Pen of Iron

We were fellowshipping at a brother's house a couple of months ago one Saturday night.

We do not take God's word or the preaching thereof irreverently.

We love our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and the things of God and the fellowship of his saints.

We realize this kind of fun may strike you as crazy, but it sure beats getting drunk with fake friends, acting like a fool and waking up with a hangover to stare at the vanity of your life.

May this encourage some weary soul.

"He is able to deliver thee"

"Will your anchor hold?"

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 1:19 AM | 1 comments    

Labels: videos

Someone sent this to me a few years back..I don't know who wrote it but thought it was great.

A letter to the editor complained:

I've gone to church for 30yrs now. I've heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think that I am wasting my time, the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all.

This started a controversy that went on for weeks, to the delight of the Editor, until someone wrote this clincher.

I've been married for 30yrs now. In that time, my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals.I do know this..They nourished me, and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me those meals, I would be physically dead today. Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourrishment, I would be spiritually dead today!

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 2:17 PM | 0 comments    

C.I. Scofield's notes remain some of the best notes on the Bible ever published. It is remarkable that a man could have so little and relatively minor errors in such a large work. Scofield was an honest and courageous dispensationalist who never flinched on the doctrine of the 1000 years reign of the Lord Jesus Christ on this earth and never confused Israel with the church of God. The Lord gave him special insight into many other areas of scripture. This list is a work-in-progress seeking simply to alert people to some mistakes in his notes.Given the popularity of the Scofield Bible, and the fact that no list of errors exists on the internet that I could find (only the ramblings of poor students of the word who seek to destroy the man and his work) I thought it useful to write it.


2 Timothy 2:15 Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Genesis 6:4

A) « Sons of God » is only used of angels in the Old Testament.

B) They are not spoken of in a sexless way; they are spoken of as males.
(See Scofield’s own note in Hebrews 1 :4)

C) They may not marry but they can still take on physical form and fornicate with human women.
Moreover Matthew 22 :30 refers specifically to angels « in heaven ».

D) Whether « the uniform Hebrew and Christian interpretation has been that verse 2 marks the breaking down of the separation between the godly line of Seth and the godless line of Cain » is for one thing questionable and for another, irrelevant in light of scripture.

· Exodus 29:33, Leviticus 16:6

The word « atonement » is the correct translation.

· Leviticus 11:2

The dietary regulations are primarily for the sake of teaching the people of God about the
holiness of God.

· Leviticus 11:6

The arnebeth and the hare are identical. To this day “Arneb” in Arabic means hare. The error is due to Scofield’s assumption that they’re different.

· Numbers 22:22

In v.12 God forbids Balaam to go with the messengers of Balak. In v.19 Balaam tries once more to get an O.K . In v.20 God tells him that if the men come to call him again, then he could go. The men never do and Balaam never waits for them to do so. He automatically packs up and leaves with them. That was not what God had told him to do, hence God’s anger.

· 2 Samuel 18:18

The second view is the correct one. Absalom is a type of the antichrist who
loses all his children.

· 1 Chronicles 11:5

The word Sion in Hebrews 12:22 is most certainly not used symbolically but quite literally, as in all other passages of the Bible.

· Job 32:2

Job 38:2 is not God’s judgment of Elihu’s words but of Job’s.

· Job 38:1

God answered Job, not « for Job ». The paraphrase is wrong and confusing.

· Psalm 2:12

(3) The titles of the Psalms are exactly where the Holy Spirit wants them.


· Psalm 8

(1) Again, the title is in its right place.

· Psalm 19:9

The « fear of the Lord » means the FEAR of the Lord, not « reverential trust, with hatred of evil ».

· Psalm 22:27

It wasn’t partial but complete nudity.

· Song of Solomon 2:14

Yet again, the A.V. text is correct. The way to God is not a process and hence the translation cannot be « the secret of the stairs ».

· Isaiah 2:2

A mountain, in Scripture symbolism, means a mountain.

· Isaiah 26:19

Eliminate Scofield’s correction to the A.V. text.

· Isaiah 63:16

No Old Testament believer was ever « born anew » in the scriptures.


· Ezekiel 8:3

It’s not « as if he were transported back to Jerusalem ». He was transported back to Jerusalem from the river Chebar, just like John was transported into heaven from the island of Patmos.

· Ezekiel 28:12

It’s the king of Tyre that’s being addressed indirectly, not Satan.

· Ezekiel 37:1

The resurrection of the dry bones is a literal resurrection, not merely a symbolic one.

· Daniel 7:2

The sea, in scripture imagery, stands for a sea.

· Daniel 7:17, 8 :1, Revelation 13:2

The vision of Nebuchadnezzar does not cover the same historic order as the vision of Daniel. Daniel identifies the head of gold as Nebuchadnezzar and therefore as the Babylonian kingdom. But concerning Daniel’s own vision of the beasts, he is told by the angel that these are four beasts « which shall arise ». The Babylonian kingdom was already there at the time of Daniel’s vision. It was present, not future. The four beasts are four kingdoms that come after Babylon. That makes the last beast, which is divers from the first ones, the kindgom of the antichrist, not the Roman kingdom, although the former derives from the latter.


· Daniel 7:26, 8:9-10

(2) The little horn of Daniel 7 is the little horn of Daniel 8, which is the antichrist. Antiochus Epiphanes was nothing more than a historical type, just like Hitler was a historical type of the antichrist and not the antichrist himself.
Daniel 8:10 is Revelation 12.

· Daniel 8 :13

The fulfillment of ``the transgression of desolation`` is only that of the beast’s. All others were mere historical types.

· Daniel 9 :24

V. 25 is a reference to Messiah`s crucifixion, not birth, for the 69 weeks terminate the very day Jesus Christ is crucified.
V.26 is fulfilled by the destruction of the city by the antichrist, not by Titus in 70 A.D. That was, yet again, a historical type.

· Daniel 9 :27

In Daniel 11 :31 the reference is the the act of the antichrist and is yet future. Once more, the act of Antiochus Epiphanes was a mere adumbration of the real thing.

· Daniel 11 :2

Just forget about Antiochus. The personage who here occupies the vision is the antichrist himself.


· Daniel 11 :35

It had always been the little horn, way before v.36.
The expression ``God of his fathers`` does point to a Jew and this does not conflict with Daniel 9 :26 because the antichrist will be a Roman Catholic Jew.

· Joel 2 :11

The army of his v.11 is the same army of verses 1 to 10.

· Micah 4 :1

In scripture, a mountain is the symbol for a mountain. See Isaiah 2:2.

· Micah 5 :1

Revelation 12 :2,5 is not a reference to Christ. See reference for note.

· Habakkuk 2 :5

Scripture reveals hell as a place of sorrow and fire.

· Zechariah 1 :20

They’re four carpenters and they’re literal ones too.

· Zechariah 8 :14

God doesn’t just seem to change his mind. He really does. That doesn’t contradict
James 1 :17. Where God binds himself to a position, he never changes his mind.
Where he doesn’t bind himself, he repents himself based on man’s free will which he gave him.

· Zechariah 10 :4

The past tense is correct. The scriptures wherein the past tense is used for a future event are too numerous to list.

· Zechariah 11 :11

The church, corporately, is in Old Testament prophecy. It just isn’t revealed until the New Testament. Like Bullinger, Scofield is confusing revelation with origin.

· Zechariah 12 :1

The ``latter rain`` is a literal expression. There’s a supernatural rainstorm associated with the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Under (d), where he says ``absolute equity will be enforced``, beware not to read
``equality``.

The majority of earth’s inhabitants will be lost, not saved. Revelation 20 :8.

