A Voice in the Wilderness

Does anything exist outside of God’s will?

Posted on 12/29/2022 by remso

Pastor John MacArthur once stated, “God wills evil to exist.”

I can assure you that he thought long and hard about this answer before giving it to his audience.

So the first question you must ask is, does anything exist outside God’s will?

The answer is no. That answer makes this idea of evil seem odd and uncomfortable. The discomfort we feel in accepting a response like this likely comes because we don’t understand God’s will and the underlying selfishness we hide. After all, we frequently are only willing to have His will align with our understanding and goals, and that doesn’t happen.

Evil, by definition, is, in this case, adjectives like profoundly immoral and wicked. Hence, it has the following synonyms: “wicked, bad, wrong, morally wrong, wrongful, immoral, sinful, ungodly, unholy, foul, vile, base, ignoble, dishonorable, corrupt, iniquitous, depraved, degenerate, villainous, nefarious, sinister, vicious, malicious, malevolent, demonic, devilish, diabolic, diabolical, fiendish, dark, black-hearted.”

Sadly, these grievous words could have been used to describe any of us at some point.

Evidently, evil existed before the beginning of time, lurking in the dark. But, in the case of Adam and Eve, it was just waiting to be picked and eaten.

Our introduction to God/Jesus through John’s gospel tells us in the third verse of that book that,

“All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
(John 1:3 NASB.)

If all things came into being through Him, then evil was also part of that plan, but why?

An aspect of the answer is seen almost immediately as God describes the warfare between the woman’s seed and Satan’s seed.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

So, before God decided that humanity would be “created” and Lucifer rebelled, God had a plan (an aspect of His will) to rid His world of Satan and the evil associated with his rebellion. Genesis 3:15 explicitly tells us that He/God would cause hostility between Satan and the woman. Most would perceive hostility to be evil.

Let’s assume that evil/sin was introduced into the earth through Satan.

In that case, evil must exist until he and it – the corruption built into us, are entirely removed from existence

(If you are following the logic, then you may have gasped as you realized that means that somehow this body must die. Since we have no clear definition of what transpires at the Bema – a time of rewards associated with the catching away of the church, it may be that the body dies, purging us permanently from the corruption of sin.)

The only other place we see this happening is after the end of the millennial reign and after the great white throne. Until that happens, God has to be willing to tolerate evil and, therefore, wills evil to exist in this world.

Don’t think for a moment that evil has mastery over God or runs rampant in the hearts of all humanity, having its way; it will not, and that is why we were given the Holy Spirit of God.

Jesus said,

“But as for you, Christ has poured out his Spirit on you. As long as his Spirit remains in you, you do not need anyone to teach you. For his Spirit teaches you about everything, and what he teaches is true, not false. Obey the Spirit’s teaching, then, and remain in union with Christ.”
(1 John 2:27 GNB)

Well, surprise! When you accepted Jesus Christ into your life, you received the Holy Spirit.

I am making this next comment about me because I can’t speak for you.

The verse above does not explain why my own life was so bland and powerless until I was about 23 years old. I wanted to add that the changes that happened in me were NOT directly related to some teaching about the Holy Spirit. I had been invited to a men’s retreat where a young man named Jerry Savelle was going to be speaking. At this point in his life, Jerry was running around with Kenneth Copeland as they taught on faith, another theme that was not spoken of in church with such emphasis. Well, God got my attention, and I came away from the retreat with a burning desire for the Word of God. Reading the Bible as though I had never read it before, along with the teaching of an enthusiastic local Bible teacher, I began to experience some powerful changes as I began to trust God and apply faith to everyday life. It saddens me to tell you that my first marriage turned into a nightmare, and I, once again, turned my back on God. Fortunately, He never turned His back on me, and I was aware of that. This dark period lasted about ten years.

Yes, I am aware that I received Christ when I was very young; however, I cannot remember ANYONE telling me that I received the Holy Spirit and the empowerment He brings until I met Brother Jerry. In a sense, I lived in fear of a God I understood to be angry and for whom I could never work hard enough to please. And all this was under the guise of religion.

Scripturally, we see evil taking a tremendous advantage over followers of Christ in the last few days. Fortunately, all this evil and the damage caused comes out in the wash at Jesus’ return for His church, at the beginning of the millennial reign, and again at the great white throne.

No matter what things look like, justice will win out.

Since God clearly seems to have known of evil, did He introduce evil into the mindset of His creation when He created ‘âdâm/humankind?

[Strong’s concordance in defining the word ‘âdâm, indicates a human being (an individual or the species humankind.]

The answer is NO, for humanity (two reproductive people) were created in the image of God, a perfect being, and one that cannot be tested with evil or lies.

“God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
(Genesis 1:27 NASB)

His will included the actions of Adam and Eve in the garden. Even though their actions caused all of us grief, the end scenario is one where God’s own Son (Jesus) removed the judgment and penalty for sin and made the way (acceptance of the one Jesus, who paid it all) for all to spend eternity with the Father in Heaven (this all happened on the cross.) three crosses on a hill

The idea that something untidy or painful is typically selfish and evil is fraudulent; because the Father’s will is often untidy and occasionally painful, but it is still His will.

Jesus’ death on the cross was both untidy and painful, and yet it was the will of the Father because it showed His love toward us. Since God gave us the freedom to choose something other than His love, it is still His will; therefore, we should be able to understand that God wills evil to exist for the moment, but that door will soon close, and the age of grace will be over.

Oh, His love will never end nor go away, and therefore, you will continue to see people coming to Jesus, knowing full well that it will cost them their lives here on earth. Such a small price to pay for a life with the Father.

Posted in 1 John, bible study, creation, Holy spirit, hostility, image, In Christ, the will of God, Thoughts | Tagged apart, being, Belief, Bible, came, Christ, created, end times, followers, from, God, Him, hostility, image, into, Jesus, last days, man, nothing, offspring, prophecy, remains, Scripture, spirit, teach, through, woman | Leave a comment

Does scripture tell us that the earth’s axis will shift 40 degrees?

Posted on 12/23/2022 by remso

A brother in Christ who goes by the YouTube name, Watchman River Tom, mentioned that he always listens to Jonathan Brentner. So I felt I needed to check out his website, “Our Journey Home.”

https://www.jonathanbrentner.com/https/jonathan-brentner-g8fgsquarespacecom/config/2022/11/28/12-signs-the-world-is-running-out-of-normal

The article is called “12 Signs The World is Running Out of Normal.“

I am not confused about what I read in scripture or hear in my spirit, and I will not let fools cause me to be led astray. Therefore, I can say with a passion that normal is NOT coming back; Jesus is.

An aspect of what Jonathan said was that the world wobbling would be part of the signs that are to come. He bases his statement on two verses, Isaiah 24:19-20 and Revelation 6:12-17.

I am NOT doing this to rebuke a brother in Christ but to see if his thesis holds true, if scripture, in any way, tells us that the world will wobble and if we can use this to describe things that are to come.

From Jonathan Brentner’s website, Our Journey Home.

WHEN THE WORLD WOBBLES

“Since 2001, the earth’s magnetic north pole has been moving. An article on the Forbes Magazine website, Earth’s Magnetic North Pole Is Shifting Dramatically From A Powerful Tug Of War, discussed how this shift has speeded up in recent years.

Why do I include this in the list of 12 signs? It’s because of warnings of what happens when the pole shift may reach forty degrees. That’s the point at which the north and south poles will swap places.[iii]

What’s so significant about this?

The Bible tells us that during the Tribulation period, the world will wobble (see Isaiah 24:19-20 and Revelation 6:12-17). I find it more than a little curious that what many predict will happen at the time of the pole shift matches what these prophetic passages say will happen during the Day of the Lord. It’s much more than a coincidence.”

Because Jonathan referenced an article from Forbes Magazine that speaks of how the earth’s magnetic pole is shifting, I can easily realize that we are talking about a polar shift.

Now the question is, what would cause this?

“The earth is broken asunder, The earth is split through, The earth is shaken violently. The earth reels to and fro like a drunkard And it totters like a shack, For its transgression is heavy upon it, And it will fall, never to rise again.” (Isaiah 24:19-20 NASB)

I cannot honestly say that I see the earth rotating 40+ degrees askew, let alone understand what is being said. A literal translation reads,

The earth is breaking, breaking! The earth is crashing, crashing! The earth is tottering, tottering. (Isaiah 24:19 LITV)

From what I have come to understand, the repetition of words in the Hebrew tradition means that God is trying to solidify and emphasize, especially in a prophetic sense. The terminology “utterly breaking down” is the Hebrew word rā‛a‛ and means to be evil or bad. It goes on to call it damaged or distressed.

The earth was NOT bad or evil in the day that it was made, but it certainly could have been damaged. When I look at the Literal Translation of the Bible, instead of “moved” exceedingly, it uses the terminology tottering twice.

It is the Hebrew word mot and means to totter, shake, or slip, among other words like totter. Isaiah 24:20 tells us in the KJV that “The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard.” This is the Hebrew word nua and means to quiver, wave, waver, tremble, totter.

So, based upon Isaiah 24:19-20, I am still at a loss to understand where Jonathan gets a 40-degree tilt.

“For thus saith the LORD that created the heavens; God himself that formed the earth and made it; he hath established it, he created it not in vain, he formed it to be inhabited: I am the LORD; and there is none else.” (Isaiah 45:18 KJV)

It is clear to me that Isaiah 24:19,20 has a context, and it starts in verse 1. The NASB entitles this section of scripture “Judgment on the whole earth.“ Alright, this I can understand, but I still have a problem.

“Behold, the LORD lays the earth waste, devastates it, distorts its surface and scatters its inhabitants. And the people will be like the priest, the servant like his master, the maid like her mistress, the buyer like the seller, the lender like the borrower, the creditor like the debtor.” (Isaiah 24:1-2 NASB)

Notice the role reversals. So the emphasis has everything to do with the destruction of the earth and its inhabitants. This passage tells us that the LORD distorts its surface.

Distort is the Hebrew word avah and means to bend or twist.

What would it take for the earth to bend and twist in this manner?

We would have to project every possible scenario in order to obtain such an effect. I will add that the associated passage Jonathan mentions is in Revelation 6. When I attempted to teach through Revelation, we were not very far in chapter six before my friend said, how does anybody make it through the seven years? Good question.

If I put together what I have just learned, I have bad earth, and because it’s bad, He bends and twists the earth in order to punish (the earth) and those on it. Since the earth could NOT make itself bad, then it is reasonable to consider other outside forces being applied.

Can we make an assertion as to what those outside forces were or are?

Here in Isaiah 42, we see that one of those outside forces will definitely be the Lord. Now project this forward to the Revelation, which declares that the book is a Revealing of Jesus. Would it surprise you to see that Jesus goes forth like a warrior and lays waste to the mountains and hills?

“The LORD will go forth like a warrior, He will arouse His zeal like a man of war. He will utter a shout, yes, He will raise a war cry. He will prevail against His enemies. “I have kept silent for a long time; I have kept still and restrained Myself. Now, like a woman in labor, I will groan; I will both gasp and pant. “I will lay waste the mountains and hills And wither all their vegetation; I will make the rivers into coastlands And dry up the ponds.” (Isaiah 42:13-15 NASB)

In Jeremiah 51, the Lord says that He is against someone or something that has qualities like a mountain but destroys the whole earth; He calls it Babylon. Think about the logic of a statement like that. A city cannot destroy the entire world, so “Babylon” is either a spiritual entity associated with that name or applies to those who ruled over Babylon.

The context is directed at Babylon, but there is a spiritual theme.

“Behold, I am against you, O destroying mountain, Who destroys the whole earth,” declares the LORD, “And I will stretch out My hand against you, And roll you down from the crags, And I will make you a burnt out mountain.” (Jeremiah 51:25 NASB)

Anyone with a Biblical sense understands that Nebuchadnezzar, the ruler over Babylon, took Israel captive for 70 years as punishment for not obeying God. By the time Daniel realized that the time of their punishment was over, Babylon was under the control of the Persians, and King Cyrus was in control. It is well-defined in scripture that men like Nebuchadnezzar, Cyrus, and Hitler served as the hands and feet of God when it came to dishing out punishment. Fortunately, none of these men lived forever, but something else does – spiritual entities.

One of the places where we see a powerful allusion to our spiritual enemy is found in Revelation 12.

“For this reason, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them. Woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only a short time.” (Revelation 12:12 NASB)

A question, when did Satan come down to earth?

An aspect of our answer is associated with a statement that Jesus made.

“And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.”
(Luke 10:18 NASB)

Consider that Jesus was standing before a crowd when He said this. That means He was in close proximity to the Father when Satan was tossed to earth, and it would appear that the planet was free of humanity when this happened. Another thing that plays a role in your understanding of when this fall from heaven took place is the actuality that Satan, who had possessed a serpent that walked on four legs and talked, met with Adam and Eve as they were now cultivating within earshot of the tree that was off limits to eat from. An interesting thought that suddenly occurs to me is, Why go near that tree?

“Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.” (Genesis 2:15 NASB)

The tree that was off-limits in terms of eating was an aspect of the garden that God gave Adam to cultivate. So it was a non-issue until Satan got involved, but if you go back to the conversation where this instruction was initiated, there was NO Eve; this fact legitimizes Satan’s arguments when he said, “did He really say that?“

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 NASB)

Considering that we started by trying to figure out if scripture tells us that the earth will wobble by “40 degrees of tilt (+ or -)”, where does the garden of Eden fit into this? Seeing as we learned that Satan was thrown to the ground before the creation of man and that Genesis 1:2 indicates that the earth had been thrown into an explosive turmoil, which made the place void.

I would be a fool to think that the impact of Satan on the earth could not have tilted the globe on its axis. Many will deny the possibility that the earth endures such hellish devastation because they seem to think that it impairs God. Oh well, I do not see it that way, and it is clear that there is the potential that God will do the same thing.

From a scientific point of view, causing the earth to rotate to another axis should cause a total annihilation of humanity on earth, an event which I never see in scripture until after the great white throne judgment – an event which finally leaves a world in which there are NO unbelievers or humans subject to death, and it will be a time in which we will be forever, with the Father, in heaven. All this creates an environment in which the heavens and the earth could then be burned up and perhaps replaced, an event that we do encounter in scripture. These are physical phenomena that could not be done at any point outside of the time beyond the great white throne because there will continue to be mortals up to the final judgment, a judgment, by the way, that only includes dead people.

Keep in mind that the “English” and the grammar that we see in almost every Biblical translation came out of the mind of humans. True, there are passages such as:

“All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:” (2 Timothy 3:16 KJV)

Consider that when Paul wrote these words, the ONLY “scripture” that these Messianic believers had would have possibly been one copy of the Law and Prophets. There were NO Bibles, as the Bible was being lived out before their eyes and written to the congregations in the form of letters to those church bodies. That being said, here is another witness.

They assembled together against Moses and Aaron and said to them, “You have gone far enough, for all the congregation are holy, every one of them, and the LORD is in their midst; so why do you exalt yourselves above the assembly of the LORD?” (Numbers 16:3 NASB)

While the terminology does not match 2 Timothy’s example, it does demonstrate how God feels about those who are His, up to and including the fact that God is always in the midst of His followers.

There is NOTHING in Isaiah 24 that specifically says the earth will tilt by 40 degrees, so let’s try the other reference we were given, Revelation 6:12-17.

“I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;” (Revelation 6:12 NASB)

An obvious factor pops up as I read this. Five seals have been opened already.

The first seal. “A rider on a white horse” carrying a bow but NO arrows.

Most see this as the antichrist. The timing is perfect as this is one of the first things that happens after the catching away of the church. The bow with no arrows is indicative of a false peace, and we see that with the seven-year covenant he makes.

Other clues about this man: a crown was given to him, and he went out conquering and to conquer.
The second seal, “a red horse, went out; and to him who sat on it, it was granted to take peace from the earth, and that men would slay one another; and a great sword was given to him.

Is this associated with the rider on the white horse or an added attraction?
The third seal. “A black horse, and he who sat on it had a pair of scales in his hand. And I heard something like a voice in the center of the four living creatures saying, “A quart of wheat for a denarius, and three quarts of barley for a denarius; and do not damage the oil and the wine.”

