Signs and Wonders

The postmodern sensational teaching of the inherited churches takes these words to their dramatic limits. They ignore the obvious hyperbole and advance it to the next level. Maybe it makes for more exciting sermons for the congregants, but at the price of less understanding in the pews.

robert-mcintosh-male-nude-1935The ancient prophets not only delivered soliloquies of the Word of God, but in seeing, hearing, and acting they presented a type of Single%20Ox%20Yoke%20392x294what was to come. Isaiah walked naked for three years. [Is. 20] Jeremiah is wearing an ox’s yoke. [Jer. 27] Ezekiel drew a map of Jerusalem on a brick or tile. [Ezek. 4] Ezekiel, Zechariah, and  John measured the temple.[Ezek. 41-42, Zech. 2:1-13, Rev. 11:1-2]

The two Hebrew words involved in this are signs; i.e. , ‘ot and wonders , mofetim.

‘ot is Translated as Signs

Then the LORD said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the LORD put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. Gen. 4:15

And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: Gen. 9:12

Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, a young woman shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanu-el. Is. 7:14

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The Last Days

shottingstarFor all of church history everyone has thought they lived in the “last days.” However when one actually looks at this phrase in the Text, it really doesn’t mean what we think it means.

The “last days” verse are used over and over without their context to fortify the idea that we are in the “last days” of our time. However if one carefully examines them in their context, they are not speaking to”our times” at all.

‘And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams; Acts 2:17

But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of stress. 2 Tim. 3:1  

. . . but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world. Heb. 1:2

Your gold and silver have rusted, and their rust will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure for the last days. James 5:3

First of all you must understand this, that scoffers will come in the last days with scoffing, following their own passions 2Pet. 3:3

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Undoing 1844 Made Simple

Written by Guest Author

Mark Wikander

As a person who used to believe all of the SDA theology including 1844 as the beginning of the day of atonement and the cleansing of the heavenly sanctuary. I write the following article for non-SDA historicists in order to deal with SDA’s. SDA’s make many assumptions about their theology, but namely they are never wrong, because they have a prophet. This assumption lock in any error they have and it must be dealt with before the SDA will even consider a different view. There are 2 ways to do this 1. Is to go directly after the prophet. This is only effective if a person is well studied in the History and Myth surrounding her. This is how I first had doubts. The Second is to go after the core teaching that She endorsed, if it is not true, then she is not true, because he endorsed it. That is what I will do here. A side note. the Prophet Ellen G. White, did not actually write any of the SDA doctrine, She came along and put her/God’s endorsement of the teaching. In the SDA mind becausen Sister White, as she is called, endorsed a teaching while claiming to be in vision, the doctrine is automatically true and cannot change. It is with this in mind I will write about the 2300 days/1844 teaching and address the assumption held by SDA’s in their interpretation of the passage. It is not intended to be an interpretation of the passage.

The SDA’s assume that the 2300 day ends in 1844 and that God began to cleans the sanctuary on the anti-typically day of atonement on that day, for the following reasons

1. They assume a day-year principle in Daniel 8 & 9

2. They a connection Between 8&9

3. They assume a common start date for the prophecy between 8&9

4. They assume a universal application of the Day-year in all prophecy.

5, They assume all other methods are in harmony with day-year.

6. They Assume Daniel 9 is part of Daniel 8.

7. They assume because Ellen White Endorsed 1844 it is proof of her prophetic calling.

If you break these assumption the whole thing falls apart. In what follows is a breaking of those assumptions. We do not start in Daniel 8 with the 2300 days, as one would assume, but in Daniel 9, because Daniel 9, in the SDA Mind, is the foundation for making the leap and connection to Daniel 8. Break the foundation and the SDA cannot make the leap to Daniel 8. They have to look at each prophecy individually. Only after this has been done can an SDA question their theology.

Daniel 9 the proper understanding is as follows….

