Greed the driving force

Here is continuation of March 29 post and I will have new article tomorrow:

Psalm 10, a whole psalm dedicated to the Antichrist, says, [7] His mouth is full of cursing and deceit and fraud: under his tongue is mischief and vanity.

[8] He sitteth in the lurking places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent: his eyes are privily set against the poor.

[9] He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den: he lieth in wait to catch the poor: he doth catch the poor, when he draweth him into his net.

[10] He croucheth, and humbleth himself, that the poor may fall by his strong ones.

Verse 2 says, "The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined."

“Dozens of times through the minor prophets the text will refer to the poor, but it’s not talking about some folks on Lower Wacker living in a cardboard box. It's a specific reference to a specific group of people at a specific time.

“Jesus said, ‘The poor you have with you always.’ Well, that’s a truism in the sense it’s the common lot of mankind, but these poor result from the persecution in the time of Jacob’s trouble.

"If you don’t take ‘the mark of the beast’ what happens to you? You can’t buy, you can’t sell. You can’t own property; you can’t divest yourself of property.

“The kings are literally going to take the wealth from the people in the nations they control and make them poor. They’re going to use Israel and the Gentiles in those nations and suck the wealth out through corrupt money, corrupt government, corrupt policies.

"The wicked one’s going to oppress the poor; going to persecute the Believing Remnant and let them be taken in the devices they have imagined.

“Now, Psalm 10:3 explains why the Antichrist’s called the ‘foolish shepherd’: [3] For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

“It’s the greed that’s driving him; the will to be rich. If you go to Ezekiel 28, you’ll see that when Satan starts out, that prince of Tyre and king of Tyre is the man of sin and the son of perdition, and the whole object there is to get rich."

Real Jews under attack

I was in my mid-30s living in Manhattan when I first learned from a friend (who split his time between New York City and a seaside home in Tel Aviv) that Israelis who believe in a coming Messiah are ridiculed and mocked by the populace.

“The few devout Jews who still believe in a future coming of a personal Messiah are labeled as ‘ultra-orthodox’ and are dismissed as being ignorant, pompous, superstitious and unenlightened, by, you guessed it, their own people, i.e., the Jewish Community!” confirms Bible teacher and missionary R. Dawson in his 2005 book, The Apostasy of the Christian Church.

Joseph Perl, a leader of the Jewish Enlightenment in the early 1800s, once assured, “The truly educated Jews by no means picture the Messiah as a real personality. They see him only as a symbol of ideas of the redemption of Israel and of universal peace which await their realization when Israel, freed from all oppression, will be accepted into the family of nations.”

In the late 1800s, German Rationalism produced the Graf-Wellhausen theory that concluded Moses was a dumb caveman who didn’t even know how to write.

The doctrine claimed the Pentateuch was really written by four different men much later than Moses, and gave them the impersonal titles of J, E, P and D.

J stood for the Jehovah passages, P for the Levitical priesthood passages, E for where it talks about Christ as Elohim and D for the Deuteronomic passages.

*****

Psalm 91 starts with, “He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
[2] I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.”

“If you go back and read Deuteronomy 32 and 33, and then read this psalm, as well as the one before it, you’ll see phrase and concept after phrase and concept in Deuteronomy 32 and 33 that show up again in Psalm 90 and 91, indicating Moses wrote the two of them,” says Richard Jordan.

“By the way, Deuteronomy 32 and 33 is, in the writings of Moses, sort of like what Romans 6 is in the writings of Paul. Romans 6 is a key passage in the Christian life and, well, Deuteronomy 32 and 33 could be called the national anthem of the nation Israel.

“So, just like the burning bush is the real symbol of the nation Israel (instead of the pagan Star of David, which is really the evil Star of Moloch in Amos 5), if the nation Israel wanted a Bible national anthem, it would be the song Moses sings in Deuteronomy 32 and 33 because that song rehearses the whole of their history.

"It gives their history prophetically all the way from the time of Moses right to the time of Christ—the first coming, the tribulation and the Second Coming.

“When you look at Psalm 90 and 91, much of the stuff drawn from those passages gives the reader the immediate understanding that, ‘Hey, these psalms have to do with Israel in the last days’; not just Israel in David’s day, or Moses’ day, as in this case, but Israel in the purpose and plan of God ultimately.”

*****

In Exodus 17:14, “the LORD said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven.”

Jordan explains, “God’s saying, ‘Mo, I want you to write a book.’ That’s why we are ‘people of a book.’ If you take the book away, you take us away. Notice it’s God’s idea, not Moses’.

“The church I was raised in laughed and said Moses couldn’t write: ‘Don'tchaknow, back in those days they were all demented.’ You know, carry around a club on their shoulders. Living in caves. You know, meet some gal on the way, bop her on the head and drag her home and make her cook for ya.