· Zechariah 14 :4

The earthquake is caused by the foot of the Lord Jesus Christ coming into contact with the soil.

· Malachi 3 :6

Note (6) is utter rubbish. That which exists ``in the infinite being of God and answers to these things- eyes, a hand, feet``; happens to be actual eyes, and hands and and feet.

· Matthew 3 :2

Note (b) The fulfilment of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven takes place at the end of the tribulation and not at the end of the present church age.

· Matthew 4 :21

Not two but three persons are called James in the New Testament. James the Lord’s brother, was just that; the Lord’s brother by Mary, not his cousin. And he isn’t the author of the epistle of James. James Zebedee, brother of John, martyred in Acts 12 :2, is the author of the epistle of James.

· Matthew 5 :22

Hell and the lake of fire are not identical. Hell is the temporary holding cell before unforgiven sinners are locked up eternally in the lack of fire. You can never be saved from the second death once you’re in hell. You just go out of the fire and into the frying pan.

· Matthew 7 :22

The Bible doesn’t use the word ``demons`` but ``devils``, which reveals the fact that they are spawned by the devil. These are different than fallen angels. Some are human, like Judas Iscariot, while some are mere spirits which may have been disembodied. The locusts of Revelation 9 are not devils.

· Matthew 10 :2

Note (4) The keys to the kingdom of heaven are not just given to Peter but to all twelve disciples in Matthew 18 :18, including Judas.

· Matthew 13 :11

If Scofield wanted to name all things spoken of as a mystery in the Bible, he would have had to add a few more such as ``the mystery of the faith``(1 Timothy 3 :9) ; ``the mystery of his will``(Ephesians 1 :9) ; etc...

But the Bible presents 7 mysteries per se. As Scofield lists them these are :

(2) The mystery of Israel’s blindness (Romans 11 :25)
(3) The mystery of the translation of living and dead (not just living) saints of the church age ( 1 Corinthians 15 : 51-52, 1 Thessalonians 4 :13-18)
(4) and (5) are one and the same. That one body composed of Jew and Gentile is the body of Christ.
(6) The mystery of the inliving Christ (Colossians 1 :26-27)
(8) The mystery of Godliness ( 1 Timothy 3 :16)
(9) The mystery of iniquity ( 2 Thessalonians 2 :7)
(11) The mystery of Babylon (Revelation 17 :5,7)

· Matthew 13 :17

In wasn’t only ``what manner of time`` that the prophets searched to understand but also ``what`` the Spirit meant. 1 Peter 1 :11

· Matthew 17 :2

(2) The explanation of the types is good but should be applied to the tribulation saints who get raptured, living and dead; and not to the church, whose type is Enoch.

· Marc 16 :9

The Sinaiticus and Vaticanus are the two most corrupt manuscripts ever found. One of them was found in a garbage bin. The contain uncountable emmendations, internal and external contradictions. The case has often been made, even through books, for the last 12 verses of Marc.

· Marc 16 :14

It is rather ironic that one should deny the literal reading of a verse whose very authenticity one has just doubted. The Holy Ghost said eleven because he meant eleven. He is referring to the twelve disciples minus Judas, which makes eleven.

· Luke 11 :13

Many forget that Martha also, not just Peter, confessed Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. John 11 :27.

· Luke 16 :23

Hades always was a reference to the burning sector where the dead go and not an overall term designating both the abodes of the saved and lost.
``Hell`` is the Holy Ghost’s translation of ``Hades``and in every case refers to that part of the underworld where the lost go and are in torment in flames of fire.
Christ never adopted a single Talmudic designation a day in his earthly life.

· Luke 17 :21

The « within » is wrongly contested because it is assumed that saying that the kingdom of God is within a group of people is equivalent to saying that they’re saved and therefore how could a bunch of unregenerate Pharisees be saved?
For one thing, salvation is when someone enters the kingdom of God, not when the kingdom of God enters them.
The « within » of the A.V. 1611 is shown to be accurate if one simply remembers the english meaning of the word « kingdom ». A kingdom designates a particular area or sphere of dominion.
All that the Lord is saying here is that the sphere of the kingdom of God is on the inside and not on the outside as is the case with the kingdom of heaven. This is clear for Paul defines the kingdom of God as follows in Romans 14:17 “For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.”
Those are all things whose sphere is “within”, not among. The Holy Ghost comes into believers, not among them or in their midst.

The Lord is taking the Pharisees for a ride, because they did not divide between the kingdom of God and the kingdom of heaven, just like most of modern Christian scholarship. They specifically asked “when the kingdom of GOD should come” not the kingdom of heaven. So the Lord takes the opportunity to teach them a lesson in rightly dividing the word of truth by pointing out, in his own unique way, that that kingdom is spiritual and hence its targeted area is within them: their spirit and soul. That’s why it can only be entered by a spiritual, inner birth, as the Lord taught Nicodemus.

· Luke 21 :20

Verses 20 to 24 in Luke are just as much a reference to the final tribulation siege of Jerusalem as Matthew’s are.

· John 1 :18

Not quite. Some men had seen the Son whom in the trinity, stands for the body, as the Holy Spirit stands for the spirit, and the Father for the soul. God’s soul no man has ever seen at any time.

· Acts 9 :20

Scofield is a way off here. For one thing, though the truth that Christ was God was plainly taught by Isaiah, it wasn’t believed, just like many other teachings of the prophets. Scofield’s note also creates the impression that everyone naturally believed that the Christ would be God the Son and that the only problem was identifying who’s the Christ.
Such an assumption is inexplicable given the gospel narrative. Contradicting the sense of the Authorized Version is a fundamentally spiritual problem rather than intellectual one. See Hebrews 5 :6 note.

· Acts 19 :2

The A.V. words are correct. The second part of the note is accurate.

· 1 Corinthians 1 :8

See also 2 Thessalonians 2 : 2 note.
The day of Christ does not relate exclusively ``to the reward and blessing of saints at His coming``. The expression covers the rapture of the church before the tribulation as well as the second advent of the Lord Jesus Christ at the end of the tribulation.

· 1 Corinthians 2 :13, Revelation 22 :19 (3 superscript)

Here Scofield ignores the scriptures’ own testimony concerning the matter and buckles under scholarly pressure. See Hebrews 5 :6 note.
Watch how the credit due the Holy Ghost is transferred unto men and observe the inherent contradictions :
``The writers of Scripture invariably affirm, where the subject is mentioned by them at all, that the words (emphasis in original) of their writings are divinely taught. This of necessity, refers to the original documents, not to translations and versions; but the labours of competent scholars (emphasis mine) have brought our English version to a degree of perfection so remarkable that we may confidently rest upon them as authoritative.``

A) Why it is of necessity is not explained, only assumed by natural reasoning, not taught by divine revelation.

B) In more than one instance the scriptures bear testimony that a translation and a copy can be as inspired as the original authographs. If that were not the case, than the inspiration of the original document would be futile. Why would God inspire something he wouldn’t preserve?!

C) What may be rested upon as authoritative according to Scofield are ``translations and versions``.
Yet ``the writers of Scripture affirm`` that their WORDS, not only the document as whole, are inspired, not simply ``authoritative``. There’s a huge difference between words and versions, and between inspired and authoritative. There’s a giant chasm between inspired words and authoritative versions, which chasm God would never allow to separate us from his words given his insistent emphasis that we need every word that proceeds out of his mouth to live!

