Plant of renown

(Here's a short post taken from a very recent Wednesday night at Shorewood. I had to call in sick yesterday due to flu-like symptoms and then I learned today back at the job that several women called off sick yesterday, all of which ate the pizzas made for a staff lunch by the HR head! I did sense when I was eating it that the crust was too white and undercooked tasting.)

Ezekiel 34: [29] And I will raise up for them a plant of renown, and they shall be no more consumed with hunger in the land, neither bear the shame of the heathen any more.

[30] Thus shall they know that I the LORD their God am with them, and that they, even the house of Israel, are my people, saith the Lord GOD.

"When I read that verse 29, 'I will raise up for them a plant of renown,' that's one of those verses that really demonstrates . . . You know, it's a figure of speech; it's a symbol. It's talking about the Lord Jesus Christ, Messiah, and He's a plant of renown," explains Richard Jordan.

"In the Bible He's called 'the lily of the valley.' He's called the 'rose of Sharon.' The 'balm of Gilead.' Those titles are used to describe the impact. If you're renowned that means you're a celebrity. You're distinct. You're like nothing else; there's not another plant like you. You're beautiful.

"You provide shelter; you provide nurture. He's going to do all those things and He's going to be the hero of the world. Everybody is going to see Him and know, 'That's Israel's God; He's Israel's king and the house of Israel belongs to Him.'

"You see in verse 31: [31] And ye my flock, the flock of my pasture, are men, and I am your God, saith the Lord GOD.

"It's obvious that shepherds and sheep, referring to the leaders of Israel and the nation, are figures of speech."

Lying down in green pastures

Ezekiel 34: [14] I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel.

[15] I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

"Now, the one who's going to feed them is the good shepherd, the Lord Jesus. You know Psalm 23:

[1] The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
[2] He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.
[3] He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.

[4] Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. 

"That's not a psalm designed to be quoted at funerals, although the application can be comforting if you make application that way," explains Richard Jordan.

"It's about what's going on in Ezekiel 34. I told you last week, when He said, 'I'll cause them to lie down,' it's, 'I'm going to feed them, and after I feed them they're going to lay down.' What do you do after you've had a big BBQ? You go lay in the sun.

"If you get a big meal, you're satisfied; you're full. You want to go lay down and rest and digest it.

"In Mark 7, when Jesus addresses the Syrophenician woman, He says, 'Let the children first be filled.'

"Mark 7 is a verse that's almost always misquoted. When the woman comes to Christ and wants Him to heal her daughter and He says, 'I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel,' she responds to Him.

[27] But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

"Let the children first be what? Not fed; filled. That's an important thing. You're not just preaching it to Israel so that Israel gets it; you're preaching it to them so they're FILLED with it.

"That verse is often quoted that the children must first be FED but it doesn't say that. It's says be filled. In other words, Israel must be redeemed. Be filled, restored. That's what He's talking about."

Here is an old post and I will have a new article tomorrow:

 "Life is like a balloon. If you never let yourself go, you’ll never know how far you can rise.”

“If you take a balloon and blow it up, you fill it with air; you inflate it by blowing into it. What you’re doing is making it larger.

"When you are ‘strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man; That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love,' He’s coming in," explains Richard Jordan. "You’re able to comprehend what God’s doing. You come to a deepening, expanded capacity to appreciate who God really is.

“Now the idea of 'being filled' in the Bible is the idea of being controlled by something. When something FILLS you . . . it has to do with, when you fill something up, you take it over completely.

“Acts 2:1-2 says, [1] And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place.
[2] And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.

“It says when that sound FILLED all the house, in other words, it was in every heart in the house. There’s none of the house that it didn’t occupy. When you fill something, it’s complete in every way. It’s there all over.

“Acts 5:28 says, [28] Saying, Did not we straitly command you that ye should not teach in this name? and, behold, ye have filled Jerusalem with your doctrine, and intend to bring this man's blood upon us.

“You can fill a room with sound; you can fill a city with doctrine! What does that mean? Everywhere in the whole city people got this! So you can fill inanimate things and it’s the idea of, ‘It’s completely everywhere.’

“But when it’s used about people, it isn’t just that it occupies everything in you; it means that it takes over and controls everything about you. It begins to dominate your life."

Israel to their guy: 'You talk so smoooth'

On September 22nd, two weeks before the surprise attack by Hamas, Benjamin Netanyahu gave a cheery address at the 78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York City, talking about a "New Middle East," holding up a map of the region and making a line in red marker through it.

"Now look at what happens when we make peace between Israel and Saudi Arabia," he said with the map in his hand. "The whole Middle East changes. We tear down the walls of enmity. We bring the possibility of peace to this entire region.

"But we do something else. You know, a few years ago I stood here with a red marker to show the curse, a great curse, the curse of a nuclear Iran. But today, I bring this marker to show a great blessing. The blessing of a new Middle East, between Israel, Saudi Arabia and our other neighbors.

"We will not only bring down barriers between Israel and our neighbors. We’ll build a new corridor of peace and prosperity that connects Asia through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, to Europe.

"This is an extraordinary change, a monumental change, another pivot of history. As the circle of peace expands, I believe that a real path towards a genuine peace with our Palestinian neighbors can finally be achieved."

*****

Here is an old post and I will have a new article tomorrow:

The reason you know the Antichrist couldn’t show up tomorrow is there aren’t the prophesied 10 kings in the Middle East today.

“That whole landscape over there in Palestine has to be reconfigured politically and those 10 kings get control so the Antichrist can come up and subvert them by taking over three and then taking ownership of all of them," explains Richard Jordan. "He’ll do all of that through a peace policy.