Horrendous escalation in food prices, shortages, and starvation.
The fourth seal. “An ashen horse; and he who sat on it had the name Death; and Hades was following with him. Authority was given to them over a fourth of the earth, to kill with sword and with famine and with pestilence and by the wild beasts of the earth.”

Death.
The fifth seal.

“When the Lamb broke the fifth seal, I saw underneath the altar the souls of those who had been slain because of the word of God, and because of the testimony which they had maintained; and they cried out with a loud voice, saying, “How long, O Lord, holy and true, will You refrain from judging and avenging our blood on those who dwell on the earth?” And there was given to each of them a white robe; and they were told that they should rest for a little while longer, until the number of their fellow servants and their brethren who were to be killed even as they had been, would be completed also. (Revelation 6:9-11 NASB)

Everything seems to be focused on the intentional killing of those who follow after Christ during the seven years.
And the passage in question where the earth tilts.

I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake, and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood; and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind. The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb; for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?” (Revelation 6:12-17 NASB)

Look at what it says, “there was a great earthquake.”

What geologic violence would the earth have to endure to shift the poles by 40 degrees?

Considering that The answer is something devastating, destructive, and monumental. And God is just getting started in terms of judgment against Israel and the nations, as there are two more sets of judgment – the bowls and the trumpets, to come.

The passage goes on to say that “every mountain and island were moved from their place.” That is a massive shaking that goes beyond our imaginations, and yet as you follow the narrative in Revelation, this happens several more times.

An example of what a 9.0 earthquake can do was seen in the Fukushima event of 2011.

“The Japan earthquake and tsunami of 2011, also called Great Sendai Earthquake or Great Tōhoku Earthquake, severe natural disaster that occurred in northeastern Japan on March 11, 2011. The event began with a powerful earthquake off the northeastern coast of Honshu, Japan’s main island, which caused widespread damage on land and initiated a series of large tsunami waves that devastated many coastal areas of the country, most notably in the Tōhoku region (northeastern Honshu). The tsunami also instigated a major nuclear accident at a power station along the coast.

The magnitude-9.0 earthquake was caused by the rupture of a stretch of the subduction zone associated with the Japan Trench, which separates the Eurasian Plate from the subducting Pacific Plate. A part of the subduction zone measuring approximately 190 miles (300 km) long by 95 miles (150 km) wide lurched as much as 164 feet (50 meters) to the east-southeast and thrust upward about 33 feet (10 meters).”
https://www.britannica.com/event/Japan-earthquake-and-tsunami-of-2011

“The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.”

Whatever this event is, it impacts the skies. The (Lexham English Bible) tells us that “…the sky was split apart like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved from their place.”

The experience of having the sky appear to split and roll back like a scroll would be frightening by itself. The question then becomes, what, then, are you looking at should you look at the sky?

I don’t have an answer for you. I do know that these events will happen within the seven years of God’s wrath, which comes after Jesus comes back for His church – His followers. Many people focus on the events that are currently happening and say we are experiencing God’s wrath now. We are NOT as the removal of the church is necessary; however, Jesus said when you see these things, you can know that He is at the door.

“Now learn the parable from the fig tree: Whenever its branch has already become tender and puts forth its leaves, you know that summer is near. So also you, when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the door. Truly I say to you that this generation will never pass away until all these things take place!”
(Mark 13:28-30 LEB)

Israel is referenced as the fig tree on several occasions in scripture, holding to the necessity of two witnesses.
Israel became a nation in a day (May 14, 1948). This is monumental, and squirm as you may, you can’t get past this sign.

These two events/prophetic signs are game-changers that cannot be ignored.

This generation will never pass away until all these things take place. Do a quick study to figure out the length of a generation, and you will come to the conclusion that we are right there.
And, though it is NOT mentioned in the passages above, Jesus also said that we will hear of wars and rumors of wars. The truth be known, times of peace have been a rarity, so I am unsure how to process this statement. But, with this Russian war with Ukraine, Turkey now attacking portions of Syria; (12/23/2022). Within the last twenty-four hours, a military base in Moscow has been set on fire; and North Korea continues to ramp up the fear by launching another ballistic missile.

So, “when you see these things happening, know that he is near, at the door.”

It is time to invite Jesus into your life and become a part of the family.

Posted in bible study, destruction, Earth, Isaiah, Revelation | Tagged breaking, crashing, degrees, destroying, devastation, distorts, Earth, end times, God, inhabitants, Isaiah 24, Jesus, last days, magnetic, mountain, North, pole shift, prophecy, scatters, Scripture, tottering, waste, whole earth, wobbles | Leave a comment

But you, brethren, are not in darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. An integration with an article by Amir Tsarfati about the fig tree.

Posted on 12/11/2022 by remso

This is based on an article in Harbingers Daily, written by Amir Tsarfati on 12/06/22.

Me) One of the loathsome things I perpetually hear is, No one knows the day or the hour. These naysayers espouse this even though the Apostle Paul told us,

“…you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief.”

“Now as to the times and the epochs, brethren, you have no need of anything to be written to you. For you, yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief; for you are all sons of light and sons of day. We are not of night nor of darkness;.”
(1 Thessalonians 5:1-5 NASB)

There seems to be a concerted effort among church members and leadership to promote deception.
Note how Paul says that “we,” the “believer,” is NOT in darkness, that the day would overtake us like a thief; this is because those outside the family only acknowledge the rapture. After all, it is a scenario portrayed in scary movies, and they seem to have serious doubts about being left behind.

What is “the day”?

There are two schools of thought.

That it is a day of judgment.

There are two of those “days” that apply to judgment.

One would be when He comes back at the end of the seven years and silences all who have come to fight against Him. He does this with the breath of His mouth, and there will be a river of blood.

The second day of judgment will come at the end of the thousand-year reign and climax with the white throne judgment.

Two things happen in relation to the white throne, and they are packaged under the heading of the second day or final judgment.

Satan will be released once again, and he will deceive the nations. Yes, during the millennial reign, people with a free will shall repopulate the earth and continue to live, and some will choose to ignore the ongoing message of God’s goodness, which they can witness firsthand.

Deceived by Satan, they will attempt to kill God and His people as they surround the Holy City, God, and His people. He kills them with the breath of His mouth and burns them up.

The next aspect of this judgment is that all the dead, quite possibly from the beginning of time, will be brought before this throne. Here is where Matthew 25 kicks in because Jesus, the judge, and shepherd, separates this crowd into two representative groups – “sheep and goats.” To the sheep, He will say, enter into the eternal kingdom. The goats will go to eternal damnation with Satan, the antichrist, and the false prophet who are already there.

So much for judgment.

The second way people perceive “the day” is through the catching away of the church.

This event has little to do with judgment, although many many perceive it as judgment because it is associated with the Bema seat pg of Christ.

The passage that gives much great concern is,

“But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you regard your brother with contempt? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.”
(Romans 14:10 NASB)

The Bema seat is more of a time for passing out rewards for a job well done.

Fully aware that we do not have to be deceived because we are NOT in darkness, then what can we know?

To the Pharisees, Jesus said you can read the signs of the weather.

“The Pharisees and Sadducees came up, and testing Jesus, they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. But He replied to them, “When it is evening, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.’ “And in the morning, ‘There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.’ Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times? “An evil and adulterous generation seeks after a sign; and a sign will not be given it, except the sign of Jonah.” And He left them and went away.” (Matthew 16:1-4 NASB)

Jesus’ first response when the disciples implored Him to “Tell us, when will these things happen, and what will be the sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

“…Jesus answered and said to them, “See to it that no one misleads you.”
(Matthew 24:4 NASB)

See to it G3005 légo – Is to say, affirm over, maintain, teach, point out with words, to speak of, or mention.

This affirmation is what you do to yourselves.

Mislead G4105 planáo – To cause to wander, lead astray.

How many different ways can we be caused to wander?

Let’s see: The news, as they would never deceive me.

Are you kidding?

Haven’t you noticed how every news station repeats the exact same words, no matter how small or large the station is? Someone is pulling their chains, telling them to feed you what they want you to know.

Another recent event was Elon Musk purchasing Twitter and then revealing that men like

James Addison Baker III is an American attorney, diplomat, and statesman. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 10th White House Chief of Staff and the 67th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Ronald Reagan, and the 61st U.S. Secretary of State. He was also a former American government official at the Department of Justice who served as general counsel for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He later served as deputy general counsel at Twitter, Inc. from June 2020 to December 2022 before being fired by Elon Musk. (Wikipedia – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Baker)

have been assisting in process of eliminating our civil rights by blocking our freedom of speech.

Paul, in his second letter to the church in Thessaloniki, told them

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction,” (2 Thessalonians 2:3 NASB)

Notice the nondescript word “it.” It is fascinating how a simple word can imply or point to so many things. “It” can apply to the beast, antichrist, the New World Order, the methods used to make their evil plans work, or the people who think they can control us. I chuckled as I wrote this, as they are making it happen.

Are you in denial? How is that working for you?

Deceive G1818 exapatáo – to seduce, deceive, lead out of the right way into error.

I was not born during the days of the Nazi concentration camps, but I can read and am a piteous history student. But this leading out of the right way into error is precisely what Hitler and the Nazi party did to Germany. If you don’t believe that, try reading about Pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, as he details how the Nazis led the majority of Pastors, and for a moment, even Bonhoeffer, to the point that they merely played their worship music louder to drown out the screams of the Jews on the trains as they were carted off to their deaths.

In 2 Thessalonians 2:3, we know that the Greek word apostasia had been manipulated in the King James Version of the Bible to read apostasy – or falling away instead of departure (indicating a departure of the church to be with Jesus.) This was done to convey the anger of the state church, the Catholic church in the 1500s, over people leaving the church for Protestantism. The previous version of the Bible was the Geneva Bible and existed for almost 100 years, with the word apostasia accurately being translated as departure.

A three-page introduction. What is the point?

Since we are not in the dark, we should be able to see what is coming and how close we are to our catching away.

Jesus addressed just such a condition when He spoke to the Pharisees and Sadducees.

He said,

“Do you know how to discern the appearance of the sky but cannot discern the signs of the times?”

One of those signs was the fig tree, and that is where Amir Tsarfati comes into play. I will add that many are now trying to tell us that the fig tree does not refer to Israel. This is part of the deception!

‘We Are The Generation’: God Has Not Left Us In The Dark About the Generation We Live In.”

By Amir Tsarfati, December 6, 2022

Jeremiah 8:13, Hosea 9:10, and Joel 1:7 all refer to Israel as a fig tree, and the content of the Olivet Discourse in Matthew 24-25 is concerning events before and during the 70th week of Daniel – also referred to as the Great Tribulation. That means the fig tree Jesus is referring to is the nation of Israel, and when it puts forth leaves and the branch is tender (which indicates new growth), we can know that summer is near. From that example, Jesus said that the generation that sees this will not pass away before all things in the Olivet Discourse take place.

What that means to you and me as Christians living at the end of the time of the Gentiles and the church age is that we have been given an entire generation’s notice about the coming of the Lord. He will come first for His church before the Tribulation and then with His church to end the Tribulation. We were given this information by our gracious and loving Lord not so we would be ready for the Rapture – we should always be ready for that event – but so we would tell others not only that they also need to be ready, but more importantly, why and how they can be.

No one knows the day or the hour of the Lord appearing in the air to meet the dead in Christ and the living saints. However, He did tell us to be ready in Matthew 24:

Matthew 24:44 KJV – “Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of man cometh.”

The phrase “hour you do not expect” could also be translated as “a season never supposed”. That carries with it a couple of potential meanings. Either that Jesus is coming for us at a time when things are unimaginable, like now, or that Jesus is coming at a time when few think He will, also like now. Whichever meaning is the one that God intended, both make clear that the hour is late. The Jews are back in the land, the fig tree has put forth leaves, and the unknown day or hour is likely very near.

Posted in appearance, bible study, contempt, darkness, discern, judgment, misleads, overtake, signs, sons of light, thief, times | Tagged catching away, darkness, day, destruction, epochs, labor pains, light, night, overtake, peace and safety, rapture, sons, the day, thief, times | Leave a comment

Does Jesus fight in two battles; if so, what are they?

Posted on 12/06/2022 by remso

I got a message from a friend that I needed to address.

Originally posted on 08/31/2019.

I received a message which read sort of like this – I say sort of because I had to make it legible.

My acquaintance said, “I told some people that Jesus fights two battles, one by himself and then Armageddon.” The people he spoke to responded with, “are you sure.” To which he said, “yes, turn your bible to Isaiah 63:3,4, and then look at Revelation 19:13.”

Let’s start by looking at Jesus allegedly fighting two battles.

While the terminology, fighting, shows up multiple times throughout the Bible. In reality, Jesus only fights ONE battle, and we see that “war” in Revelation 19.

11) “And I saw Heaven opened. And behold, a white horse! And He sitting on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness He judges and makes war. (12) And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns. And He had a name written, one that no one knew except Himself. (13) And He had been clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (14) And the armies in Heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (15) And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, so that with it He should strike the nations. And He will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He treads the wine-press of the wine of the anger and of the wrath of Almighty God. (16) And He has on His garment, and on His thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.”
(Revelation 19:11-16 MKJV)

If you integrate Armageddon into the conversation, you only confuse the issue for most; the reason for that is that every major battle in the scriptures was fought in the Plain of Jezreel, in the Meggido Valley (it is the location that causes us to call this Armageddon.) This will include the “war” at the end of the seven years and the final battle at the end of the thousand-year reign. A fascinating yet confusing fact is that this information about the final battle is found in Revelation 20:7-9. In case you forgot, the book of Revelation is the revealing of Jesus Christ, so when it says God, you need to ask, am I looking at God or Jesus?

7) “And when the thousand years have expired, Satan will be loosed out of his prison. (8) And he will go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle. The number of them is as the sand of the sea. (9) And they went up over the breadth of the earth and circled around the camp of the saints, and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of Heaven and devoured them.”
(Revelation 20:7-9 MKJV)

In this battle, there is only one person, Jesus, against the multitude. Just for the fun of it, we will say that Jesus never has to lift a hand because “fire comes down from God out of Heaven and devours them.” I would not consider this a fight.

Now, if you want to get technical about the components that make a fight, Revelation 19:11-15 fits the bill.

“And I saw Heaven opened. And behold, a white horse! And He sitting on him was called Faithful and True. And in righteousness He judges and makes war. (12) And His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on His head many crowns. And He had a name written, one that no one knew except Himself. (13) And He had been clothed in a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. (14) And the armies in Heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. (15) And out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, so that with it He should strike the nations. And He will shepherd them with a rod of iron. And He treads the wine-press of the wine of the anger and of the wrath of Almighty God.”
(Revelation 19:11-15 MKJV)

All of the actors have gathered for battle.

We have the king of kings and Lord of Lords, Jesus, sitting upon the white horse, and He has a sword coming out of His mouth.
Jesus is followed by the saints of heaven, and they, too, are riding on white horses.
And then there are the nations.

The Jews would never, especially at this point, rise up against the Messiah they have been waiting for, and the martyred saints should have already been resurrected to heaven and may well be riding with Jesus into this “battle.” The nations are those who have chosen to take up arms against Jesus, and contrary to twisted opinion, not all of the nations will be standing there ready to fight. Fascinating that a people group that refused to acknowledge God now recognizes Jesus.

But you still have a problem, which most solve by making assumptions, as you don’t see Jesus lift a finger in battle. The response to that problem can be seen in Isaiah’s writings.

“But with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and shall decide with uprightness for the meek of the earth. And He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.”
(Isaiah 11:4 MKJV)

So all these people who have come to fight are slain with the breath of His lips. For the unbelievers, I offer a second witness from the Apostle Paul.

“And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the breath of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming,”
(2 Thessalonians 2:8 MKJV)

And to make your head swim a little, allow me to throw in the idea that Sodom and Gomorrah may well have been an example of towns and people being destroyed by the breath of God. You can read Genesis 19 at your leisure.

Revelation 19:13 tells us that His garment has been dipped in blood. I am not sure how my acquaintance integrated this point about “The blood on his cloak,” but he presented this argument to some people at church, and they responded with, “some say it’s the blood of the saints, while others say it is His own blood.” My friend replied by telling them, “not so, it is the blood of His enemies.” At this point, those people who questioned him agreed and walked away. Apparently, my acquaintance took this last statement to a couple of Pastors at a Calvary Chapel, and they agreed with my friend.

