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July 10, 2008
Question:

I have read your web page "THE NAME OF GOD" I have to tell you that your wrong about the name "Jesus Christ".First, Christ is not his last name, it's his title, as in "The Christ". Jesus is not his real name, Hebrew does not have a letter J.The name Jesus is a mistranslations, and most likely Jesus came from the name Zeus. I know you mean well but you should do some research. God bless you. ­p

Answer:

The revelation of the Trinity formulated at the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. proclaimed to the world that Jesus Christ is God. That is a central tenant of the Church. It will stand though everything else falls.

And as far as "J's" and the Hebrew language are concerned, it is written "Through men speaking strange languages and through the lips of foreigners, I shall talk to the nation, and still they will not listen to me, says the Lord." (1 Cor.14:21).

"Yes, certainly with stammering lips and in a foreign language, he will talk to this nation, he who once told them: Here is rest... But they would not listen." (Is.28:10).

In your latest paper entitled 'the Reign of God' you assert that the rebellion Paul alluded to in 2 Thessalonians 2:3 references a revolt against God by the nations. Have you ever considered the impact of the Protestant rebellion? The way I see it this warfare was the dynamic that shattered Church authority. ­JA

Answer:

Paul's revolt has to do with an attack on the Church, not a disagreement between Christians. The Protestant reform movement enlarged the Church by expanding the Gospel's reach. Secularization has done the opposite.

There were many different elements coming together in the days before the secular revolution of the nations occurred. Among them were the excesses of Church power abuses, the attempt by reformers to address those abuses, an absence of compassion and love within the Christian brotherhood, the rise of intellectual and scientific inquiry, the invention of the printing press, and, especially, the appearance of secular interests among some of the European temporal powers. The documents created in the formation of the United States of America are a central example of this move toward independence from religion in western governmental affairs in the years leading up to the 20th century.

Yet, despite those documents, the United States continued to rule its people within a Christian context.

The event that fused all these elements together, and activated them toward a focused attack on Jesus and His Church was the reappearance on earth of Satan.

His release from the Abyss (Rev. 20:7) was the critical factor leading to both the political reappearance of atheism (the central Anti-god philosophy of Babylon mortally wounded by the sword of Jesus) and the mobilization of the nations for world war (Rev. 20:8-9). These two events occurred almost in unison.

The first world war began in 1914 and the Russian Revolution (politial atheism) in1918.

In 1914 virtually all nations in the western world still ruled their people in Christ. By 1963 the last temporal nation still politically championing Jesus Christ renounced Him. It had taken Satan only 45 years (1918 to 1963) to convince all the nations of the western world to overturn their 1700-year long shared reign on earth with the Christian Church. This political-spiritual alliance which had been in place since the reign of Constantine (the Edict of Milan in 312 A.D.) was shattered irrevocably across the entire earth in what can only be considered, the blink of an eye.

That official renunciation of Jesus by the world's nations is the revolt Paul prophesied.

Not only did it's speed show how fast Satan can act, it left only one nation on earth still championing Jesus. Like a city of David in exile in Babylon that nation sits alongside the Tiber river in Rome offering the perpetual sacrifice that holds back the wrath.

Prophecy is clear on what happens next.

 

Inquiry about Rev. 13:2-8.

"Then I saw a beast emerge from the sea: it had seven heads and ten horns, with a coronet on each of its ten horns, and its heads were marked with blasphemous titles. ·1 saw that the beast was like a leopard, with paws like a bear and a mouth like a lion; the dragon had handed over to it his own power and his throne and his worldwide authority ·I saw that one of its heads seemed to have had a fatal wound but that this deadly injury had healed and, after that, the whole world had marvelled and followed the beast. They prostrated themselves in front of the dragon because he had given the beast his authority; and they prostrated themselves in front of the beast, saying, 'Who can compare with the beast? How could anybody defeat him?' ·For forty-two ' months the beast was allowed to mouth its boasts and blasphemies and to do whatever it wanted; ·and it mouthed its blasphemies against God, against his name, his heavenly Tent and all those who are sheltered there. ·It was allowed to make war against the saints and conquer them, and given power over every race people, language and nation; ·and all people of the world will worship it, that is, everybody whose name has not been written down since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the sacrificial Lamb." (Rev.13:1-8).

With nations divided by politics, geography and oceans what kind of conditions would have to exist for countries everywhere to be obeying one leader? Especially when scripture shows this same leader at war with the nation called Kittim. Isn't Kittim a part of the "whole world"? ­DV

Answer:

Not only is Kittim a part of the whole world, it is shown in Daniel's prophecy to be a very significant part of the world because the beast is bested by it's forces on the Madman's own soil, forcing him to withdraw and change his plans. (Dan.11:30). Kittim is a very powerful part of the world, indeed.

That means, with regard to the "whole world" the Bible is pointing to a different kind of beast. In other words, one that rules both sides (or, all sides) at the same time. We can certainly see this kind of scenario in Christianity. Many of the churches that insist they worship Jesus are at war with one another. Many of those wars have been exceedingly murderous. We have grown accustomed to this kind of relationship when it comes to a religion that is supposed to be all about peace. Nothing prevents the same situation from occurring among the non-religious political nations.

It means the spiritual power that motivates the Madman motivates his enemies as well. Remember, scripture shows this to be a time of spiritual darkness on earth ­ a time, Jesus said, "when no one can work". While these nations are dealing with one another, they are to a one committed to expunging Christ from the earth.

What was born in Russia in 1918?  Godless government. This is an image of the beast is it not?  Godless government is a spiritual power. It's return is the mortal wound healed. It's reappearance on earth in the last century ended almost 1700 years of political rule on earth structured in the Christian Church.

Today the political landscape of the world is criss-crossed with godless regimes, most of them structured in a new pagan architecture called "secularism". Obviously all of these secular governments are not committed to communism. Secularism and communism usually war against one another. Yet both are committed to godlessness ­ to the Anti-god.

All the works of God go in pairs by opposites. There is a spirit of godlessness that mirrors the individuals who embrace it. We have shown in these writings that the beast of the last days (the 8th in a series of beasts) is the servant of Satan and preaches a message consistent with his predecessors: godless government. Wherever we see godless government, we see the image of both Satan and his beasts.

Surrounding us today are the philosophies that will give rise to the human characters anticipated by scripture's prophecies. Those godless philosophies are stunningly present right now, and the people are rushing to them in huge numbers all over the world. No governmental border stands in their way.

The New Testament teaches that Jesus delivered a mortal wound to the sixth head of the beast, one that committed this entity and his false prophet into the fires of hell (Rev.19:20-21). At the same time, Michael threw Satan, their boss, into jail in the Abyss (Rev.20:1-3).  At the end of Christian preaching, scripture predicts, two more beasts, the 7th and 8th will reappear in concert with Satan's temporary release from the Abyss. A new false prophet will reappear at that time as well.

There is no exit from the fires of hell, so the figures that return have to be newly minted. The only problem with this is that prophecy tells us the 8th head is going to be one of the previous seven. The only one of those seven we know for sure (per scripture) to be in the fires of hell is the 6th head, Nero. Yet popular prophecy (not in scripture) insists the 8th will be a Parthian (Persian?) king who insists he is Nero reincarnated. With seven to choose from, the prophecy remains veiled.

I have written at length recently about the return of godless government to the world (i.e., chronicling the mortal wound healing). It's reappearance in this world was spectacular, structured in and surrounded by momentous events including a huge asteroid crashing to earth, World War I, the visions at Fatima and a gigantic revolution that plunged Russia into political atheism. Godlessness had returned with a bang.

If the spiritual image of the beast is godless government, what is the spiritual image of the false prophet?  Is it not the same?  In other words, "godless religion"?  Look at the first false prophet that God tossed into the flames of hell at the beginning of the faith:

At the time of the sixth beast when the Book of Revelation was written there was a dominant religious philosophy that ruled the hearts and minds of the pagan world. It developed through the Minoans, the Etruscans, the Greeks and finally the Romans. The gods and their temples of worship were much the same throughout these western cultures, only the character names changed as the religion surrounding them evolved. This godless religion reached its pinnacle of world power in the first century A.D.

Then it came across the sword of Christ and was destroyed.

In 391 A.D., Theodosus, emperor of Rome, ordered all pagan temples closed. He issued a proclamation declaring Christianity the only religion of the Roman empire. World paganism was outlawed. It's rites and ceremonies were banned. Some of its temples were converted into Christian churches, while others were simply left to weather into destruction. Theodosus' decree terminated the Olympic Games and the temples associated with them at Mt. Olympus. From that moment on, the only God permitted to be worshipped anywhere in the western world was Jesus Christ.

It seems logical to consider the panopoly of gods (Zeus and his fellow Roman dieties) worshipped by the pagan world in Roman times as the false prophet that the Book of Revelation shows committed to the flames in the earliest centuries of Christianity (Rev.19:19-21). They are no longer worshipped by the world. Nor are Baal or Bel. They are all gone. As scripture says, they have been commited to the flames.

Additional beasts and a new false prophet are rising up to take their place. How could Adoph Hitler escape being titled the seventh head of the beast in Revelation's predictions? He murdered millions of members of God's people, decimating one of the two houses of Israel on earth. Almost everyone who saw him thought he was the Madman, himself.

But he was not.

Standing in the wings is his successor, the eighth. Circulating around him are ten kings. Their single-minded committment to the spirit of godlessness unites all of these beasts with Satan.

The same invisible spirit drives the false prophet. We don't have to look for an eastern religion here. We have one in our own backyard. One with its own set of temples and just as committed to "miracles", arrogance and godlessness as the first.

While the first collection of godless dieties were focused on the worship of artifacts, the new one comes promoting a different kind of worship, an image that mirrors in an opposite way, the Word of Christ. It is the word of knowledge. Driving this word is the modern world's most hallowed god, science. If you gasp reading such a statement, you will have some idea on how much a god science has become in our world.

Science looks beautiful. Like a lamb. But we live in a time when almost everything it does promotes Satan, not God. Instead of pursuing a course toward light, a deepening darkness has come to surround it. Everything it invents or discovers passes through the crucible of war. All the weaponry that exists comes to us through science. This illustrates the nature of the people who direct science and control it for profiteering purposes.

Are warmongering, food manipulation and healthcare profiteeering the noise of the dragon personfied?  Perhaps not; but this surely is: science declares there is no God. Most scientists are atheists. In your face and loudly so. They see no God. They try to "prove" creation did not need God either to form or to exist, and they desperately fight every effort by Christians to try to introduce any suggestion of a Creator into the creation story. They are arrogantly anti-christ.

Servant of the first beast, science is backed in its Christ-expunging efforts by the world's secular governments & by their secular courts. Having been won over by science's claim of absolute, even cosmic, authority, the people those courts serve are mesmerized by its miracles, discoveries that have made science the god of modern man. That is why the people of the world flock to it and with little resistance embrace its promotion of atheism.

Science could easily have gone another direction and promoted God. All the things it sees can easily be explained in Jesus. Yet its commitment to the destruction of faith has blackened its image, and its heart.

Jesus mortally wounded godless government with the Sword of His Gospel. But science has labored to bring it back from the dead and to cast doubt on the Word that offers eternal life to the world. To this end, science has worked incredible miracles. Even to bringing fire down from heaven onto the earth while people watched. "I have become death" said Robert Oppenheimer, one of the physicts who built the bomb, as he watched its first explosion (the "unknown light" prophesied by Sister Lucia of Fatima) erupt before his eyes on the desert sands of New Mexico.

Offering a kind of self-christening claim to the title "false prophet", the government and scientists dubbed this site and its nuclear event, "Trinity", an outrageous parody of the Godhead.

