The last of Western hegemony?

This week in the Jerusalem Post: "The powerful Old Testament image of the four horsemen of the Apocalypse has been repeatedly brought back into discussion when humanity has faced peril and war. Ezekiel and Zachariah have often been interpreted as describing the four horsemen as plague, war, famine and finally death."

Author Vas Chenoy continued, "When I woke up this past week on the morning of 120 days of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine, it struck me that we were nearing death: Death of the old geopolitical system and of the world order that has kept repeating itself from the medieval ages.

"Despite much that has happened, Europe and Russia have risen as powers and then crumbled repeatedly. It seems, finally, that this cycle of plague, war and famine will be the last of Western hegemony and the birth of a new world order, a new world order which will probably bring back the balance of power to Asia and Africa, which were the centers of global wealth and power long before the industrial revolution . . . 

"And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and hell followed with him.” While we may be prepared for death, what we now need to understand is how we deal with the hell that follows."

******

"God's word was fulfilled in that captivity and then Ezekiel can speak again to the nation. Now, all that weird stuff he went through was about judgment, destruction, defilement and the captivity of a rebellious people filled with unbelief who wouldn't believe God's Word. God uses these visual arts with Ezekiel to demonstrate it.

Ezekiel 37: [22] And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all:

[23] Neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwellingplaces, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God.
[24] And David my servant shall be king over them; and they all shall have one shepherd: they shall also walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them.

"It's only going to be the Messiah who does that and all those false prophets that Israel had been believing and trusting and failed them, the last thing Ezekiel says is, 'God is going to restore the nation and put us back in the land; God's going to redeem us and cleanse us.' That's the message that Ezekiel has. Judgement and then God restores them.

"I don't know that I would have wanted to be a part of his visual arts team but he's a great illustration of what Paul says in I Corinthians 1: [25] Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.

[26] For ye see your calling, brethren, how that not many wise men after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble, are called:

[27] But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty; 

Israel's mocking proverb: 'The days are prolonged'

Ezekiel 12: [14] And I will scatter toward every wind all that are about him to help him, and all his bands; and I will draw out the sword after them.

[15] And they shall know that I am the LORD, when I shall scatter them among the nations, and disperse them in the countries.

[16] But I will leave a few men of them from the sword, from the famine, and from the pestilence; that they may declare all their abominations among the heathen whither they come; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

"The Lord's talking about their complete, total destruction," explains Richard Jordan. "One third is going to be destroyed in the taking and sacking of Israel. One third is going to be destroyed with famine and starvation and pestilence. One third is going to be destroyed in the war of Nebuchadnezzar and the other third is going to be scattered among the Gentiles; taken off into captivity. The majority of them are going to be destroyed by the sword and by famine and then taken into captivity.

[12] And the prince that is among them shall bear upon his shoulder in the twilight, and shall go forth: they shall dig through the wall to carry out thereby: he shall cover his face, that he see not the ground with his eyes.

[13] My net also will I spread upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare: and I will bring him to Babylon to the land of the Chaldeans; yet shall he not see it, though he shall die there.

"What's He's saying to Ezekiel is, 'Look, go dress for a trip. Dress like you're going to leave and not come back. Pack your bags, get your stuff ready like you're going off into captivity. Then go over there to the wall and knock a hole in the wall, throw your stuff through it, jump over to the other side and take off through the desert. Leave! Get your stuff and go! Maybe they'll say, Where you going, Zeke? What's going on?! Maybe it will stir them up.'

Verse 11: [11] Say, I am your sign: like as I have done, so shall it be done unto them: they shall remove and go into captivity.

"Israel says, 'No, no, no, we won't! You're nuts! That's not what God's going to do. You don't understand who we are. We're God's people and God isn't going to let that happen to us.'

"In verses 12-14, it happens exactly like Ezekiel said it would; exactly what happens over there in Jerusalem.

"Watch what people do in verse 21: [21] And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[22] Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?

"The Lord says, 'Hey, Zeke, what is that song they sing down at church there? They got that proverb, 'The days are prolonged, it's okay, don't worry. All the messages that say we're going to go into captivity have failed.'

"Unbelief mistakes the patience of God and turns it into mockery and they make a mock of God's Word. They made a mocking proverb that said, 'Oh, we heard all those messages about captivity and all that. Nah, it ain't happening.'

Verses 23-24: [23] Tell them therefore, Thus saith the Lord GOD; I will make this proverb to cease, and they shall no more use it as a proverb in Israel; but say unto them, The days are at hand, and the effect of every vision.

[24] For there shall be no more any vain vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel.

"God says, 'You go tell them my patience is up. In fact, over and over in Ezekiel, He says, 'You tell them there's no mercy.' God told Jeremiah, 'Pray not for this people.' He says, 'Don't you pray and ask me not to send that judgment; it's coming and you might as well not even pray about it.'

"They made a proverb of God's Word, they made a proverb of God's goodness to them, His mercy. They turned His patience into mockery. You see they mistook God's patience. II Peter 3 says: [9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

"The promise in II Peter 3 is a promise of judgment; the promise that He's going to judge the world in righteousness. That's why he says in the verse before: [8] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

*****

"In Ezekiel 24 is sort of the culmination and of all the signs Ezekiel had to do, I think this would have been the one that would have been the most personally difficult because it was the most personal one.

"It's one thing to go lay on your side, or bake bread, go out and do all these goofy things and go home, but look at this one.

Verses 15-18: [15] Also the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[16] Son of man, behold, I take away from thee the desire of thine eyes with a stroke: yet neither shalt thou mourn nor weep, neither shall thy tears run down.
[17] Forbear to cry, make no mourning for the dead, bind the tire of thine head upon thee, and put on thy shoes upon thy feet, and cover not thy lips, and eat not the bread of men.
[18] So I spake unto the people in the morning: and at even my wife died; and I did in the morning as I was commanded.

"God said, 'I'm going to take your wife. She's going to die with a stroke and when she does, you don't mourn her death.' He's saying, 'Go about your daily business. Get dressed and get out there. Don't mourn.'

"The passage goes on: [21] Speak unto the house of Israel, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will profane my sanctuary, the excellency of your strength, the desire of your eyes, and that which your soul pitieth; and your sons and your daughters whom ye have left shall fall by the sword.
[22] And ye shall do as I have done: ye shall not cover your lips, nor eat the bread of men.
[23] And your tires shall be upon your heads, and your shoes upon your feet: ye shall not mourn nor weep; but ye shall pine away for your iniquities, and mourn one toward another.

