July 31, 2005

Londoners are stout-hearted people; they’ve been through the Nazi blitzes and kept their famous stiff upper lips. But modern Terrorism causes even them to see themselves in the words of Jesus in Luke 21:25, 26: “There will be signs,...... on the earth distress of nations, with perplexity,...... men’s hearts failing them from fear, and the expectation of those things which are coming on the earth.” But in the same sermon on the Mount of Olives Jesus tells us that “this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations” before “the end will come” (Matt. 24:14). That must include London!

“Gospel” means good news, and Galatians makes clear that “the truth of the gospel” is the New Covenant message of justification by faith (2:5, 14-21). We keep waiting for the Lord to raise up some glowing personalities to proclaim it via TV, a movement that will “lighten the earth with glory” this way (Rev. 18:1-4). But there may be a more humble method the God of heaven will employ.

Jesus alludes to it in John 7. He is attending the great Feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. He hasn’t said much until “on the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried out [didn’t need a PA system], saying, ‘If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said [Song of Solomon], out of his heart will flow rivers of living water’”(vss. 37, 38). It’s clear: not some glowing, dominant personality; just anyone who “believes” in Him--truly; humble soul, a sinner convicted and repentant, whose heart is moved, who understands what the gospel says, who appreciates what “Christ and Him crucified” means, “constrained” selflessly by the love of Christ (2 Cor. 5:14, 15).

Jesus has some who do believe truly! Please, will you be one more.

July 30, 2005

July 29, 2005

I was just a kid about 11 or 12. My father was a very strict Sunday-keeper and wouldn’t let me ride my bike for fun on Sunday afternoons (nor would he buy a gallon of gasoline on Sunday). I was an obedient Sunday School student. But I didn’t know anything about the Bible personally. So one Sunday afternoon I was sitting on our front porch with the Bible, fingering it curiously, wondering what it was like inside. With some literary perversity ingrained in me that makes me want to read the conclusion of a book first, I turned to Revelation and began reading a little.

It so happened that just then our pastor, Dr. Campbell, drove up in front of our house in his 1926 Buick, on some mission to visit my parents. So I asked him innocently, “Oh, Dr. Campbell, tell me--what is this book, Revelation, all about?” Graciously and sweetly, he put his hand on my head and said, “Robert, that is a sealed book; nobody understands it. You should read something like the Gospel of Mark.”

That would have turned me away from reading Revelation for the rest of my life except that I had gotten as far as the third verse of the first chapter that says: “Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.” On the spot, I, just a kid, knew that my beloved pastor was wrong! That was the beginning of a lifetime hunger to understand Revelation, and its companion book, Daniel. And yes, that hunger has brought happiness!

The Gospel of Mark is important, but Jesus Himself singled out Daniel and Revelation for us to give them special attention (cf. Matt. 24:15). The word “blessed” means “happy.” Don’t neglect the happiness the Holy Spirit has for you in reading and understanding D&R.

July 27, 2005

The greatest, most important event ever to happen on planet earth was the birth of the "Savior of the world," Jesus, in Bethlehem . Yet it was unheralded in the media of that day except that the angel told a few shepherds, "Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people" (Luke 2:10 ). The message was proclaimed by a few apostles.

The book of Revelation tells of "another angel flying in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel [again, good tidings of great joy] to preach to those who dwell on the earth" (14:6, 7). This movement is to come in the last days, and it has come. But be careful--don't wait for the media to plaster this news all over like the coverage that the death of the recent Pope was given. No angel from heaven screams in your ears; the message comes like it came to the humble shepherds, more like "a still, small voice" (1 Kings 19:12). Unless you and I are careful, this new "angel flying in the midst of heaven" can do his job, fly on, and we never know what's happened. The work of God was done after Pentecost without great fanfare; it's being done today likewise, in humble ways. But it is being done.

