THE INTERESTING
INFORMATION CHRISTIAN MINISTRY
CONFIRMING
BIBLICAL TRUTH
May
15, 2013
SECTION 1 – INTERESTTING
INFORMATION WEEKLY ARTILCLES
SECTION 2 – SUMMARIES/BOOK
REVIEWS/SPECIAL ARTICLES/CHRISTIAN LINKS
SECTION
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INTERESTING
INFORMATION 5/15/2013
The following material is provided for
information purposes only. Any
conclusions or opinions formed should be based on the principles as outlined in
Acts 17:11. The material is intended for
use as a witnessing tool and to keep you informed so you will not be unaware
(Luke 21:34) of what is happening according to Scripture.
C C
INTERESTING ARTICLES……
·
Has
America reached its “Trigger Point”?
·
Margaret Thatcher’s letter to 9 yr. old
about Jesus
·
Islam in the United States
·
White House suppressing evidence of ETS?
·
LESSONS WE LEARN FROM GETHSEMANE
INTERESTING ARTICLES……
HAS OUR NATION REACHED THE TRIGGER
POINT? (Excerpt)
Lamb & Lion Ministries - In 2003, a book of mine was published
that was titled America the Beautiful? The United States in Bible Prophecy.
I began the book by writing about how God deals with nations. I showed
from Scripture a series of seven principles that govern how God relates to a
nation. I pointed out that when a nation begins to rebel against God, He will
send prophets to call the people to repentance, and if they ignore the
prophets, He will then send remedial judgments. If the people persist in
their rebellion there will come a "trigger point" when God will
deliver the nation from judgment to destruction.
The trigger point is revealed in the book of Nahum.
The prophet Nahum came on the scene 150 years after Jonah. Like Jonah, he was
called of God to preach to Nineveh. But, unlike Jonah, he was not sent to call
the people to repentance. Rather, he was told to inform them that the time had
arrived for their destruction. This warning was in accordance with God's
character, for He never pours out His wrath without warning.
In Nahum 1:11 God reveals the reason for His unalterable decision to destroy
the city and its empire: "From you
has gone forth one who plotted evil against the Lord, a wicked counselor." Thus, the trigger point of God's
wrath is when neglect or rejection of Him turns to war against Him. In
response, God declared, "Your wound
is incurable"
(Nahum 3:19). In short, their fate was sealed.
A contemporary of Nahum's, the prophet Jeremiah, spoke of the same principle
regarding God's relationship to Judah. He proclaimed that the nation's wound
was "incurable" (Jeremiah 30:12). He added, "There is no one to plead your cause, no healing for
your sore, no recovery for you" (Jeremiah 30:13).
The Point of No Return
One chilling point is that the Bible teaches that when a nation reaches this
point of no return — this point where "the wound becomes incurable" — prayer is no longer of any avail. Thus, Jeremiah was told by God that he
was not to pray for the deliverance of Judah! "Do not pray for this people, and do not lift up a
cry or prayer for them, and do not intercede with Me;
for I do not hear you" (Jeremiah 7:16). Later, God made this same point again in even
stronger terms: "Even though Moses
and Samuel were to stand before Me, My heart would not be with this people;
send them away from My presence and let them go!" (Jeremiah 15:1).
Ezekiel was told the same thing when he tried to pray for Judah, but in even
stronger terms. God named three of the most righteous men who had ever lived —
Job, Noah, and Daniel — and He told Ezekiel that even their prayers could not
deliver the nation from His wrath (Ezekiel 14:12-21). "I have set My face against
them," the Lord
concluded (Ezekiel 15:7).
God is patient and longsuffering. But He cannot be mocked. "Whatever you devise against the Lord, He will make
a complete end of it"
(Nahum 1:9). God will ultimately deal with the sin of every nation. "The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and the Lord will by no means leave the guilty
unpunished"
(Nahum 1:3). Some nations will be destroyed before the Great Tribulation
begins, but all nations will taste God's wrath during that terrible period of
international judgment.
I believe the trigger point for our nation occurred in November 2012 when
President Obama was re-elected. We have ignored the prophets and the remedial
judgments. God has responded by giving us the kind of leader we deserve. We
are now positioned to be delivered from judgment to destruction.
MARGARET THATCHER'S LETTER TO
NINE-YEAR-OLD BOY ABOUT JESUS
When Margaret Thatcher wrote to a young boy 32 years ago
admitting that she would “never be perfect” she could not have imagined her
words would live on after her death.
Weekend
News Today – May 1, 2013 -- But the handwritten letter to nine-year-old, David Liddelow, in which the former Prime Minister spoke of her
Christian faith, has taken center stage at her funeral in Paul’s Cathedral.
The
note, written in April 1980, less than a year into her premiership, was read
from the pulpit by the Bishop of London, the Rt Rev
Richard Chartres, during his sermon at the service.
He
hailed it as an example of her ability, even while in power, to “reach out” to
the young and those not always deemed “important”.
But
it also gives a glimpse of her personal religious faith, grounded in the
Methodism of her parents.
She
spoke of constantly striving to live up to an ideal and “trying even harder” to
follow the “perfect example” she said she found in Jesus.
Its
tone contrasts dramatically with that adopted by other politicians, summed up
by Tony Blair’s chief Downing Street spin doctor Alastair Campbell years later
when he said: “We don’t do God.”
David,
a vicar’s son from Hertfordshire, had written to Mrs. Thatcher to ask her
whether she had ever sinned.
“Last
night when we were saying prayers, my daddy said everyone has done wrong things
except Jesus,” he wrote.
“I
said I don’t think you have done bad things because you are the Prime Minister.
“Am I right or is my daddy?”
His
question prompted laughter from the congregation when it was read out by the
bishop.
But
to the amazement of Mr. Liddelow, who now lives in
Australia and works as a quantity surveyor, she wrote back to him remarking:
“What a difficult question you ask, but I will try to answer it.”
She
went on: “However good we try to be, we can never be as kind, gentle and wise
as Jesus. “There will be times when we do or say something we wish we hadn’t
done and we shall be sorry and try not to do it again.
“We
do our best but our best is not as good as his daily life. “If you and I were
to paint a picture, it wouldn’t be as good as the picture of great artists. So
our lives can’t be as good as the life of Jesus.”
“As
Prime Minister I try very hard to do things right, and because Jesus gave us a
perfect example, I try even harder.
ISLAM IN THE UNITED STATES (Excerpt)
Political correctness
is what dictates conduct in the highest echelons of leadership in the United
States.
The Jewish Press – Feb. 14, 2013 -- John Walker Lindh is a citizen of the United States who was born in
Washington, D.C. in the year 1981. Lindh was not born
a Muslim. He converted when he was 16 years old and then traveled
to Yemen in order to learn Arabic. In 2000, he traveled to Afghanistan and
underwent an educational and training course in al-Farouq,
an al-Qaeda training camp. He made contact with the organization of Mujahadeen in Pakistan, and was caught in 2001 in
Afghanistan serving as a jihadist with the Taliban. He was convicted of
fighting for an illegal organization and sentenced to twenty years in the Terre
Haute prison in the state of Indiana.
In prison, Lindh continued to preach
to his fellow prisoners and exhort them to be persistent in their jihad against
the United States and the jihad to enforce Muslim Shari’a
law on all of humanity. As a result, the prison authorities limited his
participation in public prayer to only one time per week, on Friday. He
appealed to the court, demanding to be allowed to participate in public prayer
five times a day. The judge of the federal court, Jane Magnus-Stinson, found –
contrary to the opinion of the prison authorities – that despite the fact that Lindh does not recognize the legality of the American court
or the authority of her honor the judge, he nevertheless has the right to pray
in public and to meet with his comrades five times every day, even if it means
that the prison must beef up its security arrangements in order to accommodate
his wishes.
This is not an isolated case. The United States has been driven
for the past several years by “political correctness,” which censors any
reference to a person’s faith, even if this faith instigates him to wage holy
war against the United States. According to this approach, if someone claims
that the United States is the “little Satan,” Americans
must accept this characterization as correct and legitimate, and if the
American is uncomfortable with this, he should do some soul searching to
ascertain the reason that caused the Other – who is clearly miserable, hungry
and neglected because of the crimes of the United States – to regard him as
Satan.
Political correctness is what dictates conduct in the
highest echelons of leadership in the United States: most citizens of the
country consider it to be unacceptable to say that President Obama comes from a
Muslim family, and believe that it is not legitimate to refer
to Obama’s religion in any way. This is why the campaign against Obama
that was based on this fact failed to prevent him from being re-elected.