Daniel says at the beginning of chapter 9 that he understood by Jeremiah the Prophet that the temple would lay desolate for 70 years and then be rebuilt. It is after this understanding that the Angel of the Lord came to him to give him further understanding. So it should be a reasonable conclusion that we look at the information attributed to Jeremiah concerning the 70 years of desolation of the temple first.

The scriptures tell us in Jeremiah 25:10, 29:11 that the temple would lay desolate for 70 years, but it never tells us why, what caused the Lord to be angry with Israel? In 2nd Chronicles 36:21 scripture tells us exactly why, 70 years of Desolation, 1 year for each year the land did not have it rest. Did you catch that! The Chroniclers told us why. They violated the Sabbath-year rest in Leviticus 25:1-13, Leviticus 26:14-24. The land was supposed to rest once every 7 years; no work was to be done. But they did not obey this command; 70 times they neglected to give the land its rest. So God punished them by sending them to Babylon for 70 years, one for each year the land did not receive its rest.

Now let us do a simple calculation so that you can see how it applies to the second half of Daniel 9, 7 years (the time between Sabbath-year rests) times 70 (the number of times they violated the Sabbath rest = 490 the time period covered by the original time period given to observe the Sabbath-year rest, 7×70=490 years given to obey the Sabbath-year rest. Why is this important, because in the next part of the prophecy Daniel is given another 490 years as we shall see?

The next section the Angel comes to Daniel and says His prayer has been answered. He tells him the temple is going to be rebuilt and then messiah is going to come and then the desolator is going to come and desolate the temple. The prophecy starts with the temple being desolate and ends with the temple being desolate, what happens in between is what concerns us now.

The angel tells Daniel “70 Weeks of years, have been decreed for your people and the holy city” (vs. 24), this is only applying to the Jewish people and Jerusalem. He goes on to tell them that they have a job to do, to finish transgression, to make and end of sin, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting, to seal up the vision of the prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy” (vs. 24), then in vs. 25-27 he breaks down the time prophecy even further by showing a division of the prophetic weeks 7,62,1 respectively.

What concerns us is the term weeks and the term decreed. Weeks is a word in Hebrew for a grouping of seven, any grouping of seven, seven cars, seven people, seven animals. It is the same as the word dozen. Dozen mean a grouping of 12, 12 cars, 12 people, and 12 animals. In the context of the prophecy it means a grouping of seven years. A group of 7 years 70 times, the total which will be 490 years. Now we need to stop and take a look at that. Daniel had just understood that the prophecy concerning the desolation of Jerusalem was punishment for the 490 years or 70 times they failed to observe the Sabbath-year rest, now the angel comes and tell them they are going to get another 490 to obey God, and the prophecy will be broken down by weeks. That is the exact same time break down of the first part of the prophecy of the 70 year of the temples desolation. The conclusion is that they are talking about the same time thing. They are being reissued another set of Sabbath-years.

Now concerning the word decree or determined, depending upon which translation you use. The word mean “to cut” it comes from the same word family as words that are related to covenant or legal agreements. You see the concept of cutting in Genesis 15 when Abraham cuts up the animals and separates them making a path for God to walk through. What is happening here? Abraham is faltering in his faith and God comes to reassure him that He, God, can be trusted. God condescends and obligates himself to Abraham by making a covenant with Abraham saying in effect, if I don’t keep my promise you can do to me what you did to the animals. This was a serious vow, God guaranteed to Abraham that he would keep his vow. This is the origin of the word to decree or determine, it come from cutting a covenant, it does not come from the idea of amputation, as in separating on part of something from another part of something. In the case of the prophecy it dose not mean to amputate or separate it from the 2300 day prophecy.

