Author: laurelanthenat

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The Time of Jacob’s Trouble future or fulfilled?

 Jeremiah 30

dstructThose Mischievous Futurist teach that there is a future tribulation, that they call the “time of Jacob’s trouble”.  They take this from the verse.

Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time of Jacob’s trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.   Jer 30:7

However they have lifted this verse entirely out of its context. The context of the verse is the Babylonian Empire is coming in Jeremiah’s day to destroy the temple and take Judah into exile. Therefore the “time” of Jacob’s trouble clearly begins with that destruction of the temple by the Empire of Babylon under the kingship of Nebuchadnezzar, not some time in the far distant future.

1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD:  2 “Thus says the LORD, the God of Israel: Write in a book all the words that I have spoken to you.  3 For behold, days are coming, says the LORD, when I will restore the fortunes of my people, Israel and Judah, says the LORD, and I will bring them back to the land which I gave to their fathers, and they shall take possession of it.”

Jeremiah 30 is a marked change in the writing style of Jeremiah. Up to this point he has been admonishing the people to change there ways and repent of their wickedness. From here on his predictions of imminent disaster come with promises of restoration and prophecies that they will someday in the far future repent. The passage starts with a reassurance that in the end God will restore Israel and Judah, not just Judah. But both nations shall return.

FYI: Israel and Judah were separate nations long before the time of Jeremiah. They had broke into two nations after the death of Solomon. Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin became the southern nation of Judah, while the rest of the tribes formed the northern nation of Israel. [1Kings 12]

4   These are the words which the LORD spoke concerning Israel and Judah:  5 “Thus says the LORD: We have heard a cry of panic, of terror, and no peace.  6 Ask now, and see, can a man bear a child? Why then do I see every man with his hands on his loins like a woman in labor? Why has every face turned pale?  7 Alas! that day is so great there is none like it; it is a time of distress for Jacob; yet he shall be saved out of it. 

Both nations are in panic not just Judah as those Futurist’s would have it. The men are as woman giving birth. As all women who have given birth will attest there nothing that is going on around them matters, you will lay down in the middle of the street to have that baby. The false prophets had been telling them that all was well. Don’t look behind the curtain, nothing evil is coming. However Jeremiah was telling the truth. Babylon was coming for Judah just as Assyria had come for Israel. When Babylon came the men were in agony. They were unable to do anything about what was going on around them. Avery few tried to flee, but it was too late. The city fell to the Babylonians. However when a woman gives birth all the pain and discomfort is forgotten in the joy of a child. No child was coming, at least not in their lifetimes. There was only destruction and death.

8   “And it shall come to pass in that day, says the LORD of hosts, that I will break the yoke from off their neck, and I will burst their bonds, and strangers shall no more make servants of them.  9 But they shall serve the LORD their God and David their king, whom I will raise up for them. 

Sudden change in the prophecy as better times are coming. Like the joy of the new life, freedom will come. Many see a Messianic promise here, the phrase “in David their king whom I will raise up” that this is talking of spiritual freedom that is given to all who believe in Messiah. Others see a future where the both Judah and Israel return to God and His Messiah. (We believe that both are meant.)

10   “Then fear not, O Jacob my servant, says the LORD, nor be dismayed, O Israel; for lo, I will save you from afar, and your offspring from the land of their captivity. Jacob shall return and have quiet and ease, and none shall make him afraid.  11 For I am with you to save you, says the LORD; I will make a full end of all the nations among whom I scattered you, but of you I will not make a full end. I will chasten you in just measure, and I will by no means leave you unpunished. 

Those who believe this happen in 1948 are just plain wrong. Such an interpretation does not meet the fact. The passage says that they will have quiet and ease. We must also consider that Zech. 14:1-5 makes it quite clear that Jerusalem will be sacked one more time, and the people set into exile yet again. [c.f. Jer. 10:25, 25:15]

God explains that this punishment is deserved, and further explains to the nations  who are the ones dishing out God’s discipline must not be too excessive at being God’s hand or they will face the wrath of God themselves.

