Scofield Ministries

Interview with Dr. Tom McCall

2017-02-12T08:00:00.000-06:00

In this short audio podcast, Dr. John Pappas and Dr. Tom McCall reminisce about Dr. Mal Couch. CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Dr. Merrill Unger - Classic Sermons

2017-01-26T18:50:00.001-06:00

Scofield Ministries is pleased to make available this series of timeless topics from Dr. Merrill Unger.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

Judgment of Believers
Demonic Intrusion
Hell and the Saved
The Bible and Healing
The Gifts of the Spirit

Accident or Sovereignty? by Dr. Mal Couch

2016-05-11T00:51:00.000-05:00

The car seemed to be hitting every bump in the road, as my wife Lacy jammed the accelerator to the floor. With every swerve in the highway her prayers got louder, “Oh, Lord please don’t let him die!” I stared at the roof of the car and prayed too. “Jesus, I’m your servant and if you wish to take me home now, I totally trust You!”

As I prayed, the blood was pumping from my chest, mixing with the mud that covered my shirt. I was pressing down hard on the one inch hole, trying to stop the rush of red wetness.

Would we make it to the hospital before I passed out from the bleeding? I wasn’t sure.

It all started Saturday morning, August the third. I had a lot of work to do in the yard of our country home near Clifton, Texas. By noon the air was sweltering with heat and the vegetation in the garden was as dry as Post Toasties. Trying to clean up some old brush, I had started burning a pile of dead tree limbs. Because of the arid conditions, I had inadvertently started a small grass fire which required some urgent attention with the water hose.

Nearly blind with sweat in my eyes, and tugging a forty yard section of hose, I started over a small fence when suddenly I lost my balance. An iron stake had been driven in the ground to hold up plants. Now plunging headlong, and face first, I could see that three foot long rusty rod coming up at me! Piercing the air, I could hear my own screams as the one inch round steel tip drove deep into my chest. Bent over and kneeling in the mud, impaled and in excruciating pain, I had to do something fast.

Since I couldn’t budge the rod from the ground, I clutched it as tightly as I could and tugged with what strength I had left. Again more horrible pain followed but the spike of iron was now free from my chest. With blood pouring out I ran to the car, calling for Lacy to start for the hospital. Though it was only about ten minutes away, I reasoned I could be unconscious within minutes if vital veins or arteries were cut.

Not waiting for the attendants to wheel out a stretcher, I walked into the emergency operating room and fell on the table. I had made it! After taking several x-rays, the doctor concluded I was “lucky” that nothing was damaged. A few inches up or down, left or right, the lungs could have been pierced or the heart punctured. By the way, he added, the bar had gone at least five inches deep!

Sometimes in moments like this, our theology goes right out the window. Things are happening too fast, and with the way we feel about such an event, we can even argue it is simply an “accident,” a “happen-stance,” just a “fateful” moment. But gazing up at the operating room lights, I had to reach up with heart and soul and claim what I have taught others for the past thirty years.

And that is, my God is not passive. He is not helpless nor caught off guard. He is not impotent nor are His plans for me, my life and my death, thwarted. If I can teach the providence of God, I must live the same.

Stretched out on my back on that cold surgical table, I forced myself to rehearse all the verses I could remember about the sovereignty of my Lord and Master. I had no guarantees from my God for surviving through that Saturday. He could have designed it whereby that was the day and hour I would be going home! Could I put my death in His hand and trust Him or must He spare me simply because I wanted to live?

Then I remembered the words of James, “you should say, ‘if the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.’” If the Lord wills! And again I quoted to myself Job, “my days are determined, God has set the limits of my months so that I cannot go beyond.”

And as I felt the puncture of the needles and the tug of the stitches closing the wound in my chest, I applied the words of David to me in a most personal way: “My days were ordained before even one of them had come along.” Finally, I claimed for myself from the apostle Paul my favorite verse. Though it is about king David, for that hour Saturday morning, it was mine: “After I have served the purpose of God in my generation, I will [someday] fall asleep, and will be laid among my fathers.”

Why did God allow such an experience? I will never know for sure this side of heaven, but I can give some possible reasons. 1. To help me again realize, and teach to others, how precious life really is. But more. 2. That I am really His servant and He may do with me as He pleases. 3. As well, to remind me of my own mortality.

Sometimes we feel we are going to live in this body here on earth forever. We will not! “Our citizenship indeed is in heaven, from which also, we eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform this body of humiliation into conformity with the body of His glory, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself” (Phil. 3:20-21)

--
Dr. Mal Couch
August 1996

Psychologizing of The Christian Churches

2016-02-05T22:22:00.000-06:00

Theorists and the Psychological Theories

That Have Destroyed American Culture and

Christianity

Jungs Collective Unconsciousness

For decades we have known the destructive effect of psychology and its gurus have had on European and American morality, but the full extent of what it has done to our people is just beginning to bear fruit. Its influence is pervasive in the media, education, the field of medicine, counseling, and in the church.

What have some of the theorists really done and what have they taught that has so blunted the teaching of Scriptural morals?

Below is a review of what some of the pioneer teachers of psychology have put upon us. In some instances the founders of modern psychology contradict each other’s views. Yet together their total impact has bent society and the church in a way unimaginable just a few decades before.

Fairly recently, the invasion of psychology has, with a vengeance, overtaken and overwhelmed the work of our denominations, seminaries, and local churches. Evangelical churches are now rapidly accepting psychological principles like never before. This is softening the congregations causing them to move away from doctrine and the teaching of Scripture. It is fostering a certain positivism that then turns about and opens the door for super-contemporary music and the take over of the church by the charismatic movement. Even though many of the proponents bringing psychology into the Church realize that the “founding fathers” of psychology were God haters they turn to them for guidance. Focus on the Family founder, psychologist James Dobson has stated that the men he studied in his psychological studies were dysfunctional. He nevertheless relies on psychology as an addition to biblical teaching.

Many reading this will disagree with such an assessment, but I believe this charge can be substantiated.

In order to chart this movements success it is important to explore its “founding fathers” and the teachings they promulgated.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1936)

Formative years

He was born in Freiberg Austria. He was the oldest of eight siblings and his family moved to Vienna when he was four years old. He was Jewish but raised without any faith. In his later years he professed a hatred for God, the Bible, and Moses the Lawgiver. He was for all practical purposes an atheist and he despised all religion.

Some historians believe that in the Freud home there were “family secrets” that adversely molded Sigmund, his brothers and sisters. Because of his strong relationship with his mother, some have speculated that there may have been incest in the family. At home, his brothers and sisters were not allowed to study music because doing so disturbed young Sigmund’s studies.

Experimented with Cocaine

As a young doctor, at twenty-eight he experimented with this drug under the pretense of medical research. He gave it to his wife Martha, his sisters, friends, and colleagues. He published six articles on the substance and recommended it as a stimulant, an anesthetic, and as a harmless substitute for morphine. He claimed the drug could relieve depression, and increase personal concentration, all of this with no side effects. He called the drug a “magical substance.” When cocaine addiction began to grow, Freud became associated with it and his reputation suffered.

Early Influences

Freud studied hypnotism with the famous French neurologist Jean-Martin Charcot (1825-1893). From another hypnotist Bernheim, Freud came to the conclusion that there is an unconscious, with memories of which the patient is unaware. From this Freud concluded that behavior can be caused by unconscious ideas, and that these ideas can be brought into consciousness under the right circumstances.

The Word of God never gives such an idea. Human beings are responsible for their thoughts and their actions.

Freud Taught

Sexual conflicts were the cause of hysteria
Sexual conflicts were the only cause of mental disorders
The “life instincts’ collectively are called libido. The libido is equal to sexual energy
The ego brings a person into experiences that truly satisfy
Both young boys and girls can develop erotic feelings toward their mother
Male children can inherit castration anxiety
Female children may develop male sexual organ envy
All humans beings have the potential to become homosexual
Psychoanalysis must be used to dredge up the remnants of early repressed memories
Religion developed because of the human fear of the unknown
Humans are driven by hedonistic impulses like lower animals
He detested the words of Christ: “Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.”

Freud’s War Against God

The uneducated masses need the illusions of religion
Intelligent people should live their lives according to scientific fact
History is explained by evolutionary principles, not by a divine unfolding plan
Rules should be explained rationally (his definition), not by claiming the will of a deity
Freud hoped religion would eventually be replaced by rational, scientific principles

Freud Alert:

By means of our own willpower and creative technology, we are self-sufficient. He said:

“Turn your eyes inward, look into your own depths, and learn first to know yourself.”

Carl Jung (1875-1961)

Formative Years

Born in a small Swiss village, he was raised in the university town of Basel. There were nine clergymen of the Swiss Reformed Church persuasion in his family, including his father. Jung viewed his father as a spiritual failure. He recalls asking spiritual and biblical questions of him, but receiving no answers.

Later in life, Carl developed his religious theories, but these theories only touched the individual emotionally and had little to do with Christianity. Carl confessed that his father was terribly cold and that his mother was dominating and “terribly inconsistent.”

Demon and Occult Phenomenon

There is no other way to describe Jung except to say that he was later greatly influenced by the demonic world.

As he grew older, he isolated himself from his family. He was preoccupied with dreams, visions, and fantasies, which provided him with his primary inner reality. He felt this inner reality was giving him “secret knowledge” that only a select few were given. He rarely shared his thoughts with others, and this fostered a lonely childhood, that carried over into adulthood.

Carl found a stone in a field when he was about seven years and this became to him a “mystical” stone. He developed a secret relationship with this stone. When he returned to the field and the stone as a married man thirty years later, “the magic of the stone returned immediately.”

At the age of ten, Carl carved a small wooden figure of a man whom he dressed and “gave it a little stone of its own.” He hid the little figure and was somehow given great comfort by this secret friend when he was troubled. He wrote secret “scrolls” that he placed, with a solemn ceremonial act, inside the little mannequin figure.

He also had a phallus dream that paralyzed him with terror. He concluded that the giant phallus was “the underground counterpart of the Lord Jesus.” As well, the phallus dream seemed to him to be a subterranean God “not to be named,” that appeared to him whenever anyone spoke of Christ in his presence. He added, “Jesus never became quite real for me, never quite acceptable, never quite lovable.”

In one dream, Jung saw a cathedral in the sky with God on His throne. “Suddenly an enormous feces fell upon the roof of the cathedral, shattering the building.” Somehow, Jung felt a great relief in that he was no longer under damnation but under grace!

Jung concluded that his father never really knew God personally. Jung wanted to know God and felt that if he simply fulfilled the will of the Lord, he will be certain of going the right way! He never really knew God but thought knowing God meant following an occult type god would equate to knowing the revealed God of Scripture.

A dream convinced him to follow his grandfather’s path in medicine, so he enrolled in the medical school in Basel. He became interested in psychic phenomena, studied the occult, attended séances, experimented with psychic mediums, and even claimed to be clairvoyant.

Collective Unconsciousness

Jung taught what even the psychological field calls a “mystical and controversial theory” know as collective unconsciousness. This means that from the evolutionary past, humans carry within their minds the ancestral experiences of prehistoric times. These are our common experiences, the primordial images that are carried from generation to generation. We even inherit a tendency to re-experience them. Jung felt his own dreams were evidence for this theory. We become conscious or ourselves through self-knowledge.

Male and Female Traits

Jung is one of the theorists responsible for provoking the agendas of both the homosexual and feminist movements today. He taught that both sexes have within them the male and female traits. “Thus if a woman denies expression of her masculine traits or a man his feminine traits, those traits will manifest themselves in indirect ways such as through dreams.”

God then would have both traits, male and female, within His personality. Lesbians will have a male bent, and a homosexual female!

Jung ALERT:

Self-actualization, Self-fulfillment, Self-esteem:

Public education has also been fueled by Jung’s selfism views.

The importance of self-purpose and meaning:

Jung emphasized purpose and meaning in one’s life. He said; “This theme is now emphasized in the existential-humanistic theories of personality.”

Selfhood is a master motive in human behavior.

The primary goal in life is to approach self-actualization, individuation!

Jung helped to bring on Humanism (the deification of humanity). He said; “You can be whatever you want to be.” This pervades the television industry, television commercials, education, theology, much of contemporary church music, and the socialization agenda of our government and society as a whole! The net effect of psychology and humanism is to draw people away from the revealed truth of the Bible.

Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Early Years

Carl was raised in a very conservative Protestant home in Oak Park near Chicago. Roger’s family discouraged friendships outside the family so he grew up in a lonely environment. In his teen years he was a very good student but tended toward solitude. In 1922 he went to a World Student Christian Federation Conference in Peking, China. There he studied the different cultures and religions of that vast area, and returned to the US with doubts about Christianity.

In 1924 he enrolled in the ultraliberal Union Theological Seminary in New york, NY. Under the critical teaching he received, he soon became doubtful that the best way to help people is through “religious doctrine.” He transferred to Columbia University and received his MA and Ph.D degrees in psychology.

Rogers Teachings had a Debilitating Effect on Christianity

What Rogers taught soon had a profound influence upon the counseling field, education, and liberal Christianity.

Rogers’ views are creeping into Evangelical doctrine! This teaching states that feeling is more important than intellect or knowledge! Rogers said: “The only reality you can possibly know is what you perceive and experience at the moment.”

Non-directive Therapy is another teaching of Rogers where he said; “Do not tell someone that what they are doing is wrong. Let them solve their own problems with their own abilities.”

Self-actualization is one of his prominent teachings. This philosophy teaches that one should be: True to yourself, by just being me, which will lead to the good life.

Rogers ALERT:

Humans are basically good and need no controlling, though they may sometimes act badly out of fear.
The attempt to control humans only makes them act badly.
People can trust their feelings.
They need the opportunity to do what they feel is best for them.
Do what feels right.
The Self is the cornerstone of the Rogerean theory.
Practicing values (Biblically or otherwise), imposed by others on the young, creates dysfunction as an adult.
Being told that doing something is sinful or naughty, destroys self-worth, and is contrary to self-structure!
We must be free to act according to our own feelings.
We must perceive ourselves as the center of our experience.
Have unconditional positive regard for yourself.
Freedom comes from within to do what you want to do.

