Four and Twenty Elders

Four and Twenty Elders
Vol: 26 Issue: 30 Friday, September 30, 2016

It was the Lord Himself that outlined the Book of His Revelation in three distinct parts; “that which thou [John] hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter.” (Revelation 1:19)

The Apostle John had just recorded the messages to the Seven Churches of Asia Minor as given by Jesus when John was suddenly whisked in his vision from his cave on Patmos to a scene in heaven. 

The Book is therefore divided thusly: 

Revelation 1:1-20 – “the things which John hast seen” — the vision of the Lord Jesus Christ in Glory. 

Revelation 2:1 – the things which are. “Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write”, through to Revelation 3:22 — ” . . . let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches”; 

And finally, “the things which shall be hereafter” 

This final division is the longest, since it covers the period from the Tribulation to eternity future. But let’s examine them in order. 

The first two parts of the outline are essentially undisputed by scholars — for obvious reasons. The second outline concludes after the Churches have been addressed and evaluated and promises are made to “him that overcometh”:

“To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with Me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with My Father in His throne.” (Revelation 3:21)

Let’s examine “him that overcometh” in context. Back up one verse with me — it would seem that “he that overcometh” is he that opens the door to the Lord and invites Him in to ‘sup with him and he with Me.”

No mention of overcoming persecution or hardship or trouble or tribulation here. The counsel is offered to those that the Lord says specifically that He loves, but “rebukes and chastens” to “be zealous therefore, and repent.” 

So in context, those among the churches (His Bride) that are zealous and repent and invite Him in for fellowship, Jesus calls ‘overcomers’. But Jesus says that they are those ‘who overcame even as I overcame.’ 

Some argue this means that overcomers are those who suffer the Tribulation Period or those who refuse to take the Mark. 

The problem with this view is that the Lord is still addressing those of the present tense second outline — “the things which are.” The Tribulation,” which must be hereafter,” hasn’t started yet. 

Let’s connect the dots so far. The Lord overcame by dying and being resurrected. John is being addressed by the resurrected Jesus in His resurrection Body. And Paul says that we shall also receive a resurrection body just like it.

“Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is.”

There is a future event — the Rapture of the Church, which Paul describes this way. First, the dead in Christ are resurrected, then we who are alive and remain are immediately translated into our resurrection bodies, “and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” 

That is the only sense in which we human beings could EVER be said to have overcome even as Jesus overcame. Jesus never sinned. (I did and do) He paid the penalty for sin on my behalf at the Cross, (I cannot) then was resurrected and bodily ascended into heaven signifying the conquest of sin and death. 

To argue that I must suffer as He did in order be an overcomer during the Church Age is to turn the doctrine of soteriology (salvation) on its head. 

So the only similitude that logically fits the “overcomers” metaphor is that of the Lord’s bodily resurrection and ascension, and the Rapture’s bodily resurrection and ascension. 

Finally, the angels present at the Lord’s ascension confirm that; “this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.” 

How was that? Quietly, and without fanfare, and witnessed only by the Apostles who represented the embryonic Church. 

It makes no contextual sense to read ‘overcomers’ as those who come out of the Tribulation. 

Assessment:

Chapter Three concludes with Jesus walking among the golden lampstands of the Church on the earth. At the beginning of Chapter four, a great thing has just transpired. 

The third division of the outline of Revelation — that which must be hereafter — begins when John’s perspective shifts from that of the earthbound churches to that of heaven.

“After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.”

“Hereafter what?” can only have one logical answer. Hereafter is when the overcomers of the Church Age are taken up to heaven with Jesus in like manner as the Apostles had seen Him go. 

“Hereafter” begins at the Throne Room of God:

“And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and One sat on the throne. And He that sat was to look upon like a jasper and a sardine stone: and there was a rainbow round about the throne, in sight like unto an emerald. And round about the throne were four and twenty seats: and upon the seats I saw four and twenty elders sitting, clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.” (Revelation 4:2-4)

Who are these four and twenty elders? Let’s establish who they are not, first. They are not spirits. Spirits don’t sit. Spirits don’t wear clothes. Spirits don’t wear crowns. They are not angels.

 “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders:” (Revelation 5:11)

Nowhere in Scripture are angels numbered specifically. Cherubim (living ‘beasts’) are numbered (there are four) but angels are ‘a multitude’ or an ‘innumerable company’ but never twenty-four. Angels don’t wear crowns. They don’t wear clothes and they NEVER sit in the presence of God.

“And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;” (Revelation 5:9)

The twenty-four elders are the Blood-bought redeemed of mankind — the representatives of the saints of God. They number twenty-four, one for each of the twelve tribes of Israel, and one for each of the Twelve Apostles. 

Together, they make up the redeemed society of mankind through the ages. 

All twenty-four of them are seated before God’s Throne before even the FIRST of the seals has been broken. The twenty-four elders are in their places as they watch those who come out of great tribulation, their robes washed in the Blood of the Lamb, the Tribulation Saints martyred for their witness of Christ. 

The outline of Revelation remains constant from the moment John arrives at heaven’s open door until it concludes in eternity future. 

John’s perspective is that of heaven, where he is already in the company of the twenty-four elders when the very first seal is broken, bringing down the first of twenty-one judgments upon a sinful, Christ-rejecting world. 

There is a clear division between that which is and that which shall be hereafter and the primary difference is that of perspective. 

When talking about the Church, John is with Jesus is on earth, among the lamp stands. 

When speaking of the Tribulation judgments, John is in Heaven with Jesus and the twenty-four elders who are not spirits, not angels, but rather the redeemed of God, who wear crowns, clothes and sit in His Presence. They are already there and seated when the first of the seals are broken. 

They are already there and seated long before the first of the Tribulation saints start to show up after the 144,000 Jewish evangelists are sealed and indwelt by Holy Spirit.

No matter how one slices and dices it, the twenty-four elders are in heaven with John long before the first Tribulation saints begin to arrive. And so is the Church.

“. . . and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore, comfort one another with these words.” (1st Thessalonians 4:17-18)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on January 24, 2009

Featured Commentary: We’re Hunting Pretribbers ~Alf Cengia

The Amazing Accuracy of Ezekiel

The Amazing Accuracy of Ezekiel
Vol: 26 Issue: 29 Thursday, September 29, 2016

“And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. . .(Ezekiel 38:11)

Some two hundred years after the political subdivision called the ‘Kingdom of Israel’ was destroyed by Sargon II, the prophet Ezekiel from the Southern Kingdom of Judah wrote from exile in Babylon.

When Sargon destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel, he did what conquerors did in those days; he transplanted the population of Israel to elsewhere in the Assyrian Empire, and then relocated elements of other subjugated people in their place.

The purpose of this was to keep the populations docile. A people without a land have little to fight for. After a generation or two, they assimilate, and the new land becomes their land.

This is how the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel were lost to history, and from the beginning of the 7th century BC, there was no place left in the world called Israel.

The surviving kingdom of Judah, known as Jews, was captured and partially assimilated by the Babylonians in the mid 5th century BC. They survived their captivity in Babylon, and later, the Medo-Persians, only because they were allowed to return to their own land by Artaxerxes.

In Ezekiel’s day, there was no place called ‘Israel’, had not BEEN a place called ‘Israel’ for 150 years, would not be another place called ‘Israel’ for 2,520 years, and besides, Ezekiel was a Jew from Judah.

But Ezekiel’s prophetic writings are filled with references to a future place called ‘Israel’, one that he describes as “the people that are gathered out of the nations” (38:12) and then further describes as “my people of Israel” (38:18)

Ezekiel wrote of Israel’s regathering in the last days. In Ezekiel 37, the prophet is shown a valley of dry bones. Those dry bones, the Lord explains, are the “whole house of Israel”(37:11) that the Lord says would be restored in the last days.

Six hundred years BEFORE the remaining Jews of Israel were scattered by the Romans, the Lord told Ezekiel of their regathering in the last days.

“Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land; And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all.” (Ezekiel 37:21-22)

The fulfillment of this prophecy could not be more obvious. The Jews of the Diaspora have indeed ‘come from among the heathen’ from ‘every side’ and returned to the Promised Land.

In 1897, the first Zionist Congress petitioned the British Crown to allow the ingathering Jews to set up a state in what was the British colony of Uganda. At the time, Palestine was in the hands of the Muslim Ottoman Empire. The British told them they should ask the Ottomans to let them have their historical homeland and turned the Uganda request down.

Ezekiel prophesied that the regathering of Israel would be on their own land, “mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations” (38:8)

Abba Ebban, one of Israel’s Founding Fathers, wrote in his book, ‘Personal Witness’ that, right up until the last moment before issuing their 1948 Declaration of Statehood, they were quibbling about what to name the new Jewish State.

Some liked ‘Zion’ others ‘Judea’ — and it was only at the last minute, AFTER ben-Gurion had already requested the new state be recognized by Washington, that they decided on the name ‘Israel’.

Ezekiel foretold all this two and one half millennia before it happened. He said his prophecy was for “the latter days.” (38:16)

Assessment:

It is worth noting again that building moats and walls to protect against invaders was a common strategic option in Ezekiel’s day. For that reason, Ezekiel’s reference to a ‘land of unwalled villages’ was generally interpreted as a metaphor for peace, rather than a literal condition. The only modern equivalent would have been the Berlin Wall, but it was built to keep people from escaping, not to defend against invasion.