“Remember, the power of the state is in the police and military; that’s why they can be so dangerous. They are the enforcing arm of a government and that’s why you have to have a rule of law so they operate in an agreed-upon social contract.

“If you want to see the kind of guy this character the Antichrist will be, Daniel 7 tells you he’s an intellectual genius, a wizard at words and communication. It says he speaks with great swelling words. He’s a military genius, a political genius, a commercial genius.

“Daniel 8:23 says, [23] And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.

“The Antichrist’s going to be a genius about understanding dark, difficult, hard, mystical sayings. He’s also that fierce, bloody, violent man.

“The passage goes on, [24] And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
[25] And through his policy also he shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: he shall also stand up against the Prince of princes; but he shall be broken without hand.

“When it says ‘his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power,’ that’s saying he’s going to have Satan give him his power and his seat.

*****

“It says, ‘He shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and by peace shall destroy many.’ He’s going to come in and say, ‘Peace, peace.’

“Daniel 11:21-22 says, [21] And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honour of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
[22] And with the arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the covenant.

“That’s all that stuff in Isaiah 30 about ‘speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits.’ His words will be smoother than butter. Deceit’s in his heart but he doesn’t say he’s going to obtain the authority. Israel’s going to literally surrender to him through a peace plan.

“Daniel 11:24 says, [24] He shall enter peaceably even upon the fattest places of the province; and he shall do that which his fathers have not done, nor his fathers' fathers; he shall scatter among them the prey, and spoil, and riches: yea, and he shall forecast his devices against the strong holds, even for a time.

“They’re going to think, ‘This guy, he’s a commercial, military, political genius and we’re getting RICH by helping him!’ As soon as they get there, though, he pulls the rug out from under them. He’s a deceiver.

*****

“In Daniel 8, Daniel sees another end-times vision in the third year of the reign of Babylon. It’s a subsequent vision to chapter 7. What he sees is a ram with two horns. Then, in verse 5, he sees an he goat come up and destroy the ram. Daniel then says, ‘What is this?’ By the way, after the he goat destroys the ram the he goat fills up the whole earth and then the he goat’s broken into four pieces.

“The interpretation of that starts in verse 8: [8] Therefore the he goat waxed very great: and when he was strong, the great horn was broken; and for it came up four notable ones toward the four winds of heaven.

“Come down in the chapter and look at the interpretation: [19] And he said, Behold, I will make thee know what shall be in the last end of the indignation: for at the time appointed the end shall be.
[20] The ram which thou sawest having two horns are the kings of Media and Persia.
[21] And the rough goat is the king of Grecia: and the great horn that is between his eyes is the first king.

“Again, we’re talking about the ‘last days’; end-times prophecy. The he goat is the king of Grecia. The great horn between his eyes is the first king. The ram is Media-Persia. The horn that comes up is the first king of Greece. Who was that? Alexander the Great.

“Verse 22: ‘Now that being broken, whereas four stood up for it, four kingdoms shall stand up out of the nation, but not in his power.’

“So that king, the Antichrist, comes up out of one of those four divisions of the Greek Empire. The king of the north is Assyria. The king of the south is Egypt. If you keep reading, it’s the king of the north and the king of the south that battle in chapter 11.

“Out of those two nations, the Antichrist comes out of Syria. He doesn’t come out of Europe. He is the Assyrian by national origin. Daniel tells you that’s where he’s going to come from, so when you’re watching the politics of this thing, watch this guy. And when you see the guy take over the 10 kings by subduing three and rising up, you know you’ve got your man. So there’s descriptive prophetic details that will help a fellow.

“Daniel 11:30 says, [30] For the ships of Chittim shall come against him: therefore he shall be grieved, and return, and have indignation against the holy covenant: so shall he do; he shall even return, and have intelligence with them that forsake the holy covenant.

“He’s going to break the covenant and blame Israel for doing it. He’s not going to take credit; he’s going to blame them.

“Verse 31: [31] And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength, and shall take away the daily sacrifice, and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate.

“Jesus talked about that in Matthew 23: ‘Behold, your house is left unto you desolate.’ Right in the middle of all that deceptiveness where the Antichrist’s lying to them through his teeth, the people who know their God shall be strong and it says “they that understand shall instruct many.”

“There’s a Believing Remnant who’s going to know what’s going on because they read these prophecies and say, ‘There it is, here it is; here’s what God says that is!’ So they’re the ones who trust God’s Word; they’re the ones the Antichrist is trying to persecute, eliminate and destroy.”

Red Esau, red dragon, red heifer

"When you're reading these writing prophets, the reason the stuff is written down . . . Did you ever wonder why Elijah didn't write a book? Or Elisha? They were prophets.

"Isaiah 30 tells you: [8] Now go, write it before them in a table, and note it in a book, that it may be for the time to come for ever and ever:

"Amos 8 says there's going to be a famine in the land for the Word of God. It's, 'I'm not talking to them anymore.' 

[11] Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD:
[12] And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the LORD, and shall not find it.

"When these writing prophets back in Phase One write, what they write mirrors itself in Phase Five. What you see them write will show up over there doctrinally.

"So when we're studying Ezekiel 34-40, it's being written back here about things historically happening back there. Doctrinally it's going to reflect what's prophetically going to happen over there.

"When you're studying Phase One of the captivity, you're going to be reading passages that will point you toward Phase Five; that is, the 70th Week.

*****

“Literally, the Book of Obadiah is looking at, prophesying about, telling you what’s going to happen in the future to the people we today call the Palestinians.