“You ever read Acts 7 when Stephen talked about Moses and said he was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians? I mean, have you ever looked at the Egyptians? The culture he lived in? He could get up in the morning and look out at the Pyramids!

“Well, mercy, people today can’t even figure out how they built them! Come to Chicago and go to the Field Museum of natural history and my favorite exhibit there is down in the basement in the Egyptian room. It’s full of mummies and they’ve got this little woman in a little sarcophagus and they’ve got some of the remnants peeled back and this is 3,000 B.C. and she looks pretty good. A little leathery, but her features are there. She’s all there.

“I’ve been involved with the exhuming of bodies in the past and you know what, with all the modern techniques of embalming, you don’t look so good after 10 years. Honest, you don’t! Give yourself 30 years in that hermetically sealed environment in the coffin and you’ll look even worse. You know why? The bacteria that produces decomposition works in that hermetically sealed environment.

“God’s Word, as it was written down, was not written down to be a family history. It wasn’t a journal or a diary. It wasn’t national archives; it was God telling Moses and others to write His Word!

*****

“Exodus 24 says, ‘And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD, and rose up early in the morning, and builded an altar under the hill, and twelve pillars, according to the twelve tribes of Israel . . .  And he took the book of the covenant, and read in the audience of the people: and they said, All that the LORD hath said will we do, and be obedient.’

“By the way, they put it in a book. I know what experts say: ‘Well, books weren’t invented back then!’ What are you talking about?! Think about who invented books! They say, ‘Well, they had to roll a scroll,’ like dealing with toilet paper or something.

“Well, how would you study something rolled out like that? You couldn’t study it. How could you do what we’re doing right now and cross-reference that?  You know who invented books? People who studied because that’s why you have a book like that.

*****

“Exodus 34:27-28 says, ‘And the LORD said unto Moses, Write thou these words: for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel.
[28] And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.’

“Notice he writes the words on a table. This is where Moses is REPRODUCING. Deuteronomy 31:24  says, ‘And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book, until they were finished.’

“Here Moses is finishing Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus Numbers and Deuteronomy. He’s writing the words.

Notice it says ‘writing the words of this law in a book.’ A book. There’s a verse in Joshua that talks about THE book. One book! But it’s really got five parts in it. It’s one book because it’s got one author, but it’s got a bunch of sections.”

(new article tomorrow)

Facing the wicked one

“A man once wrote a list of 33 names in the Bible that are applicable to the Antichrist. There’s more in the Bible about the Antichrist than anybody else except for the Lord Jesus Christ.

“As ‘the foolish shepherd’ and ‘the idol shepherd’, as ‘the man of sin’ and ‘the son of perdition’, he’s literally the personification of Satan’s program and that’s why he’s called ‘the wicked one’.

“There are whole chapters in the Book of Job about him, and in the Book of Psalms he’s described in very clear terms.

“People love the psalms. At a funeral, Psalm 23 is often used at the graveside. When you use it in an allegorical sense—'The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want’—it is a psalm you understand gives comfort to a lot of people. It’s like the song Amazing Grace.

“Every drunk in an AA Meeting can sing that song. That song doesn’t tell you anything about Jesus Christ, or the gospel, or heaven and hell. It just talks about, ‘I’ve been knocked down, but by the grace of God I’m up and I’m going again.’

“You’ll see it every time there’s a big funeral in the national cathedral. Some big opera singer gets up and sings Amazing Grace. They don’t sing all the verses, though: ‘The Lord has promised good to me,
His Word my hope secures;
He will my Shield and Portion be,
As long as life endures.’

“What you get in the Book of Psalms is a look into the heart of the Believing Remnant as they matriculate through the Fifth Course of Judgment, and especially the very end of it. It’s, ‘Here’s the remnant suffering under the heel of the oppressor and they look to the Lord to deliver them.’

“There are doctrines designed to give the believing remnant an internal capacity and fortitude to get through. Now they’re going to have to face this wicked one.

“When you trace through the psalms, there are probably 30-35 of them that directly address this character, and Psalm 10 is the first place he’s called the wicked and this psalm sort of sets the pace for what you’re going to read and learn about him.

Psalm 9: [5] Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.
[6] O thou enemy, destructions are come to a perpetual end: and thou hast destroyed cities; their memorial is perished with them.

“There you have the wicked, who are Israel’s enemies, and they’ve got a memorial to themselves. You know what the memorial is—it’s Revelation 13. They’ve got an image made to the wicked one.

Psalm 9:16-17: [16] The LORD is known by the judgment which he executeth: the wicked is snared in the work of his own hands. Higgaion. Selah.
[17] The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations that forget God.