But Ezekiel’s walls are clearly defensive — the whole 38th chapter is about a war of invasion against Israel. And today, 2500 years after Ezekiel foretold it, and more than sixty years after Israel’s restoration, the Israelis are building a defensive wall around their country.

It is an iron-clad certainty that the wall will be built — it is already partially completed and is proving its worth. Areas protected by the wall are already experiencing fewer terrorist attacks. It is equally certain that the wall will come down.

The entire world community opposes it (although they are having a hard time explaining why) and Israel is already preparing to mount its defense at an upcoming trial before the World Court in The Hague to justify its continuation.

There will be no way the World Court can force the destruction of the wall without some kind of peace guarantee the Israelis can accept and the European diplomatic corps is hard at work trying to come up with one. So far, they’ve had little success, but it is not from lack of trying.

The wall is becoming a focal point of world attention, to the exclusion of the terrorism that created it, and it can only have one of two outcomes. Either the wall comes down before it is finished, or it will come down at some point in the future. There is no way the world community will learn to live with the status quo.

Once the wall is completed, the Palestinians will have their defacto state, Israel will retain the high ground and more defensible borders, and the Palestinians will have to achieve statehood the old-fashioned way. By building one. You know, like the Israelis did.

That will never be acceptable to the world community. They were the ones who created the Palestinians in the first place, and having created a people, it is incumbent upon them to provide them with a state.

Since the Israelis are not cooperating in giving up theirs, the plan is to create one beside Israel and force Israel to support it by providing jobs to the Palestinians.

Palestine had no independent status during the Ottoman Empire. As European powers expanded their foothold in the region and as Zionism brought Jewish immigrants to their ancestral homeland, no one could define Palestine’s contours. A picture emerged only in the early 1920s under the British Mandate, which extended from the Jordan River to the sea, from the upper Galilee to the Gulf of Aqaba.

The 1948 war created a de facto partition, but no Palestinian state. Jordan took the West Bank, and Egypt grabbed the Gaza Strip, filled with refugees from Israeli areas that now included 78 percent of the British Mandate territory.

When Israel captured the Egyptian Gaza and Jordanian West Bank in 1967, the ‘Palestinian people’ were created out of the displaced Arabs.

The prophet Daniel, and both Paul and John foretell a peace agreement with Israel that kicks off the Tribulation Period. Daniel says that a leader of the revived Roman Empire confirms a peace covenant between Israel and her enemies, which he breaks halfway through.

In context, one could assume the covenant involves a mutual defense agreement, since, after the walls come down, Ezekiel says a Russian-led Islamic alliance launches a sneak invasion against Israel. Ezekiel 38:13 says Israel’s ‘allies’ launch what amounts to little more than a weak diplomatic objection.

The literal fulfillment of prophecies penned tens of centuries ago continue to unfold in our generation. Right down to details such as Israel’s Tribulation status as a ‘land of unwalled villages’.

The same Guiding Hand responsible for Ezekiel’s unwavering accuracy and attention to detail also guided those prophecies that yet remain to be fulfilled. Don’t let anybody steal away your excitement! We are that special, chosen generation who ‘shall not pass away, until all be fulfilled.”

You are not grasping at straws, or following vague and ambiguous prophecies that can be explained away by calling them ‘interpretations.’ This is the real thing.

“And when these things BEGIN to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.” (Luke 21:28)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on February 8, 2004

Everything in Context

Everything in Context
Vol: 26 Issue: 28 Wednesday, September 28, 2016

I believe it to be a self-evident truth that the key to having a basic working knowledge of the Bible is the understanding of Scripture as a series of progressive revelations from God about the things of the Spirit.

This understanding of progressive revelation is confirmed by the Scriptures.  The various dispensations are not difficult to identify.  Adam walked with God in the cool of the evening, Genesis tells us.  He spoke to Noah with an audible voice and prepared Noah and his family to be saved from the Flood.

God appeared to Abraham in the form of a man when warning Abraham of the coming judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah.  God dealt with Abraham as an individual, whereas He chose Moses to reveal God’s Law to the children of Israel.

For a time after that, God communicated with the children of Israel through a series of judges, until Israel demanded a king.  After that, He communicated through the Hebrew prophets.  At different times, in different ways, God progressively revealed more of His plan for the Ages, including the promise of a Messiah-Redeemer.

There is a difference between Israel and the Church, which is why the Scriptures are divided between the Old Testament (the Covenant between God and the descendants of Abraham through Isaac) and the New Testament (the Covenant between Jesus Christ and the Church).

There is also a distinct difference between Jewish legalism and salvation by grace through faith.  Understanding WHY the Bible is divided according to Covenant Promise helps us to rightly divide the word, reconciling apparent contradictions like, ‘an eye for an eye’ (Exodus 21:24) vs. ‘turn the other cheek’ (Matthew 5:38-39).

The first three chapters of Genesis reveal that God’s intention in the creation of man was to live in fellowship with Him in the Garden of Eden. Eve was deceived by Satan into sampling the fruit of the forbidden tree. Adam was not deceived, but willfully disobeyed God and followed Eve.

This sin represented the fall of mankind from grace.  They were removed from Paradise and through their fall, death entered the world.  God shed the blood of animals to cover their nakedness (physical and spiritual) but not until they tried unsuccessfully to cover themselves on their own with fig leaves.

This was the first example of God’s principle of ‘blood atonement’.

“For the life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the soul.” (Leviticus 17:11)

“And almost all things are by the law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)

After being expelled, Adam’s descendents continued to rebel against God, bringing about the Flood and later, the confusion of speech at the Tower of Babel.  As human history progressed, so did God’s revelation to man.  Genesis 12 established the Abrahamic Covenant, in which God revealed His intention to set aside a peculiar people unto Himself, through the seed of Isaac.

Paul summarized the history of the Old Covenant in Acts 13:16-22 before giving the details of the New Covenant between Christ and the Church.  Paul stressed that the New Covenant grew out of the Old, that Jesus was of the seed of David, and that, rather than replacing Israel in God’s plan, he likened the Church to Israel as a graft on the original tree.

The Bible reveals that Jesus came first to the children of Israel, but they rejected Him, after which He offered salvation to the Gentiles — not instead of Israel, but in addition TO Israel.

In this present age, salvation is open to all men, Jew and Gentile, through faith in the completed work of Jesus Christ at the Cross.  God has NOT abandoned His promises to Abraham’s descendants.  Neither have the promises to Israel been transferred to the Church.

 “For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.” (Romans 11:29) Instead, God reveals that “by the works of the law shall no flesh be justified.” (Galatians 2:16)

The Gospel of John details the life, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Through John, God reveals the Mystery of the Church, that Jesus was both fully God and fully man, tempted in all manner as we are, as a fulfillment of God’s promise of a Savior.

“Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (Matthew 5:17)

His earthly ministry was “only to the lost sheep of Israel.”  However, about the non-Jewish Gentiles, Jesus said “I have other sheep, not of this pen. I must bring them also.”

BEFORE His blood was shed for forgiveness of our sins, Jesus commanded His disciples to “not go among the Gentiles.”

However, Jesus then explained “But I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all men to Myself.”  AFTER He completed His work on the cross, in His resurrected body, the Lord Jesus appeared to the eleven disciples and told them to “go and make disciples of all nations.”

He fulfilled Jewish prophecy and was crucified by both the Jews and Gentiles.  Remember, God said it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.  He was buried and was resurrected on the third day, in accordance with the scriptures.

The Book of Romans summarizes the revelation of salvation by grace for all men, based on the equation of faith plus nothing equals salvation.

Paul explains the sin nature, our inability to overcome it by our own works, the principle that if a person lives by the law, he will be judged according to the law.  And that such a person is automatically condemned, since no man has ever kept the whole law as required by the Old Covenant.

Indeed, Paul reveals the purpose of the law was to establish our need for a Savior in the first place.

“Is the law sin? God forbid. Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law: for I had not known lust, except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” (Romans 7:7)

The equation of faith plus nothing equals salvation is an expression of the terms of the New Covenant, which, recognizing man’s inability to keep the law, releases him from its harsh terms.

“For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.”

“Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.” (Romans 7:2-4)

Understanding that the Old Covenant demanded complete obedience to the Law and demanded blood atonement for its violation reveals how completely hopeless our condition really is.  No man can keep all its terms, and breaking the law on even one point calls for the spiritual death penalty.

Having established, through a series of progressive revelations, God’s purpose for man, the consequences of his fall, the futility of the law and the penalty for sin, the Gospel reveals that penalty of blood atonement was satisfied by Jesus Christ.

The final revelation of the New Covenant concerning the Church is the ‘mystery’ of our own resurrection at the Rapture of the Church.

“For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins. Then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” (1st Corinthians 15:16-18)

When the Bible speaks of something as a ‘mystery’ it refers to something not previously revealed by God.

Paul likens physical death to the planting of a seed. “Thou fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die.” (1st Corinthians 15:36) Paul goes on to note that what springs forth from the seed as it dies is a new creature.

“So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body.” Notes Paul in stark, unmistakable terms, “There IS a natural body, and there IS a spiritual body.” (1st Corinthians 15:42,44)

Through Paul, God reveals a new truth;

“Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” (1st Corinthians 15:51-53)

That resurrection, ‘in the twinkling of an eye’ is not limited to those already dead.

“For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him. For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.” (1st Thessalonians 4:14-15)

Once again, Paul reveals the requirements for salvation. Faith.