Proof that they had grasped starlight and plunged it to earth are the hydrogen bombs exploded soon after in the South Pacific, and which now tip tens of thousands of missles poised for Armageddon's flight, but hidden for now in submarines and silo's all over the world.

Scripture tells us that Satan will breathe life into a statue and cause it to speak (Rev.13:15). Are television, radio and the internet not inventions of science? Can these glass-screened idols not speak? Does the propaganda they broadcast not control the way people think? If science is the false prophet described in scripture, we are not far from its statue in support of godless government that Revelation says must be worshipped in some future day under penalty of death.

Is science false? Every year new textbooks of science must be written to correct the errors in the current texts. This was true a hundred years ago. It was true 50 years ago. It is true today and it will be true next year and every year thereafter for as long as learning continues. The proclamations of science are in orbit around truth, but none touch it. Everything it teaches, though well intentioned, is ultimately false. Science is not a god. It should not be worshipped as one. But it is.

Does science cross all earthly borders, enemies and friends alike? Yes.

Is science a prophet? Of course. It's prophecy is doom. It tells us that everything is going to die. Not just you and I but the planet and the sun, the galaxy and even the universe. It's message is universal death without exception. No matter where it looks, it sees death. It is a prophet of complete despair. This is totally opposite the message of Christ. Jesus is hope. Jesus promises eternal life. Science is without hope. It sees no eternal life. To science we are in a place where death rules without exception (in other words, science sees, as Jesus taught, that this is Satan's world).

Not only does science preach death, not only has it given the world the tools needed to implement that death, it's adherents fight with all their might to smother any mention of God's salvation. They say the escape from death offered by Jesus on the cross is proved false by scientific calculation. That is not true, but they say it anyway, incorporating in their efforts, the courts and all the powers of government to deny in their temples the message of hope preached by Jesus. Not only that, the names "Jesus" and "God" cannot even be mentioned in their institutions. They have made those names objects of ridicule.

That makes science doubly a false prophet because it tries to block the message of God, not just counter it with arguments. Across the entire world, wherever divine creation is mentioned, the populations are listening to science, not to Christ or God. En masse they are siding with their godless governments. Does this sound familiar to statements found in the Book of Revelation?

Are we waiting for something that has, in a great way, already taken place?

A History Channel program shown from time to time on cable television describes the magic tricks preformed by the adherents of the first false prophet (the Zeus group) in their temples at the beginning of the Christian era. Seen by the people as "miracles', these sleights of machine and hand, using tricks of science, astounded and mesmerized the ancient observers. As a result, these gods and their temples dotted the entire landscape of the ancient world. They ruled side by side with the temporal powers, many of the emperors portraying themselves as members, even leaders of these dieties. That whole culture of worship was mortally wounded by the sword of Christ.

But it has returned in a new way and with a new set of very sophisticated temples.

It has returned today in godless government and in the godless philosophy of science which now occupies a seat closest to the temporal throne (the seat that used to be occupied by the Church) mesmerizing the population with its miracles and empowering the political leaders to control the people and wage war successfully. It's temples today are the universities which bow to it's teachings while scorning God.

We can well expect an empire fixated on the modern world, to be driven by science and its "miracles" ­ driven also by science's overt rejection of Christianity, indeed its rejection of any kind of Creator at all. In other words, not two empires, but one empire clutching to a "religion" of knowledge. Filled with temples of knowledge (and gymnasium's if you will) ­ committed to sports and Olympic Games ­ bathed in the glorification of man, and offering a kind of "worship" honoring a religion of godlessness.

For prophecy's that not only correlate the ancient Greek university's (called Gymnasia) with the temples to knowledge that surround us today, and which also tie the two into the last-day visions of Daniel, see "The Last Days of Babylon", Chapter 4, "God Brings Knowledge to Nothing".

On this the Bible has much to say:

'Now about food sacrificed to idols. 'We all have knowledge'; yes, that is so, but knowledge gives self-importance - it is love that makes the building grow. (1 Cor.8:1)

"For Christ did not send me to baptise, but to preach the Good News, and not to preach that in the terms of philosophy in which the crucifixion of Christ cannot be expressed. The language of the cross may be illogical to those who are not on the way to salvation, but those of us who are on the way see it as God's power to save." (1 Cor.1: 17-18)

"As scripture says: I shall destroy the wisdom of the wise and bring to nothing all the learning of the learned. Where are the philosophers now? Where are the scribes? Where are any of our thinkers today? Do you see how God has shown up the foolishness of human wisdom? If it was God's wisdom that human wisdom should not know God, it was because God wanted to save those who have faith through the foolishness of the message that we preach." -1 Cor.1:19-21.,

"And so, while the Jews demand miracles and the Greeks look for wisdom, here are we preaching a crucified Christ; to the Jews an obstacle that they cannnot get over, to the pagans madness, but to those who have been called, whether they are Jews or Greeks, a Christ who is the power and the wisdom of God. For God's foolishness is wiser than human wisdom, and God's weakness is stronger than human strength." (1 Cor. 1: 22-25).

"Take yourselves for instance, brothers, at the time when you were called: how many of you were wise in the ordinary sense of the word, how many were influential people, or came from noble families? No, it was to shame the wise that God chose what is weak by human reckoning; those whom the world thinks common and contemptible are the ones that God has chosen - those who are nothing at all to show up those who are everything." (1 Cor.1: 26-28).

"The human race has nothing to boast about to God, but you, God has made members of Christ Jesus and by God's doing he has become our wisdom, and our virtue, and our holiness, and our freedom. As scripture says: If anyone wants to boast, let him boast about the Lord." (1 Cor. 1: 29-31).

"Your faith should not depend on human philosophy but on the power of God." -1 Cor.2:5.

"What we teach in our mysteries is the wisdom that God predestined to be for our glory before the ages began. It is a wisdom that none of the masters of this age have ever known...we teach what scripture calls: the things that no eye has seen and no ear has heard, things beyond the mind of man." -1 Cor.2:7-9

"Now, instead of the spirit of the world, we have received the Spirit that comes from God, to teach us to understand the gifts that he has given us. Therefore we teach, not in the way in which philosophy is taught, but in the way that the Spirit teaches us; we teach spiritual things spiritually...it can only be understood by means of the Spirit." -1 Cor.2:12-14.

"Make no mistake about it: if any one of you thinks of himself as wise, in the ordinary sense of the word, then he must learn to be a fool before he really can be wise. Why? Because the wisdom of this world is foolishness to God. As scripture says: 'The Lord knows wise men's thoughts: he knows how useless they are; or again, God is not convinced by the arguments of the wise, so there is nothing to boast about in anything human...." -1 Cor.3:18-22.

And the false prophet?

"This second beast was servant to the first beast, and extended its authority everywhere, making the world and all its people worship the first beast, which had had the fatal wound and had been healed. And it worked great miracles, even to calling down fire from heaven on to the earth while people watched. Through the miracles which it was allowed to do on behalf of the first beast, it was able to win over the people of the world..." (Rev.13:12-14).

How does this false prophet serve the first beast (how does it serve godless government)? By fully backing and promoting godlessness, performing the miracles that captivate the mind of the people, controlling the world's academic institutions, and giving the government the machinery to wage war, conquer space, fix elections, and enable profiteering on a vast scale, through the control of health, wealth, transportation and all the commodities of life.

Science seems certain to be the "power of deception" Paul said God intended to send into the world in the last days to delude the people and make them believe what is untrue:

"But when the Rebel comes, Satan will set to work: there will be all kinds of miracles and a deceptive show of signs and portents, and everything evil that can deceive those who are bound for destruction because they would not grasp the love of the truth which could have saved them.

The reason why God is sending a power to delude them and make them believe what is untrue is to condemn all who refused to believe in the truth and chose wickedness instead." (2 Thes.2:9-12).

The war against faith predicted for the last days is occurring as we watch. The people of the world are lining up against God just as scripture said they would. But Jesus has made the prophecies of science false. He has provided a way to escape the death it predicts. Faith in Christ will give eternal life. For the shortening time this message can still be shouted across the world, those with voices in the Gospel must raise them in His name.

Before the night comes when no one can speak.

...All I have to say is you must be an ignoramus to attack science as something bad. ­DK

Answer:

Actually I said science had become one with the false prophet.

Before Russia revolted in 1918, it's government was structued in Jesus Christ. After that revolution Russia's government was dedicated to atheism. When government rules under God, it serves Him. When it rules apart from God that is no longer the case. When it attacks God and promotes atheism in His place, it is transformed into the Anti-christ. The same is true of the education system. Under God, education serves good. When it denies God and attacks Him, it becomes the servant of the Anti-christ.

What I have been writing about is a paradigm shift. From God centered goverenment and God-centered education to somthing radically different ­ a government and an educational system both of which reject God.

We know that godless government is the Anti-christ. It is clear in prophecy that the one they call the Madman, will be the world's final Anti-christ ruler. He will be the 8th head of the beast in the Book of Revelation.

The false prophet those same verses say will assist him in his evil reign is believed by many to be false religion, or at least associated with false religion. The false religious authority at the time of the twelve apostles were the panopoly of Greek and Roman gods that occupied the world stage that Christ's followers inhabited. We can still see the crumbling remains of their decaying temples all over the Mediterranean landscape. They were destroyed by the Word of Christ.

Today, the people of the world pay homage to (i.e., worship) a more sophisticated kind of diety. It is not associated with religion, but evokes the same kind of idolization and reverent adoration by the vast majority of people it touches. Following the formula of Christ who brought the word of God, this "god" gives us the word of knowledge ­ now a competing form of word. It's temples stretch from grammar schools to universities. They offer a product hallowed by the nations but blind to Christ.

The populations of the world see this huge academic establishment, the miracles it produces, and the depth of understanding it seems to embody and think, "Who is like knowledge? Who can rival this giant? "

One of the more important engines driving the world's knowledge is science, an exciting prophet of past and future divulging the formula's of existance and the hidden secrets of the universe to a fascinated populace eagerly awaiting its every new revelation. It's words are believed to be virtually infallible.

Western government and its universities once operated under God. Thomas Aquinas embraced this relationship almost a thousand years ago. Today that relationship is over. Sweeping away Christ, the alliance of government and its academic instutions now operate outside of God, in fact, they have begun to assault Him. In the case of science, the attack has recently become open and boldly pursued.

The rest of the academic environment has concurred in this assault in obedience to edicts mandated by their government's articles of separation. As a result, God's name and presence is forbidden, even in the grammar schools. That is why there is a current movement to educate Christian children outside the traditional borders of learning.

Science prophesies that there is no God and offers various "proofs" to back up its declarations. In all of its investigations it has found no evidence of a Creator, just a creation.  We are told no one can really know whether there is a Creator or not. In terms of God, it is completely about faith ­ faith in the morality of the Gospel and belief in the One who preached it. The people who follow Jesus prophesy that He exists by their belief. The people who reject God prophesy the opposite. Fence sitters are counted as non-believers.

Once the rejection of God by the world reaches a certain point, all the choices will have been made and then the world will end as Jeremiah announced:

"Thus the laboring of the peoples comes to nothing. The toiling of the nations ends in fire." (Jer.51:58).

At that point the truth will be made known. If there is a God, the scriptures will be verified. Jesus will select His people and give them eternal life as promised. If there is not, the cinders of existance will simple float away to dissolve into non-existance...into no meaning at all, the fate science prophesies.

When that time comes (and scripture shows it is close) we will see whose prophecies were true. The false prophet or Jesus Christ.

