Edition 49. 20th August 2010

In this edition:

●Important news item

●New videos under media tab

●The church in mortal danger

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● This is an important news item!!

●A potentially devastating Middle East conflict looms large now. US Ambassador to the UN has just said that "Israel only has a few days left to attack Iran's nuclear instillations." Russia will be delivering uranium nuclear fuel rods to Iran this weekend. These will be used to fire-up Iran's brand new 'Bushehr nuclear plant. The reactor is scheduled to be running by the 21st August. Israel will not move to take action after the fuel rods have been inserted, because the fallout would release radiation into the population.

This reactor and the spent fuel rods can be used to build nuclear arms.

Israel has an attack plan in place. If Israel is going to do anything it will have to be within days. If Israel does nothing, it will most certainly complicate any later action. We will see what happens.

●●●There are now new short videos under the 'media' tab. I will carefully select videos that deal with relevant issues. Many more will be coming, some which I am making myself.

The church in mortal danger

The church is in mortal danger simply because God says so. The messages to the seven churches in the Revelation are God's assessment and warnings to the church. There are very many other portions of scripture which outline the dangers as well. (Obviously not all of the church is in the same boat.)

Firstly I want to say that I am fully, prayerfully aware of the grave responsibility on me now. I stand first and foremost before My God and Lord, and I stand in fear! My passionate desire is not to prove myself right and others wrong (which only increases ones own guilt), but to set my heart and mind after our Lord, His truth and His ways with everything in me.

Before we look at the central issues, Let's have a brief look at just some of the warnings and dangers ahead for the church. Please be aware that in many cases, church leaders are completely responsible and in other cases, the people as well as the leaders are responsible. In some cases church members are simply innocent victims. In many cases there is hope of change, but in many others there is no hope. The Bible reveals all of this clearly.

Warnings and dangers:

In the Revelation the church at Laodicea is warned that it will be "spat out of the Lords mouth" because it is lukewarm to the gospel. Some within this church are told; "To him that overcomes, I will grant to sit with Me on My throne." The "dead" church at Sardis is warned; "You have a name that you are alive, but your dead...If you will not watch, I will come upon you as a thief and you won't know what hour I come." It says that there are a "few here that will walk with Me in white" obviously implying that there are many who will not!

The church of Thyatira is warned that because "it tolerates Jezebel", or the occult and teaches others idolatry, it will be "cast into great tribulation". This church, amongst which orthodox churches can find their identity, is condemned because it "knows the depths of Satan." There are some in this church who "overcome." Two churches among the seven are warned that because they tolerate the doctrine and deeds of the Nicolaitans, they are in trouble! This doctrine is the separation of the clergy above the laity, giving supreme influence and power to a small group of clergy to keep the people in subjection. This doesn't negate the authority of the five-fold ministry offices. The Nicolaitan spirit can be best described as the desire to subjugate, control or dominate those under their influence, by separating and elevating themselves in many areas, even in terms of dress.

In other parts of the Bible we also find many warnings to the church, most relating to the time before the run up to the coming of the Lord. In this time period we see that a large part of the church will become flooded with materialistic and other worldly ways. As the spirit of the world floods in so the Spirit of God leaves! These churches continue on in the energy and power of the flesh, the world and the demonic and in many cases don't even know that the spirit leading them is false!

2 Thessalonians 2:3 "Let no one deceive you by any means; for that day will not come unless the great apostasy comes first and the man of sin is revealed." The man of sin here is obviously the antichrist. Note that it is the Spirit filled church that keeps him from being revealed. Some believe that the great apostasy is a reference to the rapture, because in the original, it is the definite article and not a more general apostasy. This may be so. Either way this is what is keeping the antichrist from being revealed. If this is referring to the rapture, nevertheless there is coming a big falling away of much of the church as well.

Mathew 24:12 "Because lawlessness will abound the love of many will grow cold." This verse of scripture is in the context and time period running up to the coming of the Lord.

1Corinthians 1:10 "Now I plead with you brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you." Divisions (denominations) within the church create weakness. There is strength in unity. A divided church is a sitting duck for attack and defeat.

The funny thing is that most people would acknowledge that an army needs to be strongly disciplined to be in unity, if it has any hope of being effective. Yet when it comes to the church, they don't seem to be aware of their weakness and vulnerability because of their divisions.

The safety of the gospel:

The following verses deliver a curse on those who add to or take away from the scriptures: Revelation 22:18 Deuteronomy 4:2, 27:26 If this is the case, it follows that it's not a good idea to take away from or add to the preached or taught gospel...not so?

Acts 20:27 "For I have not failed to declare to you the whole counsel of God."

Romans 15:19 "I have fully preached the gospel of Christ."

2 Timothy 4:3 "For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine...because they have itching ears."

2Timothy 3:13, 16 "Evil men and imposters will grow worse and worse, deceiving an being deceived."...All scripture is profitable for doctrine reproof etc"

Romans 1:18 "The wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men who suppress the truth in unrighteousness."

The above verses are clear and self explanatory. We need all of the whole, full, gospel taught and practiced experientially and not just selected favoured proof verses.

The way of victory is to have unity, and a love for the truth...all of it, and a resistance to error. We need to affirm and reject. Not just affirm and be wishy washy on error.

In many respects the church is in mortal danger because it has "killed" the prophetic word. Prophecy is the eyes of the church. Mathew 23:37-38 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the one who kills the prophets...your house is left to you desolate." This shows the tragic end of rejecting prohecy.

Truth only offends those that don't love it. If you love the truth you will welcome all of it in, even the hard sayings.

The church has added to and removed many Bible truths:

 In our era the church has tried to throw out many absolutes and change the truth to suite modern times. Church leaders have deemed many things in the Bible objectionable, so they've just removed them and added other things instead.

There is huge danger in tampering with the gospel. Ezekiel 13:10-11 "My people have been seduced saying peace when there is no peace...they build a boundary wall and plaster it with whitewashed un-tempered mortar - say to those who plaster it with whitewashed un-tempered mortar that it will fall..." Un-tempered mortar is cement mixed with the wrong mixture. It is useless as a border to keep error and evil out. It may look good, but it won't last especially when the pressure is on.

Truth and error don't mix. If you try to make them mix, the Spirit of God will leave and what will be left is a mixture devoid of truth, which will fail.

Today the message of the cross is missing. The cross and it's daily application into our lives is the great divider. It keeps the world system, the flesh nature and the demonic at bay! No application of the cross and these things come flooding in!

The application of the cross slays our pride and brings us down in humility. "God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble" Humility gives us eyes to see! All spiritual blindness is caused by self righteousness and pride.

Yeshua / Jesus did not say "follow Me." He said "take up your cross daily and follow Me."

The modern church has removed the teaching and preaching of hell, coming judgement and repentance. There is no fear of God. In it's place it teaches self confidence, self motivation, self fulfilment and many other such things.

The Bible does not suggest that people become believers! It teaches "Repent and believe." How can you repent if you have nothing to fear.

The fear of God is integral to the gospel. The Bible says that we are to consider the goodness and severity of God. When you remove the severity of the gospel there is no conviction, no repentance and no conversion.

Psalm 119:63 "I am a companion of all those who fear You and those who keep your precepts."

I recall being in a church in the late 70s. The pastor was a born-again hippie who was an ex circus clown and he looked the part. But he had a powerful way of pulling the carpet out from under us! He would say that you are worthless scum and on the road to hell. It was controversial, but deep repentance and true conversion was the result.

In place of the cross and it's deadly work, the church has added nice happy motivational preaching that glorifies and keeps self on the throne. It is one with the world and its ways. It loves the world.

Because the cross is absent in much of the church the demonic reigns. It's not just the occult practices of Babylon that have flooded into the church of Rome, and through to much of Christendom. Many occult practises of the ancient Egyptians are also central. Isn't it interesting that both Egypt and Babylon are scriptural types for the world. We know that Satan is the god of this world. So, it's actually Satan and the demonic that have been added into the church in the form of many traditions.

Some of these that are rooted in the occult include infant sprinkling called child baptism. Christmas, Easter, Lent, St, Valentines day and many others.

The church has removed Passover and replaced it with Easter. The image below (left) is of the Ishtar (Easter) gate in Babylon. (This is a rebuild, now in a museum in Egypt) It was the entrance to a Satanic temple in which you worshipped the Ishtar goddess by having sex. Rabbits, eggs and other fertility symbols were all over the place.