D) Why God would go through the trouble of inspiring the writings of ``holy men of old`` that people may read his pure words but leave scholars to fend for themselves in extracting those very words, without guiding them by his Holy Ghost in the process, is a mystery no scholar dares discuss. Maybe because those scholars weren’t ``holy men``...
Christians believe that they can’t get to heaven despite their best efforts, that they can’t live the Christian life outside the grace of God, that they can’t survive without the sustenance of God, and that without Jesus Christ they can do nothing; and yet, marvel of marvels, when it comes to God’s words, the subject dearest to his heart, they believe that God gets the ball rolling, then forever abandons men to rely on their own intellects and education, and efforts in order to retrieve his words which he allowed to fall by the way side some hundreds of years. That is nothing short of spiritual madness.


· 1 Corinthians 10 :8

While there may be discrepancies in some Hebrew manuscripts, there aren’t any in the A.V. 1611. If there wasn’t a flawless Bible on earth today, the scripture would be broken (Psalm 12 :6-7, Matthew 24 :35, Mark 13 :31, Luke 21 :33)


· 1 Corinthians 15 :52

To understand Scofield’s note one must remember that the ``first resurrection`` of Revelation of 20 :5 is compared to a harvest which has three phases : one resurrection of the first fruits, which took place after Jesus’ resurrection (Matthew 27 :52-53). That was a resurrection of SOME of the O.T. saints. Then there’s the main harvest which is the resurrection of the church ONLY. Finally there are the gleanings, which is the resurrection of the tribulation saints plus the rest of the O.T. saints who weren’t resurrected in Matthew 27 :52-53.
So Scofield is wrong in saying that the O.T. saints are raised up with the church. See also 1 Thessalonians 4 :17 note

· Ephesians 1 :3

The note is completely arbitrary. Heaven is a literal, physical, geographical dimension, not an experience or a state. The born-again Christian is somehow literally represented in the third heaven, geographically (see Ephesians 2 :6) even while he lives bodily on the earth; similarly to Jesus Christ during his earthly life. See John 3 :13. The ``places`` is especially leading.

· Philippians 1 :1

Strictly speaking, it is not the local church that is the temple of God but the bodies of the believers.

· 1 Thessalonians 4 :17

Only church saints have a part in this resurrection. The first resurrection is not limited to the church’s resurrection. See 1 Corinthians 15 :52 note.


· 2 Thessalonians 2 :3

(3) The classic interpretation has been that v.7 refers to the Holy Spirit who’s refraining the manifestation of the antichrist until he is taken out of the way.
But there’s no reference to the Holy Spirit in the context. According to Ruckman, there’s a cog in the wheel that’s keeping the man of sin from showing up as the son of perdition.
(2) The apostasy is not that of the professing church, which is inconsequential and senseless, but of the true church, hence Laodicea. See 1 Timothy 3 :15 note; 2 Timothy 3 :1 note.

· 1 Timothy 3 :15

Apostasy is never restricted to nominal Christianity in the Bible. To restrict apostasy to unbelievers is unscriptural, smacks of the fear of man, and underestimates the deceitfulness of the old nature in true believers. In fact, apostasy is exclusively used of saved believers who knowingly reject revealed scriptural truth. See 2 Timothy 3 :1 note; 2 Thessalonians 2 :3 note.

· 2 Timothy 3 :1

In ``professed Christians``, cross out ``professed``. There’s no apostasy in the passage because Paul is talking about lost men. Scofield inserts his note on apostasy here because he limits apostasy to lost professing Christians, which is exactly the opposite view of the Bible. How apostates can ``depart from the faith``, which faith they never had to begin with, is not explained. Scofield simply has in mind lost people who once spoke as Christians and quit doing so. But revealing one’s true colours and apostasy are two widely different things.


The greatest apostasy within English-speaking Christianity today is the forsaking of the King James Bible and of the promises of God that he would preserve all his words through time and translations. See 1 Timothy 3 :15 note; 2 Thessalonians 2 :3 note.

· Titus 1 :5

(2) The bishop is the pastor. The elders are deacons. That one man was head is clear from the sheer fact that Paul charges one man, even Titus, to ordain the elders and does not leave their ordination to the elders themsevles. Moreover, Philippians 1 :1 mentions bishops and deacons. That the persons and their respective office is not meant but in fact two different offices, is obvious,. There are to be sure ``differences of administrations`` (1 Corinthians 12 :5) but Scofield’s Brethren affiliation is a little too evident.

· Hebrews 1 :4

Scofield is correct in drawing attention to the varied uses of the word ``angel`` in scripture. Another usage is that of appearance or representation.

· Hebrews 5 :6

Here we have a stupendous example of how the fleshly intellect of even a Christian of Scofield’s eminent stature can cause a man to disbelieve and over-rule the words of the living God. Scofield gives the interpretation of Melchizedek as being ``My king is righteous``. Yet the Holy Ghost himself defines it as first ``king of righteousness``, then ``king of peace`` in Hebrews 7 :2. The reason why Scofield gives ``my king is righteous`` is because he trusts secular etymology more than the revelation of the Holy Ghost. There can be no other explanation.
Arabic is this writer’s native tongue. In Arabic, a Shemitic language, as Hebrew, Melchizedek, as it stands, could mean ``my king is righteous`` but more so it could mean ``my reign is righteous``.
But Scofield might not have had access to that. The point is etymology which is not inspired is never completely authoritative because it is always controversial and shifting, so it is irrelevant when faced with the Bible’s own God-given definition.
The reference he gives, Isaiah 11 :5 is actually closer to Hebrews 7 :2 for the word there is ``righteousness``, not ``righteous``. But why Scofield gives Isaiah 11 :5 as a cross-reference instead of Hebrews 7 :2 is utterly bewildering. Truly, the problem is a spiritual and not an intellectual one.

· Hebrews 6 :4

Scofield fails here where most of Christianity does because of a lack of division.
Hebrews 6 :4-8 and Hebrews 10 :26-39 do indeed teach loss of salvation but not for the church age dispensation. Those passages deal with Jews who believe during the tribulation after the church has been raptured. The tribulation is a period wherein loss of salvation is possible because the law comes back just as it was in the Old Testament.
Failing to rightly divide the word of truth, Scofield had to explain away the passage since it clearly conflicted with the Pauline epistles and John’s gospel, which make it abundantly clear that a man cannot lose his salvation. But Paul is writing there to a church age believer, not a tribulation Jew as in Hebrews.

· Hebrews 10 :5

The note is essentially correct. The last sentence however is wrong. The variant form is simply adapted to the dispensation in question.
For instance : Isaiah 28 :16 says
``Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste. ``
Paul quotes that in Romans 9:33 as
``As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.``

There Paul, by inspiration of the Holy Ghost, applies Isaiah 28:16 to the salvation of Gentiles from hell by obtaining the free righteousness of God by faith.
However that is not ``the deeper meaning``of Isaiah 28:16. Isaiah is referring to the fact that Jews who believe the testimony of Jesus Christ during the tribulation won’t have to literally run away from ``the overflowing scourge`` of v.16 whereas those who covenanted with hell will.

· Introduction to James

James is not an epistle to Christians by any stretch. It was written before the Pauline epistles to ``the twelve tribes`` (James 1:1) of Israel. The context is Jewish and is doctrinally addressed to Jewish believers during the tribulation.
The author is James Zebedee, brother of John, who is martyred in Acts 12:2, not James the Lord’s brother.

· 1 Peter 1:2, 1 Peter 1:20

``But scripture nowhere declares what it is in the divine foreknowledge which determines the divine election and predestination.`` is another whopper. Scofield missed it because it was too simple. The criterion determined by God for election is faith in Jesus Christ. God decided before the foundation of the world that his criterion for choosing who gets saved would be faith in his Son. So those who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ get forgiven and get predestinated to escape hell, get adopted as sons, end up in New Jerusalem in a mansion with a new body with Jesus Christ. ( John 1 :12, Romans 10 :13, Ephesians 1 :13 etc...)
So Scofield unwittingly answers himself when he says that ``this election is certain to every believer by the mere fact that he believes``.