If we believe, then we who are alive and remain will ALSO be changed, ‘in a twinkling of an eye’.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.” (1st Thessalonians 4:16-17)

I know that a lot of this, if not all of it, is review for most of you, but it is important material, nevertheless.  The Bible is laid out in a logical progression, line upon line, precept upon precept, with each successive revelation adding purpose and clarity to those which came before.

Misunderstanding the principle of progressive revelation, or ‘dispensationalism,’ removes context from the Scripture, giving rise to all kinds of heresies.  Like, for example, replacement theology that says God rejected the Jews after they rejected Jesus.

Not understanding the differences between the Covenant Dispensations leaves room for the Church in the Tribulation Period, since there is no recognition of the differences between them.

The Tribulation is the final ‘week’ during which the terms of Abrahamic covenant is fulfilled when Israel enters into its inheritance of the Messianic Kingdom.

The Church plays no role.

God reveals to the Church that,

 “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.” (1st John 4:4)

However, during the Tribulation, Scripture says of he that is in the world, (the antichrist) “it was given unto him to make war with the saints, and to OVERCOME them . . .” (Revelation 13:7)

Which is it, then?  Are we overcomers during the Church Age, because of He that indwells us now, only to be abandoned by Him and subsequently overcome later by the antichrist during the Tribulation?

How does THAT work?  Obviously, it doesn’t.

Instead, the progressive revelation of God says that the purpose of the Tribulation is to fulfill the promise of Daniel 9:24 “upon THY (Daniel’s) people and upon THY holy city, (Jerusalem) to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.”

All those things were accomplished for the Church at the Cross.

“But this Man, after He had offered ONE sacrifice for sins FOREVER, sat down on the right hand of God; From henceforth expecting till His enemies be made His footstool.” (Hebrews 10:12-13)

As a hodgepodge of seemingly conflicting revelations (eg. ‘eye for an eye’) the Bible can be confusing, even misleading, giving rise to all manner of misunderstanding.

Seen as the record of the progressive revelation from God, the Bible presents a harmonious and cohesive outline of human history, past, present and future, devoid of contradictions.

“Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. But shun profane and vain babblings: for they will increase unto more ungodliness.” (2nd Timothy 2:15-16)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on June 19, 2012

Featured Commentary: High Hopes ~Wendy Wippel

The Debate Debate

The Debate Debate
Vol: 26 Issue: 27 Tuesday, September 27, 2016

I regularly get emails from people asking me for advice on how to disabuse someone of a particular notion or heresy that they have decided to champion. Most often, its the timing of the Rapture, but not exclusively.

There are all kinds of ‘debates’ out there, from the war in Iraq to global warming to the identity of the antichrist, but the one thing they all share is how passionately their proponents will fight for to win them — even in the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary. 

Several years ago, the Weather Channel issued an official position paper on global warming: 

“Over the past few years, The Weather Channel has evolved its position on global warming in an effort to objectively represent what the state of the science is,” said Dr. Heidi Cullen, recently appointed Climate Expert for The Weather Channel. 

“In regard to the role that people play in influencing our climate, we recognize and respect that there will be those who disagree with us, but our position is consistent with that of the majority of climate scientists.”

Despite expressions of ‘respect’ for those who disagree, Dr. Cullen answered her critics by saying that any scientist who disagreed with her position should be stripped of their credentials by the American Meteorological Society. 

Her ‘objective’ evaluation of the ‘state of meteorological science’ is that it is infallible, even when it is wrong. Anybody who has ever planned a wedding or a picnic based on the weather forecast knows how infallible weather forecasting really is. 

Indeed, in the same position paper that stated ‘global warming is real’ and the science is ‘settled’, Dr. Cullen admitted, “the future remains uncertain.”

But, admitting the future remains uncertain, SHE is certain, based on the fact that “odds are now leaning toward increased frequency and intensity of heat waves in the warm season and warm spells in the cold season in parts of the world, as well as reduced frequency of low temperature extremes.”

In this one paper, she argues her ‘objectivity’ is based on the predictions of ‘settled science’ that forecasts an ‘uncertain future’ that she categorically states will be ‘catastrophic’. 

In the same breath, she admits she is betting on the ‘odds’. 

Those who have taken a position against the war in Iraq are just as ‘objective’. The discovery of boxes of documents detailing Saddam’s nuclear weapons program are dismissed out-of-hand. 

The historical use of weapons of mass destruction by Saddam against both the Iraqi Kurds and the Iranians is irrelevant to the claim he didn’t have any. So was the discovery of Saddam-era sarin gas artillery shells rigged by terrorists as IED’s. 

Memos detailing meetings between Saddam’s officials and Osama bin-Laden in the mid-90’s is insufficient evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda. 

The assumption that ‘Bush lied’ to justify the Iraq war when there is no logical way he could have known otherwise has no bearing on that argument. 

The debate becomes its own logic.

Assessment:

Among Christians, there are endless debates about the identity of the antichrist or the timing of the Rapture. Endless, and pointless. 

It is pointless because identifying the antichrist is impossible. Even the antichrist doesn’t know who he is. 

And, supposing we could identify him, what purpose would it serve? If he IS the antichrist, then there isn’t a whole lot anybody could do about it. 

The same applies to the debate about the timing of the Rapture. Nobody is saved because of their position on the Rapture, so why argue over it? 

I am regularly accused of being a ‘false prophet’ because I believe the Scriptures teach a pre-Tribulation Rapture, and, in so doing, do a disservice to the Church because they will be ill-prepared to cope with the antichrist. 

Exactly HOW one could prepare to cope with the antichrist escapes me. But my critics say that because I teach the Church won’t be here for the Tribulation, Christians won’t know to stock up on dessicated food, have adequate weapon stashes or prepare underground shelters. 

I am not preparing them for survival, they say. 

Survival? Let’s see if we can sort this out. We are talking about a future event forecast by Scripture. We believe that the Tribulation is coming based on our faith in the truth of Scripture. The same Scriptures that promise eternal salvation by faith. 

But somehow, that faith doesn’t extend to temporal survival in the here-and-now. In the here-and-now, we will be be physically saved from the antichrist by our own resourcefulness, plus adequate supplies of food, shelter and weapons. 

We have faith that God can keep and preserve our eternal souls, but our physical existence is something else altogether. For that, we place our faith in ourselves. (After all, God will be pretty busy during the Tribulation. Maybe too busy to worry about us?) 

So, for the sake of argument, let’s assume that the Rapture is NOT pre-Trib. Christians prepare adequate food, shelter and weapons for the Tribulation. 

And THEN what happens? 

If you truly believe the Bible, then you would also believe that heaven is where our eternal citizenship lies, because that’s what the Bible says. 

You believe that Jesus meant it when He said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; but whosoever shall lose his life for My sake and the Gospel’s, the same shall save it.” (Matthew 10:39, 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 9:24, Luke 17:33, John 12:25)

The Bible records that statement SIX different times, all directly attributed to Jesus Christ. So how does that square with preaching the need to make survivalist preparations for the Tribulation Period? 

Pretribulationism is dismissed as ‘The Great Escape Theory’ but its critics find no logical disconnect in preaching the need to prepare to save ourselves from Divine judgment. 

Is the Tribulation Period a time of Divine judgment on the whole world, or is it not? If the Church is to be judged along with the Christ-rejecting world, are they advocating fighting against God’s decree? 

If it ISN’T God’s decree that the Church share in that judgment, then why would the Church be there? A Divine oversight? Did God forget? If it IS God’s decree, then what good is dessicated food, a stockpile of weapons and an underground shelter? 

If the Church is going to face the choice between accepting the Mark of the Beast (and eternal damnation) or being martyred for Christ, how will my warning against taking it carry more weight that God’s warning? 

It defies logic. 

Debating it is even less logical. The Rapture is the only conclusive signal of the onset of the Tribulation. 

The antichrist will not announce he is the antichrist. Barring a pre-Trib Rapture, how will anybody know if they are in the Tribulation or not? 

What does the Mark look like? Does it look different than a Nazi Party pin? In Nazi Germany, devout Nazis said grace before meals to Adolf Hitler. Children said bedtime prayers to Adolf Hitler. Those outside of Hitler’s system were interned in concentration camps. Millions were murdered. 

Hitler was both revered as the political leader and worshipped as a god. But Hitler wasn’t the antichrist. We know that because Hi
tler is dead and the Nazi era is past. 

How will we be able to tell the difference between the antichrist and a new Hitler? There is no logical way to know. Yet people will argue against logic, once they’ve staked out their position. 

Therefore, there is little point in debating it.

Is There Really A Money Trust?

Is There Really A Money Trust?
Vol: 26 Issue: 26 Monday, September 26, 2016

One of our OL members posted a question regarding the existence of a money trust conspiracy. In essence, the question was if the money trust conspiracy theory was true. The short answer is yes.

The longer answer is still yes, but the actual money trust ‘conspiracy’ (that’s not exactly the right word for it, but it is close) is less malevolent in fact than it is in theory.

Less look first at what it is, and then we’ll examine what it isn’t.

The rallying cry of the American Revolution was “No Taxation Without Representation.” There was more to it than that. Great Britain didn’t go to war over a tea tax. Included in Great Britain’s financial demands on the colony was control of America’s currency of issue.

That was the real prize, and to the colonists, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back, one issue among many issues popularized as a ‘tea tax revolt’ by history.

The Revolutionary War concluded with a treaty between Great Britain and the new United States of America that included the establishment of the 1st Bank of the United States, but owned by the British Crown.

