II Thessalonians 2:5-12 (New King James Version)
⁵ Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things?
⁶ And now you know what is restraining, that he may be revealed in his own time.
⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only He who now restrains will do so until He is taken out of the way.
⁸ And then the lawless one will be revealed, whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth and destroy with the brightness of His coming.
⁹ The coming of the lawless one is according to the working of Satan, with all power, signs, and lying wonders,
¹⁰ and with all unrighteous deception among those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth, that they might be saved.
¹¹ And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie,
¹² that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.

If you read the NKJV, the translators capitalize the pronouns in verse seven clearly leading all to believe “the restrainer” is the Lord.

But is that accurate?

The King James version was based upon the highly-reliable Textus Receptus manuscripts.  The New King James, however, was not a modern English update of the KJV.  Critical changes to Scripture were made.  Although the 1982 preface to the New King James states the intent is only to take the Elizabethan language¹ and make it understandable in modern English, the translators failed to mention that changes would be made according to the Septuagint and even Jerome’s Latin Vulgate!

Other translations are noticeably different.

II Thessalonians 2:5-12 (New American Standard Bible)
⁵ Do you not remember that while I was still with you, I was telling you these things?
⁶ And you know what restrains him now, so that in his time he will be revealed.
⁷ For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work; only he who now restrains will do so until he is taken out of the way.
⁸ Then that lawless one will be revealed whom the Lord will slay with the breath of His mouth and bring to an end by the appearance of His coming;
⁹ that is, the one whose coming is in accord with the activity of Satan, with all power and signs and false wonders,
¹⁰ and with all the deception of wickedness for those who perish, because they did not receive the love of the truth so as to be saved.
¹¹ For this reason God will send upon them a deluding influence so that they will believe what is false,
¹² in order that they all may be judged who did not believe the truth, but took pleasure in wickedness.

So who is “the Restrainer”?  Does this help us understand who anti-Christ will be?  What is the “strong delusion”?

Often, it is assumptions that lead to biased and incorrect exegesis of Scripture.  Such is frequently an error of the Western mindset.  A Buddhist saw tells us—

If you wish to know the truth, hold no opinions.²

Daniel’s 70 Weeks

A similar confusion of pronouns can be found in an even more important passage; Daniel’s “70 Weeks”—the Prophecy of Daniel 9:24-27.

Sadly, there are no English translations that show this Prophecy in its clarity.

Daniel 9:24-27 (New International Version)
²⁴ “Seventy ‘sevens’ are decreed for your people and your holy city to finish transgression, to put an end to sin, to atone for wickedness, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the Most Holy Place.
²⁵ “Know and understand this: From the time the word goes out to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until the Anointed One, the ruler, comes, there will be seven ‘sevens,’ and sixty-two ‘sevens.’  It will be rebuilt with streets and a trench, but in times of trouble.
²⁶ After the sixty-two ‘sevens,’ the Anointed One will be put to death and will have nothing.  The people of the ruler who will come will destroy the city and the sanctuary.  The end will come like a flood: War will continue until the end, and desolations have been decreed.
²⁷ He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’  In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering.  And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation, until the end that is decreed is poured out on him.”

In one of the most important passages of Scripture are mixed two seminal yet diametrically-opposed figures; the Anointed Messiah and the Destroyer—the anti-Messiah (although not equal in power).

The key to interpretation is found in the final verse.  The one who puts an end to the sacrifice and offering must be evil, mustn’t he?  The “covenant” must be a future, 7-year covenant, mustn’t it?

In Scripture, there are only two Covenants—the first is the Covenant between YHWH and His People given by Moses.  It was a Covenant His People could not keep [Acts 15:7-11], one that was only meant to hold them and point them toward a new Covenant [Galatians 3:19-24].  This New Covenant was radically different from the old—rather than written on tablets of stone and impossible to keep, this One would be written on the hearts of God’s People and they would keep it out of love for Him! [Jeremiah 31:31-34]

In this light a literal reading of the Prophecy produces a radically different interpretation.

Daniel 9:24-27 (Young’s Literal Translation)
²⁴ ‘Seventy weeks are determined for thy people, and for thy holy city, to shut up the transgression, and to seal up sins, and to cover iniquity, and to bring in righteousness age-during, and to seal up vision and prophet, and to anoint the holy of holies.
²⁵ And thou dost know, and dost consider wisely, from the going forth of the word to restore and to build Jerusalem till Messiah the Leader [is] seven weeks, and sixty and two weeks: the broad place hath been built again, and the rampart, even in the distress of the times.
²⁶ And after the sixty and two weeks, cut off is Messiah, and the city and the holy place are not his, the Leader who hath come doth destroy the people; and its end [is] with a flood, and till the end [is] war, determined [are] desolations.
²⁷ And he hath strengthened a covenant with many — one week, and [in] the midst of the week he causeth sacrifice and present to cease, and by the wing of abominations he is making desolate, even till the consummation, and that which is determined is poured on the desolate one.’

There are flip-flopping contrasts floating between verses 26 and 27; first Messiah arrives at the appointed time but is “cut off”.  Then, anti-Messiah comes (from the anti-Messiah people) and will destroy the Sanctuary and make desolate with a “flood” (flooding waters often are a Biblical metaphor for many people).  Contrasting again, Messiah will re-affirm the Old Covenant but only for a single “week” (7 years).  Halfway through, He will cause the sacrifice to become obsolete and impossible to continue both physically and spiritually.

John 2:13-22 (Modern English Version)
¹³ The Passover of the Jews was at hand, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem.
¹⁴ In the temple He found those who were selling oxen and sheep and doves, and the moneychangers sitting there.
¹⁵ When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and oxen.  He poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.
¹⁶ He said to those who sold doves, “Take these things away!  Do not make My Father’s house a house of merchandise!”
¹⁷ His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for Your house will consume Me.”
¹⁸ Then the Jews said to Him, “What sign do You show us, seeing that You do these things?”
¹⁹ Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”
²⁰ Then the Jews said, “It has taken forty-six years to build this temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”
²¹ But He was speaking concerning the temple of His body.
²² Therefore, when He was raised from the dead, His disciples remembered that He had said this to them.  And they believed the Scripture and the word which Jesus had spoken.

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Matthew 23:37-24:2 (Modern English Version)
³⁷ “O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those who are sent to you, how often I would have gathered your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you would not!”
³⁸ “Look, your house is left to you desolate.”
³⁹ “For I tell you, you shall not see Me again until you say, ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’”

Chapter 24

¹ Jesus departed from the temple and was leaving when His disciples came to show Him the temple buildings.
² Jesus answered them, “Do you not see all these things?  Truly I say to you, not one stone shall be left here upon another that shall not be thrown down.”

Most bizarre of all, both Messiah and anti-Messiah work together to fulfill the Prophetic Divine Will!

It was intended for Messiah to re-affirm the Old Covenant with His 7-year ministry (beginning at His Baptism by John).

Halfway through His Ministry, traitorous Jewish leaders intent on killing anyone who threatened their power, seditiously worked with real power in Judea to have the Anointed One murdered without just cause (“not for Himself”).

A short time later, the people of the coming anti-Christ devastated Jerusalem and leveled the Temple down to its last foundation stone—Romans.

Gessius Florus loved money and hated Jews.  As Roman procurator, he ruled Judea, caring little for their religious sensibilities.  When tax revenues were low, he seized silver from the temple.  As the uproar against him grew, in A.D. 66, he sent troops into Jerusalem who massacred 3,600 citizens.  Florus’s action touched off an explosive rebellion—the First Jewish Revolt—that had been sizzling for some time.

Launching the Revolt

The Jewish Revolt began—and met its bitter end—at Masada, a hunk of rock overlooking the Dead Sea.  The Romans had built a virtually impregnable fortress there.  Yet the atrocities of Florus inspired some crazy Zealots to attack Masada.  Amazingly, they won, slaughtering the Roman army there.

In Jerusalem, the temple captain signified solidarity with the revolt by stopping the daily sacrifices to Caesar.  Soon all Jerusalem was in an uproar, expelling or killing the Roman troops.  Then all Judea was in revolt; then Galilee.

Cestius Callus, the Roman governor of the region, marched from Syria with twenty thousand soldiers.  He besieged Jerusalem for six months, yet failed.  He left six thousand dead Roman soldiers, not to mention weaponry that the Jewish defenders picked up and used.

Emperor Nero then sent Vespasian, a decorated general, to quell the Judean rebellion.  Vespasian put down the opposition in Galilee, then in Transjordan, then in Idumea.  He circled in on Jerusalem.  But before the coup de grace, Nero died.  Vespasian became embroiled in a leadership struggle that concluded with the eastern armies calling for him to be emperor.  One of his first imperial acts was to appoint his son Titus to conduct the Jewish War.

Crushing the Revolt

By now, Jerusalem was isolated from the rest of the nation, and factions within the city fought over strategies of defense.  As the siege wore on, people began dying from starvation and plague.  The high priest’s wife, who once basked in luxury, scavenged for crumbs in the streets.

Meanwhile the Romans employed new war machines to hurl boulders against the city walls.  Battering rams assaulted the fortifications.  Jewish defenders fought all day and struggled to rebuild the walls at night.  Eventually the Romans broke through the outer wall, then the second wall, and finally the third wall.  Still the Jews fought, scurrying to the temple as their last line of defense.

That was the end for the valiant Jewish defenders and for the temple.  Historian Josephus claimed that Titus wanted to preserve the temple, but his soldiers were so angry at their resilient opponents that they burned it.  The remaining Jews were slaughtered or sold as slaves.

The Zealot band that took Masada held it for at least three more years.  When the Romans finally built their siege ramp and invaded the mountain fortress, they found the defenders dead—they had committed suicide to avoid being captured by foreigners.

Results of the Revolt

The Jewish Revolt marked the end of the Jewish state until modern times.  The destruction of the temple also signified a change in the Jews’ worship…³

Confirmed

Understanding the Romans as the people of the anti-Christ is the key to unlocking the proper understanding of these passages.  The Romans would later become “Holy Romans”, mutating just as Daniel predicted into a Beast very different from the three previous Beasts (empires) given to both Daniel and Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar.

Daniel 7:1-8 (Modern English Version)
¹ In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream and visions of his mind while on his bed.  Then he wrote the dream and told the sum of the matters.
² Daniel spoke and said: I saw in my vision by night the four winds of the heaven striving upon the Mediterranean Sea.
³ Four great beasts came up from the sea, diverse from one another.
⁴ The first was like a lion and had eagle’s wings.  I watched until its wings were plucked and it was lifted up from the earth and made to stand on the feet as a man, and a man’s heart was given to it.
⁵ Another beast appeared, a second, like a bear, and it raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth.  And they said to it, “Arise, devour much flesh.”
⁶ After this I looked and there was another, like a leopard, which had on its back four wings of a fowl.  The beast also had four heads.  And dominion was given to it.
⁷ After this I saw in the visions at night a fourth beast, dreadful and terrible, and exceedingly strong.  And it had great iron teeth.  It devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the rest with its feet.  And it was different from all the beasts that were before it, and it had ten horns.
⁸ I considered the horns, when there came up among them another little horn before whom three of the first horns were plucked up by the roots.  And there, in this horn, were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things.

This Fourth and Final Beast was unlike the previous three because she would control in secret.  This way, she would spread tendrils across civilization.

Now, instead of enforcing her will by posting soldiers on every street corner, she would co-opt the soldiers and officials of each nation she conquered and they would do her will in secret!

Daniel’s vision was in perfect harmony with the dream he interpreted for King Nebuchadnezzar in Chapter 2 of a great statue which had a head of gold (Babylon), a torso of silver (Medo/Persia), loins of brass (Greece), legs and feet of iron (Rome).

Notice how the teeth of the Final Beast were the same material as the legs in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream: iron.

But this new “Holy Roman Empire” knew she had been predicted in Scripture and went about wiping off her bloody fingerprints, leaving only faded clues behind.

The 1517 Reformation initiated by Martin Luther gave new light which explained that the entire office of the Papacy was anti-Christ.

The theme became very popular in the late Middle Ages among the Fraticelli, Wycliffites, and Hussites, who identified the popes with the Antichrist soon to be overthrown.  Luther was unwittingly in line with these sectaries, with one significant difference, however.

Whereas they identified particular popes, because of their evil lives, with Antichrist, Luther held that every pope was Antichrist even though personally exemplary, because Antichrist is collective: an institution, the papacy, a system which corrupts the truth of Christ.

That was why Luther could repeatedly address Leo X in terms of personal respect only a week or so after blasting him as Antichrist.⁴

The Jesuit-run Counter-Reformation began immediately upon Luther’s break.  Unable to destroy the movement by the brute force of the Inquisition’s burning pyres and instruments of torture, they embarked upon a new strategy to compromise and discredit Scripture.

Again, the keepers of Truth became an underground minority.

Despite their creation by Freemason William Miller, Seventh Day Adventists remained as the sole keeper of the torch of Luther.

Adventist scholar Uriah Smith confirmed these interpretations for us in the 19^th century.

Commenting on the prophecy that the little horn should “wear out the saints of the Most High,” Barnes, in his Notes on Dan.7:25, says: “Can any one doubt that this is true of the papacy?  The Inquisition, the persecutions of the Waldenses, the ravages of the Duke of Alva, the fires of Smithfield, the tortures of Goa, — indeed, the whole history of the papacy, may be appealed to in proof that this is applicable to that power.  If anything could have worn out the saints of the Most High, — could have cut them off from the earth so that evangelical religion would have become extinct, — it would have been the persecutions of the papal power.  In year 1208 a crusade was proclaimed by Pope Innocent III against the Waldenses and Albigenses, in which a million men perished.  From the beginning of the order of Jesuits in the year 1540 to 1580, nine hundred thousand were destroyed.  One hundred and fifty thousand perished by the Inquisition in thirty years.  In the Low Countries fifty thousand persons were hanged, beheaded, burned, or buried alive, for the crime of heresy, within the space of thirty-eight years from the edict of Charles V against the Protestants to the peace of Chateau Cambresis in 1559.  Eighteen thousand suffered by the hand of the executioner in the space of five years and a half, during the administration of the Duke of Alva.  Indeed, the slightest acquaintance with the history of the papacy will convince any one that what is here said of ‘making war with the saints’ ([Daniel 7] verse 21), and ‘wearing out the saints of the Most High’ (verse 25), is strictly applicable to that power, and will accurately describe its history.”  (See Buck’s Theological Dictionary, art., Persecutions: Oswald’s Kingdom, etc., pp.107-133; Dowling’s History of Romanism; Fox’s Book of Martyrs: Charlotte Elizabeth’s Martyrology; The Wars of the Huguenots; The Great Red Dragon, by Anthony Gavin, formerly one of the Roman Catholic priests of Saragossa, Spain; Histories of the Reformation, etc.) …

“The prince of the covenant” unquestionably refers to Jesus Christ, “the Messiah the Prince,” who was to “confirm the covenant” one week with his people. Dan. 9:25-27.  The prophet, having taken us down to the death of Tiberius, now mentions incidentally an event to transpire in his reign, so important that it should not be passed over; namely, the cutting off of the Prince of the covenant, or in other words, the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.  According to the prophecy, this took place in the reign of Tiberius.  Luke informs us (3:1-3) that in the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, John the Baptist commenced his ministry.  The reign of Tiberius is to be reckoned, according to Prideaux, Dr. Hales, Lardner, and others, from his elevation to the throne to reign jointly with Augustus, his step-father, in August, A.D. 12.  His fifteenth year would therefore be from August, A.D. 26, to August, A.D. 27.  Christ was six months younger than John, and is supposed to have commenced his ministry six months later, both, according to the law of the priesthood, entering upon their work when they were thirty years of age.  If John commenced in the spring, in the latter portion of Tiberius’s fifteenth year, it would bring the commencement of Christ’s ministry in the autumn of A.D. 27; and right here the best authorities place the baptism of Christ, it being the exact point where the 483 years from B.C. 457, which were to extend to the Messiah the Prince, terminated; and Christ went forth proclaiming that the time was fulfilled.  From this point we go forward three years and a half to find the date of the crucifixion; for Christ attended but four Passovers, and was crucified at the last one.  Three and a half years from the autumn of A.D. 27 bring us to the spring of A.D. 31.  The death of Tiberius is placed but six years later, in A.D. 37.⁵

Who Is The Restrainer?