The federal investigative bodies have also been seized by
American political correctness; and two years ago, in keeping with instructions from above, training programs for the FBI agents and
other investigative agencies were changed, so that today, an interrogator is
forbidden to relate to the religion or beliefs of someone under investigation,
even if his faith or beliefs actually incite him to murderous jihad
against the state. Authorities of the state forbid the use of the expression
“Islamic terror,” and laundered expressions such as “ideological violence” must
be used instead.
The slaughter that Major Nidal
Malik Hasan perpetrated against his comrades at the
Fort Hood base in Texas in order to prevent them from going to Afghanistan, is
described by the authorities as “workplace violence.” For the adherents of
political correctness, the fact that Hasan was in
contact with Anwar Awlaki, the Yemeni-American
terrorist who was subsequently eliminated, does not contradict the theory of
political correctness that characterizes Islam as a religion of peace and love,
hugs and kisses. “Islam” – so they believe – is based on the Arabic word “salam,” which means “peace,” because the superficiality
that characterizes the American media discourages people from looking it up and
discovering that the real meaning of the word “Islam” is “surrender” or
“submission.”
Together with an American colleague, an attorney by the name of
David Yerushalmi, I published an article about two
years ago, “Shari’a and Violence in Mosques of the
United States.” This article is based on analysis of data and material
that was collected in approximately one hundred mosques across the United
States. Included in this material are two interesting pamphlets, in clear
English. One is “40 Hadiths on Jihad” (a hadith is part of the Islamic oral
tradition that relates to the sayings and actions of the Prophet Muhammad).
This and this booklet is a song of praise to jihad, to the jihadist and to his
reward in the world to come. Jihad in this booklet is not against illness,
poverty, neglect and corruption, and not even against the evil inclination, but
against anyone who is not Muslim, and implicitly, every American who does not
convert to Islam.
Another booklet that is distributed in mosques
of the United States is entitled “What should you do if you are arrested or
investigated by the racist, fascist and criminal police, or the racist, fascist
FBI?” This guide book is written – according to what is printed on the title
page – by Dr. al-Hajj Idris Muhammad, and is issued
by the publishing house “al-Amin” in New York. In this booklet the writer
instructs the reader in how to withstand interrogation relating to his religion
and jihad against the “Great Satan,” by exploiting the rights of freedom of
speech and freedom of expression. These rights are considered the most
important rights in the United States, even if by exercising them, the United
States is rendered less able to fight the enemies who conduct their jihad
against it from within and from its prisons.
WHITE HOUSE SUPPRESSING EVIDENCE OF ETS
(Excerpt)
Prophecy Update – May 3, 2013 -- Even as most Americans wonder what planet politicians are
from, is it possible that the government is squelching evidence of
extraterrestrials visiting Earth? One former
presidential hopeful says yes – and that the conspiracy goes all the way to the
top.
Former Sen.
Mike Gravel (D-Alaska) says the White House has helped keep the truth about the
“extraterrestrial influence that is investigating our planet” from the public.
“It goes right
to the White House, and of course, once the White House takes a position, ‘well
there's nothing going on’...it just goes down the chain of command, everyone
stands toe,” Gravel tells Top Line.
Gravel is one
of six former congress representatives who were paid $20,000 by the UFO
advocacy group Paradigm Research to participate in a Congressional-style
Citizen Hearing on Disclosure in Washington this week, where witness after
witness has presented first-hand accounts of UFO sightings and extraterrestrial
visits.
Gravel says
the strongest accounts of alien encounters are from former military officers,
such as retired Air Force Capt. Robert Salas, who testified that UFOs
temporarily disabled nuclear weapons on his watch.
“The smoking
gun of the whole issue, which is when they saw hovering space craft in Wyoming
and South Dakota over the ICBM missile silos that the missiles couldn't work,”
Gravel says.
Gravel says
the media has aided what he sees as a government cover-up by not taking reports
of ET encounters seriously.
“What we're
faced with here is, in areas of the media, and the government too, an effort to
marginalize and ridicule people who have specific knowledge,” he says.
2Cr 11:14 And no marvel; for Satan himself is
transformed into an angel of light.
Matthew Henry:
And no marvel (says
the apostle); hypocrisy is a thing not to be much wondered at in this world,
especially when we consider the great influence Satan has upon the minds of
many, who rules in the hearts of the
children of disobedience. As he can turn himself into any shape, and put
on almost any form, and look sometimes like an angel of light, in order to
promote his kingdom of darkness, so he will teach his ministers and instruments
to do the same
RARE FIND OF TEMPLE ERA ARTIFACTS NEAR JERUSALEM
Arutz Sheva – Dec
26, 2012 -- The discovery, like many others, was made during road excavation,
this time at a new section of the Tel Aviv-Jerusalem Highway, known as Highway
1. The archaeological site is known as Tel Motza, at
the Motza turnoff less than five miles west of
Jerusalem.
A ritual building and a cache of sacred vessels date back
approximately 2,750 years.
"The ritual building at Tel Motza
is an unusual and striking find, in light of the fact that there are hardly any
remains of ritual buildings of the period in Judae at
the time of the First Temple," according to Anna Eirikh,
Dr. Hamoudi Khalaily and Shua Kisilevitz, directors of the
excavation on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority.
“The uniqueness of the structure is even more remarkable because
of the vicinity of the site's proximity to the capital city of Jerusalem, which
acted as the Kingdom's main sacred center at the time,” they added. According
to the archaeologists, "Among other finds, the site has yielded pottery
figurines of men, one of them bearded, whose significance is still unknown."
Tel Motza and the surrounding region
are renowned for their prime archaeological importance. Many finds have
previously been uncovered at the site, from a variety of different periods.
From the 1990s to the beginning of the present millennium, the site was
excavated in preparation for the new route taken by Highway 1.
At the time, the site's archaeologists proposed once more
identifying the site with the Biblical settlement "Mozah"
mentioned in the Book of Joshua – a town in the tribal lands of Benjamin
bordering on Judaea (Joshua 18: 26). The proposal was based, among other
things, on the discovery at the site of a public building, a large structure
with storehouses, and a considerable number of silos.
Archaeologists identified the site as a storehouse, run by
high-ranking officials, for Jerusalem's grain supplies.
The current excavations have revealed evidence that provides
another aspect to our understanding of the site. "The current
excavation has revealed part of a large structure, from the early days of the
monarchic period (Iron Age IIA),” the archaeologists said. “The walls of the
structure are massive, and it includes a wide, east-facing entrance, conforming
to the tradition of temple construction in the ancient Near East: the rays of
the sun rising in the east would have illuminated the object placed inside the
temple first, symbolizing the divine presence within.
“A square structure which was probably an altar was exposed in
the temple courtyard, and the cache of sacred vessels was found near the
structure. The assemblage includes ritual pottery vessels, with fragments of
chalices (bowls on a high base which were used in sacred rituals), decorated
ritual pedestals, and a number of pottery figurines of two kinds: the first,
small heads in human form (anthropomorphic) with a flat headdress and curling
hair; the second, figurines of animals (zoomorphic) – mainly of harnessed
animals.”
The archeologists stress that "The find of the sacred
structure together with the accompanying cache of sacred vessels, and
especially the significant coastal influence evident in the anthropomorphic
figurines, still require extensive research."
Ritual elements in the Kingdom of Judah are recorded in
archaeological research, especially from the numerous finds of pottery
figurines and other sacred objects found at many sites in Israel, and these are
usually attributed to domestic rituals.
However, the remains of ritual platforms and temples used for
ritual ceremonies have only been found at a few sites of this period.
According to the site's directors, "The finds recently
discovered at Tel Motza provide rare archaeological
evidence for the existence of temples and ritual enclosures in the Kingdom of
Judah in general, and in the Jerusalem region in particular, prior to the
religious reforms throughout the kingdom at the end of the monarchic period (at
the time of Hezekiah and Isaiah), which abolished all ritual sites,
concentrating ritual practices solely at the Temple in Jerusalem."
LESSONS WE LEARN IN GETHSEMANE
When you are
suffering, do you turn to God’s Word? That is the only source we can count on
to bring life, hope, and promise to otherwise hopeless situations. Its
principles illustrate how to—and how not to—deal with trials. When we respond
God’s way, the difficulty that threatened to harm us actually enriches our
character and enables us to do greater works for Him.
I believe that
the most intense suffering ever recorded was that of Jesus in the garden of
Gethsemane. Christ knew that by bearing our sin, He was about to endure not
only a gruesome and horrific crucifixion but also the full force of God’s
wrath. Even more devastating, He’d be separated from His Father for the first
and only time since eternity past. That’s something no other child of God will
ever have to endure, because Jesus’ agony achieved mankind’s redemption. So we
know that whatever trial faces us, God will be by our side, supporting us
through it.
