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Prophe-Zine Issue 069
PropheZine #69
Dec. 1, 1998
Bob Lally Publisher
Mimi Nila Senior Editor
Rick Woodcock Asst. Editor
Abraham George Asst. Editor
Lori Eldridge Asst. Editor
Bob Ippolito Asst. Editor
Faye Carrier Asst. Editor
ARTICLES
Bob Ippolito................The Rapture Generation
Lambert Dolphin........On The Resurrection of the Righteous- New Bodies for Old!
Rance Taylor...............The Coming Holocaust
PROPHEZINE COMMENTARIES
Voice of the Martyrs............The Bones of Faith
Phyllis Schlafly...............What College Tuition and Fees Are Paying For!
Melissa Wells-Petry............"tactical treason"
Lee Underwood ...................F.Y.I. - Israel in the News
Submitted by John Terry.................Dear Friend
Submitted by John Terry.................It takes guts to say "Jesus"
Submitted by Kevin Haselton.............U
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Hi Everyone!
God is good and greatly to be praised! If not for all the small things but just the main thing - that He sent His son to die in our stead for OUR sins. I hold daily to the belief that He is returning soon.
God continues to use PropheZine in so many ways. I receive many "thank you's" throughout each month thanking us for the hard work and dedicated service to the Lord. Honestly, for me, it is not work but fun and I am sure that for the rest of the PropheZine staff it is fun also. I also receive anti-christian and anti-semetic mail. These people are so deceived.
I find it amazing when in church my Pastor asks if anyone needs prayer and just a few hands go up. I do not know about you but there is always something in my life for which I am in need of prayer. The PropheZine Prayer Board is the place you can go to post a public prayer request or a Private Request. We have a team of Prayer Warriors that pray daily for your requests. Have a look at: http://www.prophezine.com/prayerboard/wwwboard.html
Our Discussion Board is available for topical discussions dealing with most anything. http://www.prophezine.com/BBS/index.shtml
Well, that's all for now. We will continue in our endeavour to spread His good news!
Bob Lally
Publisher / PropheZine
http://www.prophezine.com
bob@prophezine.com
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"We Shall Not All Sleep, But We Shall All Be Changed"
I Corinthians 15: 50-58
I Thessalonians 4: 13-18
As we quickly approach the final days of the Dispensation of the Church Age, the born-again believers in Jesus the Christ -- especially those who are watching and waiting -- are in great anticipation of the "Rapture" of the Bride of Christ, His Church. It is a great hope for both the dead in Christ and the living in Christ.
The word "Rapture" (caught up physically and in ecstasy) has come into popular use today to refer to the Lord Jesus' coming for His bride (the Church), to lift her up into the heavens (I Thessalonians 4:17). Rapture is derived from the word rapio in the Latin Bible's translation of this verse. One Raptured is one "lifted up" in love.
The fact that the Apostle Paul refers to the believers who have died as those who "sleep in Jesus" (I Thessalonians 4:14) is a very powerful consolation to those whose bodies have been buried in Christ, but their souls have gone on to be with the Lord in Heaven and await That Day when He returns for the Church. It will be then that these Church Saints will receive their Resurrected Bodies for they shall be with Jesus when He returns at the Rapture.
Several points should be made here:
1 -- There will be a SHOUT. "For the Lord Himself will descend from Heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel" (V.16). The archangel is believed to be Gabriel, God's messenger. His shout will awaken the dead in Christ. The sea and the earth will give up the bodies which will be raised and glorified (John 5:25).
2 -- "The trumpet of God" will sound (v. 16). This should not be misinterpreted as the seven trumpets of Revelation 8, 9, or 11. Paul calls this the "last trump" in I Corinthians 15: 51, 52, referring to the Roman army's practice of leaving camp by three trumpet calls. The first trump signaled the "get ready": the second trump signaled the camp to "load up;" and the third trump hailed them to "move out." The three trump alarm was also used by the ancient Israeli
Army when they moved out.
3 -- "The dead in Christ shall rise first" (v. 16). When the Lord returns, He will bring with Him the souls and the spirits of the dead believers, and they will enter into their new "incorruptible," resurrected glorified bodies (I Corinthians 15: 52-54). And then we who will be alive at Christ's return (Rapture), will not precede those who are asleep in Christ.
4 -- We Shall Not All Sleep! I Corinthians 15: 51 -- "Behold, I tell you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed --"
Then the living believers shall be "caught up" -- Raptured (vs. 17) The believers who are alive at the time of the rapture will be changed "in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye" Paul calls it a "mystery" (a secret revealed to believers) that there will be a generation of Christians yet alive when Christ returns for His bride. These very fortunate ones will never die physically, but will be "changed."
(I Cor 15: 51, 52).
The transformed living believers will then join the "dead in Christ" who have been raised first (vv 16, 17) and they all will be caught up into the clouds with the Lord and be transported as Jesus was at His ascension (Acts 1:9) to that other dimension -- Heaven, where God dwells in the "many mansions" of which Jesus spoke of in John 14:2.
What a glorious and awesome God we serve. The dead in Christ have the promise of resurrection and a glorified body at His Return. And those who will be alive at that moment have the promise of never facing death, but will be changed and given the same glorified body which our Lord has. And we will go to be with Him for ever and ever more.
And this great and glorious even can happen at any moment. That Day is drawing very, very near. Praise Him, all His children, Praise Him!!!
Your Servant,
Rick
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|
| The Rapture Generation - Y2K/ UFOS/ & The Devil's Spin Doctors
| Exposing the Lie!
| By Bob Ippolito
|
Read 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12
The Times We Live In:
Most scholars and serious students of the Bible will agree to a number of items concerning what Scripture has to say about:
The Rapture:
-It occurs without warning.
-No prophetic event is required to proceed, or come before, the Rapture.
-The antichrist will be revealed after the Rapture.
The End Times:
-It is preceded by a great number of signs.
-The antichrist sets himself up as a global leader.
-It is a time, under the antichrist, of great deception and signs and wonders.
Most Christians who are knowledgeable and attentive about the prophetic signs and events preceding the End Times have been reporting the rapid fulfillment of these prophesied events, such as:
The return of the Jews to the holyland
The re-establishment of Israel as a nation
The restoration of the Hebrew language and the shekel
The rebuilding of the ancient city of Babylon (in Iraq)
The surrounding of Israel by hostile nations and armies
The alliance of traditional Russia and the Moslem nations to the north of Israel
The development of weapons of great devastation (nuclear)
The proliferation of weapons capable of spreading plagues and disease (biological)
The development of technology that can control and monitor all commerce and movement on the planet (computers)
The trend toward a reduction of national sovereignty under a rising system of global government
Not intending the above list to be exhaustive, it may be readily seen that even though the last gentile global empire (the much heralded New World Order) has not yet tightened its iron grip, the stage is set, the props are ready, and the players are backstage, ready to make their appearance at the right moment according to God's timing, not their own.
Because the antichrist will head up this 'beast' of an empire, and yet he cannot be revealed until the (Pre-trib) Rapture occurs, there is emerging amongst knowledgeable Christians a deeply sensed and heightened anticipation that Christ must soon return for His bride, the Church. Jesus said that when these signs proliferate, "lift up your heads, for your redemption draws near". (Luke 21:18)
Even though the Rapture has always been considered imminent (no proceeding event is required), it is this current roar of the thundering hoofbeats of the approaching End Times that heightens the sense that the Rapture certainly cannot be far off in God's prophetic timetable.
There seems to be one missing major event standing in the way of the antichrist's coming-out party; an event so cataclysmic that it will reduce all of the world's existing infrastructure systems to rubble, thereby thrusting upon the world, an urgency to re-unite under a new system, for the sake of survival.
Such an event would be the main catalyst to create the need for the new antichrist system spoken about in Revelation, such that everyone must have his mark to buy or sell and no one could make war against him, giving him total, complete domination over every human being. (Rev 13:16-17)
Up until about a year ago, the only event that most Christians could conceive of that could possibly qualify as such a dramatic catalyst - is the Rapture of the Church. Now, in 1998, we see an additional event rapidly advancing on the horizon that could possibly catalyze a more pervasive and more traumatic upheaval of the world's systems than the Rapture - namely, Y2K*, the Millenium Bug . . . And it will arrive soon, and right on time.In fact, its effects are already being experienced ahead of time.A third calamity that could specifically befall the United States and cripple its influence in the world is the likelihood of an assault of terrorist attacks using weapons of mass destruction.
* ('Y2K' is shorthand for 'The Year 2000' Bug, which refers to a problem which will occur in the processing of data in computers and embedded computer chips throughout society when dates after Jan 1, 2000 are used in date sensitive calculations like banking, billing, travel reservations, expiration dating, etc. The problems will be caused by the inability of software to interpret dates that suddenly drop from '99 to '00', instead of increasing, the way they always have. It is a simple problem, but there is neither enough time nor resources to assess, fix, and test most computers.)
Realistic estimates ('denials' not being considered) of the potential for Y2K to impact the world's systems, range from a minimum of a global depression, to a complete breakdown of the systems of transportation, food distribution, military defense, power and fuel distribution, banking, healthcare, etc. Either outcome could lead to social chaos and the need to restore order (a 'New World' order) driving the people to BEG for stability at any price. This breakdown could rapidly deteriorate into the wars, social strife, plagues and famine spoken about in Matthew chapter 24.
