Search the Scriptures for in them
you think you have eternal life
This
is what Jesus Christ once told the Jewish leaders who were contending with Him
over His teachings.
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These
are the people who claimed to be the teachers and spiritual leaders of
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Joh 5:18
Therefore the Jews sought all the more to kill Him, because He not only
broke the Sabbath, but also said that God was His Father, making Himself equal
with God.
They
sough all the more to kill Him because He said that God was His Father. And what did Jesus Christ say to that?
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He escaped out of their hand, but not for long. Eventually they caught up with Him by
trickery and we all know what they did to Him.
Now what do you think would happen if He were to come like a man again
and preach the same Gospel of salvation these days? You may not believe this, but in today’s
“Christian” world His Gospel is as popular now as it was in the Jewish
world. Proof of this is offered by two
people, who preach nothing but that same Gospel, yet end up being killed for
it. More on this
later, but first a few observations about our work.
We always wanted to know which
topics were of more interest to our readers so as to inform them better. For about a decade, we relied for this on our
correspondence. Some of it was
gratifying, other unhelpful
or critical. Then came the internet, and
everything changed. Since we put our
magazines on the worldwide web, written correspondence has drained to a
trickle. The visits to our web site,
however, have grown from month to month, even though we have added a new
edition only once a year. We knew that
the topics we deal with would remain of interest to our readers for a long
time, or as long as they themselves become familiar with the Scriptures, which
has been our primary goal from the very beginning.
We
wanted to let people know that they have a source to which they can turn to for
spiritual enlightenment anytime, anywhere, freely, and without anyone bothering
them or asking questions about it.
Judging by the increasing number of people who visit us, we have
achieved our goal. However, as we have
done in the past, we do it again. We
advise everyone not to take for granted that this site will always be
there. We have had many problems in the
past, and know that we will have more problems in the future. This is why we tell people to download our
magazines in their entirety as soon as possible, in order to have them handy
for the time when this site will be closed for good. It has already been closed for a number of
weeks recently, until we managed with considerable difficulty to open it up
again. We also want people to let us
know, even anonymously, what other topics they would want us to write on, or
One
topic that has generated considerable discussion, even among academics and
university students, or perhaps we should say especially among academics and
university students engaged in Philosophical and Theological Studies, is the
one on Free Will versus Predestination.
A well educated acquaintance of mine recently said to me, “Tell me more
about this predestination thing, how exactly does it work?” This was more than
a decade after we first wrote a lengthy article about it in The Christian Herald No 6.
That
prompted us to take a closer look at our computer statistics. To our surprise, that article still draws the
lion share of visitors and hits. Until
then, we had only paid cursory attention to those statistics, which other than
showing us a steady increase in the number of visitors, didn’t ring any particular
bells with us.
In the
early days of the internet, you did not get all that much of an information
anyway, at least our hosting company did not provide them to us, but nowadays
you can dissect such statistics whichever way you want: which articles draw
more people, where do they come from, how long time they spend on them,
etc. Of course, they do not tell us the
identity of those people, nor do we want to know that. Unless people write to us, we do not want to
know who they are. When they write to
us, we strictly respect they privacy. We
have never passed on such information to third parties, who want such for
advertising and other purposes. Those
who requested an answer, always received one, either
directly or in articles. Other than
that, we have never followed up with further inquiries about their progress in
the faith, nor have we made requests for donations. We follow in the steps of the Apostles of
Jesus Christ, who worked with their own hands to provide for their needs, never
requesting donations from strangers, as we get these days from people all over
the world. If they would read our
writings carefully, they would know that this work is supported by just two
people, with no contributions whatsoever from outside sources. We have relied on our heavenly Father for
support, and without failure He has provided it. It is amazing what one can achieve even on a
pension, when he does not smoke, does not gamble, does not shop beyond the
strictly necessary, etc.
God
Almighty has so decided to pit us against our nemesis, who
make all sorts of extravagant claims for tithes and offerings, for which they
deliver nothing but falsehood and perdition.
During the time of the Apostles, we could not have made this claim, for
although there were many false preachers and prophets around then, there were
also many who were genuine preachers of the true Gospel. Nowadays, however, it
is a different story. The Scriptures
make it clear that by the time of the return of Jesus Christ, there would be
none but two witnesses in the whole world who preach the true Gospel of
salvation. Everyone else is a false
preacher of false prophet, as Jesus Christ and His Apostles referred to
them.