Let Jesus’
Gethsemane experience be your example in times of trouble. Our Savior trusted
His Father fully and accepted His will. Remember, the Father is in control. He
limits the length and intensity of the pain. And, while He hurts to see His
children suffer, He loves us enough to allow the difficulty. There is a
beautiful harvest of growth and purpose if we embrace His road for us.
What trial are
you facing? Do you trust that God is in control? Our Father allows pain because
He loves us. Only He knows whether hardship or blessing will bring about the
needed changes in our lives. And He will spare no experience, effort, or
heartache to conform us to His Son’s likeness.
In Touch
Ministry
PRIOR ISSUE
INTERESTING
INFORMATION 5/8/2013
C C
“WE WILL NOT RESUSCITATE”
Shock
Video: Baby Born Alive After Failed Abortion
INTERESTING ARTICLES……
·
The
impossibility of loving Jesus before conversion
·
Drinking and Jesus turning water to wine
·
Michelle Obama to be DEM nominee in
2016?
·
California to begin condom delivery to
teens
·
Hitler’s food taster says he was a
vulgar vegetarian
·
Stars that are too fast
·
UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
INTERESTING ARTICLES……
THE IMPOSSIBILITY OF LOVING JESUS BEFORE
CONVERSION (Excerpt)
No one loves Jesus before he gets converted. No
one. That's because only the Holy Spirit dwelling on the inside of you
can give you a love for Jesus Christ. It is impossible to have that love
without the work of the Spirit. Period.
The Christian
Post – Apr. 29, 2013 -- The new birth is nothing any of us can brag about as
though we did something to deserve it, or make it happen. We simply received
the good news that was presented to us in the message of the Gospel. That is how
a person gets converted. Right now at this very moment, you are either
spiritually alive in Christ or spiritually dead in your sin. There is no third
option.
We are all
lawbreakers. Once we get that point in our heart and in our head, we are one
step closer to embracing the good news of forgiveness through faith in Jesus
Christ. The Holy Spirit brings us to Jesus. He works the miracle of the new
birth. The next thing we know, Jesus is our Savior. That's when we start
wanting to follow Him because of what He has done for us. We get motivated the
instant we get born again.
So are you
born again? Do you know that Christ died for your sins, and are
you trusting in Him to forgive you? If not, it is currently impossible
for you to love Jesus. You may admire Him, or long to be like Him. But you
don't love Him. It simply cannot happen until you enter a relationship with
Him. That's just the way it works within the soul.
God commands
us to love Him with all of our heart, soul, and mind. And yet, we cannot fulfill
it. We have a "love deficiency" when it comes to God. We love
ourselves. We love our things. But we don't love God. That is, until He places
His love within us.
Spiritual
conversion is a miracle. It changes people. It completely transforms us into a
new creation. We still have the old nature within us, but we now have the life
of God and the presence of God within us as well. And that is where this love
for Jesus originates. It never originates within us, but must be placed within
us as God comes to dwell in us.
In
order to be converted, you must realize you are a sinner. You must realize you
need God. You need to see what Jesus did in order to rescue you from your sin.
Do you see it? Do you believe it? Or is the cross of Christ and His empty tomb
still pretty fuzzy to you? Once you latch on to this bedrock of Christianity
through faith, you will "go to the moon" with God. You enter an
entirely new dimension of reality. It's God reality,
and His dimension of love. Without conversion, man lives far below where God
would like to bring him.
Are
you resisting God? If so, the message of salvation through Jesus may irritate
you a little, or a lot. That's because it doesn't make sense to you yet. It
perhaps even seems foolish to you. That's because you are not yet converted.
"The message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but
to us who are being saved it is the power of God." (1 Cor. 1:18)
DRINKING AND JESUS TURNING WATER TO WINE
The late comedian, Milton Berle, once
said he had a friend who swore the Bible condoned getting drunk. He argued the
Scriptures taught that the one who sins should be stoned.
Christian Post
– Apr. 20, 2013 -- I've heard a lot of erroneous arguments myself made from the
Bible in favor of drinking. But none more egregious than the one that advocates
Jesus endorsed imbibing when he made water into wine at the wedding in Cana. I
don't always have the occasion to challenge this assertion, but when I do, I
like to ask the proponent to show me, prove that Jesus made an intoxicating
beverage that was harmful. Never has anyone ever been able to do more than show
the argument is based squarely on assumption. The facts just don't sustain it.
The Greek word
translated wine in chapter 2 of John's Gospel is the word oinos –
a generic term that does not always refer to a fermented beverage. John D.
Freeman has accurately written:
"Throughout
ancient times the word was used to refer to fruit juices, primarily grape
juice, without regard to whether or not it was fermented, or had turned to
vinegar. Recipes for preparing various kinds of wines without fermentation have
been preserved by writers of antiquity; and the common practice of boiling
their wines, and also of largely diluting them, showed that the action of
fermentation was not regarded by the ancients as essential to the existence of oinos. Many authorities agree that the Greek use of oinos included fresh grape juice."
So whether one
believes that Jesus made an intoxicating wine or a non-intoxicating wine at the
wedding in Cana is purely a matter of personal interpretation. For the Bible
never definitively says that Jesus turned water into alcoholic wine.
There are,
however, a number of reasons why this writer believes the preponderance of the
evidence is against Jesus having made an intoxicating beverage.
There is a
sense in which God himself turns water into wine year after year in vineyards
everywhere around the world. The rains fall from the heavens, the roots take in
the moisture, the sunshine, and process the elements. Slowly comes the bloom on
the branches, the grapes then form and ripen. In the miracle at Cana, Jesus
simply sped up the process.
Fermentation,
however, is something that comes about via decomposition. It makes no sense
that Jesus would create something pure and at the peak of perfection and then
drive it rapidly through the course of fermentation. It's true he could have
done it, but why would he do such a thing? The miracle was meant to show the
glory of Christ's person. Making what would have amounted to 120 gallons of a
dangerous drug, while giving no restriction for its use, certainly isn't
consistent with a manifestation of his magnificence. It makes no sense and runs
counter to Christ's spotless integrity to purposely corrupt what was natural
and healthy for a recreational mind-altering substance.
The concept
itself defames the very character of Jesus and puts him in violation of the
spirit, if not the letter of the law of God, which reads, "Woe to him who
gives drink to his neighbors, pouring it from the wineskin till they are drunk,
so that he can gaze on their naked bodies. You will be filled with shame
instead of glory" (Hab. 2:15, 16).
With something
of a modern parallel, David Brumbelow in his book, Ancient
Wine and the Bible, states the scenario Jesus would have never created at
the wedding in Cana:
"You can
be assured that as the guest returned home they were not guilty of drunk
walking, drunk donkey riding, or drunk chariot racing.
No drunk men went home that day and beat their wives
and children."
Moreover, if
one was to assume Jesus drank such wine in participation with the wedding
guests, as some have argued, then that act in itself would have violated
Proverbs 31:4-5, which reads, "It is not for kings, O Lemuel
– not for kings to drink wine, not for rulers to crave beer, lest they drink
and forget what the law decrees, and deprive all the oppressed of their
rights." Is not Christ the King of kings? Is it reasonable to think the
very Son of God would take into his body a recreational intoxicant, risk
falling into sin, and endanger the great mission of the redemption of mankind?
Banish the thought!
Moreover, it
should also be noted that Jesus' first miracle – the turning of the water into
wine – was a sign of the new covenant God was making. The writer of Hebrews
explains, "For this reason Christ is the mediator of a new covenant, that
those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance – now that he
has died as a ransom to set them free from the sins committed under the first
covenant" (Heb. 9:15). It besmirches the fresh, sweet, stainless,
incorruptible nature of the new covenant that Christ brings with a beverage of
fermentation. The word "ferment" itself means agitation, unrest,
commotion, tumult, turmoil and mayhem. These are all matters the new covenant
in Christ remedies, erases, and corrects in life. If the miracle of turning
water into wine was the creation of a beverage inflamed with alcohol, then
these negative associations would seem to tarnish the purity of that holy
covenant.
