Christ pulls back shades of heaven's curtain

I Timothy 6: [14] That thou keep this commandment without spot, unrebukeable, until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ:

[15] Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

Jesus Christ will appear to the people in the earth to demonstrate who is the King of kings, but prior to that He's going to appear in the heavenly places and extricate the satanic host, throwing them down to the earth, and that's going to take place in the first half of that 70th Week, says Richard Jordan in his Revelations series.

When He takes them and there's war in heaven and He throws them out, you and I will be installed in those positions of rank and authority in heaven's government up there.

Involved in that war that extricates the satanic forces, Jesus Christ appears in Revelation 6 to the men of the earth.

While He is up there bringing His kingdom to the heavenlies, it's obvious to the men in the earth that there's disturbance and activity and war going on out there.

Maybe you're a Trekkie and you watch Star Trek and the Next Generation and you think all that stuff is wonderful and the explanation--I was reading (my secretary Fran's) TV Guide this week and it talks about how Star Trek: The Next Generation is real popular and what is the explanation.

Well, it said, in the '60s Star Trek gave some hope of stability in the threat of nuclear war and it showed mankind overcoming, you know, and having a peaceful end out there.

And then in the '90s it's catching on because of the gloom and doom and how terrible things are and it gives stability; it shows that "man triumphed after all" and you know that's just a bunch of nonsense. Human viewpoint; man stuck on himself.

Did you ever sit around a campfire and watch fire and notice how it just sort of engulfs you? Have you ever gone down to the seashore and just watch the waves come in and how it just sort of . . . fire and water captivates people and there's some spiritual reasons for that. It's the same spiritual reason that the Star Trek and Star Wars stuff and all that captivates men's minds and, folks, it's because there's some of that stuff on the way.

What Satan does is he counterfeits that stuff before it shows up so when the real thing shows up, you'll think it's just the baloney he's been feeding you, but that stuff's real and it's coming.

What happens in Revelation 6 is in the first half of that week this stuff begins to break out in the heavens and there begins to be war up there and the inhabitants on the earth get a . . . the Lord just kind of pulls the shades back of the curtain of the heavens so they can see into it, and they understand that their side's getting beat.

He throws them out down into the earth and when he does that, Satan comes down himself and goes about to convince men that he's God and that the Lord Jesus Christ in the heavens is really the enemy. 

You say, "Well how could he do that?" Well, that ought not surprise you very much. Isn't that what people think now anyway?

You go out and try to talk to people about the Lord Jesus Christ and people think He's the enemy. You go around and talk to them about religion and being "up" with people and the betterment of society, and do all that stuff, and they think that's God. You see, it isn't that much different.

The difference is that the message you and I have to preach to the world today is not a message of wrath and judgment--that'll come soon enough--but it's a message of grace and peace.

Remember, as we go on through the Book of Revelation, you're going to be dealing with a situation where from this point onward, the Lord is going to be in the heavens fighting and the war is going to be the wrath that's going to begin to be directed down toward man on the earth.

Trafficking

It's fascinating to think about in Ezekiel 28 when he describes what happened originally--how in Revelation 17: [5] And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.

By the way, there's 13 words in that title, which is just kind of an interesting thing.

Her name is Mystery (Secret) and the description of her is "Babylon the Great." It goes back to Genesis 11 and the Tower of Babel and the confusion of the languages.

In light of that, it's fascinating to think about in Ezekiel 28: [15] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

[16] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

I just want you to see that issue of he's trafficking. He's taking this wise plan that he's got and he's selling it to people. He's merchandising it. He's got a product that he's selling.

Ezekiel 28: [5] By thy great wisdom and by thy traffick hast thou increased thy riches, and thine heart is lifted up because of thy riches:

We talk about somebody selling drugs and we call them traffickers. They're out pushing it, getting it out. This dude is out here selling his product; he's promoting his goods. He's out promising to fill people with all kind of . . . "I've got all this merchandise."

You know, you go down to the store and they've got all this merchandise and what do you want? You want it! You want to pile it in the back of the car and go home and enjoy it.

"I've got stuff that you're going to enjoy, that you're going to benefit from, that's going to lift you up and all you got to do is come, pay me and take it. Come join my team, get on my squad, get in on my credit card and take it home, dudes."

He's got a plan where he's enlisting the angelic host to come and benefit from it. There's a whole scheme going on here.

I think, "What in the world would he have used to entice people to do that?" You notice it says in verse 16 it's by violence?

Ezekiel 28: [16] By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Listen, this stuff never brings peace; it always brings violence. Never think Satan is sitting on the top of a tea kettle that is cool and happy and running smoothly. He's sitting on a tea kettle and the lid's boiling all the time. That's what sin does.

Ephesians 4: [14] That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive.

But Satan's crafty enough to keep the lid on. He's wise enough and scheming enough to be able to control even the boiling pot of iniquity and sin and wickedness that his schemes produce.

He corrupted his wisdom. The key to his selling tactic, go to verse 3 of Ezekiel 28: [3] Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret that they can hide from thee:

[4] With thy wisdom and with thine understanding thou hast gotten thee riches, and hast gotten gold and silver into thy treasures:

You see the idea there, as he's trafficking this stuff and he's cunning enough to sell it, is to entice you, to make you want to get it, and it's all associated with his ability to interface with a secret.

He had a plan to entice people into his court but there was something hidden in the background. Can you think of a Bible account that has to do with knowing something? 

Go back to Genesis 3 and here's the same character: [1] Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?

Satan relishes being 'accuser of our brethren'

People say all the time, "Well, look at the church; it's full of hypocrites." That's a rationalization because they still go to the movies and there are hypocrites there. They still go to football games and there's hypocrites there. Their attitude is simply a self-serving justification, says David Reid in an online study entitled, "Why Do Devils Act Differently Today?"

Now, this is what Satan does and it's beyond obnoxious. Think with me just about the Old Testament for a minute. Israel goes into Egypt for hundreds of years and then God brings them out.

When God prepares to bring Israel into the Promised Land and Israel sends spies into the land, what do the spies find? Giants. More generally, they find the Canaanites, the Jebusites and so on. They find a bunch of people who are there for the purpose of resisting Israel.