Rogers Stated:

“Experience is, for me, the highest authority. Neither the Bible nor the prophets, … neither the revelation of God nor man-can take precedence over my own experience.”

“How people interpret things is for them the only reality.”

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

Early Life

Maslow was born Jewish in an ungodly home in Brooklyn, New York. His father loved whiskey and fighting. His dad considered Abraham ugly and stupid, and this stigma would stay with him for the rest of his life.

His mother was bitter and loved miserly ways. She kept a lock on the refrigerator and had to be in a food mood to allow the children to eat. Abraham later said his motivation for humanistic psychology as his life’s work came from his deep hatred of his mother. Her lack of love, selfishness, and hatred, made him revolt against everything she stood for.

Being sold on the psychology of behaviorism, he studied psychology and received his MA and Ph.D degrees from the University of Wisconsin.

Many of the theories that Maslow came to were similar to what Jung taught.

Hierarchy of Needs:

Psychological needs
Safety needs
Belongingness needs
Self-esteem needs
Self-actualization

Self-Actualizers Will:

Accept and love themselves
Do what comes naturally and are true to their feelings over objectivity
Direct their energies to problems
Maintain their own values and feelings, and let these guide their lives
Be independent by depending only on ones own inner world and not the outer world.
Experience life
Desire to have mystical experiences
Identify with all religions and cultures
Desire friendships only with other self-actualizers
Be Supra-democratic
Know the ethical implications of their own actions
Be creative because they are more open to experience their feelings

Maslow ALERT:

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs is now invading the theology of Evangelical Christians. It is included in the teaching of the psychiatrists Minerith and Meier, graduates of Dallas Seminary. They say:

Significance is more important than objectivity
For good living we need great self-knowledge
Being true to your nature’s will is self-actualizing
The failure to satisfy needs is the number one problem in America

“The environment must be fixed in order for humans to experience the highest level of attainment in the hierarchy of needs. Society must be designed to maximize the process of self-actualization.”

Do not accept any of this teaching in your church. RUN if your pastor introduces it as helpful. It is all anti-Christian and anti-Bible. Once a person moves away from the authority of Scripture they are outside of the genuine protection it provides.

Mal Couch, Ph.D, Th.D.

Ed. Daniel E. Woodhead, Ph.D

Israel: A Problem for Some Evangelicals by James M. Hutchens

2016-01-20T19:33:00.002-06:00

"I don't believe the land of Israel is promised to unbelievers." These are the words of a former United States Congressman and a knowledgeable evangelical Christian. He continued, "I believe the Messiah is coming and the Jews will recognize Him – that the redemption of the Jews is yet to come. I believe redeemed Jewish Israel will, one day, be entrusted again with the land in fulfillment of God's covenant promises. But I have a real problem with seeing the modern state of Israel, governed by unbelievers, as a fulfillment of God's promises."

Actually, the congressman's concerns are shared by others in the evangelical community. For example, John Piper, a highly respected evangelical spokesman, is on record as saying in respect to Israel "A non-covenant-keeping people does not have a divine right to the present possession to the land of promise. … Israel as a whole today rejects her Messiah, Jesus Christ, God's Son. This is the ultimate act of covenant –breaking with God." [WORLD, May 11, 2002, "Land Divine?"]

Then there is Joel Belz, publisher of WORLD magazine, who is baffled by the claim that Israel has a divine right to the land. "Much more puzzling to me is the assumption not just by Jewish people, but by evangelical Christians on behalf of Jewish friends, that the state of Israel is somehow still deserving of the blessings indicated as the fruit of some very conditional promises. Have Jewish people held up their part of God bargain? Have they therefore a claim on certain parts of Middle Eastern geography." [WORLD, January 10, 2004, "Stubborn Unbelief"].

In other words, there are genuine evangelical Christians, who may believe Jewish Israel has a future, and that future may involve the land promised by God to Abraham and his descendants. However, that land will not be given until Israel as a whole accepts Jesus and enters into a covenant keeping relationship with the God of Israel. But is this really the scenario God has in mind? Or is there a sovereignly appointed sequence of events that encompasses a much broader expression of the mind and will of God? I think there is.

The prophet Ezekiel, among others, points to a process – a sequence of events, in which the Jews return to the land in a profaned state of unbelief and out-of–covenant relationship with the God of Israel, which, over time, culminates in state of spiritual restoration. Like all expressions of God's grace, this process is initiated by God in spite of the sinfulness of the recipient.

"Therefore say to the house of Israel, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am going to do these things, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you have gone. I will show the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Sovereign LORD, when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.

" 'For I will take you out of the nations; I will gather you from all the countries and bring you back into your own land. I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. You will live in the land I gave your forefathers; you will be my people, and I will be your God. I will save you from all your uncleanness. …Then you will remember your evil ways and wicked deeds, and you will loathe yourselves for your sins and detestable practices. I want you to know that I am not doing this for your sake, declares the Sovereign LORD. Be ashamed and disgraced for your conduct, O house of Israel!" [Ezekiel 36: 22-32]

The process begins by God bringing back to the promised land a people that has profaned his name. They are not in covenant with God. The point is, they are not deserving of being regathered to the land. They have not yet experienced their redemption. They are in an estranged, profaned, disobedient, and unbelieving relationship with God. It is an act of pure grace on the part of God. They will look back and be ashamed and disgraced for their conduct.

The Hebrew word for "profane" means to defile, pollute, prostitute; to make common. It means to stain what is beautiful and glorious. This is what God has said the Jew has done to His name wherever he has been scattered and dispersed. God says his name and all it stands for has been sacrilegiously defiled and polluted whether in politics, entertainment, the media or most egregiously, in religion.

Yet, this appears to be the condition that begins the process. It is in this profaned condition that God begins to bring back the Jews to the land. It is not out of a desire to serve God and be in covenant relationship with God that has brought back most Jews to the land. It was the pogroms and the holocaust and the anti-Semitism that has motivated most Jews to seek sanctuary and security in Israel. The nation of Israel itself was established in 1948 in the aftermath of the Nazi extermination efforts as a means of providing a secure homeland for persecuted Jews. God used this to start the process that will lead to the redemption of Jewish Israel. It is this process, sinful and profaned, which leads to a climatic event, the spiritual restoration of Jewish Israel. According to Ezekiel's chronology, the spiritual cleansing takes placeafter the regathering. The giving of a new heart occurs after the return to the land. It is not an event that precedes the process.

It would appear, the establishment of the State of Israel and the immigration that has taken place since, is in keeping with God's sequence of events. Regathering first and then spiritual restoration. It is not unlike the process by which God brings all believers to himself. God, in his grace always initiates the process, while the sinner is in rebellion.

"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us." [Romans 5:8]. What God has done for us, he will do for Jewish Israel. As a matter of fact, the process has already started.

So, for those evangelicals who have a problem with the modern State of Israel being the fulfillment of God's promises we say this. Consider it a beginning of the process, profaned to be sure, that will eventuate in Jewish Israel's spiritual redemption. It is the first in a sequence of events. A process that has a glorious climax in "all Israel being saved."

In the meantime what is to be our attitude and action toward "profaned" Jewish Israel? I think the Apostle Paul anticipated that question in Romans 11:30-31 when he admonished us:

"Just as you who were at one time disobedient to God have now received mercy as a result of their disobedience, so they too have now become disobedient in order that they too may now receive mercy as a result of God's mercy to you"

This continues to be a primary theme for us in The Jerusalem Connection – "Show mercy because of mercy received!" Because of the mercy we have received in Christ, we want to show mercy to Jewish Israel. We invite you to join us in recognizing the State of Israel, even in its profaned condition, as part of the God-ordained process, which anticipates the ultimate spiritual redemption of Jewish Israel.

FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY TO ISRAEL DURING THE CHURCH AGE PART 2

2015-10-20T21:05:00.000-05:00

GOD’S FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY TO ISRAEL SINCE THE TIME OF CHRIST Part II

By

Thomas S. McCall Th.D.

End Time Prophecies About Israel Fulfilled During The Church Age

God Preserves The Jews, Their Identity And Culture in Spite of Persecution

: STC172909 A Rabbi tying the Phylacteries to the arm of a boy (oil on canvas) by Jewish School (19th century) oil on canvas Private Collection The Stapleton Collection Israeli, out of copyright

Psalm 121:4

4 Behold, He who keeps Israel Will neither slumber nor sleep (NASB).

There were prophecies in the Old and New Testament discussing the future restoration of Israel, with a descendant of David sitting on his throne. The disciples also are assured they will rule over the tribes of Israel when the Son of Man sits on His throne:

Jeremiah 33:17

17 "For thus says the LORD, 'David shall never lack a man to sit on the throne of the house of Israel.’” (NASB)

Luke 1:31-33

31 "And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 "He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end” (NASB).

Ezekiel 37:12-14

12 Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13 And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, 14 And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD (NASB).

Matthew 19:28

28 And Jesus said to them, "Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel (NASB).

Jewish and Christian Zionism

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declares that a State of Israel would not be possible without Christian Zionists. Throughout the centuries there have always been Jewish people who believed in the restoration of Israel, with the hope of meeting together “next year in Jerusalem.” However, it was not until the 1890s that Theodore Hertzl organized the First Zionist Congress in Switzerland, and the vague hope of restoration became a practical reality. How did this happen? The answer to this development lies in the little known relationship between certain key individuals, now known as Christian Zionists, and their counterparts in the Jewish Zionists movement.

: Theodore Herzl

Around 1700 A.D. Among the earliest Christian Zionists (who were sometimes called Restorationists) was the American Puritan pastor Increase Mather who wrote The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation. By reading the prophecies of the future of Israel, he rediscovered the Biblical teachings of Christian Zionism. He described the mystery as follows: “The scope of this Treatise is to hold forth the calling of the Jews, their reduction into their own Land, and the glorious estate of the Church which shall then be.” [1]

Later, in the mid 1800s, J. N. Darby and others studied the same prophecies and developed the Powers Court Prophecy Conferences. A rediscovery and reaffirmation of the future of Israel, the Rapture of the Church, Dispensationalism, and Christian Zionism were the products of these intensive Bible studies.

One of the main passages reaffirming Israel’s return to the land is the “Vision of the Dry Bones” found in Ezekiel 37. This describes the process of a vast amount of dry human bones coming together, forming skeletons, and then flesh coming over the skeletons making dead bodies. Finally, the Sprit of God blows over the bodies, and brings them to life. The Lord explains this vision of the Dry Bones as being the Nation of Israel being restored and replaced in its own Land in the end times:

: Valley of the Dry Bones of Ezekiel by Gustave Dore. Cir 1850

Ezekiel 37:1-10

1 The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me down in the middle of the valley; and it was full of bones. 2 And He caused me to pass among them round about, and behold, there were very many on the surface of the valley; and lo, they were very dry. 3 And He said to me, "Son of man, can these bones live?" And I answered, "O Lord God, Thou knowest." 4 Again He said to me, "Prophesy over these bones, and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.' 5 "Thus says the Lord God to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath to enter you that you may come to life. 6 'And I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin, and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.'" 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. 8 And I looked, and behold, sinews were on them, and flesh grew, and skin covered them; but there was no breath in them. 9 Then He said to me, "Prophesy to the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath, 'Thus says the Lord God, "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life."'" 10 So I prophesied as He commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they came to life, and stood on their feet, an exceedingly great army (NASB).

Theodore Herzl And William Hechler

Many people are aware that Theodore Herzl was the founder of Zionism in the 1890s, but few know about his critical relationship with William Hechler. Hechler was the son of a German father and a British mother who became an Anglican minister and was assigned as a chaplain to the British Embassy in Vienna, Austria. He was an avid student of Bible prophecy, deeply involved in the Dispensational movement in Britain, and a close friend of Sir Robert Anderson. By reading Anderson’s book, The Coming Prince, Hechler was aware of Christ’s prophesied triumphal entry on Palm Sunday into Jerusalem, which conclusively demonstrated the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy. Sir Anderson was a serious Bible student, as well as being the head of the famed Scotland Yard, the premier British detective bureau in London.

While serving in the British Embassy in Vienna, Hechler soon learned of Theodore Herzl, who was trying to organize a movement so that Jews could return to Israel. He was having little success because he had no significant connections. When Herzl first met Hechler, he thought he was somewhat of a religious eccentric, but gradually realized that this Christian chaplain was just as serious about Jewish restoration as he was.

Furthermore, Hechler had connections. He knew a German Duke who knew the German monarch, Kaiser Wilhelm. Hechler was able to get the Kaiser and Herzl together and they agreed to pursue the Zionist cause. Next the Kaiser met with the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, and later a subsequent meeting between the Kaiser and Herzl took place in Jerusalem. There was considerable confusion surrounding these meetings, but the London press reported that the events provided a strong advance for the cause and organization of the Zionist movement. By 1900 many of the Jews of Europe had adopted the Zionist Movement.

The strange irony in all of this was that the German monarch was the first European head of state to give formal recognition to Zionism, in part through the efforts of the little known Christian Zionist, William Hechler. Yet this was the same country that turned so violently against the Jewish people a few decades later under Hitler and the Holocaust.

CHAIM WEITZMAN AND SIR ARTHUR BALFOUR

: Chaim Weitzman from His home in Jerusalem

The next major advance in Zionism came at the end of World War I. Weitzman was a German Jewish chemist who moved to Britain, and discovered a high powered explosive that was able to end the trench warfare stalemate, and allow the Allies to defeat the German army. Weitzman was also a committed Zionist, and was a good friend of Foreign Minister Lord Arthur Balfour. Balfour was a Scottish Presbyterian, who had learned the Old Testament as his mother’s knee, and was a Christian Zionist at heart.