That’s what’s going to happen to them. The psalm ends with the Second Coming: [19] Arise, O LORD; let not man prevail: let the heathen be judged in thy sight.
[20] Put them in fear, O LORD: that the nations may know themselves to be but men. Selah.

(to be continued tomorrow)

Oh, the canvas can do miracles

It is said Fanny Crosby wrote some of her best-known hymns simply as gifts or letters to friends, and some were even written as sort of a diary entry to herself.

"Songs like Safe in the Arms of Jesus connected with others who were grieving because she was able to put words to the personal pain she and her husband experienced after their baby died, while offering the hope of looking heavenward," explains an essay online. "Because of Fanny's prolific ability to write poetry and verse, she was introduced to and privileged to work with several very influential composers. Each noted her uncanny ability to hear a melody and quickly match deep and thoughtful lyrics to their tunes." 

For her 1875 hymn, Savior, More Than Life to Me, the tune was composed by William Howard Doane, who sent the melody to Crosby, requesting that she provide some words on the theme of "every day and hour." Her lyrics:

1. Savior, more than life to me,
   I am clinging, clinging, close to Thee;
   Let Thy precious blood applied,
   Keep me ever, ever near Thy side.
   • Refrain:
     Every day, every hour,
     Let me feel Thy cleansing pow’r;
     May Thy tender love to me
     Bind me closer, closer, Lord to Thee.
2. Through this changing world below,
   Lead me gently, gently as I go;
   Trusting Thee, I cannot stray,
   I can never, never lose my way.
3. Let me love Thee more and more,
   Till this fleeting, fleeting life is o’er;
   Till my soul is lost in love,
   In a brighter, brighter world above.
4. *****
5. When I went in for oral surgery this past January, I remember being down. It was a super-cold week and I had been in excruciating pain from a tooth infection, taking over-the-counter painkillers nonstop, which made me constipated.
6. Anyway, just before the hygienist started administering laughing gas, she asked me what kind of music I would like to hear piped into the room. I had never been asked this by a dentist of any kind so it took me a second. My first answer was classic rock but I quickly changed it to soft rock.
7. The music was a nice distraction, but none of it was really meaningful until the very last song that was played before the dentist finished working on my mouth.
8. It was a tune, one I hadn't heard in a very long time, that I once played over and over and over again as part of an album I had on cassette. I played the cassette on my Walkman when I would go cross-country cycling, something I was very into during my late teens and through my early 20s. It was Christopher Cross' Sailing.
9. I tell you, it was just what the doctor ordered. In my somewhat altered state I was completely transported back in time, just as if I was pedaling my favorite Raleigh 15-speed up (and cruising down) one of the huge rural hills I used to do all the time in the Endless Mountains of northern Pennsylvania and southern New York State (my first job out of college was as a bureau chief for the Elmira Star-Gazette, recognized as the first Gannett newspaper.)
10. Here are the lyrics:
11. Well, it's not far down to paradise

At least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find tranquility
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

It's not far to never never land
No reason to pretend
And if the wind is right you can find the joy
Of innocence again
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, believe me

Sailing
Takes me away to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
Soon I will be free

Fantasy
It gets the best of me
When I'm sailing

All caught up in the reverie
Every word is a symphony
Won't you believe me?

Sailing
Takes me away to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

Well, it's not far back to sanity
At least it's not for me
And if the wind is right you can sail away
And find serenity
Oh, the canvas can do miracles
Just you wait and see, really, believe me

Sailing
Takes me away to where I've always heard it could be
Just a dream and the wind to carry me
And soon I will be free

(new post tomorrow--sorry for absence. I have been under the weather mentally and physically)

They'll want to die and can't

Joel 1:4 says, “That which the palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpiller eaten.”

“Commentaries about the Book of Joel always look at this insect infestation as a historical event but nobody knows when it took place. There’s no record of it in Scripture outside of this passage.

“My individual impression is he’s not talking about the past here; he’s talking about the future," says Richard Jordan.

“It’s an infestation in the future that’s going to wind up with the destruction of the land, to be immediately followed by the battle of Armageddon. It takes place in the last half of the 70th Week, and at the end of it in the ‘day of the Lord.’

"So verse 15 says, ‘Alas for the day! for the day of the LORD is at hand, and as a destruction from the Almighty shall it come.’

“What he’s describing here is a prophetic picture. If you want to say, as the commentaries all do, that it’s historically rooted in the past and Joel’s doing what Hosea said, using a similitude—‘Here’s a historic event and an illustration out of it’ . . . well, I think you lose something if that’s all you get out of it.

“You see how he says in Joel 1:2-3: [2] Hear this, ye old men, and give ear, all ye inhabitants of the land. Hath this been in your days, or even in the days of your fathers?

[3] Tell ye your children of it, and let your children tell their children, and their children another generation.