So let’s look at what the Prophet Isaiah tells us about this illustration.

Isaiah 63:1-4 NASB 1) “Who is this who comes from Edom, With garments of glowing colors from Bozrah, This One who is majestic in His apparel, Marching in the greatness of His strength? “It is I who speak in righteousness, mighty to save.” (2) Why is Your apparel red, And Your garments like the one who treads in the wine press? (3) “I have trodden the wine trough alone, And from the peoples, there was no man with Me. I also trod them in My anger And trampled them in My wrath, And their lifeblood is sprinkled on My garments, And I stained all My raiment. (4) “For the day of vengeance was in My heart, And My year of redemption has come.”

Isaiah 63:1 explains who the subject is by giving us clues, similar to Revelation 19: 11-15. Any decent Jew would recognize that this is a comparable prophetic word from the Old Testament that gives acceptance to Revelation 19. Some of the clues are:

This One who is majestic in His apparel (Psalm 93:1);
Marching in the greatness of His strength (Psalm 24:8);
It is I who speaks in righteousness (Proverbs 8:8).

All of these speak about Jesus Christ. An obvious aspect of this passage is that at least the lower half of the garment of the Messiah is soaked in blood.

The narrator asks,

“Why are your garments like the one who treads in the wine-press?”

Consider that there was a time when people stomped the liquid out of grapes with their feet. If they were smart, they would lift up or remove any outer garment so it would not get covered in juice. Perhaps, in making juice, some would splash onto your clothing, but merely allowing your garments to become wholly inundated with this blood-red juice is preposterous.

What does this scene, where the victor, coming from a battle, soaked in the adversaries blood, say about the person walking out of the battle?

It says He went into the battle prepared.
We can’t presume He went alone, but if there had been others, we would be left to assume that no one else made it out alive. Consider who is going into the battle. Everybody coming with Jesus to the conflict is NOW an immortal being that cannot be harmed. Recall that we have demonstrated that Jesus kills all who choose to fight with the breath of His mouth; therefore, no one has to assist Him in battle.
And lastly, He is obviously trained, qualified, and with a positive attitude. He did not care about what His clothing would look like. Perhaps, knowing that He would win, His blood-soaked clothing then becomes a symbol of victory, bravery, and conquest.

Based on what the passage says, can we figure out who this is?

Absolutely. So, what clues are we given that identify who went into the bloody battle?

Isaiah 9:2-5 NASB 2) “The people who walk in darkness Will see a great light; Those who live in a dark land, The light will shine on them. (3) You shall multiply the nation, You shall increase their gladness; They will be glad in Your presence As with the gladness of harvest, As men rejoice when they divide the spoil. (4) For You shall break the yoke of their burden and the staff on their shoulders, The rod of their oppressor, as at the battle of Midian. (5) For every boot of the booted warrior in the battle tumult, And cloak rolled in blood, will be for burning, fuel for the fire.”

Who is with Jesus in Isaiah 63:3-4?

Perhaps the question is, does anyone have to be with Him?

The answer to that is NO. But for the doubter, I refer you to Exodus 12:12 NASB, where it says,

“For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night and will strike down all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments–I am the LORD.”

The verse above makes it quite clear, that there was NO death angel, it was Jesus, and He slaughtered all who were not covered by the blood. So the answer to the question, who was with Him, is NO ONE else. You cannot apply God’s judgments against Egypt, where those who were spared were covered by the blood, as that theme does not apply to the nations that we see in Revelation 19 at the end of the seven years.

If we are going to study Armageddon, we must step back a bit to Revelation 16, where we see the end Megiddo valley _ the plain of Jezreel of the final judgments being poured out of the bowls. The preparations for the Battle of Armageddon are made and brought into the picture because of a vial, which is part of the sixth bowl.

Revelation 16:12-16 NASB (12) “The sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river, the Euphrates; and its water was dried up so that the way would be prepared for the kings from the east. (13) And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon and out of the mouth of the beast and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; (14) for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the whole world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. (15) (“Behold, I am coming like a thief. Blessed is the one who stays awake and keeps his clothes so that he will not walk about naked and men will not see his shame.”) (16) And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”

I already gave you a regional map of Israel, and there is NOTHING called Har-Magedon on the map. The Ultimate Cross-Reference Treasury helps to define Har-Magedon.

“Armageddon. i.e. hill of slaughter, *S# G717. i.e. Mount of Decision or Sentence (Lange). Valley, symbol of defeat; hill, of victory. What the heathen once did against Josiah and his people at Megiddo would now find its counterpart in what they did against Jesus and his followers; but that as once, in the Valley of Megiddo, the theocracy was borne to the grave with Josiah, so, in Armageddon, the Hill of Megiddo, the Lord would avenge the crime of the heathen (Gebhardt, p. 274, cited in Dusterdiek, Note LXXX, p. 425). Compare Psa_83:17-18, and indeed the imagery of that whole Psalm and its connection to the history of Josiah, but its prophetic reference to the future of the nation of Israel in their land and the victory over surrounding enemies. Armageddon is related to the “hill of Megiddo,” and that Megiddo is situated in the plain of Jezreel.”

In Revelation 16:17-21 The seventh angel poured out his bowl upon the air, and a loud voice came out of the temple from the throne, saying, “It is done.” While there are still horrendous things happening, the central focus is Babylon, or, should I say, the Babylon system. (Keep in mind that it has everything to do with power and the love of money, the root of all evil.)

Chapters 17 and 18 of Revelation focus on the downfall of the Babylon system. There are some very telling facts about this greed and lust.

Revelation 18:3 NASB “For all the nations have drunk of the wine of the passion of her immorality and the kings of the earth have committed acts of immorality with her and the merchants of the earth have become rich by the wealth of her sensuality.”

The system collapses in one hour.

Revelation 18:9-10 NASB 9) “And the kings of the earth, who committed acts of immorality and lived sensuously with her, will weep and lament over her when they see the smoke of her burning, … For in one hour your judgment has come.”

If you have been watching the news (December 2022), this should sound familiar as the economic system completely collapses. This is notable as oceanic shipping comes to a complete halt. (Revelation 18:11-17 NASB)

There is an aspect of this next verse that I find deeply troubling, as it implicates the wealthy of the earth in the death of the innocents.

Revelation 18:24 NASB “And in her was found the blood of prophets and of saints and of all who have been slain on the earth.”

“All who have been slain on the earth.” This should be an eye-opening statement for everybody.

So, as we come into Revelation 19, there are no more judgments to be poured out, merely the termination of the judgments. Watch what happens.

Revelation 19:1-2 NASB “After these things I heard something like a loud voice of a great multitude in heaven, saying, “Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and power belong to our God; (2) BECAUSE HIS JUDGMENTS ARE TRUE AND RIGHTEOUS; for He has judged the great harlot who was corrupting the earth with her immorality, and HE HAS AVENGED THE BLOOD OF HIS BOND-SERVANTS ON HER.”

In Heaven, they are rejoicing. The Babylon system is gone. Jesus is about to come roaring on the scene in dramatic fashion, with all the saints riding with Him. The antichrist, the false prophet, and Satan will be thrown into the pit. The loud voices declare that His judgments have come, And, He has avenged the blood of His bond servants.

How can it be said, “it is done,” especially since there is still a battle to be waged?

By Heaven’s standards, this mess is done, for God always looks toward the future (Abraham is a good example of that.)

Revelation 19:6-9 NASB “Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For the Lord our God, the Almighty, reigns. (7) “Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” (8) It was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. (9) Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”

Clothed with a robe dipped in blood, everything about Him is brightness and glory, and His name is the Word of God. Pure majesty.

I have had discussions like this before, how He only kills the fighters that day. Invariably, the religious come against me with their tradition and false teachings they have learned and try to persuade me of various things, like no one from the nations enters the millennial kingdom.

But here is what the Scripture says,

(Revelation 19:19-21 NASB) 19) “And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army. (20) And the beast was seized, and with him, the false prophet who performed the signs in his presence, by which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast and those who worshiped his image; these two were thrown alive into the lake of fire which burns with brimstone. (21) And the rest were killed with the sword which came from the mouth of Him who sat on the horse and all the birds were filled with their flesh.”

So what do we see in Revelation 19:19-21?

The beast, which is the Antichrist, and most likely a Muslim leader.
The false prophet. I feel strongly that this man will be the high priest of the new Jewish temple. He will convert to Islam and perform signs. It is the signs that will be comparable to what the two witnesses perform that will cause deception.
The kings of the earth. This can include the leaders we see at the G10, World Economic Forum, and the European Union.
They are assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse and against His army.
The beast was seized, along with the false prophet, and these two, very specifically, were seized and thrown alive into the lake of fire. The rest – those gathered for war, were killed with the sword that comes out of Jesus’ mouth.

Jesus put himself on the cross so that you can have the life of the Father within you; and, in time, spend eternity with Him.

Posted in antichrist, Antichrist, Armageddon, armies, bible study, crowns, Edom, false prophet, fire, Heaven, horsemen, Islam, judgment, Revelation, Rule the nations, Satan, the nations, Tribulation | Tagged armies, Belief, Bible, blood, Christ, end times, faithful, flame of fire, followed, garment, Heaven, horse, Jesus, judges, makes war, many crowns, mouth, nations, prophecy, Revelation 19, Scripture, sword, true, white | Leave a comment

Does God’s wrath equal tribulation?

Posted on 12/02/2022 by remso

A brother in Christ that I used to sit with decided that we, the church, must go through God’s time of wrath. He, of course, called this time frame the tribulation.

If you read this and say it’s too much, there are too many references, and I don’t see the point. Consider how this conversation initiated with a brother in Christ trying to tell me that we must go through God’s wrath. If you read the passages from Romans 2:5-11, then you would understand that the unbeliever is bringing the wrath upon themselves.

Dear Lord, you need to read the scriptures for yourselves, or you will stumble as though you are in darkness, and because of these conversations, I am convinced few of you that call yourselves Christians ever read your Bibles. If you fall into this category, you don’t have a clue about what is coming.

Let’s start off with a bit of honesty.

The prefixes “pre,” “mid,” and “post” are human constructs, NOT God’s, and you, of course, know that “pre” indicates something happening prior to an event, such as God’s wrath/judgment, and “post” applies to things which occur after the event. However, there is nothing in scripture that expressly identifies this time as a “pre,” “mid,” or “post” event.

As some see it, it is a reasonable assumption to apply those mid and post prefixes to God’s wrath. My friend thought it was entirely logical to think this way, although the only thing he could come up with to back up his argument was emotion.

Because God’s promises (a few of them are shared in this post) tell us that we are NOT destined for wrath, I can, with confidence, consider myself a pre-tribulation supporter.

The word tribulation has become a roadblock between fellow believers as we have taken something that Jesus promised would be an everyday aspect of our lives and turned it into a timed event, as though we are in competition with each other.

Because Jesus, in Matthew 24, shared this with us, I share it with you.

“Therefore when you see the ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), (16) then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. (17) “Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house. (18) “Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. (19) “But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days! (20) “But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. (21) “For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will. (22) “Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.” (Matthew 24:15-22 NASB)

Note how Matthew gives us the context, which is the Abomination of Desolation as a trigger for the “great tribulation,” an event that has not occurred in the world as yet and will not happen until three and one-half years into the seven-year “treaty” put forth by the antichrist.

Tribulation is the Greek word thlípsis. This word has several possibilities for meaning: squeeze, compress, press, crush, trouble, affliction, break, and Tribulation.

Do any of those descriptives fit some aspect of your life? They do mine.

In conversations, my friend struggled with 2 Thessalonians 2:3

“Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the apostasy (which, in the Geneva Bible, is accurately translated as departure) comes first, and (then) the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, (4) who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, displaying himself as being God.” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 NASB.)

Those who have a Biblical understanding are watching Turkey, and the activities of Russia and Iran, as they prepare to make strategic and alarming moves into Syria. (How drastically the world has changed since I initiated this post in 2019)

We are NOT asleep; we are awake. So while I could take a pre-tribulation stand based on 2 Thessalonians 2: 3, 4 alone, it only gets better and easier to understand as I progress to 2 Thessalonians 2: 6-8. Each one of these has its own clarity.

“You know what it is that now holds him back, so that he will be revealed when his time comes.” (2 Thessalonians 2:6 GW)

I explained how the word revealed can also mean to expose or make known.

“For the secret of evil is even now at work: but there is one who is keeping back the evil till he is taken out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 2:7 BBE)

“And then the lawless one (the antichrist) will be revealed and the Lord Jesus will slay him with the breath of His mouth and bring him to an end by His appearing at His coming.” (2 Thessalonians 2:8 AMP)

The Antichrist will not be revealed to the world until we, the church, check out. This is somewhat important since we are NOT destined for wrath, and wrath from God is what is coming.

You asked me in another post about the sentence, “pray that your flight is NOT in the winter.“

“But pray that your flight is not in the winter, nor on the sabbath day;”
(Matthew 24:20 MKJV)

If you keep a Middle Eastern perspective, then, of course, there are the elements.

It would be miserable;
If Israel is under such a severe attack, where will those who are running for their lives go?

Imagine trying to escape the Los Angeles area with our freeway system. The reality is, in a situation like this, we will most likely, not survive. We already have an awareness that these will primarily be Islamic die-hards. For example, the temple mount is controlled by the Muslims. Many of them wholeheartedly believe in chopping off heads. I suspect this will be the major aspect of this great tribulation.

The promise of wrath is all throughout the Old Testament.

“Go inquire of Jehovah for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that is found. For great is the wrath of Jehovah that is poured out on us because our fathers have not kept the Word of Jehovah to do according to all that is written in this Book.” (2 Chronicles 34:21 MKJV)

The record about curses in Leviticus 26:1-46, and Deuteronomy 27-28, was sufficiently clear to convict of sin.

But if they did not obey the LAW, this is what happens:

“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; (15) And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant: I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror, consumption, and the burning ague, that shall consume the eyes, and cause sorrow of heart: and ye shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it. (17) And I will set my face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you; and ye shall flee when none pursues you. (18) And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. (19) And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass.” (Leviticus 26:14-19 KJV)

The seven sabbatical years preceding the Year of Jubilee. These were the sabbaths that Israel did not obey and therefore went into Babylonian captivity.

“In the first year of his reign I Daniel understood by books the number of the years, whereof the word of the LORD came to Jeremiah the prophet, that he would accomplish seventy years in the desolations of Jerusalem.”
(Daniel 9:2 KJV)

Daniel, a captive, was reading the scroll of Jeremiah.

“And this whole land shall be a ruin and a waste. And these nations shall serve the king of Babylon seventy years. And it shall be, when seventy years are fulfilled I will punish the king of Babylon, and that nation, and the land of the Chaldeans, says Jehovah, for their iniquity, and I will make it an everlasting ruin.”
(Jeremiah 25:11-12 MKJV)

Some other examples of God’s wrath are in the Old Testament.

“And they left the house of the LORD God of their fathers, and served groves and idols: and wrath came upon Judah and Jerusalem for this their trespass.” 2Chronicles 24:18

“Now be ye not stiff necked, as your fathers were, but yield yourselves unto the LORD, and enter into his sanctuary, which he hath sanctified for ever: and serve the LORD your God, that the fierceness of his wrath may turn away from you.”
(2Chronicles 30:8)

If you have time, do a word search for the number of times wrath shows up in the Old Testament, it is overwhelming.

In the New Testament, the word wrath also shows up prolifically.

“For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?”
(Revelation 6:17 KJV)

Who is making this statement? The great day of his wrath has come.

“…The kings of the earth, the great men, the rich men, the chief captains, the mighty men, every bondman, and every free man…”
(Revelation 6:15)

John the Baptist, speaking to the scribes, elders, and a great multitude, said,

“O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?” (Luke 3:7 KJV)

Jesus, in Luke’s gospel, is giving the same response we see in the Matthew 24 account. When shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming?

According to Luke’s gospel, Jesus said,

“But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! for there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.”
(Luke 21:23 KJV)

“For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;”
(Romans 1:18)

Romans 2 is important because it speaks about the glory and honor due to the follower of Christ.