The British government wanted to show its appreciation to Weitzman for his vital assistance during the War, so Weitzman and Balfour composed what has come to be known as the Balfour Declaration in 1917. [2]

In 1917 Britain issued the Balfour Declaration encouraging Jews to return to the Land.

Foreign Office

November 2nd, 1917

Dear Lord Rothschild,

I have much pleasure in conveying to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration of sympathy with Jewish Zionist aspirations, which has been submitted to, and approved by, the Cabinet.

"His Majesty's Government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object, it being clearly understood that nothing shall be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country."

I should be grateful if you would bring this declaration to the knowledge of the Zionist Federation.

Yours sincerely,

Arthur James Balfour

This document allowed Jews to return to the Land with the blessing of the British government, which was now in control of the British Mandate of Palestine. What had been a trickle of Jewish immigrants now became a veritable stream of Jewish refugees from Eastern Europe and Russia fleeing the turmoil of the Communist revolution. Once again, it was the collaboration between a Jewish Zionist and a Christian Zionist in the right place, at the right time that brought about this advance.

In 1925 the League of Nations ratified the San Remo Treaty recognizing Palestine as the Jewish home. The British were granted authority, called The Mandate, over Palestine. The actual administration of the Mandate was called the Mandatory.

The Mandatory was to be responsible for putting into effect the declaration originally made on November 8, 1917, by the British Government, and adopted by the other Allied Powers, in favour of the establishment in Palestine as the national home for the Jewish people. It was clearly understood that nothing should be done which may prejudice the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country.

Specific Biblical Prophecies Regarding Israel’s Return

The prophet Ezekiel received prophecies regarding the future for Israel in “the last days”. Some of these focused on the period after the Great Tribulation such as the thirty-seventh chapter when they would be restored to the Land because then they will have believed in the Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. This is commonly referred to as the “valley of dry bones” prophecy described earlier. Other prophecies Ezekiel received from God made it quite clear that the Jews would be in the Land as a nation before they experienced a national repentance and restoration:

Ezekiel 20: 33-38

33“As I live,” declares the Lord God, “surely with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out, I shall be king over you. 34 “I will bring you out from the peoples and gather you from the lands where you are scattered, with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm and with wrath poured out; 35 and I will bring you into the wilderness of the peoples, and there I will enter into judgment with you face to face. 36“As I entered into judgment with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of Egypt, so I will enter into judgment with you,” declares the Lord God. 37 “I will make you pass under the rod, and I will bring you into the bond of the covenant; 38 and I will purge from you the rebels and those who transgress against Me; I will bring them out of the land where they sojourn, but they will not enter the land of Israel. Thus you will know that I am the Lord (NASB).

The Lord is giving this prophecy to Israel used the Exodus as an illustration of what He is going to do in the future. Much in the same way God led them out of the persecutions by the Egyptians, and moved them into the Promised Land, He declares He would do it again. Looking back in time and remembering that this prophecy was given in the sixth century before Christ, it is clear that He has already done that prior to this day (2015).

This time, though, God interestingly says that He will bring them out from “the peoples” and gather them from the countries (plural) where they have been. Since 586 B.C. they have been scattered throughout the countries of the world. Almighty God began regathering them out of all the countries in the world in the late 1800’s, which is known as the Zionist movement. They were persecuted in many of the nations in which they lived and wanted a safe homeland. The judgment described must be significant in order to make it into the biblical text. The most serious judgment He brought on them was the Nazi holocaust when six million Jews were destroyed in the Nazi’s genocide of the Jews. This set the stage for world sympathy, which led to them becoming a nation. The regathering, though, was in unbelief. We can see in the passage cited above that this regathering, “is with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out.” This is God saying to the Nation Israel, and repeating it twice, that He gathers them out of wrath and for wrath. The term “outstretched arm” means that God is exercising His wrath. This is coming from wrath, and then going into wrath. The wrath that He leads them from is the Nazi persecution. He brought them into the Land as a sovereign nation while still in unbelief. They will live as a nation for a while in unbelief until the Great Tribulation when the Antichrist will declare himself god and initiate the worst persecution the Jews will have ever seen. After that final wrath they will turn to Him and accept Christ as their Messiah. But from the Nazi Holocaust to the Great Tribulation there will be a period where they will have residence in the Land, but not be spiritually regenerated as a nation. In other words, God will not be their God; and Christ will not be their Messiah. Nevertheless, God loves them. Because He loves them, and made promises to their patriarchal ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, He will give them the Land they have been guaranteed. God’s promises are always kept, and there are no exceptions.

: Nazi Yellow Star Pined on Jews

The second passage is found in Ezekiel chapter twenty-two and further describes the issue of being in the Land, but in unbelief:

Ezekiel 22: 17-22

17 And the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to Me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are the dross of silver. 19 “Therefore, thus says the Lord God, ‘Because all of you have become dross, therefore, behold, I am going to gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 ‘As they gather silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into the furnace to blow fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in My anger and in My wrath and I will lay you there and melt you. 21‘I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of My wrath, and you will be melted in the midst of it. 22‘As silver is melted in the furnace, so you will be melted in the midst of it; and you will know that I, the Lord, have poured out My wrath on you.’ (NASB).

In this passage the prophet Ezekiel is given God’s Word describing a regathering of the Jews to Jerusalem. Here God describes the fact that they are far from Him as He characterizes their spiritual condition like the impurities in metallurgical processing. Dross is the burn-off of the undesirables, while the metal is purified through the consistent application of a high temperature fire. Fire is used in the Bible to refer to the refinement process God uses to bring those that He has chosen into submission to His will. This is exactly how He describes what He will do to them in the future for the purpose of purifying them. But for the purposes of identification and setting the chronology of this verse, it is when they have gathered in the Land and before the judgment. So today they in the Land regathered from the various nations throughout the world and Jerusalem is their capital. This is where this judgment will take place. So they are back in the Land in unbelief not realizing that their judgment is coming. Although there are several more passages that could be cited to confirm that God has brought them back into the Land in unbelief, the last passage that will be referenced is located in Zephaniah chapter two.

Zephaniah 2: 1-2

1 Gather yourselves together, yes, gather, O nation without shame, 2 Before the decree takes effect—The day passes like the chaff—Before the burning anger of the Lord comes upon you, Before the day of the Lord’s anger comes upon you (NASB).

Again the text says that they are gathering together as a nation but they have no shame. This means that they are not recognizing their sinful ways. Therefore, they are gathered together in unbelief. They will receive the judgment meted out by the Antichrist during the Great Tribulation referred to here as the “day of the Lord’s anger”. This is the most common form of reference to the Great Tribulation in the Old Testament. The Tribulation will begin with the signing of a seven-year covenant between the Antichrist and the Nation Israel. So since begins before the Tribulation, we can assume that there are Jewish political leaders in a Jewish State. The Jewish State does exist, they are back in the Land in unbelief, and they don’t realize it now, but their judgment and refinement is nearing its time.

: Photo from Dachau Concentration Camp from the Jewish Virtual Library http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/dachaumartins.html

After the Nazi persecution Jewish refugees fled to the Land and established the revived sovereign State of Israel in May of 1948. Since then Israel has been attacked numerous times and miraculously survived. Ezekiel chapters 20 and 22 prophesied that Israel would return from their dispersion throughout the earth’s the nations. In Ezekiel chapter 37 the regathering was a process described beginning with Dry Bones. At present there are seven million Jews in Israel. This represents approximately half of the Jews in the world. At present there are reported to be 15,000 Israeli believers in Christ, continuing “the remnant”. Some Israelis know the Bible teaches that a future Temple will be built, and are making preparations for it to include re-establishing the priesthood and a governing body known as the Sanhedrin.

End Time Prophecies About Israel After The Rapture of The Church

After the Rapture of the Church, 144,000 Jews will be saved and sealed as God’s evangelists during the Tribulation:

: The Rapture of the Church artist Unknown

Revelation 7:3-4

3 saying, "Do not harm the earth or the sea or the trees, until we have sealed the bond-servants of our God on their foreheads." 4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel (NASB).

A Seven Year Treaty is Ratified Between Unbelieving Israel and The Antichrist

Daniel 9:27

27 "And he 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” (NASB).

At The End of The Tribulation The Surviving Jews Will Receive Christ and be Saved

Zechariah 12:10

10 "And I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplication, so that they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over Him, like the bitter weeping over a first-born” (NASB).

Romans 11:25-27

25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and thus al Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." 27 "And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins” (NASB).

Israel will have a prominent role in the Millennial Kingdom

Isaiah 14:1-2

1 When the LORD will have compassion on Jacob, and again choose Israel, and settle them in their own land, then strangers will join them and attach themselves to the house of Jacob. 2 And the peoples will take them along and bring them to their place, and the house of Israel will possess them as an inheritance in the land of the LORD as male servants and female servants; and they will take their captors captive, and will rule over their oppressors (NASB).

Revelation 20:6

6 Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him for a thousand years (NASB).

Conclusion

Some have erroneously thought that Israel has dropped off the divine radar since the First Coming of Christ, and that there is no present or future for the Jewish people. This article has presented the evidence that there are many prophecies in the Old and New Testaments that describe the tragic dispersion of the Jewish people, their miraculous preservation throughout the Church Age, and their equally miraculous restoration of Israel as a nation among the family of nations. Jewish Zionists and Christian Zionists have played a significant role over the past few centuries in these remarkable developments.

[1] Mather, Increase, The Mystery of Israel’s Salvation Explained and Applied, Publisher John Allen, London, 1669.

[2] Sachar, Howard M. A History of Israel From The Rise of Zionism to Our Time, 2nd Ed. Publisher Alfred A. Knopf New NY 2006 pg.109.

FUFILLMENT OF PROPHECY TO ISRAEL DURING THE CHURCH AGE PART 1

2015-10-20T20:57:00.002-05:00

GOD’S FULFILLMENT OF PROPHECY TO ISRAEL SINCE THE TIME OF CHRIST

Thomas S. McCall Th.D.

We often hear of Bible prophecy as it relates to the First and Second Coming of Christ, which is very important, but there is much more Bible prophecy concerning what the Lord is doing between the two Advents of Jesus during the Church Age. These prophecies specifically pertain to God’s ancient covenant people, Israel, and His new covenant people, the Church. This article explains God’s preservation of, and promises to the Jewish people throughout the Church Age, in preparation for the ultimate restoration of Israel to its own Kinsman Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. The prophecies will be grouped under two headings; first, those that have already been fulfilled during the Church Age, and second, the end time prophecies yet to be fulfilled during the Church Age.

Bible Prophecies About Israel Fulfilled During The Church Age

The Nation of Israel will be preserved intact until the Second Coming of Christ and through the Millennial Kingdom.

Jeremiah 31:35-37

35 Thus says the Lord, Who gives the sun for light by day And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The Lord of hosts is His name: 36 “If this fixed order departs From before Me,” declares the Lord, “Then the offspring of Israel also will cease From being a nation before Me forever.”37 Thus says the Lord, “If the heavens above can be measured And the foundations of the earth searched out below, Then I will also cast off al the offspring of Israel For all that they have done,” declares the Lord (NSAB).

The Lord said to Jeremiah that He would always view the Nation of Israel as His, no matter what the circumstances on this earth are, or what they have done.

Jerusalem would be the Cradle of Christianity

Acts 1:8

8 but you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be My witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and even to the remotest part of the earth (NASB).

Christ Himself prophesied all of this, and Israel played a large role in the creation of the Church. The Church began in Jerusalem, with thousands of believers on the Jewish holiday of Pentecost, and spread from there to the ends of the earth. The invitation to become believers in Christ joins each believer to the Church, and is still developing today. Humanly speaking, if the Jewish believers had not started the Church, there would never have been a worldwide church.

The Jewish Apostles Built The Church on The Foundation of Christ

: Doubting Thomas by Caravaggio Cir 1602-03

Ephesians 2:19 - 22

19 So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, 20 having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, 21 in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, 22 in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit (NASB).

Paul explains in the book of Ephesians that the church is a bifurcated organism, composed of two parts: Jewish believers and Gentile believers. In effect, a church without Gentile believers is incomplete, and a church without Jewish believers is incomplete. They are like a bird with two wings, both wings necessary to enable the bird to fly.

The New Testament Was Written by Jews

Romans 3:1

1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the benefit of circumcision? Great in every respect. First of all , that they were entrusted with the oracles of God (NASB).

: The Oracles of God came to Israel

Furthermore, God’s plan is that when He has a message for the human race, He has always had it written down by Jewish hands, both for the Old and New Testaments. Some say that Dr. Luke was a Gentile, but I am convinced that there are many cogent arguments to support the fact that Luke was a Jew. (A more detailed discussion regarding Luke’s Jewishness can be found on the blog article I wrote on this subject.[1]). Throughout its 4,000-year history, Israel has frequently been a “lost” nation, just like the rest of the nations who turned away from God. However, there has always been a minority, a remnant, in Israel that has looked forward in faith to the coming Redeemer Christ, or who have looked back in faith to the first coming of their Redeemer Christ.

A Remnant in Elijah’s Time

Romans 11:2-4

2 God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the scripture says about Elijah, how he pleads with God against Israel? 3 "Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have torn down your altars, and I alone am left, and they are seeking my life." 4 But what is God's response to him? "I have left for myself seven thousand men who have not knelt to Baal." (NASB)

A Remnant in The Church Age

Romans 11:5-7

5 In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice.6 But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, otherwise grace is no longer grace.7 What then? What Israel is seeking, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened (NASB).

The Bible declared that the Lord wanted the Gospel to be given to the Jews first throughout the Church Age. This was the priority of all evangelism during the Church Age, to the Jew first and then to the Gentile:

Romans 1:16

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (NASB).