12   “For thus says the LORD: Your hurt is incurable, and your wound is grievous.  13 There is none to uphold your cause, no medicine for your wound, no healing for you.  14 All your lovers have forgotten you; they care nothing for you; for I have dealt you the blow of an enemy, the punishment of a merciless foe, because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant.  15 Why do you cry out over your hurt? Your pain is incurable. Because your guilt is great, because your sins are flagrant, I have done these things to you.  16 Therefore all who devour you shall be devoured, and all your foes, every one of them, shall go into captivity; those who despoil you shall become a spoil, and all who prey on you I will make a prey.  17 For I will restore health to you, and your wounds I will heal, says the LORD, because they have called you an outcast: ‘It is Zion, for whom no one cares!’ 

Through out the prophets the term “lovers” is used to condemn Jacobs descendants of idolatry. God views the pagan gods as rivals for His people’s love. He says there is no healing for this. The pagan gods were never real so they will not save the people. The nations who’s gods they were worshiping have come and devoured the people. However the devourers will themselves be devoured. Yet again He promises to restore Zion, a place no one cares for.

18   “Thus says the LORD: Behold, I will restore the fortunes of the tents of Jacob, and have compassion on his dwellings; the city shall be rebuilt upon its mound, and the palace shall stand where it used to be.  19 Out of them shall come songs of thanksgiving, and the voices of those who make merry. I will multiply them, and they shall not be few; I will make them honored, and they shall not be small.  20 Their children shall be as they were of old, and their congregation shall be established before me; and I will punish all who oppress them.  21 Their prince shall be one of themselves, their ruler shall come forth from their midst; I will make him draw near, and he shall approach me, for who would dare of himself to approach me? says the LORD.  22 And you shall be my people, and I will be your God.” 

This is what Balaam said when he could not curse the people. Those who wish like Balaam to make God’s people poor and destitute will get no reward. For the dwelling places of God’s people is where He swells.

. . . how fair are your tents, O Jacob, your encampments, O Israel! Num. 24:5

The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them. Psa. 34:7

The question is this to be interpreted literal as in the literal historic capital city of Israel, where people literarily live, or is the spiritual new Jerusalem, a city of symbolic imagery, the city from above. [ Gal. 4; Heb. 12; Rev. 21] Time will tell.

23  Behold the storm of the LORD! Wrath has gone forth, whirling tempest; it will burst upon the head of the wicked.  24 The fierce anger of the LORD will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand this. 

The idea that this is some seven year period in the future is not supported by the text. It cannot be for later times. The people of the post modern church are confused, our minds are not clear on this at all. We are plagued by dispensationalist that say that this is about seven years in the future. However the plain reading of the text is clear that it is talking about the whole of Israel and Judah’s captivity, and the devouring of all the nations that have ever been harsh on God’s peoples.

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Daniel and the LXX

Many causal readers of the Bible are unaware of what their teachers are using for their teaching text. Most congregates never consider the language. If they even read their Bibles they only look at an English translation. However the Bible was not written in English. It was written in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, and many passages lose a lot in translation. Most translators favor simple messages of salvation or grace, over the technical, historic, or the cultural significants of a passage.

The Old Testament

In the 2nd and 3rd century BC a group of Jews in Alexandria Egypt translated the Old Testament into Greek, this translation is called the Septuagint or the LXX and if favored by many scholars. (The term LXX comes from a tradition that 70 Jews worked on this translation.)

However the Septuagint version of Daniel that most of us have access to, is not really the original Septuagint version, but rather one made in the 2nd century AD by Theodosius. This is because the Septuagint version is so full of fanciful Rabbinic interpretive translations from the 3rd or 2nd century BC that it is useless to those who believed that Yeshua/Jesus is the Messiah. They wrote what they thought the passages meant or would mean, rather than a more useful wooden translation.