Babylon Revisited
It's rather ironic that Revelation describes the antichrist religious, political and economic system as 'MYSTERY BABYLON'. Y2K closely mimics the fall of Babylon which occurs in Genesis 11:6,7 in that God pronounced judgement on their arrogance by confusing their unified system of communication - their language. This is a coincidentally precise description of what Y2K holds in store for the system of communication that has since re-unified the world (a 'Mystery' Babylon) in these last days- i.e., computers - which will suddenly lose their ability to communicate coherently. It's as though a thread of planned obsolescence has been seamlessly woven into the fabric of society, so thoroughly, so intricately, that it is virtually impossible to remove it without shredding the garment to pieces.
Noah Revisited
It's also rather ironic that the End Times will be 'as in the days of Noah'. (Matt 24:37-44) God gave Noah advance knowledge of what was to come and gave his family time to prepare; the rest of the world was in a state of denial and ignored the warnings until it was too late. They delighted themselves in mocking Noah and his family for their preparations. This is similar to the general reaction of society to the warnings of Y2K, and it parallels the message of the Gospel and of God's judgement which is to come:.God is sending delusion and judgement because of a general worldwide rejection of the message of the Gospel.
Going one step deeper, Jesus even warned us (Matt 24: 45-51) that in the End Times, some of those who call themselves His servants would take to mistreating His servants who are obedient. Jesus gave us lists of signs by which we would know that the End Times (and His Coming) were near, and that we should watch for them and heed them and be ready for perilous times. In spite of all these clear warnings, today we see many in the Church who accuse these obedient and watchful servants of being "naysayers" and "fearmongers" and "doom and gloomers". Woe, to the careless servants. This has become but another proof of the lateness of the hour and the sureness of our understanding of the times.
The Need For Spin Control After The Rapture
Looking then at the lateness of the hour, we can expect that the devil, Lucifer, also knows that the Rapture is near, and that his time is growing short. Being the liar and deceiver that he is, he must concoct a WHOPPER of a lie to explain away the Rapture when it happens. It must be a lie that is so good that it will not only conceal the true reason why hundreds of millions of Christians have been selectively removed, but the lie itself must become the very lure that will move billions of inhabitants of the earth further into his clutches, causing them not only to reject Christ, but to worship himself (the antichrist) instead, taking his mark, and therefore sealing their own doom. (Rev 14: 9-11)
God said that that He would send "STRONG DELUSION" that would bind the hearts and minds of those who rejected the Gospel, BECAUSE they rejected the Gospel, so that they would believe "A LIE" and that it would be associated with Satan's powers, deceit, and lying signs and wonders. What is this specific "LIE" or strong delusion speaking of? There are many who believe that Satan has already been telling this lie, that society is being conditioned for it, and that it even has a clause that includes the Rapture - or more to the point, 'uses' the Rapture to help pull off the great deception.
SAME OLD TRICKS - NEW COSTUMES
*****Disclaimer:*****
[For those who are unfamiliar with the subject of the Nephilim, this discussion may be disturbing. An alternate and less bizarre view to the 'angelic' view of the Nephilim, is called the 'Sethite' view and it involves a totally 'human' view - namely the 'sons of Seth' and the 'daughters of Cain'. The Scriptures do not teach or support the Sethite view, even though it has received support by the Matthew Henry Commentary and the notes in the Scofield Bible. That view is rejected by most conservative Bible scholars. For a refutation of that view as unbiblical, illogical and deficient see the appendix of the Missler/Eastman book or the booklet by Stanley Price in the references listed below. Conservative scholars who support the 'angelic' view, as presented here, include Josephus, Justin Martyr, Martin Luther, Clarence Larkin, G.H. Pembler, M.R. DeHaan, C.H. McIntosh, F. Delitzsch, A.C. Gaebelein, Arthur W. Pink, Donald Grey Barnhouse, Henry Morris, Merrill F. Unger, Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Finis Dake, William Kelley, W.R. Newell, C.A. Coates, James Gray, John Miller Erich Sauer Kyle Yates, Sr., Frederick Tafford, G.H. Lang, F.C. Jennings, Hal Lindsey, Chuck Smith, Dave Hunt, John Weldon, I.D.E. Thomas many others. This author rejects the Sethite view as a denial of the simply stated truth of the Bible.)
(If the reader is 'troubled' by this information on the Nephilim, the purpose of this article can still be appreciated by skipping down to the next section, which is entitled "A Guess About Our Guests")
**********
For the background on this story (explained here only in abbreviated form) we need to go back to Genesis 6:1-5 where it explains that the 'sons of God' came into the 'daughters of men'.
As though the fallen condition of the sons of Adam were not enough, the enemy went much further in trying to destroy any hope that God might redeem men (Matt 13:24-43). The term 'sons of God' in the Old Testament, as translated from the Hebrew term 'ben elohim' always refers to angels (see also Job 1:6; 38:7). These particular 'sons of God' mentioned in Genesis 6 were a subgroup among the already-fallen angels who produced hybrid offspring before the flood known as the Nephilim (giant ones).
Even after the flood, there were isolated lesser outbreaks of a similar type. One explanation is that they were repeat post-flood episodes of similar angelic involvement; this is suggested by Gen 6:4 where it says "in those days (time of the flood), and also AFTERWARDS. These post-flood occurrences may have been pockets of genetic throwbacks, rather than episodes of further angelic involvement. It could be that Ham's wife was contaminated, since Canaan, his son, was cursed and the Israelites were later commanded not to intermarry with the Canaanites. Nimrod of Babylon, the 'type' of the antichrist of the last days, was Canaan's son and Ham's grandson. It's also interesting that one of the eight on the ark was contaminated with the ungodly seed (although ALL had the sin nature) and God placed on the ark seven pairs of 'clean' animals for every one pair of 'unclean' animals. (Gen 7:2)
In addition to the pre and post flood Nephilim, other post-flood groups mentioned in the Bible are:
Raphaim - 'spirits' - Gen 14:5 and Deut 2:20
Anakim - 'prideful ones' - Num 13:28-33
Emim - 'proud deserters' - Gen 14:5
Zuzim - 'evil ones' - Num 14:5
Zamzuzamim - 'evil plotters' - Deut 2:20
Zophim - 'watchers' - Dan 4:17
God would have them rooted out and destroyed (2 Sam 21:16-22).
Each succeeding time, they appear to have been less unusual and more like regular people.
Finally, they could no longer be distinguished, and even the angels would err in trying to do so. Jesus said they would be allowed to grow together until the end of the age. (Matt 13:29-30; Dan 2:43; 12:10; Rev 22:11-12) Today, the world is still populated by two types of physical beings - fallen humans who need to be saved by the light of the gospel and children of the devil (John 8:43-47). It is by our response to the Gospel that it is shown whether we are the children of light or the children of darkness.
These angels in Genesis 6 are guilty of:
a)Overstepping appointed boundaries set by God between angels and humans (Jude 6) (angels do not reproduce with each other (Matt 22:30) but the Bible does NOT say that they are sexless; and it always portrays them as 'male' (1 Cor 11:10)
.b) trying to contaminate the entire human race so that all would have their lineage from Adam defiled, thereby becoming non-redeemable, putting a halt to God's Plan of Salvation and Redemption (Matt 13:39)
c) trying to force God to overlook them for their former rebellion, by playing on His compassion for the remaining, contaminated human race (Gen 6:6)
d) trying to increase their own numbers in their rebellion against God. (Rev 16:13,14)
Because Noah alone (and his family) were righteous (Gen 6:8,9) (still undefiled), God intervened to bring the Messiah, still, through Noah's lineage. But God had to destroy the rest of the race (Gen 6:7,11-12), because they had become defiled and were unredeemable, no longer being descended just from Adam (Matt 13:25,26). To this day, people are influenced and affected by what happened at Eden and in Genesis 6.
The particular fallen angels (Jude 6) who committed these violations of "abandoning their proper abode" (transgressing God-appointed limits) by "going after strange flesh" (Jude 6,7) (not their own kind), were consigned to a pit (2 Peter 2:4). The other fallen angels have remained active throughout history (Ephes 6:12).
In the End Times, God removes His restraint of evil to allow evil to run its full course.(Rev 22:11; 2 Thess 2:6,7) The Genesis 6 transgression seems to be replaying in our day and time in the form of another sinister lie and deception regarding the same old tricks. The new 'spin' on the old Genesis 6 trick is called 'close encounters' and 'alien abductions' by 'ETs' from 'UFOs'. For a more thorough discussion of the history, statistics and expert opinions on these phenomena, consult some of the books mentioned below by scholarly Christian writers such as Dave Hunt, I.D.E.Thomas, Stanley Price, Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman, John Weldon and John Ankerberg.
The facts are that, particularly in this century, and at a rapidly increasing frequency:
1) millions of people are reporting sightings of craft that seem to defy our understanding of physics and technology - this includes statements of observations by our astronauts and other NASA employees.
2) hundreds of thousands have been reporting sightings of occupants from these vehicles, with similar accounts of their appearance.