"You see, Israel thought because they were God's people and they had that temple . . . They had corrupted that temple. They had made it into the Jew's religion; Jesus called it a vain religious system.

"They had so corrupted and defiled that temple that God had abandoned it and yet it was the desire of their eyes. It was the glory; the excellence of their strength. God said, 'You know what I'm going to do with that thing? I'm going to wipe it out.'

"That's what was happening, by the way, at the very time Ezekiel is doing this. You look back at verse 1: [1] Again in the ninth year, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, write thee the name of the day, even of this same day: the king of Babylon set himself against Jerusalem this same day.

"The ninth year, the tenth month, the tenth day. That's the very day back in II Kings 25 that Nehemiah began the siege of Jerusalem in Palestine. That day God revealed it to Ezekiel in Babylon and that's the day his wife died and he wasn't to mourn. Personal sorrow was completely eclipsed by the national calamity coming upon Israel because of her unbelief.

Verse 25: [25] Also, thou son of man, shall it not be in the day when I take from them their strength, the joy of their glory, the desire of their eyes, and that whereupon they set their minds, their sons and their daughters,

[26] That he that escapeth in that day shall come unto thee, to cause thee to hear it with thine ears?
[27] In that day shall thy mouth be opened to him which is escaped, and thou shalt speak, and be no more dumb: and thou shalt be a sign unto them; and they shall know that I am the LORD.

"God says, 'When I take the temple and the sanctuary and city away from them and that wherein they set their mind . . .'

"God says, 'When Jerusalem falls somebody's going to escape and come all the way over here to where Ezekiel is and bring you the report and tell you about it.' By the way, it took three years for that escapee to get it over there."

(to be continued tomorrow)

From deception to Ezekiel's weird, wacky ways

"Ezekiel is a fascinating prophet with fascinating prophecies. Just as a prophet, he's a great illustration of a guy who's a stern kind of a character. When you compare him to Jeremiah, Jeremiah's a man filled with passion who would weep and cry out. Ezekiel is more of a staid business-suit kind of a guy who's real serious about things.

"When you see the Lord take this guy and do some real weird and wacky things with him, it's really strange.

"In the Bible, more often than not the meaning of a person's name has some spiritual significance about why it's used that way and the name Ezekiel means 'strengthened by God.'

"Ezekiel was part of the Babylonian captivity. Ezekiel 1:1: [1] Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God.

Ezekiel 3:15: [15] Then I came to them of the captivity at Tel-abib, that dwelt by the river of Chebar, and I sat where they sat, and remained there astonished among them seven days.

"Tel-abib was a community established by the Babylonians for the captives to live in. It's an Israeli colony just north of Babylon and that's where Ezekiel actually resides.

"Ezekiel is to prophesy and preach to people who have been taken from Jerusalem and Israel into Babylonian captivity. They were in deception because they had been believing the lies the false prophets had prophesied.

"First they said, 'God isn't going to let us go into captivity,' and then after they went into captivity they said, 'He isn't going to leave us here; we're going to be able to go back. I mean, we're Israel! We're the chosen nation of God in the earth. These crummy Gentiles can't do anything to us.'

"What they were saying was, 'Nebuchadnezzar is not going to come and destroy us.' But Jeremiah had told them, 'Yeah, he is. The captivity is coming; the fifth course of judgment is coming on you,' and Jeremiah plead with them in the land.

Ezekiel 3: [24] Then the spirit entered into me, and set me upon my feet, and spake with me, and said unto me, Go, shut thyself within thine house.

[25] But thou, O son of man, behold, they shall put bands upon thee, and shall bind thee with them, and thou shalt not go out among them:
[26] And I will make thy tongue cleave to the roof of thy mouth, that thou shalt be dumb, and shalt not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house.
[27] But when I speak with thee, I will open thy mouth, and thou shalt say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; He that heareth, let him hear; and he that forbeareth, let him forbear: for they are a rebellious house.

"God's saying, 'You're going to be a sign unto them and what they see you do is what they're going to do.'

"Involved in the prophecy Ezekiel does, he gives them a group of signs because they're not ready to hear what he's saying to them. Actually, there's about 12-15 of them, but there are 8 or 9 of them that are just weird.

"Stupid things, crazy, that when you look at them you say, 'This guy Ezekiel, he had to have had some kind of . . . ' At least the Lord had a sense of humor for the really strange things He put him through.

Verses 22-23: [22] And the hand of the LORD was there upon me; and he said unto me, Arise, go forth into the plain, and I will there talk with thee.

[23] Then I arose, and went forth into the plain: and, behold, the glory of the LORD stood there, as the glory which I saw by the river of Chebar: and I fell on my face.

"A plain is a low place. When we studied Luke 6 there was also a sermon in the plain; the counterpart of the Sermon on the Mount. The message is you're in a low place you have to get to through many obstacles and it's a picture of the captivity, the tribulation.

"Ezekiel is going to have vision after vision where's he transported from the river Chebar back to Jerusalem and other places.

"The first thing God tells Ezekiel to do is, 'Go shut yourself up in your house and when you do, Israel's going to come and they're going to bind you up so you can't get out, but I don't want you to get out; I want you to lock yourself in your house.'

"Now, if he's got a message for them and he's locked in the house, who's going to hear it? They're going to have to go to his house to get the message, so immediately God's going to limit the message Ezekiel's going to be able to give to those who are willing to hear.

"The rest of the people, they don't want to listen to Ezekiel. They are a rebellious people and when Ezekiel goes out among them they bind him up. Their unbelief binds him so he can't speak and is as good as dumb to them, so God makes him dumb.

"Here you've got a prophet where the first thing God tells him he's got to do is, 'Lock yourself in your house, padlock the door, don't give anybody the code. Go sit in the basement, turn out the lights, don't let anybody know you're there.'

"That's not exactly what you think the prophet of Israel ought to be doing and beside that, 'When they come and try to hear I'm going to make you dumb where you can't talk.' "

(to be continued)

Exalting insanity

new article tomorrow for certain. in meantime:

"In the fourth chapter of the Book of Daniel is what’s called 'the tree vision' and it’s a rather odd account in Nebuchadnezzar’s life.

“What you have is a picture of Nebby’s insanity. He had bats in his belfry; he was a dingbat. He was an insane ruler and I’m sure they kept it quiet, and I don’t know if you know much about history or monarchs, but down through the ages, folks, many of them have been lunatics," explains Richard Jordan.

"Some of the most brilliant geniuses who have ever lived, militarily and politically, have been wacko in their private life and Nebby was one of them and he had these spits of insanity.