“Now, the prophets use ancient terminology; they’ll talk about Teman, Dedan and mount Seir. They didn’t know how to say Jordan because there wasn’t a Jordan until after WW I. They couldn’t say Saudi Arabia because there was no Saudi Arabia, as the country, until the 20^th Century.

“Notice in Zephaniah 2:4, it says, ‘For Gaza shall be forsaken, and Ashkelon a desolation: they shall drive out Ashdod at the noon day, and Ekron shall be rooted up.’

“You know where the Gaza Strip is today. That verse is talking about the Palestinian territories. Verse 11 says, ‘The LORD will be terrible unto them: for he will famish all the gods of the earth; and men shall worship him, every one from his place, even all the isles of the heathen.’

“Now, if God famishes all the gods of the earth, what does that tell you about Islam? We’ll see as we go down through Obadiah the association between the Edomites and terrorism, religious-based terrorism, and how God’s going to set that right and destroy it.

*****

“It’s fascinating how this little one-chapter book has so much in it about, well, not current events because the things going on today in the ‘dispensation of grace’ aren’t the prophetic program, but before the tribulation can start, there are things that have to be in place. For example, Israel has to be in the land.

“You have to have some things in place that until the last 100 years, they didn’t exist. In 1947, Israel became a nation-state for the first time in two millenniums.

“All the prophecies about Israel being in the land have always been there, and Bible-believers have believed them, but then you see it happen and you say, ‘Well, that’s not the fulfillment of prophecy, but it certainly looks like a stage-setting,’ and as the stage is set, you can begin to see with some of these passages, ‘Oh, it’s going to look like THAT when it happens!’

“Obadiah and Jeremiah (both of which have some almost identical verses because they both are contemporary to the Babylonian captivity) look at the near-captivity and the far-captivity. That’s why in Obadiah verse 15, the key verse in the book, he says ‘For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.'

“That’s the future, prophetically. What happens in these minor prophets is they see the near and the far, but it’s all a continuous vision. What they see back there loops over and happens again.

 “The hatred you see today has been there since the Book of Genesis. God’s going to destroy them because of it. The Book of Obadiah is talking about that specific issue; about why it happens and what will happen in the future.

“There must be 15-20 people in the Bible named Obadiah and while the Book of Obadiah never identifies which one it is, you know the book’s written in light of the Babylonian captivity, so it’s got to be connected with that.

*****

“In Genesis 21, Abraham and Sarah have two boys—Isaac and Ishmael. With his wife Rebekah, Isaac has the twins, Esau and Jacob. The reason God talks about being the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob,’ is because He’s the God of Isaac, not Ishmael, and Jacob, not Esau. There’s a selecting by God going on there.

“After Sarah died Abraham took a wife named Keturah and they had six kids. He winds up with a total of 16 kids, but the seed’s going to be through Jacob.

“Genesis 25 says that when Rebekah was pregnant with Isaac’s sons, 'the children struggled together within her; and she said, If it be so, why am I thus? And she went to inquire of the LORD.

[23] And the LORD said unto her, Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.
[24] And when her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.
[25] And the first came out red, all over like an hairy garment; and they called his name Esau.

“Notice Esau is red. You know anyone else in the Bible who’s red? Revelation 12 talks about the great red dragon. You see the red heifer in Numbers 19. Same kind of association.

“Esau, in scripture, is going to be a type of the flesh, but he’s also going to be a type of the rebel that, instead of loving God’s plan and purpose for the nation Israel (God’s plan for Abraham and his descendants), hates it.

“People refer to Jacob as having stolen the birthright from Esau, but the truth is he bought it (with the pot of beans Esau traded it for). Obviously Jacob saw the value in being Abraham and Isaac’s heir. Jacob, for all his conniving, understood something about spiritual heritage that was being passed on from Abraham to his dad, Isaac, and would be passed on to Isaac’s heir. Esau, on the other hand, had no interest in it.

“Esau’s descendants are the Edomites and they populate the land on the eastern side of the Dead Sea, the land of Seir. It’s fascinating that there’s two dozen different passages about the Edomites as the thorns in Israel’s flesh.

“God says in Ezekiel 25, ‘And I will lay my vengeance upon Edom by the hand of my people Israel: and they shall do in Edom according to mine anger and according to my fury; and they shall know my vengeance . . .Because the Philistines have dealt by revenge, and have taken vengeance with a despiteful heart, to destroy it for the old hatred.’

“Notice the phrase ‘old hatred.’ When Christ comes back He’s going to destroy these nations because of an ancient, perpetual hatred they have against Israel. Esau hated Jacob and he taught his descendants to hate Jacob and Jacob’s descendants.

“Obadiah verses 8-10, says, ‘Shall I not in that day, saith the LORD, even destroy the wise men out of Edom, and understanding out of the mount of Esau?

[9] And thy mighty men, O Teman, shall be dismayed, to the end that every one of the mount of Esau may be cut off by slaughter.
[10] For thy violence against thy brother Jacob shame shall cover thee, and thou shalt be cut off for ever.’

“The Book of Malachi begins with, [1] The burden of the word of the LORD to Israel by Malachi.

[2] I have loved you, saith the LORD. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith the LORD: yet I loved Jacob,
[3] And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness.
[4] Whereas Edom saith, We are impoverished, but we will return and build the desolate places; thus saith the LORD of hosts, They shall build, but I will throw down; and they shall call them, The border of wickedness, and, The people against whom the LORD hath indignation for ever.

“Malachi’s not talking about Jacob the man. He’s talking about Jacob the nation. Two nations are going to come of them. It’s brother fighting against brother in their descendants.

