A Declaration of Faith

What does it mean when someone says, “I believe in God?”

Well, there are at least two ways one may interpret this saying. One is that the person in question is making a declaration that they believe God exists; they are confident that there is a being or power ascribed as God, and that he dwells “out there” somewhere. This first declaration leaves a little something to be desired.

Revelation Chapter Seven, Part 4 of 4

7:15 Therefore are they before the throne of God…and he that sitteth on the throne shall dwell among them.
God dwells among His people in the person of Jesus Christ, who is the image and glory of God, 2nd Corinthians 4:4, 6; Hebrews 1:3. “And I will set my tabernacle among you: and my soul shall not abhor you. And I will walk among you, and will be your God, and ye shall be my people,” Leviticus 26:11-12. John records that in Jesus Christ God tented, or tabernacled, among men, John 1:14. The word “dwelt” in John 1:14 is the Greek word “skenoo” and means “to spread a tent.” God came as a man and pitched a tent to dwell with Adam’s race. God became like us in all things, Hebrews 2:14.

Revelation Chapter Seven, Part 3 of 4

7:5 Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.
Here again we see God micro-managing. You will note that Dan and Ephraim are absent among the tribes counted. Joseph replaces Ephraim while Manasseh remains. We know from Ezekiel that Dan is not lost and will be issued land and a place in Israel during Jesus’ thousand years reign, Ezekiel 48:1. Dan was a rebellious house from the first, and never actually occupied the territory allotted them; instead going in and occupying land far north, Judges 18. One of the golden calves of Jeroboam dwelt in Dan in the farthest region of Israel during the era of the northern kingdom of Samaria, Amos 8:14. Apparently Dan’s tribe will not receive the honor of being sealed, but they will survive as a tribe into Millennium.

Revelation Chapter Seven, Part 2 of 4

7:2-3 And I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God: and he cried with a loud voice to the four angels, to whom it was given to hurt the earth and the sea, Saying, Hurt not the earth, neither the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in their foreheads.
This ascending angel was given charge to conduct this seal of God to those who were going to be protected from further judgments so they might preach the gospel of Jesus Christ to the world, and especially the Jews, who must be adequately prepared for their Lord’s triumphant return. This seal may be the name of Jesus Christ, Revelation 22:4.

Revelation Chapter Seven, Part 1 of 4

I have opted to conclude our studies in Revelation with chapter seven, but before we press on to the heart of the matter I would like to detour a moment and examine a scripture that captured my attention some while ago and I think is worthy of some consideration. That scripture verse is this: “For then will I [restore (NKJV)] to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent,” Zephaniah 3:9.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 6 of 6

6:15-17 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?
After thousands of years of patience and forbearance, God finally looses wrath upon this sinful world: the great day of God Almighty has come. The day of the Lord had been a subject of prophecy amidst the men God chose to speak through since the days of Enoch, Jude 1:14-15. The universality of this judgment is indeed global as the language implies: it affects all manner of men from the highest to the lowest; just as the destroying angel in Egypt killed all the firstborn from the lowliest prisoner in the dungeon to Pharaoh upon the throne.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 5 of 6

6:12-14 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
The sixth seal unleashes a great earthquake. It is not the greatest to come, but it moves mountains and islands out of their places. This seems to indicate that our continents suffer a violent shifting due to this global earthquake that changes the position of mountains and islands in the ocean. Apparently Jesuit missionaries in China uncovered an ancient record with similar language to this from an event long since past.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 4 of 6

6:7-8 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and see. And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.
The fourth and final rider comes, and he is given power (the Greek word means authority) over a fourth of the earth. With this authority he kills by war or crime (the red rider), famine (the black rider), death (pestilence and disease), and with the beasts of the earth. The fear of man that animals were stricken with after the Flood has apparently been removed, Genesis 9:2. Whereas God once gave all animals into man’s hand for food; now God reverses this fear that He placed in the animals and they come and kill men.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 3 of 6

6:3-4 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see. And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
The first rider was given a crown; the second rider is given “power.” The word power isn’t actually in the original Greek, so the verse states that it was given to him that sat upon the horse to take peace from the earth. In fact, a “great sword” was given to him, representing not necessarily war, but violence and unnatural death. The Greek term for “great” is “megas” and means: physically large, intense or violent.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 2 of 6

There is something withholding the Antichrist until it is his time to be revealed. Someone must be removed, or taken out of the way, before the Antichrist can appear. Again, if we infer that the “falling away” is the Rapture, then this someone taken out of the way is the Holy Spirit’s presence in the body of Christ, the church. Recall Paul’s inspired words: “for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first (Rapture), and that man of sin be revealed.” We see the Holy Spirit before the throne of God with the raptured saints earlier in Revelation. Now we see that His removal via His indwelling presence in Christians leaves the door open for Satan’s champion to arrive. I am not suggesting that the Holy Spirit is altogether removed; that would be impossible since He is God and omnipresent. No, it is His peculiar presence in the church, the salt of the earth that preserves the world, which is taken away. When the preservative is removed deterioration is immediate.