“They didn’t come on him all the time. They come in and go out and he has one in this chapter here that’s of divine origin. God sends it upon him.

“What you see here in the chapter is a foreshadowing of the pride, the madness and the downfall that’s going to be the characteristic of the Gentile time.

"Then the restoration of Nebby is a picture and a foreshadowing of the restoration of certain Gentile nations to enter into the kingdom.

“What you have here is not just a tragic picture of a monarch gone bad, but rather you’re having here a picture of the course of the Gentile nations.

"Nebuchadnezzar is the head of that image in Daniel 2. He’s the first king who reigns supreme in the times of the Gentiles, and in Nebby’s pride that lifts him up, and the madness that followed that pride, and in the tremendous fall he takes because of that, you see the course and the characteristics of what make up the Gentile powers.

Daniel 4:1-3: [1] Nebuchadnezzar the king, unto all people, nations, and languages, that dwell in all the earth; Peace be multiplied unto you.

[2] I thought it good to shew the signs and wonders that the high God hath wrought toward me.
[3] How great are his signs! and how mighty are his wonders! his kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and his dominion is from generation to generation.”

“What you’ve got here is really the Babylonian state document. This is an official governmental decree and proclamation that Nebuchadnezzar sends out to the whole world.

"Nebuchadnezzar was king over all of them. Babylon ruled over everything, and he sends his proclamation and this thing literally is a confession of his sin of pride and of his subsequent conversion. In chapter 4, Nebuchadnezzar gives evidence of genuine conversion to the Lord. He gives a personal testimony about how God had been dealing in his life.

“You know what the greatest testimony in the face of unbelief is? A personal testimony about what you know.

“It’s SOME dream and Nebuchadnezzar’s troubled by that thing. The thing that bothers him, no doubt, is not so much that he sees the tree, but it’s the fact that when you get on down to the interpretation, or rather to the watcher coming down and talking about it, it says in verse 14:

‘He cried aloud, and said thus, Hew down the tree, and cut off his branches, shake off his leaves, and scatter his fruit: let the beasts get away from under it, and the fowls from his branches.’

“See, Nebuchadnezzar knows that that tree represents somebody; it’s not just a tree, it’s a 'HIM'! It’s a personification. So Nebby’s got a problem. He’s all worried and shook up about the thing, and so he gets Daniel and says, ‘Dan, nobody else can do it, but I know you can, man. You’ve come through before. God’s with you.’

“Verse 20: ‘The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth.’

“The tree then is who? Now, wasn’t that hard to get? See. You know, folks, the Bible is that way. If you’ll keep reading, the Bible will tell you what it means. And when you don’t understand something,  you know what you ought to do? Just keep reading!

“A tree in the Bible is used to represent a man (Psalm 1). It’s used to represent nations. Ezekiel 31:3 is almost a parallel passage to Daniel 4 because it’s the same type of a tree. You see how the Assyrian is likened unto a tree? The leader of a nation. This tree represents Nebuchadnezzar and it’s a foreshadowing, folks, of God’s dealings. This is how God’s going to deal with the Gentile nations.

“You see Nebuchadnezzar the head of gold in Daniel 2—you watch how God’s going to deal with him now and you’re going to see how the course of the Gentiles is going to go. So Nebuchadnezzar is the tree. Now notice the madness that follows . . .

******

Daniel 4:33: The same hour was the thing fulfilled upon Nebuchadnezzar: and he was driven from men, and did eat grass as oxen, and his body was wet with the dew of heaven, till his hairs were grown like eagles' feathers, and his nails like birds' claws.

“That madness that goes in Nebuchadnezzar; there’s a name for it in the books: lycanthropy. It’s when a man or a woman imagines themselves to be an animal and Nebby goes stark-raving buggy, or I should say beastly. He just goes berserk. He’s out in the field and thinks he’s an ox.

If you look on Wikipedia, clinical lycanthropy is defined as “a rare psychiatric syndrome that involves a delusion that the affected person can transform into, has transformed into, or is a non-human animal. . . Affected individuals report a delusional belief that they are in the process of transforming into an animal or have already transformed into an animal.”

“Now this madness he’s involved in here, notice the terminology. Over and over again, the madness and the reason for the detailed descriptions (in Daniel 4) are the terms that match the tribulation period. He goes out and he eats grass like a what? An ox. Do you remember when we studied Ezekiel 1 and Ezekiel 10 and Revelation 4 and we saw who an ox was a representative of? The cherub. Who’s that? Satan.

“Some dumb thumps come along and say, ‘Well, see, your Bible’s not very scientific. It doesn’t know the difference between a reptile and a cattle.’ Well, my dear friend, you just haven’t studied far enough! There’s a revelation there that science can’t pick up on and botany and biology can’t get! That tells you that the serpent standing there was cattle—he was an ox!

“ ‘And his hair grows like eagles’ feathers.’ You go over in Ezekiel 1 and you’ll see that eagle associated with that same type of thing. That’s a Second Coming passage, by the way.

“His nails are said to grow like bird claws. You ever read in Revelation 18 about Babylon over there being the habitation of every filthy and foul bird? You know what birds are types of in the Bible? Demons.

“Did you ever read that parable in the Book of Mark and in Matthew about the sower who went out there and sowed that seed, and then the fowls of the air came out and what did they do? They snatched that seed away and Christ said, ‘That’s what Satan’s done; taken that word out of those peoples’ hearts.’ Those birds are demons that go in and snatch out that Book, see? That’s why in Revelation 18 they’re used in a passage that’s describing demonic activity.

“When Hitchcock put that movie out about how the birds are coming, you just thought he had a nightmare, didn’t you? You didn’t know that that fellow had . . . I tell you people that the creative genius of unsaved people is satanically inspired. Satan knows that Book even if a bunch of dumb Christians don’t.

“The greatest handbook on types and symbols in the universe is that one right there in your hands! Don’t you let somebody come along and say that Book isn’t important. That Book right there will explain to you what’s going on in the world when you don’t understand what’s going on.

“The types and the symbolism in art, movies, theatre of today come right out of that Book! In the great movie ‘Star Wars’ they say, ‘The Force be with you.’ That’s a quotation out of Daniel 11. See people, that book is THE Book!

“The tribulation period is going to be a time when God looks at the Antichrist and says, ‘He’s the beast! He’s a mad man!’ And what does the world do? They bow down and worship him and exalt insanity! Madness!