Now I must address one more issue that is has been raised, namely that the day-year and the Sabbath-year are the same thing and that they can be used interchangeably. This is an error. If this premise were true we could use the day-year principle and the Sabbath-year cycles as substitutes one for another and every prophecy would divide evenly by the number 7, 7 being the number of years need to reach the Sabbath-year, stated another way the number of years needed in a weeks of years. This is not the case in every case. The Day-year, Sabbath-year swap is not universal it applies is some cases but not in other cases. For example 490 years, 1260 years, divide evenly by 7, you get 70 Sabbath years, 180 Sabbath years respectively. The interchange works in these cases. How ever it does not work in the came of the 1290 year, 1335 years and 2300 days/years, divided them by 7 and you get 184.285 Sabbath years, 190.7142 Sabbath years and 328.5714 Sabbath years. If they were interchangeable you would have an exact division, this shows that the day-year and the Sabbath year are not used universally or interchangeably as some have claimed. Those who do so, do so out of ignorance or deception.

Another thing that must be addressed are the themes in Daniel 8 and Daniel 9 they are completely different. In Daniel 8 the prophecy starts with the temple existing then it is defiled and then it is restored. In Daniel 9 you start with the temple be desolate, the temple is restored and then it is desolated again. The passages cannot be linked because they do not cover the same events. Daniel 8 is about restoring the temple, Daniel 9 is about the temple being destroyed. SDA’s ignores the context of the chapter and focus on the numbers ignoring what is actually happening in the chapter.

Which brings me to my final point the numbers. SDA assume a day year principle in Daniel 8 and in Daniel 9, when in fact the day year principle is not used in either passage. In Daniel 8 it is “evenings & mornings” a reference to Genesis 1 and the days of creation. 2300 year may be possible out of Daniel 8 but you arrive at by the yearly day of atonement, it would be 2300 days of atonement. This is independent of Daniel 9 which use the Sabbath Year principle in Lev. 25:1-7, which is the basis of the Babylonian captivity of Israel. The 2 passages are not connected based on prophetic number or events. This is how you deal with the SDA mind and how you Break 1844.

P.S. I do not believe that the SDA’s are wrong on every part of the prophecy or their teaching, the 1844 and EGW are a problem. If SDA’s could officially change this teaching it is my belief that they would grow exponentially as a Church. They have much to offer, but the Stink of Ellen G, White and the 1844 error permeate their teaching, spoiling the whole thing.

http://www.christianforums.com/t7818355/#post65462748

See Also: Daniel 9: Proof that Jesus/Yeshua is the Messiah

The Harbinger Fraud

Isaiah 9 was a Harbinger for Israel

not The United States of America

Jonathan Cahn

A harbinger is a warning given ahead of time. Jonathan Cahn, A self styled Messianic Rabbi, published his out of context theory in 2012, eleven years after it supposedly took place. So, it is hardly a real harbinger.

There is also no hermeneutical reason for Mr. Cahn claiming that Isaiah 9-12 is a prophecy about The United States of America.  These Isaiah warnings were clearly a prophecy given to Jacob.

The view that reflects this kind of thinking is a much disparaged, ego-centric hermeneutic. Insert your time, your people or your place on the basis that you feel that you are too important not to be in the Bible. Cahn’s making it about America, because a few trees died on 9-11, is absurd.

We can draw a general typology from the Old Testament, in that the ancient people of Israel were unfaithful to God and were judged. Therefore, the church, that has also largely been unfaithful to God, will also face judgment. Continue reading

Musings on H. Grattan Guinness’ Round Chart called “The Year of Messianic Cycles.”

hgguinness4Nearly everyone in the Historicist world is familiar with this Round Chart. If you have not seen the chart, we have provided it and the chapter it came from.

Initially this chart made little since to me it was just a bunch of boxes in a circle. However several years ago I began to play with this chart and started to see things that I am not sure Mr. Guinness understood.

One of the problems I had with the chart is that I just don’t identify the Hebrew months by their numbers. As a Messianic I am used to using their names, Nissan, Iyar, Sivan , etc. So I made a photo copy I could write on and wrote the names of the months in. Then I saw the first WOW. The crucifixion was early in Av on this scale. If you are not Jewish or Messianic /Hebrew Roots you probably have never heard of Av, or the Ninth of Av.

Tisha B’Av i.e. the ninth of Av (July or August on the Gregorian calendar). Is one of the most solemn days on the calendar. It is a fast. According to the Mishnah [Taanit 4:6] there are five great calamities have all fallen on this day.