Are you aware of this passage in scripture: "Upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." ? -Mt. 16:18. ­DE

Answer:

Not only does the House of Israel survive intact, we win the war. The battle against the Church will be fierce, but at the last minute, scripture shows it turning in our favor. At the end of the world when the vast hordes of enemy forces have disappeared from the earth ­ that unbelievable expanse of troops all mounted against us numbering as the sands of the sea ­ suddenly all gone; At that moment, though every enemy of God has died, there will still be in Jerusalem both Christians and Jews.

Michael the Archangel will lead the surviving Christians from Babylon down the slopes of the Mount of Olives into Jerusalem where they will be greeted by their Jewish brothers and sisters. These will welcome Michael and his group with the words: "Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord."

At that moment, Gabriel will blow his trumpet and Michael will call out the command. Instantly, the Lord will appear. The brilliant light of His Return will verify before the eyes of the entire world the amazing victory God and His House of Israel have achieved over Satan.

When that happens none of the people left alive on earth will have any advantage over those who have died across the ages leading up to that moment (1 Thes. 4:15). Those who have died in Christ will be the first to be raised, and then those who are still alive will be taken up in the clouds together with them, to meet the Lord in the air to be with Him forever, never to be separated from Him again (1 Thes. 4:16-18).

"The Day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then with a roar the sky will vanish, the elements will catch fire and fall apart, the earth and all that it contains will be burnt up.

Since everything is coming to an end like this, you should be living holy and saintly lives while you wait and hope for the Day of God to come, when the sky will dissolve in flames and the elements melt in the heat.

What we are waiting for is what he promised: the new heavens and new earth, the place where righteousness will be at home. So then, my friends, while you are waiting, do your best to live lives without spot or stain so that he will find you at peace". (2 Peter 3:11-14).

This world will disappear. It will be replaced by a new heaven and a new earth where life is eternal. In the spirit, John was lifted up by an angel to see and bear witness to God's new kingdom. His words include these:

"One of the angels came to speak to me, and said, 'Come here and I will show you the bride that the Lamb has married'. In the spirit, he took me to the top of an enormous high mountain, and showed me Jerusalem, the holy city, coming down from God out of heaven.

It had all the radiant glory of God and glittered like some precious jewel of crystal-clear diamond. The walls of it were of a great height, and had twelve gates; at each of the twelve gates there was an angel, and over the gates were written the names of the twelve tribes of Israel...The city walls stood on twelve foundation stones, each one of which bore the name of one of the twelve apostles of the Lamb... The wall was built of diamond and the city of pure gold, like polished glass...

...Nothing unclean may come into it: no one who does what is loathsome or false, but only those who are listed in the Lamb's book of life... The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in its place in the city; his servants will worship him, they will see him face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads." (Rv.21:9-22:15).

I was wondering if decoding prophecy in the Bible is what God would want for you to do and for me to read? I just recently bought a book by Paul Crouch called "The Shadow of the Apocalypse", (I was told) that I should not be reading this book or following your site. Then... I received a weekly bible email talking about mankind's fall had to do with our disobedience in eating of the Tree of Knowledge and about God being all knowing and man trying to figure out God's secrets, and it made me wonder if it's alright with God for you to try and decode bible prophecy and figure out what will happen in the future? ­L

Answer:

Thank you for your e-mail and good question.

We all have knowledge. Just to have a brain and think about anything is to have knowledge. Reading the Bible gives us knowledge. We cannot undo the damage Adam and Eve did in Eden (eating from the tree of knowledge). That is why Jesus died on the cross. He paid the penalty for this original sin in full, so that our guilt is removed completely. He died in our place so that we don't have to die ­ so that we can have eternal life with Him in heaven. His death and resurrection guarantee that.

The sin Adam and Eve committed in Eden was rebellion. Knowledge in itself is not evil. But what we do with it can be. We can be kind or we can be hateful. It can bring us closer to God or send us away from Him.  God sent Jesus to tell us we must be compassionate and filled with love for our fellow human beings. That is God's way and we must follow it exactly as Jesus explained in the Gospel He preached. And He told us we should do it without fear because He has saved us from eternal death and no one can steal that from us.

You do not have to worry about your faith. You have been born again in Christ, baptised (I hope) in His name and have confessed your sins to Jesus in prayer and resolved to stop sinning. That means you are saved. All you need to do from now on is live a life of love and forgiveness, i.e., just keep following Jesus (2 John 6; 1 John 5:1-4).

"To love is to live according to his commandments: this is the commandment which you have heard since the beginning, to live a life of love." (2 John 6).

"If we cannot be condemned by our own conscience, we need not be afraid in God's presence, and whatever we ask him, we shall receive, because we keep his commandments and live the kind of life that he wants. His commandments are these: that we believe in the name of his Son Jesus Christ and that we love one another as he told us to. Whoever keeps his commandments lives in God and God lives in him. We know that he lives in us by the Spirit that he has given us." (1 John 3:21-24).

"Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates his brother is still in the dark. But anyone who loves his brother is living in the light and need not be afraid of stumbling..." (1 John 2:9-10).

Jesus said in scripture that it is our duty to go and spread the Good News of the kingdom of God around the world (Luke 9:60; Mark 16:15-16; Mat. 28:18-20). In his attempt to do this, Paul Crouch has built a vast radio network that now reaches every part of the world, even its most remote parts. He preaches about the Bible, i.e, spreads Jesus' Good News just about as well as anyone. There are alot of subjects in the New Testament (the word of Jesus) to preach about. Some are commandments and others concern the end of the world. Both must be preached so that people can be saved.

When I write my internet pages, I write in Bible quotations so that my words stay very close to those of scripture. This is important because I write about the Bible's prophets. They are in scripture and the subjects I write about are the things they have said. In talking about their words and applying them to our times­ making their words relevant to our world today­ is my way of helping spread the Good News of the kingdom of Jesus Christ across the world. I never ask those who read my pages to follow me; I always urge everyone to follow Jesus and only Jesus.

Nor do I tell my readers which church to join. Jesus Christ belongs to every church that proclaims His gospel to the world. His word can be followed equally as well in all churches. Church is important because it is a fellowship of believers and membership strengthens faith, but the Holy Spirit has made the choice of church individual for the sake and comfort of God's believers.

Jesus said that we are living in the last days (Jesus inaugurated the last days for the purpose of rescuing the children of God whom Satan took captive). When that rescue has been completed Jesus will return as He promised. On that day this world will be brought to an end and God's new world will appear in its place (Rev. 21:10-14). Those are not my words, they are the Bible's words. And they are true.

Jesus told us no one can predict the day of His return because only God knows that, but He said we can see the signs of the truth of His teaching all around us if we just look (Mt.16:1-3). That is why Christian's everywhere are so interested in understanding those signs because when we see them occur, they confirm our faith. This is really important ­ that our faith be confirmed ­ because it strengthens our commitment to Him making it easier for us to hold on when times are hard and the going gets rough.

Jesus told us to beware of false prophets who try to lead us astray. If we are doing what Jesus said, then no one can lead us astray. The only way someone can lead us astray is to try to get us to do something Jesus forbid, like hating others or worshipping money or killing or even being angry with others. Jesus insisted that we must forgive everyone who trespasses against us. He said if we do that, He will forgive every sin we ever commit as well, even if we don't realize we have committed a sin. This command is even in the Lord's Prayer.

False prophets make love turn cold. They kill compassion. Jesus said that God wants mercy not sacrifice (Mat.12:6-8). The false prophets say just the opposite. They say we must sacrifice, we can't sing or dance or laugh or eat certain foods or be kind to people outside our "group" ­ things like that. Jesus wanted us to know that if we showed the kind of love to others He taught, we would go to heaven no matter what.

The Bible says:

"Does the trumpet sound in the city without the populace becoming alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if God has not sent it? No more does the Lord God do anything without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:6-7).

That prophecy is in scripture; therefore, it is true. Amos is showing here that there is an unfolding Bible prophecy that comes to the people of the world in advance from God (out of scripture), especially when grievous times are close, and it is not against the will of God that people should hear it; just the opposite ­ God wants everyone to hear it. It is meant to save ­ these prophecies are warnings to those who have not yet converted their lives to Jesus.

There are still alot of people who have not yet been saved. Billions, in fact. Many have heard about Jesus but have been too busy to pay any attention to His preaching, thinking that what He says is not relevant to their worldly lives. God has designed His prophecies to shake them and wake them up because their chance for salvation is slipping away.

It is an enormous opportunity and many are about to lose it forever.

More on the false prophet and academic godlessness.

Answer:

There is no question that the false god of the future will present as something far different than the panopoly of sculpted dieties that have crossed history's stage over past ages. Scholarship is likely to play a key role in this change. Any modern god, even though false, must embrace the deepest academic introspections of world scholarship, reaching up to unveil the heights of the cosmos and down to lay bare the depths of creation, both with equal believability.

The false prophet seems certain to proclaim the kind of God Jesus revealed: a god of "word", but based on philosophy and scholarship rather than spirit. By and large, ours is a faithless generation. That means it will demand pragmatism in its belief. A god that makes academic sense is the only one a cynical public will accept without question.

That acceptance, of course, has already taken place.

Today, the public readily acknowledges truth as emanating from scholarship rather than Jesus Christ or scripture. The academic world clearly offers the kind of "proof's" today's population's demand. This is true even of the religious. Many in the churches have made science a kind of vision modifier, using it to edit Christ's miracles to make them acceptable to their modern ("enlightened") congregations. Accepting those miracles at face value is seen as naive ­ a sure sign of gullibility among a simplistic and backward faithful.

The Book of Revelation says the false prophet will work hand in hand with world government, not just the Madman's, but all governments on earth during his reign. This shows that the overarching issue surrounding the beast is godlessness, not the Madman himself. The Bible shows all sides united at the end in godlessness ­ the Madman and his enemies as well. When the end comes, the earth will be shrouded in darkness. God's offer will have been rescinded and the gate, for most, closed (2 Thes. 3:11-12).

Science does a superb job investigating the physical world and making discoveries about it that are of great interest to mankind. It also participates in the applicaton of those discoveries. It discovers fission and fusion, and it makes the bombs those discoveries theorize. It discovers marvelous cures for disease, but it also participates in the development of profiteering drugs made by corporations whose primary product is their stock price. Science operates at both ends of its discoveries. Science can be used to help mankind. It can also used to harm mankind. It can be used to promote God and it can be used to promote Satan. Like government, it is only a tool and its nature depends entirely on the hand that wields it.

Arts and science, the two horns of scholarship, are today firmly aligned with secular government against religion. A vivid example of this lies in the 1963 U.S. Supreme Court decision that effectively sealed the divorce between Christianity and the United States school system. Not just prayer, but the mere mention of God and Jesus were forbidden in that decision. The reason given was that the Constitution mandated a separation between God and state.

In that decision, and others that followed, the spillover showed the scholastic system and the government to be united in their thinking and in their efforts to expunge every vestige of God from within their respective institutions. Thus we have godless government united with godless scholarship, especially with its visionary horn, "science", scholarship's skillful deducer of materialism's past, present and future.

Ending 1700 years of Christian rule on earth, the tools of government and scholarship have been taken over by godless forces who, sadly, now wield them in support of the Antichrist.

Given their mutual rejection of God over the past century, the alliance between government and science represents a compelling reflection of the beast and false prophet as they are portrayed in scripture. Godless government is the beast with seven heads described in the Book of Revelation. It is clear in John's apocalyptic writing that the 6th head of this beast was Nero, When the mortal wound healed, Adolph Hitler, the 7th appeared. Still in the wings, the 8th head is not far behind. In close support of the beast is its ally, the false prophet, and riding it (managing it) is Babylon, the faithless city (Rev.17:1-7).

