Something very significant happens in Genesis 11 when God comes down and confounds the languages and scatters the people in the earth.
"You naturally get together when you can understand one another, especially after you develop the same culture," explains Jordan.
"The reason God started off with their language is you have to have something that pulls you together. The geography gives you culture and the boundaries come naturally from all of that.
"In Romans 1, Paul describes the event in Genesis 11: 'Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.'
"That's what Genesis 11 says: [6] And the LORD said, Behold, the people is one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do.
[7] Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.
"Romans 1: 24 says, 'Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves.'
"Romans 1: 26 says, 'For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections.' God surrendered them to uncleanness. He gave them up to vile affections, meaning the things their flesh wanted to lead them to.
"Verse 28 says he gave them over to a reprobate mind and there's a difference in that. The verse says, [28] And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient.
"You don't just surrender them, you assign them to it. He gives them over to the control of something.
"Deuteronomy 32:7 says, [7] Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.
"It's the responsibilities of fathers and the elders to communicate to the next generation the wisdom they got from the previous generation. That's how civilizations develop.
"Robert Bork wrote a book called Sloshing toward Gomorrah. He said, 'Every year there's a new generation of savages born that need to be civilized by the institutions in the culture designed to do that.'
"That's a smart guy's way of saying Romans 12: [12] Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned.
"There's things you learn when you grow up about how to treat people, how to respond to people, how to talk to people, how to think about life and so forth.
"If you wonder what's going on in our country today, just talk to some of these Millennials. If you looked at the schooling they had and what they didn't learn about the founding of our country, about the principles upon which America was built, about how to understand what freedom is all about . . .
"They think about it all differently; the traditions that made America have no longer been taught to the younger generations."
Sunday, September 29, 2019
Wednesday, September 25, 2019
Power point presentation
"God the Father has the deep-seated conviction that if you could see the exceeding riches of His grace that is found in His Son, you'd have to just love Him the way He does; you couldn't help yourself," says Pastor Richard Jordan.
"Paul writes in II Corinthians 4, [3] But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
[4] In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
[5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
[6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
"The light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shined into us. What you need to do in your life is demonstrate the value you've discovered to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you put that on display it will attract people; it will be the draw.
*****
“My favorite definition of power is ‘strength over time',” says Oprah Winfrey, lecturing the women she feels she needs to give her best advice to as the top honoree at a “Women in Entertainment” breakfast in Beverly Hills, Calif. “That means strength times strength times strength times strength equals power. You gotta know who you are.”
“The power is in the power of God,” explains Jordan. “Paul says in chapter 2, ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which EFFECTUALLY worketh also in you that believe.’
“Jesus says, ‘The flesh profiteth nothing,’ meaning all of OUR wisdom and OUR resources aren’t the issue.
“You got to start there! You never want to glory in yourself: ‘It isn’t me; it’s Him.’
“Jesus said, ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.' The objective measure of the working of the Spirit of God in your life is God’s Spirit wrote a Book and it’s a physical, tangible, intimate connection between Him and you.
"You never appropriate that into your experience until you need that. If you don't know it, you can't appropriate it.
“The need is, 'Not I but Christ.' You're to constantly be learning this at a different level; that's part of what maturity is all about.
"The words on the pages are the Words of the Spirit and when I believe that Word, and put my faith in it, it WORKS; it becomes energizing activity and life in those who believe.
*****
“Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3:1: ‘Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.’
“Paul’s saying, ‘I want the Word of the Lord to be set free; to run without obstacles, without needing to stop and be glorified.’
“When you glorify something, you demonstrate how valuable it is; how much of a treasure it is. How important it is.
“How would you glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you demonstrate in your life that you cherish Him—His wisdom, His thinking--more than anybody else?”
"Paul writes in II Corinthians 4, [3] But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
[4] In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
[5] For we preach not ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord; and ourselves your servants for Jesus' sake.
[6] For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
[7] But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.
"The light of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ has shined into us. What you need to do in your life is demonstrate the value you've discovered to be in the Lord Jesus Christ. As you put that on display it will attract people; it will be the draw.
*****
“My favorite definition of power is ‘strength over time',” says Oprah Winfrey, lecturing the women she feels she needs to give her best advice to as the top honoree at a “Women in Entertainment” breakfast in Beverly Hills, Calif. “That means strength times strength times strength times strength equals power. You gotta know who you are.”
“We have to run our own race. We can’t look at what the other guys are doing. When you take time to look back at what the other guys are doing—you lose focus, you lose energy and you lose power when you’re worrying about what someone else is doing. Just focus on yourself.”
Compare that to what Paul writes in I Thessalonians 1:5: “For our gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in POWER, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance; as ye know what manner of men we were among you for your sake.”“The power is in the power of God,” explains Jordan. “Paul says in chapter 2, ‘For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which EFFECTUALLY worketh also in you that believe.’
“Jesus says, ‘The flesh profiteth nothing,’ meaning all of OUR wisdom and OUR resources aren’t the issue.
“You got to start there! You never want to glory in yourself: ‘It isn’t me; it’s Him.’
“Jesus said, ‘The words that I speak unto you they are spirit and they are life.' The objective measure of the working of the Spirit of God in your life is God’s Spirit wrote a Book and it’s a physical, tangible, intimate connection between Him and you.
"You never appropriate that into your experience until you need that. If you don't know it, you can't appropriate it.
“The need is, 'Not I but Christ.' You're to constantly be learning this at a different level; that's part of what maturity is all about.
"The words on the pages are the Words of the Spirit and when I believe that Word, and put my faith in it, it WORKS; it becomes energizing activity and life in those who believe.
*****
“Paul writes in II Thessalonians 3:1: ‘Finally, brethren, pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free course, and be glorified, even as it is with you.’
“Paul’s saying, ‘I want the Word of the Lord to be set free; to run without obstacles, without needing to stop and be glorified.’
“When you glorify something, you demonstrate how valuable it is; how much of a treasure it is. How important it is.
“How would you glorify the Lord Jesus Christ? How do you demonstrate in your life that you cherish Him—His wisdom, His thinking--more than anybody else?”
Monday, September 23, 2019
Yahweh German, not God
This is what the New World Encyclopedia wants you to believe: "Yahweh (יהוה) (ya•'we) is the primary Hebrew name of God in the Bible. Jews normally do not pronounce this name, considering it too holy to verbalize. Instead, whenever they encounter this unpronounceable string of consonants, (YHWH) they speak the name Adonai. Orthodox Jews strenuously avoid mentioning or even writing the divine name, preferring such circumlocutions as "the Holy One," "the Name," or the defective writing "G-d."
"In Christian Bibles, Yahweh is usually translated as "the LORD," a rough equivalent to the Hebrew "Adonai." The Hebrew Bible indicates this reading by inserting the vowel pointing from the word Adonai on the consonants YHWH, rather than use the actual vowels. Based on a literal reading of this pointing (יְהוָֹה), many modern Protestant Christians read God's name as Jehovah."
Jordan says, "Whenever you see the name LORD in all caps in a King James Version they're telling you that the Hebrew word is Jehovah. It's not Yahweh. You know how you know? In Exodus 6 He says, 'My name is Jehovah.' That's all it took.
"When you hear people use Yahweh that comes out of the 19th Century German rationalism, a bunch of modernists. When you hear evangelical, fundamentalist Bible conservatives use Yahweh, they've been corrupted by that.
"The reason they say Yahweh instead of Jehovah is because the Germans couldn't pronounce like an Englishman does. In English there's a J; some languages don't have it.
*****
"Jeremiah 10:11-12 says, [11] Thus shall ye say unto them, The gods that have not made the heavens and the earth, even they shall perish from the earth, and from under these heavens.
[12] He hath made the earth by his power, he hath established the world by his wisdom, and hath stretched out the heavens by his discretion.
"The reason these guys have to have a little 'g' as agents is because they aren't the big G.
"Genesis 1:26-27 says, [26] And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
[27] So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
"Genesis 2:7 [7] And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
"You see how he put a name on the term God? God is a title of superiority. But the God who created everything isn't just God, He's Jehovah; the Lord thy God is God of gods."
Sunday, September 22, 2019
Prophets and teachers all down the line
In Genesis, men such as Enos, Canaan, Mahalaleel lived 900-plus years and knew each other! You go all the way to Noah before you find somebody who didn't know Adam.
"The Flood was in 1656 and the way you get that is you add up the dates of the lives of people from Adam to Noah," explains Jordan. "They add up to 1056 and Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood. Now, that's taking the genealogies in Genesis seriously. Scholars like to say there are gaps in it but in these genealogies it's real clear there are not any 'skips' or 'missing' people.
"If you take the genealogies seriously that's how you get the date for Adam of about 4000 B.C. In fact, you can actually get right down to the real specific date of 4004 B.C. There's actually not a lot of leeway and give in it.
"It's fascinating to see when and how these guys lived and how their lives overlapped. Sometimes you don't realize there's such an awareness these people had. You know, if Adam was still alive in the earth while you were living, would you maybe like to have visited him and asked, 'What Happened?!'
"Would Adam look at his wife and answer, 'It's the woman. She ate us out of house and home.' No, by then he would have owned up to what he did because they were obviously Believers. Chapter 4:25 shows they obviously understood what the promise of God was and were going on it.