Jesus describes it: "'I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all peoples to Myself.' This He said, signifying by what death He would die" (John 12:32, 33). In other words, Heaven also has its "media," some kind of organization for getting word out. Heaven is determined that the Son of God must not die in vain, in secret; humble instruments are to be moved by the Holy Spirit to proclaim the message of "Christ and Him crucified" worldwide. The great ones of earth are again to be surprised at the humble means that God will employ, no great, arrogant men and women. Only those will be employed in this work who have knelt at the cross of Jesus where self (pride!) is crucified with Him.

July 26, 2005

Londoners are brave people who have endured much tribulation in their history. Still, they are not happy with continued bombings in their transit system. And those who have to ride the subways in the Washington area are perturbed, also. We who live in peaceful little villages suffer with these people in the big cities--we are all humans who feel for each other in a corporate fellowship of spirit. Whatever horrors others must suffer, we instinctively say and pray, "There, but for the grace of God, go I." In the Bible idea, the entire human race is one man--"Adam."

But God has a message for the world: the entire human race has been redeemed--there is a new "Adam," the Son of God. The Bible says He is "the last Adam," or the second Adam (1 Cor. 15:45). If we all who are the "first Adam" are appalled at all this human suffering and terrorism in the world, be sure--the "second Adam" is even more appalled by it.

The "second Adam" is a human personality as well as a divine One. His name is "Emmanel, which being interpreted is, God with us" (Matt. 1:23). He sticks closer to you than a brother (Pr. 18:24). He is "touched with the feeling" of all our pains and agonies (Heb. 4:15). "In all [our] affliction He [is] afflicted." There is an "angel of His presence" who "saves us," and "in His love and in His pity He redeems [us]" and "carries [us]" (Isa. 63:9).

Do you long for Him to keep His promise and to "come again, and receive [us] to Himself"? (John 14:1-3). Well, know that He longs to do just that a million times more than you want Him to! He is forced to empathize with every suffering person in the world; may He give us of His store of much more abounding grace, that we may stop hindering what He wants to do!

July 25, 2005

Eleven years ago the tiny nation of Rwanda, landlocked in Central Africa, was forced to go through hell on earth--the genocidal massacre of 800,000 Batutsi, slain in cold blood by their Bahutu neighbors. Some 40,000 Bahutu who were decent-minded enough not to want to join in the massacre were murdered also.

Now what concerns us is how can this surviving population find peace of heart to keep on living together? How can a Tutsi family live next door to Hutu neighbors who they know murdered their family members? "Forgive them?" Yes, of course; the government wisely wants everybody to forgive everybody. But is it humanly possible to do that and to "forget"? Sincere people, just as good as you and I are, are trying to do that. But......

When you know your "neighbor" has been a hypocrite, has murdered "you" in essence, has refused to confess and ask forgiveness, lies, what can you do? How can you stay the surge of resentful emotion that you can't help but feel?

Don't kid yourself--the Son of God felt that same surge welling up in His heart as He hung on His cross; He was cruelly, unjustly murdered. The Bible is clear--the surge was there as a temptation, for He was "in all points tempted LIKE as we are, yet without sin" (Heb. 4:15). The massacred Rwandans suffered unspeakable cruelty, yes; but so did Jesus. The utterly impossible thing Rwandans can do—if they can be shown this "powerful" truth that is destined yet to "lighten the earth with glory" (Rev. 18:1, 2).

Strangely enough, in our modern church fellowship we wrestle with the same trial and temptation! We've been wronged, indeed; how else do we forgive and forget and love? Batutsi, move over; let us kneel down beside you.

July 23, 2005

Paul, God's faithful servant, suffered a humiliating rebuke in his evangelism crusade in the great city of Athens. He made the mistake of trying to match philosophy with philosophy, trying to meet the Athenian scholars on their own ground. The result: near failure in soul-winning, although a few did respond.

When he came to the immoral city of Corinth, he says he "determined not to know anything among [them] except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (1 Cor. 2:2). The book of Revelation is also a presentation of the cross of Christ. In code language, "the Lamb as though it had been slain"(5:6) is the same message as Paul's theme in Corinth. Some 28 times we find that word "Lamb" in Revelation--the book is the most cross-centered book in the Bible! It's the same as Paul's message of "Christ and Him crucified." Without discerning this truth, the fanatics or enthusiasts find Revelation to be their playground.