Towards
the end of his ministry, Apostle Paul made this interesting statement:
We
cannot claim to have finished the race, for we know that there are yet a few
things to be accomplished with us, but we can say that we have fought the good
fight. No one has ever been able to find
a kink in the Gospel we preach, though many have grabbed with both hands the
few stumbles we encountered in unveiling biblical prophecies about our
time. Unlike our nemesis, we always
discussed them openly, always finding the reason, or reasons, for it. Hard to believe as this may be for some,
stumbling over dates and times is part of God’s prophecies. While this was, and is, expected of God’s
true servants, preaching a false Gospel is not.
Let us explain: Since the time of
Jesus Christ, is was in the heart of all His followers to see Him return
quickly and establish the much desired
After
every stumble, we went before the Almighty in fervent prayer asking Him what
went wrong, what have we done that caused things to turn that way? Eventually it dawned on us, or shall we say
it was revealed to us, that we were going about it the wrong way. When Jesus Christ said that one ought not to
give pearls to swine, for they could turn back and tear you to pieces, He was
not just mincing words;
He meant it, and we disregarded that advise.
Mat 7:6 "Do
not give what is holy to the dogs; nor cast your pearls before swine, lest they
trample them under their feet, and turn and tear you in pieces.
Had God not protected us against our own
“exuberant enthusiasm”, we would have been torn to pieces too. Just imagine what would have happened if people
believed that we were very close to the end of this age and the return of Jesus
Christ. Well, since the turn of the
first Millennium, there have been churches and cults that have preached and
prepared for that eventuality, selling their possessions and retreating on
mountains to wait for their salvation.
This phenomenon has multiplied in the last couple of centuries, and
especially in the last few decades and years, and not only in Christianity but
in other religions as well. Who does not
remember the apocalyptic outcome of David Koresh and his followers, which
included many children, who perished in an inferno behind an extraordinary
arsenal of weapons and fortifications?
What is even more shocking is that his few survivors, to this day
believe that he was a man of God, a “Wicked Messiah”, who had to experience
everything in order to know what its like to be on the other side of God’s law,
so that he may be a right judge in the end time. Among the things he had to experience was to
sleep with his followers wives’ and daughters, to which many meekly paid
obeisance. Many, but not all, for some,
no doubt those who did their home work and saw the Devil in the works, left
that “paradise”, searching for the true Gospel elsewhere, thus becoming pariahs
to other members of their families.
Often people pay a heavy price for the “treasure” and the “pearl” of the
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Coming
back to the statistics for our web site, we did not paid them much attention
until recently when it dawned on us that they could tell us the topics of most
interest to our readers. We have always
welcomed genuine questions and inquiries, to which we have always answered
either directly or through articles in our magazines. We must accentuate “genuine”, because more
often than not, people would come to us not to inquire but to confront us for
preaching contrary to their beliefs and doctrines. It amazes us that although for two decades we
have stressed the fact that our interest has not been to create a congregation
of followers, though we would have welcomed the support of such, but to preach
the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, the Gospel of salvation, and expose the
unbelievable amount of deception, falsehood and duplicity that has enveloped
this world since the time of the Apostles.
Preaching truth in a world weaned on falsehood is a dangerous
occupation. It was dangerous at the time
of the
Joh 16:2 They will put you out of
the synagogues; yes, the time is coming that whoever kills you will think that
he offers
Joh 16:3 God service. And these things they will do to you because
they have not known the Father nor Me.
Joh 16:4 But these things I have told you, that
when the time comes, you may remember that I told you of them. "And these
things I did not say to you at the beginning, because I was with you.
It is not
difficult to discover how much falsehood is being preached in religious
congregations these days. A plethora of
publications and countless radio, television and internet programs, tell you
that we live in the end time, a fact we totally agree with. It so happens that there is a prophecy in
the Bible, and only one, which tells us exactly the number of people that are
true followers of God at this particular time in history. Take careful look at it, for it says many
things that should be of concern to every Christian and genuine seeker of
truth.
Extraordinary, isn’t it? There
are only two genuine witnesses of God in the end time when the kingdoms of this
world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ. And what does the
world do with them, or to them? It begs
them to tell them more abut the truth of God, and the true path of
salvation? No, it kills them, then send gifts to one another, and rejoice over their
death. That is what the Bible says, and
that is how it shall be, because the Bible does not lie.