But because of your stubborn and unrepentant heart, you are reserving wrath for yourself on the day of wrath, when God’s righteous judgment will be revealed. For he will repay everyone according to what that person has done: eternal life to those who strive for glory, honor, and immortality by patiently doing good, but wrath and fury for those who, in their selfish pride, refuse to believe the truth and practice wickedness instead. There will be suffering and anguish for every human being who practices doing evil, for Jews first and for Greeks as well. But there will be glory, honor, and peace for everyone who practices doing good, initially for Jews but also for Greeks as well, because God does not show partiality.” (Romans 2:5-11 ISV)

Did you catch that?

You are storing up wrath for yourself. Although wrath is coming, our justification by his blood has saved us from that wrath.

“But God commends his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. (9) Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. (10) For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. (11) And not only so, but we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.” (Romans 5:8-11 KJV)

The wrath is coming upon the sons of disobedience, among others.

“For this you know with certainty, that no immoral or impure person or covetous man, who is an idolater, has an inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (6) Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of these things the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience. (7) Therefore do not be partakers with them;”
(Ephesians 5:5-7 NASB)

Paul wrote similar words to the church at Colossae.

“Therefore consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, and greed, which amounts to idolatry. (6) For it is because of these things that the wrath of God will come upon the sons of disobedience,” (Colossians 3:5-6 NASB)

To the church of Thessaloniki, Paul wrote:

“For they themselves report about us what kind of a reception we had with you, and how you turned to God from idols to serve a living and true God, (10) and to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, that is Jesus, who rescues us from the wrath to come.”
(1 Thessalonians 1:9-10 NASB)

The writer of the book of Hebrews (a book written to Jewish followers of Christ.) He says,

“do not harden your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness, when your fathers tempted Me, proved Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was grieved with that generation and said, They always err in their heart, and they have not known My ways. So I swore in My wrath, They shall not enter into My rest.” (Hebrews 3:8-11 MKJV)

One of the primary places we look to find information on God’s wrath tends to be the Revelation.

“The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. (15) Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; (16) and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;” (Revelation 6:14-16 NASB)

The people defined in verse 15 are not those I would think realize that this punishment/wrath is from God. I marvel at why they know.

Aside from the brother in Christ that seemed to want to go through the time of God’s wrath, I got into a heated argument with a false teacher, as he tried to tell me that the seven-year period was not a time of wrath and judgment. Oh, it is.

More passages from Revelation on the wrath.

Rev_11:18; Rev_14:8 ; Rev_14:10; Rev_15:1; Rev_15:7; Rev_16:1; Rev_16:19; Rev_18:3; Rev_19:15

The angels could NOT destroy Sodom and the surrounding cities until Lot and his family were removed, and so they physically removed them.

“and if He rescued righteous Lot, oppressed by the sensual conduct of unprincipled men (8) (for by what he saw and heard that righteous man, while living among them, felt his righteous soul tormented day after day by their lawless deeds), (9) then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptation, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, (10) and especially those who indulge the flesh in its corrupt desires and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they do not tremble when they revile angelic majesties,” (2 Peter 2:7-10 NASB)

One of the issues some have is over the wording in 2 Peter 2:7-10, which talks of “the day of...” This is really not an issue as God has referred to this seven-year time frame, as well as Jesus’ return to earth, as the day of the Lord. The day of judgment is the seven-year period, but it is also the day Jesus returns physically to earth, and it can also apply to the time of the great white throne judgment, which has NOTHING to do with believers. Figuring out which day He is talking about is one of our biggest challenges, but most of the time, it can be accomplished by looking at the context.

In the book of Revelation, the seven seals, the seven bowls, and the seven trumpets are all a part of the wrath and judgment of God upon the nations and the Jews.

Once the seven years begin, there is no separation of time, for it is all God’s time, even if it seems that He is using humans to help bring about the wrath that He has determined. An example of this can be seen here in Jude 1:6, where angels carry out the judgment.

“And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day,” (Jude 1:6 NASB)

At the beginning of the millennial age, Satan is thrown into the bottomless pit for a thousand years.

Does that mean the fallen angels are also gone?

Absolutely, since they carry out Satan’s wishes, and there is no longer any temptation. This next statement will mess up many Christians as they have chosen to follow some twisted teaching from a false teacher.

Abolishing Satan does not remove the free will from those still here on earth, and their choice to act poorly will be quickly and effectively dealt with during the thousand years. At the end of the millennial reign, Satan alone gets released and deceives the world, and we see no one with him.

The short book of Jude is the only place in the Bible where you will find a reference of this sort about Enoch.

“It was also about these men that Enoch, in the seventh generation from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with many thousands of His holy ones, (15) to execute judgment upon all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their ungodly deeds which they have done in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” (Jude 1:14-15 NASB)

So, when do we see God/Jesus coming with thousands of His holy ones?

At the end of the seven years and at the beginning of the millennial reign. Jesus will come as the warring Messiah, and He will silence His enemies.

“And I saw another angel flying in mid-heaven, having an eternal gospel to preach to those who live on the earth, and to every nation and tribe and tongue and people; (7) and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God, and give Him glory, because the hour of His judgment has come; worship Him who made the heaven and the earth and sea and springs of waters.”
(Revelation 14:6-7 NASB)

One last thing.

You talked about “the murder of our people.”

You, like a few others, merely wrote me an unexplainable note, and I can only assume that you are calling these “our people” because we sit by many of them in Church.

If they did not go up in the rapture, then they fall under the category of “the nations.” I say this, even though it probably upsets you, because right now, in this “pre-rapture” state, there are only three people groups: the Jews, the nations, and the church. Obviously, the rapture will change that equation and remove the church, leaving the Jews and the nations.

Who is God’s wrath being poured out upon?

You got it, the Jews and the nations. The church became part of the body of Christ, and He already suffered all the wrath necessary to satisfy the debts owed on our behalf. He is NEVER going to do that again.

A logical question would be, will those who missed the catching away of the church accept Christ during the seven years?

Scripture tells me that an uncountable number will, and that should bring you some peace. Just know this, they will have everything we today have (like repentance and forgiveness,) yet without grace, they will have to prove their love and allegiance to God.

Posted in 2 Peter, bible study, Ephesians, punishment, reconciled, rescue, saved, wrath. | Tagged Abomination, antichrist, apostasy, Belief, Bible, Christ, departure, desolation, desolations, end times, falling, God, great, Jesus, last days, man of lawlessness, punish, revealed, saved, Scripture, seven years, sins, study, Tribulation, wrath | Leave a comment

Will the world have a unified religion under the antichrist? Revelation 13:8.

Posted on 11/26/2022 by remso

I listen to several prophecy teachers as they talk in an effort to inform us all of what they deem to be the truth about what is to come. Since most of what we see coming lies within the period of what many call the tribulation, the bulk of the people this conversation applies to will be those who do not go up in the church’s rapture. That means the remaining people on earth will endure at least some of the events occurring during that time.

After the catching away of the church, life on earth will take some drastic turns.

A horrendous attack on Israel could occur before the church is removed, if not before, then shortly after that.
Whether it takes minutes or weeks is unimportant, but the man we have been expecting, called the antichrist, will step onto the world stage, set forth a peace treaty “with many,” and proclaim that he has everything under control. An older quote repeated during the last couple of years is this. “We do not need another committee. We have too many already. What we want is a man of sufficient stature to hold the allegiance of all people and to lift us out of the economic morass into which we are sinking. Send us such a man and be he god or devil, we will receive him.”—Paul Henri Spaak, the first president of the UN General Assembly, first president of the European Parliament, and onetime secretary general of NATO.
Note that I said that the antichrist makes a peace treaty “with many,” this is because far too many claim he will make a peace treaty with Israel. I am not saying it can’t happen, but there is nothing in scripture that says he makes peace with Israel. Does it make sense that Israel would take advantage of this ceasefire and possible withdrawal of troops? Of course, it does, so the presumption is that the peace treaty is with Israel.

I do not know if you have been paying attention, but Israel has very few friends right now, and the United States, one of the last countries I would have expected, has, under the “leadership” of Joe Biden, thrown Israel under the bus.

What you do see, in terms of peace, particularly if this man can address the Muslim world, is that this man will be able to get the attacking parties to back off under the guise of a peace treaty. Consider where the major players, in terms of endless bombing, are coming from. They are coming from Muslim nations, and surprise, even Russia has a large Muslim population, and many have been fighting under the title of Chechen(s).

The prophecy teachers and those who mindlessly replicate what they say will tell you that the antichrist will bring about a one-world religion. Many of them back their claim by quoting this passage.

“All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.” (Revelation 13:8 NASB)

I prefer the NASB because scholars say this version is the closest to the original in meaning, and I chose to believe them. But there is an immediate problem because it says, “all who dwell on the earth will worship him,’ and far too many will stop here and not gain the context of verse eight. The passage goes on to say that these worshipers are ONLY those whose names are NOT written in the Lamb’s book of life. Sitting here at my desk, I cannot tell you whose names are NOT in the book. To do otherwise is to be judgmental, which is NOT even close to our job description.

Another translation, which is worded in a manner that makes it almost impossible to misunderstand what God is trying to say, is the Williams New Testament.

“All the inhabitants of the earth whose names, from the foundation of the world, have not been written in the slaughtered Lamb’s book of life, will worship him.”
(Revelation 13:8 Williams)

With a translation like the NASB, there is a presumption that the church is standing there watching all this happen, which is NOT the case. I am not trying to convey that only the lost will be worshiping this man, but there will be those whose names are written in the book, and this will happen throughout the time of wrath, and they will also resist the beast in every way possible, up to and including their deaths.

Let’s discuss the word WORSHIP for a moment.

Worship is the Greek word proskuneō. The meanings go like this: To kiss the hand in a token of reverence. To do obeisance, show respect, fall or prostrate before.

“It is also a salutation between persons of equal ranks was to kiss each other on the lips; when the difference of rank was slight, they kissed each other on the cheek; when one was much inferior, he fell upon his knees and touched his forehead to the ground or prostrated himself, throwing kisses at the same time toward the superior. It is this latter mode of salutation that Gr. writers express by proskunéō.” (Word Study Dictionary)

While obeisance can be associated with worship, the dictionary definition reads like this. It is a courtesy or an act of reverence made by an inclination of the body or the knee.

Sadly, even animals will do this. For example, don’t, as a rule, live in wolf packs where there is a pack leader, and the other wolves “bow” to the alpha, mainly because the alpha will potentially kill the offender.

How do you turn this obeisance, the transliteration of which is written as worship, around and say there will be a one-world religion?

Having spent my life in the church, I have heard every possible suggestion as to who will be the next antichrist. Russia held the record for world leaders. Still, then it started transitioning as our American Presidents began saying things, like points of light, a new world order, or we need to level the playing field – meaning that “they” were going to bring America down to third-world status, which kind of explains this opposition to a wall that would work to restrain those that choose not come into the country through legal means.

On that note, I suspect that someone like Barack Obama will step forward, and he is an admitted and dominant Muslim that seemed to be a big player on the world scene. So many different people are being suggested, but WE will never know because he will NOT be revealed until the church is revealed.

Should you be unfortunate enough to be here, the thing you should realize is that we were right. Jesus will come to you if you turn to Him, but you will probably have to die by the sword though.

Posted in antichrist, Antichrist, bible study, End times, faced with death, false teaching, hidden wisdom, Holy spirit, Jesus, judgment, mystery, New World Order, one world religion, overcame, Prophetic, rapture, Revelation, sealed, strange doctrines, teaching a different doctrine, tests, the king of fierce countenance, the prince that shall come, Thoughts on scripture, trials, worship | Tagged all, Belief, Bible, Book of Life, Christ, dwell, Earth, end times, foundation, from the foundation of the world, God, inhabitants, Jesus, last days, not, prophecy, Revelation 13:8, Scripture, whose names, worship, written | Leave a comment

It is appointed unto man once to die; is that true? Hebrews 9:27.

Posted on 11/21/2022 by remso

It was early in 2022 that I came to learn of Lee Brainard. He maintains a YouTube website called Soothkeep, where you can find many of his teachings should you want to check them out.

Mr. Brainard comes across as intelligent and worthy of a listen, but here it is November of 2022, several months later, and I tried to listen to him try to explain who the two witnesses would be (Just as a side note, because the two witnesses, like a few other things in scripture, are not so cleanly detailed I will use words like might be instead of “will be”, as Lee Brainard conveyed.)

He opened the talk by saying it could be Elijah and Enoch, and he explained how many people feel strongly about that choice; however, Mr. Brainard noted that he did not think it would be them and that he chose Moses and Elijah.

He proceeded to explain why it would not be Enoch because we never saw Enoch perform any signs, nor did he call down fire from heaven as Elijah did.

Let’s be honest; we know little about Enoch. Fortunately, scripture in the New Testament books of Hebrews and Jude references Enoch as a man who did something no nobody else has done – he worshiped God on a regular basis, and one day, he was transported off the earth, and not by death. That alone moves Enoch into an untouchable category, but I digress.

In Hebrews 11:5, we are told that

“By faith, Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.”

Translated? Now there’s a familiar word. Philip, the evangelist, was translated, and so was Elijah.

Jude, a disciple who introduced himself as “a bondservant of Jesus Christ, and brother of James.” A logical assumption is that James is the half-brother of Jesus, an author of a book by the same name, and, therefore, a half-brother of Jesus as well. Both of these “brothers” rejected Jesus during His life on earth but eventually came around. Jude wrote to alert us to false teachers, a bit of information that will play into this piece of writing shortly.

Jude, in verses 14-16, tells us

“…Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied about these men also, saying, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints, 15 to execute judgment on all, to convict all who are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have committed in an ungodly way, and of all the harsh things which ungodly sinners have spoken against Him.” 16 These are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.”

Things of note in this short paragraph.

He has pointed out Enoch’s lineage and that he, too, was untainted by the fallen angels having their way with the women folk.
When he says, “Behold, the Lord comes with ten thousands of His saints,” he projected, prophetically, well over 2,000 years into the future, how Jesus will come as the warring messiah and the saints will be alongside.
While we seem to delight in the possibility that Jesus/God will kill and eliminate all those who are not Christians, nothing could be more wrong or distorted. Verse 15, in the ESV, states that He comes “to execute judgment on all…” Jude’s own words speak of “their deeds of ungodliness that they have committed in such an ungodly way…” So many of these marked for judgment seem to be religious, and many commentaries define them as false teachers.

I will tell you that one of those two cannot be Moses, and here is why.

Deuteronomy 34:5-6 NKJV So Moses the servant of the LORD died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the LORD. 6 And He buried him in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth Peor; but no one knows his grave to this day.

Moses died. It would be cruel and unusual punishment to bring him back and kill him again.

Mr. Brainard apparently refused to use the commonsense approach that Enoch and Elijah did not die but interjected how death was NOT necessary to fulfill this prophetic word.

Until Revelation tells us that the two witnesses are placed upon the earth, there is nothing to define how and why they will arrive here. Sure, there are scriptures, such as Numbers 35:30, and Deuteronomy 19:15, that tell us that there must be at least two witnesses to uphold a criminal complaint, but we do not see these two as those being judged but the ones bringing judgment and the testimony against Israel. In our introduction, we are merely told that they will prophesy.

If these two witnesses were to be deemed competent based on previous demonstrations of God’s power, then where did Moses obtain the experience to do what he did?

He learned on the job. So I do not understand the logic of Lee Brainard’s assertion that Enoch is any less qualified.

Within a few minutes, Mr. Brainard had us looking at Hebrews 9:27, which says, “it is appointed unto men to once die.” Although not to my satisfaction, he attempted to explain that this was not a literal death and, therefore, allows us to bypass Enoch.

Allow me a moment to express myself here.

These two witnesses are not given identities for a reason, which means the reason God has picked them is either NOT for us to know or it does not apply to the church and is irrelevant. It is, however, relevant to those still left in Israel when that time comes. So these two are meant to be highly significant evangelists to the Jewish community, and what is vitally important is what they say and what they do, but we never focus on that because, again, it is something that we can only speculate about.

Most of my Bible study ideas come from conversations where someone, like a Bible teacher, has made an assertion, attempted to defend their position, and would not back down even when shown from the Word of God how improper their teaching is. I doubt this rebuttal to Lee Brainard’s teaching would ever make it to him, so I do it here for you to see.

This, by the way, is not meant to promote the bashing of a particular brother in Christ but to learn to be sensible, like the Bereans that Paul spoke of, who, after hearing what Paul said, went, studied, and validated his words against the only scrolls available – the Torah. This is what I have done with Mr. Brainard’s comments. But, remember, no one is above the law, even me. So I urge you to search the scriptures to see if what I say is true.

