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A person cannot look back through 2,000 years of compromise and expect to receive the true Light of the Gospel of Christ. One must time travel back 2,000 years to the foot of the cross of Jesus Christ and begin there.
The general church at large does not reflect the church of the New Testament. A myriad of additions and deletions has changed the gospel picture dramatically. But, God’s imprimatur is on one book—the Holy Bible—found in the majority-text, and the instructions are laid down there. God’s prohibition against adding to and subtracting from the truth of the Scriptures is declared throughout the Bible. Deuteronomy 4:1-2:
1 Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.
2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.
Revelation 22:18-19:
18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.
God does not change. God is truth and truth does not change. Truth remains truth no matter how many years have passed. That is the nature of truth. Malachi 3:6:
For I am the LORD, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.
Hebrews 13:8 speaks of the Lord Jesus, in whom the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily. It reads:
Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.
God has not left us to the whims of theological academics, but He has given us His Holy Word and the Holy Ghost Himself to teach it to each individual child of faith. Welcome to the freedom to believe.
Just over 2,000 years ago, Jesus said this to Nicodemus in John 3:3:
Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Born-again, have you found this singular truth? Have you been born again—born a second time—this time of the Spirit of God? Would you like to have all your sin and shame expunged from your record, and guilt purged from your mind? Would you like to have your life filled with hope and promise and an eternal purpose? Today is your day of salvation. Click onto "Further With Jesus" for childlike instructions and immediate entry into the Kingdom of God. Do it now. We will wait for you here. NOW FOR TODAY’S SUBJECT.
GOD SAID, Zechariah 14:1-7:
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
MAN SAID: These foolish doomsday prophets make me laugh. There is no end to this world, and certainly no judgment day!
Now THE RECORD. Doomsday is clearly declared in the Word of God and it approaches. The concept of the end of the world is ridiculed by the ungodly, somewhat like it was in the days of Noah. II Peter 3:3-9:
3 Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
8 But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.
9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
Noah preached of doomsday for approximately 100 years, but to no avail. Then one day it began to rain. Noah and his family, along with male and female representatives of land creatures, were safe in the ark. But those who ridiculed the warning of God through Noah and his family were destroyed by the worldwide flood. Today there are fish fossils on nearly every mountain peak in the world and flood strata around the globe. Those who mocked were destroyed by the flood, eaten by the creatures of the sea and cast out in their dung. Others found their end in large mats of decomposing vegetation. Jesus said that it would be like the days of Noah at His returning. They ridiculed the prophet then and they do the same to the prophecies of God today. Nevertheless, doomsday approaches. It’s beginning to rain.
If we are reading the Scriptures correctly, we are very close to the end of the world as we know it. This is a new feature in the ongoing GodSaidManSaid series, "Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday." By the time Armageddon arrives, which is the great capstone of the seven-year tribulation, and even of all time, the Bible shows a totally devastated world. One of the Bible’s pronouncements on this matter is Isaiah 24:1-6 & 17-20:
1 Behold, the LORD maketh the earth empty, and maketh it waste, and turneth it upside down, and scattereth abroad the inhabitants thereof.
2 And it shall be, as with the people, so with the priest; as with the servant, so with his master; as with the maid, so with her mistress; as with the buyer, so with the seller; as with the lender, so with the borrower; as with the taker of usury, so with the giver of usury to him.
3 The land shall be utterly emptied, and utterly spoiled: for the LORD hath spoken this word.
4 The earth mourneth and fadeth away, the world languisheth and fadeth away, the haughty people of the earth do languish.
5 The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.
6 Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.
17 Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.
18 And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth do shake.
19 The earth is utterly broken down, the earth is clean dissolved, the earth is moved exceedingly.
20 The earth shall reel to and fro like a drunkard, and shall be removed like a cottage; and the transgression thereof shall be heavy upon it; and it shall fall, and not rise again.
The book of Revelation lists a staggering account of the great seven-year tribulation, and it is not impossible that it has already begun. During this seven-year period, the vast majority of the earth’s population—as a result of plagues, wars, global disasters, famine, fear—will be dead. The earth will be knocked off its course by what appears to be a process of earthquakes and stars falling and striking the earth. Mountain ridges will collapse and islands—which are basically mountain peaks—will disappear and every wall will fall down flat. It appears that the manmade infrastructure of roads, pipes, and wires will be destroyed—the end of the world as we know it.
A word of caution is in order. Jesus tells us that no one but the Father knows the exact timing of the end. We are given signs to watch and commanded to watch. The believers in the New Testament Bible were looking for Christ in their lifetime. Christ’s return could be a long way off, but all the signs we’re seeing say soon—very soon. It’s beginning to rain.
"Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday — Part One," quotes the great prophecy of Jeremiah 24 that declares the destruction of Israel, their global dispersion, and then their re-emergence to the earth’s list of nations. For nearly 2,500 years, Israel was absent from the global roll call. But, in 1948, just after the horrendous crimes against the Hebrew people by Adolf Hitler, Israel once again appears in the table of nations. Israel is the central focus of the world’s nations as they converge against her at the battle of Armageddon.
Israel’s closest ally has in the past been the United States. But, things have reversed and are reversing in a fearful Armageddon-esque fashion. The U.S. has been funding the enemies of Israel and pressuring Israel to give up lands to the Palestinians (the Greek form of the word Philistines), making Israel completely indefensible. Hamas, the elected leaders of the Palestinians, was given nearly one billion dollars in U.S. aid purportedly to rebuild the Gaza Strip. America has also trained and armed the enemy’s police and security forces. Just a couple of weeks ago, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was on Capitol Hill defending the military funding of Lebanon’s new leaders, the Hezbollah, a terrorist arm of Iran. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and the general Ishmaelites’ population at large in the Middle East have one common galvanizing purpose: the total annihilation of Israel.