The Lord’s desire prophesied in both Testaments was for the Gospel of Christ, in every generation, to be delivered to the Jews first, and then it would proceed out to the greater Gentile population. Regrettably, after the first century, this was rarely the case. The Church did not carry this out as the Lord desired.

The Synagogue Was the Natural Place For The Gospel to Be Taught

Acts 17:1-4

1 Now when they had traveled through Amphipolis and Apollonian, they came to Thessalonica, where there was a synagogue of the Jews. 2 And according to Paul's custom, he went to them, and for three Sabbaths reasoned with them from the Scriptures, 3 explaining and giving evidence that the Christ had to suffer and rise again from the dead, and saying, "This Jesus whom I am proclaiming to you is the Christ." 4 And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a great multitude of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women (NASB).

The Lord Jesus taught in the synagogues (Luke 4:15, 13:10; Matthew 4:23,13:10). The synagogue was an institution that developed during the Babylonian exile, and was a place where Jews gathered for worship, study, and prayer. For the exiles in Babylon it served as a replacement for the Temple. It grew in importance over the years, and by the time of Paul’s missionary journeys they populated the entire Roman Empire.

Judgment on Israel, Jerusalem and The Temple in 70 A.D.

: Jerusalem under attack by Titus Vespasian Artist Poussin 1623

Matthew 23:33-39

33 "You serpents, you brood of vipers, how shall you escape the sentence of hell ? 34 "Therefore, behold, I am sending you prophets and wise men and scribes; some of them you will kill and crucify, and some of them you will scourge in your synagogues, and persecute from city to city, 35 that upon you may fall the guilt of al the righteous blood shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah, the son of Berechiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. 36 "Truly I say to you, al these things shall come upon this generation. 37 "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to her! How often I wanted to gather your children together, the way a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were unwilling. 38 "Behold, your house is being left to you desolate! 39 "For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'" (NASB)

There is no question that a terrible judgment fell upon Israel for not recognizing and accepting the Lord Jesus Christ as Messiah and Redeemer. The Temple was destroyed and as a result the Jewish people have been scattered over the entire earth for hundreds and hundreds of years. Nevertheless, as the Bible tells us this judgment will not last forever. The end to the judgment will come when all Israel as a nation recognizes that the Jesus they despised has always been their true Messiah. They are not corporately ready to do that today. One must ask the question, what will cause them to do this? Sadly, it appears that the only thing that will accomplish this will be the awful experience with the future Antichrist and the Old Testament designation of the Time of Jacob’s Trouble, known in the New Testament as the Great Tribulation. Then, and only then, will Israel be eager, willing, and able to receive Jesus, and welcome Him as the one whom the Bible says will come in the Name of the Lord.

Persecution of Israel Throughout The World

Jesus further prophesied the following:

The results of what would happen to Jerusalem and Israel as a consequence of their rejecting His Messiahship as well as His redemptive kingdom.

Within 40 years the Romans would surround the capital, destroy the Temple.

The Jewish people would be scattered in captivity throughout the Gentile world.

Luke 21:20-24

20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is at hand. 21 "Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let those who are in the midst of the city depart, and let not those who are in the country enter the city; 22 because these are days of vengeance, in order that al things which are written may be fulfilled. 23 "Woe to those who are with child and to those who nurse babes in those days; for there will be great distress upon the land, and wrath to this people,24and they will fall by the edge of the sword, and will be led captive into all the nations; and Jerusalem will be trampled under foot by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled (NASB).

The Church Turns Against Israel With Replacement Theology

After the First Century, John Chrysostom, one of the early anti-Semitic Church fathers (349 - 407 A.D.), developed the theology that the Church has replaced Israel, and there is no future for Israel in God’s plan and purpose, resulting in the church turning against the Jewish people and becoming anti-Semitic.[2] This is in direct opposition to Paul’s prophetic warned using imagery of the Olive Tree as God’s blessing, and telling the Gentile believers not to become conceited and boast against the “natural branches”, since the natural branches are Israel who were chosen first to receive God’ divine blessing. Paul warned what would happen if they pursued such an erroneous doctrine:

Romans 11:17-21

17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree, 18 do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.19 You will say then, "Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in."20 Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; 21 for if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will He spare you (NASB).

Abandonment of Jewish Evangelism by the Church

Romans 11:11

11 I say then, they [the Jews] did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be! But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous (NASB, clarification added).

The purpose of salvation coming to the Gentiles during the Church Age was not to obliterate Israel. Rather, it was meant to cause the Jewish people to be amazed that Gentiles were coming to faith in the God of Abraham, that they believed the Jewish Bible, and were drawn to knowing the Jewish Messiah in order to receive eternal life through Him. This was to cause the Jews to want all these things themselves. But the Church turned its back on the Jew, and was even instrumental in the persecution of the Jews through much of Church history.

The Church rejected the Biblical teaching of the future of Israel by 500 A.D.

: Saint Augustine in His Study by Sandro Boticelli 1840

The Carthaginian theologian Augustine at first was a Chiliast (premillennialist), but was converted to amillennialism, and by the time he visited Rome no longer believed in the future of Israel. He then popularized Replacement Theology, which replaces the Jews with the Church as God’s chosen people, and made it the dominant doctrine of Christianity to this day. This was in direct contradiction to the admonition to the Church about Israel by the Apostle Paul:

Romans 11:25-26

25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fulness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and thus all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, "The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob." 27 "And this is My covenant with them, When I take away their sins" (NASB).

CONTINUED IN PART II

[1] http://doctorwoodhead.com/was-luke-a-jew-or-a-gentile/

[2] Allen, Pauline, Wendy Mayer. John Chrysostom. London: Routledge, 2000.

Are Gay Rights, Right?

2015-07-15T08:00:00.000-05:00

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Dr. Jobe Martin at Scofield Bible Study in Clifton, Texas

2015-07-14T13:47:00.002-05:00

We have made available the latest teachings from guest Bible teacher Dr. Jobe Martin from Biblical Discipleship Ministries.

The Achilles Heels of Evolution.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN

New Age, New Spirituality, and Deception
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The Crimson Worm
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New Book Release: Evangelical Bible Doctrine

2015-06-15T11:27:00.001-05:00

Click here To See On Amazon

A work on Systematic Theology and other contemporary issues by today's foremost biblical scholars. Such contributors include: H Wayne House, Norm Geisler, John C Whitcomb, Paige Patterson, Kenny Rhodes, John Pappas, Andy Woods, Don Miller, George Gunn, Charles Ray, Steve Spurlin, Arnold Fruchrnbaum, William Luck, Keith Sherlin, Jeff Helsop, Dan Woodhead, Timothy Demy, David Santos, Russell Penney, Eric Peterman, Bobby Hayes, Vern Peterman.

The Antichrist and Islam by Dr. Mal Couch, Book Review by Gary T. Dromi, D.Min., Ph.D.

2015-04-09T17:45:00.000-05:00

The Antichrist and Islam

The Antichrist and Islam is, perhaps, one of Jesus’ most cherished and studied sermons. Throughout the centuries, theologians, pastors and scholars have endeavored to understand the events described by Jesus and the time period in which these events would take place.

Dr. Couch does an excellent job at breaking down and explaining the elements of the Olivet Discourse: the near fulfillment of A.D. 70 and a yet future fulfillment during the Great Tribulation. Dr. Couch rightly interprets the discourse as an accurate statement of end-time events, which will lead up to and culminate in the second coming of Christ to set up His millennial kingdom on the earth.

Seeing the Olivet Discourse in light of Revelation 17-18 and coupling all of those future events with what is happening in the world today, some theologians have begun to wonder if the religion known as Islam could possibly be “Babylon the Great” spoken of in the book of Revelation. In Revelation 17:6, John writes, “And I saw the woman drunk with the blood of the saints [believers in Jesus], and with the blood of the witnesses of Jesus. And when I saw her, I wondered greatly.” No other religion on earth today takes such pleasure in murdering Christians. The thesis certainly deserves some consideration.

There are a few places where the verse numbers are given and the Bible book reference is missing. However, this in no way detracts from this excellent resource.

Though only 88 pages in length, Dr. Couch introduces many topics: (1) Islam’s march into Western countries and culture; (2) The seven year tribulation; (3) The Anti-Christ; (4) False Christs; (5) The Parable of the Fig Tree; (6) The Coming of King Jesus; (7) A few other pertinent subjects.

While this book is not an exhaustive study of topic of eschatology, it is a great primer for anyone interested in understanding Matt. 24-25, specifically, and end time events in general. Reading The Antichrist and Islam is sure to whet your appetite for future study of the events that will take place prior to King Jesus’ second coming.
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Dr. Gary Dromi currently resides in Springdale, AR. He has been in full-time ministry for over thirteen years. He holds a B.A., M.A. and a D.Min. in Biblical Studies. While on sabbatical, he completed his Ph.D. in Biblical Counseling and is now available for pulpit fill, seminars and a full-time pastoral position. He can be reached at: provrbs3_5_6@att.net. He also writes monthly articles for Scofield Ministries.

WHY SATAN BELIEVES HE MUST DESTROY ISRAEL By Tom McCall, Th.D.

2015-01-06T17:37:00.000-06:00

WHY SATAN BELIEVES HE MUST DESTROY ISRAEL

By Tom McCall, Th.D.

Why does Satan believe he must destroy Israel from off the face of the earth? For thousands of years Satan has demonstrated an insane and insatiable drive to wipe out the Jewish people, but so far has not been able to fully accomplish his goal. Let’s review some of his major attempts:

When Abraham went to Egypt and lied about Sarah, nearly causing Pharaoh to violate her.
When Abraham had Ishmael with Hagar, bypassing Sarah.
When Ishmael ridiculed Isaac, attempting to usurp Isaac’s position.
When Esau attempted to gain Jacob’s blessing from Isaac.
When Pharaoh ordered all male Hebrew infants to be murdered.
When Pharaoh attempted to destroy Israel backed up against the Red Sea.
When Israel decided to worship the Golden Calf at Mt. Sinai.
When Israel decided to stay in the wilderness rather than go into Canaan.
When Moab tried to destroy Israel and stop them from entering Canaan.
When the Canaanites amassed all their armies to destroy the invading Israelites.
When the surrounding nations tried to destroy Israel during the time of the Judges.
When the surrounding nations tried to destroy Israel during the time of the kings.
When the Assyrian army destroyed Israel and much of Judah.
When the Babylonian army destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem.
When the refugees from Babylon and Persia were restoring the Temple and Jerusalem
When Haman attempted to destroy all the Jews throughout the Persian Empire.
When the Greco-Syrian forces tried to Hellenize Judea under Antiochus Epiphanes
When the Roman army destroyed Judea and Jerusalem twice (70 AD and 135 AD)
When the Jewish people were scattered and persecuted throughout the world for 2,000 years.
When Hitler organized the Holocaust and destroyed over Six million Jews.
When the Jews attempted to return to Israel against extensive international opposition.
When Israel declared its independence in 1947 and was invaded by Egypt, Jordan, and Syria.
When Israel was invaded in 1967 and 1973 by its surrounding neighbors
When Israel was disrupted by numerous intifadas from Palestinians and Jihadists.
When Hamas hurled thousands of rockets from Gaza into Israel in 2014.

So we see, for 4,000 years the Jewish people have faced relentless persecution, opposition and attempts to annihilate and destroy them. If it were any of other people, it would seem totally irrational and insane. However, with Israel, there appears to be a certain rational, though Satanic, strategy behind this animosity.

For Satan, the destruction of Israel is a matter of self-preservation. Ultimately, the survival of Israel results in the eternal perdition of Satan. How can this be? Because when Israel repents and nationally invites the Lord Jesus Christ to be their own Redeemer/Messiah, that generation of Israel will be saved, and Satan’s plan to destroy the Jews will be finally defeated. Christ will return to the earth, destroy the Satanic Antichrist and his armies at Armageddon, establish His Kingdom over Israel and the world for 1,000 years, and then cast Satan into the Lake of Fire forever and ever.

The key is that Israel must survive to receive Christ nationally as their own Messiah. As Jesus said when He lamented over Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives a few days before He died and rose from the dead at His First Coming:

Matthew 23:39 - 24:1 39 "For I say to you, from now on you shall not see Me until you say, 'Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord!'"

While the remnant of Israel in every generation would receive Him all during the long period between His First and Second Comings (the Church Age), the nation Israel will not receive Him until after the Rapture of the Church and the Seven Year Tribulation. Thus, when Israel receives Christ, this will usher in the events that spell the doom of Satan.

From Satan’s point of view, he must keep Israel from surviving to the point in time when they will be ready to receive Jesus as their long awaited Messiah/Redeemer. They had a great opportunity to receive Him at His First Coming, but as John states:

John 1:11-12 11 He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. 12 But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name.

Israel did not know its great “hour of visitation” when Jesus came the first time, but when He comes again, the nation of Israel as a whole that survives the Tribulation will at last be ready, willing and eager to receive Him as Savior and Lord.

Thus Satan has strived mightily to destroy Israel through the centuries up until this present time so that there would be no Israel to invite Jesus to return to the earth. Why hasn’t Satan been able to accomplish his repeated purpose to kill off this small nation of only a few million people? It is because God has promised to preserve His covenant nation forever, as Jeremiah so eloquently explains:

Jeremiah 31:35-36 35 Thus says the LORD, Who gives the sun for light by day, And the fixed order of the moon and the stars for light by night, Who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar; The LORD of hosts is His name: 36 "If this fixed order departs From before Me," declares the LORD, "Then the offspring of Israel also shall cease From being a nation before Me forever."

God here states what it would take to destroy Israel. One would have to first destroy the sun, moon and stars. Once that had been accomplished then, and only then, could someone go about destroying Israel. The last time I looked, the sun, moon and stars were still functioning, so that must mean Israel has not ceased being a nation.