“Psalm 49:6 says, ‘They that trust in their wealth, and boast themselves in the multitude of their riches.’ Verse 10 says, ‘For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person perish, and leave their wealth to others.
[11] Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations; they call their lands after their own names.’

“ ‘They call their land after their own names.’ Boy, isn’t that the telling the truth! ‘Nevertheless man being in honour abideth not: he is like the beasts that perish.’

“He said, ‘If you’re a guy like that, you know what you are? You’re a beast.’ Peter in II Peter 2 warns about a class of people who are literally beasts. II Peter 2:12 says, ‘But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption.’

“Natural brute beasts. Just fit for nothing but destruction. That’s a class of people that are just beasts.

“Notice the reference to Balaam in verse 15? Come over to Jude. Compare II Peter 2 with Jude and you’ll notice references to Sodom and Gomorrah preceded the passage we just read as they do in Jude verses 6 and 7 and then verse 8:

“Verse 10 says, ‘But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.’ All of that’s like Revelation 2:14 and 2:20.

“Verse 16 says, ‘These are murmurers, complainers, walking after their own lusts; and their mouth speaketh great swelling words, having men's persons in admiration because of advantage.’

“You get the idea that these are a bunch of bad rascals, don’t you? This is just man gone mad and it’s the madness of self-will, and that willful king leads the nations in a mad pell-mell rush to destruction.

“Go back to Daniel 4 and notice Nebuchadnezzar is restored into his kingdom here. Daniel 4:34 says, ‘And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and his kingdom is from generation to generation.’

“Folks, when Nebuchadnezzar humbled himself, God restored him and he’s found in his right mind. In verse 26 he comes to know that the most high rules in the kingdoms of men; he comes to know that the heavens DO rule!

“He’s not just saying, ‘God’s the boss.’ He’s saying that the heavens RUN things!

“There’s an interesting reference in verse 13: ‘I saw in the visions of my head upon my bed, and, behold, a watcher and an holy one came down from heaven;’ That holy one, by the way, Nebby understood that to be angels. If you go back to verse 8 he talks about ‘the spirit of the holy gods.’ Those are angels.

“Verse 17. In verse 23 he talks again about the watcher and the holy one coming down and giving the word. There’s a decree these angels bring down that results in what happens to Nebuchadnezzar happening.

“People, the watchers and the holy one there, that is a reference to the administration of the affairs of the universe. God Almighty has a government over this universe, not just over the earth, but over the whole universe.

“Notice they’re called the watchers. There’s a special class of these people who have the function of going about in the earth and seeing what goes on and carrying back to God the report before the judgment throne of God.

“Go to I Kings 22 and you’ll see a little glimpse of some of the activity of this deal. 22:19. There is a courtroom scene whereby what is going to happen on the earth, and what is determined, is decided upon, and there’s one that’s sent from that court down to the earth to see to the execution of God’s purpose.

“Now I can’t give you perfect understanding about how all that goes on, but Nebby came to understand that God Almighty ran the show and that what happened down here, happened according to His governmental authority and His control and His rule and His decision-making!

“The Book of Daniel is full of this stuff. Daniel 10:13. The reason Daniel and his prophetic import is so full of this is because in the tribulation period this is going to be the issue!

"Jesus Christ is going to come back down into the heavens and take over the government of the heavens, cast Satan down onto the earth (Rev. 12) and then follow him down here and take the earth away from him.

“People, the issue from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, is the authority of a throne over this universe!”

Otherworldliness in KJV's mystery all caps

An unexplained phenomenon in a King James Bible, one with no explanation from the translators, is the use of all-caps words and phrases. 

The first occurrence of it is in Exodus 3:14: [14] And God said unto Moses, I AM THAT I AM: and he said, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, I AM hath sent me unto you.

"When you know how the translation was done, it was done by different companies of people, so the guys who translated Revelation were not the same guys who translated Exodus," explains Richard Jordan.

"There are more than two dozen places where there are whole long phrases that are in all upper case. Why did they do that? I've looked for 30 years and there's no explanation.

"Most of the instances are associated with the crucifixion of Christ but this was not something--I mean, all the translators agreed to the translation of LORD and GOD in upper case to represent Jehovah and they tell you that in their preface, but they don't mention any of this super-cap stuff.

"Like I said, the translators don't explain why they did it and there's no reason in the translation process that they would do it. They just all of a sudden came along and put in these super-cap words and phrases.

Exodus 6:3: [3] And I appeared unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty, but by my name JEHOVAH was I not known to them.

"The translators did not always write all-caps LORD for Jehovah; sometimes they put Jehovah in the text. Here they capitalized it.

"Revelation 19 is the last time it happens. In a passage on the Second Coming, Revelation 19:16: [16] And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"The first occurrence in Exodus 3 was identifying who Jehovah is; the last occurrence is identifying who the Lord Jesus Christ is. The first time talks about the ALPHA and the last time the OMEGA. 

"They first give God's name, I AM THAT I AM; tell them I AM sent you,' and then when the Lord Jesus Christ comes, He's the KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.

"There are seven words in that name. Seven is the number of completion. Exodus 3 has seven words in upper case. There are only three words in that phrase, I AM THAT. Two of them, I AM, are repeated three times. Three is the number of the trinity.

"A perfect revelation of the godhead, the triune God, stuck in there in caps. Nobody can explain why it's that way, it just is.

"When you study all the instances, and I commend that to you, you say, 'Nah, this is not really a mistake.' There are patterns throughout your Bible and it's fascinating when you study these super caps out.

"I see the otherworldliness of this Book and I see a reason to believe it beyond just saying, 'Well, I can prove historically . . .' and I'm willing to get way out on a limb and trust it even with my eternity, because the more I study it the more I see, 'Wow, there's things in this Book that isn't like ANY other book.'

"There's something otherworldly about the Book that the eye of faith will see. You can't even get other Believers, often, to see this. People say, 'You're just a bunch of superstitious numerologists.' I say, 'Okay, I'm not trying to build a doctrine on it; I'm just saying that it's fascinating to me.' "

Like our daddy Noah

"Noah didn't even have a Bible to point to; he just had God show up one day and say, 'Hey, dude, come here. I'm going to wipe this place out.'

The culture he lived in is made clear 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.
[6] And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
[7] And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.

"As Noah goes and builds the ark, he's reproving. The verse says he condemned the world. How? By doing something positive," explains Richard Jordan.

"You know, there are a lot of parallels you can think about. We build an ark, the Body of Christ. We're providing salvation to the world based on something God said is coming, whether they want it, believe it, recognize it . . . 

