Satan’s Holiday

Satan’s Holiday
Vol: 27 Issue: 31 Monday, October 31, 2016

Today is Hallowe’en, or the Feast of Samhain, el Dia de lost Muertos, one of the world’s oldest holidays, still celebrated from Europe to the Americas (and my daughter, Kari’s birthday. Happy birthday, Kari!)

One year for Christmas, one of my sons gave me a 700 page book entitled, “The Story of the Irish Race” written by Irish historian Seumas Macmanus near the close of the 19th century.

Throughout his book, Professor Macmanus demonstrates a record of Irish history, maintained through its songs, legends and traditions, almost as rich and detailed as that of the Hebrews themselves. Indeed, Roman historians of antiquity considered Ireland to be an ancient kingdom when Rome was still young.

Part of Irish folklore history holds that the ancient Ard-Righs (High Kings) of Ireland were trading partners and allies of King Solomon of Israel. It seems that the ancient pagan Irish Druidic class was modeled after the Israelite system of priests and judges.

The Druids maintained the history of the Irish race, mimicking the practice of the Israelites of committing the past to both oral and written records. The Druids were like the ancient Israelite priests, only without the God of Israel.

The ancient Romans referred to the Druids as ‘barbarian philosophers’ but in his book, the Gallic Wars, Emperor Gaius Julius Caesar noted that it could take up to twenty years to complete the Druid course of study.

“The principal point of their doctrine”, says Caesar, “is that the soul does not die and that after death it passes from one body into another.

With regard to their actual course of studies, the main object of all education is, in their opinion, to imbue their scholars with a firm belief in the indestructability of the human soul, which, according to their belief, merely passes at death from one tenement to another; for by such doctrine alone, they say, which robs death of all its terrors, can the highest form of human courage be developed.

Subsidiary to the teachings of this main principle, they hold various lectures and discussions on astronomy, on the extent and geographical distribution of the globe, on the different branches of natural philosophy, and on many problems connected with religion”.

Caesar also noted the Druidic deity was the equivalent to the Roman god of the underworld, Hades. The ancient Israelites would have recognized him from their literature as Satan.

The whole ghosts and goblins and witches thing comes from the Druidic traditions of the ancient Celts. November 1st was the beginning of the Celtic new year, marking the end of the harvest and the beginning of the dark cold winter.

The winter season in Celtic tradition was closely associated with human death. The winter’s cold would hasten death, and so November 1st was the day when the Celts believed the boundaries between the living and the dead were the weakest.

On October 31st, following the ancient custom of burnt offerings unique to the Celts (and ancient Israelites) the Druids would order huge sacred bonfires (bone-fires) where people would gather to burn crops and animals as sacrifices to the Celtic deities.

During the celebration, the Celts wore costumes, typically consisting of animal heads and skins, to frighten away the spirits of the dead.

Under the Romans, the Druidic custom merged with the Roman customs of Feralia, the Roman day of the dead and that of Pomona the goddess of fruit and trees. By the 4th century, it became the feast of Samhain.

In the 7th century, the Roman Pope Boniface IV declared November 1 All Saints Day, the day to honor saints and martyrs. In this way, the Vatican hoped to replace the Celtic festival of the dead with a church-sanctioned festival of the dead instead.

From the History Channel’s website:

“The celebration was also called All-hallows or All-hallowmas (from Middle English Alholowmesse meaning All Saints’ Day) and the night before it, the night of Samhain, began to be called All-hallows Eve and, eventually, Halloween.

Even later, in A.D. 1000, the church would make November 2 All Souls’ Day, a day to honor the dead. It was celebrated similarly to Samhain, with big bonfires, parades, and dressing up in costumes as saints, angels, and devils.

Together, the three celebrations, the eve of All Saints’, All Saints’, and All Souls’, were called Hallowmas.”

Assessment:

Hallowe’en is a conundrum for Christians. There are two ways that we, as Christian parents, generally approach it. Here’s the first thing I did as a new Christian just learning what Hallowe’en is all about.

On October 31st, we’d turn off all the lights and pretend we weren’t home.

Later, we learned from an elder about greeting the little trick or treaters and giving them tracts instead of candy.

My kids didn’t get to trick or treat for Hallowe’en when they were little. Instead, I used them like little banners to demonstrate my faith. (It wasn’t easy being one of my kids. Take their word for it.)

When all the other kids were dressing up like fairies and demons (and princesses and comic-book characters and hobos) I insisted that my kids be given something else to do besides celebrate in Satan’s holiday.

After a decade or so of alienating my kids, it occurred to me that other kids weren’t really celebrating Satan’s holiday.

My kids knew about the history of Hallowe’en. I made sure of that. They knew it was Satan’s holiday. But they didn’t want to worship Satan.

They wanted to dress up in costumes and play instead of do schoolwork and canvass the neighborhood for free candy and eat it until they got sick.

They also knew that they could do all that without worshipping Satan even once the whole night. They figured that out years before I did.

The second way to deal with being a Christian at Hallowe’en is to go to the Bible for the answers. (I didn’t get around to that until about the time my last kid was too old to go trick or treating anymore. Being one of my kids really wasn’t easy.)

Paul writes in Romans 14:1;

“Him that is weak in the faith receive ye, but not to doubtful disputations.”

Hmmm. Doubtful disputations? Like what?

“For one believeth that he may eat all things: another, who is weak, eateth herbs. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not; and let not him which eateth not judge him that eateth: for God hath received him.”

What about days like Hallowe’en?

“One man esteemeth one day above another: another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.“

Paul says that a day is a day is a day:

“He that regardeth the day, regardeth it unto the Lord; and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it.”

As to how Christians should regard it,

”let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind.”

Why? Because Paul says a day, in and of itself is just not that important.

“For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord: whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord both of the dead and living.”

What Paul says regarding things like Hallowe’en is;

“So then, every one of us shall give account of himself unto God”

— and if you are ok with it, then its between you and Him.

Why? Because to a Christian, it is just not that important.

“I know, and am persuaded by the Lord Jesus, that there is nothing unclean of itself: but to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean, to him it is unclean. But if thy brother be grieved with thy meat, now walkest thou not charitably. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died.”

So if you, my brothers and sisters, think that turning off the lights and pretending you aren’t home tonight is an appropriate response, then it is an appropriate response and I praise the Lord for you.

On the other hand, if you think the appropriate response is to greet the little trick or treaters with a Bible tract, you are equally correct and I praise the Lord for you.

And if you think that on Hallowe’en trick or treaters are just kids having innocent fun and you also want to load them up with junk food commensurate with how cute they are, then, by the authority of the Word of God, you are ALSO correct and I praise the Lord for you.

“Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth.” (Romans 14:22)

It is possible to be a Christian in this world and still live a little.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on October 31, 2008

Season of the Witch

Season of the Witch
Vol: 27 Issue: 29 Saturday, October 29, 2016

Religious holidays are all but illegal in 21st century America. Those few that survive have been watered-down beyond recognition. Thanksgiving, a day once solemnly set aside to thank God for our blessings as a nation, has morphed into Turkey Day, a day set aside to worship the guest of honor at dinner.

“Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.” (Romans 1:25)

Most Americans don’t gather to give thanks to God, they gather to eat and watch football. For millions, it is the one day a year they say grace before meals, and that is about as religious a holiday as it is gonna get.

But there is still one religious holiday that is untouchable by either the Political Correctness Police or a vote-hungry Congress. Hallowe’en.

Your kids will be encouraged to dress up as witches and hobgoblins, to exchange Hallowe’en cards or small gifts, to wish each other a ‘Happy Hallowe’en’ and to engage in  
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a  
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day-long celebration that doesn’t end until well after dark.

Make no mistake about it, Hallowe’en is a religious holiday.  It just isn’t a  Christian holiday.  It derives its name from ‘All Hallow’s Eve’ — the day before the Catholic holiday of “All Saint’s Day” on November 1st.  According to the AmericanCatholic.org, Halloween was adopted by the Catholic Church as a day of “communion with the saints” who are still paying for their sins in purgatory and those who’ve either paid their sin debt themselves or were “prayed out” by someone still alive.

A person could obtain a plenary indulgence by saying a particular formula of prayer performed on November 1st.   