The call of the church is to preach against sin, to preach of coming judgement, hell and the love of God through the sacrifice of the cross. Instead the church preaches how you can get more things, like a rolex and a jet. Materialism is central, sanctioned. Love has become liberalism and tolerance. Tolerance is the last virtue of a collapsing society.

Today many don't even know what salvation is. Salvation means to be saved from something and to something. We are saved from hell, judgement, the devil, the devil working in the flesh nature, the power of the world and its god. We are saved through repentance and brokenness to new resurrection life, righteousness, holiness and to heaven.

The Bible says that a "tree is known by its fruit", but the forsaken part of that is "the fruit must remain." Today there is little endurance. Churches are like sausage factories producing happy sausages that soon get devoured by wolves.

The church has removed from it's gospel and practice the Feasts of the Lord, which are holy convocations for all of the Lord's people. Instead it has added occult-rooted pagan rituals and traditions. It has removed the true Sabbath and replaced it with the watered down Sunday Sabbath.

Saturday Sabbath observance should be a matter of identification with God's word and our soon to be brothers and sisters (the Jews) If we ignore the Sabbath and continue with the normal Sunday stuff, we are identifying with the Catholic church and its pagan practices as well as ignoring God's word.

Our Lord is called "The Lord of the Sabbath" Mark 2:28

We are to "remember the Sabbath to keep it Holy" we are to have a day of rest, reflection, fellowship and prayer on the Saturday Sabbath (which starts at 6pm on Friday evening and ends at 6 on Saturday.)

Here is something shocking:

Here is a very powerful and easy way to test and see if some tradition or convocation is of God or not. Do atheist and the unsaved world recognise it and celebrate it?

Does the world accept and celebrate Christmas, Easter, infant sprinkling, lent, St. Valentines day? Yes they do, without question.

Does the world accept and celebrate Passover, Shabbat ( Saturday Sabbath) adult baptism by full immersion, the Feasts of the Lord etc? No not at all, they have no part in these! That speaks volumes doesn't it?

The church is full of pagan idols dressed as Christian. Hosea 8:4 and Numbers 33:52 speak of "idols for destruction." Traditions founded and linked to idolatry need to be destroyed from our practise.

Passover, the truth and the Easter sex symbols from the ruins of Babylon:

The Bible teaches that the teacher or disciple has a weighty responsibility. Firstly, the qualification for discipleship is severe: Luke 14:27 "Whoever does not take up his cross and come after Me is not worthy of being My disciple." Then in Mathew 28:19-20 "Go therefore and make disciples among the nations...teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you. A true disciple is one taking up his cross and dying to self the world and the demonic and then teaching others to observe all things the Messiah has taught.

Here is an example I've used before. Many exalt mother Theresa. She believed that her duty was to help a Hindu, Muslim or any other on their road to death, and not try to convert them at all. In fact she rejected her faith in a letter to the pope because it was not inclusive of other religions. Did she fulfil the role of a disciple, bearing in mind the above to verses?

The church's failed in it's responsibility to the world.

The advance of Christianity has not kept pace with the advance of heathenism. Over 100 times more people are born than born anew! These figures were drawn up by Clarence Larkin in 1915, so by now the figures would be vastly different and much worse.

The church is supposed to be the "light of the world" and the "salt of the earth" It's call is to speak judgement into the evils of the world. It is supposed to be the restrainer of evil and the evil one! The salt has today lost its savour. The "light of the world" has become self-obsessed. Darkness advances when the light goes dim.

Today, in the name of love, the church has befriended the world. James 4:4 "Friendship with the world is enmity with God. 1 John 2:15 Do not love the world or the things of the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

As believers we are to have an invisible line of separation to and with the world and its god. BUT we are to be the light in the world shining on its evils and offering the way out. The following two verses are amazing indeed. They can be applied to a nation, a family or an individual:

Hosea 4: 1-3 "There is no truth, mercy or knowledge of God in the land...They will break all restraint, therefore the land will mourn and the people will waste away with the beast of the field, birds of air, even the fish will be taken away."

Proverbs 28:4 " If you forsake the Word of the Lord, you will praise the wicked."

Instead of keeping the wicked at bay, the church has forsaken the Word of God in this regard, resulting in wickedness being exalted or at least tolerated.

Too many have stolen their lives from God and given it to the god of the world.

In it's quest to become relevant to the world, the church has become tolerant of it and it's ways (and of course it's god)

The church was never commissioned to tolerate the evils of the world. The true church will never ever be able to become a friend of the world. True Biblical love can only be understood when the light shines into the darkness.

Psalm 119:53 "Indignation and horror has taken hold of me because of the wicked who have forsaken your law."

Let me ask you this. Are you horrified at the modern world?

The church has failed the Jews.

The Bible teaches that the gospel is to go the Jew first and then the Gentile. It also teaches that the Gentile church is supposed to make the Jews jealous. The salvation of the Jews is integral to the coming of our Messiah.

Here is something shocking:

1 Chronicles 21:1 "Now Satan stood up against Israel" Zechariah 3:2 "The Lord said to Satan, the Lord rebuke you Satan, the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem, rebuke you."

Israel, Jerusalem and the Jews have been in Satan's sights and targets for a long time. Replacement theology in essence is a demonic, church invented doctrine that replaces Israel with the church. A large part of the church mixed with a large inter-faith group will work with and for the false prophet, antichrist and Satan himself. In the end-time scenario these will come against God's work with Israel, Jerusalem and the Jews. These churches think are doing God's will! According to the verses above they are doing Satan's work!!

The whole world will soon turn against Israel in an evil campaign. It will have the counterfeit church working with it.

The church that is neutral to these things relating to Israel, is in trouble. The Bible says that if you are not with and for the work of God you are against it.

The true church needs to completely forsake all replacement theology, propagated especially by the denominational churches. It needs to stand with and for Israel and an undivided Jerusalem. The church needs to understand the Jews will soon become part of Messiah's family. They are our brothers and sisters in waiting!!

The answer:

The church needs to break free from the snares of occult influences, traditions and convocations. It needs to return to the Lord in deep repentance. Of course there are many who are just fine and this is confirmed by God Himself in the messages to the seven churches in the Revelation

The church needs to restore its first love to God and His word before it can be effective in bringing that love to the lost.

There is a fast growing revival on the go now. No it's not your normal miracles and revival meeting. It's a revival of truth. It may come as a shock to many, but the only significant revival comes when there is a revival within the church first of all. A church that has cast off the weights of idols and the occult and returned to truth is powerful indeed.

Summary:

In many regards the church today has become no different to the local sports club. It needs to "Ask for the old paths where the good way is and walk in it, then you will find rest for your souls." Jeremiah 6:16

In the midst of the failure of Christianity to fulfil it's God given duty, its very important to realise and understand that you and I as individuals can soar high like an eagle. Hebrews 6:2..."Let us go on to perfection." Only the Kingdom of God is unshakable! Everything else will shake and fall in its time.

Jeremiah 5:51 "The prophets prophecy falsely and the priest rule by their own power, and My people love to have it so."

Hosea 7:8 "Ephraim has mixed himself among the peoples and he is a cake unturned" (or half baked) Aliens have devoured his strength".

Heaven or hell:

You guys look so smug and self assured as you leave the interfaith conference. You've just decided to come together in unity. Unity between the Catholics, Anglicans, Muslims, Rabbic Judaism, Hindus, Buddhists and more. Ah, that sounds so gooood! Priest with the cross around your neck, let me ask you this. In your newfound unity what happens to the true cross of Christ? If other religions are legitimate, the cross of Christ was meaningless! Why do you mock the cross of Christ by wearing it around your neck?

Old lady, you have every right to look sad. The church of Jesus Christ has failed you. It has lost its strength to be effective in evangelism. It has become self centred and materialistic. It has joined the fast growing Satanic interfaith movement resulting in a loss of power. Yes it has let you down. But you can turn the story around swiftly by turning to Yeshua/ Jesus. Don't wait for the dead church to come to you.

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Here is a painting by Marc Chagall called The Yellow Cross

Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!

Edition 48. 10th August 2010

In this edition:

●The rapture and second coming compared?

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The rapture and second coming compared.

The one huge big bottom line in all of this is that it's wise to be ready! If you believe a little differently, it's no big deal at the end of the Day, but what will make a difference is the condition of your heart at our Lords coming!