Satan wants to destroy Israel so that he can keep God from sending him into eternal perdition, but God will not allow Satan to destroy His Chosen Nation. Israel is the apple of God’s eye, so it must survive as a nation before Him for all time.

The Weapons and Climate of The Gog & Magog War by Dr. Tom McCall

2014-01-23T12:44:00.002-06:00

Prologue: Three hundred years ago, two believers in Christ were having discussions about Bible prophecy. They were reading prophecies in the Old Testament about the restoration of Israel back to the Land in the last days. One of them said, “Could this happen literally?” His friend replied, “Of course not, all the conditions of the world are against it. The Jews are scattered all over the earth; the nations of the world would not stand for it; the Arabs would not tolerate it; it is unthinkable that such a turn of events could occur.

We must interpret these prophecies allegorically. It would take more than a miracle for this to occur.”

Indeed. Now, three hundred years later, against all odds, we have lived through just such a miracle. Israel is once again a nation among the family of nations, and is in the world news almost every day. Jesus said, “Not one jot or tittle shall pass from the Law until all is fulfilled.” (Matthew 5:18) Will all the prophecies of the Word be fulfilled literally or just some of them?

I have long believed that the next great prophetic event between the Rapture of the Church and the beginning of the Tribulation will be the Gog and Magog War of Ezekiel 38-39. There may be other smaller prophetic and/or non-prophetic wars between now and then, but the focus appears to be on Gog and Magog during that time frame. The Gog and Magog War is a critical step in the divine plan of restoring all of Israel to the Promised Land, as well as the developments during the Tribulation, Armageddon and the Second Coming of Christ.

Every day it seems like the stage is being set for the events of the Gog and Magog War. For Example:

Iran (i.e. Ancient Persia) is increasingly in the international spotlight as it moves inexorably closer to nuclear capability.
Israel’s vulnerability from nuclear attack from Iran is causing it to ramp up its ability to mount a pre-emptive strike against the nuclear facilities in Iran.
They are also forging an agreement with Saudi Arabia to use its airspace in case of such an attack.
The U.S. administration and the European powers are attempting to solve the Iran problem diplomatically, but in the process they are alienating and marginalizing Israel.
In addition, Russia is supplying Iran and much of the Middle East with military and diplomatic support.
Israel’s discovery of vast natural gas reserves in the Leviathan field in the Mediterranean Sea and shale oil reserves under the Valley of Elah on land are making that miracle nation even more of a desirable target for Russia and the Magog alliance to attack.

What else has to happen, besides the Rapture, before the Gog and Magog War actually comes to pass?

Well, there are some aspects of Ezekiel’s prophecy that appear to be out of sync with current conditions. For instance, the warfare described in Ezekiel 38-39 is primitive compared to modern weapons:

Ezekiel 38:4 4 “And I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them splendidly attired, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them wielding swords (NASB);

There are no planes, tanks, missiles and so forth in the prophet’s narrative.

The customary interpretation is, of course, that Ezekiel knew nothing about modern weapons when he wrote some 3,500 years ago, and so he had to describe the events in the terms of ancient warfare such as swords, shields, bucklers, and horses. That may be the case, but is it possible that by the time the War takes place military power may be so degraded that the nations are reduced to fighting with ancient weapons? Could some kind of nuclear war or other events occur that would make modern weapons inoperative?

There are at least two features of the Gog and Magog War that seem to make modern weapons unlikely. One is the vast array of horses used (along with soldiers) that provide the multitude of vultures and beasts with an enormous feast at the conclusion of the battles.

Ezekiel 38:15 15 “And you will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army (NASB);

Ezekiel 39:17-20 17 “And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. 18 “You shall eat the flesh of mighty men, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. 19 “So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. 20 “And you will be glutted at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,” declares the Lord God (NASB).

The vultures and beasts surely would not be feeding on fallen planes and tanks! The other is the fact that the victorious Israelis will be able to use the debris of the fallen invaders for fuel for seven years after the War, so that they will not have to cut down forests for fuel during that time.

Eze 38-39 Intro

Ezekiel 39:9-10 9 “Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will go out, and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears and for seven years they will make fires of them. 10 “And they will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them, and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,” declares the Lord God. turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations(NASB).

It is interesting that the length of time for the burning of the fuel is the same time as the length of the seven years of the Tribulation.

Another area of scientific research is in that of climate change. This has nothing to do with the Global Warming pseudo-science that claims human activity is affecting the climate. Rather, it looks at validated evidence that we may be headed toward a great cooling era which could bring increasing rainfall to Israel and in turn could increase forests and grassland. Extensive grassland in Israel would make possible the development of herds of cattle throughout the Land. As noted above, there is a description of forests and cattle in Israel, which do not exist in abundance in the Land at the present time:

Ezekiel 39:10“And they will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world (NASB).’

There is some anecdotal evidence that Israel is already experiencing heavier rainfall and snow in recent years, and conversely, anecdotal evidence that areas of Russia and the Ukraine are getting colder. If these trends are confirmed and continue, it might make vast areas of Russia too cold for many crops. It is speculated that some of this climate change might be caused by activity on the surface of the Sun. These climate events, if they develop, might also contribute to making Israel an inviting target for Russia. We need more hard evidence from reputable climatologists to determine if these trends are valid.

Some scientists, many of whom have no interest in Bible prophecy, are doing research on the degrading of modern weapons systems. This includes the disruption of the electric power grid and semiconductor devices through such weapons as the Electromagnetic Pulse Bomb. The best known example of the potential for severe damage to the electrical grid and electronic devices is the Star Fish Prime Nuclear weapon test in 1962[1]. However, in order for swords to replace small arms, nitrate manufacturing/supplies must somehow be compromised or, nitrates themselves must be destabilized. No weapon or known natural process is able to destabilize nitrates on a worldwide basis. (Nitro cellulose is the propellant in all, or nearly all small arms)

The elimination of electricity and gunpowder would go a long ways toward throwing warfare back to the primitive status described in Ezekiel, but such drastic changes seem unlikely under the present circumstances. Scientists are also looking at valid naturally caused climate changes that would affect growing seasons around the world, especially in Israel but again we need more evidence that this is actually happening.

I am attempting to gather as much research on this subject as possible, and I am inviting our readers who have information on these matters to respond. Any assistance would be greatly appreciated. Send email to: bigmac1936 at embarqmail.com (replace the 'at' with the @ symbol).

Was Israel's Monarchy of God or Man? by Thomas S. McCall, Th.D.

2013-09-23T08:00:00.000-05:00

Jesus asked the Jewish leaders if the baptism of John was of human or divine origin.

Matthew 21:25
“The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ (NASB)

As our Lord Jesus indicated, it is important to know whether any event or institution is of God or of man. Many believe that the Israeli monarchy was of human origin and that God did not intend for Israel to have kings. It is the purpose of this article to demonstrate that it was the direct will of God that Israel would have kings. This purpose was partially fulfilled in the inauguration of:

David and his lineage, and is ultimately fulfilled in David’s descendant, the Lord Jesus Christ, the King of kings.
Those who deny the validity of the monarchy point to the episode in which the leaders of Israel asked Samuel to anoint a king.

1 Samuel 8:5
And they said to him, “Behold, you have grown old, and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint a king for us to judge us like all the nations.” (NASB)

Samuel was greatly disappointed over their request, and went to the Lord with the people’s desire to have a king. God also was displeased with the request, said they were rejecting Him and His rule over them, and warned against the dangers of having a king. Nevertheless, He appointed Saul, of the tribe of Benjamin, to be their king.

1 Samuel 8:6-10
6 But the thing was displeasing in the sight of Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD. 7 And the LORD said to Samuel, “Listen to the voice of the people in regard to all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected Me from being king over them. 8 “Like all the deeds which they have done since the day that I brought them up from Egypt even to this day– in that they have forsaken Me and served other gods– so they are doing to you also. 9 “Now then, listen to their voice; however, you shall solemnly warn them and tell them of the procedure of the king who will reign over them.” 10 So Samuel spoke all the words of the LORD to the people who had asked of him a king. (NASB)

The people of Israel were dissatisfied with having Judges. They wanted a king so that they would have stability like the other nations, and a standing army that could deal with their enemies that beset them on every side. When they came to Samuel about this he asked the Lord and the Lord replied that they were not only rejecting Samuel but also Himself as king. He furthermore warned them that having a king brought many onerous problems, such as taxes and conscripted service in the king’s army and service in the court. They might well in time regret having ever asked for a king.

From this episode many have assumed that the Israelite monarchy was of man and that God was opposed to Israel having a monarchy. Furthermore, many of them think that the whole idea of Israel having a future Messianic kingdom would be unthinkable as well.

However, whose Idea was it that Israel should have a monarchy in the first place? The Lord Himself is the first to broach the idea of Israel having kings, as he promised kings to Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Judah.

Genesis 17:6
And I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come forth from you. (NASB)

Genesis 35:11
God also said to him, “I am God Almighty; be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come forth from you. (NASB)

Genesis 49:10
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until Shiloh comes, and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples. (NASB)

Not only does God promise kings to Israel, He even designates Judah as the tribe through whom the kings and King Messiah (Shiloh) would come. Therefore, we must pay close attention to the tribe of Judah. After this prophecy about Judah, some 400 years pass before God was ready to bring Israel out of Egypt through a deliverer. Who was that deliverer and where did that deliverer come from. Of course, it was Moses and Moses was from Levi, not from Judah. What happened to the promise to Judah?

The next leader and successor to Moses was Joshua, who would lead Israel in the conquest of the Promised Land. However, he also was not from Judah, but from the tribe of Ephraim. Why not a leader from the tribe of Judah?

In Judges, the first Judge was Othniel (the brother of Caleb), who was of the tribe of Judah, and he defeated the Mesopotamian king, He then served as Judge for 40 years. He is the only Judge from the tribe of Judah, and there is no indication that he ruled over the 12 tribes or wielded a scepter over Israel.

All the rest of the Judges were from various other tribes, and the writer laments that there was no king in Israel, and that every man did what was right in his own eyes. Judah is not prominent during this 400 year period. The absence of the prominence of the tribe of Judah all during the hundreds of years after the death of the patriarch Judah is problematical. Judah was prophesied to be the ruling tribe, the tribe from whom the Messiah was to come. Yet no enduring leadership arose during the Egyptian exile, the Exodus, the Wilderness Journey, the Conquest of Canaan or the period of the Judges. Why was Judah essentially passed over for some 700 years?

To find the answer to this, we must first look at the life of the founder of the tribe of Judah, Judah himself. In Genesis 38, we find the unusual story of Judah and his daughter-in-law, Tamar. As it turns out, they had an incestuous relationship that had enormous ramifications for centuries to come.

Genesis 38:24-26
Now it was about three months later that Judah was informed, “Your daughter-in-law Tamar has played the harlot, and behold, she is also with child by harlotry.” Then Judah said, “Bring her out and let her be burned!” 25 It was while she was being brought out that she sent to her father-in-law, saying, and “I am with child by the man to whom these things belong.” And she said, “Please examine and see, whose signet ring and cords and staff are these?” 26 And Judah recognized them, and said, “She is more righteous than I, inasmuch as I did not give her to my son Shelah.” And he did not have relations with her again. (NASB)

Genesis 38:27 – 30
And it came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb. 28 Moreover, it took place while she was giving birth, one put out a hand, and the midwife took and tied a scarlet thread on his hand, saying, “This one came out first.” 29 But it came about as he drew back his hand, that behold, his brother came out. Then she said, “What a breach you have made for yourself!” So he was named Perez. 30 And afterward his brother came out who had the scarlet thread on his hand; and he was named Zerah. (NASB)

Thus it was that Perez became the first born son of Judah and Tamar. We would expect the line of Perez to have the leadership role and the line of kings for the 12 tribes of Israel. But, as mentioned above, when the time came for choosing the deliverer to bring the nation out of Egypt, the chosen deliverer was not from Judah, but from the tribe of Levi, Moses.

Exodus 2:1-2
Now a man from the house of Levi went and married a daughter of Levi. And the woman conceived and bore a son; and when she saw that he was beautiful, she hid him for three months. (NASB)

It was Moses who was miraculously spared and became the recipient of all the wisdom of Egypt in the house of Pharaoh, not a member of the tribe of Judah. He was thus prepared to later lead his people out of Egypt, and to bring Israel to the entrance to the Land of Canaan.
As Moses was about to die on Mount Nebo, he appointed Joshua to be the one to lead Israel in the conquest of Canaan. Where was Joshua from? Not the tribe of Judah, but Ephraim.

1 Chronicles 7:20-27
26 And the sons of Ephraim were Shuthelah and Bered his son, Tahath his son, Eleadah his son, Tahath his son . . 27Ladan his son, Ammihud his son, Elishama his son, Nun his son, and Joshua his son. (NASB)

Again, the question arises: Why was Judah passed over when it came time to choose the leader who would bring the Chosen People into the Promised Land? The tribe of Ephraim led the people through Joshua to conquer the Land.

Next comes the 400 difficult years of the Judges. Among the Judges only Othniel was from the tribe of Judah, and he was not a descendant of Perez the royal line. Members of almost every other tribe were chosen to be Judges throughout that period. Many of them did not lead all twelve tribes. Gideon only led 300 into battle, and Samson was a one man army. Judah was not prominent, and there was certainly no king in Israel.

Some interpreters think that the Judge system was ideal, but the writer of Judges did not think so. In fact, on several occasions the writer deplored the fact that there was no king reigning in Israel.

Judges 21:25
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what he thought best. (NASB)

Samuel acceded to the wishes of the people, and anointed Saul as king. The Lord actually selected Saul and gave Him the blessing of the Holy Spirit, at least temporarily. God even gave King Saul significant victories, and he had the allegiance of the 12 tribes, but eventually Saul was disobedient to the Lord, so Samuel announced that the kingdom was removed from him.

