From the river to the sea:

"When we're looking at the 'bottomless pit' in the Book of Revelation, we're looking at the most center; the lowest, deepest heart of all this torment, this judgment, and when we get to Revelation these creatures are being let loose and it's just horrendous stuff.

"Trumpet No. 5, you've got these locusts coming out. Trumpet No. 6, there's 200 million horsemen out there as an army, which means they're engaging in battle with some forces upon the earth. The four fallen angels, they're coming out of the river Euphrates," explains Alex Kurz.

"When the depths of hell are described, it's rather interesting that the word 'deep' is used and Scripture uses that word in reference to water. These fallen angels are released from the river Euphrates and there's something interesting going on there because in Jeremiah that river's going to get dried up. So, there's something happening with those 2000 million horsemen that come out as well.

"Remember with Pharoah and his army and the chariots and so forth, and God opened the Red Sea--you know the Egyptian army was so terrified, but they were ordered to pursue Israel and we know what God does with the Red Sea, consuming the Egyptian army. Satan is Leviathan; he's in the sea.

"There are in psalms some passages that describe the experience of the wicked that are actually descending into the lower parts of the earth. There is very descriptive language that's used describing that experience.

"Jonah 2, in the first 6-7 verses, describes the experience of going to hell and he talks about the waters. Not just physical water, but there are spiritual waters that are consuming.

"Psalm 69 is actually the Lord Jesus Christ describing His experience: [1] Save me, O God; for the waters are come in unto my soul.

[2] I sink in deep mire, where there is no standing: I am come into deep waters, where the floods overflow me.
[3] I am weary of my crying: my throat is dried: mine eyes fail while I wait for my God.

"Can you imagine a lost person who steps out of that physical body and starts to sink? What do you do when you're sinking? Can you imagine the mire; can you hold onto mire? There's nothing to latch onto, but you're sinking. The Lord Jesus is sinking through the muck and the mire; He's descending. Can you imagine the terror of no footing whatsoever?

"Look at verse 4: [4] They that hate me without a cause are more than the hairs of mine head: they that would destroy me, being mine enemies wrongfully, are mighty: then I restored that which I took not away.

"You see, this is the Lord Jesus from John 14. This is the Lord Jesus who is actually experiencing the death of a lost person; the death of the wicked consigned to the lower parts of hell.

[13] But as for me, my prayer is unto thee, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of thy mercy hear me, in the truth of thy salvation.
[14] Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters.
[15] Let not the waterflood overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up, and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me.

"We can appreciate what Jesus is experiencing for each and every one of us, and you know there aren't any friends down there. The verse says 'from them that hate me.' There's a welcoming party down there.

" 'Don't let the deep swallow me up. Don't let the pit shut her mouth upon me.' This is amazing stuff but praise God for verse 16: [16] Hear me, O LORD; for thy lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of thy tender mercies.

Verse 18: [18] Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of mine enemies.

"Redeem it from what? From the pit; from the attempt. Don't get me wrong; He's not there, but there is this attempt. Death and the soul, but as we understand, 'Thou shalt not leave my soul in hell.' "

*****

II Chronicles 5:12: [12] Also the Levites which were the singers, all of them of Asaph, of Heman, of Jeduthun, with their sons and their brethren, being arrayed in white linen, having cymbals and psalteries and harps, stood at the east end of the altar, and with them an hundred and twenty priests sounding with trumpets:)

"Asaph was not just a song writer; he was a seer and in your Bible a seer is a prophet," explains Richard Jordan. "Someone who can SEE and foretell the future. When you have the words by him, they're not just psalms, but they're oftentimes telling the future.

"I Chronicles 25:1 is about some of his family: [1] Moreover David and the captains of the host separated to the service of the sons of Asaph, and of Heman, and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals: and the number of the workmen according to their service was:

"Here's Asaph's boys. So when they're writing the things, they're prophesying . . . When you read the psalms of Asaph, you're not just reading psalms, prayers and songs. The one's that are collected in Scripture are obviously there because they relate to everything else in the Bible and they're going to be prophetic.

"The first psalm Asaph wrote was Psalm 50. Now, you notice Psalm 73 and Psalm 83 are also psalms of Asaph. The reason that's important is the Book of Psalms is in five sections. Psalms 73 through 89 represent the third book of the psalms.

"If you look at Psalm 72:19, you see it says, 'Amen, and Amen,' and that's telling you it's the end of that second book of psalms. Psalm 41:13 says, [13] Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting. Amen, and Amen.

"Each time one of the collections of psalms ends, it ends with 'Amen, and Amen.' The reason that's important is the five books of psalms match the five mandates of the Davidic Covenant."

(new article tomorrow) 

Where the most hard-core are held

Continuation of November 24 post:

II Peter 2:4: [4] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

"These were fallen angels who stepped out of bounds and that tells us some things about angels. It tells us some things about free will. Angels have free will, but I'm not sure about their thinking processes and so forth . . .

"We do know there is also something in hell called Tartarus, reserved for these specific angels and the 'chains of darkness' is the chain that holds them accountable. Where? We don't really know. We know that there are 'pits,' meaning there's different parts and realms, but where Tartarus is we can make some guesses, but we can't say with certainty where it is, but we do know it's in hell.

"The point I'm ultimately going to make here is 'the bottomless pit' appears to be a part of the lowest hell where the most hard-core are held.

Revelation 11:7: [7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

"Listen, there's an angel whose name is Apollyon; they have identities. We know in Revelation 9, not only will these monstrosities be released . . .  and even then, the command is, you don't kill but you torment, and these creatures are more than willing to do just that because the type of torment that those individuals--the torment that they experience is likened to the very torment that these creatures are experiencing in that bottomless pit and you ask the question, 'Why is God doing it?'

"When the sixth trumpet is sounded there's going to be 200 million horsemen that are going to be released. Not from the bottomless pit, but from another location, and God says, 'Thirteen months.'

"So, first you have these locusts that are going to torment man, and then God's going to release these horsemen and they for 13 months--they're killing and tormenting and you ask, 'Why?' and what we're going to find out at the end of chapter 9 is man's heart still won't break and beg for repentance for forgiveness.

"They lash out at God and they will persist in their evil ways. What God's demonstrating is the depravity of man's heart. God puts on display in this whole course of tribulation, the 70th Week of Daniel, the utter depravity of man's sinful heart, and when they're experiencing some of these judgements, they don't cry out for a god to come down and intervene; they shake their first at Him. It's really appalling what's going on.

"In Revelation 7:11 ('And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition) we learn that there is the beast who comes out, so we've got Apollyon, there's going to be these locusts that are described, but the beast is also down there.

Revelation 17:8: [8] The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

"We see that this beast is going to have the capacity here--go over to Revelation 20: [1] And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.

[2] And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years,

"We know that those at the upper echelons of the underworld are the ones contained in this realm, in this region. You've got Apollyon, you've got the beast. We're going to see that Satan himself is actually going to spend 1,000 years down here. After the 1,000 years, God's going to open it up again and everything's going to culminate with that great battle of Armageddon.

"In Luke 8, there's some fallen angels where there's this interesting incident: 

[26] And they arrived at the country of the Gadarenes, which is over against Galilee.
[27] And when he went forth to land, there met him out of the city a certain man, which had devils long time, and ware no clothes, neither abode in any house, but in the tombs.
[28] When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.
[29] (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)
[30] And Jesus asked him, saying, What is thy name? And he said, Legion: because many devils were entered into him.

"They have to possess a body. These devils, they're disembodied, they lost something, and when you do see them active on the planet, why are there many of them possessing human beings? They have to indwell.

Verse 31: [31] And they besought him that he would not command them to go out into the deep.