3) tens of thousands are reporting "close encounters of the third kind", that is, actual contact with the beings, typically with reference to abduction and physical examination or even tampering of a sexual nature (they are being prevented from repeating the intimate mechanics of Genesis 6, so they seem to be looking for another method or technology to again produce offspring. Maybe that would love to introduce humans to cloning technology to serve their own evil purpose?)
A Guess About Our Guests
or ... our uninvited invaders
The commonly accepted views are that they may be extraterrestrial visitors from another galaxy, or that the victims are not to be given any credibility. However, both hypotheses have received serious challenges from a number of prominent UFO researchers and scientists. Well-documented accounts of UFOs that change shape, dematerialize, and defy the laws of physics have caused many serious researchers to speculate that these vehicles and their occupants are more likely to be deceivers from a parallel dimension, beyond our limitation of four-dimensional space-time.
Astronomer J. Allen Hynek, in his book "Edge of Reality", states "If UFOs are indeed somebody else's nuts and bolts hardware, then we must still explain how such tangible hardware can change shape before our eyes, vanish in a Cheshire cat manner...seemingly melt away in front of us, or apparently 'materialize' mysteriously before us without apparent detection by persons nearby or in neighboring towns. We must wonder, too, where UFOs are 'hiding' when not manifesting themselves to human eyes."
One of the world's top UFOlogists is Jaques Vallee, who actually played the part of himself (as a UFOlogist interviewer) in the movie "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" (for which he was a consultant to Steven Spielberg). In his book "Passport to Magonia, VII" he states "the folklore of every culture, it turned out, had a rich reservoir of stories about humanoid beings that flew in the sky, used devices that seemed in advance of the technology of the time, and said strangely beautiful, although absurd, things to those with whom they came in contact. These beings abducted humans, and their victims uniformly reported an alteration of the sense of time when they were in the beings' company." Vallee has concluded after more than 20 years of investigation that: "UFOs MAY BE PSYCHOLOGICALLY PROGRAMMING US FOR SOME ULTIMATE DECEPTION THAT IS TOO HORRIBLE EVEN TO IMAGINE AS YET" (caps mine).
Dave Hunt, in his book "Peace, Prosperity, & The Coming Holocaust", states that "Two conclusions that most investigators find very distasteful seem nevertheless to be inescapable: 1) there is a common source behind all occult phenomena, including UFOs, that seems to be intelligently and deliberately orchestrating a clever deception for its own purposes; and 2) hypnosis, or the power of suggestion, is at the heart of this scheme.
In his 'true story' bestselling book "Communion" (pg 126), novelist Whitley Streiber revisits his personal account of alien abduction and personal violation by ETs. He 'remembers' the image of the leader of these beings and recounts (under hypnosis) "The closest thing I have been able to find to an unadorned image of these beings is not from some modern science-fiction movie, IT IS RATHER THE AGE-OLD, GLARING FACE OF ISHTAR" (caps mine - Ishtar is the legendary goddess of ancient Assyria and Babylon). "Paint her eyes entirely black, remove her hair, and there is my image as it hangs before me now in my mind's eye, the ancient and terrible one, the bringer of wisdom, the ruthless questioner." And then, without the light of the Gospel, Streiber incredibly goes on in complete disregard for what he just remembered, with detached musings about these visitors possibly being gods, or having even created us. Not a clue. (pray for his salvation)
I.D.E. Thomas, in his book "The Omega Conspiracy", also quoting Jacques Vallee writes "Jacques Vallee does not use biblical terminology, nor does he write from the standpoint of Scripture, nonetheless he comes surprisingly close to the conclusions of the Bible. He (Vallee) writes: 'The experience of a close encounter with a UFO is a shattering physical and mental ordeal. The trauma has effects that go far beyond what the witnesses recall consciously. New types of behavior are conditioned, and new types of belief are promoted. The social, political, and religious consequences of the experience are enormous if they are considered, not in the days or weeks following the sighting, but over the timespan of a generation. Could it be that such effects are actually intended, through some process of social conditioning? Could it be that both the believers and the skeptics are being manipulated by what I (Vallee) jokingly call the Higher Intelligence Agency? Is the public being deceived and led to false conclusions by
someone who is using the UFO witnesses to propagate revolutionary new ideas?"
The Big Lie - Spin Control On The Event Of The Ages
or, ... 'Let the Deception Begin'
Let us look, then, to samples of the kind of lies that are being implanted in the minds of the victims of these encounters and abductions by the so called ETs, especially from the book, "Alien Encounters", by Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman (an excellent Christian expose' on these developments):
"According to hundreds of contactees, Earth changes are part of a cleansing that could be catastrophic if our 'space brothers (ETs)' don't intervene. The ETs, we are told, have a plan to salvage our planet and to prevent Earth Mother from destroying the majority of life as she cleanses herself. The plan is to remove, that is 'evacuate', the millions of people who are 'out of vibration' with Earth Mother". (Of course, fellow Christian, it is you and I who are 'out of vibration', - thanks be to God).
In "The Day the Gods Came" by George King, he claims that the coming Avatar has telepathically relayed to him the scenario that this leader "will stand tall among men with a shining countenance... his magic will be greater than any upon the earth...greater than the combined might of all the armies... they who heed not his words shall be removed from the earth". (M&E, pg287)
Earlyne Chaney, a New-Age channeler states in her book "Revelations of Things To Come" that she receives telepathic messages from an ET entity named Kut-Hu-Mi, who supposedly says that "The Mother Deva (Earth Mother) realizes that her matter must be purified. Her akashic ethers must be cleansed of the dark thought forces". Those who are allegedly taken off the planet by our alleged space brothers are sometimes identified as the 'dark thought forces'; I believe they have this a little backwards because we carry the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ; but then again, what else is new?
>From the writings of New Ager, Barbara Marciniak in "Bringers of the Dawn", she stated: "There is the potential for many people to leave the planet in an afternoon...When the time comes that perhaps 20 million people leave the planet at one time there will be a tremendous shift in consciousness for those who are remaining...". THAT is certainly biblical, and I would certainly call that a "tremendous shift in consciousness". (They shall receive great delusion and believe the lie, according to 2 Thessal 2:9-12).
Analyzing The Lie: (Author comments in (parenthesis ))
According to one New Age group, the extraterrestrials of the Ashtar Command (sound a little Babylonian to you? - Ashtar = Ishtar, the chief goddess of the Babylonians and the Assyrians) (Rev 17:1-6) has a detailed plan and the "Great Evacuation will come upon the world very suddenly. The flash of emergency events will be as (wait till you read this one) lightning that flashes in the sky. So sudden and so quick in its happening that it is over almost before you are aware of its presence..." (as we all know, the Bible said Jesus' coming for the Church would be 'like a thief in the night' - 1 Thess 5:2. Seems like the devil is SOoo unoriginal) ..."our rescue ships will be able to come in close enough (ready?) in the twinkling of an eye (the devil is also a plagiarist- 1 Cor 15:52) to set the lifting beams in operation in a moment...".
This quote continues along with mention of mother ships and baby ships and other techy stuff. This same group further details two phases of the evacuation as: "Phase I...will take place at a moment's notice when it is determined that the inhabitants are in danger. Phase II this second phase immediately following the first. The second phase is vital, as we return for the children of all ages and races. The child does not have the power of choice in understanding nor personal accountability." Very interesting how they seem to have the script prepared with such detailed explanations. The devil is in the details.
Now,... Here Comes The Real Poison Pill...
According to The Extraterrestrials of Ashtar Command in "Project: World Evacuation 1993:", "Do not be concerned nor unduly upset if you do not participate in this first temporary lift-up of souls who serve with us. This merely means that your action in the plan is elsewhere, and you will be taken for your instructions (Gee, I wonder who will give them) or will receive them in some other manner. Do not take any personal affront if you are not alerted or are not a participant in this first phase of our plan. Your time will come later, and these instructions are not necessary for you at this time." Going on to quote Missler and Eastman, "So, the New Age workers are supposed to REJOICE when they find out that millions of people, including members of their own family, have been abducted by aliens and they are 'left behind to help mankind survive through the cataclysmic period'". What an utterly diabolocal lie!!! But then, he is called 'El Diablo'!
As Dave Hunt says (p191,192), " the same Bible that predicts the Rapture also warns that those who are left behind will be given by God a 'deluding influence so that they might believe what is false'...There will be millions of church members left behind (Matt 7:22-23)- entire congregations...including many people who claim to be born-again Christians. They will be Exhibit A in evidence that this appearance had nothing to do with Christianity, religion, Bible prophecies, or an alleged rapture .. When the panic subsides, those 'left behind' will eventually refer to themselves as the survivors, the lucky ones, chosen by Hierarchy or the Universal Mind or Unknown Masters or the Force to enter the New Age."
Continuing on page 195, Hunt then says: "As quickly as possible, a new census must be taken; everyone must appear personally at designated centers to be photographed and fingerprinted for new identification. Eventually, out of the chaos, a completely new society, new structures, new standards, a new world order will painfully emerge, as the inconceivable consequence of the rapture are faced up to by a stunned world."
(It sounds like Y2K and the Rapture are both excellent candidates for provoking the same kind of societal upheaval... maybe a one, two punch.)