Working behind the scenes, as an advisor to the British Crown was German financier Mayer Amschel Rothschild. Rothschild reputedly once remarked,

“Give me control of a nation’s currency and I care not who makes its laws.”

Rothschild financed the British Crown’s rental of the Hessian army from Germany, which propelled him to favor in the British Court. Rothschild sought to be the King’s banker. Good fortune and planning soon made him the King’s bank.

Rothschild, with the help of his five sons who controlled the main banking establishments in Europe, developed most effective and well-known private intelligence networks the world had ever seen.

At that time British bonds were called ‘consuls’ and they were traded on the floor of the stock exchange. Eldest son Nathan Mayer Rothschild instructed all his workers on the floor to start selling consuls. The made all the other traders believe that the British had lost the war so they started selling frantically.

When the stock bottomed, Nathan Mayer Rothschild discreetly instructed his proxies to buy them all back. When news finally reached London that the British had actually won the war, Nathan Mayer Rothschild owned most of England.

It put the Rothschild family in complete control of the British economy, now the financial center of the world following Napolean’s defeat, and forced England to set up a new Bank of England, which Nathan Mayer Rothschild controlled.

Rothschild’s sons established banks throughout Europe. Jacob set up de Rothschild Freres (Rothschild Bros) in Paris, other brothers set up banks in Vienna, Hamburg and Nales.

The 19th century is sometimes called the “Rothschild century” and its litany of wars and insurrections were nicknamed the “Rothschild wars” by those who lived through them.

For example, during the war between Britain and France in 1812-16, Mayer financed the British Crown, while Jacob financed Napoleon. Rothschild banking interests, for a time, financed both the Union and the Confederacy during the Civil War.

The Rothschilds found war extremely profitable; before her death, Gutle Schnapper, Mayer Amschel Rothschild’s wife reputedly said, “If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.”

By the end of this century, a period of time that was known as the, “Age of the Rothschilds,” it was estimated that the Rothschild family controlled half the wealth of the world.

The War of 1812 between the US and Great Britain began when the US refused to renew the charter for the First Bank of the United States. It concluded with the establishment of the Second Bank of the United States. The US won the war, but Rothschild won control of the bank.

In 1832, Andrew Jackson campaigned under the slogan, “Jackson and No Bank.” In 1833, Jackson removed US deposits from the Second Bank of the United States and puts them in non-Rothschild controlled banks.

The Rothschild Group responded by contracting the money supply, creating a financial depression, prompting Jackson to swear, “You are a den of thieves, vipers, and I intend to rout you out, and by the Eternal God, I will rout you out.”

In 1836, Jackson finally succeeded in blocking renewal of the Second Bank of the United States’ Charter. Before his death in 1845, Jackson was asked what he believed was his greatest presidential accomplishment. “I killed the bank,” he replied.

In 1863, Lincoln broke with the Rothschild bankers and, with the support of the Czar of Russia, began issuing ‘greenbacks’ to finance the Civil War, infuriating Rothschild, whose banks held most of the pre-war US national debt.

In an 1865 address to the Congress, Lincoln said, “I have two great enemies, the Southern Army in front of me, and the financial institutions in the rear. Of the two, the one in my rear is my greatest foe.”

Two months later, he lay dead from an assassin’s bullet.

The rest of the American 19th century is a litany of banking panics, financial scandals, money supply shortages and recessions that prompted Jacob Schiff, head of Kuhn, Loeb, and Co, (of the Hamburg Rothschild Banking House) to proclaim;

“Unless we have a Central Bank with adequate control of credit resources, this country is going to undergo the most severe and far reaching money panic in its history.”

On December 23, 1913, (when the majority of both Houses were at home for Christmas break) the Federal Reserve Act was put before a vote at a skeleton Congress. Its passage provoked Congressman Charles Lindbergh to thunder;

“The Act establishes the most gigantic trust on earth. When the President signs this Bill, the invisible government of the monetary power will be legalized…….The greatest crime of the ages is perpetrated by this banking and currency bill.”

The first governor of the Federal Reserve was a recent German immigrant named Paul Warburg. Warburg was a member of the Hamburg branch of the Rothschild Banking House before joining the Hamburg-affiliated American investment group of Kuhn and Loeb.

Warburg took his seat as Governor of the Fed just as World War I broke out in Europe.

The German House of Rothschild loaned money to the Kaiser to finance it. In gratitude, KaiserWilhem named Paul’s brother, Max Warburg head of German intelligence. Since Warburg was part of the House of Rothschild, he had access to the Rothschild intelligence network.

The British House of Rothschild loaned money to finance the war to the British Crown. The Crown appointed Sir William Wiseman as head of British Intelligence in Washington in World War I. (Sir William Wiseman was a full partner in Warburg, Kuhn and Loeb until his death in 1963).

After the war, Paul Warburg was among the US delegates to the Treaty of Versailles. Present for the German side was brother Max Warburg.

The crippling war reparations levied against Germany were designated to be paid through the Swiss-based Bank of International Settlements, controlled at the time by a third Warburg brother, Felix.

Cozy. Paul Warburg at the helm of the Federal Reserve, his business partner in charge of British intelligence, his brother in charge of the enemy’s intelligence services, Rothschild money financing all sides, and another brother in charge of collecting reparations when it was all over.

Who said, in war, nobody wins?

Assessment:

These are some of the historical facts supporting the existence of a Money Trust ‘conspiracy’. Now, as to what the Money Trust isn’t.

It isn’t a Jewish conspiracy. There are a number of Jewish names among the Rothschild financial empire, but that doesn’t make it a Jewish conspiracy.

One doesn’t have to be a Jew to be part of the Rothschild group. Its aims aren’t Jewish aims. Its purpose isn’t to benefit world-wide Jewry — its purpose is to benefit the House of Rothschild.

The Rothschild family bonds are not Jewish family bonds, they are Rothschild family bonds. If the Rothschild family history was Irish, nobody would call their banking conspiracy an “Irish conspiracy”.

The Mafia is an organized crime organization made up primarily of Italians, but it isn’t an “Italian crime conspiracy”. It isn’t affiliated with Italy. Its aims have nothing to do with Italy, either malevolent or benign. The Italians don’t get a ‘cut’ from New York’s organized crime families.

The ‘ethnic’ part of the conspiracy is the easiest part to explain. One enlists conspirators from among one’s closest acquaintances. Historically, ethnic groups had been “ghettoized” according to ethnicity, so the guys from the neighborhood are most likely the same ethnicity.

If you were a European Jew, you mostly knew other European Jews. And if you were a European Jew of the 18th or 19th centuries, you had little chance to know, and even less chance, to meet a Gentile.

It was social, not ethnic or religious differences that dictated the ethnicity of the early House of Rothschild. And it was greed and lust for power that drove it, not some ethnic or religious ethic.

The Money Trust conspiracy is a banking conspiracy. It is no more a “Jewish conspiracy” than the Hollywood film industry is “Jewish”.

There are a lot of Jewish names among the top Hollywood film industry, but the goal of the Hollywood film industry is to benefit the Hollywood film industry, not world-wide Jewry. The aim of the Money Trust is to benefit the Money Trust.

The Money Trust benefits when the economy does well, since it owns the economy. Sometimes, it benefits from the economy stalling, so it can lend itself money and collect interest.

When an economy can no longer produce profit, it is allowed to collapse, which brings domestic and political upheaval, which ultimately results in war.

Wars have to be financed, and if both sides are being financed from the same source, that source can selectively control the resources of one side, and then the next, allowing one side to surge, then allow the other, back and forth, until the maximum amount of profit has been squeezed out to finance war materiel whose only purpose is to blow up, forcing the financing of more.

That is how the Money Trust works. Despite its ugliness, the Money Trust ultimately benefits you and therefore, it is allowed to exist.

The big question you are probably asking is, “who is behind the money trust today?” You won’t like the short answer.

You are. And I am. And so is everybody who benefits when the economy surges.

And so we all work together, doing our part to keep the economic surge going. As long as the economy is good, there are jobs, our families are fed, our homes are safe, our lives secure.

We invest in the stock market via our 401(k) plans, we try to protect the environment, preserve our resources, and keep the good times rolling.

So does the local bank manager, and his boss, and his boss, ad infinitum, but NOT to benefit the money trust. Nobody is working for the handful of business executives in the handful of boardrooms at the top of the pyramid. We are working for ourselves.

It just so happens to benefit that handful of unknowns insulated by dozens of figureheads who are known, world leaders, top banking officials, etc. That’s how the world system works.

It should come as no surprise to those who read and believe Bible prophecy for the last days.

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Ephesians 6:12)

We discussed the principle of hiding in plain sight. The best way to hide a conspiracy is among a number of competing conspiracies.

By floating the idea that it is a Jewish conspiracy, the banking conspiracy is effectively cloaked.

The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” was the text used to justify the murder of uncounted tens of thousands of Jews in countless pogroms across Russia in the early 20th century.

It was widely circulated as documentary fact throughout Nazi Germany. It is still taken as Gospel by anti-Semites where ever they may gather.

The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” borrowed its plot line from the existing Money Trust, and added the “Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world” twist to it.

Because there is an historical banking family that actually was behind all the events I outlined earlier, there is just enough truth to be plausible.

Making it a Jewish conspiracy makes it dangerous.

Whenever the subject of the money trust comes up, so do the “Protocols”. Only the extremists on both sides would care to discuss it further.

