Tuesday, January 26, 2010

The Secret Keys That Unlock The Real Truth Post Three

Death then, is simply the process of creation in reverse. God removes this breath of life from the body He has put it in. Ecclesiastes 12:7 describes this process “Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, And the spirit will return to God who gave it.” Here the word used is ‘spirit’. Another important word to connect with death is the word ‘sleep’ as the concept of sleep is used a metaphor for death almost 70 times in the Bible. Here are just a few references:

Psalm 133:3 Consider and hear me, O LORD my God; Enlighten my eyes, Lest I sleep the sleep of death;

Job 14:10-12 But man dies and is laid away; Indeed he breathes his last And where is he? As water disappears from the sea, And a river becomes parched and dries up, So man lies down and does not rise. Till the heavens are no more, They will not awake Nor be roused from their sleep.

Acts 7:58-60 and they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their clothes at the feet of a young man named Saul. And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

1 Kings 11:43 Then Solomon rested with his fathers, and was buried in the City of David his father. And Rehoboam his son reigned in his place.

Psalm 146:3,4 elaborates on this by saying “Do not put your trust in princes, Nor in a son of man, in whom there is no help.His spirit departs, he returns to his earth; In that very day his plans perish.” The King James English says “his THOUGHTS perish” (emphasis supplied). Death is a state of complete unconsciousness. This is confirmed by Ecclesiastes 9:5,6 “For the living know that they will die; But the dead know nothing, And they have no more reward, For the memory of them is forgotten. Also their love, their hatred, and their envy have now perished; Nevermore will they have a share In anything done under the sun.”

Should we then give up hope? No! That’s why Jesus came to earth and died on the cross, to make a way out of death for us. He will return again to the earth at the end of the world and rescue all His friends from the graves they went into. He said it Himself in John 5:28, 29 “Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice “and come forth—those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation.”

The Resurrection is the day when the Lord makes the dead come back to life. There will also be two of resurrections. The first will be for Jesus’ friends and then another resurrection will take place later where Jesus’ enemies will be punished for their sins. Notice He said the difference would be made clear by those who’ve ‘done’ good or bad. A lot of Christians like to go on and on quoting certain verses in the New Testament that we can’t buy our way into Heaven with our own good deeds. Man has sinned and cut himself off from God that is true. Man is also not capable of obeying God in his own strength as well and must accept Jesus’ sacrifice for our sins. However, it is possible to use the words and not really live up to them. Salvation is a practical thing. You see the only way anyone can be truly good is when God is working in that person’s life. Real faith is shown in works, see James 2:17-22.

1 Thessalonians 4:16, 17 describe the first resurrection in a little more detail. “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.” Jesus Himself will call His friends out of their graves. The last generation, the one that faced death in the form of the mark of the beast, does not have to die. Both sets of true believers go to Jesus to be with Him forever.

This is the truth about death. On the practical side, this truth completely destroys all the devil’s lies on the subject. When anyone claims to have received a message from beyond the grave, they didn’t get that message from God. Dealing with dead spirits in séances, channeling, and many other forms is really dealing with evil angels in disguise. It is the same with appearances of Mary, the Saints, dead relatives, and ghosts. In the final section in this chapter I will have a little more to say on the practicalities of this truth once the other secret keys are all combined.

Sunday, January 17, 2010

The Secret Keys That Unlock the Real Truth Post One

A few years ago a friend of a friend told me about a practical joke someone once played that I thought was really funny. The victim of the gag was a woman hosting a Thanksgiving dinner. She had made effort upon effort to get everything just right for the special meal. What she didn’t know was that hours before, one of her guests had snuck into the kitchen and stuffed a Cornish game hen inside the turkey. When she went to carve up her beautiful bird, there was this other bird inside it. As the scene unfolded, the hostess was overwhelmed with shock, guilt and horror. “I killed the baby”, was her only thought. Morbidly funny I’ll admit, but think about this situation, birds lay eggs right? All birds do, yes, WITHOUT EXCEPTION! If this was the first case ever of a bird giving birth like a mammal, why wasn’t the baby bird whole and intact? Why was it prepared for eating just like the turkey? Even though the evidence in that immediate moment seemed completely overwhelming, logic and truth needed to prevail because what she saw was only a trick played on her by someone else.