Another noticeable thing is happening here; while the passage that conveys that every one of us must be subject to death is found in Hebrews 9:27, I have initiated this “study” with Hebrews 9:11 as I wanted you to get a feel for the context. Mr. Brainard apparently sees the context differently.

So then, Christ had to be subject to death. The reasons for this had to do with Lucifer’s rebellion and expulsion and Adam’s eating of the fruit. The timing and beginnings of God’s plan to rid the world of sin and Satan were put together before the world began and the creation of mankind. It is all these things put together that evoked the need for Christ to enter into the holy tabernacle in heaven.

“But when Christ appeared as a high priest of the good things to come, He entered through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, not made with hands, that is to say, not of this creation;” (Hebrews 9:11 NASB)

My Thursday morning men’s group has watched several weeks of Dr. Derwin Gray on Right Now Videos. He is the Lead Pastor at Transformation Church in Charlotte, North Carolina. What is unique about his teaching style is that as he reads a passage that speaks to the topic, he frequently says, “now let’s pause here a moment.” I want to do that now.

When Christ appeared after his death, where did he appear?

As I think about what I just asked, it is a trick question, although that was not my intent, as few of you will acknowledge that He went into the heavenly tabernacle, and fewer even realize that this act of forgiveness actually happened. Still, if you read your Bible, you will know that Jesus appeared to over 400 between his resurrection and ascension into heaven. However, the most important thing He did after subjecting Himself to the cross and death was that He appeared in the heavenlies, a more perfect tabernacle. This is the heavenly tabernacle and the pattern for the one on earth.

“and not through the blood of goats and calves, but through His own blood, He entered the holy place once for all, having obtained eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of a heifer sprinkling those who have been defiled sanctify for the cleansing of the flesh, how much more will the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without blemish to God, cleanse your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” (Hebrews 9:12-14 NASB)

Once again, let’s pause here.

Jesus entered the heavenly tabernacle and obtained eternal redemption for us, with and through His own blood. Christ, we are told, offered Himself and subjected Himself to death.

“For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. For where a covenant is, there must of necessity be the death of the one who made it. For a covenant is valid only when men are dead, for it is never in force while the one who made it lives.”
(Hebrews 9:15-17 NASB)

Pause!

Because He died, subjected Himself to the cross, and poured His blood out, just as they did with the animal sacrifices, for His benefit and ours, this makes Him the mediator of a new covenant.

Under no circumstance is the covenant valid until the death of the mediator. Jesus’ death fulfilled the first and the last covenant, and yet, He was raised from the dead and now lives as our mediator, making Him a greater mediator.

“Therefore even the first covenant was not inaugurated without blood. For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, “THIS IS THE BLOOD OF THE COVENANT WHICH GOD COMMANDED YOU.” And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood. And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.” (Hebrews 9:18-22 NASB)

Again a pause.

Every covenant is inaugurated with blood.

The first covenant was fulfilled with blood, and so was the second.

We are told that without blood, there is no forgiveness; thank God, blood was shed for our forgiveness.

“Therefore it was necessary for the copies of the things in the heavens to be cleansed with these, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us;” (Hebrews 9:23-24 NASB)

Another pause.

Why did Jesus have to cleanse the heavenly things?

Because Satan tore the place up and brought abomination to the heavenly tabernacle. Jesus did this for us.

“nor was it that He would offer Himself often, as the high priest enters the holy place year by year with blood that is not his own. Otherwise, He would have needed to suffer often since the foundation of the world; but now once at the consummation of the ages He has been manifested to put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself.”
(Hebrews 9:25-26 NASB)

Will the pauses ever end?

He is NEVER to offer Himself again. Why?

Because His sacrifice, as the unblemished lamb, was enough. He did not use any other blood: He used His own. He sacrificed Himself, and you don’t do this without dying and rising again.

“And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment, so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.”
(Hebrews 9:27-28 NASB)

Let’s focus on verse 27 for a moment.

Appointed – apokeimai – to be reserved; figuratively to await: – be appointed, (be) laid up.

Men are the Greek word anthrōpos = human beings.

Once, the Greek word is hapax and means one (or a single) time, once.

Die is the Greek word apothnēskō and carries meanings of to die off (literally or figuratively): – be dead, death, die, lie a-dying, be slain (X with).

Judgment, this is the Greek word krisis and means (Subjectively or objectively, for or against); by extension, a tribunal; by implication, justice (specifically divine law): – accusation, condemnation, damnation, judgment.

I have led you into Hebrews 9:27, where it says it is appointed for human beings to die once. The manner in which you die varies from old age, disease, or some form of violence. Hebrews 9:11-27 speaks to the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Yes, Christ died.

We, on the other hand, do not have to die merely because sin demanded it, as Jesus became the sacrifice for us. But there is still a problem as we are born into the world physically damaged in a way that propels us to sin, and God will not tolerate that impairment in the Holy City or Heaven if you rather, and that is why we will be changed.

“In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. For this perishable must put on the imperishable, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when this perishable will have put on the imperishable, and this mortal will have put on immortality, then will come about the saying that is written, “DEATH IS SWALLOWED UP in victory.”
(1 Corinthians 15:52-54 NASB)

So what do I see here?

The dead in Christ will be raised, but the perishable will now be imperishable because they have already physically died, and God has been able to purge that drive for lust that was a part of their bodies.

But the passage goes on to say, “and we will be changed.”

What changes?

One our location, as we will lift off from this earth and meet Jesus in the air. The other thing that changes seems to be this body. The body carries the drive to sin, and it appears as though our bodies must die. This transition may be part of the Bema seat, and as I think about it, I see freedom.

“in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed.”
(1 Corinthians 15:52 NASB)

Changed is the Greek word allássō, and though the Bible translators simply used the word changed, it implies that you are changed into another form or the nature of the thing is changed.

Since I am, as you are, a spirit that cannot die, then death is merely a painless transition. The oddity is that we all have an unwarranted fear of death.

The next question is why?

As a child, we were made to say a prayer before bed. Where this prayer came from, I am not sure, but the theme was one that continued in the church. The prayer goes like this Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take. There was no confidence, no understanding, and fear was laced throughout the prayer.’ That, along with the things I was told continually in the church, filled my life with fear about God and death. Church merely backed up these prayers by implying that every little sin (like the paper clip I took) would send a person to hell if they did not repent of those sins. I reckon they forgot that Jesus covered all sins and made atonement for them through the cross, pouring His own blood upon the altar in heaven.

I now realize that all this imposed guilt was meant to control the body of Christ because we are all representative of that sheep that has a tendency to stray and must be stopped. But, since breaking our legs would be illegal, and it does little to stop the thoughts that come into your head, all that is left for church leadership is manipulation. No, it does not show up in every leader or every church, but it is there, and Satan saw to it that we were all taught deathly thoughts and fear.
Consider Adam and Eve; in the garden, God spelled out that their sin of eating that fruit initiated the two of them and all their offspring, of which I am one, into warfare. Satan is a master at psychological warfare.

In case you haven’t figured it out, I am an unswerving believer in Hebrews 9:27, which says it is appointed unto humanity, once to die, and after this comes the judgment.

For the believers, this judgment is the Bema seat of Christ, where you will be rewarded according to the acts that made you look like Jesus to someone, and most of those acts you were probably unaware of. So judgment, for us, is nothing to fear. I am being sarcastic as I say if you idolize your Gucci underwear, then perhaps you should switch to Fruit of the Loom or Hanes, as it appears that all human idolatry and adultery will get burned up at the Bema seat right before you get that sparkling white robe.

This is, for the most part, not a life-changing argument, but when a notable speaker says that God did NOT mean what He said has the potential for huge problems, especially if you do not spend any time in God’s Word. If that is true – God did NOT mean what He said, then God is a liar. If you have read the Word for yourself, then you know that God cannot lie and that He is incapable of lying, and you would know that what Lee Brainard is NOT true, making him a false teacher.

Scriptural proof to substantiate that God cannot lie can be found in 1 Samuel 15:29.

“He who is the Glory of Israel does not lie or change his mind; for he is not a human being, that he should change his mind.” (1 Samuel 15:29 NIV)

Since we are to make our judgments based upon two witnesses, try this.

“I, the LORD, have spoken! The time has come, and I won’t hold back. I will not change my mind, and I will have no pity on you. You will be judged on the basis of all your wicked actions, says the Sovereign LORD.” Ezekiel 24:14 NLT

The context of Ezekiel 24 is a judgment upon the Jews. Many, still to this day, refuse to see Yeshua as the Messiah, and yet, they, too, were covered by Jesus’ blood shed on that cross. So, here in verse 14, they, along with the nations and anyone else who pushed Jesus aside, will be judged on the basis of all their actions.

Are their actions all wicked?

Matthew 25:31-46 speaks of the judgment of the sheep and the goats. If you pay attention, you can see that this is a parallel to the great white throne that most fear. Here though, the goats are separated from the sheep, and the sheep gain entrance into the eternal kingdom. Shocked, they ask, what did we do to deserve such favor? The answer has everything to do with their actions. These actions are the very things that God commanded us to do when He gave us the Ten Commandments – simply put, Love on People. You cannot do that unless there is a moral fiber from God running through your body.

So if you were to challenge me about the nature and character of God, I would have to say, Nope, sorry, I believe God and His Word, and I will not change my thinking on this one.

Posted in 1 Corinthians, appointed, bible study, changed, cleansed, death, eternal, Forgiveness, God does not lie, Hebrews, holy place, imperishable, judge angels, mediator, new covenant, redemption, sacrifices, tabernacle, the blood, Thoughts, to bear the sins of many, twinkling of an eye | Tagged altar, appointed, Belief, Bible, blood, Christ, death, died, end times, eternal, false teaching, God, heavenly, Hebrews 9:27, holy place, hope, Jesus, judgment, last days, Lee Brainard, once to die, redemption, Scripture, teachers | 1 Comment

Genesis Chapter Six, The Nephilim.

Posted on 11/15/2022 by remso

Genesis Chapter Six

The Nephilim

When you make the decision to look intently at Genesis chapter six, you begin to see

a strange people,
odd terminology,
and an angry God.

The definitions and reasons behind those oddities do not jump out so readily, and so it takes dedication and a heart that chooses to understand to grasp what I am going to tell you.

The objective in talking about the Nephilim is not to make some new doctrine out of the unusual things buried within the Word but to open your eyes to the God that lives outside the time and space dimensions we do. Perhaps another way of putting this is to say that God does not live inside our religious box.

Here is where we will begin this dive into the Nephilim.

“And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives, whomsoever they chose.”
(Genesis 6:1-2 JPS)

Where did those “the sons of God” come from?

An assumption would be Cain’s and Shem’s descendants. But you have a problem because you cannot answer where Cain or Shem’s wife came from. To assume that these two stood around waiting for mom and dad to crank out some sisters is laughable. Assumptions are rarely productive or educational.

I cannot define who the sons of God were without understanding that this book we are looking at is a Jewish book, and the majority is written in Hebrew. But, of course, we also need to grasp the writer’s mentality; that tends to mean paying attention to the context. And I can use some logic to help comprehend this. Since we only know of two people, at this point, Adam and Eve, and God made them in his image.

“Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” (Genesis 2:7 NASB)

Sometime later, He makes the woman.

“The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man.”
(Genesis 2:20-22 NASB)

Operating on the premise that there are only two people on the earth, there could only be a handful of possibilities for ancestral sons on the planet. But, for argument’s sake, there are supposedly only two people on earth when sin infiltrates humanity.

Descendants of Adam and Eve.
Keep in mind that from the garden forward, all their descendants carry a damaged chromosome that promotes an inclination to sin. In a way, humanity was already damaged by Adam’s treasonous act, making any further demonic efforts pointless; and yet the onslaught from Satan’s cohorts continues proactively. What gives this more credence lies in Genesis 3:15.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.” (Genesis 3:15 NLT)

Well, this demonic onslaught could certainly be perceived as hostility or warfare. And though I will not pursue it here, the fact that it speaks of offspring from Satan should alarm you. Her offspring speaks to the birth of Jesus, but keep in mind that Jesus was the product of God being carried by this young virgin Mary. There was no human procreation involved, making Jesus sinless from birth and, therefore, the only one who could pay the price of our redemption.

However, because God spoke a prophetic word that indicated that an offspring from Eve would strike Satan’s heel, Satan had every reason to disrupt that plan. So no, an attempt to pollute and stop the human lineage through demonic intervention simply because they were descendants of Adam and Eve falls short.
Both Cain and Seth found a woman to “marry.”
Where did these women come from?

I happen to think that it is a logical question that deserves an answer.

I can logically assume that children were produced prior to eating from the tree of knowledge in the garden, as it is not practical to think that their bodies suddenly matured and they discovered sex after sinning.

Since we have little that defines Adam and Eve prior to sin, one might say that the children were Godlike (Consider that Adam was made in the image of God, and Eve is a clone of Adam.) This seems logical as Adam had dominion over the earth, and we rarely stop to think what that means.

And we have NO idea how long those two walked this earth prior to Adam’s treason. Then the potential number of children, who only know how to act based on what they saw and heard from Adam and Eve, could have been uncountable. (If you pay attention when you read about the creation of Adam and Eve, you will never see God giving any instructions to Eve or the sons, and yet we make the assumption that they are supposed to know the rules. Since we do see God giving those instructions to Adam, then the only logical recourse is to assume that it was Adam’s responsibility to pass the restrictions about the tree of knowledge along to Eve. This understanding is the basis of Satan’s argument, “did God really say that?” Because the pretense is that Adam played her, lied to her, and that would make God a liar as well.

What happened as sin suddenly traveled through the earth like a shock wave?

Scripture tells us that the sons of god looked on the daughters of men.

They would suddenly have looked upon the women differently, as sin was now affecting them to the point that they saw women as something to lust upon. (This train of thought is conjecture as there is little to back such statements.)

The Young’s Literal Translation tells us that the sons of god saw “the daughters of men that they are fair, and they take to themselves women of all whom they have chosen.”

The phrase “the sons of god” is the usage of two Hebrew words, ben ‘ĕlôhı̂ym. Elohim means rulers, judges, divine ones, and angels, while ben means sons.

Now, why would I use the terminology supposedly in relation to people on earth?

Because it seems intuitive for the man, Adam, to mate with the woman, and, whether you intended to make a baby or not, babies happen; and our “two” humans are not even in the garden as yet, at least that is the way we get this narrative depicted to us.

Stepping away from babies for a moment, you need to realize that God placed Adam in the garden and pointed out that the tree of the knowledge of good and evil was in the middle of the garden.

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed. And out of the ground made the LORD God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.” (Genesis 2:7-9 KJV)

Sometime later.

“The LORD God commanded the man, saying, “From any tree of the garden you may eat freely; but from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat from it you will surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17 NASB)

Is that clear enough?

When you eat from that tree, you will die.

Ah, but how many ways are there to die?

Physically, spiritually, and perhaps the hardest to understand, complete separation from God. Unfortunately, to many, this separation means nothing until it is experienced.

Another reason for using the term supposedly is because God has to say to Eve, now your pain will be increased in childbirth.

The Complete Jewish Bible puts it this way.

To the woman, he said, “I will greatly increase your pain in childbirth. You will bring forth children in pain. Your desire will be toward your husband, but he will rule over you.” (Genesis 3:16 CJB)

That is a bizarre disclosure unless she has already been producing children with minimal discomfort, and you have NOTHING that restricts Adam and Eve’s time or actions together to the garden environment.

The third argument in support of Adam producing offspring outside the garden is the fact that Cain, the first of two children since the fall of humanity, says, people will kill me. Quite an odd statement when we prefer to believe that there are only three people on earth, and we see nothing to explain how or why Cain would have this concept.

Cain, understandably, leaves the family unit and goes to the land of Nod.

“Now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. “When you cultivate the ground, it will no longer yield its strength to you; you will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the LORD, “My punishment is too great to bear! “Behold, You have driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from Your face, I will be hidden, and I will be a vagrant and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.” So the LORD said to him, “Therefore whoever kills Cain, vengeance will be taken on him seven-fold.” And the LORD appointed a sign for Cain so that no one finding him would slay him. Then Cain went out from the presence of the LORD and settled in the land of Nod, east of Eden.” (Genesis 4:11-16 NASB)

I looked at the word land to see if I could find some clue as to where Cain went, but no, it just means the vastness of the land. Nod, on the other hand, gives us a clue that I did not expect. In Hebrew, it means vagrancy, or, as the Brown-Driver-Briggs definition puts it, wandering.