"Here are the results: Hebrews 11:7: [7] By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

"Noah condemned the world by building the boat, in spite of all the ridicule, the mocking, the indifference.

"Everybody going about then was only concerned with the 'now,' the earth, what they're doing. No mind about the future or about what God said about it.

"I think about Noah for 120 years. I'm sure it didn't make him feel good to be condemning the world. He's ridiculed, misunderstood. When you preach the gospel, you remember what II Corinthians 2 says: [16] To the one we are the savour of death unto death; and to the other the savour of life unto life. And who is sufficient for these things?

"When the world responds the way they respond, instead of wringing our hands and saying, 'Woe is me,' and how terrible it all is, we need to understand we do this by faith. Then it says he became 'heir of the righteousness which is by faith.'

"That's talking about the inheritance associated with the hope God gave Noah. What did God tell Noah? 'I'm going to wipe all this out.' He comes out on a NEW world and God says, 'Go out and replenish.'

"We often say we come from our father Adam, but you know you also come from your daddy Noah because all of us come from one of Noah's three sons and their lineage. So Noah became the heir of the world; he got this allotment, this inheritance. You know what we're waiting on?

"We go out and build the Body of Christ. The world does its thing, we're doing our thing. They don't understand, it isn't popular, it isn't the big thing. It's what God gave us to do. We do it by faith.

"By the way, you've got something Noah didn't have. You've got a Book to look at. Noah was waiting for a new earth. You know what you're waiting for? Paul says, [18] The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints."

(new article tomorrow)

To the remotest ends of the earth

I've only been able to attend a handful of church services in the last two years, making it a real lift to me when this hymn, in my top 10 for sure, was chosen for the congregation to sing at a Bible conference meeting I attended last month:

1. Jesus! what a Friend for sinners!
   Jesus! Lover of my soul;
   Friends may fail me, foes assail me,
   He, my Savior, makes me whole.
   • Refrain:
     Hallelujah! what a Savior!
     Hallelujah! what a Friend!
     Saving, helping, keeping, loving,
     He is with me to the end.
2. Jesus! what a Strength in weakness!
   Let me hide myself in Him;
   Tempted, tried, in Him confiding,
   He, my Strength, my vict’ry wins.
3. Jesus! what a Help in sorrow!
   While the billows o’er me roll,
   Even when my heart is breaking,
   He, my Comfort, helps my soul.
4. Jesus! what a Guide and Keeper!
   While the tempest still is high,
   Storms about me, night o’ertakes me,
   He, my Pilot, hears my cry.
5. Jesus! I do now receive Him,
   More than all in Him I find;
   Christ in me, the Hope of glory,
   I am His, and He is mine.

6. John Wilbur Chapman is the author of the well-beloved song from 1910 and was born in Richmond, Indiana in 1859. His parents prepared him for a life of Christian ministry but "the young man felt he could never pinpoint a date for his conversion although he did make public his acknowledgment of Christ at age seventeen," according to a biography online.

7. Chapman's seminary years, 1879-1882, were spent at Lane Theological Seminary in Cincinnati, Ohio. As a young minister he married in 1882 and the birth of his first child was followed by his wife's death one month later. Chapman's second wife died in 1907.

   "Chapman began his evangelistic work full time in 1893, preaching with D. L. Moody at the World's Fair and conducting many meetings on his own. He hired William Ashley 'Billy' Sunday as an advance man, thus giving him his start in evangelism.

   "From 1904-1909 Chapman began to develop and promote a new method of urban evangelism. His idea was to hold several meetings throughout a city simultaneously, thereby reaching more people and stirring more hearts to enter into Christian service. The first city to try Chapman's theory was Pittsburgh in 1904. Another campaign was planned and executed in Syracuse, New York, in 1906.

   "The first joint campaign was held in Philadelphia from March 12 to April 19, 1908. The city was divided into forty-two districts with twenty-one teams of evangelist-musicians. Three weeks were spent in each half of the city with estimates of eight thousand conversions. The following revival held in Boston from January 26 to February 17, 1909, is considered to be Chapman's most successful. The city was divided into twenty-seven districts and recorded seven thousand conversions.

   "The first Chapman-Alexander worldwide campaign left Vancouver, British Columbia, on March 26, 1909, and returned November 26. Stops along the way included: Melbourne, Sydney, Ipswich, Brisbane, Adelaide, Ballarat, Bendigo, and Townsville in Australia; Manila in the Philippines; Hong Kong, Kowloon, Canton, Shanghai, Hankow, Peking and Tientsin in China; Seoul, Korea; Kobe, Kyoto, Tokyo, and Yokohama in Japan.

   "Chapman continued his non-stop evangelistic efforts in both the United States and Europe in 1910, including a very successful Chicago meeting from October 16 to November 27. However, Chapman's technique of mass evangelism lost much of its popularity. A series of unsuccessful campaigns were conducted in Bangor and Portland, Maine, and Dayton and Columbus, Ohio. Chapman was not credited with the failures, and so from 1912 on all the revivals were mass meetings led by Chapman.

   "Many services were conducted by the evangelist in the next couple of years in Australia, Scotland, Ireland, India, New Zealand, and the United States, averaging three to five sermons a day in many places. His career as evangelist ended with the Chapman-Alexander campaign January 6 to February 13, 1918."

8. "Charles McCallon Alexander, world famous song leader, who had been traveling with R. A. Torrey, joined with Chapman in 1907. The two men became a team and formed the 'Chapman-Alexander Simultaneous Campaign.' Enjoying the benefits of both their influences, the men were able to build a large group of evangelists and song leaders to assist them in the large city-wide campaigns."

9. ******

10. The great old American hymn "I Need Thee Every Hour," written in 1872 by Annie Hawks, has the third stanza, "I need Thee every hour, In joy or pain; Come quickly and abide, Or life is vain."

11. Annie Hawks (born in Hoosick, N.Y., 1835) never graduated from any school but always had a passion for books and read widely.