Throughout the 20th century, few ministers proclaimed the prophecies of scripture despite the fact that the civilization around them was collapsing under a succession of seiges mandated by the violent who, in their global warmongering had amassed an enormous arsenal of weapons that had the capacity to wipe out all life on earth in a matter of minutes. In that century a vast array of apocalyptic biblical prophecies approached the precipice of reality, some cascading into it, and the rest teetering on coming true at any moment. That condition has not changed.

Yet for decades very few ministers dared address in biblical terms (prophecies) the crises facing civilization unfolding around them. Instead, it was the academic community that broadcast the warnings and sounded the alarms. With the populace looking to scholarship, not God for its understanding, the words of science had quietly supersceded the words of God, and the prophecies with them.

The few ministers who did try to sound scripture's warnings were ridiculed not only by the general populace but by much of the religious community as well. Such ministers were universally brushed off as "quacks" or "kooks". This despite the fact that the 20th century was far and away the most violent in mankind's history ­ in its rage, dragging the entire civilization all the way up to the top step of the apocalyptic gallows. Nor did this violence stop with the calendar. It continues and is now moving into the geographical areas defined by scripture for the button's push.

The public embrace of scientific prophecy and its exclusion of God's biblical counterpart was, and still is an enormous paradox. Science, not God, now gives us the warnings most are willing to listen to. Not warnings with instructions for survival attached, but hopeless warnings that none of us can do anything about. Listening to the scholars, we are helpless to do anything but simply stand and hope...for hope. That is because scholarship has shown prayer (in its estimation) to be worthless. Evolution, science tells us "proves" that God never intervenes in the affairs of man or nature. In fact, they insist, there is no God ­ no intelligence anywhere in the creation's grand design.

By taking away Jesus Christ, the secular world and its false prophet have taken away from their minions all hope, and they have done it in the very worst climate possible ­ at a time when all the governments have abandoned the Rock of Christ, the storms of crisis are beating at the door and the darkening clouds of terror surround us.

"When Jesus spoke to the people again, he said: 'I am the light of the world; anyone who follows me will not be walking in the dark; he will have the light of life'." (John 8:12).

When we look around today we can see how the light of Christ is now beginning to fade. Churches are closing and congregations slipping away.. That fading light is a reflection of the gate that is closing.

Thank God the escape is still here and the closing gate is still open enough for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see to make their way to safety in Jesus Christ.

"The light will be with you only a little longer now. Walk while you have the light, or the dark will overtake you; he who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you still have the light, believe in the light and you will become sons of light." (John 12:35-36).

That light is Jesus Christ. He is the gate of the sheepfold, and the bread of life:

"Anyone who eats this bread will live forever..." (John 6:51).

Can spiritual existance be proved? ­DC

Answer:

Not by science. Science can only study the material universe. By its own definition it cannot go beyond materialism's borders. The Bible tells us that God is spirit. Science studies matter; it doesn't even recognize spirit.. Therefore God cannot be studied by science. So when scientists say scientific or evolutionary evidence proves there is no God, they are going where their own analytical rules have forbidden them to go. Science must be able to test and probe its subject for answers. It can only do that in the material world. The spiritual world cannot be probed by any physical means.

Science's ability to test and prove is the reason it has risen to become such a god in this world. It's tests, which seem to prove its prophecies, have mesmerized the populations.

Since the spiritual world cannot be probed, no similar testing process is available to it,. There is no "proof" of its existance ­ no "sign" that can be given. Jesus said it is an evil and unfaithful generation that asks for a sign. The only sign that will be given, said God, will be the sign of Jonah. That sign is the 3-days surrounding Jesus' death and resurrection.

We must come to God by faith.

The separation between what is physical and what is spiritual goes beyond "dimensions". When science talks about dimensions it is speaking of different aspects of materialism. The word "spiritual" is not in the vocabulary of science. Science recognizes no spiritual component in the universe of the Big Bang. Thus a spiritual existance, if there is such a thing (and God says there is) is best seen involving an entirely different universe. These two existances (universes) can be visualized in the concept of body and soul. Plato proposed this dualism long before Christ was born.

While such a dichotomy of existance has been debated ever since, Jesus confirmed it as a reality. Jesus explained that even though the body of each person dies, their soul continues to live. Thus a person's fundamental existance is not locked to the fate of the body. Nor is that fundamental existance even material.

Here again an entirely different universe can be postulated. The fact that the soul continues to live unharmed despite physical death (no matter how violent) implies two realities of extraordinary separation. That the soul is impervious even to hydrogen bombs or supernova's exploded next to it in material existance implies a difference the vastness of which defies comprehension. It suggests we exist in an overlay of two different kinds of universes. Not just an overlay, but two universes fundamentally integrated; tightly bound together by a mysterious force beyond our understanding. The two represent existances extraordinarily different from one another in both character and structure, but bound together by God for a limited time, seemingly as one.

While the soul cannot be killed by any material force, it still faces a life and death crisis at the hands of God. This was Christ's warning. The "end of the world" is not just a physical event, it is also spiritual. "Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away", said Jesus (Luke 21:29-31). No person (body or soul) will survive the coming finality unless marked with the cross in the blood of Christ.

God has locked the fate of the soul to Jesus' death and resurrection. This fate brings to light a concept Jesus called the "second death", i.e., spiritual death. Those who choose to follow Christ escape their soul's death and will be "born again". Not only will their soul live, a new body will be given to them and in that combination they will live forever in God's new kingdom. Everyone who declines to follow Jesus will experience the second death ­ the death of their soul. That is why choosing Christ and follwing in His footsteps is so essential to us all.

Even many religious balk at the idea of a spiritual existance. That is because its invisibility here seems to suggest the structureless equivalent of something more diaphanous than wind. That is why so many churches teach the resurrection of a physical body. This is a concrete image that can be grasped by everyone. Yet Paul and the apostles in their writings have been careful to point out that we will be given a different type of body at the resurrection ­ not the kind we wear here now, but a "perfect" body.

No one knows what type of body that is. But scripture said it will be made in the substance of God. We cannot see God in this world because of the exile. However, scripture clearly states that we will be able to see Him in the new kingdom. Since God is spirit, that means the spiritual world will no longer be invisible to us. If our new body is spiritual, our ability to "see" it, indicates that the structure of our existance in God's kingdom will mimic current existance, but in perfection. There will be no flaws. Gravity will no longer bind us in its iron chains.

It is interesting to note that in this material universe a closer inspection of matter reveals no solid structure anywhere, just vibrating charges. Materialism is not what most of us imagine it to be, or "see" it to be. Basically,, there is almost nothing there. If the electrical forces that hold the vibrating charges together ever fail, existance would simply dissolve into nothingness; all the tiny particles that underlie the material world would simply disappear. The material world would become just as invisible as the spiritual world.

Thus spiritual nothingness and material nothingness are very similar. Matter and spirit are just different platforms from, and out of which, God is able to build His creations. Matter reflects the exile; spirit the reconciliation.

The material world's fade into non-existance is going on all around us all the time in the aging process. Everything in our physical universe gets old and dies. That is because this universe reflects not just God's order, but also Satan's rebellion. Order meets disorder and decays into chaos. Everything here is contaminated with a kind of fatal rust called mortality. Not only does it infect our physical bodies, but the planets, galaxies and even the physical universe as well.

The new kingdom of God is eternal and not subject to any of these destructive forces.

Since the academic world looks to science for its "proofs", it has banked its intellect on the material world ­ an existance that is about to pass away forever. It is studying not the future, but the past ­ the extinction. It is studying what God sees as dead. Perhaps that is what the Holy Spirit had in mind when He had Isaiah prophesy, "By all means a people must consult its gods and, on behalf of the living, consult the dead. To obtain a revelation and a testimony, without doubt this is how they will talk, since there is no dawn for them." (Is. 8:18-20)

The fact that this world is slated to pass away has been confirmed by both God and science. The Bible shows it doomed in the reconciliation of God through Christ. Science recognizes its extinction in the processes of solar mechanics. The prophecies of each do not share the same timeline, but that is in the hands of God and not open to revelation as far as either is concerned.

The Book of Exodus indicates that God is holding this material universe together with "great power".

When God said "Let there be light!", He started with something far smaller than a single atom and exploded it, expanding space and filling its emptiness with all that we see around us today ­ galaxies, stars, planets ­ even houses, furniture and physical bodies. Space is the chaotic water that God parted at the beginning so that His people could walk dryshod out of Satan's wllderness into God's new kingdom. The "waters" of space have been split apart in the same way that God separated the waters at the Red Sea in the Israelite's journey out of Egypt.

When our journey is complete, God will turn off His power and the waters will all come crashing back to what they were, dooming our universe and casting it back to the chaotic nothingness of primordial space. At that moment, every soul that God has not rescued will perish.

As it was at the time of Pharaoh, the heart of the king of this world will again be hardened against the people of God. The Madman will set off to attack the last of those God is leading to safety. When the waters come crashing back together, this "pharaoh's" army will be in the act of pursuing the rear-guard of the departing House of Israel, intending to kill them all. Standing at Armageddon, his forces will surround Jerusalem. And there, suddenly, he will meet his end, and the world soon after him.

"And when your son asks you in days to come, "What does this mean?" you will tell him, "By sheer power God brought us out of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. (Ex.13:14). Our current universe, the pathway of our journey to God's new kingdom is a reflection of that sheer power in action.

 

Who is the beast with seven heads? ­JH

Answer:

The beast is Satan. He is also referred to as the great sea monster, the leviathon who lurks in deep dark waters according to Old Testament prophecy (Ps.74:13-14). Jesus called him the prince of this world.

The Bible says one interpretation of the "sea" that he lives in is the people of the world. Using that as a guide, Satan is the monster who rules and terrorizes all the world's populations. Another interpretation of the "sea" is the cosmos that surrounds us, the great "abyss" (Gen.1:1-2). Following that interpretation Satan is the prince who rules this universe and all that is in it including this world. Jesus came to remove us from Satan's domain and take us to His new kingdom that is not of this world (John18:36).

Jesus said this world is doomed. Science has since examined the cosmos and come to the same conclusion. Material existance as it exists in this universe is brief and passes away ­ the universe with it.  God has created an existance that is eternal and will never pass away to replace it. Jesus has promised to lead us to that new kingdom and to the eternal life that is a fundamental essence of its nature.

The beast has seven heads. The Book of Revelation tells us that those seven are seven kingdoms or empires, as well as the specific ruler that most perfectly characterizes each of those empires (Rev.17:8-11). For instance, the sixth head was Rome and the emperor that characterized it, Nero.

Each of the heads represents the philosophy of Satan, the beast. The seven heads, therefore, are seven extraordinarily wicked kingdoms particularly antagonistic to God and to His people, the House of Israel. In fact, these seven heads can be measured in their relationship to Israel. The United States, for instance, is a strong friend and protector of Israel and therefore cannot be one of the heads of the beast. However, the kingdoms of the Middle East do not share that affection for Israel.

Iran, specifically, has pledged to destroy it.

Adolph Hitler was almost certainly the seventh head of the beast, both in his empire and his person. His hostility to the House of Israel was such that he systematically murdered Jews by the millions all over Europe in a focused attempt to exterminate the race of Israel from the face of the earth, a move that made him the most heinous of all the seven heads. Fortunately, his reign was brief (Rev.17:10).