Satan could have said, "Well, look, God has promised the Promised Land to Israel so I'm going to respect that and put all my people over in northern Alaska and leave them there."

The reason he didn't do that is the following. What was it that turned Solomon's heart away? His heart was turned away by his wives; the wives of the other nations.

Satan has his people in the land because he wants them to learn the practices of those in the land and get them to worship idols. And when they do those things, you know what Satan's going to do?

Revelation 12: [10] And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of his Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accused them before our God day and night.

Satan is "the accuser of our brethren." What he does with Old Testament Israel is he tempts them and tempts them and tempts them to try to get them to do evil.

When they do that, what does Satan immediately do? He accuses them "before our God day and night": "You did it! You did it! I baited you into it, I entrapped you!"

So does that ministry exist during the dispensation of grace? Yes. Satan seeks to tempt the Body of Christ and when they fail what follows is reproach. 

Is there anything more prominent today than sort of celebrity-Christian scandals? There's a well-known religious leader and then they have some failing. What happens is it's publicized to ruin their reputation and mock and criticize the church.

We are involved in doctrinal warfare today. All the sensational ideas people have about devils, possession, this and that, it's all focusing on the wrong thing. It's confusion and deception.

The nature of Satan's warfare today is doctrinal, meaning the most important thing we can do in self-defense, and to protect ourselves from that deception, is "search the scriptures daily whether those things we so."

II Corinthians 4: [3] But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:

[4] In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.

If Satan's desire is to blind their minds, then what do we need to be doing? Preach the accurate gospel because that's the only thing that can help people avoid the snare of the devil. If our warfare with Satan is doctrinal in nature, we need to be doctrinal people, studying and preaching the Word rightly divided.

*****

Here's an outtake from a study by Pastor Alex Kurz:

Deuteronomy 7: [1] When the LORD thy God shall bring thee into the land whither thou goest to possess it, and hath cast out many nations before thee, the Hittites, and the Girgashites, and the Amorites, and the Canaanites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and mightier than thou;

[2] And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:

I Samuel 15: [3] Now go and smite Amalek, and utterly destroy all that they have, and spare them not; but slay both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and ass.

It's rather hypocritical for an atheist to express outrage that God would issue such a command as killing men, women, children and sucklings, meaning nursing babies.

The atheist says, "Agh, what kind of God is this to kill babies?!" First of all, where does the atheist get off arguing morality?

They reject that there is such a thing as objective morality; moral right or wrong. One leading atheist says, "The universe doesn't care."

Where does morality come from if were just a bunch of amoebas and cells that morph . . .?

Those babies are just as exposed and vulnerable to some satanic activity that's taking place in the land. You remember in the gospels how there were children who were possessed by devils?

Exodus 23: [27] I will send my fear before thee, and will destroy all the people to whom thou shalt come, and I will make all thine enemies turn their backs unto thee.

God's first tactic is, "I'm going to send fear before your enemies and if they're smart they're going to run away."

Genocide would demand you've got to hunt them down and kill them and God never said that.

Then God said, and this is weird, "I'm going to send hornets."

[28] And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee.
[29] I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee.

Now, there's a lot of controversy about that. Should we take it literally? I say why not. What did God do in Egypt? Did He not send swarms of flies? Did not God use swarms of locusts?

God's saying, "If they're not terrified by you, Israel, then I'm going to send a pestilence, but I'm going to do it little by little until I drive them out."

[30] By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

So there's a second tactic there. There are some things God does to buy the inhabitants a little bit of time: "Israel's coming and you have the opportunity to get out and if you don't get out, then I'm going to destroy you all."

Numbers 33: [51] Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;

[52] Then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places:

When God says, "Destroy them," that is the last resort or consequence for not leaving the land. God says, "There's a limit to my tolerance; there's a limit to the persistent wickedness."

It's a marvel to Jesus

(new article this evening and in meantime here's a post from 2024 that's gotten super-high numbers for one reason or another)

Mark 6: [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

[4] But Jesus said unto them, A prophet is not without honour, but in his own country, and among his own kin, and in his own house.
[5] And he could there do no mighty work, save that he laid his hands upon a few sick folk, and healed them.

[6] And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

"They're not admiring Christ; they're mad at Him, jealous of Him. And you've got to understand their unbelief--their astonishment, their offense--came out of envy and jealousy. At the heart of hatred and unbelief is going to be those two things," says Richard Jordan.

"There are only two times it says Jesus marveled. One, He marveled at the centurion's faith in Luke 7--that a Gentile would have this great faith to believe the Messiah when Israel wouldn't. This centurion understood the Abrahamic blessing. He had blessed Israel, built them a synagogue. They come to Jesus and say, 'He's worthy of the Abrahamic blessing; he's blessed us.'

"These hometown folk in Mark 6 are a picture of what's going on in the nation. That's really the core issue here. It was their folly. They've got all this evidence to believe and they don't believe.

"These are not just isolated incidents in Christ's life; there's a bigger picture of Israel. He comes to His own country, His own people, His own kin, and although He's manifested and demonstrated Himself with the mighty works and the words of wisdom, they receive Him not.

*****

"Their jealousy and unbelief represents Jeremiah 2: [11] Hath a nation changed their gods, which are yet no gods? but my people have changed their glory for that which doth not profit.
[12] Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
[13] For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.
[14] Is Israel a servant? is he a homeborn slave? why is he spoiled?

"That's the idea of marveling. 'Just be astonished. Let it scare the britches off of you.' He says, 'They've forsaken me. I'm the source of life! But they didn't just forsake me, they went out and tried to make a substitute that can't even hold water, much less the water of life!'

"They've taken the Word God gave them, the oracles of life, forsaken it and gone after a vain religious system that can't do anything.

"Jeremiah told them, 'Listen, you want to be astonished, you want to marvel, you want to let your 'What-in-the-world's-going-on?' hang out . . .' That's the situation in Israel and there they are.

"When it says in Mark 6:5, 'He could there do no mighty works,' this is one of these things where faith healers will tell you, 'Well, you just didn't have enough faith to get healed.'