"That's saying, 'Here’s something you need to pass on to your kids and make sure they understand it so they can pass it to their kids and let everybody remember this.'

“Whenever you have someone in Israel telling them to remind their children about things, over and over again the context of what they’re reminding them about is going to be the restoration of Israel at the end of the time of Jacob’s trouble.

“How often have we looked at how many events in Israel’s past are really dress rehearsals for things coming in their future.

*****

“Come with me to Psalm 78. You see how it says a ‘Maschil of Asaph.’ That word Maschil is a Hebrew title for a psalm designed to teach doctrine. This is not a devotional psalm; this is an instruction psalm designed to produce edification in its hearers. It’s by Asaph, David’s choir director, so to speak.

“But he was more than that. Matthew 13: 34-35 says, ‘All these things spake Jesus unto the multitude in parables; and without a parable spake he not unto them: 35] That it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, I will open my mouth in parables; I will utter things which have been kept secret from the foundation of the world.’

“If you’ve got a Scofield Bible, it tells you where that's a quote from. It’s from Psalm 78:2.

"Notice what Matthew calls the writer of Psalm 78. He doesn’t call him the psalmist, or the writer, or the devotional expositor. He calls him the prophet.

“So what do you expect to read in Psalm 78? Prophecy. Why? Because Matthew 13:35 said a prophet wrote it.

“I know, I get way out on a limb some time and people think, ‘That's just nuts,’ but when you read these things, and you believe what you read, and put them together, you begin to say, ‘Wow, this stuff is kind of fascinating!’

“Here’s what the prophet says to them in Psalm 78: ‘1] Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth.

[2] I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old:
[3] Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us.
[4] We will not hide them from their children, shewing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done.
[5] For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children:
[6] That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children:
[7] That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments:

“That’s saying, ‘I’m going to tell you history like you learned our history, but our history is really a parable. Our history is a dress rehearsal about things taking place in the future.' It’s not just, 'I wonder what happened today; let’s turn on the news.’

“If you go on down through the chapter, and there’s 72 verses to it, he starts with the Exodus and goes all the way down to I Samuel 8 with David and goes through Israel’s history. He’ll do it in Psalm 105 and 106. The psalms do this over and over again.

“Each psalm has a particular doctrinal emphasis to it and they’ll pick out the history of Israel and lay it out and the psalmist will say, ‘You see what God did back there? He’s going to do the same thing out over there.’

"Look at verses 43-45: 43] How he had wrought his signs in Egypt, and his wonders in the field of Zoan:
[44] And had turned their rivers into blood; and their floods, that they could not drink.
[45] He sent divers sorts of flies among them, which devoured them; and frogs, which destroyed them.

*****

“You remember all the plagues Moses put on Egypt? The Book of Numbers says he was judging the gods of Egypt. Each one of those plagues represented an attack on some of the pagan gods the Egyptians trusted and he bested them.

“In fact, after the one in Exodus 10 about the locusts, Pharaoh’s men come in and say, ‘Pharaoh, would you just get rid of this guy because we’re beat; he’s already beaten us.’

“Verse 46 says, ‘He gave also their increase unto the caterpillar, and their labour unto the locust.’  Verse 49 says, ‘He cast upon them the fierceness of his anger, wrath, and indignation, and trouble, by sending evil angels among them.’

“So what happened back in Egypt is a prophecy against what God’s going to do against the world. By the way, Isaiah calls the pharaoh that held Israel captive 'the Assyrian.'

"Of course, the Antichrist who’s going to hold Israel captive in the tribulation is called 'the Assyrian.' So the spiritual force behind the captivity of Israel in Exodus is the same satanic policy holding them captive in the tribulation.

“If you go to Joel 1:4, he actually has four categories for the plague of the locust (Exodus 10). Commentaries usually say those are four different stages of the life of a locust. I don’t know if that’s true or not, but it’s fascinating to me that one bug can only eat so much so when he leaves, the next bug eats more and by the time you get to the end, there's nothing left.

“There’s a destruction coming in the land that Joel is prophesying about and, as we read the rest of the chapter, he’s going to describe how thorough the destruction is.

“There’s people who say that’s four different Gentile nations and they try to interpret it and so forth, but my own view is it’s a literal destruction of the land, only it’s looking to the future and that’s why he tells them to remember it.

“Joel 1:19-20 says, 19] O LORD, to thee will I cry: for the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness, and the flame hath burned all the trees of the field.
[20] The beasts of the field cry also unto thee: for the rivers of waters are dried up, and the fire hath devoured the pastures of the wilderness.

“Fire, flame, devouring--that’s not what locusts do. There’s something more than just bugs infesting, so when you keep reading in Joel 1 you begin to say, ‘Hmm.’

“Verses 5-6: [5] Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

[6] For a nation is come up upon my land, strong, and without number, whose teeth are the teeth of a lion, and he hath the cheek teeth of a great lion.