1 Samuel 15:26-28
26 But Samuel said to Saul, “I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the LORD, and the LORD has rejected you from being king over Israel.” 27 And as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. 28 So Samuel said to him, “The LORD has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you. (NASB)

Saul continued to rule after the Lord had taken the kingdom from him, and Samuel went home and mourned for the national condition. But the Lord remonstrated with him and told him He had work for him to do.

1 Samuel 16:1-3
1 Now the LORD said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.” 2 But Samuel said, “How can I go? When Saul hears of it, he will kill me.” And the LORD said, “Take a heifer with you, and say, ‘I have come to sacrifice to the LORD.’ 3 “And you shall invite Jesse to the sacrifice, and I will show you what you shall do; and you shall anoint for Me the one whom I designate to you.” (NASB)

God was now taking the initiative, not the people, and He was moving quickly to anoint a new king for Israel. Jesse brought before Samuel 6 sons beginning with the eldest, but none of them qualified as the Lord’s next king. Who, then would receive the throne? Samuel asks Jesse his host.

1 Samuel 16:11-13
11 And Samuel said to Jesse, “Are these all the children?” And he said, “There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep.” Then Samuel said to Jesse, “Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.” 12 So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, “Arise, anoint him; for this is he.” 13 Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah. (NASB)

It was the 7th son, David, the youngest, who was chosen by the Lord and anointed by Samuel to be king. It was some seven hundred years since the promise was made to Judah that his would be the royal tribe, and yet no member of the tribe of Judah assumed leadership over the twelve tribe of Israel. Why did it take so long, from Judah to David, 700 years, for the tribe to produce a king? Perhaps part of the answer is found in the Law of Moses.

The Lord Himself declared in the Law a strong penalty against promiscuity and the producing of illegitimate children. No illegitimate child could enter the assembly of the Lord for 10 generations.

Deuteronomy 23:2-3
“No one of illegitimate birth shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of his descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall enter the assembly of the LORD. 3 “No Ammonite or Moabite shall enter the assembly of the LORD; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, shall ever enter the assembly of the LORD, (NASB)

What does it mean that one could not enter the assembly of the Lord? It certainly meant that they could not join in the public worship of the people, especially the occasions that involved in the worship in the Tabernacle or later in the Temple. Furthermore, it probably precluded them from public position of leadership. The problem was, of course, that the sons of Judah and Tamar were illegitimate children because of the incestuous relationship between Judah and his daughter-in-law Tamar. Thus, Perez, the first born of the couple, could not enter into the congregation of the Lord, if this law applies to him. Actually, this law was not pronounced for several hundred years after Perez was born, during the time of Moses. It appears that the Lord bound Himself and the line of Judah to a law that He would later convey to the people of Israel.

The fact that the law applied to the line of Judah becomes clear with the story in the Book of Ruth. This beautiful love story that culminates in the marriage of Ruth and Boaz ends with the genealogy of David. Strangely enough, it did not begin with Abraham, or even Judah, but with the illegitimate son Perez.

Ruth 4:17-22
17 And the neighbor women gave him a name, saying, “A son has been born to Naomi!” So they named him Obed. He is the father of Jesse, the father of David. 18 Now these are the generations of Perez: to Perez was born Hezron, 19 and to Hezron was born Ram, and to Ram, Amminadab, 20 and to Amminadab was born Nahshon, and to Nahshon, Salmon, 21 and to Salmon was born Boaz, and to Boaz, Obed, 22 and to Obed was born Jesse, and to Jesse, David. (NASB)

Fully ten generations passed from Perez to David. David’s generation was the first generation that was able to enter into the congregation of the Lord. Indeed, his was the first generation that could assume leadership over the 12 tribes of Israel. By His own law, God waited ten generations, some 700 years from Perez to David to bring forth a king from the tribe of Judah.

Yet, just being 10 generations from Perez was not the only qualification for the new king of Israel. David had six brothers, all of whom met that qualification, but they were not chosen. God was looking for a man after His own heart. David, the seventh and last son of Jesse, was that man. He was the one the Spirit of God designated, and Samuel anointed him. He was the king of Israel, holding the scepter of the Tribe of Judah.
Once David was established as king, God did far more for the man who was a man after His own heart, He promised him an eternal dynasty, in what is known as the Davidic Covenant. This Covenant is the foundation of the royal majesty of the Messiah. The prophet Gad pronounced it to David when after he informed the king that he would not himself build the Lord a Temple, but it would be built by David’s son.

2 Samuel 7:12-17
12 “When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your descendant after you, who will come forth from you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 “He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 “I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 “And your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”‘” 17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David. (NASB)

The Davidic dynasty plays a large role in the New Testament, which begins with the declaration of the fact that Jesus Christ is the descendant of David, which is an essential requirement of the Messiah.

Matthew 1:1
The book of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham. (NASB)

When the angel appeared to Mary, he stressed the fact that the One who would be born to her would be not only the Son of God, but also the son of David, and would sit upon the throne of David, ruling over Israel forever.

Luke 1:29-33
29 But she was greatly troubled at this statement, and kept pondering what kind of salutation this might be. 30 And the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary; for you have found favor with God. 31 “And behold, you will conceive in your womb, and bear a son, and you shall name Him Jesus. 32 “He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Most High; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David; 33 and He will reign over the house of Jacob forever; and His kingdom will have no end.” (NASB)

Years later, when the Apostle Paul spoke in the synagogue in Antioch in Asia Minor, he mentioned that Christ was the recipient of the sure blessings of David, which included the promise that He would be raised from the dead.

Acts 13:34-37
34 “And as for the fact that He raised Him up from the dead, no more to return to decay, He has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and sure blessings of David.’ 35 “Therefore He also says in another Psalm, ‘Thou wilt not allow Thy Holy One to undergo decay.’ 36 “For David, after he had served the purpose of God in his own generation, fell asleep, and was laid among his fathers, and underwent decay; 37 but He whom God raised did not undergo decay. (NASB)

Then when Paul began the letter to the Romans, he proclaimed that Jesus was the son of David according to the flesh, and the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead.

Romans 1:1-5
Paul, a bond-servant of Christ Jesus, called as an apostle, set apart for the gospel of God, 2 which He promised beforehand through His prophets in the holy Scriptures, 3 concerning His Son, who was born of a descendant of David according to the flesh, 4 who was declared the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead, according to the Spirit of holiness, Jesus Christ our Lord, 5 through whom we have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all the Gentiles, for His name’s sake, (NASB)

In one of the letters to the seven churches, Christ describes Himself as the One who has the key of David.

Revelation 3:7
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: (NASB)

Next, as the Book of Revelation continues, Jesus is referred to as the Lion of Judah and the Root of David.

Revelation 5:5
5 and one of the elders said to me, “Stop weeping; behold, the Lion that is from the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has overcome so as to open the book and its seven seals. (NASB)

Finally, at the end of Revelation, the next to the last thing that Christ says to the churches is that He is the root and the offspring of David. The root produces the plant, while the offspring is the fruit of the plant. Thus, as God, Jesus produced David, while as the offspring; He is the son of David.

Revelation 22:16
16 “I, Jesus, have sent My angel to testify to you these things for the churches. I am the root and the offspring of David, the bright morning star.” (NASB)

Surely the Israelite monarchy was in the promised and planned will of God. The plan was lengthy because of the sin of Judah, who committed incest with Tamar and produced the illegitimate son Perez. This required 10 generations to pass before Judah’s descendant would be eligible to take the throne over Israel. Thus any of Jesse’s sons would have fit that requirement, but that was not enough. He must also be a “man after God’s own heart.” The other seven brothers fit the first requirement, but only David fit the second. Thus he was anointed as king by the Prophet Samuel. After he ascended to the throne, then he made Jerusalem the capital of Israel, and God gave him the Davidic Covenant, the promise of an eternal dynasty, extending forever through his descendant, the Messiah, the Lord Jesus Christ.

The people of Israel who asked Samuel for a king were wrong on two counts: their motive was wrong because they did not ask for a king according to God’s promise, but because they wanted to be like the Gentile nations; and their timing was wrong. They were a generation too early. They did not wait for Perez’ tenth generation to come to arrive. Nevertheless, the Lord brought about His divine plan for a Messianic dynasty, so that when Christ returns to the earth He may take His rightful place over Israel and the World as the Redeemer King of Kings and Lord of Lords.

10 By Any Other Name by Rev. Todd Virnoche

2013-06-01T08:00:00.000-05:00

This may sound like a riddle, but what do you call two Popes and eight Cardinals?

“VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis named eight cardinals from around the globe Saturday to advise him on running the Catholic Church and reforming the Vatican bureaucracy, marking his first month as pope with a major initiative to reflect the universal nature of the church in key governing decisions.

The advisory panel includes only one current Vatican official. The rest are cardinals from North, Central and South America, Africa, Asia, Europe and Australia. Many have been outspoken in calling for a shake-up of the Vatican bureaucracy, which was last reformed 25 years ago, while others have tried to clean up the church from sexually abusive priests”

Without any fanfare the newly elected Pope in his first month as the “supreme commander of the Jesuits” and “the pauper pontiff” for the “Faithful” ushered in a new era without a peep from God’s elect. It has been more than 600 years since we have had two living Popes and the Catholics churches division of the globe by region. This new alliance within the hierarchy of the Roman empire; though missed by the masses, has not fallen by the wayside with this writer. The overlooked significance of Israel in the land, the regathering of the Jewish nation from the ends of the earth (Ezk.34:29), the movement to rebuild the temple – on temple mount (Dan. 9:27) and the massive departure from biblical truth and teaching (2 Tim. 3:1-9) has cauterized the conscience of most to a distant reckoning foretold by God in ages past. With worldwide tyranny on the rise and whole hearted applause for it in the press it is no stretch of imagination to connect a few dots and see the framework being assembled before our very eyes. I am no prophet nor am I particularly keen; but the writing has been on the wall much like in the day of Belshazzar in Babylon.

“Then there will be a fourth kingdom, one strong like iron. Just like iron breaks in pieces and shatters everything, and as iron breaks in pieces all of these metals, so it will break in pieces and crush the others. In that you were seeing feet and toes partly of wet clay and partly of iron, so this will be a divided kingdom. Some of the strength of iron will be in it, for you saw iron mixed with wet clay. In that the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of clay, the latter stages of this kingdom will be partly strong and partly fragile. And in that you saw iron mixed with wet clay, so people will be mixed with one another without adhering to one another, just as iron does not mix with clay." (Dan 2:40-43 NET)

As dismal as this may seem to an average citizen; we need to look up (Luke 21:28). We are not destined for wrath (1 Thess. 5:9) and when the Great Day of the LORD arrives we will have been with Him (1Thess. 4:13-18) and we will arrive with Him (Rev. 19:6-21) and Israel will have peace and know it’s Messiah.

“In the days of those kings the God of heaven will raise up an everlasting kingdom that will not be destroyed and a kingdom that will not be left to another people. It will break in pieces and bring about the demise of all these kingdoms. But it will stand forever." (Dan 2:44 NET)

Another word of God? by Rev. Todd Virnoche

2013-05-25T08:00:00.000-05:00

"As man thinks so he will do" is a quote I have long heard during my time in Seminary. As benign as this originally appears the roots take us back to the very day in which our ancestors Adam and Eve wrought upon themselves God's wrath; namely death which was the consequence for their insistence to twist God's commandment. Today in the course of our discoveries and deliberations with respect to the vast number of resources that God has provided us with to discern His Word; mankind instead has set off on a path to tone down and invalidate the language God gave specifically to prohibit moral and physical debauchery.

A purposely fractured and manmade manipulation of the King James Bible text has been released under the title of "The Queen James Bible". Why this version? Quite simple... it's no longer governed by copyright. There was no team of scholars, or the painstaking sweat of translation from the original text or even a need within our churches for such a rendition. In 8 verses throughout the Queen James text (Gen. 19:5, Lev. 18:22, Lev. 20:13, Rom. 1:26, Rom. 1:27, 1 Cor. 6:9 and 1 Tim. 1:10 and Jude 1:7) any reference to the sin of homosexuality is removed. The prohibition of such acts removed for ever more by a group of nearsighted pleasure seekers without cause or direction; denying the Word of God which forgives the acts they desperately are trying to bury.

In the garden, when mankind fell, genetically something happen to us… we were translated from moral to immoral; immortal to mortal, from life eternal to death supreme. “ There is a tendency within the church body, especially here in the United States, to forget we were purchased with a price and we are not our own (1 Cor. 6:19-20) and that our bodies are used to glorify our Creator. Sexual sins and especially homosexuality are conceived within the mind and are acted on outside the body; whether by force or compliance these despicable acts compel another individual to error. The scientific community would like us to believe the GLBT crowd is compelled by genetics. If Adam’s error transformed us into sinners; and we are an image of Adam (Gen 5:3) then all mankind is predisposed and destined to error. This error takes many shapes and distorts the original glory mankind enjoyed. Whether you subscribe to ones will to sin; or that we are all sinners… one thing is certain we are all responsible for our actions whether in the mind or outwardly from the body (Rom. 1:32).

In our secular society we teach that nothing is evil; and we approve and applaud an individual’s choice. This too is a corruption of the choice to do what is true and right and just that only comes by way of His implanted Spirit within. In 2 Peter 3 we are warned that evil men would try to deceive many… in Jude we are reminded that they are now among the church; Paul reminds us that ministry would be dismantled… by the same will that caused us to fall originally.

Ministry in the Last Days: But understand this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, slanderers, without self-control, savage, opposed to what is good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, loving pleasure rather than loving God. They will maintain the outward appearance of religion but will have repudiated its power. So avoid people like these. (2Ti 3:1-5)

Memorial Service

2013-02-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

On February 12th, Dr. Malcom Couch lost his long-standing battle with cancer and passed into the presence of his Savior, Jesus Christ. He left behind a wonderful spiritual legacy as well as many friends and loved ones.