"Here's a bunch of people in unbelief, and when unbelief is prevalent, all they could do is get healed! He couldn't do any mighty works; He'd just go out and heal a few people. Now, the few opposed to the many; the point is it's the little flock amongst the apostate nation.

"All this stuff where people use the Bible to abuse you . . . what religion does with that is they use the Bible to put you under a guilt trip so you'll send them more money to get you out from underneath that guilt trip.

"There's a lot more dangerous aspects to teaching people tithing than just getting their money. It's putting them under a guilt trip where you cripple them with guilt, shame, failure and fear. That's what unbelief does.

*****

"In Matthew 13, it says, [58] And he did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief. He did not do them because He could not do them.

"That's like in John where it says they did not believe that Isaiah 53 might be fulfilled, therefore they could not believe. You see, the 'could not' comes after the 'did not', because of the hardness of their heart in their unbelief.

"John 7 says He's been speaking words of wisdom that they recognize. They're just mad about it because those mighty works make Him the standout and they say, 'Hey, he's just one of us; he's from our town. He's our neighbor; he's raised just like we are. He's not any different than us; he can't teach us anything.'

"You see how dumb that is? If He can't teach anybody anything because He came from your town like you are, that means you can't either. You just condemned yourself.

"That's what Christ is marveling at; how stupid unbelief is, how counterproductive! You look at any kind of unbelief and it will always be that way.

"John 7:14 [14] Now about the midst of the feast Jesus went up into the temple, and taught.
[15] And the Jews marvelled, saying, How knoweth this man letters, having never learned?
[16] Jesus answered them, and said, My doctrine is not mine, but his that sent me.

"Now you're back in the same situation as in Mark 6. Jesus answered them and said in verse 17, 'If any man will do his will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself.'

"That's a startling kind of a statement. He said, 'If you have in your heart a willingness to God's will that will create the capacity for detecting the divine authority of what Christ is saying.'

"You have to always remember that unbelief comes, not because there isn't enough evidence, but because there's a disposition in the heart that doesn't want God's will.

*****

After doing mighty works, Jesus Christ comes back to Nazareth and the reaction there is they don't want Him now either.

Luke 4:22 says, [22] And all bare him witness, and wondered at the gracious words which proceeded out of his mouth. And they said, Is not this Joseph's son?

"It's, 'That's Joe's kid! When did he get so smart? Where does he get off saying all these things?!'

Verses 28-29 say, [28] And all they in the synagogue, when they heard these things, were filled with wrath,
[29] And rose up, and thrust him out of the city, and led him unto the brow of the hill whereon their city was built, that they might cast him down headlong.

"The first time He was there teaching in that synagogue it didn't end well, to put it in a way. He's gone out, He's preached, He's done all these mighty miracles and wonders and then He comes back to His own.

"Mark 6 begins, [1] And he went out from thence, and came into his own country; and his disciples follow him.
[2] And when the sabbath day was come, he began to teach in the synagogue: and many hearing him were astonished, saying, From whence hath this man these things? and what wisdom is this which is given unto him, that even such mighty works are wrought by his hands?

"When it says they were astonished it doesn't mean they were, 'Woo, wow, He's doing a great job!' It's, 'Who does this guy think he is anyway?!' You see how Mark says in verse 6, [6] And he marvelled because of their unbelief. And he went round about the villages, teaching.

"They're suspicious of what He's doing; they're not there being happy about it. Verse 2 has them asking, 'From whence hath this man?'

"You see that 'this man'? They're saying, 'Who is he to elevate himself over us?! I mean, he's Joe's kid; he's no big deal.'

"They're offended at Him because they think He's trying to make something of Himself--'He ain't no better than we are!' They're scandalized.

"They're suspicious of where He got the power and His ability to teach and preach it with authority like He did. They don't believe it's come from a legitimate source. They really think it's come from the underworld of evil.

"We've looked at passages saying this, [22] And the scribes which came down from Jerusalem said, He hath Beelzebub, and by the prince of the devils casteth he out devils.
[23] And he called them unto him, and said unto them in parables, How can Satan cast out Satan?

"They're claiming He's got the spirit of Beelzebub. They say, 'God didn't send you.' They're reasoning in Mark 6:2 is based on verse 3: [3] Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James, and Joses, and of Juda, and Simon? and are not his sisters here with us? And they were offended at him.

*****

"In verse 3 you get a glimpse into the early life of Jesus Christ. This passage is probably one of the more revealing ones. At 12 years old, Jesus knew He was, He had an awareness. He'd learned from the Scripture His identity.

"Jesus Christ literally worked in His daddy's business. When you look at Mark 6 where He's called 'the son of Mary,' evidently by this time Joseph was dead, because it doesn't call Him the son of Joseph.

"Evidently by this time the Lord Jesus is the breadwinner in the home and He's 'the carpenter.' He's the first-born and He would be the one who's the head of the house and responsible for its upkeep and protection and provision after His dad isn't there. And even when His dad was there He was working with His dad, learning how to be a carpenter.

"If you think about that, that's just a normal kind of a life. He lived in a normal, run-of-the-mill family. He's got four brothers and at least two sisters. Mary's got at least seven kids.

"It's a busy household with a normal family life, and what that tells you is the Lord Jesus Christ truly participated in our humanity. It was not a royal, palatial kind of a thing.

"When they call Him 'the son of Mary,' there is a background to that statement. In John 8, the religious leaders in Jerusalem say, 'You see what they said about Jesus?' John 8:41 says, 'Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God.'

"They say, 'We know who are daddy is; you don't. We're not born of fornication like you.' There was an insufferable stigma attached to the reputation of His family. Think about it. His mother, engaged to Joseph, comes up pregnant. Joseph marries her anyway, but he's not the daddy and that became publicly known.

"There's this hint of a 'this man.' 'He's just a dude that works down at the corner and, by the way, there's that rumor about Mary.'

"By the way, Mary had four more boys and sisters (plural) after Jesus was born, Mary was not a perpetual virgin. That's just a lie taught by Romanists in order to propagate their worship of the Queen of Heaven, which is a pagan goddess that goes all the way back to Genesis 11 in Baal worship. The idea that it's a perpetual virginity is just part of the pagan ritual.