This author
understands many fine, even devout Christian, people disagree with the argument
that the wine Jesus miraculously provided at Cana was not fermented or
intoxicating. But there is nothing in John's account or the Bible's teachings as
a whole, where one may conclusively show an endorsement for the recreational
use of alcoholic beverages. Hardly! Orin B. Whitmore has eloquently summarized
the matter, saying:
"Is all
wine 'a mocker'? [Proverbs 20:1] Then it was a 'a mocker' that Jesus made for
the guest at the wedding feast in Cana, and 'a mocker' which Jesus introduced
to his disciples at the Passover table, and bade them to drink. Does all wine
'bite like a serpent' and 'sting like an adder'? [Proverbs 23:32] Then Jesus
made wine for the guests at Cana with the 'bite of a serpent' and the 'sting of
an adder' in it. Do you believe it? No, a thousand times no! Did Jesus give to
His disciples a cup in which were the 'bite of a serpent and the sting of an
adder,' and tell them that cup contained that which represented his blood, His
life-giving blood – shed for the remission of their sins? Do you believe it?
No…"
According to
the World Health Organization, alcohol today is responsible for nearly 4% of
deaths worldwide, more than AIDS, tuberculosis, or violence. In the United States, its abuse is the third
leading cause of preventable death and precipitates an economic drain on the
nation's resources of approximately $223.5 billion annually. [5] This doesn't
even account for the costs of heartache that it endlessly brings to millions
and millions of people.
If one
believes the wine Jesus miraculously made at Cana was intoxicating in nature,
much like those of today, then the burden of proof lies with those who believe
this to decisively demonstrate it in the text, as well as explain why it seems
to find no support in the entire context of Scripture. Furthermore, they must
effectively answer the question of why Jesus would create and encourage the use
of a hazardous and deadly drug.
For this
writer, effectively addressing these assertions from Scripture is about as
provable as saying the Bible endorses drunkenness because it instructs the
person who sins to be stoned. The preponderance of the evidence just can't
sustain such claims and makes them somewhat laughable.
OBAMA TO BE
DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE IN 2016? (Excerpt)
Look who's ahead in early poll for next election
WND – May 2, 2013 -- A new poll of Democrats on their preferred
candidates for the 2016 presidential race has produced the Obama name, which
pollster Fritz Wenzel described as “bizarre.”
The
results come from a poll by Wenzel of Wenzel Strategies, who found that Hillary
Clinton is winning 55 percent of the support from respondents who said they
plan to vote in the Democrat Party primary.
But
in the No. 2 position was Michelle Obama, with support from 19 percent of the
respondents.
“In
a limited field of just four candidates – Clinton, Joe Biden, Michelle Obama,
and John Kerry, Michelle Obama finished a very distant second place at 19
percent support. The second-place finish of Obama is every bit as bizarre as
Clinton’s first-place finish is predictable,” he said.
“Joe
Biden’s support by just 8 percent of likely Democratic voters is simply
pathetic, and if John Kerry ever harbored a thought that his current role as
Secretary of State might support a presidential comeback, this survey shows he
should discard such a thought,” Wenzel said.
Only
some 2 percent said they would pick Kerry.
WND
reported earlier that political junkies were creating a buzz over a “dream”
ticket of Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama.
According
to the Washington Examiner, former Clinton spokeswoman Karen Finney said, “All
due respect for President Obama and Vice President Biden, but that would truly
be a dream team for America.”
Democratic
strategist Chris Lehane told the paper, “More than
anything else, this reflects the growing awareness that it is time for the
glass ceiling of the last old boys club to be firmly shattered.”
There
are already bumper stickers in the marketplace with messages such as
“2016-Hillary Clinton and Michelle Obama,” and “Hillary-Michelle 2016 First
Lady Ticket For President,” and Cafe Press reported a
60 percent hike in sales of the Hillary-Michelle sticker from December to
March, with the largest jump in March.
Some
have suggested putting Mrs. Obama at the top of the ticket and having Mrs.
Clinton run for VP, especially after Michelle announced the Best Picture Oscar
at this year’s Academy Awards.
CALIFORNIA LAW BEGINS CONDOM DELIVERY SERVICE FOR TEENS
A
new California state law is beginning a new initiative allowing teens to get
condoms delivered to their front door.
Weekend
News Today – May 2, 2013 -- Teens as young as 12 years old in San Diego County,
CA can now have the service via a state-run program called California's Condom
Access Project and the teens do not need parental consent.
The
program is for teens between 12 to 19 years old.
"It
[the site] will prompt you for your address and your birth date and if
everything lines up, you'll be able to order and receive a package of free
condoms as well as educational information," said Amy Moy of the
California Family Health Council.
The
project is funded with taxpayer money and targets counties with high numbers of
sexual transmitted diseases among teenagers. San Diego County, CA has the
second highest rate of Chlamydia and the sixth for gonorrhea among teens across
California.
State
officials hope more access to condoms will help lover the number of STD cases.
California law also permits teens to gain access to contraceptives without
parental consent.
The
program is criticism from conservatives for the debate between abstinence and
safe sex and coming between how parents want to educate their children.
The
program runs on a $5,000 yearly budget paid by federal tax dollars. It has
distributed more than 30,000 condoms across California this year.
HITLER’S FOOD TASTER SAYS HE WAS A
VULGAR VEGETARIAN
The Jewish Express – Feb. 10, 2013 --
Hitler’s food taster, one of 12 women who were forced to risk their lives to
make sure no one was trying to poison him, revealed that he a strict vegetarian
with unseemly rude table manners.
Now age 95, Margot Woelk told the London Telegraph that he never ate meat and
she does not remember him eating fish.
He told Joseph Goebbels in
1942 that he planned to make all Germans vegetarians, apparently stemming from
his belief that a non-meat diet was part of Aryan purity. However, his cook
before the war said he ate sausages, stuffed pigeon and ham on occasion.
His table manners were far
less than pure. The London newspaper reported that one German soldier wrote in
a secret diary, “Hitler eats rapidly, mechanically. He abstractedly bites his
fingernails, he runs his index finger back and forth under his nose, and his
table manners are little short of shocking.”
STARS THAT ARE
TOO FAST?
Revelation 21:23 “And the city had no need of the sun,
neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and
the Lamb [is] the light thereof.”
Creation Moments – May 5, 2013 -- The stars are among the most
beautiful and powerful evidences for our Creator. While there are billions of
them, no two seem to be identical. Even so, they can be classified into groups.
The hottest
stars are blue. Our own star, the sun, is an average star. It is classified as
a yellow star. Red giants can be more than a hundred million miles in diameter.
One of the best known red giants in the night sky is Betelgeuse which is 18,000
times brighter than our sun. Good thing it’s 600 light-years away!
Scientists say
that in general, the hot blue stars are young. They say that yellow stars, like
our sun, are middle-aged and when they get old, they will turn into red giants
before exploding. However, changes take billions of years. Their evolutionary
scheme for determining the age of stars recently suffered a serious blow.
Astronomers report that a star called FG Sagittae
went from a blue star to a yellow star in only 36 years! This calls in question
their entire evolutionary scheme for dating stars with vast ages.
According to
the Bible, the entire universe is only about 6,000 years old. And since man
brought sin into the world, everything, including the stars, are
running down. But we need not worry about our sun swelling up, exploding and
killing all life on Earth. The Bible tells us that it will remain until our
Lord returns for us. And in the new creation, there will be no need for the
sun.
UNDERSTANDING THE BIBLE
1 Cor.
2:12-16 - 1 Cor.
3:1-3
“I just don't
understand the Bible.” That’s a comment I hear quite often, even from
believers. It is no mystery why those without Christ are unable to comprehend
biblical concepts, but why do those who know Him struggle? Some people think
that a seminary education is the answer, but I have met several trained pastors
and teachers who didn't really understand the Word of God. They knew facts, but
they had no excitement for the Scriptures or for the Lord.
The key is not
education but obedience. As we act on what we read, the Holy Book comes alive,
and we begin to hear and understand the voice of God. However, if we have not
obeyed what He’s previously revealed to us, why would He give us His deeper
truths? “The secret of the LORD is for those who fear Him” (Ps. 25:14).
So who are “those who fear Him”? They're the ones who obey His commandments and
are promised “a good understanding” (Ps.111:10).
Living
a fleshly lifestyle amounts to disobedience before the Lord. It will cloud our eyes, diminish our
ability to hear, and fog our thinking. Although we, as believers, have full
access to the mind of Christ, attachment to our own sinful ways can prevent us
from tapping into the rich treasures of wisdom that are found in His Word.
As you read
the Scriptures each day, look for God’s instructions. Then with reliance upon
the Holy Spirit, commit to do what He tells you. When you obey His voice, He
will reveal deeper truths, and your understanding will grow. Soon your time in
the Word will become a delight instead of a duty.
In Touch
Ministry
SECTION II - SPECIAL ARTICLES/ BOOK
REVIEWS
IN THIS
SECTION:
· WHAT HAPPENS
AFTER WE DIE? (WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS)
· WHAT’S IN A
NAME?