*****
"There are two books of generations in the Bible and it's important to compare them. Matthew 1 gives you the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. He's the last Adam. So, in Genesis you have the book of the generations of Adam in the day God created man. The book in Matthew is in connection with the redemption of man, because in between the creation of man and Jesus something tragic happened and that was the Fall of Man.
"The most accurate way of determining what numbers are associated with is just by taking the Book of Genesis. Study each chapter and you'll find the association with the number of that chapter. In Chapter 5 the first thing you see is death so the No. 5 in the Bible is associated with death and it's that way all through the Bible.
"Most people will tell you the No. 5 is associated with grace, but, you see, there's also grace in Chapter 5 of Genesis. Numbers generally don't have only one meaning; there's at least a couple of meanings associated with them.
"Verse 29: [29] And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
*****
"In the Bible, oftentimes names are given because they have meanings. The name Noah means 'rest'; it means 'to be comforted.' It's the idea of getting relief and consolation and you see what it's about in that one verse.
"They're looking to Noah to be the source of relief from the curse on Creation. Remember, God made the promise in Genesis 3 and it was a gift of grace. They didn't deserve it. God just determined, 'You've obviously failed; I'll do it for you,' and He gave them His word.
"Noah's daddy names his son by that name because he's going to be the one who conveys God's promise to the world.
"Chapter 4:25-26 says, [25] And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
[26] And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
"The name Seth means 'to appoint.' His momma took the idea of appoint and made a name out of it and gave the name to the boy because he was the replacement that God appointed to be the carrier of the seed line.
"The name Methuselah, when you say it, means 'his death shall bring,' and that's sort of a metaphorical meaning. If you trace the Hebrew words back, it means 'the man of the arrow.' That's a metaphor. If you shoot an arrow and it hits the target, what happens? The issue is when it hits, 'Boom!'
"That's the idea of Methuselah; when he comes to his end, big things are going to happen. They're going to blow up and that's exactly what happens. He died and the Flood came.
"Genesis 5:21 says, [21] And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
[22] And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
[23] And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
[24] And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
"Nobody else says that 'after he begat.' Enoch has Methuselah and that changed his life, because it was after the boy was born that his daddy began to walk with the Lord. So his birth changed some things just like the promise of his death changed some things.
"Now, Enoch is an interesting guy. You know the verse Amos 3:7 that says God would do nothing that He wouldn't show to His prophets?
*****
"Sometime you think about these dudes back there, that they just didn't have any knowledge or revelation. Because it isn't written down at the time doesn't mean God wasn't communicating with them. There's the law of subsequent narrative in the Bible. That is, sometime later in the history of the Scripture you'll read something about what happened back over there that they didn't tell you about back over there.
"The greatest example I can think of is in II Timothy 3 where Paul talks about how Jannes and Jambres 'withstood Moses to the face.' That's those two birds back there in Exodus that threw the snakes down, but you don't read their names until you get to II Timothy. Now, the Jews all knew who they were; it's in their history, but it just wasn't in Scripture 'til you get over there.
"Jude 14-15 says, [14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
[15] To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
"Noah was a preacher of righteousness so he preached. Enoch is a prophet and look what he prophesied! You get the idea there's some ungodly dudes out there? Enoch is prophesying about that coming judgment, and he does that after he has a kid that he names, 'When he dies, BOOM!, the target's going to hit the wall.'
"So the birth of Methuselah demonstrated that God's going to provide long-suffering. Genesis 5 has more to it than just death. There's some grace in it, some patience.
*****
Matthew 23: 34-36 is one of these passages that when you compare accounts, it's fascinating what you learn. It reads, [34] Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
[35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
[36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
"That is a parallel passage to Luke 11: [49] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
[50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
[51] From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
"Who said that? Jesus Christ. Who does Luke say Jesus Christ is? 'The wisdom of God.' Both passages are talking about the same person. In your Bible, the wisdom of God is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom of God.
"He says, 'From Abel to Zacharias I'm going to require the blood of all the prophets.' That means Jesus Christ is saying Abel was a prophet. Just like He says in Matthew 23:35.
"Cain killed Abel and Jesus said it was the Pharisees who killed him. Cain was a Pharisee and Abel was a prophet. You see, it wasn't just two brothers fighting; there's a spiritual battle with conflicting religious systems going on back there.
"My point is they had people giving and getting revelation from God, giving God's truth out, all over back there, and when Enoch prophesies that's nothing strange and unusual for that time.
"Enoch, by the way, is the guy who disappeared. He walked with God and he was not. God literally delivered him from the wrath to come and, by the way, his name means 'a teacher.' Enoch is the teacher the judgment's coming. So I'm just trying to show you that in the midst of the death, God works his grace."
(new article tomorrow)
"The Flood was in 1656 and the way you get that is you add up the dates of the lives of people from Adam to Noah," explains Jordan. "They add up to 1056 and Noah was 600 years old at the time of the Flood. Now, that's taking the genealogies in Genesis seriously. Scholars like to say there are gaps in it but in these genealogies it's real clear there are not any 'skips' or 'missing' people.
"If you take the genealogies seriously that's how you get the date for Adam of about 4000 B.C. In fact, you can actually get right down to the real specific date of 4004 B.C. There's actually not a lot of leeway and give in it.
"It's fascinating to see when and how these guys lived and how their lives overlapped. Sometimes you don't realize there's such an awareness these people had. You know, if Adam was still alive in the earth while you were living, would you maybe like to have visited him and asked, 'What Happened?!'
"Would Adam look at his wife and answer, 'It's the woman. She ate us out of house and home.' No, by then he would have owned up to what he did because they were obviously Believers. Chapter 4:25 shows they obviously understood what the promise of God was and were going on it.
*****
"There are two books of generations in the Bible and it's important to compare them. Matthew 1 gives you the book of the generation of Jesus Christ. He's the last Adam. So, in Genesis you have the book of the generations of Adam in the day God created man. The book in Matthew is in connection with the redemption of man, because in between the creation of man and Jesus something tragic happened and that was the Fall of Man.
"The most accurate way of determining what numbers are associated with is just by taking the Book of Genesis. Study each chapter and you'll find the association with the number of that chapter. In Chapter 5 the first thing you see is death so the No. 5 in the Bible is associated with death and it's that way all through the Bible.
"Most people will tell you the No. 5 is associated with grace, but, you see, there's also grace in Chapter 5 of Genesis. Numbers generally don't have only one meaning; there's at least a couple of meanings associated with them.
"Verse 29: [29] And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.
*****
"In the Bible, oftentimes names are given because they have meanings. The name Noah means 'rest'; it means 'to be comforted.' It's the idea of getting relief and consolation and you see what it's about in that one verse.
"They're looking to Noah to be the source of relief from the curse on Creation. Remember, God made the promise in Genesis 3 and it was a gift of grace. They didn't deserve it. God just determined, 'You've obviously failed; I'll do it for you,' and He gave them His word.
"Noah's daddy names his son by that name because he's going to be the one who conveys God's promise to the world.
"Chapter 4:25-26 says, [25] And Adam knew his wife again; and she bare a son, and called his name Seth: For God, said she, hath appointed me another seed instead of Abel, whom Cain slew.
[26] And to Seth, to him also there was born a son; and he called his name Enos: then began men to call upon the name of the LORD.
"The name Seth means 'to appoint.' His momma took the idea of appoint and made a name out of it and gave the name to the boy because he was the replacement that God appointed to be the carrier of the seed line.
"The name Methuselah, when you say it, means 'his death shall bring,' and that's sort of a metaphorical meaning. If you trace the Hebrew words back, it means 'the man of the arrow.' That's a metaphor. If you shoot an arrow and it hits the target, what happens? The issue is when it hits, 'Boom!'
"That's the idea of Methuselah; when he comes to his end, big things are going to happen. They're going to blow up and that's exactly what happens. He died and the Flood came.
"Genesis 5:21 says, [21] And Enoch lived sixty and five years, and begat Methuselah:
[22] And Enoch walked with God after he begat Methuselah three hundred years, and begat sons and daughters:
[23] And all the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty and five years:
[24] And Enoch walked with God: and he was not; for God took him.
"Nobody else says that 'after he begat.' Enoch has Methuselah and that changed his life, because it was after the boy was born that his daddy began to walk with the Lord. So his birth changed some things just like the promise of his death changed some things.
"Now, Enoch is an interesting guy. You know the verse Amos 3:7 that says God would do nothing that He wouldn't show to His prophets?
*****
"Sometime you think about these dudes back there, that they just didn't have any knowledge or revelation. Because it isn't written down at the time doesn't mean God wasn't communicating with them. There's the law of subsequent narrative in the Bible. That is, sometime later in the history of the Scripture you'll read something about what happened back over there that they didn't tell you about back over there.
"The greatest example I can think of is in II Timothy 3 where Paul talks about how Jannes and Jambres 'withstood Moses to the face.' That's those two birds back there in Exodus that threw the snakes down, but you don't read their names until you get to II Timothy. Now, the Jews all knew who they were; it's in their history, but it just wasn't in Scripture 'til you get over there.
"Jude 14-15 says, [14] And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints,
[15] To execute judgment upon all, and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed, and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him.
"Noah was a preacher of righteousness so he preached. Enoch is a prophet and look what he prophesied! You get the idea there's some ungodly dudes out there? Enoch is prophesying about that coming judgment, and he does that after he has a kid that he names, 'When he dies, BOOM!, the target's going to hit the wall.'
