A True Christian Response to Charlottesville

It's been a brutal month and it would take 3 months just to respond to everything I've seen in the past few days, but the majority of it can be summoned up in one word: Charlottesville. 

I probably don't need to go over the actions of that day or the follow-up nonsense provided by the immature children of Aunty Fa other than to say that in Charlottesville two groups of people beat the snot out of each other making a public spectacle of the selfish arrogance by all involved. One young woman died in the violence and at her funeral service her mother gleefully politicized her death and the audience cheered like they were just offered a free slice at a local Pizza Hut. The ONLY person I've seen in the news to act like an adult about this matter is the president of the United States, who has been eviscerated by the left for not being passionate enough in his condemnation of the people they don't like.

(Stop, I know they spell it Antifa. But my spelling, Aunty Fa, is more descriptive and easier to type than "Stalinist Thugs")

Just yesterday Aunty Fa attacked an anti Marxist protest, but the anti-Marxist protest never happened, it was cancelled before the "warriors" of Aunty Fa could exit their mother's basements. So Aunty Fa decided to attack anyone what was strolling the streets, including police officers and a small  group of people who were standing in support of the president of the United States, all the while screaming demands for the destruction of the United States. 

This is a foreshadowing of what Jesus prophesied in Matthew 24:7 and Mark 13:8, and is summed up brilliantly by John MacArthur:

The Revelation 12 Sign

I'm starting to see the term "Revelation 12 Sign" all over the fringes of the Christian "blogosphere" and I just had to look it up. And for my sins God let me see what the hubbub was about. I was innocently looking for more drooling hyperventilation over the American Eclipse and started to see a number of articles claiming that the eclipse was a precursor to the Revelation 12 sign. For you fans of hyperventilation and desperate straw grasping the Revelation 12 sign is right up your alley. 

The Revelation 12 sign is scheduled to occur on September 23, 2017. This is exactly 33 days following the American Eclipse. The eclipse is biblically significant because there's mentions in the bible about the sun going dark... >>BUT<<  an eclipse is not the sun going dark in the biblical sense because the sun is still glowing away just like God made it, the moon just gets in the way and casts a shadow. A fairly narrow shadow at that. So I'm guessing that the biblical significance is that it looks cool?

The 33 days does have a biblical significance, The number 33 is connected to a promise or the promises of God. The 33rd time Noah's name is used in Scripture is when God makes a special covenant or promise with him. The God promises to not destroy the entire world again with a flood and seals His pledge with the sign of the rainbow (Genesis 9:12-16). The 33rd time Abraham's name is used in the Bible is when Isaac, the child of promise, is born to him when he is ninety-nine years old (3 X 33) (Genesis 21:1-2). It is assumed that Jesus died at the age of 33. I only found the number 33 itself once in the bible, it's found in Leviticus 12:

1 Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, 2 “Speak to the sons of Israel, saying: ‘When a woman gives birth and bears a male child, then she shall be unclean for seven days, as in the days of her menstruation she shall be unclean. 3 On the eighth day the flesh of his foreskin shall be circumcised. 4 Then she shall remain in the blood of her purification for thirty-three days; she shall not touch any consecrated thing, nor enter the sanctuary until the days of her purification are completed. (Leviticus 12:1-4)

WWUTT Wednesday - Studying Revelation

The Book of Revelation is actually the very first book of the bible I ever read. This was back in the days of the "Late Great Planet Earth" craze when it seemed like everyone was predicting the end of the earth by the year 1988. Exactly five years after the anticipated start date of the Apocalypse I had the honor of studying Genesis (and Ruth) under a Rabbi. 

The name of that class was "The Bible as Literature" because you can't teach "The Bible as God's Word" in a publicly funded University, but you can call it Literature and still teach it as God's word. Personally I suggest everyone take a good long hard study of Genesis (and Ruth) under a Rabbi because that will give you a foundation of Jewish law, and when you understand Jewish law a lot of things in the bible start to make a lot of sense.

For example - ever notice that whenever the ancient Israelites built an altar at a place they would prominently name it? that Adam's first job was to name the animals? that God's acts during creation included naming things like day, night, dark, etc? There is power in naming, it's practically (at the risk of sounding Emergent) Name It and Claim It. Once you understand that there's real power in naming, that white rock we receive in Revelation with our new name on it suddenly becomes a very Big Deal.

WWUTT - The End Of The World

All good things must come to an end, just as all bad things must come to an end too. Unless you're a self professed apostle slash profit prophet of the New Apostolic Reformation, then all things must come to a Great Outpouring and possibly even a revival. Maybe even a Carolina Panthers victory. 

