% correct. But then again he may not be correct. I personally think that as westerners our eyes were drawn to the west of the true Mystery Babylon due to Edward Gibbon's ham fisted treatment of the true history of the Roman empire and his hatred of Christianity and his love of Islam. 

For us here on earth Bible prophesy is not set in stone, God gave it to us to ponder and wonder over and when it comes to pass we can look back and say "How wonderful is our God! (and how did I miss that, it was so obvious!)" It's meant to be interesting, and maybe even fun to consider and I'm sorry but for my militant Pre-VS-Post trib friends, how we interpret Bible prophesy has nothing to do with our salvation, it is the redeeming blood of our savior Jesus Christ that is our salvation. So with that in mind let's look at a few things regarding Mystery Babylon and see if there's anything interesting to see if we look further east. 

Was Bible Prophesy Usurped By An Atheist?

Not too long ago I was involved in a discussion of bible prophesy, mostly involving Daniel's prophesies, I don't remember the entire conversation but I do remember clearly one phrase that came up, and that same phrase has come up several other times in similar conversations, and for some reason I agreed with it every time: "Rome was never conquered by another power."

Why I agreed with that I will never know, because I know better. 

Stick with me for a few minutes and let me put this into perspective. To start with, I am a history nut, all kinds of history. I love little more than heading up into the mountains and poking around the remains of mines, ghost towns, and abandoned railroads. While I was serving in the USAF I had the opportunity to visit some incredible historical locations which is what probably spurred my delight in history: Trier Germany, Zaragoza Spain, Venice, Rome, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Bahraine, Korea... Oddly it was Incirlik Turkey that gave me more of a sense of the depth of human history than any other place I've been. As a grouchy old NCO once told me "Throughout all of history anyone that could gather 4 buddies with swords and clubs eventually came to Turkey and conquered something." 

The Religion of Peace Abducts 234 Christian Girls, Slaughters 71 Innocent Civilians

On April 14th Boko Haram Islamic terrorist network captured 234 Christian school girls from a northeast Nigerian school. The Nigerian government originally stated that there were 85 girls abducted but when the list of names of the kidnapped girls was tallied up the list came to 234.

The girls were forced at gunpoint onto an open truck, and several escaped by grabbing low hanging branches or jumping off the back of the truck when it slowed down and walked home. 

The Boko Haram (whose name means "Western Education is Sinful") terrorist network has killed more than 1500 people in the past few months and have plunged Nigeria into a quagmire of misery and poverty. 

HE IS RISEN! That's My King!

The Good Friday Good Theology Joyful Noise Challenge!

When I finally relented and begged Jesus Christ to lead me and guide me, my wonderful Lord gifted me with a love for country gospel music. That gift came out of the blue, I had never even cared about Country Gospel music before, and suddenly I'm craving it day and night. Now years later I believe I understand why He did that for me. You know how the lord of this world can get between you and God? I know you know how this world tries to beat you down, tangle you up in its secular web and drive a wedge between you and Jesus, and sometimes it takes a bit of an effort to regain the joy we felt when we realized we were saved.

Preventing Poisoned Doctrine

We as followers of the Son of God are directed by Jesus Christ Himself to be sure that we are not deceived, it's our duty to determine what is clear doctrine and what is false. Jesus told us that we must be sure that we are following Him and not following a false doctrine:

And He said, “See to it that you are not misled; for many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am He,’ and, ‘The time is near.’ Do not go after them. (Luke 21:8)

We are given a clear example of the proper way to deal with teaching, whether true or false - to double check and verify what we have been taught.

10 The brethren immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. 11 Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so. (Acts 17:10-11)

Scattered throughout the New Testament are warnings to keep to clear biblical doctrine. 2 Peter 3:14-18 clearly states that "untaught and unstable" men will distort Christs teachings. We are warned of wolves in sheep's clothing several times (Matthew 7:15, Acts 20:29) wolves who distort scripture and lure those that do not know sound doctrine to their doom. Doctor Agustus Graebner, editor of the Theological Quarterly said it best 116 years ago:

Satan, the world and the flesh are continually bent upon falsifying the word of God or the pure doctrine, and never before has such perversion been carried on so variously and extensively as at the present time, so that in our day millions are being carried off in to eternal death by the poison of false doctrine.

- A. Graebner, Theological Quarterly, 1898

Yeshua Hamashiach and the Mystery of the Afikomen

The parallels between Matzoh and Jesus Christ (Yeshua Hamashiach) are wonderful images and the season of Passover/Easter brings them into light even more for me. Matzoh, as we know, is more than a big cracker (awesome with peanut butter by the way) but is bread made without leavening. In the New Testament leavening is always represented as sin. Jesus is the bread of life, he called himself that, and he was born without sin. Bread without leavening, Bread of Life without sin, that parallel always seems to sneak up on me every Passover. But this passover another mystery opened up to me, the Mystery of the Afikomen. 