The Rapture Is A Two-Edged Sword:
The Rapture will essentially be a two-edged sword-like instrument like the Word of God or the Flood Waters in the time of Noah. They bring salvation OR judgement, one OR the other - depending upon our position with respect to God, in Christ. The flood waters that drowned the human race in judgement were the very same waters that lifted Noah and his family up to safety, because of their position in the ark. In like manner, for the generation that remains at the time of the Rapture, we will be lifted up to safety during the Rapture (Isa 26:10; Rev 13:5-6) because of our position in Christ (our ark of safety), OR, for those who "received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved, "And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie". Verse 10 of 2 Thess. 2 makes it clear that the delusion deceives those that are 'perishing'. As a result of the delusion which they believe by misinterpreting the Rapture, they shall accept the one who comes in his own name, the antichrist, and shall worship him as their god because of his "signs and wonders".
Missler and Eastman (pg 286) suggest that "it is very likely that the Coming World Leader will boast of a connection with the powerful, god-like alien entities who have, it is believed, overcome the problems of poverty, famine, disease, war, and the pain of cultural and religious division. Remember that 2 Thessal 2 points out that this 'son of perdition' (destruction) who 'will be revealed' (the antichrist) will channel all the power of Satan by working signs and lying wonders. It says in Revelation (13:13-14) that even his assistant (the second beast, the false prophet) shall have the power to call down fire from the sky in the sight of men (close encounters of the second kind - upon command?). Does this sound a little like flaunting his command over deceiving fallen angels who are masquerading as ETs in UFOs? No wonder they will say (Rev 13:4,8) "who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" No wonder they will worship him!
Are we ALL being set up? Just take a look at the trend from Hollywood and TV:
X-files
Independence Day
Men in Black
The Visitors
Dark Skies
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
etc.
In 1960 NASA released a report from The Brookings Institute, which made an ominous prediction: "While the discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life in other parts of the universe is not likely in the immediate future, it could nevertheless, happen at any time. Discovery of intelligent beings on other planets could lead to an all-out effort by Earth to contact them, or it could send sweeping changes or even the downfall of civilization.. Societies sure of their own place have disintegrated when confronted by a superior society." (According to the ancient Historian Josephus, this is exactly what happened when the 'Shepherd Kings' -(Enoch and friends) came into pre-flood Egypt to put down their idolatry; Egypt acquiesced without resistance, so great was the power of the Shepherd Kings.)
As I.D.E.Thomas has pointed out, "When Christ was on Earth the first time, He asked his followers: 'When the Son of Man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth? (Luke 18:8) Demonic entities are determined that the answer to that question be a 'resounding 'NO!'. It is their mission that faith disappear completely from the planet."
"This Is The Alien Agenda".
The Nephilim of Genesis 6:4, these "mighty men of old, men of great renown" , found their way into secular literature as the `gods' of Greek and Roman mythology - i.e.- the traditions of men. According to these earthly traditions the `gods' came down from the heavens and produced children, demigods, by human women. These gods and demigods interfered in the lives of mere mortals. The truth from the Bible, however, is that they were not `gods' at all, but fallen angels abandoning their proper abode to go after strange flesh. In like manner, in our day, we see a parallel deception building up, that "advanced beings (`gods') from beyond earth (ETs) are again coming down to men to intervene in our affairs in order to bring us into the dawning of a New Age".
Our Response:
What must be OUR agenda, for we who are in Christ?
As the Father has sent the Son, so the Son has sent us, to carry His light into a dark and sin-sick world that needs forgiveness and reconciliation.
Let us, then, continue the work while we yet have light (the Gospel); for soon the darkness comes, when no man can work. (John 9:4).
Bob Ippolito
Prophezine - Assistant Editor - http://www.prophezine.com
The Watchman's Trumpet - Founder &Editor - WatchmanT@aol.com
Christian References on the above topics:
1) The Bible
2) "Alien Encounters" - Chuck Missler and Mark Eastman - c1997 - Koinonia House - Coeur d'Alene, ID - http://www.khouse.org
3) "The Omega Conspiracy" - Rev. I.D.E. Thomas, Ph.D. - c1986 - Hearthstone Publishing - Oklahoma City, OK
4) "Peace, Prosperity and the Coming Holocaust" - Dave Hunt - c1983 - Harvest House Publishers - Eugene, OR
5) "The Giants of Noah's Day" - Stanley Price - c1988 - Southwest Radio Church - Oklahoma City, OK
6) "UFOs: What on Earth is Happening" - John Weldon and Zola Levitt - c1975 - Harvest House Publishers - Eugene Oregon
7) "The Facts on UFOs and Other Supernatural Phenomena" - J. Ankerberg & J. Weldon - c1992 - Harvest House Publishers - Eugene Oregon
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| On The Resurrection of the Righteous New Bodies for Old!
| by Lambert Dolphin
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In spite of vigorous medical research, better drugs, superior treatment protocols, the mortality rate for the human race remains a flat 100%. In under developed countries disease and poor diets sometimes mean the life expectancy was only 35 or 40--or less.
Solomon tells us our appointed time is 70 or sometimes 80 years
"The days of our lives are seventy years; And if by reason of strength they are eighty years, Yet their boast is only labor and sorrow; For it is soon cut off, and we fly away....So teach us to number our days, That we may gain a heart of wisdom." (Psalm 90:10, 12)
Death as it is described in the Bible does not mean we cease to exist, nor does it imply cessation of consciousness.
Furthermore the Hindu idea of reincarnation is refuted by the Bible (see Hebrews 9:27).God alone has real life--all life comes from Him. Jesus is called "the Author Life" in Acts 3:15. In simple terms those persons who have a live connection with Jesus possess self-renewing eternal life--here and now.
Job's Hope
This is not a detailed discussion on the resurrection of Jesus Christ and details of what the Bible says about future resurrections of both believers and non-believers. In this brief study wewant to focus especially on what we can infer about the nature and characteristics of the Christian's resurrection body.
Biblical revelation is progressive in time. Old Testament revelation about life after death is vague and obscure. Sheol is "the grave" but few details are given, it seems to be a place of gloom and mystery. God's purposes for Israel are national.
Obedience to God would bring secure land, crops and cattle, prosperity, deliverance from enemies, good health and family happiness. A glorious future for the nation is described, but little is said about what happens to an individual when he or she dies. Hannah understood God was responsible for life and death, and He has the power to impart life, " The LORD kills and brings to life; he brings down to Sheol and raises up." (I Samuel 2:6)
In the midst of his trials, suffering, and bad advice from his friends Job indicated he had a personal hope of resurrection, "Oh that my words were written! Oh that they were inscribed in a book! Oh that with an iron pen and lead they were graven in the rock for ever! For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at last he will stand upon the earth; and after my skin has been thus destroyed, then from my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see on my side, and my eyes shall behold, and not another. My heart faints within me! (Job 19:23-27). (For a study of Job see Beyond Suffering - Expository Studies in Job, by Ray. C.
Stedman).
The historic choice made by our first parents, Adam and Eve, cut the race off from a relationship with God--we are all born mortal--it is in our very genes. (See Arthur C. Custance, "The Seed of the Woman.")
The Man who is Now in Heaven
From the pen of A. W. Tozer, Pastor at Moody Bible Church in Chicago, about 50 years ago:
The teaching of the New Testament is that now, at this very moment, there is a Man in heaven appearing in the presence of God for us. He is as certainly a man as was Adam or Moses or Paul; he is a man glorified, but his glorification did not de-humanize him. Today he is a real man, of the race of mankind, bearing our lineaments and dimensions, a visible and audible man, whom any other man would recognize instantly as one of us.
But more than this, he is the heir of all things, Lord of all lords, head of the church, firstborn of the new creation. He is the way to God, the life of the believer, the hope of Israel, and the high priest of every true worshiper. He holds the keys of death and hell, and stands as advocate and surety for everyone who believes on him in truth. Salvation comes not by accepting the finished work, or deciding for Christ; it comes by believing on the Lord Jesus Christ, the whole, living, victorious Lord who, as God and man, fought our fight and won it, accepted our debt as his own and paid it, took our sins and died under them, and rose again to set us free. This is the true Christ; nothing less will do.
The Bible often talks about the multitudes who do not as yet know God--people who have not been reconnected to the Source of Life. These are already "dead." It is by believing in and receiving Jesus Christ as Lord that spiritual rebirth occurs.
Ephesians 2 describes this process:
And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. (Ephesians 2:1-10).
Quite a number of supernatural events take place when a man or woman, boy or girl, opens his or her heart to Jesus the Lord. The dormant spirit of that person, out of touch with God until now, is now connected to the Holy Spirit of God. The individual is then the immediate possessor of eternal life and can never die.
"He who believes in the Son of God has the witness in himself; he who does not believe God has made Him a liar, because he has not believed the testimony that God has given of His Son. And this is the testimony: that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life, and that you may [continue to] believe in the name of the Son of God." (I John 5:10-13)
The new believer in Jesus is taken by God out of from under the evil government of this present world system and placed under the direct government of Christ, while still remaining in the world,.