And being extremists, they are dismissed as extremists out of hand by the center who wouldn’t want to talk about it for fear of being labeled an extremist or an anti-Semite.

So nobody talks much about the Rothschilds, the money trust, the Federal Reserve, etc., for fear of being labeled an extremist or an anti-Semite. The money trust remains hidden in plain sight.

The Money Trust conspiracy exists, but it is hidden among so many different versions that the exact truth is known to only a few. We know what it was. Nobody is exactly sure what it is at the moment.

The Bible tells us what it will be.

According to Bible prophecy, the antichrist seizes control of an existing global economy. Itmust already exist — he has only seven years in which to govern.

It must be global — Revelation 13:17 says he exercises economy power over the whole earth — and it MUST be already centralized in order for him to seize it.

The Money Trust isn’t even a conspiracy, any more. It has gone way beyond that. It is a completed system — constructed over a period of hundreds of years — upon which we now depend for our continued existence as we know it.

We rely on it to feed our families. We depend on it to keep them healthy. We feed the world system by our labor, and then plow whatever we can save back into it to feed it some more.

We are enslaved by it on every level, and its power over each of us is both merciless and absolute. We can rail against it, shake our fist, but we can’t change it and hope to survive the process.

We can deny it exists. But we still go to work for it, pay taxes to it, and exist within its framework.

You can call it the money trust. Or you can call it, as the Bible does, the world system. Or you can pretend it doesn’t exist.

But it is what it is.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on August 13, 2007

Featured Commentary: The Last Trump ~Pete Garcia

The Logic of Anti-Semitism

The Logic of Anti-Semitism
Vol: 26 Issue: 24 Saturday, September 24, 2016

One of the most enduring mysteries of the ages is, to my mind, the phenomenon of anti-Semitism.

It doesn’t follow any logical pattern that could explain it — indeed, taken as a purely social phenomenon, it makes no sense whatever.

Anti-Semitism appears to be universal; it has existed in every generation, among every people, on every continent upon which the Jew has put his foot.

European anti-Semitism dates back to the days of the Roman Empire, but Jews have been the targets of discrimination and pogroms on every continent and virtually every nation on the earth.

There is no nation that can claim to be free of anti-Semitism, and at the same time, there is no nation that can credibly claim it was harmed by its indigenous Jewish population.

Although an infinitesimal fraction of the global population, Jews have been awarded a quarter of all the Nobel Prizes given in the 20th century for chemistry, economics, literature, peace, physics and medicine.

Even the nations of the Arab world could have peace with Israel for the asking. Yet there is no nation on earth more universally despised.

Some anti-Semites (those who admit to themselves that they are) will argue that the Jews are “Christ-killers” invariably citing Matthew 27:25 as their ‘proof text’.

“Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.”

That doesn’t explain anti-Semitism among non-Christians — in fact, it doesn’t even explain anti-Semitism among Christians.

The Jews who happened to be in the crowd self-pronounced the curse, but the entire nation wasn’t there — just the rabble.

In any case, it was Jesus Himself Who lifted that curse as soon as it was pronounced, saying,

“Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” (Luke 23:34)

And, finally, it wasn’t Jews that drove the nails through His hands and feet, or thrust a spear through his side. Crucifixion was a Roman punishment, imposed by Roman decree, carried out by Roman executioners, not for crimes against Judaism, but for crimes against the Roman Empire.

If the charge of ‘Christ-killer’ applies to the Jews, logic would dictate it would apply equally to the Italians.

Finally, Christians understand that Jesus was not executed for crimes against the Jews, or for crimes against Rome: those were simply the legal justifications under prevailing law at the time.

There is no nation, tribe or individual human being on this earth that did not play an equal role in His Death — He came to atone for the sins of all mankind.

And for three raging, horrific hours, the cumulative sin of the entire human race was heaped upon Him. Every person who ever sinned shares equal guilt with the Roman soldier who actually drove the spikes in His Body.

No, the “Christ-killer” label is an excuse to explain the existence of anti-Semitism.

It is not a reason for its existence in the first place.

Assessment:

Neither is the current conflict between Israel and the Arabs sufficient reason to explain anti-Semitism. In the first place, it predates modern Israel by 25 centuries.

But leaving that aside, this is the Modern Age of Enlightenment and Israel was born out the ashes of, if not the first, certainly the most successful effort at destroying the Jewish race in history.

The pitiful survivors of Europe’s madness dragged themselves back to their ancient homeland, where in a single generation, they turned a desert wasteland back into a land flowing with milk and honey.

Of all the nations carved from the empires of history, there is no greater rags-to-riches story than that of Israel.

A truly representative democracy surrounded by a sea of brutal dictatorships, it should shine as a beacon of hope to oppressed peoples everywhere.

Israel should, by all existing standards, be as much a beneficiary of ‘historical guilt’ as are Native Americans or African Americans, or Australian aborigines or any other historically oppressed peoples.

No matter what identifiable, historically oppressed ethnic group one compares to the Jews, there is no common denominator.

In the first place, a Jew is a person of a particular faith but of no particular ethnic background, as well as being a person of a particular background with no particular religious faith.

Moreover, those who explain their anti-Semitism on religious grounds generally don’t believe in the Jewish God anyway.

Jewish anti-Semitism is a fundamental tenet of Islam, and is cited as the principle reason for both the global jihad against the West and for the Islamic world’s refusal to recognize Israel’s right to exist.

Despite this undeniable truth, the United Nations accepts every charge laid against Israel by the Islamic world, no matter how spurious.

At the same time, it routinely ignores open acts of war committed against the Jewish state by finding some moral equivalence between Israel’s refusal to commit suicide on demand and Islam’s refusal to recognize its right to exist.

Compare Israel’s ‘human rights violations’ — even the most transparently fictitious ones — to actual human rights violations ongoing in Islamic nations like the Sudan, or Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, or Syria’s Assad regime.

There are no mass graves in Israel. Yet more UN resolutions have been passed condemning Israel over the past sixty years than those passed against all the rest of nations of the world combined.

It defies logical explanation.

America has no more faithful or trusted an ally among all the nations of the world than it has in Israel. It is hard to imagine criticism emanating from Israel on a par with the kind of criticism routinely heaped on the US by its other close allies like Britain, France or even Canada.

And America has few enemies more virulent than the Palestinian terrorist groups like Hamas.

But the US is basing its entire peace process on creating a terrorist state on Israel’s borders. Never in international history has a nation been created while its people were engaged openly in a war of annihilation with the nation sponsoring its creation.

No other nation on the face the earth would even countenance being put in such a situation, let alone being forced into such a suicidal situation by its closest ally.

This, too, defies logical explanation.

Anti-Semitism cannot be explained by the secular history of the world. It really can’t even be explained by the religious history of the world. If there is an historical instance of Jewish oppression of Christianity to justify it, I can’t find it.

I can’t even find much of a case for the oppression of the Arabs by Jews — not even by modern Israel.

I visited Israel in 1992 just before the Oslo Agreement, including Bethlehem, Hebron, Jericho, Masada and the Dead Sea, now all part of the Palestinian Authority.

Not once did I hear a murmur of discontent. The Palestinians were thriving, tourist dollars were pouring in, roads were being built . . . if I were to visit today, I’d likely not come back alive.

Who or what turned it a war zone?

In 1993, Israel was prepared to turn the Palestinian Authority into the jewel of the Middle East. It would have stood as a testament to Israeli tolerance.

But the Palestinians couldn’t get beyond their blind hatred of the Jews, and as soon as the opportunity presented itself, they attacked. Why?

The rest of the world, particularly in the West, is neither blind nor stupid.

The Western diplomats who scold Israel for retaliating against unprovoked rocket attacks against civilian targets KNOW that they would react with far less restraint were they the ones on the receiving end of the rocket fire.

They KNOW that the war would end the second the Palestinians stopped attacking.

Yet they support the Palestinian right to launch unprovoked random attacks against Israeli targets and condemn Israel for pin-point retaliatory strikes aimed exclusively against the attackers as ‘disproportionate.’ Why?

Why does the world hate the Jews? What have the Jews ever done to the world?

They survived — not as Israelis, but as Jews. The world would have no problem with a secular Israel. Or with a Muslim Israel. What it cannot countenance is a JEWISH Israel. It cannot even explain why.

Both the world’s dominant religions, Christianity and Islam, are rooted in Judaism. Islam claims it descended from the Jewish patriarch, Abraham, and Christianity was founded in Jerusalem by a 1st century Jewish itinerant preacher.

Neither faith would exist without Judaism, and neither faith COULD exist without the continued existence of the Jews. Since both faiths were born out of Judaism, both would crumble without it.

You can’t pull a foundation from under a building and expect the ediface to continue to stand. That is simply logical. If Judaism is rooted in a false theology, so is Islam and Christianity.

Why would Christians or Muslims knowingly fight against their own God?

So global anti-Semitism doesn’t make logical sense politically, economically, socially or religiously. Yet it continues to thrive, despite its self-destructive nature.

There is but one logical explanation for anti-Semitism, and that explanation is spiritual. The Bible says that Satan is the god of this world, and that it is his goal to be worshiped as such.

The existence of Israel is a constant reminder to the god of this world that his days are numbered. His goal is to eradicate all traces of God from the face of the earth.

And standing in his way is the Jewish state of Israel. The Bible also says that the Jews are the Chosen People of God and that they will not only endure as a people to serve as God’s ‘ensign to the nations’ that He exists, but that their existence is evidence of His ability to keep His word.

“Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts is His Name: If those ordinances depart from before Me, saith the LORD, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before Me for ever.” (Jeremiah 31:35-36)

For Satan to win, God’s Word must return to Him void. Israel’s destruction would accomplish that goal. That’s why the world hates Israel, even though it cannot explain why. Because by Israel’s very existence it is an offense to the god of this world.

Therefore, the big question, since Israel DOES exist, revolves around its RIGHT to exist.

No other explanation makes logical sense.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on March 28, 2008

Knowing The Day and The Hour

Knowing The Day and The Hour
Vol: 26 Issue: 23 Friday, September 23, 2016

“But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” (Matthew 24:35-36)

The text itself, at first glance, seems simple and unambiguous. Jesus is explaining that nobody, not even He, knew the precise hour and day in which the Lord will return for His Church. But He offers a clue, saying conditions will be similar that those experienced by Noah and his family.

Before moving on, let’s look quickly at conditions in Noah’s day, according to the Scriptures. First, Noah, himself.

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.”

We immediately see four key points. Noah was the recipient of an unmerited gift – “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” God extended His grace to Noah, who, in spite of being a sinner, trusted the Lord’s word.

Consequently, Genesis tells us, “Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations.”

Noah was a ‘just’ man. Only God can justify sinful man. Note that it wasn’t Noah that was perfect — instead, Noah was ‘perfect in his generations.’

What does that mean?

Genesis Chapter Six opens with an explanation:

“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 of all which they chose. . . (6:1-2)

The reference to the ‘sons of God’ is a reference to angels:

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

“When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:7)

These angels, according to Genesis 6, produced hybrid, half-angelic and half-human offspring, polluting the human bloodline.

“There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown. ” (6:4)

At the Fall, God pronounced both the curse and a Promise of a Redeemer, saying to the serpent, Satan,

“And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her Seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise His Heel.”

By the time of Noah, the seed of Eve had been so polluted by this hybrid bloodline that only Noah and his family remained “perfect in his generations.”

And God’s promise was specific — mankind could only be redeemed by the seed of Eve.

Wipe out Eve’s ‘seed’ and God’s word is broken, and Satan wins his case on the grounds God is not perfect and therefore not qualified to stand in judgment over him. Finally, we see that Noah “walked with God”.

Noah is a picture of the Church in the last days. The Church is redeemed, and therefore justified, not by its own merits, but by God’s grace. Covered by the Blood of Christ, the Church’s ‘bloodline’ is perfect and unpolluted by the world.

Noah was preserved alive out of judgment, not necessarily because God loved him best, but because it was a necessary element in God’s unfolding plan for the ages.

Had God not preserved Noah and his family alive out of judgment, mankind would have perished and there could have been no Virgin Birth, no redeeming life, atoning death or Resurrection unto life.

Only Eve’s seed could qualify according to God’s Promise, so some perfect, untainted, purely human remnant of Eve’s seed had to be preserved for God’s plan to move forward.

God’s plan for the last days includes preserving a remnant out of judgment, not because He likes this generation best, but because it is necessary for His plan to move forward. Noah and his family were ridiculed for 120 years, until “the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished.” (2nd Peter 3:6)

Jesus likened the Rapture to the Flood, saying,

“And [they] knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” (Matthew 24:39)

Assessment:

How do we know that Jesus is referring to the Rapture in his passage about Noah, and not His 2nd Coming? Jesus said no man could know the hour and the day.

The Prophet Daniel gives us the hour and the day of the 2nd Coming of Christ — or at least, Daniel gives us the ability to calculate it.

Daniel predicts a prince of the revived Roman Empire would negotiate a peace settlement between Israel and ‘the many’ and that part of that settlement would include the restoration of Temple worship.

The peace agreement, according to Daniel, has a set term of one “week” (Heb – shabua) which is a week of Biblical 360-day years. Seven biblical years equals 2,520 days.

Daniel says that agreement will be broken when “the abomination that maketh desolate is set up.” (Daniel 12:11) The Apostle Paul identifies the “abomination” as taking place when the antichrist, “as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:4)

It is this claim of godhood that causes the Jews to reject him, which results in his tearing up the agreement, closing the Temple and launching his persecution of Jews.

So, let’s quickly recap. Daniel 9:27 predicts a period of seven years time from the agreement that restores Temple worship to the 2nd Coming of Christ. Daniel also says that, from the time of the abomination of desolation until the 2nd Coming would total 1,260 days — or exactly half of 2,520 days of Tribulation.

Since the event that begins the countdown is the antichrist’s seating of himself on the Mercy Seat in the Temple, anybody will a Bible could mark that date and start counting down 1,260 days to His Second Coming.

Therefore, it seems entirely logical to deduce the following: The Tribulation Period (Daniel 9:27) lasts for 2,520 days, or seven Biblical years. It is divided into two parts, 1,260 days of Temple worship, and 1,260 days of persecution.

It concludes on the 2,520th day from the date of the peace deal on the plains of Megiddo at the Second Coming of Christ.

Since Daniel also predicted the precise date and hour in which Jesus Christ would ride into Jerusalem on the back of a colt and be received as King of the Jews, it is reasonable to expect the same kind of precision in Daniel’s prediction of 1,260 days from the abomination to the 2nd Coming.

Therefore, the only secret coming is that of the Rapture, not His triumphant return as the Righteous Judge at the close of the Tribulation Period. A secret pre-Trib Rapture is the only event that cannot be calculated.

A mid-Trib Rapture can be calculated — it is 1260 days after the peace deal. A post-Trib Rapture can be calculated, 2,520 days after the peace deal, or 1,260 days after the abomination.

A pre-Wrath Rapture, that is a Rapture that takes place at some point after the peace deal but before the abomination, makes the inclusion of the 2,520 and 1,260 day time frames superfluous and unnecessary, begging the question of why God included them in the first place.

But despite Jesus’ stern warning that the timing of the Rapture cannot be calculated, I predict that within the next couple of weeks, somebody will be predicting the Rapture will occur on September 24, 2007 with the blowing of the last shofar (trumpet) at the end of the Jewish Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashana).

It is a safe enough prediction; it happens every single year at this time. And it makes logical sense. The only major Jewish feast day for which there is no corresponding miracle performed during the Lord’s earthly ministry is Rosh Hashana. So many conclude that when the Rapture does come, it will come at the conclusion of Rosh Hashana.

For that reason, I am absolutely convinced that, of all the possible dates for the Rapture, it won’tbe Rosh Hashana, despite the twenty-page emails I am certain to receive shortly explaining somebody’s exhaustive and comprehensive calculations.

Why? Because the same Jesus who said we couldn’t calculate the Rapture also said any calculations that are made will be wrong.

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

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on September 1, 2007

Featured Commentary: Everyone Loves Israel ~Alf Cengia

Foolishness of Christ

Foolishness of Christ
Vol: 26 Issue: 22 Thursday, September 22, 2016

The Bible says that God ”hath chosen the foolish (simple) things of this world to confound the wise, and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.”

The Omega Letter is aimed at those who have already grasped the simplicity of salvation. A lot of what we focus on is what Paul calls the ‘strong meat’ of Bible doctrine.  

For example, we’ve examined the nuts-and-bolts answers to hard questions like, “Why did Jesus have to die?” and “would a loving God send people to hell?” etc.  But it is good from time to time to revisit the basic gift of salvation.

I have friends who can’t seem to ‘get’ how simple God made salvation.  The miss the forest for the trees.  Maybe you have friends like that too.  They can’t grasp the basic fact that salvation is for sinners. They think they have to earn their way by doing good.

When Jesus was asked which was the most important commandment of God, He replied:  

“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment. And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.” (Matthew 22:37-40)

Love God above yourself and love your neighbor as yourself.  Simple.  

A person cannot have a personal relationship with God apart from Jesus. There is a gap that exists between God the Father and sinful humanity. 

God is completely holy and cannot tolerate the presence of any sin. But we are all selfish sinners. To redeem us, He had to become ONE of us. 

To do THAT, He had to physically enter sin’s ‘quarantine zone’ (the earth’s atmosphere), conquer sin in THIS world, thereby defeating sin’s universal stranglehold on humanity. And then, having qualified as an acceptable Sacrifice, He paid the eternal penalty for sin on our behalf. 

When Adam sinned, God cursed him, saying,

“In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.” (Genesis 3:19)

God covered the first sin of Adam by clothing his nakedness with dead animal skins. Sin, by definition, introduced death into the world;

“. . . without shedding of blood is no remission.” (Hebrews 9:22)

Jesus paid the penalty prescribed by Adam’s sin, just as every human being since Adam, but Jesus was WITHOUT sin.  Having been born of the Father into this sin-sick world, He lived the life that God expected of each of us and then paid the penalty for sin that we deserve.

He was not under that penalty for Himself, which is why He could pay the price demanded on our behalf. Having defeated the cause of death (sin), He then defeated the penalty of sin (death) by His Resurrection. 

Nobody who ever sinned, even once, has defeated sin personally, and all remain under sin’s penalty of death.

“And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment:” (Hebrews 9:27)

But death is in two parts. The physical death, and what the Bible calls the ‘second death’ eternal separation from God in the Lake of Fire. 

And so is the judgement. The believer’s sins were judged at the Cross, and the penalty for them has already been paid. 

For those who trust to their own good works, there is a second judgement before the Great White Throne, where they will be judged according to ALL their works, good and bad. 