· "BOB
PIERCE - THIS ONE THING I DO" - A
BOOKREVIEW/SUMMARY
· "THE
HIDDEN CODES OF THE BIBLE" - A BOOK REVIEW/SUMMARY
· "SIGNS
OF THE TIME” - A BOOK REVIEW/SUMMARY
_____________________________________________________________________________________________
WHAT HAPPENS AFTER WE DIE?
By D.E. Davis
For Christians, we are told in Scripture in 2Cr 5:8 that to be
absent from the body is to be present with the Lord. For those who turn away
from God, we are told that they are eternally separated from God and go to a
place called Hell. Rev 14:11 says that
the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and
ever.
The question that everyone ponders is: What really happens after we
die? Do we just lay dormant until the Lord takes us to be with him or until judgement is handed out at the Great White Throne as called
out in Rev. 20:11? Are we conscience? Do we feel, touch, think, recognize loved
ones, know what is happening around us? All questions
that we have ask ourselves, no doubt, at some time in our life.
My own personal review of the Scriptures has led me to believe that
after we die, even though our body may be dead and buried, our Spirit is alive
and fully conscience. Chuck Missler likens this state
of conscienceness to the software that runs the
Computer; once the hardware goes, the software remains intact and available for
further applications.
There are two illustrations in the Bible that makes it clear as to
what happens after death, when we're in the spirit.
The first one is illustrated in the Luke account of Lazarus and the
rich man in Chapter 16. After death, Lazarus, a man of God, is escorted into
Abraham’s Bosom, a holding compartment in Hell for the Believers prior to the
Cross. The non-believing rich man was "buried" and went into a
separate compartment in Hell (Hades), apart from Abraham’s Bosom, where he was
in Torment according to Scripture. Both were in a Spirit state; yet by the
account, they could see each other and speak to each other.
The second account is in Revelation, where John is taken (in the
Spirit) to Heaven to see those things that shall come to pass prior to the
return of Jesus Christ to the Earth, or Second Coming (not the Rapture).
I had to conclude from the study, based on the following Scripture,
that all of the senses we have here on earth will be with us throughout
eternity, even unto death.
·
THE
ABILITY TO LOOK/SEE - Luke 16:23;Rev. 1:12;4:1,4; 5:1,2; 6:1,2,8,9; 7:1,2; 8:2;
9:1,17; 10:1,5; 13:1,2,3;14:1,6; 15:1,2; 16:13; 17:3,6; 18:1; 19:11,17,19;
20:1,4,11,12; 21:1,2,22; 22:8
·
THE
ABILITY TO HEAR - Rev. 1:10; 4:1; 5:11; 6:1,3,5,6,7; 7:4; 9:13,16; 10:4,8;
12:10; 14:2,13; 16:1,5,7; 18:4; 19:1,6; 21: 3; 22:8
·
THE
ABILITY TO BEHOLD ( to obtain knowledge of: understand: perceive) - Rev.
5:6,11; 6:5,8,12; 7:9; 8:13; 13:11
·
THE
ABILITY TO REASON - Luke 16:30
·
THE
ABILITY TO CRY (even though there will be no more crying in Heaven) - Rev.
5:4,5; Luke 16:24
·
THE
ABILITY TO SPEAK - Rev. 5:13; 10:9; 21:6,15; Luke 16:24, 29,30,31
·
THE
ABILITY TO FEEL/TOUCH - Luke 16:23, 24,25
·
THE
ABILITY TO REMEMBER - Luke 16:25
·
THE
ABILITY TO WONDER - Rev. 17:6
·
THE
ABILITY TO WRITE - Rev. 1:11; 10:4; 19:9
·
THE
ABILITY TO QUESTION - Rev. 7:13
·
THE
ABILITY TO TAKE (THE BOOK/ROD) - Rev. 10:8,9,10
·
THE
ABILITY TO FALL (ON KNEES) - Rev. 19:10; 22:8
·
THE
ABILITY TO STAND - Rev. 13:1
·
THE
ABILITY TO WORSHIP - Rev. 19:10; 22:8
·
THE
ABILITY TO PERFORM TASKS - Rev. 11:1
God has promised in 1 Thess 4:16 and 1
Cor. 15:52,53 that one day, we shall be reunited with Him in body and will be
transformed and conformed to Him - in the twinkling of an eye. We are also told
in Scripture that we shall see Him face to face- see the Lamb that was slain
for you and me. We know by His Word, that we will Praise Him, Worship Him and
Rule with Him.
One thing in the study that I found extremely fascinating was the
difference in treatment between Lazarus and the non-believing rich man.
Scripture says that Lazarus was escorted to Heaven by an Angel, but there is no
indication in Scripture about how the rich man arrived at Hell. Could it be
that God had a specific purpose why He chose not to tell us in Scripture?
Finally, knowing that others may have varying interpretations of
these Scriptures, I strongly urge you to review the Scriptures yourselves to
determine what you find as the truth according to God’s Word.
WHAT’S IN
A NAME?
For those who
wish you had some other name because you don't like the name you were given,
you had better think twice. It is most likely
that the name your parents picked out for you was not their choice but God's
choice. Let’ s
face it, the word of the Lord is true.
That's why in Eph. 1:4, God proclaimed that He had chosen us from before
the very beginning of the world.
If you follow
the Genealogy of Adam in Genesis, Chapter 5 (*) you will receive an insight
into what importance God put in names - It's an exciting message:
Genealogy Meaning
Adam Man
Seth Appointed
Enosh Mortal
Kenan Sorrow
Mahalalel The
blessed God
Jared Shall
come down
Enoch Teaching
Methuselah His
Death shall bring
Lamech The Despairing
Noah Rest,
Comfort
Now let us look
at God’s Plan for Redemption:
"Man (is)
appointed mortal sorrow; (but) the Blessed God shall come down teaching (that)
His death shall bring (the) despairing rest."
Let us now look
at the Genealogy of Abraham (*):
Genealogy Meaning
Abraham Predestination
Isaac Called
Jacob Justified
Joseph Glorified
(*) Source:
Chuck Missler’s Briefing package: “A Walk Thru the
Bible”
WELL YOU SAY!
BUT THAT WAS ALL OLD TESTAMENT AND WOULDN'T BE APPLICABLE FOR TODAY - WOULD IT?
Well, let us see.................. As a Christian, did God not choose you by name at the same time he chose Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph - before the very foundation of the world? If God had a purpose for their name, would you expect anything less for your name since He chose you at the same time?
As a Christian,
You ought to thank God daily that you, by your given name, was written in the
Lamb's book of life before the very foundation of the world and that you will
be a partaker in all the promises of Rev
21:27.
Within the last
couple of years, researchers have found many startling discoveries through the
use of super computers, specifically, hidden codes that God supernaturally
placed within the Hebrew text of the Bible.
Over 2000 years ago, the names of historical and current leader’s names
were placed in the Bible. Such names as Adolph Hitler, Eichmann, Arafat, Peres,
Rabin, Rabin's murderer Amir, Ben-Zion Netanyahu, Saddan
Hussein, George Bush, Schwarzkoph, Peter Arnet (CNN), Timithy McVeigh,
Bill Clinton.
Do you think
that God would limit His calling out to just those who had a highly visible
historical impact on this world? There
is no doubt that He had a purpose in doing this, if nothing else, just to get
your attention that He is the Creator; that He alone knows the beginning from
the end.
It is my firm
belief that as we advance further with our computer technology and peel back
the layers of the Hebrew text of the scriptures, we will make many more
startling and exciting discoveries. One
being that God has written each and every one of our names in His Word.
HERE IS WHAT GOD
SAID: Isaiah 66:22 "For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will
make, shall remain before me, saith the LORD, so
shall your seed and your name remain."
BOOK REVIEW by D. E. Davis (September 1997)
BOB
PIERCE -"THIS ONE THING I DO"
By Franklin Graham with Jeanette Lockerbie
It is amazing the worlds that open up to an individual, once the
Power of the Holy Spirit comes upon him. Just three years ago, where once I was
blind to Missions, to all the inspired men and women God has called to service
and the multitude of people all over the world who have been saved,
new worlds are ever opening to me to see how awesome the power of God is in our
Christian lives.
Such was the power and strength of faith Bob Pierce had in our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ. It is
difficult for me to even attempt to assess where God has put Bob along
with other past great men of the faith, but from what I read about his life
with Christ, he certainly had his eyes focused on Jesus! I personally feel inadequate and humbled to
even put in words, my thoughts about this man.
Bob was a man Blessed by God. I feel sad that I never had an opportunity to
know him, but look forward to meeting him one day in heaven.