Hymnology Archive website shares this testimonial given while she was still alive: "At 14 her genius began to find expression in verse. The first poem she published appeared in a Troy, N.Y., newspaper. That poem at once attracted attention and was followed by others which were printed in various local papers.
"Miss Sherwood became the wife, in 1859, of Charles Hial Hawks, a resident of Hoosick. Mr. Hawks was a man of culture and intelligence, and he understood and appreciated his wife. In January, 1865, Mr. and Mrs. Hawks removed to Brooklyn, N.Y., in which city Mrs. Hawks still makes her home. Her husband died there in 1888. They had three children, one of whom, a daughter, is now living.
"Mrs. Hawks has always been identified with the Baptist denomination. In 1868, her pastor and friend, Rev. Dr. Robert Lowry, requested her to turn her attention to hymn writing. She did so, and wrote, among many others, 'In the Valley,' 'Good Night,” and 'Why Weepest Thou?'
Another testimony during her life came from Frances Willard & Mary Livermore:
"Few of the millions of people, old or young, who have heard, sung, or read the beautiful hymn ['I need Thee every hour,'] know that its writer, Mrs. Annie Sherwood Hawks, is still living, and 'carries on an extensive correspondence with friends all over the country, and receives many visitors.' She is the last of three women hymn writers whose fame is world-wide — the other two, both of whom were blind, being Fanny Crosby, who died recently, and Alice Holmes, who went to her reward over a year ago.
"Mrs. Hawks is the author of over four hundred hymns, but the one by which she is best known is 'I Need Thee Every Hour,' written in [1872]. It is said that this hymn has been translated into more foreign languages than any other of modern times. …
"Women have ever held an exalted position among the writers of hymns that have been and are a strong factor in turning the hearts of men and women to God, moulding religious life and keeping the spiritual fires burning. That their words have been carried to the remotest ends of the earth is but small recognition of their help, comfort, and uplift to the entire world of mankind."
*****

To appropriate anything into your Christian walk, there are two things you have to have.

"The first thing is you've got to know about it; you have to see what you already have in Christ," explains Richard Jordan. "Get a grip on the riches that are yours in Christ Jesus with a literal reality of your current identity at this moment in Him.

"The key to the Christian life is knowing your identity and you can never know it if you don't study the Bible rightly-divided.

"The other component is you not only have to know who you are, you have to be aware of your NEED of it. Because you'll never reach out and appropriate into your experience something unless you know that you really need it.

"That's what happened to Paul in Romans 7. He wasn't identifying himself as God did. He slipped back into identifying himself as HE identified himself.

"Paul says in one little phrase in Galatians 20, 'Yet not I, but Christ.' You got to have those 'It's not I' moments where you become aware of your bankruptcy so that the riches of Christ become the thing that's the need of your heart.

"Appropriating into your experience is closed to all but the needy heart. It's available only to those who'll say, 'It's not I, but Christ.' And with those two things--a conscious awareness of faith-trust in who you are and then a realization of your absolute need in every moment for it--you then need a lifetime of spiritual growth.

"Friend, it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work that process into the details of your life. That's why Romans 7 is not in Romans 2 or 5.

"We've all experienced this where you get on the mountaintop and it's, 'I've got the joy, joy, joy down in my heart,' and then a little while later you're down in the doldrums and you say, 'I don't think I'll ever see the mountaintop again for the clouds.'

"When you're in those moments of need, rather than being mad or depressed, that's a moment to say, 'You know, here's a Not-I experience. I'm down here because I've been trusting me. Here's an opportunity to grow because that's exactly what God's grace is trying to get me to . . .' "

Paul's bout of depression

(sorry for delay in new article, which I will have tomorrow--I've had to go to work extra hours)

I find it interesting that some Bible scholars reason that depression as a human condition dates back to the beginning with Adam and Eve and what they must have experienced after they “fell” and were expelled from the Garden of Eden.

Most lists you see on men of the Bible who dealt with depression always include Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah, Job, Jonah and Jeremiah. In talking to a friend the other day on this very subject, she was surprised to hear me include the Apostle Paul’s name as a one-time sufferer. Then I reminded her about Titus.

*****

While the Book of II Corinthians as a whole reveals the darkest hour of Paul’s ministry, he tells us specifically in II Corinthians 2:12-13 about what had him the most anxious and torn up: “Furthermore, when I came to Troas to preach Christ's gospel, and a door was opened unto me of the Lord,
[13] I had no rest in my spirit, because I found not Titus my brother: but taking my leave of them, I went from thence into Macedonia.”

Jordan observes, “Notice how Paul leaves the new converts there?! Instead of pressing the work forward at this new church he’s started, he leaves because of his personal concerns about Titus. He’s thinking, ‘Where’s Titus?! He didn’t show up! Has something happened to him and our enemies assaulted him? He’s going around with the collection for Jerusalem—has somebody robbed him?! Is he laying dead in a ditch somewhere?!’

“I mean, Paul’s wound up in worry, and of course, in chapter 7, he finds Titus and is much encouraged, but here in the midst of all this he doesn’t know what’s going on.

"There’s been this great stir at Ephesus by the opposition there. The people were worshipping Diana and all that stuff. There’s this constant uncertainty and fear about Paul's own situation and about the situation with Titus and he’s all concerned for Titus’ safety.

“I say that to remind you that there are things going on in this passage that are very similar to your life, because when you get to verse 14, everything turns around: [14] Now thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour of his knowledge by us in every place.

"You look at verse 12 and 13 and do you see any triumph? Not much. Even when you say, ‘Well, a church is getting established!’ . . . yeah, but Paul’s leaving them! I mean, he doesn’t even stay there to finish the job.

*****

"What’s particularly telling is how Paul expounds on his circumstances in II Corinthians 7:5-6: ‘For, when we were come into Macedonia, our flesh had no rest, but we were troubled on every side; without were fightings, within were fears. Nevertheless God, that comforteth those that are cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus.'

“Notice the way he describes himself. Cast down. That’s a way of saying he was depressed. If you come back to chapter 4, he describes it in vivid terms. He says, ‘We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair;
Persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; troubled at every hand.’

“So he’s troubled, perplexed, persecuted, and he’s cast down. You ever been there? I enjoy II Corinthians frankly because all these things Paul’s experiencing, I’ve known about them first-hand.

“Paul’s going through a period of tremendous personal upheaval as well as ministry upheaval. He just got down in the dumps. You ever get punked out? Just tired and ‘take this job and shove it’ kind of a thing? Well, that’s the way Paul was.

"Maybe you don’t think of the great apostle—the great man of God with the power of God working in his life—getting down in the dumps, punked out and wanting to quit?

“He’s all tore up inside, internally. Verse 7:5 says he was ‘troubled on every side; WITHOUT were fightings, within were fears.’ You remember how we looked back in Acts 19 about that big stir at Ephesus and all? In chapter 1, he said ‘we had the sentence of death within ourselves.’ Paul literally faced the possibility of being assassinated and murdered at that time, and he said ‘within were fears.’

