'Borders one of the most powerful things'

Per Wikipedia: "BRICS, originally named BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China), is an acronym for the regional economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, which in 2010 had included the letter S for South Africa.^[2][3][4] The original acronym BRIC was coined in 2001 by Goldman Sachs economist Jim O'Neill, who created the term to describe fast-growing economies that would collectively dominate the global economy by 2050.

"The BRICS have a combined area of 39,746,220 km² (15,346,100 sq mi) and an estimated total population of about 3.21 billion,^[5] or about 26.7% of the world's land surface and 41.5% of the global population."

Genesis 11 begins: [1] And the whole earth was of one language, and of one speech. [2] And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there.

"By the way, they are going to encroach upon Shem's territory when they do this," explains Richard Jordan.

[3] And they said one to another, Go to, let us make brick, and burn them throughly. And they had brick for stone, and slime had they for morter.

"They were supposed to be scattering; they're going to be like Cain.

[4] And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.

"Repeatedly in Psalms it will talk about how the Lord is 'my high tower.' You see all the church buildings with steeples on the top of them. That's what this is.

"They don't only have a one-world political system they're going to have a one-world religious system that is a system of rebellion against the God of the Bible. This is how you know it: 'whose top may reach unto heaven.'

"In other words, here's a building and we're going to have some stuff going on up at the top there that's going to get us to heaven. On the top of that tower they were going to do some oblations to get them in contact with the 'host of heaven.'

"Think about all you know about pagans. Think about what you know about the false gods of the Bible. They worship the 'host of heaven.' Who are they? That's the stars and the nebula and all that kind of stuff, but more than that it's the angelic host; the fallen gods. They're trying to get in touch with these fallen gods.

" 'And let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole earth.'

"They're saying, 'We want to do this lest we do what God commissioned us to do.' They're going to do it out of man-made stuff. They don't take stone that God made; they make brick: 'We're going to do this on our own.' They don't like to retain God in their knowledge.

"The satanic counter to nationalism is internationalism. It's globalism. God said, 'You need to have a national entity that's not homogenized, but is separated into borders, language and culture.'

"If you study history and how nations form and operate, you'll find out that borders are actually one of the most powerful things to produce the culture of a people.

"If you take a country that is landlocked and has no borders on any ocean it will have an entirely different culture develop because of that than a country like America.

"The U.S. is one of the few countries in the world that has 1,000-plus miles of coastline on the two great oceans--the Atlantic and the Pacific. We are a geopolitical marvel as far as a nation's concerned.

"We have warm-water ports all year long on both of the great oceans and they are 1,500 to 1,800 miles long. That makes our country a different kind of a country than a country like Chile, for example, that has a long coastline but they don't go in very far because of the mountains. Or you take a European country that's landlocked . . .

"My point is that borders make a lot of difference about the culture that a people develop and language is the thing that causes people to isolate in those places."

(new article tomorrow)

Scholar physician-historian specialized in the life of Jesus

(new article tomorrow for certain. My top boss asked me today if I could come into work three hours earlier tomorrow for a special inspection by company higher-ups. So, sure hoping I can fall asleep soon although I highly doubt it will happen--I have insomnia even on my normal schedule.)

Luke wants the reader to know right at the outset of his book that although there were many who attempted write-ups of Jesus Christ's life and ministry, "It seemed good to me also, having had perfect understanding of all things from the very first, to write unto thee in order, most excellent Theophilus,

[4] That thou mightest know the certainty of those things, wherein thou hast been instructed."

Richard Jordan recalls, “Back in the ’80s, I remember being on a car trip with an East Liverpool, Ohio preacher who told me the first gospel he suggests Bible students read is Luke, not John. He explained to me, ‘Luke is Vol. 1 and the Book of Acts is Vol. 2,’ and I thought, ‘Wow, that’s right!’ So if you’re going to read the Book of Acts, it would help you greatly to read the Book of Luke first.

“I began with that little kernel of wisdom and went home and read Luke and Acts and I was impressed. Since then I’ve read Luke hundreds and hundreds of time with Luke and Acts together. It’s fascinating how they work together. When you only read Acts and you didn’t read Luke, you miss a lot that is in Acts because Luke writes both these books together.

“Something to remember is in Acts you’re not being told everything that happens. You’re just being told the information that’s there to point to the purpose of the Book of Acts, which is to show you the fall of Israel and salvation going to the Gentiles.