One in 25 verses in the New Testament refers either to the rapture or Second Coming. There are 1,845 references to the Second Coming in the Old Testament. There are 318 references to the Second Coming and the rapture in the New Testament. Overall, there are five times more references to the Second Coming than the first, in the Bible.

A literal view of both the rapture and the Second Coming is predominant with evangelical and Zionist Christians (Messianic). These are they that believe in the new birth through regeneration and the infilling of the Spirit. There are differences of beliefs within these, but they are not foundational. The ecumenical movement allegorise the scriptures. They are not born anew. There are no fruits of regeneration in them. The ecumenical movement is concerned with a universal religion by bringing many faiths together. They are on the road to hell.

The allegorical method of interpretation raises the interpreter above God, giving himself the authority to make the scriptures say whatever the interpreter wishes. It is inconsistent. 2 Peter 1:20 "Know this that no prophecy of scripture is of any private interpretation."

There is much confusion, based on ignorance and incorrect teaching on this subject, but perhaps the biggest reason for the problems is that people simply can't imagine either the rapture or Second Coming. To them it's science fiction!

Others, especially those with  young families, don't want to know anything about these things, fearing that the events will interfere with their long-term plans. Many people are completely ignorant of these things, because they are either not interested or have not been taught anything at all on the subject.

Many people only look at selected portions of scripture or their favourite "proof" verses and don't consider the overall, or complete picture and don't keep things in their context.

There is no single big resurrection of all people at the same time. 1 Corinthians 15:22-23 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ all will be made alive, but each one in his own order."

Both the rapture and the second coming will be magnificent events. Both will be followed with monumental, fearful judgements for all of the unsaved.

Some uniformed people say that the word rapture is not in the Bible and therefore they reject it. They are right the word is not there. BUT the word that is there is harpazo (grk) which means to be 'caught up' or 'taken by force'. In 1 Corinthians 50:51 it says that we will be caught up in a moment in a twinkling of an eye. The words used here are harpazo for 'caught up', and "atomo" (grk) for 'moment', which means an atomic instant. That settles it!

Some views are so far off the mark that they do not deserve any attention. I will just mention them here once: The Preterist view claims that all end time events were fulfilled by 70AD. The historicist view and a-millennium views claim that we are already in the fullness of the Kingdom. The Idealist view of spiritualism opposes materialism and all literal translations. These all use the allegorical method of interpretation, which removes the literal meanings.

My view is called the futurist, which gives prophecy literal interpretation, taking the Bible at face value. It rejects allegory except when blatantly obvious.

The teaching for the rapture is revealed only in the New Testament epistles, which is the primary teaching for the church. The Second Coming is found throughout the scriptures.

The rapture and the Second Coming are not the same event. There are vast differences. Some believe that although they're not the same event, they will both take place at the end of the soon coming, seven-year tribulation period. This again is not so.

Defining terms:

There are many others verses that when compared make it obvious that the two events are not one and the same.

In summary: The rapture occurs in an instant, while our Lord returns at the Second Advent in the same manner that He left from the Mt. of Olives, which was a slow assent, being watched by many. At the rapture, our Lord does not return to the earth. He 'catches up' believers into the air and heaven, and doesn't do anything on earth, while at the Second Coming He puts an end to the greatest war ever and sets up His rule from the new temple on the mount in Jerusalem. At the rapture, the world carries on as normal afterwards, while at the second advent, all unbelievers are cast into hell as the Millennium begins. At the rapture our Lord comes for His saints, while at the Second Coming He comes with His saints. The rapture is an act of deliverance for believers out of the wrath of God, which is about to start. The Second Coming ends the time of wrath. At the rapture, believers are taken to heaven, while at the Second Coming unbelievers are taken from the earth to hell. The rapture occurs at the start of the tribulation at an unknown specific hour, while the Second Coming is right at the end of the tribulation, which has numerous verses of scripture numbering the days. (Some of these include two periods of 1260 days or two periods of three and a half years or one period of seven years.) These are Hebrew 350 day years.

It's glaringly obvious that the rapture and Second Coming are not the same event and are separated by a period of time. The controversy relates to how much time. We have three views. The pre-tribulation, mid- trib and post- trib rapture views. All three of these views are part of the futurist or literal interpretation.

The big question is how much time is there between the two events?

If you place the rapture at the end of the tribulation or even half way through, you will have many problems with many verses of scripture. You can of course just ignore the verses that don't suit your view. If you place the rapture at the start of the tribulation, everything falls into place like a jigsaw.

The church is not seen on earth in the Revelation after the close of chapter three (The messages to the seven churches) There are clearly many who are saved in the tribulation period, but they are not part of the church yet. The true church is seen in the Revelation, but in heaven.

I do agree and concede that this is not an easy subject. It requires an enormous amount of prayerful study...many years! I began studying the subject in the late 1970s. I am settled in my mind, but even after all this time I am quite happy to give others their view, without condemning them.

Problem areas:

Trumpets:

A common error is the teaching that the seventh "wrath" trumpet of Revelation 11:15 is the same as the rapture "last trump" of 1 Corinthians 15:52 and 1 Thessalonians 4:16 They say then that because these are the same, we will go through the tribulation but not through the wrath of God, which is revealed in the Revelation seven trumpets. This argument is based on the use of the word 'last' in both events. 'Last' can mean one of two things: It can mean last in point of time or it can mean last in point of sequence. 'Last' may well be last which concludes a program, but is not necessarily the final last. The program for the church era differs from the program for Israel. Each may be terminated by the blowing of their own last trumpet.

The trumpet that calls the church is called the "trump of God", singular. while the seventh trumpet of Revelation is an angel's trumpet and the last in a succession. The trumpet closing the church era is of blessing, victory and glory, while the seventh trumpet of Revelation is one of judgement, horror, and destruction upon God's enemies.

The two trumpets cannot be the same. They are vastly different in many areas.

Some teach that there will be a mid tribulation rapture, because this is when the wrath of God starts (to which we have not been appointed)

Some of the words describing the whole tribulation period are: wrath, judgement, indignation, punishment and others. These words describe the entire period and not a part of it. The wrath of God includes many incredible judgments falling on the whole earth during the whole time period. The temporary peace period is only political and only in Israel for the first half of the tribulation.

The pretribulation rapture rests on the literal method of interpretation and a dispensational view of God's dealings with man. The church and Israel are two distinct and separate groups., each with a divine plan. Some reject dispensations. Hebrews1:1 "God who in different dispensations and in in different ways, spoke in times past..."

The restrainer:

This is very important: 2 Thessalonians 2:7 "The mystery of lawlessness is already at work, only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way and the lawless one is revealed." Who then is the 'He' who is restraining and preventing antichrist from being revealed? Some say it's the Holy Spirit and some say it's the church. Actually it's both. The restrainer is the Holy Spirit indwelling the true church. It can't be the Holy Spirit alone, because He is omnipresent and His work continues in the tribulation.

The true church is the temple of the Holy Spirit and is the 'He' restraining the full purposes of Satan breaking forth onto the world stage.

Daniel 9:27 speaks of the fact that the lawless one (antichrisrt) will be manifest at the beginning of the seven year tribulation. There are many other portions of scripture showing that the antichrist will be at work throughout the seven year period, although things will intensify in the second half.

The signing of the fateful seven year peace treaty will be between the person who will be revealed as the antichrist right then and Israel. This is the event that triggers the tribulation, the revealing of the antichrist and the rapture of the church.

There is absolutely no doubt that Satan, indwelling a particular man will be at work in an unrestrained manner for the entire seven year tribulation. There is also no doubt that  'He', the restrainer will be removed at the start of the period. There is also no doubt from numerous verses of scripture that the entire seven year period will be God's time and dealing primarily with Israel. The true church will not be here.

One left one taken: Mathew 25 Speaks of "one being taken and one left" Many use this as a rapture proof verse. This is what will happen at the rapture, but these verses are speaking of the Second Coming and not the rapture. At the Second Coming one will be taken into hell and one left on earth after being saved during the tribulation.

There are some verse of scripture that could refer to either the rapture or the Second Coming. Some are ambiguous, but this does no harm to the overall picture. In fact it simply gives us more reason to be watchful and always ready. The key is not to try and make any portion of scripture fit your own preconceived ideas. The best is to take things as literally as possible and leave the Word of God to speak what it will into your heart.