There is no balancing scale. One sin earns eternal separation. 

Our personal sin still earns the wages of physical death. We are spiritually and eternally saved, but the world in which we live remains under the curse. Sin has its consequences on the things which are in it.

“For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)

Jesus sinless Sacrifice paid our eternal debt — there is nothing left to judge but our rewards. Nothing we could ever do could earn it, because it is a gift, freely offered to all men. 

By accepting Jesus’ sacrifice on our behalf and committing to follow Him we are declared righteous by God on the basis of our faith. 

Therefore as new creatures, recreated by the Blood of Christ, wearing His righteousness instead of our own, we are able to come before the throne of God blameless and cleansed, reestablishing our relationship with God.

“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2nd Corinthians 5:17)

It has NOTHING to do with religion. Paul was preaching to the Church at Galatia, where a heresy had crept in that said Christians had to be circumcised like Jews in order to prove they belonged to God. 

Paul makes it clear that Christians are neither Jews nor Gentiles, but something entirely new.

“For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth any thing, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature.” (Galatians 6:15)

The difficulty in trusting Jesus is rooted in the failure to understand the ‘new creature’ for what it is. The Bible teaches that there are four sentient spiritual creations of God. 

First, God created the angels. Then, He created Adam in His Image and in His Likeness. At Adam’s fall, his spiritual state was changed, he became separated from God, and Adam was the father of the spiriitually unregenerate Gentiles.

Abraham, through faith, fathered the first of another new spiritual creation. Isaac was the first spiritual Jew, the father of Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel. 

Since then, every person is born either a Jew or a Gentile, from the perspective of their spiritual state of existence. The first three sentient, spiritual creations of God, then, are angels, Jews and Gentile, descended from Adam, but in God’s Image, with an eternal spirit. 

A descendant of Isaac can never become a Gentile. He can denounce Judaism, become a Buddhist, an atheist, or whatever, but in God’s eyes (as well as man’s) he is still a Jew. 

A Gentile can become a practicing Jew, but he remains a spiritual Gentile, since his eternal spirit remains estranged from God apart from Christ.  

Jesus introduced a new spiritual creation with His Resurrection. Those who trust Jesus are transformed into a totally new spiritual creation, personally indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God, and restored to the fellowship lost by Adam.

“Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned” (Romans 5:12)

“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.” (Romans 5:19)

Having been MADE righteous and restored to fellowship, Christians are neither Gentile nor Jew. Nor are they angels, either literally or figuratively. The Bible calls them ‘saints’ — something entirely unique in the history of the universe.

Jews and Gentiles are born what they are. Christians are REBORN into a ‘new birth’ — a new spiritual creation of God. 

Our conversion is literal — we CONVERT into a new thing, like a moth becoming a butterfly. Just as a Jew can’t become a Gentile because he is of Isaac’s race, (and a Gentile can’t become a spiritual Jew because he isn’t), a Christian, once reborn, can’t revert back to either Jew or Gentile. And we never were angels. 

Salvation is a permanent transformation from one kind of spiritual creation to a different kind of spiritual creation.  It is the misunderstanding of the new creature that is a stumbling-block to grasping the simple assurances of the Gospel.  

At the point of salvation, according to Scripture, the old creature (Jew or Gentile) is “passed away.” (2nd Corinthians 5:17) The Bible says the old creature is dead. Only God can raise the dead, not an act of man. God would be forced to raise the dead spiritual Gentile,  and undo His new spiritual creation based, not just on an act of man, but on a sinful act.

If sin can force God to undo His own creation, then where is the victory? 

The Bible says to repent (literally, change your mind), realize your sin will take you to hell, and that there is nothing you can do about it except to trust Jesus’ promise that by trusting Him for your salvation as the Lord of your life, you are now a new creation of God. 

It’s so simple. So simple, in fact, that there are millions upon millions who just can’t get it. Paul spoke of being “wise in your own conceits” (Romans 12:16) not the least of which is the belief that our works contribute to our salvation.

“But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty.” (1st Corinthians 1:27) 

 If Jesus didn’t do it all, then He didn’t have to do it at all and He died in vain.

“I do not frustrate the grace of God, for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.” (Galatians 2:21) 

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on October 29, 2009

Featured Commentary: The Arch of Ba’al ~J.L. Robb

Laws of God? Or Laws of Men?

Laws of God? Or Laws of Men?
Vol: 26 Issue: 21 Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Civil disobedience is a touchy subject among Christians.  There is so much in our world that screams out for it.  And we are all sick and tired of being pushed out of the public arena, marginalized and mocked, and sick to death of the Obama.  It is difficult to know when is the right time to stand up and shout, “Enough!”

In Acts 4:15-20 and 5:27-29, when the Sanhedrin demanded that the Apostles cease preaching the gospel, it was a clear-cut case of the dictates of man contradicting the commandments of God.

Jesus had sent the Apostles out to preach the gospel (Matthew 28:19,20); to disobey Him would be sin. The Apostles had to make a personal choice; they chose to obey their Savior.

In Acts 16:35-40 Paul explained that he was concerned about future opportunities to preach the gospel.  He insisted on his legal rights as a Roman citizen.  This is a unique situation, but from it, we learn that Christians CAN stand up for their legal rights, especially when the cause of Christ is involved.

On the other hand, the Apostle Paul writes that we are to submit ourselves to the governing authorities.

This is where it gets complicated.  The two most important passages on this subject are Romans 13:1-5 and I Peter 2:13-17.  The Holy Spirit lays out for us the following truths.  First, every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities, for God has appointed those authorities (Romans 13:1).

It is worth of note that as Paul wrote these words, Nero was the Roman Emperor, and his kingdom was based on anything but Biblical principles.

Nero certainly was no God-fearing man, yet Paul gave instructions to submit to the government in that anti-Christian historical context, and included no conditions.

Many advocates of Christian civil disobedience base their views on the assertion that a government based on anti-Christian principles, carrying out unjust policies, forfeits its right to command obedience from its citizens.

But the Roman government Paul lived under was no less humanistic and wicked than is ours; and yet Christians living under it were commanded to submit to it.

“Remind the people to be subject to rulers and authorities, to be obedient” (Titus 3:1).

“Submit yourselves for the Lord’s sake to every authority instituted among men, whether to the Kings, as the supreme authority, or to governors” (1 Peter 2:13-14).

Note that Peter does not say, “every authority except one that is humanistic” or “every authority except those not based on God’s law” but “every authority.”

Second, to resist God-appointed authorities is to resist God and invite His judgment on our lives (Romans 13:2).

Third, ruling authorities are the ministers of God for our good. It is amazing that God is using even unsaved political leaders to accomplish His purposes, without their consent or knowledge (Romans 13:3,4).

Fourth, we are to submit to authorities not only out of fear of punishment, but also in order to have a clear conscience before God.

Consequently, the believer will seek to obey the laws of society even when he is not likely to get caught for committing a crime. Our ultimate reason for obedience is to please God (Romans 13:5; I Peter 2:13-14).

Fifth, obedience to authorities is a good testimony before unbelievers (I Peter 2:15).

And sixth, we are to honor those who have authority over us (I Peter 2:17).

Some argue that the Roman Christians were practicing civil disobedience when they refused to sacrifice to the emperor as they were commanded.

Civil disobedience is not refusing to obey a command that would cause us to sin. Christians are free to disobey the government, and indeed must disobey the government when it commands us to do something contrary to God’s Word, or forbids us to do something Christ commands.

For example, if a government forbids us to preach Christ to unbelievers, we must disobey, as Peter and John did (Acts 4:1-20).

A true act of civil disobedience by the Roman Christians would have been their refusal to pay taxes as an act of protest against the Roman government’s corrupt policies – such as, supporting slavery, encouraging idolatry, and sponsoring cruel spectacles in the Colosseum.

Yet the New Testament instructs believers to pay their taxes: “this is also why you pay taxes, because authorities are God’s servants … if you owe taxes, pay taxes, if revenue, then revenue” (Romans 13:6,7).

This is the crucial difference: civil disobedience is refusing to obey a law as an act of protest against a government policy one believes is evil.

This is what troubles me.  Is the Alabama cause the cause of Christ?

Paul said the Cross freed us from the bondage of the 10 Commandments, since no one except Jesus ever kept them all. 

Paul writes in Romans Chapter 7:8-11,

“But sin, taking occasion by the commandment, wrought in me all manner of concupiscence. For without the law sin was dead. For I was alive without the law once: but when the commandment came, sin revived, and I died. And the commandment, which was ordained to life, I found to be unto death. For sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew me.”

As Paul already observed in Romans 6:14, thanks to the Cross,

“we are not under the law, but under grace. . .”

If Paul is telling the truth, the Ten Commandments are the reason that the Jews remain lost to this present time. The fact we are NOT under the Ten Commandments is the reason you and I can hope for eternal life.

Boiled down to basics, the unsaved world came away with the image of Christians, protesting the removal of a monument to the Law, the same Law that necessitated Christ’s crucifixion in the first place. A Law that Christians themselves cannot keep.

This is what troubled me. What kind of message does that send to the unsaved?

They don’t know that Christ set us free from the Law. A missed golden opportunity, since nobody got a chance to hear about that on TV.

Instead, the world saw the images on the television of Christians prostrate before the monument, like pagans worshipping at an altar. With a faith (in the Law, from the perspective of the unsaved) so powerful an Alabama Supreme Court Justice would defy his own court.

