Are
You Ready?
The much waited for return of our Lord Jesus
Christ is finally at hand. The world has
had many false wake up calls over time, but this one is for real. The question is,
are you ready for Him and for the devastation that precedes His arrival?
In the year 2000, we unveiled the prophecy of
Daniel 12, the only one in the Bible that gives us a specific timetable for
that awesome event, so there is no excuse for anyone to be caught
unprepared. But such is the condition of
the world in which we live that the last thing people want to hear these days
is talk about the end of this age.
Jesus Christ knew that there would be little
faith in the world when He returns, and that is why He said that the world
would be taken by surprise by the Great Tribulation that precedes His arrival.
Luke 18:8b “Nevertheless, when the Son
of Man comes, will He really find faith on the earth?"
Mat 24:37
But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son
of Man be.
Mat 24:38
For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
Mat 24:39
and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also
will the coming of the Son of Man be.
There are many people who do not wish to see
Jesus Christ coming too soon, thinking that a delay in His return would give
them time to prepare for His arrival.
But that is a false hope, for if they are not ready to face Him now,
there is little chance that they will ever be.
All adult human beings are supposed to be ready to face their Creator
and their Saviour any time anywhere.
The problem is, Christian preachers themselves are postponing Jesus’
return to an indefinite time, supposedly because many other prophecies are yet
to be fulfilled. Well, having looked
carefully at both Scriptures and history, we can tell you that no prophecy is
yet to be fulfilled before the return of Jesus Christ, other than the worldwide
Great Tribulation. All prophecies about
this time, have been, or are in the process of being fulfilled.
There has never been a more urgent and
appropriate time to turn to God than it is now.
Turning to God in the midst of widespread unbelief, gives you greater
merit in heaven. That is why Jesus
Christ said that:
Mat 20:16
"So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are
called, but few chosen."
The whole world will soon bend their knees and
bow their heads before the Almighty, but most people will get little reward for
doing so at the last minute, at judgment time when they have no
alternative.
Isa 45:22 "Look to Me, and be saved, All you ends
of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other.
Isa 45:23 I have sworn by Myself; The word has gone out
of My mouth in righteousness, And shall not return, That to Me every
knee shall bow, Every tongue shall take an oath.
Rom 14:11
“For it is written: "As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow
to Me, And every
Rom 14:12 tongue shall confess to God”. So
then each of us shall give account of himself to God.”
One must be ready to face his Maker and answer
for himself at all times. That is why those who do not wish to see Jesus Christ
now will end up paying with their life.
Luke 19:27
“Bring here those enemies of mine, who did not want me to reign over
them, and slay them before me.”
The main reason put forward by preachers who
think that the return of Jesus Christ is still a long way off is that according
to them Antichrist must come and deceive the world first. They do not know that Antichrist has been in
the world ever since the time of the Apostles. Here is proof of it.
1Jn 4:2 By this you know the Spirit of God: Every
spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God,
1Jn 4:3 and every spirit that does not confess that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not of God. And this is the spirit
of the Antichrist, which you have heard was coming, and is now already in the world.
2Jn
1:7 For many deceivers have gone out into the
world who do not confess Jesus Christ as coming in the flesh. This is a
deceiver and an antichrist.
Antichrist was already in the world when
Apostle John wrote those words. And who
is an antichrist? Anyone who does not
confess that Jesus Christ is coming in the flesh. In other words, anyone who does not
acknowledge that Jesus Christ is living His life in us through the Holy Spirit,
the same Spirit that lived in Him when He was in the world, is an antichrist.
2Co
13:5 Examine yourselves as to whether you
are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves, that Jesus
Christ is in you?—unless indeed you are disqualified.
There is no need for another Antichrist to come
into the world, because the world has long been deceived by a great
Antichrist. People do not know who that
is because he masquerades as a man of God and an angel of light.
2 Cor 11:13
“For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into apostles of Christ.
2 Cor 11:14
And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light.
2 Cor 11:15
Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform
themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to
their works.”
Satan has been posing as an angel of light for
a long time, and his servants as ministers of righteousness for just as long.
That is why Jesus Christ began and ended His prophecy about the Great
Tribulation that precedes His return with a warning against ministers that
preach falsehood, all while claiming to preach the true Christ.
Mat 24:4
“And Jesus answered and said to them: "Take heed that no one
deceives you.
Mat 24:5
"For many will come in My name, saying, 'I am the Christ,' and will
deceive many.”
Mat 24:11
"Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.
Mat 24:12
"And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow
cold.
Mat 24:13
"But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” "For then there will be great
tribulation,
Mat 24:21
such as has not been since the beginning of the world until this time,
no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22
"And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but
for the elect's sake those days will be shortened”.
Mat 24:23
Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here is the Christ!' or 'There!' do
not believe it.
Mat 24:24 "For false christs and false
prophets will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible,
even the elect.
Mat 24:25
"See, I have told you beforehand.”
Three times Jesus Christ used the word
‘deceive’ in that chapter, every time associating it with ministers who admit
that He is the Christ, yet who deceive their followers. How do they do that? By preaching a false
gospel in His name. Notice what Apostle
Paul said.
Gal 1:6
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in
the grace of Christ, to a different gospel,
Gal 1:7
which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to
pervert the gospel of Christ.
Gal 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you
than what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.
Gal 1:9
As we have said before, so now I say again, if anyone preaches any other
gospel to you than what you have received, let him be accursed.”
Now if they started deceiving the people whom
the Apostles had converted even at that time, how much worse do you think
things might have gotten by now? The
answer may come when you understand that closely linked with the gospel of the
Antichrist, is that of the ‘man of sin’.
He too is supposed to come and conquer the world before the return of
Jesus Christ. And guess what? He was in the world at the time of the
Apostles too.
2 Th 2:1 “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him, we ask you,
2 Th 2:2 not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,
either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of
Christ had come.
2 Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that
Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition,
2 Th 2:4 who opposes and exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God,
2 Th 2:5 showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was still
with you I told you these things?”
Like the Antichrist of Apostle John, the ‘man
of sin’ of Apostle Paul was also in the world at that time. That ‘man of sin’ was already sitting in the
temple of God, claiming to be God, or ‘Holy Father’, when Apostle Paul spoke
about him to the Thessalonians. The
reason people keep stumbling over this issue is that they do not know what
temple Apostle Paul was referring to. It
was not the temple in Jerusalem, for no man ever stood in that temple preaching
Christ while he himself was worshiped as God.
The temple Apostle Paul was referring to was in Rome, the capital of the
world in those days, and soon the capital of Christianity. A false Christianity of course, for not true
Christian would ever usurp God’s title of ‘Holy Father’.
The fact that Apostle Paul was not able to
reveal his identity at that time tells us that he was a greatly feared man –
one who could have caused much damage to those who spoke evil of him. With the passage of time this is exactly what
the papacy has done to the true followers of Jesus Christ. Countless people have
been burned at stake for refusing to accept the counterfeited religion of the
‘man of sin’. As Jesus said:
John 16:2
"They will put you out of the synagogues [and churches]; yes, the
time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God service.”
Now it should come as no surprise that the
Antichrist and the ‘man of sin’, which is really one and the same, have been in
the world from the beginning of Christianity, because the Devil himself has been
the ‘god of this age’ from the beginning of the world.
2 Cor 4:3
“But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are
perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded,
2 Cor 4:4
who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ,
who is the image of God, should shine on them.”
It is
an extraordinary fact that no other powerful religious institution and position
has been in the world at the time of Jesus Christ that would still be in the
world at the time of His return, except the position of Pontifex Maximus – the
papacy.
2 Th 2:8 “And then the lawless one will be revealed,
whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the
brightness of Hid coming.
2 Th 2:9 The coming
of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan,
2 Th 2:10 with all power, signs,and
lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish,
because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be
saved.
2 Th 2:11 And for this reason God will send them strong
delusion, that they should believe
2 Th 2:12 the lie, that they all may be condemned who
did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.”
Two important prophecies come out of this
passage. First, that the lawless one
will be revealed and destroyed at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The people of God have known who that person
is for a long time; only the world at large will be surprised to discover his
true identity at the last minute.
Second, the ‘lawless one’ deceived those who
did not receive the truth and had pleasure in unrighteousness. And what happened to them? God gave them strong delusion that they should
believe the lie. What lie? The false gospel of salvation! See TCH No
11 if you do not know the difference.
Apostle Paul used similar language in his letter to the Romans.
Rom 1:18 “For the wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress
the truth in unrighteousness, because
Rom 1:19
what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to
them.
Rom 1:20
For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly
seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and
Godhead,
Rom 1:21
so that they are without excuse, because, although they knew God, they
did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their
thoughts,
Rom 1:22
and their foolish hearts were darkened.
Professing to be wise,
Rom 1:23
they became fools,and changed the glory of the
incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man; and birds and
four-footed animals and creeping things.
Rom 1:24
Therefore God also gave them up to uncleanness, in the lusts of their
hearts, to dishonour their bodies among themselves,
Rom 1:25
who exchanged the truth of God for the lie, and worshiped and served the
creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. Amen.
Rom 1:26
For this reason God gave them up to vile passions. For even their women
exchanged the natural use for what is against nature.
Rom 1:27
Likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in
their lust for one another, men with men committing what is shameful, and
receiving in themselves the penalty of their error which was due.
Rom 1:28
And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave
them over
Rom 1:29
to a debased mind, to do those things which are not fitting; being filled
with all unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness,
maliciousness; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil-mindedness; they are
whisperers, backbiters,
Rom 1:30
haters of God, violent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things,
disobedient
Rom 1:31
to parents, undiscerning, untrustworthy, unloving, unforgiving,
unmerciful;
Rom 1:32
who, knowing the righteous judgment of God, that those who practice such
things are deserving of death, not only do the same but also approve of those
who practice them."
Like a collective death wish, the entire world
has been covered by the stench of homosexuality. Those who ought to cry aloud about it are
just as likely to indulge in it themselves.
It is unbelievable that such a small number of
people would wield such a disproportionate influence with world governing
institutions. Two and three decades ago
they used to claim that upwards of ten percent of the population had homosexual
orientation. But every study done since
then has shown that their number is no more than one to two percent. It only shows what a powerful spirit is
behind this abominable practice.
The Bible says that religious leaders ought to
be the repositories of scriptural knowledge and upholders of the Law of God,
but instead they have done their best to steer people away from that Law under
the pretence that churches must keep up with the times.
Mal 2:7
"For the lips of a priest should keep knowledge, And people should
seek the law from his mouth; For he is the messenger of the LORD of hosts.
Mal 2:8
But you have departed from the way; You have caused many to stumble at
the law.
Mal 2:9
You have corrupted the covenant of Levi,” Says the LORD of hosts. "Therefore I also have made you
contemptible and base before all the people, because you have not kept My ways
but have shown partiality in the law."
Jer 5:24
“They do not say in their heart, "Let us now fear the LORD our God,
Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for
us the appointed weeks of the harvest."
Jer 5:25
Your iniquities have turned these things away, And your sins have
withheld good from you.
Jer 5:30
"An astonishing and horrible thing Has been committed in the
land:
Jer 5:31
The prophets prophesy falsely, And the priests rule by their own power;
And My people love to have it so. But what will you do in the end?”
1 Cor 2:6
“However, we speak wisdom among those who are mature, yet not the wisdom
of this age, nor of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.
1 Cor 2:7
But we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, the hidden wisdom which God
ordained before the ages for our glory,
1 Cor 2:8
which none of the rulers of this age knew; for had they known, they
would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
1 Cor 2:9
But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, Nor have
entered into the heart of man The things which God has prepared for those who
love Him."
People have refused to hear our message
because we did not come with polished publications and great pomp and
ceremony. They have been led to believe
that God’s messages come form well dressed, wealthy and fashionable people. But
what do the Scriptures say?
Mark 1:6
“Now John was clothed with camel's hair and with a leather belt around his
waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey.”
Mat 11:7
“As they departed, Jesus began to say to the multitudes concerning John:
"What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed shaken by the
wind?” But what did you go out to see?
Mat 11:8
A man clothed in soft garments? Indeed, those who wear soft clothing are
in kings' houses. "But what did you go out to see?
Mat 11:9
A prophet? Yes, I say to you, and more than a prophet.
Mat 11:10
"For this is he of whom it is written: 'Behold, I send My messenger
before Your face, Who will prepare Your way before You.'
Mat 11:11
"Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not
risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of
heaven is greater than he.”
Those who were to come in the spirit of Elijah
before the return of Jesus Christ, whose role was to witness the Gospel of
Jesus Christ to all nations before the end comes, were also ordinary people
dressed in ‘sackcloth’ (Rev.11). Any
wonder that the world does not believe them and kills them. But would it do so if they were world renown
people, coming with great pomp and ceremony?
Can you see now how the world is deceived to the very core, and why it
is blind to its true condition?
James 2:5
“Listen, my beloved brethren: Has God not chosen the poor of this world
to be rich in faith and heirs of the kingdom which He promised to those who
love Him?
James 2:6
But you have dishonoured the poor man. Do not the rich oppress you
James 2:7
and drag you into the courts? Do
they not blaspheme that noble name by which
James 2:8
you are called? If you really fulfil the royal law according to the
Scripture, "You shall love your neighbour as yourself," you do well;
but if you show partiality,
James 2:9
you commit sin, and are convicted by the law as transgressors. For
whoever
James 2:10
shall keep the whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of
all.
James 2:11
For He who said, "Do not commit adultery," also said, "Do
not murder." Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you
have become a transgressor of the law.
James 2:12
So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.”
What does the “law of liberty” tell us? To keep the Law of God, and abhor sin. Tell
that to the United Sates Supreme Court, which in June 2003 equated freedom with
homosexuality. Little do they realise
that in so doing they signed the death warrant for their own nation.
God does not change (Mal.3:6). What was
abominable in His sight in ancient times is abominable to Him in modern times,
and always shall be. That is why those
who have not learned the lesson of history, particularly that of Sodom and
Gomorra, will repeat it at their own peril.
Since the whole world has gone after this, and a myriad of other sins,
the whole world will pay for it; hence the Great Tribulation.
The change that is about to hit this world is
so great, so radically different from anything that happened in the past, that
most people find it hard to comprehend the size and scope of it.
Mat 24:21
"For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been
since the beginning of the world until this time, no, nor ever shall be.
Mat 24:22
And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for
the elect's sake those days will be shortened.”
For the elect’s sake God will intervene and
cut those days short, lest no flesh be left alive. Unless you are among the elect of God, you
cannot make it into the Kingdom of God.
You may survive the Great Tribulation and live a little longer into the
Millennial Kingdom, but that is hardly a consolation for not being among the
elect who will not only be spared the pains of the Great Tribulation, but
receive eternal life as well.
Rev 3:10
"Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep
you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those
who dwell on the earth.”
Rev 20:6
“Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Over
such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of
Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”
Not long ago the leader of the Crystal Cathedral in America enlightened
his immaculate and attentive audience how he conducts his prayer before the
Almighty. So what does he tell God when he gets on his knees? Nothing!
And what does God answer him?
Nothing!
He seems to have done pretty well with his prayer formula, but do you
think a poor man would get very far if he prayed that way? We do not know what
Bible he is using for inspiration, but we do know that our Bible says something
very different about prayer.
Mat 6:5 "And when you pray,
you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. "But you, when you pray,
Mat 6:6 go into your room, and
when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place;
and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Mat 6:7 "And when you pray,
do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be
heard for their many words.”
Mat 6:8 Therefore do not be like
them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask Him.”
Our Father knows what we need before we ask Him, but He still wants us
to talk to Him as we would to our human parents. The wealthy of this world can
pray whichever way they want; their prayer carries little weight with God
anyway.
Mat 19:23 “Then Jesus said to His
disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to
enter the kingdom of heaven.
Mat 19:24 "And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go
through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of
God."
James 5:1 “Come now, you rich,
weep and howl for your miseries that are coming upon you!
James 5:2 Your riches are corrupted,
and your garments are moth-eaten.
James 5:3 Your gold and silver
are corroded, and their corrosion will be a witness against you and will eat
your flesh like fire. You have heaped up treasure in the last days.
James 5:4 Indeed the wages of the
labourers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, cry out; and the
cries of the reapers have reached the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.
James 5:5 You have lived on the
earth in pleasure and luxury; you have fattened your hearts as in a day of slaughter.
James 5:6 You have condemned, you
have murdered the just; he does not resist you.
James 5:7 Therefore be patient,
brethren, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the
precious fruit of the earth, waiting patiently for it until it receives the
early and latter rain.”
James 5:8 You also be patient. Establish your hearts,
for the coming of the Lord is at hand.”
Unless people do what
Jesus Christ and His Apostles have said, they can pray standing on their head,
it wouldn’t make a difference. The man
who prays in silence before God came to Australia recently in an evangelistic
campaign, charging $25 for anyone who wanted to hear his precious pearls. Now $25 is a lot of money for a poor person,
but do you think he was concerned with the poor? One does not charge $25 if he wants to reach
the poor. But if he wants to ‘enlighten’
the wealthy, he can charge anything he wants; they will make good company in
their “heaven”.
Now do you know why Jesus Christ said that it is hard for a rich man to
enter the Kingdom of Heaven?
Mat 19:16 “Now behold, one came
and said to Him, "Good Teacher, what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life?"
Mat 19:17 So He said to him,
"Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God.
Mat 19:18 But if you want to
enter into life, keep the commandments.”
He said to Him, "Which ones?" Jesus said, " 'You shall
not murder,' 'You shall not commit adultery,' 'You shall not steal,' 'You shall
not bear false witness,'
Mat 19:19 'Honour your father and
your mother,' and, 'You shall love your neighbour as yourself.'" The young man said to Him,
Mat 19:20 "All these things
I have kept from my youth. What do I still lack?"
Mat 19:21 Jesus said to him,
"If you want to be perfect, go, sell what you have and give to the poor,
and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me." But when the young man
Mat 19:22 heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great
possessions.”
Mat 19:23 Then Jesus said to His disciples,
"Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of heaven.
Mat 19:24 And again I say to you, it is easier for a
camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the
kingdom of God."
The heart of the young man could not let him follow Christ because he
had great possessions. Riches are a
deadly snare as far as salvation is concerned.
Men have a hard time parting with their possessions, and that is why it
is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle that for the rich to
enter the Kingdom of God. In other words
it is virtually impossible to save rich people.
And when Jesus Christ says something, you better believe that it is
true.
Now isn’t it extraordinary that this world honours the very people who
have the least chance of being saved? They look at those who are well dressed,
influential and wealthy, who come with great pomp and ceremony, when these are
the least likely people to have a good relationship with God and receive His messages. Why do you think God gave His great end time
work to two poor people, ‘clothed in sackcloth’ (Rev. 11:3), instead of to
wealthy people?
Poor people know their condition and pray to God in the right manner,
with the right heart and the right attitude.
God is able to communicate with them, because they communicate with
Him. But He cannot pass on His messages
to people that remain deaf-mute before Him.
Prayer is an interactive process with our heavenly Father. It should contain a eulogy for His wondrous
creation; gratitude for His compassion, grace, and blessings; request for
forgiveness of our sins; and a petition to help us overcome the tests, trials
and tribulations that often come our way.
Our requests to Him must be moderated by the knowledge that if we ask
anything amiss He does not respond to our prayer. Our prayers must be in accordance with His
will, and that is why it is important to know what He expects of us in the
first place. This is what James said
about prayer:
James 5:13 “Is anyone among you
suffering? Let him pray. Is anyone cheerful?
James 5:14 Let him sing
psalms. Is anyone among you sick? Let
him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing
him with oil in the name of the Lord.
James 5:15 And the prayer of
faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up.
James 5:16 And if he has
committed sins, he will be forgiven.
Confess your trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that
you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails
much.
James 5:17 Elijah was a man with
a nature like ours, and he prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did
not rain on the land for three years and six months.
James 5:18 And he prayed again,
and the heaven gave rain, and the earth produced its fruit.
James 5:19 Brethren, if anyone
among you wanders from the truth,
James 5:20 and someone turns him
back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will
save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.”
Did you notice? “The effective,
fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much.” Prayer and faith go hand in hand. For a prayer to be effective, it must be done
in complete faith. But faith does not
come overnight. “Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom 10:17). But if you cannot find anyone who can inspire
you to have faith, you can increase your own faith by combining prayer,
meditation, and study of the Word of God.
2 Tim 2:15 “Be diligent to
present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed,
rightly dividing the word of truth.”
James had a few golden sayings about
prayer too.
James 1:2 “My brethren, count it
all joy when you fall into various trials,
James 1:3 knowing that the
testing of your faith produces patience.
James 1:4 But let patience have
its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.
James 1:5 If any of you lacks
wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach,
and it will be given him.
James 1:6 But let him ask in
faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and
tossed by the wind.
James 1:7 For let not that man suppose
that he will receive anything from the Lord;
James 1:8 he is a double-minded
man, unstable in all his ways.
James 1:9 Let the lowly brother
glory in his exaltation,
James 1:10 but the rich in his
humiliation, because as a flower of the field he will pass away.
James 1:11 For no sooner has the
sun risen with a burning heat than it withers the grass; its flower falls, and
its beautiful appearance perishes. So the rich man also will fade away in his
pursuits.
James 1:12 Blessed is the man who
endures temptation; for when he has been approved, he will receive the crown of
life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”
One cannot talk about prayer without mentioning the Master of it – Jesus
Christ. This is what He told His
disciples.
Mat 6:5 "And when you pray,
you shall not be like the hypocrites. For they love to pray standing in the
synagogues and on the corners of the streets, that they may be seen by men.
Assuredly, I say to you, they have their reward. "But you, when you pray,
Mat 6:6 go into your room, and
when you have shut your door, pray to your Father who is in the secret place;
and your Father who sees in secret will reward you openly.
Mat 6:7 "And when you pray,
do not use vain repetitions as the heathen do. For they think that they will be
heard for their many words.
Mat 6:8 "Therefore do not be
like them. For your Father knows the things you have need of before you ask
Him.
Mat 6:9 "In this manner,
therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.
Mat 6:10 Your kingdom come. Your
will be done On earth as it is in heaven.
Mat 6:11 Give us this day our
daily bread.
Mat 6:12 And forgive us our
debts, As we forgive our debtors.
Mat 6:13 And do not lead us into
temptation, But deliver us from the evil one. For Yours is the kingdom and the
power and the glory forever. Amen
Mat 6:14 "For if you forgive
men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.
Mat 6:15 "But if you do not
forgive men their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your
trespasses.”
Millions of people recite this formula by heart without stoping for a
minute to consider what it really means.
Each verset contains a profound meaning, so speak it slowly, stop and
think about every word of it. Above all,
remember the verset that says, ‘forgive
us our debts, as we forgive our debtors’, and take note how Jesus Christ
elaborated on it. More often than not,
people’s prayers are ineffective because their heart is not right before
God. As Apostle Paul said:
2 Cor 13:5 “Examine yourselves as
to whether you are in the faith. Test yourselves. Do you not know yourselves,
that Jesus Christ is in you?; unless indeed you are disqualified.”
Indeed, Jesus Christ lives His life in his genuine followers, and answers
their prayer. This is what He told His
disciples just before He rose to heaven.
John 14:23 “Jesus answered and
said to him, "If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will
love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.
John 14:24 "He who does not
love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the
Father's who sent Me.
John 14:25 "These things I
have spoken to you while being present with you.
John 14:26 "But the Helper,
the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,
John 14:27 He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance
all things that I said to you.
"Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world
gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be
afraid.
John 14:28 "You have heard
Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.' If you loved Me, you
would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,
John 14:29 ' for My Father is greater than I. "And now I have told you before it
comes, that when it does come to pass, you may believe.”
John 16:24 "Until now you
have asked nothing in My name. Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be
full.
John 16:25 "These things I
have spoken to you in figurative language; but the time is coming when I will
no longer speak to you in figurative language,
John 16:26 but I will tell you
plainly about the Father. "In that
day you will ask in My name, and I do not say to you that I shall pray the
Father for you;
John 16:27 "for the Father
Himself loves you, because you have loved Me, and have believed that I came
forth from God.
John 16:28 "I came forth
from the Father and have come into the world. Again, I leave the world and go
to the Father."
Then Jesus Christ lifted up His eyes to heaven and gave His disciples a
powerful example of prayer and communication with His, and our, heavenly
Father.
John 17:1 Jesus spoke these
words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: "Father, the hour has come.
Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You,
John 17:2 "as You have given
Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as
You have given Him. "And this is
eternal life, that they may know You,
John 17:3 the only true God, and
Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
John 17:4 "I have glorified
You on the earth. I have finished the work which You have given
John 17:5 Me to do. "And
now, O Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had
with You before the world was.”
John 17:6 "I have manifested
Your name to the men whom You have given Me out of the world. They were Yours,
You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
John 17:7 "Now they have known
that all things which You have given Me are from You.
John 17:8 "For I have given
to them the words which You have given Me; and they have received them, and
have known surely that I came forth from You;
John 17:9 and they have believed
that You sent Me."I pray for them. I do not pray for the world but for
those whom You have given Me, for they are Yours.
John 17:10 "And all Mine are
Yours, and Yours are Mine, and I am glorified in them.
John 17:11 "Now I am no
longer in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to You. Holy
Father, keep through Your name those whom You have given Me, that they may be
one
John 17:12 as We are. "While I was with them in the world, I
kept them in Your name. Those whom You gave Me I have kept; and none of them is
lost except the son of perdition,
John 17:13 that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. "But now I come to You, and these things I speak in
the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves.
John 17:14 "I have given
them Your word; and the world has hated them because they are
John 17:15 not of the world, just
as I am not of the world. "I do not
pray that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them
from the evil one.
John 17:16 "They are not of
the world, just as I am not of the world.
John 17:17 "Sanctify them by
Your truth. Your word is truth.
John 17:18 "As You sent Me
into the world, I also have sent them into the world.
John 17:19 "And for their
sakes I sanctify Myself, that they also may be sanctified by the truth.
John 17:20 "I do not pray
for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through
John 17:21 "that they all
may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one
in their word;Us, that the world may believe that You
sent Me.
John 17:22 "And the glory
which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one:
John 17:23 "I in them, and
You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know
that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.
John 17:24 "Father, I desire
that they also whom You gave Me may be with Me where I am, that they may behold
My glory which You have given Me; for You loved Me before the foundation of the
world.
John 17:25 "O righteous
Father! The world has not known You, but I have known You;
John 17:26 and these have known
that You sent Me. "And I have
declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You
loved Me may be in them, and I in them."
Can anyone add anything to that?
Not us!
Marriage and Divorce
According to the Scriptures
It is an extraordinary paradox that many
fundamentalist churches that call themselves Churches of God, openly advocate what
the Apostles of Jesus Christ have called ‘doctrines of demons’.
1 Tim 4:1
Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from
the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and
1 Tim 4:2
doctrines of demons, speaking
lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
1 Tim 4:3
forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from foods which God
created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the
truth.
1 Tim 4:4
For every creature of God is good, and nothing is to be refused if it is
received with thanksgiving;
1 Tim 4:5
for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.
1 Tim 4:6
If you instruct the brethren in these things, you will be a good
minister of Jesus Christ, nourished in the words of faith and of the good
doctrine which you have carefully followed.
1 Tim 4:7
But reject profane and old wives' fables, and exercise yourself toward
godliness.
1 Tim 4:8
For bodily exercise profits a little, but godliness is profitable for all
things, having promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come.
As you can see, Apostle Paul placed this
apostasy firmly in the end time. So if
you want to know whether we are indeed in the end time, go and find out whether
anyone practices those doctrines of demons.
But if you want to take our word for it, we can tell you that just about
every fundamentalist church, and many traditional ones, believe and practice
these doctrines. There is virtually no church that does not have unscriptural
dietary restrictions on its members at various times during the year. Remember, if it is not in the Bible, or
approved by God, it is not necessary, or downright wrong and sinful. The strange thing is that although many
churches believe that we live in the end time, none would admit that they
practice ‘doctrines of demons’ even though they impose dietary and marriage
restrictions on their followers.
For decades, the champion church of these
‘doctrines of demons’ has been the Worldwide Church of God. That church, which had great proselytising
campaigns and influence last century, advocated even more stringent dietary and
marital restrictions than the Jews. They
applied biblical injunctions, which they did not understand, without any
consideration for the harm and pain it caused to those who were affected. Have a look at the following examples and see
what we mean.
Mat 19:3
“The Pharisees also came to Him, testing Him, and saying to Him,
"Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for just any reason?” And He answered and said to them,
Mat 19:4
"Have you not read that He who made them at the beginning
Mat 19:5
'made them male and female,’ and said, 'For this reason a man shall
leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become
one flesh'?”
Mat 19:6
"So then, they are no longer two but one flesh. Therefore what God
has joined together, let not man separate."
The new ‘Pharisees’ used this passage to split
families and send people back to their former mates. When that was not possible, they left them in
the lurch, separated and heartbroken. No
one was allowed to remarry as long as the former partner was still alive,
regardless of whether he or she was available and a member of the church. It was a classical example of wisdom of the
world posing as the wisdom of God. Jesus
Christ had indeed said that, “what God has joined together, let not man
separate", but He also pointed out that there are times when that cannot
be avoided, and separation MUST occur.
Mat 19:7
“They said to Him, "Why then did Moses command to give a
certificate of divorce, and to put her away?"
Mat 19:8
He said to them, "Moses, because of the hardness of your hearts,
permitted you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.
Mat 19:9
"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual
immorality, and marries another, commits adultery; and whoever marries her who
is divorced commits adultery."
Sexual immorality
demands divorce. But separating people
who are remarried and sending them back to former partners is committing
another abominable act in the sight of God.
Deu 24:1 "When a man takes a wife and marries
her, and it happens that she finds no favour in his eyes because he has found
some uncleanness in her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in
her hand, and sends her out of his house,
Deu 24:2 "when she has departed from his house,
and goes and becomes another man's wife,
Deu 24:3 "if the latter husband detests her and
writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of
his house, or if the latter husband dies who took her as his wife,
Deu 24:4 "then her former husband who divorced
her must not take her back to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that
is an abomination before the LORD, and you shall not bring sin on the land
which the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.
So strongly does God feel about this Law that He repeated it in
Jeremiah.
Jer 3:1 "They say, 'If a man
divorces his wife, And she goes from him And becomes another man's, May he
return to her again?' Would not that land be greatly polluted? But you have
played the harlot with many lovers; Yet return to Me," says the LORD.”
It is abominable before the Lord, and pollutes
the land, to separate people and send them back to former partners. And if something is abominable before the
Lord you better not tamper with it, because the penalty for it is eternal
damnation.
And yet, many churches are still unashamedly practicing
these ‘doctrines of demons’.