What if you were in a similar situation? What if you saw something so overwhelming it had to be true, even though every single bit of logic and truth said it wasn’t, what would you do? What would you believe? People who buy into the modern, scientific mindset have no room in their belief system for the spirit world at all. Yet miracles still happen that science cannot explain all over the world. However, what very few are willing to consider is that there is such a thing as a false miracle. This is not to use the word ‘false’ in the sense of some slight of hand magician’s trick. What I mean is a real, supernatural event, but one that does not come from God.

First and foremost the Bible very clearly speaks of two supernatural forces working on this planet. On one side we have God and on the other there is the devil. 2 Corinthians 11:14 says “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light.” In other words, you can’t always tell them apart. God will work in your life and when He does He will make sure you know it is Him who is working. Satan will work in your life and will also try to make you thinks its God working. So how then can you tell? You can’t just trust your own eyes and ears; you need a standard beyond yourself. Satan has the power to work miracles that lead people to believe his lies. This kind of question is something the whole world has to face more often than people realize, especially in stories of near-death experiences. Millions of people say, “But I know what I saw, it was real!” Was it really? Why would God clearly and consistently say one thing about what death is really like for 59 centuries and then contradict Himself in our time?

Isaiah 8:19, 20 says “And when they shall say unto you, Seek unto them that have familiar spirits, and unto wizards that peep, and that mutter: should not a people seek unto their God? for the living to the dead? To the law and to the testimony: if they speak not according to this word, it is because there is no light in them.” There you have it. Satan’s false miracles are always shall we say, “flashy”; they’re designed to wow people with no real purpose. When God works, there’s a message there. The “law and the testimony” refer to the Bible and the Ten Commandments. A true miracle from God will pass the test of His word. Notice something else here. That is a connection between false miracles and death. The God of the Bible is referred to as the Living God. He works through living people, who are called prophets. Satan’s way of working is very often contained in “messages from beyond the grave“.

So the very first secret key we’ll look at is the fact that when you die you really do die. We have already found the proper balance between creation and evolution, that God has been creating solar systems for countless eons of time, but that each one was created and did not evolve. He has the power to cause matter to come into existence and that’s what makes Him God, among other things. Therefore the creation story of Genesis chapters 1 and 2 is not mythical but a realistic account of the very first week in planet earth’s history and it happened about six thousand years ago.

Genesis 2:7 gives us the process whereby the Lord created our first father, Adam. “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.” The word being there is translated soul in other Bible versions. This is something that must be fully understood, Man does not HAVE a soul man IS a soul. The combination of a physical body and this ‘breath of life’ make a soul. The Bible uses the word ‘soul’ almost 1700 times and never calls it immortal.

A SOUL IS NOT A GHOST! So says 1 Peter 3:20 “who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.” Did eight ghosts get onto Noah’s Ark? No, eight living, breathing people did.

What most people think of when they use the word soul is this “breath of life”, which is another great mystery we’ll never fully solve and simply have to accept. Whatever it is, it has something to do with the ability to breath and something to do with the electricity that runs our minds. This ‘breath’ is also called ‘spirit’ or ‘ghost’ in certain Bible verses. It is the energy God gives to make life. This energy is not a conscious entity of its own. Job 27:3 puts it this way “As long as my breath is in me, And the breath of God in my nostrils”. When Paul spoke to the Greeks of his day, from whom we get our modern science, he said in Acts 17:28 “For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.”

Life comes from God and only from Him. Think about the computer you are using right now to read this blog. It has a hard drive and a processor, which are physical piece of equipment that parallel the functions of your brain. These cannot work unless the machine is turned on and plugged into the electrical power source, which is simply energy and nothing more. There is no way to communicate directly with that energy, it simply powers the machinery.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Why Haven't They Gone Back final post

Do you see the answer to the question now of why Jesus has not come back? 2 Peter 3:8, 9 is a comment on the greatness of God’s patience and merciful love. The answer is because He wants everyone to have a chance to accept His death on the cross for their sakes. When every single person in the entire world has had one chance at the same time to accept or reject the full truth and made their decision accordingly, Jesus will come back. He will destroy this flawed, imperfect world that is attempting to create its own heaven on earth and take His people to the real Heaven where their eternal lives of joy peace and unimaginable knowledge will begin. Before that though, He’ll need to be justified in destroying this world. So at the same time He’s working through His people to make them better and better, He’s allowing those who reject Him to become worse and worse until this great moral decline we have seen in the last 50 years crescendos into the time of trouble prophesied in Daniel 12:1.