Now with the proper understanding we can return to our original question.

It was well understood be even “Church Fathers” like Quintus Septimius Florens Tertullianus, (c. 155 – 240 AD)—better known to us as “Tertullian”.

Dealing with the eschatological section of Paul’s first Epistle to the Thessalonians, Tertullian asks: ‘What archangel’s voice, what trump of God, is now heard, except it be forsooth in the entertainments of the heretics?  ‘He also points out that in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians Paul bids them not be troubled by false prophets, who teach that the day of the Lord is at hand.  For that day shall not come, unless there first comes a falling away, and the appearance of Antichrist.  The Antichrist cannot, however, come until he who now hinders shall be taken out of the way.  The ‘one who now hinders’ is the Roman Empire.  ‘What obstacle is there but the Roman state, the falling away of which, by being scattered |^p210 into ten kingdoms, shall introduce Antichrist upon (its own ruins.)’⁶

The anti-Christ office of the Papacy could not materialize unless the military office of the Roman Empire first disappeared.

Learning Against Learning

So if the early Church knew Rome was the 4^th and Final Beast, and Protestants knew the Papacy was the anti-Christ, why isn’t it common knowledge today?

With Rome so clearly depicted as the 4th and final Beast of both Daniel and Revelation, Jesuits needed to disconnect Christians from that interpretation and they used Preterism and Futurism to do it.

Preterism is the idea that most of prophecy has already taken place.  It was concocted by a Jesuit.

Preterism was first advanced in 1604 by Jesuit Luis de Alcasar to destroy the Reformed Protestant teaching that the papacy was Mystery Babylon, the Great Whore and the historical Antichrist. …

Preterism wasn’t accepted by large groups of Protestants and an alternative interpretation of the End Times was put forth.

Futurism is more appealing in that it acknowledges that much of prophecy is yet future but it distracts from the 4th Beast and paints the anti-Christ as a man who suddenly appears just before the Tribulation and who stands alone, apart from any organization or system.

It, too, was fabricated by a Jesuit.

Francisco Ribera (1537-1591) of Salamanca, Spain, published a 500 page commentary on the grand points of Babylon and Antichrist, the object being to set aside the Protestant teaching that the Papacy is the Antichrist.  In his commentary, he assigned the first chapters of Revelation to the first century.  The rest he restricted to a literal three and a half years a the end of time.  He taught that the Jewish temple would be rebuilt by a single individual antichrist who would abolish the Christian religion, deny Christ, pretend to be God, and conquer the world.⁸ …

Ribera’s commentary laid the foundation for the greater structure of Futurism, which would be built upon and expanded by those who followed.  Ribera’s teaching was further popularized by Robert Bellarmine (1544-0621), an Italian cardinal and the most renowned of all Jesuit controversialists.¹⁰

After accepting the Jesuits’ Futurist System (and the Preterist System…) millenarian Protestants no longer saw Rome as a present but only a distant future threat.¹¹  We should also mention Irving’s system saw no hope of victory over the present forces of evil except “by the brightness of his coming” in the second advent. With no hope, why try to conquer all things for Christ? ~ Death of the Church Victorious, Ovid Need^{557 7}

Perhaps such a complete accomplishment seems impossible—no organization on Earth could so thoroughly control the understanding of almost all Christendom … could it?

“Unless those days were shortened, no one would be saved.  But for the sake of the elect those days will be shortened.  Then if anyone says to you, ‘Look, here is the Christ,’ or ‘There He is,’ do not believe it.  For false christs and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.  Listen, I have told you beforehand.” ~ Matthew 24:22-25 (Modern English Version)

UPDATE 29 March 2017, 01:31 PM, EST

The dichotomy and contrast between the old Mosaic Covenant and new Covenant in Messiah Jesus Christ can clearly be seen in this passage from Jeremiah where even physically circumcised Jews are called “uncircumsized”—

Jeremiah 9:25-26, (Modern English Version)
²⁵ The days are surely coming, says the Lord, that I will punish all who are circumcised and yet uncircumcised—
²⁶ Egypt, Judah, Edom, the children of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the wilderness who clip the hair on their temples; for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised of heart.

The meaning is clear: true Faith in YHWH (through His Son) is a radical change of the heart.  Righteousness is kept from within, not by memorization, legalism or rote.

1.  Perhaps “Shakespearian” would be better as King James I gave his Bible to Francis Bacon to edit and Francis Bacon was a Gnostic (the Freemason of his day) who was probably William Shakespeare.
2. Kindness: A Treasury of Buddhist Wisdom for Children and Parents, translated by Sarah Conover, Eastern Washington University Press (2001), p. 32
3.  A.D. 70 Titus Destroys Jerusalem, Christianity Today, Issue 28: 100 Most Important Events in Church History, 1990
4.  Here I Stand: The Life of Martin Luther, Roland H. Bainton, Abingdon-Cokesbury Press, New York (1950), p. 111
5.  Daniel and the Revelation, Uriah Smith, Review and Herald (1897), pp. 156-157, 269-270
6.  The Theology of Tertullian, R.E. Roberts, Epworth Press, London (1924), p. 161 [digital] 7.  Illuminati Unmasked, Johnny Cirucci, CreateSpace (2015), pp. 185-186, 187

“Once Saved, always Saved” is a doctrine that is as pernicious as it is dangerous.  It assures Christians that they are not responsible for a daily Walk with Christ, to live out our relationship with Him.  Those who fall for it are encouraged to do nothing for the One who did everything for us.

It is a lie that may very well cost you your soul.

Yes, Salvation is a free Gift:

For by Grace you have been Saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the Gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. ~ Ephesians 2:8-9, New King James Version

—but it is a Gift that is delivered upon completion of your Earthly assignment.  Those who accept Salvation must maintain it through severe trials, perhaps even terrible death:

“Behold, I send you out as sheep in the midst of wolves; so be shrewd as serpents and innocent as doves.  But beware of men, for they will hand you over to the courts and scourge you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings for My Sake, as a Testimony to them and to the Gentiles.  But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for it will be given you in that hour what you are to say.  For it is not you who speak, but it is the Spirit of your Father who speaks in you.”

“Brother will betray brother to death, and a father his child; and children will rise up against parents and cause them to be put to death.  You will be hated by all because of My Name, but it is the one who has endured to the end who will be Saved.” ~ Matthew 10: 16-22, NASB

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Now as He sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be?  And what will be the Sign of Your coming, and of the end of the age?”

And Jesus answered and said to them: “Take heed that no one deceives you.  For many will come in My Name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.  And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars.  See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.  For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom.  And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.  All these are the beginning of sorrows.”

“Then they will deliver you up to tribulation and kill you, and you will be hated by all nations for My Name’s Sake.  And then many will be offended, will betray one another, and will hate one another.  Then many false prophets will rise up and deceive many.  And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold.  But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” ~ Matthew 24:3-13, NKJV

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So think clearly and exercise self-control.  Look forward to the Gracious Salvation that will come to you when Jesus Christ is revealed to the world. ~ I Peter 1:13, New Living Translation (other translations say only “grace” but there is more clarity in this “parallel”!)

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Therefore, holy brethren, partakers of the Heavenly Calling, consider the Apostle and High Priest of our confession, Christ Jesus, who was faithful to Him who appointed Him, as Moses also was faithful in all His House.  For this One has been counted worthy of more glory than Moses, inasmuch as He who built the house has more honor than the house.  For every house is built by someone, but He who built all things is God.  And Moses indeed was faithful in all His House as a servant, for a Testimony of those things which would be spoken afterward, but Christ as a Son over His Own House, whose House we are if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the Hope firm to the end. ~ Hebrews 3:1-6, NKJV

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“To the angel of the church in Ephesus write:”

“The One who holds the seven stars in His Right Hand, the One who walks among the seven golden lampstands, says this:”

“‘I know your deeds and your toil and perseverance, and that you cannot tolerate evil men, and you put to the test those who call themselves apostles, and they are not, and you found them to be false; and you have perseverance and have endured for My Name’s Sake, and have not grown weary.  But I have this against you, that you have left your first love.  Therefore remember from where you have fallen, and repent and do the deeds you did at first; or else I am coming to you and will remove your lampstand out of its place—unless you repent.  Yet this you do have, that you hate the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.  He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the Paradise of God.’” ~ Revelation 2:1-7

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“‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  He who overcomes will not be hurt by the Second Death.’” ~ Revelation 2:11, New American Standard Bible

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“‘He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.  To him who overcomes, to him I will give some of the Hidden Manna, and I will give him a White Stone, and a new name written on the Stone which no one knows but he who receives it.’” ~ Revelation 2:17, New American Standard Bible

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“And he who overcomes, and keeps My works until the end, to him I will give power over the nations—”

“‘He shall rule them with a rod of iron; They shall be dashed to pieces like the potter’s vessels’—as I also have received from My Father; and I will give him the morning star.” ~ Revelation 2:26-28, New King James Version

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“He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the Book of Life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.” ~ Revelation 3:5, New American Standard Bible

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“He who overcomes, I will make him a pillar in the Temple of My God, and he will not go out from it anymore; and I will write on him the Name of My God, and the Name of the City of My God, the new Jerusalem, which comes down out of Heaven from My God, and My New Name.” ~ Revelation 3:12New American Standard Bible

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“He who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit down with Me on My Throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His Throne.” ~ Revelation 3:21, New American Standard Bible

Although this appears to be a reward for accomplishments, it is related to the keeping of Salvation (not earning it) by remaining faithful through terrible persecution.

Then I saw an angel coming down from Heaven, having the key to the Bottomless Pit and a great chain in his hand.  He laid hold of the Dragon, that serpent of old, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he cast him into the Bottomless Pit, and shut him up, and set a seal on him, so that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years were finished.  But after these things he must be released for a little while.

And I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was committed to them.  Then I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their witness to Jesus and for the Word of God, who had not worshiped the Beast or his image, and had not received his Mark on their foreheads or on their hands.  And they lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.  But the rest of the dead did not live again until the thousand years were finished.  This is the First Resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he who has part in the First Resurrection.  Over such the Second Death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years. ~ Revelation 20:1-6, NKJV

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“He who overcomes will inherit these things, and (B)I will be his God and he will be My son.” ~ Revelation 21:7, New American Standard Bible

Those who do not bear fruit from the free Gift of their Salvation will lose their Salvation.

“I Am the True Vine, and My Father is the Vinedresser.  Every branch in Me that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit.  You are already clean because of the word which I have spoken to you.  Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.”

“I Am the Vine, you are the branches.  He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.  If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned.” ~ John 15:1-5, New King James Version

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What does it profit, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but does not have works?  Can faith save him?  If a brother or sister is naked and destitute of daily food, and one of you says to them, “Depart in peace, be warmed and filled,” but you do not give them the things which are needed for the body, what does it profit?  Thus also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.

But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.”  Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.  You believe that there is one God.  You do well.  Even the demons believe—and tremble!  But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead?  Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered Isaac his son on the altar?  Do you see that faith was working together with his works, and by works faith was made perfect?  And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.”  And he was called the Friend of God.  You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

Likewise, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. ~ James 2:14-26, New King James Version

A listener and contributor to my program, Tony, sent me an e-mail recommending a teaching by Rob Skiba that gave away nothing on what Tony and I know as the “Jesuit World Order” but none-the-less Tony considered the teaching “critical” and “outstanding”.

I assume Tony felt that way because of a vein that runs through all good Christians; we respect and revere the “Hebrew roots” of our Jewish Savior and we wish to please Him by disciplined living.  That is the appeal of Judaising and it is a dangerous trap that our Roman foes exploit to the fullest.

Heirs of the Promise

Whether it’s reverence for the Bible or respect for our “Hebrew roots”, the Dragon of Rome has zeroed in on our emotions of warmth and exploited them to the fullest in order to cover her tracks.

I remember like it was yesterday one of my final meetings with supposed Jesuit foe Eric Jon Phelps and my desperate attempts to rationalize the negative aspects of his mission such as needless enflaming of racial hatred¹ or his insistence that modern Israel still has a future prophetic role to play.  I now know the reason is what Cardinal Thomas Wolsey called “Learning Against Learning”; the Counter-Reformation tactic of mixing truth with lies.  Eric Jon Phelps is an undercover Jesuit—he even has a family under false pretenses (a crime for which he will answer to when he stands before Christ).

Questioning “Eric” on his Dispensationalism, I asked him about the 144,000 or Revelation 7.  “Eric” insisted that he took the Bible literally.  This is a cunning tactic that is meant to instantly gain the high ground amongst Fundamentalist Christians who revere the Word of God.

After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the Earth, holding the four winds of the Earth, that the wind should not blow on the Earth, on the sea, or on any tree.  Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the Seal of the Living God.  And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the Earth and the sea, saying, “Do not harm the Earth, the sea, or the trees till we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads.”  And I heard the number of those who were sealed.  One hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel were sealed:

of the tribe of Judah twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand were sealed;
of the tribe of Benjamin twelve thousand were sealed.

After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could number, of all nations, tribes, peoples, and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, with palm branches in their hands, and crying out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation belongs to our God who sits on the Throne, and to the Lamb!” ~ Revelation 7:1-10 (NKJV, some capitalization added to denote uniqueness)

Have these sealed servants received their special commission based upon their bloodlines?

If so, why are the tribes of Dan and Ephraim not mentioned?  Do they have a special curse upon them, transferred by blood?

It is impossible to trace ancestors of the tribes today, will God perform a miracle for this purpose?  Is it necessary?

Seventh Day Adventist Pastor Doug Batchelor has an excellent and compelling teaching ² on this that explains each of these concerns; he calls the number a literal “Special Forces” for Christ while the listing of tribes is symbolic.