The true reality of God is Jesus Christ, not Moses. So the House of Israel has two faces. At this time those two faces are looking in opposite directions and seem to be at odds. The odds, however have been induced by God and exist for the purpose of the salvation of that part of the pagan world willing to accept Jesus as their king. When that conversion attempt has been completed in accordance with the view of God, the two faces of Israel will merge into a single entity ruled by Jesus Christ.

Babylon, the whore who rides the beast (who lives according to the will of Satan), is the composite empire (made up of all the kingdoms on earth) who rule this world and guide or dictate to their respective populations worldly behavior and actions.

All the populations that make up those kingdoms (those who have not yet converted their lives to God) represent the "sea" that surrounds Babylon (Rev.17:15).

All of us were born into Babylon, into that "sea", into an existance whose behavior separated us from God. Not until we were baptised, converting our lives to Jesus Christ did we pass from death to life. That conversion is what Jesus called being "born again". It constitutes a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and with the Gospel that He preached. Those who have turned to Christ have broken with Babylon and left her. That "leaving" is a spiritual separation.

It is a walk that leads into eternal life.

 

Don't you think our exile to Babylon reflects our soul's captivity to flesh and blood? ­PL

Answer:

If you are asking whether our physical bodies ride the earth through space in the way Babylon "rides" the beast (Rev.17:3-5), I would have to agree. The problem is there is no escape from our captivity simply by breaking the bond between flesh and soul (i.e., physical death). That cannot save us.

Scripture shows we were spirited off into Satan's domain long ago when he rebelled against God and took us captive. This is Satan's world. We were born here trapped in his prison awaiting execution. That is why everyone here dies. The Lord came to set us free and lead us out of Satan's dungeon. There is no other way out. Jesus has cancelled our death sentence by paying its price in our place, while putting us on a path of righteousness that leads to God's kingdom, a place far away from here where we can live forever in peace and safety.

The Bible says Babylon lives on 7 hills (Rev.17:9). Generally that is interpreted as Rome, this world's capitol city as far as the Book of Revelation is concerned. The House of Israel was evicted from the Holy Land and sent to Babylon through a mandate from God (Micah 4:10), legally executed as a part of the Peace Treaty Jesus made with the world on the cross. The King of Israel was sold by His brothers to Babylon for 30 pieces of silver. The headquarters of the Christian Church, the City of David, has been held captive in Rome (outside of Jerusalem) ever since in keeping with the terms of the treaty.

But those seven hills can also be interpreted as the 7 continents of the world as well ­ an interpretation that unites the world's capitol city with the world itself. That interpretation leads to the thought of a flesh and blood captivity.  Babylon in that sense is a composite of all the kingdoms on earth who rule in opposition to Christ's Gospel. Just as we do, those kingdoms also live under a death sentence. That sentence, like a "sword of Damocles" hangs over the whole world. It's time of fulfillment, said Jesus, is not far away.

The prince of this world is Satan. We are cautioned by God that we must not love this world or anything that is in this world. That's a tall request. Think of the world's demand that we love money, property, power and status; that we nationalize against one another and compete against one another, confident that "winning" itself is the only righteousness. It is a ubiquitous indoctrination that envelops us all.

The paradox is that the more we love this world, the more we tend to hate each other. The broad reach of Christ's love of mankind that we are supposed to hold in our hearts is circumscribed into ever smaller focal points of humanity. The world we are supposed to hate, we love, while the mankind we are supposed to love becomes the object of our hatred.

Jesus came to free us from that worldly propaganda by reforming our souls into the thoughts and behaviour that reflect the spirit of the Gospel He preached.  It is that Holy Spirit that leads us out of this world ­ to God.

In that coversion and in its place of fulfillment, we gain our freedom from the captivity that encases us here. There, our soul will be given a new body to wear. Not one of flesh and blood but everlasting and forever free (1 Cor.15:35-57; 1 Cor.15:50; Mat.22:29-30).

 

Is there any mention of the stock market crash in the Bible? ­JK

Answer:

Stock markets did not exist in biblical times. Economic "crashes", though, were commonly referenced in terms of famine and in the warrants of destruction issued by God against various nations relative to the wickedness of the people involved. There are many prayers in the Old Testament scriptures pleading for national prosperity, a certain recognition that the opposite often prevailed.

In fact, scripture shows that prosperity is usually Satan's handmaid. The Lord inspired David to say:

"Man when he prospers forfeits intelligence: he is one with the cattle doomed to the slaughter. So on they go with their self-assurance, with men to run after them when they raise their voice." (Ps.49:12-13).

It is God's continuing purpose to offer salvation to the world's people and make the road to that eternal life easier to recognize. David's Psalm shows that prosperity is a roadblock to that recognition. The flight away from God that has charaterized the past few decades in America (and the world) shares a direct relationship with the unprecedented global prosperity that has swept the globe these past 25 years.

One of the most popular testimonies of that rush to prosperity and its ultimate flameout was typified in Thomas Wolfe's novel, "The Bonfire of the Vanities" with its designation of those who have led this greedy stampede, as "Masters of the Universe".

Of course, only God is Master of the universe. Those who thought to rival Him have been leveled by their own hand. The scoffers have brought themselves and the country who chased off after them to their knees. That roadblock to God is now gone. As the prosperity disappears, intelligence is sure to return. And with it will come a clarity that will lead many to Jesus Christ ­ perhaps hundreds of thousands of people who would have otherwise been blinded to His truth in their feverish scramble to grasp monetary wealth.

But this regaining of sense is not so certain today. The Bible tells us that in the last days mankind will not turn to God in the midst of travail and poverty, but rail against Him, blaming Him (instead of themselves) for all the misery they are suffering. It seems clear that we are in the last days now so this passage of scripture must be nearing fulfillment as well.

Instead of the clouds parting to display a bright splash of "Sonlight", we may see just the opposite. We may discover that darkness has returned just as Jesus warned it would at the end.

In terms of prophecy, we were given an image of the global financial collapse in the attack and destruction of the World Trade towers in New York by a group of Middle Eastern terrorists. This action seemed certain to be an early fulfillment of Daniel's vision concerning the rise of a fourth and terrifying Persian empire in the last days (Dan.7:7; 11:2-4).

Was this image (i.e., the events of 9-11) the handwriting on the wall of Babylon, an image that not only predicted the Persian empire's imminence, but guaranteed it's successful rise to power?

In the New York attack (viewed as a Pearl Harbor event) we may be seeing the earliest elements of the coming war between East and West that structures all the activities of the final days (Dan. 8:17). In other words, we may be witnessing the whole Book of Daniel unfolding before our eyes...and with it, the Book of Revelation as well.

I think we are.

Viewed typologically, in the 2001 New York attack, global finance was shown to be leveled. The towers of world trade were totally wiped out and came crashing to the ground in two strikes. The U.S. military was shown to be badly injured, but unconquered, and the U.S. government saved by the heroic actions of its people. The Pentagon was attacked but survived, while the Capitol, the White House and the other buildings of the U.S. democracy, though targeted, were left untouched by the raid.

When God led Daniel into Nebuchadnezzar's palace to interpret the vision on the wall, the vision that instructed Daniel to tell Babylon that Persia was coming to destroy it, was He pointing to us today?  It is hard not to see it that way.

With a second stock market crash currently in progress heralding the worst conflagration of global finance ever seen, it is hard not to see this as related to the first, i.e., a stock market crash in two parts.  The first came on 9-11-01. It crushed the so-called "Dot Com boom", foundering the technology revolution and spawning 7 years of hostile takeovers, job layoffs, outsourcing, collapsed companies and pirate booty for the CEO's masterminding the rapes.  

Today's fall is the second shoe of that event, the collapse of global real estate, and with it the credit market. Now the collapse is complete. Both towers are down. And all that is left to see is where the dust settles.

Our forces are at the Euphrates facing Persia this very moment.

Whatever is about to happen, we know that the United States will survive virtually to the end. Daniel's vision of the "ships of Kittim" forcing the beast to cower just before the world's end guarantees that survival.

If 9-11 is, as we suspect, the handwriting on the wall of Babylon, we must conclude that the reference you asked about has been there all the time, but hidden behind the veil implaced by God's command (Dan.12:4). Hidden behind that veil is the crash of the World Trade towers.

The fact of the sudden removal of this divine veil, i.e., the revelation of the decimation of the twin towers of world trade precipitated by the vanguard of an eastern army in current history, is another proof of the time we occupy in the clock of God.

"But you, Daniel, must keep these words secret and the book sealed until the time of the end." (Dan.12:4)

 

Thought your readers might find some interesting symmetry on your recent discussions regarding science and its placement within prophecy as you have described. This link to an article discusses a scientist, Dr. Evans, and his experiment to be conducted this week in the hopes that the, so called, "God Particle" will be discovered assisting science with the explanation of the beginnings of life a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1053091/Meet-Evans-Atom-e nd-world-Wednesday.html

­RA

I see a lot inaccurate information on the internet regarding several Apocryphal books, unfortunately your web site at http://goodnewspirit.com/apocrypha.htm is one of those inaccurate sources.

Some of the Apocrypha books were written first in Hebrew before being written in Greek, in fact fragments in Hebrew-Aramaic of some of the Apocrypha books were found in the Dead Sea scrolls.

The Song of the Three Holy Children and The History of Susanna are accepted by the Catholic Church are included in all their English Bible translations, but as extra chapters in the Book of Daniel - I know this because I have many different Catholic Bibles in my library. For example the Challoner revision of the Douay-Rheims Bible 'The Song of the Three Holy Children" are included as verses 24-90 of chapter 3 of Daniel. "The History of Susanna" is included as chapter 13 of Daniel (with "Bel and the Dragon" as chapter 14 of Daniel). They included in the same manner in the Catholic "Saint Joseph Edition of the New American Bible" edition of 1991. That edition has the following footnote for Daniel 3:24-90 "These verses are inspired additions to the Aramaic text of Daniel, translated from the Greek form of the book." [meaning the translators of the New American Bible translated these verses from the Greek text] "They were originally composed in Hebrew or Aramaic, which has not been preserved. The church has always regarded them as part of the canonical Scriptures." That Bible translation makes a similar footnote comment about chapter 13 and chapter 14. ­S

Answer:

The Greek Old Testament was written more than 200 years before the birth of Christ and many fragments of it were found at Qumran (as a part of the Dead Sea Scrolls). The Apocryphal books all gained their status for being considered "first written in Greek rather than Hebrew". That consideration was made by Hebrew scholars at Jamnia in 80-95 A.D. They were alot closer to the source of those manuscripts than are scholars today, 2000 years later. Your argument is with them.

I have sent you people several e-mails linking Obama to the beast.. Why don't your respond? ­NA

Answer:

There is nothing in Bible prophecy remotely linked to such a charge. As this page has shown time and time again, Bible prophecy has the beast rising out of the Eastern Hemisphere and commanding what is predicted to be a Parthian army. Parthia was the ancient home of the Persians and Medes. The modern names of countries occupying that locale today include Iran, Iraq, and many of the "stans" (lands above Iran). These nations, say the prophecies, will be led by a madman (Ps. 74:22) from a country far to the north of them (Ez.38:14-16; 1-7).

That map is clear and it has nothing to do with America.

There are many signs showing that the time for that assault to begin is growing near. If so, we can assume the United States will be among the nations involved in the warfare surrounding the rise of the East to world power. The Book of Daniel, speaking of the last days shows that in the far west a land called "Kittim" will field a naval military force opposed to the beast. In today's world, only one far western nation has the kind of naval armada powerful enough to qualify as Kittim's "ships". The U.S. navy today dwarfs all other maritime fleets throughout the entire world, possibly combined. It has no peer.