I’d like to highlight a few very important verses from Matthew 24. Verse 8 comes immediately after the “wars, earthquakes and famines” Jesus then said “All these are the beginning of sorrows.” In other words, it’s not the events in the world, be they political crises or natural disasters that we really need to worry about. Yet that’s what so many focus on when they seek to understand prophecy (especially so many who are fascinated with the teachings of false prophets such as Nostradamus and Edgar Cayce).

What we really need to look for are events in the religious and spiritual realm as is shown by verse “And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.” This is preceded in verses 12 and 13 by “And because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold. But he who endures to the end shall be saved.” Does not the incredible downturn in the morals of western society since the 1960’s completely fulfill this part of the prophecy? At the same time this has been happening the gospel has been going out on a much further and wider basis than ever before. The first generation fulfilled this prophecy by taking the gospel to the known world of their day, the Roman Empire, and then the end came in the form of the destruction of the temple. But we definitely will see the work of reaching the world finished in our day. Therefore Jesus is coming soon!

Luke 17:28-30 gives us a comparison to illustrate the point. “Likewise as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; “but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed.” The modern equivalent of leaving Sodom will not be to travel to any particular place. However, we can leave Sodom today by taking a firm, full and complete stand for God.

This is where many people are looking at prophecy the wrong way. Whatever the crisis will be, it will be so large it will make “men's hearts will fail them for fear” as the Bible says. The most important part will not be to be physically ready by knowing what’s about to come but to be spiritually ready by knowing Who is about to come right afterward.

As I mentioned previously, Marvin Moore speculates that maybe a comet will hit the earth and that will be the great crisis that finally sparks the end time. Personally, I believe what we will see is nuclear terrorism and the use of other weapons of mass destruction such as biological warfare in an all out world wide war between “Christian” and “Muslim” for control of the Holy land. This is simply based on the current trend in motion that was established by the Al Qaeda terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. I say it with the same fervor Marvin Moore did “I MAY BE WRONG”. Since this is pure speculation, I will not attempt to prove this point in depth here. It simply seems logical that after the Lord allowing western civilization more than 150 years to create a heaven on earth, whatever crisis there is that does come would need to be one that demonstrates how futile this attempt ultimately has been when done without Him. If we are going to think we can hold the ultimate power of life and death in our hands through genetic engineering and atomic weapons as previously discussed here, does it not make sense that somehow this has to come back to haunt us? It’s the only way to show not only to us, but to the whole universe that only the Lord Himself can be trusted with this power.

That the enemy of the day right now is radical Muslims may change. Various Christian commentators wrote books for years during the Cold War expecting the Soviet Union to attack Israel. Of course they were incorrect as it never happened. Now those same commentators expect the Muslims to do it. The Lord has always worked to teach His people their lessons by giving them into the hands of their enemies when they refuse to listen to Him. That’s what the entire book of Judges is about. So if this war on terror is finally won and the end of time is delayed further, another enemy will rise up from another place just in time for God to use them if He needs to.

Referring to the various prophetic events we’ve discussed, Jesus in Luke 21:28 said “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.” In other words, as you see world events play out in whatever way they do toward the end, the main focus of your life needs to be on getting ready for Jesus. He obviously said this to give comfort, hope and understanding to every generation that has waited for Him and wondered why He hasn’t come back yet.