"You've got these devils who know who the Son of man is and they have this request: 'Don't cast us out.' And that word 'deep' is the word 'abyss.' It's the word where we get the bottomless pit. These devils are terrified of that place; they don't want to go there.

Verse 32: [32] And there was there an herd of many swine feeding on the mountain: and they besought him that he would suffer them to enter into them. And he suffered them.

"There's swine in Jerusalem, interestingly enough. Swine, an unclean animal--what is the world are pigs doing there?! This really testifies to this spiritual depravity of Israel.

"You notice verse 33 says that herd ran down into a lake: [33] Then went the devils out of the man, and entered into the swine: and the herd ran violently down a steep place into the lake, and were choked.

"But did they not ask, 'Don't cast us out into the deep'? You see, the deep has nothing to do with that body of water in any way, shape or form. We know the deep is not a reference to the lake because where do they ultimately go? Into the lake. And if the Lord says He suffered them, they weren't cast into this abyss as it were.

"Look at the end of verse 28: [28] When he saw Jesus, he cried out, and fell down before him, and with a loud voice said, What have I to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God most high? I beseech thee, torment me not.

[29] (For he had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. For oftentimes it had caught him: and he was kept bound with chains and in fetters; and he brake the bands, and was driven of the devil into the wilderness.)

"That place 'the deep' is a place of torment and when those locusts, led by Apollyon, come out, what are they going to do for those that don't have the gospel? They're going to torment. These devils don't want to be tormented; they don't want to go to the deep. 

"What we find in Revelation is when those monstrosities are released, they're going to torment humanity, a portion of them, with a torment that those devils know all about. So, it's kind of scary stuff, isn't it? It should terrify."

'Twas 'Christ is all in all'

(new article tomorrow) 

A great old hymn from 1873, "Christ is All," includes the stanzas,

1. I saw a martyr at the stake,
   The flames could not his courage shake,
   Nor death his soul appall;
   I asked him whence his strength was giv’n;
   He looked triumphantly to Heav’n,
   And answered, “Christ is all.”
2. I saw the gospel herald go
   To Africa’s sand and Greenland’s snow,
   To save from Satan’s thrall;
   Nor home nor life he counted dear,
   Midst wants and perils owned no fear,
   He felt that “Christ is all.”
3. I dreamed that hoary time had fled,
   And earth and sea gave up their dead,
   A fire dissolved this ball;
   I saw the church’s ransomed throng,
   I heard the burden of their song,
   ’Twas “Christ is all in all.”
4. Psalm 90 begins, [1] LORD, thou hast been our dwelling place in all generations.

[2] Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting, thou art God.
[3] Thou turnest man to destruction; and sayest, Return, ye children of men.
[4] For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past, and as a watch in the night.
[5] Thou carriest them away as with a flood; they are as a sleep: in the morning they are like grass which groweth up.
[6] In the morning it flourisheth, and groweth up; in the evening it is cut down, and withereth.

" 'Everlasting to everlasting'--what's that?" says Richard Jordan. "Like a weaver's beam. It's like going to sleep, waking up, a third of my day's gone. It's just ffttoo, gone. It's like a flood coming, sweeping it away. Before I can get up, I'm gone.

"It's like grass growing and then, boom, the heat comes and kills it--in a day! That's a strange thing in that illustration. He doesn't even give the grass time to grow in the field for a month. It just sprouts out and then the heat comes and whoosh. He's talking about the brevity of your life.

"Verse 10: [10] The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away.

"That's where the song 'I'll Fly Away' came from. It's talking about death. That's why we change the words in that song from, 'When I die,' to 'When I rise,' because we don't fly away at death. We think of that song as talking about the resurrection at the Rapture and that doesn't take place at death; that takes place when the Lord comes.

"Verse 12: [12] So teach us to number our days, that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom.

"We need to count one by one and live every day like it's the last day. That's in essence the issue here. Make everything out of every day you can.

"Verse 13: [13] Return, O LORD, how long? and let it repent thee concerning thy servants.

"That's that tribulation cry found in Revelation 6: [9] And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

[10] And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

"Go through all the Book of the Psalms, and if you look for that phrase 'how long' and find the text where it's found, you'll be finding a tribulation Jew, a member of the little flock, crying out to the Lord for deliverance from the tribulation into the kingdom.

"When he says, 'Return, O Lord,' here's the faithful remnant looking for the Lord to come and deliver them. 

" 'How long is it going to go on? Let it repent thee concerning thy servants.' I love that. In Jeremiah 18 they go to the potter's house and the Lord tells Jerry, 'Look at what's going on with the potter. He makes the vessel in his hand and it's marred and he pushes the clay back down and makes another vessel.'

"It's made, it gets marred and then he mends it. He takes that same lump of clay and reshapes it into another vessel. He says, 'That's the way I treat you; the way I treat Israel. If you obey my voice, I'll bless you. If you don't, well then I'll reshape you into a vessel of destruction. But if you come back, I'll reshape you into a vessel of mercy.' That's the illustration Paul uses in Romans 9.

"So when it says, 'Let it repent thee,' in other words, 'You planned wrath but we're going to believe. So change your mind about the destruction. We're returning.'

"Here's what they're crying for; they're asking the Lord to do what He intended to do. Jesus taught His disciples to pray, 'Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done, as in heaven, so in earth.'

"That's in essence what these guys are praying: 'You've got a plan for the earth; bring it on! We want to be a part of it!'

" 'Satisfy us early with thy mercy.' Don't wait! Come on, we're looking for you to come.' "

*****

“Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth,” advises Paul in Colossians 3. “For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.”

“Time is rapidly fading away, the things of the earth and of the natural are sinking out of sight and becoming as shadows," writes Cora Harris MacIlravey in her 1916 commentary on the Song of Solomon. "There is a glory falling upon our union with our Lord, which is shining more brightly as the days go by.

"It seems that there are only a few more mileposts to pass, only a little more time in which to perfect our relation to Him and our separation from all else, and then shall we rise to meet Him in the clouds; and thus be forever with the Lord . . ."

From verse 2:16 (“My beloved is mine, and I am his: he feedeth among the lilies”), she writes, "Her heart is filled with rest because He is hers; she is apprehending that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate her from the One who died for her, and from His love.

“In deep settled peace, she rests in the assurance that, though she is unworthy and many times unfaithful, He abideth faithful for He cannot deny Himself. As she recalls all He has done for her, she comforts and strengthens herself in Him and His undying love. She rejoices that, whether together or separated, whether seen or unseen, her Beloved is hers and she is His. Literally: ‘My Beloved is for me and I am for Him.’

“There is nothing so precious as to apprehend that our Beloved is ours and we are His. There is such joy and sense of holy possession in the thought that our Beloved is ours. . . He is ours that we may let Him fill our lives and hearts, that we may draw upon His strength at every step. His beauty and attributes are for us that we may put them on. . .

“The bride rejoices not only that her Beloved is hers, but that she is His. She is His because He created her, because He has redeemed her, because He has loved her with an everlasting love . . . 

"She is His to protect and defend. No harm can befall her, no evil can come nigh her when His banner, ‘Love,’ is over her, and marks her out as His own possession. She is His that He may fight her battles; she is His to correct and chasten, to mold and shape; she is His that He may perfect that which concerneth her and make her more than conqueror. 

“Let us lay our wills down at His feet, that His will may more closely encompass us. Let us yield that He may purify and fashion us into His own glorious image. Only as we abandon ourselves to Him without reserve, can we enter into this relationship. . . Every power and every faculty—all, all must be His and for Him alone; for Him to use as He pleases.”