There are many views out there, some are so wrong, some outrageous and some are a result of an ongoing journey of discovery. When you encounter views that don't line up with yours, you are immediately in the spotlight!! There is no need to condemn and reject those that have a different view. How you handle disagreement is an insight into your own heart!

The Rapture:

Examples in history:

Many people reject rapture teaching simply because they can't imagine it. Actually, we have examples in history. Hebrews 11:5 "By faith Enoch was translated  so that he did not see death and was not found because God translated him." 2 Kings 2:11 "Elijah went up by whirlwind to heaven." Interestingly Moses died, but his dead body was taken. Deuteronomy 34:5 says that "He (God) buried Moses, but "he was was never found" Jude 9 speaks of the dispute between Michael and Satan over the body of Moses.

there is a marvellous type here of the dead in Christ, represented by Moses and those who are alive at the rapture, represented by Elijah, being taken to heaven.

2 Corinthians 12: 2 speaks of Paul being caught up to the third heaven. (Interestingly the word used here is 'harpazo' which is the same word used 1 Thessalonians for the rapture of the church.)

John was raptured or "caught up" into heaven to receive the many visions of the Revelation (4:1)

There are other examples as well, which we won't go into now.

Who will go in the rapture?

It's good to identify from the scriptures who is a Christian. I don't like the term, because it has become so polluted, but I'm using it here simply because it's the most common. By Christian I mean all true believers who have experienced a new birth and regeneration.

A big shock awaits many who think that they are Christians. Some think that because they are not Jews, they are Christians. Some think that because they go to a church once in a while they are Christians. Some think that because they were infant -sprinkled (baptised) they are Christians. Some think that because they are more good than evil, they are Christians. Some think that because they believe in Jesus they are Christians.

James 2:19 says that "even the demons believe and tremble." So being a "believer" in the superficial sense doesn't crack it! What is it that makes a true believer? Quite simply it is one who has, through an act of choice, become born again into the family of God. This results in a regeneration and a new identity and direction. There is a Sprit to spirit identity. The living God re-creates your spirit and He now takes up residence in your heart. Works and law of any description are not involved in salvation (they do have their place afterwards)

These are they who are the family of God and qualify for the Kingdom of God. This Kingdom can't be joined. Membership is not allowed. You can only be born into it. Only blood-family qualify.

Much of the professing church is not the true church at all.

Revelation 3: 15-16 addresses the Laodicea church and says: "Because you are neither hot nor cold and you are lukewarm, I will spit you out of My mouth." Revelation 2:20-22 Speaks of religious people in the church of Thyatira who are tolerant of occult practises and traditions. It says "I will cast them into great tribulation. Revelation 3:3 "If you will not repent and be watchful, I will come upon you as a thief and you will not know what hour I come upon you."

Much of the modern church is a runaway bride, or to be more accurate no bride at all, in fact a pure whore. A tree will ultimately be known by its fruit. The love of some will grow cold and they will desert and flee into the arms of Satan himself.

All of the professing unsaved church will be left behind and go into the tribulation period. They will have the opportunity to repent and get saved during the tribulation.

Many will mock and say things like "Where is the promise of His coming, everything is going to continue as normal." (2 Peter 3:4)

Many will be so trapped by the dead and futile traditions of their churches that they will be paralysed and will not be able to move forward in preparation.

Many will be led by their evil churches to come against God's plan for the Jews and Israel.

1 Chronicles 21:1 "Now Satan stood up against Israel."

You can't be part of the Bride of Christ and hate or come against Israel. You must chose Jerusalem or Babylon.

Hebrews 9:28 "To those who eagerly wait for Him He will appear a second time apart from sin for salvation."

The Second Coming:

The Second Coming occurs right at the end of the seven-year tribulation period as the armies of the world are gathered in the most horrific war in history called Armageddon. Israel will be the prime focus of this war, but at this time people know all about the coming of the Messiah. In fact they are gathered in perhaps the most futile act of any military forces in history. They have gathered to resist the coming of the Lord! Israel has by this time been awakened to Messiah and will in no way be resisting His coming.

The Second Coming sees the Lord return Jerusalem in the same manner as He left from the Mount of Olives. The exact sequence of events in the short time after His return are not clear. What is clear is that at this time, all enmity and resistance to Yeshua / Jesus will be destroyed.

The horror of the Second Coming:

Forget about "sweet, gentle Jesus meek and mild"!

At the Second Coming grace has run it's course and only a terrible judgment awaits. This event will involve many simultaneous supernatural events. Some include the instant lifting of the Adamic curse on nature, which will see environment restored to the way it was before the fall of man. At the same time, all unbelievers will be cast off the earth into hell, while longevity will be restored to those who go on into the Millennium in natural bodies (those who became believers during the tribulation)

John 3:16 may be an odd verse to use relating to the horror of the Second Coming! Let's have a look at what it really says. "For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him, should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned, but he who does not believe is condemned already and this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil." (John 3:16-19)

Our Lord is simply saying that the reason for His first coming was not to condemn the world, because it is already condemned. (Right from the fall) His first coming was to offer salvation. But He says very clearly that if you reject this salvation offer, you are condemned already.

At the Second Coming time is up! There will be no more grace or mercy. Only a fearful expectation of judgement resulting in being condemned to hell. The Second Coming will end the climatic events known as the wrath of God, the wrath of man and the wrath of devil all running simultaneously.

There will be a great revival with masses being saved during the tribulation period. Many will also reject salvation and will endure untold suffering, before their journey to hell.

Revelation 6:16 "Let the mountains and rocks fall upon us and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the lamb."

The entire seven year tribulation period will see monumental judgements and disasters. The first three and a half years will see a temporary false peace, but this will only be on the socio-political front and a result of the peace pact signed between Israel and the person who will become the antichrist. But the four riders of the apocalypse ride throughout the entire seven year period. The upheavals of nature will run throughout the time period. They will intensify in the second half and be joined by total socio-political anarchy, war and turmoil.

Be careful of getting caught up in all the things to come and missing WHO is to come! On the other hand if all of this is not an integral part of your faith, prayer and study...you are in grave danger.

Summary:

We need to set and make time to study these things out ourselves and not just swallow everything that comes dressed in religiosity. No person ever became wise by chance! It takes time and diligence. I'm not talking about pure head knowledge either. Wisdom's seat is in the heart!

The rapture and the Second Coming have never been popular, but to the true believer with a heart after our Lord. Today its both a hated and loved subject.

They say that the only certain things in life are death and taxes. That's a lot of hogwash! Do you know that there is one generation that will not see physical death. Isn't that exciting and totally revolutionary! It is this generation. What a wonderful hope...to cheat the undertaker (and the taxman)!

The King is coming. He's not coming for your little denomination or church, cut off from others. He's coming for all those in His Kingdom.

Our Lord who was born in humility, shame and rejection, is coming very soon in spectacular earth-shattering magnificence and glory. He is coming for His own and will destroy forever all enmity. He will make us just like Him. We will be just like He is now in His glorious eternal resurrection state.

The brightness of our Lords soon coming will reveal the true character of those who say that they are His. His glorious light will shine into all darkness of character and secret ulterior motives. He will make us more alive than we ever have been. He will clean us all up with pure glory.

If you, like many, have secret fears of rejection or fears of insufficiency or incompetence or incompleteness, hang on a little while. Our Messiah, King of the universe is about to re-create you in His likeness and totally and completely fulfil every inch of your being as you come into resurrection-glory.

We will be caught up and be with the Lord forever. "Comfort one another with these words"...1Thesselonians 4:18

This is the "blessed hope"

Thy will be done!

Additional study:

Dr. Dwight Pentacost "Things to come" (This is a monumental 700 page, exhaustive work first written in 1958. It is published by Zondervan) Dr. John Walvoord- many books. Dr. Derek Price- many books, audio and video teachings.

Psalm 96:13 For He is coming to judge the earth. He will judge the world in righteousness, and the peoples in His faithfulness."

Revelation 1:7 Behold He is coming with the clouds and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him and all the tribes of the earth will mourn over Him. Even so amen."

2 Timothy 4:8 "There is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but to all that have loved His appearing."

Heaven or hell:

Rabbi at the remains of the temple wall, do you know that your Messiah is coming very soon to again inhabit a new temple built right on that mount? Are you ready for Him? Do you even know what His name is? You look very sincere to me, but you may be sincerely wrong and that may cost you dearly! Don't wait until the tribulation judgements. Your soon coming Messiah is a Jew just like you. His name is Yeshua, the one the Christians call Jesus. But you don't need to become a Christian or call Him Jesus, but you do need to believe in Him to be saved.