Although we’ve discussed the need to be spiritually ready, that phrase needs to be more clearly defined. In the next chapter we’ll look at some Bible truths that were lost during the Dark Ages and see how their restoration today can greatly affect your worldview and give compatibility and harmony to the seemingly opposite positions people hold today.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Why Haven't They Gone Back POST TWO

The book of Revelation itself contains a mysterious reference in chapter six to four horses with riders. The first is white, the second red, the third black and the fourth pale. These are symbols describing the decline of the early church from its pure form into something the disciples would not even recognize. In fact Church history in the Christian era is a repeat of Israel’s in the Old Testament. After the time of Moses and Joshua the nation had no direct earthly leader and was ruled by people known as “Judges”. Israel was a theocracy, where the Lord Himself was the real King. He spoke to and through these judges and also His prophets. This parallels the first few centuries after Christ where a number of Bishops each shared equal status as leaders and the church looked directly to God. Before the Roman Emperor Constantine, the persecution of the church came from outside it. Rome was her enemy just like the persecution Israel faced from its neighbouring nations like the Philistines and Moabites. Then Israel sinned when they asked their last Judge Samuel, who was also a prophet, to give them a king so they could be like other nations. When the Roman Empire fell, the Roman Church gradually rose up in its place. (In 508 AD a peace treaty was signed that set the stage for the union of church and state that followed. The Eastern Emperor Justinian declared the Bishop of Rome head of Church in 533. However, the Pope was not free to exercise this power until 538 when the last opposing tribe, the Ostrogoths, was routed out of Rome by Justinian’s armies at the request of the Pope.) From that time onward, though there were some good Popes, most of them lead the church astray like most of the Old Testament kings led Israel and Judah into idol worship. Then the persecution was from within in both cases as God’s true people were the minority within the realm of those who claimed to be His followers.

What made the Dark Ages dark was not primarily the loss of or stopping of scientific progress after the fall of the Roman Empire. It was not the resistance to further scientific progress as shown in the persecution of Galileo. It was the spiritual darkness of the mixing of Bible truth with pagan superstition that became the Catholic Church. Jim Pinkoski lists 48 Papal decisions and declarations in his comic “The Truth About the Sabbath”, pages 44 and 45. Each and every single one of them is a doctrine still taught today by the Catholic Church that out and out disagrees with the Bible and is simply not true. Here’s the way Foxe’s Christian Martyrs of the World describes the decline. This is a book I recommend everyone read. Page 45 of the Barbour and Company 1989 edition says “By reading this history, a person should be able to see that the religion of Christ, meant to be spirit and truth, had been turned into nothing but outward observances, ceremonies, and idolatry. We had so many saints, so many gods, so many monasteries, so many pilgrimages. We had too many churches, too many relics (true and fake), too many untruthful miracles. Instead of worshipping the only living Lord, we worshipped dead bones; in place of immortal Christ, we worshipped mortal bread.” On page 27 we read “The inquisition of the Church of Rome was, in its days, one of the most terrible engines of tyranny ever created by man (taken from the chapter “The Spanish Inquisition”)”.

Here are some more quotes I think you’ll find interesting:

Howard Frederic Vos, Exploring church history [computer file], electronic ed., Logos Library System, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson) 1997, c1994 by Howard F. Vos.
“LONG before Luther fired his verbal salvo against indulgences and launched the Reformation, others had sniped at the theological position of the Roman Catholic church.”

“Like Peter Waldo, John Wycliffe (1330?–1384) was a biblical reformer, bringing to bear the teachings of Scripture on the practices of the Roman church. ... Pope Gregory XI condemned him in 1377 for his efforts, but he was protected by some of the nobles. ... To Wycliffe, Scripture, which he interpreted literally, was the sole authority for the believer. Decrees of the pope were not infallible except as based on Scripture. The clergy were not to rule, but to serve and help people. Eventually he reached the conclusion that Christ and not the pope was the head of the church; in fact, the pope, if he were too eager for worldly power, might even be regarded as the Antichrist. Ultimately he came to repudiate the entire papal system.”

“John Hus (1372?–1415), (was) professor of philosophy at the University of Prague and preacher at Bethlehem Chapel. ... Hus’s approach was similar to that of Wycliffe, and his influence on the Continent was greater than that of the Englishman. It should be remembered that Luther was greatly impressed with the reformer from Prague. Hus’s great work was entitled On the Church. In it he stated that all the elect are members of Christ’s church, of which Christ rather than the pope is head. He argued against simony, indulgences, and abuses of the mass. He demanded a reform in the lives of clergy, and he asserted the right of laity to take both the bread and wine in the Communion.”