*****

“If you go back to Acts 18 when Paul’s at Corinth the first time, the Lord actually had to appear to him personally and say to him, ‘Be of good cheer—nobody’s going to do you any harm here.’ He wrote (the saints) in I Corinthians 2 that ‘I was with you in much fear and trembling and weakness.’

“We usually think of the apostles as people that never met anybody they weren’t the match for. They never were hesitant; they never had their back up. They were always just bold as a lion going through tearing up town, and it really wasn’t that way with Paul. It’s always fascinated me that the Lord had to do this with Paul in Acts 18.

“Acts 18:9-10 reports, ‘Then spake the Lord to Paul in the night by a vision, Be not afraid, but speak, and hold not thy peace:

[10] For I am with thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee: for I have much people in this city.’

“Now, the Lord doesn’t appear to you and to me like that today. These are special interventions, but just imagine the Lord looks at Paul and sees the need to come and tell him this. He had to have been in terribly difficult straits and Christ says, ‘Be not afraid.’ Well, obviously he had been afraid! He says, ‘But speak and hold not thy peace.’ Obviously Paul was tempted just to be quiet.

“The satanic attack against the Body of Christ is two-fold. Plan A: Attack the message; corrupt the message. Get somebody to mess up the message so the message isn’t clear.

“If that won’t work, go to Plan B: Attack the messenger; discourage, discredit, get him to quit talking.

“Just the fact Christ had to say that to Paul—‘Don’t worry, nobody’s gonna hurt you,’ means obviously people we’re trying to!

*****

“Even in Paul’s darkest hour personally of his ministry, he never quit preaching the gospel. Remarkably, he was also able to establish a church at Troas.

“We’ve seen already that Paul wrote the book of II Corinthians during the time period of Acts 20:1, in which it says,  ‘And after the uproar was ceased, Paul called unto him the disciples, and embraced them, and departed for to go into Macedonia.
[2] And when he had gone over those parts, and had given them much exhortation, he came into Greece,
[3] And there abode three months. And when the Jews laid wait for him, as he was about to sail into Syria, he purposed to return through Macedonia.’

“It’s this period of time here where he writes II Corinthians. He’s preached in Troas and as he sails back . . .  that’s where he went and preached in the third loft and Uticus falls out and is dead and he raises him from the dead. That’s at Troas.

“So in spite of the depression, and the darkness, and the difficulties, and ‘the fightings without and the fears within,’ Paul still stuck at it and preached. He didn’t quit in spite of his own personal feelings of inadequacy and the, ‘I don’t want to do this anymore.’ He kept at it and the result was a church got started. And he visits that church on the return visit.

“You know what changed Paul’s attitude from verse 12 and 13—the depression—to the triumph in verse 14? You see those two words 'in Christ'? There’s a deliberate contrast put here.

“The negative tone of verse 12 and 13 changes to the tone of victory in verses 14-16. You see that second word ‘thanks’ in verse 14? That’s where it came from! You see the thing that changed the negatives to the victories is ‘now THANKS be unto God.’

“That’s a mental attitude and the mental attitude changed the fears within. He took his eyes off his problems, took his eyes off his feelings and what was going on around him and he looked away to who he was in Christ and what God was doing in him in Christ. When you take your eyes off of you and you look to Christ, it’s easy to give thanks. There’s a lot there to give thanks for.”

Presumptuous, audacious, daring

Romans 1:24: [24] Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

"God abandoned them to do their own thing. You know, that's a strange thing. All God had to do to judge man into confusion was to leave him alone.

"People talk about how, 'You need the judgment of God to come down.' Listen, all God Almighty has to do to let people destroy everything they're doing is just leave them to themselves.

"He gives them over to vile affections so that their hearts--talking about the soul, the inner man--are corrupted. Then He gives them over to a reprobate mind; their whole thinking process is a waste of time. Someone once said this passage describes how the heathen got that way.

Romans 1:32: [32] Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.

"I remember years ago, when I was just a young preacher, I wrote down by that verse, 'The depths of sin,' because that's as low as sin will take you.

"They know that God says that they which commit these things are worthy of death--they don't just do them but they have pleasure in them that do them.

II Peter 2:13: [13] And shall receive the reward of unrighteousness, as they that count it pleasure to riot in the day time. Spots they are and blemishes, sporting themselves with their own deceivings while they feast with you;

"Just go around sporting and rejoicing. That's why he says in verse 10: [10] But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

"Presumptuous, meaning, 'I'm right and you're wrong.' The audacity, the boldness, the daring. They are not afraid to speak evil of dignities. Their self-will leads to rebellion against anything super-imposed on them.

"Of course, the absolute final moral authority in all the universe, the Bible, they have no interest in. The knowledge is intuitively, instinctively built-in, but they reject it; they despise it.

Proverbs 24: [21] My son, fear thou the LORD and the king: and meddle not with them that are given to change:

[22] For their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?
[23] These things also belong to the wise. It is not good to have respect of persons in judgment.
[24] He that saith unto the wicked, Thou are righteous; him shall the people curse, nations shall abhor him:

"That's what Paul's talking about in Romans 13: [1] Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God. [2] Whosoever therefore resisteth the power, resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that resist shall receive to themselves damnation.

"God establishes the authority, puts the government there and these people are going to rebel against the government.

Matthew 17: [24] And when they were come to Capernaum, they that received tribute money came to Peter, and said, Doth not your master pay tribute?

[25] He saith, Yes. And when he was come into the house, Jesus prevented him, saying, What thinkest thou, Simon? of whom do the kings of the earth take custom or tribute? of their own children, or of strangers?
[26] Peter saith unto him, Of strangers. Jesus saith unto him, Then are the children free.
[27] Notwithstanding, lest we should offend them, go thou to the sea, and cast an hook, and take up the fish that first cometh up; and when thou hast opened his mouth, thou shalt find a piece of money: that take, and give unto them for me and thee.

"Christ is saying, 'I'm a stranger; here I am. Foxes have holes, birds have nests. I don't have anywhere to lay my head.' Even in that situation, what the Lord had Peter doing was not rebelling and fighting against the authorities.

"That's a fascinating thing. These are the people who are going to kill Him. He doesn't have them running to the hills and hiding from them. There's never been a more corrupt system than the one that nailed the Lord Jesus Christ to Calvary's cross.

"The social ills of His day were far worse than anything you've EVER experienced or ever will experience in our day. In any realm--socially, economically. Slavery was the order of the day. Terrible situation that most of the world lived in. The haves and have nots were exact and compelling and you were born into it. He says, 'That isn't our fight; we're strangers.' "

(new article tomorrow) 

When children reign over, down to a perfection

II Peter 2: [9] The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

[10] But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.