*****

"Jesus has cleansed the temple at the beginning of his ministry. John 2:16-17: [16] And said unto them that sold doves, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house an house of merchandise.
[17] And his disciples remembered that it was written, The zeal of thine house hath eaten me up.

"In other words, when Jesus cleansed that temple, the verse in Psalm 69:9 was being fulfilled. Psalm 69 is a messianic psalm that prophesies and foretells the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. The verse reads, [9] For the zeal of thine house hath eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached thee are fallen upon me.

"Prophetically this is Christ talking in verse 8: [8] I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother's children.

"Now, no new bible's going to know how to get rid of that one because they don't know it's there unless they hear somebody like you talk about it!"

Save $125 an hour in counseling and refute Trinitarian heresy

I've been thrown yet another curveball at work as I learned the other day that they are now asking me to come in at 7 a.m. Oddly enough, this came out of nowhere just after I wrote in blog entry last Sunday about my "cushy" 9-to-5 schedule that is unheard of in my area of retail. 

So, on top of my cold, I am losing sleep as someone who already struggles with insomnia and can't just pivot on a dime.

Here are two short outtakes from material that came up on my YouTube feed, the first being a study from six years ago by Richard Jordan:

Romans 8: [5] For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.

If you walk after the flesh that means you mind the flesh. You've all told your kids, "You better mind me." You pay attention to the desires, the dictates, the valuation system of the flesh, the world system, the old life, all of your resources, by minding those things--putting them into your mind and making your judgments based on the error they produce.

What do those who walk after the spirit do? They put in their mind the things that come out of God's Word. They take their identity in Christ and say, "That's the reality, not the circumstances."

So where do you get the source of your life from? Romans 8: [6] For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.

Carnal means to be under the influence of your flesh, and if your mind is influenced by that, meaning that's where you're getting your decision-making . . . when I get my decision-making out of God's Word, and the discernment capacity it gives me to look at life, then I walk in the Spirit.

I'm saving you a lot of money--$125 an hour in counseling that won't even get close to this. This is the key to the successful walk. It's the key to being a faithful man. It's the key to not "faking it til you make it," but being the genuine article.

You start out a believing Roman, a babe in Christ, then you become a carnal Christian (like the Corinthians) still fascinated by the flesh. Then you grow up a little bit and you become a Galatian. "O foolish Galatians." Now you're a teenager.

Then you become a faithful Ephesian. Now you're a mature Believer. Then you come up to Philippians 1:

[9] And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in knowledge and in all judgment;
[10] That ye may approve things that are excellent; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of Christ;
[11] Being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus Christ, unto the glory and praise of God.

You get that discernment that comes to choose the things of greater value. You've come to the place in your life where you've gotten out all that carnal, foolish stuff. Paul says in II Timothy 2: [22] Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.

*****

Here's a taste of Joel Hayes' Monday podcast monologue on "The Trinity Controversy" (refuting the "Partialism" heresy) at Fellowship Bible Church Orlando:

The Scripture presents God as Father and Son and God knows good and well we view father and son as distinct beings. That's why He's using those terms, just as a father and son on earth would be viewed as distinct beings.

That's intentional on God's part. God knew what He was doing by calling Himself Father and calling Christ the Son because He knew you would view them as distinct beings.

For me that alone is enough to support the classical view of the Trinity. You remember how the Lord said in John 14: [16] And I will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Comforter, that he may abide with you for ever;

This verse is "I" the Son and "He" the Father gives another Comforter and that's the Holy Ghost. That's not one person describing three components of Himself. That is one divine person who is speaking to another divine person about sending another divine person.

The Father sends and the Spirit is sent in the Son's name. There's no parallel whatsoever to the "body, soul, spirit" analogy in all of that. Scripture doesn't simply distinguish these two as Father and Son; it shows a relationship between these two comparable to a father and son on earth.

The issue isn't, "Can one person have different components of His being?" Of course they can. The question is, "Does Scripture portray the Father and the Son and Holy Ghost as merely part of one person?" It does not!

The Father loves the Son, the Son loves the Father, the Father sends the Son, the Son comes from the Father, the Son prays to the Father, the Father glorifies the Son, the Son glorifies the Father, the Spirit speaks concerning the Son and glorifies Him, the Son sends the Spirit from the Father . . .

These are actions out of relationships between the Father and Son, just as we would have a relationship between a father and son here on earth.

Meaning of 'His strange work'

(another article this evening before midnight and sorry for not delivering last night like I promised)

The military is the strength of the state; that's where the state gets its power and you have to do what they say. The guy with the gun's always going to run things and the guy with the gold is going to tell the guy with the gun what to do.

This city in Nahum 3 ("Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not") is the city that provides the philosophy and the spiritual animation behind the guy with the guns and this is what God's destroying, explains Richard Jordan.

What He's doing in Nineveh ("potentially the wealthiest city in the ancient world" says Wikipedia, located in modern-day Iraq) is He's going to destroy the whole shooting match, but He's going to really get the things behind it.

Nahum 3: [4] Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts.

[5] Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame.

[6] And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazingstock.

That's a terrible description if you really read what He says. That's a description of the shame. He says, "You're going to be like a woman who has all of her clothes torn off and then has piles of manure thrown on her and then set out in a gazingstock" (you remember how they used to put people in the stocks in the square and everybody would come out and look at them).

In other words, "I'm going to hold you up to open ridicule and the worst shame possible. I'm going to bring you from the high lofty perch you were on right down to the lowest . . . I'm going to lay you bare in front of everybody."

[7] And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

"No one's going to want to be around them they look so bad. Nobody's going to come and say, 'Oh, it's okay.' 

[8] Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

When it talks about No, come with me to Jeremiah 46. Nineveh's a small place and No was a big place. The point is, "If they couldn't stand up and I could wipe them out, I don't think you're going to get away." 