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Both the Old and the New Testaments confirm the fact that the Bible is
the inalienable Word of God. So if the
Bible says that in the end time the whole world will hate God’s true witnesses
and only preachers of the Gospel of salvation, you better believe that it is
true. Next time, when your preacher
speaks on this topic, ask him, or her, as it is more and more the case these
days, who are those two prophets. Most
likely they will not give you a straight answer, but imply that he and his wife
or another minister in the church, are the ones. If you believe them, and are willing to give
your life for them, it will most likely blow up in your face as it did in mine
when I believed, and was willing to give my life for the two leaders of the
Worldwide Church of God who claimed to be those witnesses.
Nearly four decades ago, there was no one I could turn to, or another
source that I could search or inquire into in order to find out the truth. I got the results only by intense and
prolonged prayer, Bible and other studies, by which time they took me to the
cleaners, so to speak. God help him who
dares to further inquire into the genuineness of his preacher.
Had it not been for God’s help, who saw that I was sincere in my search
for truth, they would have brought me to the grave without a skerrick of
remorse or repentance. Ever since that
time, they have never stoped throwing spanners in our work. Consider this: as
soon as the internet became widely available and an ideal path for taking the
Gospel to the world, they monopolised the domain names: thechristianherald.org,
thechristianherald.com, and thechristianherald.net, the three obvious names for
such a work. For a decade now they have
paid the fees even though they have never published anything under these names,
only so that we would not be able to do that either. And they call themselves
ministers of Jesus Christ. Fortunately,
they ignored thechristianherald.info, no doubt
because in those days that was all but unheard of. Nowadays that domain name is
almost as popular as the other three, but in the early days we struggled hard
to make ourselves known.
Time has confirmed the nature of each one’s work. We stand proud with what we have
achieved. We know of no other site or
source that provides a more detailed and accurate explanation of the
Scriptures, of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and of biblical prophecies, than
what one finds on our web site. And all
for free.
Blessed are those
who are called to
the
marriage supper of Jesus Christ
Thoswe
who are weak in the Scriptures find it hard to believe that God is currently
preparing a great supper for the marriage of His Son, Jesus Christ.
The
questiopn is, who is He marrying? We
will find that out shortly, but first let us establish whom He is inviting to
His marriage super. The obvious answer
would be that first of all He invites the very people who are ministers in His
churches.
Astonishingly,
notice what happens when He does that.
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Only a blind man could not see that this
parable is about the priests and preachers of God’s congregations. Now why
would they refuse to go to the great supper of Jesus Christ? Because they know that they have not served
God and not preached the true Gospel of Jesus Christ. Another parable of Jesus Christ reveals more
about their attitude.
Luk 20:9 Then He began to
tell the people this parable: "A certain man planted a vineyard, leased it
to vinedressers, and went into a far country for a long time.
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20:19 And the chief priests and the
scribes that very hour sought to lay hands on Him, but they feared the
people—for they knew He had spoken this parable against them.
Yes, but this parable was about
the scribes and Pharisees of the Old Testament, not about the priests and
preachers of Jesus Christ, one might say.
Wrong! Jesus Christ made no
distinction in His parables between the Old and the New Testaments. God did not have one standard for the Old
Testament and another in the New. God does not change.
Jesus’ parables are
universally true for all times and all peoples.
He is the Saviour of the whole world, and that is why He sent His
followers to make disciples of all the nations.
Mat
28:18 And Jesus
came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in
heaven and on earth.
Mat
28:19 Go
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of
the Father and of the Son
Mat 28:20 and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I
have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the
age." Amen.
This brings us back to the
question of who is Jesus Christ marrying during His great supper? His wife obviously! But who is His wife? Herein lays one of the great mysteries of the
Bible. Apostle Paul wrote about this:
A great mystery concerning
Christ and the church! What
mystery? That the church is His
bride!
The extraordinary mystery
of the Bible is that God is reproducing Himself. Jesus Christ was His first
born, but then, through Him, He creates a multitude of other sons.
The term “firstborn” implies that
other people are to follow.
And who might this “church
of the firstborn”
be? None other than
the new set of kings and priests that Jesus Christ is preparing for the
Does
the world know who these kings and priest are – the church of the firstborn,
who form the bride of Christ? No!
Here is a final proof of
the heavenly marital supper marriage. It
is a passage that tells us clearly who will be part of that marriage and who
will not.
If God
called you to the marriage supper of His Son, would you hear it and respond to
it, or would you rely on your preacher to inform you about it? Remember, he is not going to that
supper.