A home in the 'Haven of Rest'

"I am tired in the Lord's work, but not tired of it," 18th century British evangelist George Whitefield used to say. Known for his crucial role in the American revival that came to be called "The Great Awakening," Whitefield also would say, "I'd rather wear out than rust out."

Zechariah 4 begins, [1] And the angel that talked with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is wakened out of his sleep

"When the angel comes and has to wake Zechariah up, it's because what was going on with him getting all these messages was absolutely exhausting to him. In other words, there's some weariness here and some labor going on in this ministry," explains Richard Jordan.

"There's a point in that. In Daniel 8, Daniel is getting all this information in visions: [18] Now as he was speaking with me, I was in a deep sleep on my face toward the ground: but he touched me, and set me upright.

[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.

"These guys are not just going to sleep at the switch; what's going on in ministry like that is an exhausting kind of thing.

"If you go back to Daniel 7:25, speaking about the Antichrist: [25] And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.

"When you hear the Lord Jesus Christ, or you even hear the Apostle Paul say, 'Be not weary in well doing,' and Christ tells parables about importunity and how you 'Don't quit' . . .  That's because part of the strategy of the Adversary is to battle against what's going on and to wear people out.

"In the prophetic program, oftentimes you'll hear the prophet talk about the burden. A burden is something heavy to carry, but if you carry a burden long enough it will wear you out.

"That's important when you get to Zechariah 4:6 because the angel tells him, 'This is the word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts.'

"You hear that verse quoted all the time; most of the time with wrong application, but the whole point in this chapter is God's going to empower--God Himself is going to do for Israel what she can't do for herself. She'll be weak and weary and unable to defend herself, to protect herself, to avenge herself, and God will take care of it for her."

Here's a hymn from 1885, written by Henry L. Gilmour (Wenonah, NJ), entitled Haven of Rest:

1. My soul in sad exile was out on life’s sea,
   So burdened with sin and distressed,
   Till I heard a sweet voice, saying, “Make Me your choice”;
   And I entered the “Haven of Rest”!
   • Refrain:
     I’ve anchored my soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
     I’ll sail the wide seas no more;
     The tempest may sweep over wild, stormy, deep,
     In Jesus I’m safe evermore.
2. I yielded myself to His tender embrace,
   In faith taking hold of the Word,
   My fetters fell off, and I anchored my soul;
   The “Haven of Rest” is my Lord.
3. The song of my soul, since the Lord made me whole,
   Has been the old story so blest,
   Of Jesus, who’ll save whosoever will have
   A home in the “Haven of Rest.”
4. How precious the thought that we all may recline,
   Like John, the beloved so blest,
   On Jesus’ strong arm, where no tempest can harm,
   Secure in the “Haven of Rest.”
5. Oh, come to the Savior, He patiently waits
   To save by His power divine;
   Come, anchor your soul in the “Haven of Rest,”
   And say, “My Beloved is mine.”

Fallen angels' very specific holding cell

"We understand that a volcano is melting, but spiritually there is in the lowest hell . . . When Jonah describes being in the belly of hell, he describes these mountains. He describes this burning, this fire; it's a spiritual fire.

"That's why when the Lord Jesus said, 'You unbelieving apostate nation of Israel, I'm not going to give you a sign' . . . 

"Doesn't the Jew require a sign? The Pharisees come to the Lord Jesus and, as Jews that require a sign, they demanded a sign of Him. And what did the Lord Jesus say? 'No.' He says, 'I'm not going to give you a sign.' Why? 'Because you're a bunch of unbelievers, that's why. You don't come by faith. You come trying to trip me up,' " explains Alex Kurz.

"Jesus says, 'I'm not going to give this generation a sign, but there is one sign. Just as Jonah spent three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so to the Son of man is going to spend three days and three nights,' and you know what sign the Lord Jesus Christ gives to unbelieving humanity and an unbelieving nation? His resurrection. Jesus said, 'That's the ONLY sign I'm going to give you.'

"He likens His experience to Jonah's and says that what's happening to the Son of man is because Jesus Christ is going to the same place as Jonah. Jonah was a dead man who actually sees the lowest parts of hell. 

Deuteronomy 32:22: [22] For a fire is kindled in mine anger, and shall burn unto the lowest hell, and shall consume the earth with her increase, and set on fire the foundations of the mountains.

"This whole issue of a fire that's going to consume to the lowest hell, as we progress through the Book of Revelation we're going to learn more about this fire that will consume down through the earth to the lowest hell.

"There's a lot of information in the Book of Deuteronomy that's already referring to the events described in the Book of Revelation. Lot of interesting parallels.

Romans 10: [6] But the righteousness which is of faith speaketh on this wise, Say not in thine heart, Who shall ascend into heaven? (that is, to bring Christ down from above:)

[7] Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

"Paul's quoting Deuteronomy 30. Paul's saying, 'Israel, do not commit the same mistake that your forefathers committed back there in Deuteronomy and their life in the wilderness.'

"When calamity struck, you know what Israel argued? 'Nobody told us!' You know what's going to happen in the 70th Week when Israel experiences the calamities of judgment? They're going to plead ignorance and is ignorance a legitimate argument you can make? Ignorance?! What has God been doing for thousands of years?!

"Paul's warning in verse 6, 'Don't do what your forefathers did almost 2,000 years previous. Don't argue this.' What Israel's saying is, 'You know what, if maybe somebody went up there and got the message from God and came back, we would have believed.' The audacity of these people! That's in effect what they're arguing.

"Paul offers a bit of commentary here in verse 7: [7] Or, Who shall descend into the deep? (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead.)

"In other words, Israel's saying, 'Okay, Paul, you've got this message and you're saying Israel's fallen and so forth--you know what, why doesn't God send somebody down?' 

"Paul's saying, 'Well, that's like saying Let's bring Christ down again.' Christ's not coming down again until He wipes you out. You don't want Him coming down again! He came down once, and the second time He comes it's not to save sinners; it's to destroy sinners. Israel, if you want Christ to come back, it's the end.

"You see that term 'the deep' in verse 7? That word 'deep' is used a minimum of three times. Why does Paul use the word deep? The term 'bottomless pit' is also called the abyss and the deep.

"In Ephesians it says of Jesus Christ, [9] (Now that he ascended, what is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth?

[10] He that descended is the same also that ascended up far above all heavens, that he might fill all things.)

"Jesus Christ's physical body was in that tomb, but where was His soul? In a part, a region of the earth that's also described as the deep. Paul is saying some things by way of the parenthesis to educate the nation Israel.

Psalm 71:20: [20] Thou, which hast shewed me great and sore troubles, shalt quicken me again, and shalt bring me up again from the depths of the earth.

"Again, there's something more going on than just six feet deep. Your body being planted in six feet of soil is not the depths of the earth. It isn't 'the deep' as Scriptures say.

Psalm 135:6: [6] Whatsoever the LORD pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the seas, and all deep places.

"It's sort of singled out for us. Psalm 140:10: [10] Let burning coals fall upon them: let them be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again.

"There are 'deep pits' plural. We're talking about the lowest hell. This indicates there are different realms, different regions.

II Peter 2:4: [4] For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

"There is in the earth realms called 'the deep.' There's an area called paradise, an area called 'a gulf' and then there's an area called 'torments' and then there is somewhere . . . These angels who left their first estate, their confinement is not just hell as the general locale, but there's a specific word being used--Tartarus. Evidently these angels don't mix with what will be the souls of men. This is a very specific holding cell, if you will.

"Jude 1 provides further commentary: [6] And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.