The U.S. president Barack Obama has deserted short- and long-time U.S. allies. Just months ago, the leader of Lebanon sat down with Obama at the White House, but had to leave abruptly. His nation’s government was rent asunder by the terrorist group Hezbollah. The U.S. did nothing. The orchestrated, violent demonstrations taking place in the Middle East for the purpose of overthrowing the established governments are thought to be fostered by the Muslim Brotherhood, al-Qaeda , and other likeminded extremist groups. In Egypt, the president of the U.S. took the side of the demonstrators against its long-time ally Egypt—the Middle East’s only nation to have a peace treaty with Israel. One of America’s high-ranking White House officials defended the Muslim Brotherhood, a major instigator in the overthrow of Egypt, by saying they were against al-Qaeda. That is true, but he didn’t go on to say that they’re opposed to al-Qaeda because they were not radical Muslim enough.
Presently, the U.S. president is bombing Lybia in an effort to overthrow Gaddafi’s government in favor of the rebels, many of whom are widely claimed to be al-Qaeda. Maybe the rebels don’t think the wicked Gaddafi is Muslim enough. We could go on to mention what’s happening in Bahrain, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Syria, Tunisia, Jordan, but I think you get the picture.
For a closer picture of what’s happing in Israel specifically, we’ve lifted the following excerpts from The International Jerusalem Post. It contains a recap of the events that transpired between March 18 & 24, 2011. These excerpts are from various articles in the Post, and most refer to the slaughter of the Fogel family by Palestinian terrorists who were lauded by their people back home.
Excerpt #1:
Ruth (Ruti) Fogel was in the bathroom when the Palestinian terrorists pounced on her husband Udi and their three-month-old daughter Hadas, slitting their throats as they lay in bed on Friday night in their home in Itamar.
The terrorists stabbed Ruth to death as she came out of the bathroom. With both parents and the newborn dead, they moved on to the other children, going into a bedroom where Ruth and Udi’s sons Yoav (11) and Elad (4) were sleeping. They stabbed the children through their hearts and slit their throats.
The murderers apparently missed another bedroom where the Fogels’ other sons, eight-year- old Ro’i and two-year-old Yishai were asleep because they left them alive. The boys were found by their sister, 12-year-old Tamar, when she returned home from a friend’s house two hours after her family was massacred. Tamar found Yishai standing over his parents’ bodies screaming for them to wake up.
Excerpt #2:
Udi, 36, his wife Ruth, 35, and their children Yoav, 11, Elad, 4, and Hadas, three months, were survived by 12-year-old Tamar—who found the bodies of her parents and siblings—eight- year-old Roi, and two-year-old Yishai. All three are now staying with their grandparents in the nearby community of Neveh Tzuf (Halamish).
Excerpt #3:
"When they wake up tomorrow, they’ll want to be dead." Rabbi Seth Mandell, whose 14-year-old son Koby was stoned to death in a terrorist attack in 2001 while hiking in the wadi behind his home in Tekoa with a friend, Yosef (Yossi) Ish-Ran, knows what it’s like to be the family that’s the subject to tragic headlines.
Excerpt #4:
"They say Eretz Yisrael is acquired through pain and suffering," Netanyahu told the grieving parents, "but we didn’t think the pain and suffering would be so great. This heinous act has led all of us to say, ’Enough.’ The security forces are doing everything they can to find the murderers, and we will find the criminals. They are not people, but beasts."
Excerpt #5:
The US has rebuked Israel for its decision, following the Itamar murders, to approve between 400 and 500 new housing units in the large settlement blocs, saying that "continued Israeli settlements are illegitimate and run counter to efforts to resume negotiations." "The US is deeply concerned by continuing Israeli actions in respect to settlements in the West Bank," said a statement issued by the State Department on March 14.
Excerpt #6:
That "the settlements" aren’t the core of the regional conflict should be obvious from the events now shaking the Arab world. Should be, but isn’t. That the settlers aren’t the only intended target should be even more clear after the Israel Navy commandos this week managed to seize a huge quantity of weapons, including mortars and anti-ship missiles, being transported in the Victoria cargo ship. [End of quotes]
The following news headlines are from The International Jerusalem Post for Thursday, March 24, 2011:
• IDF (Israel Defense Forces) Strike Gaza after Hamas Launches 4 Rockets
• Israel Has Been Attacked. Bus attack leaves one dead and dozens wounded.
• More than 100 Killed in Syrian Anti-Government Protests
• Gates Arrives in Israel to Discuss Iran, Peace Talks
The following is from The International Jerusalem Post live ticker: "5th Rocket Launched From Gaza This Morning."
The noose tightens around Israel. It’s beginning to pour.
GOD SAID, Zechariah 14:1-7:
1 Behold, the day of the LORD cometh, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee.
2 For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, and the women ravished; and half of the city shall go forth into captivity, and the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city.
3 Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.
4 And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south.
5 And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee.
6 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:
7 But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.
MAN SAID: These foolish doomsday prophets make me laugh. There is no end to this world, and certainly no judgment day!
Now you have THE RECORD.
Continue Reading
Related articles:
Twenty-One Signs of Doomsday Series
References:
Authorized King James Version
The International Jerusalem Post, March 18-24, 2011
www.jpost.com, March 24, 2011