“In 835, Pope Gregory IV moved the celebration for all the martyrs (later all saints) from May 13 to November 1. The night before became known as All Hallow’s Even or “holy evening.” Eventually the name was shortened to the current Halloween. On November 2, the Church celebrates All Souls Day.

The purpose of these feasts is to remember those who have died, whether they are officially recognized by the Church as saints or not. It is a celebration of the “communion of saints,” which reminds us that the Church is not bound by space or time.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that through the communion of saints “a perennial link of charity exists between the faithful who have already reached their heavenly home, those who are expiating their sins in purgatory and those who are still pilgrims on earth. Between them there is, too, an abundant exchange of all good thing.”

“Purgatory” is a doctrine unknown to the Bible. It is based largely on one of the books of the apocrypha and Catholic tradition that was formulated into a cohesive doctrine of the church at the Councils of Florence and Trent.

But Hallowe’en was originally a Celtic religious holiday. The Celts believed all laws of space and time were suspended during this time, allowing the spirit world to intermingle with the living. The dead would roam the earth seeking living bodies to possess. 

Naturally, the still-living did not want to be possessed. So on the night of October 31, villagers would extinguish the fires in their homes, to make them cold and undesirable. They would dress up in all manner of ghoulish costumes and noisily parade around the neighborhood in order to frighten away spirits looking for bodies to possess.

The holiday was known as the Feast of Samhain, and was the High Holy Day of the Druidic pagan religion. 

The Romans later adopted the Celtic practices as their own. In the first century AD, Samhain was assimilated into celebrations of some of the other Roman traditions that took place in October, such as their day to honor Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit and trees.

The thrust of the practices also changed over time to become more ritualized. As pagan belief in spirit possession waned, the practice of dressing up like hobgoblins, ghosts, and witches took on a more ceremonial role.

The custom of Halloween was brought to America in the 1840’s by Irish immigrants fleeing their country’s potato famine.

The custom of trick-or-treating is thought to have originated not with the Irish Celts, but with a ninth-century European custom called souling. On November 2, All Souls Day, early Catholics would walk from village to village begging for “soul cakes,” made out of square pieces of bread with currants. 

The more soul cakes the beggars would receive, the more prayers they would promise to say on behalf of the dead relatives of the donors. At the time, it was believed that the dead remained in limbo for a time after death, and that prayer, even by strangers, could expedite a soul’s passage to purgatory and on to heaven.

Assessment:

The Druids were the priestly caste of the ancient Celts. The Druids were polytheistic pagans who also deified elements of nature. The Druids were reputed to have possessed ‘the ancient knowledge’ — or witchcraft. 

There is little doubt in my mind that the Celtic Druids worshipped Satan,  (the angel of light) and there is plenty of documentation of the ‘ancient knowledge’. (Modern archeologists are still scratching their heads over Stonehenge).

Other ancient pagan religions also claimed divinely-obtained knowledge, and left behind similarly perplexing ruins, like the Mayan temple, the pyramids of Egypt or the statues of Easter Island.

Genesis Chapter Six makes reference to the offspring of an unholy mating between angels and the daughters of men in the period before the Flood.

“… the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose.” (Genesis 6:3)

Of the offspring of these unholy unions, Genesis tells us,

“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.” (Genesis 6:4)

The ancient Greeks and Romans worshipped a pantheon of gods and goddesses, together with strange mythical creatures like minotaurs, centaurs, and so on.

Joshua spoke of the ‘gods’ from before the Flood that were still being worshipped by the ancientIsraelites:

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether THE GODS WHICH YOUR FATHERS SERVED THAT WERE ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE FLOOD, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD. (Joshua 24:15)

When I was a young Christian, I used to rail against the celebration of Hallowe’en because it was Satan’s high religious holiday. But as I’ve matured in the Lord, I’ve come to see it a bit differently. And maybe because of contemporary history.

As Christian religious celebrations are being secularized, Hallowe’en just keeps growing in popularity. And as it grows in popularity, Hallowe’en’s Satanic background becomes more a part of its celebration.

It is an object lesson to Christians of the reality and existence of Satan and a testimony to his status as the prince and power of the air and the ‘god of this world’. (2nd Corinthians 4:4)

C. S. Lewis wrote that the “greatest trick the devil ever pulled was in convincing the world he doesn’t exist.” But for Christians, is the one day of the year when Satan is unmasked and exposed as a real entity.

I don’t know if I ever made a convert by railing against little kids having fun dressed up in Hallowe’en costumes. I rather doubt it.  Hallowe’en’s roots are no more pagan than those of Saturnalia, also adopted by the Catholic Church, but renamed ‘Christmas’.

So I don’t rail against it anymore. It is too good a witnessing opportunity to waste by sounding like a wild-eyed fanatic railing against little kids in cute costumes having fun playing dress-up and gorging on tiny Hershey bars.

“And we know that ALL things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

In the end, they aren’t worshipping Satan.  They’re making fun of him.  And they are learning about him in the context of heaven and hell.  That tends to spark questions in young minds.

For many, the controversy about Hallowe’en festivities will eventually spark the same question — and the same choice — Joshua laid out before his men.

If Satan is real, then God is real.  And if God is real, then you have a choice before you. It was that logic that first caused me to choose Christ.

And it also demonstrates the truth of Paul’s comforting assurance that all things do work together for good to them who are the called according to His purpose.

Even Hallowe’en.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on  October 31, 2009

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?

Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People?
Vol: 27 Issue: 28 Friday, October 28, 2016

Have you ever had somebody come up to you and demand an answer to the question; “Why do bad things happen to good people?’ Or have you ever asked that question of yourself?

How many times in your life have you wailed, “Why me?” when something bad happens? Or, as in the Asian tsunami catastrophe in which tens of thousands of innocent children were killed, asked God, ‘Why them?”

The short answer is “Why not?” — but it isn’t really very satisfying — even less so when your questioner is an unbeliever.

You are seeking a way to introduce the love of Christ to them, but how does one explain seemingly random death and destruction — an ‘act of God’ — in the context of, “for God so loved the world?”

Virtually every meaningful conversation I have ever had with people on the subject of God and religion has either started with this question, or gotten around to it before long. No doubt, you probably can say the same thing.

Then there is the opposite, but equally baffling question; “Why DON’T bad things happen to BAD people?” Take gazillionaire terrorist Osama bin-Laden, for example.

If ever there was a guy that deserved bad things, it’s him. We’ve dropped bombs on him, and, judging from his post Tora Bora video release, wounded him pretty seriously. He is suffering, according to most intelligence estimates, from kidney failure, he evidently lives in a cave, and, despite an unthinkably high ‘dead or alive’ bounty on his head, is seemingly alive and well and doing just fine, thanks for asking,

Why did tens of thousands of innocent children get swept away by an ‘act of God’ while a monster like Osama bin-Laden continues to survive the concerted efforts of the most powerful nation on earth to kill him?

Why is it that good people suffer divorces, business failures, major financial problems, terminal illnesses, sickness and pain while people like Donald Trump can spend twenty-five million bucks on a wedding bash for Trophy Wife Number Three (or is it four?) without batting an eye?

While we have seen incredible answers to prayer among our members, we’ve also witnessed times when God doesn’t seem to be listening. How many times have you seen the ‘wrong’ people get sick, the ‘wrong’ people get hurt, the ‘wrong’ people die?

My mother, who, by all accounts was a wonderful woman, died at only forty years of age, leaving behind five motherless children. Why her? Why us?

Why not?

Assessment:

A clever debating trick would be to turn the question around and ask, “Why do good things happen to bad people?” since we know that ‘all have sinned and come short of the glory of God’.

But it is, as I said, just a clever debating trick. It doesn’t answer the question, it just broadens the topic of debate.

When Joseph confronted his brothers after they had sold him into slavery, he “said unto them, Fear not: for am I in the place of God? But as for you, ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good, to bring to pass, as it is this day, to save much people alive.” (Genesis 50:19-20)

We learn a lot about why bad things happen to good people from Joseph. God uses evil to accomplish good. Had Joseph not been sold into slavery in Egypt, then his brothers would have starved to death.

The twelve tribes of Israel wouldn’t have existed, there would have been no Jewish people, no Chosen People, no Jewish carpenter named Jesus, and no hope of salvation for mankind.

It is a mind-boggling thought. No Jesus. No salvation. That would have been the outcome had his brothers been fine fellows who just loved little Joe.