The very next verse says,

“And Cain knew his wife, and she conceived and bore Enoch, and he built a city and called the name of the city after the name of his son Enoch.” (Genesis 4:17 JPS)

And we are left to assume that in this land of Nod that Cain immediately found himself a woman and started a family. So think about this, Cain finds his woman in the land of wandering also. What a treasure she must have been.

For life to go on and people to expand their families is not unusual; however, we have no well-defined evidence to tell us what life was like before sin entered the human stream, but when Adam saw Eve, he said, “At last! This is bone from my bones and flesh from my flesh.” (CJB).

All the soft furry animals may have talked, but they were NOT human, and Eve was like him in more ways than one. So it only makes sense that after the introductions, the exploratory interactions began.

Having been raised in the church, where everything associated with the world was evil and would send you to hell, I asked the question, what makes the sexual act a sin?

What makes it a sin is the intent and the self-serving idolatry that goes along with that intent. That intent can turn into idolatry, where you are setting up something as having more importance than God, and that is what makes it a sin. But remember, as yet, corruption was NOT integrated into the lives of Adam and Eve and, therefore, had NO impact on them. It was all good.

This is a naively simple translation of Genesis 6:2.

“the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.” Genesis 6:2 NIV

Who were the sons of God?

Or did God actually have sons at this point?

Since I should know that we are not talking about the sons of Adam, then it has to be someone else.

The Hebrew word for sons is ‘ben,’ pronounced bane, and means a son (as a builder of the family name), in the broadest sense (of literal and figurative relationship, including grandson, subject, nation, quality or condition, etc… Word Study Dictionary.

So I know that I am dealing with a figurative relationship when I read “the sons of God.”

BDB Definition: 1) son, grandson, child, member of a group, 1f) sons (as characterization, i.e., sons of injustice [for unrighteous men] or sons of God [for angels]), 1g) people (of a nation) (plural), 1h) of lifeless things, 1i) a member of a guild, order, or class.

Since I know that the relationship is figurative, then it becomes easier to understand that these are fallen angels. Young’s Literal Translation also identifies them as fallen angels.

“The fallen ones were in the earth in those days, and even afterwards when sons of God come in unto daughters of men, and they have borne to them—they are the heroes, who, from of old, are the men of name.” (Genesis 6:4 YLT)

Do not read this and say, look, only moments later, the verse calls them sons of God, so it is two different groups. The Holy Spirit is telling you that the fallen ones came back after the flood to try a variety of approaches by which they could pollute and nullify God’s people.

Let’s see if there is any corroborating evidence for some of my theories.

These sons of God are (any) descendants of Adam.

The problem with that is genetics. You will get black cats if you breed two pure strains of black cats. God created Adam; therefore, the possibility of the couple’s first offspring looking extraordinarily different than the originals would be insurmountable, that is, unless something extraordinary happened, and it did – they ate the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. So any sexual activity prior to the entry of sin would have produced offspring exactly like the Godlike creations they were.

Sin, through the eating of the forbidden fruit, corrupted the human DNA, and that caused mutations within the offspring that no one could see. While that is certainly a possibility, it is not addressing where the sons of god came into play. Not everything in scripture is black and white, but there is usually some underlying evidence to support or reject some theory.

Why, then, would God choose to send his son Jesus as a man when there was the possibility of that form having a genetic malfunction that would make him unqualified to pay the debt necessary?

In case you missed this in your Bible reading, God circumvented the human reproductive method and had a young virgin, Mary, carry a fertilized egg made without human intervention. That fertilized egg had NO malfunction or sin attached to it at all, as God bypassed humanity to produce that egg. Don’t lose sleep over this concept; just remember that He created Eve, and all her intricate body functions from a rib. He can create a fertilized ovum.

These sons of God are not humans, leaving only angels.

Your mind cannot wrap around that as yet. Hang on.

The Hebrew gives us some leeway in looking at the word ‘ben‘ as It carries the connotation of a figurative relationship with God. Based on this information, we still have no clear definition of who the sons of God are.

What does it mean when it calls them the sons of God?

The word God is one we have become familiar with as church leaders try to integrate us into the Jewish heritage. In this case, it is the word ‘elohiym.

Brown-Driver-Briggs‘ Hebrew Definitions – Transliteration: ‘elohiym – Definition: 1. (plural) a. rulers, judges b. divine ones c. angels d. gods.

It is becoming more evident that the ‘sons’ is taking on a figurative or conditional relationship and could easily have been angels, and that is why I want you to look at Job’s life for a moment. This journey into Job may seem long, but the important takeaway is that Satan is included among the “sons of God.”

In the opening narrative about Job, we see Job’s sons.

“His sons used to go and hold a feast in the house of each one on his day, and they would send and invite their three sisters to eat and drink with them.”
(Job 1:4 NASB)

Now this narrative alone may mean nothing, but Job is troubled by their actions and repeatedly offers sacrifices to God, presuming that the boys have sinned and cursed God.

“When the days of feasting had completed their cycle, Job would send and consecrate them, rising up early in the morning and offering burnt offerings according to the number of them all; for Job said, “Perhaps my sons have sinned and cursed God in their hearts.” Thus Job did continually.”
(Job 1:5 NASB)

The religious, who feel they have the right to be critical of Job, will point out that “without faith, it is impossible to please God,” which may have been Job’s failure. Admittedly, the passage tells us that Job continually offered “sacrifices to God,” which would seem to be a problem.

“Now there was a day when the sons of God came to present themselves before the LORD, and Satan also came among them.” (Job 1:6 NASB)

A straightforward observation is that this is the same Satan Jesus saw fall to earth.

“And He said to them, I saw Satan falling like a lightning [flash] from heaven.” (Luke 10:18 AMP)

Our assumption upon reading that is that Satan was permanently ejected from heaven, yet there he is. It feels more like he lost his seat at the United Nations assembly, but not his right to attend the meetings and voice his protests. Satan was well aware that God had protected Job, but he was not aware that Job had somehow made himself vulnerable.

“Have You not made a hedge about him and his house and all that he has, on every side? …” (Job 1:10 NASB)

So no, Satan does not know everything, and we see him challenging God to test him yourself.

“All right, you may test him,” the LORD said to Satan. “Do whatever you want with everything he possesses, but don’t harm him physically.” So Satan left the LORD’s presence. (Job 1:12 NLT)

Truth is, beyond God telling Satan that he is in your hands, we don’t know what happened to Job to make him vulnerable to Satan. What we do know is that God trusts the man to not submit to Satan’s tests.

The following is an excerpt from the ‘Through the Bible’ commentary by Dr. J. Vernon McGee.

“The term “sons of God” in the Old Testament is used elsewhere but only of angels, never of man. In the book of Job, the sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan also came with them, angels. It would appear that these are angels here in Genesis, that they actually began to intermingle and intermarry. You say but wait a minute. Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. That is true. But Jesus did not say that they were sexless; He just said there was no marriage nor given in marriage. And it is interesting that always angels are referred to in a masculine form.” (emphasis mine)

I will lend my agreement to the late Dr. McGee, although he does not need it, in saying that I am unwaveringly convinced that angels were involved in the business of men.

Who were the Nephilim or giants?

I will give you two translations for comparison.

Genesis 6:4 (KJV) states that: “There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that,”

Genesis 6:4 (NIV) The Nephilim were on the earth in those days–and also afterward–

And one more verse for understanding.

“In those days, and for some time after, giant Nephilites lived on the earth, for whenever the sons of God had intercourse with women, they gave birth to children who became the heroes and famous warriors of ancient times.” (Genesis 6:4 NLT)

If the sons of God were angels, they were NOT living on the earth as the heavens are, or were their realm; but ask yourself, how does this statement apply to the fallen ones. From what we saw in Job, it is apparent that they move back and forth between heaven and earth with ease.

How odd; if we start with the pure strain called Adam, made by the hand of God, and Eve was a clone of Adam, there should have been no expectation of oddities, and yet here they are in the form of Nephilim. There are so many translations of Genesis 6:4, and many, probably because the era in which this was published was attempting to show sophistication, used words like “came” into, or took in marriage. Give me a break.

The “God’s Word” translation tells us that the “sons of God slept with the daughters of other humans,” as though they were all humans. In almost every interaction with humans, these beings looked like humans, although a few had wings.

The “ISV” translation says it straightforward “those divine beings were having sexual relations with those human women.”

A common religious argument which Dr. McGee mentioned in the previous quote, is that “ Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. That is true. But Jesus did not say that they were sexless; He just said there was no marriage nor given in marriage.”

Since many translators stated this interaction as “came unto,” which sounds like they met at a local dance, let’s tear this apart for a moment.

“Came in unto” is the Hebrew phrase bô’ el. The word bô’ carries meanings to enter, fall, or light upon (which quickly moves this thought into the category of spoils of warfare.) The Word Study Dictionary states that “It is used with the preposition el meaning to have intercourse,” and that is precisely what we see in (Genesis 6:4). In Genesis16:2, these are the words that Sarai spoke to Abram when she told him to go have sex with Hagar.

We cannot deny that there were giants because we have some bones, pictorial evidence, and historical records of these giants. Young David, before he assumed his kingship, slew Goliath – the giant, and mythology tries to explain the existence of such people.

How else would normal humans have described such persons?

Perhaps mythology was closer than we choose to believe.

H5303 n^ephı̂yl. Transliteration Nephilim. It is from H5307 nâphal. It is possible that the differences were pre-flood and post-flood.

Interesting that the Strong’s concordance indicates that they were bullies or tyrants.

The Word Study Dictionary tells us that Nephilim is a masculine noun and is only used in the plural sense to mean giants. That means that there were many of them. Having cohabited with women, the Nephilim – the mighty men or warriors of great fame, were the offspring.

The ‘WSD’ also indicates that H5307 is the Hebrew word napal: A verb meaning to fall, to lie, to prostrate oneself, to be overthrown.

I cannot help but think about a teaching that Dr. Chuck Missler did on the Nephilim. He asked the question, who is being overthrown here? Although the attempt was made on God, it failed, and it was Satan/Lucifer and those that followed him in this mutinous attempt that got overthrown. A wise observation is to pick up on the fact that these fallen ones are still viable but will meet their fate someday soon.

Brown-Driver-Briggs Definition of H5307 shows it spelled in this manner na^phal, and conveys the idea of being cast down or they failed. You could say they are fallen.

There is no denying that angels, fallen or not, have been involved in the affairs of humanity since time began, and you see their influence throughout the scriptures. Lot had some dealings with them, as two of them eventually had to grab Lot, his wife, and his daughters and remove them from the town that was to be destroyed. Daniel had angels appear to him on multiple occasions to give and explain dreams, and Jacob wrestled with one, although we believe this to have been a Christophany, a pre-incarnate interaction with Jesus.

An alarming statement in Genesis 6:4 tells us that they (the giants) were in the earth then and after.

After what?

For those that get hung up on the word impossible, consider that the Nephilim were here before the flood. All humans outside Noah’s extended family get destroyed, yet the giants returned again.

I don’t know about you, but I have to wonder, how did the destructive nature of sin get so reinvested in the earth?

We were told that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. I always assumed that Noah was a good man, like Joseph, who was engaged to Mary. We have nothing that tells us what would have made Noah a good man. I did a little investigation a few years ago and found that Adam was around 600+ years when Enoch was born. Who better train a curious young man when he comes to ask what it was like walking in the garden with God. Methuselah’s name, which many say, means “when he dies, it will come,” may well have had an influence from Adam and Enoch, and we do see Methuselah dying before the flood. Otherwise, I suspect he, too, would have been on that boat.

The Hebrew word for grace is chên and means that Noah found favor and kindness from the Lord. If you take this narrative back to the garden, you will discover Abel offering a proper sacrifice of a lamb, while Cain did not. I challenge you to find the time when God gave those instructions to Abel; you won’t find them. And neither will you find God giving Eve the warning to NOT eat from the tree of knowledge in the middle of the garden, as that was entirely Adam job, as he had been given dominion over the planet. This dominion included his lovely “wife” and, after the fall, his offspring – Cain and Abel.

Did you catch what I did there?

I put their names in birth order. This is significant because, whether Adam told them individually or in a group session, he told them both, and he was the representative of God here on earth. So I can prove that with this statement from God.

If you had done the right thing, you would be smiling; but because you have done evil, sin is crouching at your door. It wants to rule you, but you must overcome it.”
(Genesis 4:7 GNB)

[The translations of this verse are split down the middle. The NASB, which I prefer, says, “If you do well.” Killing your brother should be considered, by most, to be the polar opposite of doing well.]

You can’t punish your child for something that you have NOT explained to them unless you are just a tyrant. So we have evidence that God had explained the rules to Cain as well as Abel, but He did it through Adam.

Among these men on earth, one man stood out. The question is, why?

Noah – and why he stands out, requires more than a casual look.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah”. (Genesis 6:8 MKJV)

Jehovah y^ehôvâh – (the) self Existent or eternal; Jehovah,

“… Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. (Genesis 6:9 KJV)

Just is the same word translated as righteous. It is tsaddı̂yq.

The word perfect is the Hebrew word tâmı̂ym. Some of its meanings include: complete, whole, entire, sound, and unimpaired.

The word for perfect in relationship to Noah’s generations implies purity within his generational lineage. That would mean that there has never been a time, since Adam, without the destructive interaction of fallen angels.

What, then, would they have been impaired by, and doesn’t that mean that the entirety of the world had been damaged?

Just a couple of names stand out as I think about the genealogy of Adam; Enoch and Methuselah.

“And Enoch walked with God, and then he was not, for God took him.”
(Genesis 5:24 MKJV)

But if you recall, the sons of god were only going after the daughters of men. In so doing, they were attempting to corrupt the human genome through the creation of giants, titans, and monsters.

“the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were good. And they took wives for themselves from all whom they chose.” (Genesis 6:2 MKJV)

Took is the Hebrew word lâqach means to take, seize, and carry away. This was not civilized nor romantic but a forceful act on the part of these fallen angels.

Now, why would that be important?

Because God had a plan to recover his creation, humanity, and it involved bringing a son into the world, which had to be done through a pure line from Adam. Recall how I talked about a pure strain that would have been initiated with Adam and Eve. Satan picked up on this idea and gave orders to impact and pervert the lineage of humanity in an effort to thwart God’s plan of redemption. It almost worked, and that is why we have this cautionary message about Noah being perfect or pure.

“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Matthew 24:37 (NIV)

There is already an onslaught of demonic influence greater than anything Noah might have witnessed, and much of it will be hidden under the guise of alien invasions.

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He established it and did not create a waste place, so what about Genesis 1:2?

Posted on 10/28/2022 by remso

Looking at the word wrath to find out if the earth is young or old might seem ridiculous, but I will try to unravel this great mystery for us.

The story begins in Genesis 1:1, which says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”

The phrase “in the beginning” is the Hebrew word rê’shı̂yth, which means the first in place, time, order, or rank. I could read this sentence in this manner, “in beginning,” God created. There is NO reference to the time spent doing this, nor does it limit God from doing more and other things.

Because we have accepted what our pastors said, without question, we do not challenge the ill-informed creation stories and do not understand or believe that the earth was perfect in its creation.

The prophet Isaiah backs up this assertion.

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited), “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place‘; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.” (Isaiah 45:18-19 NAS95)

The only assumption we are left with is that verse one demonstrates that the creation was done and it was good.

So now we get to verse two and find this.

“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NAS95)

Whoa, stop right there. Something drastic happened between verses one and two, yet we deny it and ignore how or why this occurred.

Look at this phrase “the earth was formless and void.”

Formless is the Hebrew word. The Word Study Dictionary states this. tōhû: A masculine noun meaning formlessness or confusion. The exact meaning of this term is difficult at best since its study is limited to its relatively few Old Testament occurrences. It is used to describe primeval earth before the seven creative days (Gen_1:2); a land reduced to primeval chaos and formlessness (Isa_34:11; Isa_45:18; Jer_4:23).