God..."has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us [translated us] into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." (Colossians 1:12-14)
God also blots out all our sins, cut us off inside from the fallen life of Adam by circumcision of the heart. We are immersed by the Holy Spirit (baptized) into Christ so that we are once for all identified with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection, (see Romans 6:3-9)
In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses, having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us. And He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. (Colossians 2:12-14)
We are already made into totally new persons (2 Cor. 5:17). For the rest of our lives on this present earth we will experience the realization of this newness of life. Our bodies and spirits are made new and our physical bodies, though not yet redeemed, experience resurrection life and renewing from God.
And if Christ is in you, although your body is still dead because of sin, the spirit in you is alive because of [Christ's] righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to quicken [revitalize] your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.(Romans 8:10-11)
The beginning of the process, our being "born again," or "born from above" as described in John Chapter 3 sets in motion all that follows, and is called "regeneration."
"For we ourselves were also once foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving various lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." (Titus 2:7)
The rebirth experience also causes us to be born into God's family and also we are adopted so that our membership in the household of faith is dual. We are adopted into the family as adult sons. My friend Glenn Miller of the Christian Think Tank notes that God's mercy goes into a prison and unchains guilt prisoners under sentence of death for their sins. The prisoners are taken out of jail and set free in front of the detention facility. Then, God's grace sends a limousine to the curb, picks up the released sinner. He is now a royal son adopted into the household of the king as an immediate heir of the king's estate!
Salvation cleanses and renews man in the core of his being--in his spirit. The soul (mind, emotions, will) are also renewed, washed, reconstructed and refreshed completely by the recreating workings of the Holy Spirit. Over time the Christian continues to experience a process which the Bible calls "sanctification." Technically the word in Greek or Hebrew means "set aside for the purposes of God, "or "put to the proper use intended by the Creator." However Ray Stedman notes that a better meaning we can readily understand is the term "to make whole."
Sin is a violation of God's intention for humanity. It is a destructive force that wrecks and ruins the full glory and beauty of humanity as God intended it to be. A mere glance at what is happening in society will convince you how true this is. I firmly believe that the Bay Area is the most beautiful, most enviable place on earth. I have traveled all over this globe and I have never found any place more desirable than this area. It has a marvelous climate --neither too hot in summer nor too cold in winter. Spring comes in February, winter does not come until the middle of December, and even then it is very mild. The Peninsula, we are told, has the highest per capita income of any place in the world. Unemployment is relatively low. There is freedom here to follow any lifestyle you want. Yet people in this area are just as hurting, lonely, and miserable inside; life is just as empty and as painful as it is anywhere on earth. Why is that? It is because of sin. But they do not know that. They do not understand what causes all the pain, hurt, and loneliness. They ascribe it to a lot of different sources, but when those are corrected the same pain, the same emptiness remains.
So what do they learn from watching transformed people in the church? They learn that the reason for their pain is that they are out of touch with basic reality. They are trying to play the game of life without any reference to the One who sets the rules. The first thing they learn when they see people who have been inwardly transformed by the presence of the Spirit releasing to them the life of Jesus is that here are people who have found the secret of life.
Here are people who like themselves have suffered all the hurt and the loneliness of life who now have found the secret of calmness, peace, and forgiveness. They discover for the first time that the nature of sin is to ignore the One in charge of life. "They sin because they do not believe in me," Jesus declares. The secret to life, therefore, is to believe in and come to the Lord Jesus.
The second thing the world will learn, Jesus says, is the source of the gift of wholeness. "Righteousness," he calls it, but righteousness is a term for what the Old Testament calls "holiness."
I confess I have never liked the word "holiness." When I was growing up I likened holiness to grimness. Holy people never smiled and never enjoyed anything. In fact, if they did enjoy anything, they felt guilty about it! I never liked this word until I learned to substitute for it another word that says exactly what holiness is, and that is the word "wholeness."
I have never met anybody who does not want to be a whole person. What do we mean when we sing "Holy, holy, holy"? God is "whole," he is perfect. There is nothing out of balance or eccentric about him. That is what he is seeking to produce in this world -- "whole" persons. That is what the word "righteousness" means.
The good news of the gospel is that we do not have to make ourselves whole. Everybody is born into this world with the idea that the way to be "whole" is to work at it until all the pieces fit and he finally gets himself together.Have you ever said to yourself, "I'm going to get myself together!" That is an expression of a desire for wholeness.
What the world will learn from Christians is that the only way to find that wholeness is to come to Jesus. That is the first thing he gives you, an inner gift of wholeness. You are made righteous. Here is how Paul describes it in his second Corinthian letter. "He who knew no sin was made sin for us, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him," {cf, 2 Cor 5:21 KJV}. That is it. The world will discover that the way to wholeness is to come to Jesus. This is done by means of the Spirit. That is what Jesus means when he says here, "because I go unto the Father and you see me no more." All along he has been saying that when he goes to the Father he will send the Spirit, and the first work of the Spirit is to give us what we could never earn -- righteousness, inner wholeness before God.
The Old Testament has a wonderful term for that: "The beauty of holiness." We are talking about inner beauty. One of my favorite psalms says, "Let the beauty of the Lord our God be upon us," {Psalm 90:17a KJV}. There is something beautiful about whole people. They attract us, they capture our attention. The truly beautiful people, therefore, says Jesus, will be those who, despite all the failure and the weakness and the stumbling folly of their lives, have, by faith in Jesus, been made whole inwardly, and that inner wholeness then begins to transform, in a process, all of the outer life until they gradually reflect it in their behavior. That is what the world will learn. (Ray C. Stedman, Expository sermons on the Gospel of John)
"The Body is Dead Because of Sin, But Your Spirits are Alive..."
It is through the sense organs of the physical body that we are aware of the physical world in which we live. The bodies we now have are mortal bodies--the Bible calls them "natural bodies." If in fact we now possessed our new spiritual bodies which will be given to us at the coming resurrection, we would see that we are already in the midst of heaven. We are surrounded by angels, and in fact we are also now "seated in Christ Jesus in the heavenly places"! (Ephesians 2, quoted above),
and
"... you have [already] come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, to an innumerable company of angels, to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are registered in heaven, to God the Judge of all, to the spirits of just men made perfect, to Jesus the Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling that speaks better things than that of Abel."
(Hebrews 12:22-24)
It takes a bit of getting used to--the nature of time and eternity. We are connected to the old creation and the present fallen world system through eyes, ears, touch, taste, smell and contact with planet earth and people around us--through ouir old sinful, unredeemed bodies. We are also prisoners in a one-dimensional time frame. Our present natural, or mortal bodies, (because of the Fall) allow us to experience a flow of time from the future through the present and into the past--only. This kind of time is known as "linear time" and we can not escape this imprisonment in time as long as we still inhabit our fallen present bodies.
It is true that in spirit and soul, regenerated people already are in touch with eternity, we already possess eternal life and are aware of qualities of time in the heavenly places they we were not aware of before coming to know God. Arthur Custance eloquently discusses the many dimensions of time in his books "Journey out of Time" and "Time and Eternity".
Now for the interesting part of resurrection. A number of passages in the Bible tell us exactly what happens we a Christian dies. One key passage is 2 Corinthians 5:1-9 which says this:
"For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, [Greek: skenos, a tent] is destroyed, we have [present tense] a building {Greek: oikos, a permanent building] from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. Now He who has prepared us for this very thing is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. For we walk by faith, not by sight. We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord. Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him."
The apostle likens our present bodies to tents used for camping purposes. They are flimsy and easily torn. They are subject to mildew. The winds blows easily through the cracks, the floor is rocky and uncomfortable. The best of tents are too cold in winter, too hot in summer. and the rain finds a way to get in no matter what. They are not very durable. They are for temporary use, not intended as permanent dwellings!
Paul tells tells us in the above passage that our new spiritual (resurrection) bodies (solid, substantial oikos) are already in existence! These bodies are waiting to be put on as a man would put on a new suit of clothes. Using the different Greek word oikos he tells us that the new body is solid, substantial and permanent, unlike a camping tent.
To assure us that no intermediate state awaits us when we die, he alludes to the fact that we are usually uncomfortable when we are naked. We would likewise be uncomfortable if we stepped out of our present bodies and walked around as mere naked spirits. Instead , he tells us in this passage, that we are immediately "clothed" upon by our new resurrection bodies.
We will not be found naked at death, we will step immediately out of time into eternity and immediately put on our "space suits"--marvelous resurrection bodies which will never wear out nor grow old!
When we die we step out of time and enter eternity--"to be absent from the body is to be at home with the Lord"--that is clear. Our immediate experience is to arrive at point in the heavenly dimension where eternity invades time--an event we call the resurrection of the righteous dead. It is described for us in I Thessalonians 4:13-18. We believers from the age of the church all arrive together and we all put on your new bodies as if there a set of fine clothes and we were dressing for a magnificent wedding (which is the actual situation).
I Corinthians Chapter 15 contains the most complete description we have in the Bible concerning the nature of resurrection of believers and resurrection bodies. The late Scottish Bible scholar William Barclay offers helpful comments about what we know and do not know about the life which is to come. He writes as follows,
JESUS' RESURRECTION AND OURS
I CORINTHIANS 15, to which we now turn, is at one and the same time one of the greatest and one of the most difficult chapters in the New Testament. Not only is it in itself difficult, but it has also given to the creed a phrase which many people have grave difficulty in affirming, for It is from this chapter that we mainly derive the idea of the resurrection of the body. The chapter will be far less difficult if we study it against its background, and even that troublesome phrase will become quite clear and quite acceptable when we realize what Paul really meant by it. So then before we study this chapter there are certain things we would do well to have in our minds.