*****

“As Ezekiel 35: 5 says, [5] Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end.’

“That’s a passage about the fifth course of judgment. When Israel is carried off into captivity, the Edomites are there, watching it, going, ‘Hee-hee, get ’em! They deserve it! Hit ’em again for us!’ They don’t just say, ‘Hey, glad you’re going’; they go in and plunder and rob them.

“Even the ones Nebuchadnezzar didn’t get, the Edomites tattle, ‘Here, now they’re hiding over here.’ So full and complete was their hatred of Israel that they wouldn’t let any of them try and escape.

“Psalm 137 says, [7] Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof.

[8] O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.
[9] Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

“People read that and get aghast, thinking, ‘How could these Jews say they were going to be happy when the Babylonians’ kids are punished and destroyed?!’

“Well, what the Israelites are saying is, ‘Him that curseth thee, I will curse.’ What the Babylonians are getting back is what they GAVE Israel, that’s all. They would come in and slaughter the whole family, babies and all.

“Remember Obadiah verse 15 says, ‘For the day of the LORD is near upon all the heathen: as thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee: thy reward shall return upon thine own head.’

“That is a statement of God’s foreign policy in connection with His client nation, the nation Israel. Israel is His nation in the earth, and His statement to all the other nations is, ‘You curse them, I’ll curse you in kind. What you do to them, I’ll do to you.’

“Psalm 137 is about curse-for-curse and that’s really what the Book of Obadiah is all about. There’s some sequences in it that are very helpful in ordering some of the events in the tribulation, but the functional issue of the book is, ‘He’s going to give them back what they gave to Israel.’

“Obadiah verse 3 says, ‘The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee, thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, whose habitation is high; that saith in his heart, Who shall bring me down to the ground?’

“In other words, ‘You’ve exalted yourself and for that exalted position, I’m going to bring you down.’

“Notice how He does it in verse 7: ‘All the men of thy confederacy have brought thee even to the border: the men that were at peace with thee have deceived thee, and prevailed against thee; they that eat thy bread have laid a wound under thee: there is none understanding in him.’

“The Edomites get into a confederacy with other nations who use the Edomites’ pride to deceive them into being a vehicle to accomplish somebody else’s purpose. In other words, they’re overturned by treachery. Well, what did they do to Israel?

“They indulged in treachery against Jacob, so they’re going to be overturned by treachery of their friends. Obadiah verse 13 says, ‘Thou shouldest not have entered into the gate of my people in the day of their calamity; yea, thou shouldest not have looked on their affliction in the day of their calamity, nor have laid hands on their substance in the day of their calamity;’

"So if you go back to verses 5-6: [5] If thieves came to thee, if robbers by night, (how art thou cut off!) would they not have stolen till they had enough? if the grapegatherers came to thee, would they not leave some grapes?

[6] How are the things of Esau searched out! how are his hidden things sought up!

“If you read down through the first 16 verses in Obadiah, what you see is the kind of tit-for-tat back and forth. And then you come down to verse 17: ‘But upon mount Zion shall be deliverance, and there shall be holiness; and the house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.’

“Now, that’s a famous phrase you hear from preachers about how Believers need to ‘possess their possessions.’ It’s sort of like the verse, ‘Salvation is of the Lord.’ I’ve hardly met a preacher who knows where that verse is. By the way, it’s in the very next book, Jonah.

“What are their possessions? Well, it’s the land. God takes it and gives it to Jacob. God has a specific solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict and that’s the kingdom. But inside that He has some very specific things to be done in order to resolve all of those territorial disputes in such a way that brings about a resolution to it all.”

Filled, ready to lay down

Ezekiel 34: [15] I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.
[16] I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judgment.

"You know what He's going to do? He's going to judge the leaders of Israel. When He says, 'I'm going to feed them,' back in verses 12-13 they don't feed the people," explains Richard Jordan.

"Feeding them is not just giving them groceries. You know, we have all these institutions trying to feed and clothe and so forth. I worked at a rescue mission years ago when I first started in the ministry and we fed and clothed people so that we could preach to them.

Jeremiah 3: [14] Turn, O backsliding children, saith the LORD; for I am married unto you: and I will take you one of a city, and two of a family, and I will bring you to Zion:

[15] And I will give you pastors according to mine heart, which shall feed you with knowledge and understanding.

"You put bread in a guy's belly and he's hungry tomorrow; you put knowledge and understanding in his heart and you've equipped him. The first priority of the leaders of Israel was to teach God's Word. Give them knowledge and understanding of how to handle the details of life, as God designed His nation for them to do that.

"Mark 7 is a verse that's almost always misquoted. When the woman comes to Christ and wants Him to heal her daughter and He says, 'I'm not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.' she responds to Him in Mark 7: [26] The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter.

[27] But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it unto the dogs.

"Let the children first be what? Not fed; filled. That's an important thing. You're not just preaching it to Israel so that Israel gets it; you're preaching it to them so they're FILLED with it.

Go back to Ezekiel 34: [15] I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

"When you've gone and had a big meal, what's the first thing you want to do? Run track? Plow corn? You really want to go lay down, dontcha? When you've been filled . . . 

"I'm just trying to say to you, what's going on in Matthew, Mark and Luke is really an echo of what you're hearing back here when he talks in verse 17 about judging between the people in Israel: [17] And as for you, O my flock, thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I judge between cattle and cattle, between the rams and the he goats.

That's exactly what the John the Baptist said in Matthew 3:7: [7] But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees come to his baptism, he said unto them, O generation of vipers, who hath warned you to flee from the wrath to come?