Some argue that bad things happen to good people to punish them for being outside God’s permissive will. That is true, in a sense, although God doesn’t punish Christians, He chastises them — which is a different animal entirely than punishment.

‘Punishment’ is retribution. ‘Chastisement’ is correction. They are two different things.

Scripture says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.” (Romans 8:1)

If there is no condemnation, then there is nothing to be ‘punished’ for.

On the other hand, Hebrews 12:6 reveals that chastisement is evidence that God loves us as sons. “For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”

But one can hardly argue that the innocent child swept away by the tsunami was being punished or chastised. And although there are no actual ‘good people’ because we’ve all sinned and come short of the glory of God, a child is indeed innocent, so even turning the question around doesn’t really work. As I said, its just a clever debating trick.

Bad things happen because they do. It isn’t that God isn’t paying attention. Bad things HAVE to happen because human beings have free will. For free will to operate, evil must exist. If there were no evil, there could be no good.

If the lives of the righteous were obviously perfect, that too would destroy the possibility of choice. People wouldn’t choose righteousness because it was the right thing to do, they would choose it because it paid off better than evil.

We live in a world where, in order for there to be a Joseph, there must also be his brothers.

God created the universe in perfect harmony. The law of physics demands that for every action, there must also be an equal and opposite reaction. For every good, there must be a corresponding evil.

There is no evil in the universe itself. It remains in harmony, perfectly balanced according to God’s will and functioning according to His laws. Evil exists only in a place theologians call the ‘cosmos diabolicus’ — we call it ‘earth’.

Evil is restricted to earth so that the universe doesn’t get infected by it. That’s why earth has an atmosphere — not to keep evil out, but to keep it IN.

In this generation, man has figured out a way to escape the atmosphere, and the result is an orbiting junk pile around the planet that, viewed from outside, would put one in mind of flies buzzing around you-know-what.

What is ‘evil’, exactly? Does it exist? Albert Einstein noted that evil does not exist, anymorethan cold exists or darkness exists. Absolute zero is the temperature at which there is a total absence of heat. ‘Cold’ doesn’t actually exist. It is a word to describe the absence of heat, which does.

Darkness doesn’t exist. Absolute darkness is the absence of any light whatever, degrees of darkness depend on the amount of light that seeps in. The speed of light is 186,000 miles per second. One cannot measure darkness, because it doesn’t exist.

Evil doesn’t actually exist, either. Like cold and darkness, it is a word we use to describe the absence of good — or more accurately, the absence of God.

Bad things happen because they HAVE to happen in order for there to be a way of measuring what is good. It is through bad things that God reveals Himself to man. Sinners don’t come to Christ because they are satisfied with themselves — they come to Christ because they recognize the absence of God in their lives.

Winning the lottery doesn’t bring sinners to their knees — losing everything does, however. If you want to find God, you’ll find Him in prisons and hospitals, much more so than in mansions and fitness clubs.

Bad things happen to good people because God knows what He is doing, even when we don’t. When we pray for what we believe is a good thing and don’t get it, we wonder where God is or if He is listening. Unfortunately, we don’t know good from evil — we only know right from wrong.

‘Good and evil’, as we understand the terms, are not actions, they are outcomes. Only God can measure the outcome of what we believe is an evil thing.

Bad things happen to good people for reasons beyond our comprehension because God is in charge of outcomes. Bad things prove the existence of God, because they only happen where men are involved.

Remove the absence of God from the equation, and the moon continues to orbit the earth, the earth continues to orbit the sun, and the universe remains in perfect harmony.

Evil exists so that man can seek good, and, in so doing, find its Author.

“And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose.” (Romans 8:28)

Bad things happen to good people because God loves us. Evil exists only to the degree we fail to love Him back.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on September 6, 2008

Sealed and Delivered

Sealed and Delivered
Vol: 27 Issue: 27 Thursday, October 27, 2016

I received an email from a member in Florida who noted the speed with which so much of what the Bible predicted economically for the last days is unfolding.  Her question is one that I receive, in one form, or another, on a fairly regular basis.

“Sweden has already gone to a cashless society and the power brokers here are pushing that here right now. What scares me is that suppose with the “cashless” economy we are required to have an implant or tatoo or however they’re going to do it before the AC takes control? What do we do?? We know it’s one step away from NWO and the AC but if he has NOT assumed power yet?? This has hit me like a ton of bricks and I would like your best answer. This stuff is all coming together so fast now that I’m getting to be very frightened.

After replying to her in an email, I felt led to expand the answer for anybody else out there contemplating the same question, “Can a person take the Mark of the Beast without meaning to?”  First, the short answer.  No.

The reason is because the Mark of the Beast is not merely an economic medium of exchange, like a debit or credit card, although it will surely incorporate those functions.  But if the Mark of the Beast were just about economics, my correspondent’s concern would be valid. 

But the Mark of the Beast is first and foremost a worship system.  First, one must pledge worship.  The penalty for refusing to worship the Beast is the withholding of the Mark, which will identify those who otherwise would escape the False Prophet’s attention.

“And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not WORSHIP the image of the beast should be killed.” (Revelation 13:15)

But the Bible makes plain that no man can serve two masters.  Those that agree to worship the Beast are rewarded with the Mark.  The Mark is a symbol of membership in the ‘church’ of antichrist, and among the privileges of membership under his rule is the right to life, a form of liberty and the right to pursue a form of economic happiness.

But in order to accept the Mark, there must first be a False Prophet to demand worship of the Beast.  FIRST comes the demand for worship.  THEN comes the Mark as a “reward” for worship. 

Like a high-tech Star of David in 1940’s Europe, only in reverse.  Those without the Mark will be identified for roundup and extermination.  You CANNOT accept it by accident. 

And for Christians, it is irrelevant in any case, since the antichrist cannot be revealed until AFTER the Restraining Holy Spirit is “taken out of the way” (along with the vessels He indwells.)

The Bible is specific about the Mark of the Beast being an issue of worship, rather than economics.   

“And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” (Revelation 14:9-11)

Some Christians find it difficult to reconcile the grace of God with such a harsh penalty – something I’ve always found baffling, since those same Christians have no problem with the concept of eternal damnation. 

But what about salvation by grace through faith?  Who are the Tribulation Saints?  And if the Holy Spirit has been withdrawn, how did they get saved?  

During the Tribulation, God’s grace is also withdrawn.  The Age of Grace concludes with the Rapture.  The Tribulation Period is the final, unfulfilled week of the Age of the Law.  

Revelation Chapter 7 describes an event so unique that Jesus devotes an entire chapter to its discussion.  It describes a special ‘sealing’ of “the servants of our God in their foreheads.” (Revelation 7:3)  These ‘servants of God’ are twelve thousand Jewish male virgins chosen from each of the twelve tribes of Israel — 144,000 in all.

The Greek word translated in Revelation 7:3 as “sealed” is sphragizo meaning, “to stamp for security or preservation.”

They are sphragizo in a miraculous manner, by the direct intervention of God, in exactly the same way Church Age believers are, through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.  Church Age believers are also sealed.

“. . . in Whom also after that ye believed, ye were sphragizo with that Holy Spirit of promise.” (Ephesians 1:13)

The sealing work of the Holy Spirit is the basis for our eternal security during the Church Age.  The Promise from Jesus is that He would send a Comforter, and that the Comforter would abide with us until He returns for us.

“And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever; Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, neither knoweth him: but ye know him; for he dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18)

The Bible says that without the indwelling power of the Holy Spirit, salvation is impossible.

“But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

The doctrine of eternal security is proved by the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers during the Age of Grace.  Absent the illuminating power of the Holy Spirit, the Bible says the Gospel is foolishness to the natural man.

Assessment:

There is a prevailing conceit within the Church that God loves the Gentiles best and therefore, His attention will still be focused on the Gentiles after the Church Age concludes at the Rapture.  But the Bible paints an entirely different portrait.

The purpose for the Tribulation is two-fold.  It is set aside as a time of JUDGEMENT for the Christ-rejecting Gentile world, and for the national redemption of Israel.  The Times of the Gentiles is over.  That’s not my opinion — it is the plain teaching of the Scripture.