As we near the end of time, their confusion will become more and more painful to endure. Each will proclaim that he knows the secret of "finishing God's work," "listen to me!" But he "multiplies words....... The labor of fools wearies [everyone], for they do not even know how to go to the city!" (Eccl. 10:12-15). Are you bewildered by the multiplicity of voices crying "Lo here! Or, lo there!" (Luke 17:21)?

Psalm 46 was written for this time of cataclysmic confusion when "the waters [are] troubled" and "mountains [are carried] into the midst of the sea." The counsel is, "Be still, and know that I am God; I will be exalted among the nations. I will be exalted in the earth." The language is that of Revelation 18:1-4. Be wise and patient; spend time on your knees alone with God so that you are ready to discern that true last-days message of the cross.
 

July 22, 2005

If you’re hungry to learn how the Holy Spirit works among us humble, lowly minded people, look at the story in Acts of how the gospel first went to Europe. After the disputes among the early believers were settled by the Jerusalem council (Acts 15), “the churches were made stronger in the faith and grew in numbers every day” (16:5, NEB). Paul and Silas wanted to go and preach the message “in the province of Asia,” but “the Holy Spirit did not let them preach the message” there (vs. 6). Interesting! The Holy Spirit CLOSES doors--we have thought He always opens them!

Next, the frustrated apostles “tried to go into the province of Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them” (vs. 7). We don’t know just how He closed these doors, but we do know what frustration is! Perhaps the Lord permitted travel restrictions to stop them, or persecution, or health problems. Whatever, they saw doors closing all around them. Strange, when Jesus had said, “GO throughout the whole world and preach the gospel to ALL mankind” (Mark 16:15). Maybe you have run into these God-inspired roadblocks, maybe written something you think should be published but you find doors closed, or you want to preach or teach in a church and the pastor and elders don’t want you. Paul and Silas didn’t give up, “they traveled right on through Mysia and went to Troas” (vs. 8). Troas was getting closer to where the Lord really wanted them to go. They were almost there!

Then came the big break! The Lord gave Paul a vision--I have a whole new continent for you to pioneer, the continent of those to come, the Waldenses, of Wycliffe, Luther, the Wesleys (vss. 9, 10). Paul probably didn’t realize it at the time, but this was where Daniel’s prophecies were to find fulfillment. The problem of some closed doors always guides you to the right open door!
 

July 20, 2005

Just returned from a hurried trip half way across the continent to attend a conference on the "message of Christ's righteousness." Am deeply impressed that amid the turmoil of the modern news, civil society functions as smoothly and safely as it does. Highways are jammed with cars and trucks that almost always obey the rules and travel safely, planes crisscross the skies and meet tight schedules almost perfectly. As Edward Fudge noted recently in his daily devotional message, life for most of us is very pleasant. And one constantly meets strangers who are courteous and helpful. All that confronts us that is good is related to the gift of the Holy Spirit of God, "sent" to us by Christ and given to the world (John 14:16; 6:33).

But I am also impressed with how few seem to realize the true Source of the happiness and prosperity and security they take for granted. Of ten lepers whom the Lord Jesus healed, only one came back to tell Him "Thank you!" (Luke 17:12ff). Every civil and economic benefit we enjoy is as surely a miraculous handout from Christ as was that healing from leprosy to those "ten." Is mankind in general today as ungrateful as they were? For sure, many are unaware of what they owe and to whom they owe.

According to Scripture, a tiny minority of people in the world who understand the truth are saving their fellows from disaster as surely as that tiny handful in ancient Sodom and Gomorrah who truly reverenced the Lord saved their cities. (When the angels hurried that remnant out of the doomed cities, the fire fell--an illustration of what goes on now behind the scenes.) The world owes those few thanks. But the time must come when that gracious Holy Spirit has to be withdrawn; then what? The "time of trouble" and "the seven last plagues" (16:1-17). Let's be thoughtful and appreciative--NOW.