Should anything be more important than leading the lost away from the spiritual bondage of the Law and into the liberty procured by the Lord at the Cross?

Did anybody see anything in this debacle for the lost sinner, the skeptic, the seeker currently dabbling in drugs, the occult or paganism, that would convict them of their sinful state and turn them to Christ?

Anybody know anybody who got saved as a consequence of this hugely publicized Christian gathering? Anybody?

I could have gone with the majority on this. In fact, I wanted to. This is a juicy issue, if all I wanted to do was attract subscribers by piling on a popular topic and championing the popular view.

But the Bible and logic both say this isn’t right.

We’ve addressed it from the Biblical perspective, now let’s look at it logically. Because spin is spin, no matter who is doing the spinning.

Suppose the idiots who sued to have the monument moved had lost, then exhausted all their appeals. Having lost, they then took a sledgehammer to the monument anyway, in defiance of the court. Having removed the monument, they announced they did so because the ruling was unconstitutional (as they saw it).

I don’t want to offend anyone. I love you all as family. I hurt about this as much as you do. I am as infuriated by the anti-God efforts of the courts as any of you.

The Bible said this is what would happen in the last days. God Himself ordained the collapse of society, the rejection of godly principles, a system that would have a ‘form of godliness but denied the power thereof’ and He told the last days believers, ‘from such turn away’ — not emulate their tactics.

I gave you my word I’d unspin things and let you decide what the picture looks like when it is standing still. Even when it hurts.

Believe me when I say this one hurts.

A lot.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on September 1, 2003

The Debate Trap

The Debate Trap
Vol: 26 Issue: 20 Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Have you ever noticed that every Christian/atheist debate begins with the Christian on the defense?  Such a debate consists entirely of challenges to the Christian to ‘prove’ this part of Scripture, or to ‘prove’ that God exists. 

I’ve yet to hear of a debate in which the Christian demands that the atheist to ‘prove’ his point because it is an impossibly unfair demand.  How does one ‘prove’ an argument that rests on nothing? 

The atheist’s argument is that nothing created everything that exists.  It isn’t too hard to ‘prove’ everything that exists. The fact of existence proves existence.  

But we live in a material universe.  Everything can exist here.  But nothing can’t.  No matter what an atheist trots out as proof, it is only ‘proof’ in that it casts doubt on your position. It doesn’t prove his. 

His argument rests on the existence of nothing, which is an oxymoron of cosmic proportions.  Nothing is the absence of existence.

Nothing cannot exist, because if it existed, it wouldn’t be nothing.   Nothing cannot exist asnothing, since by definition it is the absence of existence.   That isn’t just fun with words — it is the reason why the atheist must argue against God. 

Because God exists.  Nothing doesn’t.  It can’t.  So their entire argument rests on proving yourargument wrong.  

Accepting such a challenge is a case of walking into a trap of one’s own making.  While the atheist’s arsenal is as vast as the universe, yours is not. 

Your opponent can draw from science, astronomy, math, geography, history, supposition and hearsay to bolster his argument. 

There is no framework or system around which to attack or defend the creative power of nothing. While your opponent’s arsenal is limitless, your defense is confined within the boundaries of Scripture.

Your opponent is free to use Scripture to attack Scripture — “What kind of loving God would order someone’s death for something as trivial as not keeping the Sabbath?” (Exodus 35:2)

But you are limited to explaining why the New Testament system is different than the Old Testament system.

In short, you can’t just pull something out of left field and dare them to prove it isn’t in the Bible and call it an honest debate. 

But they can.  Because they don’t have to prove anything.  

They just have to disprove you.

Assessment:

I see from our forums that I’ve still left some questions unanswered from our discussion on Dispensationalism.  Dispensationalism is a systematic understanding of Scripture that requires a systematic framework in which to function. 

Within that system, everything flows in an orderly fashion, each element dependent upon the rest.  Whether an event takes place during the Dispensation of Grace or during the Dispensation of Judgment is critical to its understanding. 

I’ve used the example in Revelation 13:7:

“And it was given unto him [the False Prophet] to make war with the saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.”

This is not possible during the Dispensation of Grace.  During the Dispensation of Grace,

“Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is He that is in you, than he that is in the world.”  (1^st John 4:4) 

Who is He that is in me?  That would be the Holy Spirit, no?   Who is he that is in the world? That would the Satan, the enemy.

During the Tribulation, somebody gives the False Prophet the power to ‘overcome’ the saints.  And not just overcome them, but have POWER over them. What changed?  Did the Holy Spirit become subordinate to Satan? 

If He that is in me is greater, then He can’t be overcome and overpowered by Satan.   And since Jesus promised to come for me before He would leave me Comfortless, it stands to reason that if He isn’t there, neither am I.

If there is no systematic understanding of how the various prophecies interlock, it is like trying to construct a building without a blueprint.  You might have all the necessary materials, but the finished product will be all over the place. 

More often than not the debates seem to follow the same pattern that I outlined in the beginning of this briefing.  The Pre-Wrath and Post-Trib arguments consist more of attacks on elements of Pretribulationism than mounting a case for their own view.  

So I try to avoid the debates — people that want to debate generally don’t want answers to questions. They want to win the debate.   And if I didn’t already believe what I teach was the truth, I wouldn’t teach it.  So debating it seems pointless.  

There was a good question in the forums about the chronology of Mark 13:27 that seems to suggest the gathering of the elect that takes place at the end of the Tribulation is the Rapture.

But it cannot be the Rapture.  It takes place at the end, after Jesus comes with power and great glory.   And these elect are gathered by the angels.

At the Rapture, “the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout and with the voice of the archangel, and the dead in Christ shall rise first. . . .  

He doesn’t send His angels to gather the Church — He comes for His Bride Himself.

But there is a gathering of the elect at the 2^nd Coming.   He sends His angels to gather the nations from the four corners of the earth which will be divided into the ‘sheep’ on His right hand and the ‘goat’ nations on His left.

“Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.”  (Matthew 25:34)

Another question has to do with the Church of Smyrna suffering persecution for ten days signifies the Church must undergo judgment.  Not so, The Church of Smyrna was a real period of Church history (100-325).

There were ten early periods of persecution of Christianity under the ten Persecutors – the Emperors Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Marcus Aurelius, Septimus Severus, Maximus, Decius, Valerian, Diocletian and Galerius.

Another question dealt with the Church at Philadelphia being kept from the hour of temptation that is going to come upon those that dwell upon the earth.

“Please explain what is meant by the hour of testing that the other churches are destined to go through.” 

Jesus referenced the “hour of temptation” that was going to come upon those that dwell upon the earth.  That doesn’t include the Church.  The word ‘temptation’ (pierasmos) means ‘discipline’.  The Church is not under discipline — it is under Grace.

Those to face the discipline of the Tribulation are not the Philadelphians of the 1800’s or the Smyrnans of AD 325 or any other part of the Church — they are those that dwell upon the earth after the Rapture. 

The reference to the Church at Philadelphia does not exclude the rest of the Churches.

The phrase, “that dwell upon the earth” is used to describe the people that rejoice over the death of the Two Witnesses. (Revelation 11:10)

It is used to describe those that worship the beast, whose names are not found in the Book of Life. (Revelation 13:8)

It is NEVER used of the Church.

There is but one Rapture of the Church.  The dead in Christ are raised first.  These are not the O.T saints — they are not the ‘dead in Christ’.   Then those living saints are caught up together with them. 

The Rapture is not the same as ‘resurrection’.  There are several resurrections, Jesus, the dead at the Crucifixion, the Two Witnesses, the OT saints, the Tribulation Martyrs . . . but they are notRaptured.

The Bible is specific in the order of resurrection. 

”For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. But every man in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterward they that are Christ’s at His coming. “

The O.T. saints receive their resurrected bodies at the end of the Tribulation. Daniel was told that his people would be resurrected, some to everlasting life, others to everlasting shame and contempt.  

Those resurrected to everlasting life appear in Revelation 20.  The rest don’t make an appearance until the Great White Throne Judgment at the end of the Millennium.

Job confidently proclaimed:

“I know my Redeemer liveth and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth, and though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:25-26)

“Thy dead men shall live, together with My dead body shall they arise. Awake and sing, ye that dwell in dust: for thy dew is as the dew of herbs, and the earth shall cast out the dead.” (Isaiah 26:19)

The last resurrection is the Great White Throne. That is the second death and it occurs after the Millennium. 

There is a rhyme and reason and pattern to Bible prophecy that follows the same systematic theology from Genesis 1:1 to the conclusion of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.

It is of no private interpretation, it is there for all to see.  The New Testament mentions the dispensations four times as in Ephesians 3:2:

“If ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward.” 

But without specific mention, it is clear that the Bible is a progressive revelation from God sub-divided by dispensation according to each new revelation.  While new revelation does not cancel previous revelation, it sometimes fulfills it.

Jesus did not cancel the Law, He fulfilled it. And therefore in this Dispensation, we needn’t worry about being killed for not keeping the Sabbath.

The Dispensation of Grace is a parenthetical period in the history of God’s people that opened with Jesus ascending into heaven as His Apostles gazed upward into heaven.  It concludes just as definitely and in exactly the same way, as the angels standing by prophesied.

“For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.”

“Wherefore COMFORT one another with these words.”  (1^st Thessalonians 4:16-18)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on May 19, 2010

Featured Commentary: Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Bang? ~Wendy Wippel