For the details of this teaching, go here.

NOTE: I love the Adventists’ for their insights (they are the only Protestant sect today) but it is quite obvious and clear to us non-Adventists that the Seal of God is not their legalistic definition of a Saturday Sabbath.  Such are the pitfalls of organized religion; both truth and tradition are institutionalized.

* the 12 apostles did not come one from each Tribe, setting the precedent for a spiritual definition of “Children of Israel”
* historically, the 12 Tribes were very different in population but those listed in Revelation 7 and 14 are exactly 12,000 of each
* depending on how you count Joseph’s sons, Jacob’s two adopted grandsons, the Tribes can equal 12, 13 or 14
* the Miracle of Christ’s Sacrifice extends Grace to any person who believes; “Jews” are now defined by the spirit in their heart and not the flesh of their lineage (Romans 2:28-29)
* “12” is the number for building.  Pastor Doug states “Twelve is a perfect number for building, because it is one of the most versatile numbers.  It can be evenly divided by 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, and of course 12.”
* this seal does not mean only 144,000 are Saved as verse 9 follows with the multitude worshipping the Lamb at His Throne
* the names appear to be aligned, not by birth, but by the significance of what they mean in order to reaffirm the Gospel!

1.         Judah means                “I will praise the Lord”
2.         Ruben means               “He has looked on me”
3.         Gad means                  “Given good fortune”
4.         Asher means                “Happy am I”
5.         Naphtali means           “My wrestling”
6.         Manasseh means         “Making me to forget”
7.         Simeon means             “God hears me”
8.         Levi means                  “Joined to me”
9.         Issachar means            “Purchased Me”
10.       Zebulun means            “Dwelling”
11.       Joseph means              “Will add to me”
12.       Benjamin means          “Son of His right hand”

“I will praise the Lord for he has looked on me and granted good fortune.  I am happy because my wrestling, God is making me to forget.  God hears me and is joined to me.  He has purchased me a dwelling and will add to me, the Son of His Right Hand.”

What Is Sin?

Here we have a bit of a translational problem; a definition of “sin” can be found in I John 3:4 but that all depends upon which translation you read.

Whoever commits sin also commits lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness. ~ NKJV

Everyone who practices sin also practices lawlessness; and sin is lawlessness. ~ NASB

Despite it’s bad reputation for inaccuracy, the NIV comes a little closer.

Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. ~ NIV

The King James appears to render this passage quite differently.

Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law. ~ KJV

I neither like nor recommend the King James as its Shakespearian English is needlessly confusing.  It’s also a favorite translation of those desiring to sound righteous.  What I do recommend is serious scholarship; do exactly as I have done above.  Check multiple translations whenever possible and do original language word studies frequently.

What Is “the Law”?

If “sin” is “transgression of the Law”, then the next logical question is, “What is the Law?”  Does this mean that by eating shrimp, not covering my head or cutting the lawn on Saturday I’m sinning?

Perhaps a better question is, “Are the 613 Mitzvot of Moshe (the do’s and don’ts within the Law of Moses) what we mean by ‘the Law’?”

A careful examination of Scripture reveals something astounding: there appears to be more than one “Law”—the 10 Commandments or “Moral Law” verses the “Ceremonial Law”.

The “Moral Law” was written by the Finger of God on tablets of stone (even the second copy; Deuteronomy 10:1-5). (Exodus 31:18, 32:16)

The “Ceremonial Law” was written by Moses and placed in a Book as a testimony of Israel’s fleshly tendencies. (Deuteronomy 31:9-29)

The “Moral Law” was placed in the Ark. (Exodus 25:16, Deuteronomy 10:1-5, I King 8:9)

The “Ceremonial Law” was placed beside the Ark. (Deuteronomy 31:24-26)

The “Moral Law” is necessary for ordered living, pre-existed us (I John 3:8), is written in our hearts (Romans 2:15) and will stand forever. (Psalm 111:7-8)

The “Ceremonial Law” was necessary to explain the Plan of Salvation and was fulfilled by the Sacrifice of the Son of God, Jesus Christ. (Matthew 5:17-18, Matthew 27:51, Acts 15:10-11, Romans 10:4, Galatians 3:23-25, Ephesians 2:14-15, Hebrews 9:6-15)

The Sabbath

Failure to differentiate between the “Moral Law” and the “Ceremonial Law” can lead to the reverse of the Judaisers’ heresy; the idea that Christ rendered all Law obsolete.

The effective counter remains “But what about murder and adultery mentioned in the Ten Commandments?”  It’s clear that Christ’s sacrifice gave us freedom, not anarchy.

In fact, on the Sermon on the Mount, Christ took the Commandments and increased their jurisdiction beyond action and into your very thoughts and yearnings. (Matthew 5:21-30)

There is also a “Royal Law” which James says is still in effect—

If you really fulfill the Royal Law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you do well; but if you show partiality, you commit sin, and are convicted by the Law as transgressors.  For whoever shall keep the whole Law, and yet stumble in one point, he is guilty of all.  For He who said, “Do not commit adultery,” also said, “Do not murder.”  Now if you do not commit adultery, but you do murder, you have become a transgressor of the law.  So speak and so do as those who will be judged by the law of liberty.  For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy.  Mercy triumphs over judgment. ~ James 2:8-13New King James Version (NKJV, some capitalization added for uniqueness)

Enterprising students of Scripture have noticed that all of the first 10 Commandments are explicitly and clearly reaffirmed in the New Testament with the exception of the 4^th.

Conversely, the listing of sins which merit damnation go beyond the 10 Commandments—

Do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God?  Do not be deceived.  Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God. ~ I Corinthians 6:9-10

Consequently, confusion (perhaps some rendered purposefully) still exists amongst Christians regarding the Commandment to, “keep holy the Sabbath Day”.

“Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.  Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the Lord your God.  In it you shall do no work: you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male servant, nor your female servant, nor your cattle, nor your stranger who is within your gates.  For in six days the Lord made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested the seventh day.  Therefore the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and hallowed it. ~ Exodus 20:8-11 NKJV

To make matters more confusing, the first Christians appeared to gather for fellowship and worship on “the first day of the week” (Acts 20:7-8) in honor of the day that Christ rose from the dead. (Matthew 28:1, Mark 16:2-6, Luke 24:1, John 20:1)

Should Christians keep the Sabbath and should it be kept on the seventh day of the week?

The first concern with that issue is, “What is the seventh day of the week?”

For some in the Christian tradition, the first day of the week is named in accordance with the creation tale in the first book of the Bible, Genesis, where one of the first things God did was say “let there be light, and there was light.”

Not every culture has Sunday as its first day, and notable exceptions are found in the Slavic languages, where Sunday is the last day of the week and is not named in honor of the sun.  For example, in Hungary Sunday is called Vasárnap and means “market day,” and in Old Russian, where Sunday was sometimes called “free day.” ~ Today I Found Out

Monday or Sunday first day of the week?

The first day of the week varies all over the world.  In most cultures, Sunday is regarded as the first day of the week although many observe Monday as the first day of the week. According to the Bible, the Sabbath or Saturday is the last day of the week which marks Sunday as the first day of the week for many Jewish and Christian faiths, while many countries regard Monday as the first day of the week.

According to the international standard ISO 8601, Monday is the first day of the week ending with Sunday as the seventh day of the week.  Although this is the international standard, countries such as the United States still have their calendars refer to Sunday as the start of the seven-day week. ~ TimeAndDate.com

The moment we begin to push a strict understanding of even when to observe the Sabbath, we are in danger of the sins of legalism and pride.

One can make the case that pride was the beginning of all sin and rebellion against God (Isaiah 14:12-14), and as a result, is the worst of sins.

The traditions of the Ceremonial Law are significant, but only in as much as they create a beautiful picture of our Savior and His Redemption for us.  Without Him, they are completely without substance.  Amongst the Ceremonial Law are the marking of Sabbath days, the strict keeping of which leads to the deadly sin of pride—

In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the Circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.  And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the Cross.  Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.

So let no one judge you in food or in drink, or regarding a festival or a new moon or sabbaths, which are a shadow of things to come, but the substance is of Christ.  Let no one cheat you of your reward, taking delight in false humility and worship of angels, intruding into those things which he has not seen, vainly puffed up by his fleshly mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom all the body, nourished and knit together by joints and ligaments, grows with the increase that is from God.

Therefore, if you died with Christ from the basic principles of the world, why, as though living in the world, do you subject yourselves to regulations — “Do not touch, do not taste, do not handle,” which all concern things which perish with the using — according to the commandments and doctrines of men?  These things indeed have an appearance of wisdom in self-imposed religion, false humility, and neglect of the body, but are of no value against the indulgence of the flesh. ~ Colossians 2:11-23

But are those Sabbath Days different from the Sabbath (as our Adventist brethren claim)?

If there is an important passage that needs a testimony in Scripture, we can expect it to be mentioned at least twice—for as the testimony of two or more is found, so is an issue resolved. (Matthew 18:16)

Who are you to judge another’s servant?  To his own master he stands or falls.  Indeed, he will be made to stand, for God is able to make him stand.

One person esteems one day above another; another esteems every day alike.  Let each be fully convinced in his own mind.  He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord he does not observe it.  He who eats, eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.  For none of us lives to himself, and no one dies to himself.  For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord.  Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord’s.  For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living.  But why do you judge your brother?  Or why do you show contempt for your brother?  For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. ~ Romans 14:4-10 (NKJV)

It is an absolute fact that one can be nourished in their relationship with Christ by voluntarily keeping a Sabbath, but only if that is their intent, because that was clearly His Intent—

Now it happened that He went through the grainfields on the Sabbath; and as they went His disciples began to pluck the heads of grain.  And the Pharisees said to Him, “Look, why do they do what is not lawful on the Sabbath?”

But He said to them, “Have you never read what David did when he was in need and hungry, he and those with him: how he went into the house of God in the days of Abiathar the high priest, and ate the showbread, which is not lawful to eat except for the priests, and also gave some to those who were with him?”

And He said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  Therefore the Son of Man is also Lord of the Sabbath.” ~ Mark 2:23-27

Unfortunately, the reality of this issue appears to be that the vast majority of Christians exercise no discipline in this matter and a very small minority of Christians push a fanatical adherence to the legalistic side of it.

As with every issue of guilt and emotion where there is no clarity of thought or balance, the Dragon has stepped up to excite the paranoia of the devoted into believing that a specific, mandated day of rest will be the ultimate evil brought by her iron grip.

Given that the Inquisition never died, it was simply put into the hands of Rome’s American puppets, there are far more serious issues to be concerned about.

New Nationwide FEMA Camps Should Raise Eyebrows

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Well, according to Daniel 9, there are one or two minor events that need to occur before Christ returns like the appearance of the anti-Christ, his 7-year covenant with Israel, the Tribulation and the Abomination of Desolation.

Hey…I’m only human.

Have you put serious thought into the idea that Christ’s Return in immanent?

An accounting for how we live our lives is guaranteed.

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.”

“For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My Sake will find it.”

“For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul?  Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?”

“For the Son of Man is going to come in the Glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” ~ Matthew 16:24-27, NASB (capitalization added to correct disrespect)

As I continue to try and alert the Body of Christ to the real dangers attacking them, I’m finding that the majority of “Christian” ministries aren’t interested in truly feeding the Flock.

Status quo is lucrative and safe.  Real Truth is neither.

However, it states very clearly in Ezekiel 33; a watchman who sees danger and keeps his mouth shut to it, is personally responsible for the harm he or she does.

But let’s talk about some of these events that are supposed to occur before the Return of Christ; particularly the desecration of the Temple—the Abomination of Desolation.

What is truly disconcerting is how many Christian leaders are telling their flocks that they have no need to prepare for difficult times ahead.  They misquote I Thessalonians 5:9 “the Church is not appointed to Wrath” as proof that Christians will not endure the Tribulation.

This is a heretical misuse of what Paul is saying.  Simply examining just the second half of the verse explains why and more context destroys using it in such a manner completely.

…let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet, the hope of salvation.  For G-d has not destined us for Wrath, but for obtaining Salvation through our L-rd Jesus Christ, who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. ~ I Thessalonians 5:8-9, NASB (capitalization and abbreviation added for clarity and to correct disrespect)

Clearly, Paul considers the Wrath of G-d to mean the damnation of the soul.

Trial and tribulation are a guaranteed part of Christian living.  Any “Christian” who isn’t enduring tribulation should fear for their very Salvation.

His disciples said to Him, “See, now You are speaking plainly, and using no figure of speech!  Now we are sure that You know all things, and have no need that anyone should question You.  By this we believe that You came forth from G-d.”

Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe?  Indeed the hour is coming, yes, has now come, that you will be scattered, each to his own, and will leave Me alone.  And yet I am not alone, because the Father is with Me.  These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world!” ~ John 16:29-33 NKJV, (abbreviation added for respect)

I have warned you repeatedly to prepare.

The Rapture Isn’t Coming For You, But These Things Are

Prior to the complete fabrication of the “pre-Tribulation Rapture” in 1830 by John Nelson Darby, all of Christendom’s greatest minds were teaching that the Body of Christ will endure the anti-Christ and his Tribulation.

Cyrus Scofield was a convicted felon abandoned his Catholic wife in order to immortalize Darby’s heresy seemingly clear of Jesuit influence (which I uncover in my book).  His Scofield study Bible is responsible for several grievous heresies in Christendom such as;

1. The pre-Tribulation Rapture.
2. Dispensationalism; YHWH only deals with Believers or Israel separately.
3. “Magog” identified as Russia; to include incredibly bankrupt argument that descendents of Rosh sound like “Russia”.
4. Misplaced fixation on the secular prosperity of Israel; how can the Prodigal Son come home if you keep sending him money?

Although one would think giving too much help to political Israel isn’t in the same class as sowing dangerous disinformation in the Body of Christ but it has spawned heretics like John Hagee¹ who claims that Israel is without condemnation because Yeshua never claimed to be their Meshiach.

Hagee actually seeks out charlatans like Benny Hinn to encourage them as they fleece the Flock.

ABOMINABLE

Christians know that a key event will occur to signal the end of our era; the Abomination of Desolation.

“Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy Place (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.  Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get the things out that are in his house.  Whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.  But woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  But pray that your flight will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.  For then there will be a great Tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.  Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the Elect those days will be cut short.” ~ Matthew 24:15-22, NASB (capitalization added for clarity of unique events or groupings)

The Abomination of Desolation has to do with a desecration of “the Holy Place”: the Temple.

This is confirmed by Daniel in regards to what happened to the first Temple.  It was desecrated by the Greek Emperor Antiochus IV (Epiphanes)—

Forces from him will arise, desecrate the sanctuary fortress, and do away with the regular sacrifice.  And they will set up the Abomination of Desolation. ~ Daniel 11:31

Around 168 BC, Antiochus Epiphanes responded to a Jewish revolt in brutal fashion; he slew the High Priest, Jason, murdered tens of thousands of Jews—men, women and children—and erected an image of Zeus that looked like him inside the Temple.  Some accounts say he also slew pigs inside the Temple to further subjugate the Israelites.