They do not understand that the starting point
for the people of God is the moment of their conversion. Whoever you are married to at the moment of
your repentance, conversion and baptism, is your partner for life. But as Apostle Paul said, if one of the
partners departs and marries another, the other partner is not bound for life
to him or her. The remaining partner is
free to marry, but only a believing member.
The problem mainstream churches, such as the
Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and others, are having is that they do not have a
break, a converting point, in the life of their members. Their members are made not by adult
conversion, but by birth. This has far
reaching implications. Consider the
plight of the priests who are accused of sexual misconduct prior to their
ordination. They could never say: I was
guilty of youthful indiscretions like all human beings. But when I matured and saw the error of my
ways, I repented of it and converted to God’s way of life. God forgave me, and you ought to forgive me
too. Of course this does not apply to
criminal behaviour for which the common law must take its course. But as it is, they have two options: deny
even the smallest infraction and hope for the best, or acknowledge it and have
their reputation and career ruined. Not
surprisingly, virtually all of them choose the first option.
The head of the Catholic Church in Australia
was accused last year of having fondled a boy forty-one years earlier when they
were both young and playing. On the face
of it, it appeared to be rather a trifling accusation, with little consequence,
except perhaps as a pointer towards possible homosexual orientation. But
because it was aired in public, the Primate had to either admit it or deny
it. As one might have expected it, he
denied it. The judging magistrate then
had to decide whom to believe: the accuser or the defender. Since birds of a feather stick together, he
chose to ‘believe’ the defender. Thus
the Primate was saved and reinstated to his position, and the church was saved
from another payout.
The problem with this Primate and his choice
is that even if God had forgiven him for his original error, which he could
claim that he made while young, green, and irresponsible, God would never
forgiven him if he lied about it now, because in so doing he portrayed an
innocent man as liar, and that is unforgivable.
That is what happens when churches misapply good Christian doctrines. Taking responsibility for one’s sins is paramount
in Christianity. But equally paramount
is the fact that errors once repented of before God, are forgiven and
forgotten. But that requires a repenting
and converting point in one’s adult life, a fact traditional churches deny
their members.
Infants and children can be Christened and
blessed by a priest or a minister of religion, just as Jesus Christ blessed the
children that were brought to Him. That
act however is designed to protect them from evil influences, not to erase
their sins and convert them to the true faith of Jesus Christ. Children are born without sin, but they are
still made of flesh and blood, and bound to fall under temptation when they
grow up and subjected to the impulses and temptations of human nature. Only one Man in the history of the world had
never sinned – Jesus Christ – and that happened because He had the Holy Spirit
from conception. Without the Holy Spirit
no one can withstand the wiles of the Devil.
That is why an adult conversion, repentance of sins, and baptism through
complete immersion, without which no one can receive the Holy Spirit, are so
important. Can you see now why priests
and ministers of traditional churches, particularly of the Catholic Church, are
such easy pray to the Devil’s influence?
Without the Holy Spirit they have little chance of withstanding his evil
devices.
In regard to the question of why God allows
little children to die young, over which so many people continue to fret and
stumble, this is what the Bible says.
1 Ki 14:5
“Now the LORD had said to Ahijah, "Here
is the wife of Jeroboam, coming to ask you something about her son, for he is
sick. Thus and thus you shall say to her; for it will be, when she comes in,
that she will pretend to be another woman."
1 Ki 14:6
And so it was, when Ahijah heard the sound of
her footsteps as she came through the door, he said, "Come in, wife of
Jeroboam. Why do you pretend to be another person? For I have been sent to you
with bad news.
1 Ki 14:7
"Go, tell Jeroboam, 'Thus says the LORD God of Israel:
"Because I exalted you from among the people, and made you ruler over My
people Israel,
1 Ki 14:8
"and tore the kingdom away from the house of David, and gave it to
you; and yet you have not been as My servant David, who kept My commandments
and who followed Me with all his heart, to do only what was right in My eyes;
1 Ki 14:9
"but you have done more evil than all who were before you, for you
have gone and made for yourself other gods and molded
images to provoke Me to anger, and have cast Me behind your back;
1 Ki 14:10
"therefore behold! I will bring disaster on the house of Jeroboam,
and will cut off from Jeroboam every male in Israel, bond and free; I will take
away the remnant of the house of Jeroboam, as one takes away refuse until it is
all gone.
1 Ki 14:11
"The dogs shall eat whoever belongs to Jeroboam and dies in the
city, and the birds of the air shall eat whoever dies in the field; for the
LORD has spoken!"'
1 Ki 14:12
"Arise therefore, go to your own house. When your feet enter the
city, the child shall die.
1 Ki 14:13
"And all Israel shall mourn for him and bury him, for he is the
only one of Jeroboam who shall come to the grave, because in him there is found something good toward
the LORD God of Israel in the house of Jeroboam.”
Combine that with the following Scripture, and
you can see that when children die in their infancy, rather than mourn, cry, be
angry and ask, why did God let little Johnny die, people should rather rejoice
just as God does.
Psa
116:15 “Precious in the sight of the LORD Is the death of
His saints.”
Little Johnny
will most certainly be in the Kingdom of God, whereas those left behind
will have a mammoth task to make it to that place, especially if they are
members of the mainstream churches that do not offer their members the chance
of repentance, conversion, baptism, and
washing of sins by the Holy Spirit. Once
people grow up and commit their first sin, they lose their innocence and can no
longer make it into the Kingdom of God unless they undergo the ritual of
renewal through repentance, conversion, baptism, and laying on of hands of the
elders for the receiving of the Holy Spirit.
What these churches do to their members,
particularly their priests and ministers, by their lack of proper doctrines, is
forcing them to lie about their past behaviour in order to save their skins in
this world.
It is the same story with their doctrines
about marriage. It is a well known fact
that the Catholic Church does not allow divorce even when both partners have
committed adultery. By forcing people to
stay together against their wish, even after adultery, the church commits a
great abomination before the Lord. Do
you happen to know whom the Bible refers to as the ‘abomination of
desolation’? You might want to consult The
Christian Herald No 3.
The following lengthy passage shows us in what
Spirit we must look at family, marriage and divorce.
1 Cor 7:1
“Now concerning the things of which you wrote to me: It is good for a
man not to touch a woman.
1 Cor 7:2
Nevertheless, because of sexual immorality, let each man have his own
wife, and let each woman have her own husband.
1 Cor 7:3
Let the husband render to his wife the affection due her, and likewise
also the wife to her husband.
1 Cor 7:4
The wife does not have authority over her own body, but the husband
does. And likewise the husband does not have authority over his own body, but
the wife does.
1 Cor 7:5
Do not deprive one another except with consent for a time, that you may
give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again so that Satan
does not tempt you
1 Cor 7:6
because of your lack of self- control.
But I say this as a concession, not as a commandment.
1 Cor 7:7
For I wish that all men were even as I myself. But each one has his own
gift from God, one in this manner and another in that.
1 Cor 7:8
But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: It is good for them if
they remain even as I am;
1 Cor 7:9
but if they cannot exercise self-control, let them marry. For it is
better to marry than to burn
1 Cor 7:10
with passion. Now to the married
I command, yet not I but the Lord:
1 Cor 7:11
A wife is not to depart from her husband. But even if she does depart, let her remain
unmarried or be reconciled to her husband. And a husband is not to divorce his
wife.
1 Cor 7:12
But to the rest I, not the Lord, say: If any brother has a wife who does
not believe, and she is willing to live with him, let him not divorce her.
1 Cor 7:13
And a woman who has a husband who does not believe, if he is willing to
live with her, let her not divorce him.
1 Cor 7:14
For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the
unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband; otherwise your children would be
unclean, but now they are holy.
1 Cor 7:15
But if the unbeliever departs, let him depart; a brother or a sister is
not under bondage in such cases.
1 Cor 7:16
But God has called us to peace.
For how do you know, O wife, whether you will save your husband? Or how
do you know, O husband, whether you will save your wife?
1 Cor 7:17
But as God has distributed to each one, as the Lord has called each one,
so let him walk. And so I ordain in all the churches.
1 Cor 7:18
Was anyone called while circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised.
1 Cor 7:19
Was anyone called while uncircumcised? Let him not be circumcised. Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is
nothing, but keeping the commandments of God is what matters.
1 Cor 7:20
Let each one remain in the same calling in which he was called.
1 Cor 7:21
Were you called while a slave? Do not be concerned about it; but if you
can be made free, rather use it.
1 Cor 7:22
For he who is called in the Lord while a slave is the Lord's freedman.
Likewise he who is called while free is Christ's slave.
1 Cor 7:23
You were bought at a price; do not become slaves of men.
1 Cor 7:24
Brethren, let each one remain with God in that state in which he was
called.
1 Cor 7:25
Now concerning virgins: I have no commandment from the Lord; yet I give
judgment as one whom the Lord in His mercy has made trustworthy.
1 Cor 7:26
I suppose therefore that this is good because of the present distress;
that it is good for a man to remain as he is:
Are you bound to a wife?
1 Cor 7:27
Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from a wife? Do not seek a
wife.
1 Cor 7:28
But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and if a virgin marries,
she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in the flesh, but I
would spare you. But this I say,
brethren, the time is short, so that from now on,
1 Cor 7:29
even those who have wives should be as though they had none, those who weep as though they did not weep,
those who rejoice as though they did not rejoice,
1 Cor 7:30
those who buy as though they did not possess, and those who use
1 Cor 7:31
this world as not misusing it. For the form of this world is passing
away.
1 Cor 7:32
But I want you to be without care. He who is unmarried cares for the
things of the Lord; how he may please the Lord.
1 Cor 7:33
But he who is married cares about the things of the world; how he may
please his wife.
1 Cor 7:34
There is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The unmarried woman
cares about the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in
spirit. But she who is married cares about the things of the world; how she may
please her husband.
1 Cor 7:35
And this I say for your own profit, not that I may put a leash on you,
but for what is proper, and that you may serve the Lord without
distraction.
1 Cor 7:36
But if any man thinks he is behaving improperly toward his virgin, if
she is past the flower of youth, and thus it must be, let him do what he
wishes. He does not sin; let them marry.
1 Cor 7:37
Nevertheless he who stands steadfast in his heart, having no necessity,
but has power over his own will, and has so determined in his heart that he
will keep his virgin, does well. So then
he who
1 Cor 7:38
gives her in marriage does well, but he who does not give her in
marriage does better.
1 Cor 7:39
A wife is bound by law as long as her husband lives; but if her husband
dies, she is at liberty to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord.
1 Cor 7:40
But she is happier if she remains as she is, according to my judgment;
and I think I also have the Spirit of God.”
As you can see, this rule applies not only to
marriage, but to whatever condition one is found in at the moment of his or her
call and conversion. Now there is one
statement made by Jesus Christ that has caused much anguish to theologians and
philosophers. It is a statement that is
connected with marriage and divorce, although it does not appear to be so at
first sight.
Mat
20:16 "So the last will be first,
and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen."
This statement was repeated for emphasis, lest
people think that it might have been made by oversight.
Mat
22:14 "For many are called, but few
are chosen."
Now why would theologians and philosophers
stumble over these words? Because they
go contrary to the commonly believed notion that all human beings are equal
before God. They are equal as far as
their judgment is concerned, everyone answering for his deeds, but not equal as
fas as their gifts and abilities are concerned. What these statements are telling us is that
there are three kinds of people in the world.
First there is the great mass of people from whom God calls people to
repentance. Then there are the called
out ones with whom God works in order to bring them to perfection. And finally, there are the chosen ones, the
people who have overcome their trials and are given a place in the Kingdom of
God.
Can you see now why all leftist utopias have
failed? They assume that all people are
equal, and given half a chance they could be programmed to work for the common
good and live selflessly in harmony forever more. But humans are not equal. No matter how much you program them, they
would never have the same goals in life.
Some are simply not capable of altruistic feelings. They are self-centred by nature, and totally
unfeeling towards others. Unfortunately,
because they have few scruples in stepping on the toes of others to push their
agenda, they are the more likely ones to raise up to the top. That is why this society appears to be up
side down sometimes. But before you despair, remember this:
Rev 13:10
“He who leads into captivity shall go into captivity; he who kills with
the sword must be killed with the sword. Here is the patience and the faith of
the saints.”
Mal 3:14
You have said, 'It is useless to serve God; What profit is it that we
have kept His ordinance, And that we have walked as mourners Before the LORD of
hosts?
Mal 3:15
So now we call the proud blessed, For those who do wickedness are raised
up; They even tempt God and go free.'"
Mal 3:16
Then those who feared the LORD spoke to one another, And the LORD
listened and heard them; So a book of remembrance was written before Him For
those who fear the LORD And who meditate on His name.
Mal 3:17
"They shall be Mine," says the LORD of hosts, "On the day
that I make them My jewels. And I will spare them As a man spares his own son
who serves him.”
Mal 3:18
Then you shall again discern Between the righteous and the wicked,
Between one who serves God And one who does not serve Him.
Mal 4:1
"For behold, the day is coming, Burning like an oven, And all the
proud, yes, all who do wickedly will be stubble. And the day which is coming
shall burn them up," Says the LORD of hosts, "That will leave them
neither root nor branch.
Mal 4:2
But to you who fear My name The Sun of Righteousness shall arise With
healing in His wings;
Mal 4:3 And you shall go out And grow fat like
stall-fed calves. You shall trample the
wicked, For they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet On the day that I
do this," Says the LORD of hosts.
Now coming back to the topic of marriage,
people who get married in this world, whose marriage breaks up before they convert
to God’s way of life, belong to the first category. They belong to the great mass of people for
whom the Law of God has little relevance, and for whom God responds in kind
with little consideration.
Those who respond to the call of God, repent
and begin the road of spiritual growth, become part of the second group. That is the moment that counts with God as
far as their marital condition is concerned.
As Apostle Paul said: “Let each
one remain with God in that state in which he was called. Are you bound to a wife? Do not seek to be loosed. Are you loosed from
a wife? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned; and
if a virgin marries, she has not sinned. Nevertheless such will have trouble in
the flesh, but I would spare you.”
It is a grievous sin to split families that
have converted to God’s way of life and send them back to former unconverted
spouses. Or if their former partner is
no longer available to force them to remain celibate until that spouse dies.
The Worldwide Church of
God has been enforcing this policy mercilessly for decades, and even now some
of its siblings, and quite a large number of other churches, are still doing
it. They will have much to answer before
God and before the people whom they have caused so much grief and misery.
IN THE
MULTITUDE OF COUNSELLORS
THERE
ISN’T ALWAYS SAFETY
When we pointed out that virtually the whole
of Christianity has fallen away from the truth of God, an American professor of
theology quoted the following Scripture as assurance that he was safe where he
was.
Proverbs
11:14. “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; But in the multitude of
counsellors there is safety.”
Well, we do not know what they discuss in
their councils, but obviously not the work of Elijah whom the Bible says must
come before the return of Jesus Christ and restore all things all by
himself. Where are the church councils
at that time, and why don’t they help Elijah carry out his duty? More importantly, why would there be a need
to restore anything of they preached the right Gospel in the churches?
Mat 17:10
“And His disciples asked Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say
that Elijah must come first?"
Mat 17:11
“Jesus answered and said to them, "Indeed, Elijah is coming first
and will restore all things.”
And what about the other
major biblical figures of the end time – the two witnesses of God spoken of in
the book of Revelation. Why are they
wretchedly clothed in ‘sackcloth’, why are they hated by everyone who dwells on
the earth, and why are they killed in the end?
Where are the church councils during those days?
Rev
11:3 "And I will give power to my
two witnesses, and they will prophesy one thousand
two hundred and sixty days, clothed in
sackcloth."
Rev 11:7
When they finish their testimony, the beast that ascends out of the
bottomless pit will make war against them, overcome them, and kill them.
Rev 11:8
And their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city which spiritually
is called
Rev 11:9
Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified. Then those from the peoples, tribes, tongues,
and nations will see their dead bodies three-and-a-half days, and not allow
their dead bodies to be put into graves.
Rev 11:10
And those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them, make merry, and
send gifts to one another, because these two prophets tormented those who dwell
on the earth.”
How is it
that those councils could not see the connection between this prophecy and the
following one, and the end time mission spoken of by Jesus Christ when the
words ‘witnesses’ and ‘witness’ make a clear link between them?
Mat 24:14
"And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world
as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”
Not only are the church councils not doing
their job and coming to the help of Elijah and the two witnesses, but they hate
the very people they ought to love. Now
consider Jesus’ message to the Church of Laodicea.
Rev 3:14
"And to the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write, 'These
things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the
creation of God:
Rev 3:15
"I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish
you were cold or
Rev 3:16
hot. "So then, because you
are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth.
Rev 3:17
"Because you say, 'I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of
nothing'; and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and
naked;
Rev 3:18
"I counsel you to buy from Me gold refined in the fire, that you
may be rich; and white garments, that you may be clothed, that the shame of
your nakedness may not be revealed; and anoint your eyes with eye salve, that
you may see.
Rev 3:19
"As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. Therefore be zealous and
repent.
Rev 3:20
"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice
and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine
Rev 3:21
with him, and he with Me.
"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as
I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
Rev 3:22
"He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the
churches."' "
At a time when Jesus Christ stands at the door
ready to come in, when poor people are doing the work of God, taking His
message to the world all on their own, the Laodicea Church of God, the very
last church that should be busy with the work of God and be ready to receive
its Saviour, is basking in the belief that its members are “rich, wealthy, and
have need of nothing”.
Safety in a multitude of counsellors? Yes, but not in spiritual matters, because
salvation is a personal not a collective quest. That is why those who think that they are
saved because they belong to large congregations, or are safe because a
multitude of counsellors is leading them and telling them so, might have some
big surprises coming their way.
In the whole history of the world, there isn’t
a single example in which God passed His messages to the world through a
multitude of counsellors. With the
exception of the Apostles in the earlier stages of their work, always lonely
people did the work of God, and always they were persecuted. If anything, when religious councils were
involved they came together for evil not for good. Need we go any further than the Sanhedrin
council that condemned Jesus Christ to death?
Or the council of young people around king Rehoboam, whose advise led to
the division of Israel? If Solomon had
lived a little later, or knew what his son would do, he might have written
Proverbs 11:14 a little differently.
The most important prophecies about the Church
of God for the end time is that it would fall asleep or fall away and not be
prepared for the return of Jesus Christ.
Mat 25:1
"Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who
took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Mat 25:2
"Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish.
Mat 25:3
"Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them,
Mat 25:4
"but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps.
Mat 25:5
"But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and
slept.
Mat 25:6
"And at midnight a cry was heard: 'Behold, the bridegroom is
coming; go out to meet him!'
Mat 25:7
"Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. "And the foolish
Mat 25:8
said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going
out.'
Mat 25:9
"But the wise answered, saying, 'No, lest there should not be
enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for
yourselves.'
Mat 25:10
"And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who
were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut.
Mat 25:11
"Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, 'Lord, Lord, open
to us!'
Mat 25:12
"But he answered and said, 'Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know
you.'
Mat 25:13
"Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which
the Son of Man is coming.”
2 Th 2:1 “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering
2 Th 2:2 together to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in mind or troubled,
either by spirit or by word or by letter, as if from us, as though the day of
Christ had come.
2 Th 2:3 Let no one deceive you by any means; for that
Day will not come unless the falling
2 Th 2:4 away comes first, and the man of sin is
revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that
is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of
God, showing himself that he is God.
2 Th 2:5 Do you not remember that when I was still
with you I told you these things?”
The question is, which is the Church of God
that has fallen asleep or fallen away right now? Is it the Catholic, the
Orthodox, the Protestant, or any of the fundamentalist or charismatic
denominations?
If any of them is a genuine Church of God, it
must explain how these prophecies apply to it.
If all of them are Churches of God, all of them collectively must allow
for the possibility that they may have fallen asleep or fallen away.
At one time, I was invited to attend an
evangelical revivalist meeting. At the
end of the ‘show’, in lack of a better word, I asked the main preacher how he
explained the prophecies about Elijah and the two witnesses. He said that when that time comes, he will
worry about it then. It was inconceivable
for him that we might be living in those times, or that these prophecies might
be fulfilled right now.
The problem with people who have fallen asleep
or fallen away is that they do not know their condition. They fail to understand that when a wicked
spirit takes over their minds, their thought processes change without them
being aware of it, and they see things with entirely different eyes. Sin no longer appears to be such an evil
thing.
Prov 30:20 “This is
the way of an adulterous woman: She eats and wipes her mouth,
And says, "I have done no
wickedness."
But what did Jesus Christ say?
Mat 12:35
"A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good
things, and an evil man out of the evil treasure brings forth evil things.
Mat 12:36
"But I say to you that for every idle word men may speak, they will give
Mat 12:37
account of it
in the day of judgment. "For by
your words you will be justified, and by your words you will be
condemned."
Now why is it that in spite of all the signs
of our time people refuse to contemplate that the world has fallen asleep or
fallen away so far from God that it has brought itself to the very brink of
catastrophe? Is it because we have given
this warning so may times that people think we have cried wolf once too many? Would it have been better if God had spoken
just once and then zap – crashed everyone who did not take that warning
seriously and repented of their sins?
When we embarked on this road some fourteen
years ago we knew that our work would be of limited duration, but did not know
how long it would be before the world plunged itself into the Great
Tribulation, except that it would not be too long.
Now how long is too long in historic or in
God’s, terms? Considering that recorded
history is telling us that humanity has stood on this planet for a mere six
thousand years, what would be the appropriate time to warn people about the end
of this age? I suppose it depends on
what purpose that would serve. If it
just to just let people know that teir end is near
and they must put their house in order, a few days or a few weeks might be
enough. But if it is to give them enough
time to repent, change their ways and qualify for the Kingdom of God, the
longer the better. The problem is, human
nature being as it is, if the warning is too short, they either panic or refuse
to believe that such an event could be possible in their life time. If it is too long, they forget about it and
put it out of their minds altogether.
Either way, one cannot win with human beings.
The point is, God has not created humanity and
placed it on this planet in order to catch it in its sins and punish it for
it. He has given it ample time to reform
itself and be saved, even though this has often worked to the detriment of His
messengers. Remember what happened to
the prophet Jeremiah?
Jer 20:7
“O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded; You are stronger than I,
and have prevailed. I am in derision daily;
Jer 20:8
Everyone mocks me. For when I
spoke, I cried out; I shouted, "Violence and plunder!" Because the
word of the LORD
Jer 20:9
was made to me A reproach and a derision daily. Then I said, "I will not make mention of
Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart like a
burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back, And I could
not.
Jer 20:10
For I heard many mocking: "Fear on every side!"
"Report," they say, "and we will report it!" All my
acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying, "Perhaps he can be induced;
Then we will prevail against him, And we will take our revenge on
him."
Unless people see results right away, they
misinterpret the message. They were
angry with Jeremiah when his prophecies did not occur right away. They accused him of being a false prophet and
threw him in a muddy dungeon where he nearly died. But before long, his prophecies did come
true. They were taken into captivity
where they all ended up their days.
When we began this work, we had no councillors
to rely upon, and spent virtually every spare moment of our life in prayer,
meditation, worship, and study of the Word of God. We communicated with God, and He communicated
with us.
There was nothing special about us, except
that we believed God and His Word, as did Jesus Christ and His Apostles. You too can do that and ensure your salvation,
but you cannot afford to waste any time for the Day of the Lord is truly at
hand.
Exposing Falsehood Is NOT Judging People
When you begin a work of the Gospel like this one,
you know that you will receive both favourable and negative comments. We have been happy to receive both kinds, and
are grateful to all people who have taken time to comment on our writings,
knowing that while the first found spiritual comfort in them, the second made
us think deeper on the topics they took issue with. We know that as long as we are in this ‘tent’
we are bound to make mistakes. Anyone
who shuts his ears to advise or criticism, has already put one foot in the
grave. As the Scriptures say:
Prov 26:12
“Do you see a man wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool
than for him.”
Eccl 4:13
“Better a poor and wise youth Than an old and foolish king who will be
admonished no more.”
We have been dealing with important matters that
affected people’s lives, and since we are not infallible we have tried hard to
make sure we understood the Scriptures properly before we expanded on them to
others. But just as the Apostles discovered in their time, it is not possible
to please everyone no matter how hard you tried. Some people are hating the Scriptures, others
are twisting them, others have put our writings to their use, but like the
Apostles, we rejoice that the Gospel is being preached, regardless of by whom
or for what purpose.
2 Pet 3:14
“Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be
found by
2 Pet 3:15
Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider that the
longsuffering of our Lord is salvation; as also our beloved brother Paul,
according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his
epistles, speaking in them of these things,
2 Pet 3:16
in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable
people twist to their own destruction, as they do also the rest of the
Scriptures.
2 Pet 3:17
You therefore, beloved, since you know this beforehand, beware lest you
also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the
wicked;
2 Pet 3:18
but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior
Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.”
Phil 1:15
“Some indeed preach Christ even from envy and strife, and some also from
Phil 1:16
good will: The former preach
Christ from selfish ambition, not sincerely, supposing to add affliction to my
chains;
Phil 1:17
but the latter out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defence
of the gospel.
Phil 1:18
What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretence or in truth,
Christ is preached; and in this I rejoice, yes, and will rejoice.”
As it happens, those who have shown
displeasure at our writings have not impressed us with their knowledge of the
Scriptures, or with their ability to follow through and substantiate their
arguments. Almost without exception,
when people felt uncomfortable with our writings, they threw at us the age old
accusation that we were judging them contrary to teachings of Jesus Christ,
even though we did not even know who they were.
Mat 7:2
"For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged; and with the
measure you use, it will be
Mat 7:3
measured back to you. "And
why do you look at the speck in your brother's eye, but do not consider the
plank in your own eye?
Mat 7:4
"Or how can you say to your brother, 'Let me remove the speck from
your eye'; and look,
Mat 7:5
a plank is in your own eye?
"Hypocrite! First remove the plank from your own eye, and then you
will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye.”
Well, if they think that this is the case, we
would be only too happy to have someone pull the plank from our eyes so that we
can remove the speck from theirs, but unfortunately we found that when it comes
to the real message of the Scriptures they appear to be completely blind. They fail to understand that the following
Scriptures apply to the Christian ‘Pharisees’ of today too, not only to the
Jewish Pharisees of old.
Mat 15:12
“Then His disciples came and said to Him, "Do You know that the
Pharisees were offended when they heard this saying?" But He answered and said,
Mat 15:13
"Every plant which My heavenly Father has not planted will be
uprooted. "Let them alone.
Mat 15:14
They are blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind leads the blind,
both will fall into a ditch."
It is not often that we have named people in
our writings. We have done so only after
we became convinced that it would be for the common good, in order to protect
others from their teachings, but also in the hope that they might repent of
their errors and turn to God, our guiding principle always coming from the
Scriptures.
James 5:19
“Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns
James 5:20
him back, let him know that he who
turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover
a multitude of sins.”
Even the Apostles corrected each other
publicly when some did not behave properly, and did not mind. And who was the one who made one of the
biggest mistakes? None other than the
very chief of the Apostles.
Gal 2:11
“Now when Peter had come to Antioch, I withstood him to his face,
because he was to be
Gal 2:12
blamed; for before certain men
came from James, he would eat with the Gentiles; but when they came, he
withdrew and separated himself, fearing those who were of the circumcision.
Gal 2:13
And the rest of the Jews also played the hypocrite with him, so that
even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy.
Gal 2:14
But when I saw that they were not straightforward about the truth of the
gospel, I said to Peter before them all, "If you, being a Jew, live in the
manner of Gentiles and not as the Jews, why do you compel Gentiles to live as
Jews?””
And what did Peter do when he was confronted
in front of the whole congregation? Did
he remind Paul who was chief among them and knew better? Or that his error was like having a speck in
his eyes, when Paul himself was having a plank in his own? No, Peter loved him, and praised him for his
work. Apostle Paul was far from perfect,
having persecuted the Church of God in the past, so Peter could have come back
with some pretty grievous accusations against him if he wanted to, but he did
not do so. One, because you do not bring
back the errors for which people have repented, and two, because Peter knew
that he was at fault and needed to repent of it.
Making errors in the process of salvation is
not a major problem as long as the correction, from whatever source it comes, is
received in a spirit of meekness and repentance. God specifically contrasted His condition
with that of human beings, by pointing out the need for humans to always
repent.
Num 23:19
"God is not a man, that He should lie, Nor a son of man, that He
should repent. Has
He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”
Apostle Peter mentioned the fact that some
people twist the Scriptures to their own destruction. Now if someone is in that position shouldn’t
he be told about it while he can still repent of it? The Scriptures make it clear that if we see
someone committing sin, especially if he appears to be unaware of it, and we do
not tell him about it, we become guilty of his sin.
Ezek 3:17
"Son of man, I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel;
therefore hear a word from My mouth, and give them warning from Me:
Ezek 3:18
"When I say to the wicked, 'You shall surely die,' and you give him
no warning, nor speak to warn the wicked from his wicked way, to save his life,
that same wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at
your hand.
Ezek 3:19
"Yet, if you warn the wicked, and he does not turn from his
wickedness, nor from his wicked way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have
delivered your soul.
Ezek 3:20
"Again, when a righteous man turns from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, and I lay a stumbling block before him, he shall die; because
you did not give him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness
which he has done shall not be remembered; but his blood I will require at your
hand.
Ezek 3:21
"Nevertheless if you warn the righteous man that the righteous
should not sin, and he does not sin, he shall surely live because he took
warning; also you will have delivered your soul."
Ezek 2:1
“And He said to me, "Son of man, stand on your feet, and I will
speak to you."
Ezek 2:2
Then the Spirit entered me when He spoke to me, and set me on my feet;
and I heard Him who spoke to me.
Ezek 2:3
And He said to me: "Son of man, I am sending you to the children of
Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against Me; they and their
fathers have transgressed against Me to this very day.
Ezek 2:4
"For they are impudent and stubborn children. I am sending you to them,
and you shall say to them, 'Thus says the Lord GOD.'
Ezek 2:5
"As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse; for they
are a rebellious house; yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.
Ezek 2:6
"And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them nor be afraid of
their words, though briers and thorns are with you and you dwell among
scorpions; do not be afraid of their words or dismayed by their looks, though
they are a rebellious house.
Ezek 2:7
"You shall speak My words to them, whether they hear or whether
they refuse,
Ezek 2:8
for they are rebellious.
"But you, son of man, hear what I say to you. Do not be rebellious
like that rebellious house; open your mouth and eat what I give you."
Ezek 2:9
Now when I looked, there was a hand stretched out to me; and behold,
Ezek 2:10
a scroll of a book was in it.
Then He spread it before me; and there was writing on the inside and on
the outside, and written on it were lamentations and mourning and woe.
Ezek 3:1
Moreover He said to me, "Son of man, eat what you find; eat this
scroll, and go,
Ezek 3:2
speak to the house of Israel.