· 2 Peter 1 :19

It is not more sure because it is fulfilled in part. That interpretation doesn’t make sense of the passage. Peter is comparing words. He’s saying that the written word in your Bible is more sure than the word he heard with his ears on the mount of transfiguration.

· Jude 11

(Balaam) Scofield says that Balaam figured he could curse Israel because ``he was blind to the higher morality of the Cross.`` You can blame Balaam for a lot of things but that isn’t one of them. The cross wasn’t till 1500 years after Balaam. Scofield uncharacteristically here adopts that peculiar mindset of non-dispensational Christianity which makes salvation uniform throughout all the Bible. Nobody was ever saved by looking forward to the cross in the Old Testament. The disciples were missing the cross almost till they saw it, all the while being foretold by Christ.
If anyone was in effect so saved in the O.T. that would mean they differentiated between the first and second advent of Christ, which would contradict 1 Peter 1 :10-11 which states that they didn’t.
As far as God is concerned, when it comes to Israel’s enemies, Israel is sinless. Period. Yes all sins could only bee taken away by the blood of Christ 1500 years later, but many in Israel perished in that episode with Moab, and died lost because of their own sins. Knowing that would happen, God still refused to uphold Balaam’s curse against them.
Balaam was blind to the higher morality of God’s unconditional covenant with Abraham.

· Revelation 13 :2

Rome is the leopard. The three beasts preceed the kingdom of Antichrist which is Daniel’s 4th and divers beast and stems out of the Roman empire. See Daniel 7 :17 note.

· Revelation 13 :16

Scofield’s note is a bit confusing. The spirit of antichrist according to John denies that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh and denies the Father and the Son.

· Revelation 14 :6

(2) The gospel of the grace of God is defined in 1 Corinthians 15 :1-4. The reference is surprisingly missing from such a long paragraph.
III. In Colosse the human merit which is mingled is not fanaticism but asceticism.


· Revelation 18 :2

The note is questionable. Larkin also differentiates between political and ecclesiastical Babylon but Ruckman doesn’t. One thing is sure, Babylon is a literal principality in the heavens and has a literal counterpart on earth. Revelation 17 clearly teaches that Babylon is Rome.

. Revelation 19 :8

True, but here the verse is clearly referring to ``the righteousness of saints`` which is not saving righteousness but good works wrought by believers AFTER salvation. God’s righteousness clothes the inside, the righteousness of saints clothes the outside. (Psalm 45 :13-14)


. Revelation 19 :17

Armageddon is actually where the battle ends, not begins. The Lord lands first at Sinai and goes up fighting to Armageddon, which is the last and final clash before the millennial kingdom of Jesus Christ is established.

. Revelation 19 :19

``The day of the Lord`` has more than one application in the Bible depending on the context. It can refer to the great tribulation, the second advent, the end of the millennium, and sometimes even encompasses the rapture of the church before the tribulation.

. Revelation 20 :11

This is another such case as ``the day of the Lord``. ``The day of judgment`` can refer to the great tribulation, the second advent, or the great white throne judgment at the end of the millennium depending on the context. ``The day of destruction`` shows up once in Job 21 :30 and is a reference to the second advent.

. Revelation 22 :19 (4 superscript)

(3) The recipient is not a ``new creation`` but a ``new creature``. He isn’t recreated he’s reborn.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 1:46 PM | 1 comments    

Labels: bible studies

1Corinthians 1:25 Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men.


2Corinthians 13:4 For though he was crucified through weakness, yet he liveth by the power of God. For we also are weak in him, but we shall live with him by the power of God toward you.

The weakness of God is stronger than men; one of the first and last things Paul ever tells the Corinthians.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;
:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

I`m preaching the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ.
When I say “the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ” I’m not referring to the fact that he was crucified by men. I’m referring to the fact that the whole operation belonged to him and was under his control. It was HIS crucifixion.

Verses 14 and 15 of Colossians 2 burst with the glorious power of the crucified Son of God. There’s so much going in these few words it hurts to think about it. I do not claim to fully understand everything that’s going on here but I’d like to give you a sketch of the spiritual context before showing you a couple things that the Lord showed me in those verses.

Colossians chapter 2 attacks with the intent to destroy 2 things : philosophy and religion. Paul presents philosophy as primarily the sphere of men and religion as primarily the sphere of angelic beings. If you understood the implications of that it would send a shiver or two up your spine. The central part of Colossians 2 hinges on the crucifixion of the Lord of glory. Philosophy and Religion are both destroyed in the cross.

But tonight I want to preach on neither; both those things have gotten undeserved recognition. Look again at verses 14-15 and go back with me 2000 years in time. Or as far as God is concerned, 2 days ago.
I want to show you a couple of reasons why the Lamb is worthy of your worship.


Let me ask you a question.

Colossians 2:14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross;

According to Paul, who’s doing the nailing?

He is. He was giving the Roman soldiers the breath to live and the strength to pound the nails. “…in him we live and move and have our being” right? He was controlling their blood pressure, their breathing, their articulations… He was a carpenter. He had pounded nails all his life. “Friend, that nail is loose. Make it fast; more deft in the motion. Don’t forget my feet now, men sin with their feet too…”
Now if you think four rusty Roman nails could keep the Lord of glory stuck on a piece of wood you’re gravely mistaken. You say ‘nobody believes that’. Well every crucifix testifies to that belief in people. It occurred to me that some people may be so bent on having a cross with Jesus on it because they wish he never got off.
You don’t know who Jesus Christ is if you think Roman nails could pin down the one who pinned up the earth in the void of space.
He was doing the nailing. And he was nailing the coffin on our sin. Those nails were meant to keep our sin up against the cross, under the sun, then covered by darkness, lest it should crawl off the tree for shame. He bare our sins in his own body then he drove the nails of judgment through his own flesh. That’s the reason why you can have the promise of the redemption of your body, and not only of your soul: body for body, soul for soul.

The Lord Jesus Christ is to be praised because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

He made it his own cross.
He didn’t nail the handwriting of ordinances to a cross, he nailed it to his cross. He made that piece of wood his own. He took ownership of it. And why shouldn’t he? He had given that tree life. It wasn’t a cross that the Romans imposed upon him and it wasn’t a cross that the Jews imposed upon him. It was a cross that he nourished, it was a cross that he chose and it was a cross that he carried up Calvary’s mountain.
Going up Golgotha was not any more imposed upon Jesus Christ than going up in the way to Bethel was imposed upon Elisha by the little children when they mocked him, saying : Go up, thou bald head.
Have you ever encountered such people? You’re on your way out of the door and they say `go out the door` and feel proud that they commanded and you obeyed. That’s how it was with Jesus Christ. He was doing the will of his Father, having his face set like a flint. All the counsels and all the devices of all the hosts of heaven and earth, whether principalities or powers or thrones or dominions, or kings or princes or nobles or rulers or priests, were as immaterial to the crucifixion of the Lord Jesus Christ as the commandment of the little children was to Elisha’s going up the way that he had set his face to go up.
If the Roman soldiers had refused to lift up that cross that morning, the Lord of glory would have lifted himself up by his bootstraps and planted that piece of wood into the cursed ground.
It was his operation, his crucifixion, his arena. By virtue of the word of his power the soil was his, the tree was his, Jerusalem was his, the soldiers were his, the priests were his, the hammer and nails were his, the spear was his, the crown of thorns was his and the atonement was ours! He set up the whole thing.