Jeremiah 46:25: [25] The LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, saith; Behold, I will punish the multitude of No, and Pharaoh, and Egypt, with their gods, and their kings; even Pharaoh, and all them that trust in him:

[26] And I will deliver them into the hand of those that seek their lives, and into the hand of Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, and into the hand of his servants: and afterward it shall be inhabited, as in the days of old, saith the LORD.
[27] But fear not thou, O my servant Jacob, and be not dismayed, O Israel: for, behold, I will save thee from afar off, and thy seed from the land of their captivity; and Jacob shall return, and be in rest and at ease, and none shall make him afraid.

[28] Fear thou not, O Jacob my servant, saith the LORD: for I am with thee; for I will make a full end of all the nations whither I have driven thee: but I will not make a full end of thee, but correct thee in measure; yet will I not leave thee wholly unpunished.

So, He's going to destroy them all. He's not simply talking about the Babylonian captivity. That would be nation singular. He's talking about the WHOLE of the captivity all the way to the end, which is where you are in the Second Advent.

God's using the Antichrist and the Gentile nations to chasten Israel, to correct her, to do what Leviticus 26 says: [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.

God uses the Gentile nations in the sense, as the Psalmist in Psalm 76 says, "He uses the wrath of men to praise Him": [10] Surely the wrath of man shall praise thee: the remainder of wrath shalt thou restrain.

They don't mean to be serving God. They mean, "Hey, let's go get Israel," and God does what He does with Job. He says to Satan, "You can have him but you can't touch his soul."

Nahum 3: [15] There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.

[16] Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.
[17] Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

If you go to Revelation 9, that's what those dudes that get out of the bottomless pit look like. So, there's all this satanic stuff floating around in the back of this stuff that are the powers who animate these guys. But they're not going to be able to do them any good. They're all just going to melt away.

[18] Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.
[19] There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

What a way to end. I mean, you're done for, dude. And when you go, all the people you've oppressed are going to clap, "Woo-hoo, good job, get rid of them! Yippee! We're glad they're gone!"

They're going to be laying out there looking like the woman who's been stripped and had manure piled all over her and held out to be a gazingstock for everybody. Shame and reproach. Something that no one will come and approach to. That's the kind of destruction . . . Edom from Obadiah and now Nineveh in Nahum, and then Babylon in the next book.

*****

Nahum is really a forward-looking book to the tribulation with Nineveh, the capital of Assyria, and the Antichrist. You see Christ is there pouring out His vengeance in chapter 1:

[5] The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
[6] Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

The books of Jonah and Nahum, when you put them together, tell you something about God's wrath and judgment. In Isaiah 28 He calls judgment "his strange work":

[21] For the LORD shall rise up as in mount Perazim, he shall be wroth as in the valley of Gibeon, that he may do his work, his strange work; and bring to pass his act, his strange act.
[22] Now therefore be ye not mockers, lest your bands be made strong: for I have heard from the Lord GOD of hosts a consumption, even determined upon the whole earth.

That means it's something that doesn't really fit into what He wants to do; He's got other desires. He wants to see people change their mind and believe. So, He extends mercy.

Sometimes you get the idea God's just going around looking for someone to whack in the head and it's just the opposite of that in the Bible. 

When you see these books filled with judgment and the wrath of God being poured out, you need to understand God doesn't resort to that until ample time's been given to see whether the person is going to have a change of heart.

He did that with Nineveh in Jonah and they responded immediately. In Nahum, though, they've gone way beyond that. Nahum doesn't just show up out of nowhere. It's written to a bunch of people who had God's message, responded positively to it and then apostasized from it and returned to their rebellion and rejection.

That's why it says in Nahum1:3: [3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Judgment is like the last resort with God. Here's what sin leads to and He's left to no other choice but that. This is the common theme throughout Scripture.

Isaiah 30:18: [18] And therefore will the LORD wait, that he may be gracious unto you, and therefore will he be exalted, that he may have mercy upon you: for the LORD is a God of judgment: blessed are all they that wait for him.

He's waiting that He may be gracious. He's waiting to see if there's a change of heart and they would respond positively.

II Peter 3:3: [3] Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,

They say, "You said He's coming, He's going to pour His wrath out and He hasn't done it. Where is He?! After all this . . . "

[4] And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.

Now, we're talking in the last days, future from where we are. They're going to say, "Look, two thousand years ago you were saying this and He hasn't come yet."

You ever hear anybody say that? "You guys talk about the Second Coming of Christ; you been talking about that for two millenniums and He ain't here yet."

Scoffers, and then they make a mistake. They're arguing, "All things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation."

In geology they call that uniformitarianism: "He's never poured His wrath out yet" Now, this they are willingly ignorant of because He did pour His wrath out.

[5] For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:

God did destroy the earth. He has judged the world. The world hasn't gone on from the creation the way it is. But people are willingly ignorant. You see, it isn't that they couldn't know; it's that they don't want to know.

You have to remember that when you're dealing with people about creation and the gospel, it's never a head problem. When they make it that, that's an alibi. They're trying to use these arguments, these reasonings, in order to get around and have an alibi to do what they want to do.

[6] Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:

After the Flood, God said He would never destroy the world again with water. He said, "Next time I do it, I'll just do it with fire." You see, He already did it once. Destroyed everybody but Noah and his family, eight of them, in an ark. Eight's the number of new beginning in the Bible.

Next time, He's going to have an ark, His "little flock" of believers in Israel, and He's going to destroy the world with fire. That's what you read about in Nahum; about Him coming and melting the earth.

[7] But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

[8] But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

Verse eight's interpreted a lot of different ways that are kind of hokey, but it's saying, "Look, if God said something today, or a thousand years from now, time doesn't make any difference. If He said it, He'll do it. Time is not an issue. He's not going to change His mind no matter how long it is that He waits. After a thousand years it's like He just said it yesterday."

The point is the passage of time isn't going to lessen the severity of His judgment. His attitude about judgment isn't going to be mitigated at all. As Nahum 1:3 says, [3] The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

So why does He wait? Why does He make it a thousand years instead of a day?

[9] The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
[10] But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.

He's not procrastinating because He just doesn't care. Somebody makes a promise and doesn't keep it, well, they're just not true to their word. That's not God. But He is longsuffering, "not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance."

That's like that verse in I Timothy 2 when Paul says that God's will is that "all men be saved and come to the knowledge of the truth."