July 17, 2005

Your ETERNAL happiness is what the Lord Jesus Christ is concerned about--not just barely squeaking you through the gates so you can live in some New Jerusalem slum. Anybody who gets in He wants to have a gloriously triumphant entrance that Paul likens to a Roman emperor returning after a great victory, loaded with spoils and all his enemies in chains (2 Cor. 2:14). A vast multitude will watch you enter and they will cheer wildly for you. That moment in your experience will thrill your soul, and a knowing smile from Jesus will tell you how deeply He understands all about your part in the victory.

But you could never be happy then unless you had experienced and endured tribulation and maybe even persecution for His sake (see Acts 14:22; John 16:33). Marines who fight together in harrowing battles become friends for life. Do not think of Jesus as detached in some plush heavenly office enjoying luxury while you are battling alone here below. He does not say, "I did My part 2000 years ago, and won My part of the battle--now it's your turn to fight!" No, you are "yoked" with Him and He is actually struggling with you--He is still fighting to win the great controversy. And more than you can imagine, He actually NEEDS you yoked with Him!

There is one aspect of the conflict where your contribution will be vital--maybe (can we say?) you have a fraction of the "144.000th" part of the whole great controversy for which you are responsible. It cannot end until every tiny fraction fits in. He specifically denies calling you "slaves" and calls you "friends" instead (John 15:15). The definition of "friend" is someone close to you who needs you, not just on nodding terms. It's hard to imagine it, but Jesus will actually tell you a sincere, big-hearted "Thank you!" when it's all over and the smoke clears away. He is our Elder Brother...... forever!
 

July 16, 2005

Each individual believer in Christ is "meek and lowly in heart" as Jesus was (Matt. 11:28-30). But he will be joined to Christ by faith, which means he will say with Paul, "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I that live; but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me, and gave Himself for me" (Gal. 2:20, NKJV, KJV).

"The faith of the Son of God" is the faith by which He Himself defeated Satan in His human flesh. That flesh which Jesus "took" is the same that we all have inherited--fallen, sinful; but Jesus "condemned sin in the flesh," the "flesh" in which the Father sent Him (Rom. 8:3). In Christ, self was crucified long before He was nailed to His cross at the end. Even as a Boy of 12 He demonstrated that He had said "No!" to self, and "Yes!" to His Father (cf. Luke 2:49). Constantly He said, "I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me"; "I have come down from heaven, not to do My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me"; in Gethsemane He cried, "O My Father, not as I will, but as You will" (this, at the price of sweating blood, John 5:30, 6:38, Matt. 26:39). One who believes in Jesus truly, will open his heart to receive "the faith of Jesus" and will also "condemn sin" in his own fallen, sinful flesh. It can be done by "the faith OF Jesus," and it will be done in those "144,000" who prepare for the second coming of Jesus (cf. Rev. 14:1-6).

The price? A Gethsemane-like struggle suited exactly to "the measure of faith" which God has "dealt to each one" of us (Rom. 12:3). Satan's attacks will be terrible; but like the 30-hour bombardment of Baltimore's Ft. McHenry in the War of 1812, when the smoke cleared away and "our flag was still there," the seal of God like a flag will still be flying over each one's personal "fort" that has endured Satan's merciless bombardment.
 

July 15, 2005

Satan, the fallen angel whose name was Lucifer, the highest of the created angels claims that his invention of sin is invincible. Here on planet earth he claims he proves that human beings cannot overcome sin; just look, he says, at Christ's church--after these two millennia since the cross, the church is still "lukewarm" and worldly at heart. And the Bride of Christ still hasn't made herself ready.

The successful conclusion of the great controversy between Christ and Satan requires that the church as "the body of Christ" "overcome even as [Christ] overcame" and become a living demonstration of His power to save "to the uttermost." That "overcoming" is what Christ says is the victory to be won in "the church of the Laodiceans"(cf. Rev. 3:14-21). Laodicea is the same as the "remnant" church of 12:17 and the same as those who "keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus" in 14:12. Obviously the triumphant Laodicea in the end will be the same as those special "144,000" of 7:1-4 and 14:1-5 (a symbolic number, we hope). They will be a corporate "Mary Magdalene," a mirror reflection of the self-is-crucified character of Jesus. Love (agape) will triumph.