"But who’s writing the Book of Acts? Luke’s there; he knows what’s going on. He selectively picked out the things that he put there and selectively left out things.

“Acts 16:10 says, ‘And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavored to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.’

“When he says ‘we’ and ‘us,’ what’s the writer doing? The writer is including himself in the story, and in the beginning here, you have what are called the ‘we’ sections of the Book of Acts.

“All the way down through Acts 16, Troas all the way up to Philippi, Luke is with Paul and you have the comments here about ‘we.’ Luke joins Paul at Troas and proceeds with Paul to the city of Philippi.

“The Lord says to Paul, ‘You can’t go into Asia anymore; now you’ve got to go over to Europe,’ and Luke comes along and is joined with Paul here. He connects up with Paul’s ministry here and it’s a fascinating thing because what you find is down through 16, Luke is with Paul but then if you look at chapter 17, Luke isn’t with him. When Paul leaves Philippi and then goes to Thessalonica, then Berea, Athens, Corinth, Ephesus and Macedonia, Luke doesn’t go with him.

*****

“When you talk about Paul being shipwrecked, hanging on night and day in the deep, you know who’s hanging on that board with him? Luke’s in the shipwreck with him! You understand why he calls him ‘beloved’?! Here’s a guy who stuck with him and committed to being with him.

“Acts 28:7. He accompanies Paul and is with him in the imprisonment! I think of that thing in Acts 16, Paul sees this Macedonian vision: ‘Come over to help!’ You ever sing that song about the Macedonian Call? The ‘man from Macedonia’ turns out to be a bunch of women by the riverside. Luke’s with him when he does that.

“There’s Lydia and those women whom the Lord opens their heart to the gospel and they get saved, and the little church at Philippi is born around that group of women converts. Paul begins to preach there and you remember that story about the woman who’s got the demon in her and she gets saved and there’s a glorious revival that takes places.

“The city’s taken over by the gospel there and the magistrates come out and they sic the law on Paul and they beat him and put him in jail. This is the time they beat him with 49 stripes save one and there’s Luke, the physician. You know he’s ministering to him. He’s with him in all that. He saw the hopes and the ministry and the excitement dashed and destroyed.

“When Paul is writing his Acts epistles Luke isn’t there, then Luke comes back and joins him again. And when he joins him at Philippi in Acts 20, he stays with Paul all through Greece, over into Palestine, when he’s imprisoned in Caesaria, when he has these voyages with the shipwrecks and all that kind of stuff, all the way to the prison in Rome.

*****

“What you begin to find when you read the Book of Acts, and you read Luke’s portrayal of Paul’s ministry in Acts, is Luke picks up terminology that reaches back into the Book of Luke and he’ll take things Jesus said in His earthly ministry and use the same terminology and ideas and concepts to show you Jesus working in the ministry of Paul. It’s a little more subtle, but it’s there. The more you read the two books over and over the more you see it.

“There’s stuff in Luke and Acts that demonstrate that they were written by a Gentile who had a Gentile perspective about Israel’s program and he has some up-front, first-hand knowledge about Paul’s ministry being a Gentile ministry and the only one of those companions of Paul’s over there at the end who would qualify to have been the author would be Luke.

“Luke’s gospel, when he wrote it, would have been thoroughly familiar to Paul. It would have been the gospel Paul was most familiar with. You remember he says in II Cor. 5, ‘Wherefore henceforth know we no man after the flesh: yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more.’

*****

"Luke was perhaps the closest friend of the Apostle Paul’s. Paul had a lot of friends but then you have some people who are just different than other kind of friends,” he says. “Luke turns out to be that kind of a person.

“Luke was the closest companion and the trusted confidant that Paul had in his life. Not just a friend who was a companion but one who was one as his own soul, who would faithfully work with him and who was so intimately involved in producing a historical record . . .

“Luke’s an important dude in Paul’s life and there’s things about Luke that you learn when you watch Paul’s life that you wouldn’t know any other way, and the only one of the four Gospels writers that I know how to identify who they are personally, is Luke, based upon his association with Paul.

“In Colossians 4:14, notice how Paul describes him: ‘Luke, the beloved physician.’ Paul used that term ‘beloved’ because there were people who were dear to him; people ‘in whom my soul is well-pleased.’ Someone where there’s a soul connection. Luke wasn’t just his doctor.