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

"Here's a region where these creatures are chained by darkness. I do believe that's these angels being referred to are the angels, the sons of God, who descended in Genesis 6. They left their first estate. They had no authority to leave their angelic realm but, in their free will, they came down and married the daughters of men and as a result they were 'men of renown' and God said, 'I've got to wipe out all of humanity.' "

(to be continued)

Thankful for God's account of history

Happy Thanksgiving. I have a new article I will post tomorrow for sure (sorry for lapse). Meantime here are a few posts from previous Thanksgivings:

"If you ever read religious books, they start out talking about the ‘ultimate essence’ and the ‘basis of reality’ and the ‘true meaning of life.’

“You know how the Bible starts? You have two people naked in a garden. That don’t sound like any religious book I ever read. It starts out talking about whether you ought to put something in your mouth or not," says Richard Jordan.

“The fact that the Bible is a book of history is really what rubs people the wrong way about it. It’s a record of what’s gone on. Now, God is all through the Bible. His history is HIS story, but it’s a record of what’s actually happened on this earth for 4,000 years.

“The trouble is that if it’s history, then it’s what’s really gone on; it’s what’s really happened and it’s what really is going to happen, and it really doesn’t matter what you believe about it.

“The worst thing in the world is to be sincere and be sincerely wrong. What you believe, if it isn’t true, if it isn’t historically accurate, if it isn’t real; it don’t make any difference if you believe it or not! If you believe Jesus rose again and He didn’t, believe it all day long; it’s not going to do you any good.

“Because the Bible’s a book of history means heaven and hell are real places. They’re not just theology, dogma. It’s not just religion. Paul says, ‘Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures.’

“That has to be true and that’s why he says in I Corinthians 15, ‘And if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.’

“Jesus Christ, truth personified, once prayed for His disciples and said, ‘Sanctify them by the word; thy word is truth.’ Just like Jesus Christ was the perfect truth of God, He said His Word was the perfect truth of God.

"That’s what Paul said when he wrote, ‘Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.’

“If you’ve got a bible and you don’t believe it’s the truth—and I don’t mean generically the truth; I’m talking about when you read a specific verse and the words in the verse, then you have an entirely different attitude toward the Word of God than God Himself does.

"The historically proven reality of the resurrection is the foundation Christianity is built on. Biblical Christianity expects a person to believe certain indisputable facts:

*Jesus Christ was a real person who lived on earth

*He was charged by Jewish leaders and crucified at the hands of Roman authorities

*He was buried in a known, accessible tomb and then preached as risen

*The leaders of His nation tried to dispose of the message that He was resurrected by, persecuting those who preached it

*The empty tomb, though, belied all their efforts

"The empty tomb is the central fact of the Christian faith. It's a fact that can be demonstrated to a historical certainty."

"People will tell you you can't prove the resurrection scientifically, but there's a lot of things in life you can't prove scientifically.

"The scientific method is a method of replicable events. It's science if you have something you observe, and you make a statement of it, and then others can come along and replicate the event. But there are a lot of things where you don't do that."

"Felons convicted in courts of law for murder, for example, are not convicted on science. They're convicted on historical evidences—the evidences which demonstrate something happened historically, in time, and jurors are pressed to a decision, or a conclusion.

"Individuals are forced to a conclusion based on the evidence. Whether you want to make a conclusion or not, the evidence demands that you come to a verdict."

*****

"In the Bible we learn the entire world is saturated with pride and we know why and we know why it hardens," explained Preacher Alex Kurz in his Thanksgiving message. "The mind becomes implacable and it's hardened in pride. It's difficult to penetrate it with light and truth and understanding; they have no means of access.

" 'Satan is a king over all 'the children of pride,' says the Bible. Unsaved humanity is a mirror image of their father the devil and he is the reigning authority over all his children.

"Pride courses through their veins and because of that pride, there is this ungrateful response to the things of God. They're not thankful.

"Satan has this proudful ambition to usurp what is rightfully God's; what belongs rightfully to the Creator, and ever since Genesis 3, unsaved humanity falls right into the lap of that prideful desire to achieve, to ascend, to make a name for one's self. Did he not offer to Eve, 'Ye shall be as gods'? He's saying to her, 'You see, you don't have to be inferior, you don't have to play second fiddle; you deserve better.' 

"The same individuals who are lifted up in self-adoration, self-love (Paul says they are lovers of their own selves), they're boasters, a bunch of braggarts. They're haughty, and not only that, they're proud.

"When you study what pride is, and surely we could go to a dictionary, pride simply is a preoccupation with self. There is this excessive desire to be the attention, to be appreciated and adored. There's this unhealthy desire to be admired by others.

"When you find pride in the Bible, you find this lustful desire to be the center of attention. What often happens as a result is you will see a proudful person begin to look at others with contempt. That haughty spirit of puffed up arrogance will lead one to begin to look down on others. There is this false sense of conceited superiority that leads toward looking at others as being inferior.

"Pride, by Bible definition, is extremely deadly, extremely dangerous, and there is this link between pride and unthankfulness. In Romans 1, right off the bat, as the Apostle Paul indicts humanity:

[21] Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. [22] Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, when they knew god they glorified him not as God.

"In their attitude of unthankfulness and ingratitude they rely upon their haughty sense of professing wisdom. Notice, neither were they thankful, but they became vain in their imaginations.

"They replaced that spirit of thankfulness. They displaced any gratitude that should have been expressed because of the creative power and wisdom of Almighty God, and what they did is they suppressed any attitude of thanksgiving with vain imaginations.

"II Corinthians 10:5 says, [5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

"The idea here is that humanity--they presume, they assume they know what's happening. They assume they know what's going on. They assume they know how man came into existence. They assume they know how God thinks in some ways as well.

"Paul says meekness is the capacity to bring into subjection every thought to the obedience of Christ. It's not so much bringing my thoughts so that I'm always obeying Christ, but rather, just like Jesus Christ in meekness chose to obey His Father. Meekness is not weakness. Rather, it's the ability to restrain power, ability, strength. To restrain one's prerogatives. He chose not to exercise His royal rights and prerogatives as an equal co-member of the godhead. He chose to restrict His divine abilities.

"Jeremiah 49:16: [16] Thy terribleness hath deceived thee, and the pride of thine heart, O thou that dwellest in the clefts of the rock, that holdest the height of the hill: though thou shouldest make thy nest as high as the eagle, I will bring thee down from thence, saith the LORD.

"Pride deceives and convinces you of something that just simply isn't true. It distorts reality. By the way, the idea of vain imaginations--again, Paul, when he talks about the imagination and every high thing, it's talking about prideful understanding and wisdom. So when you think about the deception, it's all imaginary! A proudful person convinces themselves, 'I am right; you're wrong.' Pride convinces that person of things that just simply are not true.

"Psalm 73:6 says, 'Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as a garment.' Pride is bondage; it makes you a slave. it's like a chain of enslavement.

Proverbs 13:10: [10] Only by pride cometh contention: but with the well advised is wisdom.

Proverbs 16:[5] Every one that is proud in heart is an abomination to the LORD: though hand join in hand, he shall not be unpunished.

[6] By mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil.
[7] When a man's ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.
[8] Better is a little with righteousness than great revenues without right.
[9] A man's heart deviseth his way: but the LORD directeth his steps.

"Proverbs 6:16-17: [16] These six things doth the LORD hate: yea, seven are an abomination unto him: [17] A proud look, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood,

"By the way, that's No. 1 on the list. The No. 1 abomination is a proud look. When it says a proud look, it's not suggesting that somebody looks proud, or has the appearance of pride. It's talking about a pride-filled person who evaluates and sees everything or everyone as being beneath them, as being inferior; as being unworthy.

"It's not a, 'Look, man, he dresses proudly,' or, 'He looks proud,' but rather it's the way he evaluates, the way he perceives. The proud look is the way he interprets his surroundings. Again, there is that twisted sense of superiority of the one who has the proud look. He views things through the lens of that empty, vain, imaginative, haughty pride that would lift himself in exaltation against the knowledge of God; against what God is saying and against all that God is doing."