A Memorial Service will be held in his honor in order to celebrate his homecoming and heavenly promotion. All wishing to pay their last respects to this wonderful man of God are invited to attend.

The service will be held at the Museum of Biblical Art in Dallas, TX. The service will be conducted on Thursday, March 14 from 11:00 AM to 12:30 PM with a luncheon immediately following the service. The museum is found at the following address:

7500 Park Lane, Dallas, TX 75225
Cross Streets: Park Lane and Boedeker Street
Neighborhood: Preston Hollow

Furthermore information regarding location is available at the below link.

CLICK HERE

A Tribute to Dr. Mal Couch from Dr. Andy Woods

2013-02-20T08:00:00.000-06:00

It is with mixed emotions that I announce tonight that Dr. Mal Couch early this morning around 2 AM on February 12th lost his battle with cancer and passed into the presence of his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The reason my emotions are mixed is because on the one hand I am happy since I now know that Mal Couch is in a better place. Paul indicated that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (2 Cor. 5:8) and to depart and be with Christ is far better (Philip. 1:21-23).

On the other hand my heart is heavy tonight with sadness knowing that I have temporarily lost the companionship of a mentor and even more important than that a very good, close, personal friend. The life of Dr. Mal Couch was nothing short of extraordinary. I hope to blog about it in more detail at a later time. God used him in so many strategic ways to touch many people, including myself. I've had the privilege of knowing him personally over the course of the last decade. Volumes could be written on the things that I have learned from this man philosophically, theologically, and professionally. He invited me to contribute to a plethora of journal issues, books, conferences, online resources, and CD interviews. Despite my busy schedule, only one time I remember did I ever turn him down. In many ways, he was a father-like figure to me. Outside of my immediate and extended family, there was probably no one who was a greater supporter, influencer, encourager, and cheerleader for my life and ministry than Dr. Mal Couch. I owe the current trajectory in my life largely to his positive influence. His passing certainly makes heaven richer and earth poorer.

Besides my mixed emotions of happiness and sadness, one other feeling strikes me very strongly this evening. That sensation is urgency or motivation! His passing reminds me of how brief life really is (Ps. 103:15-16; Jas. 4:14). It's imperative to all of us like-minded ministers and believers to invest what limited time we have left in this fleeting life into eternal things. Mal Couch seemed to understand that his time on earth was limited, and so he wanted to make every second count for Christ. We should follow his example. His passing is a reminder that the spiritual baton has now been formally passed to those of us that he influenced. Let us take that baton, consisting of the rich things that we learned from him, and pass it on to the next generation while there is still time and freedom to do so. His passing has personally awakened within me a desire to reconsecrate my life to God so that He can use me as His channel of blessing to others. I want to bless others the same way Mal blessed me.

The death of the giants of Mal's generation remind us that we can no longer count on these older Christians to disseminate what their generation stood for (Dispensationalism, pre-tribulationism, Zionism, literal interpretation, free grace, conservatism, and constitutionalism). It's our turn now to take the lead in these issues. Let run our race with boldness and endurance knowing that we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses (Heb. 12:1). May God strengthen us for the task ahead. Thank you again Dr. Mal Couch for what you have meant to so many and for the encouragement and training you have given us to follow your wonderful example.

During this difficult time, my thoughts and prayers go out to Mal's family, especially his wonderful wife Lacy.

Sincerely,
Dr. Andy Woods

The Eternality of God by Dr. Don M. Miller

2012-10-29T08:00:00.000-05:00

Of the countless doctrines that have caused me to stand in awe of God, one aspect of theology that absolutely fascinates me His eternality. Just this morning while preparing music for Sunday I was singing the Chris Tomlin song- How Great is Our God- oh how true! Through the years of sitting under the teaching of Dr. Couch on more than one occasion I recall him brushing the tears from his eyes as he contemplated the awesomeness and magnificence of God. As we take a moment to consider the eternality of God, I pray that you may also find yourself in awe of the splendor and power of God.

The eternality of God is one of the foundational beliefs of Christianity. If God is not eternal, then eternal life is not His to give to anyone. Also if God had a beginning He too would have to have a creator, at which point he is not the one true God. Without the eternality of God, Christianity is futile.

Baker's Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology says this is reference to God being eternal:

God is eternal ( Deut 33:27 ; Psalm 10:16 ; 48:14 ). Scripture does not provide philosophical reflection on this fact but assumes it. The Lord is the Rock eternal ( Isa 26:4 ) and the eternal King ( Jer 10:10 ). God's word, rooted in his being and will, is likewise eternal ( Psalm 119:89 ), as are his righteous laws (119:60), his ways ( Hab 3:6 ), and his kingdom or dominion ( Daniel 4:3 Daniel 4:34 ). Since God is eternal, so are his love ( 1 Kings 10:9 ), his blessings ( Psalm 21:6 ), and all his other attributes and benefits. They endure without end; as long as God exists, so do they.

The subject of the eternality of God requires that we understand that God is infinite in relation to time. He is without beginning, and He is without ending. Eternality means not only that God dwells in unending duration from eternity past to eternity future, it means that He dwells in another dimension outside of time. Consider with me that to God, all history appears as both past and present.

Notice with me an incredible passage: Revelation 13:8.

All who dwell on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written from the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slain.

How incredible it is to consider that even before the foundation of the world, the names were written in the book of life. Clear evidence that God sees everything past, present and future.

Another passage we must consider is Romans 8:30.

and these whom He predestined, He also called; and these whom He called, He also justified; and these whom He justified, He also glorified.

Notice the unbroken chain- and the fact that God sees the finished product when He looks at His children!

Why is this critical such a critical doctrine? Because as we understand the God who was, who is, and who will always be, we can draw strength and comfort in knowing that our Heavenly Father is completely sovereign and holds all things together yesterday, today and forever!

1 Thessalonians 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.

17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.

How wonderful it is that those who have trusted Christ will ALWAYS (eternally) be with the Lord!

An Unchanging Message for an Ever Changing World by Dr. Don M. Miller

2012-09-24T08:00:00.000-05:00

All of us have sinned, all of us have fallen short of God’s perfect standard. Our sin completely and totally separates us from any chance of reaching God.

But God did for US what we could NEVER EVER do for ourselves! HE CAME TO US! John 1:14 says that “the Word (Christ) became flesh, and dwelt among us....” Jesus Christ left heaven, added to His deity humanity, lived a sinless life, and offered Himself as the ONLY acceptable sacrifice PAYING IN FULL the penalty for our sin. JESUS CHRIST became the BRIDGE that reached across that impassable canyon which separated us from God. THAT is the FOUNDATIONAL TRUTH upon which the church is built! Our sin is forgiven and we are redeemed and covered by the righteousness of Christ ONLY through FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE.

But in the past thirty years there has been a proliferation of “new gospels” here in the United States. Some such as the “new age” belief system, and Hinduism, are rooted in eastern mysticism. Others are based more on pop-psychology than they are on the gospel. However the church is wandering away from the central message of the grace of Christ isn’t a NEW problem. The Apostle Paul had to address this very issue with the church in Galatia.

I am amazed that you are so quickly deserting Him who called you by the grace of Christ, for a different gospel; which is really not another; only there are some who are disturbing you and want to distort the gospel of Christ." --Galatians 1:6-7

Paul’s astonishment is not that false teachers exist, but that the church was following them! He had expected false teachers and in fact had warned the Ephesians elders (Acts 20:28-30) that false teachers would come. Notice that these false teachers were not opening denying the gospel message. They only wanted to “improve” the message by adding to it: requirements, new ceremonies and new standards. It is as if they are saying, “We believe in Jesus Christ – but we have something wonderful to add to what you already believe!” What they viewed as a “new” gospel was actually a distorted gospel. The word translated “distort” means to transform into something of an opposite character.

Paul explains that this new gospel or “good news,” is in reality not the gospel or “good news” at all! It is a counterfeit!

As Christians in America we believe in the freedom of religion, but Christians need to realize that does not make all religions equally true. While we defend the right of each individual in this country to worship as they choose, in so doing we not defending that all religions are also “the” truth. Jesus could NOT HAVE BEEN MORE CLEAR! John 14:6,”I am the way, the truth, the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” May we be challenged to consider that ANY OTHER GOSPEL being presented other than FAITH ALONE in CHRIST ALONE is misdirecting men and women away from the only truth that can save us from our sin! May those of us who teach be diligent and unwavering in presenting the uncompromised truth of our redeemer and Lord Jesus Christ.

The Emerging Third Way of Apostate Pastors and Globalist Leaders By Brannon S. Howse

2009-11-22T08:00:00.000-06:00

The following is an excerpt from the just released book by Brannon Howse, Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews That Rule America From The Grave (368 pages, hard-cover)

The leaders in the educational establishment, the apostate Church, occultism/pagan spirituality, or the government-corporate complex want the idea of social and spiritual evolution embraced worldwide in order to bring about their desired "new order" or "new world order." Secular humanist and Fabian Socialist Julian Huxley (brother of Aldous) was the First Director General of the United Nations educational, Science, and Culture Organization (UNESCO). He explained, "The task is to help the emergence of a single world culture!"

This "task" is even at work in America's political arena. Bill Clinton's mentor and former professor Carrol Quigley made this clear in his book, Tragedy and Hope:

The chief problem of American political life...has been how to make the two Congressional parties more national and international. The argument that the two parties should represent opposed ideals and policies, one, perhaps, of the Right and the other of the Left, is a foolish idea acceptable only to doctrinaire and academic thinkers. Instead, the two parties should be almost identical, so that the American people can "throw the rascals out" at any election without leading to any profound or extensive shifts in policy.

And it's working. While there are some truly conservative Republicans, most embrace the same worldview and agenda of their fellow politicians across the aisle. This is a form of Marx's dialectic process, the true intent of which is revealed by Julian Huxley:

"...at the moment, two opposing philosophies of life confront each other" You may categorize the two philosophies as super nationalism, or as individualism versus collectivism or as capitalism versus communism, or as Christianity verses Marxism. Can these opposites be reconciled, this antithesis be resolved in a higher synthesis? I believe not only that this can happen, but that, through the inexorable dialectic of evolution, it must happen.

Those who buy into Darwinian or neo-Darwinian evolution and apply it to society embrace this concept of social evolution. There are others who apply it not only to the social and cultural arenas but also to the spiritual world. Generally, these are New Age devotees of the New Spirituality. Generally-but not always.

Emerging Trouble

The pastors and authors of one of America's fastest growing spiritual movements, the Emergent Church, sing the praises of socialism. As I'll explain in more detail later, the Emergent Church champions the neo-Marxist call for a utopian society through spiritual evolution where good and evil merge to form a "better" third option. This idea derives from the belief system of philosophers such as Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel and finds its contemporary manifestation in the "Third Way" movement of Bill Clinton and Tony Blair. In the Third Way, capitalism, socialism, and communism merge to form a misanthropic combination of the three. This blending is now represented in the terms "the New World Order" and "the new enlightenment."

The Third Way promotes Communitarianism, a toxic blend of communism, socialism, atheism, and Cosmic Humanism. Communitarians believe in universal health care, government-subsidized housing and education, radical environmentalism, Fabian socialism, and the like.

An article on the website of the Democratic Leadership Council explains how Clinton and Blair have promoted Third Way thinking across the globe:

Starting with Bill Clinton's Presidential campaign in 1992, Third Way thinking is reshaping progressive politics throughout the world. Inspired by the example of Clinton and the New Democrats, Tony Blair in Britain led a revitalized New Labour party back to power in 1997. The victory of Gerhard Shroeder and the Social Democrats in Germany the next year confirmed the revival of center-left parties which either control or are part of the governing coalition forming throughout the European Union. From Latin America to Australia and New Zealand, Third Way ideas also are taking hold.

On Sunday, April 25, 1999, President Clinton and the DLC hosted a historic roundtable discussion, "The Third Way: Progressive Governance for the 21st Century, "with five world leaders including British PM Tony Blair, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder, Dutch PM Wim Kok, and Italian PM Massimo D'Alema, the First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and DLC President Al From.

Not to be hoodwinked by the window dressing of Third Way advocates, however, Vaclav Klaus, prime minister of the Czech Republic, warns against the real future it offers: "The Third Way is the fastest route to the Third World."

But that seems to be where communitarians want to take us.

Grave Influence: 21 Radicals and Their Worldviews that Rule America from the
Grave

This is it, the one book you need to read if you want to understand the big picture, connect all the dots, and understand current times, and future events and trends that will be unfolding. This ground-breaking book by best-selling author Brannon Howse is the result of thousands of hours of research over many years and is must reading for every teenager and adult.

Brannon reveals how the worldviews of 21 dead people are still influencing every aspect of American life and vying for the hearts and minds of adults and students. Whether we are discussing, law, science, economics, history, family, social issues, education or religion, the people and worldviews seeking to further their agenda in these disciplines are almost always connected back to four major forces. Brannon reveals the connection between occultism/pagan spirituality, the apostate church, the educational establishment and government/corporations.

Through this book you will come to understand the oppositions worldview, heroes, goals, strategies, masking terms, networks and targets. Those who share the worldviews of these 21 enemies of our constitutional republic and Biblical worldview do not want their agenda and its consequences to be revealed to the American people. Above all, they do not want us to equip and train our children and grandchildren with a Biblical worldview by which to recognize, reject, and fight against their seductive and destructive lies.

This book will equip you to do just that as Brannon gives specific and pro-active responses you can take to make this the finest hour for the American church.

Here is the list of twenty-one for which Brannon has dug up worldview facts you must know and prepare to oppose:

Saul Alinsky, Karl Marx, John Dewey, John Maynard Keynes, Aldous Huxley, Charles Darwin, Friedrich Nietzsche, Margaret Sanger, William James, Alice Bailey, Helen Schuman, Sigmund Freud, Alfred Kinsey, Benjamin Bloom, B.F. Skinner, The Frankfurt School, Soren Kierkegaard, Julius Wellhausen, Christopher Columbus Langdell, Betty Friedan and Roger Baldwin.

