Son of man, put forth a riddle, and speak a parable unto the house of Israel; And say, Thus says the Lord God; A great eagle with great wings, longwinged, full of feathers, which had various colors, came unto Lebanon, and took the highest branch of the cedar: He cropped off the top of its young twigs, and carried it into a land of trade; he set it in a city of merchants. He took also of the seed of the land, and planted it in a fruitful field; he placed it by great waters, and set it as a willow tree. And it grew, and became a spreading vine of low stature, whose branches turned toward him, and its roots were under him: so it became a vine, and brought forth branches, and shot forth sprigs.

Note: The programs on Biblical history that Ron refers to are his series on the Books of Samuel and Kings.

And when I passed by you, and saw you polluted in your own blood, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live; yea, I said unto you when you were in your blood, Live. […] And I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall know that I am the Lord: That you may remember, and be ashamed, and never open your mouth any more because of your shame, when I provide toward you an atonement for all that you have done, says the Lord God.

So will I break down the wall that you have daubed with untempered mortar, and bring it down to the ground, so that its foundation shall be uncovered, and it shall fall, and you shall be consumed in its midst: and you shall know that I am the Lord.

Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered mortar, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; That is, the prophets of Israel who prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and who see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, says the Lord God.

Therefore, you son of man, prepare you belongings for moving, and move by day in their sight; and you shall move from your place to another place in their sight: it may be they will consider, though they are a rebellious house. Then shall you bring forth your belongings by day in their sight, as belongings for moving: and you shall go forth at evening in their sight, as they that go forth into captivity.

Dig through the wall in their sight, and carry out your belongings through it. In their sight shall you bear it upon your shoulders, and carry it forth in the twilight: you shall cover your face, that you see not the ground: for I have set you for a sign unto the house of Israel.

And there appeared in the cherubim the form of a man’s hand under their wings. And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubim, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the color of a beryl stone. And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.

When they went, they went upon their four sides; they turned not as they went, but to the place where the head looked they followed it; they turned not as they went. And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that the four had.

Son of man, set your face toward the mountains of Israel, and prophesy against them, And say, You mountains of Israel, hear the word of the Lord God; Thus said the Lord God to the mountains, and to the hills, to the rivers, and to the valleys; Behold, I, even I, will bring a sword on you, and I will destroy your high places. And your altars shall be desolate, and your images shall be broken: and I will cast down your slain men before your idols.

And I will lay the dead carcasses of the children of Israel before their idols; and I will scatter your bones round about your altars. In all your dwelling places the cities shall be laid waste, and the high places shall be desolate; that your altars may be laid waste and made desolate, and your idols may be broken and cease, and your images may be cut down, and your works may be abolished. And the slain shall fall in the middle of you, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

And you, son of man, take a sharp knife, take a barber’s razor, and cause it to pass upon your head and upon your beard: then take balances to weigh and divide the hair. You shall burn with fire a third part in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are fulfilled: and you shall take a third part, and strike about it with a sword: and a third part you shall scatter in the wind; and I will draw out a sword after them. You shall also take some of them, and bind them in your garments. Then take some of them again, and cast them into the midst of the fire, and burn them in the fire; for from there shall a fire come forth into all the house of Israel. […]

Therefore thus says the Lord God; Behold, I, even I, am against you, and will execute judgments in the midst of you in the sight of the nations. And I will do in you that which I have not done, and the like of which I will not do any more, because of all your abominations.

And he said unto me, Son of man, stand upon your feet, and I will speak unto you. And the Spirit entered into me when he spoke unto me, and set me upon my feet, that I heard him that spoke unto me.

And he said unto me, Son of man, I send you to the children of Israel, to a rebellious nation that has rebelled against me: they and their fathers have transgressed against me, even unto this very day. For they are impudent children and stubborn. I do send you unto them; and you shall say unto them, Thus says the Lord god.

And they, whether they will hear, or whether they refuse, (for they are a rebellious house,) yet shall know that there has been a prophet among them.

Now it came to pass in the thirtieth year, in the fourth month, in the fifth day of the month, as I was among the captives by the river of Chebar, that the heavens were opened, and I saw visions of God. [...] And I looked, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, a great cloud, and a fire engulfing itself, and a brightness was about it, and out of its midst as the color of amber, out of the midst of the fire.

Also out of its midst came the likeness of four living creatures. And this was their appearance; they had the likeness of a man. And each one had four faces, and each one had four wings. And their feet were straight feet; and the sole of their feet was like the sole of a calf's foot: and they sparkled like the color of burnished bronze. And they had the hands of a man under their wings on their four sides; and the four had their faces and their wings.

Their wings were joined one to another; they turned not when they went; they went each one straight forward. As for the likeness of their faces, the four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and the four had the face of an ox on the left side; the four also had the face of an eagle.

Helpful Links:

• Outline of the Book of Ezekiel from the Holman Bible Dictionary.
• Information on ancient Mesopotamia.

Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ: Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: hereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries Weekend Bible Study.

Tonight we are pleased to once again present a timeless study from the CEM Vault by Ronald L. Dart. Join us now as Mr. Dart instructs and informs us from the Second Epistle of Peter.

Hello everyone and welcome to the Christian Educational Ministries Weekend Bible Study.

Tonight, we present Ronald L. Dart with a study on the Epistle of Jude from the CEM Vault.

To him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy — to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen.

Now to Abraham and his descendant were the promises made. He says not, And to descendants, as of many; but as of one, And to your descendant, who is Christ. And this I say, that the covenant, that was confirmed before by God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of no effect. For if the inheritance is of the law, it is no more of promise: but God gave it to Abraham by promise.