“II Timothy 4:11 says, ‘Only Luke is with me. Take Mark, and bring him with thee: for he is profitable to me for the ministry.' There Paul is in the latter extremity of his life. This is the last thing he wrote (II Timothy was the end of the writing of the Bible) and here you’re at the end of Paul’s life. He says in verse 6, ‘For I am now ready to be offered, and the time of my departure is at hand.’

“He’s aware that he’s going to die and Luke is with him. He was a faithful friend all the way to the end and it’s an example of that thing in II Tim. 2:2: ‘And the things that thou hast heard of me among many witnesses, the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.’

*****

“The relationship between Paul and Luke is extremely interesting. Luke was a scholar and a person with great intellectual prowess. He was a ‘member of the academy’; he was an educated man.  A man who knew how to function in the realm of education and thought and science.

“Just look at the introduction of the Book of Luke and what he says there in essence is, ‘I have been an exacting, thorough historian.’ He approached his work as a scholar and someone interested in the pursuit of the exactness with regard to what he’s doing. He’s a medical man; he’s a historian. He knows how to research something.

“But you remember the Apostle Paul was that kind of a person too. Sometimes you forget that. We think of the Apostle Paul running around preaching all over everywhere and causing riots and storms and getting people angry and being a jailbird and all that kind of business, but Paul also was a man of equal intellectual capacity as Luke.

“Acts 22:22. Acts 5:34. Do you know if you went to a Jewish synagogue today and talked to a rabbinical scholar, they often quote Gamaliel? He’s an ancient rabbinical scholar that the Jews even in the 21^st Century hold in repute. Paul says I was educated at the feet of Gamaliel. Acts 22:3. He’s educated in the best academies of the day. He was taught the perfect manner of the law.

“Acts 26:1. When he’s in front of the Jews defending himself, he goes right to the front. Paul says, ‘Listen, all of you guys know who I am! I was a rabbinical scholar of the first order, graduated at the head of my class. I profited!'

"Acts 26:3. Again he’s in front of Agrippa. Verse 2. Notice Paul was somebody they all knew. He wasn’t a wallflower who came out of the closet back here; he was a prominent leader and scholar in Israel.

“I read all that so you see Paul in his temperament and his background, was a scholar. Luke was the same. These guys had a natural kind of affinity for one another.

*****

“Paul never met Jesus that we know of. Don’t you know that all of that time when Luke was doing all of that historical research, talking to all those eyewitnesses (Luke had a bedside manner to ingratiate himself), Paul was hungry to know about his Lord? I would have been.

“In Acts 20, he says, ‘Like Jesus said, it’s more blessed to give than to receive.’ You don’t read that in Matthew, Mark, Luke or John. Where’d he learn that? He’s got a bonafied scholar who specialized in the life of Jesus with him everywhere he went. Hanging out on that raft out there in the sea, bobbing up and down in the shipwreck. Paul was thoroughly familiar with the Book of Luke and could quote it.

“II Timothy 4:11.  At the end of the road with Paul, and Luke is there with him, look at what Paul’s interested in. Verse says, ‘The cloke that I left at Troas with Carpus, when thou comest, bring with thee, and the books, but especially the parchments.’

‘Troas is Luke’s home. Paul was involved in a literary interest (‘Send me the parchments—I got stuff to write!’) and Luke is with Paul when he’s involved in those things and I say, ‘Wow, here’s a guy who’s with him through all these things.’

“I think about that and I wonder, ‘Who influences who the most?’ Especially when he’s the one who’s with Paul when he paints that portrait of Israel’s Messiah being not just Israel’s Messiah, but Israel’s Messiah so God’s promise could go to the nations.”

******

“Hank Williams got the tune for ‘I Saw the Light’ from the classic southern hymn, ‘He Set Me Free.’ All you have to do is listen to the chorus of the old standby to hear the resemblance.

“Part of the hymn lyrics go, ‘The Comforter divine is dwelling

Within my soul today;

His love to others I am telling

Since Jesus came to stay.’

“Deuteronomy 13:6 represents ‘the greatest definition of a friend anywhere in the Bible or in literature.’ The verse reads, ‘If thy brother, the son of thy mother, or thy son, or thy daughter, or the wife of thy bosom, or thy friend, which is as thine own soul, entice thee secretly, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which thou hast not known, thou, nor thy fathers.’