(i) It is a point of very great importance to remember that the Corinthians were not denying the Resurrection of Jesus Christ; what they were denying is the resurrection of the body; and what Paul is insistent upon is that If a man denies the possibility of the resurrection of the body he has thereby denied the possibility of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, and has therefore emptied the Christian message of its truth and the Christian life of its reality.
(ii) In any early Christian Church there must have been two backgrounds, for in all Churches there were Jews and Greeks. At these two backgrounds we must now look. First, there was the Jewish background. To the end of the day the Sadducees denied that there was any life after death at all. There was therefore one line of Jewish thought which completely denied both the immortality of the soul and the resurrection of the body. (Acts 23: 8). In the Old Testament itself there is very little hope of anything that can be called life after death. According to the general Old Testament belief all men, without distinction, went to Sheol after death. Often Sheol is wrongly translated Hell.
Sheol was the abode of all the dead. It was a gray land, beneath the world, where the dead lived a shadowy and a ghostly existence, without strength, without light, cut off alike from men and from God. The Old Testament is full of this bleak, grim pessimism regarding what is to happen after death.
For in death there is no remembrance of Thee: In the grave who shall give Thee thanks? (Psalm 6: 5).
What profit is there In my blood when I go down Into the pit? Shall the dust praise Thee? Shall it declare Thy truth? (Psalm 30: 9).
Wilt Thou show wonders to the dead? Shall the dead arise and praise Thee? Shall Thy loving kindness be declared in the grave? Or Thy faithfulness in destruction? Shall Thy wonders be known in the dark? And Thy righteousness in the land of forgetfulness? (Psalm 88:10-12).
Sheol was the land of the dark and of the forgotten dead,
The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence. (Psalm 115:17).
The grave cannot praise Thee, death cannot celebrate Thee; they that go down into the pit cannot hope for Thy truth. (Isaiah 38:18).
O spare me that I may recover strength, before I go hence and be no more. (Psalm 39: 13).
To him that is joined to all the living there is a hope; for a living dog is better than a dead lion. For the living know that they shall die; but the dead know not anything...Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy might; for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave whither Thou goest. (Ecclesiastes 9: 4, 5, 10).
Who shall give praise to the Most High in the grave? Ecclesiasticus 17: 27).
The dead that are in the grave, whose breath is taken from their bodies, will give unto the Lord neither glory nor righteousness. (Baruch 2: 17).
J. E. McFadyen, the great Old Testament scholar, has said that this lack of a belief In immortality in the Old Testament is due "to the power with which those men apprehended God in this world." He goes on to say, "There are few more wonderful things than this in the long story of religion, that for centuries men lived the noblest lives, doing their duties and bearing their sorrows, without hope of future reward; and they did this because in all their going out and coming in they were very sure of God."
It Is true that In the Old Testament there are some few, some very few, glimpses of a real life to come. There were times when a man felt that, if God be God at all, there must be something which would reverse the incomprehensible verdicts of this world. So Job cries out, Still, I know One to champion me at last, to stand up for me upon earth. This body may break up, but even then my life shall have a sight of God. (Job 19: 25-27. Moffatt).
The real feeling of the saint was that even In this life a man might enter into a relationship with God, so close, so precious and so intimate that no
t even death could break It.
My flesh shall rest in hope. For Thou wilt not leave my soul in Sheol; neither wilt Thou surfer Thine holy one to see corruption. Thou wilt show me the path of life; in Thy presence is foulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore. (Psalm 16: 9-11).
Thou hast holden me by Thy right hand. Thou shalt guide me with Thy counsel, and afterward receive me to glory. (Psalm 73:24).
It is true that in Israel the immortal hope did develop. Two things helped that development. (a) Israel was the chosen people, and yet her history was one continued tale of disaster. Men began to feel that it required another world to redress the balance. (b) For many centuries it is true to say that the individual hardly existed. God was the God of the nation, but the individual was an unimportant unit. But as the centuries went on religion became more and more personal. God became not the God of the nation but the God who was the friend of every individual man; and so men began, not certainly, but dimly and instinctively, to feel that once a man knows God and is known by God, a relationship has happened which not even death can break.
(iii) Now we turn to the Greek world. When we do we must firmly grasp one thing, which indeed is at the back of this whole chapter. On the whole the Greek did believe in the immortality of the soul, but the Greek would never have dreamed of believing in the resurrection of the body. It is true that the Greek had an instinctive fear of death.
Euripides wrote, "Yet mortals, burdened with countless ills, still love life. They long for each coming day, glad to bear the thing they know, rather than face death the unknown." (Fragment 813). But on the whole the Greek, and that part of the world influenced by Greek thought, did believe in the immortality of the soul. But--and here is the difference--the immortality of the soul involved for the Greek the obliteration, the extinction, the complete dissolution of the body. The Greeks had a proverb, "The body is a tomb." " I am a poor soul," said one of them, "shackled to a corpse." " It pleased me," said Seneca, "to inquire into the eternity of the soul--nay! to believe in it. I surrendered myself to that great hope." But he also says, "When the day shall come which shall part this mixture of divine and human, here, where I found It, I will leave my body, myself I will give back to the gods." Epictetus writes, "When God does not supply what is necessary, He is sounding the signal for retreat. He has opened the door and says to you 'Come!' But whither? To nothing terrible, but to whence you came, to the things which are dear and kin to you, to the elements. What in you was fire shall go to fire, earth to earth, water to water." Seneca talks about things at death " being resolved into their ancient elements." For Plato "the body is the antithesis of the soul, as the source of all weaknesses as opposed to what alone is capable of independence and goodness." We can see this best in the Stoic belief. To the Stoic God was fiery spirit, purer than anything on earth.
That which gave men life was that a spark of this divine fire came and dwelt in a man's body, a spark of God. When a man died, his body simply dissolved into the elements of which it was made, but the divine spark returned to God and was absorbed in the divinity of which it was a part. So, for the Greek, immortality lay precisely in getting rid of the body. For him the resurrection of the body was unthinkable. Personal immortality did not really exist because the life which gave men life was absorbed again in God the source of all life.
(iv) Paul's view was quite different. If we begin with one immense fact the rest will become clear. The Christian belief is that after death Individuality will survive, that you will still be you and I will still be I. Beside that we have to set another immense fact. To the Greek the body could not be consecrated. The body was matter, the source of all evil, the shackle, the handicap, the prisonhouse of the soul. But to the Christian the body was not evil. It could not be after the incarnation. Jesus, the Son of God, had taken this human body upon him and therefore the body is not despicable and contemptible because it had been inhabited by God. To the Christian therefore the life to come involves the total man, body and soul. Now it is easy to misinterpret and to caricature the doctrine of the resurrection of the body. Celsus, who lived about A.D. 220 and who was one of the first to attack Christianity, did it long ago. How can those who died rise with their identical bodies? he demands. " Really it is the hope of worms! For what soul of a man would any longer wish for a body that had rotted?" It is easy to produce the case of a person smashed up In an accident, dying of cancer, maimed, disfigured, broken. But Paul never said that we would rise with the body with which we died. He insisted that we would have a spiritual body. What Paul really meant was that a man's personality would survive. It is almost impossible to conceive of personality without a body, because it is through the body that the personality expresses itself and is recognized. What Paul is contending for is that after death there Is no absorption in some vague deity; there is no loss of the self or of the personality; the individual remains. He did not inherit the Greek contempt of the body. He believed In the resurrection of the whole man. What that life will be like no one can say. But the Christian belief is that not part of the man, but the whole man will rise again. He will still be himself; he will survive as a person. That is what Paul means by the resurrection of the body. Everything of the body and of the soul that is necessary to make a man a person will survive, but, at the same time, all things will be new, and body and spirit will alike be very different from earthly things, for they will alike be divine,
THE RISEN LORD I Corinthians 15:1-11
Brothers, I want to make clear to you the nature of the good news that I preached to you, that gospel which you also received, and in which you stand, and through which you are saved. I want to make clear to you what account I gave you of the good news, an account which can save you if you hold fast to it, unless your belief is a random and haphazard thing. In the very forefront of it I handed on to you what I myself received, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that He was laid in the tomb, and that He was raised up on the third day according to the scriptures, and that He was seen by Cephas and then by The Twelve, and that then He was seen by more than five hundred brothers all at the one time, of whom the majority are still alive, although some have fallen asleep. After that He was seen by James, and then by all the apostles, and last of all, as if by the abortion of the apostolic family, He was seen by me too. For I am the least of the apostles; In fact I am not fit to be called an apostle because I persecuted the Church of God. It Is by the grace of God that I am what I am, and His grace to me has not proved ineffective, but I have toiled more exceedingly than all of them; but it was not I who achieved anything but God's grace working with me. So then, whether I be the preacher or they, this is what we preach and this is what we have believed.