He was completely, totally and utterly in control of the situation. That’s why he could afford so calmly to tell the daughters of Jerusalem to weep over themselves instead of him. Movies like “the Passion of the Christ” have the wrong emphasis. I’m waiting for the crucifixion movie that emphasizes the wretched sinfulness of man and the power of God to redeem.

The Lord Jesus Christ won the heart of the battle a few hours before the cross. It was over the moment he got up off his knees in the garden of Gethsemane.
It’s because he got on his knees that he could bare his feet crucified. It’s because his elbows bore into the sod that he could bare his hands crucified. It’s because he bowed his head that he could bear it crowned with thorns. It’s because he sweat great drops of blood that he could bare having it all shed from his side.
The moment the Lord Jesus Christ got off those powerful knees of his in the garden, it was game over for Satan. Sports analysts always look for the turning point of a game. The Lord walks over to the disciples and says « Rise, let us be going ». There’s your turning point.

Now when he said « I’m going to the cross » it wasn’t with any more trepidation than when he said « I’m going to my Father ».

The Lord Jesus Christ is to be praised because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

And one day, the Lord will tell us the same thing with the same voice of assurance « Rise, let us be going ». Meanwhile, as you’re waiting for him like the disciples did, you just find life so unbearable because you don’t bare serious prayer.


Colossians 2:15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

Those principalities and powers are very much interested in keeping men under the bondage of religion. The Son of God delivered us from the fear of death and from the devil who had the power of death. Now Colossians 2:15 is a snapshot of a brutal spiritual battle that I don’t quite understand. It is a broad verse.

Boxers will sometimes offer to fight their opponent with one hand tied behind their back. The Son of God tied both his hands and feet and still made a publick spectacle of Satan’s heroes.

Everything I am about to list is attested by a verse of scripture:

They accused him of breaking the sabbath, he perfected atonement in the end of an high sabbath.
They conspired to cut off his name, he prayed to blot out theirs.
They said “this people who knoweth not the law are cursed”, he redeemed us from the curse of the law.
They judged him in the morning, he will judge them in the kingdom morning.
They asked “art thou the Son of the Blessed,” he said “he is my Father”.
They asked “what is truth?”, he said “I am the truth”.
They asked “art thou the king of the Jews?”, he said I am the King of Kings.
One asked “who is the LORD?”, he answered “what is man?”
They took him from prison, he preached delivrance to the captives.
They cried “Away with him”, he took out of the way the handwriting of ordinances.
They said his blood be upon us, he’ll rain blood upon them.
They gave him vinegar to drink, he’ll give them wormwood to drink.
They stripped him publickly, he made a shew of them openly.
They clothed him with a scarlet robe, he’ll clothe them with shame and dip his vesture in blood.
They crowned him with a crown of thorns, that same crown will flourish.
They handed him a reed, his rod will bud.
They beat him with the reed, he’ll break them in pieces with a rod of iron.
They bound him, he bound the strong man.
They led him away captive, he led captivity captive.
They made him bare the cross, he bore our sorrows and carried our griefs on top of it.
They hung him between two thieves, he will sit between Moses and Elijah.
They lift him up from the earth, he was taken up to heaven.
They tempted him to come down from the cross, he’s going to come down from heaven.
They nailed him, he nailed our sins.
They tore his flesh, he rent the veil.
They said we see, he covered the land with darkness.
They destroyed his temple, he rebuilt it in 3 days.
They spoiled him, he spoiled principalities and powers.
They gnashed upon him with their teeth and cast scorning in his, he’ll break the teeth of the ungodly and make his own white with milk.
They sealed his tomb, he sealed his saints.
They buried him, he resurrected.
They inclosed him in hell, he walked out with the keys.

Because the weakness of God is stronger than men.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 8:17 PM | 2 comments    

Labels: sermons

Right after the flood, when Noah came forth out of the ark, he builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

And the Lord smelled a sweet saviour [BBQ lamb chops] and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake;
for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

And God blessed Noah and spake to him saying behold I establish my covenant with you and your seed after you. This is the token of the covenant. I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.

And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud: And I will remember my covenant. And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

The above are words compiled from the account of the Flood in Genesis Chapter 9. To me, it is quite clear that God put HIS bow in the cloud. He looks upon it and remembers a covenant He made towards ALL flesh (you and me included).

God spoke of an "everlasting covenant". Today, the rainbow (or what God called "my bow") is used to tell a very different story.

Can someone explain to me, please, how did we get from there to here. Or may be the Lord just knew what would happen, when close to five thousand years ago, he said the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.

Posted by Consecrated at 11:41 AM | 3 comments    

The consistency of numerical patterns in the Bible is one of many infallible proofs of its inspiration. Remember the Bible is made up of 66 books written by 38 authors across 1800 years in 3 languages on 3 continents, by people of all walks of life writing against their own people and government. With this said, observe:

1. The 5 kings rebel against Chedorlaomer king of Elam in the 13th year. (Genesis 14:4)

2. 13 is Ishmael’s age when he was circumcised. Ishmael was “born after the flesh” (Galatians 4:29)

3. Haman’s commandment “to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, […]and to take the spoil of them for a prey.” was written on the 13th day of the 1st month. The day for carrying out the commandment was to be year later to the day, on the 13th of the 1st month, according to (Esther 3 verse 13).

4. Nimrod, a type of the antichrist, is the 13th from Adam (1 Chronicles 1:10)

5. Manasseh, the most evil king of Judah, is the 13th king from the division of the kingdom.

6. It took Solomon 7 years to finish the house of God (1 Kings 6:38). He spends 13 years on his own house. ( 1 Kings 7:1)

8. Jesus lists 13 evil things that proceed out of a man’s heart in Mark 7:21-22

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 9:49 PM | 2 comments    

Labels: bible studies

Open
John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.

The Lord Jesus Christ is no pusher. He doesn’t push eternal life on anybody.
Jesus Christ is a puller.

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

Hosea 11:3 I taught Ephraim also to go, taking them by their arms; but they knew not that I healed them.
:4 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.

If you only knew who is that God that has kept you alive by his grace so far. If only your eyes were opened to know him. I want your eyes to be opened by God.

Romans 2:4 Or despisest thou the riches of his goodness and forbearance and longsuffering; not knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance?

He hasn’t kept you alive that you might go on sinning. He told the woman taken in adultery “go and sin no more”.
He hasn’t healed you that you might sin the better, he told the old man by the pool “sin no more, lest a worse thing come unto thee. “

He hasn’t kept you alive because you’re such an intelligent swell guy. He’s kept you alive hoping that finally you’d wake up and realize who he is and what you are; that you might look upon thy maker, thy redeemer, and give him your heart; that he may obtain the reward of his suffering, even your soul, your love, your loyalty, your obedience, your praise.

A man may ask ``well about the hard times I’ve suffered``, where was God’s goodness there? Assuming you weren’t reaping what you sowed I’ll tell you this: you’ve all heard the expression

You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make it drink.

In days gone by, our forefathers knew that if a horse had been sick and is weak and in danger of going down, you could put a little salt in his oats and that salt would draw it to the watering trough and make it drink.

That’s how the Lord God deals with many people because they’re too drugged up to feel their thirst and that they`re are about to die of dehydration! So he’ll do anything he can to draw you to the water of life without denying the free will he gave you.

:13 Jesus answered and said unto her, Whosoever drinketh of this water shall thirst again:

The more you drink alcohol the more you thirst. It’s a cruel master. The more you serve it the less it feeds you.
The more you smoke the less you breathe.
The more you consume the less you’re filled.

Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

That’s not some psychologist’s opinion. That’s a statement of fact uttered by the Creator of heaven and earth.

He’s saying, buddy if you ain’t got me, you’ll go back to it, every time, just as sure as a man goes for water when he’s thirsty.

Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

Don’t get fooled now, it won’t be “just this once”, it won’t be “one last time”, it won’t be “one more binge then I’ll quit”.

Why? Because: Whosoever drinketh of this water SHALL thirst again.

:14 But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.

That’s literal. Spiritual doesn’t mean not-literal.

Open

John 7:37 In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink.
:38 He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.
:39 (But this spake he of the Spirit, which they that believe on him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because that Jesus was not yet glorified.)

Here you have the Lord God of heaven and earth standing in the midst of a monstrous religious ceremony and as he looks around he perceives that his creation is dying of spiritual thirst! Smack dab in the middle of a national religious festival.
Everything in him wants to bring this madness to a screeching halt. STOP THAT STOP IT, ENOUGH.
Aghast at the madness of men, he rushes up, stands in a visible place and shouts with all the strength in his lungs:

IF ANY MAN THIRST, LET HIM COME UNTO ME, AND DRINK. HE THAT BELIEVETH ON ME, AS THE SCRIPTURE HATH SAID, OUT OF HIS BELLY SHALL FLOW RIVERS OF LIVING WATER.

The Lord Jesus Christ has been glorified. He has been received up into glory after his resurrection and is right now seated on the right hand of the Father in the third heaven.

And the offer is more valid today, it is more urgent today than ever it was. And that offer is not eternal.

Isaiah 58:11 And the LORD shall guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and make fat thy bones: and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters fail not.

Isaiah 55:1 Ho, every one that thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath no money; come ye, buy, and eat; yea, come, buy wine and milk without money and without price.
:2 Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.
:3 Incline your ear, and come unto me: hear, and your soul shall live; and I will make an everlasting covenant with you, even the sure mercies of David.

For you it is free, but for the Lord it wasn’t. Your salvation from hell cost him his blood. He payed for your soul with his own lifeblood.
Christians sing an hymn which says “great price of my pardon his own precious Son”. I love that line.
Now you can simply walk up and buy those waters. The currency is the blood of the Lamb of God. It buys full and eternal forgiveness of sins. It never gets depreciated, just underappreciated.

That’s some expensive water, and unlike Evian, it’s worth it. You’ll never thirst again.

Jeremiah 2:12 Be astonished, O ye heavens, at this, and be horribly afraid, be ye very desolate, saith the LORD.
:13 For my people have committed two evils; they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters, and hewed them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.

God doesn’t invoke the witness of the earth. The world, as usual, doesn’t care.

John 1 [10] He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

That woman had the glory of everlasting life staring her in the eyeballs through the eyes of a man, never suspecting that salvation could be as easy as meeting a man, who happened to be God.

[11] He came unto his own, and his own received him not.

Some knew who he was and rejected him. Do you know why men don’t like the idea of God becoming man. Because it brings God so near that his holiness is too close for comfort. It reveals God as a personal God, interested in your thoughts and actions. That’s too close for comfort for those who love darkness. So they reject the light of the world. They love filthiness, so they reject the water of life.

The Lord set up things so that all life depends on water that comes from above. If your land is thirsty then you’re scanning the heaven for clouds of hope. He made it that way to teach mankind a spiritual lesson: life depends on heaven for water. (Just like it does for light)

Remember the verse

John 12:32 And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto me.

He was lifted up from the earth by a tree: the cross.

John 19 :34 But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water.

The water which came from his side came from above.

The word of God calls Jesus Christ "the dayspring from on high" Luke 1:78

You know where some of you are stuck? You’re stuck at the well, like that woman. You’re looking down to quench your thirst, just like that woman.
Pick up that cigarette butt out of the garbage, pick up that coin on the street, pick up that needle on the ground…You shall thirst again.

You can’t make a horse drink and you can’t make a pig look up. Did you know that? Their skeletal structure is designed to look down and move sideways. They can only lift their heads to see 70 degrees from the ground.

What about you?

Jeremiah 2:13 they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters,

He was offering the living waters for free, yet they chose rather to work for them, breaking their backs to hew cisterns that could hold no water.

He said ``two evils``: ingratitude and folly.

Empty cisterns were used as prisons. So Joseph was cast into a "pit" (Genesis 37:22); Jeremiah into one miry at the bottom, and so deep that he was let down by cords (Jeremiah 38:6)

Cisterns yield only a limited supply of water, not an overflowing spring. The stonework of tanks often becomes broken, and the water leaks into the earth; and, at best, the water is not fresh long.
The cistern would hold you captive but let the water escape.
Joseph and Jeremiah cried their hearts out to be delivered.

What moldy, stagnant water are you drinking: Alcohol, drugs, sex, gambling?

What cistern are you building around you? Often the wells are more outwardly beautiful on the outside than drugs and alcohol but just as filthy on the inside. What’s your golden sewer?
Religion? Philosophy? Education? Science? Politics? Morality?
Congratulations, you’re choosing and building your own private prison.

The Lord’s heart is breaking. Crucified, his side poured out blood then water.

You don’t get to taste the water of life until you’ve been washed in the blood of its author.
Yet the Lord Jesus Christ is ignored, rejected, lightly esteemed, by men who are dying of thirst; men who would rather toil and drink their own sweat than confess their wretchedness.
What’s wrong with a man admitting the truth? “Lord, I’ve tried it all, and it’s a cruel mess that I’ve made of my life. I’m thirstier today then ever I was. I’m tired of trying to find satisfaction my way. Here am I, a sinful, rebellious fool. That book says you can satisfy my deep thirst and forgive all my sins. Lord Jesus, please give me of that water of yours, save me from the flames of hell and from my own wretchedness!”

What’s wrong with that?

But there are many who would rather drink sewage water than pray such a prayer from the heart to the Lord Jesus Christ.
Well to you I say; don’t be surprised if the Lord treats you as a sewage rat on the day of the judgment.
Remember the rich man in hell, who begged to have Lazarus dip his finger in water and cross over to touch his tongue. If your tongue won’t ask for the living water that the Lord Jesus Christ offers you so freely today, rest assured that you will spend eternity panting for water.

You know what that woman ended up doing after meeting Jesus Christ in person? Look at verse

[28] The woman then left her waterpot,

She left her water pot. Some of you just can’t let go of that "pot". She just didn’t need it anymore; she wasn’t dependent on it anymore. She had drunk of the fountain of living waters.
Some of you here just can’t seem to let go of your sin, of your addiction.
You’re never going to lose your addiction; you’re going to have to leave it.

But you know what your problem is? You’ve never met Jesus Christ in person yet. You’ve never had a head-on collision with him. You still think he’s a great Jewish man who showed up 2000 years ago in dusty Israel. You still don’t get who he is and you still don’t know the gift of God.

So many folks say they ask for salvation everynight. Have you ever called on the Lord Jesus Christ to save you?

"Oh sure, everynight I do".

Buddy, YOU SHALL THIRST AGAIN.

Salvation is one-time deal. It is a single drink. Jesus Christ said that you "shall never thirst".
If you ask to be forgiven and saved from hell every night it's because you're still drinking the wrong water. You're still stuck at the well, having to go back and forth to draw out dead water.
Only once did water come out of the Lord's side. Only once do you need to drink. I had that drink back in the Spring of 1989. Praise God I'm still satisfied.
Your problem is that you're still depending on your self, on your ability to go out to the well and return, day in day out. You had better bring the fountain of living waters to you and get it in you because one day your body will give out and collapse. Receive Jesus Christ by faith into your heart; you'll never have to go to that well again.