If ever there was a verse of scripture that represented Bob Pierce,
it had to be the title of this book as taken from Philippians 3:13,14
".......this one thing I do,....I press toward the mark for the prize of
the high calling of God in Jesus Christ."
Bob was raised in Los Angeles and at the age of 12, gave his life
to Christ and was baptized in the Nazarene Church. "God simply called me
to give my heart to Jesus, and I followed Him." He died in 1978 of leukemia but lived his
life for Christ in between in between those dates as if Christ was coming
tomorrow and he still had to witness to the whole world before dawn broke. Throughout his career, he dedicated his life
mainly to Missions and over the years was responsible for founding such World
re-noun programs as "World Vision", an organization dedicated to
meeting the emergency needs in crisis areas such as Korea after the Korean war. During that time
of need, he established
a Korean Orphanage, serving over 30 thousand Korean war
orphans. Bob was also responsible for starting
the World re-noun Korean Orphan's Choir.
As an outgrowth of "World Vision" he founded "World
Medical Mission" which covered all emergency medical needs in countries
all over the world which had no medical facilities. He was also founder of "Samaritan's
Purse" and organization dedicated to funding World emergency need, no
matter where they were. These
organizations are still meeting the needs of those in crisis today.
If his work through these organizations was not enough, he became a
United Nations War Correspondent during World War II; was Co-founder for
"Youth for Christ"; and became a Motion Picture producer/Radio
program host, author and a lecturer, but first and last, he always considered
himself an evangelist! Even though Bob knew that he was "extraordinarily
gifted by God, he was never impressed with himself - he considered himself just
an earthly vessel, available at all times for the exclusive use of the
Lord".
In his own words, he had "many flaws, failings but had
abundant faith in God who lives and cares about people."
If I had to pick four areas of the Christian life that I feel truly
represented Bob Pierce, they would be 1) Unwavering Faith, 2) Compassion for
others, 3) Obedience to God and 4) Commitment to accomplish the Will of God in
his life.
From the Beginning, Bob knew his calling was for Missions to the
Asian Countries. His first mission led
him through Hawaii to Hong Kong and eventually to China. Getting to China was his first big test of
faith - he had no money, even for the first leg to Hawaii. Bob held the opinion that God knows ones
needs already and if He has called you to a task, He will provide and enable
you - just move out! He did just that and went to the L.A. airport that day
without any money in his pocket. His
faith paid off as God provided the funding for each leg of his trip just at the
moment he needed it. This was the norm rather than the
exception throughout his career as an evangelist. What ever
it was, where ever it was, if God called, Bob would act no matter what the
circumstance......he knew that God would always provide.....and He did!
Bob had a compassion for the spiritually and physically suffering
of the world. "He was the friend of
the little people, the forgotten, the hurting, the maimed, the unheard and the
unsung". Bob's theme was "Let
my heart be broken with the things that break the heart of God". It was
Bob's personal belief that "wherever you find men and women who really
love Jesus Christ, you find the compassion of Christ spilling out of them to
meet human need." Over the years World Vision, Samaritan's Purse and other
organizations like them; one in particular, Mission Aviation Fellowship Pilots
(MAF), who flew Missionaries around the world in crisis situations, helped so
many helpless and needy men, women and children. They knew first
hand the healing power of God.
Bob dared it all to be obedient to the Lord's call. Once he had in focus the mission that God
wanted him to accomplish, he followed in Faith to bring the unsaved to
Christ. It was his opinion that " If you are an ambassador, act like one!"- no matter where you are. Bob would bring to memory how other
great men of Faith were obedient even in the face of death. During World War II, a young South Korean
Pastor, Mr. Im was mistaken for a North Korean
Communist and imprisoned. During his
internment, he would go around camp singing "Jesus Loves Me" and
other Christian songs. He not only
uplifted and inspired other fellow Christian prisoners to come together, he brought many more to Christ. Together he and another prisoner, Chaplain Voelkel, established a Bible Study where over 6,000
prisoners finished a six month Bible Study.
Six Hundred (600) of those finishing the Bible Study became pastors and came back to Korea
to preach the Gospel. In another
instance, he related how a Korean school teacher was put to death in front of
his students because of his faith and obedience to the Lord.
To be an ambassador for the Lord "is one of the greatest
things that could ever have happened to anyone - to let God put a fish hook
into you so deep that there is no way of ever getting off the hook."
"Bob did one thing all
of his life, and that was to lead people to the foot of the Cross where they
would put their faith in a risen Lord Jesus Christ. He lived every minute completely amazed that
God could use him. No matter how much he
was able to do in how many places, it was never enough." This was the kind of commitment Bob made to
Jesus; "to commit yourself, give yourself away to God irrevocably, forever. Say to Him, go ahead and burn me up. Spend
me. Eat me up. Use me for you
Glory." And that's exactly what he did.
Being a man of God was not always easy for Bob and he paid a high
price. In one measure or another he had
to forsake his wife, his family, his Mother and Father, his brothers and
sisters and other worldly possessions to follow Jesus. He not only lost his health, he lost his
Daughter, Sharon, to death.
Committing your life to Christ in a Godless society is never easy;
many times you feel like you may be the only one putting your life, your self image, your social acceptance on the line. As Bob came to realize, ". Someone has to go and pay that humiliating
price of literally letting your ego be stomped on- not just pushed in and
suppressed, but laid out there for people to stomp on. We need to do this by the grace of God with
love and patience: sow the seed on rocky soil, nurture it, and maybe never be
applauded."
Committing your life to Christ really comes down to this; What really matters
to you in Life?
On his death bed in the City of Hope, Bob left us this one message
- "I don't care what you have attempted. What you have succeeded at, or
what has been your work in Christ's name while you are here on earth - only one
thing matters when you have reached the last step before you go to stand before
Christ:
- Did you tell men and women who Jesus is?
- Did you bring them to some comprehension of His redeeming love?
- Did you make it plain to them that He alone can pay their way to
heaven throughout His atoning death on the cross?"
Such was the life of a man of God, Bob Pierce.
HIDDEN CODES OF THE BIBLE
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
ACT 17:11 - Exhorts you to daily review the scriptures
to see if what is being said is true
References: Grant
R. Jeffrey - "The Signature of God"- RECOMMENDED READING
Other reading: "The Hebrew Factor" by Yacov
Rambsel
Prepared
by D. E. Davis
Daniel 12: 4 - "But thou, O Daniel, shut
up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to
and fro, and knowledge shall be increased."
Here is undeniable proof, the third in the
series, that every word, every letter and every punctuation in Bible text was
put their by the inspiration of God. It gives new meaning to the words
"increase knowledge". It's
just one of the many signs, and without a doubt, the most exciting revelation
that God said he would reveal to man in the "end time". As you will see, God has put his signature
throughout the Bible, has revealed History before it ever happened, all through
hidden codes that were supernaturally placed into text which was written over
2,000 years ago; which could only be found with today's computer technological
advances. The codes are found in what
scholars call "Equidistant Letter Sequences" or ESL. That is, each sequential letter in an encoded
word or phrase was found the same distance apart numerically; The exact interval designed by God.
Actually, the discovery of hidden codes in
scripture dates back to before WWI and it was not until 1988 that the use of computers were able to detect a significant amount of
coding in scripture. Since then, the
research that Grant Jeffrey and others have done has just exploded and new
discoveries are happening every day.
Here is a summary of what has been found and
outlined in Grant's book, referenced above.
It is my understanding that he is in the process of writing another book
to tell what he has found subsequent to "The Signature of God".
Luke 21:15 - " For I will give you a
mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay
(refute) nor resist."
Proverbs 25:2 - "It is the glory of God
to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."
What follows is what most of the human race
would find hard to believe. It
unfathomable to think that the Hebrew Bible, containing 304,805 Hebrew letters,
written by 40 individuals could contain hidden messages that if one letter was
taken out of the text, one word was removed, the hidden message could not be
revealed......yet the message has been sustained for over 2,000 years and has
been revealed to man just as Jesus said it would be. Jesus has actually placed His name and other
messages about Himself into text which proves he is the creator of all; King of
Kings and Lord of Lords.
GOD'S
SIGNATURE
God has personally signed scriptures
throughout the Old and New Testaments in various ways. For example in the Old Testament, he has
encoded his name, Jesus, in the following scripture:
God has also encoded unbelievable detail
about many of the things we read about and which touch our lives daily. For example, he outlines:
PLACES
AND THINGS
·
Gen. 2: 4-10 - The key word "Eden" was
spelled out sixteen (16) times in the span of 379 Hebrew letters. The letters were all equidistant from each
other.