God knows they aren't all going to come to repentance, but His desire is to give them a little longer to do it. He wants to treat them like Jonah treated Nineveh. God's desire is to have the message of Jonah and to have the response of Nineveh like in Jonah, so He waits.

Recognizing our spiritual ancestors

(getting over cold and will have a new article for certain tomorrow)

John Wycliffe’s followers became known as the Lollards and their formal statement is called “The Twelve Conclusions of the Lollards.”

When did Martin Luther put his Ninety-Five Theses on the door at Wittenberg? 1517. In 1390, the Lollard’s twelve conclusions were tacked up on the door of the Westminster Hall in London.

Luther’s theses didn’t say anything about getting out of the Catholic Church. They didn’t say anything about the gospel of grace. In fact, they didn’t even express justification by faith alone because Luther didn’t understand it then. It was some years after that that he actually came to understand it, says Richard Jordan.

The Lollards’ tract began, “We pray that God in His endless goodness reform our church all out of joint to the perfection of the first beginning,” and it talked about justification and the authority of the Scriptures; the things you and I would talk about.

My point to you is, this didn’t start with the Reformation. What happened at the Reformation is it got some public airing. Things had gotten so bad in the big visible church that when Luther and compadres began to raise the issue, there was momentum, but people like us were always there.

You ought to appreciate the fact that you’ve got ancestors. You ought to know something about your spiritual history back then.

Peter Waldo (1140-1205) is often called the forerunner of the Reformation. His followers were called the Waldensians. He caused the Bible to be translated into the dialect of France where he ministered and was one of the first to provide the Bible in what came to be called “the language of the people.”

From the 2^nd Century, we have copies of God’s Word translated into the languages of people. Listen, there’s something you’ve got to understand. When God wrote His Word, He provided it to be preserved, and part of the preservation process is to translate it into the languages of people and have the translation be as authoritative as the original language was.

In the Bible, that’s the way it treats translations; that’s the way God treats them. And when you have the proper text properly translated, it’s God’s Word and that’s where the spiritual power is.

From the very first, saints have been trying to get God’s Word into the languages of the nations because that’s exactly what Paul said the commandment of the everlasting God is-- that His Word would be made known to ALL nations.

As Waldo translates the Bible, right in the middle of the Dark Ages, that was the key to the growth of the Waldensian Movement. If you know anything about that period of time, the Waldensians are great enemies of the Vatican system.

Waldo, for his troubles, was carried off. His people were in the caves in the mountains of northwest Italy, where their church met. They had an underground Bible college where they trained preachers to study God’s Word and preach it and take it out into the communities of the world in which they lived, knowing that they were going to be martyred, and they did it racing to preach as much as they could BEFORE they were martyred. They knew that was going to happen to them, but they wanted to get it out as fast and as far as they could before they got caught and killed.

By the way, one of the first places in history you see water boarding as torture was in the Valley of the Piedmont (Piedmontese Massacre of 1655), where the papists were murdering, torturing, putting on the rack your ancestors; people who believe what you believe, persecuted for preaching it and teaching it. That was their “reward.”

I think about that: it was 1655 and old Waldo was back there in 1100. His followers for 500 years were still preaching what he preached. That’s the power of putting God’s Word in the hands of people and the value of life given over to the Lord Jesus Christ.

You see, it didn’t start with the Reformation. People like us, you see little glimpses of them. Where are we going to show up in church history? If you do, you’ll be a little footnote where somebody was mad at you and said something nasty about you and they wanted to record it so everybody knew you were a bad dude.

Wycliffe, who had a Latin Bible, was the first person to translate the Bible into Middle English, which is like if you try to read Chaucer with English you can’t read. Modern English is the language of the King James Bible and Shakespeare; that era. Before Middle English there wasn’t any English, by the way.

Wycliffe, called the “morning star of the Reformation,” was a scholar from Oxford, Cambridge. By the way, Wycliffe’s home and church is preserved in England. The church building is about half the size of this auditorium. The little manse he lived in is about the size of those pews right there.

This is not big powerful-looking stuff and yet they spread God’s Word, not just across England, but all across Europe. He was so beloved that four years after he died the papist came and dug up his bones, burned them and spread them on the river to get rid of him.

By then, it was too late to undo the knowledge of the truth. It was out. It wasn’t out widely like Luther did; he translated the Textus Receptus, the anti-Catholic Bible.

The Counter-Reformation, or the Catholic response at the Council of Trent, was to condemn anyone who used any bible text other than theirs. All the Protestant Bible texts were the bible text of the King James Bible.

The Catholics said, “Anathema on that one. We’ll use this one.” You know where the modern versions come from? That Greek text of the Catholics. The modern versions are a part of the Counter-Reformation. If you want to know where the Reformation went, you just found the answer.

This is bigger than, “I don’t like the way this ‘thee’ or ‘thou’ stuff is in the Bible.” It’s a bigger issue than that and it explains where some of this stuff has gone.

Jan Hus (1369 to 1450) was way before Luther and he was influenced by Wycliffe. Through the study of Scripture, he discovered on his own that salvation isn’t possible except through faith in Christ’s payment for sins at Calvary.

Hus preached against works-based salvation and was denounced as a heretic and excommunicated by Rome. They called him to the council in Constance, Germany to stand trial and he was found guilty and burnt alive at the stake on July 6, 1415.

If you want to celebrate a date, celebrate that one, when his executioners chained him to the stake . . . By the way, when they would catch these Lollards and put them on the stake, they would take their Bible and use it to light the fire. They did the same with Hus.

They chained him and asked him if he didn’t want to recant. He said, “My Lord Jesus Christ was bound with harder chains than this for my sake. Why should I be ashamed, picked to be dust to this rusty one?”

When the flames began to consume him, the Duke of Bavaria urged him to recant his faith in Christ; retract what he was preaching. Hus said, “No, what I’ve taught with my lips I will seal with my own blood.”

It was men like Hus that the poet wrote (in the 1873 hymn “Christ is All”), “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.’ ”

Those are your spiritual forefathers, not a bunch of mossy-backed religionists running around in black robes with their collars turned backwards, arguing about some theological nitwittery. These are the guys who are your spiritual ancestors. 