“For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.” (Romans 11:25)

That’s pretty clear, isn’t it?  The musterion (mystery; previously unrevealed truth) is that God allowed the Jews to reject the Messiah in order to provide a limited opportunity for the Gentiles to be saved.  It is limited to that period UNTIL the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. 

And then what happens?  God turns His attention back to Israel.  It says so, right here, in black and white.

“And so ALL Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:  For this is My covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins. As concerning the gospel, they are enemies for your sakes: but as touching the election, they are beloved for the father’s sakes.” (Romans 11:26-28)

One either subscribes the doctrine of replacement theology or one does not.  The New Covenant is with the believing Church during the Church Age, not with the unbelieving Gentiles of all ages.  The New Covenant is fulfilled at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb following the Rapture.

The Old Covenant is with the children of Israel.  It is fulfilled at the conclusion of Daniel’s Seventieth Week, when Israel enters into the Millennial Kingdom.

The 144,000 evangelists are sphragizo by the Holy Spirit to empower them as evangelists during the Tribulation Period, because it is only through the conviction of the Holy Spirit that men can be saved.

Those specially-sealed evangelists of Revelation 7 are Jewish male virgins from each of the Twelve Tribes. Their mission field is the whole House of Israel.  That does not preclude the salvation of Gentiles during this time, any more than Jews are precluded from salvation during the Church Age.

This is not dual-Covenant theology.  There is only one Covenant by which men are saved.  They are saved by faith that the shed Blood of Christ is sufficient to cleanse them of all sin.  That does not change during the Tribulation Period.

But the focus of God’s attention after the conclusion of the Age of Grace turns back to the Jews.  During the final Week of the Age of the Law, the universal ministry of the Holy Spirit is withdrawn. (2nd Thessalonians 2:7)

There will be believers in the Tribulation who will succumb to the antichrist’s coercion and accept his mark to save their families.  And Scripture is clear that those who do are forever lost.

Tribulation believers will be saved by faith in Christ and enduring until the end, as in the Church Age, but without the guarantee of eternal security or the automatic indwelling of the Holy Spirit. 

Jesus described the tribulation as, “such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.” 

He warned that, “except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.” (Matthew 24:21-22) 

It is our job on this side of the Tribulation to give the warning of what is to come.  It is coming.  And it is coming soon.

Our blessed hope is found in the Scripture’s promise that Jesus comes for His Church first.  Butafter that, there is no guarantee of a second chance.

Better a blessed hope than a false one.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on  May 26, 2012

Featured Commentary: Jesus and Prophecy ~ J.L. Robb

He Is Able. . .

He Is Able. . .
Vol: 27 Issue: 26 Wednesday, October 26, 2016

One of the most popular misconceptions about Christianity is that, in order to be a Christian, one must be ‘good’. From the perspective of the Bible, being ‘good’ is something of a dichotomy.

On one hand, the Bible tells us to model our lives after the epitome of ‘good’ by emulating our Lord Jesus. But on the other, the same Bible tells us that actually reaching our goal of being ‘good’ is not possible.

Were it possible to be ‘good’ then we wouldn’t need a Savior. Think about it.

God gave mankind ten simple rules for living. None of them seem particularly difficult; love God, honor your parents, don’t steal or murder, don’t bear false witness, be content with such as you have, etc.

But the Bible says that not one human being (Jesus excepted) ever managed to keep all ten.

“For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God,” Paul wrote in Romans 3:23.

Having examined the conundrum of mankind and the sin nature, Paul offers this opinion:

“Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law.” (Romans 3:28)

None of us has any difficulty remembering when we were unregenerate sinners. Committing sin was not a problem — it was easy as falling off a log. Being a sinner wasn’t that big a deal either, (as long as you weren’t as big a sinner as some other folks).

Then we got saved. Until it was washed away, we never realized how heavy and filthy and debilitating our sin was. Now, we know.

And as saved, Blood-bought, born-again members of the Redeemed Family of God, living in the world, but not OF it, we go through life keeping all Ten Commandments and seldom, if ever, slip back into our sin nature.

Where before we would have cursed at the driver who cut us off in traffic, now we bless him and pray for his soul.

We never lie, never curse, tithe faithfully, never have a ‘bad’ thought, never want to ‘get even’ with somebody who has wronged us, we pray without ceasing, give all the credit for our successes to God, and never, ever, get angry.

Our every waking moment is spent glorifying God for His mercy and we never speak to anyone without sharing the Gospel with them.

God’s love is reflected by us at every waking moment, and we are just as spiritual when we are alone as we are when we are in church.

That describes you, doesn’t it? You are truly blessed! (I wish that it described me.)

But it doesn’t describe me. Unlike many Christians I’ve met over the years, I still struggle with my sin nature. It didn’t vanish when I was saved.

I haven’t led a perfectly sinless life since my salvation. I’ve fallen, but thanks to the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit, I can get up!

One could sum up my personal Christian walk thusly:

“For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I.”

I know right from wrong, and I want to choose right, and I know that I hate sin, but I admit that sometimes do what I hate.

What does that mean?

According to Scripture, it means that,

“it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.” (Romans 7:17-18)

Assessment:

It is our obligation as Christians to spread the Gospel in all the world and lead as many of the lost to Christ as God gives us the opportunity. But lots of times, we don’t feel ‘good’ enough to carry the message.

I mean, how does one rail against somebody else’s sin while one’s own sin is ever before them?

Has our hypocrisy no limits?

In many ways, the world has a better grasp of the situation than we do. Here’s Joe Christian explaining about sin and death and hell, but the lost guy KNOWS Joe Christian still sins.

Think back to before you were saved. Did you think Christians were all sinless? Or did you think they were all hypocrites?

Admit it. Before you were saved, you used to look for imperfections among Christians. It made you feel better about yourself. Think about the person who finally DID lead you to the Lord. He was probably the one who admitted that Christians aren’t perfect.

As Christians, we tend to preach one kind of Christianity and live another. We can’t live the kind that we preach ourselves, and, for the most part, wouldn’t want to.

The average lost person thinks of salvation in terms of what he has to give up instead of what he has to gain.

To the world, a Christian can’t drink, can’t smoke, can’t watch TV, can’t listen to rock music, goes to church every day the doors are open, has to love everybody (especially those he can’t stand) and is generally about as phony as Homer Simpson’s neighbor Ned Flanders.

Why therefore, would anybody want to be a Christian? Christians not only make it sound like a miserable existence, it is so miserable that even Christians can’t meet the rigors that kind of existence demands.

“Do as I say, not as I do” doesn’t even work when you are raising kids.

When we are saved, we are saved from the consequences of our sin, we are not saved from our sin nature.

We’d like to think we are, but in order to believe that, we’d have to also have a pathological capacity for self-deception.

Christianity is the essence of freedom, but we tend to present it to the lost as a form of bondage. You can’t do this, you can’t do that, you have to give this up . . . where is the Holy Spirit in all of this?

It is the Holy Spirit that convicts us of sin, and He doesn’t do it all at once. He created us, and therefore He knows our limitations.

Salvation frees us from the consequences of sin, but only death frees us from the propensity for it.

“O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.” (Romans 7:24-25)

The fact is that salvation was designed for sinners. The Bible makes it clear that all men have sinned, and that sin is part of our earthly existence. We are to avoid sin, but when we fall, we are to turn to Jesus and allow Him to pick us back up.

That is the essence of the Gospel. That Jesus loves us so much that, while we were yet enemies of God, He died for us.

Jesus doesn’t expect us to clean ourselves up first. He says, “Come as you are. I am able.”

“Who shall also confirm you unto the end, that ye may be blameless in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is faithful, by whom ye were called unto the fellowship of His Son Jesus Christ our Lord.” (1st Corinthians 1:8-9)

“Now unto Him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of His glory with exceeding joy” (Jude 1:24)

Don’t let the enemy steal your victory by blinding you with your sin nature. You can still do a mighty work for God. Not because you are able.

But because He is.

“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I have committed unto Him against that day.” (2nd Timothy 1:12)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on February 20, 2008

Featured Commentary: Zion Defiled? ~Wendy Wippel

Even At The Doors

Even At The Doors
Vol: 27 Issue: 25 Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Bishop James Ussher was no ordinary man.  He was unmistakably blessed with incredible intelligence and insight that he devoted entirely to the study of God’s Word. (By age 26, Ussher was chair of the Divinity Department at Dublin University.)