There are several verses in Daniel where it is extremely hard to figure out the meaning therefore they are almost impossible to translate. (Dan 8:12 comes to mind.) If one doesn’t know what was meant it is really hard to put it into another language. Then of course there are the verses where the translator was sure what it means and translates the verse accordingly, only to be shown later to have been seriously biased in their thinking.

The only real solution is to read the original Hebrew and Aramaic, because things are not so clear and settled as the English translations make them out to be.

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Time, Times, and Half a Time

time-warp~s600x600mo’ed mo’adim chatzi

The Lord gave Moses instructions on Mt. Sinai to worship Him through the observance of the mo’adim or “Feasts of the Lord.” These Feasts were appointed in time, as well as space. Seven times a year, every male in Israel was to congregate at the appointed place, i.e., the tabernacle and later the temple, on their appointed date on the calendar.

feasts

These seven holy assemblies found in Leviticus 23 are called in Hebrew, the Mo’adim.

  • mo’ed is the tent of meeting, i.e. the “appointed place” in the Torah
  • mo’adim is the plural and means the appointed times or the appointed feast days.

 

In Daniel 12:7 in the Hebrew it says, “mo’ed mo’adim chatzi.” The literal reading would be appointed, appointed(s) and half an appointed.

6 And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” 7 The man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven; and I heard him swear by him who lives for ever that it would be for a time, two times, and half a time; and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be accomplished. Dan. 12:7

 

One has to ask what does Daniel mean “it would be for”?  The “it” is the shattering of the holy people. This “shattering” occurs until what the Lord intends is accomplished, then the shattering will end. This is clearly in the context of the passage of time. Here, Daniel is telling us that a passage (of time) will entail the punishment of Israel until it is accomplished. We now need to determine, if possible, what the length of this appointed time will be.

FYI: chatzi is half

 

The Appointed Time

This amount of “appointed” is referenced seven times total in Daniel and The Revelation.

  • Once as “time, times and a dividing of time” [Dan 7:25]
  • Twice as “time, times and a half time.” [Dan 12:7; Rev 12:14]
  • Twice as “forty-two months” [Rev 11:2; 13:5] [42 months of 30 days per lunar month is the equivalent of 1260 days]
  • Twice as “twelve hundred and sixty days” [Rev.11:3, 12:6 ]

 

Although the words can mean “appointed place,” i.e. the tabernacle/temple, it is clear that in Dan 12:7 it is “time”. The English translators did not translate this as “feast, feasts and half” a feast.

The noun mo’ed appears twice, once in the singular and once in the plural. In Hebrew grammar, this is called a double forte with a plural on the second noun. Usually this means that the noun is great, grand, fabulous, or IMPORTANT. The same is accomplished in English by modifying the noun with much, very, or surely. However, all translators have felt that this is a specific time reference rather than just the “really important time”.

Historicists believe a day is symbolically “put” for a year. (See Also; Hermeneutics) A Time in prophecy is interpreted as a year and time, times and half a time works out to 1260 years.

Each time passages in Daniel and The Revelation are about how long the persecution of God’s people will last. The reference to time, times and half a time in the book of Daniel is for the Jews. The reference to time, times and half a time in the book of The Revelation is for the Christians, first to the believing Jew and then to the Gentile. God has made no distinction between Jews and Gentiles, all are His children. [Gal. 3:28]. All have been idolatrous. And as such, all share in His time, times and half a time judgement.

 

Consequences of Hermeneutics

The futurist will have us believe that this is about a future time of 3 1/2  or 7 years. This hardly makes sense since this period is said to wear to the saints.