The "great controversy" is like a war that ends with hand-to-hand, desperate fighting. The controversy is raging in each of our human hearts; it cannot be won in the corporate church unless it is also won in its individual experiences. Christ won the battle on His cross two millennia in the past; but that victory must now be demonstrated, lived out, proven effective before the world and the universe, in His people. They don't help Him save the world but they demonstrate that He has been successful in doing it (cf. John 4:42; 1 Tim. 4:10). To this high destiny you and I have been called in these final scenes of the great controversy! This requires healthy self-respect "in Christ" (Rom. 12:3), which is the essence of real faith.
 

July 13, 2005

Can we sinful humans overcome sin? Are we hopelessly entangled in continued sin? It's nice to say that Jesus is our Savior, He overcame, so we can overcome, too; but what did He actually accomplish?

If He came to fight our battle against sin with equipment that we don't have, the "victory" He claims is irrelevant to us. The only conclusion has to be that He saves us in our sins; and that is exactly the basic thesis of "Babylon's" false gospel. You can't avoid continued sinning is the idea. You are still a slave in "Egypt's" darkness.

But "the everlasting gospel" is better Good News than that; Jesus came to fight our battle with the same equipment that He has given to us, not merely offered us (if we do the right thing first, which we don't have the strength to do!). He was the Son of God but the Father has adopted us "as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself,...... to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He has made us accepted in the Beloved" (Eph. 1:5, 6). It's not a "maybe," "perhaps," "IF you do the impossible first." He tells us, "I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt [past tense], out of the house of bondage" (Ex. 20:2).
 

July 12, 2005

Londoners cherish the memory of how, when the Luftwaffe were pounding them, Churchill strengthened their resolve to endure. But then they knew who their enemy was; now they don’t. Even the stout of heart today can feel the waves of fear. (Rumsfeld suggests that our struggle with insurgent terror may go on another twelve years.) Apart from Christ, the world has no hope of peace.

Please “LET NOT your heart be troubled; you believe in God--believe also in Me,” says the Lord Jesus (John 14:1). He died on His cross to save our souls; now He also died to deliver us from fear. The popular bravado that smiles and says we’re okay until “our number is called,” is not believing in Jesus; its fatalism. It’s closer to Islam than to the faith of Jesus. The faith of Jesus is to be crucified with Him. Yes, it’s possible!

The faith of Jesus is what He wants to give us: “LET the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called”(Col. 3:15).  In other words, “peace” is as much the gift of Christ’s sacrifice as is salvation. LET it come in! If you don’t hinder it, the peace of God will be “poured” in just as agape is poured in (Rom. 5:5). Note, it was “given” to us; we have it unless we banish it; the peace comes as standard equipment in the package obtained for us at His cross.

Jesus told Pilate that he couldn’t touch Him without the Father’s permission (John 19:11); in the same way, you are to believe that no terrorist can harm you unless your personal heavenly Father gives permission! And will He give such permission? You needn’t worry; faith is your heart appreciation of His agape; that includes your complete trusting Him, too. Stop worrying. Do use common sense; but...... trust Him! Cooperate with Him, and rest.
 

July 11, 2005

Almost all Christian churches are now talking about the second coming of Christ, and the possibility of the imminent end of the world is widely talked about. Yes, it does make good sense to talk about preparing for such an event! The people living on Gulf Coast were urged to prepare for Hurricane Dennis and most of them have decided that made good sense. Can’t we apply good sense to preparing for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ?

There are many pastors and theologians who tell us that there is no special preparation--just live a good life and do the best you can and you’ll be ready either to die or to meet Jesus and be translated when He comes. But even a child can see that there is something special involved: there is a final exam coming, a great test that Revelation 13 says is “the mark of the beast” that in one final issue will divide the sheep from the goats forever. The “mark of the beast” will involve “great signs and wonders, insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24).  Never in history have God’s people met such a test! Jesus said, “Ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake and then shall many be offended and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another” (vss. 9, 10). In other words, many who now profess to keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus will then turn traitor and accept the mark of the beast. And Paul sobers us even more when he warns us, “Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Cor. 10:12). Peter was cocksure he would never “fall,” but a girl in or barely out of her teens overthrew him.