Void is the word bōhû and, according to the “WSD,” implies “a masculine noun indicating void or emptiness. It depicts the state of matter after God had created it…”

It is evident that this earth was destroyed after God’s initial creation. I will say that I think Dr. Ken Hamm is doing the Christian community a great disservice by pressing intensely for a young earth created in 24 hours segments when the origins of the Genesis account, in conjunction with Isaiah 45:18, DO NOT support a six-day creation within 144 hours. I will also say that I do not know how Dr. Hamm orates this position, but I have experienced a couple of young earth advocates, and several of them went to his creation science museum and returned as proponents of a young earth.

As I am writing this, it occurs to me that this 144-hour time frame might apply if it was merely the installation of a relatively small garden in Eden and a general clean-up of the destroyed earth. But even that seems foolish.

So there had to be another force acting upon the earth, and there was.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” Rev 12:12 KJV

Do a search for the word wrath, and you will find, depending upon the translation, that there are at least eleven references in Revelation alone. Most point to God as the originator of that wrath, but one of those passages is directly attributable to Satan, and you can see that above.

Wrath seems like such a simple word and easy to understand, and that is why few bother to look it up in Greek. The Strong’s concordance tells us that it is the Gk word thumos with a primary meaning of passion (as if breathing hard): – fierceness, indignation. One of the last options is the word wrath.

Webster’s dictionary defines PASSION as “the impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; that which is suffered or received. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind; as desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred…”

As you can see from the definition of passion, Satan was acting under the premise of receiving a wounding from God; and the agitation and hatred that brings.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

To understand this verse, I need to ask, to which point in time is Peter speaking?

I ask this because Jesus told us, while He walked this earth, that He beheld Satan fall like lightning, and standing among His disciples, He wasn’t talking about yesterday. He was speaking about a time much closer to creation.

It is evident from this statement that this event where Satan fell happened long ago. Since we find Satan in the garden seducing Eve to eat the forbidden fruit, then it is safe to say Satan’s fall occurred at or before the garden creation. (This scenario with Satan’s fall has a wide variety of options and may play into the “Gap Theory” that is notable between Gen 1:1 and 1:2.) (Luke 10:18)

Alright, I went there and brought up the “Gap Theory,” so let’s pursue this for a few minutes.

Genesis, in most translations, opens in this manner, “In the beginning.” The problem is that this phrase is wrapped up in one Hebrew word – rê’shı̂yth. It means the first, in place, time, order, or rank.

The passage could easily be read “in beginning,” indicating a process and still making sense. Creating the heavens and the earth was the first thing God did; this opens the door to Him doing other things, and we haven’t made it past verse one yet.

What did God do?

He created the heavens and the earth.

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” (Genesis 1:1 NASB)

Created – the Hebrew word used to express this creating was bārā’. “It is a verb meaning to create. God is the only subject of this verb. It is used for His creating: heaven and earth.” But it is also indicative of Him creating: humanity (Gen_1:27); the heavenly host (Isa_40:26); the ends of the earth (Isa_40:28); north and south (Psa_89:12 [13]); righteousness; salvation (Isa_45:8); evil (Isa_45:7). (Word Study Dictionary)

Did God make any mistakes?

No, and I will prove it to you.

“For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited, “I am the LORD, and there is none else. “I have not spoken in secret, In some dark land; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘Seek Me in a waste place’; I, the LORD, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.” (Isaiah 45:18-19 NASB)

Established is the Hebrew word kûn: According to the Word Study Dictionary, it is A verb meaning to set up, to make firm, to establish, or to prepare. The primary action of this verb is to cause to stand in an upright position, and thus the word also means fixed or steadfast.

Waste place is the Hebrew word tôhû. Used twice, it means to lie waste; a desolation (of the surface), that is, formlessness, confusion; figuratively a worthless thing; without form.

According to Isaiah 45:18-19, this is NOT what God created. “He established it and did not create it a waste place, but formed it to be inhabited.”

And yet, what does Genesis 1:2 say?

“The earth was formless and void, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters.” (Genesis 1:2 NASB)

Obviously, something caused the earth to change. Some might try to tell you that this was a part of the creation process. For example, some believe that the planet and the heavens were formed from a hot spinning mass. However, based on what we see in the scriptures, especially Isaiah 45, that does not seem likely.

Formless, as used in Genesis, is the same Hebrew word we saw in Isaiah, tôhû – a worthless desolation. Void is the Hebrew word bôhû and means an undistinguishable ruin.

So, according to Isaiah 45, the earth was made in a manner appropriate for life, and the life of humanity, once that happens.

What does all that mean to you and me?

It means that something horrific happened between Genesis 1:1, where we see creation, and 1:2, where we find formless, void, and darkness. There is no reason to see this destruction as anything other than Satan being thrown to the earth.

You should realize that there is NOTHING in scripture that defines how much time lapsed between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2. If you hold to the idea that the earth, living things, and, in time, two humans were created in six, 24-hour days, then you are sadly deceived. For example, when Adam committed treason, God slaughtered an animal, specifically a lamb.

(I can tell you that because Abel knew how to make a proper sacrifice, and yet you – the reader, have NO indication that God told Abel, and Cain for that matter, how to do that. So our only logical assumption is that the clothing for Adam and Eve was made from lamb skins and that the lambs were used to teach Adam how to make a proper sacrifice, which he then had to share with the boys that were going to have to make their own sacrifices several years from this point.

And I want you to think about one more aspect of communication from God to man.

How did Eve know NOT to touch that particular tree in the garden?

We do not see God talking to Eve; we only see God speaking to Adam about the tree. Therefore, it would have been Adam’s position, as the one having dominion, to have shared that information with Eve.

Now, think about Satan saying to Eve, did God really say that? Now, think about Satan disparaging Adam and creating doubt that Adam told her the truth and was merely trying to control her; and he belittled God, for God would not have imposed such restrictions upon you. A conversation built on these premises would have allowed Satan to deceive Eve. Remember that Adam is standing just off her shoulder and could have called down the power of heaven against this foolishness, but he said nothing.)

I have been around religious zealots long enough to hear every ridiculous argument against what I just said. That lamb had to go through the birthing process, and sorry, but that takes months, not hours. Look, this Bible is a Jewish book, and in the majority, even the Jews, did NOT interpret the creation as a six-day, twenty-four-hour format; therefore, neither should you.

Secondly, if you are trying to hold to six 24-hour days for the creation, what do you do with the fact that there was no time until the fourth day? (See Genesis 1:19)

The point here is that Satan, at some point, was thrown to earth, and that act created vast and encompassing ruination; and that is quite possibly what we see when we read Revelation 12:12, where it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” So, in his great wrath, Satan trashed the place, which had to be repaired.

Job tells us that Satan was already here, walking about the heavens among the sons of God.

“Now on a certain day, when the sons of God came to stand before the Lord, Satan also was present among them. And the Lord said to him: Whence comest thou? (The NLT translation reads “Where have you come from?”) And he answered and said: I have gone round about the earth, and walked through it.”
(Job 1:6-7 DRB)

Then, Satan’s coming down to the earth predates the fall of humankind in the garden. I suppose this opens an entire other can-o-worms, but the point is that the planet got a makeover, or Adam walked among the earth and its animal life in a corrupted state without concerns.

What do we have that might answer how Adam could have walked fearlessly among Dinosaurs (you cannot deny they were here)?

Adam, the man, was given dominion over the earth and all the animal life. He was God on this earth.
The only record of animals fearing humankind shows up after the flood.

“The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground, and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given. (Genesis 9:2 NAS95)

Did you notice that fear is only one way, and they fear us? That tends to indicate that humans interacted with the animals.

Since an obvious assumption would be that the earth had all the beauty and horror one could imagine. Even Dr. Ken Hamm has animals on the ark exhibit that have long been extinct. So Adam might have needed to avoid tar pits, quicksand, and volcanic activity. And leads to another potential solution on God’s part.
The Garden.

A garden looks different to various people, so when I traveled through the Arizona desert in America and stopped at the Petrified Forest, the displays indicated a lush tropical environment, which is a garden to me. This suggests that the entire planet was a garden. With the destruction that came, it may have been necessary for God to construct a special one for Adam.

So then, this great wrath of Satan, how is it demonstrated?

In the form of trials and tribulations, that wrath is a regular part of the believer’s life.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in this world, and we are certainly a part of the world.

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 NASB)

A secondary consideration is that we who are followers of Christ are in Christ and therefore look and act like He did.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”
(1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

A famous passage exhibiting the wrath of the dragon (one of Satan’s names) can be found in Revelation 12.

“And the serpent poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. (16) But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. (17) So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.”
(Revelation 12:15-17 NASB)

I firmly believe that the woman is Israel. This identification would be entirely acceptable because of: the time period – a period in which God is pouring out His wrath upon Israel for their rejection of Jesus as the Messiah, their unbelief, and their idolatrous ways.

We should have figured out by now that Satan is on the rampage – dishing out his own version of wrath, but do we know why?

The answer is yes. Initially, Satan is attacking the Jews, the woman’s children.

This fight was initiated in the Garden shortly after the fall.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

Hostility between Satan’s offspring and the woman’s. I will leave you to figure out who these outstanding citizens are. However, because God allows those receiving Christ to be grafted into the vine, the draw effected by the Holy Spirit will continue up to the “great white throne” as multitudes will sincerely acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Before the millennial reign, they, too, will become targets of Satan’s followers. The statement that spells out the reason for the attack in Revelation 12:16,17.

“But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon poured out of his mouth. So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus.” (Revelation 12:16-17 NAS95)

The age of the earth is indeterminate, and an early church father, Origen (AD 185-254), wrote in his book, On First Principles, chapter V, that decay has been in effect in the natural world since the creation of the universe. We have also seen that death and chaos may have played a role in Adam’s surroundings because of Satan’s wrath; and yet Adam walked the earth fearlessly. One of the proofs of that is the statement that God made to Eve, “I will greatly multiply your pain and your travail; in pain you shalt bring forth children.” A statement like this makes NO SENSE unless she had borne children without pain.

So, with the acknowledgment that Eve had previously born children before the garden incident, it becomes easier to understand where Cain obtained his wife; why there was a “city” called Nod; and why Cain thought that others would kill him.

Understanding that the earth has been here for an indeterminate amount of time allows you to comprehend that there was a perfect creation, as attested to by God, out of the mouth of Isaiah and that something cataclysmic happened to change all of creation. It is easy to understand that Satan’s expulsion from his place of prominence was the event that destroyed the creation, and Genesis 1:2 shows God putting it back together.

Now whether the earth was a perfect sphere in which a mist watered the entirety of the planet is irrelevant. I don’t know about you, but I can look at the mountains covered with snow and see them as majestic. The oceans are still a fascination to me, and I love to catch fish. Deserts have their own strange beauty to them, and anywhere I can find a tree for shade quickly becomes my new favorite place. I can see God in all of them, and it matters not how long they have stood against time because any day now, my Jesus is coming back to take His bride home.

I found Him and accepted the fact that He wanted us to be His. The obstinate and foolish reject that idea. If you are NOT following Jesus, then you are following the destroyer, and you are following him to his destiny, hell. Why you would think that is attractive or intelligent is beyond me, especially when there is a home in the Father’s arms where love and peace will reign forever.

The idea of an old earth has been with me for about 17+ years now, but along this journey, I have been met with derision.

I have never heard a good argument to dissuade or disprove my beliefs. Still, my religious opponents go after the “gap theory” because there is no clear biblical backing for a gap. Yet, those choosing to fight against that gap lean heavily upon the idea that the creation all happened within 144 hours. I have never heard an adequate explanation of why there are dinosaurs or why those dinosaurs are billions of years old. One answer thrown at me expressed that God sped up time. Ah, but only to enhance your theory while ignoring others more intelligent than you. So that did not fly.

About eight years ago, the church I was attending had asked Dr. Hugh Ross to come and speak to our men’s group. Since he had just finished a seven-year study at his church on the book of Revelation, he was now available. I had become aware of Dr. Ross several years before this when a lady “friend” of mine told me that her atheist, science-teaching father had come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ by reading one of Dr. Ross’s books about the creation.

I remember tears rolling down my cheeks as the Holy Spirit affirmed in me, through Dr. Ross, things I understood from scriptures, but few else would pay any attention to. To be honest, these thoughts became fodder for Satan to bring doubts. That day, listening to Dr. Ross was monumental, and I wanted to shout because I became more convinced about what I saw in Genesis 1. Sadly, several men in attendance openly criticized Dr. Ross, not to his face but behind his back, and he was only a few feet away.

Really, are we that despicable? Apparently, the answer is yes.

Fast forward to 2022, when the subject of the Ark Experience in Kentucky comes up. Again, it seemed like an exciting and harmless topic, and it was until one in the group had to add that they had also gone to the Creation Science Museum and how they were now proponents of a young earth; and how all this came from the mind of Dr. Ken Ham.

Who is Dr. Ken Ham?

According to Wikipedia, “Dr. Kenneth Alfred Ham is an Australian Christian fundamentalist, young Earth creationist and apologist, living in the United States. He is the founder, CEO, and former president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian Apologetics organization that operates the Creation Museum and the Ark Encounter. “

Apparently, Dr. Ross had encountered harsh criticism from several religious zealots within the scientific community. Two groups, the Institute for Creation Research (ICR) and the Bible-Science Association (BSA), were the most vocal in opposition to what Dr. Ross began teaching in churches. In Dr. Ross’s book Creation and Time, he details in chapter eight how Henry Morris, the founder, and president of ICR, stated that “The continued insistence on an ancient earth is purely because of the philosophic necessity to justify evolution and the pantheistic religion of eternal matter.” ⁱ

Dr. Ross, on page 82 of his book Creation and Time, writes,

“To John Morris, evolutionism is ‘an unmitigated evil,” the philosophical root of “fascism, racism, Marxism, social Darwinism, and imperialism.” In his view, the “modern ills of promiscuity, homosexuality, abortion, humanism, new-age pantheism, etc.,” all “flower from the same evil root.” ⁱⁱ

Dr. Ross says, “in case any Christian fails to recognize the theorem, old-earth beliefs = evolutionism, evolutionism = unmitigated evil; therefore, old-earth beliefs = unmitigated evil. (John?) Morris calls the old-earth view “anti-Biblical” and “anti-theistic” and adds that “there can be no justification for a Christian adopting the old-earth concept.”

Dr. Ross goes on to say that “Henry Morris began to voice these opinions long before his son did. In a book entitled The Long War Against God, the elder Morris comments on social disintegration:”

“The failure of Bible-believing Christian churches and schools to aggressively defend and promote true biblical creationism [i.e., young- earth creationism] is a major cause of the takeover by evolutionary humanism of our entire society. …” ⁱⁱⁱ

On page 83 of Dr. Ross’s book Creation and Time, he conveys that “Dr. Ken Ham of the ICR makes similarly severe charges against old-earth creationists.” On pages 84 and 85, Dr. Ross tells us that Ken Ham’s view is that “the old-earth view of creation destroys the basis of the Gospel message and the message of redemption.” ^iv

Dr. Ross points out that the Bible-Science Association agrees with Dr. Ken Ham’s assertions by saying that [Old-earth] theology denies the central teaching of Christianity … and rejects the connection that scripture establishes between sin, death, and Christ’s atonement. …In [this] theology, death is natural. Death was a reality for millions of years before man ever arrived to sin. This leaves Christ’s death on the cross as, at best, well-meaning, but besides the point.”^v

I am NOT an educated Theologian, and my experiences with a couple of Theologians have been less than pleasant. However, it feels as if I have been a Christian all my life, and until I was about 23 years old, I was content to have others tell me what the Bible says. I am now 68, and for 45 years, I have been reading the Bible on my own, asking God some hard questions, and learning about God’s nature and character, yet I am always learning or having something revealed to me by the Holy Spirit. To have someone accuse me of being a false teacher simply because I can understand that the earth is old borders on blasphemy to me. Many of these young earth detractors are not content with merely calling us false teachers, even though I have never, in a group setting, attempted to teach an old-earth doctrine; I leave that to the scientists. But I have brought up the subject when I look up the Hebrew word rê’shı̂yth, which I find in Genesis 1:1, where it says, “In the beginning” God created. A simplistic read has my mind thinking that it was said and done. The problem is that the Hebrew implies “The first thing” God did. The logical approach is to assume that there would have been a second thing, and that is the direction the Jewish reader goes when reading Genesis 1:1. I would never have known that if I had not stopped to read with the intent to understand. The idea of an old creation is not new to me, but it has expanded how I look at the creation, and none of this diminishes what I know about God but magnifies His power and authority.