Howzit right very reverend. I see that is your title. Do you know the Jewish Messiah? Have you been born again of the Spirit, and been baptised by full immersion as an adult? Wouldn't you be shocked when our King and saviour raptures the church and you're left behind? That would wipe the smirk off your face and you'd have to change your title to very wrong reverend. Are you teaching and leading others into all truth as a disciple of the Lord needs to do? Do you teach your flock on eschatology? I hope so.

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Here is a representation of war by Marc Chagall.

Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!

Edition 47. 1st August 2010

In this edition:

●What is a Messianic believer?

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What is a Messianic believer?

Beware, this may be revolutionary to you! It may challenge and change much in your life...for the better! It may also cause you to reject it all and set yourself as an enemy of God!

To many this will be a fearful, unwelcome intrusion into their traditional ways, to others this will be an exciting adventure of new discovery, with God leading the way. To yet others, this will be a confirmation of what God is already doing in their lives.

Is this just another name to add to the array of titles we have today? No, its the name and description you are likely to be hearing a lot more of in the future.

Definition:

A true Messianic believer is one who accepts and embraces the Abrahamic expression of truth. Simply put; Abraham was the father of many Gentile nations and the Jews. This is how the thread goes: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Israel, Yeshua / Jesus, Jewish and Gentile believers in Messiah.

The Roman-based thread, evident in most of modern Christendom is far off the mark and has picked up enormous amounts of pure error and occult activities on the way. It began in 300AD with many occult practices brought into Christianity by Constantine, which were later added to and entrenched into the Catholic church which began in 600AD. This plunged the world into the dark ages. Most of these terrible occult-founded errors have filtered right through into much of Christendom and are a major stumbling block in the way of the Jew coming to salvation. Yes "Christ crucified" is the major stumbling block of the Jews coming to salvation. That's of their own making, but there are many who have put additional stumbling blocks in their way.

Throughout the dark ages the Catholic church resisted the Jews. It persecuted and murdered  them (Inquisitions.) This later turned into full- blown replacement theology, which essentially teaches that the church has replaced Israel whom God has now rejected and is finished with. Replacement theology also denies the truth that God has a specific plan for the Jews, Jerusalem and the land of Israel in these days. This polluted, erroneous doctrine of replacement theology in it's various forms has clouded most of Christendom, and has resulted in a slant and flavour of Christianity that replaces the Hebraic flavour of Christianity with the Rome/ Babylon/ occult stench.

The diagram below shows the deviation. (Read from bottom up)

The thread of truth would obviously pick up a Hebraic flavour along the way. Its traditions, convocations, feasts, and practices would be those sanctioned in the Bible. For example there is no such thing as the Jewish feasts. They are called the feasts of the Lord and should be carried over into our era. The feasts of the Lord are for the Lord's people...all of them.

Messianic believers consist of Messianic Jews and Messianic Gentiles. You will see these two bandied about a lot. Both are legitimate. The Messianic Jew is a Jew who has recognised Yeshua / Jesus. A Messianic Gentile believer would be a term for a Gentile who is saved, but identifies with the Abrahamic expression of truth.

Most Jews who come to salvation, recognising Yeshua / Jesus as Lord and Messiah have an enormous problem of identity soon afterwards. They don't want to be called Christians, because the church is so foreign to them. They can't fit in with rabbinic Judaism anymore, so who are they and where do they fit in?

The Jews know that Babylon represents imprisonment, exile, rejection. Why would they now want to join the modern church, which is filled with Babylonian practices? Assimilation into the institutionalised, organised church for Messianic Jews is impossible. The church today has a blind spot and suspicion of Messianic Jews. They fear that they are revived Judaisers who will rob them of their traditions and identity.

They are quite a small group at this stage, but they will grow very fast in the near future. Messianic Jews are part of the Messianic movement of God. The Messianic Gentile arm is the other. Both are gloriously reconciled as one in Messiah.

The Messianic expression goes much further and roots out the traditions of Rome. Many of the traditional practises of the the church of Rome come directly from the occult practises of Babylon: Some of these include: The exaltation of the virgin Mary. (She was no virgin after Jesus and prayer to her is no different than praying to a leaf on a tree). The practice or participation in Easter, Christmas, lent and others, which are rooted in the occult.

A big and evil tradition is infant sprinkling, called baptism. It has with it the belief that a baby is freed from the power of original sin and becomes an eternal church member at the point of sprinkling. This tradition originates in Babylon. The pagan priest would put the mark of Tammuz on the baby's forehead by sprinkling water and fluids on the kid's head. The pagan priest would pray to the child-god Nimrod -Tammuz while performing the ritual. He would also come up with a name for the child he was 'anointing'  There is no example in the scriptures of infant sprinkling.

The Biblical truth is full adult immersion. The original word for baptise is 'baptismo' which is associated with burial. You don't sprinkle some dirt on a coffin. You immerse it totally in the ground. Coming up out of the baptism water is a type of resurrection or new life. In every single Biblical example only adults are baptised.

The modern church today, has, with few exceptions, blindly adopted many of these occult -formed traditions.

Mark 7:13 "You nullify the word of God and make it of no effect by your traditions handed down."

Torah observance:

There is a big debate and unfortunately a division between those who insist on full Torah observance and those who recognise it, but not in a legalist way. I have no problem with those (mostly Jews) who keep Torah, but I do have a problem with those who try to make others especially Gentiles do the same.

Let's have a look at what the Bible teaches and note I am using the New Testament epistles, which is the main teaching for the church:

Romans 14:1-6 "Receive one who is weak in faith, but not to disputes about doubtful things, for one believes he may eat all things, but he who is weak eats only vegetables. Let not him who eats despise him who doesn't, for God receives both. One person esteems one day above another and another esteems every day alike. He who observes the day observes it to the Lord and he who does not also does so to the Lord. Let us not put a stumbling block in our brother's way (vs13)

The above portion of scripture is very plain and clear. It teaches that doing things in a legalistic manner, shows weak faith, but it also legitimises choice for those who want to go that way. The verse does however teach that those who don't want to keep days, must do so unto the Lord. In other words, they would still have a recognition of these things.

Galatians 4:10, 11 "After you have known God, or rather are known by God, how is it that you turn again to the weak and beggarly elements, to which you desire again to be in bondage? You observe days, months, seasons and years. I am afraid for you, lest I have laboured in vain."

The whole context of Galatians is freedom from legalism. Paul is not forbidding the observance of these things here. It's doing these things in a legalist way, that's the problem.

Colossians 2: 16, 17 "Let no one judge you in food or drink or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.

Mark chapters 2 and 3 speak of our Lord doing things on the Sabbath that were supposedly unlawful. "Is it lawful to do good on the Sabbath?" He asks the Pharisees. Mark 3:6 "Then the Pharisees went out and plotted how they might destroy Him."

Please note one very important thing here. Our Lord Himself did not keep the letter of the law in the way that the Pharisees expected. And the result was that they wanted to kill Him. This is exactly the same thing that we see all over the place today in most religious circles. Legalism produces a pride that looks down on others that don't see or do things exactly their way. "The letter (of the law) kills, but the Spirit gives life." (2 Corinthians 3:6) Romans 14 above says we are to "receive one who is weak in faith, not kill them!

Both Jews and Gentiles trapped in legalism are often extremely condemnatory of anyone who doesn't keep their laws their way.

What then do we do with special days?:

1 Corinthians 5:7,8 "Christ who is our Passover was sacrificed for us, therefore let us keep the feast..."

Acts 18:21 "I must by all means keep this coming feast in Jerusalem, but I will return again to you."

Acts 16:13; 20:6 "And on the Sabbath day we went out of the city to the riverside, where prayer was customarily made..."

1 Corinthians 16:8 "I will tarry in Ephesus until Pentecost."

The above verses (and there are others) most certainly do teach about observing certain days like the Sabbath, Passover and the feasts. Do we now have a contradiction to deal with? No not at all. We need to at least recognise these days and set them apart from others. We need to identify with the Biblical meanings and messages behind these days, but we do not need to become legalistic in our practises.

I know of a number of Messianic congregations that have a Shabbat celebration on Friday evenings.