The Good News is that there is an alternative to the mark of the beast: the seal of God (Rev. 7:1-4). That involves a special work of purification of the heart: “When [Christ] shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as he is pure” (1 John 3:2, 3). On this great cosmic Day of Atonement, that precisely is the work of the great High Priest. Don’t stop Him, don’t resist Him. Cooperate with Him!
 

July 9, 2005

He’s in our local newspaper--a man who says he feels like crying. He has spent 15 years and some $20,000 restoring his rare beloved Porsche 1600 Super, only 212 left now in all the world. He was preparing his for display at the Cruise Nite when all the car buffs bring out their treasures to be admired.

Then something went wrong in the engine and the car caught fire; now it’s a total loss. I’ve never restored a rare classic, but short of money I’ve known what it is to re-build a vehicle just to have a family car. And when you invest time and effort it must be a keen disappointment to lose it all. A part of you is in it. It’s worse than simply losing money or time. The newspaper story is entitled, “Up in Smoke.”

Is there a better way to invest 15 years plus $20,000? By means of His sacrifice on His cross, the Lord Jesus Christ gives us “15” precious years of life, plus in some way the equivalent of $20,000. In 1 Corinthians 3 Paul discusses facing the Lord in judgment to answer for what one did with what He gave us. Do we want to “build on this foundation wood, hay, straw” in a worship of idolatry? “Each one’s work will become manifest; for the Day will declare it, because it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is” (vss. 11-13). The fire has to come! Many are idolaters who are sincere, they just don’t know better.

Modern life offers us an almost infinite variety of idolatries, especially in our well-heeled societies. “But I’m just bored!” someone complains. What the Bible calls “the truth of the gospel” gives a living substitute for any idolatry, whether of sports or materialism. Living for Jesus in this grand Day of Atonement is a cure for idolatry. And exciting, too!
 

July 8, 2005

A man has written saying that he finds reading the Bible is boring, so can we please give him a program of reading the Bible that will help him. This is what we wrote him:

Dear Brother:

I cannot prescribe for you what your Bible reading should be, any more than I can prescribe your menu that you should eat every morning for breakfast. But I will suggest what has been a blessing to me personally:

(1) If the King James Version is difficult or boring, read the New King James. The language is modernized, but the text is generally accurate. Its Greek source is the same Textus Receptus which careful scholars believe is authentic.

(2) The New English Bible or the Revised English Bible, either one, I have found understandable. The NEB is generally reliable in translation (but the translators do not understand Daniel and the Revelation).

(3) I find reading the four Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and also Acts) in the Today’s English Version (Good News Bible) is a blessing. But be careful: the translators did not clearly understand Paul’s idea of the gospel.

(4) Set aside a portion of each day for your reading the Bible, and hold to it. You’ve got to be fair with God; don’t cheat Him concerning time or attention. Treat Him right and He will more than treat you right.

(5) Of course, you will kneel and humbly ask Him to grant you the leading of the true Holy Spirit as you read the Bible. It’s like an LP record, or music on a CD; you have to have the “equipment” to release the music hidden in the recording. The same Holy Spirit who “recorded” the writing of the Bible will “play it back” for you now--IF YOU HUMBLE YOUR SOUL BEFORE GOD and ask him.

(6) To be fair with God, you must turn off all other distractions--radio, CDs, TV. Give Him your full attention. “He who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek him” (Heb. 11:6).

May the Lord bless you as you “listen” to Him.

Sincerely, “Dial Daily Bread”
 

July 7, 2005

Just now a huge assembly is meeting in St. Louis--the General Conference quintennial Session of a worldwide church of some 13 million members. It is probably the last truly “protestant” church in existence, at least with a worldwide membership and extensive organization.

It is truly “protestant” in that it protests against Rome’s substituting Sunday-worship for the biblical command to keep holy “the seventh day.” This church maintains that whenever Christians are willing to substitute Sunday observance for biblical Sabbath worship, they are bowing to Rome.