"So I opened my mouth, and He caused me to eat that scroll.
Ezek 3:3
And He said to me, "Son of man, feed your belly, and fill your
stomach with this scroll that I give you." So I ate, and it was in my
mouth like honey in sweetness.
Ezek 3:4
Then He said to me: "Son of man, go to the house of Israel and
speak with My words to them.
Ezek 3:5
"For you are not sent to a people of unfamiliar speech and of hard
language, but to the house
Ezek 3:6
"not to many people of unfamiliar speech and of hard language,
whose words you cannot understand. of Israel,
Surely, had I sent you to them, they would have listened to you. "But the house of Israel will not
listen to you,
Ezek 3:7
because they will not listen to Me; for all the house of Israel are
impudent and hard-hearted.
Ezek 3:8
"Behold, I have made your face strong against their faces, and your
forehead strong against
Ezek 3:9
their foreheads. "Like
adamant stone, harder than flint, I have made your forehead; do not be afraid
of them, nor be dismayed at their looks, though they are a rebellious
house."
Some people say that those who do not convert
to true Christianity now, will be given a second chance after resurrection,
when supposedly they are brought back up to life to start all over again, until
they repent and are given a place in the eternal Kingdom of God too. Nothing could further from the truth. This is your one and only chance to work out
your salvation. If you do not prepare for the Kingdom of God now, if you mess
your life now, you will never have another chance.
Heb 9:27
“And as it is appointed for men to die once, but after this the
judgment”
2 Cor 5:10
“For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each
one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done,
whether good or bad.”
We appear before the judgment seat of Christ
after one life, not after two or more.
That is why the doctrine of reincarnation is such a dangerous one. For it implies that even if people mess up
their life now, they can always come back to repair the damage they have done
to themselves in this life. Once again,
nothing could be further from the truth.
God does not have to, nor is He going to, wait until people make up
their mind whether they want to be saved or not.
He says: I have given you the chance to save
yourselves now, in this life, so don’t waste it. Moreover, people who do not care about
salvation now, more often than not are the very ones that cause problems for
those that do. That is another reason
for not giving them another chance, and that is why they will be resurrected
for punishment not for salvation.
People in the West must understand that the
road to salvation is more than just going to church on weekends and hoping for
the best. Salvation is an active process
that requires bringing under control the pulls of human nature, and achieving
peace of mind and union with God and with Jesus Christ through the Holy
Spirit.
1 Cor 9:27
“But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I
have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.”
Indeed, all those who do not bring their
bodies under subjection now, will be disqualified.
John 17:20
"I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe
in Me through their word;
John 17:21
that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that
they also may be one in Us, that the world may believe that You sent Me.
John 17:22
"And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may
be one just as We are
John 17:23
one: "I in them, and You in
Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You
have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me.”
You cannot achieve union with the Father and
with Jesus Christ if your carnal nature rules over you.
Rom 8:5
“For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things
of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the
Spirit.
Rom 8:6
For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life
and peace.
Rom 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to
the law of God, nor indeed can be.”
Apostle Paul went on to plead with his
disciples to present their bodies as a ‘living sacrifice’ to God.
Rom 12:1
“I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you
present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God,
Rom 12:2
which is your reasonable service.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and
perfect will of God.”
Now compare that with the philosophy that is
prevalent in the world at present. Any
notion that there is something better and infinitely more pleasant and enduring
to hope for is anathema to this “me” generation. They have given themselves over to full
indulgence of their senses here and now, and heaven help those who stand in
their way. But then, what did the Apostles
say about this generation?
2 Tim 3:1
“But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:
2 Tim 3:2
For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
2 Tim 3:3
unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal,
despisers of
2 Tim 3:4
good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than
lovers of God,
2 Tim 3:5
having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people
turn away!”
One cannot please God and the world at the
same time. Apostle Paul again:
Rom 8:8
“So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. But you are not in the flesh but in the
Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you.
Rom 8:9
Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:10
And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit
is life because of righteousness. But
if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus
Rom 8:11
from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will
also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.
Rom 8:12
Therefore, brethren, we are debtors; not to the flesh, to live according
to the flesh.
Rom 8:13
For if you live according to the flesh you will die; but if by the
Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.
Rom 8:14
For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.”
Apostle John put it just as strongly.
1 John 2:15
“Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the
world, the love of the Father is not in him.
1 John 2:16
For all that is in the world; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the
eyes, and the pride of life; is not of the Father but is of.
1 John 2:17
the world And the world is
passing away, and the lust of it; but he who does the will of God abides
forever.”
Indeed, the reward for bringing the flesh
under subjection, and loving God rather than the world, is eternal life and
pleasures forever more in the everlasting Kingdom of God.
Psa 16:11 You will show me the path of
life; In Your presence is fullness of joy; At Your right hand are
pleasures forevermore.
Or as Jesus Christ said:
John 12:25
"He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in
this world will keep it for eternal life.
John 12:26
"If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My
servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honour.”
Are the pleasures of this world worth anything
if one loses his eternal life for them?
All the glamour, wealth, status, glory and joys that men crave in this
world amount to nothing if in the end “he who loves his life will lose it, and
he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Those who think that these are mere idle
words are gravely mistaken.
Salvation is achieved by overcoming on two
levels. At the physical level, one must
keep under control the pulls of human nature, and at the spiritual level, one
must ensure that he believes and follows the right Christian doctrines and
practices.
Therefore exposing falsehood is NOT judging
people, it is trying to save them by showing them a better way, because, “there
is a way that seems right to a man, But its end is the way of death.” (Prov 14:12; 16:25).
Another Major End-Time Prophecy
Unveiled
There is hardly a major
prophecy in the Bible that we have not looked at and revealed in the pages of
this magazine. But just as we though
that we had a break from them, at least for the time being, in came another one
rushing in. We were surprised by the fact that we have discussed this prophecy
before, and thought that we have solved it, but we found that we were wrong and
had to admit it.
Making mistakes is not a
major problem in the Bible, but failing to admit them when one’s eyes are opened
to them becomes a sin. Our mistake came from the fact that we allowed ourselves
to be influenced by other people. Almost
without exception, whenever we relied on other people we ended up correcting
ourselves. Have a look at the following
Scriptures.
Rev 9:13
“Then the sixth angel sounded: And I heard a voice from the four horns
of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the
trumpet,
Rev 9:14
"Release the four angels who are .”
Rev 9:15
So the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month
and year, were released to kill a third of mankind.
Rev 9:16 Now the number of the army of the horsemen
was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.”
Rev 16:12
“Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates,
and its water was dried up, so that the way of the kings from the east might be
prepared.”
It is a general belief among
biblical scholars that the army of two hundred million coming from the East on
the river Euphrates, would be made up of an alliance of ten nations that
includes Russia, China and Iran among others. We have a number of publications
in our hands that say so. Well, we
swallowed their pill, and were wrong like everybody else.
- First, because there is no association
between the river Euphrates and this alliance.
- Second, because if you come against Israel
you do not need to come up on the river Euphrates.
- Third, because if you were to take an army
even half that size from Russia or China across Asia towards Israel, you would
swamp all nations on your way. It would
be a nightmare to supply such an army with all its needs – water, fuel,
munitions, etc.
- And fourth, prophecy says that the ten-nation
alliance led by ‘the prince of Rosh’ will come against Israel not by land but
by air, and not from the East, but from the North.
Ezek 38:2
"Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the
prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, 'Thus
says the Lord GOD:
Ezek 38:3
"Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and
Tubal.
Ezek 38:4
"I will turn you around, put hooks into your jaws, and lead you
out, with all your army, horses, and horsemen, all splendidly clothed, a great
company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.
Ezek 38:5
"Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are with them, all of them with shield
and helmet; "Gomer and all his troops;
Ezek 38:6
the house of Togarmah from the far north and all its troops; many people
are with you.
Ezek 38:7
"Prepare yourself and be ready, you and all your companies that are
gathered about you; and be a guard for them.
Ezek 38:8
"After many days you will be visited. In the latter years you
will come into the land of those brought back from the sword and gathered from
many people on the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate; they were
brought out of the nations, and now all of them dwell safely.
Ezek 38:9
"You will ascend, coming like a storm, covering the land like a cloud, you and all your troops and many peoples
with you.
Ezek 38:10
"'Thus says the Lord GOD: "On that day it shall come to pass
that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:
Ezek 38:11
"You will say, 'I will go up against a land of unwalled
villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell safely, all of them
dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates';
Ezek 38:12
"to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand
against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people
gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the
land.
Ezek 38:13
"Sheba, Dedan, the merchants of Tarshish, and all their young lions will say to you, 'Have
you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your army to take booty, to carry
away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great
plunder?'"
Ezek 38:14
'"Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, 'Thus says the
Lord GOD:
Ezek 38:15
"On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know
it? "Then you will come from your
place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you, all of them
riding on horses, a great company and a mighty army.
Ezek 38:16
"You will come up against My people Israel like a cloud, to cover the
land. It will be in the
latter days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know
Me, when I am hallowed in you, O Gog, before their
eyes." 'Thus says the Lord GOD:
Ezek 38:17
"Are you he of whom I have spoken in former days by My servants the
prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days that I would bring
you against them?
Ezek 38:18
"And it will come to pass at the same time, when Gog comes against the
land of Israel," says the Lord GOD, "that My fury will show in My
face.
Ezek 38:19
"For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath I have spoken:
'Surely in that day
Ezek 38:20
there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel, so that the fish
of the sea, the birds of the heavens, the beasts of the field, all creeping
things that creep on the earth, and all men who are on the face of the earth
shall shake at My presence. The mountains shall be thrown down, the steep
places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.'
Ezek 38:21
"I will call for a sword against Gog throughout all My
mountains," says the Lord GOD. "Every man's sword will be against his
brother.”
Ezek 38:22
"And I will bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed; I
will rain down on him, on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him,
flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
Ezek 38:23
"Thus I will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be
known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the
LORD."'
Ezek 39:1
"And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, 'Thus says the
Lord GOD: "Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech,
and Tubal;
Ezek 39:2 "and I will turn you around and lead you
on, bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains
of Israel.
Ezek 39:3
"Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the
arrows to fall out of your right hand.
Ezek 39:4
"You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your
troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of
every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
Ezek 39:5
"You shall fall on the open field; for I have spoken," says
the Lord GOD.
Ezek 39:6
"And I will send fire on Magog, and on those who live in security
in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the LORD.
Ezek 39:7
"So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and
I will not let them profane My holy name anymore. Then the nations shall know that I am the
LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
Ezek 39:8
"Surely it is coming, and it shall be done," says the Lord
GOD.
Ezek 39:9
"This is the day of which I have spoken. "Then those who dwell in the cities of
Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and
bucklers, the bows and arrows, the javelins and spears; and they will make
fires with em for seven years.
Ezek 39:10
th"They will not take wood from the field
nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the
weapons; and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who
pillaged them," says the Lord GOD.
Ezek 39:11
"It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial
place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it
will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury
Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.
Ezek 39:12
"For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in
order to cleanse the land.
Ezek 39:13
"Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will
gain renown for it on the day that I am glorified," says the Lord
GOD.
Ezek 39:14
"They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of a
search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the
ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a
search.
Ezek 39:15
"The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees
a man's bone, he shall set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it
in the Valley of Hamon Gog.
Ezek 39:16
"The name of the city will also be Hamonah.
Thus they shall cleanse the land."'
Ezek 39:17
"And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD, 'Speak to
every sort of bird and to every beast of the field: "Assemble yourselves
and come; Gather together from all sides to My sacrificial meal Which I am
sacrificing for you, A great sacrificial meal on the mountains of Israel, That
you may eat flesh and drink blood.
Ezek 39:18
You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, Drink the blood of the princes of
the earth,
Ezek 39:19
Of rams and lambs, Of goats and bulls, All of them fatlings of Bashan.
Ezek 39:20
You shall eat fat till you are full, And drink blood till you are
drunk, At My sacrificial meal Which I am
sacrificing for you. You shall be filled
at My table With horses and riders, With mighty men And with all the men of
war," says the Lord GOD.
Ezek 39:21
"I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see
My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid on them.
Ezek 39:22
"So the house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God
from that day forward.
Ezek 39:23
"The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into
captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore I
hid My face from them. I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all
fell by the sword.
Ezek 39:24
"According to their uncleanness and according to their
transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them."
Ezek 39:25
'"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: 'Now I will bring back the
captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be
jealous for My holy name;
Ezek 39:26
'after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in
which they were unfaithful to Me, when they dwelt safely in their own land and
no one made them afraid.
Ezek 39:27
'When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of
their enemies' lands, and I am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations,
Ezek 39:28
'then they shall know that I am the LORD their God, who sent them into
captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left
none of them captive any longer.
Ezek 39:29
'And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have poured
out My Spirit on the house of Israel,' says the Lord GOD."
God has not yet been
hallowed in Israel in the sight of all nations, as He was hallowed in Egypt in
the sight of Israel in ancient time, an interesting type and prototype.
Exo
9:13 “Then the LORD said to Moses,
"Rise early in the morning and stand before Pharaoh,
Exo 9:14 and say to him,
'Thus says the LORD God of the Hebrews: "Let My people go, that they may
serve Me, for at this time I will send all My plagues to your very heart, and
on your servants and on your people, that you may know that there is none like
Me in all the earth.
Exo
9:15 "Now if I had stretched out My
hand and struck you and your people with pestilence, then you would have been
cut off from the earth.
Exo 9:16 "But
indeed for this purpose I have raised you up, that I may show My power in you,
and that My name may be declared in all the
earth.”
Prophecies do not
normally come as one long story like the one above in Ezekiel. In most cases you have to go back and forth
through the Bible and put them together in their proper setting in order to get
their meaning. This one however is
pretty clear. All that is left for us is
to determine its timing. But the first
question that needs to be answered is, if this end-time alliance comes against
Israel not by land but by air, who forms the army of the two hundred million
that comes from the East on the Euphrates, and against whom are they being
deployed? This is where truth becomes
more mysterious than fiction. Before we
discuss that, let us remind you what the Scriptures say about secrets and
revelations, and how God deals with humans.
Prov
25:2 “It is the glory of God to conceal
a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.”
Deu 29:29 "The secret things belong to the LORD our
God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children
forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Dan 2:47 “The king answered Daniel, and said,
"Truly your God is the God of gods, the Lord of kings, and a revealer of
secrets, since you could reveal this secret."
Amos 3:7 “Surely the Lord GOD does nothing, Unless He
reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.”
Isa 28:9
"Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand
the message?
Isa
28:10 Those just weaned from milk? Those
just drawn from the breasts? For precept
must be upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon line,
Here a little, there a little."
Isa 28:13 But the word of the LORD was to them,
"Precept upon precept, precept upon precept, Line upon line, line upon
line, Here a little, there a little," That they might go and fall
backward, and be broken And snared and caught.”
God takes pride in
concealing prophetic things, and men cover themselves in glory discovering
them. However, those who take on this
task should always remember that in the final analysis it is still God who
reveals His secrets to His true servants anyway.
So who forms the army of
two hundred million that comes from the East on the Euphrates? Hard to believe it but that prophecy has
already been fulfilled. It was the
‘coalition of the willing’ that invaded Iraq from the East in the second Gulf
War – the armies of the USA, Great Britain, and Australia. But their armies put together do not come
anywhere near that figure, some might say.
Oh, but they do! Because, you
see, God does not count armies the way humans do. God’s armies include all people from the age
of twenty upward. Notice:
Num 1:2
"Take a census of all the congregation of the children of Israel,
by their families, by their
Num 1:3 fathers' houses, according to the number of
names, every male individually, from twenty years old and above; all who are
able to go to war in Israel. You and Aaron shall number them by their armies.
Num 1:45
“So all who were numbered of the children of Israel, from twenty years
old and above, all who were able to go to war in Israel;
Num 1:46 all who were numbered were six hundred and
three thousand five hundred and fifty.”
If you count all people
upwards of twenty years from those countries, you can easily reach that figure.
And if you add the other countries that provided token or logistic support,
Poland, Holland and more than thirty other countries, you exceed that figure by
much.
Now there is something
else to this prophecy. When we published
the first edition of The Christian Herald in 1990, on the brink of the
first Gulf War, we said that that war would lead to the Great Tribulation. When that war ended and no worldwide tribulation
ensued, our nemesis rejoiced and we were left with egg on our faces.
Like Jeremiah, we decided
that we were not going to speak in the name of God again.
Jer 20:7 O LORD, You induced me, and I was persuaded;
You are stronger than I, and have prevailed. I am in derision daily; Everyone
mocks me.
Jer 20:8 For when I spoke, I cried out; I shouted,
"Violence and plunder!" Because the word of the LORD was made to me A
reproach and a derision daily.
Jer 20:9 Then I said, "I will not make mention of
Him, Nor speak anymore in His name." But His word was in my heart
like a burning fire Shut up in my bones; I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.
Jer 20:10 For I heard many mocking: "Fear on every
side!" "Report," they say, "and we will report
it!" All my acquaintances watched for my stumbling, saying,
"Perhaps he can be induced; Then we will prevail against him, And we will
take our revenge on him."
Two years passed before
we produced another edition of The Christian Herald. As with Jeremiah, the Word of God was
burning in our hearts too and we had no choice but to keep trudging on
regardless. But then, just as with
Jeremiah, in the end we were proven right too.
The first Gulf War never ended.
It was not even a truce, for the United States, British and Australian
planes or ships maintained a blockade against Iraq and pounded that nation at
will whenever it stepped out of line.
The people of Iraq suffered more from the ‘peace’ imposed on them than
from the two Gulf Wars put together. So
if we take that period in its entirety, our prediction that the Gulf War would
lead to the Great Tribulation still stands.
This is when the coalition of ten nations led by the ‘prince of Rosh’
from the North will make its move.
And yet, there is still
more to this prophecy. The Bible speaks
of three wicked spirits associated with the army of two hundred million that
comes up on the Euphrates.
Rev
16:12 “Then the sixth angel poured out
his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water was dried up, so that the
way of the kings from the east might be prepared.
Rev
16:13 And I saw three unclean spirits
like frogs coming out of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the
beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet.
Rev
16:14 For they are spirits of demons,
performing signs, which go out to the kings of the earth and of the whole
world, to gather them to the battle of that great day of God Almighty.
Rev 16:15
"Behold, I am coming as a thief. Blessed is he who watches, and
keeps his
garments, lest he walk naked and they see his
shame."
Of course, these spirits
represent human beings, but who might they be?
Well, who were the three leaders that fought to create the ‘coalition of
the willing’, and are now seeking to create a coalition against North Korea,
Iran and Syria – the allies of ‘Rosh’, Meshech, Tubal, God and Magog? The three Maggies of the English speaking
world! If you do now know who they are,
we are just not going to tell you. What
we are going to do though, is draw your attention to verse 15, which makes it
clear that the prophecy about the river Euphrates would be fulfilled just
before the return of Jesus Christ.
The Heritage Of The Hebrews
The Jews have suffered enough during their
long and troubled history, without anyone adding to their woes in our time.
However, watching what is happening in the Middle East these days, a neutral
observer might have a hard time deciding who is a villain and who a victim of
circumstance.
One day you feel for the innocent Jews who are
blown apart unexpectedly by Palestinian suicide bombers, and the next you feel
for the grieving parents who after losing their son must also watch their abode
being destroyed by avenging Israelis.
This is the price people pay for living in a
time warp, which is what both Palestinians and Israelis are doing at present.
They both hold on to beliefs and practices that have long passed their ‘use by
date.’ It should be obvious to all by now, that eye for an eye and tooth for a
tooth results in two blind and toothless cripples. This is not to speak of a head for a head,
which would be a more appropriate description of what really is happening in
that land these days.
We have tried hard to explain to both peoples
that only an open and thorough examination of themselves and their beliefs, in
light of overall historical and spiritual developments, can get them out of
troubles. We have asked them to take
another look at the restored Gospel of Jesus Christ, not at what historically
has come down to us as Christianity, and admit that His Gospel far from being
contrary to their revealed religion, it complements, enhances, and places it in
a proper contemporary context. We
emphasize the word ‘revealed’ because like Christianity and other religions,
both Judaism and Islam have suffered at the hands of false teachers in the
meantime.
Having studied all three religions, and
opening my heart to them at close quarters, I find it compellingly obvious that
they are like the three middle fingers of one’s hand, one standing higher than
the others but resting on them. This is not to diminish the value and
importance of any religion, only to point out that after complementing each
other they must grow together to a higher plateau – the true Christianity of
Jesus Christ.
It may surprise people to know this, but
Christianity has legacies from both Hebrew and Canaanite peoples. Unfortunately not all of it has been
positive.
During my studies of religions at the
university some two and a half decades ago, the Jewish scholar who lectured us
in Judaism was always trying to channel our tutorial discussions towards
questioning biblical events such as the Exodus, slavery in Egypt, and others.
It was a wonder to me that instead of being proud of the legacy his people had
given to the world he was undermining it. It took me a long time to understand
why.
The latest television documentaries from the
Middle East assure us that the Jews are not Semitic in origin, but Canaanites,
having always lived in the Middle East alongside Palestinians. I shook my head
in disbelief, as I am sure many other people did on hearing such preposterous
claims. Clearly, in order to justify their presence in Palestine, the Jews are
prepared to deny their own divinely apportioned heritage.
This is a major problem with the Jews. For
much as we admire their tenacity in the face of adversity, and contribution to
world heritage in many fields, they seem to have a major flaw in that when they
set their minds on something nothing stands in their way, not even truth, and,
if it were for them, not even God.
They have run roughshod on their own religion,
which instead of being a beacon to the world, as it was meant to be until
Christ, Judaism, together with Islam, have become the most despised religions
in the world. That is not what God intended for either of them. You may not
agree with another religion, you may not like its customs, but in an
interdependent world you accommodate it. Despise comes only when the basic
norms of civilisation, which incorporate God’s divine laws, are breached. This
is what is happening in both religions at present.
One might be excused for thinking that Jewish
scholarship these days equates with licence to invent the past. As for Islamic scholarship, I can tell you
about some great thinkers in the past, but I can’t think of anyone today. Whenever one gets notoriety these days it is
for crude invectives against Judaism or Christianity, or for senseless homicidal
suicides.
We will come to the Canaanite legacy to
Christianity in a moment, but first let us have a look at a few aspects of
Judaism as they relate to Christianity. There is a passage in the book of
Revelation that is revealing indeed.
Rev 3:7
"And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write, 'These
things says He who is holy, He who is true, "He who has the key of David,
He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens":
Rev 3:8
"I know your works. See, I have set before you an open door, and no
one can shut it; for you have a little strength, have kept My word, and have
not denied My name.
Rev 3:9
"Indeed I will make those of the synagogue of Satan, who say they
are Jews and are not, but lie; indeed I will make them come and worship before
your feet, and to know that I have loved you.
Rev 3:10
"Because you have kept My command to persevere, I also will keep
you from the hour of trial which shall come upon the whole world, to test those
who dwell on the earth.
Rev 3:11 "Behold, I am coming quickly! Hold fast
what you have, that no one may take your crown.”
The reference to King David and the people who
falsely claimed to be Jews is fitting in that in addition to denying their
Egyptian sojourn and Exodus, Jewish scholars are trying to get rid of David and
his kingdom from their history books too.
Why? Because in order to sink their roots deeply into Palestine, they
must cut any links with the Bible! It
doesn’t bother them that in so doing they make God a liar and will draw His
vengeance and retribution.
Heb 10:28
“Anyone who has rejected Moses' law dies without mercy on the testimony
of two or three
Heb 10:29
witnesses. Of how much worse
punishment, do you suppose, will he be thought worthy who has trampled the Son
of God underfoot, counted the blood of the covenant by which he was sanctified
a common thing, and insulted the Spirit of grace?
Heb 10:30 For
we know Him who said, "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay," says the
Lord.
Heb 10:31 And
again, "The LORD will judge His people." It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God.”
Jewish archaeologists assure us that there is
no evidence that David’s kingdom ever existed.
The Bible is no proof for them anymore.
Now it is a well-known fact what modern historians have done to
history. They have ignored important
historical documents and created a new history of the world, particularly of
the Middle Eastern and Mediterranean basin, based mainly on potsherds. Almost in every case they have moved history
back in time by centuries and millennia in order to accommodate the fallacy of
evolution. The case of David and his kingdom however, is the only one that we
know of in which they have moved history forward by at least two centuries. We
do not know why they did that, for there is no logic in it, but we do know that
they are looking for David’s kingdom in the wrong place and at the wrong
time.
A few years ago, they finally found a potsherd
piece that bore the inscription: King David.
It caused quite a stir. They did
not know what to do with it or whether it was genuine. First, because it came from north Israel,
where king David was not supposed to have been (that’s how well they know the
history of David’s kingdom), and second because it did not come from the eighth
century B.C. when they think David’s kingdom existed if at all.
Christian historians however are not very far
behind their Jewish counterparts when it comes to reshaping history, especially
that of true Christianity. We’ve all
seen what they did to the story of the Dead Sea Scrolls (See The Christian
Herald No 9).
Now in wanting to be like the Canaanite
people, the Jews have forgotten what the fate of the Canaanites was supposed to
be. For just like the Jews, the Canaanites have positive and negative sides to
their story. Here, in a nutshell, is
ancient Jewish history vis-a-vis that of their Middle Eastern neighbours.
Gen 15:18 “On
the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying: "To your
descendants I
Gen 15:19
have given, this land from the
river of Egypt to the great river, the River Euphrates;
Gen 15:20 "the Kenites,
the Kenezzites, the Kadmonites, "the Hittites,
the Perizzites, the Rephaim,
Gen 15:21
"the Amorites, the
Canaanites, the Girgashites, and
the Jebusites."
Deu 7:1
"When the LORD your God brings you into the land which you go to
possess, and has cast out many nations before you, the Hittites and the
Girgashites and the Amorites and the
Canaanites and the Perizzites and
the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than
you,
Deu 7:2
"and when the LORD your God delivers them over to you, you shall
conquer them and utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them nor
show mercy to them. "Nor shall you
make marriages with them.
Deu 7:3 You
shall not give your daughter to their son, nor take their daughter for your
son.
Deu 7:4
"For they will turn your sons away from following Me, to serve
other gods; so the anger of the LORD will be aroused against you and destroy
you suddenly”.
Deu 11:22
"For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command
you to do; to love the
Deu 11:23 LORD your God, to walk in
all His ways, and to hold fast to Him;
"then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you,
and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.
Deu 11:24
"Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours:
from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, even to
the Western Sea, shall be your territory.
Deu 11:25
"No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will
put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread,
just as He has said to you.”
Note carefully how far God said that He would extend the land of the
Israelite people: from the River of
Egypt, to the River Euphrates.
Josh 3:9 “So
Joshua said to the children of Israel, "Come here, and hear the words of
the LORD
Josh 3:10
your God." And Joshua said,
"By this you shall know that the living God is among you, and that He will
without fail drive out from before you the Canaanites and the Hittites and the
Hivites and the Perizzites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Jebusites.”
Judg 2:10
“When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another
generation arose after them who did not know the LORD nor the work which He had
done for Israel.
Judg 2:11 Then
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served the Baals;
Judg 2:12 and
they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, who had brought them out of the
land of Egypt; and they
followed other gods from among the gods of the people who were all around them,
and they bowed down to them; and they provoked the LORD to anger.
Judg 2:13
They forsook the LORD and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
Judg 2:14 And
the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel. So He delivered them into the
hands of plunderers who despoiled them; and He sold them into the hands of
their enemies all around, so that they could no longer stand before their
enemies.
Judg 2:15
Wherever they went out, the hand of the LORD was against them for
calamity, as the LORD had said, and as the LORD had sworn to them. And they
were greatly distressed. Nevertheless,
the LORD
Judg 2:16
raised up judges who delivered them out of the hand of those who
plundered them.
Judg 2:17 Yet
they would not listen to their judges, but they played the harlot with other
gods, and bowed down to them. They
turned quickly from the way in which their fathers walked, in obeying the
commandments of the LORD; they did not do so.
Judg 2:18 And
when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and
delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for
the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed
them and harassed them.
Judg 2:19 And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that
they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other
gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn
way.”
Judg 2:20 “Then the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel;
and He said, "Because this nation has transgressed My covenant which I
commanded their fathers, and has not heeded
Judg 2:21 My voice, "I also will no longer drive
out before them any of the nations which
Judg 2:22 Joshua left when he died, so that through
them I may test Israel, whether they will keep the ways of the LORD, to walk in
them as their fathers kept them, or not.
Judg 2:23
"Therefore the LORD left those nations, without driving them out
immediately;
Judg 3:1 nor did He deliver them into the hand of
Joshua. Now these are the nations which the LORD left, that He might test Israel
by them, that is,
Judg 3:2 all
who had not known any of the wars in Canaan (this was only so that the
generations of the children of Israel might be taught to know war, at least
those who had not formerly known it),
Judg 3:3
namely, five lords of
the Philistines, all the Canaanites, the Sidonians, and the Hivites
who dwelt in Mount Lebanon, from Mount Baal Hermon to
the entrance of Hamath.
Judg 3:4 And
they were left, that He might test Israel by them, to know whether they would
obey the commandments of the LORD, which He had commanded their fathers by the
hand of Moses.
Judg 3:5 Thus
the children
of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites.
Judg 3:6 And
they took their daughters to be their wives, and gave their daughters to their
sons;
Judg 3:7 and
they served their gods. So the children
of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD. They forgot the LORD their God,
and served the Baals and Asherahs.
Judg 3:8
Therefore the anger of the LORD was hot against Israel, and He sold them
into the hand of Cushan-Rishathaim king of
Mesopotamia.”
Neh 9:13 "You came down also on
Mount Sinai, And spoke with them from heaven, And gave them just ordinances and
true laws, Good statutes and commandments.
Neh 9:14 You made known to them Your
holy Sabbath, And commanded them precepts, statutes
Neh 9:15 and laws, By the hand of
Moses Your servant. You gave them bread
from heaven for their hunger, And brought them water out of the rock for their
thirst, And told them to go in to possess the land Which You had sworn to give
them.
Neh 9:16 "But they and our
fathers acted proudly, Hardened their necks, And did not heed Your
commandments.
Neh 9:17 They refused to obey, And
they were not mindful of Your wonders That You did among them. But they
hardened their necks, And in their rebellion They appointed a leader To return
to their bondage. But You are God, Ready to pardon, Gracious and
Neh 9:18 merciful, Slow to anger,
Abundant in kindness, And did not forsake them.
"Even when they made a molded calf for
themselves, And said, 'This is your god That brought you up out of Egypt,
Neh 9:19 ' And worked great provocations,
Yet in Your manifold mercies You did not forsake them in the wilderness.
The pillar of the cloud did not depart from them by day, To lead them on the
road; Nor the pillar of fire by night, To show them light, And the way they
should go.