Reject gospel now and still be saved after Rapture?

This study by Columbus, OH Pastor David Reid came up on my YouTube feed: "Can Those Who Rejected the Gospel Before the Rapture Still Be Saved After the Rapture?"

Reid answered:

Can you get to the Great White Throne Judgment and say, "Look, I'm a fence-sitter. I heard the gospel but hadn't come to a conclusion and now I have; I believe it." Are you going to have that opportunity? You're not, because when you hear the gospel and you don't accept it, you know what you did? You rejected it, right?

The gospel is a command. The Philippian jailer asks in Acts 16:30, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" and the answer was, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house."

Paul does not say, "Well, my suggestion, it's just one possibility of many, but consider believing on the Lord Jesus Christ and then you'll be saved." He doesn't say that. He specifically says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

That belief is an imperative; it's a command. If I say, "Shut the door!" what is the subject of that sentence? You, because it's a command. "Close the window!" "Stop the nonsense!" Every single one of those is an understood "you," because it's an instruction to do something.

Paul's issuing a loving command that, "You need to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and if you don't you'll be accountable for your own sins."

The duty of all men is to believe the gospel and the failure to believe the gospel is the decision, "My own righteousness is sufficient, and I'll handle the sin problem myself," and when you decide that you will, but it won't turn out well.

So, now, let me ask you this. How many people on earth haven't heard enough of the gospel to be accountable? Is there anyone on earth who doesn't have enough information so that they aren't accountable before God?

Now, I'm going to make an exception here. It's different for children and it's different for those who lack the mental capacity to understand.

But let's talk about normal adults. Has the grace of God appeared to some men, or has it appeared to all men? Are there those out there who haven't heard or did Paul answer that question, "Yes, verily their sound went into all the earth"? Scripture says that all men are without excuse.

Romans 10: [18] But I say, Have they not heard? Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world.

Can those who reject the gospel prior to the Rapture be saved afterward? The answer is "Yes, they can because there's no men who are without excuse."

But let me say this, it makes no difference in the following sense. First of all, there's a possibility that I'm wrong and those who rejected the gospel before the Rapture maybe can't get saved afterward. I wouldn't bet your eternal destiny on whether or not I'm right on this.

Secondly, so do you wait after the Rapture to get saved? Do you look at things and say, "Well, I'm not sure about this. Let's just wait. If the Rapture happens, I'll know it's true and then I'll get saved."

Is that wise? That is just beyond dumb. If you do that, the first thing that's going to happen is now you've got to live through the 70th Week and you could have avoided it! So that doesn't make any sense.

But even more fundamentally, if you say, "Well, I'm going to wait and decide later," raise your hand and tell me the day you're going to die. You don't know, so you may not make it to the Rapture. In fact, everyone in time past who has thought that has so far been wrong.

II Corinthians 6: [2] (For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee: behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.)

So, according to Scripture, when is the proper time to get saved? Now, immediately, if not sooner! You don't know if you're going to live another day.

I was once on a doorstep talking to a young lady and she said, "I hear you but I'm going to get saved later in life," and she was saying essentially that she had some things she wanted to do. Is that wise? I mean, that's just very, very foolish because you don't know how long you have.

Root cause of the problem

I had to work today and snuck out to my car to hear a bit of Shorewood live on YouTube and happened to get some really unexpected sad news for me that made me instantly cry.

The crying could not have come at a worst time since I just started coming down with a cold in the night and woke up today with a sore scratchy throat. This is the first cold I've had since last September so I guess I should be grateful and expectant of one.

The sad news is Pastor Jordan, if I heard it correctly, announced he is stepping back from his preaching ministry at the church and might not be teaching on Sunday mornings for at least a period or more after this September.

Just another thing for me to adjust to as someone who works at a national retail chain that can't stand for me to ever have a Saturday or Sunday off and is now requiring that I work on Sundays due to "prime time" needs for "coverage."

Honestly, I feel like I've never been given half a chance of fitting into any local grace assembly in Ohio because of the pressures of my job that always demands me working Thursdays through Sundays in exchange for a "cushy" 9 to 5 hourly schedule that accommodates the needs of my 89-year-old mother who I live with as a single woman now 62 years old.

I know I am a crybaby but this makes me cry and this is not a good time to cry when I'm coming down with a definite cold.

*****

Here's a totally unrelated post from a study given by Richard Jordan in the last year and will have a new article tomorrow:

Isaiah 5: [20] Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!

[21] Woe unto them that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight!
[22] Woe unto them that are mighty to drink wine, and men of strength to mingle strong drink:
[23] Which justify the wicked for reward, and take away the righteousness of the righteous from him!

Verse 22 is sarcasm; it’s the Lord’s way of being sarcastic. You got these guys here who are considered heroes; the ones considered valiant ones, and the leaders in your culture, and they’re leading you into all this dissipation and what are they doing it for?

“They justify the wicked for reward.” There’s a completely corrupt government, legal system, society. That’s the result of all these things.

Verse 24: [24] Therefore as the fire devoureth the stubble, and the flame consumeth the chaff, so their root shall be as rottenness, and their blossom shall go up as dust: because they have cast away the law of the LORD of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel.

The unseen source of the life, the root, is going to be rottenness. What’s giving life to the culture of this sinful nation is rotten, so the bloom, the outward manifestation of the fruit, is dust; it’s nothing.

The root cause of the problem is they’ve cast away the law of the Lord. They’re just a bunch of rotten dirt bags because they despise God’s Word; they want nothing to do with His Word.

[14] Therefore hell hath enlarged herself, and opened her mouth without measure: and their glory, and their multitude, and their pomp, and he that rejoiceth, shall descend into it.
[15] And the mean man shall be brought down, and the mighty man shall be humbled, and the eyes of the lofty shall be humbled:

The satanic policy of evil opens its mouth wide; it can take all comers. And the glory, and the multitude, and the pomp of all the stuff they’re doing goes down to destruction.

[25] Therefore is the anger of the LORD kindled against his people, and he hath stretched forth his hand against them, and hath smitten them: and the hills did tremble, and their carcases were torn in the midst of the streets. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.