Key beliefs:

The true Messianic believer accepts the ultimate prophetic word and destiny for Israel and the Jews (both the land and the people). The destiny of Jerusalem is brought out in Isaiah 62:7 "It will become a praise in all the earth." But before this it will become the bone of contention and "stumbling stone over which the nations will fall." (Zechariah 12:3).

The church today has taken the Jewish fruit and rejected the Jewish root and replaced it with the root of an imposter.

The true Messianic believer will embrace a Hebraic expression of worship and fellowship and steer clear of both Jewish legalism and Christian occult-born traditions. The Messianic believer will have the truth set before him and be one who is 'arrested' by the truth, led and enlightened by the Spirit of God.

The Gentile believer:

Israel is called to bless the nations and the nations are called to bless Israel. But what is brewing now is another Holocaust caused brought on by the Gentile nations.

The job of the Gentile believer is to "provoke the Jew to jealousy", not to tell them that God has finished with them. The New Testament epistles teach that the gospel is to go to the Jew first and the Gentile! (Romans 1:16)

We are very close to a very big paradigm shift where the "times of the Gentiles" will be up! It is then that the Bible declares "all Israel will be saved." and then the Messiah will return.

Beware of the very severe warnings in the Revelation to the churches. Revelation 2: 5 to the church at Ephesus: "Repent or your lampstand will be removed." The church of Thyatira in Revelation 2:22 is told that they will be "cast into great tribulation unless they repent". and in Revelation 3: 16 the church of Laodicea is told that because they are lukewarm, God will "spew them out of His mouth."

The non- Messianic church has failed in it's God given role to make the Jews jealous and to aim the gospel at the Jew and the Gentile. It needs deep repentance and change of direction and course.

It's interesting that the Bible speaks of a veil of blindness over the Jews, which will be lifted soon. At the same time the church has it's own veil of blindness to deal with as well.

The ultimate glorious Messianic believer:

The Revelation of Jesus Christ contains within it messages to seven churches. These messages have a historic context to them as well a present and a future prophetic aspect to them. In fact there is a marvellous plot of the whole church age contained in them. The last few are very important.

The church at Philadelphia is the church of glory! The Messianic believer is fully identified within Philadelphia!

This church is the only one of the seven without one word of condemnation levelled against it by our Lord.

This church holds the "key of David" which is explained in Isaiah 22:21, 22 "He shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the house of Judah. The key of David I will lay on his shoulder." So we see here that this church has an identity, involvement and heart for the Jews. This church is commended because it "keeps the word". This church is also told that those of the "synagogue of Satan will come and bow down to them." This would be a reference to the rabbinic Jews who reject Yeshua  /Jesus. This church is told that because they have "kept the word they will be kept from the hour of  hour of trial that will come upon the whole world."

This is clearly a Messianic church, being involved with Israel, Jerusalem, the Jews and keeping the word, which also implies not keeping occult traditions.

The good news and glory of today is that more and more believers are finding that they are misfits. Their churches have failed them, deceived them and let them down. The Spirit of the living God is making them uncomfortable with traditional, institutionalised churchianity. They are looking for and finding a powerful new identity with God's miraculous work with Messianic believers, both Jew and Gentile. This work of God cannot be stopped!

Some important points:

Romans 11 uses the olive tree as an analogy. In a nutshell, it speaks of Gentiles as the wild olive branch being grafted into the tree, while the natural branches, the Jews are cut off for unbelief. But then Gentiles are warned that they will also be cut off if they reject or come against God's new work of re-grafting the natural branches (Jews) back in to their tree.

Romans 11:25, 26 Brethren, I don't you want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that hardening in part has happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in and so all Israel will be saved."

Ezekiel 39:22 "The whole house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; therefore I hid My face from them..."Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel;...for I shall pour out My Spirit on the house of Israel and will not hide My face from them anymore."

Zechariah 9:23 "In those days ten men from every nation (Gentiles) shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man saying "Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."

Isaiah 60: 1,3 "Arise shine for your (Jews) light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you...the Gentiles shall come to your light."

Ezekiel 20: 41 "I will accept you as a sweet aroma when I bring you out from the peoples...and I will be hallowed in you before the Gentiles, Then you shall know that I am the Lord, when I bring you back to your land, Israel."

Ezekiel 37: 23 teaches that in the re-gathering and coming salvation of the Jews they "will not defile themselves with idols, nor detestable things". This would obviously include the occult traditions of the Gentile church.

Acts 15:20 "Abstain from things polluted by idols" What a far reaching and powerful verse!

These amazing verses teach that God's grace in about to swing to the Jews. Messianic Gentile believers will recognise, welcome and accept this fully, while the traditionalists will grow in dangerous deception and ultimately come against this work of God.

Shocking views of intelligent Christians:

I was talking with one educated individual on these things a while ago. He says: "Why should the Jews deserve salvation, they crucified Jesus and God has rejected them." I said, "no they didn't crucify Him...you did!" The truth is that He gave His life up willingly for all of us. I then asked this guy if he thought that he deserved salvation? He then saw that he was trapped! This highly intelligent turkey had just blindly accepted oceans of erroneous thinking. Most of which is deeply entrenched in the church and an obstacle in the way of the Jews coming to salvation.

A church pastor I spoke with some time ago said to me that God was finished with the Jews. If some get saved they must be become fully Christian and join the church and participate in it's traditions and practises. The ignorance of this is just so incredible!

There is a shocking number of Christian leaders, who are ignorant of the scriptures. All they do is regurgitate what they have been taught.

There is a view out there that all Christians are "spiritual Jews" This is rubbish and makes a mockery of a great many portions of scripture. This is based on the allegorical method of interpretation, which enables you to make the Bible say what you want!

Summary:

The Catholic church and its offshoots have created an intimidating and fearful place for the Jews, instead of   provoking them to jealousy. Why is the salvation of the Jews at large important? Simply because "When all Israel is saved then the Messiah returns. And of course there are hundreds of passages of scripture revealing that the Jews will be saved en-mass in the time period running up to the second coming.

The Messianic congregation offers a welcoming safe haven and home for Jews where they can fit in comfortably, while steering clear from the entrapments of legalism and the occult.

If you're a Gentile Christian you don't need to become a Jew. If you're a Jewish believer you don't need to become a regular church member. If you are either you must flee from an identity with occult based traditions and practises.

The Messianic church is one that has an identity with, involvement with, and heart for the Jews, Israel, Jerusalem and God's plan for the Jews that are still lost. If your church has no little interest in these things in it's teachings, worship and fellowship, it is not a Messianic church.

This doesn't mean that a church needs to go overboard on these things either. The Abrahamic expression is to both the Jew and Gentile.

If your church is neutral toward these things, it is also an enemy of our Lord! Yeshua / Jesus says "If you are not for Me, you are against Me." The term "for Me" here is an active term!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying traditional non-Messianic churches are not saved or anything like that. I am saying that they're in danger!

Today there is a paradigm shift on the go. Many believers are unhappy and unfulfilled in their dying dinosaur churches as the Spirit of God moves in their own personal lives. Many will continue as blind followers of blind guides. At the same time, many are leaping for joy in their new identity in and with God's present new move. It's like when the two pregnant women, Mary and Elizabeth met. Unborn John the Baptist "leapt for joy" as he 'recognised' the unborn Messiah, and King of the universe in front of him, still in Mary's womb!

The answer:

You would be a dumb turkey if you went and asked a second hand car salesman if it's okay to buy one of his second hand cars! You need to get an outside opinion. Don't go and ask your nice priest in his nice frock if all of this is true or not. Go to our great Lord and God. He will show you.

The King of the Jews

There is a big difference between giving intellectual accent to something and actually doing it and putting it into practise.

Many Christians are afraid of this, just as Jews are afraid of the church. They think that they will have to start obeying all sorts of laws religiously. Well, as you can see the truth is not in keeping laws to make an angry God smile on you, but it's a matter of recognition, identification and a new way of thinking.

It's all about truth, your own heart and your life's desire. It's not about keeping on going in the bus that's headed over the cliff. If your heart is really after our Lord and you desire Him and His truth with an all encompassing passion. He will lead you. He will show you, but you need to be open for a God-created revolution!

The real glory is that in Messiah, Jew and Gentile will be gloriously united in grace and truth. Actually there will also be large numbers of Arabs that will come into the Kingdom as well pretty soon.