As a result, Christians have been waiting for countless generations to see a third Temple erected in Jerusalem to fulfill this prophecy.

But what if we’re looking in the wrong direction?

In Revelation 13, a beast rises up out of the sea and is given all power and authority by the Dragon (satan).

Another beast rises up out of the earth and the beast of the sea gives the beast of the earth authority to slay anyone who doesn’t worship the beast of the sea nor take his mark.

The beast of the sea receives a deadly head wound but miraculously (magically?) comes back to life.

The beast of the earth creates an image of the beast of the sea and brings it to life.  How is that possible?

The word “image” is εἰκών (eikṓn), Strong’s NT 1504:

(from 1503 /eíkō, “be like”) – properly, “mirror-like representation,” referring to what is very close in resemblance

Did the beast of the earth create a clone of the beast of the sea?

Does the beats of the earth have advanced technology and a terrible military that he wields on behalf of the beast of the sea?

The Temple, itself, is nothing more than a type of the Son of G-d—through it, mankind is made righteous and able to stand in His Perfect Presence.

Jesus answered them, “Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up.”  The Jews then said, “It took forty-six years to build this Temple, and will You raise it up in three days?”  But He was speaking of the Temple of His Body.” ~ John 2:19-21 NASB, (capitalization added for clarity and respect)

Cloning is a demonic fact of our existence.  Arrogant, unscrupulous “scientists” do it regularly now.

The Book of Genesis repeatedly states that the organisms created by YHWH reproduce “after their own kind”.  What happens when this Divine process is abrogated?  What life force animates such a being?

We receive an inclination by what happened in Korea, two years ago.  A cloned cow attacked its creator, Professor Park Se-pill of Jeju National University.  It broke 5 of his ribs and cracked his spine.

Is it possible that the Abomination of Desolation will be an attempt to clone the Body of Jesus Christ and animate it with satan, himself?

Let no one in any way deceive you, for it will not come unless the Apostasy comes first, and the Man of Lawlessness is revealed, the Son of Destruction, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the Temple of G-d, displaying himself as being G-d. ~ II Thessalonians 2:3-4, NASB (capitalization added for precision, abbreviation added for respect)

There are relics that could very well have traces of Christ’s DNA.  One of them is the Shroud of Turin.  Although hotly contested as to its legitimacy, many sincere Christians and even secular scientists believe the image of the shroud was imparted to it in a manner that changed its molecular density and made it three-dimensional.

Today, the Shroud is controlled by Rome.

The Lance of Longinus—also known as the Spear of Destiny—is supposedly what the Roman soldier used to insure Christ was dead by thrusting into His Side.  Legend states that any who wield the spear can not be defeated.  Many speculate that it, too, is held by the Vatican.

TWO BEASTS REVEALED?

Revelation 13:1-4 tells us that a beast rises out of the sea with 10 horns and 7 heads.

The sea is often used in Scripture to speak of people, so this beast rises in popularity to represent a great many people around the world.

Of its seven heads, one had receives a terrible wound but is healed and comes back to life.

Is Rome this beast and is Jorge Mario Bergoglio—now “Pope Francis”—this final head?

Bergoglio, himself, has stated shortly after taking office that he’ll be “dead in two or three years.”

This coincides perfectly with the astounding astronomical signs I mentioned in my previous column.

The second beast that empowers the first rises up out of the earth.  If it’s not rising up out of the people, what is it rising up from?

In Genesis 6 we read of creatures that are not created “after their own kind” but result from an aberrant joining of man and angel.  The offspring are the נְפִילִים (naphal) or “fallen ones” but the Greek Septuagint translates them γίγαντεσ, gigantes which means “earth born”.

During Barack Obama’s Middle East Apology Tour in 2009 (where he went to great lengths to apologize for America), while visiting Egypt, some remarked how similar he looked to Egyptian Pharaohs like Akhenaten.  As researchers began to dig deeper, they started to ask, “Is Barack Obama a clone of an Egyptian Pharaoh?”

Revelation 13:7 tells us of the beast that rises from the sea;

And it was given unto him to make war with the Saints, and to overcome them: and power was given him over all tribes, and tongues, and nations.

As Foxe’s Book of Martyrs can attest, no power has tortured and murdered Christians like that of Rome.

But my book attests that, truly, Rome is the authority that rules the world from behind the scenes.  The banks in London, slave labor in China and military might of America—all are controlled by the Jesuits.

Through the CIA, the Jesuits have unleashed the Sword of Muhammad—a sword they created—and now wield it against Christians all throughout the Middle East, enacting a literal genocide upon them.

While Western Christians sit back fat, dumb and lazy, waiting for the third Temple to arise and/or the Rapture to come take them, are the two beasts of Revelation 13 already upon us?

_______________

WHY JONAH DIDN’T LIKE THE ASSYRIANS

The Assyrians were a brutal Canaanite people who’s practices in conquest made you want to not be conquered by them. They skinned captives and hung their remains on the walls of their cities. The Bible records that they took pleasure in ripping open pregnant women to personally slaughter their babies (Samaria was the capital of the Northern Kingdom “Israel” until it was conquered by the Assyrians).

Samaria will be held guilty,
For she has rebelled against her God.
They will fall by the sword,
Their little ones will be dashed in pieces,
And their pregnant women will be ripped open. ~ Hosea 13:16

The Assyrians were not Jews nor did they keep the Mosaic Law. They practiced all kinds of perversion which actually precipitated many of the “don’ts” in the Torah. They were precautions given by God before entering the Promised Land.

When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall not learn to imitate the detestable things of those nations. ~ Deuteronomy 18:9

Leviticus 18:1-23 lists all sorts of sexual perversions, incest, homosexuality, bestiality and the like. The verses after my reference above (Deuteronomy 18:9-14) lists demonic worship that included casting infants into bonfires and calling on spirits through divination, orgies and narcotics.

WHAT GOT JONAH?

Jonah was no-more swallowed by a whale than Adam and Eve ate an apple. These are extrapolations and conventions that have been passed down through the ages that have no basis in the original passages.

The original Hebrew of Jonah 1:17 is dag gadôl or “fish, great” but the Septuagint translation into Greek implied more of an unusual aspect to the creature; kêtei megalô from the root “ketos”.

Keto (Ancient Greek: Κητώ, Kētō, “sea monster”) — Latinized as Ceto — is a primordial sea goddess in Greek mythology, the daughter of Gaia and Pontus. … As a mythological figure, she is most notable for bearing by Phorcys a host of monstrous children, collectively known as the Phorcydes. …

This goddess should not be confused with … various mythological beings referred to as ketos (plural ketea); this is a general term for “sea monster” in Ancient Greek. ~ Ceto, Wikipedia

This is the same term Jesus uses to recount what happened to Jonah and relate it to Himself in Matthew 12:40.

LIFE INSIDE A SEA MONSTER

The Bible states that a great sea monster swallowed the prophet Jonah but did not devour him. If we take this literally (and we should) this was probably a rather unpleasant experience.

There is actually a man who suffered a very similar fate (perhaps what he suffered was a bit of poetic justice given the barbarism of whaling):

True Tales Of Terror On The High Seas

The records of the British Admiralty testify that James Bartley, an apprentice seaman on a whaler, was swallowed by a whale in February, 1891, some two hundred miles east of the Falkland Islands in the South Atlantic.

It was his first whaling voyage and he was aboard the whaling ship Star of the East.

The lookout spotted a huge sperm whale half a mile off the port bow and gave the cry “There she blows!” The ship’s sails were slackened and soon her small boats were lowered. A deadly race began between the Star of the East and the immense whale.

Young James BartIey was in the first longboat to reach the side of the prey. They crept up from the rear, so near that the harpooner leaned over and rammed his weapon deep into the whale’s vitals. As the stricken beast sought to free itself of the harpoon, Bartley and the other oarsmen rowed frantically to get out of reach of the massive flukes, the two-pronged tail which threshed the water to foam in the whale’s agony.

The whale sounded and eight hundred feet of heavy line streaked out of the line tub before he ended his dive. Then an ominous slacking in the line signaled the monster was going to surface. But where?

The oarsmen readied themselves to pull for their lives. Without warning there was a splintering crash which sent the longboat spinning into the air. The whale thrashed about wildly, snapping at the men and the wreckage with its huge jaws as the water turned to a bloody froth before he sounded again.

Another longboat picked up the survivors of this encounter, but two men were missing – one of them the young apprentice, James Bartley.

The wind now deserted the Star of the East and for hours she lay becalmed, wallowing in a light swell.

Shortly before sunset, the now dead whale floated to the surface a few hundred yards from the ship. In a longboat, the crew hastily fastened a line to the whale and the winch brought it to the ship’s side. The hot weather climate made it imperative that the whale be cut up at once. Having no means of raising it to the deck, the men took their flensing spades and peeled off the blubber as they slipped and slid along the immense back of this giant mammal.

Late that night, working by lantern-light, the tired crewmen removed the stomach of the whale and slowly winched it to the deck for flensing. They were startled to notice movement inside the large sack, movement that looked like something living and breathing. The captain called the ship’s doctor who made an incision in the tough flesh. And out slid the doubled up missing sailor, James Bartley, as if he were suffering from severe stomach cramps. He was alive, but unconscious.

The doctor ordered Bartley drenched with sea water, a treatment which restored his consciousness but not his reason, for he babbled incoherently.

Confined to a cabin for several weeks and bound so he could not injure himself in his wild flounderings, Bartley gradually regained his senses. Within a month he was able to relate what had happened to him in his terrifying experience.

Bartley said that as he was cast into the water from the long boat he saw a tremendous mouth open over him and he screamed as he was engulfed by it. He then felt sharp stabbing pains as he was swept across the teeth and then slid feet first down a slimy tube that carried him to the whale’s stomach. He could breath, but the hot, fetid odor soon rendered him unconscious and the last thing he remembers was kicking as hard as he could at the soft, yielding stomach. Finally, he lapsed into unconsciousness until he again came to his senses almost a month later.

As a result of his fifteen hours inside the whale’s stomach, Bartley lost all the hair on his body and was blind for the rest of his life. His skin was bleached to an unnatural whiteness that gave the appearance of being bloodless, although he was healthy.

James Bartley never made another trip to the sea and settled down to shore life as a cobbler in his native city of Gloucester, England. He died eighteen years after his remarkable survival and terrifying adventure.

On his tombstone in the churchyard at Gloucester is a brief account of his experience at sea and a footnote, which says: James Bartley -1870-1909 – A Modern Jonah.

THE STAGE WAS PRE-SET

It is interesting to note that one of the most important gods of the kingdom that bordered the Mediterranean Sea was Dagon, the fish god. Assyrians could’ve seen this as a cooperative effort with their god or, given Jonah’s dedication to the God who so terrified his sailing companions, proof of YHWH’s Supremacy.

Some scholars like Alexander Hislop believe that the worship of Dagon is reflected in modern sects like the Catholic Church with at least one example being quite striking:

WHO WAS JONAH ON A MISSION FOR?

YHWH is the Chess Master. He always has economy of energy and when He does something there are layers to it that take generations to unravel, sometimes never.

When Jonah was chosen it was just as much for his benefit as the Ninevites. Many people miss a similar lesson when reading the Parable of the Prodigal Son. There are two sons who learn hard lessons about compassion and mercy in Luke 15.

Jonah’s spiritual and emotional immaturity is glaring through the end of Chapter 3 and all of Chapter 4 and the Lord must continue to teach him what “compassion” really means.

How many of us could stand to learn that lesson…?

There is no such thing as a “purely objective scientist” or a “purely secular public figure”.

Everyone has a bias, a slant or a world-view and most everyone promotes that world view with guile and subterfuge rather than honestly stating their agenda.

I am a Christian.

I also believe in American Exceptionalism.

Unlike other religions (to include atheistic or pagan hedonism), Christianity affords its adherents a unique avenue towards real Truth: self denial and personal discipline.

The key to being a good Christian is, coincidentally, the key to having the clearest understanding of the world around you;

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My Sake will find it.

For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul?

For the Son of Man is going to come in the Glory of His Father with His angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds!” ~ Matthew 16:24-27

Remember, your “cross” is not a pleasant thing.

By this definition, a Christian’s life is pain, challenge, trial and self control (conversely, those who say otherwise are demonic-inspired heretics). If you have the ability to crave something, to lust for something and deny it to yourself for whatever reason (usually because it’s unhealthy or immoral), you are a powerful person.

You are also hated and feared by all those who can not.

That is why the Apostle Paul says that those who willingly serve Christ have freed themselves from slavery…to their own nature.

How does this apply in the secular world?

Let’s look at the issue of abortion.

In abortion, we get some pretty twisted arguments from the pro-abortion crowd;

“It’s the woman’s body, she should do what she wants.”

”I think it’s wrong, but I don’t want to push my values on someone else.”

“When you carry the baby, then you can have an opinion.”

Clearly, when a woman carries another life, it’s not hers to dispose of as she sees fit, especially when abortion uses some of the most heinous techniques of killing known to man—and does so on the most vulnerable and innocent of life.

How can proponents of abortion sleep at night? —Because they don’t believe any of what they are saying. They have a hidden agenda that cancels out the medical fact that at 8 weeks babies have fingers, toes, brainwaves and a heartbeat and that premature babies are being saved at amazing ages now thanks to medical science.

They want sex without consequences.

Logic doesn’t matter.

Science doesn’t matter.

Morality doesn’t matter.

But there is an even more shocking example of world view agendas destroying debate: in explaining the origin of life.

Now more than ever before, Darwinian evolution is a theory in crisis and it is “logic” and “science” that are killing it.

DNA: THE DIGITAL CODE

DNA is a digital, self-correcting code that, when changed by mutation, loses information. This loss of information is a detriment to the organism, not a benefit.

Bert Hubert is a computer programmer and a Darwinian who gave this perspective on DNA:

Holy Code: /* you are not expected to understand this */

Some code is sacred. We may not remember who wrote it, or why – we just know that it works. The guy who thought it up may have left the company already. Such code is not to be tinkered with.

DNA knows the concept of the “molecular clock”. Some parts of the genome are actively changing and some parts are sacrosanct. A good example of the latter are the Histone genes H3 and H4.

These genes are fundamental to the actual storage of the genome and are thus of paramount importance. Any failure in this code rapidly leads to a non-functioning organism.

So it is to be expected that this code isn’t tinkered with and that turns out the case. The H3 an H4 genes have a *zero* effective mutation rate in humans. But it goes far beyond that.

Bert has a section on “junk DNA” that modern analysis via genome mapping has already proved outdated and inaccurate. This via the Washington Post:

In all, at least 80 percent of the genome appears to be active at least sometime in our lives. Further research may reveal that virtually all of the DNA passed down from generation to generation has been kept for a reason.

“This concept of ‘junk DNA’ is really not accurate. It is an outdated metaphor,” said Richard Myers of the HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology in Alabama.

The corruption of DNA can be explained by “entropy” which I cover below but Christians have another take that explains the encoding behind entropy that we call “Original Sin”.