While that in and of itself would be worthy of a lifetime achievement award, Ussher went on to full professorship, served as vice-chancellor of Trinity College twice, and, by age 44, was elevated to the rank of Archbishop of Armagh, the highest position in the Irish Anglican Church.

The point is that Bishop Ussher was not just a smart man.  He was an intellectual giant who used his God-given gifts to advance the understanding of God’s Word.

In the 1650’s he published his ‘Annals of the World’, subtitled, ”The Origin of Time, and Continued to the Beginning of the Emperor Vespasian’s Reign and the Total Destruction and Abolition of the Temple and Commonwealth of the Jews.”

Bishop Ussher’s “Annals of the World” begins at the point of creation, which he determined was October 23, 4004 BC.  Ussher’s arrival at the date of October 23 was determined based on the fact that most peoples of antiquity, especially the Jews, started their calendar at harvest time.

Ussher concluded there must be good reason for this, so he chose the first Sunday following autumnal equinox.  Although the autumnal equinox is September 21 today, that is only because of historical calendar-juggling to make the years come out right.

In September 1752, eleven days were dropped to bring the calendar back in line with the seasons.  Another day was dropped at the beginning of the 19th and 20th century for the same reason.

Ussher’s calculations, made centuries before these adjustments, are vindicated by them.  Pretty impressive stuff for a guy working by candlelight centuries before the advent of a calculator.

The reason Ussher’s work is so accurate was because he relied solely on Scripture as his source of information.

Ussher arrived at the date of 4004 BC by taking known dates in history, and calculating backwards by using the chronologies of Genesis Chapters 5 and 11 and working backwards.  The calculations themselves were so complicated that, in the original documents, they covered more than one hundred pages.

Notes Larry Pierce of the ‘Online Bible’;

 “Astrogeophysicist Dr John Eddy, who was at the time Solar Astronomer at the High Altitude Observatory at Boulder, Colorado, made some revealing comments at a symposium in 1978, as reported in Geotimes, Vol. 23, September 1978, p. 18.

“There is no evidence based solely on solar observations, Eddy stated, that the Sun is 4.5-5 x 109 years old.

“I suspect,” he said, “that the Sun is 4.5-billion years old. However, given some new and unexpected results to the contrary, and some time for frantic recalculation and theoretical readjustment, I suspect that we could live with Bishop Ussher’s value for the age of the Earth and Sun. I don’t think we have much in the way of observational evidence in astronomy to conflict with that.””

Assessment:

We’re all watching our planet and human culture heading into what looks, to all intents and purposes, the early stages of impending demise.

There are daily reports about the disintegrating environment, global warming, strange weather patterns, unusual solar activity, together with constant revisions of previously accepted scientific ‘facts’ about the universe and how it works.

The global social structure upon which civilization is built, the family, is under attack from every direction.  The war on terror, is in reality, a clash of cultures, both natural and spiritual, with the forces of Islam squaring off against Judeo-Christian culture.

The very fabric of human civilization is being rent and torn before our eyes.  It is difficult, at the juncture in history, to foresee how it will survive the onslaught.  No nation, seemingly, is exempt from the threat.

Using Bishop’s Ussher’s calculations, the Prophet Hosea lived from 3197 to 3246, or, BC 808 to 759.  Ussher’s dating is expressed in standard years, although he worked from the perspective of the ancient calendar of twelve months of thirty days each.

At the end of each year, the ancients tacked on five days, and every four years they added six days.  The prophet Hosea wrote,

“Come, and let us return unto the LORD: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up. After two days will He revive us; in the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight.” (Hosea 6:1-2)

Further on, the prophet predicted;

 “Also, O Judah, He hath set an harvest for thee, when I returned the captivity of My people.” (6:11)

The Jews of the tribe of Judah were ‘revived’ on May 15, 1948, the day the world officially recognized the existence of the state of Israel.  Since then, little pockets of Jews, members of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, have been discovered in various places and repatriated to their ancient cultures and homeland.

Hosea began with the Promise of God that “He will heal us and bind us up” — a promise that was fulfilled with the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Messiah Jesus.

With the extension of the Perfect Sacrifice for sins that washed away the sins of all men. (“by the righteousness of One the free gift came upon ALL men unto justification of life.” – Romans 5:18)

We date our own calendar counting forward from Christ. So does God, which brings us back to Hosea’s prophecy. “After two days will He revive us, and in the third day, raise us up,” writes the prophet.

Twice in Scripture, God reveals His own reckoning of time.

“For a thousand years in Thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.” (Psalms 90:4)

“But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that ONE DAY is with the Lord AS A THOUSAND YEARS, and a thousand years as one day.” (2nd Peter 3:8)

Our calendar dates the Birth of Christ as Year One.  It doesn’t much matter if Jesus was born somewhere between 6 BC and 6 AD, given the subsequent manipulation of the various calendars to make them come out right.

Based entirely in Scripture, Ussher’s calculation of creation as being 4004 years before Christ isn’t based on the year of Christ’s Birth.  Hosea’s prophecy is.

Ussher took the known date of Nebuchadnezzar’s death as the benchmark from which he launched his backwards journey through time, using Scriptural chronology to move both forward and backward in his calculations.

I hope I haven’t lost you with all the numbers — it makes me a bit dizzy as I work through them myself. (Bishop Ussher was a lot smarter than me.  I have trouble even WITH a calculator.)

According to Bishop Ussher, the last time Israel marked its God-mandated Jubilee Year was the Year 4030 from the date of Creation, which would correspond to our AD 26. 

Using Ussher’s calculations, therefore, the Year 2012 dates six thousand and sixteen years forward from the day of Creation. And there is a twelve year gap of uncertainty between the Anno Domini calendar and the literal date of His First Advent.

Jesus said that “ye know not what hour your Lord doth come,” and I believe Him.  So I am not setting a date for either the Rapture or His Second Coming.  But Hosea said that Israel’s revival would come AFTER two days.

It was restored politically in 1948, just BEFORE the conclusion of the ‘two days’ since the Birth of Christ, but Ezekiel’s chronology says that the political revival is only the first stage of Israel’s ‘revival’.

“And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them.” (Ezekiel 37:8)

The Hebrew word translated ‘breath’ is ‘ruwach’ a word which means ‘spirit’, particularly in the context of ‘spiritual animation’.

Israel is physically alive, but remains, to this moment, spiritually ‘unquickened’.  That ‘quickening’ of the spirit is accomplished by faith in Christ.

(“And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins.” (Ephesians 2:1)

So, to return to Hosea, we find the prophecy that AFTER two days, Israel will be revived, but IN the third day, they will be ‘quickened’ so that Israel might ‘live in His sight’.

Israel’s physical revival has been an ongoing process since 1948.  Before our eyes, the world’s Jews, including members of the Ten Lost Tribes, are being regathered to the land of Israel.  Ezekiel’s prophecy of Israel’s redemption process is almost complete.

No matter how one approaches it, either by accepting Ussher’s calculations from creation, or accepting our calendar reckoning of time since the birth of Christ, the conclusion is inescapable.

Hosea said of the Jews, ‘AFTER two days will He revive us, and IN the third day . . we will live in His sight.”  Peter says that;

“The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” (2nd Peter 3:9)

It is clear that God is extending His ‘grace period’ (the Church Age of Grace) to give all men one last chance to accept the gift of pardon that He extends to them, but it is equally clear that His patience is being rapidly exhausted.

How much longer will He wait before returning for His Church and effecting Israel’s national redemption at the conclusion of the Tribulation Period?

Given the twelve-year gap, we are somewhere between three years before and nine years INTO Hosea’s Third Day.  I don’t believe we can calculate the Day of the Rapture, because Jesus said no man could know the day or the hour.

But He did say, “So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.” (Matthew 24:33)

Even at the doors. . .  Maranatha!

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on May 2, 2012

The Order

The Order
Vol: 27 Issue: 24 Monday, October 24, 2016

The secretive Order of Skull and Bones is a tiny Yale fraternity with about eight hundred living members, all of whom are members for life.

Fifteen Yale juniors are “tapped” each year by the seniors to be initiated into next year’s group. Some say each initiate is given $15,000 and a grandfather clock. Far from being a campus fun-house, the group is geared more toward the success of its members in the post-collegiate world.