*****

"A friend of mine once told me about what happens on his meditation retreats, where attendees stay silent and engaged in some form of meditation for days on end," writes journalist Anne Helen Petersen.

"At some point, usually a day or so in, most attendees find themselves weeping. Not because they’re suddenly enlightened, but because the experience of spending so much time in an unmediated encounter with one’s self, with no distractions, is terrifyingly intense.

"I’ve heard of similar reactions from long-distance runners, and long-term yoga practitioners, both of which make the body unignorable, the mind inescapable. We say we go on runs or meditate to 'get out of our heads,' but the real effect is to actually burrow deep inside them, to concentrate wholly on the self. For many of us, that experience is so rare that tears are the natural, involuntary result — like seeing a good friend, long neglected, after so many years."

*****

The most important thing in a person’s life is what he/she thinks about God and their relationship with/to Him.

“What you understand about God and who you think He is is the most important controlling factor in your life, because what you think and believe is where your life flows out of,” explains Jordan. “God wants you to be reconciled to Him and that’s what the Cross is all about.

“Paul writes in II Corinthians 5:17, ‘Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.’

“You see, God so radically changes your identity when you trust the Lord Jesus Christ. He doesn’t just forgive you your sins, make you acceptable to Him, give you His righteousness, accept you in the Beloved. He also does a radical change inside your identity and makes you a NEW creature!

“You became something CREATED in the Lord Jesus Christ and that happens to every one of us, so the connection we have is by being IN Christ.

*****

“Performance-ism is just another word for legalism. It’s that mindset that equates our identity and our value to our performance and our accomplishments. Your value, your identity in Christ does not come from that.

“That’s the way we do it in life; we get our value, our meaning, our validation, our purpose out of what we accomplish, what we’ve done, how we are performing, and when we find out we’re not performing well enough it's, ‘Well, I’ll try harder!’

"That’s just performance-based acceptance. Endeavoring to keep the unity of the spirit is not performance-ism. It’s not, ‘I’ll perform and therefore get there.’

*****

“Paul says in Galatians 2:20-21, 20] I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.
[21] I do not frustrate the grace of God: for if righteousness come by the law, then Christ is dead in vain.

“What he’s saying there is that, in the Lord Jesus Christ, you see the way God designed man to live . . . when you see that obedience of faith in God’s Word that led to the ultimate sacrifice at Calvary, trusting in the Father’s Word, you see the way He created mankind to live.

"It’s the way He created you and me to matriculate through life today. The challenges, the excitements, the excesses, the necessities of life as we experience them . . . 

“The Lord Jesus Christ had that kind of faith in His Father that He would say, ‘Of my own self I can do nothing.’ That’s the choice He made. He said, ‘I value and cherish my Father’s plan so much, I couldn’t even imagine being separated from it.’ You know what that is? That’s ‘the faith of Christ.’

*****

“He was not out here on a journey doing His own thing. He came to do the will of His Father and that’s what ‘the faith of Christ’ is. It’s HIS faith in the Word and the will of His Father, and that’s what Paul says our life as Believers is designed to be.

“That’s what it is to worship God in the Spirit. That’s what it is to have Christ as our life. These are not religious clichés even though sometimes we use them that way.

"Sometimes we get to trafficking in unfelt truth, but they weren’t for Jesus Christ and if they get that way with you, you need to sit down and look back at Him and see in Him who God designed you to be, because He’s the one living in you.

*****

“In John 14:10, Jesus says to Philip, [10] Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth in me, he doeth the works.

“Philip doesn’t get it. He says to Christ, ‘We’ve been with you all this time and who you talking about?!’

"You’ve had a bad day like that, haven’t you? You’ve looked up and said, ‘Lord, where in the world are you today?! Don’t you care?! Are you on a trip?! What’s going on?!’

“When you get that way, it’s not because you’re looking at Him. It’s because you’re looking at circumstances; self. It’s not because you’re trusting Him; it’s because you’re trusting your own resources. So don’t get too mad at Philip because you do this.

“Later in the same chapter, Jesus says to Judas, ‘He that loveth me not keepeth not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's which sent me.’

“You see, He was so perfectly abandoned to the will of His Father that the Father dwelt in Him and SPOKE through Him. It was the Father’s wills, words and works.

"What Jesus Christ is doing is demonstrating the supreme, absolute value of the way He cherished His Father and He did it by putting His faith in the Father’s Word, so that the things He did in His life were what the Father gave Him to do.

“He’s in the Garden of Gethsemane praying and He says in John 17:18, ‘[17] Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.
[18] As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.

“How did Christ come into the world? By faith in the will and the word of His Father. And He said, ‘So send I them into the world.’ The men were sent with the same commission as the Son received from the Father. To go live exactly the way He lived.

"Can I say the same is true of you and me as it was with them. Paul says, ‘[20] Now then we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you by us: we pray you in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God.

“The realization to make is, ‘I’m here in His place, doing what He’d be doing if He was here. In fact, He is here in me, living His life out through me.’

“That’s why we’re called the Body of Christ. We’re the vehicle through whom He lives and works today. That’s why Paul says, ‘I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me.’

*****

“We’re not talking about religion; we’re talking about a RELATIONSHIP with the God of heaven and earth, the Creator. The one who made you originally. The one whom your sins have alienated you from.

"Your self-will has taken you off in a different direction. Paul says, ‘I’m dead to that.’ How? ‘Through Christ. I died with Him. But I didn’t just die with Him; when He put away my sin, He gave me His life.’

“Paul says, ‘A spiritual transaction took place on a supernatural level inside of me, where I received His life and so that the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God. I have His life and it’s Him living in me.’

“The way He does that is when I live in my flesh the way He lived in HIS flesh! How did He live? ‘Without the Father I can do nothing. The works I do, the words I speak, are the ones the Father gave me,’ and I just put my faith in the Father and I’m living the life He gave me.

“So how does Christ live in me? He lives in my flesh the way He lived in His own flesh, 2,000 years ago and faith is just the issue of depending. Whatever you depend on is going to control you.

“The Lord Jesus Christ, my friend, is most magnified, most exalted, when we’re satisfied in life with Him and He’s enough. All the other stuff, even if we lose everything else, we’ve got Him and we’re still ahead.

“Paul said, ‘For me to live is Christ and to die is gain.’ To live is to know Christ and to die is gain because now I just get more intimacy with Him. I’ve heard that word defined ‘in-to-me-see.’ That’s really what it is.

“More and more there’s the ability to see into Him, and Him to see into me, the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord. In your life, when He is preferred above everything else, that’s how He’s cherished and demonstrated to be the treasure.

“When we’re satisfied with Christ, when we’re prizing Him, cherishing Him, treasuring Him as a prize, and His gain is our heart’s delight above all else, that’s what Paul means in Philippians 3:9 when he says, ‘[9] And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith:
[10] That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death;

*****

“You notice ‘and be found in him,’ how that’s a passive voice? I’ve come to love the passives. The essence of life is not DOING! The essence of the Christian life is BEING, not doing! It’s who you are, not what you do.

“It’s who God has made you in His Son, and when that becomes the focus of your life, and you learn to just relax and enjoy life in the identity God has given you in Christ, rather than trying to do things and look over your shoulders and see if God’s happy with you, you’ll find yourself doing plenty. But it won’t be to gain something from God; it’ll just be because that’s who you ARE and that’s who people who ARE this, that’s the way they live.

“When I had cancer several years ago, someone sent me an email saying, ‘You’ll never know if Christ is all you need until he’s all that you have and when He’s all that you have, then and only then, do you discover that Jesus is really all that you need.’