Neh 9:20 You also gave Your good
Spirit to instruct them, And did not withhold Your manna from their mouth, And
gave them water for their thirst.
Neh 9:21 Forty years You sustained
them in the wilderness, They lacked nothing; Their clothes did not wear out And
their feet did not swell.
Neh 9:22 "Moreover You gave them
kingdoms and nations, And divided them into districts. So they took possession
of the land of Sihon, The land of the king of Heshbon, And the land of Og king
of Bashan.
Neh 9:23 You also multiplied their
children as the stars of heaven, And brought them into the land Which You had
told their fathers To go in and possess.
Neh 9:24 So the people went in And
possessed the land; You subdued before them the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, And gave them into their hands, With their kings And the people of the
land, That they might do with them as they wished.
Neh 9:25 And they took strong cities
and a rich land, And possessed houses full of all goods, Cisterns already dug,
vineyards, olive groves, And fruit trees in abundance. So they ate and were
filled and grew fat, And delighted themselves in Your great goodness.
Neh 9:26 "Nevertheless they were
disobedient And rebelled against You, Cast Your law behind their backs And
killed Your prophets, who testified against them To turn them to Yourself; And
they worked great
Neh 9:27 provocations. Therefore You
delivered them into the hand of their enemies, Who oppressed them; And in the
time of their trouble, When they cried to You, You heard from heaven; And
according to Your abundant mercies You gave them deliverers who saved them From
the hand of their enemies.
Neh 9:28 "But after they had
rest, They again did evil before You. Therefore You left them in the hand of their
enemies, So that they had dominion over them; Yet when they returned and cried
out to You, You heard from heaven; And many times You delivered them according
to Your mercies,
Neh 9:29 And testified against them,
That You might bring them back to Your law. Yet they acted proudly, And did not
heed Your commandments, But sinned against Your judgments, 'Which if a man
does, he shall live by them.' And they shrugged their shoulders, Stiffened
their necks, And would not hear.
Neh 9:30 Yet for many years You had
patience with them, And testified against them by Your Spirit in Your prophets.
Yet they would not listen; Therefore You gave them into the hand of the peoples
of the lands.
Neh 9:31 Nevertheless in Your great
mercy You did not utterly consume them nor forsake them; For You are God,
gracious and merciful.”
There is not much one can, or should, add to
this rendition of Jewish history directly from the Bible. The Jews have forgotten that their
inheritance of the Middle Eastern area does not come by virtue of human roots,
but by divine decree. God gave it to
them because the previous inhabitants defiled the land with all sorts of
abominable sins.
Lev 18:24
“'Do not defile yourselves with any of these things; for by all these
the nations are defiled, which I am casting out before you.
Lev 18:25
'For the land is defiled; therefore I visit the punishment of its
iniquity upon it, and the land vomits out its inhabitants.
Lev 18:26
'You shall therefore keep My statutes and My judgments, and shall not
commit any of these abominations, either any of your own nation or any stranger
who dwells among you
Lev 18:27
'(for all these abominations the men of the land have done, who were
before you, and thus the land is defiled), 'lest the land vomit
Lev 18:28 you
out also when you defile it, as it vomited out the nations that were before
you.
Lev 18:29
'For whoever commits any of these abominations, the persons who commit
them shall be
Lev 18:30 cut
off from among their people. 'Therefore
you shall keep My ordinance, so that you do not commit any of these abominable
customs which were committed before you, and that you do not defile yourselves
by them: I am the LORD your God.'"
Lev 20:22
'You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My judgments, and perform
them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you
out.
Lev 20:23
'And you shall not walk in the statutes of the nation which I am casting
out before you; for they commit all these things, and therefore I abhor them.
Lev 20:24
'But I have said to you, "You shall inherit their land, and I will
give it to you to possess, a land flowing with milk and honey." I am the
LORD your God, who has separated you from the peoples.
Lev 20:26
'And you shall be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy, and have separated
you from the peoples, that you should be Mine.”
Deu 30:1
"Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you,
the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to
mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, "and you
return to the LORD
Deu 30:2 your God and obey His voice,
according to all that I command you today, you and your
Deu 30:3
children, with all your heart and with all your soul, "that the LORD your God will bring you
back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all
the nations where the
Deu 30:4 LORD your God has scattered
you. "If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven,
from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.
Deu 30:5
"Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your
fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply
you more than your fathers.
Deu 30:6
"And the
LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all
your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.
Deu 30:7
"Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies
and on those who hate
Deu 30:8 you, who persecuted you.
"And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments
which I command you today.”
The reason the Lord God has not yet
circumcised their heart and put their curses on their enemies is because they
have not yet committed themselves to obeying His Commandments and judgments.
They continue to seek their own righteousness, instead of the righteousness of
God, and so they keep paying a penalty for it.
As Apostles Paul wrote:
Rom 9:29 “And
as Isaiah said before: "Unless the LORD of Sabaoth had left us a seed, We
would have become like Sodom, And we would have been made like Gomorrah."
Rom 9:30 What
shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
Rom 9:31 but
Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of
righteousness.
Rom 9:32 Why?
Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.
Rom 9:33 For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
of offense,
And whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame."
Rom 10:1
Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they
may be saved.
Rom 10:2 For
I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4 For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Rom 10:5 For
Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who
does those
Rom 10:6
things shall live by them."But the righteousness of faith speaks in
this way, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'
" (that is, to bring Christ down
from above), or,
Rom 10:7
" 'Who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring
Christ up from the dead).
Rom 10:8 But
what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your
heart"
Rom 10:9
(that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved.”
Why the Jews continue to stubbornly seek their
own righteousness, a righteousness based on law, rather that the righteousness
of God based on faith, remains a great mystery.
Since they continue to rely on the Law of the
Old Testament, perhaps one should remind them again what that Law required, and
the price they pay now for not fulfilling it.
Judg 1:27
“However, Manasseh did not drive out the inhabitants of Beth Shean and its villages, or Taanach
and its villages, or the inhabitants of Dor and its villages, or the
inhabitants of Ibleam and its villages, or the
inhabitants of Megiddo and its villages;
Judg 1:28 for the Canaanites were determined to dwell in that
land. And it came to pass, when Israel was strong, that they put the Canaanites
under tribute, but did not completely drive them out.
Judg 1:29 Nor
did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites who dwelt in Gezer;
so the Canaanites dwelt in
Judg 2:1 Gezer among them.”
“Then the Angel of the LORD came up from Gilgal
to Bochim, and said: "I led you up from Egypt
and brought you to the land of which I swore to your fathers; and I said,
Judg 2:2 'I
will never break My covenant with you.'
And you shall make no covenant with the inhabitants of this land; you
shall tear down their altars.' But you have not obeyed My voice.
Judg 2:3 Why
have you done this? "Therefore I
also said, 'I will not drive them out before you; but they shall be thorns in
your side, and their gods shall be a snare to you.'"
A condition of Jewish inheritance of that land
was the elimination of the sinful native inhabitants. Now whether they are
aware of it or not, and whether the world is prepared to accept this fact or
not, what is happening in the Middle East is a continuation of the process the
Israelite people had started in ancient time but had not finished. But now there is one big difference: the
kingdom that God is preparing for the Jews in the Middle East will be inherited
by people who live by the Law of God not the law of the jungle as they do at
present. The Millennial Kingdom will be
based on entirely new borders and customs.
Its King will be Jesus Christ, and only those that turn to Him will
inherit that Kingdom, and they could come from any nation. In other words, the Kingdom of Jesus Christ
belongs to the Jews by faith not by blood.
The American Christians who have allied
themselves with the current Jews, in the belief that they will inherit that
Kingdom, are betraying their own legacy and making a mockery of Jesus’ Gospel
and His teachings. I they want to help
the Jews, they can do so by preaching the need to convert to Jesus Christ now,
so that God would help them through the catastrophe that is about to hit their
country and the world. They should never
have forgotten that those who take the sword will perish by the sword (Mat
26:52), and only the elect of God can be sure of God’s salvation (Mat. 24:22).
What the Jews do in the Middle East right now
is wrong even by the standards of king David that extended the Kingdom of
Israel from the Nile to the Euphrates.
The rule he applied then, and approved by God, was to either obliterate
the sinful native inhabitants altogether, or convert them to the Law of God and
let them live as servants in his kingdom.
But the mishmash of inequity the Jews practice in the Middle East at
present – punishing parents for the sins of their children, destroying their
homes, and leaving them broken hearted in the street, is contrary to the Law of
God, which they claim to uphold.
Ezek 18:1
“The word of the LORD came to me again, saying, “What do you mean when you use this proverb
concerning the land of Israel, saying:
Ezek 18:2
'The fathers have eaten sour grapes, And the children's teeth are set on
edge'?
Ezek 18:3
"As I live," says the Lord GOD, "you shall no longer use
this proverb in Israel.
Ezek 18:4
"Behold, all souls are Mine; The soul of the father As well as the
soul of the son is Mine;
Ezek 18:5 The
soul who sins shall die. But if a man is just And does what is lawful and
right;
Ezek 18:6 If
he has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted up his eyes to the idols of the
house of Israel, Nor defiled his neighbor's wife, Nor approached a woman during
her impurity;
Ezek 18:7 If
he has not oppressed anyone, But has restored to the debtor his pledge; Has
robbed no one by violence, But has given his bread to the hungry And covered
the naked with clothing;
Ezek 18:8 “If
he has not exacted usury Nor taken any increase, But has withdrawn his hand
from iniquity And executed true judgment between man and man;
Ezek 18:9 If
he has walked in My statutes And kept My judgments faithfully; He is just; He
shall surely live!" Says the Lord GOD.
Ezek 18:10
"If he begets a son who is a robber Or a shedder of blood, Who does
any of these things,
Ezek 18:11
And does none of those duties, But has eaten on the mountains Or defiled
his neighbor's
Ezek 18:12
wife; If he has oppressed the poor and needy, Robbed by violence, Not
restored the pledge,
Ezek 18:13
Lifted his eyes to the idols, Or committed abomination; If he has
exacted usury Or taken increase; Shall he then live? He shall not live! If he
has done any of these abominations, He shall surely die; His blood shall be
upon him.
Ezek 18:14
"If, however, he begets a son Who sees all the sins which his
father has done, And considers but does not do likewise;
Ezek 18:15
Who has not eaten on the mountains, Nor lifted his eyes to the idols of
the house of Israel,
Ezek 18:16
Nor defiled his neighbour's wife;
Has not oppressed anyone, Nor withheld a pledge, Nor robbed by violence,
But has given his bread to the hungry And covered the naked with clothing;
Ezek 18:17
Who has withdrawn his hand from the poor And not received usury or
increase, But has executed My judgments And walked in My statutes; He shall not
die for the iniquity of his father; He shall surely live!
Ezek 18:18
"As for his father, Because he cruelly oppressed, Robbed his
brother by violence, And did what is not good among his people, Behold, he
shall die for his iniquity.
Ezek 18:19
"Yet you say, 'Why should the son not bear the guilt of the
father?' Because the son has done what is lawful and right, and has kept all My
statutes and observed them, he shall surely live.
Ezek 18:20
"The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of
the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the
righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the
Ezek 18:21
wicked shall be upon himself.
"But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has
committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall
surely live; he shall not die.
Ezek 18:22
"None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be
remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he
shall live.
Ezek 18:23
"Do I have any pleasure at all that the wicked should die?"
says the Lord GOD, "and not that he should turn from his ways and
live?
Ezek 18:24
"But when a righteous man turns away from his righteousness and
commits iniquity, and does according to all the abominations that the wicked
man does, shall he live? All the righteousness which he has done shall not be
remembered; because of the unfaithfulness of which he is guilty and the sin
which he has committed, because of them he shall die.
Ezek 18:25
"Yet you say, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' Hear now, O house
of Israel, is it not My way which is fair, and your ways which are not
fair?’
Ezek 18:26
When a righteous man turns away from his righteousness, commits
iniquity, and dies in it, it is because of the iniquity which he has done that
he dies.
Ezek 18:27
"Again, when a wicked man turns away from the wickedness which he
committed, and does what is lawful and right, he preserves himself alive.
Ezek 18:28
"Because he considers and turns away from all the transgressions
which he committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die.”
Ezek 18:29
Yet the house of Israel says, 'The way of the Lord is not fair.' O house
of Israel, is it not My ways which are fair, and your ways which are not fair?
"Therefore I will judge you,
Ezek 18:30 O
house of Israel, every one according to his ways," says the Lord GOD.
Ezek 18:31
"Repent, and turn from all your transgressions, so that iniquity
will not be your ruin.” "Cast away
from you all the transgressions which you have committed, and get yourselves a
new heart and a new spirit. For why should you die, O house of Israel? "For I have no pleasure
Ezek 18:32 in the death of one who dies," says
the Lord GOD. "Therefore turn and live!"
I saw a documentary film from the Middle East recently in which a poor
old Palestinian woman was living in a limited space on the lower floor of her
house while Israeli settlers were living unperturbed in the spacious upper
floor. All she said was: “May God grant
them what they deserve”. That is one of the most powerful prayer anyone can
make before God, especially for one’s enemies.
The Jews better pray to God that He does not give them what they
deserve, for if their enemy’s prayer is heard they are in bigger trouble than
they can imagine.
What the Jews should remember is that the Palestinians of today are not
like their ancient counterparts who polluted the land with abominable
practices. Today’s Palestinians practice
a religion that has its roots in Abraham, just like theirs (See the next
article). Of course, Islam is not going
to save the Palestinians any more than Judaism is going to save the Jews when
the Great Tribulation engulfs the world shortly. Both Jews and Palestinians need to change
their heart and convert to Jesus Christ without delay, otherwise there will be
no end to the common troubles they inflict on themselves. The following Scriptures reflect the
transition of the Middle East from the current age to the Millennial Kingdom of
Jesus Christ.
Zec 12:1 “The burden of the word of
the LORD against Israel. Thus says the LORD, who stretches out the heavens,
lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him:
Zec 12:2 "Behold, I will make
Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay
siege against Judah and Jerusalem. "And it shall happen in that day that I
will make
Zec 12:3 Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave
it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are
gathered against it. "In that day," says the LORD,
Zec 12:4 "I will strike every
horse with confusion, and its rider with madness; I will open My eyes on the
house of Judah, and will strike every horse of the peoples with blindness.
Zec 12:5 "And the governors of
Judah shall say in their heart, 'The inhabitants of Jerusalem are my strength
in the LORD of hosts, their God.
Zec 12:6 "In that day I will
make the governors of Judah like a firepan in the
woodpile, and like a fiery torch in the sheaves; they shall devour all the
surrounding peoples on the right hand and on the left, but Jerusalem shall be
inhabited again in her own place; Jerusalem.
Zec 12:7 "The LORD will save
the tents of Judah first, so that the glory of the house of David and the glory
of the inhabitants of Jerusalem shall not become greater than that of
Judah. "In that day
Zec 12:8 the LORD will defend the
inhabitants of Jerusalem; the one who is feeble among them in that day shall be
like David, and the house of David shall be like God, like the Angel of the
LORD before them.
Zec 12:9 "It shall be in that
day that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem.
Zec 12:10 "And I will pour on
the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and
supplication; then they will look on Me whom they pierced. Yes, they will mourn
for Him as one mourns for his only son, and grieve for Him as one grieves for a
firstborn.
Zec 12:11 "In that day there
shall be a great mourning in Jerusalem, like the mourning at Hadad Rimmon in the plain of
Megiddo.
Zec 12:12 "And the land shall
mourn, every family by itself: the family of the house of David by itself, and
their wives by themselves; the family of the house of Nathan by itself, and
their wives by themselves;
Zec 12:13 "the family of the
house of Levi by itself, and their wives by themselves; the family of Shimei by itself, and their wives by themselves;
Zec 12:14 "all the families that
remain, every family by itself, and their wives by themselves.
Zec 13:1 "In that day a fountain
shall be opened for the house of David and for the inhabitants of Jerusalem,
for sin and for uncleanness. “It shall
be in that day," says the LORD of hosts,
Zec 13:2 "that I will cut off
the names of the idols from the land, and they shall no longer be remembered. I
will also cause the prophets and the unclean spirit to depart from the land.
That will be the end of Judaism, of Islam, and
of every other religion, and the beginning of a new universal religion – the
religion of Jesus Christ.
Islam’s Legacy in Judaism and Christianity
The word Palestinian these days identifies the
people who live in narrow and isolated patches of land on either side of
Israel. But if we take the word in its
ancient connotations, Palestina was a Roman province that comprised the whole
of the Middle East, from Asia Minor to the Nile and from the Mediterranean to
the Arabian Peninsula.
If we look further back in history, we find an
amazing legacy of the people who lived in those lands in both Judaism and
Christianity. Let us begin with
Islam. The Islamic people say that
Muhammad was their great prophet, and he was; but they also say that Abraham
was their forefather, as he was of the Jews, and that is true too. The question
is, when did the Islamic religion really begin: at Mohammed or at Abraham’s
time?
Is it right to say that Islam began with
Muhammad when the roots of the people who began that religion go as far back as
Abraham? Wouldn’t it rather be more
accurate to say that God accomplished in Muhammad what He promised Abraham more than two millennia earlier? If we place Islam in its proper historical
context we find that there are far more links and similarities between the
three religions – Judaism, Christianity and Islam – than if we look at their
degenerate condition in which they have came down to us.
Surely Mohammad had visions from God and
codified the law that gave Islam its identity, but before him the Arabs were
not complete strangers to God. They were
not in the same league as the occupants of Palestine that were supposed to be
wiped out or driven out altogether from Palestine due to their abominable
practices that had polluted the land. The Arabs had a good seed in themselves,
having come out of the loins of Abraham, the friend of God, just like the
Israelite tribes.
Isa 41:8
"But you, Israel, are My servant, Jacob whom I have chosen, The
descendants of Abraham My friend.”
God chose Israel to disseminate His law among
the Gentiles, but the Arabs could not have been complete strangers to His law either,
a fact confirmed by the similarities between Islamic and Judaic codes of
law. Either that, or Muhammad was
trained in a Judaic school of law, a preposterous idea.
We may not like aspects of Islamic law, but if
Judaism had prevailed and come down to us in its raw form, we too would cut the
limbs of thieves, and stone adulterers to death in market places.
People keep saying that the Arabs were a bunch
of wild tribes, fighting savagely among themselves before Mohammad tamed them
and gave them a semblance of civilisation.
But so were Israel’s tribes, both before and after Moses gave them the
law of God. Wild and fighting among
themselves the Arabic tribes were, but pagan they were not, as many of our
critics keep telling us. It is on the
customs and laws inherited from Abraham that Mohammed built the Islamic code of
laws.
Moses was a great prophet. Mohammed was a great prophet. But greater than they both was the man whom
God declared to be His friend – Abraham.
A friend of God is greater than a prophet of God. In the course of time there have been many
prophets (messengers) of God, but only one friend of God.
Abraham was an obedient and fearful man before
God, and that is why God said that the whole world would be blessed in his seed. If we look at the life of Abraham, we find
that he was familiar with the laws that God gave Moses for Israel later
on. So was Isaac, so was Jacob, and so
were the twelve tribes. Is it not it
reasonable then to assume that so was Ishmael, Abraham’s first son, and the
father of the Arabs?
The people that gave rise to Judaism and Islam
not only have common roots in Abraham, but have equally benefited from
Abraham’s blessings down through the centuries. Notice God promised Abraham
regarding Ishmael.
Gen 16:10
“Then the Angel of the LORD said to [Hagar], "I will multiply your
descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude.”
Gen 16:11
"And the Angel of the LORD said to her: "Behold, you are with
child, And you shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, Because the
LORD has heard your affliction.”
Gen 16:13
“Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her,
You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, "Have I also here seen Him who
sees me?
Gen 16:14
"Therefore the well was called Beer Lahai
Roi; observe, it is between Kadesh
and Bered.
Gen 16:15 So
Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.”
Gen 17:18
“And Abraham said to God, "Oh, that Ishmael might live before
You!"
Gen 17:19
Then God said: "No, Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you
shall call his name Isaac; I will establish My covenant with him for an
everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
Gen 17:20
"And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him,
and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget
twelve princes, and I
will make him a great nation.”
God established his covenant with Isaac, but
Ishmael was to become a ‘great nation’ too.
God however does not exclude anyone from the
covenant of salvation that He fulfilled in Jesus Christ. That is why we say
that converting to Christianity does not mean giving up on either of the two
prophets: Moses or Muhammad, for neither Judaism under Moses, nor Islam under
Muhammad, are complete without Jesus Christ.
Both prophets prepared their peoples for this world, and both fulfilled
their destinies admirably having grown into religious empires that covered the
world.
Jesus Christ however spoke of a different kind
of kingdom, one that does not belong to this world.
John 8:23
“And He said to them, "You are from beneath; I am from above. You
are of this world; I am not of this world.”
John 18:35
“Pilate answered, "Am I a Jew? Your own nation and the chief priests
have delivered You to me. What have You
John 18:36
done?" Jesus answered,
"My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, My
servants would fight, so that I should not be delivered to the Jews; but now My
kingdom is not from here."
John 18:37
Pilate therefore said to Him, "Are You a king then?" Jesus
answered, "You say rightly that I am a king. For this cause I was born,
and for this cause I have come into the world, that I should bear witness to the
truth. Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice."
Neither Moses nor Muhammad were from above;
they were both human beings born of humans.
Not so Jesus Christ. He was born
of the seed of God, planted into a virgin that came from the seed of David,
just as the Scriptures have predicted long in advance.
Isa 7:10
“Moreover the LORD spoke again to Ahaz,
saying, "Ask a sign for yourself from the LORD
Isa 7:11 your God; ask it either in
the depth or in the height above."
Isa 7:14
"Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, the
virgin shall conceive and bear a Son, and shall call His name Immanuel
[Literally God-With-Us].“
Jesus Christ was confirmed as the expected
Messiah and Saviour of the whole world by the multitude of miracles He
performed, the likes of which no man had ever come near to accomplishing.
Acts 2:22
"Men of Israel, hear these words: Jesus of Nazareth, a Man attested
by God to you by miracles, wonders, and signs which God did through Him in your
midst, as you yourselves also know;
Acts 2:23
"Him, being delivered by the determined purpose and foreknowledge
of God, you have taken by lawless hands, have crucified, and put to death;
Acts 2:24
"whom God raised up, having loosed the pains of death, because it
was not possible that
Acts 2:25 He
should be held by it. "For David
says concerning Him: 'I foresaw the LORD always before my face, For He is at my
right hand, that I may not be shaken.
Therefore my heart rejoiced,
Acts 2:26 and
my tongue was glad; Moreover my flesh also will rest in hope.
Acts 2:27 For
You will not leave my soul in Hades, Nor will You allow Your Holy One to see
corruption.
Acts 2:28 You
have made known to me the ways of life; You will make me full of joy in Your
presence.'
Acts 2:29
"Men and brethren, let me speak freely to you of the patriarch
David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this
day.
Acts 2:30
"Therefore, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an
oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, He would
raise up the Christ to sit on his throne,
Acts 2:31
"he, foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of the
Christ, that His soul was not left in Hades, nor did His flesh see
corruption.
Acts 2:32
"This Jesus God has raised up, of which we are all witnesses.
Acts 2:33
"Therefore being exalted to the right hand of God, and having
received from the Father the promise of the Holy Spirit, He poured out this
which you now see and hear.
Acts 2:34
"For David did not ascend into the heavens, but he says himself:
'The LORD said to my Lord,
Acts 2:35
"Sit at My right hand, Till I make Your enemies Your
footstool."'
Acts 2:36
"Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly that God has
made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ."
Acts 2:37 Now
when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the
rest of the
Acts 2:38
apostles, "Men and
brethren, what shall we do?" Then
Peter said to them, "Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the
name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive
Acts 2:39 the
gift of the Holy Spirit. "For the promise is to you and to your children,
and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call."
Now here is where we come to the legacy of the
Islamic and Palestinian people in both Judaism and Christianity. According to the Scriptures, Jesus Christ was
the Son of David, but David was a great, grandson of a Jewish father and a
Moabites mother (See the story in the book of Ruth). Moab is said to be the father of the
Jordanians. Therefore, through His
human lineage, Jesus Christ had blood in Himself from both Judaism and
Islam.
Do you think that that was done by
accident? Nothing in the Bible has ever
been put there by accident. It was done rather to show the Islamic people that
when they come to Jesus Christ they do not embrace a stranger but their own
Son, just like the Jews.
Moreover, if we take a more carefully look at
the Israelite history, we find an amazing number of interconnections between
them and their surrounding people. The
Jews intermarried Canaanite women (Genesis 38).
The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh came from Joseph and an Egyptian
woman. King Rehoboam had Solomon as father
and an Ammonite woman as mother (1 Kings 14:31). We already pointed out that David had a
Jewish father and a Moabites mother. The
master craftsman of the Temple of God had an Israelite woman as mother and a man
of Tyre as father (1 Kings 7:13-14). And
there are other similar examples. But
what is perhaps even more extraordinary
is that Jesus Christ acknowledge a debt to the Canaanites by appointing one
their own among His Apostles.
Mat 10:2 “Now
the names of the twelve apostles are these: first, Simon, who is called Peter,
and
Mat 10:3
Andrew his brother; James the son of Zebedee,
and John his brother; Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax
collector; James the son of Alphaeus, and Lebbaeus, whose surname was Thaddaeus;
Mat 10:4 Simon the Canaanite, and Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him.
Mat 10:5
These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: "Do not go
into the way of the
Mat 10:6
Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. "But go rather to the lost sheep of the
Mat 10:7
house of Israel. "And as you
go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'
Now we know that in the Kingdom of God the twelve Apostles will sit on
thrones beside Jesus Christ, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:23
“Then Jesus said to His disciples, "Assuredly, I say to you that it
is hard for a rich man to
Mat 19:24
enter the kingdom of heaven”. And
again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle
than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God."
Mat 19:25
When His disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying,
"Who then can be saved?"
Mat 19:26 But
Jesus looked at them and said to them, "With men this is impossible, but
with God all things are possible."
Then Peter answered and said to Him,
Mat 19:27
"See, we have left all and followed You. Therefore what shall we
have?"
Mat 19:28 So
Jesus said to them, "Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration,
when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve
thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.
Mat 19:29
"And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father
or mother or wife or children or lands, for My name's sake, shall receive a
hundredfold, and inherit eternal life.
Mat 19:30
"But many who are first will be last, and the last first.”
So, in the Kingdom of God a man of Canaanite
roots will rule over one of the tribes of Israel. That will be the ultimate vengeance of the
Palestinians over the ‘infidels’. Well,
really, what that shows us rather is the international character of
Christianity, and the fact that Jesus Christ accepts people for the most
prestigious positions in His kingdom from all nations regardless of their
heritage. Jesus Christ also expressed
great admiration for a Canaanite woman who showed unusual faith in Him.
Mat 15:22
“And behold, a woman of Canaan came from that region and cried out to
Him, saying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord,
Mat 15:23 Son
of David! My daughter is severely demon-possessed." But He answered her not a word. And His
disciples came and urged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she cries out
after us."
Mat 15:24 But
He answered and said, "I was not sent except to the lost sheep of the
house of Israel."
Mat 15:25
Then she came and worshiped Him, saying, "Lord, help me!" But He answered and said,
Mat 15:26
"It is not good to take the children's bread and throw it to the
little dogs."
Mat 15:27 And
she said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the little dogs eat the crumbs which fall
from their
Mat 15:28
masters' table. "Then Jesus
answered and said to her, "O woman, great is your faith! Let it be to you
as you desire." And her daughter was healed from that very hour.”
What saved that woman and her daughter was her
faith. Her daughter was healed on the
spot, but we have no doubt that she gained a place in the Kingdom of Jesus
Christ through her faith too.
Christianity has always been a religion for
the afflicted – the people who have suffered at the lawlessness, violence and
destruction that has characterised this world from the very beginning. The Palestinian people, as well as the Jews
and all those who are currently afflicted around the world, can turn their
misfortune into an asset by turning to the One and only Saviour of the world,
the very Son of God and founder of Christianity.
"We must through many tribulations enter
the kingdom of God", said one of the Apostles (Acts 14:22). That Kingdom of God comes with an exceedingly
wonderful bonus: eternal life. Not life
in a non-existent paradise after death, but real life in real Kingdom, after
the resurrection and judgment of God.
This is what Jesus Christ said about the struggles for life in this
world:
Mat 10:28
"And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul.
But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
He went on to say:
Mat 10:38
"He who does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy
of Me.
Mat 10:39
"He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for
My sake will find it.”
Those who set their life on this world will
lose it, but those who seek righteousness, truth, justice, peace, and love, in
submission to God, will gain more than life, will gain immortality in His
Kingdom.
God does not recognise nations on boundaries
set by men, but on cultural, linguistic, and religious ties. It should come as no surprise that it took
God a long time, by human standards, to establish Islam as a world religion and
power. He is not bound by the time
limitations that we humans are. What seems a long time to us is a drop in the
ocean for Him. When He made His promises
to Abraham and his children, He did not set a succession or a dateline for
their accomplishment.
Both Judaism and Islam were evolving
religions. They began with Abraham and
were given identities by their respective prophets: Moses and Mohammad. But just as Judaism was to be fulfilled in a
new Prophet, so was Islam, and for that matter, so are all religions of the
world.
Deu 18:15
"The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from
your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear.”
The fact that the Jews had remained frozen in
time and refused to hear the Prophet promised them by Moses does not invalidate
this principle. The Jews have not
subjected themselves to the righteousness of God, a righteousness based on
faith, but have sought to establish their own righteousness, one based on law.
Rom 1:16 For
I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to
salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.
Rom 1:17 For
in it the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith; as it is
written, "The just shall live by faith."
Rom 3:19 Now
we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law,
that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before
God. Therefore by the deeds of the law
Rom 3:20 no
flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
Rom 3:21 But
now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by
the
Rom 3:22 Law
and the Prophets, even the righteousness
of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there
is no difference;
Rom 3:23 for
all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
Rom 3:24
being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in
Christ Jesus,
Rom 3:25 whom
God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His
righteousness, because in His forbearance
Rom 3:26 God
had passed over the sins that were previously committed, to demonstrate at the
present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the
one who has faith in Jesus.
Rom 3:27
Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but
by the law of faith.
Rom 3:28
Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the
deeds of the law.
Rom 3:29 Or
is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles?
Rom 3:30 Yes,
of the Gentiles also, since there is one God who will justify the circumcised
by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
Do we then make void the law through faith?
Rom 3:31
Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.
Rom 4:1 What
then shall we say that Abraham our father has found according to the flesh?
Rom 4:2 For
if Abraham was justified by works, he has something to boast about, but not
before God.
Rom 4:3 For
what does the Scripture say? "Abraham believed God, and it was accounted
to him for righteousness."