The family names on the Skull and Bones roster roll off the tongue like an elite party list — Lord, Whitney, Taft, Jay, Bundy, Harriman, Weyerhaeuser, Pinchot, Rockefeller, Goodyear, Sloane, Stimson, Phelps, Perkins, Pillsbury, Kellogg, Vanderbilt, Bush, Lovett and so on.

Members of the Order wield power hugely disproportionate to their numbers. Think of it this way: There are some three hundred and sixty MILLION Americans of whom, less than a thousand are ‘Bonesmen’.

Members of the Order have held prominent roles in every US administration since that of Abraham Lincoln. That is out of a pool of less than a thousand Bonesmen living in any given generation.

It is hard not to see evidence of the conspiracist theory in the history of the Order. Rev. William Sloane Coffin was a radical left wing activist who bedeviled the FBI with his anti-war activities and played a prominent role in civil rights activism in the 60’s. Coffin served as Yale Chaplain from 1958 until 1975.

In the 80’s, he was a leader in the anti-nuke movement, founded the SANE/FREEZE anti-nuke lobby, and is a dedicated globalist. Coffin’s lectures and speeches urge people to turn away from isolationism and to become more globally aware. William Sloane Coffin, rabidly liberal Democrat, was one of the fifteen freshman tapped in 1948 to become a Bonesman. His sponsor was Bonesman George Herbert Walker Bush.

On the other hand, there is ultra-conservative thinker, writer and publisher William H Buckley. Buckley is about as conservative as one can get, and was among the 1949 crop of fifteen Yale freshmen admitted to the Order. Buckley was sponsored by William Sloane Coffin.

Assessment:

One of the most controversial entries on George Bush’s resume is his membership in the secretive fraternity, “The Order of the Skull and Bones.”

Membership in the Order is not limited to the Bush ‘line’. Senator John Kerry is also a Bonesman. So were Kennedy advisors William and McGeorge Bundy, and Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord. (Clinton wasn’t a Bonesman, he was a Rhodes Scholar, which has the identical globalist agenda.)

Another Bonesman, interestingly, former Senator John Heinz. Senator John Kerry’s fortune comes through his wife, Teresa Heinz, Senator John Heinz’s widow.

No wonder the conpiracy theorists’ charges are so shrill! This is eye-popping stuff! Especially when you consider the origins of the Order. Skull and Bones founder William Huntington Russell studied in Germany in 1831-32. At that time, Germany was a hotbed of new ideas and the concept of ‘new thinking’ was taking hold. Johan Fitche, in his “Address to the German People,” declared that the children would be taken over by the State and told what to think and how to think it.

Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel took over Fitche’s chair at the University Of Berlin in 1817, and was a professor there until his death in 1831. Hegel was the culmination of the German idealistic philosophy school of Immanuel Kant.

To Hegel, our world is a world of reason. The state is Absolute Reason and the citizen can only become free by worship and obedience to the state. Hegel called the state the “march of God in the world” and the “final end”. This final end, Hegel said, “has supreme right against the individual, whose supreme duty is to be a member of the state.” Both fascism and communism have their philosophical roots in Hegellianism. Hegellian philosophy was very much in vogue during William Russell’s time in Germany.

When Russell returned to Yale in 1832, he formed a senior society with Alphonso Taft, “The Order of the Scull and Bones”, later changed to “The Order of the Skull and Bones.”

William Russell went on to become a general and a state legislator in Connecticut. Alphonso Taft was appointed U.S. Attorney General, Secretary of War (a post many “Bonesmen” have held), Ambassador to Austria, and Ambassador to Russia (another post held by many “Bonesmen”). His son, William Howard Taft (’87), is the only man to be both President of the United States and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

Those Bonesmen who didn’t go on to be government leaders went on instead to work as members of the money trust.

Henry P. Davison was a partner in Morgan financial empire and one of the Jekyll Island conspiracists who helped set up the Federal Reserve system. Pierre Jay was the first chairman of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve. Artemus Gates was president of New York Trust Company, Union Pacific, TIME and Boeing. C.E. Lord was Comptroller of the Currency. John Thomas Daniels founded Archer Daniels Midland.

So, now that you know all this, what does it mean? There are only two answers. Either it means that there really IS a vast global conspiracy, or it is all relatively innocent coincidence.

I say ‘vast, global conspiracy’ because most of the Bonesmen are members of other conspiratorial groups, like the Council on Foreign Relations, Trilateralist Commission, the money trust or the various think-tanks on both sides of the political spectrum.

Of course, most people reject this conclusion as nihilistic; if accepted, it means accepting the concepts of an Illuminati that secretly rules the world. If people really believed they had no voice in domestic or global politics, it would force a global revolution.

That is why there are so MANY conspiracies out there. I recall a scene in a Mel Gibson movie called ‘Conspiracy Theory’ in which Gibson’s character breathlessly (and accurately) outlined in a couple of sentences the entire Illuminati globalist plan to another character (and to anybody who watched the movie). Everybody thought it was entertaining, but nobody believed the conspiracy. It was just one of many.

It is the concept of hiding in plain sight. The best place to hide a particular Zippo lighter would be on a table in plain sight — with fifty other Zippo lighters.

Are all the conpiracy theories real? Probably not. But the one Mel Gibson outlined in the movie is. So is the Skull and Bones theory.

The conspiracies are real, and so are the conspirators. But they don’t know that they are co-conspirators in a larger plan. The Illuminati, the Order, the money trust, the globalists and the liberals don’t think of themselves as conpirators, but rather as benevolent protectors bend on saving society from itself.

The Bible predicted that, in a single generation, there would develop a genuine, centralized global government, global economy and global religious system. The keyword here is ‘centralized’. According to Scripture, the antichrist will rise to power and will take control of all three global institutions — all within a period of only seven years.

Without the necessary infrastructure in place, and control centralized in the hands of only a few well-placed individuals, the seizure of global power by a single individual was a practical impossibility.

By now, you must be furious, and thinking, ‘we’re doomed!’ Get a grip.

To quote the Savior,

“see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass” (Matthew 24:6)

The conspiracists are out in the open, because the conspiracy itself is coming to fruition. The timing is right, the movement is already underway, and the secrets are coming out. They don’t know they are setting the stage for the antichrist, but the Bible says that is what they are doing.

Knowing this stuff is cuts both ways. How do you function in the real world, analyzing events and discussing politics, when you know in your heart of hearts its all a sham? THAT is the secret weapon that keeps the conspiracies under wraps — nobody WANTS to believe them. But for the Christian, it is evidence that the Bible is true, that all continues according to Divine Plan, and that Divine Plan includes the soon coming of the Lord. That is why He cautioned us,”see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass”. Instead, take heart!

“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 March 2, 2004

Featured Commentary: Diary of a Dead Man ~Pete Garcia

The Third Pillar of Antichrist

The Third Pillar of Antichrist
Vol: 27 Issue: 22 Saturday, October 22, 2016

I have always been leery of those Bible teachers who have a new ‘revelation’ — seeing something in Bible prophecy that they had never seen before.

I am also keenly aware of the dangers inherent in interpreting Bible prophecy in light of current events. It is a good attitude to have, I think, but it does tend to close one’s mind to alternative explanations.

In that regard, what should rightly be accepted as interpretational can subtly shift over from interpretation to doctrine. And interpretation and doctrine are two entirely different animals.

‘Doctrine’ is defined as “a principle or position or the body of principles in a branch of knowledge or system of belief.”

‘Interpretation’ is defined as “a particular adaptation or version of a work, method, or style.”

Doctrine is iron-clad; a ballet teacher teaches the identical doctrine of classical ballet to two students in the same class, but how they INTERPRET that doctrine is what separates a Mikhail Barishnikov from a Rudolf Nureyev.

Doctrine is constant but interpretation changes with understanding.

“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9:10)

According to Bible prophecy, the reign of the antichrist rests on the existence of three central pillars; a global government, a global religion and a global economy.

The prophet Daniel identifies the antichrist as being of “the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary.” (Daniel 9:26)

History tells us the destruction of Jerusalem and the Temple took place in AD 70 under the command of Titus, later Emperor Titus of Rome.

Hence the interpretation that the antichrist comes to power through some form of a revived Roman Empire that serves as a de facto global government.