“Now, wait a minute, the locusts turn out to be a nation that’s come up upon the land, strong and without number, and they’ve got teeth like a great lion and they devour.

“Lions aren’t going to eat the grass. You go on down through here and you see they eat the grass, the trees, the apple trees, the pomegranate trees, the vine tree.

*****

“There’s something more than just literal locusts because now, in connection with that, there’s a nation. When it says they have teeth like the teeth of a lion, and have cheek teeth of a great lion, there’s a fascinating comparison there.

“In essence, what Joel is doing is announcing the judgment of that Fifth Course on Israel. The day of the Lord’s wrath is what that Fifth Course of captivity is and what Joel is saying is, ‘That Fifth Course is coming!’

“In all the other courses, He’ll destroy the land and let the Gentiles come in and take them, but God doesn’t clean wipe them out. But when you get down to that Fifth Course, you’re going to be down to the place where you’re so starved and your resources are so gone you’re going to start eating each other.

“Now, if you go back into Kings, you’ll see that historically. I know you and I, all fat and sassy, have never been that hungry. It’s easy for you to say what you wouldn’t do, but if you’re put in the exact same circumstances they’re in, then tell me you wouldn’t do it. That’s how desperate they’re going to be.

*****

“Deuteronomy 28, where it’s describing the outworking of these five courses of judgment, verse 38 says, ‘Thou shalt carry much seed out into the field, and shalt gather but little in; for the locust shall consume it.’

“One of the judgments of God against Israel is the harvest of their land being consumed by pestilence; by plagues of insects, specifically locusts.

“Verses 40-43 says, [40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
[41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
[42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.

“God’s going to stop the natural production of the fruit of the trees. In verse 49 (‘The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand’) is the nation in Joel 1:6.

“It’s a nation of locusts. Proverbs 30:27 says, ‘The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands.’

“If a locust has no king, would you properly describe him as a nation? Doesn’t a nation need a head? So it would be odd to call a band of locusts a nation if they didn’t have a king, but what if you had locusts who had a king?

“In Revelation 9 are some locusts. Where’d they come from? The bottomless pit. Well, obviously they weren’t insects. They are some kind of spirit creatures. They would be some of those evil angels like over in psalms.

“Revelation 9:3 says, ‘And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power.’

“Along with the insect infestation that’s physically destroying the land, eating it down so it produces absolutely nothing of consumable value, now there’s a group of demonic in the spirit world coming.

“Verse 4 says, ‘And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads.’

“So this locust is going to attack people who are lost. Revelation 9:5 says, ‘And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. ‘

“They don’t kill you, they just torment you. It says they’ll want to die and they can’t. Verse 6 says, ‘And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them.’

“The passage goes on, ‘7] And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.
[8] And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions.
[9] And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle.
[10] And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.
[11] And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon.
[12] One woe is past; and, behold, there come two woes more hereafter.

“If that’s the first woe, think how bad the next two are going to be! And that first woe is what Joel is seeing. Not only is there just going to be the physical destruction of the land, the picture in Joel is that in the tribulation, there’s going to be this swarm of locusts.

“Revelation 11:3 says, ‘And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth.’

“Those two witnesses are Moses and Elijah and they’re going to do something. Remember verse 6? Would that be a little bit difficult? You read in Joel about the rivers drying up and everything being parched.

“One of the plagues Moses smote Egypt with was locusts. In that second half of that 70^th Week in the tribulation, literally the land’s going to be smitten with swarms of locusts that just take the form of the plagues out of Egypt.

“They cover the land, go in the houses and just infest everything, eat everything, decimate the land. Then you’re going to have on top of that these demonic locusts from Revelation 9 that come on the land as a nation whose teeth are like lions. All of that is going to be followed in chapter 2 of Joel with the battle of Armageddon.”

(new article tomorrow)

Five on your side

Paul says in I Corinthians 14:19, “Yet in the church I had rather speak five words with my understanding, that by my voice I might teach others also, than ten thousand words in an unknown tongue.”

Starting with Genesis 1, there are at least three dozen places in the Word using five-word statements for fundamental understandings from God.

The first five words, "In the beginning God created," represent the foundation of everything; all of history, all of theology, all of life.

“Notice God CREATED, so that means God is outside of creation," reasons Jordan. "There goes pantheism and polytheism. What He created had a beginning. There goes materialism; the idea that matter is the ultimate reality.

“ ‘In the beginning God created.’ There goes deism; the idea that God doesn’t really get personally involved in creation.

“Have you ever had anybody try to tell you that Albert Einstein believed in God? Someone asked Einstein one time (I read his testimony about this), ‘Do you believe in God?’ and he responded, ‘Well, if you mean a personal God who intervenes in history, then no. But if you mean an ultimate FORCE that is behind everything, then yes.’