“It’s one of those verses in the Bible that tells you about a topic when it isn’t talking about the topic. There’s a lot of things in Scripture that ‘I write this and I’m teaching you about this’ and then there will be a comment that you look at it and say, ‘Wow, that’s some real understanding about something else too!’

“Notice how he defines a friend for you. You know who the son of your mother is. You know your brother. You know who your wife is, but what about your friend? Moses said ‘your friend which is as your own soul.’ Here’s somebody where it’s more than just a surface relationship. You’ve got a soul connection.

“ ‘With the heart man believeth unto righteousness,’ Romans 10 says. Your soul has a way of communicating, a way of knowing. The mentality of your soul in the Bible is called your heart. Proverbs 23:7 says, ‘For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.’

“We use a phrase: we talk about our ‘soul mate.’ That comes out of that verse in Deuteronomy 13:6. People don’t know where they got it from but that’s where it comes from. There’s a connection in a deeper, inner level of the heart. ‘As a man thinketh in his heart.’ We’ve got a thinking process that connects us together and makes us one on a level that’s much different than just the surface level.

“That helps you when you read John 15. Here’s the thing you need to grasp about a friend and being a friend of God. In the passage, Jesus Christ and the apostles have left the Upper Room and they’re now walking on the way to the Garden and Christ continues the conversation with them and says to them in chapter 15:14, ‘Ye are my friends if you do whatsoever I command you.’

“In other words, a friend is somebody who can think and do like Christ thinks. Verse 15.  A servant doesn’t know some things but the friend does. A friend is somebody who’s as your own soul. You pour out your inner being to them; you tell them what’s inside, what’s in your thinking, what’s in your heart.

“Jesus said, ‘I’ve called you friends because I’ve told you. I haven’t sent you out without a sense of what’s going on. I’ve communicated with you all the things the Father has given to me.’ A friend is someone who gets information that no one else has access to. Now you know that in personal relationships but when it’s talking about Scripture, the idea here is that to be a friend is you’re going to get all of the information.

“Now the reason that’s important…come with me to the Book of James. James 2:21. The first person in the Bible ever called ‘the friend of God’ is Abraham. The reason he’s called that is because Abraham obeyed some specific instructions that God gave him, and when God gave him information that he hadn’t given to anybody else, Abraham stood on that information. It allowed him to be called ‘the friend of God.’ Not just the servant who doesn’t know what his master does, but the friend who is taking action based upon something the Father told him to do.

“II Chronicles 20:7 is where he’s called ‘the friend of God.’ You see when Abraham is called the friend of God, he’s called that in connection with his seed.

*****

“Ephesians 2:11. If you were an alien and a stranger that’s as opposite as you can be from being a friend and the reason God made this distinction between the Gentiles down here and the circumcision (Israel) up there, those people up there were His friends and these people down here were aliens and strangers.

“The people in Israel were a friend and it had to do with the fact God had given them some information He didn’t give anybody else.

“One of the great verses about that is in Exodus 33:11. God was communicating to Israel what he was going to do.”

*****

“A verse that demonstrate how the term ‘friend’ is used in the Bible is in Proverbs 17:9: ‘He that covereth a transgression seeketh love; but he that repeateth a matter separateth very friends.’

“Notice gossip and evil reports separate friends. Well, the implication there is a friend is someone who’s not separated from you, who’s one with you, who’s a companion. Verse 17 says, ‘A friend loveth at all times, and a brother is born for adversity.’

“A friend is somebody where circumstances and your conduct and that kind of stuff isn’t really the issue. They have a value and esteem for you and they’re going to love you regardless of what the circumstances in your life are; regardless what the adversity that comes in life will be.

“Proverbs 18:24 says, ‘A man that hath friends must shew himself friendly: and there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’

“It’s kind of a two-way street and ‘there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.’ The context is found in verse 22: ‘Whoso findeth a wife findeth a good thing, and obtaineth favour of the LORD.’ Who he’s talking about is really your spouse.

“A friend is somebody who will be more loyal to you and value and esteem you more than a family member. My point is friendship is something esteemed very highly in God’s Word.