But if you're like me and actually read the end of the Bible, you know that yes, this world is going to end, but it's going to be replaced by a better one. My co-worker and I were discussing bible prophesy and he really likes studying it and is a bit saddened that his new church doesn't study prophesy very much. I like reading prophesy too but I think that bible prophesy is studied too much in some instances. We both agree that bible prophesy is a strange bird in that when it does come to pass that it comes true in a way that confounds and amazes the student of prophesy. Remember Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth where he told us the world was going to end before 2000 because he believed that prophesy said that it would happen within one generation of the reforming of Israel?

Prophesy gets fulfilled in ways that we cannot imagine. I'm sure that in a few years we're going to look back at what has happened, review prophesy, and in one voice say "Dude! I totally missed that!"

Spurgeon Thursday - Clowns and Goats

1 I solemnly charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who is to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with great patience and instruction. 3 For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but wanting to have their ears tickled, they will accumulate for themselves teachers in accordance to their own desires, 4 and will turn away their ears from the truth and will turn aside to myths. (2 Timothy 4:1-4)

This quote is attributed to CH Spurgeon all across the internet (the first quote I mean, I'm positive that the second one is Paul) but I can't find an actual source for it. Does anyone have a real source for this quote? It's a much better job or prophesy than anything (and everything) that the NAR has put out. 

The Small Scroll

What a blessing it is to return to Bible study after a long absence! I didn't realize how much I missed my brothers until we gathered last night to discuss chapters 10 and 11 of the Book of Revelation. Our discussions were mentally and spiritually challenging and a lot of iron got sharpened last night! 

As I've mentioned before, I'm a member of Bible Study Fellowship and for the first time ever we are studying the Book of Revelation. I'm so glad I was back in town in time for last night's lesson because it covered one of the verses that has truly perplexed me since I first read the Book of Revelation so long ago:

9 So I went to the angel, telling him to give me the little book. And he said to me, “Take it and eat it; it will make your stomach bitter, but in your mouth it will be sweet as honey.” 10 I took the little book out of the angel’s hand and ate it, and in my mouth it was sweet as honey; and when I had eaten it, my stomach was made bitter. 11 And they said to me, “You must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings.” (Revelation 10:9-11)

Isaiah 1:4

Nation Will Rise Against Nation

For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs. (Mark 13:8)

I used to think this was a redundant statement, or worse I was thinking that nations meant only democracies and free societies while kingdoms referred to monarchies or dictatorships. Was I wrong!

A kingdom is any kind of country; free, socialist, monarchy. The word Kingdom was translated from the original βασιλεύς (basileia) which means kingdom, or power to rule a kingdom. At the time of the New Testament that's all there were. But a nation is different. The word we translate to nation comes from the Greek word ἕθνος (ethnos) from which we get our word "ethnic" from.

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." 

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. 

OT Tuesday: Daniel and the 70 weeks

It's been years since the destruction of Jerusalem, and Daniel did a little research when Darius took over Babylon. Danial discovered that Jeremiah recorded that God promised the desolation of Jerusalem would only last 70 years. Those 70 years were drawing to a close and Danial was wondering how God would restore Jerusalem. God has revealed to Daniel the future of world empires that have yet to be dreamed about, but Jerusalem and her temple lay in ruins and the population of Judah was still captive in Babylon, Daniel wants to know about his hometown. 

So in Daniel 9:3 he began to pray, he fasted and wore sack cloth and ashes and began his prayer with confessing the sins of Israel to God. Daniel's confession of sin is in Daniel 9:4-15, he finishes his prayer begging God to restore Jerusalem, the temple, and His people as promised to Jeremiah. As Daniel prayed the angel Gabriel came to him again while he was praying and said “O Daniel, I have now come forth to give you insight with understanding." and told Daniel that when Daniel started his prayers God commanded him to go to Daniel and explain God's plan for Israel. And with that Gabriel gave Daniel a vision that has been discussed, reviewed, studied, argued over, and prayed over ever since. 

Jeremiah - A Blast From The Past

God called Jeremiah to be His prophet in about 626 BC, about one year after Josiah, king of Judah, had turned Judah away from idolatry and toward God. However so thirsty for false idols was Judah that quickly after Josiah's death they immediately returned to worshiping the idols of foreign countries and returned to child sacrifice.

Jeremiah's ministry was one of preaching against false prophets causing him to become persecuted. He laments the difficulty of speaking God's word and is full of regret that being a prophet of the one true God has caused him to be a laughingstock and a target for physical persecution. He was beaten, put in stocks, and thrown down a well, all for preaching the word of God.

The Greatest Prophesies That Ever Came To Pass

Sometimes I wonder why God made us, we've done little for Him other than cause Him pain and despair. How long was Adam in the garden with Him before being evicted for violating the one rule God laid down?

But create us He did, and when we fell He had a plan of salvation that would give us redemption and save us from ourselves and our sins. One of the best parts of this plan is that over the years God would give us more information in the way of prophesy to let us know what was coming.