He shall speak words against the Most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and shall think to change the times and the law; and they shall be given into his hand for a time, two times, and half a time. Dan. 7:25

How can God’s people be worn out in just seven years? History shows that the Jews suffered in the Babylonian exile for 70 years. They were not worn out. The Christians were severely tortured under Roman Emperor persecutions which lasted 10 years under Emperor Diocletian from 303 – 313AD. The Church was not “worn out”. These persecutions, though arduous, did not wear out the saints. However, the INQUISITION lasted some 400 years, and took a great toll on God’s people. They were warn out. In May of 1514 the Fifth Lateran Council issued a challenged to anyone who still refused to obey the pope, to come forward. No one came out. The pope and the council celebrated, banquets were held and further laws against heresy were made. However 3 1/2 years Luther posted his 95 Theses. [Rev 10:9]  The gates of hell did not prevail, but at a huge cost.

The Years

The post-modern church has lost some simple facts from our history. From the time the Popes claimed sovereign power, to the breaking of that power by Napoleon was 1260 years.

  • Emperor Justinian recognized the Pope as head of all the churches in Christendom in 538 AD, Napoleon took the Pope prisoner in 1798AD, forever removing from the Popes their temporal power.
  • Emperor Phocas 607-610AD also recognized the Popes authority and in 1870 The Church of Rome claimed that their Popes were Infallible.

These claims of power are now considered ridiculous by all rational thinkers. That power is broken and no longer can they persecute God’s people on such a large scale. Sometimes, here or there they are able to raise the people up and persecute a small minority in some third world country. But their time is up.

Epiloge

And I said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, “How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?” Dan. 12:6

The time prophecies in Daniel and The Revelation do not say what happens after this power is broken. They only give a time that the power will come to an end.  What ends, is of concern in the text, not what is to begin. Many felt that when the Popes power was broken that the Millennium would start. That clearly didn’t happened. There are no indications of dates for the Lords Return, or the Millennium.

 

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Islam Passes Away Without a Hand, Daniel 8:25

cresent and starBy his cunning he shall make deceit prosper under his hand, and in his own mind he shall magnify himself. Without warning he shall destroy many; and he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes; but, by no human hand, he shall be broken. Dan. 8:25

The “he” in this passage is the religion of Islam, and by 1299 that religion had become an empire, The Ottoman Empire. (See Also: Hermeneutics)

The Ottoman Empire or Porte, was the longest lasting dynastic empire in the history of the world, lasting from 1299 to 1923.

In 1844 with the signing of the Edict of Toleration the Ottoman Empire began a long decline, wasting away till World War One where most of its territory was divided between France and Great Britain. The last Caliph (Mehmed VI) was exiled in 1922. Continue reading →

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The Hoax of a One World Government or New World Order

One World Government? – New World Order?

United Nations Emblem - Art of Heraldry - Peter CrawfordThe Books of Daniel and the Revelation are about the history of the Imperial powers that have ruled the nations.  These prophecies have nearly run their course and we now live at the time of the last of them, i.e. the ten nations, which are represented by toes in Dan 2 and horns in Dan 7 and Rev 12,13,  &17. You may have been taught that these ten nations are in our immediate future.  However there are no gaps in the metal man of Dan 2, these ten nations have been around since Rome fell in 476 A.D.  There have been wars, they have merged. they have had revolts, from time to time there have been slightly more or less then ten, but when the dust settles there they are, TEN.

The only empire in the prophecies that is still future is the one represent by the rock not cut with hands Dan 2. Nearly everyone thinks this is the Millennial reign of Messiah.  There is no future human government like the New World Order or One World Government.  No matter how much men may try, it is just not there.  In fact the book of Daniel expressly says that it cannot happen. When speaking of the toes it says;

As you saw the iron mixed with miry clay, so they will mix with one another in marriage, but they will not hold together, just as iron does not mix with clay. Dan. 2:43.

Which pretty much sums up European history.  They have mixed, but no matter how hard they try they have not been able to hold together.  Not since the tower of Babel have men been able to hold themselves together. [Gen 11] Charlemagne, Charles V, Louis XIV, Napoleon, and finally Hitler have all failed at this monumental task.  The only way to accomplished this task, is to concede it to the One with a Rod of Iron. [Rev. 19:15]  So we must wait till Shiloh come. 