1. The return of the 12 spies, [Num 13–14]

2. The destruction of Solomon’s Temple, [2 Kings 25:8 -12]

3. The destruction of Herod’s temple, in 69 A.D. [Matt 24]

4. The razing of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 A.D.

5. The failure of The Second Jewish revolt, or The Bar Kochba Rebellion.

So on the scale of this round chart Messiah went to the cross around Tisha B’Av. The same day that both Nebuchadnezzar and Titus destroyed the temple.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” John 2:19

Dates

The first thing everybody notices is that Mr. Guinness thought was that the Return of the Lord would be in 1920, where Rosh Hashana i.e. Feast of Trumpets appears on the chart. We now know the event that happened was the Allied forces under British general Allenby liberated Jerusalem from the Ottoman Turks in Dec 9, 1919. (Three weeks early is not a real problem on a chart of this length.)

This naturally made me look at the other holy days and special days of the Hebrew calendar on this scale.

Passover would have been about the time of Noah.

Pentecost/Shavuot would have been about the time of Abraham.

We already mentioned Tisha B’Av.

So the next Holy Day is Yom Kippur and that should be the year 2256.

Tabernacle/Sukkot in 2391

Simchat Torah in 2655

Do I have a point? No, not really, I just thought that it was interesting that all the past holy days can be placed on the chart, at significant points. So the ones that are still future probably have an event as well.

 

See Also: The Cycle of Levitical Feasts

Hebrew Calendar

Captivity captive

Assyrians_blinding_captivesThis is a really odd verse in the KJV. Other translations have since made the verse more readable. However, in doing so people no longer notice the weird verse and no longer ask why or what is this verse about. So, only the Greek readers notice the language.

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

Therefore it is said, “When he ascended on high he led a host of captives, and he gave gifts to men.” Eph. 4:8 RSV

Once noticed, it is easy to recognize that it is a quote from Psalms 68. All the goofy ideas disappear, as one realizes the context is a resurrection/restoration passage.

Thou didst ascend the high mount, leading captives in thy train, and receiving gifts among men, even among the rebellious, that the LORD God may dwell there. Psa. 68:18

Captivity captive, or Shevut shevu, is a phrase that is frequent in both the Hebrew Old Testament. In the Greek New Testament it is echmaloteusen, aichmalosian. It is like a double negative in English, where the result is a positive. The captives will be re-captives back to where they came from.

The ancient custom of taking your enemies captive seems a little strange to us. The United State of America hasn’t done it since WW2. We interned people of Japanese descent, and of course we still have Native-American reservations. But, this was common throughout history, as relocated people are less violent. Shortly after captivity, they exhibit what we now call Stockholm Syndrome, where captives identify with their captors more than their own people.

“If they sin against thee — for there is no man who does not sin — and thou art angry with them, and dost give them to an enemy, so that they are carried away captive to the land of the enemy, far off or near; yet if they lay it to heart in the land to which they have been carried captive, and repent, and make supplication to thee in the land of their captors, saying,  ‘We have sinned, and have acted perversely and wickedly’; 1Kings 8:46-47

For the Edomites had again invaded and defeated Judah, and carried away captives. 2 Chr. 28:17

“Awake, awake, Deborah! Awake, awake, utter a song! Arise, Barak, lead away your captives, O son of Abino-am. Judg. 5:12 

The Lord said that captivity would be their punishment if the people did not keep their promise to follow God, and only God [Lev 26]. But, even there the captivity is stated to last for only 2520 years, a.k.a. the Full Times of the Gentiles, The Seven Times Captivity. After this time, the Lord would restore, i.e. take captivity, captive.

However, when the Jews came out of captivity in the Exodus they chose to return to it through their own rebellion. The Gentiles had always been in captivity. They never understood, nor will, of the liberty of faith in the One True God. Their pagan holidays and festivals were evil sexual extravaganzas that sometimes even included human sacrifices. In their superstition the common people were at the mercy of the pagan priests and priestesses who reported (made up) what the gods had said.