“When the pope summoned Hus to the Council of Constance to stand examination on his views, the emperor Sigismund ordered him to go and promised safe conduct. ... But when the council condemned him as a heretic and burned him at the stake, Sigismund did not interfere. Like Luther, Hus came to blows with the pope over the issue of indulgences (among other things); but Europe was not so ready for the Reformation in 1415 as it would be a century later.”

“Many other religious movements, for which there is no space here, spread across Europe during the fifteenth century, demonstrating how widespread was the demand for church reform there. In fact the Continent was a seething kettle by 1500—ready to boil over. In the realms of economics, society, politics, intellect, and religion, the time had come for an eruption. All that was needed was someone who could mold these explosive elements into a single movement. Such a movement would blitz Europe. It was Martin Luther who provided a channel for all this explosive energy in what is now called the Protestant Reformation.”

The Great Controversy, p. 57 ,58 “Another step in papal assumption was taken, when, in the eleventh century, Pope Gregory VII. proclaimed the perfection of the Romish Church. Among the propositions which he put forth, was one declaring that the church had never erred, nor would it ever err, according to the Scriptures. But the Scripture proofs did not accompany the assertion. The proud pontiff next claimed the power to depose emperors, and declared that no sentence which he pronounced could be reversed by any one, but that it was his prerogative to reverse the decisions of all others.”

“A striking illustration of the tyrannical character of this advocate of infallibility was given in his treatment of the German emperor, Henry IV. For presuming to disregard the pope's authority, this monarch was declared to be excommunicated and dethroned. Terrified by the desertion and threats of his own princes, who were encouraged in rebellion against him by the papal mandate, Henry felt the necessity of making his peace with Rome. In company with his wife and a faithful servant, he crossed the Alps in midwinter, that he might humble himself before the pope. Upon reaching the castle whither Gregory had withdrawn, he was conducted, without his guards, into an outer court, and there, in the severe cold of winter, with uncovered head and naked feet, and in a miserable dress, he awaited the pope's permission to come into his presence. Not until he had continued three days fasting and making confession, did the pontiff condescend to grant him pardon. Even then it was only upon condition that the emperor should await the sanction of the pope before resuming the insignia or exercising the power of royalty. And Gregory, elated with his triumph, boasted that it was his duty "to pull down the pride of kings."

Martin Luther and John Calvin quoted in “The Anti-Christ Exposed” by Dan Jarrard, p. 27
“Martin Luther: Though recognizing certain individual Popes to be men of integrity, and thus exempt from the system, he voiced in loud and clear tones that the papacy was in truth the very anti-Christ – ‘O, how much pain it has caused me, though I had the scriptures on my side ... that I should dare to make a stand alone against the pope, and hold him forth as anti-Christ ... ‘Twas so I fought with myself and Satan, till Christ, by His own infallible word, fortified my heart against these doubts (MARTYN, pages 372,373).’

“John Calvin wrote in 1536: ‘Some persons think us too severe and censorious when we call the Roman Pontiff anti-Christ ... His kingdom will consist in speaking great words, or blasphemies, against the Most High (INSTITUTES, Volume 2, page 410).’”

Does this sound anti-Catholic in some way? Well think about it this way. In 2 Peter 3:8, 9 the Bible says “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. 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.” When did the Dark Ages begin? Though there was a gradual decline in the spirituality of the church really from the time of the first generation’s demise onward, the last possible date was 538 AD when the union of church and state was in full swing. When did Martin Luther nail the 95 theses to the door of the Wittenberg Church and begin the process of reforming the church, bringing us all to the point where we have the intellectual and spiritual freedom we have today? The year was 1517. Not exact of course, but it was ABOUT ONE THOUSAND YEARS! Luther was not the first to speak out against the church’s errors. With his efforts however, the Reformation would not be stopped. Such is the greatness of God’s mercy. He still worked to save the church He started here on earth for an entire millennium before He gave up on it and started over, even though it had fallen so far away from Him. Even today sincere Catholic people are still loved by God.