"So the birth of Methuselah demonstrated that God's going to provide long-suffering. Genesis 5 has more to it than just death. There's some grace in it, some patience.
*****
Matthew 23: 34-36 is one of these passages that when you compare accounts, it's fascinating what you learn. It reads, [34] Wherefore, behold, I send unto you prophets, and wise men, and scribes: and some of them ye shall kill and crucify; and some of them shall ye scourge in your synagogues, and persecute them from city to city:
[35] That upon you may come all the righteous blood shed upon the earth, from the blood of righteous Abel unto the blood of Zacharias son of Barachias, whom ye slew between the temple and the altar.
[36] Verily I say unto you, All these things shall come upon this generation.
"That is a parallel passage to Luke 11: [49] Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send them prophets and apostles, and some of them they shall slay and persecute:
[50] That the blood of all the prophets, which was shed from the foundation of the world, may be required of this generation;
[51] From the blood of Abel unto the blood of Zacharias, which perished between the altar and the temple: verily I say unto you, It shall be required of this generation.
"Who said that? Jesus Christ. Who does Luke say Jesus Christ is? 'The wisdom of God.' Both passages are talking about the same person. In your Bible, the wisdom of God is personified in the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the wisdom of God.
"He says, 'From Abel to Zacharias I'm going to require the blood of all the prophets.' That means Jesus Christ is saying Abel was a prophet. Just like He says in Matthew 23:35.
"Cain killed Abel and Jesus said it was the Pharisees who killed him. Cain was a Pharisee and Abel was a prophet. You see, it wasn't just two brothers fighting; there's a spiritual battle with conflicting religious systems going on back there.
"My point is they had people giving and getting revelation from God, giving God's truth out, all over back there, and when Enoch prophesies that's nothing strange and unusual for that time.
"Enoch, by the way, is the guy who disappeared. He walked with God and he was not. God literally delivered him from the wrath to come and, by the way, his name means 'a teacher.' Enoch is the teacher the judgment's coming. So I'm just trying to show you that in the midst of the death, God works his grace."
(new article tomorrow)
Saturday, September 21, 2019
This is your five senses in hell:
"In the last 40 years or so, there have been a number of Christian writers who've argued that the souls of the lost are not eternal because they want to avoid the concept of eternal punishment," explains Preacher David Reid of Columbus, Ohio.
"If you think about eternal punishment, it's really quite sobering, isn't it? You live on this earth for 80-100 years, but as a result of not believing the gospel, how long is your punishment? It's eternal, and that's why people would rather believe in annihilation, where you die and your soul ceases to exist.
"The problem is verses like Revelation 14 couldn't be more clear: [10] The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
[11] And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
"There are three things that are eternal: God, the Word of God and the souls of men. Eternal life is not simply eternal existence. John 17: 'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.'
"The moment you begin your relationship with God is when you believe the gospel. So your eternal life as a saved person begins during this life; it begins when you know Jesus Christ. The flip side of that is if you don't get saved, you're dead while you live. You have a body that functions, but you're spiritually dead.
II Thessalonians 1:9 says, [9] Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
"It's not everlasting annoyance or inconvience; it's everlasting destruction. It's a continual process. The first definition of torment is, 'To inflict torture upon.' Torment is essentially torture.
"Now, people can only be tortured for so long before their bodies just quit, but that's not the way eternity works. In eternity, it's possible for people to be tortured forever and ever.
*****
"It seems to me that the eternal torment is designed to offend all of our five senses. Revelation 20:10
says, [10] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
"Revelation 19:20 says, [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
"Fire is one of the most painful sensations the body can have. That verse describes it as a lake of fire. What happens if you go outside and it's minus 10 degrees? What happens if you then fall into near-freezing water? Which is harder on you? The minus-10 air temperature or 34-degree water temperature? The water. You'll die of hypothermia in less than an hour.
"The water simultaneously affects every inch of your body. It's not like somebody hitting you in the shoulder. You feel that sensation everywhere at the same time as you're immersed in water.
"What single person in the Bible speaks of hell more than any other? Jesus Christ. Jude 6 says, [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even while those angels are in the lake of fire they're still chained. Do you see how bad this is?
Jude 13 says, [13] Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
"I don't know if you've seen this yet, but they're advertising new TVs that have the 'blackest of blacks.' Jude 13 is saying it's not just darkness; it's the blackness of darkness.
"What we have with sight is the ability to perceive things like light and color. A prism takes pure white light and then it separates it into the rainbow. White light can give you all the colors that exist. Darkness gives you nothing. All the colors, all the sights our eyes would naturally take pleasure in you're not going to have in hell. It's the blackness of darkness.
"What happens in the winter if you live in Columbus, Ohio? Its gets gloomy. Do people's moods change in the winter season compared to say, June? That's because of the sun.
"Malachi 4:2 talks about the S-u-n of righteousness and uses the metaphor of Jesus Christ, but it uses the word 'S-u-n' as if He's the light source, the source of joy for the universe. Guess what happens in hell? There's no sun. There's no white light. There's no color, there's no rainbow.
*****
"We've talked about touch and sight, but what does hell sound like? Matthew 8:12 says, [12] But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
"As a parent you've known what it's like when a baby cries and cries and cries and you just want them to fall asleep. But that's not the crying of intense pain. Here, the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth is different than a baby's crying.
"Matthew 13:42 says, [42] And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
"The word 'wailing' means lamenting; expressing sadness. There's loud cries of sorrow, deep lamentation. In the lake of fire there are billions of beings who are wailing their eternal state. It's dark and you can't see anything, but what can you do?
"You just hear endless, endless misery for which there's no one who comes in and says, 'Time out, this was all a joke.' No one comes in and says, 'Okay, you've had enough.' It's just staggering and I'm inadequate to convey this to you.
*****
"What's it smell like? The lake of fire is full of brimstone, which is sulfur. Sulfur, according to Webster's 1812 dictionary, is a 'hard, brittle, flammable substance of a yellow-lemon color which has no smell.' It has no smell unless heated. Sulfur by itself is odorless, but when heated smells nasty. According to Wikipedia, it has a 'suffocating and irritating odor.'
"There's another sense we haven't covered--taste. What do you think hell tastes like? Job 6:30 says, [30] Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
"When Scripture uses parallel constructions like this, it frequently is saying that the two clauses are equivalent. Taste in the second clause is equivalent to what in the first clause? It's the word tongue.
"Luke 16:24 talks about the tongue in hell. The passage reads, [22] And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
[23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
[24] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
"What's fascinating is he doesn't ask for a pitcher of water; he just makes what he thinks is the smallest request he can make. So the fires of hell harm one particular aspect of your being most intensely, apparently, don't they?
"James 3 says, 'And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.' The sense of taste, the tongue, suffers grievously in hell.
"Isaiah 66:24 says, [24] And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
"Jesus Christ quotes that in Mark 9 three different times. It's the only thing He does in triplicate like that. He's obviously trying to emphasize the severity, the significance of it.
"It says there that their 'worm shall not die.' What happens to the lost man in hell is his condition is degraded to that of a worm. Think about a grown adult. You have the ability to walk and run; you can move your arms to run and catch something because you have that dexterity built into you. You have the ability to use your fingers and your senses to play music, to paint, to build, to create. Scripture properly says we are fearfully and wonderfully made because we have these talents built into our bodies.
"God does not require any of those talents for the eternity of hell. He's not expecting people in hell to write screenplays or paint paintings or create music. So what happens is their physical body is reduced to that of a worm.
*****
"Look at verse 24: 'They shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.' Isaiah 66 describes some events that will occur in the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus Christ will reign in Jerusalem and outside Jerusalem is a portal opened into hell where it's possible to see down into it and to see those cast into it.
"Have you ever seen something that's so repugnant, so abhorrent you just can't watch it--you may just throw up? There's this silly, false bravado that going to hell is just drinking beer with your buddies. That's just ridiculous.
"Isaiah 14 captures some statements made to Lucifer when he's cast into hell. There are people already down there, of course, and they have things to say to him. Verse 11: [11] Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
"One of the realities of hell is there's no personal space. If you're claustrophobic, it would be a bad place to be. Here's Lucifer, 'the anointed cherub that covereth,' with all the splendor he had and his covering and his capabilities, and then he's cast down there and there's just worms crawling all around him.
"This stuff is horribly bad. God put it into Scripture so we would know it's there. Jesus Christ spoke about it in Mark 9 three times because He, in love, is calling out to humanity and saying, 'Look, you have to understand this is real. This is not fake, this is not fiction, not scare tactics. You need to understand the eternal state that exists so that when I tell you to repent, you take it seriously.' He did that lovingly because He doesn't want people to go there."
(new article tomorrow--promise. I've been ill with a flare-up of a chronic digestive problem (some people call it IBS) that my mom and brother also suffer from. My dad had it, too, so it runs in my family on both sides.)
"If you think about eternal punishment, it's really quite sobering, isn't it? You live on this earth for 80-100 years, but as a result of not believing the gospel, how long is your punishment? It's eternal, and that's why people would rather believe in annihilation, where you die and your soul ceases to exist.
"The problem is verses like Revelation 14 couldn't be more clear: [10] The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
[11] And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
"There are three things that are eternal: God, the Word of God and the souls of men. Eternal life is not simply eternal existence. John 17: 'And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.'