·Gen. 2
- In this chapter which deals with the garden of Eden, scientists found
encoded in the Hebrew text, Twenty-five (25) names of trees that were in the
Garden
of Eden.
·
Gen. 1:1 - Starting with the first appearance of the
Hebrew letter "Tav", the word
"Torah" was found every 50th letter.
·
Ex. 1: 1 - Again, starting with the first appearance of
the letter "Tav" and counting every 50th
letter, the word "Torah" was spelled. Num./Deut.
- In the book of Numbers the word "Torah" was found spelled backwards
every 50th letter. In the book of
Deuteronomy, "Torah" was found again spelled backwards, but this time
every forty-ninth (49) letter.
NAMES
AND EVENTS
·
Holocaust
·
Deut. 10: 17-22 - Beginning with the second to last
appearance of the Hebrew letter "bet" in this passage, they found
every Thirteenth (13) letter, the phrase "b'yam marah Auschwitz" which means "in the bitter sea
of Auschwitz." Also encoded in
this passage were the names of the other Nazi Concentration camp, "Belsen".
·
Deut. 33:21 - Beginning with the letter (resh) that appeared in the Hebrew word "Yisreal," and counting every twenty-second (22) letter
from the left to right they found the phrase "re'tzach
alm" discribing the
Holocaust, which when translated, means "a people cry murder, slaughter."
·
Adolph Hitler
·
Deut. 10: 17-22 - The word "Hitler" spelled
out in Hebrew was found every twenty-second (22) letter.
·
Deut. 33:16 - Beginning with the first appearance of the
Hebrew letter "mem" and every two hundred
and forty-sixth (246) letter from left to right you find that the coded letters
spelled out the phrase, "Melek Natzim," which translates as the "king of the
Nazis."
·
Eichmann
·
Deut. 32:52 - Beginning with the appearance of the first
letter (aleph) and counting from left to right every six hundred and seventy
(670) letters, the name "Aik'man" is
spelled, which is the Hebrew form of the name "Eichmann."
·
Egyptian President Anwar Sadat
·
"Sadat occurred together with the name of the
leader of the Moslem Brotherhood
assassinating team that killed him.......it contained the year of his
assassination, 1981, and the words
"president," "gunfire," "shot'" and
'Murder".
·
Desert Storm
·
Beginning in Gen. 1:7 and continuing through the rest of
Genesis, Grant Jeffrey indicated at the Prophesy Conference in Irvine,Ca. on 27 Sept. 1996 that
they had recently found information in hidden code in scripture relating to
Desert Storm. I believe more details
will be available in Grant's next book.
·
The French Revolution
·
Gen. 39,41 - "Another
passage in the Book of Genesis revealed a cluster of encoded words that deals
with the French Revolution. The
following words are clustered ogether" "Mapecha HaSarfatit" which
spells "the French Revolution" in Hebrew, "Louis," the name
of the French king, and the word "Beit (house of
Bourbon,") his royal dynasty. In
the same cluster were the following words:
"Hamarseilles" (the name of the
French anthem) and the word "Bastillia"
(the infamous French prison for political prisoners........"
OTHER
HISTORICAL INFORMATION
·
Word pairs - "In their initial experiment,
.......the scientists arbitrarily chose three hundred (300) Hebrew
word-pairs that were logically related in meaning, such as hammer and anvil, or
tree and leaf, or man and woman." ".....the researchers were
astonished to find that every single word-pair had been located in Genesis in
close proximity to each other."
·
King David's Ancestors
·
Gen. 28 - " Every one of the five Hebrew names of
these ancestor of King
David (Pharez, Zerah, Boaz, Obed, Jesse) were
found encoded at forty-nine (49) letter intervals, hidden within the text of
Genesis 38".
·
Famous Jewish Rabbi - "The Jewish people celebrate the
memory of their famous sages by commemorating their date of death. Incredibly, the computer program found every
single one of the sixty-six names of these famous rabbis embedded in the text
of Genesis paired at significantly close proximity with their actual date of
birth or their date of death."
IS
THE HEBREW BIBLE UNIQUE TO GOD' S INSPIRED EMBEDDED CODES?
Grant points out that "The researchers
attempted to reproduce these results by running the computer program on other
religious Hebrew texts outside the Bible, including the Samaritan Pentateuch.
.......the researchers could not detect word pairs in the Samaritan Pentateuch
or any other Hebrew text outside the Bible.
In fact, an exhaustive analysis reveals that no other Hebrew text
outside the Old testament contains these mysterious
codes, not even the Hebrew apocryphal books written during the four hundred
years before the birth of Christ"
A
WORD OF CAUTION
"No one can search the Torah using these
codes to foretell future events. The
reason is that it is impossible to extract the encoded information unless you
already know what the future facts are."
"The prophet Isaiah warned against false prophets and declared that
only God can Prophesy
future events accurately
(Isa. 46: 9,10).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Computer tapes are now available so
that anyone with a computer can personally verify the existence of these codes
beneath the text of the Scriptures.
As Christians, we can stand firm in the word and shout for joy. God has given us "the words and the wisdom that none of our adversaries will be able to refute or contradict", no matter how much they try!
PRAISE
THE LORD!
SIGNS OF THE TIME
References: Grant
R. Jeffrey - "The Signature of God"- RECOMMENDED READING
Prepared by D. E. Davis
June 10, 1997
Prelude
How do we know that Jesus is the one true God when there
are so many religions, cultures and cults that claim that they serve the one
true god? How about Buddha, Allah?
Scripture says that God alone knows the beginning from the
end. The way that God establishes His
authority is through Biblical Prophesy. There are over 500 prophesies that were
prophesied over 2,000 years ago that have all come to pass. There are still some Old Testament that have
yet have to be fulfilled (Daniel Ezekiel), but there has never been an event
prophesied that has not come to pass in it’s time.
100% accuracy tells us that the God of the Bible is the only true God. No one else in the history of the world,
living or dead, can make this claim.
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In Matthew 24:3, just before Jesus' ascension
into heaven, the disciples of Jesus ask Him what would be the sign of His
second coming. Over the centuries
various groups have attempted to guess when Christ would return to the earth to
claim His inheritance as promised throughout scripture. As we know, no one has been right yet!. God clearly states
in Matthew 24:36 that no man, not even the angels, know the day or the time
when Christ will return. Only God the Father knows.
This summary is
clearly not another attempt to forecast this event. This summary does, however, attempt to
provide an awareness of what is happening around you so that you will not be
caught unaware. (Ref. Luke 21:34 and Matthew. 24:42).
ACT
17:11- Exhorts you to daily review the scriptures to see if what is being said
is true.
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----------------------THE
SIGNS OF THE TIME-------------------
Grant Jeffrey has done a wonderful job of
providing critical information about events that are happening in this
generation that all Christians need to know;
Events that were prophesied over 2,500 years ago. Approximately 90% of the material contained
herein was extracted and summarized from Grant's book. I highly recommend reading this book as it contains
so much more that you will want to know.
THE
REBIRTH OF ISRAEL
The rebirth of Israel was prophesied in
several scriptures throughout the Bible.
Isaiah 66: 8 predicted that Israel would be born again in
"one" day. Ezekiel 4:3-6 and Levitcus
26:18 foretold the exact number of days that it would take Israel to
re-establish themselves as a nation in the last days. ( The
exact calculation can be found in Grant Jeffrey's book referenced above). On
May 14, 1948, the Jews proclaimed their independence of the reborn state of
Israel.....The exact day that was predicted over twenty-five (25) centuries
ago.......No other ancient nation ever ceased to exist for a period of
centuries and then returned to take its place on the stage of world
history."
PRESENT
ARAB-ISRAELI CONFLICT
In Psalms 83:2-8, God inspired King David to
predict that upon Israel's rebirth as a nation it would be immediately
surrounded by their enemies. The modern
names of those nations named in scripture include Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia
and Syria....the nations that have now joined the Palestinians in their attempt
to destroy Israel.
In Gen. 12: 3, God has promised to punish those
nations that come against Israel.
"I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee; and in thee shall all families of the earth
be blessed."
RESTORATION
OF THE HEBREW LANGUAGE
When Israel was captured by Nebuchadnezzar in
approx. 562 B.C., Israel was no longer allowed to speak the Hebrew language,
but had to learn the language of the Chaldeans.
The Lord predicted, however, through Zephaniah 3:9, that he would restore
a pure language to Israel so that they may "serve him with
one consent". It was in the
early part of this Century that the Hebrew language was revived from the dead
language. Today, Hebrew is a living
language to over 5 million Israelis.
THE
FERTILITY OF ISRAEL
In Isaiah 27:6; 35:7 and Joel 2:23, the Lord
prophesied through these prophets that the deserted, unproductive, barren land
of Israel would once again become productive in the last days and that Israel
would experience tremendous increases of rain.