Now to the believers here I’d like to say that Jesus Christ only ever asked for 2 things in his life. Both times it was for a drink of water. He never got either.
He never got it from that woman, and he never got it on the cross when he said "I thirst". Too many of you are concerned with what Jesus Christ can do for you and you never think of what you could do for him.

To the rest I’d like to say this:

John 4:10 Jesus answered and said unto her, If thou knewest the gift of God, and who it is that saith to thee, Give me to drink; thou wouldest have asked of him, and he would have given thee living water.


Salvation is as easy as drinking a glass of water. Some of you philosophical types die of thirst while debating whether the glass is half-empty or half-full. The water won’t do you any good in the glass. You could even bathe in a fountain and still die of thirst. The water’s got to get in you.

(Drink)

You can stick 60 000 things in your mouth but you can’t drink a cup of the water of life?!

Romans10: 8 But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.

Some of you can smell a good deal a mile off. But the natural man is so spiritually deficient he can’t spot eternal life and satisfaction for free when it’s staring him in the eyeballs.

One hell-bound sinner, after having licked-up the barrel’s bottom, sat down in his misery and wrote:
“I can’t get no satisfaction”. And just to prove it to you he repeats the chorus a dozen times. Of course the devil does everything with style. He gives the guy a nice tune to go with the words and watches as millions of miserable pitiful wretches sing themselves to death.

What a loser. I got my satisfaction; my Lord Jesus.

Born-again Christians sing a hymn called "Satisfied".

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 1:10 PM | 3 comments    

Labels: sermons

So you've seen how God used Jeremiah 22:30 to set-up such a predicament as necessitated a supernatural birth to be solved. Interestingly, that is precisely the issue wherein the Jews dishonoured Jesus Christ when things got heated between them; his birth. Observe:


John 8:41 Ye do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication; (i.e. like you are) we have one Father, even God.

And

John 8:48 Then answered the Jews, and said unto him, Say we not well that thou art a Samaritan, and hast a devil?

Now God in his mercy had made it easier for Israel to believe the fulfilment of Isaiah 7:14, as we've seen before, through the very bind in which he put them. By taking away the kingdom, and rejecting the seed royal, he put them in such a bind wherein their only hope out was to believe the supernatural birth of Jesus as the Christ, the King of the Jews.



Now here's where it gets even more interesting for today's dispensation.

What God did to Israel with the kingship, he's done today with the priesthood.

Hosea 3:4 For the children of Israel shall abide many days (try 2000 years on for size) without a king, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and without an image, and without an ephod, and without teraphim:

No king = no kingdom.
No sacrifice, no ephod = no priesthood!

Today the Jews have no temple-service, no priests, no sacrifices, no levites. They've got Rabbis galore, but no priests.

Now watch this

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.

Compare that rejection with Coniah's

Jeremiah 22:24 As I live, saith the LORD, though Coniah the son of Jehoiakim king of Judah were the signet upon my right hand, yet would I pluck thee thence;

Hosea 4:6 is to the priesthood what Jeremiah 22:30 is to the kingdom!

Allright so when did Hosea 3:4 and 4:6 get fulfiled? Not in Hosea's time. Israel continued to have temple-service and a priesthood well after Hosea. So when did those verses come into play?

Follow the thread carefully.

Matthew 24:1 And Jesus went out, and departed from the temple: and his disciples came to him for to shew him the buildings of the temple.
:2 And Jesus said unto them, See ye not all these things? verily I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down


John 2:18 Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things?
:19 Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.
:20 Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days?
:21 But he spake of the temple of his body.

The false witness that precipitates Jesus' condemnation had to do with John 2:19 IN RELATION TO THE TEMPLE.
See Matthew 26:59-66

Soon thereafter Jesus Christ was led out and crucified. That was 33 A.D. Not 40 years after, in 70 A.D. , Titus came up against Jerusalem and destroyed the temple, fulfiling Matthew 24:2.

Enter Hosea 3:4 and 4:6.

They rejected Jesus as King so they lost the kindgom and the land.
They rejected Jesus as Priest so they lost the priesthood and the temple.

Now think about this my Jewish friend, and ponder well. If Jesus was born of fornication, as many Jews still believe today, then the Lord God sure went out of his way to make a bastard look like the Christ by making him fit all the SCRIPTURAL prerequisites for the kingship and priesthood!

God today has placed you in a predicament where the only place you could find a high priest is by receiving Jesus Christ as High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, not Aaron, as prophecied in

Psalm 110:4 The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.

Compare that with "thou shalt be no priest to me" Hosea 4:6

Already the change of priesthood was foreshadowed so that when it came you'd recognize it, just like he did for the seed royal!

He's forcing you to look to heaven. That's God's mercy again at work. Do you know what your problem is, my Jewish friend? It's that you're a Catholic at heart. Just like Catholics read and believe the Catechism instead of the Bible, you read and believe the Talmud instead of the Bible. You don't know the writings of your own prophets.

Hosea 4:6 My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge,

I'll close with Coniah.

Instead of calling him "Jeconiah" like he does in 1 Chronicles 3:16 and 2 Chronicles 36:8 the Lord simply calls him "Coniah" in Jeremiah 22:24,28. He takes the "JE" out of his name, as in "JEhovah". The next time "JE" shows up in the royal line is in "JEsus"! Meaning "JAH saves".

Food for thought.

So here's the conclusion of the matter, dear Jewish friend:

instead of the seed of Coniah, God gave you the seed of the Holy Ghost, and instead of the order of Aaron, God gave you the order of Melchizedek.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 12:55 AM | 0 comments    

Labels: bible studies

The problem is solved in Matthew 1:16 though the hint to the solution was given about 700 years prior.

Isaiah 7:13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?
:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.

That's the kind of verse that's loaded with 7000 tons of TNT, made in heaven.

This was written by the prophet Isaiah some years before Jeremiah ever wrote what he wrote concerning Coniah. And that's part of the beauty of the word of God: it sometimes gives you the solution to a problem that hasn't come up yet. Here's what you want to notice:

1) The attention of the house (family) of David is specifically requested. Not of the whole world, not of Israel, not of the priests and Levites, but that of the "house of David". So the house of David is especially concerned. You are to understand that it wasn't written just for the house of David that was then, but to all those who are of the house of David that should come in the future.

2) It's a sign. That means the hebrew scholars who told you that the hebrew word correctly translated as "virgin" can and should be translated as "maiden", aren't too bright.
Last I checked, it wasn't a SIGN that a young woman should get pregnant. It is however when a virgin conceives while remaining a virgin.

3) It's a sign given by "the Lord himself". Moses and a bunch of prophets gave signs, but this one is special. It's directly from God, no intermediary.

So do let us imagine for a moment that you're a Jew (as abominable as the thought may be to you) living in...oh, 15 B.C. You sit down and begin to read the prophet Isaiah. And you hit this passage there. What's a believing Jew expected to get out of it? Well, you're supposed to be looking for a virgin who's in the lineage of David, and therefore of the tribe of Judah, who gets pregnant without knowing any man. She's supposed to bear a man-child whose name means God is with us (Matthew 1:23). Get it? GOD, G-O-D, GOD, is with us.

Now here comes your gentile friend on his dromedary. "First off, that a virgin should conceive is crazy. If she did, I'd worship her and call her queen of heaven, full of grace, co-redemptrix, queen of angels, mother of God, er... I mean mother of believers, all-holy, all-blessed, save me at the hour of my death amen.
Besides, I know where you're going with this, but many men in the Bible had the name of God as part of their name, yet none of them was God himself, otherwise you'd have 1000 gods".