In Genesis 3:15 God said to Satan:

And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”

God is telling Satan that our Redeemer is not going to be a supernatural being like an angel but born of a human woman, a descendant of Eve, and that while Satan may hurt his heel and cause him to limp, our Savior is going to strike a crushing blow to our enemy.

Pope Francis: The Church Is A Woman

Today the pope let us know that the church is a woman. Obviously he hasn't read "A Woman Rides The Beast"




Thanks to The Berean Call

God's Chosen People Have Not Chosen God

American Jews are a proud lot, they're proud of their heritage, they're proud of their community, they're proud to be Jewish. But are they proud of their special relationship with God? Not so much.

Every day more and more Jews are identifying themselves as "Jews of no religion". These self titled Secular or Cultural Jews would be much more honest if they called themselves JINOs: Jews In Name Only. They are as disconnected from their heritage and community as they are from God. As the prophesied Great Falling Away (2 Thessalonians 2:3) continues to roll across the social landscape, we find that the special ones, the people God chose for himself (Deuteronomy 7:6) are no better than we are. 

Farewell Damascus

 Two books of the bible both directly prophesy the complete destruction of Damascus. Some say that the prophesy was foretelling the destruction of Damascus by the Assyrians in 732 BC other say not. Joel C. Rosenberg says:

“These prophecies have not yet been fulfilled. Damascus is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities on earth. It has been attacked, besieged, and conquered. But Damascus has never been completely destroyed and left uninhabited." (Source) Which is true, in 732 BC Damascus was conquered by the Assyrians, but it wasn't left in an uninhabitable smoldering heap as prophesyed in Isaiah 17: 

O.T. Tuesday - Daniel Shifts To Hebrew

As we head into chapter 8 of the book of Daniel we find that Daniel has shifted from writing in Aramaic to writing in Hebrew. Aramaic is sort of a universal language among the Semitic people. In 500 BC Darius made Aramaic the lingua franca of the vast Persian empire, so we can safely assume that chapters 1 through 7 of the Book of Daniel were intended for widespread distribution while the following chapters, 8 thorough 12, are intended solely for the Jewish people as they are written in Hebrew. The first seven chapters begins and ends with the subject of the four nations: Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. Now Daniel changes language and subjects. 

Chapter 8 opens with Daniel having another vision. The date is 551 BC, Nebuchadnezzar has died and his son Nabonidus is king of Babylon. However Nabonidus has moved to Arabia and left Babylon in the hands of is incompetent son Belshazzar. The time of Daniel's vision is the third year of Belshazzar's reign, about 2 years after the vision of Chapter 7, and just before the fall of Babylon.

O.T. Tuesday: Vision of the Four Beasts

The first six chapters of Daniel were a brief rundown of the history of Daniel's life. Now we are going to see the prophesys that God gave Daniel. The first one we see is in chapter 7 which chronologically falls between chapter 5 and chapter 6. In his sleep Daniel was given a vision which he describes as: 

² Daniel said, “I was looking in my vision by night, and behold, the four winds of heaven were stirring up the great sea. ³ And four great beasts were coming up from the sea, different from one another. ⁴ The first was like a lion and had the wings of an eagle. I kept looking until its wings were plucked, and it was lifted up from the ground and made to stand on two feet like a man; a human mind also was given to it. ⁵ And behold, another beast, a second one, resembling a bear. And it was raised up on one side, and three ribs were in its mouth between its teeth; and thus they said to it, ‘Arise, devour much meat!’ ⁶ After this I kept looking, and behold, another one, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a bird; the beast also had four heads, and dominion was given to it. ⁷ After this I kept looking in the night visions, and behold, a fourth beast, dreadful and terrifying and extremely strong; and it had large iron teeth. It devoured and crushed and trampled down the remainder with its feet; and it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns. ⁸ While I was contemplating the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the first horns were pulled out by the roots before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like the eyes of a man and a mouth uttering great boasts. (Daniel 7:2-9)

The coolest thing about this vision is that it's similar to the one given to Nebuchadnezzar years ago in Daniel 2:31-36, now Daniel is seeing it himself, but it's presented in a whole new light.

OT Tuesday: Daniel Reads The Writing On The Wall

The ancient kingdom of Babylon ended not with a bang, nor a whimper, but a drunken free-for-all. After the death of Nebuchadnezzar rule of the Babylonian empire finally fell to his descendant Nabonidus  As Chapter 5 of the book of Daniel opens Nabonidus' son Belshazzar is throwing a drunken party for one thousand of his closest friends. After Belshazzar got a good snootfull  of wine he ordered that the cups and bowls that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem be brought out so that his party guests can knock back a few cold ones in style with him. As they downed the wine they praised the pagan gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood and stone.