All of this stuff they’re seeing, the judgments they’re seeing in these first four courses of judgment—he says that’s just Act 1. Act 2 is going to start in verse 27.

They’re not in the fifth course yet and He keeps holding out that opportunity: “but his hand is stetched out still.”

[26] And he will lift up an ensign to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly:

He’s still the sovereign of those nations and He’s going to summon those nations to come and take the nation Israel and scatter them in the earth.

[27] None shall be weary nor stumble among them; none shall slumber nor sleep; neither shall the girdle of their loins be loosed, nor the latchet of their shoes be broken:

The whole idea there is they’re going to come, and there’s no stopping them because “they’ve despised my Word.” 

False, lazy charges all through church history

Since last Sunday's post ("Because church history says 'Eww' to us Paulicians") continues to receive very high readership, I thought I'd write up a portion of Pastor Bryan Ross' actual seminar on the Paulicians (a "dissenting sect" dating from 653 A.D.) that was given at the 2018 Soldiers Training Conference in Chicago. Here's the outtake:

The Paulicians were Pauline dispensationalists. I've come to believe as a result of my studies and research into these things that the Byzantine text type, which contains the multiplicity of Greek manuscript copies that support the King James Bible, was actually preserved by Pauline dispensationalists.

This is a big deal because what this means is, not only were these brothers in line with us to a large degree doctrinally, but they also did one of the most important things in church history and that's preserve the correct text of the Bible and thereby spreading into Europe the seeds of the Reformation and supporting the Bible that we've come to know, love, use and appreciate.

If you go through church history, you'll see any time that the organized church possessed the power of the state it spelled disaster for groups of true Bible-believing Christians because the state church was able to use their power to persecute those with whom they disagreed.

When the church had the power of the state it was able to command and use its force to the suppression of any who dissented from its system or in any way refused to comply with their demands.

For those who know anything about the history of the Middle Ages, you know that the Catholic Church was the state for well over a thousand years of European history and they did not hesitate in any way to use their power to persecute groups of Believers that disagreed with them.

The true histories of these groups are very hard to discern in some cases because the organized church not only was persecuting them but was persecuting their writings. When they would execute the heretics, as they called them, they would also to seek to destroy and obliterate their writings.

To a large degree groups like the Paulicians have not been allowed to speak for themselves in church history because of the systematic way the organized church tried to erase any witness of them in church history.

Not only do they try to erase their writings, but then they ascribe names and beliefs to them that they did not take or would not have used for themselves.

They're not able to speak for themselves and strange doctrines ascribed to them, in the idea of them being "new" or "aberrant" or "strange" or "weird" or "heretical", is information put upon them by their enemies.

Now you understand this, right? Do people say all kinds of things about us that aren't true? Have you ever heard somebody say that you cut out Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? That you don't believe the whole Bible? That you think there's a different God in the Old Testament than in the New Testament? 

These types of false charges, things that are frankly lazy charges from people who don't really care to hear about what we have to say or look into it, these are not new; they've been made all throughout church history by the adversaries of the truth who've sought to suppress it; who've sought to lord over Bible-believing Christians as a result.

Think about the word Paulician. Why would you call somebody a Paulician? Because of what they believed about Paul, right?

If you know anything about church history in general you've probably heard of Philip Schaff, who wrote what is still viewed today, over a hundred years later, as the sort of quintessential church history volume or set on the matter.

Schaff, in chapter 12 of volume four of his six-volume church history, devotes an entire section of the chapter to discussing the quote "heretical beliefs of the Paulicians."

He says, "There were radical heretical sects which mixed Christianity with heathen notions, disavowed all connection with the historic church and set themselves up against it as rival communities." 

No. 1, Schaff is judging who is heretical and who is not based upon where they stand in light of quote "Catholic orthodoxy." So, the organized sacerdotal system of the Roman Church is viewed as orthodoxy and anybody that was deviated from that is therefore a heretic.

Schaff says he considers Catholic orthodoxy "historic Christianity." I don't think there's anybody in this room who would advocate that we judge who's heretical and who isn't based upon the standard of Rome. If that's the standard of who's heretical, then everyone who disagrees with Rome is heretical, right?

*****

Here's an outtake from the same conference of a seminar led by Richard Jordan:

The problem people have with II Timothy 3:16 is the verb tense "is" because that says all scripture IS (present tense) given by inspiration.

II Timothy 3: [16] All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:

People have a problem with that verse because they do not understand inspiration in the Bible sense. There's not a definition of inspiration in any book of theology or book about inspiration that I've ever read that is what the Scripture says.

They always talk about the process of how things came about. The word inspiration (in-spirit-ation) means God took His spirit and put it in some words.

People say "God-breathed." What does that mean? He breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and man became a living soul.

God breathed His life into some words. The recording of them on the page, the in-script-uration was really the preservation.

It's an interesting thing. He spoke some words that had His life in them and then He caused them to be written down, and that writing them down was the act of preservation, and when people have a doctrine of inspiration and no doctrine of preservation, well, you didn't have a doctrine of in-script-uration.

So there's this total confusion about all that stuff, and because they don't understand the Bible meaning of it, they go off into hysterics.

When you understand inspiration and preservation, then you can look at history and identify it working in history.

You got a whole big old pile of manuscripts. You pile them up one way, you get the Critical Text. Pile them up another way, you get the Received Text. Which way should you organize them? 

Well, if you've got a doctrine in the Bible that tells you which way to organize it, the question is answered. Convictions answer a lot of questions before they're asked.

So if you get the doctrine of preservation, you know the way to organize the Bible is this way and not that way, and you see it in history. Well, that's what we're talking about in ministry. Here's what God says to do.

Here's what God says is happening, so I look at the culture around me and I see it happening and I understand that that's the confirmation of what God's Word says and then it tells me how to operate in it.

In II Timothy, Paul talks about the "perilous times" and people "every learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth," and then he talks about verse 13: "But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived."

In the next verse he says "But continue thou": [14] But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;

You see that? You're going to live in a world that's like verse 13, but verse 14 is what you do in that world. So, what do you first have to do? Learn them.