In this generation, the countries of the old Roman Empire united under the banner of the European Union, uniting Europe as a single empire for the first time since the fall of Rome.

The second pillar, that of a global economy, is necessary to fulfill John’s prophecy that he will have the ability to restrict persons from normal buying and selling at the individual level.

Such economic control was never possible prior to this generation. If you doubt it exists now, imagine if your Social Security number were deleted. You couldn’t work, open a bank account, get a loan, or make a major purchase.

Elimination of cash (a work already in progress) would completely exclude a person from any economic participation.

Of the third pillar, the global religious system, the Bible reveals the following:

1) It will claim authority over Christianity. “And I beheld another beast coming up out of theearth; and he had two horns like a lamb. . .”

The references to ‘the lamb’ are pretty much self-explanatory. It is a reference to something ‘like’ Christianity, but a counterfeit. . . . “he spake as a dragon.” (Revelation 13:11)

2) It will share political power with the first beast. “And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast before him.”

3) Participation will be mandatory. “cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” (Revelation 13:15)

4) The method employed by the false prophet’s religious system as the penalty for refusing conversion is decapitation.

“and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast.” (Revelation 20:4)

For more than a thousand years, most interpreters saw the Church of Rome and the papacy as the third pillar of the antichrist’s platform.

The Vatican claims authority of Christianity and has always been as much political as religious. But that is where the similarities stop.

600 years ago, the papacy tried to enforce conversion and sometimes executed those who refused. The papacy also believed the world was flat 600 years ago.

It is safe to say when the Pope believes in a flat earth, the papacy will launch another Grand Inquisition.

There is in existence another religion that fits John’s description like a glove. Islam claims to be the third revelation from God.

It claims its existence from Abraham, acknowledges the Divine inspiration of the Bible, but claims that Abraham, Moses, and Jesus were all Muslim prophets.

It is Islam’s claim to be the third and final revelation from God from which Islam derives its claim of authority over Christians and Jews.

Islam is not just a religion but is equally a political system carefully defined by Sharia law and fulfilling points 1 and 2 much more perfectly than does the modern Vatican.

Islam is the religion of the sword. The word itself means ‘submission’ and Islamic law authorizes the death penalty for unbelievers, fulfilling point 3 as a matter of existing religious doctrine — not a new doctrine forced upon an existing system by a mad pope.

And the penalty of choice for refusing to submit to Allah is decapitation, fulfilling point 4.

None of this has to be developed and imposed upon Western religionists as new religious doctrine by a new pope as previous interpretations required — it already exists. And it is already practiced by one-fifth of the human race.

As noted, Islam claims to be the well-spring of Judeo-Christianity, claiming Islam predates both. Islam claims Allah is the same God worshipped by Christians and Jews and that the Old and New Testaments were corrupted by scribes.

Christians and Jews scoff at this claim, since the Koran’s Allah bears no resemblance to the God revealed in Scripture.

God is love. Salvation is a gift of grace through faith. As a matter of accepted doctrine, it cannot be imposed by force.

Salvation through Allah comes through martyrdom in the jihad, after conversion to Islam either voluntarily — or by force.

Daniel provides another glimpse into the religion of antichrist. He says that he will be an atheist, but that he will pretend to be religious in public.

“Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.”

Then Daniel gives a letter-perfect description of Islam — as Islam describes ITSELF.

“But IN HIS ESTATE shall he honour the GOD OF FORCES: and a god WHOM HIS FATHERS KNEW NOT . . .” ‘A god of forces, and a god his fathers knew not’ cannot be applied to the Roman Catholic Church or the Papacy without the RCC formally renouncing Scripture, God and Jesus.

For 1600 years, interpreters looked to the Vatican and for 1600 years, the argument seemed valid. Until the arrival of the generation to whom the prophecy was written.

“And he said, Go thy way, Daniel: for the words are CLOSED UP AND SEAL TILL THE TIME OF THE END. Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand; BUT THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND.” (Daniel 12:9-10)

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on February 26, 2006

Where Life is Beautiful All The Time. . .

Where Life is Beautiful All The Time. . .
Vol: 27 Issue: 21 Friday, October 21, 2016

A report released in 2011 by the CDC found that the use of antidepressants by Americans is up by more than four hundred percent since 1988.

The CDC reports that one person in ten is on some form of antidepressant medication.  The CDC conducted the study between 2005 and 2008 and polled more than 12,000 subjects 12 years and older.

The report found that women are two and a half times more likely to be taking antidepressant drugs than men and that women between the ages of 40 and 59 are the most likely to be in search of better living through chemistry.

One child in every twenty-five between the ages of 12 and 17, according to the CDC, regularly takes prescription antidepressant drugs, but the bulk of those depressed enough to require medication are between the ages of 18 and 40.

More white people are depressed than other racial groups; 14% of all whites are on antidepressant drugs, whereas only four percent of blacks and three percent of Hispanics are too depressed to function without drugs.

Of those taking antidepressant drugs, the CDC found that 6.4% weren’t clinically depressed and that seventy-five percent of all prescriptions written for antidepressant drugs were written by health care practitioners other that mental health professionals.

And then there is the most amazing finding of all, at least, from my perspective.  Among those who really need antidepressant drugs, sixty-six percent — fully two-thirds – don’t take them.

It is the ones that can see clearly enough to know they aren’t crazy that are gobbling them up like candy.

Assessment:

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity; the sea and the waves roaring; Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth: for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.” (Luke 21:25-26)

This verse isn’t just about extra-terrestrial signs in the sun, moon and stars.  It’s about fear.  The “distress of nations, with perplexity.”  Jesus said that men’s hearts would fail them “for fear” — because that is the real sign of the last days. 

Why would men’s hearts fail them for fear?  Are YOU so afraid of the signs of the Lord’s coming that you need to take drugs to mask that fear?

Or are you watching the signs of the times with eager anticipation of the Lord’s soon return?

I admit that sometimes I get a little afraid, but that fear is quickly dissipated when I step back and take a look at what I am afraid of.  I am “afraid” of the signs pointing to the day Christians have waited for since Paul wrote the Thessalonians to tell them that they hadn’t missed it.  

I am “afraid” the Lord will keep His Word.  But I’d be a lot more afraid if I didn’t know He was coming.

I am willing to bet that the Apostles were also a little afraid when they were facing martyrdom.  It is one thing to BE dead.  How you get that way is of considerable concern, even if you knowwhat happens next.

But that is not the same thing as the kind of all-consuming fear that results in one person in ten on Prozac.

“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)

Imagine that you are an atheist.  You don’t believe that there is a God.  You scoff at the concept of a Divine Plan. 

According to your worldview, humanity is the supreme being and you rely on the wisdom of the masses to bring order out of chaos.  As an atheist, you believe that man is basically good, and it is that basic goodness that is responsible for law and order and social morality.

Now, looking out from that perspective, what do you see?  High unemployment continuing on for years, maybe decades.  The great unwashed demanding the government tax employers out of business.  Runaway crime as the economic situation worsens.

The eventual collapse of the ecology; global warming, (or global cooling), the potential for solar flares wiping out the electrical grid, the possibility of world war, even the use of nuclear weapons. 

And most of all, the sense that not only is the world moving in the wrong direction, it is careening out of control.  If only Obama had been what everybody expected him to be.  But instead of hope, he offers nothing but hopelessness; more unemployment, more civil unrest, more class warfare.

No wonder one American in ten is on anti-depressants!  (Including many Christians.)

The fear is palpable — and it is spreading.

They have good reason to be afraid.  The only place they can look to for hope is the government.   If not this government, some other government.  And if not this leader, then some new leader, as long as he isn’t a ‘capitalist’ (meaning “Christian” or “Jew”).

Fear breeds loathing.  Loathing breeds persecution.  Persecution breeds terror.  Terror looks for a savior.

According to the Bible, the savior the world is awaiting is the antichrist.  The conditioning process preparing the world for his appearance has only accelerated since the turn of the 21st century. 

What seemed possible ten years ago appears unavoidable today.

He is out there right now, waiting for his cue.  But the world isn’t quite fearful enough to buy what he is selling.  Not yet.  The Church is still here.   And the world still has an ample supply of Prozac.

But other than that, the world is ready.  More than ready. 