[8] Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance:
[9] And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to our father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

[10] And now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees: therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.

"He's going to separate the people in Israel and the ones who are going to come to do it, He's the true shepherd. That's the part of this passage that kind of blows your mind.

Ezekiel 34: [11] For thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out.

[12] As a shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day.

Verse 15: [15] I will feed my flock, and I will cause them to lie down, saith the Lord GOD.

"Jesus said in John 10, 'I am the good shepherd.' He said, 'I'm Jehovah.' So the identifying of Jesus Christ as Jehovah just comes right out of here. His role as Jehovah comes right out of here."

The burden of the 'desert of the sea'

Today marks the 22nd anniversary of my father's death, Oct. 24, 2001, only one month after 9/11. I thought several times today, "I might be the only person on earth who's even thinking about you, Daddy."

For me his passing was as sudden as anything could be. I went to work that day knowing he was scheduled for 8 a.m. hip surgery. They never did operate because he was not in good shape during pre-op. They said he died of an aneurysm. It was at three-thirty that same day.

I had called him the night before and the last words I remember saying before "goodnight" were, "I'll be praying for you." He responded, "Do that." 

It was only a month before when I had my last real conversation with him and it wasn't for very long because I was at a friend's apartment attending a birthday party and asked if I could use the phone. I was back in New York City and told him I found the books he wanted from the Left Behind series and that I would put them in the mail for him.

Of course, this was right after 9/11 and I was living in Hell's Kitchen. He made a smart remark, "How's the anthrax?" in reference to the scare happening in Manhattan with white powder in mailed letters.

But the other question was serious: "Are you working on that book?" I didn't realize he even remembered me once telling him I'd like to write a book to help people get saved.

The book was barely in my mind on 9/11 when I was sitting inside my hotel room at the old high-rise Hilton on Michigan Ave. I had just come back from the massive indoor swimming pool on the top floor, where a man got on the elevator (he was sweaty from working out in the gym and obviously had been watching a TV) and pointed my eyes to a small TV monitor inside our elevator car giving live footage from the World Trade Center just after the first plane hit.

He said, "Did you see this?" I responded something like, "I work in a building not far from World Trade. I better go make some phone calls."

The thing I remember most was watching the live coverage from the foot of my bed and witnessing the second plane hit. I remember praying soon after, "I get it now, God. I'm going to get busy. I'm going to dedicate myself to doing your work."

It was a year and a half later that I flew in from NYC for a friend's wedding in downtown Chicago. I rented a car so I could visit Shorewood the next day, a Sunday, when the church building was still at Grace and Neva in the city.

I made a point of waiting in line to talk to Pastor Jordan after the main service to inform him that I had just quit my job to write a book about the Bible. That's how long I've been working on this book and still haven't finished.

*****

Here is an article from last year and I will post a new article tomorrow for certain:

"There are three criteria used to determine whether one is racially an Arab. It's a mixed race. If you go to Japan, you can prove if one is genetically or racially a Japanese; there's a pure bloodline.

"In Revelation, John is standing there in the desert and the vision is of the fall of Mystery Babylon--he's actually standing in the very place where it's all going to come down," explains Richard Jordan.

"What do we know about this prince of Tyrus? Ezekiel 28: [1] The word of the LORD came again unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God:

"John's in the desert and it's called the 'desert of the sea.'

"Verse 12: [12] Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom, and perfect in beauty.

"God is talking to the mystery aspect of the prince of Tyrus; He's talking about an Antichrist out there.

Ezekiel 27: [21] Arabia, and all the princes of Kedar, they occupied with thee in lambs, and rams, and goats: in these were they thy merchants.

[22] The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants: they occupied in thy fairs with chief of all spices, and with all precious stones, and gold.
[23] Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Assur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants.
[24] These were thy merchants in all sorts of things, in blue clothes, and broidered work, and in chests of rich apparel, bound with cords, and made of cedar, among thy merchandise.
[25] The ships of Tarshish did sing of thee in thy market: and thou wast replenished, and made very glorious in the midst of the seas.

"The whole chapter talks about all of these merchants. We find in Revelation 18 that when Babylon the Great has fallen, you know what the merchants do? They wail, cry, their wealth comes to an end. They're crying because no one is buying their products anymore: 'I can't sell it anymore; Babylon's fallen.'

"This whole region is importing. You ever been to Dubai? They're importing because they're exporting the one commodity everybody needs. Oil. And they are so incredibly rich.

I Kings 10:15: [15] Beside that he had of the merchantmen, and of the traffick of the spice merchants, and of all the kings of Arabia, and of the governors of the country.

[16] And king Solomon made two hundred targets of beaten gold: six hundred shekels of gold went to one target.

"Here is a description of these kings of Arabia that bring to Solomon gold and silver. Are there gold and silver mines in Arabia? Where did they get it? Importation.

II Chronicles 9:13-14: [13] Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was six hundred and threescore and six talents of gold;

[14] Beside that which chapmen and merchants brought. And all the kings of Arabia and governors of the country brought gold and silver to Solomon.

"Oh, boy, what number is that? 666. We know exactly what this foreshadows.

Isaiah 21: [1] The burden of the desert of the sea. As whirlwinds in the south pass through; so it cometh from the desert, from a terrible land.

Verse 9: [9] And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.

"Revelation is where we read Babylon is fallen. Where does all of this take place? The burden of the desert of the sea.

"When John is transported to the wilderness, he's transported to an area that is very commonly known. It's the desert. This whole area that is called Shinar is the Arabian desert. We're not concentrating so much on Saudi Arabia as we are the 'desert of the sea.'