Secular Icon Too Religious for San Diego

The Easter bunny, a secular creation designed to minimize, humiliate, and secularize Christianity's most important holiday, has been deemed by San Diego as too religious a symbol to be inflicted upon the sensibilities of the devout evangelical atheists of San Diego County. The Easter Bunny is now referred to as the Spring Bunny, and Easter Eggs are now referred to as Spring Eggs, or just eggs by the San Diego Country parks department. 

Think about it: a secular idol is considered too religious for atheists and has to be further secularized.

Random Bits

Do not conform to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind... Romans 12:2

The Roman Catholic Church noticed that senator Dick Durbin is vehemently pro infanticide and is now denying the senator communion. For a church that has made its bones by cavorting with dictators and mass murderers this is an unprecedented move.

Chinese officials have declared a church in Wenzhou China to be an illegal construction and have decided to tear it down. The local people have decided that it won't be torn down and are actively protecting their building.

And I suppose they want us to take them seriously? Is there a rule that states you don't talk about this church too?

 This man teaches young pastors at a seminary, and he thinks that the Noah movie is very true to the bible. That pretty much sums up 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4. Isn't the bible amazing enough without having to make stuff up? The neo-gnostic nonsense of Noah is right up James Emery White's emergent alley which explains the glowing review of the most anti-biblical movie ever filmed that doesn't have Aleister Crowley in the credits.

Walk By The Spirit

But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. (Galatians 5:16)

Why should we walk in the flesh? Paul says quite plainly a couple of verses later:

19 Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20 idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, 21 envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)

This post isn't blood moon hyperventilation, because when you see something like "...you will be with me in paradise" (Luke 23:42) or the inverse "...will not inherit the kingdom of God" (1 Corinthians 6:9) the speaker is talking about your salvation, and that's important. You should immediately think 'This Is Stuff To Pay Attention To.' I enjoy and even have fun with discussions like "Pretrib or posttrib" and "who were the sons of God in Genesis", because regardless of what you come up with, it has no bearing on your salvation. Walking by the Spirit IS your salvation.

Walking by the spirit doesn't mean obeying the Mossaic law, Romans 8:1-2 tells us we are free from the law through Jesus Christ. Tomes are written about walking by the Spirit, so to oversimplify a much studied concept into a form this tired old brain can understand, to walk by the spirit is to follow Jesus. We have reached Christ by faith and by that faith He asks that we walk with him until we hear Him say "Well done good and faithful servant". But how do we do this? Here's 7 steps to follow; 

Blessed Are They Who Did Not See, And Yet Believed

Jesus said unto him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.” (John 20:29)

For most people seeing is believing, the same is true for the Apostles. Not just Thomas but all of the Apostles did not believe Jesus rose from the dead until they were shown evidence of His resurrection, for most it was seeing Jesus in the flesh.  Luke 24:8-11 tells us that the testimony of the women appeared to be nonsense to the Apostles and with the exception of John the Apostles didn't believe that Jesus rose from the dead until they actually saw Him. Jesus wasn't berating Thomas, he was pointing out "You see me and you believe, think how awesome it is that some do not see me yet still believe." This is where that whole faith thing lives.

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. (Hebrews 11:1)

I can understand the Apostles unbelief, they just watched their friend and rabbi be gruesomely tortured and murdered, another one of their own just killed himself (Judas) the city of Jerusalem who cheered Jesus as a conquering hero a week before was crying for His blood days later, and now Thomas is gone. They were in shock and scared for their lives. We haven't experienced the shock these men have but then we haven't experienced the physical closeness to Jesus they have. Instead we feel Him in our presence each and every day through His words that the Apostles left us and the power of His Holy Spirit, whom He left with us until He returns for us. And on that day every knee shall bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord.