An excellent example of the importance of “information” or the loss of it in genetics, is the myriad of health problems suffered by purebred dogs. The K9’s great, great, great, great grand-daddy was an extremely healthy and robust animal but today’s dogs have suffered so much genetic manipulation by man that dog breeding has become an ethical dilemma (at least for those who have a problem with harming animals to make a buck).

FALSE PREMISE

The very premise of Darwinian Evolution is false; the idea that life arose from the simple to become complex. The 2^nd Law of Thermodynamics states that all systems migrate from order to chaos. Nothing in nature contradicts this, save the “theory” of Evolution.

There is no such thing as a “simple, single-celled organism”.

TRANSITIONAL FORMS

To go from a “simple, single-celled organism” to the amazing complexity of the human body via random mutation would necessitate lots and lots and lots of time and even more evidence of mutations that didn’t make the grade. None of this is in the fossil record.

Instead, some Darwinians are saying the complete opposite (which adds even more stress to a crumbling hypothesis).

THE CAMBRIAN EXPLOSION

The Cambrian Explosion marks an astounding period in archeological history where a massive number of complex forms simply “appear” in the fossil record. It has confounded Darwinians since its discovery and so they take this overwhelming Intelligent Design evidence and simply count it as theirs.

Read this article excerpt from “Paleontology online” slowly and carefully, and marvel:

The transition between the Precambrian and the Cambrian period (about 550 million to 500 million years ago) records one of the most important patterns of fossils in all the geological record. Complex animals with a suite of shells, intricate body plans and associated movement traces appeared for the first time, suddenly and unambiguously, in sequences all over the world during this interval. This “Cambrian explosion” remains one of the most controversial areas of research in all of the history of life, and one of the most exciting. Palaeontological data like this is definitive in its support for evolutionary theory, the relative sequence of first appearances in the fossil record over the past several billion years ties very closely with what we would expect from evolutionary theory.

VIOLATES THE SCIENTIFIC METHOD

Speaking of the “theory” of Evolution, did you know that evolution does not even qualify for the term?

According to the scientific method Darwinian Evolution is the equivalent of a kindergarten fantasy or B-grade SciFi film; the amount of willing suspension of disbelief required to believe it is unbelievable.

The introduction to the Wikipedia entry on Scientific Method is illustrative:

The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting and integrating previous knowledge.^[1]  To be termed scientific, a method of inquiry must be based on empirical and measurable evidence subject to specific principles of reasoning.^[2]  The Oxford English Dictionary defines the scientific method as: “a method or procedure that has characterized natural science since the 17th century, consisting in systematic observation, measurement, and experiment, and the formulation, testing, and modification of hypotheses.”^[3]

The chief characteristic which distinguishes the scientific method from other methods of acquiring knowledge is that scientists seek to let reality speak for itself, supporting a theory when a theory’s predictions are confirmed and challenging a theory when its predictions prove false. Although procedures vary from one field of inquiry to another, identifiable features distinguish scientific inquiry from other methods of obtaining knowledge. Scientific researchers propose hypotheses as explanations of phenomena, and design experimental studies to test these hypotheses via predictions which can be derived from them. These steps must be repeatable, to guard against mistake or confusion in any particular experimenter. Theories that encompass wider domains of inquiry may bind many independently derived hypotheses together in a coherent, supportive structure. Theories, in turn, may help form new hypotheses or place groups of hypotheses into context.

Macro evolution (the evolution of one species into another) is none of these things: it isn’t testable, repeatable or observable. You can not isolate the variables and no one has been able to replicate the process.

Variation within a species (“micro evolution”) is as verifiable as…pollution. The archetype example of micro evolution was the coloration changes observed in the peppered moths of the English countryside during the Industrial Revolution. As the colors of the normally-white birch trees changed from coal-fire soot, so did those of the peppered moths that used them for concealment. Unfortunately for Darwinians, that was the extent of the changes (as opposed to, say, the moths morphing into velociraptors who, in turn, ate the birds that were preying on them).

ORCHESTRATED MEIOSIS

To this day, scientists are completely baffled by the development of life in the womb. How two zygotes come together to form a cell which then starts dividing to become a myriad of organs, tissues and processes remains a mystery.

IRREDUCIBLE COMPLEXITY

Reverse engineering is a fine art. The Russian military is founded on it.

However, just like looking back on the fossil record and pretending to see complete transitions in species when only similar, whole forms exist, Darwinians have a problem reverse-engineering complex systems as well.

The most amazing part of this critique is how easy it is to explain. As biochemistry professor (and originator of this damning challenge to Darwin) Dr. Michael J. Behe puts it—a mousetrap is composed of 5 basic parts; a hammer, a spring, a catch, a platform and a holding bar. If one of those parts is missing in the “development” of that mousetrap, you don’t catch ¹/₅ fewer mice, you catch none because the system ceases to function. There are organs within a complex living being that can not be simplified in their imagined development because, if they were, that being would cease to function.

Rarely will I cite an Islamic apologist as a source but Turkey’s Adnan Oktar has posted this accurate assessment of the miraculous system we take for granted as “simple”: avian feathers. It is only via modern examination techniques that these complexities have been revealed:

…bird feathers have such a complex structure that the phenomenon can never be accounted for by evolutionary processes. As we all know, there is a shaft that runs up the center of the feather. Attached to the shaft are the vanes. The vane is made up of small thread-like strands, called barbs. These barbs, of different lengths and rigidity, are what give the bird its aerodynamic nature. But what is even more interesting is that each barb has thousands of even smaller strands attached to them called barbules. The barbules are connected to barbicels, with tiny microscopic hooks, called hamuli. Each strand is hooked to an opposing strand, much like the hooks of a zipper.

Just one crane feather has about 650 barbs on each of side of the shaft. About 600 barbules branch off the barbs. Each one of these barbules are locked together with 390 hooklets. The hooks latch together as do the teeth on both sides of a zip. If the hooklets come apart for any reason, the bird can easily restore the feathers to their original form by either shaking itself or by straightening its feathers out with its beak.

This “adaptation” is so amazing, it also adds a seal against moisture for water fowl.

Speaking of which, I remember as a kid being astounded by documentaries that use the phrase “brilliant adaptation” when describing phenomena such as these. It sounds just as stupid now as it did then.

The examples of such “brilliant adaptations” are far too many and diverse to list here but I will pull up one more for illustration.

The polar bear is a favorite of the global warming alarmists because they paint the animal as a cute, cuddly prop for their subterfuge. However, the Ursus maritimus is considered to be the largest land predator extant on the planet today and given its austere environment that, alone, can easily be construed as “miraculous”.

Even more amazing is that there is a unique quality to a polar bear’s pelt and skin. The polar bear has follicles that aren’t “white” but clear and the skin of a polar bear is, in fact, black. Simple physics will immediately cause you to be amazed and see that an animal appears to have fur that makes it blend with its environment yet serves the amazing purpose of helping to keep a complex mammal warm in a frigid ecosystem.

This seems to be so efficient that it’s not uncommon to see a polar bear “sunning” itself on the ice.

Not surprisingly, such assumptions have a host of detractors who, apparently, have been to the same school of uncritical thought as most Darwinians.

Here is one such, “debunking” example:

“And older theories are being challenged. It was believed that the bear’s outer hairs were hollow, in order to transmit light to its black skin, a form of solar heating, but Jane [Waterman]’s analysis of the hair exploded that theory…’ It did not transmit light and if you think about it, it really doesn’t make any sense to have a system where you use light to warm yourself up if its minus forty degrees Celsius and twenty-four hour darkness, it doesn’t do you any good.’”

What “Jane Waterman” fails to take into account is that a polar bear is a mammal, not a reptile. Systems that are symbiotic with their environment don’t depend on them, they are simply aided by them. My first clue as to the cluelessness of such an “expert” was the phrase “if you think about it”. “Thinking about it” is also not found in the Scientific Method nor do scientists “explode” theories.

But people with agendas think they do.

AGAINST THE ODDS

The number of “coincidences” and parameters that have come together to support life on planet Earth are so varied and unique that it has many sky-watchers getting rather depressed.

* unitary solar system rather than two suns
* perfect distance of the Earth from the Sun
* perfect orbit of the Earth (producing delicate season changes)
* 23.5 degree tilt of the Earth
* the orbit of the solar system within the galaxy is also unique and important to life
* stability of the solar system
* composition of the atmosphere
* protection from excessive radiation by the Van Allen belt
* ratio of water to land
* unusual size of only one moon in the perfect orbit
* the Earth’s unusually slow rotation speed
* relatively calm tectonic activity
* the importance of the size and location of the other bodies in our solar system

The complete list is far more comprehensive than this but these are just a few starters for any budding scientists…real scientists, that is.

If this disappoints any of my Trekkie readers, never fear. There will be an “alien disclosure” in our near future. I’m afraid, however, it will be more “V” than “Star Trek”.

SOCIAL DARWINISM

Despite all of its imperfections, Darwinian Evolution has been extremely helpful to a special class of people: mass murderers and multi-millionaires.

From Adolf Hitler to robber barons like Andrew Carnegie and J.P. Morgan to the founder of Planned Parenthood Margaret Sanger (born and raised Roman Catholic)through Columbine killer Eric Harris, applying Darwinian evolution to human beings has been a boon.

FRAUD AND DECEIT

As time wore on, Darwinians began to get restless waiting for “missing links” to fall into place. So, being the good scientists that they were, they made them up (or eagerly drew unfounded conclusions based upon their presuppositions).

*  Piltdown Man: the jawbone of an orangutan with the skull of a human created this embarrassing hoax—and it was pulled off by a Jesuit priest!
* Nebraska Man: an entire species of pre-man based upon a single tooth…not. This embarrassment was part of the revenge scheme that became the “Scopes Monkey Trial” I discuss below.
* Java Man: Three teeth, a skull cap and a femur strewn across a large area were enough for Dutchman Eugene Dubois to claim “success!” in 1891. As this Darwinian site admits, Dubois was the perfect evolutionary “scientist”; he started with his conclusion then went looking for anything that appeared to shore it up: a young Dutch military doctor, who came to Java in 1887 with the sole purpose of finding the “missing link” between humans and apes.
* Ocre Man: the “oldest man in Europe” turns out to be the fragment of a donkey skull. Darwinians do so love making whole species out of a little piece of bone here and there. Sometimes just “there”.
* Bone Crunching Debunks “First Monkey” Ida Fossil Hype, Wired
* Harvard Psychology Professor “Faked Data And Fudged Results In Monkey Experiments”, UK Mail
* Researchers: “Lucy” Is Not Direct Ancestor Of Humans, Jerusalem Post
* Scientists Are Accused Of Distorting Theory Of Human Evolution By Misdating Bones, The UK Observer

IF ALL ELSE FAILS, — USETHE IRON FIST

I’m just a layman. I’m not an expert. Yet I think I’ve done a fair job of showing that Darwinian Evolution could stand some closer investigation…perhaps some fair debate, don’t you agree?

The “science” and “education” establishments most assuredly do not.

When the California Science Center learned that an upcoming presentation would give equal time to Evolution and Intelligent Design, the event was immediately cancelled, forcing the presenters to sue.

Astrophysicist and assistant professor of Astronomy Dr. Guillermo Gonzalez was one of the top names in his field. When Iowa State University found out that he was a proponent of Intelligent Design they summarily fired him. When Ball State gave him a job, it was “highly controversial”. Recall that there are university “professors” that took part in open sedition and were complicit in multiple counts of murder or called the victims of 9/11 “little Eichmanns”.

At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, System Administrator David Coppedge had tenure and respect. Evolution News reported that Coppedge was responsible for—

200 Unix workstations, several high-capacity data storage units, networking equipment, and other specialized computing equipment across America and Europe. He has a wide breadth of knowledge about technical aspects of Cassini’s computers and networks and was heavily involved in all the mission operations. Coppedge has been a faithful and highly regarded JPL employee for many years, has led tours of the lab and has served as an outreach speaker presenting the Cassini findings to civic and astronomy clubs and school groups.

Now, though, this exemplary employee has been demoted. Why? Did he do something to jeopardize the mission? No. Was he guilty of incompetence? No. Was he lazy or just lackadaisical in his work? No. David Coppedge’s sin was a thought crime, the mere willingness to challenge the ruling authority of Darwinian evolution. In conversation he asked colleagues if they’d be interested in watching a documentary that dealt with evolution and intelligent design. For this he was harassed and discriminated against.

In 2008 the Florida Board of Education attempted to qualify Evolution as just a “theory” (as I’ve shown, it’s not even that). There was immediate outrage amongst the Darwinian faithful.

“Creationism” is Intelligent Design that says the “Designer” is the God of the Bible. In 1987, the United States Supreme Court decided that lawyers knew best what should be in textbooks and “Creationism” had no business standing on the same pedestal as Darwinian Evolution. This decision was to be enforced at all costs, as high school biology teacher Larry Booher found out.

2008 was a banner year for the Druids of Darwin as it was also that year that Professor Michael Reiss, Director of Education at the Royal Society was excommunicated for his belief in Creationism.

But perhaps the best and most recent example of scientific professionalism on par with shutting your eyes, covering your ears and shouting “LA LA LA LA LA LA LA!” was the decision by Popular Science to forbid comments on its online site because too much information was getting out that questioned both “global warming” and Darwinian Evolution.

THE DRUIDS OF DARWIN

In 1960, Hollywood glamorized the 1925 court case known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes in a movie called “Inherit the Wind”. If you ever needed outrageous characterizations of calm, open-minded, “science”-loving Darwinians verses crazed, closed-minded, superstitions “Christians”, just watch that movie.

The reality, of course, is quite different even for the trial which was chosen as a propaganda tool of the American Civil Liberties Union.

David Menton is a PhD in cellular biology who now works for the Creationist organization “Answers in Genesis”. He was interviewed by pastor Donn Chapman of Cornerstone Ministries and, although this is not a neutral setting, it gives important background you won’t normally hear regarding the “Scopes Monkey Trial”.

I bring this up because it’s the first thing that Darwinians and even common folk think of when the envision Christians questioning Evolution.

But as I’ve shown here, it is actually the reverse that is true.

Doug, you are wrong concerning what Demons are –The Book of Enoch, The Book of Giants (both dead sea scrolls) and all the Early Church Fathers differentiated between Fallen Angels and Demons. The Greek word for Demon is dis-embodied Spirit. Fallen Angels can Shape Shift but your understanding is not accurate.

The argument that “demons” seek to inhabit but “fallen angels” can “shape-shift” is without Scriptural merit nor am I aware of this even being born out (sorry) by any Apocryphal materials. The Word of G-d (abbreviated out of respect) states that fallen angels must embody to interact in this dimension while loyal angels have enormous latitude to appear indistinguishable from our normal surroundings, (Genesis 18, 19, Hebrews 13:2).

All unclean spirits seek to inhabit a body and interact in this world which was the very purpose for the shenanigans in Genesis 6: to create foul, manipulated organic portals interrupted from the Divine Pattern of reproduction “after its own kind”. Devoid of the Breath of Life, they (like clones) were/are living organic portals that didn’t need to be tricked into allowing possession.