"By the way, the Arabian Peninsula means the Arab island. It's an island of sand. It is a desert of the sea. This is the wilderness area John is being transported to.

Isaiah 13:19: [19] And Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldees' excellency, shall be as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.

[20] It shall never be inhabited, neither shall it be dwelt in from generation to generation: neither shall the Arabian pitch tent there; neither shall the shepherds make their fold there.

"Babylon is in the Arabian desert and God says it's going to be worse than Sodom and Gomorrah. 

Isaiah 34: [8] For it is the day of the LORD's vengeance, and the year of recompences for the controversy of Zion.

[9] And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and the dust thereof into brimstone, and the land thereof shall become burning pitch.
[10] It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up for ever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it for ever and ever.

"Pitch is like a tar; distilled crude oil. What's God going to do one day to that whole Arabian desert? There are streams and lakes of oil down there and God says, 'I'm going to turn it into pitch.' That crude oil, God's going to ignite it all.

"Remember Noah? They took that distilled oil and created something called slime and it served as an adhesive. When you mix oil with sand you get clay.

"What do we learn about Daniel's image? It's feet are made of what? Is it any wonder it's clay?"

Accelerated edification by candlestick?!

There are seven literal angels God provides for the accelerated edification of the "little flock" of Believers during the 70th Week.

Revelation 1 says, [20] The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candlesticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches.

"They have the privilege of having angels minister to them the Word of God," explains Alex Kurz. "In Israel's history we see that happen a number of times where angels are shown providing doctrine.

"Notice these seven angels are called 'stars'. When do you normally see stars? Nighttime. The churches are called candlesticks. When do you need a candlestick? When there is no light; it's dark and dim.

"It's rather interesting, in keeping with the scope of the Book of Revelation, that this is all part of the day of the Lord's wrath, which in prophetic Scripture is called the nighttime.

"During the absence of Messiah, there is darkness that grips the world. It's the nighttime of the rejection of Messiah; the nighttime of spiritual ignorance, of the satanic policy of evil that Isaiah 25 says 'covers the world as a veil.' Why would you cover the world as a veil? To prevent the truth and the light from shining in.

"Another interesting point we want to make is how many candlesticks are there? How many churches are there? Seven. When you take light and break it do you know how many spectrums the prism--how many colors are there? Seven. How many colors are in the rainbow? Seven. It's no coincidence.

"Of course, the number seven is used throughout the Book of Revelation. It's the number of perfection. The function of these seven churches is to be sources of light.

Revelation 2 says, [1] Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write; These things saith he that holdeth the seven stars in his right hand, who walketh in the midst of the seven golden candlesticks; [2] I know thy works, and thy labour, and thy patience, and how thou canst not bear them which are evil: and thou hast tried them which say they are apostles, and are not, and hast found them liars:

"The association between a candlestick and works has already been dealt with in Matthew 5 on the so-called Sermon on the Mount. In addressing the little flock, the Lord Jesus says this about the candlestick:

[13] Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.
[14] Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid.
[15] Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.
[16] Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

"That's in keeping with the privilege the nation Israel had; they were created to be a source of light, of illumination, the knowledge of God; the glory of God

"Sadly enough, we have passages as in Ezekiel and Deuteronomy where Israel was not illuminating light, but was participating in the darkness of spiritual rebellion that had already gripped the planet.

"When the Lord says, 'Ye are the light of the world,' He's saying, 'You little flock, you believing remnant, the nation as a whole should have been that light, but they're not. So ye are the light of the world.' "

Nothing left in the Fifth

(new article tomorrow)

"As you start reading the Book of Joel (the name in Hebrew means 'Jehovah is God') you discover immediately it lays out an unvarnished look at the destruction associated with the Second Coming of Christ and His judgment on the nation Israel, the earth and the Gentiles.

"It's just one unvarnished blast all through the book," says Richard Jordan. "He starts quick and works hard. It's fierce, it's fast and it's final. If you read it in one setting, which you can do in 20 minutes, you're almost out of breath by the time you get to the end because it is just a real blast.

"Chapter 1 is a warning about the total destruction of Israel. Joel talks about how Jeremiah looks out at the land after the battle of Armageddon, explaining to you Jeremiah 4:

 [23] I beheld the earth, and, lo, it was without form, and void; and the heavens, and they had no light. [24] I beheld the mountains, and, lo, they trembled, and all the hills moved lightly. [25] I beheld, and, lo, there was no man, and all the birds of the heavens were fled. [26] I beheld, and, lo, the fruitful place was a wilderness, and all the cities thereof were broken down at the presence of the LORD, and by his fierce anger.

"Verse 23 says exactly what Genesis 1:2 says: 'And the earth was without form and void.' There's an absolute, complete destruction of the land.

"Chapter 2 is the battle of Armageddon and the deliverance of Israel. Chapter 3 is the judgment of God against the Gentiles who come up and attack His people; how God avenges His people

*****

"There's a destruction coming in the land that Joel is prophesying about, where he describes how thorough the literal destruction is. 

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

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

“Verses 5 says, ‘Awake, ye drunkards, and weep; and howl, all ye drinkers of wine, because of the new wine; for it is cut off from your mouth.

"The drunks are going to get mad because they've got nothing else to drink; all the vineyards are gone.

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

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

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

"It's obvious it's some literal locusts but there’s something more than just literal locusts because now, in connection with that, there’s a nation.

"When it says they have teeth like the teeth of a lion, and have cheek teeth of a great lion, there’s a fascinating comparison there.