"The moment you begin your relationship with God is when you believe the gospel. So your eternal life as a saved person begins during this life; it begins when you know Jesus Christ. The flip side of that is if you don't get saved, you're dead while you live. You have a body that functions, but you're spiritually dead.
II Thessalonians 1:9 says, [9] Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power;
"It's not everlasting annoyance or inconvience; it's everlasting destruction. It's a continual process. The first definition of torment is, 'To inflict torture upon.' Torment is essentially torture.
"Now, people can only be tortured for so long before their bodies just quit, but that's not the way eternity works. In eternity, it's possible for people to be tortured forever and ever.
*****
"It seems to me that the eternal torment is designed to offend all of our five senses. Revelation 20:10
says, [10] And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
"Revelation 19:20 says, [20] And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone.
"Fire is one of the most painful sensations the body can have. That verse describes it as a lake of fire. What happens if you go outside and it's minus 10 degrees? What happens if you then fall into near-freezing water? Which is harder on you? The minus-10 air temperature or 34-degree water temperature? The water. You'll die of hypothermia in less than an hour.
"The water simultaneously affects every inch of your body. It's not like somebody hitting you in the shoulder. You feel that sensation everywhere at the same time as you're immersed in water.
"What single person in the Bible speaks of hell more than any other? Jesus Christ. Jude 6 says, [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day. Even while those angels are in the lake of fire they're still chained. Do you see how bad this is?
Jude 13 says, [13] Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.
"I don't know if you've seen this yet, but they're advertising new TVs that have the 'blackest of blacks.' Jude 13 is saying it's not just darkness; it's the blackness of darkness.
"What we have with sight is the ability to perceive things like light and color. A prism takes pure white light and then it separates it into the rainbow. White light can give you all the colors that exist. Darkness gives you nothing. All the colors, all the sights our eyes would naturally take pleasure in you're not going to have in hell. It's the blackness of darkness.
"What happens in the winter if you live in Columbus, Ohio? Its gets gloomy. Do people's moods change in the winter season compared to say, June? That's because of the sun.
"Malachi 4:2 talks about the S-u-n of righteousness and uses the metaphor of Jesus Christ, but it uses the word 'S-u-n' as if He's the light source, the source of joy for the universe. Guess what happens in hell? There's no sun. There's no white light. There's no color, there's no rainbow.
*****
"We've talked about touch and sight, but what does hell sound like? Matthew 8:12 says, [12] But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
"As a parent you've known what it's like when a baby cries and cries and cries and you just want them to fall asleep. But that's not the crying of intense pain. Here, the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth is different than a baby's crying.
"Matthew 13:42 says, [42] And shall cast them into a furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.
"The word 'wailing' means lamenting; expressing sadness. There's loud cries of sorrow, deep lamentation. In the lake of fire there are billions of beings who are wailing their eternal state. It's dark and you can't see anything, but what can you do?
"You just hear endless, endless misery for which there's no one who comes in and says, 'Time out, this was all a joke.' No one comes in and says, 'Okay, you've had enough.' It's just staggering and I'm inadequate to convey this to you.
*****
"What's it smell like? The lake of fire is full of brimstone, which is sulfur. Sulfur, according to Webster's 1812 dictionary, is a 'hard, brittle, flammable substance of a yellow-lemon color which has no smell.' It has no smell unless heated. Sulfur by itself is odorless, but when heated smells nasty. According to Wikipedia, it has a 'suffocating and irritating odor.'
"There's another sense we haven't covered--taste. What do you think hell tastes like? Job 6:30 says, [30] Is there iniquity in my tongue? cannot my taste discern perverse things?
"When Scripture uses parallel constructions like this, it frequently is saying that the two clauses are equivalent. Taste in the second clause is equivalent to what in the first clause? It's the word tongue.
"Luke 16:24 talks about the tongue in hell. The passage reads, [22] And it came to pass, that the beggar died, and was carried by the angels into Abraham's bosom: the rich man also died, and was buried;
[23] And in hell he lift up his eyes, being in torments, and seeth Abraham afar off, and Lazarus in his bosom.
[24] And he cried and said, Father Abraham, have mercy on me, and send Lazarus, that he may dip the tip of his finger in water, and cool my tongue; for I am tormented in this flame.
"What's fascinating is he doesn't ask for a pitcher of water; he just makes what he thinks is the smallest request he can make. So the fires of hell harm one particular aspect of your being most intensely, apparently, don't they?
"James 3 says, 'And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity: so is the tongue among our members, that it defileth the whole body, and setteth on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire of hell.' The sense of taste, the tongue, suffers grievously in hell.
"Isaiah 66:24 says, [24] And they shall go forth, and look upon the carcases of the men that have transgressed against me: for their worm shall not die, neither shall their fire be quenched; and they shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.
"Jesus Christ quotes that in Mark 9 three different times. It's the only thing He does in triplicate like that. He's obviously trying to emphasize the severity, the significance of it.
"It says there that their 'worm shall not die.' What happens to the lost man in hell is his condition is degraded to that of a worm. Think about a grown adult. You have the ability to walk and run; you can move your arms to run and catch something because you have that dexterity built into you. You have the ability to use your fingers and your senses to play music, to paint, to build, to create. Scripture properly says we are fearfully and wonderfully made because we have these talents built into our bodies.
"God does not require any of those talents for the eternity of hell. He's not expecting people in hell to write screenplays or paint paintings or create music. So what happens is their physical body is reduced to that of a worm.
*****
"Look at verse 24: 'They shall be an abhorring unto all flesh.' Isaiah 66 describes some events that will occur in the Millennial Kingdom. Jesus Christ will reign in Jerusalem and outside Jerusalem is a portal opened into hell where it's possible to see down into it and to see those cast into it.
"Have you ever seen something that's so repugnant, so abhorrent you just can't watch it--you may just throw up? There's this silly, false bravado that going to hell is just drinking beer with your buddies. That's just ridiculous.
"Isaiah 14 captures some statements made to Lucifer when he's cast into hell. There are people already down there, of course, and they have things to say to him. Verse 11: [11] Thy pomp is brought down to the grave, and the noise of thy viols: the worm is spread under thee, and the worms cover thee.
"One of the realities of hell is there's no personal space. If you're claustrophobic, it would be a bad place to be. Here's Lucifer, 'the anointed cherub that covereth,' with all the splendor he had and his covering and his capabilities, and then he's cast down there and there's just worms crawling all around him.
"This stuff is horribly bad. God put it into Scripture so we would know it's there. Jesus Christ spoke about it in Mark 9 three times because He, in love, is calling out to humanity and saying, 'Look, you have to understand this is real. This is not fake, this is not fiction, not scare tactics. You need to understand the eternal state that exists so that when I tell you to repent, you take it seriously.' He did that lovingly because He doesn't want people to go there."
(new article tomorrow--promise. I've been ill with a flare-up of a chronic digestive problem (some people call it IBS) that my mom and brother also suffer from. My dad had it, too, so it runs in my family on both sides.)
Sunday, September 15, 2019
One man band of gold like a rolling stone
Of Lucifer, Ezekiel 28 tells us, [13] Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.
"The guy's got clothing and, by the way, God always designed His creatures to have clothes," says Jordan. "All those jewels of his are in a setting of gold. This guy is the original walking jewelry store!
"In Alaska, we spent a week on the land and a week on the boat and every place we got off, God as my witness, I've never seen so many jewelry stores in my life.
"I was expecting to see arrow heads and stuff but you had to hunt for that. There were 50 jewelry stores in a town no bigger than St. Charles. I thought, 'Man, Manhattan's Diamond District didn't have this many!' They were everywhere, up in the middle of nowhere. They're not there because they're not selling.
"Ezekiel 28 refers to 'the multitude of thy merchandise.' Verse 15 says of Lucifer, 'Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.'
"Understand, Satan was created. He was in a position to magnify the Creator. You know how when you see something beautiful . . . you look at a painting and how wonderful it is and the first question you have is, 'Who painted that? Who did that?' The painting points you to the painter. This guy was designed to lead creation in praise and worship and I'm talking about real praise and worship, not this juvenile stuff you see in churches today."
*****
"The Antichrist, the personification of all of Satan's lie program, comes in as the prince in the 70th week of Daniel. In the middle of the week he dies, then the beast comes out of the bottomless pit and now he's the king over all the children of pride. There's a picture of the Antichrist in his first incarnation as 'the man of sin' and then he's revealed as the 'son of perdition.'
"We Believers struggle with the portions of the kingdom of darkness, the rulers of the darkness of this world, that we come in contact with.
"Our own sinful propensities are part of that kingdom. That's where the battle is. With the evil passions and pride of others, their ambitions, their spirit of revenge. With the error, the superstition and false doctrine. Evil customs, laws and opinions, employments and pleasures of the world that are a part of that kingdom.
"We fight against all that. We wrestle personally wherever we come in contact with the evil of the world. That's where the war is and it's up-close and personal kind of conflict with the wiles of the devil. His scheme is to get you to abandon God's Word and go on human viewpoint.
"That's all he has to do with you. He gets you to abandon the identity that God's Word says is real because it's a spiritual reality that can be confirmed in your physical life, but it has to be believed because it's what God's Word says.
"We don't believe it because of our experience; we believe it because God's Word says it; it comes out of our inner man. Satan wants you to swap that for human viewpoint, which gets you nowhere."