I’ve seen this argument before and never felt it could be accurately made because Scripture is silent on it (for good reason). What many try to do in differentiating between “demons” and “angels” is actually misunderstood in the hierarchy of the rebellious spirits. The response of this arrogant individual is a perfect example: it is the more powerful fallen angels who are interested in and seek to control the destiny of nations while the lesser “demons” seek to at least enter into this realm in some fashion.

The same can be true for who gets possessed. Satan, himself, sought to be the instrument of Christ’s betrayal, just as I am sure he has taken personal interest in steering Barack Obama and other clearly possessed world leaders, billionaires, “rock stars”, etc. Once they are evicted, the meek will literally inherit the Earth.

Can any “religion” in the world even touch that…?

—A friend asked me this question:

Dina: Why is the “O” left out of Lord?

Johnny: Dina, after seeing so many Christians who have lost respect for the Name of God (“G-d”), I have adopted the tradition of our Orthodox Jewish brethren who hyphenate the Name out of deep reverence and respect. There was great fear at the chance of having written the Name incorrectly and then having to blot out or erase the Name. In this way, there was a cushion of safety.

Before Christ, Jews were so reverential they sometimes would simply say “ha Shem” for “the Name”. After the Son of G-d put a Name and a Face on His Love, Christians got too familiar and now have no reverence.

One of the most ancient manuscripts—the Magdalene Papyrus—a snippet of the Gospel of Mark actually abbreviates the Name of Jesus (the English equivalent would be something like “J-s”).

Next time a Christian writes “OMG!”, perhaps you could share this with them.

Dina: I understand what you’re saying and the history behind it however I was introduced to the Lord and I do have reverence for Him. I have no fear in writing His Name wrong, He has changed my life and I could never forget that!! The bible states God, Jesus…..not G-d or J-s……thanks for sharing.

Johnny: You’re welcome, Dina. I would only add that your English translation fails to abbreviate His Name. My example of an early text in the original Greek proves just the opposite. There is no such thing as a “perfect” English translation…not even the vaunted “King James” (which I hate) which mentions “unicorns” and calls Passover “Easter”.

I am not trying to convince you to adopt this tradition, just something to think about. ~ Johnny

The decision to speak at the controversial site before he was anointed “president” was the same arrogance and hubris that would come to signify Obama’s tenure in office.

A little over a year ago, I was astounded to read of a very disconcerting spiritual connection beyond the obvious link to the 3^rd Reich. It was first brought to my attention via Tom Horn’s excellent book Apollyon Rising 2012:

…not far from where Obama delivered his rousing speech, is the Great Altar of Zeus in the Pergamon Museum. According to several reports, Obama visited the Great Altar while in Berlin…

“And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: The One who has the Sharp Two-Edged Sword says this—‘I know where you dwell, where Satan’s throne is; and you hold fast My Name, and did not deny My Faith even in the days of Antipas, My witness, My faithful one, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.’” ~ Revelation 2:12-13

Antipas, the first leader and martyr of the early Christian church is believed to have been slain on this altar, slowly roasting to death inside the statue of a bull, the symbol and companion of Zeus. …

Approximately two-thousand years after Revelation 2:13 was written, German archeologists removed the massive altar of Zeus from the ruins of Pergamos and took it to Berlin, where it was restored as the centerpiece of the Pergamon Museum. It is here that Hitler first adored it, later building an outdoor replica of it from which he gave a series of speeches that mesmerized many Germans.

Upon returning to the United States, he [Obama] immediately commissioned the construction of a Greek-columned stage from which he made his acceptance speech for his party’s nomination.

Fast forward to 2013 and Obama’s triumphal return to Berlin, this time to speak at the Brandenburg Gate. It has been the site of ostentatious military displays by Napoleon, Kaiser Wilhelm and Adolf Hitler but was sealed off to the Western side by the Communists when Berlin was divided. It was there that President Ronald Reagan made the world-famous (and almost edited out) declaration, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”

Actually, Obama’s return was more fizzle than “triumph”. For God, (which is what Newsweek’s Evan Thomas called him) Obama drew a mere 3% of his previous crowd—only 6,000 showed up to hear his wisdom.

To make matters worse, God’s teleprompter failed and he was forced to stumble through reading his passion off a paper script, instead.

The question continually arises, “Is Obama the anti-Christ?”

As I have already answered, Barack Obama certainly is an anti-Christ. But as to whether or not he is the anti-Christ, only time will tell.

Is this a correct translation? Or a fake?

II Kings 2:23-24
New International Version (NIV)
Elisha Is Jeered

23 From there Elisha went up to Bethel. As he was walking along the road, some boys came out of the town and jeered at him. “Get out of here, baldy!” they said. “Get out of here, baldy!”
24 He turned around, looked at them and called down a curse on them in the name of the Lord. Then two bears came out of the woods and mauled forty-two of the boys.

I am just in absolute shock. All that, for a couple of children being immature?

Elisha could have just acted like an adult, and ignored them.

Why murder them?

This makes us Christians look like really horrible people. How can we go preach about how abortion is murder? Which I do believe it is. From day one of conception.

But then have this in our Bible? It makes us hypocrites. Self defense is one thing, but beyond that, I believe all life is precious and divinely created by God himself. From angels to insects.

This just honestly blows my mind away. I can’t see any justification in someone doing this to children, under any circumstance.

HOW TO VERIFY SCRIPTURE

One of my favorite tools for this is Bible Gateway, a free online site that offers multiple translations. Much less pleasant to look at but much more powerful in what it offers is Biblos’ Bible Suite, also fantastic in its free use. The tools we Christians have available today make yesterday’s scholars look like amateurs.

Understand that the original Scriptures were written in Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek.  Unless you have one of those texts and can read that language, you do not have a “perfect” translation…not even the King James.  I am not a fan of the KJV because, although it is more accurate than the more modern translations¹, it is hard to understand.  I still use it, but sparingly.

I’m also suspicious of those who push “King James only”, sometimes even making the ludicrous claim that the KJV is the “perfect, inerrant Word of God”.

James I of England gave his “Authorized 1611” translation to his friend, Francis Bacon (a Freemason), to edit.  Bacon’s friend and confident was Jesuit Tobie Matthew.  It’s not a stretch to imagine that a Jesuit was involved in the only translation preferred by so-called anti-Papists.

The opposite end of the spectrum are Bible paraphrases that use modern, colloquial English; “Jesus was down with it because tax collectors and sinners were his peeps.” I have no problem with people reading modern paraphrases or even depicting Jesus to be white, black, hispanic, asian…whatever brings you from where you are to Him. Just understand that once you become a serious student, accuracy becomes more important and more critical. Yeshua was a Middle Eastern Jew and I’m sure He looked like one.

Most people can’t read Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek so the best thing to do is use more than one translation. If a passage doesn’t sound right, look at it in a different version. Web sites like Bible Gateway and Bible Suite make that as easy as a click or a drop-down menu!

If you really want to get serious do a word study. Examine a word in its original form. This can be done using an Interlinear Bible such as what Biblos offers. You will be able to see what you read in English and the original wording in the original language. Click on the word and you should be able to get some broad definitions that may actually change the meaning of that passage or give new meaning to another passage.

Here’s an example.

In Genesis 2:24 we read of the first sacred marriage where the New American Standard Bible (supposedly dedicated to word-for-word translating) tells us a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh.

The Interlinear Bible looks like this:

Note that Hebrew, unlike English, reads right to left.

See the numbers? They represent the life’s work of James Strong. Before the first computer, Strong meticulously numbered every word in the King James Bible and it was a tremendous tool in his day and even into today. Take a look at Strong’s Old Testament Hebrew #0259, transliterated “echad” and translated “one” in English.

One of the foundational prayers to Judaism is the Shema Yisrael, which comes from the Books of Deuteronomy and Numbers and the name of the prayer is derived from Deuteronomy 6:4; Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One!

This prayer and this passage are even used by Jews to contradict a Christian belief in the Triune Godhead; Father, Son and Holy Spirit. What Christians know as “the Trinity” and is apparent throughout the New Testament.

John 16:5-15
5 “But now I Am going to Him who sent Me; and none of you asks Me, ‘Where are You going?’
6 But because I have said these things to you, sorrow has filled your heart.
7 But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you.
8 And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
9 concerning sin, because they do not believe in Me;
10 and concerning righteousness, because I go to the Father and you no longer see Me;
11 and concerning judgment, because the ruler of this world has been judged.
12 I have many more things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.
13 But when He, the Spirit of truth, comes, He will guide you into all the Truth; for He will not speak on His Own Initiative, but whatever He hears, He will speak; and He will disclose to you what is to come.
14 He will glorify Me, for He will take of Mine and will disclose it to you.
15 All things that the Father has are Mine; therefore I said that He takes of Mine and will disclose it to you.”
New American Standard Bible (capitalization added for precision)

Before computers, Bible students used a Strong’s Concordance to do word searches. They can look up a word and see everywhere it appears in the King James Bible. Today, computers make word searches in any translation a snap.

But if you really wanted to be specific, you could find an original Hebrew, Aramaic or Greek word, find its Strong’s number and search by that word.  In the case of echad, Strong’s 259, it occurs an astounding 967 times (sometimes those numbers can hold meaning, as well).  One of them is in a very interesting place.  Number 377 of that 967 is Deuteronomy 6:4.  What does that tell us?  We wouldn’t be far off if we translated Deuteronomy 6:4 as “Hear O Yisrael, the Lord our God, the Lord is One, just as a husband who is joined to his wife becomes one!”

Now, on to boy-eating bears.

ELISHA

One of the most critical rules of understanding Scripture is context…context…context. We get carried away with how amazingly the Bible keeps the same Message through its 66 Books and forget that those Books were penned by 40 different Holy Spirit-inspired humans across thousands of years!

Each Book has a specific place in history and the culture of its time as well as particular methods and mechanics used by that specific author. Of course, as the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 15:4, such things are written for us to learn from. But we must also be sensitive to what was going on in the world when the Book was written, who the human author was and who the intended audience was.

The above passage in II Kings 2 deals with the passing of the mantle of authority from the prophet Elijah to the prophet Elisha. Elijah was such a powerful, important prophet that in the beginning of Chapter 2 we see him being taken bodily into Heaven, one of only two men in Scripture who don’t see death (your homework is to find out who the other is).

In Hebrew tradition Elijah is considered the embodiment of prophecy and when one says “Elijah” you can simultaneously mean “all prophets” in the same way that Moses represents the Law and the Law can sometimes represent all of Scripture.

When Jesus was transfigured, two men appeared with Him: Moses and Elijah.  They represented the Word of God in Christ’s Time; “the Law and the Prophets”.  They were there to testify that the entirety of Scripture speaks of the Son of God.

A lot of people wanted his authority and it was critical that the Lord show His people who did and who didn’t have it.

As soon as Elisha dawned the mantle of Elijah he began working the miracles of God like purifying the water outside of Bethel.

When the “boys” began to mock and humiliate Elisha, they were mocking God because that is Who Elisha represented.  One thing is for sure, Almighty God will not be mocked.  Receiving an earthly punishment may even have been a sign of mercy from God because those who mock Him without receiving a temporary earthly rebuke in this world will receive a far more terrible rebuke in their eternal judgment.

There is no such thing as an “innocent boy”.  Human beings are born in sin and filth and the only thing that keeps a baby from showing it is their own awareness.  Here are some disturbing headlines for you to prove my point:

City Teen Charged with Rape A Williamsport teen has been charged with the rape of a 17 year old female, police say.

TEENS RAPED GIRL, DISTRIBUTED PHOTOS ONLINE [headline mine]

TEEN GIRLS — USESOCIAL MEDIA TO THREATEN YOUNG RAPE VICTIM INTO SILENCE [headline mine] Basically, two girls threatened another teen girl for reporting how two football players raped her when she foolishly allowed herself to get into a drunken stupor at a party.

Teens Charged with Murder of Skylar Neese

Teen Charged with Murder in Lakewood Stabbing

CO Girl, 14, Stabbed 7 Times in Highschool Hallway

Elisha didn’t “murder” innocent “boys” and he may even have been shocked at the power of his curse, though Scripture doesn’t record his reaction.

“Murder” is the taking of human life for selfish gain.

Death as a result of judgment of a crime is a constant throughout Scripture (and why I’m for “capital punishment”).  All sin deserves death and Almighty God will often pick specific sins to make an example of.  Did you know that not one but two Christians died in the early Church just for lying about how much money they donated?

Finally, when someone who hates God throws some haughty example of why they’re right to do so and how the Bible is filled with “lies”, “cruelty” or “myths” in my face my first reaction isn’t to get appalled or upset, it’s to calmly ration whether the person is a fool destined for the Lake of Fire regardless of my effort or a serious truth-seeker.  If the latter, I say, “Here’s the answer,” or “Hey, good question.  I’ll get back to you.”

And in all of my 19 years of being Born Again, I’ve never had one I couldn’t answer.

To hell with those who mock the Bible, brother. Keep the Faith!

UPDATE: 12 November 2018

I have changed a lot since I first wrote this.

My friend and partner, “Doc Felipe”, recently brought this passage up again.

We have been critically examining the efforts of the Jesuit-controlled Vatican to discredit the Bible.

For instance, in Matthew 17, a father pleads with Jesus to save his son from a demon who possesses him in an effort to harm him casting him alternatively through fire and water.

14 And when they had come to the multitude, a man came to Him, kneeling down to Him and saying,
15 “Lord, have mercy on my son, for he is an epileptic and suffers severely; for he often falls into the fire and often into the water.
16 So I brought him to Your disciples, but they could not cure him.”
17 Then Jesus answered and said, “O faithless and perverse generation, how long shall I be with you?  How long shall I bear with you?  Bring him here to Me.”
18 And Jesus rebuked the demon, and it came out of him; and the child was cured from that very hour.
19 Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast it out?”
20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”

21 However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting.”

Good translations will admit that verse 21 is not in the more reliable manuscripts.  It has a very Catholic flavor to it.  The disciples lacked the conviction of faith that their Rabbi was the Son of God.  Period.  There is no magic formula for doing His Will, not even taking authority over demons, as rare as that might be.

The Catholic Church, however, has made the ritual of exorcism a cottage industry, with plenty of help from “Jew-controlled” Hollywood.

Felipe found this from “GotQuestions” and it’s an excellent response:

First, the King James Version has done us a disservice by translated the term as “children.”  The Hebrew word can refer to children, but rather more specifically means “young men.”  The NIV, quoted here, uses the word “youths.”  Second, the fact that the bears mauled 42 of the youths indicates that there were more than 42 youths involved.  This was not a small group of children making fun of a bald man.  Rather, it was a large demonstration of young men who assembled for the purpose of mocking a prophet of God.

“Go up” is likely a mockery of a prophet journeying to Jerusalem to take up his office, as is “bald head”.