Further, this church is “protestant” in that it rejects the Roman Catholic/popular Protestant doctrine of natural immortality of the human soul. Correctly, this church traces the origin of that doctrine to paganism and recognizes how it opens the door to Spiritualism. This church recognizes that immortality is a gift from Christ and “in Christ” only to those who believe in heart-felt obedience, by faith.

But does this world church bask in the praise of the Lord Jesus Christ? He says that “as many as I love I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore and repent” (Rev. 3:19). This severe rebuke is from the lips of the True Witness to the seventh of the seven churches of world history in Revelation 2, 3 (the last, there is no eighth). The rebuke is directed primarily to its clergy (“the angel of the church of the Laodiceans”) who feel proudly “rich and increased with goods, in need of nothing” when in God’s sight they are “THE one [in history] wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked” (vs. 17; the Greek has a little “ho” there which makes it say this). Great developments are just before the world! Let’s wake up.
 

July 6, 2005

A new book has just been released by Pacific Press in which a perceptive author, Thomas Mostert, discerns some profound but unpopular truths. He sees that the popular but counterfeit versions of “Christianity” that the Bible labels “Babylon” are a dangerous yet subtle deception. He sees the words of Jesus as too true: “false christs, and false prophets...... shall...... if it were possible...... deceive the very elect” (Matt. 24:24). The book (HIDDEN HERESY) recognizes that even highly educated ordained ministers are susceptible to exceedingly well-concealed falsehood. And it’s lethal!

A root deception of “Babylon” is the doctrine of natural immortality. Every non-christian religion teaches it, and many Roman Catholic and Protestant churches have imported it from paganism. If man is an immortal soul then it cannot be true that the Son of man died on His cross. But the Bible is clear--man is by nature mortal. “Babylon” says No. And there is where the alarm system goes off for anyone who reverences Bible truth.

Mostert’s grasp of it is like a blast of fresh air into a stuffy house: no one who holds to natural immortality can understand or appreciate what Christ accomplished on His cross! And no one who holds to that pagan-papal doctrine can comprehend justification by faith; and if one doesn’t understand that cardinal truth, he doesn’t hold what Paul calls “the truth of the gospel” (Gal. 2:5, 14). Church leaders, Protestant and Catholic, are alike under judgment of Scripture. Mostert sees that confusion here creates a vacuum into which the falsehood of Spiritualism enters; why should we want to fill our cup with that? From now on, serious issues are to engage our attention. The same Jesus who prodded His disciples awake in Gethsemane is prodding us awake just now. Our “hour” is also critical in world history, as was Gethsemane’s!
 

July 5, 2005

This is being written on the morning of our Independence Day. David McCullough’s NY Times best seller “1776” is a birthday gift to the nation. It tells fascinating details about “our” national beginning. What’s impressive is the account of divine providence (God’s miracles--in modern language!) that enabled “our” rag-tag Continental Army to triumph over George III’s disciplined military so he would send his warships home defeated. Our “army” was largely New England farmers commanded by a greenhorn Virginian George Washington who despised them. Without that “divine providence” at Trenton “we” would never have gained “our” independence.

And why did “God” so bless the Thirteen [Rebellious] Colonies? Their goal was to establish a Protestant nation founded on the basic principle of the separation of church from the state, a nation without a king and a church to be blessed without a pope. The founding Fathers revered the idea that religious liberty of conscience was a divine right already granted by the Creator to every human being--not a “privilege” granted by an earthly government to certain people. In that culture of national liberty where the Constitution would provide for checks and balances to hinder the growth of tyranny and prevent political and moral corruption, a national climate of uprightness would invite the blessings of heaven. That’s what happened! That “Providence” pretty well brought us through more than two centuries, even through our terrible Civil War in the aftermath of which “we” finally repudiated “our” crime of slavery. Lincoln was right: this nation was founded on the Protestant-developed idea
of liberty of soul, God’s intention being to bless the world and thus prevent the rise of Terrorism. Global respect for what the United States stood for morally would defend “us.” Shall “we” abandon those Protestant principles of liberty for all? God forbid!
 