(new article tomorrow)
"The guy's got clothing and, by the way, God always designed His creatures to have clothes," says Jordan. "All those jewels of his are in a setting of gold. This guy is the original walking jewelry store!
"In Alaska, we spent a week on the land and a week on the boat and every place we got off, God as my witness, I've never seen so many jewelry stores in my life.
"I was expecting to see arrow heads and stuff but you had to hunt for that. There were 50 jewelry stores in a town no bigger than St. Charles. I thought, 'Man, Manhattan's Diamond District didn't have this many!' They were everywhere, up in the middle of nowhere. They're not there because they're not selling.
"Ezekiel 28 refers to 'the multitude of thy merchandise.' Verse 15 says of Lucifer, 'Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.'
"Understand, Satan was created. He was in a position to magnify the Creator. You know how when you see something beautiful . . . you look at a painting and how wonderful it is and the first question you have is, 'Who painted that? Who did that?' The painting points you to the painter. This guy was designed to lead creation in praise and worship and I'm talking about real praise and worship, not this juvenile stuff you see in churches today."
*****
"The Antichrist, the personification of all of Satan's lie program, comes in as the prince in the 70th week of Daniel. In the middle of the week he dies, then the beast comes out of the bottomless pit and now he's the king over all the children of pride. There's a picture of the Antichrist in his first incarnation as 'the man of sin' and then he's revealed as the 'son of perdition.'
"We Believers struggle with the portions of the kingdom of darkness, the rulers of the darkness of this world, that we come in contact with.
"Our own sinful propensities are part of that kingdom. That's where the battle is. With the evil passions and pride of others, their ambitions, their spirit of revenge. With the error, the superstition and false doctrine. Evil customs, laws and opinions, employments and pleasures of the world that are a part of that kingdom.
"We fight against all that. We wrestle personally wherever we come in contact with the evil of the world. That's where the war is and it's up-close and personal kind of conflict with the wiles of the devil. His scheme is to get you to abandon God's Word and go on human viewpoint.
"That's all he has to do with you. He gets you to abandon the identity that God's Word says is real because it's a spiritual reality that can be confirmed in your physical life, but it has to be believed because it's what God's Word says.
"We don't believe it because of our experience; we believe it because God's Word says it; it comes out of our inner man. Satan wants you to swap that for human viewpoint, which gets you nowhere."
(new article tomorrow)
Saturday, September 14, 2019
Today's emasculation from pursuing truth
The last thing God's finger did when He created was make Eve and she was a complete total person. It was Adam who was no longer whole.
Genesis 2 reports, [21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
[22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
[23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
"People ask, 'Am I a complete person?' and the answer is a woman is, but a man isn't," says Jordan. "People say, 'We're all created equal.' No, no, no. In creation, God fixed it so we're not equal.
"By the way, ladies, you know why the man is the initiator, the pursuer? The woman stands there and she don't care if you come or not, but you can't stand it; you've got to go. Man's the pursuer because there's an incompleteness in him without her.
"Now, we have a total equality in Christ. There's not anyone up here and down there. We're all blessed with all spiritual blessings. The only difference in us is some of us have spent more time pursuing it, studying it, having a passion about it than others."
*****
I came across a video posted today to You Tube entitled, Toxic Femininity, which gave the approach to truth from the masculine and feminine perspective. The speaker started, "We're not just talking about male and female biology. We're distinguishing between these two because quite frequently they come into conflict when a situation presents itself."
He continued, "When you approach a situation, the male mind wants to immediately grasp the reality; the truth of it. The female mind looks at something and says, 'Ooh, when we respond to this how is that going to make people feel?'
"Now, that's not bad. A follower of Christ takes truth and compassion and marries them together, but always ultimately in the service of truth.
"Toxic femininity is this extreme view that truth simply does not matter: 'We're just simply going to deny it. We'll lie about it, disregard it, ridicule it, whatever we have to do to advance the mindset that the only thing that matters is feelings, sentimentality, nostalgia . . .'
"When there's a flat tire, you know in your mind the objective standard of truth for this 'thing' that needs adjusting, correcting, fixing. Because I'm a guy and I'm oriented toward the truth I'm going to say, 'That's the truth and this needs to conform to it, so let's move this toward that.' That's how the male mind works.
"The female mind, not exclusive of that, takes in the emphasis, 'Well, how will this truth be received?' . . . She can be like, 'No, no, no, I don't need you to fix it; I just need you to understand.' He's like, 'But honey . . . ' She says, 'You guys just always want to fix things. I just want you to share in this with me.' "
(new article tomorrow)
Genesis 2 reports, [21] And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
[22] And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
[23] And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
"People ask, 'Am I a complete person?' and the answer is a woman is, but a man isn't," says Jordan. "People say, 'We're all created equal.' No, no, no. In creation, God fixed it so we're not equal.
"By the way, ladies, you know why the man is the initiator, the pursuer? The woman stands there and she don't care if you come or not, but you can't stand it; you've got to go. Man's the pursuer because there's an incompleteness in him without her.
"Now, we have a total equality in Christ. There's not anyone up here and down there. We're all blessed with all spiritual blessings. The only difference in us is some of us have spent more time pursuing it, studying it, having a passion about it than others."
*****
I came across a video posted today to You Tube entitled, Toxic Femininity, which gave the approach to truth from the masculine and feminine perspective. The speaker started, "We're not just talking about male and female biology. We're distinguishing between these two because quite frequently they come into conflict when a situation presents itself."
He continued, "When you approach a situation, the male mind wants to immediately grasp the reality; the truth of it. The female mind looks at something and says, 'Ooh, when we respond to this how is that going to make people feel?'
"Now, that's not bad. A follower of Christ takes truth and compassion and marries them together, but always ultimately in the service of truth.
"Toxic femininity is this extreme view that truth simply does not matter: 'We're just simply going to deny it. We'll lie about it, disregard it, ridicule it, whatever we have to do to advance the mindset that the only thing that matters is feelings, sentimentality, nostalgia . . .'
"When there's a flat tire, you know in your mind the objective standard of truth for this 'thing' that needs adjusting, correcting, fixing. Because I'm a guy and I'm oriented toward the truth I'm going to say, 'That's the truth and this needs to conform to it, so let's move this toward that.' That's how the male mind works.
"The female mind, not exclusive of that, takes in the emphasis, 'Well, how will this truth be received?' . . . She can be like, 'No, no, no, I don't need you to fix it; I just need you to understand.' He's like, 'But honey . . . ' She says, 'You guys just always want to fix things. I just want you to share in this with me.' "
(new article tomorrow)
Wednesday, September 11, 2019
For shrimp add $2
Grilled shrimp, boiled shrimp, broiled shrimp, breaded shrimp, sautéed shrimp, shrimp kebabs, pan-fried shrimp, deep-fried shrimp, stir-fried shrimp, shrimp creole, shrimp gumbo, shrimp etouffee, shrimp and grits, shrimp with lobster sauce, shrimp toast, shrimp dumplings, shrimp scampi, shrimp linguine, coconut shrimp, shrimp bisque, shrimp salad, shrimp remoulade, shrimp roll, shrimp cocktail, shrimp ceviche . . .
“People ask, ‘When you were down in New Orleans eating shrimp and seafood gumbo, which Bible passage were you obeying?’ " said Jordan in a sermon. “Well, I wasn’t obeying Genesis 1 because I wasn’t eating rabbit food. I wasn’t obeying Leviticus 11 because I was eating fish that didn’t have fins and scales. I wasn’t obeying Genesis 9 either. I was obeying I Timothy 4:4-5, because it says, ‘For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.’ "
*****
One of the easiest ways to to see God's dispensational dealings with humans is through food.
“The simple question of, ‘What can I have for breakfast?’ can be confusing in the Bible if you don’t study it dispensationally," said Jordan. "That’s one of the real easy illustrations to show people.
“He can be completely out of the will of God, quoting Scripture that Moses wrote to Moses’ people, because that’s not where they were dispensationally. They had moved from ‘promise’ to ‘law,’ and law had been imposed, or added, and that was God’s Word to them dispensationally.
“All that violates what grace is about because grace’s given you abundantly for you to receive with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is just rejoicing in the abundance God has given you and it’s designed for you to receive it because it’s sanctified by the Word of God rightly divided.
*****
"The Bible starts out in Genesis with human beings following a strict vegan diet. Then God says to Noah in Genesis 9, 'You were a vegetarian before the Flood but now, if you can catch it you can eat it. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.'
“People ask, ‘When you were down in New Orleans eating shrimp and seafood gumbo, which Bible passage were you obeying?’ " said Jordan in a sermon. “Well, I wasn’t obeying Genesis 1 because I wasn’t eating rabbit food. I wasn’t obeying Leviticus 11 because I was eating fish that didn’t have fins and scales. I wasn’t obeying Genesis 9 either. I was obeying I Timothy 4:4-5, because it says, ‘For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer.’ "
*****
One of the easiest ways to to see God's dispensational dealings with humans is through food.
“The simple question of, ‘What can I have for breakfast?’ can be confusing in the Bible if you don’t study it dispensationally," said Jordan. "That’s one of the real easy illustrations to show people.
“Moses wrote all of the different dietary instructions (Genesis 1, Genesis 9 and Leviticus 11). So what if an Israeli came up to Moses and complained, ‘Mo, I really don’t like what you wrote in Leviticus 11; I think I’m going to claim the Word of God in Genesis 9.’