Revelation Chapter Six, Part 1 of 6

6:1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
Judgment has begun. John was an eyewitness not only to Jesus Christ’s first advent, humility, crucifixion, death and resurrection; he would also be privy to witness Jesus as Judge over this world. If we go back again to John’s gospel we find Jesus telling His disciples, “If I will that he (John) remain until I come, what is that to you?” John 21:22. John did indeed remain until Jesus came again to visit him; this time with His revelation. It is not only a revelation of judgment on the earth, the nature of the Tribulation that will come on this earth and the kingdom that follows, but it is a revelation of His character. Chapter one of Revelation is most descriptive and informative. John is exiled on Patmos, and on this rocky, isolated isle Jesus visits the disciple whom He loves in glory. The images that John uses to describe Jesus at this point are deliberately taken from the Old Testament prophets; vivid descriptions that the prophets used when they saw the Lord of hosts, Jehovah.

Identity Theft

Imagine if you would if I were in a conversation with you and made mention of someone’s name that you likewise know. Further, let’s say that the someone’s name we both mention is not actually the same person at all—different personality, abilities, perhaps even gender—but we go on for a time until we realize that you and I are not speaking about the same person. This is a common dilemma in many conversations with persons of various religious views. We use the same terminology but do not mean the same person. The names God, Spirit or Jesus are empty so to speak until we fill them with content. The content of the name defines who that person is and who they are not…but I’m getting ahead of myself.

Are You Free?

What is freedom?

Oxford defines freedom as:
1. The power or right to act, speak or think freely.
2. The state of being free.
3. The state of not being affected by something undesirable.
4. A special privilege or right of access.

Revelation Chapter Five, Part 2 of 2

5:6-7 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. And he came and took the book out of the right hand of him that sat upon the throne.
John now saw Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, arise from the right hand of the Almighty (Hebrews 1:3) and stand up from his role of intercessor and mediator, to take the scroll from the Father’s hand. The horn is an Old Testament symbol for strength. John was relating not that Jesus had seven horns on his head, but that Christ our Lord possesses omnipotence. The seven eyes indicate perfect sight or omniscience: that He knows all things.

Revelation Chapter Five, Part 1 of 2

5:1 And I saw in the right hand of him that sat on the throne a book written within and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.
This book or scroll (NKJV) appears to be a scroll of judgments to be poured out on the unrepentant earth. It is in the hand of God the Father and He waits for one who is qualified to mete out these judgments. Seven is the biblical number of perfection or completion; so only one who is perfect may open, or even read, the scroll in the hand of the Father.

Date Setting

A fellow employee brought to my attention today that someone was traveling from city to city proclaiming that the Resurrection would occur this coming Saturday, May 21st, 2011. The end of the world was coming, and he had the numbers from the Bible to prove it. He came into Canal Park in Duluth yesterday to preach his message of coming destruction, and now (as I hear it) is in Cloquet doing likewise.

That Most Needful Thing (John 3) Part 5 of 5

3:18-19 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

The Lord has reached a point in His sermon to Nicodemus in which He reveals the reason why men would reject Him and the salvation He offers. As Jesus Himself put it: “this is the condemnation.” What might that be? That light (God’s truth, Jesus Christ come in the flesh; John 1:9) has come into the world. But men loved religious invention rather than God’s truth; men loved Satan’s lie over Christ because Satan’s lie promised self-improvement. God’s truth brings first and foremost conviction and condemnation. We are in darkness because we have received and hold as truth that man is a good creature with character flaws; instead of a sinful creature that dimly reflects the image in which he was originally cast. God needs to bring a man to his knees before He can elevate him to any useful position in the kingdom. Christ came presenting the gospel of salvation, but men were more interested in perfecting their own views on God to be interested in what God said about Himself. God’s light reveals sore truth in every life that it shines upon.

That Most Needful Thing (John 3) Part 4 of 5

3:16-17 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.

For God so loved the world. There is the unfortunate penchant in Scripture to sometimes read into God’s word what we want it to say. Everyone who ever approached Scripture to understand it more clearly is guilty of this; some are far guiltier than others. I think that is in part why Paul wrote that the mature should strive to be of the same mind; both among themselves and with Christ. Anyone who lacked this maturity and thought otherwise would receive clarity from the Lord, Philippians 3:15.

That Most Needful Thing (John 3) Part 3 of 5

3:9-10 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?

Nicodemus asked an honest question that might have been simply the first thing that happened to escape his lips. Remember that this man was a Rabbi (teacher), Pharisee and elder. He was an Old Testament scholar of sorts. But Jesus was showing that behind the Old Testament physical realities there was a spiritual truth lurking that the message was intended to convey. The juxtaposition of physical birth (born of water) and spiritual birth (born of wind), coupled with the unseen activity of said wind left him speechless and fumbling for words. Perhaps Nicodemus was prepared to talk about Sabbath keeping or dietary laws or washings. Jesus cut right to the heart of the matter and began to extrapolate with a series of comparisons that left the Rabbi filled with questions.

That Most Needful Thing (John 3) Part 1 of 5

Sitting under some convicting preaching about the Resurrection on Easter Sunday, the teacher (a gentleman named Bill) touched on a few verses in John chapter 3 that set me to serious thinking. This series of posts is the result of meditating on John 3, and I pray that the results are mutually beneficial. I expounded verses 1-21, which contains the whole of the conversation between Jesus and Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This section is an amazing passage in which the gospel is clearly, plainly, and vividly given to Nicodemus. Let us see what else there is to see, God willing.