“Probably the most famous friend quote in the Scripture is when Judas approaches the Lord Jesus Christ in the Garden to betray Him and the Lord Jesus Christ looks at him and He says, ‘Hail, friend.’ That title that Jesus is using comes out of a verse in Psalm 41:9: ‘Yea, mine own familiar friend, in whom I trusted, which did eat of my bread, hath lifted up his heel against me.’

“Christ quoted part of that verse in John 13 when He was with His apostles in the Upper Room.

“This is a song of David, and when David historically is writing it, he’s talking about Ahitophel, his friend. Prophetically it turns out to be talking about the Lord Jesus Christ and the one who’s going to betray him.

“So what’s a friend? It’s somebody I’ve trusted. Here’s somebody that I’ve had close communion with. He’s closer than a brother. Here’s somebody I trust with my heart and here’s somebody I sit at the table . . . I share what belongs to me with this person and if it’s mine, it’s theirs. And if I have it, then they can consume it. They’re with me. And we’re not just attached together because of work or circumstances—we have an attachment together based upon esteem and value for one another.”

Tempted in all points

"Some people mistakenly believe Jesus Christ was only tempted three times in 40 days in the wilderness. That's a misreading. Matthew and Luke only focus on three of the temptations, but He was tempted EVERY day by the devil for 40 days. You talk about testing.

"You know who drove Jesus into the wilderness? The Holy Spirit takes the Son of man, the one who willingly became flesh, the one willingly chose to participate in human experience . . . He's not going to cheat; He's not going to have, you know, the divine godhead's 'Get out of Jail' card," explains Alex Kurz.

"He's going to go through 40 days of, not only the experience of not eating, not having food or drink, but having Satan personally visiting Him every day.

"His perfection was a result of His willingness to be broken. Hebrews 5 is powerful in light of the humanity of our Lord Jesus Christ:

[7] Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in that he feared;
[8] Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered;
[9] And being made perfect, he became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him;

*****

Acts 17: [30] And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commandeth all men every where to repent:
[31] Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained; whereof he hath given assurance unto all men, in that he hath raised him from the dead.

"From this verse we know the risen Lord Jesus Christ will be the one who judges all men and Paul calls Him ‘that man,’ " explains Richard Jordan.

"Paul's telling the unbelievers there that, ‘The one who’s going to judge you is going to be sitting right where you are, walking in your sandals; God raised Him up and He’s the one who will be your judge.’

“People who want to defend the deity of Christ don’t like people to assert the humanity of Christ. But if you don’t have both in equal fashion, you don’t have a mediator.

“His personhood is important; He has two natures. That’s the reality of it. I don’t know of a better explanation for that than Luke 2:40: [40] And the child grew, and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom: and the grace of God was upon him.

“He’s 12 years old, His parents take Him up to the temple, and it says the child grew and waxed strong in spirit, filled with wisdom and the grace of God was with him.

“How’d He get filled with wisdom? By depending on God’s word. He’s being filled with some sound doctrine out of the Scripture. You notice in verse 49, He says to His parents Mary and Joseph, ‘How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?’

“Notice the ‘F’ is capital in Father. He knows His identity. He’s 12 years old. His bar mitzvah was taking place. He was moving into that Galatians 4 adult status. He’s being educated by His father--not just His earthly father, but His heavenly Father. And the man is LEARNING.

“In order to become a man, He laid aside the independent personal use of His attributes and chose to depend and be obedient to the Father. He literally chose to trust the Father to take care of things for Him.

Luke 2:52: [52] And Jesus increased in wisdom and stature, and in favour with God and man. Notice He increased in wisdom. Now how do you do that?

John 8: [28] Then said Jesus unto them, When ye have lifted up the Son of man, then shall ye know that I am he, and that I do nothing of myself; but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.

[29] And he that sent me is with me: the Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those things that please him.
[30] As he spake these words, many believed on him.

“You ought to write that in your mind. He’s saying, ‘I’m not acting independently on my own, but as my Father hath taught me, I speak these things.’ He grew in wisdom. Why? Because the Father was teaching Him.

******

John 12: [49] For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.

[50] And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

“You could literally go on and on about the fact the Lord Jesus Christ was literally instructed, taught by His Father, as God would have a man to depend on. As Paul talks about ‘the faith of Christ,’ that’s really what he’s talking about.

“He didn’t do it because He quit being God or because He was some ignoramus; He did it because that’s what was required for Him to be truly human and to be tempted in all points as you are.”