Daniel tells us that it's opposition to the beast and his armies will be powerful and effective, limiting the beasts governmental reign to the nations of the Eastern Hemisphere, and even blocking his actions there (Dan.11:30). There is biblical evidence that a strong eastern forerunner to the beast will make significant inroads into various parts of what may be South America and the Caribbean (Dan.11:18). Whether those conquered countries continue under the Madman's control after he rises to power in the first king's place is not clear.

Since our nation seems to be the singular power capable of mounting a successful military opposition to the beast at the end of days, we can assume that God is directing its fate. Though we vote, God is the guiding power selecting our supreme leaders. The nations of the world today are poised on a precipice of financial collapse that could emulate the global meltdown of 1929 or worse. The United States is at the tiller of the planet in this storm. How we address this crisis will determine the fate of the world for a significant term of the future.

Everyone is going to be poorer for quite awhile to come, perhaps even to the end, because free credit is gone and will likely not return. Fateful questions still looming involve vast unemployment, a collapsed infrastructure, a mortgage flameout and bread lines. Responsible government and a cool well-informed hand will blunt the impact of those possibilities.

God has put Obama in that chair. We need to trust Him in His decision. Especially when it is is becoming clearer that due to our success in this mounting crisis, we may be the only major western nation left standing after the dust of the rise of the East clears.

Peter was very clear concerning God's hand in our governance:

"For the sake of the Lord, accept the authority of every social institution: the emperor, as the supreme authority, and the governors as commissioned by him to punish criminals and praise good citizenshiop. God wants you to be good citizens, so as to silence what fools are saying in their ignorance. You are slaves of no one except God, so behave like free men, and never use your freedom as an excuse for wickedness. Have respect for everyone and love for our community; fear God and honor the emperor." (1 Peter 2:13-17).

So was Paul:

"You must all obey the governing authorities. since all government comes from God, the civil authorities were appointed by God, and so anyone who resists authority is rebelling against God's decision, and such an act is bound to be punished. Good behavior is not afraid of magistrates; only criminals have anything to fear. If you want to live without being afraid of authority, you must live honestly and authority may even honor you."

"The state is there to serve God for your benefit. If you break the law, however, you may well have to fear: the bearing of the sword has its significance. The authorities are there to serve God: they carry out God's revenge by punishing wrongdoers. You must obey, therefore, not only because you are afraid of being punished, but also for consciences' sake.

This is also the reason why you must pay taxes, since all government officials are God's officers. They serve God by collecting taxes. Pay every government official what he has a right to ask ­ whether it be direct tax or indirect, fear or honor." (Rom. 13:1-7).

Trust in the Lord conquers all fears:

"You need not fear the terrors of night, the arrow that flies in the daytime, the plague that stalks in the dark, the scourge that wreaks havoc in broad daylight. Though a thousand fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, you yourself will remain unscathed, with his faithfulness for shield and buckler." (Ps.91:5-7)

Do you see any parallel between Twenty-First Century Christians and the Old Testament scribes and Pharisees? In other words, are many of today's Christians spiritually blind? ­JR

Answer:

The scribes and pharisees of Jesus' time were the Jewish religious leaders. Just as Jesus predicted about them, many of these bore a resemblance to various potentates of Christianity, those that pump themselves up in pride of theology and in the majesty of themselves and their station, while remaining aloof to the needs and concerns of their flock.

Neither scribes and pharisees nor Christian potentates relate to ordinary Christians who struggle to follow Jesus Christ amid the trials that beset them in this world. For this reason, I do not see any particular parallel to the scribes and pharisees in the common Christian believer.

Jesus addressed this situation when he declared: "I desire mercy, not sacrifice."

That "mercy", measured in terms of their compassion, love and concern for others seems equally evident in today's Christians as it was in those of past ages. The low numbers of such Christians in this world bears witness to Christ's admonition that more would be called than chosen.

 

I was told you predicted a second American civil war. Is this true? If so, do you still think so? please respond. ­YH

Answer:

I did not predict it.

There is, however, a biblical prophecy that may suggest it.

Since America has already suffered a brutal Civil War, and Isaiah's prophecy (below) was written over 2000 years before that bitter conflict, his prophecy may already have come true ­ offering, in itself, advance confirmation that America and the "Egypt" of end-time prophecy may be closely related.

"I will stir up the Egyptians against each other and they shall fight every man against his brother, friend against friend, city against city, kingdom against kingdom." (Is. 19:2).

Note that Isaiah's verse describes the fighting in "Egypt," as not just brother against brother, but "kingdom against kingdom" as well. That virtually excludes the literal Egypt from consideration. The name is obviously a metaphore pointing to a different empire. America would qualify since it is made up of 50 states. Each state in our union is a virtual soverign nation with its own leadership, constitution, congress and supreme court.  

The idea of the possibility of a strong correlation in Bible prophecy between a metaporic Egypt and America is well justified. Scripture shows a relationship between these two nations in other end-time prophecies as well ­ prophecies that have come true in just the last several years.

For instance, in scripture "Egyptian" troops are described as invading the country now known as Iraq, and in that country manning a sort of 'Maginot' line at the Euphrates river opposite Persia, the nation now called Iran (Jer. 46:2). American troops have closely duplicated this ancient Egyptian invasion, and currently man a similar position there.  

Jeremiah foresees in this event a dark fate for the Egyptians guarding this line. His prophecies (Jer. 46:2-10) seem to coincide with the critical end-time invasion described in the Book of Revelation (where eastern troops come pouring over the dry Euphrates river-bed after the water in it have inexplicably "dried up". ­ Rev. 16:12; 9:14-19).

Also in scripture, "Egypt" is the biblical name of the western nation to whom a newly rebuilt Israel turns when it structures a military alliance forbidden by Jeremiah. The "return" conditions set forth by God through Jeremiah forbade such an alliance (Jer.42:10-18). God moved the king of Babylon to allow this Jewish return to occur, but, according to Jeremiah, to last only as long as the Jews adhered closely to that treaty's terms and boundaries.

The current state of Israel has entered into a military alliance with the United States, duplicating the actions their ancestors took with ancient Egypt.  Not only that, it has defied the treaty of its formation by erecting forbidden settlements outside the borders legally assigned to it. Both violations were predicted by Jeremiah in his prophesies (Jer. 42:10-17).

Since both of these prophecies apply to circumstances already fulfilled in American terms, every prophecy concerning the name "Egypt" in scripture relating to end-time happenings needs to be examined with that relationship (America as the Egypt of end-time prophecy) at least in mind.

In light of current circumstances, the possibility that Isaiah's prediction might pertain to our nation's future as well as its past cannot be ignored. Civil war is not beyond the realm of possibility in these increasingly polarized times.

There are violent feelings in America today and they were not assuaged by the recent election of Barack Obama. In some ways, they were intensified. Recent newspaper articles show a wave of hatred growing in certain segments of the outed political party. One news account compared this hatred to a cancer coming out of remission.

The intensity of this bitterness is stunningly reminiscent of similar hatreds that swirled 45 years ago in and around Dallas and the South. As they did then, lethal and potentially incendiary tensions still lie very close to the surface. This time we have the added gasoline of a loud and bold gay community trying to overturn the public will (election results) by force.

None of this bodes well because key parts of the hostility are being fanned by churches.  As unbelievable as it sounds, there are many in America today that do not believe it is possible to be both a politcal democrat and a Christian at the same time. In seeing the two-party system as pitting Christians against the Anti-christ, these individuals are unwittingly paving the way not only for civil conflict, but one with jihadist overtones.

News reports on television have shown signs popping up on various evangelical churches with questionable political declarations on them. At least one falsely proclaims President-elect Obama to be a Muslim. Untruths of this magnitude point to a hatred that has calcified, even in parts of the Church. Witness in this respect charges from the same quarter that Obama is the Anti-christ (Newsweek magazine, Nov. 24, 2008).

Isaiah reminds us that there is a day when God stands up and says "Enough!" (Is. 24:16). At that point He will drag the new state of Israel to catastrophic military defeat (Jer. 44:14; Dan.11:16) :and the entire world toward Armageddon (Ez. 38:1-4). The prophet Jeremiah predicted the proof that confirms God has actually activated these 'tractor-beam'-like plans lies in the fulfullment of this verse of scripture: Jer. 44:29-30.

After that occurs, provided that verse holds true, not even prayer can stop His plans:

"Now I am knocking down what I have built, tearing up what I have planted: I am going to strike the whole earth. And here you are asking for special treatment!  Do not ask. For I am now going to bring down disaster on all mankind ­ it is the Lord who speaks. As for you, I will let you escape with your own life, wherever you may go." (Jer.45:4-5).

As we have shown in previous writings, there is ample evidence that Satan has finally been released from his prison in the Abyss in fulfillment of scripture. The Book of Revelation tells us that once released, he will mobilize all the nations in the four quarters of the earth for war. His armies will be as many as the sands of the sea (Rev. 20:7-9). Whether or not the American Civil War in the 1860's was an early part of that mobilization is not known. A second American civil war, if it occurs, is certain to be, however, if for no other reason than its timing.

It is not just an unprecedented economic meltdown that faces America today. We find ourselves in very fragile and scary times on several fronts. Anything is possible, especially in the event the Gospel of Jesus Christ is rejected and ignored by a large number of citizens who formerly had pledged themselves to uphold its core doctrine of peace, mercy and love.

Everyone who turns to Jesus Christ in both thought and action will be saved. God will let them escape with their own lives, wherever they may go.

...What purpose is served by all your end-of-the-world talk? ­AA

Answer:

The focal point of the Christian religion is the Return of Jesus Christ. We toil in waiting for that moment, filled with hope in His promise to come back for us. It is a moment of critical importance, for without it, Christian purpose would lose all its meaning. Eternal life would fade into mere human life. Without that Return, all Christian effort would meld into the commonality of ordinary civic endeavor.

No one knows the day or hour of His Return, but He has given us many signs in scripture of its approach. He let us know that as we see those signs unfold, anticipation should grow and our faith increase. The problem is, like the advancing storm He compared it to, His Return comes wrapped in the frightening winds of turbulence.

Seeing this and understanding in the prophecies, the intensity of that violence, most churches keep the book closed on apocalyptic discussion. They are cowed not only by their own flocks, but even more by the secular derision heaped on the subject and on those who broach it out loud. The secular public sees apocalyptic discussion as a negative, a real downer. For them (the citizens of Babylon), there are no positives in end of the world ­ just an abrupt end to 'the good life'.

Still, scripture tells us that God has determined to send into the world servants to make known His plans in advance. He wants there to be no surprises. If the people are to be surprised it must be a surprise of their own making ­ one of refusing to listen to what was broadcast in front of them.

"Does the trumpet sound in the city without the populace becoming alarmed? Does misfortune come to a city if God has not sent it? No more does the Lord God do anything without revealing his plans to his servants the prophets." (Amos 3:6-7).

Christ's Return is not going to be some quiet, invisible return sneaking away unseen with worthy souls after the death of their bodies. It will crescendo throughout the heavens and all across the earth when it occurs. It will be a day of immense glory for those who kept their faith in Him. But to the citizens of the world who also will be raised up to witness that glory, it will be a day of total shock, followed by intense mourning for failing that faith.

 

The false prophet as science??  SCIENCE???
Science is an academic discipline, not a religious fanatic. ­KO

Answer:

On April 12th, 2007, Pope Benedict issued the following statement about science:

"In denying the existence of a Creator, science oversteps its competence & becomes its own system of belief." (Pope Benedict, 4/12/07)

There is a straight line linking that statement to the Book of Revelation.

In declaring that the creation has no Creator, science has expanded itself from a prophet of knowledge (especially of nature) into a prophet of religion...a system of belief. It is a transformative move.