I posted this because it bothers me that we, the church think it is necessary to fling such caustic abuse at each other. I was raised in an environment where my religion was deemed better than yours. All this became more noticeable since 2020 and the lousy mask mandates. For me, this wasn’t about some form of influenza, it was about forced mask mandates, and those mandates suddenly infiltrated a faith-laden church body.

A friend of mine persistently says, what would Jesus do?

I can tell you that He fearlessly touched lepers and others and healed them. Friends shunned my wife and I at church when we refused to wear a mask during worship, as Governor Newsome illegally ordered. One dear lady from church, which I had known for several years and always had horrific colon issues and was quite frail. Throw the mask issue into the mix, and suddenly she could not let you near her. But think about these actions and how we lived before the mask mandates, which are gone now unless you go into a medical establishment. You could have had any number of diseases, and how would any of us know it unless you are sneezing all over people, like the thoughtless person in the other line at Walmart who sneezed on several of us – that really happened before Covid.

Oh, by the way, I lost a brother to Covid. He got infected because an attendee at their small church came in one night, and my brother, one of the pastors, went to greet him. Unfortunately, the man had an active case of Covid and coughed on my brother and the other pastor. My brother, who had other health issues, did not recover.

I have given you information and names, not because you need to take torches and rakes and storm their bastions, but because you need to know that people that you deem to be solidly grounded and sane are highly capable of adopting bizarre, emotionally based, false teachings, and denounce you if you disagree. You need to get your head into your Bible and study to understand. Let’s assume that you choose not to study the Word and, therefore, not make any changes in your life. Will you go to hell? No, but you will be fodder for a world gone mad and Satan’s demons. Why would you want to go that route?

i Morris, Henry M., “Recent Creation Is a Vital Doctrine,” Impact 132 (June 1984), page iv.

ii Morris, John, “How Can A Geology Professor Believe That the Earth is Young?” page d.

iiiMorris, John, page d.

ivHam, Ken, “Billions, Millions, or Thousands – Does It Matter?” Back to Genesis 29 (May 1991), page b.

vBSA editors, page 12

Posted in adversary, adversary, beginning, bible study, Creation, darkness, death, devour, established, Genesis, Isaiah, prowls, roaring lion, Satan, strange doctrines, straying from the truth, teaching a different doctrine, tree of life, void, wrath. | Tagged adversary, Bible, Christ, created, darkness, Devil, Earth, end times, established, formed, formless, God, great, In Beginning, inhabited, Jesus, last days, prophecy, prowls, Scripture, short time, void, waste place, wrath | Leave a comment

Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in pouring out of your wrath upon Jerusalem?

Posted on 10/22/2022 by remso

In looking at some older posts in a folder called “Questions that need an answer,” I found this one dated 04/2019, where a friend was having a meltdown about the wrath of God.

Sometime later, in talking with an acquaintance about eschatology, that brother in Christ angrily said, there is no wrath. I quickly understood that his problem was a matter of terminology. Still, it was also evident that this “intelligent” man had never read the Bible (His church background had been Episcopalian, and he had been content to let someone tell him what the Bible said.)

On the other hand, the person who originated this discussion felt that we all deserved God’s wrath. I had said to him, Is it possible that you have ascribed God’s wrath to Satan based upon Revelation 12:12, where it says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath?” As I recall, he did not have a reasonable answer and insisted that we must sustain God’s wrath. I can tell you that this is NOT a true statement, and I will substantiate this with the Word of God.

Search for the word wrath, and you will find, depending upon the translation, that there are at least eleven references in Revelation alone. Most point to God as the owner or originator of that wrath, but one of those passages is directly attributable to Satan alone.

“Therefore rejoice, ye heavens, and ye that dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea! for the devil is come down unto you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has but a short time.” Rev 12:12 KJV

Webster defines PASSION as the impression or effect of an external agent upon a body; it is also that which is suffered or received. The feeling of the mind, or the sensible effect of impression; excitement, perturbation or agitation of mind; as desire, fear, hope, joy, grief, love, hatred. The eloquence of the orator is employed to move the passions.

As you can see from the definition of passion, Satan was acting under the premise of suffering or receiving a wounding from God; and the agitation and hatred that brings.

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 NASB)

To understand this verse, I have to ask, to which point in time is the narrator speaking?

I ask this because Jesus told us, while He walked this earth, that He beheld Satan fall like lightning. It is evident from this statement that this event happened long ago. Since we find Satan in the garden seducing Eve into eating the forbidden fruit, then it is safe to say Satan’s fall occurred at or before the garden creation. (This scenario with Satan’s fall has a wide variety of options and may play into the “Gap Theory” that is notable between Gen 1:1 and 1:2.) (Luke 10:18)

So then, this great wrath of Satan, how is it demonstrated?

That wrath is a regular part of the believer’s life.

Jesus told us that we would have tribulation in this world, and we are certainly a part of the world.

“These things I have spoken to you, so that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage; I have overcome the world.”
(John 16:33 NASB)

A secondary consideration is that we who are followers of Christ are in Christ and therefore look and act like He did.

A famous passage demonstrating the wrath coming from the dragon (one of Satan’s names) can be found in Revelation 12.

We should have figured out by now that Satan is on the rampage – dishing out his own version of wrath, but do we know why?

The answer is yes. Initially, Satan is attacking the Jews, the woman’s children. This fight was initiated in the Garden shortly after the fall.

“And I will cause hostility between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will strike your head, and you will strike his heel.”
(Genesis 3:15 NLT)

Hostility between Satan’s offspring and the woman’s. Who these outstanding citizens are, I will leave it for you to figure out.

However, because God allows those receiving Christ to be grafted into the vine, the draw effected by the Holy Spirit will continue up to the “great white throne” as multitudes will sincerely acknowledge Jesus as the Messiah. Prior to the millennial reign, they, too, will become targets of Satan’s followers. The statement that spells out the reason for the attack in Revelation 12:16,17.

We do not know the methods or how extensive this attack on the tribulation believers will look like; what we do know, according to Revelation 6:8, is that one-quarter of the earth’s population will die. Although we do not have the false prophet in his full role because of chronological timing, the pressure against followers of Christ is most likely increasing. I said we don’t know what this organized killing of “Christians” will look like because Revelation 6 indicates that many will deny the god of the beast (Allah). Since the scriptures DO NOT spell out the method of death or the speed at which that must be done, these people may not have time to prepare elaborate statements in which they profess their newfound love of God over Allah.

Perhaps God will understand the heart of the individual at that moment, where the denial of Allah will be taken as the alternative, acceptance of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. We have the “thief on the cross” as an example. We assert and assume that this thief just became aware of Jesus, but read the entire story, and you will come to understand that there was much more going on in the man’s heart, and Jesus saw that and said, “this day you will be with Me in paradise.”

———————–

Let’s assume that we have exhausted the wrath of Satan. Now let’s consider God’s wrath for a moment.

If I did not say it earlier, let me mention it now. At about the same time that my friend was trying to convince me that we must endure God’s wrath, a brother in Christ who would not read his Bible was content to rely upon what his former Episcopalian priest had told him, and angrily retorted to me, there is no wrath from God!

To say something like this demonstrates that all you heard from your priest was, God is Love, and He is, but if that priest said God, like a parent, will correct His children; and, as Israel has done since leaving Egypt, repeatedly ignoring God’s instruction, then God will move His reproofs to the next level and bring the wrath, you did not or could not hear that. In chapter eight of his book, Ezekiel – the prophet, sees a vision while seated with elders at his house. In the vision, Ezekiel is shown the Son of Man/Jesus, but he is also shown the elders committing abominations with idols in their hidden and secret places. Judgment and wrath are coming because of these practices, and don’t think for a second that they are not still committing abominations because they are; wrath will come because of these things and others.

Since God often uses others to carry out His wrath, we see God in the ninth chapter of Ezekiel saying,

“Draw near, O executioners of the city, each with his destroying weapon in his hand.“

One group of executioners was the Assyrians.

This One will be our peace. When the Assyrian invades our land, When he tramples on our citadels, Then we will raise against him Seven shepherds and eight leaders of men. They will shepherd the land of Assyria with the sword, The land of Nimrod at its entrances; And He will deliver us from the Assyrian When he attacks our land And when he tramples our territory. (Micah 5:5-6 NAS95)

Suppose you jump forward in time to Revelation chapter seven, where we see the seals being opened and God’s wrath and punishment playing out. In that case, 144,000 Jewish young men are marked with a protective mark on their foreheads, while others are violently slain – older men, young men, maidens, little children, and women. These same destroyers will defile the temple.

Ezekiel asks, “Are You destroying the whole remnant of Israel by pouring out Your wrath on Jerusalem?” The Jews, during the time of wrath, will be asking this very question. The answer Ezekiel receives goes like this,

“And it came to pass, while they were smiting, and I was left, that I fell upon my face, and cried, and said, Ah Lord Jehovah! wilt thou destroy all the residue of Israel in thy pouring out of thy wrath upon Jerusalem?”
Ezekiel 9:8 ASV

The thought continues, only I switched translations because the terminology is more appropriate.

“The iniquity of the house of Israel and Judah is very, very great, and the land is filled with blood, and the city is full of perversion; for they say, ‘The LORD has forsaken the land, and the LORD does not see!’ “But as for Me, My eye will have no pity nor will I spare, but I will bring their conduct upon their heads.” (Ezekiel 9:9-10 NASB)

The identification of the woman as Israel should prompt you to ask, who else is involved in this mire called God’s wrath, we call the tribulation?

We see Israel as the woman in Revelation 12:16,17. Like many of you, I assumed that the parable of the ten virgins was indicative of the church. I was convinced of this because, for years, I sat next to many of them. They may have brought one of their many Bibles to church that day – they make a handy seat saver, but they never open the thing. The ten virgins show us that half the virgins (a significant reference) are unprepared.

Does that mean they did not really care?

We are not given a direct answer to that question; and so we assume that fifty percent of the “Church” will miss the moment when the Church is called to the wedding and, therefore, have to endure this time of wrath, along with many of those deceived by the cult religions.

I might be completely wrong in this assumption, and here is why.

First, since this Bible, we esteem, is a Jewish book, we may need to throw out this assumption because we are Gentiles. If it applies to us, it is because we have been adopted.

Secondly, Jesus told the disciples and, therefore, us that He and the Father would never let us out of His hand.

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of My hand. “My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand.” (John 10:27-29 NAS95)

If you have given yourself to Him, then you are His, and He is NOT letting go of you, and this is one of the basics that feed into the idea of eternal salvation (I am becoming more convinced of this daily.) If you insist on scoffing at the possibility of eternal salvation, it is because scoffers see this like grace and those who think they can live promiscuous lives without repercussions. Those repercussions are actual and come while we are here on the earth. But if you believe that “cheaters” will be burned up at the Bema seat of Christ, you are wrong, for Christ took all the wrath upon His own body so that we don’t have to.

“For you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. …”
(Colossians 3:3-4 NAS95)

In a Biblical world, where there must be at least two witnesses, this is a taste of the immense amount of evidence substantiating eternal security. By the way, my security is in Jesus and His ability to carry out His promises.

The third group I see included in the time of wrath is the nation of Israel and, by extension, the Jews in general.

We understand from scripture that the veil that blinds all who are left (those not caught up in the snatching away of the church) will be lifted, and the number of Jews that will take a stand for Jesus will be remarkable. But, unfortunately, if you are left on the playing field, where they bring out the mowers, turn on the sprinklers, and turn out the lights, you will suffer – including being slain because you choose to hold on to Jesus Christ as your Lord.

And lastly, there will be the nations in general. Included in this number are those giving their allegiance to Jesus Christ. Many will be from Muslim countries as they, along with people from every nation and religion, will have the veil lifted from their understanding. I have already read testimonies where Jesus has come to many in a dream or a vision. In one case, Jesus repeatedly returned to a Muslim man until the man finished writing out the Gospel of John. One of these people interacted with me, of all places, at a Halloween parade, and this man told me how Jesus had come to him in Iran, which, in time, he had to flee from. Eventually landing in France, a man begins to share with him, in Aramaic, the exact scriptures that Jesus had told him about in the visions. From that point, his life changed.

Since the subject is the wrath of God, even though some deny that there is any wrath. Let’s get back to that.

The word wrath appears 183 times in the NASB Bible; 11 references are found in Revelation.

“Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and they *said to the mountains and to the rocks, “Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;” (Revelation 6:15-16 NASB)

Surprisingly, these atheists comprehend that it is the wrath of God.

Revelation 14:9-10 speaks about those who take the mark of the beast, worship the beast, and worship the image of the beast. We are told that these will drink the wine of the wrath of God.

“… “If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is mixed in full strength in the cup of His anger; and he will be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.”
(Revelation 14:9-10 NASB)

Let’s close this look at wrath with this passage from Deuteronomy.

“Now the generation to come, your sons who rise up after you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land, when they see the plagues of the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it, will say, ‘All its land is brimstone and salt, a burning waste, unsown and unproductive, and no grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and in His wrath.’ “All the nations will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?‘ “Then men will say, ‘Because they forsook the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. ‘They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. ‘Therefore, the anger of the LORD burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’”
(Deuteronomy 29:22-28 NASB)

So, God’s anger is a real and documented thing. Telling me, “it is NOT!” only demonstrates your foolishness. Rejecting Jesus will cause you to be thrown into a time of wrath, where you will be overthrown and killed if you do not follow after Him. But since the time of grace will be over, it appears that being killed because you are a follower of Christ is your only other option.

My suggestion, grown a backbone now.

Posted in 1 Peter, bible study, courage, devour, prowls, Revelation, roaring lion, Satan, sober spirit, the word of their testimony, Tribulation, war, wrath. | Tagged adversary, Bible, children, come, Devil, devour, dragon, Earth, end times, enraged, God, inhabitants, Jesus, last days, Lion, make war, prophecy, prowls, roaring, Scripture, sea, short time, Tribulation, woe, woman, wrath | Leave a comment

A Voice in the Wilderness

Does anything exist outside of God’s will?

Does scripture tell us that the earth’s axis will shift 40 degrees?

From Jonathan Brentner’s website, Our Journey Home.

WHEN THE WORLD WOBBLES

“The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.”

But you, brethren, are not in darkness. 1 Thessalonians 5:1-5. An integration with an article by Amir Tsarfati about the fig tree.

Does Jesus fight in two battles; if so, what are they?

I got a message from a friend that I needed to address.

Does God’s wrath equal tribulation?

Let’s start off with a bit of honesty.

One last thing.

Will the world have a unified religion under the antichrist? Revelation 13:8.

It is appointed unto man once to die; is that true? Hebrews 9:27.

Genesis Chapter Six, The Nephilim.

Where did those “the sons of God” come from?

Who were the sons of God?

Who were the Nephilim or giants?

Among these men on earth, one man stood out. The question is, why?

He established it and did not create a waste place, so what about Genesis 1:2?

Alright, I went there and brought up the “Gap Theory,” so let’s pursue this for a few minutes.

The idea of an old earth has been with me for about 17+ years now, but along this journey, I have been met with derision.

Will you destroy all the residue of Israel in pouring out of your wrath upon Jerusalem?

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A commentary on John 1:45-46. We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph

Answers for Rick. The leaves of the tree are for the healing of the nations. Revelation 22.

Scriptures that speak to our knowing, within a tight window of opportunity, when Jesus will return for His bride.

I finally heard a Pastor take a bold stance and say, I am 100% going to declare the day; and so am I.

I am no different than you. I, too, have to fight through the fears and verbal attacks from zealots.

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From Jonathan Brentner’s website, Our Journey Home.

WHEN THE WORLD WOBBLES

“The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up.”

Share this:

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I got a message from a friend that I needed to address.

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Let’s start off with a bit of honesty.

One last thing.

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Where did those “the sons of God” come from?

Who were the sons of God?

Who were the Nephilim or giants?

Among these men on earth, one man stood out. The question is, why?

Share this:

Alright, I went there and brought up the “Gap Theory,” so let’s pursue this for a few minutes.

The idea of an old earth has been with me for about 17+ years now, but along this journey, I have been met with derision.

Share this:

Share this:

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Recent Posts: A Voice in the Wilderness

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