God, through Moses and Aaron, told Pharaoh to let His people go free so that they could come out of Egypt to worship Him.

In the same way Gentiles were to come out of their paganism to worship God, just as the children of Israel had come out of Egypt. Messiah did not come to the Gentiles as whole nations. One by one, Messiah comes and takes us “captivity captive.” We are returned even though we never knew we were lost. We never knew we belonged.

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

 

The Effects of Futurism

The Effects of Futurism

Recently, we acquired some old books on prophecy from the internet. They are listed and linked to in the Bibliography.

book divider

One of them had a very interesting statement on the effect that Futurism would have on the church.

Now, if the theories of these writers are entirely groundless, the effects of their error may prove extremely fatal to the Church. The strongest bulwark against the revived zeal of the Romish Church will have been taken away when it is most needed; and the danger of a renewed apostasy will have been fearfully increased, at the time when its guilt would be most aggravated, and its punishment most speedy and sure. A spirit of feverish and skeptical doubt, the most fatal to real progress in divine truth, will have been injected, without warrant, into the  minds of thousands; the light which the word of God has thrown, for the benefit of the Church, on behalf of the whole period of her history will have been quenched in darkness; and her hopes for the future, by a perplexed and fallacious application of irrelevant prophecies, be involved in a chaos of fanciful conjecture and inextricable confusion.  First Elements of Sacred Prophecy by Rev T.R. Birks, page 2, London 1853

He seems to have had the foresight on our present church worldview quite accurately. We have gone from the crazy notion of a rapture, which is what they were teaching in Birks’ day, to the hoax of Blood Moons. Once you deconstruct what prophecy means into what one imagines it means, all the extravagantly concocted spurious errors become doctrine. This lunacy of errors has blinded many a believer into staying babies, continually feeding on the “milk” of the Word. They have been convinced that they cannot read the Bible for themselves. For they do not test what their spiritual leaders claim is in the Text. If they did, they would be throwing many spiritual leaders out. They come to the erroneous conclusion that it is they who cannot understand prophecy and they are stupid.

We are here to tell the congregation of the Lord. YOU ARE NOT STUPID! These things are not in Scripture. There is no rapture, seven-year tribulation, or political antichrist in the Bible.

Whether they are misinformed on their own, or they are following some other teacher they have not checked out. They are making it up. The story they tell is a scary one, and because scared people put more money in the collection plate there is no reason for them to stop. They are seeking followers and financial gain over the sure word of prophecy.

See Also: The Messianic/Hebrew Roots movement and Dispensationalism (part 1)

See Also: Faith without Dispensationalism

See Also: Futurism – What it does to your Faith

The Promise of the Third Temple?

The Prophecy from Amos.

x1611 “In that day I will raise up 

the booth of David that is fallen 

and repair its breaches, 

and raise up its ruins, 

and rebuild it as in the days of old; 

12 that they may possess the remnant of Edom 

and all the nations who are called by my name,” 

says the LORD who does this. Amos 9:11-12 

The same promise is also in Isaiah.

5 then a throne will be established in steadfast love 

and on it will sit in faithfulness 

in the tent of David 

one who judges and seeks justice 

and is swift to do righteousness.” Is. 16:5 Continue reading

The Nephilim Deception

2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were fair; and they took to wife such of them as they chose. Gen. 6:2

nephilim2

It used to be only a few people had ever heard of this cabalistic teaching. We rarely had to deal with the absurd idea that there were or are hybrid people out there. This belief that somehow fallen angels had sex with human women and produced giants. However now almost everyone asks us about this. It seems many of the prophecy mongers are now getting on the “Ancient Aliens” bandwagon. If you have not seen the TV show, their whole premise is that a bunch of guys who have never read anything about comparative religion or art appreciation has taken a look at some old piece of art that they don’t understand and conclude “aliens”.  This is not how one determines what the Bible means or for that matter what the art is about.

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