Ever since Israel has returned to the land, they have flourished in the
land and now supply over 90 percent of the citrus fruit consumed in
Europe. Rainfall has increased by more
than "10 percent every decade for the last century and Israel has planted
in excess of two hundred (200) million trees and transformed the complete
environment of the Promised Land."
According to the United Nations, Israel is now "the most
agriculturally efficient land on earth."
THE
UNWALLED CITY
Ezekiel 38:11 speaks of the future invasion
of Gog and Magog (Russia) saying "And thou shalt
say, I will go up to the land of un-walled villages; I will go to them that are
at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls and having
neither bars nor gates". Grant explains that "even army bases and
Israel's settlements in the West Bank and Gaza have no walls today.........How
could Ezekiel have known twenty-five centuries ago that the development of
modern weapons such as bombs, airplanes and missiles, would have made walls and
gates irrelevant for defensive purposes in the last days. In the ancient past even small villages as
well as cities depended on walls for defense against invading armies."
PLANS
FOR REBUILDING OF THE TEMPLE
Revelations 11:1, 2 foretells of Israel
rebuilding the Temple in the last days.
There is much controversy between the Israelis and the Muslim's because
the Dome of the Rock (Al-Aqsa Mosque) it is believed, sits on the very spot
where the Temple is suppose to be built. In recent years, however, aerial Infra-red
photography shows that this may not be the case. Ezekiel 44:14-18, tell about the sacred
vessels and linen robes that must be used in the Temple. "The Temple Institute in Jerusalem has
already prepared over 75 of the objects, vessels, and linen garments required
for future Temple service.......over 500 men from the tribe of Levi have
already been trained to fulfill the duties of Temple worship and
sacrifice."
Update:
Just recently in the Washington Post on May
28, 1997, it was reported that a 10 month old heifer named "Melody" is the
first red heifer to be born in Israel in over 2,000 years. "In ancient times, the ashes of a red
heifer were mixed with spring water to purify high priests before they entered
the Temple."
THE
REBUILDING OF BABYLON
We know that the old city of Babylon (now
called Iraq) will be built again in the end times because Isaiah 13:6, 19
foretells of its destruction. In Isaiah
34:8-10 it is prophesied that the rebuilt City of Babylon will burn for ever.
"As unlikely as it seems, the Iraqi
government of Saddam Hussein has spent over one billion dollars rebuilding the
ancient city of Babylon and intends that it will become the center of their
future renewed Babylonian Empire.
Interestingly, the whole city of Babylon was built over an underground
lake of asphalt and oil."
THE
ANOINTING OIL
The prophet Daniel prophesied in Dan. 9:24
that the when Jesus returns, that the most Holy of Holies will be anointed with
the anointing oil. "One of the five
ingredients, afars' mon, was thought lost forever, when the Temple was
destroyed in A.D. 70 and the only two groves of afars'mon
trees in existence were burned
to the ground. Incredibly, several years ago, archeologists
in Israel found a clay flask buried near the Dead Sea caves filled with the
ancient oil of anointing. Scientists
confirmed that the oil is two thousand years old and is composed of the precise
ingredients described in Exodus 30:25,26."
PESTILENCE/FAMINES/EARTHQUAKES
Matthew 24:7 prophesied that in the last days
"For nation shall rise against nation and Kingdom against Kingdom: and
there shall be famines, and pestilence, and earthquakes, in divers (various)
places." Grand Jeffrey writes
regarding these matters:
·
Pestilence - In 1991, the Central Intelligence Agency
produced a report which "concluded that up to 75% of the population of
Africa living in the area south of the Sahara Desert may become infected with
AIDS over the next 12 years. This will
mean the death by AIDS of over three hundred million people in Africa alone. In July 1991, the South African Medical
Journal reported that a staggering 47% of black male and female blood donors
tested positive for AIDS during 1989."
In Nov. 1996, the
Associated Press reported that "Sexually transmitted diseases are
diagnosed 12 million times a year in the United States - including a staggering
3 million cases among teen-agers".
·
Famine - The
United Nations today "claim that over thirty million in Africa are now at
risk of dying from the most devastating famine in this century. The UN estimates that one billion people are
in danger of starvation while another billion lack proper nutrition. North American food reserves (grain and corn)
are at the lowest level in sixty years."
·
Major killer earthquakes – “Major Killer earthquakes
(7.2 or greater on the Richter scale) occurred
only once per decade throughout history until our century. However, since A. D. 1900, the growth in
major earthquakes has been
relentless. From 1900 to
1949 it averaged three major quakes per decade.
From 1949 the increase became awesome with 9 killer quakes in the
1950's; 13 in the 1960's; 56 in the 1970's and an amazing 74 major quakes in
the 1980's. Finally, in the 1990's, at
the present rate, we will experience 125 major killer quakes in this
decade."
WORLD
WIDE COMMUNICATION
In Revelation 11:9,10,
it is prophesied that during the tribulation period, the antichrist will have
the two witnesses that God sent killed and their bodies will lay in the street
for three and a half days while the whole world watches.
Did not the whole world watch Desert Storm on
CNN television? With all the
technological advances in telecommunications, including the recent opening of
the World Wide Net to our computer industry, any event happening in any part of
the world can now be viewed while it is happening. The prophesy of the two witnesses could literally be fulfilled
today. This could not have happened just
10 or 15 years ago.
INCREASED
KNOWLEDGE AND TRAVEL
Daniel 12:4 prophesies how much knowledge and
travel will increase in the end time. "But thou, O Daniel, shut up the
words, and seal the Book, even to the time of the end: Many shall run to and fro and knowledge shall
be increased."
Today, it is estimated that "Human
knowledge is growing so quickly that it literally doubles every twenty-four
months." With the discovery
through the use of modern "Super" computers by Grant Jeffrey and
other researchers of the hidden codes that God supernaturally designed into the
original Hebrew text of the Torah describing not only the history of the world
in advance, but also verifying his Authority through His personal signature
throughout his scripture, we realize that God chose this generation to reveal
this unique aspect about himself.
It is also amazing that in this century, we
have gone from horses to cars, from cars to supersonic spacecraft; not only can
we now travel the world in a matter of hours, but in the case of the U.S. Space
Shuttle Discovery, we can now travel at speeds in excess of eighteen thousand
miles per hour.
REVIVAL
OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE
Daniel 2:40-44 predicts that the old Roman
Empire will be revived in the end times into a ten Nation alliance. We currently see the foundation being laid
today through the European Economic Community. "In 1957, six (6) Countries
signed the Treaty of Rome laying the foundation for the future United States of
Europe.............Since then the Maastricht Treaty consolidated the fifteen
(15) Nations of the European Union into the worlds
first superstate." All it will take is the re-shuffling and/or
the consolidation of Nations to bring this prophesy to
a literal fulfillment.
ODDS
THAT THESE PROPHECIES WERE FULFILLED BY CHANCE IN THIS GENERATION
"In the Bible there are several types of
generations. One generation is defined
as the length of life of the average person - seventy or eighty years. However, a generation of governing is usually
defined as forty years,...........During the last two
thousand years since the days of Christ, there were fifty such forty-year
generations. Therefore, the odds are one
chance in fifty that any one of these specific prophecies happened by chance in
our generation rather than some other generation."
"The odds that more than one event
happening in our life time are:
"Another way of looking at this is that
the chance that the prophets of the Bible correctly guessed these prophecies is
also one in 97,500 trillion............in other words, it is simply impossible
that men alone could
have written the Bible
without the supernatural assistance and inspiration of God."
Matthew 24:32-35 - "Now learn a parable
of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth
forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh: So likewise ye, when ye shall see
all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors. Verily I say unto you, This
generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my
words shall not pass away."
Luke 21:28 - "And when these things
begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your
redemption draweth nigh."
ANTI-CHRIST
TO BE REVEALED
As of today, no one knows who the Anti-Christ
is, but we do know what God has told us about him:
Many people try to spiritualize or say the
events prophesied in the Bible are just symbolic. Any doubt about how God handles these
prophetic events should have been erased on May 14,1948. God is literally fulfilling scriptural
prophesy before our very eyes. Can we
expect anything less for those few remaining prophesies for which He has
promised the world; 1) the removal of the one who restrains the man of
lawlessness/Sin (the rapture of the Church), 2) His second coming to take
possession of His inheritance, 3) The millennial kingdom and 4) the new heaven and new earth.
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Ezekiel 33:6 - "But if the watchman see
the sword come, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the
sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his
iniquity; but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand."
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