“He can be completely out of the will of God, quoting Scripture that Moses wrote to Moses’ people, because that’s not where they were dispensationally. They had moved from ‘promise’ to ‘law,’ and law had been imposed, or added, and that was God’s Word to them dispensationally.
“When you come to Paul he says the first thing you got to understand is that right division sets you apart from all that legalism where people come along and legislate morality, rules and regulations and rites and rituals and celibacy and fasting and all that stuff.
“All that violates what grace is about because grace’s given you abundantly for you to receive with thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is just rejoicing in the abundance God has given you and it’s designed for you to receive it because it’s sanctified by the Word of God rightly divided.
*****
"The Bible starts out in Genesis with human beings following a strict vegan diet. Then God says to Noah in Genesis 9, 'You were a vegetarian before the Flood but now, if you can catch it you can eat it. Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you.'
"When God brings the nation Israel out of Egypt, He gives them another set of instructions through Moses in Leviticus 11.
“He says, ‘Here’s some things you can eat but here’s some beasts, some animals that you cannot eat.' If you look at verse 7, He refers to the swine. Uh-oh. There went bacon and eggs for breakfast because the swine is the bacon. The pig. ‘You shall not eat the flesh of it.’
“In verse 9 He says, ‘Whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, and in the rivers, them shall ye eat.’ Verse 10 says, ‘And all that have not fins and scales in the seas, and in the rivers, of all that move in the waters, and of any living thing which is in the waters, they shall be an abomination unto you.’
“What’s the matter with catfish? The verse says you can’t eat it because it doesn’t have fins and scales. Why did He tell them that? He didn’t tell them that because there’s something wrong with eating it.
“Somebody comes along (such as a Seventh-Day Adventist) and says, ‘If you go through the dietary laws God gave Israel, they were given for health reasons. For example, it’s not healthy to eat pigs because pigs have trichinosis germs in them.’
“Somebody answers, ‘You cook the pig and kill the trichinosis germs,’ and they respond, ‘But who wants to eat dead trichinosis germs?’
“Don’t spend your time running through Leviticus trying to figure out what’s wrong with catfish, river buzzards; those cleaning up the bottom.
“In Leviticus 22, God tells you, ‘I gave you all these quirky things to do so that when people look at you and say, Why do you do that? you can only say back, Well, our God told us not to do it.’
“There’s no moral impact in it. These were ceremonial things. There was no sinfulness in it except God said don’t do it. He said, ‘Don’t do it because I’m making you a separate, distinct people who look different than all the other nations of the earth. You look different in your diet because there’s things you won’t do.’
*****
“One of my favorite families in the Bible is in the Book of Jeremiah--a bunch of Gentiles, the Rechabites. God told Israel, ‘Go down to the Rechabites and invite them to come for supper and put wine and a big meal in front of them,’ and so they did.
"The Rechabites told them, ‘Well, we’ll enjoy the meal with you but we don’t drink wine.’ They said, ‘Why not?’ and the Rechabites answered, ‘Because our daddy told us don’t do it and we do what our daddy told us. We love our dad.’
"The Rechabites told them, ‘Well, we’ll enjoy the meal with you but we don’t drink wine.’ They said, ‘Why not?’ and the Rechabites answered, ‘Because our daddy told us don’t do it and we do what our daddy told us. We love our dad.’
“God told Jeremiah to tell Israel, ‘There’s a bunch of Gentiles who don’t know anything about me but they love their daddy and they do what their daddy told them. You guys, you know me, the God of the Bible, the Creator, and you don’t do what I tell you to do. Those Gentiles honor their father and mother and you don’t honor me.’
“God told the Rechabites, ‘You’re going to have a place in the kingdom forever.’ Why? Because they obeyed what their daddy told them. God gave Israel some things to do because He told them to do it."
(new article tomorrow)
(new article tomorrow)
Saturday, September 7, 2019
Call to war
In a last letter to her imprisoned 33-year-old husband hours before he was executed, Mary Love, wife of the great 17th century Puritan preacher Christopher Love, wrote,
"Thou dost but leave earth for heaven and changest a prison for a palace. And if natural affections should begin to arise, I hope that the spirit of grace that is within thee will quell them, knowing that all things here below are but dung and dross in comparison of those things that are above. I know thou keepest thine eye fixed on the hope of glory, which makes thy feet trample on the loss of earth.
"My dear, I know God hath not only prepared glory for thee, and thee for it, but I am persuaded that He will sweeten the way for thee to come to the enjoyment of it. When thou art putting thy clothes on that morning, O think, 'I am now putting on my wedding garments to go to be married to my everlasting Redeemer.'
"When the messenger of death comes to thee, let him not seem dreadful to thee, but look on him as a messenger that brings thee tidings of eternal life. When thou goest up the scaffold, think (as thou saidst to me) that it is but thy fiery chariot to carry thee up to thy Father’s house."
"Remember that he was beheaded the next day all because he had a Bible!" reminded Jordan in a sermon. "He took a Protestant Bible and went out and preached ‘justification by grace through faith plus nothing.’ No tradition, no works, no church, nothing—just 'Christ and Him alone.'
“The morning after he got that letter from his wife, the court gave him a legal document that said if he would just recant ‘faith alone in Jesus Christ’ they’d spare him. She wrote in her letter, ‘Don’t, I’ll see you in glory.’
“You can sit in an air-conditioned room tonight with a Bible in your hand and faith in your heart because of people like that! And it was people like that who produced this recovery of Pauline truth of justification.
“In the First Great Awakening in the 1700s, men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield helped recover the truth of ‘justification by grace through faith alone plus nothing.’ The result of that Great Awakening was the American Revolution, by the way. When the pendulum swung back.
*****
“In the First Great Awakening in the 1700s, men like Jonathan Edwards and George Whitfield helped recover the truth of ‘justification by grace through faith alone plus nothing.’ The result of that Great Awakening was the American Revolution, by the way. When the pendulum swung back.
*****
“You know what’s going to happen this time around? The heart and the core of Pauline truth isn't going to be there. People are going to need us desperately like never before.
“A little light shines real bright in the darkness. I challenge you tonight to be a Philippian—to take your own life and identify yourself.
“Where are you right now? How’s it going? Is there anything to it? Is it just words on the page or is it something real in your heart? What does it mean to you?
“Can I tell you that to be a leader in the cause of Christ . . . I Timothy 3 says that a man has to have a relationship with the Lord that’s real and active and personal. And His family has to be there in those things. You aren’t going to produce that kind of stuff with cheap stuff.
“Right here in this room tonight there’s some of you men and women who need to do some business for the Lord. But you want it to be without cost to you; without a personal involvement other than just going and been seen.
“How is it with the world around you? Is it any more than machinery or scenery to you? You see, I want to challenge you tonight. That ministry that Paul had; the spirit and the source, and the substance of it, needs to be yours, but it has to be yours in a real way. There’s some of you folks that could get going if you’d get real with what’s out there. We need you to do that.
*****
“What’s the chaff to the wheat? Down South in the grace movement I’d been a part of, they’d sit around and bicker and potshot and nosepick one another. And then I came up into the Midwest and found brethren who had perfected the 'right boot of fellowship' into a fine art.
“I back up from that and I say, ‘You know, there’s an opportunity right now and we haven’t got time to be involved in all that other stuff!’ We’re not all there is but we is and we are what we are!
"Let me tell you something, your community, your nation, the church-at-large is going to need you in the next decade more than they’ve ever needed you before. We’re back in a position where ‘our time is at hand.’ And it’s time to fish or cut bait.
"Let me tell you something, your community, your nation, the church-at-large is going to need you in the next decade more than they’ve ever needed you before. We’re back in a position where ‘our time is at hand.’ And it’s time to fish or cut bait.
“When you understand the truth of the preaching of Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery, that gives you a sense of your place in things. It gives you a sense of your place in the world—you know you’re not Israel; you know who you are. You’re an ambassador for Christ, a member of the Body of Christ.
“It gives you a sense of your place in history. We’re not in the prophetic program; we’re in the mystery program. It gives you a sense of your place in the church—you’re members of the Body of Christ and you know who you really are. It gives you a sense of your place in the will of God.
“The dispensation of grace is an age of a remnant mentality. It’s not an age that’s pressed forward by corporate activity. It’s an age where the work of God is done through faithful men; through individuals in whom the truth lives and works, banding themselves together in local assemblies to go do the work of the ministry.
“It isn’t carried on in big organizations and religious movements. That’s why we don’t have an organization here, by the way.
*****
“When we were asked to leave the Berean Bible Society organization, there was a group of 10-12 men who met in my living room. One of them asked, ‘Well, what are we going to call the new organization?’ and I said, ‘Who wants to nominate me for the board of a new organization?’ The room was silent. You know why? The men in there understood.
“There’s an old saying, ‘In the seeds of the formation of a religious institution are the seeds of its own destruction,’ and I’ve been to meetings where they discuss, ‘Well, how do you stop that?’ but nobody ever gives the answer.
“The way you stop it is you don’t do it! You don’t build something that’s designed to self-destruct! People say, ‘Well, but, but, but . . .’ No buts about it, you just don’t do it!