Eager, even.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsela on October 20, 2011

Featured Commentary: A Rattling Church ~Alf Cengia

Confronting the Debate

Confronting the Debate
Vol: 27 Issue: 20 Thursday, October 20, 2016

Whenever I publish a column dealing with the subject of the Rapture, I can count on my email box being filled up with messages from flamers who believe it is their mission in life to convert me to their particular theological interpretation.

I must admit that, while I used to find it annoying, sometimes even hurtful, I now eagerly anticipate the flamers’ email.

Part of the Omega Letter’s mission is to provide you with answers to the skeptic’s objections — where better to locate specific objections than from the skeptics themselves?

I always thought to myself that putting me in this job was another example of God’s sense of humor — there are few people on this earth who hate confrontation more than I.

I never liked confrontation, even as a kid. Evidently, that is why the Lord moved me directly from the Marine Corps into civilian police work. To get me used to it.

Law enforcement is a never-ending series of confrontations. The easiest for me was the initial confrontation with the bad guy. It was the easiest because, in a confrontation with a bad guy, you were always comfortable that you were in the right and doing everything for the right reasons.

The mere fact of the confrontation itself provided all the self-justification necessary. The bad guy’s motive was to break the law; my motive was to enforce it. Black and white. Cut and dried.

Following the confrontation with the bad guy, came the confrontation with the county prosecutor. The prosecutor would generally begin by ‘defending’ the suspect against my charges to see if they would hold water.

Although I knew what was going on, sometimes, those sessions grew pretty heated. They were never pleasant.

After that, came the confrontation with the grand jury. This was generally a written confrontation — I would put together all known facts of the case for the prosecutor to present to the grand jury.

For it to be effective, I had to anticipate the questions the grand jury might have and answer them in advance in my grand jury summary. Otherwise, I would be summoned for a personal confrontation in the grand jury room to fill in the blanks.

(Such was my discomfort with confrontation that I seldom got that summons.)

Then came the confrontation with the defense, which was the most unpleasant, since it seemed to me that they were not bound to the same rules of legal interpretation and the application of common logic that the rest of us were.

They could challenge anything – and did — sometimes for the express purpose of provoking some emotion, usually anger. I hated that part the most of all.

As I said, law enforcement is, by definition, a never-ending series of confrontations provoked by those who either break the law, try to find ways around the law, or out of zeal to ensure that law is interpreted and applied appropriately.

I hated it. But it taught me to choose my confrontations wisely and have all my ducks in a row before I did.

Assessment:

Our goal is to make sure you are prepared for the day-to-day confrontations we all have as soldiers in the battle of the last days.

They aren’t too much different than those encountered by a law enforcement officer pleading a case.

It is easiest to get into the confrontation with the ‘bad guy’ — in this case, the skeptic hoping to skewer your argument during its first pleading. And you enter enthusiastically, confident you are in the right and doing it for the right reasons.

You have nothing to gain if you win the confrontation, and your opponent has EVERYTHING to lose if he does. Black and white. Cut and dried. You lay out your basic case for salvation, hoping that the way you lay it out will ‘hold water’.

From there, you move on to your presentation in which you try to anticipate the questions in advance and plug them before you get led down the rabbit trail of ‘what if’ questions.

Finally, you get to the most frustrating part; the part where the defense heats up and you realize they are not working with the same rules of legal interpretation and the application of common logic that you are.

You open with Scripture, he responds by quoting Nostradamus, that kind of thing.

It appears that for every person like me who detests confrontation, there are a dozen who apparently eat it like candy. Consequently, I tend to choose my confrontations carefully. And have all my ducks in a row in advance.

The issue of the Rapture is always confrontational. It is irrelevant to salvation, but utterly indispensable to rightly dividing the Word of Truth, as the Scriptures command.

One is saved whether one agrees with a particular view of the Rapture or its timing or not. Salvation is a gift of grace through faith, not a subsequent product of grace through the ‘correct’ doctrinal understanding of peripheral issues.

Salvation comes by,

“Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:” (Philippians 1:6).

We are saved by that confidence, by trusting that Jesus paid the price for all sin at the Cross and that He will keep His Word that,

“All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me; and Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out.” (John 6:37)

From the perspective of salvation, it is totally irrelevant when the Rapture occurs, or even if there IS a Rapture TO occur.

Are you with me, so far?

Understanding the Rapture is relevant when it comes to rightly dividing the Word. Without a clear division between the Church Age and the coming 70th Week of Daniel, the revealed Word of God becomes contradictory.

The Apostle John wrote,

“And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.” (1 John 4:3)

Note carefully that John is writing of the spirit of antichrist, in the context of the beginning of the Church Age. Next, he tells the believers of the Church Age:

“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.” (4:4)

The explicit promise is that the spirit of antichrist will not overcome believers indwelt by the Holy Spirit, Whose indwelling Presence was promised by Jesus Christ:

“Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” (John 14:26)

Compare that to the Promise;

“I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:18)

But Paul says that the antichrist (“that Wicked”) will not be revealed (and the Tribulation will not start) until HE who ‘lets’ [restrains evil] be “taken out of the way.” (2nd Thessalonians 2:7-8)

Note the Restrainer is a ‘He’ not an ‘it’. The Restrainer isn’t THE Church, the Restrainer is the Person that Indwells the Church until Jesus returns to claim it.

And John writes that, during the tribulation,

“And it was given unto him [antichrist] to make war with the saints, and TO OVERCOME THEM: and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations.” (Revelation 13:7)

Are you still with me? Jesus promised Church Age believers that they would be indwelt by the Holy Spirit until He came, and that He would not leave Church Age believers ‘comfortless’.

John taught that Church Age believers could NOT be overcome by the spirit of antichrist because the indwelling Holy Spirit is ‘greater than he who is in the world’.

BUT, that the antichrist WOULD be able to ‘make war with the [Tribulation] Saints and OVERCOME them. (Revelation 13:7) Do you see the point?

The Tribulation Period is the ‘time of Jacob’s Trouble’- not the Age of Grace. It will operate under the rules of Jewish Mosaic Law, including a new Temple on Temple Mount, the resumption of Temple worship and Temple sacrifice.

The Church Age of Grace cannot coexist with the 70th Week of Daniel, since the Tribulation is, by definition, the final Week of the Age of the Law.

Because it operates under different rules, the Tribulation Saints CAN be overcome by the spirit of antichrist, because the Holy Spirit’s indwelling ministry has been withdrawn.

The Holy Spirit is the Comforter that Jesus promised would remain until He came, promising He would not leave us ‘Comfortless’ — making no provision for breaking that promise to one generation of believers somewhere down the line.

Returning to the principle of choosing one’s confrontations wisely, there is a difference between TEACHING a pre-trib Rapture and CONFRONTING someone with it. One does NOT need to understand the Rapture’s role in unfolding prophecy to participate in it.

If a person is saved, there is no eternal benefit to be had by making them pre Tribulation Dispensationalists.

Neither is there any benefit to be had [apart from pride] in endlessly debating the topic. One cannot ‘rightly divide the Word’ if one’s interpretation contradicts Scripture, and without a decisive conclusion to the Church Age, the Apostle John’s letters to the Church Age contradict his vision of the Tribulation.

It makes no difference when the Rapture takes place if the Church Age includes the Tribulation Period. But without a conclusion to the Church Age, there can be no resumption of Daniel’s 70th week, either.

It cannot simultaneously be the Age of the Grace and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble (Jeremiah 30:7) without making each a distinction without a difference, which in turn, creates the ‘defense attorney’ confrontation scenario.

That is the scenario where you are bound by certain rules of interpretation and logic, whereas your debating opponent is free to make up convincing-sounding arguments as he goes along.

The end result is a fruitless confrontation over what is, in the grand scheme of things, an issue of only limited relevance.

There is no way to understand the unfolding of Bible prophecy without understanding the difference between the Age of Grace and the Time of Jacob’s Trouble.

But there is no obligation to understand Bible prophecy in order to be saved. Apart from that, Paul tells us,

“But if any man be ignorant, let him be ignorant.” (1st Corinthians 14:38)

We are in a conflict of eternal importance for the souls of men in the last days. To accomplish our mission, we need to learn to choose our confrontations wisely.

This Letter was written by Jack Kinsella on March 2, 2005

Featured Commentary: God Deposes Kings and Raises Up Others ~J.L. Robb