"What Joel is doing, in essence, is he's announcing the judgment of that Fifth Course on Israel. He's saying, 'Hey, what's coming ahead is the wrath of God on the nation.'

"The day of the Lord’s wrath is what that Fifth Course of captivity is and Joel says, ‘That Fifth Course is coming!’

*****

"Leviticus 26, describing the Fourth Course, says starting in verse 23: [23] And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me;

[24] Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins.
[25] And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy.
[26] And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied.

"In Joel, you'll see how that description is taking place. Verse 27 and following: [27] And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me;

[28] Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.
[29] And ye shall eat the flesh of your sons, and the flesh of your daughters shall ye eat.
[30] And I will destroy your high places, and cut down your images, and cast your carcases upon the carcases of your idols, and my soul shall abhor you.
[31] And I will make your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries unto desolation, and I will not smell the savour of your sweet odours.
[32] And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.
[33] And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.

"Now, you notice before the scattering, He destroys the land, makes it waste. He starts it in the Fourth, but in the Fifth nothing is left. 

“In all the other courses, He’ll destroy the land and let the Gentiles come in and take them, but He doesn’t clean wipe them out.

"But when you get down to that Fifth Course, you’re going to be down to the place where you’re so hungry, He says, and you're so starved and your resources are so gone, you’re going to start eating each other.

“If you go back into Kings, you’ll see that historically. I know you and I, all fat and sassy, have never been that hungry. Nobody ever starves to death in America. But you know if you unplug the electricity in about three weeks you'd be hungry. You wouldn't have anything to eat.

"Everything you eat from down at the store got trucked in by somebody, and if you can't get the gas to the truck . . .  Our economy, as wonderful as it might be, is very delicate. With these guys, it's just all wiped out.

"It’s easy for you to say what you would and wouldn’t do, but if you’re put in the exact same circumstances they’re in, then tell me you wouldn’t do it. That’s how desperate they’re going to be.

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

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

“The passage goes on, [40] Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.

[41] Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
[42] All thy trees and fruit of thy land shall the locust consume.
[43] The stranger that is within thee shall get up above thee very high; and thou shalt come down very low.
[44] He shall lend to thee, and thou shalt not lend to him: he shall be the head, and thou shalt be the tail.
[45] Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenedst not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee:

“God’s going to stop the natural production of the fruit of the trees. This is the nation Israel in Joel 1:6:

[49] The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand;
[50] A nation of fierce countenance, which shall not regard the person of the old, nor shew favour to the young:
[51] And he shall eat the fruit of thy cattle, and the fruit of thy land, until thou be destroyed: which also shall not leave thee either corn, wine, or oil, or the increase of thy kine, or flocks of thy sheep, until he have destroyed thee.
[52] And he shall besiege thee in all thy gates, until thy high and fenced walls come down, wherein thou trustedst, throughout all thy land: and he shall besiege thee in all thy gates throughout all thy land, which the LORD thy God hath given thee.

[53] And thou shalt eat the fruit of thine own body, the flesh of thy sons and of thy daughters, which the LORD thy God hath given thee, in the siege, and in the straitness, wherewith thine enemies shall distress thee.

People disintegrating like in a nuclear blast

Isaiah 30:33: [33] For Tophet is ordained of old; yea, for the king it is prepared; he hath made it deep and large: the pile thereof is fire and much wood; the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.

"It's this place of Tophet where Jesus Christ sets the earth on fire and it burns down into that lowest part of hell and goes down into the heart of the earth," explains Richard Jordan. "He sets the earth on fire down south of the Dead Sea, which is where Tophet is, and it burns down into the center of the earth, into the place called hell, which has different compartments in it. Tophet is where He sends the Antichrist at the judgment there and He prepares it.

[30] And the LORD shall cause his glorious voice to be heard, and shall shew the lighting down of his arm, with the indignation of his anger, and with the flame of a devouring fire, with scattering, and tempest, and hailstones.
[31] For through the voice of the LORD shall the Assyrian be beaten down, which smote with a rod.

"All those things associated with His coming--'the breath of the LORD, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it.' He's literally going to set that place on fire and put it on public view so there's a monument to demonstrate what it cost to follow Satan's lie program and the natural consequences of what sin is.

"When He talks in Habakkuk, He mentions 'the burning coals went forth at his feet.' That's bringing together all that judgment, wrath and vengeance, setting things right and God destroying His enemies.

Habakkuk 3: [5] Before him went the pestilence, and burning coals went forth at his feet.

[6] He stood, and measured the earth: he beheld, and drove asunder the nations; and the everlasting mountains were scattered, the perpetual hills did bow: his ways are everlasting.

"That pestilence is described over in Zechariah 14. This is the stuff that Star Wars is made out of. When you try to envision some of this apocalyptic kind of stuff, you look at it and say, 'Whoah!' and the reason it's laid out in a demonstrative way is so you can understand the deadliness of what sin is and how it works; the terribleness of iniquity and transgressing and following Satan's lie program.

"Satan's lie is, 'I've got a better end than God does. Follow me and the results will be better than following God.' Well, this isn't a better end.

Zechariah 14: [2] For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.

[3] Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

"So the battle against Jerusalem in the last day, here's what He's going to do when He comes to judge all those nations round about Jerusalem.

Zechariah 14: [12] And this shall be the plague wherewith the LORD will smite all the people that have fought against Jerusalem; Their flesh shall consume away while they stand upon their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their holes, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth.

[13] And it shall come to pass in that day, that a great tumult from the LORD shall be among them; and they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour, and his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour.