“If you don’t count all that you can do ‘but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ’ . . .  if you’ve never come to that point in your life and you’re still trusting something of yourself, can I tell you that’s a dead-end road?

“Maybe you haven’t learned that yet, but when you do learn it, can I tell you it’s a dead-end road, and when you really do do what the Psalmist said (‘I came to the end of myself’) can I tell you there’s one standing there at the end of your rope who is the answer.

“You go bloody your nose to learn, ‘It ain’t me.’ Whatever it is you hope to rely upon, whatever it is you hope to cling to, whether it’s in yourself, if you’d be honest enough in your own self to know you can’t trust yourself . . . 

“We put the bravado on, but in your heart of hearts you know yourself. We kick at the slats, we don’t like to believe that, but the grace of God is only available when all of our resources are gone. You’ll never do it until you come to the end of yourself.

“Compared to everything else, He is the one who really is the treasure of your life. God help us to let that be the reality. Instead of screaming and hollering that, ‘But I’m going to lose it all,’ just say, ‘You know what, I’m really FINDING the real source of life.’ Paul said, ‘For me, Christ is gain. I just want to be found in Him, not having my own righteousness. That old song says, ‘Oh, how I love Jesus because He first loved me.’ ”

Rated R for shock value

(new article later today)

If you had an R-rated chapter in the Bible, Ezekiel 16 is it. The translators try to soften the language and be delicate in their translation of the things going on so they wouldn't be offensive and obscene, but if you are a Hebrew reading the Hebrew, there are things in this chapter we would call pornography.

"There's very offensive terminology describing what Israel's doing, not for the offensive value but for the shock value of it," explains Richard Jordan.

"I've heard all my life there are passages in the Bible that weren't meant for public consumption or public preaching. If there's a chapter like that, this is the chapter.

"I'm grateful that some of the translators translated this stuff delicately and sensitively, but without a doubt this is the most sexually explicit chapter in all the Bible.

"There's a tone to it where He's describing the things taking place in Israel in her apostasy and using it to cast Israel as a harlot. Not just a harlot, but an insatiable nympho--someone who is just insatiably driven.

"It's why the judgment's going to come upon them, but when you get to the latter part of the chapter you see in spite of it all God's amazing ability to forgive them and still, even with all of their failures, claim them as His own. In the backdrop of that is all the abominations that are there.

"He starts out, as the Bible often does, with a reminder of who they are. The chapter begins: [1] Again the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,

[2] Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,
[3] And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD unto Jerusalem; Thy birth and thy nativity is of the land of Canaan; thy father was an Amorite, and thy mother an Hittite.

Verse 15: [15] But thou didst trust in thine own beauty, and playedst the harlot because of thy renown, and pouredst out thy fornications on every one that passed by; his it was.

"That's the summary of the indictment that He's going to fill in through the rest of the chapter. From here on, if you read the Hebrew text, He's going to use some rather indelicate terminology to describe the wickedness, the crudeness, the vileness of what they're doing. Understand, when the Hebrew reads it, he understands.

"Literally, what He's going to talk about following turns into a live porn show and they're out there literally selling themselves and eventually not even selling themselves but paying others to come. Sin can get that bad with life.

"They trusted in their own beauty; that's where the rebellion came from. Their own self; arrogant trust in themselves.

"Verse 49, when it talks about Sodom: [49] Behold, this was the iniquity of thy sister Sodom, pride, fulness of bread, and abundance of idleness was in her and in her daughters, neither did she strengthen the hand of the poor and needy. 

"They thought, 'We've got it made in the shade. We've got all these blessings. Look how blessed we are,' and they took credit for it all and became arrogant, haughty. The abominations that that passage talks about, if you go back to Exodus 19 and read about it, it was homosexual aggressiveness. It started in that captivation with their own beauty.

"The rebellion found its place in worshipping the creature, not the Creator, as per Romans 1:25. When He says, 'Thou pourest out thy fornications upon everyone that passeth by,' if you go to verse 26: [26] Thou hast also committed fornication with the Egyptians thy neighbours, great of flesh; and hast increased thy whoredoms, to provoke me to anger.

Verse 36: [36] Thus saith the Lord GOD; Because thy filthiness was poured out, and thy nakedness discovered through thy whoredoms with thy lovers, and with all the idols of thy abominations, and by the blood of thy children, which thou didst give unto them;

"All those things they did, each one worse than the one before, it just literally pours out of them. It's a completely insatiable experience.

[25] Thou hast built thy high place at every head of the way, and hast made thy beauty to be abhorred, and hast opened thy feet to every one that passed by, and multiplied thy whoredoms. 

[27] Behold, therefore I have stretched out my hand over thee, and have diminished thine ordinary food, and delivered thee unto the will of them that hate thee, the daughters of the Philistines, which are ashamed of thy lewd way.
[28] Thou hast played the whore also with the Assyrians, because thou wast unsatiable; yea, thou hast played the harlot with them, and yet couldest not be satisfied.
[29] Thou hast moreover multiplied thy fornication in the land of Canaan unto Chaldea; and yet thou wast not satisfied herewith.
[30] How weak is thine heart, saith the Lord GOD, seeing thou doest all these things, the work of an imperious whorish woman;
[31] In that thou buildest thine eminent place in the head of every way, and makest thine high place in every street; and hast not been as an harlot, in that thou scornest hire;

"The high place is where they worship Baal, but now they're building these high places out on every street corner. One of the things they did in Baal worship was the fornication; the sex worship. 

[23] And it came to pass after all thy wickedness, (woe, woe unto thee! saith the Lord GOD;)
[24] That thou hast also built unto thee an eminent place, and hast made thee an high place in every street.

"That phrase in verse 25 about 'to every one that passed by,' is the thing there. They've literally set up public porn shows, live events, for everyone who goes by to come participate in, to lure people in.

"They're so desperate to be satisfied with the worship of other gods that never satisfy. Sin never satiates. You do a little bit to get the stimulation and next time it takes a little bit more, etc. It gets worse and worse and worse and worse.

"He's using the sexual part of it to describe the spiritual corruption. How vile this looks physically, this is how God looks at their following other gods, and they're worshipping the other gods in doing this.

[16] And of thy garments thou didst take, and deckedst thy high places with divers colours, and playedst the harlot thereupon: the like things shall not come, neither shall it be so.

[17] Thou hast also taken thy fair jewels of my gold and of my silver, which I had given thee, and madest to thyself images of men, and didst commit whoredom with them,
[18] And tookest thy broidered garments, and coveredst them: and thou hast set mine oil and mine incense before them.
[19] My meat also which I gave thee, fine flour, and oil, and honey, wherewith I fed thee, thou hast even set it before them for a sweet savour: and thus it was, saith the Lord GOD.
[20] Moreover thou hast taken thy sons and thy daughters, whom thou hast borne unto me, and these hast thou sacrificed unto them to be devoured. Is this of thy whoredoms a small matter,
[21] That thou hast slain my children, and delivered them to cause them to pass through the fire for them?

"They're just making a big show of all of this. Literally, when it says they have made images of men, it's talking about a phallic symbol and the way people talk today, they're talking about a sex toy and they're using it to gratify themselves and they're committing whoredoms with these idols.

"It's gotten that vile and they're doing it in public live on the street. They didn't have film; they didn't have TV or internet. They're not doing it just to be down in the brothel; they're doing it to worship in Baal worship, worshipping their gods."

Israeli's take on being Christian guide

Recently I came across a YouTube channel called "travelingisrael" that has a wide audience:

"I'm a Jewish tour guide who mostly sticks to Christian audiences, but how do I put it all together. This question bothered me when I was doing the guide course and I asked my teachers about it.