Rom 4:4
Now to him who works, the wages are not counted as grace but as debt.
Rom 4:5
But to him who does not work but believes on Him who justifies the ungodly,
his faith is accounted for righteousness,
Rom 4:6
just as David also describes the blessedness of the man to whom God
imputes righteousness apart from works:
Rom 4:7
"BLESSED ARE THOSE WHOSE LAWLESS DEEDS ARE FORGIVEN, AND WHOSE SINS
ARE COVERED;
Rom 4:8
BLESSED IS THE MAN TO WHOM THE LORD SHALL NOT IMPUTE SIN."
Rom 4:9
Does this blessedness then come upon the circumcised only,
or upon the uncircumcised also? For we say that faith was accounted to Abraham
for righteousness.
Rom 4:10
How then was it accounted? While he was circumcised, or uncircumcised?
Not while circumcised, but while uncircumcised.
Rom 4:11
And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of
the faith which he had while still uncircumcised, that he might be the
father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that
righteousness might be imputed to them also,
Rom 4:12
and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision,
but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had
while still uncircumcised.
Rom 4:13 For
the promise that he would be the heir of the world was not to Abraham or to his
seed through the law, but through the righteousness of faith.
Rom 4:14 For
if those who are of the law are heirs, faith is made void and the promise made
of no
Rom 4:15
effect, because the law brings about wrath; for where there is no law
there is no
Rom 4:16
transgression. Therefore it is of
faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to
all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are
of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all (as it is written,
Rom 4:17 "I have made you a father of many
nations") in the presence of Him whom he believed; God, who gives life to
the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;
Rom 4:18 who,
contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many
nations, according to what was spoken, "So shall your descendants
be."
Rom 5:1
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God
through our Lord
Rom 5:2 Jesus
Christ, through whom also we have access
by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of
God.
Rom 5:3 And
not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation
produces
Rom 5:4
perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Rom 5:5 Now
hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our
hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.
Rom 5:6 For
when we were still without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.
Rom 5:7 For
scarcely for a righteous man will one die; yet perhaps for a good man someone
would even dare to die.
Rom 5:8 But
God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners,
Rom 5:9
Christ died for us. Much more
then, having now been justified by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through
Him.
Rom 6:12
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey
it in its lusts.
Rom 6:13 And
do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but
present yourselves to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as
instruments of righteousness to God.
Rom 6:14 For
sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under
grace.
Rom 6:15 What
then? Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace? Certainly not!
Rom 6:16 Do
you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that
one's slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience
leading to righteousness?
Rom 6:17 But
God be thanked that though you were slaves of sin, yet you obeyed from the
heart that form of doctrine to which you were delivered.
Rom 6:18 And
having been set free from sin, you became slaves of righteousness.
Rom 6:19 I
speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh. For just as you
presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to
more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for
holiness.
Rom 6:20 For
when you were slaves of sin, you were free in regard to righteousness.
Rom 6:21 What
fruit did you have then in the things of which you are now ashamed?
Rom 6:22 For
the end of those things is death. But
now having been set free from sin, and having become slaves of God, you have
your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.
Rom 6:23 For
the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus
our Lord.”
Rom 7:4
Therefore, my brethren, you also have become dead to the law through the
body of Christ, that you may be married to another; to Him who was raised from
the dead,
Rom 7:5 that
we should bear fruit to God. For when we
were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law were at
work in our members to bear fruit to death.
Rom 7:6 But
now we have been delivered from the law, having died to what we were held by,
so that we should serve in the newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of
the letter.
Rom 7:7 What
shall we say then? Is the law sin? Certainly not! On the contrary, I would not
have known sin except through the law. For I would not have known covetousness
unless the law had said,
Rom 7:8
"You shall not covet. "But sin, taking opportunity by the
commandment, produced in me all manner of evil desire. For apart from the law
sin was dead.
Rom 7:9 I was
alive once without the law, but when the commandment came, sin revived and I
died.
Rom 7:10 And
the commandment, which was to bring life, I found to bring death.
Rom 7:11 For
sin, taking occasion by the commandment, deceived me, and by it killed me.
Rom 7:12
Therefore the law is holy, and the commandment holy and just and good.
Rom 7:13 Has
then what is good become death to me? Certainly not! But sin, that it might
appear sin, was producing death in me through what is good, so that sin through
the commandment might become
Rom 7:14
exceedingly sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am
carnal, sold under sin.
Rom 7:15 For
what I am doing, I do not understand. For what I will to do, that I do not
practice; but what I hate, that I do.
Rom 7:16 If,
then, I do what I will not to do, I agree with the law that it is good.
Rom 7:17 But
now, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells in me.
Rom 7:18 For
I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) nothing good dwells; for to will is
present with me, but how to perform what is good I do not find.
Rom 7:19 For
the good that I will to do, I do not do; but the evil I will not to do, that I
practice.
Rom 7:20 Now
if I do what I will not to do, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells
in me.
Rom 7:21 I find
then a law, that evil is present with me, the one who wills to do good.
Rom 7:22 For
I delight in the law of God according to the inward man.
Rom 7:23 But
I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and
bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members.
Rom 7:24 O
wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
Rom 7:25 I
thank God; through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve
the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin.
Rom 8:1 There
is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not
walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:2 For the
law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the law of sin
and death.
Rom 8:3 For
what the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God did by
sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, on account of sin: He
condemned sin in the flesh,
Rom 8:4 that
the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us who do not walk
according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.
Rom 8:5 For
those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the
flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.
Rom 8:6 For
to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Rom 8:7
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to
the law of God, nor indeed can be.
Rom 8:8 So
then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.
Rom 8:9 But
you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells
in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.
Rom 8:10 And
if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life
because of
Rom 8:11
righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead
dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your
mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”
Rom 9:30 What
shall we say then? That Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have
attained to righteousness, even the righteousness of faith;
Rom 9:31 but
Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not attained to the law of
righteousness.
Rom 9:32 Why?
Because they did not seek it by faith, but as it were, by the works of the law.
Rom 9:33 For
they stumbled at that stumbling stone.
As it is written: "Behold, I lay in Zion a stumbling stone and rock
of offense, And whoever believes on Him will not be
put to shame.
Rom 10:1
"Brethren, my heart's desire and prayer to God for Israel is that
they may be saved.
Rom 10:2 For
I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to
knowledge.
Rom 10:3 For
they being ignorant of God's righteousness, and seeking to establish their own
righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God.
Rom 10:4 For
Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.
Rom 10:5 For
Moses writes about the righteousness which is of the law, "The man who
does those
Rom 10:6
things shall live by them.
"But the righteousness of faith speaks in this way, "Do not
say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?' " (that is, to bring
Christ down from above) or,
Rom 10:7
" 'Who will descend into the abyss?' " (that is, to bring
Christ up from the dead).
Rom 10:8 But
what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your
heart"
Rom 10:9
(that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with
your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him
from the dead, you will be saved.
Rom 10:10 For
with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession
is made
Rom 10:11
unto salvation. For the Scripture says, "Whoever believes on Him
will not be put to shame."
Rom 10:12 For
there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is
rich to all
Rom 10:13 who
call upon Him. For "whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be
saved."
What these wonderful passages are telling us
is that a righteousness based on faith is what counts when it comes to
salvation and eternal life. But there is
more to it, for notice what Jesus Christ said about faith.
John 20:24
“Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when
Jesus came.
John 20:25
The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the
Lord." So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of
the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into
His side, I will not believe."
John 20:26
And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with
them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said,
John 20:27
"Peace to you!" Then He
said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach
your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but
believing."
John 20:28
And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"
John 20:29
Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have
believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
It is an enormously liberating experience when
one puts his trust in God, embracing Him and His principles.
Psa 56:11 “In God I have put my
trust; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?”
Psa 118:6
“The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?”
Psa 23:1 “The
LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
Psa 23:2 He
makes me to lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside the still waters.
Psa 23:3 He
restores my soul; He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's
sake.
Psa 23:4 Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil;
For You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
Psa 23:5 You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head
with oil;
Psa 23:6 My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All
the days of my life; And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.”
The time for aggressive religions is
over. The time for loving your enemies
as yourself and submitting to the will of God is here and now. Those who stand against the tide of history
will be crashed by it. Humanity is truly
on the brink of calamitous changes. If
people find themselves unprepared for those changes it will not be because they
have not been told about it, but because they have shut their ears to sound
knowledge and chose willing ignorance.
God is ready to open His heart to anyone who
welcomes His Son Jesus Christ. The
nations who refuse to do so will simply vanish from the face of the earth.
Zec 2:11 "Many nations shall be
joined to the LORD in that day, and they shall become My people. And I will
dwell in your midst. Then you will know that the LORD of hosts has sent Me to
you.”
Acts 10:34
“Then Peter opened his mouth and said: "In truth I perceive that
God shows no partiality.
Acts 10:35
"But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is
accepted by Him.”
When Jesus Christ will establish the Kingdom
of God, Israel will be one of three honoured nations.
Isa 19:21
“Then the LORD will be known to Egypt, and the Egyptians will know the
LORD in that day, and will make sacrifice and offering; yes, they will make a
vow to the LORD and perform it.
Isa 19:23 In
that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria, and the Assyrian will
come into Egypt and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians will serve
with the Assyrians.
Isa 19:24 In
that day Israel will be one of three with Egypt and Assyria [modern Germany]; a
blessing in the midst of the land, whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying,
Isa 19:25 "Blessed is Egypt My
people, and Assyria the work of My hands, and Israel My inheritance."
Israel of course means all twelve of the
tribes of Israel, not only the Jews.
That includes the nations of Europe and those that have arisen from the
European Empires.
Now just as Judaism in its current form will
come to an end at the return of Jesus Christ, so will Islam and all other
religions. That event is truly at hand,
so why not give yourselves a head start by embracing the eternally saving
religion of the Son of God.
Darwin, And His
Theory Of Evolution,
Finally Put To Rest
On June 12, 2003, Australian public
broadcaster, the ABC, presented a televised program that will shake the
worldwide scientific establishment to its core.
It presented well-documented data which showed that Darwin’s theory of
evolution has never had any scientific foundation whatsoever. The data was presented not by theologians or
creationist scientists, who have unsuccessfully fought this theory from the
very beginning, but by evolutionary scientists themselves.
The effect of this presentation will have far
reaching and costly consequences upon educational institutions everywhere,
which will have to rewrite their biology books and retrain their teachers in
accordance with the new discoveries.
The program represents such an important
milestone in the development of scientific research that we decided to present
a transcript of much of it so that it could be viewed, studied, and analysed at
length by all interested parties.
“Ted’s Evolution”
“For twenty five years, he [Ted Steele] has been trying to show that
improvements made to the body in one generation, can be passed on to the
next. But to do so, he will have to shatter
one of the great foundations of science – Charles Darwin’s Theory of
Evolution.
For his transgression, Ted Steel has been hound down, exiled and called a
heretic. Either he has made a monumental
blunder, or a discovery that could change our understanding of how we
evolved.
Ted’s Steel journey begins in 1978 in Toronto, Canada, when he was
working with a group of young scientists on cutting age research into how the
body improves its immune system. Here he
met Reg Guzinsky, who would come to play a key role in his future work.
Dr. Ted Steele, Molecular Immunologist:
”Well, I’ve read Reg first, and he was giving a seminar in the swash
buckling tradition of young scientists who couldn’t really care less of what
the rest of us thought. That was Reg. I was very attractive to that for obvious
reasons and we became instant friends.”
Dr. Reg Gorczynski, Cell Biologist:
“He was very vibrant, he was very enthusiastic, he was very down to
earth, and I thought, I mean, this fellow would be fun to work with. “
Caption:
June 1978
Commentator: “It was at this time that Ted read a book that would change
the course of his career. In it, science
writer, Arthus Kirsma (?) resurrected a 200 years old
theory of evolution. John Baptiste Lamarck,
proposed that characteristics acquired during our life time, could be passed on
to offspring. If Lamarck was right, then
improved immunity in our lifetime could be passed on to our children. But if correct, this would shake evolutionary
theory to its core.
T.S. “It’s so simple, it’s just
dropped down, you know, the pencil just dropped down the page. And a great feeling of peace came over
me. And I thought, well that solved that
one. Little did I know, a quarter of a
century later where it would lead.”
Com. “For Ted Steele if would mean
embracing one of the most discredited theories in the history of science. Lamarck believed that the giraffe got its
long neck by reaching for higher leaves, passing the trait on to future
generations.
Fifty years later, this theory of evolution was abandoned when Charles
Darwin proposed that evolution is the result of natural selection. The giraffe’s long neck, Darwin’s Theory
suggested, is not the result of acquired traits being passed on to offspring,
but of accidental mutations that over thousands of years help the species adapt
to its environment. But Ted Steele
remained convinced, that at least in the case for immunity acquired traits
could in fact be passed on.”
T.S. “As soon as I saw Reg I said,
Reg I saw this idea. Boom, he
immediately saw the significance of it.”
Com. “It was in this local bar that they first discussed Ted’s
theory.”
T.S. “At that time we had no idea what we would do. We were just talking
about of how utterly convincing the theory was.”
Com. “Then Ted’s supervisor asked him to give a seminar to explain how
this Lamarckian idea might work.”
T.S. “The seminar ended in disarray; and it was actually a violent
seminar, you know, ha, ha.
He actually had to terminate it after five to ten minutes because quite
clearly no one wanted to listen to what I was going to say.”
Dr. Alastair Cunningham, Immunologist, Research Supervisor: “He was coming up against a number of people
here with worldwide reputations. When
you have people like that they are not about to give up their positions to some
maverick who was going to change the whole fabric underneath them, are they,
ha, ha.”
Reg Gorczynski. “People could not
handle the way the message was trying to be presented. Let things graaadually
sink through to the audience; this is a very controversial subject, challenges
a lot of your dogma; OK let me come back and talk to you about it again
tomorrow. Well, Ted wasn’t like that. Here it is, bloody data is unequivocal. You accept it; you don’t accept it? I mean, it’s gone, it’s history after that,
ha, ha.”
Com. “What Ted Steele was
challenging was not only Darwin’s Theory of evolution, but one of the most
fundamental principles of biology – the Wiseman barrier. In 1885, August Wiseman, set up a grizzly
experiment to disprove the Lamarckian idea that acquired traits could be passed
on. He chopped off the tails of hundreds
of live mice to see if their offspring would be born without tail. After he mutilated 22 generations of rodents,
not one mouse was born without a tail.
Wiseman’s explanation was that there must be an impenetrable barrier
between body cells and reproductive cells.
Its purpose is the very basis of survival. It stops harmful mutations being passed on to
the next generation.”
T.S. “Penetrating the Wiseman’s
barrier to me was a major problem, in biology, which had to be established,
full stop. And I’ve done my darndest,
over 25 years to penetrate that barrier, in different ways, theoretically and
experimentally.”
Com. “If Ted could find a way of
crossing this barrier, then he might be able to prove that Lamarckian
inheritance, at least in the immune system, could be correct. First he needed to explain how genes could
cross the Wiseman’s barrier from body to reproductive cells. He began to compile a manuscript of his
ideas.”
T.S. “I was just in the library, I
was photocopying, I as thinking, I was transported by it. I was on a mission. I had to get this document down in its total
coherence, as quickly as possible before the next confrontation with that
institute.”
Com. “Meanwhile Reg Gorczynski had began some experiments without telling
Ted.”
T.S. “It was in that interlude
that Reg got me in the corridor. Can’t remember the exact day. He said, look,
the experiment is running; don’t worry about it. Ha, ha, ha, I said, what do you mean don’t
worry about it. “Don’t worry about it,” he said, “it is running”. “
Com. “Reg had devised what he
believed was the perfect test of Ted’s theory.
First, newborn male mice were injected with bone marrow from another
mouse. The goal was to change their
immune system and make them tolerant to the foreign material. The next step was to see if this change could
be inherited. The animals were bred and
the offspring tested. They found that up
to 40 per cent showed the same immune tolerance. Was this proof that could finally silence Ted
Steele’s critics?”
R.G. “You never really anticipate
that you are going to come across an audience that’s prejudiced against the
data. And it’s because if you start with this preconception, that x could never
leave the y no matter what, I don’t give a toss, x never leaves the y, and then
someone shows you, here is x and I got y from it, your only reaction is, you baastard, you made the numbers up, ha, ha. And that’s been the reaction all along.”
Com. “To win independent support
for his controversial theory, Ted forwarded copies of the manuscript to some of
the world’s most prominent scientists, including science philosopher, Karl
Popper. If this group found flows in
Ted’s manuscript, his theory would be dead.”
T.S. “Here is a letter dated from Karl Popper, the 8th of
February 1979.
“My impression is that your work is one of the most important I have ever
read. It is a real breakthrough. It is the first serious attempt, as fas as I
know, to break through the Wiseman’s barrier.
My sincere congratulations, and my admiration! Yours sincerely, Karl Popper.”
“Well, what does that do to a young man, a young scientist who had just
formulated a theory?
I was on the right track. I may not be heading completely in the right
direction, or discover all the things I think I am going to discover, but I am
doing something that is important.”
Com. “With Popper’s encouragement Ted Steele had his manuscript
published. But for a young scientist, at
the start of his career, to openly embrace Lamarck, was asking for
trouble.
A. C. “Ted didn’t look for safety. He looked, err, he looked for
somewhere he could make a mark. And I
think he probably found it.”
Com. “Ted was convinced he could
cross the Wiseman barrier, even though the main stream science it remained
impenetrable.”
T.S. “The Wiseman barrier, you
don’t take it on lightly. And there are
no survivors; every one who had taken it on had never survived. They had virtually been wiped out of
science. Well, in a strange sort of way
that was a perverse challenge to me. I
said, look, it is so obviously permeable, how could someone get killed trying,
trying to cross it, ha, ha, ha.”
Com. “Ted’s paper was published in the prestigious journal of the
National Academy of Science. Word spread
that there was now strong evidence for the inheritance of acquired
immunity. Ted and Reg were invited on a
lecture tour of Europe. Still, doubts
persisted.
Prof. Leslie Brent, Immunologist.
“I was very interested in that paper, but at the same time I was very
sceptical about that data because they were, they claimed to have done
something which we have failed to do many years before, in 1953 when we worked
with (?) Torents.”
Com. “Leslie Brent had worked
years earlier with pioneer immunologist, Sir Peter Medawar. They too had looked for evidence of the
inheritance of acquired immunity.
Despite reservations, Medawar invited Ted Steele to work in his
laboratory.”
T.S. “Well, for me, looking for a
job, in desperation to leave Toronto, because I did not have a job there, it
was an honour to actually go to Medawar’s lab, and have that team repeat what
we were doing.”
Sir John Maddox, Radio Presenter, Editor “Nature” 1980 – 95. “Prof. Medawar was a very unusual
person. He was obviously brilliant, but
he was also very arrogant, very sure of himself, very sure of his ideas. And, it’s more than he was unable to suffer
fools gladly. He actually used to seek
them out, and push them out in a, in a very haughty fashion.”
Com. “For six months, prior to his
arrival in London, Ted Steele had been advising Medawar’s team on how to
reproduce his Toronto experiment. He
believed he had proved beyond doubt that an acquired immune tolerance could be
inherited. But when he arrived in London, full of hope in April 1980, the news
was not good.”
Dr. Arno Mullbacher, Researcher.
“As I recall, umm, I mentioned to Ted, that so far they have been unable
to reproduce the experiments.”
T.S. “I looked at him, I said, I
want to have a look at the data. ‘Well,
no, no, nothing in it.’ I said, well
tell me, how is it, I want to have a look at it. I got the data books, and to my horror, there
was striking difference.”
Com. “When Ted replotted their data, he reached a completely different
conclusion. He found that just as in the
Toronto experiment, some mice had inherited immune tolerance. According to Ted, Medawar’s team had misread
the data. Tempers flared, but they did
agree to repeat the experiments. This
only made matters worse.”
T.S. “It was here that the
controversy really erupted. I
personally, in my own interpretation of their data, didn’t believe that they
were contradictory; and that was the essence of the, of the ‘violence’ if you
like, of the controversy, because it was fundamental disagreement over what
were valid results and over what were not.”
Com. “In 1981, the BBC reported on a bitter stalemate over the bone
marrow experiment.”
Prof. Leslie Brent. “We have gone
to a fair amount of trouble to repeat this data, and we have done this using
through a very great extent the methods described by Gorczynski and Steele, and
I can’t say that the results have been uniformly negative.”
Com. “Steele strongly disagreed.”
T.S. “At the moment, the results
are a mixed bag. In some of the
experimental strategies we’ve seen some positive results. In some of the others, the question is
clouded and left open by the fact that there are severe technical problems in
some of the test systems.”
Com. “To settle the dispute, an
alternative test was conducted without Ted’s involvement. This time, the Medawar team looked for
inherited tolerance to skin grafts. It
all came to a head on a radio debate between Ted Steele and Leslie Bret,
chaired by John Maddox.”
J. M. “It was an extraordinary
interview. Broadly speaking, the two
people who had tried to repeat the experiment described how they have failed to
get the same result.”
T.S. “What they hadn’t realised
was that the night before I saw the table, saw the analysis, saw the solution,
worked all night, got it put it up on big sheets of wrap paper, pasted it
together, and at the critical moment during this round table with John Maddox
when they were going to have my head on the chopping block I went like this,
and I flashed this, hah, large graph out.”
Com. “Ted suddenly said, look I’ve
actually reworked Brent’s skin graft data; I’ve reworked the statistical
analysis, and far from proving me wrong it’s actually supporting my case.”
T. S. “I said, look at it, there is actually your data, hah, hah. Well, Brent just rocked back on his chair and
said, ‘Oh, no’. Maddox was swallowing
his cigarette.”
J.M. “This was the bombshell that literally
brought the proceedings to a halt.”
“It was well known to us, and should have been well known to him as well,
that male mice and female mice react slightly differently to skin graft from
another strain. And he lumped them all
together, and as result he came up with a markedly statistically significant
difference. Although I explained to him
why I thought his analysis was mistaken, he published the rewrite data under
the heading, Lamarck and inheritance, a conflict resolved.” (Three articles shown on screen with the
following titles: “Lamarck and immunity, a conflict resolved”, “Research
disputes theory of evolution”, and “Researchers give Darwin a 2nd
look”.
Com. “Eventually, even the
international press picked up on the conflict.
A public brawl amongst scientists of the highest repute was big
news.” (Another article with the
following title was flashed on the screen: “Monkeying with the theory of
evolution”). Clearly it would continue
so long as Ted remained in Medawar’s lap.”
(Another article was flashed on the screen with the title: “The Bad Boy
Of Biology”).
Ted Steele smiling: “I ended up
with just a stool, a lap stool, I had no office, everything was taken off
me. I was a real pariah. I was just sitting on the stool smoking a
cigarette, ha, ha.”
Dr. Arno Mullbacher, Researcher:
“Atmosphere became so bad in the lab that Medawar really had no choice.
I mean, it would have been totally irresponsible for Medawar to keep Ted for
another year.”
“I think it not a bit surprising that Ted and Medawar fell out. And Ted was the one who had to leave.”
Com. “For Steele in London it was the end of the line. Was he the victim of prejudice against
Lamarckism, or his theory simply not stack up?
He was about to join the ranks of others who have found themselves on
the scrap heap of science history. One
such scientist was Paul Camera. In the
1920s he attempted to prove Lamarckian inheritance. After being accused of fraud, he committed
suicide.” (Agricultural scenes from the former Soviet Union. Subtitles:
The seeds of this wheat . . . will increase the yield . . . by twenty
per cent.)
Com. “Not long after, even more
dismal failure unfolded in Soviet Russia.
Agronomist Trofim Lysenco,
attempted to use Lamarckian ideas to bust the country’s food supply. It was science driven by ideology: the
Marxist belief that just as the State could mould society, the environment
could be used to genetically improve crops.
Those who disagreed were either killed or sent to the Gulag.”
Prof. Steven Jones, Science Historian:
“Lysenko was really a terrifying moment in the
history of science. And it again it
shows very much the results of thinking that science is driven by human
desires, or by divine desires, which Lamarck felt to an extent. Stalin himself was strongly of the feeling
that, if you were a Marxist, everything was in the environment.
Lysenko claimed to have done experiments where he took plants from warm
climates, he took them to a cold climate, grew them for one generation and then
their offspring were able to withstand the cold climate. And if that were true, that would be
fantastic, because then you could grow wheat in Siberia, was the claim.”
Com. “Stalin appointed Lysenko to President of the Academy of Agricultural
Science. But Lysenko’s
methods resulted in a catastrophic failure of Soviet agriculture. Lamarckism
was dead.
S. J. “The fact that Ted Steele
jumped into what historically has been a swamp, is a very brave thing to have
done. But the trouble with swamps is
that they tend to suck people in, and they sink without trace.”
Com. “In 1981, Ted Steele was
rejected from the prestigious corridors of European science. He was left with no option. He returned home
to Australia.
A former colleague, Robert Blanden made contact. The two men had met years before at the John
Curtain School of Medical Research in Canberra. Over the years, Blanden had followed Ted’s
progress from a distance. Now he threw him
a lifeline.”
T.S. “At the pits of my despair
after the battles in England with Medawar and his group it was clear I was
unemployable. And Bob arranged through
Professor Pit Morrison at the John Curtain School of Medical Research, a
research fellow’s position in the Department of Immunology. And it was through Bob’s intense lobbying
and convincing Bead that he was doing the right thing, that I got a job.”
Prof. Bob Blanden, Molecular &Cellular Immunologist. “In offering Ted the job, he wrote a letter
in which he said, I am offering you this job, you know, and I know you were the
best candidate, but I don’t want you to work on that Lamarckian stuff, hah,
ha.”
T. S. “I said, what? He said,
‘that’s what you are signing off on when you signed that letter when you, you
promised not, not to do them. And I
said, uh . . . I never said, uh . . . and he said, Ted, just be pragmatic, get
back to Australia, get on with science and you are back on the payroll.”
R. B. “Ted took no notice of it,
and immediately got to work on Lamarckian stuff, as soon as he got back.”
Com. “The disappointments of
London, forced Ted to re-evaluate his experimental approach. If Lamarckian inheritance really existed, he
had to show how it worked in the body.
He knew that within cells, genes are routinely duplicated; he also knew
that duplicate genes can be parried around the body by harmless
retroviruses. The question was, could
mutated body genes be carried into the testes and inserted into the
reproductive cells? To find out, Ted now
had to work at the genetic level.”
R. B. “It was inevitable that if Ted wanted to, to discover more about
the processes he was interested in, he had to go to molecular immunology, and
do gene sequencing.”
Com. “In 1984, Ted accepted an
appointment at Wollongong University. He
started hunting for genes in mice that he could track from body cells to
reproductive cells. Mice have around 60
000 genes. In this tangle of DNA, how
could he possibly identify a specific gene sequence to follow across Wiseman’s
barrier? The odds seemed overwhelming,
but he finally found the pattern he was looking for. He observed in the offspring the same genetic
mutation pattern he had seen in the cells of the parent. For Ted, the only explanation was that the
genes had crossed Wiseman’s barrier.”
ABC TV News shot (December 1994),
‘GENETIC LEAP’ headline. Presenter:
“Updating Darwin. New genetic research
suggests parents may pass on more to their children than previously
thought. The findings suggest that
changes to the body’s immune system over our lives can actually be passed on to
the next generation. If true, they
represent a radical shake up in our understanding of evolution.”
Com. “When Bob Blanden saw this extraordinary new evidence he was
initially sceptical. He searched for
alternative explanations. But finally,
he resolved that the inheritance of acquired characteristics was at work.”
R. B. “It became clear the further
you went into it that the Darwinian position was untenable. That it did make sense. By then I became
convinced that Ted was probably right.
Ever since then, the two of us have been looking for other tests for the
proposition. And that is what we are
doing now.
There is no question these things happen. And for people to exclude it
from the paradigm of evolutionary biology is beyond me. You know, how can they
do that is, frankly, I think it is just stupid. And then they are not up to
date”
Caption:
September 1998
Com. “Then a publisher expressed interest in their controversial
research. The result was ‘Lamarck’s
Signature’. It encapsulated 20 years of
work, and reignited the Lamarckian debate.”
ABC TV debate: Presenter: “Robert Blanden let’s start with you. Ted Steele has been battling the scientific
establishment on this for 20 years. If
you are right, how come all the scientists say you are wrong?”
R.B. “Well, I don’t think they all
do. It’s a matter of looking at the
evidence. That evidence is published, and it is now a matter for anyone with a
better interpretation to publish that interpretation and argue why it is better
than the one that we’ve made.”
Presenter: “What do you say, Niles Eldridge, you’ve uh. . . the world of science is full
of people who have poured scorn on this theory?”
Dr. Niles Eldredge, American Museum of Natural History. “Well, we are looking for the truth here. I
think the most fundamental exciting possibility here is that we are going to
learn some more, systematically learn some more about the Wiseman’s barrier, we
are going to learn more about actually the particulars of how inheritance actually
works. So I think that is extremely exciting.”
Com. “So far, Ted and Bob had strong circumstantial evidence for acquired
inheritance. But they both new, the
actual proof was to observe the gene as it made its journey across Wiseman’s
barrier. Then an American team published
a paper that provided a key piece of the puzzle. They had discovered the role of a particular
enzyme in gene mutation. This could
enable Ted’s team to identify specific mutation patterns that they could then
track as they cross the barrier. Ted and
Bob immediately contacted the Americans.”
T. S. “The timing of this paper on the verge of the overseas trip, some
of the people involved, is just, well, it couldn’t be better.”
Com. “Meanwhile, publication of ‘Lamarck’s Signature’ abroad, had
catapulted the Lamarckian debate on to the global stage. Ted was invited to do
a promotional tour of Britain.”
T.S. “Well, I am remarkably
relaxed, actually. I suppose it is
because I am thoroughly prepared, and the story we are going to tell now over
in the UK is very coherent, the data very solid, and I have no fears. For the first time in my life, I feel the
“mini master of the universe”.
Caption: London, March 1999
Com. Ted’s presence in Britain almost 20 years after his public clash with
Peter Medawar’s team, had not gone unnoticed.”
Radio commentator interviewing Ted Steele in the studio: This is putting
you up again to be knocked down by the so-called scientific establishment who
threw you out of this country 18 years ago.”
T.S. “Yes!”
Radio Com. “So basically you are
here to rub their noses in, aren’t you?”
T.S. ‘Well, I sup . . .”
Radio Com. “Yes, you are.”
T.S. “Ha, ha, ha.”
Com. “Until now Ted’s new book had
not been seriously challenged. The night
before the national radio debate, Ted voiced his concerns to Bob. He was about to face prominent evolutionary
geneticist, and strong critic, Gabriel Dober.