HERE Paul is recapitulating the good news which he first brought to the Corinthians. It was not news which he had invented. It was news which had first been delivered to him, and it was news of a Risen Lord.
In verses I and 2 Paul says an extremely interesting series of things about the good news.
(i) It was something which the Corinthians had received, The good news is always something which comes to us from someone who already possesses it. No man ever invented the gospel for himself; in a sense no man ever discovered it for himself. It is something which he receives. Therein indeed Is the very function of the Church. The Church is the repository and the transmitter of the good news. As one of the old fathers had It, "No man can have God for his Father, unless he has the Church for his mother." The good news is something that is received within a fellow-ship.
(ii) It was something in which the Corinthians stood. The very first function of the good news was to give a man stability. In a dangerous and a slippery world it kept him on his feet. In a tempting and a seducing world it gave him resistance power. In a hurting world it gave him power to withstand a broken heart or an agonized body and not to give in. Moffatt finely translates Job 4: 4, "Your words have kept men on their feet." That is precisely what the word of the gospel does.
(iii) It was something in which they were being saved. It is interesting to note that in the Greek this is a present tense, and not a past tense. It would be strictly correct to translate it not, "in which you have been saved," but, in which you are being saved." The very glory of salvation is that it goes from glory to glory. It is not something which is ever completed In this world. It takes another world to open to any man the full treasures of salvation.
One of the greatest characteristics of the Christian life is just its limitlessness. There are so many things in this life which we can exhaust, but the meaning of salvation is something which a man can never exhaust.
(iv) It was something to which a man had to hold tenaciously. Life makes many an attempt to take away our faith. Things happen to us and happen to others which baffle our understanding; life has its problems to which there seems to be no solution and its questions to which there seems to be no answer; life has its dark places where there seems to be nothing to do but to hold on. Faith is always a victory, the victory of the soul which tenaciously maintains its clutch on God.
(v) It was something which must not be held haphazardly and at random. The faith which collapses is the faith which has not thought things out and thought them through. For so many of us our faith, our belief, is a superficial thing. We tend to accept things because we were told them, to possess them merely at secondhand. If we follow out the agony of thought there may be much that we must discard, but what is left is really and truly and inalienably ours, in such a way that nothing can ever take it from us.
In the list of appearances of the Risen Lord which Paul quotes there are two which are specially interesting.
(i) There is the appearance to Peter. In the very earliest account of the Resurrection story, the word of the messenger in the empty tomb is, " Go your way, tell His disciples and Peter." (Mark 16: 7). In Luke 24: 34 the disciples say, "The Lord is risen indeed and hath appeared to Simon." It is an amazing thing that one of the first appearances of the Risen Lord was to the disciple who had denied Him. There is all the wonder of the love and grace of Jesus Christ here. Others might have hated Peter forever, but the one desire of Jesus was to set this erratic disciple of His upon his feet. Peter had wronged Jesus and Peter had wept his heart out; and the one desire of this amazing Jesus was to comfort Peter in the pain of his disloyalty. Love can go no further than to think more of the heartbreak of the man who wronged it than of the hurt that it itself has received.
(ii) There is the appearance to James. Without doubt the James who is referred to is the brother of our Lord. Now it is quite clear from the gospel narrative that Jesus' own family did not understand Him and were even actively hostile to Him. Mark 3: 21 tells us that they actually sought to restrain Him because they believed Him to be mad.
John 7: 5 tells us that His brothers did not believe in Him. One of the earliest of all the gospels which did not succeed in getting into the New Testament is the Gospel according to the Hebrews. Only fragments of it remain.
One fragment preserved by Jerome reads like this, "Now the Lord, when He had given the linen cloth unto the servant of the priest, went unto James and appeared unto him (for James had sworn that he would not eat bread from that hour wherein he had drunk the Lord's cup until he should see Him risen again from among them that sleep)." So, the story runs, "Jesus went to James and said, 'Bring ye a table and bread.' And He took bread and blessed it and break it and gave it unto James the Just and said unto him, 'My brother, eat thy bread, for the Son of Man is risen from among them that sleep.'" We can only conjecture what lies behind this. It may well be that the last days turned the contempt of James into wondering admiration, and that then when the end had come, James was so torn with remorse for the way in which he had treated his brother that he swore that he would starve unless his brother came back to forgive him. Here once again we have the amazing grace and love of Christ. He came to bring peace to the troubled soul of the man who had called Him mad and who had been His enemy and opponent.
It is one of the most heart-moving things in all the story of Jesus that two of His first appearances when He rose from the tomb, were to men who had hurt Him cruelly and who were sorry for it. Jesus meets the penitent and the contrite heart far more than halfway.
Finally, In this passage we have a vivid light thrown on the character of Paul himself. To Paul it was the most precious thing in the world that Jesus had appeared also to him. That was at one and the same time the turning point and the dynamic moment of his life. But verses 9~II tell us much about Paul.
(i) They tell us of his utter humility. He is the least of the apostles; he has been glorified with an office for which he felt he was not worthy. The one thing Paul would never have claimed to be is a self-made man. It was by the grace of God that he was what he was. He even takes what may well have been a taunt against him. It would seem that Paul was a little and an unhandsome man (2 Corinthians 10: 10). It may well be that the Jews, after his conversion to Christianity, referred to him contemptuously as that abortion of a man." It may be that the Jewish Christians who wished to impose the law and circumcision upon Christian converts, and who hated Paul's doctrine of free grace, declared that, so far from being born again, Paul was an abortion. Paul was so conscious of his own unworthiness that he felt that no one could say anything too bad about him. Charles Gore once said, " On a general review of life we can seldom feel that we are suffering unmerited wrong." Paul felt like that. His was not the pride which resents the criticisms and the taunts of men; it was the humility which felt that it deserved them.
(ii) They tell us at the same time of the consciousness of his own worth. He was well aware that he had labored beyond them all. Paul's modesty was not a false modesty. But even at that, he spoke always, not of what he had done, but of what God had enabled him to do.
(iii) They tell of his sense of fellowship. He did not regard himself as an isolated phenomenon with a message that was unique. He and the other apostles preached the same gospel. His was the greatness which bound him closer to the Christian fellowship. There is always something lacking in the greatness which divides a man from his fellow men.
IF CHRIST BE NOT RAISED I Corinthians 15: 12-19
If it is continually proclaimed that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some among you say that the resurrection of the dead does not exist? If the resurrection from among the dead does not exist, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then the proclamation of the faith Is emptied of its meaning, and your faith has been emptied of its meaning too. If that is so we are shown to have borne false witness about God, because we witnessed about God, that He raised Christ, whom He did not raise, If Indeed the dead are not raised up. If the dead are not raised, not even Christ has been raised; and if Christ has not been raised your faith is worthless, you are still In your sins; and, if that is so, those who died trusting In Christ have perished. If It is only In this life that we have hope In Christ, then we are more to be pitied than all men.
HERE Paul attacks the central position of his opponents at Corinth. They said flatly," Dead men do not rise again." Paul's answer is, " If you take up that position it means that Jesus Christ has not risen again; and if that be so, the whole Christian faith is wrecked."
Why was it that Paul regarded a belief In the Resurrection of Jesus as so absolutely essential? What were the great values and the great truths that it conserves? The Resurrection of Jesus proves four great facts, which, if they are proved, can make ill the difference to a man's view of life here and hereafter.
(i) The Resurrection proves that truth is stronger than falsehood. According to the Fourth Gospel, Jesus said to His enemies, "Now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth." (John 8: 40). Jesus came with the true idea of God and of goodness His enemies procured His death because they did not want their own false view of God and of goodness destroyed. That is to say, if the enemies of Jesus had finally succeeded in obliterating Him, falsehood would have been stronger than truth. On one occasion the Earl of Morton, who was the regent of Scotland, sent for Andrew Melville, the great Reformation leader. "There will never be quyetnes In this country," said Morton, "till halff a dissone of you be hangit or banished the countrey" "Tushe sir," said Melville, " threaten your courtiers in that fashion. It is the same to me whether I rot in the air or in the ground.... Yet God be glorified, it will nocht ly in your power to hang nor exyll His treuthe " The Resurrection is the final guarantee of the indestructibility of the truth.
(ii) The Resurrection proves that good is stronger than evil. Again to quote the Fourth Gospel, in it Jesus is represented as saying to His enemies, "You are of your father, the devil." (John 8: 44). The forces which crucified Jesus were the forces of evil, and if there was no Resurrection then these forces of evil were triumphant. J. A. Froude, the great historian, wrote, "One lesson, and only one, history may be said to repeat with distinctness, that the world is built somehow on moral foundations, that in the long run it is well with the good. and In the long run it is ill with the wicked." But if the Resurrection had not taken place. it is that very principle of the moral order of the universe which would be imperiled. and we could never again be certain that goodness is stronger than evil.
(iii) The Resurrection proves that love is stronger than hatred. Jesus was the love of God incarnate.
"Love came down at Christmas, Love all lovely, Love Divine."
On the other hand the whole attitude of those who procured the crucifixion of Jesus was an almost virulent hatred.
It was a hatred so bitter that in the end it was capable of ascribing the loveliness and graciousness of the life of Jesus to the power of the devil. If there was no Resurrection It means that the hatred of man in the end conquered the love of God. But the Resurrection is the triumph of love over all that hatred could do...