"One said that she talks about the historical Jesus that she believes existed, and the other one said, 'When I talk about it I believe it.'  At the time I didn't understand what she meant, but now as a guide, I get it.

"Once you are telling the story you're in the story. Another point to make is, our job as guides is not to be critics. We're not religious leaders, but we make it our jobs to connect the traveler to the places and events that took place in our given location. It makes perfect sense for a Jew to talk about Jesus and his environments that were Jewish . . .

"This video can be seen about what Jews think about the most renown Jew in the world and its followers. I am a believer in Jewish-Christian values. This is a major part of Western society. And today the relations between Jews and Christians has come a very long way. It is in a good place and hopefully will only get better . . . 

"We've all heard about Messianic Jews. On YouTube you can find really big channels for and about Messianic Jews and 'Jews For Jesus' but guys, most Israelis have never heard about them. They're a tiny group in Israel and they try to keep a low profile.

"For most Israelis, Messianic Jews sounds like an oxymoron, as if someone were to come to you and say, 'I'm a Muslim Christian.' You believe in Jesus, then you're a Christian and not Jewish. This is the opinion of the average Israeli on the street, but is it right?"

*****

Acts 1: [2] Until the day in which he was taken up, after that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments unto the apostles whom he had chosen:

[3] To whom also he shewed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

"I don't know how many more proofs you would need if somebody's standing in front of you," says Richard Jordan. "Someone you knew, someone you're aware of. I John says, 'We've handled Him, we lived with Him, we've touched Him, we've known Him, we've communed with Him; He was dead and now He's there in front of us alive.'

"That's what we call an 'infallible truth.' But it says 'many' of them. More than just that one, but that would be enough if you were there. You have to understand that Christianity is based on the issue, finally, of the resurrection of Christ. You don't park your brain at the door when you come into the church.

"Christianity is not primarily based on how you feel; it's based on facts. Facts that can be analyzed, collected together. The facts bring you to a conclusion. That's why he says 'by many infallible truths.' There's a logical demonstration of things that you can see that lead you to a conclusion of something that is factually true. It requires you to think. That's what we do and that's what Christianity is based on."

Wormwood is no ordinary star

Revelation 8:7: [7] The first angel sounded, and there followed hail and fire mingled with blood, and they were cast upon the earth: and the third part of trees was burnt up, and all green grass was burnt up.

"These judgments--as it's poured out against the earth it's going to impact things. If you go on the internet and type in Revelation 8:7 it's remarkable some of the wild things people will say: 'The grass represents this and the trees stand for that.' It's just fantasy; far-fetched crazy ideas. There's no reason not to accept the verse as literal.

"Just like in Egypt's history, that was literal hail that fell down and it was literal damage to the planet. Well, it's going to be repeated," explains Alex Kurz.

Verse 8: [8] And the second angel sounded, and as it were a great mountain burning with fire was cast into the sea: and the third part of the sea became blood;

"If we were to envision a mountain burning, what does that kind of sound like? Poor John sees this thing coming out of the second heaven. I think it's safe to say that maybe it's some kind of meteorite, comet or asteroid. It's a piece of rock that's on fire and you know what, there's evidence on the planet of meteor strikes. Why is the moon full of craters?

"Do you remember in Egypt's history how the water was also turned into blood? Notice it says sea singular. What sea could be referred to? If you go to Daniel 7: 2-3, you'll see that the Mediterranean is extremely important in light of the events that are occurring here in the Mideast region.

"The third part of the Mediterranean Sea becomes blood. Verse 9: [9] And the third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life, died; and the third part of the ships were destroyed.

"You remember the Spanish Armada; all the ships destroyed because of a storm? Now, is there a military armada that has taken up position because they see the events that are going on? It doesn't say if they're destroyers, cruise ships, aircraft carriers. It could be ships involved with commerce. Later on, we're going to see some things that come up out of that sea. Like a seven-headed dragon.

Verse 10: [10] And the third angel sounded, and there fell a great star from heaven, burning as it were a lamp, and it fell upon the third part of the rivers, and upon the fountains of waters;

"The second trumpet allowed a mountain on fire to fall; this one's called 'a great star from heaven.' Again, could it be some astrological kind of a thing? We know stars represent angels.

Verse 11: [11] And the name of the star is called Wormwood: and the third part of the waters became wormwood; and many men died of the waters, because they were made bitter.

"This is no ordinary star; it has a name to it. Capital W. Of course, there's something very significant about this star. 

"Once again, do you recall in Israel's history some events that occurred where water was bitter? What was Israel's response as God is leading them through the wilderness? They come upon water and if it's bitter it means its undrinkable; poisonous.

"God demonstrates His capacity as Jehovah God to be Israel's great provider. The God who created water, is there any problem with Him making water drinkable? 

Notice what we read in Jeremiah 9:13-15: [13] And the LORD saith, Because they have forsaken my law which I set before them, and have not obeyed my voice, neither walked therein;

[14] But have walked after the imagination of their own heart, and after Baalim, which their fathers taught them:
[15] Therefore thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Behold, I will feed them, even this people, with wormwood, and give them water of gall to drink.

"Again, there's this repetition of judgment. Mark 16:18: [18] They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

"Now, we understand why this verse really is important in Israel's prophetic program. Why would anybody even want to drink any deadly thing?

"We read that a third of the waters are poisoned by Wormwood. Now, you see where this verse will fit in its proper dispensational context. There's a period of time where there will be undrinkable water. 

"Verse 18 has nothing to do with people who want to handle snakes today. But it has everything to do with God's provision for His little flock during the calamities of the 70th Week.

"When you run into serpents, when you flee into the wilderness, don't worry about it. The scorpions are going to sting you but you're not going to be hurt. If you find a pool of water, drink it. You're not going to be hurt."

(new article tomorrow)

God peppers Jerusalem with coals of fire

Ezekiel 10 ends with: [18] Then the glory of the LORD departed from off the threshold of the house, and stood over the cherubims.

[19] And the cherubims lifted up their wings, and mounted up from the earth in my sight: when they went out, the wheels also were beside them, and every one stood at the door of the east gate of the LORD's house; and the glory of the God of Israel was over them above.
[20] This is the living creature that I saw under the God of Israel by the river of Chebar; and I knew that they were the cherubims.
[21] Every one had four faces apiece, and every one four wings; and the likeness of the hands of a man was under their wings.
[22] And the likeness of their faces was the same faces which I saw by the river of Chebar, their appearances and themselves: they went every one straight forward.

"They literally have a war machine that they carry the glory of God on," explains Richard Jordan. "Literally, you're going to see the process of the Lord leaving and abandoning the nation Israel. It won't be permanent, but it's real.

Ezekiel 10:2: [2] And he spake unto the man clothed with linen, and said, Go in between the wheels, even under the cherub, and fill thine hand with coals of fire from between the cherubims, and scatter them over the city. And he went in in my sight.

"The city of Jerusalem is going to be destroyed by fire. He's literally going to take coals of fire and pepper them on the city. It's going to be destroyed like Sodom and Gomorrah was destroyed.

Genesis 19: [24] Then the LORD rained upon Sodom and upon Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the LORD out of heaven;

[25] And he overthrew those cities, and all the plain, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew upon the ground.

"Notice there are two Jehovahs in verse 24. The Lord rained down upon Sodom and Gomorrah brimstone and fire from the Lord in heaven.

"In a Hebrew Bible, in the Hebrew's concept of the godhead, they had no problem understanding there was more than one Jehovah.

"Sometimes people think the Old Testament doesn't have any idea about the trinity but it does, and in Ezekiel you'll see there's Jehovah on the throne, then there's Jehovah talking over here. It's because there's more than one member of the godhead.