A Debt I Can Never Pay

³ He was despised and forsaken of men,A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;And like one from whom men hide their faceHe was despised, and we did not esteem Him.⁴ Surely our griefs He Himself bore,And our sorrows He carried;Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,Smitten of God, and afflicted.⁵ But He was pierced through for our transgressions,He was crushed for our iniquities;The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,And by His scourging we are healed.(Isaiah 53:5-3)

He created us and continues to love us and forgive us, even though he knows us. When He visited us we tortured and killed Him out of hate and fear and political intrigue. He knew it was going to happen to Him from the very moment He created us, but He knew He had to do it if we were to be saved. He knew we were going to humiliate Him, to spit on Him, to whip Him within an inch of His life, then finally torture Him to death. He knew we were going to do this and more, to besmirch Him, to use His name as a foul oath, to blame Him for our own wicked sinful, hateful, arrogant, thoughts and deeds, to hate Him. Yet still He calls us friends

¹² “This is My commandment, that you love one another, just as I have loved you. ¹³ Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. ¹⁴ You are My friends if you do what I command you. ¹⁵ No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.  (John 15:12-15) 

And I can only wonder in amazement at the love He has for us to not crush us like we deserve, but to sweep us up into His arms and call us friends, to adopt us into His family. 

C.S. Lewis on Temptation

“A silly idea is current that good people do not know what temptation means. This is an obvious lie. Only those who try to resist temptation know how strong it is... A man who gives in to temptation after five minutes simply does not know what it would have been like an hour later. That is why bad people, in one sense, know very little about badness. They have lived a sheltered life by always giving in.”
― C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity

Random Bits

This World Is Not My Home

I've heard many people question "what's wrong with Gnosticism? For one thing, the movie Noah. Read Dr. Brian Mattson's dissection of Noah, that movie is truly more horrific than I originally thought. Then again some people prefer to think of the Noah movie as satanic.

John Nolte, a movie reviewer who does not hide his faith, drives a stake through the heart of the ungodly Noah.

The EPA, the administration that is supposed to be protecting us, had been experimenting on humans exposing them to high levels of toxic chemicals 50 times greater than considered safe. Why? I suppose to prove that toxic chemicals are toxic.

They're coming for us next, I guarantee it. The "Tolerant" liberal steamroller has forced Mozilla CEO Brendan Eich to resign because six years ago he donated money to a political cause (Proposition 8). He was hounded out of his job because a gay dating site doesn't believe in freedom of speech.

Of course Freedom of Speech is only allowed if you agree with the gay agenda.

American and the free world is tearing itself apart over gay rights, gay marriages, and pro-gay businesses. Just how many gays are there in America? Not a lot. Only 1% of the population.So why are they so politically powerful. My guess is that they have help from the Prince of this world.

Jacquelline Fuller resigned from World Vision because (after two hard U turns) they exclude gays who marry. Jackie, you served on the board of World Vision for two years and in all that time World Vision only condoned the sin of gay marriage for 72 hours. Why didn't their policy bother you for the other 727 days you served on their board?

The persecution of Christians by the "religion of peace" continues without sign of letting up. I pray the lord embraces this poor martyr with all the love and passion he can possibly show.

There's my kids! There's hope for the persecuted plebs at the United States Atheist Air Force Academy. If we won't fight back to protect those who protect us, they'll just do it themselves. This is a revolt I can get behind.

Atheists plan to resign from the Mormon church en mass. Atheists resigning from an apostate church... why is this news? Call me when Mormons read the bible, allow the Holy Spirit to guide them, and resign from the mormon church.

Here's a joyful noise! At 2:25 these guys show just how blessed with the gift of music they truly are.

Cling To The Father And His Holy Name

One of my favorite gospel songs is "Long Black Train" by Josh Turner, in it he says "Cling to the Father and his Holy Name." and for a long time I paused to wonder "why His name?" Shakespeare once famously asked "What's in a name? A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." So what if Jesus was named Bruce? Wouldn't He still be the same savior we have trusted our souls too? 

So I started the Berean Thing and began digging into names and names of names and I've found that the answer to Shakespeare is a qualified "No, sorry Bill." A name in today's world is just a word, which explains why silly girls and boys give their children names that "Sound cool" rather than a name with meaning or dignity. These days a name is merely a word or combination of words by which a person, place, or thing is known or designated, it's what makes a noun proper. In biblical times a name is much more than a string of syllables that are used to identify grandpa. This redefinition of the concept of the word 'name' causes confusion for those that do not do the Berean Thing and members of the theology of evangelical atheism. 

I See The Blood Moon Arising

Sing along with CCR if you want, just substitute the words "bad" for "blood" in the old tune "Bad Moon Rising" and you've got the new Apocalypse  fad du jour - (insert rumble of thunder) The Four Blood Moons. (dun dun DAAAA!). TBN favorite Mark Biltz and his tome Blood Moons first popularized this fad and he was recently joined by John Hagee with his book "Four Blood Moons, Something Is About To Change" I want to refute this in love but it's very hard to do considering that the preeminent author and promoter of this fad John Hagee denies the very basis of Christianity; that Jesus came as our Messiah. The blood moon fad is not hard to refute, it's just hard to do it in love, but I'm going to try.