T.S. “I am expecting the worst
with this guy. He, he’s originally from
Oxford, but it has now recently taken over chair at Leicester. In our books he is a potentially, you know, a
red rug to a bull.”
Prof. Gabriel Dover, Evolutionary Geneticist. “Not only is his theoretical premise a
howler, because he has not understood natural selection; you have to understand
your enemy, that’s the first thing. He
has not understood how natural selection works.
But he can’t give the evidence; he hasn’t got the basic piece of
evidence of how you get from the body cell into the sex cell.”
Pause. Different scene.
T.S. eating. “It is going to be
fast, fast and furious for five minutes.
I’ve just got to make sure I get the emphasis of the main message of
‘Lamarck’s Signature’ over. That main
message is that Lamarck’s signature is written all over our genes. I’ve got to get that message up.”
BBC studios.
Martin Redfern, Science Producer BBC Radio. “Of course I remember Ted Steele actually
when he was in England in the early 1980s and we did a broadcast with him, and
he seemed to be a heretic then, he seems to be a heretic still, but he reckons
that he’s got the evidence to back that up now, and that is what I am
interested to hear.”
Radio Com. “So, Professor Steele,
I thought that Lamarck’s theories had been disproved by quite simple
experiments, for example if you, err, people have cut off the mouse tails,
didn’t they, and found that the young of the mice have had tails, ha, ha.”
T.S. “Well, those sort of
experiments aren’t exactly the sort of experiments where the animal actively
adapts and acquires a characteristic (?). You know, but August Wiseman, who was
the man who probably had (?) these experiments, if he only realised or
remembered that the Jewish custom of removing foreskins had never resulted in a
Jewish babe without a foreskin, they probably wouldn’t even have started the
experiments.”
Radio Com. “Professor Gabriel
Dover, are you convinced?”
G. D. “No, I am not convinced.
There is no evidence whatsoever that we can transfer information from the body
cells to the germ line cells.”
Radio Com. “Ted Steele, I suppose
the big question is, have you proved your case, what new evidence is there in
your book?”
T.S. “Well, first of all can I say
this that, if Professor Dover had understood, really understood, the evidence
that we presented, he would never have said any of the things he has just
said. All of the evidence that we
collected indicates that the imprint of that pattern of genetic change in the
circulating white blood cells is imprinted on the, on the germ line genes.”
Radio Com. “So, Professor Dover,
you have not read the book properly, he says.”
G.D. “I have read the book thoroughly; and 20 years ago Ted Steele said
the same thing. And 20 years later, we
are still waiting for the evidence. There
are 280 pages in this book, and all the way through he talks about ‘things have
appeared to pass from the body cells to the sex cells’. I mean it could be a
very nice hypothesis, but to announce to the world that, that it is now proven
is simply misinformation.”
T.S. “Well, I have to come in and
emphatically point out to Professor Dover that he is completely wrong with his,
with his ideas with the antibody genes of the immune system aren’t the same as
any other genes. It is precisely because
they are unique in that respect that we actually tell that the information
moves from the one to the other. So he
has to go back and read the book and understand that these genes are not sort
of genes that he studies, they are antibodies genes. And they follow very different rules.”
Radio Com. “You will have to carry on that argument outside of the studio
(. . .) Thank you very much!”
Com. “Steele didn’t believe Dover
had understood the complexities of the science, but he could not escaped
Dover’s point that he still had no hard evidence of how genes are physically
transported to the sex cells. Would this
response affect Ted’s standing with his Australian colleagues?”
Caption: Canberra, Australia
T. S. “Good day, Bob! How are you going?
Long time no see!”
R. B. “That’s right!
T.S. “Anyway, what’s been, what’s
been happening mate? What’s happened to that little purple book that is
supposed to be a little seller?”
R.B. “I’ve just asked to look at
the amazon.com to see what’s . . .”
T.S. “Well, I’ll tell you, I went
to amazon.com in the UK yesterday.”
R.B. “O, yeah!”
T.S. “After Robyn alerted me to
it. And there is a little review of our
book. This was last Thursday, a week and a half after I left. ‘A week book,
that fails to substantiate its claims.’
That’s the title! (smiles).
R.B. “Hah, ha, ha.”
T.S. “This book is too much a work of advocacy to be taken at face
value. The reader has little idea
whether all the facts are given, and whether they are given objectively. Where detail is needed, it is not given. And
where counter arguments should have been discussed, they are not. I was not convinced that they had much of an
argument.”
R.B. “Well, it’s a garbage
review.”
T.S. “But you know, I could see it
in their eyes when I was there. That was
the un-stated subtext, in many encounters,”
Com. “Despite their bravado, Ted and Bob have failed to sway opinion at
the highest levels. They were now
desperately in need of funds to continue their research. They pinned their hopes with a well-financed
American team.”
T. S. Looking at a photo. “So, so
there is the . . . these are key people I met in Augusta, Georgia. That’s
Brendan Marshall; he is our key collaborator now in the United States. We got a
potentially viable long-term collaboration, a new player in the game.
R.B. “The new generation team;
that’s what it’s going to take. The old
players aren’t going to want to hear about this, but you will get guys like
Brendan, haven’t been in the field before, they will come in, open mind, and
they will want to know how this works; and they will change the field over
time.”
Com. “In Australia, Andrew
Franklin was one of the new generation of scientists joining Ted and Bob’s
team. His job was to prepare gene
samples for the Americans. He was well aware of the controversy surrounding
Ted’s theory, and the effect it could have on his career.”
Andrew Franklin, Ph. D. student.
“We are asking an interesting question, and are attempting to answer
that question in a rigorous and scientific manner. My opinion is that let the cards fall as
they will; I want to see whether it is true or not. Instead of discussing it anymore, let’s do
the science.”
Com. “Then Professor Bob Blanden
received an unexpected external academic review. His seven years collaboration with Ted had
attracted serious censure.”
T.S. “Maybe you can give us a proceed (?) of what is going on.”
R.B. “Well they are mainly bull .
. . err . . . the general thrust was
that, uh, I am a distinguished and senior immunologist with an international
reputation. And that I did a lot of
great work a long time ago, but ever since I started working with you is all
bull . . . I mean, it is clear that Steele is the, the bogey out there; and
they seem to have a mixture and revulsion and astonishment that I have been
dopey enough to actually collaborate with you.
The fact of the matter is that, I think that what we have done in the
last ten years is the best science I have ever done.”
Com. “In spite of the review, Bob
was allowed to continue his work at the John Curtain School of Medical
Research. However, Ted found himself in
even bigger trouble; trouble that threaten to end his 25-year quest to prove
acquired inheritance. Ted had accused
the University of Wollongong of soft marking, claiming the University had
upgraded the marks he had given two of his students.”
T. S. in front of computer. “Err,
this is having to go to the media, so I am going to pop this out now to the media.
Off she goes, . . . there it goes, down to the blue and yonder.”
Com. “After Ted had alerted the press, the University threatened
disciplinary action. The controversy
drew national, then international attention.”
Newspaper headline articles on the screen: “Uni whistleblower won’t
recant. Refusal to budge over
allegations of grade-doctoring.”
“Steele decides to say no more. But no back down, he says.” “Secret paths to higher education.”
Caption:
February 2001.
T.S. walking outside the University:
“Obviously, the letter last night was summary dismissal from the
University of Wollongong. And, . . . as
you might imagine, that’s caused turmoil in my life. I didn’t expect it to come to this.”
Ted Steele on the telephone: “Now
Bob, the issue here, my office, my office computer has all the germ line data
on (?), so we’ve got to get that somehow.”
Com. “The University allowed Ted back on campus; to clear out his
office.”
T.S. In front of his office:
“They’ve changed the lock.”
Media people taking photos.
Com. “However with the media
presence, he was told to come back later.
His years of data was still out of reach.”
T.S. “I have to come back on Monday. But I did get the following: I
managed to get the zip disk which contains all the human genome data that I
need. I’ve got all the rest at home in the other computer. Even of I get, . . . even if I get locked out
now, I can still function; it’s on that disk.”
Com. “Ted now had to work from home. Meanwhile he embarked on a Federal
Court challenge against his University.
With his data retrieved, he was finally able to refocus on his research.
A world away, an Italian scientist had made an extraordinary discovery
that seemed to support Ted’s theory. It was the work of a Reproductive
Geneticist, named Corrado Spadafora.”
Magazine cover on screen: “Cell”,
Volume 57, Number 5, June 1989.
Com. “In a story not unlike Ted’s, Corrado had made a splash in the
scientific press with his claim that sperm are able to absorb foreign genetic
material.” (Scenes form Corrado’s laboratory)
Com. “When other researchers
couldn’t get the same result, Corrado was asked to retract his findings. He refused.
It was two years before he was vindicated.
Caption: “Dr. Corrado Spadafora,
Reproductive Geneticist.” He is shown in his lab talking with members of his
staff in Italian.
Com. “Now, Corrado has accumulated
even more evidence. He has shown that
sperm can absorb foreign genetic material in a variety of animals.”
Dr. Corrado Spadafora, looking at some negatives and speaking in
English. “So you see, there are two
positive animals; this one here, and weakly, this one here. That, that’s a very good result, yeah!”
Com. “In 2001, Ted made the decision to visit Spadafora in Rome. Ted had discovered that there was common link
between the works of the American team and that of Corrado Spadafora. The Americans had found that a particular
enzyme was involved in the formation of new characteristics. Recently, Corrado Spadafora had shown that
this enzyme also assisted in the process of getting foreign genetic material
into the offspring. Had Wiseman’s
barrier been crossed?”
Scene: Corrado Spadafora and Ted Steele in his office looking at some
pictures.
T.S. “The Wiseman barrier, in
inverted commas, may be a complex thing at various levels, and it may be that
you can get staffed over, but then the critical act is getting it
integrated. But this may be a new mode
of inheritance you have discovered of course.”
C. S. “Add the DNA to the sperm,
the DNA get transferred.”
T.S. “Yeah, this is mind blowing, actually.”
C. S. “I don’t want to say too much.”
T.S. “Well, you see, it’s even
surprising me.”
C.S. “That’s bad science!”
General laughter. Next scenes
Spadafora and Steele visiting places in Rome.
T.S. “The main point is that all novel things in science are never going
to get mass support; there is not going to be any mass movement supporting a, a
novel thing.”
C.S. “When something is obvious,
then it gets a lot of support.”
T.S. “Yes! During the phase that
is not obvious, and when the problems are difficult, and the goals are big
goals and the steps are difficult to take, that’s when you need funding.”
C. S. “Yeah, I mean somebody should decide to fund the, the err (?)
research.”
T.S. “Yes! But who?”
C. S. “I don’t know. (Laughter).
T.S. “Visiting Corrado Spadafora
probably exceeded my expectations. I
found his science extremely exciting. All those things that he is doing,
dovetail nicely with our own program. If
we can sort of meet up in the middle somewhere that would be a real challenge.
So when I get back, you know, with Andrew and Bob, I will brief them on all of
this and we’ll see just what we can do.”
Com. “But just as they were negotiating a partnership with Spadafora, bad
news arrived from their American collaborators.
Key support for research that could help them identify and track
mutations patterns, had been withdrawn.”
T.S. “Well the word is that the
head of the lab wanted (?) the full cost to be paid to do all the necessary
analysis on the chips. If that’s the case, there is no point in proceeding out
there, but to get it back to Australia. It’s a bit disappointing, because this
was going to be an important collaboration.”
R.B. “That’s it, I mean, that’s just not good enough. Is it? (Expletives
deleted). Pardon my French. Andrew’s
worked his guts out, and developed very careful protocols to get this staff to
Brendan, and he delivers it and Brendan does not come through. That’s not Brendan’s fault.”
T.S. “No, it’s not Brendan’s.”
R.B. “That’s outrageous!”
Andrew Franklin on the telephone.
“Can I speak to Brendan Marshall, please? This is Andrew Franklin calling from
Canberra. Oh, no, not so good since I
got your emails. Umm, look I’ll cut the chase, I’ve discussed this with Bob and
Ted, and the decision has been made that we’d like to have the CD right (?)
back. OK, thank you very much. Thank you, bye, bye!”
R.B. “OK. That’s that.”
A.F. “This is the first time
that’s happened to me in my science career.
It probably won’t be the last so . . . ah, it’s an unfortunate
situation, and I don’t think that there is anyone specifically to blame for the
way it’s turned out. I think we need to
just move on and get on with the science.”
T.S. “That’s right, yeah.”
Caption: March 2002.
Com. “Meanwhile, Ted’s year long challenge to the University of
Wollongong, drew to a close.”
ABC TV news. Background
caption: Appeal Rejected. “And a win too for the outspoken Wollongong
University academic Ted Steele. The
University has agreed to reinstate him after the full bench of the Federal
Court dismissed an appeal by the University.
T.S. “What they are not going to
say is what they are going to do to me after they reinstate me. And that’s just
what I’ve said I hope the University of Wollongong plays the game fairly with
me.”
Com. “Finally, the case was
settled. Ted was compensated for loss of
work. In exchange, he agreed to give up
his position at the University. Without
a laboratory, Ted was now completely reliant on Bob. He (?) to keep going. A collaboration with Corrado Spadafora was
now more important than ever. In
addition, Bob Blanden was due to retire in less than two years. They needed to work fast. More importantly,
they needed to design the definitive experiment; a test that proved without a
doubt that Lamarckian acquired inheritance does exist, at least in the immune
system. The plan was to create mutant
antibody genes in a special strain of mice and attach a molecular tag to each
gene. For the first time, they hoped to
track the entire journey of the tag genes from body cells all the way through
to the next generation. If all went
well, they would record the plight of the genes, as they voyaged where
theoretically no genes have gone before: across Wiseman’s barrier. Just as the Australian team prepared the mice
for the make or break experiment in Rome, 12 thousand kilometres away in
California there was a revolutionary breakthrough. DR Patrick Fogerty
had inserted foreign genes into mice and then discovered that the DNA turned up
in many of the animals’ cells, including eggs and sperm. But would this DNA end
up in the offspring?”
Dr. Patrick Fogarthy, Molecular Biologist. “We inject an animal, and that’s it. Just like you go down and get a flue
shot. Umm, and what happened was, is we
transferred this gene, umm, shown here into a whole variety of tissues that we
analysed from this animal; from brain, to testes, to liver, to stomach, to
everything. Umm, not only did we see it
in the injected animals, we looked at the offspring from that animal and, lo
and behold, we found it coming out in large percentage of the offspring as
well. So it’s very Lamarckian in a way,
because we take that animal and we not only change its functions and genotype,
but it carries through and changes the whole offspring as well.”
Com. “Fogarthy’s experiment clearly demonstrated that acquired
characteristics could be inherited in the laboratory. Suddenly, everybody was talking about this
new method of gene transfer, and its profound implications for genetic
engineering, from transgenic farming to human gene therapy. Amid all the fanfare, few seem to have
noticed that the idea of Wiseman’s barrier had been violated, just as Ted
Steele had predicted 25 years earlier.
Despite these key breakthroughs, Ted Steele continues to fight an uphill
battle. In the meantime, his ideas
intrigued a growing number of scientists from a
range of disciplines all over the world.”
Ted Steele at the International Symposium of Applied Quantum Physics,
Michigan.
“The other concept which we’ve been attempting to violate and show that
there are exceptions to, is the Wiseman dogma (?). I am going to spend a little bit of time, a
few minutes, comparing the immune system with the brain. “
Dr. Ken Augustyn.
“Biologists are very classical in their thinking about how the world
works. They think it’s a total machine and everything is totally
predetermined. Ted’s work basically says
that there is more to genetics and there is more to heredity than just random
mutations and recombinations. That there is actually some information fed back
to, you know, from what happens in an organism’s life, there is some, some
information that it’s fed back into the genes.”
T.S. “If you’ve got a process where an organism can adjust and change
during its life time, to influence its contemporary in the environment, whether
it be food, predators, behaviour, and adjust the way it survives, and then pass
on some of that survival adjustment to its progenies then you have an adaptive
fitting between an organism and the environment. There is a direction to the
evolutionary progress of organisms.”
Dr. Reg Gorczynski, Cell Biologist.
“It’s clearly a fundamentally very important concept; very important, perhaps
the most important concept in terms of genetics of evolution.”
R.B. “What people believe is that
truth changes with time. As different results occur, the reigning paradigm has
to get modified and adapted to the new data and the new interpretations. And in my view, the Darwinian paradigm it’s
way past its shelf life.”
K. A. “If his work is proven out over time, he will have really
revolutionised biology. He will go down as the first who really made it happen;
he and his group of collaborators. So he
could become a very very important figure in the
history of science.”
Com. “Is it possible that genetic
improvements in our life times can be passed on to our children? If so, Ted’s team would have shattered
Darwin’s theory of evolution to its very core, and forever altered our
understanding of life on earth.” End of
the program.
Now do you see anything in that account that might upset today’s
evolutionists? Unless you know the whole
story behind this debate you may never suspect what the real problem is.
There are two issues at work here. The first one has to do with the
pillar on which Darwin’s evolution is based – the time element. His evolutionary changes require long aeons
of time, whereas Lamarck adaptations could take place within an organism’s
lifetime. So what is the problem with
that? Well, that comes dangerously close to the biblical time scale, and that
is something Darwinian evolutionists would never accept.
The second issue has to do with the effect this could have on educational
institutions and scientific establishments. Think of the textbooks that need
revising, the museum exhibits that need rearranging, the handout leaflets and
booklets that need reprinting, the lessons and lectures that need to be
re-learned, the teachers and university lecturers that need to be re-educated,
the destroyed reputation of those who staked their life on Darwin being right,
etc. We say ‘could’ because we don’t
think it will. The intent to obscure
this phenomenal discovery can already be observed in the fact that the program
was televised late at night, at 10 p.m., when few people would see it, and even
fewer school age students might be made aware of it. They could ask their teachers to explain
again the difference between “proven” scientific fact and biblical “myth”, and
we wouldn’t want to do that to our teachers, would we?
The fierce debate between Darwinian and Lamarckian scientists has nothing
to do with searching for, and revealing, truth, and everything to do with
hiding it. The weaknesses of Darwin’s
theory have been known for a long time, long before Ted Steele and his
collaborators buried him scientifically. But that did not prevent the anti-God,
anti-creation lobby from infiltrating virtually every educational institution in
the world and presenting that deception as a well established ‘scientific’
fact.
Scientists have known for a long time that natural selection does not
produce new species, only improved species.
A specie that fights to survive and adapts to a changed environment
remains within the same specie; it does not transform itself into a new specie.
This is where Stephen Jay Gould, a famous evolutionary scientist who
fought intense battles with creationist scientists, stepped in and proposed a
new theory of evolution, the so-called ‘punctuated equilibrium’ or ‘hopeful
monster’ theory. According to him, only
mutations can push evolution forward, and only if by chance major environmental
conditions occur at the same time.
Mutations by themselves are harmful to individuals and lead to their
demise. Similarly, changed environmental conditions by themselves do not
produce new species, but a chance combination of the two, mutations and major,
not minor, environmental changes at the same time, might favour the new ‘monster’
and lead to new species. But this also requires huge aeons of time; time that
Lamarck and Ted Steele have proven is not necessary. Encarta Encyclopedia
says something very important about Gould’s work.
“Gould, Stephen
Jay, American geologist, paleontologist, philosopher of science, and author of
books on evolution and the fallacies of biological
determinism. Born in New York, Gould earned his undergraduate degree from
Antioch College (1963) and his doctorate from Columbia University (1967). He
taught at Harvard University from 1967. Gould originated the “punctuated
equilibrium” theory of evolution, a theory based on the fact that very few
transitional forms are found in the fossil record.”
“Unlike the
gradualist theory, which would have species evolve gradually over long periods
of time, the punctuated equilibrium theory holds that the evolution of a
species consists of rapid changes in small, relatively isolated populations,
followed by long periods of stability. Gould became widely known for his monthly
column “This View of Life” in Natural History.”
Gould admitted
that the ‘transitional’ forms found in the fossil record are nowhere near what
might be expected if Darwinian evolution were true. What we find instead are always fully-fledged
and fully functional species, never creatures that are half one specie and half
another.
It
makes you pity the scientists who are trying to put together evidence that
‘proves’ Darwinian evolution. Volumes
have been written, and still are, about the hoaxes that have taken place in
this field, but that did not prevent vested interests from inculcating this
theory into the minds of all students that have passed through the grinding
mills of our educational institutions.
Alarming
bells should have rung when Gould, and many other respected and well-renown
scientists, rejected the notion that one specie can evolve into another by
natural selection. Gould admitted that creationist
people had a point in saying that the fossil record does not support evolution,
but could not accept the short time scale put forward by them. Why? Because that brings reality too close to the
Bible, and that could not be accepted.
The Bible allows adaptations, but not the appearance
of new species, and that is what the whole battle between Darwinian
evolutionists and Ted Steele’s collaborators was all about.
Now it is
interesting to note that although Gould diverged just as radically from
Darwin’s natural selection theory, Darwinian scientists did not haunt him as
they did Ted Steele and his collaborators all over the world. Why?
Because Gould retained the long eons of time that contradict the
Bible! The moral is, you can do any
experiments you want, and put forward any theories you want, but don’t come
anywhere near the Bible, because if you do you become an outcast even if you
are a convinced evolutionist, as Ted Steele and his collaborators appear to
be.
A Matter of
Historical Truth Regarding the Holocaust
Much has been said about the terrible plight of the Jews during the
Second World War at the hands of the Nazis. Images of emaciated people and
piles of human remains – bones, hair, teeth, jewellery, etc. – are a witness to
the human degradation and failure of the spirit into which humanity fell during
those terrible years.
Films about the Holocaust always held an important place in the school
libraries in which I worked. Many times
I dropped a tear at the back of the classroom when showing such films to the
students. Some films however were so gruesome we could not show them to the
students. For that reason I always
sympathised with the Jews when they were outraged at the people who, in spite
of all the evidence, they still deny that the Holocaust ever took place. The fact that no document signed by Hitler
authorising the extermination of the Jews has ever been found is no proof that
the genocide did not occur. Nor can we accept the explanation put forward by
some people that the devastation occurred in the last few days of the war when
food was scarce for everybody let alone for camp inmates. People die if they are subjected to a drastic
reduction in food intake. You need a prolonged regime of starvation to reduce
human beings to the level of living skeletons.
Now it is a well-known fact that the Jews found refuge in some countries,
Denmark, Holland, Sweden, being some of them, until the Nazis crossed over in
the first two countries and forced the issue on their governments. What is not so well known is that Romania was
a safe place for Jews during the whole of the Second World War.
It is a well-documented historical fact that General Antonescu, the
virtual leader of Romania in those days, stood up to Hitler and refused to
round up the Jews and sent them to the Nazi concentration camps. Now there is
no doubt that had Germany won the war, Antonescu would have been forced to
succumb to Hitler’s wishes too, but because Romania was a willing ally of
Germany in the early days of the war, out of fear of the Soviets I may add, and
because Germany needed Romania’s petrol, Hitler did not force the issue at that
time.
For that reason I was greatly surprised when I read with dismay recent
accusations by some Jewish historians that far from being a safe place, Romania
was supposedly a graveyard for some three quarters of a million of them. I thought to myself, have these people
discovered something that no one knew before?
This was an important matter for me because previously I had been very
proud of the fact that my people had the courage to stand up to the Nazis and
not participate in the carnage of innocent people that swept most of Europe in
those days. Besides, I grew up in
southwest Romania near the city of Turnu Severin, where there were many Jews,
with not a hint that they were ever persecuted. They were a highly educated
class, owning many shops, and holding many respectable positions such as
doctors, lawyers, teachers, etc.
I remember very well how as a child at one time I was passing a building
with my mother when we heard choir songs from the inside. Very casually she told me that it was a
Jewish synagogue. Then she added that I
must be careful not to join their religion because we are Orthodox and they are
not, having rejected Christ. That was just about the only negative comment I
ever heard about the Jews from my parents, never an inkling of persecution or
hatred towards them. Neither was it evident among our relatives and neighbours.
The Jews were simply not a topic of discussion among the people that I grew up
with and were treated as any other persons. To us they were not foreigners, but
Romanians of a different faith. Too bad that they were not Orthodox, because
being Orthodox was a guarantee of holiness, and not being Orthodox was the
worst fate that could befall any human being.
Well, that is what my parents thought anyway. But they never took that
to the extreme of persecuting or speaking harshly about them. On the contrary,
in my family, the word Jew meant quality. If you wanted to buy something of
value, you went to a Jewish shop; if you wanted to see a good doctor, you went
to a Jew; if you wanted a good lawyer, you went to a Jew, and so on. Hearing
all these things, I could not help growing up with a certain degree of
admiration for these people. That is why
I was so happy when I grew up and heard that Romania had not participated in
the Jewish persecution, and so distressed when I heard the opposite.
So I set out to discover the truth, however painful that may be.
I went to a couple of Jewish Synagogues in Sydney; to a Jewish library; I
gathered information; I spoke to people; I read Jewish and other historical
books, but the more I read and searched the more convinced I became that it was
a baseless accusation, thrown by irresponsible people who had neither knowledge
of history, nor proofs of what they were talking about. Then a friend of mine told me that the Jewish
Museum in Sydney had an exhibit which stated that General Antonescu
had protected the Jews during the Second World War. We organised a visit
together to that museum so that I could see it for myself. But when we went there, no matter how much we
looked and searched, we could no longer locate that exhibit anymore. Something
had happened in the decade or so since my friend had seen it to cause it to
disappear from the scene, but what?
Well, we could not tell what, but the fact that it coincided with the
new vision of history by Jewish historians made us wonder. Could it have
anything to do with the fact that the figure of six million killed in the
Holocaust had come under serious question and the Jews need some new plugs into
which to burry their dead?
Earlier this year, a diplomatic row developed between Romania and Israel
over this issue. Romanian diplomats
maintaining that no Jewish persecution had occurred in that country, while
people in the Israeli government maintaining that some three quarters of a
million of them had died in there.
Then unexpectedly, Australia’s national broadcaster, the ABC, provided
the proof that the Jews had never been persecuted in Romania. On June 5th, 2003, it presented a
program entitled, True Stories: Outwitting Hitler, in which two Jewish
Holocaust survivors described what they found in Romania in 1943. Here is a transcript of the relevant passages
from their story. The program began with
a large caption: ‘TRUE STORIES’. Then the image of a man appeared and a voice
over said: “Marian Pretzel is a
Holocaust survivor”.
Marian Pretzel: “The Germans and
Ukrainians came and took my parents away.”
Commentator: “He is haunted by troubling questions”
M.P. “Did my parents have to die so that I could survive?”
Com. At a time when having the right papers meant the difference between
life and death . . .”
Another person intervenes: “Without the identity document you could be
shot”.
Com. “At a time when faith made you an endangered specie.”
M.P. “It was a carnage, unimaginable.”
Com. “At a time when the entire world was at war.”
Janek Fuchs: “It was terrible, it
was death in the air, not only for the Jews, for everybody.”
Com. “He used his skills as an artist to forge Nazi documents.”
M.P. “I found the key to survival.”
Com. “And found himself sleeping with the enemy.”
M.P. “The places that I should fear most were the safest – the lion’s
den.”
Then finally we had the title of the program: “Outwitting Hitler”,
followed by images from Hitler’s Reich, and the experiences of the two
protagonists, Marian Pretzel and Janek Fuchs. About three quarters through the
program, we come to the relevant comments.
Commentator: “By the end of 1943, the Soviets had the Nazis on the
run. Marian and Janek made their way to
Bucharest, Romania, and found a world they thought no longer existed.
Caption: Janek Fuchs, Holocaust survivor.
“For me, Bucharest was like, like arriving to paradise. Because you have to realise that at that time
the steppes of Russia, or the cities of Russia especially after the winter,
there was smashed everything, there was terrible, it was, it was death in the
air not only for the Jews for everybody. It was hell on hereafter. And here you came to a country, when the
train moved into Bucharest, that you have farmers coming, peasants are coming
to the window of the train with chicken and with white bread which we haven’t
seen for ages.”
M.P. “It was unbelievable, the way you looked at the people walking down
the streets, the young girls in the beautiful flowers dresses, the men
exceptionally well dressed, everybody happy and gay.”
J.F. “You have shops with signs, Moscovitchi, Haimovitchi, typically Jewish names, and, and for me I
thought it can’t be that there are still Jews existing here.”
M.P. “It was indecent that they
lived like that. But that was not indecent, it was what we left behind.”
Com. “Two desperate parents convinced Marian and Janek to travel back
into occupied territory to rescue their daughter Helen from the Budapest
ghetto. They succeeded, but why did they
take such a risk?”
M.P. “I don’t know, you remember, you were the one who wanted to go. I
said, don’t be stupid.”
“You said, common, common, let’s
prove it that we could be the masters once more.”
J.F. “That’s right, hah, that’s
right.”
M.P. “I said, but that’s crazy.
Actually what happened, what made me change my mind when you wanted to
go, when I had a look at the photograph of Helen she looked so much like my
sister. About the same age, you know, the mother pleading and I said, for
goodness sake I couldn’t save my sister, maybe I can save Helen.”
J.F. “We had been their only hope, because it could never come out if we
didn’t go for her at that time.”
The program went on tracing their steps in Budapest. Then the commentator
added: “Adolf Hitler committed suicide
in April 30th 1945. Fifty million people died in the war he started,
including six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. Marian Pretzel
and Janek Fuchs finally made it to freedom. In 1999 the two old friends
reunited in Israel to socialize, philosophise, and reminisce.” The program continued with a few more scenes
from the land of Israel. From the
credits we note producers Steven Beal and Christopher Ward, and narrator Ralph
Gunderman. Acknowledgements were made to a long list of archives, including The
National Centre for Jewish Films, Simon Wiesenthal Centre, Sydney Jewish
Museum, and others.
Now could a country that was described by two Holocaust survivors as
‘paradise’ in 1943 also be the graveyard for three quarters of a million of
them at the same time? They had shops
with Jewish names in Bucharest; were well dressed, happy and gay like everybody
else, with not a hint of persecution, let alone widespread genocide.
Shortly afterwards, Romania changed sides and joined the Soviet forces in
pushing the Germans out of the country. So if Jewish persecution had not
occurred until then, it could not have occurred afterwards either.
If there was any persecution of the Jews in Romania, Marian Pretzel and
Janek Fuchs have not heard about it. The
program was made in 2001, so they had time to ponder and change their story if
there was any truth to it. Besides, three quarters of a million would have been
an unusually large numbers of Jews in a country the size of Romania at that
time. Jewish revisionist historians ought to
investigate their facts better, and be more careful in throwing unjustified
aspersions on people right left and centre just because they need to fill in a
number that perhaps should not have been there in the first place. History has a way of bringing truth to the
surface eventually. As Jesus Christ said:
Mat 10:26 "Therefore do not
fear them. For there is
nothing covered that will not be revealed, and
Mat 10:27 hidden that will not be known. "Whatever I tell you in the dark, speak in the
light; and what you hear in the ear, preach on the housetops. "And do not fear those who kill the
body,
Mat 10:28 but cannot kill the
soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.”