The False Prophet (the Second Beast) in scripture is all about belief. That is what this aspect of the Beast represents. It encourages on earth the rejection of belief in God, and, instead, appropriates that faith, redirecting it to itself, and through itself to the 1st Beast.

Remember, the 1963 Supreme Court decision (a U.S. government decision) centered on the presence of God in the academc system. In that decision God was banished from the American classroom (in fact even from the buildings and school grounds on which those classrooms stood). No one was allowed thereafter, even to speak God's name. There was no room there for two gods. The academic system had chosen theirs, and banished the Father of Christ. The American Constitution, the government ruled, demanded this separation.

It was argued at the time that the move protected only the purity of academic knowledge. It was not made to advance the teaching of atheism to the country's children. The papal statement proves otherwise.

In scripture the False Prophet's teaching is to encourage everyone to support secular government (the First Beast). This Second Beast is firmly opposed to religious governance unless religion accepts its teaching and submits to its view of orthodoxy. When theologians say that Jesus could not possibly have fed 5000 with just a few loaves and fishes, or walked on water (or most important, resurrected Himself bodily from death), concluding that such actions "fly in the face of science", they have embraced today's science as the ultimate arbitor of their faith.

Finding itself in a world certain of its truth, science has set itself up in its "overstep of confidence" to act in a way remarkably similar to the False Prophet.

Many of science's conjectures are predictive. In its studies of archeology it tells us about the past. In its studies of the cosmos it tells us what is going to happen in the future. In its study of evolution it tells us where we come from. Thus it acts as a prophet ­ In fact, it is the only prophet that most people in this world today will listen to with a willingness to accept its teachings at face value.

When science talks, the people listen. It is a prophet, pure and simple. And though usually well-meaning, it's statements are always false. Their conclusions represent a sub-microscopic view of a vastness beyond the capabilities of the human mind to cope. Already science has discovered there are as many stars (like our sun) in our own galaxy as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.

If that is not enough to boggle the mind, consider new scientific evidence showing there are as many galaxies as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world. Then look at the vastness of the beach and consider all the beaches of the world. All that sand.

And each grain holding within itself as many suns as there are grains of sand on all the beaches of the world.

With only a tiny sample of such a vast reality at their disposal to study, it is no wonder that new textbooks and new postulates continually replace the flood of errors new discovery brings to the scientific table.

The entire system of academics, including science, is a world of untruths and half-truths. The search is continuous. That is why new textbooks have to be written every year. Each new book is accepted as unequivocably true even though next years text will correct it again. Thus always wrong, it is never wrong in the sight of those who believe in it.

There are other candidates for False Prophet to be sure, but none that field such an extraordinary worldwide audience of worshipful, and essentially godless believers.

Science transcends all countries and borders. It is worshipped everywhere in every country as Babylon's last word on prophetic certainty. We can't say that science IS the False Prophet of scripture, but it has gone farther than any other past entity in world history in fulfilling the prophecies relating to it. It is the world's Decider, and it has decided there is no God.

Science, when it is working under God benefits mankind in extraordinary ways, but when it works in opposition to God it becomes a monster. Science not only produces medical miracles, it has brought to the planet thousands of hydrogen bombs, flinging the fire of the stars from heaven down onto the earth precisely in the way described of the False Prophet.

Those that argue for a traditional religious prophet, disregard Satan's ease in producing a changed playing field. Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians shows the Rebel associated with a "power" of deception...a power to delude the populace and make them believe what is untrue. "There will be all kinds of miracles and a deceptive show of signs and portents, and everything evil that can deceive those who are bound for destruction because they would not grasp the love of the truth which could have saved them", said Paul of this power. (2 Thess. 2:9-12).

We live in a time of powerful signs and powerful evils. They spew out from the magic of television and pour forth across theatres from nation to nation. A steady drumbeat of Satan argues incessantly that sin is righteous and the true evil is not to embrace that notion. Thus blasphemy of the Holy Spirit has risen from the depths to become the new public rationale.

In the debris of this onslaught of evil, the churches lie scattered and torn, banished from the country's academic institutions and government, shunted to the sidelines for its wisdom ­ now seen as bigotry and ignorance, all but irrelevant to the advancing culture. This too has already happened. So where is the power of delusion Paul warned was coming? Look around. It is here now, just as you see it.

Forty-five years after 1963.

According to scripture, The False Prophet will be a servant to the first beast and extend the1st beast's authority everywhere. The First beast (pagan or secular government) had a fatal wound inflicted by the Sword of Christ. Witness the worldwide victory of Christianity on earth that replaced that pagan government once the wound had been inflicted.

That wound has now healed. Secular government has returned. The nation's leaders have to a one ejected Christ from their throne-rooms, the seats of power in western world government. They have rejected Him outright in an astonishing fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy in John 3:19. That, too, has already happened.

Can total darkness be far behind?

"The light will be with you only a little longer now. Walk while you have the light, or the dark will overtake you; he who walks in the dark does not know where he is going. While you still have the light, believe in the light and you will become sons of light." (John 12:35-36).

In the early 1930's, presaging the prophecies she held secret from the time of her 1917 visions at Fatima, Lucia described an "unknown" light that she was told in the visions would be the proof of their truth. She thought a particularly bright comet in the late 1930's was that light, but the light of a comet was not an "unknown" light. That would come later.

The False prophet persuaded the people to put up a Statue to the first beast. This statue was given the power of speech & compelled everyone to be branded in name of the beast, as a manifestation of their belief in the Dragon, his Beast and False Prophet, Satan's unholy and competing trinity.

Those things will surely come to pass.

In 1945 at a site in New Mexico, a site code-named "Trinity" by the U.S. government, the unknown light flashed into the world for the first time. Breaking through the pre-dawn darkness it lit up the entire western United States. Here, indeed was the proof of Lucia's vision, the substance of what those three prophecies represented.

If not THE False prophet, certainly science, the architect of that unknown light is a major, major false prophet. It's pre-eminent position on the academic throne, its hold on the mind of the populace and persistant advice to abandon what it considers the ignorance of faith in God makes it a fierce adversary to Christ in today's increasingly evil and darkening world.

Though that encroaching darkness promises to become dense to an extreme, it also will be broken by a flash of light:

"I gazed into the visions of the night, and I saw, coming on the clouds of heaven, one like a son of man. He came to the one of great age and was led into his presence. On him was conferred sovereignty, glory and kingship, and men of all peoples, nations and languages became his servants. His sovereignty is an eternal sovereignty which shall never pass away, nor will his empire ever be destroyed." (Dan.7:9-14).

With everone talking about 1929 happening again, do you think Jesus will return with the Rapture to rescue us before the economy gets really bad? ­MK

Answer:

No.  The end of the world is not close. What is close is the time of tribulation, a key event in the return of darkness foretold by the scriptures.

The return of darkness represents a sea change on earth. In it the light of Christ that has illuminated the world with a noon-like brilliance over most of the past 2000 years will be dimmed dramatically, fading to a faint glow not easily found in the blackness of the faithless world that is soon to come.

In the turbulence of the days ahead Jerusalem will be overrun with armies, war will rage on earth, poverty will increase and rioting, much of it intense, will span the globe. The earth will quake, great signs will fill the cosmos and even the oceans will rail. These are only some of the things that have been predicted to follow the world's rejection of the words of Jesus Christ; the world's refusal to embrace the salvation God sent to us in the form of His eternal Son.

Those who preach an imminent rapture are wrong. Even more important, Jesus warned us not to follow them.

"Take care not to be deceived,' he said 'because many will come using my name and saying, "I am he" and, "The time is near at hand". Refuse to join them." (Luke 21:8).

For there are many days still to go before Christ returns. First must come the tribulation, and in its wake, a time of intense darkness. That darkness will last for many days. That is because everything that was prophesied for those days must occur before the end comes.

We find ourselves today not far into the beginning of this tribulation. The ten nations of the East, even though they stand now in nearby wings have not yet been made manifest, nor have the northern kings and their vast eastern armies. These are the hordes predicted to crush the power of the West and ultimately launch a devastating assault on the Church.

"...and you will be hated by all the nations on account of my name. And then many will fall away; men will betray one another and hate one another. Many false prophets will arise; they will deceive many, and with the increase of lawlessness, love in most men will grow cold; but the man who stands firm to the end will be saved." (Mat. 24:9-13).

The Bible tells us that lack of faith can hasten this time of wrath, a wrath we see coming now at increasing speed, even unfolding as we watch, a sure indication that faith is dissolving across the earth in a very big way.

How should a Christian handle this time of wrath? We must brace ourselves in Christ who has promised to wrap us in His protection, allowing us to escape with our lives, and to live safely forever in His eternal kingdom. Even though the world plunges into darkness, we must keep God's light burning in our soul so that we never lose our way. We are not a part of the world. Jesus has separated us from it...and from its fate.

"I have told you all this so that you may find peace in me. In the world you will have trouble, but be brave: I have conquered the world." (John 16:33).

"You did not choose me, no, I chose you; and I commissioned you to go out and to bear fruit, fruit that will last; and then the Father will give you anything you ask him in my name. What I command you is to love one another." (John 15:16-17).

 

Subject: Does God Give us Names from the Bible?

Every time I read the Bible I feel that God chastise me and my Biblical name is Israel. Does (God) talk to us through Biblical name? ­BY

Answer:

The name "Israel" applies to a whole group of people in the same way that "American" applies to a whole group of people. The name "Israel" is the way God speaks to us in a group. God speaks to us individually through the New Testament, especially through its Gospels, and through our conscience in relationship to those teachings.

Does God give us new names? Jesus, appearing to Saul in a vision changed Saul's name to Paul. He also changed Simon's name to Peter (Rock). Upon that Rock He built His Church. When people are baptised in the Greek and Latin churches, they take new names based on the Christian saints of old. It is promised in scripture that we will all be given new names in Jesus Christ for the new kingdom.

"My servants are to be given a new name." (Is.65:15).

Are these new names from the Bible? In most cases, probably not. There are not enough words in the Bible, let alone names there to cover the vast multitude Jesus has deemed to be saved (see Revelation 7:9).

We all bear in ourselves the name Jesus Christ. We have all been baptised in the name of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:38.

"My dear people, you must not think it unaccountable that you should be tested by fire. There is nothing extraordinary in what has happened to you. If you can have some share in the sufferings of Christ, be glad, because you will enjoy a much greater gladness when his glory is revealed. It is a blessing for you when they insult you for bearing the name of Christ, because it means that you have the Spirit of glory, the Spirit of God resting on you. (1 Peter 4:12-14)

"The ban will be lifted. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in its place in the city; his servants will worship him, they will see him face to face, and his name will be written on their foreheads." (Rv.22:3-34).

When the ban is lifted we will each receive our own new name as well:

"If anyone has ears to hear, let him listen to what the Spirit is saying to the churches: to those who prove victorious I will give the 'hidden manna and a white stone -- a stone with a new name written on it, known only to the man who receives it." (Rev. 2:17).

 

I am a disciple of Christ, with no "formal" training as a theologian or preacher.  I have studied the old and new testaments in detatil for many years and have developed my own understanding of the Word.  I figured out long ago that human intellect has much less to do with this understanding than does faith.  I have that faith and accept the Word of God as a child.  I have achieved this despite my education and career as an engineer.

In your opinion, am I qualified to perform baptisms for my children, and would this be acceptable to God? ­MS

Answer:

This is a theological question. I am not qualified to answer it. Theological questions are the domain of others. This web site is set up to examine Bible prophecy.