The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. Gen. 49:10

 

All the ends of the earth shall remember and turn to the LORD;

and all the families of the nations shall worship before him.

For dominion belongs to the LORD, and he rules over the nations.

Yea, to him shall all the proud of the earth bow down;

before him shall bow all who go down to the dust,

and he who cannot keep himself alive.

Posterity shall serve him;

men shall tell of the Lord to the coming generation,

and proclaim his deliverance to a people yet unborn,

that he has wrought it.  Psa. 22:27 -31

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Context

One of the hardest points to get a dispensationalist to understand, is that they must give up their fantasy that they interpret the Bible “literally”. FEW DISPENSATIONALISTS WOULD CLAIM THAT THE REVELATION PASSAGE ABOUT THE WITNESSES ARE ACTUAL TREES AND LAMPSTANDS, yet they insist that they are interpreting literally.

These are the two olive trees and the two lampstands which stand before the Lord of the earth. Rev. 11:4   

See Also: The Two Witnesses

olive_treesThe sense that language is always literal is impossible. Language, in its various uses, is the same everywhere in the world. It is full of metaphors, hyperboles, and euphemisms, to list a few.

If we hear that something is “hotter than a little red wagon”, no English speaker will think that the subject is a mode of transportation that is red in color or of a particularly high temperature. The Bible is full of such phrases.

Another point that readers of scripture, or for that matter any literature, needs to determine, is what kind of literature are we looking at? It is a made up story i.e. parable, historical narrative, poetry, etc.? All too often the reader of Scripture uses the wrong kind of hermeneutics on the wrong passage. The rules are different for historical narrative than for prophetic narrative, and that is slightly different from prophetic poetry.

FYI: The first thing is, who wrote the passage and to whom was it written?

 

Prophecies are rarely as literal as the dispensationalist would have us believe.

Bruised Heel

I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed; he shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise his heel.” Gen 3:15

No one teaches that a literal snake and a man will have a brawl; nor that a woman has “seed”.

 

Joseph’s dreams

thumbnail-4-aspx5   Now Joseph had a dream, and when he told it to his brothers they only hated him the more.  6 He said to them, “Hear this dream which I have dreamed:  7 behold, we were binding sheaves in the field, and lo, my sheaf arose and stood upright; and behold, your sheaves gathered round it, and bowed down to my sheaf.”  8 His brothers said to him, “Are you indeed to reign over us? Or are you indeed to have dominion over us?” So they hated him yet more for his dreams and for his words. 9 Then he dreamed another dream, and told it to his brothers, and said, “Behold, I have dreamed another dream; and behold, the sun, the moon, and eleven stars were bowing down to me.”  10 But when he told it to his father and to his brothers, his father rebuked him, and said to him, “What is this dream that you have dreamed? Shall I and your mother and your brothers indeed come to bow ourselves to the ground before you?”  11 And his brothers were jealous of him, but his father kept the saying in mind. Gen. 37:5-11

No literal sheaves bowed, nor did the literal sun, moon or stars move in anyway.

 

Wounded for our Transgressions

4   Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted.  5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that made us whole, and with his stripes we are healed. Is. 53:4-5

This bears little resemblance to a crucifixion. It appears to be closer to a bad whipping than a death.

 

As the Days of Jonah

For as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, so will the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Matt. 12:40 

In reading the book of Jonah, would anyone ever see this as a prophecy of Messiah in the grave? Even hearing it explained, the followers of Jesus were at a loss as to what he meant.

 

See Also: Known to be Fulfilled

The Blood Moons Hoax

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I am Coming Soon

One of the greatest harms that Dispensationalists commit is an insistence on interpreting the Bible literally. They are actually ignoring the plain reading of a text, forcing symbolism, metaphors and similes to read as truth. If they were indeed interpreting the Bible literally, they would all be missing an eye or a hand thereby staying out of hell.