(new article tomorrow)

Sleep on it! You're His poem, masterpiece

(working on new article that I will post late this evening)

When the Lord comes to Solomon in a dream at night and says, ‘Solomon, I’ll give you riches and power, whatever you want; what can I give you?,’ Solomon answers, ‘I want wisdom.’ I Kings 3:15 says, [15] And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream.

“When the text says ‘Solomon awoke,’ what’s meant by that is, ‘You know, it doesn’t help you to work incessantly; stay up half the night, get up early to go to work, work through all kinds of difficult, sorrowful, hard, painful experiences--God gives you His gifts when you’re not working at all. When you aren’t even conscious; you’re asleep,’ " explains Richard Jordan. 

“Think about that. It’s not of works; it’s His workmanship, not of us. Think back through Scripture. When did God give Adam Eve? When did He cut the covenant with Abraham? He put him in a deep sleep. I mean, Solomon isn’t the only one in Scripture that that’s true of.

“When Paul says, ‘For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God,’ he’s saying God’s the one who gives the blessing, not based on your merit, but on His giving. ‘For we are his workmanship.’ This is HIS doing.

“That word ‘workmanship’ (Ephesians 2:10) is talking about a ‘work of art.’ A masterpiece. Preachers like to point out that the Greek word translated there is the word we get our term ‘poem’ from.

“That word comes over in English as ‘poem.’ You’re His work of art. You’re literally the form through which He’s going to express Himself. A masterpiece is something you do to make yourself known.

“Romans 1:19-20 says, ‘Because that which may be known of God is manifest in them; for God hath shewed it unto them. [20] For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.’

“Everybody knows something about God. He manifested Himself. Romans 2:14 says, ‘For when the Gentiles, which have not the law, do by nature the things contained in the law, these, having not the law, are a law unto themselves.’

“You see, God has indelibly printed into the heart of all men some information. You have to educate yourself out of that, and what the 'educated' guy says is, ‘Well, if you want to be sophisticated and educated, you have to get over your primordial tendency to believe in the superstitious idea of something bigger than you.’

“To get over that is to get over the mystery of life itself. You can look at creation and see the wisdom, knowledge and understanding of God; the fact there’s a Creator revealed, and in that term, ‘things that are made’ is a translation of the exact same word in Ephesians 2 about workmanship! Creation is God’s workmanship; His masterpiece demonstrating His wisdom, His understanding, His knowledge. He’s placed it in the Creation!

“When you look at the Creation, what you’re seeing is God manifest His purpose; what He’s accomplishing. You find out about Him!”

Oppressing the poor THE big issue in trib

"The course of a nation is determined by the amount of sound doctrine resident in the hearts and minds of the populace, but the leaders are always going to try to corrupt that.

"They're doing it here in Amos and what happens is 'the people like it so,' as Jeremiah says. So the whole nation gets its heart eaten out," explains Richard Jordan.

"The 'oppressing the poor' thing winds up being the big issue in the tribulation. In Micah 3 he's going to talk to the leaders of the nation:

[1] And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
[2] Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;

"This is the condition of the leaders of Israel. They're swallowing them up; they're just taking everything from them and they'd take their skin off of them if they could.

"They will literally eat people in the tribulation but it doesn't have to get that far; you know, you take the clothes of their back kind of a thing.

Verse 3: [3] Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the caldron.

"Notice, because Israel is doing these things, God isn't going to listen and answer them; they're going to cry and He's not going to answer. He's going to be silent.

"Amos 8 says they're going to go all over the land looking for the Word of God and won't be able to find it. God's not going to talk to them.

Verse 5: [5] Thus saith the LORD concerning the prophets that make my people err, that bite with their teeth, and cry, Peace; and he that putteth not into their mouths, they even prepare war against him.

"They're saying, 'Peace,' but God doesn't put that word in their mouth; they're lying.

"So you've got the heads of Jacob, the princes of Israel and now you've got the prophets and the priests.

Verse 6: [6] Therefore night shall be unto you, that ye shall not have a vision; and it shall be dark unto you, that ye shall not divine; and the sun shall go down over the prophets, and the day shall be dark over them.

[7] Then shall the seers be ashamed, and the diviners confounded: yea, they shall all cover their lips; for there is no answer of God.