In Ezekiel 5, Elisha’s mentor was commanded by God to shave his head and severely trim his beard and then divide up the hair, one third was to be burned, one third struck with a sword and the final third cast to the wind, to symbolize the judgment upon apostate Jerusalem.  Elisha, continuing the mission of Ezekiel, may very well have shaved his head as he dawned Ezekiel’s mantel (literally).

The Mind of God is unfathomable.

Most of His prophets suffered greatly at the hands of a rebellious people.

Why would He allow Isaiah to be sawn in half² but loose bears to maul a demonstration mocking Elisha?

Who knows.

Ask Him when you see Him.

…if you see Him.

“GotQuestions”

“GotQuestions” is a great source as long as it’s nothing to do with the Vatican and prophecy.

If you ask “Who is the antichrist?” you get, “The Bible really does not say anything specific about where the Antichrist will come from.”

Really?

Protestors in the day of Martin Luther believed that the “stout little horn” that rose up amongst the other horns on Daniel’s Fourth and Final Beast in Chapter 7 was the office of the Papacy.

Questions dismisses Protestors by claiming Luther only believed it was Leo X—

It is likely that most people who are alive when the Antichrist is revealed will be very surprised at his identity.  The Antichrist may or may not be alive today.  Martin Luther was convinced that the pope in his time was the Antichrist.  During the 1940’s, many believed Adolph Hitler was the Antichrist.  Others who have lived in the past few hundred years have been equally sure as to the identity of the Antichrist.  So far, they have all been incorrect.  We should put the speculations behind us and focus on what the Bible actually says about the Antichrist.  Revelation 13:5-8 declares, “The beast was given a mouth to utter proud words and blasphemies and to exercise his authority for forty-two months.  He opened his mouth to blaspheme God, and to slander his name and his dwelling place and those who live in heaven.  He was given power to make war against the saints and to conquer them.  And he was given authority over every tribe, people, language and nation.  All inhabitants of the earth will worship the beast—all whose names have not been written in the book of life belonging to the Lamb that was slain from the creation of the world.”

Emphasizing a literal “forty-two months” and implying it takes place in “the future” is a doctrine created by Jesuits, called “Futurism”.

Hitler did not claim to be Jesus Christ, or equal to Him, but every Pope before and since has, which is why Luther and all of the good Protestors of his day understood (rightly) that, in fulfillment of Matthew 24:5—

“For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Christ,’ and will deceive many.”

It is the “Vicar of Christ”, each and every one, who is Anti-Christ.

It came about when Moses was coming down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the testimony were in Moses’ hand as he was coming down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because of his speaking with Him.

The root meaning of the Hebrew word karan does mean “horned” but “projected” or “shone” is probably a better translation.

Was Jerome that dense? Perhaps not. As this excellent article from the user-edited internet encyclopedia states, it’s possible that Jerome through his faithfulness to the original text felt he could still convey the glorification of Moses’ countenance.

In ancient times an animal’s horns were considered signs of its power and humans often mimicked that in their accoutrements.

However, an understanding of other passages renders the original intent more clear.

In II Corinthians 3 the Apostle Paul contrasts the Mosaic Law as the Condemnation of G-d’s (abbreviated out of respect) Righteousness and that glory is a fading one, just as Moses used to wear a veil to keep the Israelites from seeing the glowing of his face fade (verses 12-13). It is in sharp contrast to the Glory of the Gospel—Salvation through the Finished Work of the Anointed One Jesus. That is a Glory that does not fade.

THE ROLE OF LIGHT

Many scholars believe that the reason why Adam and Eve were not ashamed of their nakedness is because they were clothed in light and their fall in sin took that away.

Over the Levitical priest’s ephod he wears a “breastpiece of judgment” adorned with four rows of different colored precious stones (Exodus 28:15-30). It is the conviction of Dr. Chuck Missler of Koinonia House ministries that the breastpiece represents the Divine spectrum of His Light, and I agree.

When Christ allowed Himself to be seen in His Glorified Body he was joined by Moses and Elijah (a Witness to His Sonship by the best representatives of “the Law” and “the Prophets”—a Hebrew euphemism for the Bible) and Matthew 17:2 describes that His Face shone like the sun, and His Garments became as white as light.

Yet Peter’s rash promise to build 3 tabernacles to memorialize each one implies that perhaps all three had a similar appearance. I John 3:2 makes the astounding assertion that Followers of Christ—Creator of all the Universe—will one day, also appear as He does!

Later, in Matthew 28, the angel who rolled away the stone of Christ’s Tomb is given a similar description:

And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the L-rd descended from Heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it. And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow. ~ Matthew 28:2-3

It’s safe to say that “light” conveys to us aspects of who G-d is, particularly His Truth and His Righteousness, as Christ Himself tells us:

“For G-d so loved the world, that He gave His Only Begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have Eternal Life. For G-d did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the Name of the Only Begotten Son of G-d. This is the Judgment: that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in G-d.” ~ John 3:16-21

So, although we should forgive Jerome, Michelangelo and our medieval cousins for their sincere but perhaps misguided dedication to a literal interpretation of Scripture we must be good students ourselves and understand G-d’s Word in the Light of its entirety.

By the sweat of your brow shall you eat bread, till you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; you are dust and to dust shall you return! ~ Genesis 3:19

Now we command you, brethren, in the Name of our L-rd Jesus Christ, that you keep away from every brother who leads an unruly life and not according to the tradition which you received from us. For you yourselves know how you ought to follow our example, because we did not act in an undisciplined manner among you, nor did we eat anyone’s bread without paying for it, but with labor and hardship we kept working night and day so that we would not be a burden to any of you; not because we do not have the right to this, but in order to offer ourselves as a model for you, so that you would follow our example. For even when we were with you, we used to give you this order: if anyone is not willing to work, then he is not to eat, either. For we hear that some among you are leading an undisciplined life, doing no work at all, but acting like busybodies. ~ II Thessalonians 3:6-11

Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My Sake will find it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For the Son of Man is going to come in the Glory of His Father with His Angels, and will then repay every man according to his deeds.” ~ Mathew 16:24-27

DISCIPLINED INDUSTRIOUSNESS TAUGHT!

When the L-rd taught the Children of Israel how to transform from a gaggle of former Egyptian slaves into a powerful new nation He first beat them down with 40 years of wandering in the desert where they relied upon Him for their very sustenance. Known as “manna” perhaps from the colloquial term defined as “What is it?”, it was to be collected each morning (except the Sabbath) and early or else it would melt from the heat of the sun. They were forced to do this 6 days a week because manna left over from the previous day would rot.

This is in stark contrast to the Left whose ideology is marked with laziness, licentiousness and lusts of all sorts. The best example is the debate over abortion. Medical science has DESTROYED every tenant of the pro-death proponents.

• Abortion Ban Does Not Mean More Maternal Deaths, Chilean Study Finds
• “Fetuses” Found to Have Memories
• Abortion Increases Risk of Women’s Mental Health Problems 81%
• FORMER ABORTIONISTS EXPOSE THE HORRORS OF THEIR TRADE
• Landmark Stem Cell Feat in Question After Research Said to be Faked
• LEFTIST MANTRA ABOUT MAKING ABORTION “RARE AND LEGAL” IS A BLATANT LIE AS PROVEN BY THIS PERVERSION
• Concern for Fetal Pain Drives Nebraska to Enact Abortion Ban at 20 Weeks
• ULTRASOUND TURNING PRO-DEATH INTO PRO-LIFE
• Unborn Babies Played Music in the Womb Remember the Melodies When They Are Born
• MIRACLE BABY GREW OUTSIDE THE WOMB, CALLS ABORTION INTO QUESTIONS
• MIRACLE BABY BORN AT 25 WEEKS WEIGHING ½ POUND

There are many, many more articles I could bring up but none of them would convince a Leftist because they aren’t interested in facts. They only pay them lipservice. What they really want is sex without consequences—but their deception will not allow them to admit it.

WE are about ACCOUNTABILITY, SACRIFICE and COMPASSION and THEY are about LUST at all costs, even the most barbaric. That is why the vicious inhuman ideology of communism fits so well into the Leftist world view.

When it comes to “compassion”, the Left is all talk while the “religious Right” quietly gets it done.

In fact, the Left have the “compassion” of their father, the devil:

Obama’s Tax Plan Could Cause Giving by the Wealthy to Drop by Several Billion Dollars Annually

A righteous man has regard for the life of his animal,
But even the compassion of the wicked is cruel. ~ Proverbs 12:10

Perhaps that’s why that, even though the Left rules the world in every way—politics, media, “education”, entertainment—they still don’t have the peace as we do.

And the Peace of YHWH, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Messiah Jesus. ~ Philippians 4:7

I submit to you that unprecedented levels of evil are being witnessed to around the world, caught by modern technology, reported on via the fringe of local and alternative media but not receiving the coverage it deserves because of this reason: it is the buildup of evil presaging the Return of the King of kings.

When He came to the other side into the country of the Gadarenes, two men who were demon-possessed met Him as they were coming out of the tombs. They were so extremely violent that no one could pass by that way. And they cried out, saying, “What business do we have with each other, Son of G-d? Have You come here to torment us before the Time?” ~ Matthew 8:28-29

Perhaps that “Time” is nigh at hand.

“MADNESS” IN THE FAST LANE

In May of 2008 Swedish twins Ursula and Sabina Eriksson were noticed by the ever-watchful eyes of the U.K. Police State making their way down the meridian of the M6 motorway. Perplexed as to why the two would be in such a precarious position between two very fast-moving arteries of traffic in the middle of the day, dutiful surveillance camera overseers quickly dispatched uniformed patrol-persons to the scene. Upon seeing the representatives of authority, the two sisters did something astounding: they threw themselves into traffic…repeatedly. As the sisters were being confronted by the police, they spit and writhed and cursed, breaking free and running again into traffic until Ursula was struck by a tractor-trailer and Sabina crushed the hood and windshield of a speeding car with her body and head. Officers broke their shock only to find that, in spite of her crushed legs, Ursula was still alive. After some 15 minutes of unconsciousness, Sabina awoke and immediately rushed into traffic again. After six officers restrained her, she screamed in anger calling out for help to the police (although it was the police who were restraining her).

While Ursula recovered from what should’ve killed her instantly, Sabina was released from the hospital only a day later. She was charged with striking a police officer and the judge deemed that she had served her term in the custody of State healthcare. Although she was much more calm in police custody, officers only drew a blank stare when the asked her if she was concerned for the welfare of her sister.

Sabina then wandered the streets of Stoke-on-Trent in Staffordshire with nothing more than a clear plastic bag filled with all she had and wearing her sister’s yellow/green raincoat. She came upon Glenn Hollinshead and Peter Molloy who were out walking Hollinshead’s dog. She seemed nice enough but admitted she needed a place to stay. Out of an apparent gesture of Samaritan good will, Hollinshead took her in for the night though Molloy was troubled by her seemingly drug-induced paranoia and schizophrenia (while in the hospital, neither narcotics nor alcohol were found in Ericksson’s bloodstream). The next day, Hollinshead was stabbed to death by Sabina for his trouble—five times with a kitchen knife.

Psychologists claimed that Sabina was being influenced and even controlled by the influence of her sister and that she suffered from rare forms of dementia (though, at her trial, she was lucid and refused to comment on the motivations behind her behavior).

There is, in fact, a Biblical precedent for the odd relationship between the two sisters where two are not of their own mind yet one seems the dominant, driving force; and it is the one I have previously mentioned—the exorcism at the Gerasene cemetery. The account in Matthew 8 lists two men involved yet the accounts in Mark 5 and Luke 8 list only one. Is that because one was dominant and the other orbited around him, just as seemed the case with the Ericksson sisters? Gadara was a Decapolis of some import and, therefore, a citizen could be considered either a “Gadarene” specifically or a “Gerasene” more broadly. Here again, Matthew uses the one term, Mark and Luke use the other.

In August of 2010 the BBC aired a documentary entitled Madness in the Fast Lane chronicling these events but at no point did anyone in the documentary look to a spiritual explanation for the bizarre behavior of the twins.

It is interesting to note that one news source stated that Sabina Ericksson turned to Christianity while serving her time in prison as a means to cope with what had happened to her.

Good move.

“MADNESS” BECOMING MORE AND MORE PREVALENT

At least Sabina Ericksson was given the time to change the destination of her eternal soul. The man whom Miami police caught naked and hunched over, chewing on the face of his victim wasn’t so lucky. Although he wasn’t disturbed in his activity by the first shot, several more ended his life.

It is not known what the spiritual disposition was of the woman who gouged out the eyes of her 5 year old son but reports claimed she appeared to be in shock after recovering from the narcotic-induced “ritual” she was in. Such a heinous crime south of the border accented another similar “cult” atrocity regarding the ritualistic sacrifice of two 10 year old little boys and a 55 year old woman as an offering to “Santa Muerte” or “Saint Death”.

Apparently, a second chance was given to an Arizona man who traveled all the way to Wisconsin to “score” with a girl he met online. After getting intimate with his long-distance lover, she and her roommate then attacked him, stabbing and slashing him some 300 times. Extensive pagan and satanic literature were confiscated from the apartment after the man was able to make an escape.

In South Africa, a teenage girl was burned alive while one of the teen boys conducting the ritual cut another girl’s hand and forced it to bleed onto a Bible. The girl later died from her injuries.

In a testimony to the death of manhood, a Japanese man had elective emasculation conducted on himself and then sold his gentiles as food for 100,000 yen.

But, perhaps, it is the abuse, torture and murder of children and infants that gives the devil his greatest joy and articles abound of insane levels of barbarism towards that end. In 2005, the bodies of three killed fetuses were found wrapped in plastic next to various Catholic icons in a cardboard box at the Bogota, Columbia international airport. It was surmised that they were destined for a “ritual” to be conducted somewhere in the United States.

A husband and wife team of “doctors” were aborting unborn babies and feeding them to their dogs to hide the fact that they were conducting “gender selection” abortions in India. Fortunately for them, they were of influence and not hassled extensively by the police. Too bad they weren’t conducting abortions in the state of Kansas while it was under the tender care of governor-ette Kathleen Sebelius. She has a special place in her heart for those who can pull a fully formed baby out of the womb, hold the child in their hands and then ruthlessly murder her. That’s why she was chosen by Barack Hussein Obama in a sick practical joke on the American people to be their “Health and Human Services” Secretary. Fortunately, 9 Republican senators joined the mass of Democrats to confirm her and make her reign of terror that much more powerful.

Not having his own dogs to feed, one Kansas “abortion doctor” (a phrase about as oxymoronic as “compassionate Communist”) simply ate the fetuses himself. Why not? This was during the Golden Age of Slaughter Sebelius.

Coming in a very close second in the Planned Parenthood Hall of Fame is Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortionist who forced girls who were having second thoughts to go through with the grisly procedure by physically abusing them, then pulling out fully-formed babies and shoving a pair of scissors into their little spines as he held them.

The problem these incarcerated individuals have accrued is that they are not members of the elite. Were they, they would be able to conduct their atrocities quietly and with impunity.