“What do you do? You go do what God gave you to do. And you don’t try and improve on that. The dispensation of grace is going to come to a close. It might come to a close tonight or it may not come to pass for another 50-100 years. I don’t know.
“But the dispensation of grace always ends in total apostasy and today the church-at-large lives in an abject state of failure. You can’t read II Timothy and not see the church in ruin in the ‘last days.’ And every day today is one of the ‘last days.’
“But it’s going to be faithful men. Little ‘remnant mentality’ people who are going to be true to the faith, true to the doctrine, and keep going, and they’re not going to be out trying to build something that they’re not. They’re going to go out being who they are.
“Now, most of you folks here tonight are capable of being Philippians. Most of the church is stuck back in Corinthians or Galatians, though. Those two books, you can take and identify almost any Christian ministry today.
“Almost any Christian Believer you know is either a Galatian or a Corinthian. They’re either hung out under the legalistic strictures of Galatianism—mixing law and grace—or they’re over in the Charismatic mania of the flesh at Corinth.
*****
*****
“By the way, there are two great theological groups that are at loggerheads—Armenianism and Calvinism. There’s the man-centered Corinthianism and the Moses-centered Galatianism.
“Most of you folks have grown beyond—you’ve come to understand the establishment truth in Romans about Calvary and you’ve gone on to the doctrinal truths in Ephesians. You’re an advanced breed, frankly. I count it in honor to know you in that way and I rejoice in that with you.
“The biggest problems the Philippians had, as I said earlier, wasn’t what they knew. They were mature believers. The understood Ephesian truth—advanced truth, mystery truth.
“Their problem was working together in unity and harmony of mind and purpose in defeating the satanic policy of evil that’s designed, not just to get you to defect from the doctrine, but designed to attack you and one another and sew discord and animosity among the brethren so you’re just as ineffective as if you didn’t know the doctrine.
*****
“When I moved to Chicago in 1979 (after a lifetime in Alabama) it was a shocking experience for me and my wife. If it hadn’t been for the folks in our assembly, my wife and family would have never made the transition.
“The people who brought us here had absolutely no idea or actually any concern about what was happening to my family, and if it hadn’t of been for the saints at the church doing what the church always does, and is designed to do and should do—
just naturally caring for one another—we would have been in a mess, but we weren’t.
“I began to fellowship with these folks and I began to ask about J.C. O’Hair. I worked with Pastor Stam. I met Charles Baker. Those three names. . .
“Mr. O’Hair was a visionary. I heard stories about things he had planned and was going to do. I talked with people who knew him but never heard those stories because those were ‘quiet’ stories. Those were stories he had in his mind and in his heart that he wanted to do but didn’t get done.
“He wanted to start a Bible institute. He wanted to tear down the old church building at the corner of Wilson and Sheridan and build a nine-story high-rise in its place that would have 600 students the first year.
" ‘Whoa, we can’t do that! That might be a success!’ A guy actually said, ‘He’ll do it too! We gotta stop him!’ and they did, for good or bad.
“Now, Mr. Stam was a pugilist—he’d get out and contend and fight for the faith. They’ll never be a better writer dispensationally than Stam.
“Mr. Baker was an academic. And those three men working together led the grace movement into existence as we know it. And there’s not a place in America and hardly around the world that knows some of the truth we rejoice in about right division that didn’t come from those men’s ministries.
“When I moved to Chicago, I realized things weren’t in such good a shape. I’d go to meetings like this and be the youngest man there. I traveled around the country and I’d find people were discouraged and down in the dumps and didn’t really understand what was happening.
“By the way, in 1870, six men met in a Chicago suburb; six pastors met in a suburb of Chicago. They came from six different places in the Midwest to study the pre-millennial Second Coming of Christ and decide if they thought that’s what the Bible taught.
“Those six men studied and came to the conclusion that there was a distinction between the Rapture and the Second Coming of Christ to the earth—one for the body, one for Israel.
“They said, ‘We’ll go home and we’ll study and a year later we’ll meet again.’ A year later, they rented a little room in Boston to meet. They went there to meet and the word got out and they began to have crowds of 100-150 people come to that little week of meetings. The next year, they scheduled another meeting and they had 500 people. The next year they had an even bigger meeting and it became known as the Bible Study Movement.
“It was out of that Bible Study Movement that the Scofield Reference Bible—
Dr. Scofield and those men were recovering truth and it was out of that that fundamentalism in the 20th century got its teeth and strength to battle against the modernists and destroy them.
“It was out of that movement that J.C. O’Hair and the Grace Movement came and progressed on into truth. You and I stand in very much the same situation tonight."
Tuesday, September 3, 2019
Going to Port Lucaya in my mind
The treasured mementos from my solo trip to Grand Bahama Island in December of 2004 are few: three conch shells I found on the beaches, four silver Bahamian coins I never spent and a cheap red-plastic pen I was given after they stamped my passport at the airport. The embossed words on it read, "It Just Keeps Getting Better. Islands of the Bahamas."
Today's heart-wrenching headlines on the internet include, '"Paradise Destroyed," "Unprecedented Pummeling," "Completely Shredded," etc.
My Bahama getaway vacation was only a few months after an intense Hurricane Jeanne ripped through that part of the former Crown Colony with 120 mph winds, causing heavy structural damage and coastline flooding.
Taking a taxi from the airport I could see the damage everywhere. The cab driver filled me in on the hurricane and how it brought tourism to a standstill. Then he told me about the highly unusual cold snap they were having at the moment, expected to last through the weekend (the length of my stay!). I thought, “Just my luck. It’s going to be like a ghost town and it’s going to be too cold to even try to enjoy the ravaged and eroded beaches!”
What made everything “perfect” was I had a found a cheap hotel rate over Travelocity and the hotel (even though it seemed quite decent from its promotional website) was indeed cheap—and in a bad neighborhood! I was told to be very careful, in fact, walking after night and to hide any purse or wallet. Worst part, I couldn’t have been a further walk from the beach. I had to take a bus, in fact.
Between the lack of tourists, the scraggly, rock-and-debris marred coast, and the cold breeze making the highs only in the mid-60s, I had the place to myself! No matter which beach I explored there was hardly another person in sight and for stretches I was the only one around, kind of spooking me even.
It was too cold to sunbathe or luxuriate very long in the water, so I used the vast majority of time walking the beaches while listening to cassette tape after cassette tape of Alexander Scourby reading Paul’s epistles from the King James Bible, using my Walkman.
The time I had was unreal—the most special trip of my life. In continual prayer, with Paul in the background, I plotted out what I would do with the rest of my life. The kinship with my Redeemer was blissful. Paul’s words and his reportings on his travels and experiences never seemed more real—like something I was a part of as I walked along on the craggy coastal paradise as if I had private ownership of the whole island. I thought, “This would be a perfect way to spend a honeymoon.”
On my last evening before my return to the U.S., I decided I had to swim at the motel’s huge outdoor pool no matter how cold it was. After taking an ice cold dip, I plunged into the sublime outdoor hot tub, which I also had all to myself. Looking up at the night stars I felt a gratefulness and sense of security about my life that was unlike anything I ever remembered or could ever put into words.
All these years later, Grand Bahama Island is that place I instinctively and readily go to in my mind when I need comfort and assurance that I am loved through and through. It’s where I am reminded of the life blueprint hatched just for me.
(new article tomorrow)
Today's heart-wrenching headlines on the internet include, '"Paradise Destroyed," "Unprecedented Pummeling," "Completely Shredded," etc.
My Bahama getaway vacation was only a few months after an intense Hurricane Jeanne ripped through that part of the former Crown Colony with 120 mph winds, causing heavy structural damage and coastline flooding.
I didn’t even know about the hurricane damage when I
last-minute chose to fly to the Bahamas after butting up against an expiration
date for a set of free round-trip tickets to anywhere Air Tran Airlines flies,
awarded me by the airlines after a big goof-up on a return flight from Akron.
I had spent the year thinking I would simply use the tickets
to go back to Ohio for a family visit but then when the deadline approached I
couldn’t get just any flight home and, after looking at an Air Tran flight
routes map, decided, “Let them take me to their most exclusive destination—the
Bahamas.”
Taking a taxi from the airport I could see the damage everywhere. The cab driver filled me in on the hurricane and how it brought tourism to a standstill. Then he told me about the highly unusual cold snap they were having at the moment, expected to last through the weekend (the length of my stay!). I thought, “Just my luck. It’s going to be like a ghost town and it’s going to be too cold to even try to enjoy the ravaged and eroded beaches!”
What made everything “perfect” was I had a found a cheap hotel rate over Travelocity and the hotel (even though it seemed quite decent from its promotional website) was indeed cheap—and in a bad neighborhood! I was told to be very careful, in fact, walking after night and to hide any purse or wallet. Worst part, I couldn’t have been a further walk from the beach. I had to take a bus, in fact.
Fortunately I didn’t waste time correcting my situation. I
had only booked it for one night (I am always too adventuresome to want to get
settled anywhere) so my second day on the island I scoped out where I’d next go
and ended up in very charming Port Lucaya.
Between the lack of tourists, the scraggly, rock-and-debris marred coast, and the cold breeze making the highs only in the mid-60s, I had the place to myself! No matter which beach I explored there was hardly another person in sight and for stretches I was the only one around, kind of spooking me even.