"There's going to be a blank. There's going to be no more prophets, no more light from God. God isn't going to use a prophet to speak; He's just going to pull a window down and revelation is going to be over with.

[11] The heads thereof judge for reward, and the priests thereof teach for hire, and the prophets thereof divine for money: yet will they lean upon the LORD, and say, Is not the LORD among us? none evil can come upon us.
[12] Therefore shall Zion for your sake be plowed as a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house as the high places of the forest.

"They're out for money. The priests teach for hire. Prophets divine for money. They're so blinded by their idolatry that they think God's with them. That's what he's talking about in Amos 8. The whole deal here is they're oppressing the poor.

"Can you think of a reason why people might be poor in the tribulation? If you take the 'mark of the beast' you can't buy or sell. You can't enter into commerce, which means pretty soon you're going to be hungry. If you can't sell, you can't work. When you work, you sell your time.

"In Matthew 25, when Jesus talks about those nations that had been through the tribulation period and He said, 'When you did it to the least of these my brethren you did it to me,' what did they do? They gave a cup of cold water, they fed people, went to see people in jail.

"They were visiting and taking care of poor people. They were doing exactly what James 1 says is pure religion. That's why there's this constant emphasis on the poor because it's the specific issue that comes to its head during that time of Jacob's trouble.

"You know what the 33rd book in the Bible is? Micah. I've told you that each chapter in Isaiah will echo something about the book that is that number in the canon.

Isaiah 33 is about the Second Coming:

[7] Behold, their valiant ones shall cry without: the ambassadors of peace shall weep bitterly.
[8] The highways lie waste, the wayfaring man ceaseth: he hath broken the covenant, he hath despised the cities, he regardeth no man.
[9] The earth mourneth and languisheth: Lebanon is ashamed and hewn down: Sharon is like a wilderness; and Bashan and Carmel shake off their fruits.
[10] Now will I rise, saith the LORD; now will I be exalted; now will I lift up myself.
[11] Ye shall conceive chaff, ye shall bring forth stubble: your breath, as fire, shall devour you.
[12] And the people shall be as the burnings of lime: as thorns cut up shall they be burned in the fire.

"Here He comes in flaming fire taking vengeance, coming to get them. There's that fire. He'll burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire."

(new article tomorrow)

Taking from the poor, hating them for not submitting

"The psalms are so wonderful, but no psalm stands by itself. The psalms are arranged together in a very specific spiritual order. Because of that it's kind of hard sometimes to just break into a psalm and start talking about it.

"What Psalm 10 talks about is the rise of the Antichrist in the land. Psalms 9-15 describe that tribulation period and the back and forth with this.

Psalm 10: [1] Why standest thou afar off, O LORD? why hidest thou thyself in times of trouble?

"You just read in Micah that He's going to hide; He's not going to speak to them. Hosea 5:15 says He's going to hide His face from them: [15] I will go and return to my place, till they acknowledge their offence, and seek my face: in their affliction they will seek me early.

"That's what He does in the captivity; He goes off. They're going to look for Him and He isn't going to speak. They'll look for a prophet and there isn't going to be one," explains Richard Jordan.

[2] The wicked in his pride doth persecute the poor: let them be taken in the devices that they have imagined.

"You remember somebody with that name Wicked in II Thessalonians 2? The wicked in Psalm 10 is talking about that Wicked one, the Antichrist, but it's with a little 'w.'

"You ever notice in the Bible you have the devil and his angels and then you have devils. We usually say demons, but that's not the word in the Bible. The word is devils and people don't like that because they say, 'Well, there's only one devil.' Yeah, but he's got a lot of little devils. He's got his guys, and they're called devils because they promote his program. So you have the Wicked and those who think like him.

[3] For the wicked boasteth of his heart's desire, and blesseth the covetous, whom the LORD abhorreth.

"He's blessing the covetous and covetousness is wanting something somebody else has got. What they're doing in Amos is going out and taking away from the poor--from people who've got almost nothing--and they hate them when they do that because those people are ones who won't submit to the vain religious system.

"I've said to you many times, the prophets are constantly picking up threads of thought and laying them out in front of you. The people who study these passages know these verses.

"When you study Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and find something where you don't know what it's talking about, the best place to look for an answer is back in the Old Testament for something that parallels it. There's this constant chain reference of things all through the Bible and that's why you don't want to change words."

(new article tomorrow)