“ ‘In the beginning God created.’ What does that tell you about Creation? That tells you there’s a personal involvement, a personal plan, a personal activity. It’s a visible, supernatural presence. By the way, that’s the opposite of Kierkegaard’s existentialism.

“What I’m saying is that all the philosophies men develop to try and create their own world, the first FIVE words in the Bible tell you that none of that is true. If you don’t get those first five words straight, the rest of the Bible’s not going to mean much too you.

*****

“Come to Romans 5:12 and notice another five words: ‘By one man sin entered.’ You know where the problem in Creation, the problem in your life comes from? That one man was a guy by the name of Adam.

“God gave Adam dominion over the earth and Satan coveted that dominion so he came along and deceived Adam into believing that Lie Satan propagated to him back there. Adam knowingly, willingly disobeyed the clear statement of God and sin entered the world.

“I Corinthians 15:3 says, ‘Christ died for our sins.’ Count the words. The Word that created everything was made flesh. He literally stepped outside of creation into creation and became one with us. He’s the one mediator between God and man. ‘Fully satisfying payment for us.’ That’s five words you want to remember.

“Count the words in, ‘And that he was buried.’ ‘And that he was sealed.’ He was buried and ‘rose again the third day.’ There’s five more words. ‘And that he was seen.’ There’s five more.

“All the message of the gospel there is in those five words. He died, He was buried. The death was real. It wasn’t a mystical, theological argument. It was a real death. Then He was raised from the dead.

“The theology is in the death and the resurrection. ‘And that he was seen’ is the historical validation. You understand your faith doesn’t rest in an enigma. It doesn’t rest in a theory. It doesn’t rest in some superstitious hoodleydoo.

“Come to Ephesians 2:5 and count the words in the parenthesis: ‘By grace ye are saved.’ Another five words that come along here and tell you everything you need to know!

“Colossians 2:10 says, ‘Ye are complete in him.’ How many words is that? Don’t forget that your completeness is in who God has made you in His Son.

“If you trust in Jesus Christ, God the Holy Spirit took you out of Adam and put you into Jesus Christ. Your identity isn’t in Adam anymore; it’s in Jesus Christ. His death became your death. The only answer to sin is death, so Christ died for you and you died with Him. His burial was your burial. He put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself. His resurrection is your resurrection.

“By the way, ‘I am crucified with Christ.’ How many words is that?

“Let’s do one more. Titus 2:13: ‘Looking for that blessed hope.’ You know what, we’ve got a good future ahead, folks. The Lord Jesus Christ could come at any moment and catch us away." 

Learned secrets about spirit world play out in Trib

An advertisement on Fox News promotes the TV series The Last O.G. I looked up the meaning online and it says O.G. stands for "Original Gangster." 

It made me think of how you will hear a sports star, or a celebrity chef, etc., being referred to as an O.G. O.G. is said to also stand for "Original God."

You can't help but think of the last remnant of the giants, a character named Og. Deuteronomy 3:11: [11] For only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon? nine cubits was the length thereof, and four cubits the breadth of it, after the cubit of a man.

*****

"In Daniel 2, you’re going to discover that all this stuff going on with the giants is directly connected and associated with what the Antichrist is going to be doing!" says Richard Jordan.

Psalm 82 points toward 'the last days' and to some mighty men, some of these angels who the Lord's going to destroy (He says they are ' going to die like men') when He comes back to take over the earth, removing these satanic armies, judges, from control and put His people in control.

"In Daniel 2,  the image Nebuchadnezzar saw had five parts to it. The head of gold is Babylon and 'as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay'--in history that turns out to be Rome, but it winds up being the Antichrist with the feet.

"Verse 43: [43] And whereas thou sawest iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: but they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay.'

"There's some kings there who are going to MINGLE themselves with the seed of men. This takes you back to Genesis 6.

"The clay, that's mankind. In fact, more specifically it's the nation Israel in the Book of Isaiah. Iron in the Bible is connected with these sons of god.

"What's over in Genesis 6 repeats itself over in the 70th Week of Daniel and that's why in Psalm 82, when he talks about God gathering these fallen angels together to judge them and take away from them their government, it's done in a context that is typified by Genesis 6.

“If you mingle yourself with the seed of men, the implication is you aren’t one of the seed of men. You are from a different source. When we read about the giant Og and he had that big bed, do you remember what it was made out of? Iron.

“When we read about Goliath, do you remember the iron in his armament? In the Bible, iron and clay have a very specific connection and one is with the giants.

“With the satanic activity that resulted in the giants, the iron and clay was something very important in connection with man.

*****

What’s ever-fascinating is the picture-type presented in Nimrod, who we learn from Genesis is related to the giant offspring!