It was too cold to sunbathe or luxuriate very long in the water, so I used the vast majority of time walking the beaches while listening to cassette tape after cassette tape of Alexander Scourby reading Paul’s epistles from the King James Bible, using my Walkman.
The time I had was unreal—the most special trip of my life. In continual prayer, with Paul in the background, I plotted out what I would do with the rest of my life. The kinship with my Redeemer was blissful. Paul’s words and his reportings on his travels and experiences never seemed more real—like something I was a part of as I walked along on the craggy coastal paradise as if I had private ownership of the whole island. I thought, “This would be a perfect way to spend a honeymoon.”
On my last evening before my return to the U.S., I decided I had to swim at the motel’s huge outdoor pool no matter how cold it was. After taking an ice cold dip, I plunged into the sublime outdoor hot tub, which I also had all to myself. Looking up at the night stars I felt a gratefulness and sense of security about my life that was unlike anything I ever remembered or could ever put into words.
All these years later, Grand Bahama Island is that place I instinctively and readily go to in my mind when I need comfort and assurance that I am loved through and through. It’s where I am reminded of the life blueprint hatched just for me.
(new article tomorrow)
Sunday, September 1, 2019
Once again it happened in Chicago
A great old hymn, Elizabeth Clephane’s “Beneath the Cross of Jesus,” goes, “I take, O cross, thy shadow for my abiding place . . . content to let the world go by, to know no gain nor loss.”
Clephane, a Scottish woman who lived from 1830-1869, is also responsible for the classic hymn, “The Ninety and Nine.” According to Wikipedia, “Folklore claims that Elizabeth wrote ‘The Ninety and Nine’ for her brother, George Clephane (1819-1851), who had ‘returned to the flock’ only a short time before his death. As the story goes, he fell from his horse and struck his head upon a rock and was killed instantly.”
The tune is famously based on Jesus Christ’s question in Matthew 18 (also in Luke 15): “If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?”
It represents the first and most famous composition of Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908), often called the “father of the gospel song” for making the “new” type of music a major focus in his famous evangelical campaigns with D.L. Moody (The two were actually in the middle of a revival meeting when the Great Chicago Fire broke out!)
One of my hymn history books tells this great anecdote regarding "The Ninety and Nine”:
“Sankey and Moody were en route from Glasgow to Edinburgh, Scotland, in May, 1874, as they were to hold a three-day campaign there. This was at the urgent request of the Ministerial Association.
“Prior to boarding the train, Sankey bought a weekly newspaper for a penny. He found nothing of interest but a sermon by Henry W. Beecher and some advertisements. Then, he found a little piece of poetry in a corner of one column that he liked, and he read it to Moody, but only received a polite reply.
“Sankey clipped the poem and tucked it in his pocket. At the noon day service of the second day of the special series, Moody preached on The Good Shepherd. Horatius Bonar added a few thrilling words and then Moody asked Mr. Sankey if he had a final song. An inner voice prompted him to sing the hymn that he found on the train.
“With conflict of spirit, he thought, this is impossible! The inner voice continued to prod him, even though there was no music to the poem, so he acquiesced. As calmly as if he had sung it a thousand times, he placed the little piece of newspaper on the organ in front of him.
“Lifting up his heart in a brief prayer to Almighty God, he then laid his hands on the keyboard, striking a chord in A flat. Half speaking and half singing, he completed the first stanza, which was followed by four more.
“Moody walked over with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Where did you get that hymn?’ 'The Ninety and Nine' became his most famous tune and his most famous sale from that time on. The words were written by Elizabeth Clephane in 1868. She died in 1869, little realizing her contribution to the Christian world.”
*****
In my book from 1982, “101 Hymn Stories,” author Kenneth W. Osbeck writes, “Although the singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs had always been an important part of public worship starting in the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation, Sankey introduced a style of congregational singing that was ‘calculated to awaken the careless, to melt the hardened, and to guide the inquiring souls to Jesus Christ.’
“It was frequently said that Sankey was as effective a preacher of the gospel of salvation with his songs as his associate, D. L. Moody, was with his sermons.
“For nearly thirty years Sankey and Moody were inseparable in the work of the gospel, both in this country and throughout Great Britain. Sankey’s smooth, cultured ways complemented and made up for Moody’s poor English and impulsiveness. They were often referred to as the ‘David and Jonathan of the gospel ministry.’
“Sankey had little or no professional voice training. He generally accompanied himself on a small reed organ, singing simply but with careful enunciation and much feeling and expression. His voice was described as an exceptionally strong baritone of moderate compass. An English newspaper once wrote the following review:
‘As a vocalist, Mr. Sankey has not many equals. Possessed of a voice of great volume and richness, he expresses with exquisite skill and pathos the gospel message, in words very simple but replete with love and tenderness, and always with a marked effect on the audience.
‘It is, however, altogether a mistake to suppose that the blessing which attends Mr. Sankey’s efforts is attributed only or chiefly to his fine voice and artistic expression. These, no doubt, are very attractive, and go far to move the affections and gratify the taste for music; but the secret of Mr., Sankey’s power lies, not in his gift of song, but in the spirit of which the song is only the expression.’
“Another writer wrote as follows regarding Sankey’s manner of singing:
(new article tomorrow)
Clephane, a Scottish woman who lived from 1830-1869, is also responsible for the classic hymn, “The Ninety and Nine.” According to Wikipedia, “Folklore claims that Elizabeth wrote ‘The Ninety and Nine’ for her brother, George Clephane (1819-1851), who had ‘returned to the flock’ only a short time before his death. As the story goes, he fell from his horse and struck his head upon a rock and was killed instantly.”
The tune is famously based on Jesus Christ’s question in Matthew 18 (also in Luke 15): “If a man have an hundred sheep, and one of them be gone astray, doth he not leave the ninety and nine, and goeth into the mountains, and seeketh that which is gone astray?”
It represents the first and most famous composition of Ira D. Sankey (1840-1908), often called the “father of the gospel song” for making the “new” type of music a major focus in his famous evangelical campaigns with D.L. Moody (The two were actually in the middle of a revival meeting when the Great Chicago Fire broke out!)
One of my hymn history books tells this great anecdote regarding "The Ninety and Nine”:
“Sankey and Moody were en route from Glasgow to Edinburgh, Scotland, in May, 1874, as they were to hold a three-day campaign there. This was at the urgent request of the Ministerial Association.
“Prior to boarding the train, Sankey bought a weekly newspaper for a penny. He found nothing of interest but a sermon by Henry W. Beecher and some advertisements. Then, he found a little piece of poetry in a corner of one column that he liked, and he read it to Moody, but only received a polite reply.
“Sankey clipped the poem and tucked it in his pocket. At the noon day service of the second day of the special series, Moody preached on The Good Shepherd. Horatius Bonar added a few thrilling words and then Moody asked Mr. Sankey if he had a final song. An inner voice prompted him to sing the hymn that he found on the train.
“With conflict of spirit, he thought, this is impossible! The inner voice continued to prod him, even though there was no music to the poem, so he acquiesced. As calmly as if he had sung it a thousand times, he placed the little piece of newspaper on the organ in front of him.
“Lifting up his heart in a brief prayer to Almighty God, he then laid his hands on the keyboard, striking a chord in A flat. Half speaking and half singing, he completed the first stanza, which was followed by four more.
“Moody walked over with tears in his eyes and said, ‘Where did you get that hymn?’ 'The Ninety and Nine' became his most famous tune and his most famous sale from that time on. The words were written by Elizabeth Clephane in 1868. She died in 1869, little realizing her contribution to the Christian world.”
*****
Wikipedia says of the Chicago trial-by-fire for Sankey and Moody, “The two men barely escaped the conflagration with their lives. Sankey ended up watching the city burn from a rowboat far out on Lake Michigan.”
In my book from 1982, “101 Hymn Stories,” author Kenneth W. Osbeck writes, “Although the singing of Psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs had always been an important part of public worship starting in the sixteenth century Protestant Reformation, Sankey introduced a style of congregational singing that was ‘calculated to awaken the careless, to melt the hardened, and to guide the inquiring souls to Jesus Christ.’
“It was frequently said that Sankey was as effective a preacher of the gospel of salvation with his songs as his associate, D. L. Moody, was with his sermons.
“For nearly thirty years Sankey and Moody were inseparable in the work of the gospel, both in this country and throughout Great Britain. Sankey’s smooth, cultured ways complemented and made up for Moody’s poor English and impulsiveness. They were often referred to as the ‘David and Jonathan of the gospel ministry.’
“Sankey had little or no professional voice training. He generally accompanied himself on a small reed organ, singing simply but with careful enunciation and much feeling and expression. His voice was described as an exceptionally strong baritone of moderate compass. An English newspaper once wrote the following review:
‘As a vocalist, Mr. Sankey has not many equals. Possessed of a voice of great volume and richness, he expresses with exquisite skill and pathos the gospel message, in words very simple but replete with love and tenderness, and always with a marked effect on the audience.
‘It is, however, altogether a mistake to suppose that the blessing which attends Mr. Sankey’s efforts is attributed only or chiefly to his fine voice and artistic expression. These, no doubt, are very attractive, and go far to move the affections and gratify the taste for music; but the secret of Mr., Sankey’s power lies, not in his gift of song, but in the spirit of which the song is only the expression.’
“Another writer wrote as follows regarding Sankey’s manner of singing:
(new article tomorrow)
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