"You have all of the godhead working in the casting out and taking away of the glory from Israel.

Revelation 11:7: [7] And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast that ascendeth out of the bottomless pit shall make war against them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.

[8] And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified.
[9] And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations shall see their dead bodies three days and an half, and shall not suffer their dead bodies to be put in graves.

"In other words, Jerusalem is in the spiritual condition of Sodom in Egypt. In Ezekiel 10, He judges them as He does Sodom because they're in the same spiritual idolatry and apostasy. God is going to wipe out His favored nation because of it.

"By the way, in II Kings 25 Jerusalem is destroyed by fire, so it's literally fulfilled but it's also a dress rehearsal for the last days.

"In a passage about the Antichrist, Isaiah 10: [16] Therefore shall the Lord, the Lord of hosts, send among his fat ones leanness; and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire.

[17] And the light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame: and it shall burn and devour his thorns and his briers in one day;

Isaiah 30: [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.
[32] And in every place where the grounded staff shall pass, which the LORD shall lay upon him, it shall be with tabrets and harps: and in battles of shaking will he fight with it.
[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.

"The Lord passes over and fire comes out and destroys His enemies; that's what He's describing back here. 

Isaiah 33: [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.
[13] Hear, ye that are far off, what I have done; and, ye that are near, acknowledge my might.
[14] The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites. Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings?

"God's judgment is going to come on them and they're not going to be able to stand. These cherubim are charged with going out and waging war against the enemies of Jehovah."

(new article tomorrow) 

God's Book of DNA

Colossians 3:16: [16] Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

"When something dwells in you, it settles down and is at home. What's to dwell in you? The Word of Christ.

"David says in Psalm 139: [13] For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

[14] I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
[15] My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
[16] Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.

"Three thousand years ago David knew something about what happened to him when he was created. This passage is really talking about the creation of man, Adam. David knew something about how you and I were created," explains Richard Jordan.

"You see where he says, 'In thy book all my members were written'? DNA is the basic genetic structure of your makeup. What they've learned about DNA is it's not a random sequencing. It has letters that, when you put them together, form words, which put together form sentences. They have periods and paragraph marks and it literally reads like a book. Everything about you is originally written in that little genetic package that we call DNA and it's really like a book.

"But you notice David says, 'In thy book all my members were written.' Who really wrote the book of DNA that makes up you? God did.

Isaiah 34 says, [16] Seek ye out of the book of the LORD and read.' So, when I do that, what am I reading? The divine DNA of God's life. Jesus said, 'The words I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.' 

"Look at the word Genesis. What do the first four letters spell? Genesis 5:1: [1] This is the book of the generations of Adam. In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him;

"Now, I got a book of genes! You know that's the first time the word 'book' shows up in the Bible?! In the Bible, the first time a book shows up it's a book of genes. It's a book of DNA!

Luke 8:11: [11] Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

"In that little plant seed is the DNA of the plant--everything it's going to be. What's the verse say the seed is in the parable? The Word of God. It's all in that seed, and then it's just going to continually manifest itself as it grows and that is the Word of God.

"Acts 12 says, [24] But the word of God grew and multiplied. That's what life does. It grows. God's made this connection in there."

(new article tomorrow)

Jews' origin for all man's religions

(new article tomorrow--picked up a cold yesterday and now saddled with all the symptoms, including ringing ears that itch inside my head)

"Every religion found among mankind has its origin, in some particular way, in the religion God gave Israel.

"It’s a fascinating thing when you study it through. Study Islam, Hinduism . . . I was reading through the Bhagavad Gita, one of the Hindu holy books, and I’m in this one passage thinking, ‘Wow, man, that’s Leviticus!’ You say, ‘How’d they know about that?!’ Well, it got out," explains Richard Jordan.

“You watch Islam. Ramadan is here and they make the pilgrimage. Well, three times a year, every Jew had to go back to Jerusalem, make a pilgrimage. Deuteronomy 16:16. It was required of them. Not just once in a lifetime but every year.

“The Muslims pray toward Mecca. Well, where did Daniel pray toward? Jerusalem. Why? That’s where God’s temple was.

“You look at all that corrupted stuff out there . . . Israel, who had the ‘pure religion,’ as the Bible calls it, corrupted their religion with the false and it’s a screwball kind of a thing where, ‘I’ve got the real thing and you’ve got the fake thing, but I like your fake thing, too, so I’ll bring your fake thing into my real thing and corrupt my real thing, and now both of us don’t have anything worth having!'

“They just swap things around and that’s why II Kings 17 says about Israel that they worship Jehovah and serve Baal. You say, 'How do you do that?!' Well, go to any church in America today and you can see it happening. Go to a Catholic church, Orthodox church, Catholic-sympathizing Protestant church, which is pretty much everybody, and you see all those kinds of things.

“I just had a conversation with a brother who's dealing with people in his assembly about the Lord’s Supper; they're glued to doing it in the traditional mini-Protestant Mass form and they think it’s an absolute requirement it be done that way. I’m thinking, ‘You know, even if I thought what they wanted to do was right, making it an absolute requirement is exactly the opposite of what I Corinthians 11 says to do.’ You think, 'Where’d that come from?' Tradition gets a hold on you.

*****

“God says in Isaiah 1:13-15 [13] Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting.
[14] Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them.
[15] And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers, I will not hear: your hands are full of blood.

“When He says there ‘you spread forth your hands,’ that’s how the religions pray. You know why people do that when they pray? It’s, ‘Pour down the blessing, Lord!’ Have you ever watched a Catholic priest do the Mass? Why do they do that?

"You ever watch the Charismatic folks on the TV? Why do they do it? They haven’t got a consciousness of God living inside of them. Why do you want God to drop you something if you understand He lives inside you? What’s He dropping down? He’s in here!

“Things that you do mean things. People say, ‘Well, Paul says over in Timothy to lift up holy hands.’ Well, as soon as you get holy hands, lift them up, but until then, understand that’s a figure of speech. That’s not talking about the posture of your hands. I’ve looked at most of you all’s hands and they aren’t that holy.

“By the way, people use this passage in Isaiah 1 to say, ‘See, God really didn’t want Israel to have all that bloody religion.’ Yes, He did. He gave it to them! He just wanted them to do it in faith, not make a religious system out of it; not have ‘idols in their heart,’ as Ezekiel says.

*****

“If we had forever to study, we could go back to Ezekiel 36 and see how the land had been polluted and made unclean by the blood of the idolaters and offering the children to Molech. All that blood of idolatry, He takes them out of that land for the 70 years so the land can have rest.

“In Isaiah 1, when He says, ‘So is this people,’ He’s talking about Israel and every work of their hand; everything they’ve done in their religion is unclean, unacceptable.

"Talking to the nation Israel, He says they’re spiritually Sodom and Gomorah: '[10] Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah.' The Book of Revelation calls them that.

“The nation Israel is in an absolute condition of rebellion. He calls them that at the end of verse 2. Isaiah 1:4 says, '[4] Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked the Holy One of Israel unto anger, they are gone away backward.'

“That’s His description of them spiritually before they go into captivity. Haggai is telling them, ‘You’re still in that spiritual condition.’

“Isaiah 1:11 says, [11] To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats.

“The problem isn’t that God didn’t give them commandments and instructions about burnt offerings and so forth; it’s that they’re not bringing them in faith. The Book of Leviticus says ‘if any man will.’ They made a religion out of the sacrifices.

"He says ‘bring no more vain oblations.’ They’d developed the Jew’s religion into a vain religious system. Jesus said, ‘In vain do you worship me, teaching doctrines of men.’ ”