Topics covered include:

Corporate fascism, sustainable development, the Third Way, global governance, dialectic process, the Delphi technique, the Cloward-Piven Strategy and deliberate chaos, community organizing, Fabian socialism, the federal reserve and a fiat currency, America's decline is Europe's gain, cultural Marxism, government mandated youth service, legal positivism, postmodernism, soft-despotism, higher-criticism, pagan spirituality, feminism, welfare-state capitalism, the false-dominate church, the Emergent Church, the spiritual battle for America, the United Nations and occultism, unmasking the one-world religion, the deconstructionists in the culture and in the church, psychological labeling of dissenters, behavior modification, a planned economy, the assault on parental authority, the two tracks to globalism, Keynesian economics, collectivism, similarities between America and Nazi
Germany, national leaders are a reflection of the people, social justice, why the culture war is lost if the church goes weak, is God judging America?, When and why does God judge a nation?, the environmentalist/globalist connection, cultural revolution/sexual revolution, the right to die becomes the duty to die, the true purpose of the law, why the State wants the children, are we all God's children? And much, much more.

Why Must Everything Change? by Jan Markell

2009-09-03T10:21:00.002-05:00

   The false teachings among some prominent church leaders have no end nor does the race to unify all religions. My thanks to Mark Tooley of the Institute for Religion and Democracy, World Net Daily, and author Joel Richardson for some background here. Fasten your seat belt because now we have Christians observing Ramadan. This goes miles beyond Muslim-Christian dialogue, which is bad enough. This is actually giving respectability to those who killed 3,000 innocent Americans who are even more on our mind in this season of 9/11. Once again, I have to ask, where is the outrage?

   Emergent Church leader Brian McLaren is fasting during the Islamic Ramadan but is he fasting so that Muslims would come to salvation in Jesus Christ alone? And Tooley asks, "Would McLaren organize a similar fast on behalf of persecuted Christians and other victims of radical Islam? Or would that be too culturally confrontational for the post-modern evangelical who has shunned his conservative past and prefers creating common ground that creates alliances for the Left?"

   McLaren says on his blog: "Ramadan is the Muslim holy month of fasting for spiritual renewal and purification. It commemorates the month during which Muslims believe Mohammed received the Quran through divine revelation, and it calls Muslims to self-control, sacrificial generosity, and solidarity with the poor, diligent reading of the Quran and intensified prayer."

   He continues, "But as Christians, we want to come close to our Muslim neighbors and to share this important part of life with them."

   Here we go honoring Islam again, just as they did in 2007 and 2008 with "A Common Word Between Us and You." Today's bunch of short-on-discernment leaders now observing Ramadan prove my point: Slippery slopes go only one way -- down -- and never turn around. And please tell me as an evangelical, what is it we will learn from Islam?

   McLaren states, "We, as Christians, humbly seek to join Muslims in this observance of Ramadan as a God-honoring expression of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness. Each of us will have at least one Muslim friend who will serve as our partner in the fast. These friends welcome us in the same spirit of peace, fellowship, and neighborliness."

   It stretches credulity to watch the religious Left continue to forge unholy alliances with some who are sworn enemies of the gospel and who are burning down Christian villages around the world and cutting off the heads of other Christians. And they will continue to do the same until they hear and respond to the "good news" of Jesus Christ, which is not the purpose of the Christian Ramadan effort! Yet an underlying motive with all such efforts is to declare the God of Christianity and the god of Islam as the same. If you get nothing else, remember that when such words come out of the pulpit in your church and renounce it!

   Some are asking if we don't have a virtual endorsement of Islam by liberal Christianity today with a few evangelicals thrown in for good measure. Signers say, "Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century." If you hear one of them say this, challenge them with, "No, saving the lost while there is time is the central challenge and that won't happen by joining with Muslims during Ramadan."
Author Joel Richardson, who has been on my radio program "Understanding the Times" on several occasions, asks the right question: "Is such an 'observance' actually tantamount to an endorsement of Islam?"

   As this is written, a young former Muslim girl named Rifqa has fled her home in America, going to another state, fearing the Islamic practice of "honor killing." Her parents, she fears, want to kill her for becoming a Christian. Will Brian McLaren and those following him in this outrage confront Muslim leaders about this? Does McLaren share the "common good" of honor killings? Of course he doesn't, but by keeping quiet, he doesn't improve this deplorable situation.

   In McLaren's recent book, "Everything Must Change," he suggests that evangelicals must turn Left to be relevant and atone for past myopia. Many of us are grieved that churches have taken his advice, and the advice of other church leaders with skewed ideas or theology and have thus destroyed evangelicalism as we once knew it.

   But it's not just all about unity! McLaren believes that evangelical support for Israel is an obstacle to interfaith harmony. While largely unwilling to criticize radical Islam by name, he has condemned the "terrible, deadly, distorted, yet popular theologies associated with Christian Zionism that create bigotry and prejudice against Muslims." He urged Christian Zionists to bravely abandon their prejudice, just as white segregationists had to shed theirs 50 years ago.

   Mark Tooley concludes appropriately by saying, "McLaren's interfaith ritual just further evinces the Left's chronic misunderstanding that all cultural and international conflict can be remedied through apologies, folk songs, western guilt, and flamboyant sentimentality."

   That "old-time religion" we once loved is evaporating because guys like Brian McLaren and his Emergent buddies have convinced people that "everything must change." The one-world religion is literally on the horizon. Look over a fence and you will see it approaching.

Constitutional Crisis Looming? By Patrick Wood

2009-08-01T13:00:00.001-05:00

The inflammatory issue of Barrack Obama's birth certificate is gathering steam across America: Was he or was he not born in the United States?

If he was born anywhere other than on American soil, then his presidency is invalidated. Why? The Constitution of the United States pointedly requires that the President be a natural born citizen. Defusing the issue would be easy: Obama could simply provide a legitimate and complete birth certificate proving his birth location. Not only has he stubbornly refused to do so, but he has spent several million dollars in legal fees to thwart various citizen lawsuits that demand proper disclosure.

Obama has also legally cloaked records that could potentially support or discredit his citizenship claims, like school records and transcripts from Harvard and Occidental College. Some investigators suspect that he may have applied for admission as a foreign student.

The pack of critics (called "birthers" by Obama defenders) is getting larger by the day. Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh are both talking about it. WorldNet Daily devoted an entire issue of WhistleBlower Magazine to it. Lawyers have filed dozens of lawsuits. Military officers are challenging potentially illegal orders to be deployed to combat zones overseas. Leftwing organizations are being drawn into vocal opposition, thus stirring the pot even more.

As the battle heats up, the attacks on the "birthers" by their detractors (mostly leftwing) is taking on a familiar pattern. The former are being being ruthlessly ridiculed, scorned and marginalized as the "lunatic fringe."

So far, neither side has blinked. Neither is willing to give an inch. The battle lines have been drawn. Herein lies the problem. Barrack Obama's approval rating is already dropping like a rock and the public is more sharply polarized than ever. After just six months in office, Obama has fared worse than even Jimmy Carter in 1976, whose outrageous acts had enraged the American public like none before him. Carter had no chance of serving a second term.

Many Democrats have already pulled away from Obama, fearing that he is a) too far to the left or b) pursuing a narcissistic agenda that leaves them out of the picture.

Obama should have balked during his campaign when supporters and his captive media compared him to the Messiah. Everybody hailed Jesus Christ when he appeared in Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, but less than three days later, they demanded his execution.

Perhaps Obama was convinced by his handlers that nobody would care about this natural born citizen thing. Or, perhaps they convinced him that he could get away with it even if they did care.

What Obama may not know is that these same handlers might soon offer him up as a cheap sacrifice in order to force a Constitutional crisis.

Why? Because it would almost certainly require a Constitutional Convention to straighten out the mess. Every Presidential act would be invalidated. Civil unrest would be rampant. Chaos would reign, and chaos is the desired environment for the powers behind Obama.

With every passing day that the birth issue is not resolved in Obama's favor, the odds will persistently increase that a Constitutional crisis will soon unfold, and that America will be polarized like never before in history.

This article appeared originally at the August Forecast (www.augustforecast.com/tag/birthcertificate/).

More of the Inconvenient Truth by Jan Markell

2009-05-20T10:00:00.002-05:00

No matter how you cut it, I am an outcast. To the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), I am a right-wing extremist. I am suspect because I am pro-life, pro-family, anti-illegal immigration, pro-U.S. sovereignty, study the end-times and thus might be part of the militia movement, and I trust returning war vets. Thankfully, DHS head, Janet Napolitano, gave a partial ppology to the last mentioned.

But now I fall into another guilty category: I am a friend of Israel, also known as a Christian Zionist. Church of England priest Stephen Sizer has written another vitriolic book, this time titled, Zion's Christian Soldiers. Suggesting we are like the Crusaders, Sizer warns that pro-Israel U.S. evangelicals have monstrously distorted the Middle East by aligning America with Israel. Sizer states, "In its worst forms, Christian Zionism uses the Bible to justify racial superiority, land expropriation, colonial settlements, the denial of international law, and the dehumanization of Arabs."

Unfortunately Sizer represents a more conservative wing of the Church of England and thus has a platform in places he should not. One such platform is the radio program of the so-called "Bible Answerman" Hank Hanegraaff. Hank is adept in some areas of apologetics and has a radio audience in the millions.

Christians who call his daily program remind him that he has revolutionized their spiritual life. I am not sure we want this kind of revolution as he echoes Sizer's sentiments. Additionally, Hanegraaff is a Preterist, believing all end-time prophecy happened in 70 AD and Nero was the antichrist. That theology puts my brain in a pretzel as I don't want to look at prophecy in a rear-view mirror!

Sizer suggests that the reason Britain and America have become the focus of so much hatred from the Islamic world is because these two nations perpetrate "the most influential and destructive movement among Christians today: Christian Zionism." I wonder why this movement is ridiculed when there is a commandment in the Bible to "pray for the peace of Jerusalem" (Psalm 122:6)?

A previous book by Sizer is titled, Christian Zionism: Road Map to Armageddon. The mantra is the same: Friends of Israel will lead the world into total doom.

Who else is on this vitriolic bandwagon? None other than some Emergent Church leaders including Brian McLaren and his followers in the religious Left. In Jim Wallis' April edition of Sojourners Magazine, McLaren states that Christians like me are "terrible," "deadly," and "distorted." He likens my belief system to the racism of the 1950s and 1960s. McLaren is outraged that Israel might be a special nation to the Lord. Both McLaren and Jim Wallis are "advisors" to Barack Obama, who will likely throw Israel under the bus when he meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu next week. Keep this important meeting in prayer. Israeli intelligence admits, in writing, "Under Obama's policies, we are irrelevant. We have become an obstacle." How will Bibi deal with this?

We can't leave out Tony Campolo who says in his book Speaking My Mind that the good people who follow a ministry like mine are "rigid" and are "the real problem for the whole world." Those who look at the last days, which include a heavy emphasis on Israel, "are to blame for wars and a host of other evils."

Campolo was one of Bill Clinton's "advisors." We are dealing with high profile people here, not obscure folks who can be easily marginalized and ignored.

Also among this critical legion includes a pastor in my hometown of Minneapolis. He is Pastor John Piper, lauded for his many books and mushrooming churches in this area. His sentiment is quite well known. He does not believe the Jews even deserve their land due to their unbelief. He states in a sermon from March 2004, "The promises made to Abraham, including the promise of the land, will be inherited as an everlasting gift only by true, spiritual Israel, not disobedient, unbelieving Israel. Being born Jewish does not make one an heir of the promise -- neither the promise of the land nor any other promise."

Ezekiel makes this pretty clear in chapter 37: The Jews return to the land in unbelief and then God begins a spiritual work in their hearts. What is so complicated about that?

I'll stand by Israel because our Messiah is Jewish, the writers of our blessed book called the Bible were Jewish, and "salvation is of the Jews" (John 4:22). The roots of Christianity are Jewish, thus the olive tree (Romans 9-10-11). Her critics are in the millions. Her friends are a tiny minority, scoffed at by the intellectuals and scolded by the religious Left and other liberals of all persuasion. I wish we did, indeed, have the power they claim we have.

If you find yourself in this tiny club, welcome aboard. Our crimes are praying for Israel, attending a "Bless Israel" rally now and then, spending our tourist dollars there, and educating the church that her roots come from the Jews. For this we are vilified. Yet at least 10% of my e-mail list will unsubscribe because I have touched their anointed one. I have a reputation for telling the inconvenient truth, but it is the truth.

So, I confess: I am a terrorist after all. I'm a right-wing extemist with no apologies. I'm a Christian Zionist capable of bringing on Armageddon and the end of the world. And I can't make this stuff up. This is truly what many people believe today!

Dr. Spurlin Answers

2008-07-11T22:12:00.006-05:00

Question: Is God in human form in heaven?

Answer: God the Father is a Spirit and therefore has no physical body. However, Scripture is clear that God the Son, Jesus Christ will forever be in a perfected, glorified human body. Lewis Sperry Chafer addressed this when he said, "The resurrection accomplished the unveiling of (Jesus') Deity and the glorification of His humanity" (III:16). John in the first chapter of his gospel (v. 14) states that Jesus became flesh. He was human. Then in Revelation 1:13-18 John saw Jesus in His resurrected glorified body, knew who He was, and fell as dead at His feet. Again, in Luke 9:27-31ff we see Jesus declaring that some would not die until they saw Him in His glorified state. Then we see Peter, James and John experiencing that very thing about eight days later. Finally, since Jesus is our Great High Priest and representative before God, we can be sure that He is even now in His glorified human body interceding on our behalf before the Father.

Thanks for asking!
- Dr. Steve Spurlin