Messianic Resources:

http://www.messianicdirectory.info/ This is a comprehensive resource base for all things Messianic. We are listed here also.

http://jerusalemcouncil.org/articles/community/list-of-messianic-congregations/ This is a list of all the known Messianic congregations in the world.

http://www.messianictimes.com/ Good general news site

http://www.givengain.com/cgi-bin/giga.cgi?cmd=cause_dir_cause&cause_id=1507 This site is called Messianic Good news and that's just what it is.

http://www.inthedays.com/ Good Messianic news blog

Ephesians 2: 14,15 "For He Himself is out peace who has made both one and has broken down the middle wall of division between us, having abolished in His flesh the enmity, that is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, so as to create in Himself one new man from the two, thus making peace."

Heaven or hell:

Old rabbi, who are you raising your hands to? You would say, "to the Messiah". Well do you know who your Messiah is? It's none other than the Jew of all Jews Yeshua / Jesus. Yes raise your hands to your soon coming Messiah, but if you don't recognise that He has been here before and died for your sins, you will go to hell. You must accept His sacrifice for you at His first coming to be able to meet Him again.

Young girl, some very exciting times are coming. God is doing a new work in this world in this day. Are you ready? Are you going to go the way of the majority and the way of traditionalism? Are you going to melt into the everlasting arms of our glorious saviour, the King of the Jews and the Gentiles and the Arabs? Don't wait to make up your mind, you may not have the time you think! These are monumental life changing issues, don't hesitiate!

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Marc Chagall was a Russian Jewish artist who became a believer later in life. His paintings are wonderfully playful and today sell for many millions. This one is entitled "Christ in the clock" It's rich with symbolism as most of his painting are. There are varied interpretations of this painting, but here is one. Christ crucified is a stumbling block to the Jew (lying on his back) The clock represents advancing time and the pendulum fish represents the church. Time is running out for the church and the time of God's favour is about to awaken the Jew. Why is there a horse floating in the sky? Well of course that's because he was an artist and therefore a touch mad.

Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!

Edition 46. 24th July  2010

In this edition:

●Truth and Error

Coming editions:

 ●The rapture and second coming compared.

Coming soon:

Amazing videos

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What is truth

Most people are unaware that the entire time period relating to the coming of our Lord on the wings of truth, also has with it the coming of the devil or antichrist as a counterfeit lord, whose entrance onto the stage will be with all error, unrighteousness and deception.

In many situations, truth is illusive, but it is of monumental importance in this day. According to Bible prophecy it will become more and more attacked, questioned, rejected and replaced. The Bible says that "truth will be cast down in the streets." The only way the devil will  be able to "deceive the whole world" (Revelation 12:9) during his final performance will be by interfering with and casting down truth.

The measure of all things is Godly truth. It is not your church doctrine. It is not the beliefs of this denomination or that. It is not all the Babylonia occult- errors of the Catholics and their evil twin the Anglicans. It is the pure Word of God straight and neat!

Amos 7:7 "Behold the Lord stood on the wall made with a plumb line and with a plumb line in His hand....Behold I am setting a plumb line in the midst of My people Israel; I will not pass by them anymore." The plumb line hangs straight and shows if the wall is also straight or not. God's plumb line is His word. Truth is exact.

We are to build our lives with the plumb line of God's truth.

Truth and error travel the same highway, but are inspired by two different Gods. In this edition I want to have a brief look at both truth and error and the many incredible things associated with the subject.

Our Messiah said "I have come to establish the truth."

Truth and error are essentially spirits. The Bible talks of the "Spirit of Truth and the spirit of error". (1John 4:1-6)

One day you will not stand before your priest, pastor, reverend or rabbi. You will not stand before any Hollywood celebrity or hero. You will stand before the living God and judgement will be "according to truth" If that is the case (and it is, mark my words) don't you think it's kind of important to examine the subject and be calmly settled in truth?

In the last days "lawlessness (no truth) shall abound and the love of many will grow cold" (Mathew 24:12) We are heading for dangerous days.

Bible truth must be read or interpreted in a literal way as much as possible. The allegorical method of interpretation foist into it anything the interpreter desires. Obviously there is allegory in the scriptures. For example Yeshua / Jesus is called the "Lamb of God". He is not a lamb. That is allegory. But you can't apply allegory to anything you like.

The key to all interpretation is within the Bible itself. Bible prophecy was fulfilled in an exact literal way and will continue in that manner. Many church leaders today have appointed themselves as God's editor! They have a shock coming!

Characteristics of truth:

There are many characteristics of truth, but here are just a few:

Truth is clean, it's holy and pure. Truth will always leave you deeply satisfied. Truth sets you free indeed. Truth is not variable or relative, it is absolute. You can't have 2+2=4 and 2+2=5. One is absolute truth and the other not. Truth can never sit comfortably with error.

Truth has triplets which accompany her. They are the indwelling Spirit, love and mercy. "When He the Spirit of truth has come He will lead you into all truth."(John 16:13) Without the fullness of the indwelling Spirit through the baptism of the Spirit, there is no guarantee to be led into truth! Truth without love and mercy becomes legalistic. The Spirit of God leads you into truth and love and mercy tempers the application of truth.

Spirit led truth may show mercy and tolerance. It may operate in love towards an enemy, but it will not bend the truth. The person may be shown love but that doesn't mean he is not an enemy anymore (although that may be the end result)

Not one of us has ever come to the full truth immediately. It's a progressive journey of wonderful discovery. God does not blow us away because we are ignorant of truth. The key is to be open to it and humble before our Lord. Then He will lead us in love and mercy into all truth.

Truth without love becomes legalistic, while love without truth becomes tolerant of all evil. Truth and legalism are terrible twins.

Truth sets free!

"God gives grace to the humble and resists the proud" (James 4:6) The key is to maintain an attitude of humility before God and His word. The big thing that humility does is that it allows you to see clearly. It opens the door to spiritual light and sight!

The way to truth and preservation of the truth within you is actually very simple indeed. All you need is a soft broken heart before our Lord and then simply ask Him for understanding and wisdom.

The Bible declares that a "tree is known by its fruit" Truth has many wonderful glorious fruits. Some include: Unity. love. joy, peace, kindness, goodness, gentleness, self control, understanding and wisdom.

God's will is not for all people to be saved. "God desires all people to be saved AND come to a knowledge of the truth." (1 Timothy 2:4)

Characteristics or error:

If truth comes through humility before God then error comes through pride before God.

The spirit of error is unclean, it accommodates and tolerates all types of evil. It will lead you astray. The spirit of error may sit comfortably with many other errors, but it will never sit comfortably with the truth.  The spirit of error will always persecute or attack the Spirit of truth. The spirit of error is the way of the majority

Accidental error always has hope of correction, but the real danger with error is that it almost always comes in on the wings of pride and arrogance. All heresy and false doctrine is birthed in pride. The big thing that pride does is blind you. So if you are essentially spiritually blinded, you are in greater danger than you can imagine.

Haven't you ever been amazed at just how difficult it is to get unsaved people to see the truth?

John 8:43 "Why do you not understand My word? Because you are not able to listen to My word. You are of your father the devil."..."He who is of God hears God's word." (vs 47)

2 Corinthians 4:4 "Whose mind the god of this age has blinded who do not believe lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God should shine on them."

2Thesselonians 2:1-11 "Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him...let no one deceive you...The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan with all power and lying signs and wonders and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth that they may be saved. And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie."

The above three verses are absolutely frightening! Can you see it? In each case a lack of belief results in being blinded by the devil and by God! If both are at work preventing you from coming to the truth, you will not see truth, no matter how hard you try. Can you see how important it is to have a soft heart of belief towards God and His word?

Truth and error have nothing to do with how clever you are. Many very clever people are in rank error when it comes to the all important things of God. It's all about the condition of your heart!

Error always leads to confusion enslavement and imprisonment. But beware, if your heart is hard towards God, you will also "sear your conscience" and be in much greater danger than you can imagine. That's like having no nerves in your hand. You won't feel any pain when you put your hand on a hot plate! A person with a seared conscience sees, feels, knows or cares about nothing but himself.

   Error leads to confusion!

If a "tree is known by its fruit" then error has many of them.

One important fruit of error can be seen in the un-teachable attitude of these people. It is seen in their bad character traits as well.

On a church level, today many are filled with the rotten fruits of Babylonian occult practises that have filtered down through Catholicism. These trees of error have poisoned a great many.