"True", says you, "but that's because they had human fathers who gave them their human nature. This 'Immanuel' here doesn't. Who's his father?"

"Don't you know that in 2100 years we'll have the know-how to allow a woman to conceive a child on her own, without the help of any man?!"

"So you believe that WE could get a virgin to conceive, yet God couldn't? Am I understanding you correctly?"

"Ehem..."

"Besides, that know-how only allows women to bear women. This virgin conceived a man-child"

"Listen, friend, the sun is a burning and my dromedary is chewing his tongue for thirst, catch you later"

So you get the picture...no dad, yet he's "God" with us. Where did he get his divine nature from?
Mary! Cry the cardinals. Nice try. She wasn't divine and a woman has no seed. Biology 101.

You go on to read the entire book of Isaiah over the week, and the following week you get into Jeremiah, writing some decades later.

And you hit Jeremiah 22:29-30.

O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The dead end of the messianic line. The dreadful, forbidden verse of every Bible disbelieving, Catechism-reading Pharisaical Jew on earth. And this time, it ain't only the house of David that should listen up but the entire EARTH EARTH EARTH.
Shem, Ham, Japheth. Now you begin to scratch your head. Why is it of such concern to the entire planet that the messianic line of the kings of Judah has reached a dead-end?

It's not like the messiah was supposed to be God himself...

Capich?

A shimmer of light has pierced through the darkness of your soul.
Quickly spiritual darkness attempts to reflood the path that was blazed.

But how could the messiah be God if he is the seed of man?

He isn't. A) He is "OF the seed of David" - 2Timothy 2:8
B) He is "MADE OF the seed of David according to the flesh" - Romans 1:3
C) He "COMETH OF the seed of David" - John 7:42

Physically, Christ got his body from David through Mary. The end.
Spiritually, he got his nature from God, being God's seed.

Your mind goes back to Isaiah 7:14 under a new light. He said it's a sign. That a virgin should conceive is a miracle, granted. But then what? You're missing the point (thrust, sign) of it if you only stop there. What is that virgin birth pointing to? I don't pretend to know the full answer. In fact I'm pretty sure I'm missing something. But here's what you have: if messiah is born of a virgin, then he is no man's seed. Remember Isaiah said "the Lord himself shall give you a sign".
Isaiah 9:6 says
For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

Who gave that "son", Isaiah? "the Lord himself".

How shall this be, asked Mary, seeing I know not a man? Luke 1:34

Luke 1:35 And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.

Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Revelation 19:13 And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God.

Luke 8:11 Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

So here's the import of the sign of Isaiah 7:14:

The messiah was God's seed, not man's seed. So it didn't matter if Coniah's seed got cursed.

YOU WOULD HAVE HAD HALF A PROBLEM HAD YOU INITIALLY BELIEVED IN THE DEITY OF THE MESSIAH.

The house of David would've recognized its import when they hit Jeremiah 22:30, if they had believed Isaiah 7:14 to be begin with. The sign was given to them. It's not just that some Jewish virgin somewhere got pregnant on her own; it's that that pregnancy is the answer to the establishment of the Davidic covenant, so don't worry about Coniah, God will come through.

(The Roman Catholic gentile mind-set is simply dazzled by the miracle itself. If you fail to see the fulfilment of God's words therein, and the establishment of his plans, you're missing the boat. And when the antichrist shows up with his miracles, you'll just be dazzled by the phenomena and enquire more of them than of the words of God. And you'll damn your soul to hell by believing antichrist's SHOWbusiness.)

After Jeremiah 22:30 all of Israel, let alone the house of David, should've been busy praying, fasting and searching for a pregnant virgin having understood its relevancy to the kingdom of Israel. If you think I'm stretching things I've got 2 names for you: Simeon and Anna (Luke 2:25,36)

Now for the other half: to be the Christ (messiah) Jesus still has to be in Coniah's line. So how does Jesus, being Christ, lay claim to the throne of David? Simple: adoption. He lays claim to the throne through Joseph, who is the son of Coniah in Matthew 1.

God put in place 2 safe-guards to make sure no other human being could ever rightfully lay claim to David's throne except Jesus Christ.

1) He killed one branch of the royal seed (Zedekiah and sons) and cursed the other (Coniah and sons). So one way to be disqualified was to actually be qualified. That's God's wisdom. And it works.

2) And just in case anybody else got the idea of getting adopted to escape the curse on Coniah's seed, God said that the Messiah had to be the seed of God himself. (Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, Psalm 2:7, 110:1)

Now I could add 3) here just for overkill.

Technically the true King of Israel is God himself.

Isaiah 44:6 Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, and his redeemer the LORD of hosts; I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God.

So simply by virtue of being God's Son (see Psalm 110:1) Jesus Christ could have superseded any claimant from any angle.

But God always honours his word, the Bible, and so as he prophecied, so he fulfiled.
The Lord God ALWAYS honours his word, his words, and his Word.

One last installement coming.

Posted by Revelation 2:17 at 12:18 AM | 10 comments    

Labels: bible studies

Jeremiah 22:28 Is this man Coniah a despised broken idol? is he a vessel wherein is no pleasure? wherefore are they cast out, he and his seed, and are cast into a land which they know not?
:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.
:30 Thus saith the LORD, Write ye this man childless, a man that shall not prosper in his days: for no man of his seed shall prosper, sitting upon the throne of David, and ruling any more in Judah.

The man here called Coniah is Jehoiachin, also called Jeconiah; he was of the seed of David, was one of the last kings of Judah, did evil, and was carried into captivity by Nebuchadnezzar.

According to the covenant God made with David, only the seed of David could rightfully rule on the throne of David, the throne of Israel, for ever. 2 Samuel 7:11-29.

The line of kings which rightfully ruled on that throne is referred to as "the seed royal". (2 Kings 11:1, 25:25; 2 Chronicles 22:10; Jeremiah 41:1).

The messiah was to be of the seed of David (Psalm 132:11; Isaiah 11:1; Jeremiah 23:5, 33:15; John 7:42; Romans 1:3; 2 Timothy 2:8). He was to be king of Israel according to numerous references like Isaiah 9:7 and Jeremiah 23:5. So he had to come from the line of the seed royal, not just from any seed of David, in order to have claim to the throne.

Now watch how the Lord worked to create an air-tight Biblical "problem text". You read right. He designed it.

He has Jeremiah "curse" king Coniah's seed from ruling over David's throne. So from whence will the messiah come? Not to worry. Coniah wasn't the last king of Judah, his father's brother, Zedekiah was. (2 kings 24:15-17). And he had sons! Praise the Lord! One of Zedekiah's sons will reign and the messiah's line will not be jeopardized by Jeremiah 22:30. Glory.

2Kings 25:6 So they took the king (Zedekiah), and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him.
2Ki 25:7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon.

Ouch. The last official king with any sons remaining is now Coniah, who had 7 of them (1 Chronicles 3:17-18). Yet with Jeremiah 22:30 the Lord God barred all of them from ruling in Judah on the throne of David.
He deliberately set-up the extermination of all of Zedekiah's sons and the abdication of all of Coniah's sons in order to seal the paradox!
That 7 stands for a perfect dead end.
No way out of that one. Wonderful.

Now this plot is even more intricate for the Lord uses the devil’s wrath to get his set-up (Psalm 76:10). The devil had had the prophecy of Genesis 3:15 in mind ever since it was said to the serpent.
“And I will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and the woman, and between thy seed (the serpent’s) and her seed (the messiah); it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”