Romania’s ‘Original Democracy’ Revisited
In the aftermath of
Ceausescu fall in 1989, the new leader, Ion Iliescu, promised the people of
Romania that he would deliver to them not democracy western style, but
‘original democracy’. No one quite knew what
he meant by that, but fourteen years later, with him still in power, we have
glimpses of his ‘original democracy’ in action.
Not long ago, we received
a Bible League newsletter, which told us about the problems its missionaries
encountered in places like India, Romania, North Korea, Palestine, Kyrgyzstan,
and other places. Having grown up in
Romania, I was particularly interested in what it had to say about that
country. So this is their story.
“They threatened his life
and the lives of his family. They’ve destroyed Project Philip Bible study
booklets. They’ve smashed his car window with steel rods. Still faithful to the
Lord’s call in his life, yet fearful for the safety of his family, Bible
League-trained church planter Emanuel Buliga has temporarily suspended his
ministry in Vasilati, Romania.
His oppressors? Local Romanian Orthodox priests.
And these priests have
more than Emanuel in their sights.
People in the town who are attending Bible studies are also targets of
persecution.
Priests have driven Bible
study members from every meeting place they have gathered at, damaging
villager’s cars and warning school children that they will be failed if their
families continue to attend Bible studies.
Priests have also threatened to not bury dead family members. The intimidation has succeeded. Thirty people
once gathered for Bible studies when Emanuel first arrived in Vasilati a little
more than a year ago. Today there are none.
“I trust that the Lord is
in control,” says Emanuel, his voice tinged with sadness. “I’m praying that God
will lead me to another village. But I’m also asking Him to soften the hearts
of the priests here. People in Vasilati need to know Jesus.” (Bible League Report, June 2003).
Now in order to
understand the behaviour of those Orthodox priests we must go back to certain
events that happened in Romanian exile communities two and three decades ago.
People were yearning for
a church in their midst, but had no where to turn to get a priest. Reluctantly, they addressed the leadership
of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Bucharest.
Sure enough, they were only too happy to oblige, sending them as many
priests as they wanted. Before long just about every Romanian community in
exile, small and large, had its own church.
Since the priests’ stipends were also being paid from Romania, there was
joy all around. It did not take them
long, however, before people realised that they got a lot more than they
bargained for.
Things were all right for
a while, but then unusual events began to happen in their midst. Instead of uniting people, these priests had
an uncanny ability to disunite and set them against each other. Those who continued to speak evil of
Ceausescu and his regime became outcasts from their own churches. Before long, it became evident that those
priests had learned their ‘gospel’ not in theological seminaries but in the
halls of the Securitate. Some people
could swear that what they declared in the sanctity of confessionals made its
way to authorities in Bucharest.
Here in Sydney things got
so bad at one time that people were worried that murder may occur in their
midst if things continued like that for much longer. In one famous incident, widely published in
the media at that time, the Orthodox priest was shown standing on the church
fence watching how his devotees were pummelling those whom he wanted out of the
church.
He looked more like a
general watching his troops in action.
This may not be far from truth, for rumour had it that he was in fact an
officer of the Securitate, and had oversight over other ‘priests’ in
Australia.
I was working as
broadcaster in Romanian language for a radio station that provided programs for
ethnic communities in Australia at that time.
At the end of one program, I was met by a Romanian who told me that if I
continued to speak against Ceausescu, I would end up with a bullet in my back.
I left that job shortly
afterwards for other reasons, so I was spared the ‘bullet in my back’. My mother in Romania however was not as
lucky. In 1990, only weeks after we
published the first edition of The Christian Herald, I had an unusual
experience here in Australia. At one
time, I felt a sharp pain in my chest as if someone had ripped something out of
it. I did not know what it meant, but I had premonitions that it had to do with
my mother. A few days later I received a
telephone call from a person in Romania, who would not identify himself, who
told me that my mother had been assaulted by four individuals in her own home
and left for dead. He would not go into
any further details. My mother lived for another three months in a semi
conscious state and then died. To this
day no one has ever been prosecuted for that crime.
Was it a mere coincidence
that in that edition we discussed the events associated with the fall of
communism, and showed how Ion Iliescu had betrayed the 1989 Revolution by
restoring the Securitate, and reinstating to his position Patriarch Teoctist,
who had resigned as head of the Romanian Orthodox Church, and gone into hiding
immediately after the Revolution?
Hundreds of priests sent by Ceausescu to churches overseas, who had also
resigned and gone into hiding, came out of their holes and demanded their
positions back. Another revolution was
in the making, but one that nullified the effects of the first.
Like other counties,
Romania too had embarked upon the road to democracy. But unlike other countries, it was to be an
“original democracy”. No one quite knew
what that meant at that time, but we
know now – a kind of communism in disguise. Not even communism with human face,
for that nefarious institution – the Securitate – is still making ravages among
Romanians, both in the country and in exile. There are people here in Sydney
who swear that agents of the Securitate are still spying on them and sending
information back to Romania. They still
want to know what everyone is doing in exile.
And no wonder, for the strongest expose of the chicaneries of the
Bucharest regime comes from publications in exile. The problem for the
Bucharest regime is that those publications are written in English and other
languages which Western Governments can read.
People in a position to
know, have revealed to us that the secret services of Russia, Ukraine,
Byelorussia, Moldova and Romania have been working covertly to establish a form
of de-facto communism in those countries.
That is why the independent media has been under attack in all these
countries.
Not long ago, we sent
some sensitive information to a major newspaper in Bucharest that claimed to
speak for the opposition. We asked them
not to reveal its source. Within five
days we had repercussions from the Government.
Earlier this year, I sent
a letter to the Romanian Prime Minister informing him that people from a
certain factory in Bucharest had sought our help on an important matter. They were working for an Arab boss who was
forcing them to work non-stop seven days a week. The Arab had no pity on the ‘infidels’. Their attempts to seek help from the Romanian
authorities were unsuccessful because their boss kept bribing them and they did
nothing. Those who were known to
complain lost their jobs. So they worked
and groaned in silence for years because no one would help them.
While the rest of Europe
negotiates to bring the working hours of its people to 35, in Romania they are
struggling to come out of the dark ages.
We found it unbelievable that no labour unions, no governmental agencies,
no church or media people would take up their case. When we raised the issue with some local
authorities when we were in Romania last year, they were incredulous that we
would want to interfere with the ‘market economy’. That is what they understand by ‘market
economy’. So we waited until we came
back to Australia and then wrote to the Prime Minister, Adrian Nastase,
informing him that if the working conditions of those people did not improve
within thirty days, we would inform International Labour Organizations, the
United Nations, and the European Parliament, and send TV crews to make another
story about Romania like the one about the mistreated orphans that did the
rounds in the world media in the aftermath of Ceausescu’s fall. We received no reply from the Prime Minister,
but those workers are now working six days a week. However, I received a telephone call from a
person living in another Australian State who said that he would come to see me
because he had an important matter to discuss urgently with me. He was none other than the one who had
promised me a bullet in the back if I continued to speak against Ceausescu
sixteen years earlier. How he knew my
address and telephone number after all that time and after three address
changes, he would not tell me. So we
arranged a meeting, knowing that my time to be ‘perfected’ had not yet come,
but he did not show up. I could not ask
him why either, because he did not leave us his telephone number or
address. I have no doubt that he, or one
of his ilk, would show up one day to ‘discuss’ that ‘important matter’ with me.
It is amazing how every
time I am criticising the Romanian regime I end up dealing with people who want
to discuss ‘important matters’ with me.
It is also amazing how they know everything about me and my family from long
distances. Obviously someone cares about
me and my well being from the shadows.
In the second edition of The
Christian Herald published in 1992, we had another article about Romania in
which we told Ion Iliescu that we would not be intimidated, and that although
he was able to touch my mother, he could not touch us before we finished this
work. Now that we are nearing its
conclusion, he can touch us. He can
release his dogs to finish their work.
There is a reason why God Almighty kept him and his friend, Patriarch
Teoctist, in power until now. This is
their chance to fulfil their destinies.
We just hope they have not forgotten about the epitaph for themselves
and their people.
When we re-published The
Christian Heralds 1 & 2, in 2001, we left out the two articles about
Romania. We could not afford to endanger
this work again before its time. The two
articles can now be obtained separately.
For more than a decade
after the fall of communism, I resisted the temptation to visit my
homeland. But last year, I succumbed to
the urging of many people who assured me that I would be safe if I went back
now. So I went, and I have to admit that
aside from a few occasions when I felt that I was being watched, I had no
problems while there. My troubles
started again only after I returned to Australia and sent that letter to the
Prime Minister. My correspondence is now
once again being interfered with. Even a
registered letter could not reach me.
When we started investigating what happened to it, it went back to the
sender. Money sent to some poor people
in Romania, through the banks, could not be delivered either and came back to
us.
When I visited my native
village, I found the house in which I grew up in utter ruin. It had been used by squatters who did what
squatters do all over the world – destroy things. Interestingly enough, everyone in the village
seemed to know who had murdered my mother, except the authorities.
After I returned to
Australia, I asked the Romanian Consul to issue me with certain Romanian
documents – passport, proof of citizenship, etc. – so that I could go back and
claim my inheritance. But after three
attempts, I still have no reply. It looks
like once again I have become an “enemy of the people”.
Since I left Romania
thirty-six years ago, I had never renounced my Romanian citizenship. Under Ceausescu’s regime there used to be a
custom by which one could be freed from the obligations of Romanian citizenship
by offering a certain amount of money to the Government. Then he could go back as a foreign tourist
as many times as he wanted. The trade
in, of course, was that the rates for foreign tourists were about five times
higher than for natives who travelled
with Romanian documents. When
Ceausescu’s ambassador sent me a letter asking me to ‘settle’ my status with
Romania, I replied that I had nothing to settle. I was born Romanian, and Romanian I shall
remain.
I had left that country
as a Radio Telegrapher Officer on a merchant ship in 1967, at the height of the
Cold War, seeking political asylum in the West.
I wasn’t prepared to risk my life by going back even as a foreign
tourist as long as that odious regime was still standing, knowing that the
Securitate had long memories.
I always retained a hope
that that nefarious system would not last long, though I could not tell how, or
when, it would come to an end. Obviously
no one could, for it took the whole world by surprise when the communist empire
fell so abruptly. Ceausescu’s regime
fell like all the others, but unfortunately for Romania, Iliescu’s came in.
A United Nations report
released earlier this year, placed Romania in the last place in Europe in every
measurable criterion. After the fall of
communism, Romania and Bulgaria were considered to be at about the same level
of development. By now however, Bulgaria
has shot well ahead of Romania in most fields, when given the resources, human
and natural, of the two countries it should have been the other way around. The difference being that Bulgaria has made
great strides towards market economy and genuine democracy, having elected as
Prime Minister a former king, whereas Romanian leaders have used every trick at
their disposal to delay genuine marked reform and true democracy.
In all other former communist
countries, the Hydra of secret services was brought under control, except in
Romania (and Russia). Earlier this year,
the Director of SRI (the renamed Securitate), declared that he would never open
Securitate’s secret dossiers to the public even if the European Parliament
demanded it when Romania joined the European Union. Charming institution! It changed its name, but not its
character. Ceausescu’s spirit still
hovers around. One cannot even say that
the wolf has changed its colour but not its habit, for clearly these people are
not ashamed even of their habits let alone their colour.
And what did President,
Ion Iliescu, and Prime Minister, Adrian Nastase, do on hearing what the SRI
Director had to say? Remind him that in
Romania like in all democracies it is the Parliament that decides laws and
policies not the Director of the secret services? No, not a word from them. Well, we were so surprised by that! We almost forgot that in Romania we do not
deal with a democracy, but with ‘original democracy’.
It is a well known fact that communist regimes
operated on the principle of impoverishing the people and keeping them in a
state of perpetual poverty, and then giving them handouts so as to appear as
their benefactors. Is there any wonder
that Romania is making such slow progress in improving its people’s standard of
living!
In normal democracies,
the opposition is given breathing space and resources to function properly, the
logic being that a strong opposition means a strong government, and a weak
opposition means a lacklustre government.
But that does not apply in the ‘original democracy’ of Ion Iliescu. The
government has done everything in its power to emaciate the opposition to a
point of almost complete irrelevance.
Few people in the country believe that the opposition could form an
effective government in the foreseeable future.
Polls show that the Social Democrats of Adrian Nastase will be returned
to power by another landslide whenever he calls the election. The Social Democrat is the party of the
former communists.
When you have the church
and the secret services in your hand, and when in the best tradition of
totalitarianism a fifth of the population had been compromised by links to the
odious Securitate and want to keep things muffled as long as possible, what
else could you expect?
It is not uncommon to
find stories in the Romanian media about Orthodox priests who are actively
involved in politics, urging their people to vote for the Social Democrats,
because “they have governing experience and can improve their life, whereas the
opposition cannot”. The government
itself is unashamedly using State apparatuses to influence election
outcomes. Clearly democracy means
different things to different people.
Most people have resigned
themselves to the belief that if this government cannot get them out of the
mire, no one else could. And so, like an
addict who cannot live without his potion, they keep bringing back their former
oppressors, unable to see that only a radical change could make a difference in
their lives.
All other former
communist countries made a speedy and smooth transition to a market economy,
but not Romania. In this country the
government delayed privatisation as long as possible so that it could place its
acolytes in cushy positions. When it
privatised anything, it was the unproductive and failing industries and
factories. But investors were not fools. Few were interested in the dregs of a
failing economy. The result is that
Romania lags far behind other former communist countries in foreign
investment. While the others are jumping
ahead in leaps and bounds, Romania is merely limping along.
Instead of revitalising
the economy by privatising the good industries first and thus bringing in large
amounts of hard currency so that the poor industries might have a chance of
pulling out of the mire, they put the cart before the horse, retained the good
industries in their hands until many of them became bankrupt too. After decades of disastrous policies, the
communists still have not learned the lesson that placing people who have been
trained to spy and terrorise the population in charge of the country’s industry
and finances is a recipe for disaster.
Since Ion Iliescu took power,
Romania’s major banks went bankrupt too.
Not surprisingly, investigators discovered that those in charge had
links with the Securitate. It was not
enough that they swindled the country of its finances in the confusion that
followed the fall of the communist regime; they conspired to swindle even the
population’s meagre savings. Like in Russia after the fall of the Soviet
Empire, high-ranking officials in the State security services, with hands on
the levers of power, took advantage of the confusion that followed the fall of
the old system and spirited away large amounts of money through a complex web
of untraceable bank accounts. That is
how Russia ended up with billionaires overnight and Romania with millionaires.
In a western democracy a
blatant swindle of the banks would put a government to pasture for a long
period time, but not in the ‘original democracy’ of Romania. The government simply made sure that the
opposition could not replace it. The
three levels of government – Legislative, Executive and Judicial – which are
supposed to be independent and answerable to public scrutiny are all dominated
by the Social Democrats, and answerable to no one. And so the country continues its downward
slide to ignominy.
The panacea for all of
its evils is now supposed to be the much hoped for accession to the European
Union. Romania has been promised that if
it puts its house in order, it could do so in about four years time. The problem is, it has already received
several warnings that it is well behind schedule in tackling government
corruption. Now the people are worried
that they may not make it. They
shouldn’t! Romania will join the
European Union regardless, not for its own merit but because it is like a ripe
plum, ready to be picked. In the initial
stages the flood of western capital will devastate the country. People’s only hope is that enough crumbs will
fall to them to make a difference in their life too.
When the Social Democrats
took the reins of power after the fall of Ceausescu, they used to say that they
did not rush to privatisation because they did not want to sell the country to
foreigners. Now that they have ruined it they are offering it on a platter to
any takers.
An African football
player who plays for a Bucharest team, was reported in the media earlier this
year as saying that even in Africa he had not seen the kind of pot holes that
are in the streets of Bucharest. We can
concur with that.
When we visited the
country last year, we wanted to hire a campervan, as we needed to travel. We couldn’t! The country does not have a
single caravan park. A campervan from
France was parked illegally on a dark alley in a Bucharest park because it had
nowhere to go. And they wonder why
western tourists avoid the country like the plague. We could say more about hygiene, service,
conveniences, etc., but that is enough for now.
It seems that the main
beneficiaries of Iliescu’s reforms have been the gypsies who are used to
travelling under any condition. When the
borders were opened, they flooded western capitals, causing devastation
everywhere, and placing a stain on the whole nation.
These are the sort of
things that happen when the government keeps people under close control and is
afraid to give free rein to the individual’s initiative and enterprise.
When we contacted the two
main newspapers of the country, Romania Libera and Evenimentul Zilei,
and gave them reasons to investigate the Government and the Securitate, they
gave us no reply. It seems that taking
on the Securitate is still a hot issue in Romania. But there comes a time when the screw gets to
tight and people cry out in desperation.
Finally the two newspapers published articles that need to be aired in
other than the Romanian language. This
is what a brave lady wrote in Romania Libera.
“In the last
couple of years, a number of international institutions that have monitored the
level of corruption in Romania, have concluded that the country is among the
worst not only in Europe but in the world.
The general conclusion
was (and is) that corruption has become endemic in commercial operations,
spreading even to public institutions and political structures, and raising
questions about the country’s ability to fulfil the economic and politic
criteria set up in Copenhagen for joining the E.U.
More than
that, as a result of this scourge Romania loses $2.5 billion annually, while it
draws only a third of its potential foreign investment. Credit for this state of affairs belongs to
the Government, which has transformed generalised corruption into a convenient
political tool.
The press
threw itself into a veritable suicidal crusade by bringing to light the
authoritarian abuses of the social democrats, but other than the 400 calumny
cases brought against it, the conclusion pushed by the government through its
channels is that there are neither corrupt people, nor corruption in the Social
Democratic Party. In other words,
corruption must be sought elsewhere.
The Nastase
Government has already ordered it, and the operation has been “executed”. Thus, in the last week not less than two
reports have been published. Now the
people, that is, next years electors, understand that those who are greatly
corrupt in Romania belong not to the SDP, but to others beside it, namely the
medics and the professors.
The first
report was produced by the Police, identified by international organizations as
being one of the most corrupt institution in the country, and the second by the
National Institute of Statistics, an organization that has been implicated
recently in a scandal regarding the falsification of economic indicators in
favour of the Government. Both reports
place the blame on the teaching and medical professions, saying that they are
the most corrupt in Romania, because supposedly they are taking bribes and
avoiding taxation.
The two
reports are nothing more than a masquerade designed to sidetrack public opinion
from the real culprits, the ones that have occupied the main pages in the media
for the last couple of years, as well as a ruse designed to blind the eyes of
Western Organizations that monitor corruption in this country, the aim being to
give the Nastase Government a passing mark in its fight against this
scourge. Therefore, the Government’s
attitude in this pre-electoral year can only be described as unprincipled.
When tens of
dossiers that have resulted from investigations of people in Power lay
untouched in the cabinets of Prosecution and Justice, when policemen that are
implicated in tax evasion are ‘sanctioned’ with positions of higher command,
when current ministers undertake dubious transactions and remain undisturbed in
their functions, when municipal prefects decide all State contracts [presumably
to coopt them into the Social Democrat political bandwagon], government
investigators find the medical and teaching professions guilty of corruption –
the very people who in a normal society are regarded as the elite!?
Unfortunately,
under the Party of the Social Democrats, Romanian society is sick, poor, and
drifting, unable to discern between truth and manipulation in government’s
discourses.
It is not the
medics and the professors that that are responsible for the $2.5 billion that
Romania loses annually, which could be used to improve people’s standard of
living. Guilty are others, which the
Government has an obligation to reveal by bringing to light and publishing the
true report of the great corruption at the political level. But can the Nastase Government fight against
itself?” (Translated from Romanian. Article by Ada Stefan, ‘An Unprincipled Attitude’, Romania Libera,
July 19, 2003).
Five days later, Evenimentul
Zilei, also wrote a devastating report on the accomplishments of Iliescu’s
regime. It went on to say that 13 years
after the “transformation” of December
89, what has changed in Romania are merely the labels, but not the
substance. The Romanian Communist Party
became the Social Democrat Party, the
Securitate became the SRI, Militia became the Police, Comrade became Mister, and
so on.
The latest offering from
the Government to the country, with the blessing of the Orthodox Church, is a
historic park in memory of . . . Dracula!
They hope that this would bring them tourists with hard currency. They don’t know that Dracula also brings them
demons, as if there weren’t enough of them in the country already. They don’t know either that going after
Dracula also brings God’s wrath and punishment.
To the corruption and incompetence of the government has been added the
worst draught in the country’s history, a drought that covers almost the entire
continent. And no wonder, for the whole
of Europe has gone after Dracula.
People don’t want to
learn the lesson that making a pact with Dracula is not merely getting a thorn
on the side, it is thrusting themselves with an arrow through their own
heart.
If things would be
allowed to follow their course, the European Union would learn that in Romania
it got more than it bargained for. It
would get a spirit that no one should ever touch. Fortunately, it won’t come to that. Unfortunately, worse things will hit both
Europe and the world before then. The
world is truly on the verge of the Great Tribulation spoken of by Jesus Christ.
God said that not all people
would survive that catastrophe. Aside
from remnants of Israel and Egypt it is not clear what other nations would make
it. But we can tell you of a few that
will not make it. There is simply no
room in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ for Dracula and his
servants. Those who think that that
event is too far into the future to worry about are gravely mistaken. The Great Tribulation is upon the world. The clouds of world war are on the horizon,
and there is nothing anyone can do about it anymore at this stage.
When Ion Iliescu came to
power, he spared no time in getting rid of Ceausescu and his wife. The dictator
deserved his fate, but it should have been done through a proper process of the
law, not in hush, hush tones in darkened corridors of power. It is interesting to note that the presiding
judge, who passed the sentence on the dictator, ‘for oppressing the people’,
committed ‘suicide’ shortly afterwards.
He should have condemned the dictator for other crimes, not for
‘oppressing the people’. That truth was
hurting too close, and that is why he had to commit ‘suicide’.
Ceausescu was not alone
in oppressing the people, and that oppression was not going to come to an end
so conveniently. In the ‘original
democracy’ of Ion Iliescu that could be done in a much more refined
manner. Interestingly enough, after the
‘suicide’ of that judge, there followed spate of other ‘suicides’ among high
placed people who rejoiced too soon in the freedoms of the ‘original
democracy’.
This then was Romania
under Ceausescu, and this is Romania under Iliescu. Patriarch Teoctist might have told his
friend, Iliescu, that what a man sows is what he reaps. And of other biblical pearls like these:
Job 4:8 “Even as I have seen, Those who plough
iniquity And sow trouble reap the same.”
Job 4:9 By the blast of God they perish, And by the
breath of His anger they are consumed.”
Prov
22:8 He who sows iniquity will reap
sorrow, And the rod of his anger will fail.”
Gal 6:7 “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for
whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.”
Prov
28:17 “A man burdened with bloodshed
will flee into a pit; Let no one help him.”
Prov
28:15 “Like a roaring lion and a
charging bear Is a wicked ruler over poor people.”
Prov
28:16 “A ruler who lacks understanding
is a great oppressor, But he who hates covetousness will prolong his days.”
Prov
29:2 “When the righteous are in
authority, the people rejoice; But when a wicked man rules, the people groan.”
Prov 24:24
“He who says to the wicked, "You are righteous," Him the
people will curse; Nations will
Prov
24:25 abhor him.” “But those who rebuke the wicked will have
delight, And a good blessing will come upon them.”
This may give an answer
to why many of Romania’s Orthodox priests are so much more eager to reply with
picks and axes to the challenges of foreign missionaries that with the Word of
God. But this kind of battle is not
confined to Romania. We have read
similar stories from Russia, Ukraine, and other former communist countries. And from the Catholic world too! When the Pope visited Latin America a few
years ago, he delivered a strong warning to fundamentalist missionaries from
the USA who were making inroads into his Catholic fold. Any wonder that he took the side of a tyrant
in the conflict between President Bush and Saddam Hussein of Iraq!
People who in times past
defended Christianity (or what they thought was ‘Christianity’) against pagan
influences, are now defending an adulterated tradition against the Word of
God. It is a process that has been
common to Christianity from the very beginning.
It all began with groups of people who worshiped God with genuine hearts
and intentions. Then, with the passage of time, they became lacklustre and
encumbered by customs and traditions that no longer fit the norm. Then some people broke away and returned the
original ‘truth’. To them, the old guard
had fallen away, and they had ‘proof’ of it.
2 Th 2:1 “Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our
Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together
2 Th 2:2 to Him, we ask you, not to be soon shaken in
mind or troubled, either by spirit or by word
2 Th
2:3 or by letter, as if from us, as
though the day of Christ had come. Let
no one deceive you by any means; for that Day will not come unless the falling away
comes first, and
the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition.”
When that Day did not
come as expected, they themselves became apostates and instruments of the Devil
in the eyes of the old guard, and they had ‘proof’ of it too.
1 John 2:18
“Little children, it is the last hour; and as you have heard that the
Antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come, by which we know
that it is the last hour. They went out
from us,
1 John 2:19 but they were not of us; for if they had been
of us, they would have continued with us; but they went out that they might be
made manifest, that none of them were of us.”
This process had been
repeated over and over again down through the centuries, with the result that
we have churches today of every conceivable hue, belief and tradition, each
holding to its own ‘truth’. The process
began when the Roman Church broke links with the Judaisers – the people who
held on to the beliefs and practices of the early Churches of God. Then came
the split with the Orthodox Church. Then came the Reformation, and the
Protestant movement. More recently we
had the fundamentalist and charismatic splits.
The problem is that none
of their ‘truths’ stand up to the analysis of the Scriptures. This is proven by the fact that even if only
one of them was right, there would be no need for someone to come in the spirit
of Elijah and restore ‘all things’ just before the return of Jesus Christ (Mat.
17:9-11). None of these churches and
denominations would be recognised by the doctrines set by Jesus Christ and His
Apostles. Their Christianity is simply unrecognisable by the standards of the
early Churches of God. Although there
were differences between the Christianities of Paul, Peter and James (see TCH
No 9), when it came to their basic doctrines, there were none. Which is not what one can say about the
churches of today.
This brings us to the
question of what the Bible League missionaries preach in the churches they
plant overseas. We knew of their work
long before they sent us their latest newsletter. Since they kept requesting
donations from us, we wanted to know how they spend the money, and what gospel
they preach in their churches. They did
not reply to our correspondence, nevertheless, just in case the letter got
lost, we gave them a telephone call too.
A lady answered and we were able to ask her a few questions. First we wanted to know the difference
between the Bible League and the Bible Society of Australia, which also seeks
donations for sending Bibles overseas.
“Well, we don’t sell
Bibles”, she said. “All we ask is that
people undertake a course with us.”
“And what do you teach
them in those courses. Do you tell them
about tithing, for example?”
“Well, I suppose they do
that.”
“What about speaking in
tongues?”
“Well, we don’t do that
here at the headquarters, but I am not too sure what they do overseas.”
What she was very sure
of, however, was that she was alone in the office and had no more time to talk
with us. So she hang up. Now does that tell you anything? Does it ring a bell with you as it did with
us? Do you think these people are
sincere when they say that they are concerned with distributing Bibles? Or rather concerned with distributing their
brand of Christianity.
In their Bible League
Report they admit that their main activity overseas is ‘planting
churches’. But that is not what they say
when they request funds from the public.
Obviously they are using the ruse of distributing Bibles as a Trojan
Horse by which they could gather funds and spread their brand of
Christianity. And what does that brand
involve? To begin with, it involves the
doctrine of tithing – giving at least ten per cent of one’s income to the
church. The fact that none of the
Apostles of Jesus Christ placed such burdens on their followers is of no
consequence for them.
Can you see now why their
converts are so eager to become ‘church planters’ everywhere? Getting ten per cent of the income of their
converts could give them a very comfortable life style without ever having to
strain their brains and burn the midnight oil with studies of higher education,
or any studies for that mater. All they
need to do is let the spirit ‘touch’ them so that they can babble in tongues,
then offer a mumbo-jumbo type of preaching that neither they, nor their
listeners would understand.
Of course this is not an excuse for the
Orthodox priests to behave like brigands.
They should fight with the Word of God, not with weapons. The problem
is, leaders of mainstream religions are almost scriptural illiterates. But at least in their churches they read from
the Scriptures. People who attend church
services regularly become familiar with most biblical stories. Besides, Bibles are available and could be
bought just about everywhere these days.
When I was in Romania last year, I saw with my
own eyes that Bibles were available in bookshops and libraries. I carried a Bible with me at all times,
and no one asked me at the custom office or anywhere else what I was going to
do with it. On the contrary I spoke
freely about my beliefs to anyone who asked me about it. I also visited many churches, but I did not
go there to stir up trouble, being sensitive of the local feelings and
beliefs. However I did leave behind
magazines to those who would receive them, saying only that they should read
them in their own time, or when they found someone who could translate them for
them.
Is it right then to put Romania
in the same basket with North Korea, India and Kyrgyzstan where people may
never have heard of Jesus Christ, and where they could not buy a Bible even if
they could afford it? By western
standards, Romania is a poor country, but not so poor that people cannot afford
to buy a Bible if they wanted to.
Foreign missionaries should follow the example of Jesus Christ, who did
not advocate the setting up of rival synagogues when the Pharisees accused Him
of being demon possessed. On the
contrary, He told people to obey them and do whatever they said, but not to do
what they did. He sought to enlighten
the religious leaders of His day to the truth of the Scriptures, not to
dethrone them from their positions.
They should also remember the example of Apostle Paul who avoided
preaching where the other apostles had preached, even though his version of
Christianity was somewhat different.
The aim of missionaries
therefore should be not to plant rival churches where Jesus Christ is already
well known, but to enlighten the existing ones to the true Gospel of Jesus
Christ, and pray that God Almighty will open their eyes to His truth in His own
good time. As things stand right now,
shifting from the Orthodox faith to the new religions is like jumping from the
frying pan into the fire.
The Orthodox faith is a
mixture of Old Testament customs (by whose Tabernacle its Churches are modelled
– vestibule, holy place, most holy place, etc.), and lessons from the New
Testament, mixed with a good doze of idolatry.
Their explanation that their statues and images were added to help
people at a time when the Word of God was not easily available, no longer holds
any water. We know that all religions of
the world will shortly undergo a thorough cleansing of their pagan influences,
and have reasons to believe that the Orthodox Church will be one of the least
affected by those changes. If you take
away the idols and replace their traditional holy days with God’s proper Holy
Days, and give them enlightened priests, you come pretty close to the ideal
religion of Jesus Christ.