Genesis 10: [8] And Cush begat Nimrod: he began to be a mighty one in the earth.

[9] He was a mighty hunter before the LORD: wherefore it is said, Even as Nimrod the mighty hunter before the LORD.

"What did it say about Nimrod? He was a mighty what? Hunter. He said, ‘Don’t worry about it, I’ll take care of everything; you don’t have to go scatter and hunt for your dinner like God said. I don’t want you to have to be scattered all out looking for food.’

“Everything Nimrod’s doing is in rebellion to God, and in what begins in Babylon, the plain of Shinar where Nebuchadnezzar shows up later on, is the setting for the inception of Baal worship (the Antichrist’s religion) and the people turning into ‘the heathen.’

“It says Nimrod BEGAN to be one of these mighty men, men of renown. When you were born, somewhere after you were maybe 20-25 years old, did you just begin to be human? It said he began to be a one of these mighty men of old; men of renown. I read over that verse for years and never thought much about it, but then I got thinking about it. 

“It’s like Nimrod had been living along here and all of a sudden something clicked. There’s a catalyst. There was some gene turned on and he began to be. When I read that, I think, ‘These guys had tapped in to an ability to control’ . . . I mean, today we’re still scratching the surface with cloning, genetic engineering and that kind of stuff.

“These guys had tapped into the ability to manipulate and control DNA, the human genome. Man’s devious nature is going to take whatever you do and do what? His imagination is only evil continually.

"This is real important because they learned some secrets about the spirit world from these angels when they co-habitated with them.

“Nimrod founded Babel and Babel (which is Babylon) was (and will be) the place of the centralization against the purpose and plan of God. It’s there that they’re going to have the one world language, the one world religion, the one-world government. They’re going to do everything they can to thwart Gods purpose.”

*****

"When God sent the Flood, it was not just a judgment on man and man’s wickedness; it was a judgment on those angels and their giant offspring. The giants were men of immense physical prowess and extremely advanced intellectual capacity.

Genesis 6: [4] There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown.

[5] And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

“When it says ‘the wickedness of man and his imagination,’ it was all of these secret things that these angelic creatures had brought into the populace’s ability to understand.

"Imagine what it would mean if you had a supernatural, angelic creature show up and then start having kids?! The abilities they would bring, the crossover information they would share.

“The Bible never says angels have imagination, but all over the Book it talks about man having imagination. Man can look at something and imagine the potentials that it can reach to and I think, ‘Wow, and it was the imagination of MAN’S mind!' He sees all these things and they were only evil continually. You see, that’s where that fallen nature of man got in there.

“You remember in Ezekiel 28, it talks about Lucifer when he becomes Satan and the merchandising, the trafficking? In other words, man sees this thing and he starts wanting to do some things with it, and if an angel can step over here into our dimension, what would man naturally think he might could do? Step over there into their's too! Isn’t that what humans want to do?

“Have you heard of the author Dean Koontz, who’s rewritten the Frankenstein novels? The original Frankenstein novel was a reaction to technology and it was a commentary. Koontz’ books are an indictment of the senseless use of technology. If a novelist can imagine it, and it really isn’t true, what do you think the imaginations of men could do who really SEE this stuff?

*****

II Peter 2:4-6 says, 'For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
[5] And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
[6] And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha into ashes condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly; chains of darkness, spared not old world.'

“You see how the bringing in of the Flood is connected with the angels that sinned? It wasn’t just a judgment on natural man ungodliness; it was a judgment upon the ungodliness of angelic ungodliness also.

Jude 1:6-7: '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.

[7] Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, giving themselves over to fornication, and going after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire.'

“How would you leave the habitation of an angel? Hugh Ross, a believing astrophysicist who has an organization called Reasons to Believe, has written books about the cosmos and he says there are 10 dimensions.

"The idea is we think about an angel crossing across the universe, but what if all he had to do was step right over here because right parallel to where we are is another dimension?

“These guys left their first estate, left their own dimension in which they lived. You remember He said over there in Genesis 6:4 there were giants at the time of the Flood and then AFTER THAT it happens again?

"Remember how in Sodom and Gomorrah they were giving themselves over to fornication and going after strange flesh (flesh that isn’t originally in their habitation) and are set forth for as an example?

“You remember how in I Samuel 17, David fought a guy 10-feet tall whose name was Goliath? It says Goliath ‘had an helmet of brass upon his head, and he was armed with a coat of mail; and the weight of the coat was five thousand shekels of brass.’

"If you can carry around armor that weighs that kind of money, you’re a pretty stout guy. And these are the giants AFTER the Flood!”

*****

I Peter 3:18-20 says, 18] For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:

[19] By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison;
[20] Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

"Basically, Jesus Christ preached to those same disobedient angels from Noah’s day who brought about the giant offspring.