THE EATERS OF CHILDREN

As I have chronicled in a previous two-part series, there is a cabal of elites composed of bankers, billionaires and intelligence agency bureaucrats that run the affairs of men and they mask themselves under the cloak of “democracy” and “national security” but their make-up and agenda are so sinister that I call the lot of them “Luciferians”. Either directly or indirectly they serve the agenda of satan (and I have been aghast to learn how many of them willingly and directly serve the Author of Lies).

The Luciferians, like their master, are the complete opposite Jesus Christ and those who worship Him (though, unlike the book of Mormon, the Bible clearly states that the devil is not the equal of the L-rd of lords). Whereas Christians are marked by the extreme Love of Christ and deep compassion for the innocent and the vulnerable, Luciferians are marked by vile hatred of the vulnerable and the dependent. They take great pleasure in using children as tortured sexual play-things:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ByOVSGWIQE

—and when they’re done torturing them, the kill them…and eat them. Yes, the bodies of little babies ground into fine powder is a great medicinal breakthrough for those in the upper-strata who can afford them. But it’s much more fun to break out the little bodies, roasted and wrapped in special golden foil as appetizers at those special Luciferian shindigs.

As I’ve told you before, the lifestyles of the über-rich are radically different from anything that you could imagine. They are controlled, mind, body and soul by the forces of evil.

What they are doing, involuntarily and purposely, is literally opening the gates of Hell. Every little baby slaughtered on the altar of Moloch cracks that interdimensional portal open that much more. We are fast approaching the time where these evil forces will have ultimate power over the entire Earth. Every new breakthrough in technology brings us closer to a completely controlled authoritarian Police State, ripe for the iron-fisted rule of a single, fascist dictator. The emissaries of satan are getting bolder with each passing day.

Whose side will you be on when the Man of Perdition appears? —Unless he already has.

ARE THE TRUMPETS SOUNDING?

Behold, I tell you a mystery; we will not all sleep, but we will all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet; for the trumpet will sound, and the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. ~ I Corinthians 15:51-52

Weird and unusual sounds are being reported and posted all over the internet. Some are fabricated YouTube hoaxes but others are being reported on by news agencies after receiving hundreds of calls from distraught citizens. Misinterpreted natural phenomena? The product of some new governmental PSYOP weapon treasonously used on the domestic populace?

Or something altogether different and monumental?

A powerful prophecy can be found in the Book of Micah that states, when the Assyrian appears, a coalition of nations will be used by Almighty G-d against him. Is it possible that the United States can be so radically altered from the satanic suicide strategy its “leaders” have placed it on to be one of them?

Where will you be when that time comes? There can be no doubt that the forces aligned against the average citizen are overwhelmingly powerful and crushingly malignant. There will be no escaping The Machine unless you have some outside help. I can tell you where mine is…how about you?

__________________________

1) Throughout my walk as a Christian I have been frequently disturbed by how others, who call themselves “Christian” have so little respect for the Name of G-d. In the Time of Jesus Christ, Jews had such fear and reverence for the Name of G-d that they dared not speak it, instead calling Him only, “Ha Shem”, “The Name”. In fact, one of the most common Names of G-d, “YHWH” (known as “the Tetragrammaton”) is actually ineffable. There is no way to easily speak these 4 Hebrew consonants. Later, vowels were added for convenience but the names “Jehovah” and “Yahweh” are found nowhere in the Bible.
How often have you heard a Christian say the words “Oh my God!”? It is a vain (meaningless) usage of His Name and qualifies as blasphemy.
So, in an effort to draw the attention of Christians to this issue, I have taken the tradition of Orthodox Judaism which hyphenates the Name of G-d out of respect for that Name.

“Truly I say to you, this generation will not pass away until all these things take place.” ~ Jesus Christ, quoted in Matthew 24:34

Did Jesus give a false prophecy?

In the beginning of this chapter Jesus Christ explains the parameters and world events that are to take place before His Return; wars, earthquakes, famines, false christs and the complete destruction of the Temple — “Not one stone shall be left upon another.” (Matthew 24:2)

But the Temple wouldn’t just be destroyed, it would be desecrated in the Holy of Holies, per the Prophet Daniel:

Daniel 9:24-27
24 “Seventy weeks have been decreed for your people and your holy city, to finish the transgression, to make an end of sin, to make atonement for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy and to anoint the most holy place.”
25 “So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress.”
26 “Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined.”
27 “And he [the “prince” of verse 26: the anti-Christ] will make a firm covenant with the many for one week, but in the middle of the week he will put a stop to sacrifice and grain offering; and on the wing of abominations will come one who makes desolate, even until a complete destruction, one that is decreed, is poured out on the one who makes desolate.”

We could spend volumes, alone, on this amazing prophecy in the Book of Daniel known as “Daniel’s 70 Weeks” but what is immediately obvious is that, even here, Scripture does not follow an “ordered”, Western encyclopedic chronology but more of an Eastern poetic jumping around in time.

So can we then deduce that portions of the Prophecy are exact and portions of the prophecy are utilizing a rhetorical linguistic device?

What is a “generation”? The Greek term geneá [Strong’s NT:1074] and can be extrapolated to mean a literal generation, a nation or an era.

Perhaps it is meant to mean both.

Certainly, given that the nation of Israel was miraculously brought back to life in 1948 with a Declaration of Independence by Israel’s first Prime Minister David ben Gurion, the clock is still running on the “generation” that represents the Hebrews. However, there are some other aspects of this prophecy that are astoundingly specific.

Many scholars date the Crucifixion of Jesus Christ in the year 32 AD, utilizing some historical documents such as the Elephantine papyri.

According to the Roman-commissioned Jewish historian Josephus, the Temple was destroyed by Roman soldiers during the siege of Jerusalem in 70 AD against General Titus’ orders. Tradition has it that the heat of the fires that consumed the Temple melted the decorative gold into cracks between the stones. As a result, soldiers and looters literally took apart the structure leaving “not one stone upon another”.

Deuteronomy 2:14 sets a “generation” at exactly 38 years.

The Old Testament is rife with examples of how women were treated by men in the Middle East, and the Book of Genesis is full of them.

When Abram left his home, his nephew Lot came along. The L-rd¹ blessed them both and they soon were forced to separate because they had too much livestock between them. But while Abram wisely chose open country to settle in, Lot chose a valley within close proximity to a city: Sodom (Genesis 13:10).

Though the bright lights of the city can be alluring with opportunities available nowhere else, they are also where human nature is accentuated:

“The heart is more deceitful than all else, And is desperately sick; Who can understand it?” ~ Jeremiah 17:9

Woe to those who add house to house and join field to field, Until there is no more room, So that you have to live alone in the midst of the land! ~ Isaiah 5:8

It was a bad choice. Lot chose according to what looked pleasing to him, rather than moving into the wilderness like Abram and trusting that the L-rd would provide his needs.

Soon, it was time for the city to be judged:

And the L-RD said, “The outcry of Sodom and Gomorrah is indeed great, and their sin is exceedingly grave!” ~ Genesis 18:20

After visiting Abram and evoking from Abram the desire to reach out and protect Lot from the coming terror, two angels were sent to Lot in the guise of men.

Now the two angels came to Sodom in the evening as Lot was sitting in the gate of Sodom. When Lot saw them, he rose to meet them and bowed down with his face to the ground. And he said, “Now behold, my lords, please turn aside into your servant’s house, and spend the night, and wash your feet; then you may rise early and go on your way.” They said however, “No, but we shall spend the night in the square.” Yet he urged them strongly [What did Lot know would happen to the two men if they spent the night in the square?], so they turned aside to him and entered his house; and he prepared a feast for them, and baked unleavened bread, and they ate. Before they lay down, the men of the city, the men of Sodom, surrounded the house, both young and old, all the people from every quarter; and they called to Lot and said to him, “Where are the men who came to you tonight? Bring them out to us that we may have relations with them.” ~ Genesis 19:1-5

Lot reacted in the best fashion of Middle Eastern culture:

But Lot went out to them at the doorway, and shut the door behind him, and said, “Please, my brothers, do not act wickedly. Now behold, I have two daughters who have not had relations with man; please let me bring them out to you, and do to them whatever you like; only do nothing to these men, inasmuch as they have come under the shelter of my roof.”

But they said, “Stand aside.” Furthermore, they said, “This one came in as an alien, and already he is acting like a judge; now we will treat you worse than them.” So they pressed hard against Lot and came near to break the door. But the men [angels] reached out their hands and brought Lot into the house with them, and shut the door. They struck the men who were at the doorway of the house with blindness, both small and great, so that they wearied themselves trying to find the doorway. ~ Genesis 19:6-11

In the Book of Judges, there is a similar story of travelers saved from spending the night in the town square because of predatory homosexuals. Except the girl thrown to these animals didn’t have angels to protect her. She was brutalized, tortured, raped and sodomized until she was dead.

Why would Lot subject his two virgin daughters to that?

Because he was a Middle Eastern male who was taught that hospitality to men was more important than the lives and sanctity of his own daughters. Women are “chattel” (possessions).

Islam bridges thousands of years to keep that brutality alive today.

Al Qaeda Use Two Down’s Syndrome Women To Blow Up 99 People In Baghdad Markets ~ U.K. Mail

Iraqi Insurgents Use Eight-Year-Old Girl As Suicide Bomber ~ U.K. Mail

“Honor Killings” In U.S.A. Raise Concerns ~ USA Today
Muslim immigrant men have been accused of six “honor killings” in the United States in the past two years, prompting concerns that the Muslim community and police need to do more to stop such crimes.

14-Year-Old Girl Raped, Charged With Adultery And Lashed To Death In Bangladesh ~ Islam Watch

Muslim Man Mutilates His Own Two Year Old Little Girl to Keep Her from Enjoying Sex…in Atlanta, Georgia! ~Renew America

Saudi “cleric” says a muslim man marrying a 1 year old little girl is OK because “the Prophet” married his favorite wife at 9 ~ Answers for the Faith

Sadly, the Father of Faith—Abraham, himself—wasn’t much better.

Abram (later, Abraham) was blessed with an exceedingly beautiful wife; Sarai (Sarah). One would think that a good husband would cherish that blessing and guard her and her sanctity with his very life, blood and treasure.

Instead, he did just the opposite.

Other Middle Easterners at the time had an odd practice that made them feel good about themselves. When they saw a married woman they wanted, they refrained from taking her and committing adultery. They first murdered her husband, then took her and “married” her.

Aware of this tactic, Abram surged into the danger areas and protected his life and treasure by telling his wife to claim she was only his sister. They did this, not once, but twice—at least as far as Scripture tells us. I’ll wager we are only told twice because she was taken from him twice (they probably sinned in this manner multiple times but no one had the power to take her beyond what we read of).

In two separate accounts Abram allowed her to be taken from him and she would’ve been defiled, the first time by Pharaoh of Egypt and the second by Abimelech king of Gerar.

Normally, G-d does not intervene while man commits sin (at least, not immediately). But something more important than the fleshly sins of men was at stake; the very Salvation of all mankind. Should anyone have been allowed to defile Sarah, they could then call into question the Lineage of the Savior and a case could be made that Christ was unfit to serve as the Fulfillment of Prophecy. Both times the L-rd miraculously intervened to save the sanctity of Abram’s marriage.

____________________________

It wasn’t until the Teachings of Jesus Christ that mankind was shown the sinful reality of his misogyny.

In John 4 Jesus reaches across multiple cultural taboos to change the life of a woman.

She is a Samaritan, He is a Jew.

She is a woman doing a woman’s chore, He is a man, associating with her while she does it.

She is a woman 5 times divorced and a 6^th time living in sin.

She is an older woman, cynical about life and “love”.

Yet, He reaches across them all to have a powerful effect upon her, amazing the men in his company (yet they dared not question Him).

In John 8 the religious leaders (all men) shove a woman caught in adultery before Christ to test His Teachings of “equality” and “compassion” against the Law of Moses (the man who committed the adultery with her is strangely absent). It is one of the most famous confrontations in all of history as the Rabbi again astounds the men around Him by protecting the woman from undo examination by men who, themselves, are also sinners (much less well-known are Christ’s Words to the woman after forgiving her, “Go and sin no more.”)

In a time when men divorced their wives for any random excuse. Christ shocked them and told them that adultery was the only reason a divorce could be granted.

When Jesus had finished these words, He departed from Galilee and came into the region of Judea beyond the Jordan; and large crowds followed Him, and He healed them there.

Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning MADE THEM MALE AND FEMALE, and said, ‘FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH’? So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore G-d has joined together, let no man separate.” They said to Him, “Why then did Moses command to GIVE HER A CERTIFICATE OF DIVORCE AND SEND her AWAY?” He said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses permitted you to divorce your wives; but from the beginning it has not been this way. And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery.”

The disciples said to Him, “If the relationship of the man with his wife is like this, it is better not to marry.” ~ Matthew 19:1-10

Sadly, decadent Western culture now takes us to the radical opposite extreme of our Middle Eastern counterparts where the basic differences between men and women are denied to the extent that women are now dressed like men, clad in body armor and shoved onto the battlefield where they are raped and tortured.

The Price of Women in Combat (female helicopter pilot loses both legs)

Female Principal Feminizes Entire School ~ Washington Post
Robyn Hooker, principal of Kent Gardens Elementary School, has told students they may no longer play tag during recess after determining that the game of chasing, dodging and yelling “You’re it!” had gotten out of hand. Hooker explained to parents in a letter this month that tag had become a game “of intense aggression.”

Inmate Overpowers Female Sheriff, Tazes Her And Takes Her Sidearm ~ Associated Press

What the Bible teaches is that there are differences between men and women and the purpose is to teach us about Divine Authority and Heirarchy:

I want you to understand that Christ is the Head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and G-d is the Head of Christ.

For man does not originate from woman, but woman from man; for indeed man was not created for the woman’s sake, but woman for the man’s sake.

However, in the L-rd, neither is woman independent of man, nor is man independent of woman. For as the woman originates from the man, so also the man has his birth through the woman; and all things originate from G-d. ~ I Corinthians 11:3, 8-9, 11-12

Sin had degenerated the relationship between man and woman in general and husband and wife in specific:

To the woman He said,
“I will greatly multiply
Your pain in childbirth,
In pain you will bring forth children;
Yet your desire will be for your husband [to control him],
And he will rule over you [like a tyrant].” ~ Genesis 3:16

But the Way of Jesus Christ calls for balance (evidenced in the relationship between husband and wife), again, as a lesson in Spiritual Hierarchy. It is the man’s challenge to be emotionally expressive to his wife, to tend to her needs and not exploit his authority for laziness or personal gain whilst it is the woman’s challenge to subvert her will to her husband (made much more easy for her if he isn’t an a-hole).

Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the L-rd. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything.

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. FOR THIS REASON A MAN SHALL LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER AND SHALL BE JOINED TO HIS WIFE, AND THE TWO SHALL BECOME ONE FLESH. This Mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. ~ Ephesians 5:22-33

Neither West nor East has the “battle of the sexes” right and we are all suffering the consequences.