29 If your right eye causes you to sin, pluck it out and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body be thrown into hell.  30 And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away; it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell. Matt 5:29-30

According to these modern commentators, nothing or very little of the book of The Revelation has been fulfilled. They claim the prophecy was intended for our time, 2000 years after it was written (between 96-98 A.D.).

Soon

However, the testimony of the book itself is completely contrary to a distant fulfillment.

The revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave him to show to his servants what must soon take place; and he made it known by sending his angel to his servant John, Rev. 1:1

Blessed is he who reads aloud the words of the prophecy, and blessed are those who hear, and who keep what is written therein; for the time is near. Rev. 1:3

And behold, I am coming soon.”  Blessed is he who keeps the words of the prophecy of this book. Rev. 22:7

And he said to me,  “Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time is near. Rev. 22:10 

“Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done. Rev. 22:12  

He who testifies to these things says,  “Surely I am coming soon.” Amen. Come, Lord Jesus! Rev. 22:20 

It said these are the things “soon” to take place.  How can “soon” be interpreted as  “literally” later?  What crazy hermeneutic could allow such repudiation of the plain reading of the text?  Any young child could tell you what these verses should mean.

The Greek word tachei means soon, quick, or quickly. [Luke 14:21; Luke 16:6; John 11:31; John 13:27; John 20:4; Acts 17:15;  1 Cor 4:19; Gal 1:6; Phili 2:19; Phili 2:24; 2 Thess 2:2; Heb 13:19;  Heb 13:23] It is never used to mean two thousand years later. The Dispensationalists suggest that it means that the events will happen quickly once they start, however it is never used in this way any where in else in Scripture. There is no use that even suggest a two thousand years gap. It must mean that what the text is talking about, at the very least, begins quickly.

The word or phrase that we would expect to see describe something occurring centuries in the future is: After many days,  in the latter days. [1Kings 18:1; Is. 24:22; Jer. 13:6; Acts 18:18]

 

Coming

The problem is the word “coming”. The casual reader may think “coming” means the “Second Coming”. This is the effect of lazy preaching and not doing your own homework. We were told to wait for the Lord’s “Return” not His “coming”.

In Matthew 24 the disciples asked, when are you coming? They cannot be asking about what we call the second coming or return. They had no expectation that He was going to leave. So, clearly our understanding of the word “coming” and the disciples first century use of the phrase, or just the word “come,” does not mean “return,”  “coming again” nor “second coming” of the Lord.

They had to be asking “when are you coming to judge Jerusalem”?  How do we arrive at this conclusion?  Because, whenever God had informed someone He was “coming” it meant He was coming to judge.

  • When God came to look at the Tower of Babel it meant that they were about to be judged. [Gen 11:5-8]
  • When God came to look at Sodom and Gomorrah it meant that God was about to judge the two cities [Gen 18:21]
  • Other examples where the expression is used:  [Ex 3:8; Ps 50:3; Isa 64:1-3; Isa 66:15; Mic 1:3-4]

All those “soons” in The Revelation are about the “coming” judgments that each  particular passage is about.  They are clearly not “the Return of the Lord”.

See Also: Clouds

The Day of Our Lord

The Lord of Hosts

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Angels who Left Their First Abode

satanCastOutThe Greek word aggelos can be translated as either Messengers or Angels. As messenger in the New Testament it is usually someone who brings a message from God. There is no way of telling whether this word is to be translated as spiritual beings, or messengers, except context. Which brings us to two controversial passages where the translators have chosen angels but the context is speaking of men, and should therefor have been messengers.[2 Pet. 2:4-10; Jude 1:5-7]

 For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of nether gloom to be kept until the judgment;  5 if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;  6 if by turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them to extinction and made them an example to those who were to be ungodly;  7 and if he rescued righteous Lot, greatly distressed by the licentiousness of the wicked 8 (for by what that righteous man saw and heard as he lived among them, he was vexed in his righteous soul day after day with their lawless deeds),  9 then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment,  10 and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority. 2 Pet. 2:4-10

Continue reading →

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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

Continue reading →

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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

Continue reading →