There is much in prophecy to suggest the absolute need for baptism, but far less on its correct implementation (see "Baptism").

It is a commonly held belief in the Christian Church that baptism is a chain of anointing. It stretches back to the Apostle Peter and John the Baptist. Almost all agree, it is necessary to be baptised into this chain before one is eligible to anoint anyone else in Christ Jesus. The ministerial process in all traditional churches makes certain this chain remains unbroken in its ministers through anointing, laying on of hands and training.

If you were baptised into Christ by a minister in a Christian church when you were an adult, child, or infant, this would make you eligible. If not, most in the Church would say no. The theology is not important here, it is the unbroken chain stretching from Christian to Christian all the way back to Peter and the Apostles.

The reasoning is based on the idea that baptism is a legal contract between the person being baptised and God. When it is entered into and administered as Jesus authorized it, it breaks your soul's bondage to the Law, setting you free from its sentence of death (through Christ's sacrifice in your name on the cross). Baptism is your acceptance of His sacrifice and official public recognition of your acceptance of obligation to follow the Gospel of God (i.e., repentance and conversion).

In the process, theology (i.e., all the churches) act as the Law, so they can stand in for Moses. They sit in the seat of Moses for this very purpose. This is also why Paul said, "Through the Law I am dead to the Law".

When baptisms are performed in Christianity outside the traditional church circuit, they are almost always performed as an emergency measure when there is no time (or minister available). We see this frequently in pediatrics, especially in neonatal ICU's when a code blue is imminent or in progress. A baptised Christian nurse, doctor or other care-giver will perform the baptism if the parents wish it done.

Your situation is not an emergency. You would be acting as a minister of your own church. Most churches when viewing the certificate of baptism you issue to each of your children in this case would want to re-baptise them (for insurance) if they ever decided to attend a church different than your own later.

In the event that you yourself have not yet been baptised by a Christian or Christian minister, you might want rethink your idea. Just a thought.

Is Passover as described in Leviticus 23 a thing of the Jews or did the creator 'God' say that these things were his and did not belong to any man or the Jews?

Is the savior, messiah, the living word, the Living Passover Lamb who fulfilled these things spoken of himself, of his BEING the word? ­RR

Answer:

The Old Testament is a book of prophecy ­ virtually all of it's stories, oracles revolving around a future time structured in the advent of Jesus the Christ. It's full message promised the coming of a "Messiah", a Savior, to the House of Israel who would bring completion to the Law, by perfectly aligning the Law of Israel with the Law of God (Mat.5:17).

The promises contained in the Old Testament were made to 12 tribes. The Jews were not alone ­ they were not a single factor in those promises. They were but one of those twelve tribes.

Salvation did not exist in the Old Testament or in any of its rituals. All these were meant to be in place to act as the guardian of Israel's 12 tribes until the moment the Savior arrived with the full word of God and the true power of heavenly salvation. That Savior turned out to be God Himself in the flesh and person of Jesus Christ, His Only Son.

In His arrival, the Old Testament was transformed ­ all of its prophecies fulfilled in God's New Testament ­ a book filled with the words and processes of a salvation only promised in the Old. Moreover, Jesus expanded the expected range of God's salvation, increasing it from the 12 tribes of Israel to include all the people of the world; all who agreed to accept Him as their Lord and savior.

Passover was an allegory ­ Jesus Christ is its full meaning. Your second sentence(above) is correct. He alone is the Paschal Lamb of God. All who have faith in Him and do what He says will live forever.

Your interpretation of Daniel 11:3-4 differs remarkably from other Christian sources. You claim the verse relates to the United States and "its sudden fall from world power, ending a western-world rule that has stretched from the days of Alexander the Great..."

Do you think the current financial crisis is the cause for this collapse? ­IT

Answer:

I believe it will prove to be a major factor.

The current global financial crisis promises to be of such proportions that it will forever alter the direction of history. It is a fulcrum that will produce vast changes in the world's political spectrum, just as happened in 1929. That crash brought Adolph Hitler to power and everything he represented.

The current crash may well precipitate the definitive formation of the ten nations Daniel predicts are destined to play such a profound role in the final warfare. The entire political structure of the last days may become visible in the bleakness of the days just ahead.

When we add to this devastating crash the fact that we seem to be living in the time of the mainstreaming of Daniel's visions, we must look for a correlation between the two. Whether or not it proves to be a key factor in catapulting the East to global power, we will just have to wait and see.

Remember, two other prophecies may possibly dovetail here as well. And neither have yet occurred (Jer.44:29-30; Rev. 8:8-9; Ez.27:34; ). A "perfect storm" of factors may be involved in the collape of the rule of the West.

Daniel's visions bring us into that collapse ­ a new era on earth ­ the last frame of history. Its message has remained a mystery for over 2500 years. Daniel's book was ordered sealed by God (Dan.8:17), and its true meaning forbidden to be unveiled until the last days were upon the earth (Dan.12:8-9).

And here we seem to be.

This new era can be traced back many years ­ perhaps to the beginning of the 20th century. Much of it seems to have been set in motion 60 years ago (in 1948) with the return (under Babylon's dictation) of a Jewish state in the land of Israel.

This mandate by the world's nations set in motion a conditional reprieve from the exile (i.e., the Diaspora) with power, if the conditions imposed were obeyed by the Israelites, to bring the Diaspora to an early end. All this is covered in the prophecies of Jeremiah, chapters 42 through 45.

We know that the current state of Israel relates to Jeremiah's prophecies because the current return has its genesis in Babylon, not Persia. Everywhere in the Bible and its prophecies, it is Persia, through its prince, not Babylon that ends the Diaspora (see 2 Chron. 36:14-21). The current Diaspora, now almost 2000 years long, proves that the temporary reprieve in 538 B.C., was simply the last element in the Bible's oracle relating to the exile of the House of Israel from the Holy Land ­ an oracle whose fulfillment still awaits.

Only in Jeremiah do we find a codicil to that prophecy. It offers an early reprieve by Babylon (not Persia). Jeremiah's lone prophecy comes with strict provisions attached, which, if not met, will doom the early return and revert the clock of return back to Persia..The current state of Israel came into being by a vote of the United Nations of Babylon. The vote was not unanimous. The Arab nations were fiercely opposed to it.

Just as Jeremiah said they would, the current nation of Israel stands in gross violation of the terms of its return and thus nakedly vulnerable to the harsh elements of revocation Jeremiah predicted for it (Jer. 44:12-14).

As Daniel's events unfold we can watch them as we would roadsigns on the highway to the Last Days. That is why his book is in scripture. Already we have seen its precipitating events unfold over the last several years. The two Gulf Wars have taken place. The Ram and the He-Goat. Saddam Hussein, like Nebuchaddnezzar, hauled unshorn from his cave. His death at the hands of the Persian-leaning Shiite Muslims. Now, as the prophecies continue to unfold, Persia stands at the river, war-axe clearly in hand. Opposing those forces are the American troops standing in the memories of the Egyptian footprints of history and prophecy (Jer.46).

Already the sudden collapse of the western He-Goat (Dan.11:3-4 ­ the verse in your question) seems firmly in progress ­ its vast financial base vaporized before the world's eyes in just the last 3 months. The fourth kingdom of Persia not only stands at the river, it has launched a Pearl Harbor attack on the western world that has locked both giants in a war of escalating terror designed to drag 2/3rds of the population of the earth into a conflagration for all ages ­ precisely the charcoaled outcome documented in the prophecies.

All this has happened because Satan has been released from his prison in the Abyss where God had kept him chained for almost 2000 years ­ imprisoned there so that the world could be led to Christ.  Now, with God's harvest nearing its end, the Book of Revelation tells us his release will be followed by warfare all over the earth. War waged by the kings of the East ­ Persia, the ten nations, and the great king of the far North ­ against all the rest of mankind ­ against Christ and against Israel (Rev. 20:7-10).

The Return of Jesus Christ in glory will end Satan's madness, and bestow eternal life on all who had the faith to believe in Him and follow Him.

How can we be sure this is the time for Daniel's visions to unfold ­ for all the nations gathered for war and all these other things to occur?. Because seven years ago the world entered the "Third Day" of Christ. The day structured for Jesus's return.  And because the Church and its offer of forgiveness has been rejected by all the nations of the western world.  And because Christians everywhere are increasingly villified by the people of the world for their "bigorty" against sin.  And because that sin has hypnotised the world wherever the wind of electrons has flowed and carried it.  And because there is still much more to come.

Because every vision will be fulfilled precisely as written.

The conversion of the thief on the cross, does it prove salvation is possible without baptism? ­JW

Answer:

According to Billy Graham, the two thieves on the cross stand for us all. One decides for Christ and the other rejects Him. This is the decision God has placed before all of mankind. In our lives on earth we are all on crosses beside Jesus, condemned for original sin because of Satan's apostasy.

Like Jesus, we have all been born into a life that leads to death. The Law's stern sentence hangs over our souls like a sword of Damocles. We can escape it's command for our death by accepting Christ as our Lord and Savior. One person on the cross next to Jesus did that. The other scoffed at what he considered nonsense and forfeited the opportunity God had offered him. Isn't that the same with all of us?

The story of the cross is the fundamental oracle of Christianity.

Jesus saves all who believe in Him. Those who refuse to believe in Him refuse the chance to escape with their life. (John 11:25).

As far as baptism is concerned, willfully refusing to be born of water and the Spirit is an act of fundamental rebellion, not much different, actually, than jumping off a skyscraper to prove God's salvation. Scripture is clear, we are not to put God to the test, especially in this case where it is His own orders that command it:

"I tell you most solemnly, unless a man is born through water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God..." (John 3:5)

I am struck by the riches in many churches-the golden goblets and all the golden filligree and all their opulence. Don't you think this money should be given to the poor instead of being lavished on the priests for their luxury just to impress ignorant worhippers?...(That) would be more in line with what Christ said don't you think?­NP

Answer:

You see scripture fulfilled, but instead of glorifying God, you rail about the richness of the cathedrals, saying the money should have been spent on the poor instead. Yet most people who say such things would rarely give their own money to the poor, no matter what the circumstance ­ even if their lives depended on it ­ and it does.

The finery has been diverted by God into the churches as proof of the reign on earth of Christ. What you see in all that filligree and do not understand is God fulfilling prophecy. Because it is prophecy no man has power to thwart it, perhaps even to temper it.

Here are some quotes from scripture. There are alot more as well.

"Strangers will be there to feed your flocks, foreigners as your ploughmen and vinedressers; but you, you...will feed on the wealth of nations and array yourselves in their magnificence." (Is. 61:5-6).

Above you the Lord now rises and above you his glory appears. The nations come to your light and kings to your dawning brightness...At this sight you will grow radiant, your heart throbbing and full; since the riches of the sea will flow to you, the wealth of the nations come to you; camels in throngs will cover you, and dromedaries of Midian and Ephah...bringing gold and incense and singing the praise of the Lord. (Is. 60:2-6)

All the flocks of Kedar will gather inside you, the rams of Nebaioth will be at your service. They will come up, for acceptance, to my altar, to adorn the Temple of my glory. (Is. 60:7)

And your gates will lie open continually, shut neither by day nor by night, for men to bring you the wealth of the nations with their kings leading them; for the nation and kingdom that refuses to serve you shall perish, such nations shall be utterly ruined. (Is. 60:11)

The glory of Lebanon will come to you, with cypress and plane and box, to adorn the site of my sanctuary, to glorify the resting place of my feet...You will be suckled on the milk of nations, suckled on the riches of kings, and you shall know that I, the Lord, am your savior, that your redeemer is the Mighty One of Jacob..." (Is. 60:13-16)

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