"Notice that description in verse 12. The nearest thing you can see that in in the world is if you've ever seen a picture of a nuclear blast. That shockwave comes across the landscape and you see people . . . 

"If you remember in Nevada where they did the first nuclear blast, maybe you've seen some of the news reels of that. You just see people, literally piece by piece, disintegrating. That kind of effect is what's going to be happening when the Lord speaks the Word and sends the pestilence out.

"There's literally going to be a disintegration; a melting of the elements, and not just the elements of the world, but of people. The specifics describing this situation describe the thoroughness, the horror of this judgment.

"That's why Habakkuk says in verse 2, [2] O LORD, I have heard thy speech, and was afraid: O LORD, revive thy work in the midst of the years, in the midst of the years make known; in wrath remember mercy.

"We know God does, but here is the unmixed wrath of God against sin. What God's wrath against sin is really demonstrating is just what sin accomplishes."

(new article tomorrow)

The hardening callous effect:

Stanford University neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky, a MacArthur “genius” grant winner, has concluded after 40 years of studying humans and primates that "virtually all human behavior is as far beyond our conscious control as the convulsions of a seizure, the division of cells or the beating of our hearts," according to an article yesterday by the Los Angeles Times. 

“It may be dangerous to tell people that they don't have free will,” Sapolsky said. “The vast majority of the time, I really think it's a hell of a lot more humane.”

According to the L.A. Times: "Sapolsky was raised in an Orthodox Jewish household in Brooklyn, the son of immigrants from the former Soviet Union.

"Biology called to him early — by grade school he was writing fan letters to primatologists and lingering in front of the taxidermied gorillas at the American Museum of Natural History — but religion shaped life at home.

"That all changed on a single night in his early teens, he says. While grappling with questions of faith and identity, he was struck by an epiphany that kept him awake until dawn and reshaped his future: God is not real, there is no free will, and we primates are pretty much on our own.

“ 'That was kind of a big day,' he said with a chuckle, 'and it's been tumultuous since then.'

"Skeptics could seize on this to rebut his arguments: If we aren’t free to choose our actions or beliefs, how does a boy from a deeply religious conservative home become a self-professed liberal atheist?

"Change is always possible, he argues, but it comes from external stimuli. Sea slugs can learn to reflexively retreat from an electrical shock. Through the same biochemical pathways, humans are changed by exposure to external events in ways we rarely see coming."

Also from the L.A. Times article:

“Who we are and what we do is ultimately the result of factors beyond our control and because of this we are never morally responsible for our actions in the sense that would make us truly deserving of praise and blame, punishment and reward,” said Gregg Caruso, a philosopher at SUNY Corning. “I am in agreement with Sapolsky that life without belief in free will is not only possible but preferable.”

"A widely cited 2008 study found that people who read passages dismissing the idea of free will were more likely to cheat on a subsequent test. Other studies have found that people who feel less control over their actions care less about making mistakes in their work, and that disbelief in free will leads to more aggression and less helpfulness."

*****

Jesus Christ says in John 10: [37] If I do not the works of my Father, believe me not.

[38] But if I do, though ye believe not me, believe the works: that ye may know, and believe, that the Father is in me, and I in him.

"The Lord Jesus kept saying, 'Look what I'm doing.' Let me qualify this: Don't believe Jesus because He's some sort of miracle worker. You know why they should believe what Jesus Christ is teaching? Go back to Psalms, go back to the prophets; they kept saying and predicting and foretelling the specific works Messiah was going to perform," explains Alex Kurz.

"It was already predicted He was going to bring sight back; it was already predicted He was going to stop the storm on the sea. The verses already predicted that Emmanuel, God in the flesh, was going to walk on water!

"Jesus is saying, 'All of my works are in fulfillment to all that the prophets said I'm supposed to do.' Jesus wasn't just the right guy at the right time--He had to be the fulfillment of hundreds and hundreds of years of prophecy!

"The Old Testament painted a detailed portrait of Messiah: He's going to do this, He's going to say this, He's going to travel here, He's going to react like this. You study the life of Christ and everything that was said about Him was fulfilled.

John 12:37: [37] But though he had done so many miracles before them, yet they believed not on him:

[38] That the saying of Esaias the prophet might be fulfilled, which he spake, Lord, who hath believed our report? and to whom hath the arm of the Lord been revealed?
[39] Therefore they could not believe, because that Esaias said again,
[40] He hath blinded their eyes, and hardened their heart; that they should not see with their eyes, nor understand with their heart, and be converted, and I should heal them.

"What's the difference between 'therefore they could not believe' and 'because they could not believe'?

"Verse 39 is not the cause of the unbelief in verse 37. Rather, verse 37 is the cause of verse 39. Because of verse 37 they believe not and what is the consequence and result? Verse 39.

"Verses 39-40 are saying that persistent rejection and unbelief leads to a condition and situation where, 'Well, now you can't believe.' You know why their heart was hardened? Because they kept rejecting, rejecting.

"Guess what happens when you continually reject the claims and the works and the signs of Almighty God? You are now in a spiritual state where there is this hardening callous effect.

"In Matthew 13 is a similar occurrence: [18] Hear ye therefore the parable of the sower.

[19] When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.
[20] But he that received the seed into stony places, the same is he that heareth the word, and anon with joy receiveth it;

"You know what God does during the tribulation? II Thessalonians 2:9: [9] Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders,

[10] And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
[11] And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie:

"Because the masses have willfully rejected, you know what God says? 'Then this man of sin who will perform all the signs and lying wonders, you're going to believe it as an act of judgment.'

"Because they reject the truth they now desire the lie."

(new article tomorrow)