(Apologies for several microphone problems throughout the study.)

An unedited version of this study, featuring additional introductory and concluding questions from the audience, can be heard and downloaded below:

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, self-control: against such there is no law.

And they that are Christ's have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit.

Referenced articles:

• Why Do We Use the Hebrew Calendar?
• The Hebrew Calendar (chapter from The Thread)

Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.

Paul an apostle—sent neither by human commission nor from human authorities, but through Jesus Christ and God the Father, who raised him from the dead—and all the members of God’s family who are with me, To the churches of Galatia:

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins to set us free from the present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting the one who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel—not that there is another gospel, but there are some who are confusing you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.

(Canon in D link mentioned in Ron's introduction.) And if you're curious about the opening theme licensed for The WBS, as asked in the first question, it is Ornate Guitar by Mo Foster.

And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying, It is needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.

And being brought on their way by the church, they passed through Phoenicia and Samaria, declaring the conversion of the Gentiles: and they caused great joy unto all the brethren. And when they were come to Jerusalem, they were received of the church, and of the apostles and elders, and they declared all things that God had done with them.

But there rose up certain of the sect of the Pharisees who believed, saying, It is needful to circumcise them, and to command them to keep the law of Moses. And the apostles and elders came together to consider this matter.

If you were looking for a resolution for the new year (or the new decade), you'd have to go a long way to do better than this:

Wash you, make yourself clean; put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes; cease to do evil; Learn to do good; seek justice, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow.

Come now, and let us reason together, says the Lord: though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool. If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land:

But if you refuse and rebel, you shall be devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it.

The prophecies of Zechariah are among the most difficult in the Bible. It’s not only that Zechariah is so rich in imagery and symbols; it’s a strange mixture of the past and the future—an odd mixture of events in history, of people, personages, places, things that happened…and of things that never happened then, but are going to happen before man’s age is finished.

There’s absolutely no doubt that some of Zechariah has been fulfilled in history. It is just as certain that much of it is prophetic; and I was debating with myself as to whether more of it is future or whether more of it is past, and I think I have come down on the side of more of it is future. Some of it is prophetic to the coming of the Messiah. Some of it looks all the way to the Millennium. And right in the middle of this difficult prophecy is a prophecy of a great king to come. But, oddly, it is not what we would expect to hear about a great king. He says,

Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion; shout, O daughter of Jerusalem: behold, your King comes to you: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding on an ass, and on a colt the foal of an ass.

This is not what one would expect. A king, you would think, would ride into town on a chariot. A king would ride in on a chariot with someone holding a laurel over his head and with crowds of people praising him. Or maybe he would come in on a horse; but of course, in the Bible, horses and chariots are the cavalry—they are instruments of war. They are the tanks and the Bradley Fighting Vehicles of that age. They are war-making instruments.

And the Hebrew word for lowly [ani, עָנִי, Strong’s h6041] means, basically, poor, needy, and in depressed circumstances. Not exactly the sort of thing you would ever think would in any way represent a king. Here is the Messiah, here is the Savior, here is the one who is coming to save his people.

[…] when they drew near to Jerusalem, and were come to Bethphage, to the mount of Olives, then sent Jesus two disciples, saying to them, Go into the village over against you, and straightway you shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her: loose them, and bring them to me. And if any man say ought to you, you shall say, The Lord has need of them; and straightway he will send them. All this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophet, saying, Tell you the daughter of Sion, Behold, your King comes to you, meek, and sitting on an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

Right in the middle of Zechariah, this prophecy is found; and Jesus fulfills this prophecy in his (if you want to call it) triumphal entry into Jerusalem, where the people who are praising him are children, and the things that they’re laying out in front of him on the road as he goes through are palm fronds.

And so, what does all this mean? Why is it that the king, when he comes, why is it that the Messiah, when he comes, is coming lowly? And I can’t imagine, frankly, how the first readers took Zechariah. For indeed, the expectations of a messiah were there, but the expectations generally were of a restoration of the Kingdom of Israel. The restoration was, We’re going to throw the Romans out. We’ll do what the Maccabees failed to do; we will actually succeed in establishing once again the Kingdom of Israel. What did they think when they read Zechariah? And your king is going to be just, and he’ll have salvation, and he’ll ride into town lowly—riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass. All of this must’ve seemed very, very strange to people long ago. I think it even seemed strange to Jesus’ own disciples when he did it.

But this was prophesied long before this by Isaiah. And Isaiah is another prophet whose work is convoluted, and kind of confusing in a way, and a little hard to follow. It’s a strange admixture of history and prophecy, of the past and of the future. We’ll begin in chaper 9, verse 1...

At the Last Supper, after washing his disciples' feet, Jesus said something of singular importance. He said, You call me master and lord, and you say well for so I am. The American reader is likely to take these two words, master and lord, as synonyms; but when the King James translators sat down and wrote this out, the head of a school was a master. Even to this day in most English schools the person who runs the school is the headmaster. Consequently, they chose the word master because to their English readers it would convey the idea of a teacher; and not merely a garden-variety, run-of-the-mill teacher, but a significant master of his subject.

Jesus said, You call me teacher and lord, and rightly so because that is what I am. The words in the Greek mean a master of a school and a sovereign lord, so they are not synonyms at all; and they define two very different relationships that a person will have with Jesus Christ. So let's take a closer look at these two words, these two relationships, and their significance for a Christian.

Peggy Noonan - Patriots, Then and Now Link 1 | Link 2