July 4, 2005

Daniel is the one Old Testament books that Jesus specifically singles out as urgently requiring our attention (Matt. 24:15); and Revelation is the one New Testament book that Jesus likewise singles out (Rev. 1:1-3). We can’t understand what’s going on in the world around us without this “light” focused from heaven in these two special books!

The two are complementary, each explains the other. It’s amazing how hundreds of millions of Christians blithely disregard both! But both are easy to understand--user-friendly, so much so that a child can understand with only a little careful thinking.

Both describe in detail how a great “falling away” (apostasy) would seek to hi-jack the world Christian church with an enormous counterfeit religious organization that “opposes and exalts [itself] above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God....... The mystery of lawlessness...... with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all unrighteous deception among those who...... did not receive the love of the truth,...... strong delusion, that they should believe the lie” (2 Thess. 2:3-12). It’s the core issue of the great cosmic controversy.

The identity of this massive deception is not cloaked in foggy uncertainty: the Holy Spirit is clear and unequivocal in pinpointing this church power in history as the grand religious successor of the paganism of the ancient Roman Empire (Dan. 7:7, 8, 20-25)--the Papacy. Revelation 18 pictures its coming total expose. “Come out of [Babylon], My people (vs. 4). “Be alert.
 

July 2, 2005

Is it ever right for a child of 12 to make a serious life decision on his/her own, without asking and following the parents’ permission?

Jesus did at the age of 12 without asking Mary’s permission or Joseph’s. He has watched His first Passover in Jerusalem. Thoughts have gone through His mind that His earthly parents have never dreamed of. For the first time in history one Person has begun to comprehend clearly what the Passover lamb symbolizes. It means that Somebody must go to a cross. Somebody must die a different kind of death than anybody has ever died or will die again. Jesus is the Son of God--but He is just now beginning to realize what that means. But He is also the Son of man, which means He is still a human Boy of 12. He is grasping the idea of who His true divine Father is.

When Mary reproaches Him for staying behind at the Temple, He doesn’t collapse in tears of childish remorse; He stands His ground. There’s a gentle but rock solid hint of confrontation here. “He said to them, ‘Why is it that you sought Me? Did you not know that I must be about My Father’s business?’” We read that He “went down with them...... to Nazareth, and was subject to them,” eighteen years of hiatus (Luke 2:49, 51; 3:23). But a divine/human Person has embarked upon a career that leads Him to die “the second death” for a world lost in sin (cf. Rev. 2:11). At the age of 12 He must not permit His earthly parents to deter Him from His holy mission.

There are children today at the age of 12 who are likewise led by the Holy Spirit to be baptized into Christ because they know He is calling them.
 

July 1, 2005

Someone was clever who said that God first made man, then found a better way and made woman, but His third way was the best: He made little children. Indeed, they are the most delightful creatures in God’s universe.

The Father of our Lord Jesus Christ loves them, too; although He is infinite and knows everything in advance, still somehow He finds them intriguing. An innocent little child can plumb the reaches of infinity and come up with something that is interesting to the Godhead and heavenly intelligences. We don’t know how it will be, but in God’s New Jerusalem the cruel wolves, leopards, and lions will be tamed by “a little child [who] shall lead them” (Isa. 11:6; the Hebrew word implies to “drive” these ex-ferocious beasts). Down here below there are commercial enterprises that subsist on little children’s creativity such as the “Peanuts” cartoonists.

Leave it to Satan to come up with child warriors in Africa, placing AK 47’s in their little arms and teaching them to shoot remorselessly. Thoughtful Africans are appalled at a horror that has almost never cursed the planet in its historical past. The three “d’s” proliferate--disease, despair, and devastation. Many of the 300,000 child soldiers were cruelly abducted.

Can any of them be redeemed? Edith Ssempala, Uganda’s ambassador to the United States says of the thousands in Northern Uganda (where I once served as a missionary): “The youngest can be rescued by healing the emotions with love.” And the older ones? “Ah,” she said; “that is not so easy.” We still believe the story of the cross can heal if it is told truthfully.