"What must first be understood is that in any New Testament scripture, the word ‘spirit,’ when it’s a reference to a creature and not to our human makeup (of spirit, soul and body), is a reference to a demon or devil, except in Hebrews 12 when the writer talks about ‘the spirits of just men made perfect,’ which is a reference to angelic creatures.

“What Peter’s doing is talking to some people out in the future who are going to face the same kinds of things the people faced back in Noah’s day. The origin of it was back there before the Flood and the culmination of it is over here in the Tribulation period.

"And just like Christ had a witness through Noah, ‘a preacher of righteousness,’ this Little Flock is going to be witnessing over here.

(new article tomorrow)

Worshipping the gods of the nations

“God said about the Flood in Genesis 6: [5] And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

“Their thoughts had been so corrupted . . . How did they get corrupted? The angelic host came down and corrupted mankind and that angelic invasion led men away to worshipping them," explains Richard Jordan.

“You see, idolatry didn’t begin in the Bible until Genesis 10. The gods had come down and men began to make idols to memorialize their visit. They began to get the idea about the idols to represent them. You do that. You take mementos when you go somewhere. You take pictures; selfies.”

*****

Isaiah 45: [20] Assemble yourselves and come; draw near together, ye that are escaped of the nations: they have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save.

[21] Tell ye, and bring them near; yea, let them take counsel together: who hath declared this from ancient time? who hath told it from that time? have not I the LORD? and there is no God else beside me; a just God and a Saviour; there is none beside me.
[22] Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else.

“God’s the big ‘G’, but He’s not denying that there are other creatures. He wouldn’t be saying, ‘I’m God and there’s none else beside me,’ if there wasn’t something over there to compare Himself with. Wouldn’t make sense if He said, ‘I’m God and I compare myself to nothing.'

“Notice how your Bible uses this terminology. In chapter 47, he’s talking about Babylon, the city: [8] Therefore hear now this, thou that art given to pleasures, that dwellest carelessly, that sayest in thine heart, I am, and none else beside me; I shall not sit as a widow, neither shall I know the loss of children:

“When the city of Babylon is reported as saying, ‘I am and there’s none else beside me,’ is she saying there’s no other city in the world? No, she’s saying there’s no other city that can compare to her; ‘I’m incomparable.’

Zephaniah 2:15: [15] This is the rejoicing city that dwelt carelessly, that said in her heart, I am, and there is none beside me: how is she become a desolation, a place for beasts to lie down in! every one that passeth by her shall hiss, and wag his hand.

“In other words, they know there’s other cities, but she says, ‘I’m the top dog.’

*****

“The Bible teaches the existence of other spirit creatures who are supernatural. They’re not human, but they're also not Jehovah.

“Satan says to Eve, ‘You see those gods out there? They know things you don’t know; they have an enhanced intelligence you don’t have and God doesn’t want you to be like them. When you eat of that tree you’re going to have the enhanced intelligence they have; you’ll be able to do the marvelous supernatural things they do—fly around and all that stuff.’ They were real; Adam and Eve could see them.

Psalm 96:5: [5] For all the gods of the nations are idols: but the LORD made the heavens.

“So they make these representations, these idols, of the invisible gods they’re worshipping.

Psalm 97. [7] Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him, all ye gods.

 “A graven image takes time and effort and dedication and love and commitment. He said, ‘Don’t put your skills to work and service of these gods by making representations of them.’

“Psalm 106, talking about Israel: [35] But were mingled among the heathen, and learned their works.
[36] And they served their idols: which were a snare unto them.
[37] Yea, they sacrificed their sons and their daughters unto devils,
[38] And shed innocent blood, even the blood of their sons and of their daughters, whom they sacrificed unto the idols of Canaan: and the land was polluted with blood.
[39] Thus were they defiled with their own works, and went a whoring with their own inventions.
[40] Therefore was the wrath of the LORD kindled against his people, insomuch that he abhorred his own inheritance.
[41] And he gave them into the hand of the heathen; and they that hated them ruled over them.

“Heathen, idols, devils. Those three things are tied together because the heathen, the Gentile nations, worship and are literally under the control of these gods.

“This is what Paul’s talking about in Ephesians 6 when he talks about ‘the rulers of the darkness of this world.’

Deuteronomy 32: [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.
[8] When the most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.
[9] For the LORD's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.

“That’s the governing control that these gods have been given over the nations of the world. Every Gentile nation has been placed under the authority of these gods.

“When did He separate the sons of Adam and divide the nations? The Tower of Babel. They were engaged in universal global idolatry that was going to take that spiritual wickedness and permeate the whole planet with it.

“This is where Romans 1, historically, fits in: [21] 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.
[22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools.

(new post tomorrow)