A characteristic of the
Orthodox faith is an unusual sense of friendliness and hospitality among its
people, something that is sorely missing among other religions, particularly
among the new ‘Christian’ denominations.
Seven years ago, I was
forced to move out of Sydney to a satellite town due to the high cost of
living. I found a house that I liked on
a little hill, standing out with nothing around it, that was within my price range. But I needed storage space, so I told the
owners that I would buy their house it if they allowed me to set up a storage
shed before we exchanged the contracts.
It was a risk on my side for they could have changed their minds afterwards,
but fortunately they did not. I did not
think they would, because I knew that the house had been on the market three
times and was not sold. They agreed, and
I got to work with the help of a friend.
We spent two full weeks of intensive work setting up a spacious kit shed
in the backyard. The first week was
awfully hot, and the second almost non-stop raining. Yet at no time did the owners come out to
greet us, offer us anything, or ask us any questions. We were wondering what kind of people they
were that would not offer us even a glass of water in all that time. In the end, before we parted company, they
wanted to convert us to their religion.
They were Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Months later, some of
their ilk came around with religious tracks, as they do all over the
world. I told them that I would accept
and read their materials if they accepted and read mine. They agreed and we
exchanged literature. About 20 minutes
later, they came back surreptitiously, dropped my literature at the door, then
run away before I could return theirs.
After I escaped from
Ceausescu’s heaven in 1967, I went to Canada where I lived for the next eight
years. I was soon overwhelmed by the
promise of another heaven here on earth within the confines of the Worldwide Church
of God. People in that church would
invite me and other people to their place in order to hear the story of how I
escaped from the Iron Curtain. Almost
without exception, they would offer us coffee and cookies. I wasn’t used to ‘coffee and cookies’ and
after a while I got sick of it. In poor
old Romania guests would be offered a glass of wine and a bite of real food,
not ‘coffee and cookies’ all the time.
Ten years must have passed before I tasted another cup of coffee after I
immigrated to Australia. Interestingly
enough, members of the Worldwide Church of God were not allowed to read other
peoples’ literature either.
This then is what the new
sects do to their converts. One can
still reason with most people of Orthodox, Catholic, or Protestant orientation,
but not with the fundamentalist and charismatic zealots of the new sects. As Jesus Christ said:
Mat 23:15 "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees,
hypocrites! For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is
won, you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves.”
Mat 23:25
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you cleanse the
outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of extortion and
self-indulgence. "Blind Pharisee,
Mat 23:26 first cleanse the inside of the cup
and dish, that the outside of them may be clean also”.
Mat 23:27
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like
whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full
of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
Mat 23:28 "Even so you also outwardly appear
righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.”
Those who think that
these words apply only to the Jewish Pharisees of old, are gravely
mistaken. Fundamentalist and charismatic
Christians thunder against mainstream churches as if these are thoroughly
pagan. They forget that there are many people of God in their midst, otherwise
God would not have told them to come out of them in order to escape their
fate.
Rev 7:13
“Then one of the elders answered, saying to me, "Who are these
arrayed in white robes, and where did they come from?”
Rev 7:14 And I said to
him, "Sir, you know." So he said to me, "These are the ones who
come out of the great tribulation, and washed their robes and made them white
in the blood of the Lamb.”
Rev 18:2
“And he cried mightily with a loud voice, saying, "Babylon the
great is fallen, is fallen, and has become a dwelling place of demons, a prison
for every foul spirit, and a cage for every unclean and
Rev 18:3
" hated bird! For all the
nations have drunk of the wine of the wrath of her fornication, the kings of
the earth have committed fornication with her, and the merchants of the earth
have become rich through the abundance of her luxury."
Rev 18:4
And I heard another voice from heaven saying, "Come out of her, my
people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues.
Rev 18:5
"For her sins have reached to heaven, and God has remembered her
iniquities.
Rev 18:6
"Render to her just as she rendered to you, and repay her double
according to her works; in the cup which she has mixed, mix double for
her.
Rev 18:7
"In the measure that she glorified herself and lived luxuriously,
in the same measure give her torment and sorrow; for she says in her heart, 'I
sit as queen, and am no widow,
Rev 18:8 " and will not see sorrow.’ Therefore
her plagues will come in one day; death and mourning and famine. And she will
be utterly burned with fire, for strong is the Lord God who judges her.”
The duty of all people of God is to be ready
to give an answer about their faith to anyone who may wonder about their good
works. One must give a good example
first, and be well versed in the Scriptures, before undertaking to preach to
others, knowing full well that that involves many trials and tribulations from
unreasonable men who do not like sound doctrine.
2 Tim 2:15
“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not
need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”
1 Tim 1:5
Now the purpose of the commandment is love from a pure heart, from a
good conscience, and from sincere faith,
1 Tim 1:6
from which some, having strayed, have turned aside to idle talk,
desiring to be teachers of
1 Tim 1:7
the law, understanding neither what they say nor the things which they
affirm.”
Rom 15:8
“Now I say that Jesus Christ has become a servant to the circumcision
for the truth of God, to confirm the promises made to the fathers,
Rom 15:9 and that the Gentiles might glorify God for
His mercy, as it is written: "For this reason I will confess to You among
the Gentiles, And sing to Your name."
Anyone can confess Jesus
Christ, but they must do so in real languages, not in the ridiculous babblings
of the charismatic churches. Waving,
twisting, fainting and uttering incomprehensible sounds have no room in the
Churches of God. Their claim that they
have been touched by a spirit is true, but not by the Holy Spirit, because the
Holy Spirit imparts wisdom and a sound mind, not madness and confusion.
Speaking In The Charismatics’ ‘Tongues’ –
Not For The People Of
God
When the Apostles spoke
about gifts of the Holy Spirit, they had in mind real languages, not mad babblings
and convulsions they practice in the charismatic churches of today.
1 Cor 14:5
“I wish you all spoke with tongues, but even more that you prophesied;
for he who prophesies is greater than he who speaks with tongues, unless indeed
he interprets, that the church may receive edification.
1 Cor 14:6
But now, brethren, if I come to you speaking with tongues, what shall I
profit you unless I speak to you either by revelation, by knowledge, by
prophesying, or by teaching?
1 Cor 14:7
Even things without life, whether flute or harp, when they make a sound,
unless they make a distinction in the sounds, how will it be known what is
piped or played?
1 Cor 14:8
For if the trumpet makes an uncertain sound, who will prepare himself
for battle?
1 Cor 14:9 So likewise you, unless you utter by the tongue words easy to
understand, how will it be known
what is spoken? For you will be speaking into the air.
1 Cor 14:10
There are, it may be, so many kinds of languages in the world, and none
of them is
1 Cor 14:11
without significance. Therefore, if I do not know the
meaning of the language, I shall be a foreigner to him who speaks, and he who speaks will be a foreigner to me.
1 Cor 14:12
Even so you, since you are zealous for spiritual gifts, let it be for
the edification of the church that you seek to excel.
1 Cor 14:13
Therefore let him who speaks in a tongue pray that he may interpret.
1 Cor 14:14
For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my understanding is
unfruitful.
1 Cor 14:15
What is the conclusion then? I will pray with the spirit, and I will
also pray with the understanding. I will sing with the spirit, and I will also
sing with the understanding. Otherwise,
1 Cor 14:16
if you bless with the spirit, how will he who occupies the place of the
uninformed say "Amen" at your giving of thanks, since he does not
understand what you say?
1 Cor 14:17
“For you indeed give thanks well, but the other is not edified.
1 Cor 14:18
I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all; yet in
the church I would rather speak five words with my understanding,
1 Cor 14:19
that I may teach others also, than ten thousand words in a tongue.
1 Cor 14:20 Brethren, do not be children in
understanding; however, in malice be babes, but in understanding be
mature. In the law it is written:
1 Cor 14:21 "With men of other tongues and other lips I will
speak to this people; And yet,
1 Cor 14:22
for all that, they will not hear Me," says the Lord. Therefore tongues are for a sign, not to
those who believe but to unbelievers; but prophesying is not for unbelievers
but for those who
1 Cor 14:23
believe. Therefore if the whole church
comes together in one place, and all speak with tongues, and there come in
those who are uninformed or unbelievers, will they not say that you are out of
your mind?
1 Cor 14:24
But if all prophesy, and an unbeliever or an uninformed person comes in,
he is convinced by all, he is convicted by all.
1 Cor 14:25 And thus the secrets of his heart
are revealed; and so, falling down on his face,
1 Cor 14:26
he will worship God and report that God is truly among you. How is it then, brethren? Whenever you come
together, each of you has a psalm, has a teaching, has a tongue, has a
revelation, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for edification.
1 Cor 14:27
If anyone speaks in a tongue, let there be two or at the most three,
each in turn,
1 Cor 14:28
and let one interpret. But if
there is no interpreter, let him keep silent in church, and let him speak to
himself and to God.
1 Cor 14:29
Let two or three prophets speak, and let the others judge.
1 Cor 14:30
But if anything is revealed to another who sits by, let the first keep
silent.
1 Cor 14:31
For you can all prophesy one by one, that all may learn and all may be
encouraged.
1 Cor 14:32
And the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not the
1 Cor 14:33 author of confusion but of peace, as in all the churches of the saints.”
What did the Apostle mean
by saying: “I thank my God I speak with tongues more than you all.” Did he mean that he was babbling in more
tongues than they all? Babbling is not
being done in many tongues it is done in just one tongue – babbling. The Holy Spirit imparted real languages to
the early Christians because they needed it.
They did not have translations of the Scriptures like we do today. They needed to preach the Gospel of Jesus
Christ legibly to all people in the countries in which the Holy Spirit led
them. That is what speaking in tongues
meant for them, and should mean for us.
Acts 2:1
“When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord
in one place.
Acts 2:2
And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty
wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Acts 2:3
Then there appeared to them divided tongues, as of fire, and one sat
upon each of them.
Acts 2:4
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak with
other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Acts 2:5
And there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation
under heaven.
Acts 2:6
And when this sound occurred, the multitude came together, and were
confused, because everyone heard them speak in his own language.
Acts 2:7
Then they were all amazed and marveled, saying
to one another, "Look, are not all these who speak Galileans?
Acts 2:8
"And how is it that we hear, each in our own language in which we
were born?
Acts 2:9
"Parthians and Medes and Elamites, those dwelling in Mesopotamia, Judea and
Acts 2:10
Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, "Phrygia and Pamphylia,
Egypt and the parts of Libya adjoining Cyrene,
visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
"Cretans and Arabs;
Acts 2:11 we hear them speaking in our own
tongues the wonderful works of God."
Acts 2:12
So they were all amazed and perplexed, saying to one another,
Acts 2:13
"Whatever could this mean?”
Others mocking said, "They are full of new wine."
Acts 2:14
But Peter, standing up with the eleven, raised his voice and said to
them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be known to
you, and heed my words.
Acts 2:15
"For these are not drunk, as you suppose, since it is only the
third hour of the day.
Acts 2:16
"But this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
Acts 2:17
'And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, That I will pour
out of My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
Your young men shall see visions,
Acts 2:18
Your old men shall dream dreams.
And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit
in those days; And they shall prophesy.”
The Apostles urged their followers to test the
spirits to find out whether they are of God or of the Adversary. These days however, any manifestation of the
spirit is considered to be from God, which is a big mistake.
1 John 4:1
“Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether
they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world.”
This applies to people who undertake to do
missionary work too. They should make
sure they preach the genuine Gospel of Jesus Christ, because false gospels have
been preached in the world ever since the time of the Apostles.
Gal 1:6
“I marvel that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in
the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another;
Gal 1:7
but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of
Christ.
Gal 1:8
But even if we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel to you
than what we
Gal 1:9
have preached to you, let him be accursed. As we have said before, so now I say again,
if anyone preaches any other gospel to you than what you have received, let him
be accursed.”
Everyone is called to
become an elect of God now, because the time is short. All you need to do is repent, be baptised,
and join the ranks of those who worship God in truth and in spirit, then study
the Word of God and acquaint yourself with the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Only then could you be a useful worker for
Him.
2 Tim 3:16
“All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness,
2 Tim 3:17 that the man of God may be complete,
thoroughly equipped for every good work.”
Changing your life style
may not be easy at the beginning. Many of your friends won’t like it, but then
is their lifestyle all that glamorous and rewarding to warrant losing one’s
eternal life for it? Why not become a
light to them by showing them a better and far more fulfilling way of
life. A popular proverb says that even
a dead fish can swim with the tide, but it takes a live one to swim against it. Are you capable of swimming against the
tide? Can you face the world and say, I
know what is right and what is wrong, and what makes life worth living? If you can and chose to do so you won’t be
alone. You will join the ranks of the
elect of God, the salt of the earth, who have done their duty before God and Jesus
Christ, and kept this world alive until now.
Another Right Royal Edict Needed
When
Prince Charles published an article about the dangers posed by genetically
modified foods four years ago, we were hoping that it would be more than a mere
flash in the pan, but things have gone from bad to worse since then as far as
GM foods are concerned, and we have heard nothing else from the Royal House on
this topic anymore.
It
is a characteristic of our time that nothing is sacred anymore. The achievements of science and technology
that have benefited our society and greatly improved our standard of living in
the past, are now being put to evil use.
The angels of hope and convenience are now being overwhelmed by the
demons of greed and expediency that threaten to transform us all into soulless
and mindless robots.
For
decades we have been concerned about the dangers posed by the unrelenting
adulteration of our foods in the name of progress and productivity. We buy foods that look appetizing and have a
long shelf life, but have no taste and little nutritional value, then we must
buy vitamin and mineral supplements to restore what our foods no longer
provide.
So
we were very pleased when we discovered that Prince Charles had similar views
to ours, and reprinted his article in an edited form in The Christian Herald
No 8. We were hoping that that
would be the beginning of a wider campaign to eliminate those monster foods
once and for all, but instead we are witnessing an outright onslaught on the
governments that still drag their feet in introducing GM foods in their
countries on a commercial scale.
And
where is the pressure coming from? From
multinational companies in collusion with the United States Government!
The
juggernaut of multinational companies, whose financial support is needed by
anyone who is aspiring for leadership positions, especially in America where in
spite of its claim to the contrary only the very rich can make it to the
Government , is threatening to swamp opposition to its greedy policies all over
the world. It is no longer the freedoms
of expression, of worship, of education, and of individual enterprise, that are
at stake, but the freedom to be healthy and to eat what you like when you like
it.
More
and more governments are succumbing to the pressure to introduce those foods on
their market, the Australian Government being one of them. The Americans have even threatened a trade
war against the countries that oppose their policy, as if the life of this
planet depended on everyone implementing the multinational companies’ agenda
without delay. Well, the life of this
planet is indeed at stake, believe it or not, and genetically modified foods is
one of the reasons. We cannot speak too
strongly against the introduction of those insidious foods, so much so
that we present Prince Charles’ article
again, only that this time we publish it in its entirety. We said it then, and say it again, the consequences
of this unrelenting assault on the individual and his choice would be
catastrophic for the world, if the Almighty allowed it to follow its course to
the end. Here then is our article about
genetically modified foods published first in TCH No 8.
“On the 21st of May 1999, the British
Government made an important announcement. The British public, it said, would
not be used as guinea pigs in the battle for the genetically modified
foods. The media picked up this news and
relayed it around the world. Many people
jumped with joy believing that this was a great breakthrough, but then came the
second part of this announcement. “There
is nothing to fear from these foods”, said the British Foreign Minister. “People could eat them with confidence,
without any concern for their health.”
The two parts of this announcement did not seem go
together very well. It did not make
sense to say that the British people would not be used as guinea pigs, then
tell them to eat those untested foods without any concern for their health.
Only a week earlier, American scientists had announced
that certain species of insects were no longer able to reproduce after feasting
on the pollen of GM plants.
Now while the British Government was trying to obtain
public acceptance for the GM foods, the
American Government was threatening a trade war with Europe over its ban on
American beef containing traces of steroid chemicals (used as growth
stimulants).
It is almost beyond belief that one Government would
threaten war against another Government for refusing to accept poisoned food
for its people.
Has America overstepped its mark and forgot that there
are limits to what even a superpower can do?
If steroids are not harmful to people’s health, why
are so many athletes being penalized for using them to enhance their
performance? And why are women
developing male characteristics after prolonged use of these chemicals?
The Governments that champion human rights and
freedoms around the world, which went to war on behalf of other people (Kuwait,
Kosovo, Somalia, etc.), are treating their own peoples with utmost contempt on
a matter of life and death, or at least a matter of health and sickness.
This topic was then taken up and well argued in a
widely publicized article by none other than the heir to the British throne,
Prince Charles himself. Here are some
excerpts from that article.
Questions about Genetically Modified Organisms
An article by The Prince of
Wales
The Daily Mail, 1 June, 1999
Summary:
The debate about the use of GM technology continues, with daily news of
claims about the safety or the risks. The public's reaction shows instinctive
nervousness about tampering with nature when we don't know all the
consequences. There are unanswered questions which need to be asked - about the
need for GM food, its safety, the environmental consequences, consumer choice
and the usefulness to feed the world's growing population.
At the end of last year I set
up a discussion forum on my website on the question of GMOs.
I wanted to encourage wider public debate about what I see as a fundamental
issue and one which affects each and every one of us, and future generations.
There was a huge response - some 10,000 replies have indicated that
public concern about the use of GM technology has been growing. Many food
producers and retailers have clearly felt the same overwhelming anxiety from
their consumers who are demanding a choice in what they eat. A number of them
have now banned GM ingredients from their own-brand products.
But the debate continues to rage. Not a day goes by without some new
piece of research claiming to demonstrate either the safety or the risks of GM
technology. It is very hard for people to know just who is right. Few of us are
able to interpret all the scientific information which is available - and even
the experts don't always agree. But what I believe the public's reaction shows
is that instinctively we are nervous about tampering with Nature when we can't
be sure that we know enough about all the consequences.
Having followed this debate very closely for some while now, I believe
that there are still a number of unanswered questions which need to be asked.
1. Do we need GM food in this country?
On the basis of what we have seen so far, we don't appear to need it at
all. The benefits, such as there are, seem to be limited to the people who own
the technology and the people who farm on an industrialised scale. We are
constantly told that this technology may have huge benefits for the future.
Well, perhaps. But we have all heard claims like that before and they don't
always come true in the long run - look at the case of antibiotic growth
promoters in animal feedstuff...
2. Is GM food safe for us to eat?
There is certainly no evidence to the contrary. But how much evidence do
we have? And are we looking at the right things? The major decisions about what
can be grown and what can be sold are taken on the basis of studying what is
known about the original plant, comparing it to the genetically modified
variety, and then deciding whether the two are 'substantially equivalent'. But
is it enough to look only at what is already known? Isn't there at least a
possibility that the new crops (particularly those that have been made
resistant to antibiotics) will behave in unexpected ways, producing toxic or
allergic reactions? Only independent scientific research, over a long period,
can provide the final answer.
3. Why are the rules for approving GM foods so much less stringent than
those for new medicines produced using the same technology?
Before drugs are released into the marketplace they have to undergo the
most rigorous testing - and quite right too. But GM food is also designed in a
laboratory for human consumption, albeit in different circumstances.
Surely it is equally important that we are confident that they will do
us no harm?
4. How much do we really know about the environmental consequences of GM
crops?
Laboratory tests showing that pollen from GM maize in the United States
caused damage to the caterpillars of Monarch butterflies provide the latest
cause for concern. If GM plants can do this to butterflies, what damage might
they cause to other species? But more alarmingly perhaps, this GM maize is not
under test. It is already being grown commercially throughout large areas of
the United States of America. Surely this effect should have been discovered by
the company producing the seeds, or the regulatory authorities who approved
them for sale, at a much earlier stage? Indeed, how much more are we going to
learn the hard way about the impact of GM crops on the environment?
5. Is it sensible to plant test crops without strict regulations in
place?
Such crops are being planted in this country now - under a voluntary
code of practice. But English Nature, the Government's official adviser on
nature conservation, has argued that we ought to put strict, enforceable
regulations in place first. Even then, will it really be possible to prevent
contamination of nearby wildlife or crops, whether organic or not?
Since bees and the wind don't obey any sort of rules - voluntary or
statutory - we shall soon have an unprecedented and unethical situation in
which one farmer's crops will contaminate another's against his will.
6. How will consumers be able to exercise genuine choice?
Labelling schemes clearly have a role to play. But if conventional and
organic crops can become contaminated by GM crops grown nearby, those people
who wish to be sure they are eating or growing absolutely natural,
non-industrialised, real food, will be denied that choice. This seems to me to
be wrong.
7. If something goes wrong with a GM crop, who will be held responsible?
It is important that we know precisely who is going to be legally liable
to pay for any damage - whether it be to human health, the environment, or both.
Will it be the company who sells the seed or the farmer who grows it? Or will
it, as was the case with BSE, be all of us?
8. Are GM crops really the only way to feed the world's growing
population?
This argument sounds suspiciously like emotional blackmail to me. Is
there any serious academic research to substantiate such a sweeping statement?
The countries which might be expected to benefit certainly take a different
view. Representatives of 20 African states, including Ethiopia, have published
a statement denying that gene technologies will 'help farmers to produce the
food that is needed in the 21st Century'. On the contrary, they 'think it will
destroy the diversity, the local knowledge and the sustainable agricultural
systems … and undermine our capacity to feed ourselves'. How much more could we
achieve if all the research funds currently devoted to fashionable GM
techniques - which run into billions of dollars a year - were applied to
improving methods of agriculture which have stood the test of time? We already
know that yields from many traditional farming systems can be doubled, at
least, by making better use of existing natural resources.
9. What effect will GM crops have on the people of the world's poorest
countries?
Christian Aid has just
published a devastating report, entitled Selling Suicide, explaining why GM
crops are unlikely to provide solutions to the problems of famine and poverty.
Where people are starving, lack of food is rarely the underlying cause. It is
more likely to be lack of money to buy food, distribution problems or political
difficulties. The need is to create sustainable livelihoods for everyone. Will
GM crops really do anything to help? Or will they make the problems worse,
leading to increasingly industrialised forms of agriculture, with larger farms,
crops grown for export while indigenous populations starve, and more displaced
farm workers heading for a miserable, degraded existence in yet more shanty
towns?
10. What sort of world do we want to live in?
This is the biggest question of all. I
raise it because the capacity of GM technology to change our world has brought
us to a crossroads of fundamental importance. Are we going to allow the
industrialisation of Life itself, redesigning the natural world for the sake of
convenience and embarking on an Orwellian future? And, if we do, will there
eventually be a price to pay? Or should we be adopting a gentler, more
considered approach, seeking always to work with the grain of Nature in making
better, more sustainable use of what we have, for the long-term benefit of
mankind as a whole? The answer is important. It will affect far more than the
food we eat; it will determine the sort of world we, and our children,
inhabit.” (This article was also
published in (Sydney Daily
Telegraph, June 2, 1999).
As you can see, the Government and the Monarchy are at
odds on this matter. Time was when those
opposing the Monarch would lose their heads, but with Constitutional Monarchies
. . . anything goes. If the Monarch’s
views carry no weight with his own Government, why pay millions to have a
Monarchy at all?
Prince Charles clearly is better informed, and better
attuned to the public mood, than his Government. He had done himself a great disservice by not
coming out earlier and letting us know what he is capable of, for clearly he
can do more than just open shopping malls and play polo. Perhaps if he had a stint as Governor in the
far outposts of the Commonwealth (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc.), there
might not be such a yearning for a native head of state (Republic) in these
lands. But then, this would have meant
leaving London behind, and who would wish to inflict such a fate on the royal
progeny.
What Prince Charles didn’t do in his article (though
as head of the Anglican Church he could have had a go at it), is tell people
what God Himself had to say on this topic.
But had he done that, he might have been branded as religious, and these
days that could have meant the kiss of death as far as his chances of
succeeding to the British throne were concerned. But we have no throne to lose, so we take up
this case.
Gen
1:11 “Then God said, "Let the earth
bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields
fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth"; and
it was so.
Gen 1:12 And
the earth brought forth grass, the herb that yields seed according to its kind,
and the tree that yields fruit, whose seed is in itself according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good.”
So when God created the world He determined that
everything had to be “according to its kind”, not mixing animal genes with
plant genes and producing who knows what monstrosities in the process. But what
about mixing and “improving” things, someone might ask. This is what God says about that:
Lev 19:19 “'You
shall keep My statutes. You shall not let your livestock breed with another
kind. You shall not sow your field with mixed seed. Nor shall a garment of
mixed linen and wool come upon you.”
Deu 22:9
"You shall not sow your vineyard with different kinds of seed, lest
the yield of the seed which you have sown and the fruit of your vineyard be
defiled.”
So breeding and mixing different kinds, be they
livestock or seeds, does not improve but weaken and defiles the respective
species. Those who have tampered with
the genetic makeup of plants and animals have gone way beyond just mixing
different kinds, they have modified the very fabric of God’s creation.
It is not a mere coincidence that as these practices
have proliferated the world has stumbled from one disaster to another, with all
kinds of new and deadly viruses and epidemics.
It was God’s way of telling the world that He does not like what human
beings have been doing to His creation.
During the decades of chemical contamination (in the
guise of fertilizers, insecticides and antibiotic growth promoters), it was
still possible to reduce exposure to these foods by growing your own or by
buying from those who have grown them organically. But now, this insidious new development makes
it impossible to protect oneself. There
are now products on the market which are not only genetically modified, and
therefore harmful to health, but promoted as alternative health foods. Canola, maize, cotton seed, and soybean oils
are only a few of such examples.
Most people may be under the impression that we are at
the beginning of this problem, when in fact supermarket shelves are full of products
which have been genetically altered.
“Consumers have been advised to avoid mixed vegetable
oils, margarines, some take-away foods and even pork if they do not want
genetically engineered foods. Gene technology watchdog the Gene-Ethics Network
says consumers will have to be very careful if they want to steer completely
clear of altered foods. Director Bob
Phelps said the most widely used GE foods here were modified cotton seed oil
and modified soybean. It’s a matter of doing some research and getting on the 1
800 numbers and finding out for yourself,” Mr Phelps said.” (The
Sun-Herald, June 20, 1999).
Isn’t that extraordinary? It is not for governments to pass legislation
forcing companies to tell us what they are feeding us; it is for the consumers
to become research specialists if they want to know what they are eating.
Food affects people’s health and mental
processes. Being a Christian demands a
resolute commitment to a way of life that encourages and stimulates clear and
insightful thinking. Tampering with the
genetic makeup of plants and animals poses a danger not only to our bodies, but
also to our mental and spiritual well being.
We pray and hope that God Almighty will not allow this to happen. We also hope that the British, the American,
the Australian governments, as indeed all governments, take note of the latest
scientific discoveries, which will affect us all if we allow this to
continue.
“Vilified gene
food scientist right after all. A
scientist who was vilified by the British Government earlier this year for
raising the alarm over genetically modified food is about to be vindicated by
the publication of his original research in the prestigious medical journal, The Lancet
later this month. Dr Arpad Pusztai, a
world expert in lectins, the natural insecticide produced by plants, found GM
food stunted the rats’ growth, damaged internal organs and weakened immune
system.” (SMH, October 5, 1999).
The Latest
WAKE-UP call
One of the questions we are often asked is how big is our organization
and what do we intend to achieve? Many people love to join large congregations
that work like neighborhood clubs, but unfortunately we cannot offer such
comfort.
From inception, our concern has been to restore the original Gospel
preached to us by Jesus Christ and recorded in the Bible for posterity by His
Apostles. This Gospel is virtually
unknown in our world today, but having
restored it successfully, it fell to us to also preach it as a witness to all
nations. We are happy to say that in
spite of our size, that work has been carried out just as Jesus Christ wanted
it. Which proves that the size of a congregation
is not an indication of the importance of its work.
In 1992, in our No 2 edition of The Christian Herald, we wrote:
"Two thousand years ago, John the Baptist, a prophet of God,
delivered this message to the people of Israel: 'Repent, for the Kingdom of
Heaven is at hand!' (Matt. 3:2).
He was followed by Jesus Christ who told them that the Kingdom of God
was already in their midst, meaning that He - Jesus Christ - represented that
Kingdom (Luke 17:21).
Those who have repented and
accepted this message, have received the promise that they will inherit eternal
life and become priests and kings in
the Kingdom of God:
"Jesus Christ, the
faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the ruler over the kings of
the earth. To Him who loved us and
washed us from our sins in His own blood, and has made us kings and priests to His
God and Father, to Him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Behold, He is coming with
clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn
because of Him. Even so, Amen."
(Rev. 1:5-7).
"You are worthy to
take the scroll, and to open its seals; for You were slain, and have redeemed
us to God by Your blood out of every
tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made us kings and priests to our God; and we shall
reign on the earth." (Rev. 5:9-10).
A call to repentance is a
call to a life of righteousness. Those
who respond to this call have God's unbreakable promise that they shall receive
eternal life in His Kingdom at the time of the resurrection from the dead.
This promise will be
fulfilled shortly. The world is in the
throes of the greatest revolutionary change ever. God is preparing every nation in the world
for new leadership. New kings and new
priests will take over and install rulership according to the will of God. The current world difficulties and
realignments are a prelude to that event.
This message concerns that
change. It is a call to repentance to
every person in the world. God will not change
the leadership of any nation before He gives them the chance to repent. Jesus Christ is telling everyone that it is
not too late to respond to His call. He
is giving you the chance to receive an inheritance far greater than the one you
currently possess.
The fact that we have no
affiliation with any existing church or religion, that we rely solely on the
Bible and the Holy Spirit for inspiration, should give you an indication that
this is not the work of mere human beings.
This kind of work is not possible without the guidance of God's Holy
Spirit.
Your repentance and
conversion is between you and God. We
are happy to facilitate that process. We
make no show and no publicity of our work.
We keep no records and no files aside from our mailing lists. If anyone wishes to have their name removed
from it we would sadly oblige.
Having made ourselves and our
work known, it is now up to you. We
declare, on the revelation of God Almighty, that there is no other work on
earth that preaches the true Gospel of the Jesus Christ at present. It is not hard to find out whether this claim
is true or not. It costs you nothing if
you take up this challenge, but it could cost you your inheritance if you
ignore it this time.
Should you feel such a call in your heart, we would be more than happy
to extend our hand of fellowship. In
this time of "global village" and unprecedented technological
developments, fellowshipping does not necessarily mean being in the same
place. The meeting of our minds can take
place via many venues, not the least via the Holy Spirit.
The fact that we are a small congregation should
not discourage you, for Jesus Christ referred to His Church as a "little
flock". "Do not fear, little
flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the
kingdom."(Luke 12:32).
At no time was it envisioned that His ‘little
flock’ would grow into a worldwide institution before His return. So delay no further, write to us now, or go
to our web site and email us, for the Kingdom of Heaven is truly at hand.
We look forward to hearing from you. You will
never regret it.