"All of chapter 2 is about describing these false prophets and the kind of sin they'll be involved in," explains Richard Jordan. "They despise dignities; they throw them aside, they want no part of them. They have this covetous life that's focused on nothing but the sins of the flesh and when authority comes in . . . you see the self-life wants to do its own thing.

"It's when someone who's self-absorbed, self-willed and self-centered is opposed by authority that comes along and says, 'Don't do that.'

"You remember in Isaiah 3 where it says children are going to reign over you, and the reason you discovered is the people who are charged with the responsibility of passing on the traditions of society and the principals of a culture . . . 

Isaiah 3:[1] For, behold, the Lord, the LORD of hosts, doth take away from Jerusalem and from Judah the stay and the staff, the whole stay of bread, and the whole stay of water,

[2] The mighty man, and the man of war, the judge, and the prophet, and the prudent, and the ancient,
[3] The captain of fifty, and the honourable man, and the counseller, and the cunning artificer, and the eloquent orator.
[4] And I will give children to be their princes, and babes shall rule over them.
[5] And the people shall be oppressed, every one by another, and every one by his neighbour: the child shall behave himself proudly against the ancient, and the base against the honourable.

"When nobody is there who will say to the kid, 'No, you can't do that; that's wrong and not in your best interest,' then they just go out willy-nilly and do whatever they want and they get addicted to that and that's what they want all the time.

"Well, these people in II Peter 2 are way down the road in self-will. We see them back in the first three verses: [1] But there were false prophets also among the people, even as there shall be false teachers among you, who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, even denying the Lord that bought them, and bring upon themselves swift destruction.

[2] And many shall follow their pernicious ways; by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of.
[3] And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.

"They completely throw off the things of God and want nothing to do with what God's doing and they just want to go out in that self-life that says, 'Just do your own thing.'

"In the Bible, when you lust after something that means you have a strong passion for it, and this is a lust of uncleanness; it's not a lust and passion for good things.

"It's that autonomous, 'I'm going to be my God and I'll be your God if you sit still long enough and I can get you in shackles.'

"These people in II Peter have that down to a perfection. This issue is really the ultimate goal of the satanic policy of evil and the course of sin he set for himself and for man.

Romans 1:22-24: [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools,

[23] And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things.
[24] Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves:

"They've turned their back on God and His Word and His authority and who He was and they decided they were going to strike out on their own and do their own thing.

Verse 25: [25] Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen.

"That verse crystallizes the whole lie program. It's the issue of idolatry, but it's more than just bowing down to an idol of wood or stone; it's the issue of taking the creature and making the creature God. The deification of the creature; making the creature equal or superior to the Creator."

(new article tomorrow) 

It's all Greek to Paul

Zechariah 9: [13] When I have bent Judah for me, filled the bow with Ephraim, and raised up thy sons, O Zion, against thy sons, O Greece, and made thee as the sword of a mighty man.

[14] And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

"He's talking about the Gentiles, but notice he calls it Greece," explains Richard Jordan. "It's important to understand that the Greek empire was not there at the time of Zechariah's writing. It wasn't there at the time Joel was writing.

Joel 3: [1] For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

[2] I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

"Notice who he pleads with in verse 6: [6] The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

"Why would he talk about the Grecians in connection with the Second Coming of Christ? 

"Zechariah is a bridge between Daniel and Revelation. Daniel prophesies through the end of the Babylonian captivity and the beginning of the Persian empire. Zechariah is at the beginning of the Media-Persia empire.

"When you're trying to understand Zechariah, you want to go back to Daniel and in Daniel 8 you discover the Babylonian empire is going to be succeeded by the Media-Persia empire, which is going to be succeeded by the Greek empire, which is going to be divided into four sections and out of one of those sections is going to come the Antichrist.

"Two of those kingdoms that come out of Greece are going to have dominion in the earth until the Antichrist shows up. That's why the verse says, 'Against thy sons, O Greece.' All four of the divisions are involved there.

"When the Lord wants to talk about the source of the Antichrist kingdom, He points to Greece. That's why when you come to the Apostle Paul, Paul will say in Romans 1: [16] For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.

"Now you know he's not talking about just Greeks because he's writing to Romans, who are Italians. He does that over and over. I Corinthians 1: [24] But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.

"Well, why would Paul say Greeks when he meant Gentiles? The reason is Daniel 9, because when God looks at the Gentile world system, He looks at it as a system under the control of the people who are going to wind up being the kingdom of the Antichrist, and it's that control system.

"I John says the world lies in the wicked one. Satan controls the world system; he's the god of this world, the prince of this world, and the principality, the government system that the Adversary operates comes from that Greek empire. That's where you're going to be at the end over there. The mystery of iniquity that works today in the dispensation of grace is working in that system.

"So, when you read these passages you're better off to take them literally in the context of what the Scripture teaches about them.

"Understanding a passage like this will help you understand what Paul's talking about. I watch people go through all kind of mental gymnastics and scriptural hoodleedoo to try to identify the Greeks and Romans as somebody other than Gentiles.

*****

Zechariah 9:14: [14] And the LORD shall be seen over them, and his arrow shall go forth as the lightning: and the LORD GOD shall blow the trumpet, and shall go with whirlwinds of the south.

"Once again, that's the Second Coming. Revelation 1 says every eye shall see Him. Revelation 6 says, [15] And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains;

[16] And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:

"There's an appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ and they see Him. 

"Now, when the Lord blows the trumpet that's like the signal of Jehovah coming to rescue and deliver His people. It's sort of the cavalry charge kind of a signal where you know He's coming and He's warning His people, 'I'm on the way to deliver you.'

Jeremiah 4:19: [19] My bowels, my bowels! I am pained at my very heart; my heart maketh a noise in me; I cannot hold my peace, because thou hast heard, O my soul, the sound of the trumpet, the alarm of war.

" 'Here comes the judge,' as Flip Wilson would have said. You look at Joel 2: [1] Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is nigh at hand;

[2] A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
[3] A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.

[4] The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.

Job 37: [4] After it a voice roareth: he thundereth with the voice of his excellency; and he will not stay them when his voice is heard. [5] God thundereth marvellously with his voice; great things doeth he, which we cannot comprehend.

"When the arrows of His lightning goes forth then there's the thundering of His voice. In other words, 'He's coming!' and there's a calamity afoot."

(new article tomorrow)