Fruits of religious error are also manifest in the appearance of pope's, priests and bishops. Their symbols and dress is nothing but the pride of separation above the people.

Another major fruit of Catholicism was the dark ages and the imprisonment and mass murder of a great many Jews and others in the inquisitions. (I will soon do an edition on some of the horrifying Satanic icons, statues and images depicting Lucifer in the tunnels and secret rooms under the Vatican.)

The biggest danger is truth mixed with error:

Religious error is a product of "Another Jesus" (2 Corinthians 11:4) He is a counterfeit and of another spirit and his 'truth' comes very close to the real thing.

A huge danger facing the world is truth mixed with error. Obama and his evil 'sister' Oprah are at the forefront of this. The bottom line behind their religion (born in hell) is that there are many ways to God. Each person has their own idea of God and way to God and all are equally valid. This is like religious communism. "Of course a loving God would never send anyone to hell, all will be accepted," they say. The work of the cross and the blood of Yeshua / Jesus is meaningless for salvation, they believe.

This is very widespread and growing. They take many verses of scripture relating to love and things like that and twist the context. They exclude other portions of scripture, which doesn't fit with their ideas. It looks good because it has bits of so-called truth mixed in.

Truth presented in a legalistic way is just as wrong as error. Some may have just the right words, but they use them as a baseball bat! There may well be a time to use truth as a sword, but it must be through the clear leading of the Spirit. In fact this is only for more mature believers. The job of a baby is to eat the right food and grow up. Adults play baseball!

The mixture of truth and error doesn't sanctify the error. Truth may tolerate error for a short while, but the error will always remain so.

The Bible declares "Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?"

Think about these things:

Truth produces unity. 2+2=4. That's it. We who believe this are in unanimous automatic untiy.

Error produces confusion and division (denominations). 2+2=4, 5, 9 anything you believe.

I was chatting to a friend the other day, who had just got saved. She said, "it's so confusing trying to find a church". She was very right! Many church leaders will encounter the "terror of the Lord" one day soon as they stand in judgement for the mess they have created.

The pursuit of truth:

A person may be known by what consumes their thoughts and actions. In a day with so many divisions and errors all around us in the religious world, the pursuit of truth is vital. The very first thing we need to do is make sure that me, myself, I is on the cross. The way into the depths of God's truth can only be found with self on the cross. In fact it is the absence of the cross that has produced so many divisions and denominations! The modern divided church is the product of proud man's best shot.

As we grow in the grace of God's wisdom and truth, it's a mighty, wonderful thing. When we see something from God's treasure trove we are often surprised that others can't see it also. "Can't you see it, don't you understand you dumb idiot"

We need to be careful of the attitude which easily springs up in us of trying to prove others wrong and ourselves right. If this is our motivation we are equally as guilty. Now, of course its good to be right, but how we handle it is the issue.

Examples and dangers:

Imagine setting off on a journey to a city 1000kms to the south. You intend to obey the rules of the road. When you get close to your destination you see a sign saying 50kms to a city 1000kms north of your starting point. You did well, you obeyed the rules of the road. The only problem is that you went in the wrong direction. This is the great tragedy of a great many people! They are just going along blindly with the flow, presuming that their leaders are going the right direction.

The answer is to wipe the slate clean, take off your religious glasses and begin afresh with God's word as the supreme thing.

I recall being completely deceived by a religious crowd way back in the late 1970s. I quickly lay myself before our Lord and began to study His word. I read my Bible cover to cover three times, which took about three weeks each time. This really was the start of a glorious walk to freedom. I then began to study it in depth and still do to this day.

A good very simple example of truth and error and the massive impact on untold millions of people is in the translation of one word in the Bible. The Old King James version, is a translation from the Latin. It is venerated by the Catholics. It uses the word 'Easter.' in Acts 12:4. The New King James version, which is translated from the original and is the best by far, uses the word 'Passover.' The original word used is Pesach, which means 'Passover'. Then in 1Corinthians 5:8 we are told "Let us keep the feast." The original word here is Pesach meaning Passover.

Easter is derived from the Babylonian sex goddess Ishatar. This is why rabbits and eggs are part of it. They are both symbols of fertility. (See edition 21 for much more)

The Catholic Pope of the day excommunicated some poor guy called Anatolia for celebrating Passover and not Easter, many moons ago! Way to go Anatolia!

Today virtually the whole Christian world practises or celebrates Easter and not Passover and on a different day!

Many believe the great error that infant sprinkling (baptism) saves you. This error comes from a Babylonian occult practise!

The truth is that adult baptism after conversion, through the new birth is required. That makes many people mad!

Beware when your measure of truth is church tradition!!

Unfortunately many people will hate you with a passion when you challenge or reject their traditions. But let's see what God says: "You make the word of God of no effect through your traditions handed down." (Mark 7:13)

Some priests, bishops, and pastors will go to hell because they are not saved and teach others that salvation comes by being basically good and becoming a church member!

The Bible says that the salvation plan is so simple that a "child and a wayfaring man will not go wrong in it." You need to be born again it says. You need regeneration, not church laws.

I don't know how many times I've sat in some dumb church and left thinking "Is that all there is. Is that all they have to offer" and what they did offer was just some motivational ear-tickling rubbish!

The church is supposed to be the bastion and protector of truth. I would encourage you to read edition 11 on the seven messages to the churches in the Revelation "glory and horror"

Truth according to the mass media is pure error. Satan is the god of this world and the media is his mouthpiece. Of course the media may report truthfully on something like an accident, but they will almost always be wrong on anything with spiritual overtones. Their agenda is that of the devil himself.

Case in point: The world's road map to peace in Israel presented by the media is pure error. It's the road map to war actually. In many situations if you apply the opposite you will be nearer the truth. For example CNN may present Obama's "many ways to God" in a story. The opposite is the truth. There is one way to God.

The danger is that many people erroneously think that because something is in print or on TV or the movies or comes from some celebrity it must be true. Error has huge masses of gullible followers!

The answer:

Truth opens your eyes and lets God into your life, error blinds you and lets the devil in and keeps God out.

Truth will always leave you fulfilled and deeply satisfied while error will always leave you unfulfilled, uncomfortable, uneasy, unsure and stressed. (Unless you have seared your conscience)

Bible prophecy is truth and is essentially the eyes of the believer. If you are not in this truth, you are in danger. You wont know where you are going or what's coming and will be ill-prepared.

The pursuit and finding of the gospel truth will give you glimpses into eternity and lead you in the beauty of holiness. It will strengthen you and inspire you on your journey to perfection. You will be able to face the future and face God with confidence, while much of the church and the world around us gets shaken to its very foundation in the coming days.

The big question is...are you free? are you truly free indeed? Are you free from the devises of religious divisions or denominationalism? Are you free from the devises of the god of this world? Are you free from trying to prove others wrong and yourself right? Are you free from the bondages of sin? Are you free from the entrapments created by celebrity and Hollywood and the opinions of man? Are you growing in the truth?

If so, then you can say "The truth has made me free indeed." (John 8:32)

Psalm 25:9 "The humble He teaches His truth. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth."

Jeremiah 29:13 "You will find Me when you search for Me with all of your heart"

Jeremiah 15:16 "I found Your words and I ate them and Your word was to me the joy and rejoicing of my heart."

Heaven or hell:

Old aboriginal man, our God has made a way for you to be saved. You need to get saved to go to heaven. Your occult errors and traditions handed down from generation to generation have not made you free. You are in a prison of your own making, which will be immeasurably worse in hell, unless you break free from the chains of bondage and accept the work of the cross and the cleansing blood of our Lord.

Young kid...what is in your future? Will you go blindly the way of your fathers and ancestors or will your beautiful eyes look upon our magnificent Messiah as He welcomes you into His glorious Kingdom. Will our Lord say to you one day, "well done good and faithful servant" or "depart from Me into eternal hell." Please make the right decision when required!

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"Till we all come to knowledge of the truth" This is the Isaiah Scroll, one of the dead sea scrolls containing the book of Isaiah in its exact form. I've superimposed into it the painting by Rembrandt of a rabbi. Today there is a growing number of rabbis who believe in Yeshua Ha'Mashiach (Jesus the Messiah) Soon there will come a time when Jews will come to the knowledge of the truth in great numbers. It is written!

Kind regards and many blessings...Shalom and grow in grace!