The Resurrection is the final proof that love is stronger than hate.
(iv) The Resurrection proves that life is stronger than death. If Jesus had died, never to rise again, it would have proved that death could take the loveliest and the best life that ever lived and finally break it. During the war years a certain city church In London was all set out for harvest thanksgiving. In the centre of the gifts there was a sheaf of corn. The service was never held, for, on the Saturday night, there came a savage air raid and the church was laid in ruins. The months passed on and the spring came, and someone noticed that, on the bomb site where that church had stood, there were shoots of green. The summer came and the shoots flourished and in the autumn time there was a flourishing patch of corn growing amidst the rubble. Not even the bombs and the destruction could kill the life of the corn and its seeds. Life was stronger than death. The Resurrection is the final proof that life is stronger than death.
Paul insisted that if the Resurrection of Jesus was not a fact then the whole Christian message was based on a lie that those who had died believing in it had died trusting in a delusion, that without it the greatest values in life have no guarantee. "Take away the Resurrection," said Paul, "and you destroy both the foundation and the fabric of the Christian faith."
THE FIRST-FRUlTS OF THOSE THAT SLEEP I Corinthians 15: 20-28
Now then Christ has been raised from among the dead, the firstfruits of those who sleep. For, since it was through one man that death came, it was also through one man that the resurrection of the dead came. For just as in Adam all die, so also in Christ all will be made alive. Each comes in his own rank. Christ is the firstfruits, and then those who belong to Christ will be raised when He comes. After that comes the final end, when He will hand over the Kingdom to God, His Father, when He has reduced to helplessness every other rule, and every other authority and power. For He must reign until He puts all His enemies under His feet. Death will be the last enemy to be reduced to helplessness. For God has subjected all things to Him.
(When we say that all things have been subjected to Him, that of course does not Include Him who subjected them to Him). But when all things have been subjected to Him, then the Son Himself will be subjected to Him who subjected all things to Him, so that God may be all in all.
THIS for us again Is a very difficult passage because it deals with ideas and conceptions which are strange to us.
It speaks of Christ as " the firstfruits of them that sleep." Here Paul is thinking in terms of a picture which every Jew would know and recognize. The Feast of the Passover had more than one significance. As everyone knows, it commemorated the deliverance of the children of Israel from Egypt. But it was also a great harvest festival. It ~l just at the time when the barley harvest was due to begin to be ingathered. The law laid it down, "Ye shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest unto the priest; and he shall wave the sheaf before Jehovah, to be accepted for you; on the morrow after the Sabbath the priest shall wave it." (Leviticus 23: 10, II). The law laid it down that some sheaves of barley must be reaped from a common field. They must not be taken from a garden or an orchard or from specially prepared soil. They must come from a typical field. When the barley was cut it was brought to the Temple. There it was threshed with soft canes so as not to bruise It. It was then parched over the fire in a perforated pan so that every grain was touched by the fire. It was then exposed to the wind so that the chaff was blown away. It was then ground In a barley mill, and the flour of it was offered to God. That was the first fruits. And it is very significant to note that not until after that was done could the new barley be bought and sold in the shops and bread be made from the new flour. The first-fruits were a sign of the harvest to come; and the Resurrection of Jesus was a sign of the resurrection of all believers which was to come. Just as the new barley could not be used until the firstfruits had been duly offered, so the new harvest of life could not come until Jesus had been raised from the dead.
Now Paul goes on to use another Jewish idea. According to the old story In Genesis 3: 119 it was through Adam's sin that death came into the world. Death was the direct consequence and penalty of that sin. The Jews believed that all men literally sinned in Adam. It is easy for us to see that Adam's sin might transmit to his descendants the tendency to sin. As Aeschylus said, "The impious deed leaves after it a larger progeny, all in the likeness of the parent stock." As George Eliot wrote, "Our deeds are like children that are born to us, they live and act apart from our will; nay, children may be strangled, but deeds never. They have an indestructible life both in and out of our consciousness." Nobody would be likely to deny that a child can inherit a tendency to sin, and that the fathers' sins are very literally visited upon the children. No one would deny that a child can inherit the consequences of a father's sin, for we know all too well that physical conditions which are the consequence of an immoral life can be transmitted to the child. But the Jew meant more than that. The Jew had a tremendous sense of solidarity. He was sure that no man could ever do anything that could affect only himself. He was bound up in the bundle of life. And the Jew held that all men sinned in Adam. He, to them, was the father of the race. The whole world of men was, as it were, in him. And when he sinned all sinned. That may seem a strange idea to us. It may seem to us unfair. But that was the Jewish belief. All had sinned in Adam, therefore all were under the penalty of death. So we have a situation in which all men are sinners and therefore all men must die. But with the coming of Christ that chain was broken. That situation was invaded by something new. Christ was sinless. Christ conquered death. And just as all men sinned in Adam, so all men escape from sin in Christ; and just as all men died in Adam so all men conquered death In Christ. Our unity with Christ is just as real as our unity with Adam and this unity destroys the evil effect of the old. So we get two contrasting sets of facts. First, there is Adam--sin --death. Second, there is Christ--goodness--life. And just as we were all involved in the sin of the man who was first created, we are all involved in the victory of the man who recreated mankind. Whatever we think of that way of thinking today, it was convincing to those who heard it for the first time; and whatever else is doubtful it remains true that with Jesus Christ a new power came into the world to liberate men from the sin and the death In which the human situation was Involved.
Verses 2428 read very strangely to us. We are used to thinking in terms in which we put the Father and the Son on terms of equality. But here Paul quite clearly and deliberately subordinates the Son to the Father. What Paul is thinking of is this. We can only use human terms and analogies. God gave to Jesus a task to do. That task was to defeat sin and to vanquish death and to liberate man. The day will come when that task will be fully and finally accomplished, and then, to think of the thing in pictorial terms, the Son will return to the Father like a victor coming home and the triumph of God will be complete. It is not a case of the Son being subject to the Father as a slave or even a servant is to a master. It is a case of one who has accomplished the work that was given him to do, and who returns with the glory of complete obedience as his crown. As God sent forth His Son to redeem the world so in the end God will receive back a world redeemed, and then there will be nothing in heaven or in earth outside the love and the power of God.
IF THERE IS NO RESURRECTION I Corinthians 15: 29-34
If there is no resurrection at all, why do people get themselves baptized for them? Every day I take my life in my hands, I swear it by the pride If there is no resurrection, what will which I have in you In Christ Jesus our Lord. What good is it to me--looking at it from the human point of view at Ephesus I had to fight with beasts in the arena? If the dead are not raised, let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die. Don't deceive yourselves evil friendships destroy good characters. Turn to sober living. as it is only right that you should, and don't go on sinning. Some of you boast about your knowledge, but you have not a vestige of knowledge about God. It is to shame you that I speak.
ONCE again this passage begins with a very difficult section. People have always been puzzled about what being baptized for the dead means, and it cannot be said that even yet the problem is definitely and finally settled. The preposition that is used for for in the phrase for the dead is the Greek word huper. In general this word can have two main meanings. When used of place, it can mean above or over. Far more commonly it is used of persons or things and means instead of or on behalf of. Remembering (hen these two meanings, let us look at some of the meanings which have been given to this phrase.
(i) Beginning from the meaning of over or above, some scholars have suggested that this refers to those who get themselves baptized over the graves of the martyrs. The idea Is that there would be something specially moving in being baptized on sacred ground with the thought of the unseen cloud of witnesses all around. It is an attractive and rather a lovely Idea, but, at the time Paul was writing to the Corinthians, persecution had not yet broken out in anything like a big way. Christians might suffer ostracism and social persecution, but the time of the martyrs had not yet come.
(ii) It is in any event much more natural to take huper in the sense of instead of or on behalf of. If we take it that way there are three possibilities. It is suggested that the phrase refers to those who get themselves baptized in order to fill up the vacant places in the Church which the dead have left Again it is a great thought. The idea is that the new believer, the young Christian, comes into the Church like a new recruit to take the place of the veterans who have served their campaign and earned their release. There is a precious thought there. The Church ever needs its reinforcements. its replacements, and the new member of the Church is like the volunteer who fills up the depleted ranks.
(iii) It is suggested that the phrase means those who get themselves baptized out of respect for and affection for the dead. Again there is a precious truth here. We know it to be true that many of us came into the Church because we knew and remembered that someone whom we had loved and who had loved us had died praying and hoping for us. There are many who have in the end given their lives to Christ because of the unseen influence of one who has passed over to the other side.
(iv) All these are lovely thoughts, but In the end we think that this phrase can only refer to one custom, a custom which existed in the early Church, but which has quite correctly passed out of Church practice altogether. In the early Church there was a custom of vicarious baptism. If a person who had intended to become a member of the Church, who was actually under instruction, who was, in fact, a catechumen, died, sometimes someone else underwent baptism for him after he had died. It was a kind of baptism by proxy. The custom sprang from what is really a superstitious and magical view of baptism, the view that, unless a person was baptized, he was excluded from the bliss of the faithful and of heaven. It was to safeguard against this exclusion that sometimes people volunteered to be baptized literally on behalf of those Who had died. Here Paul neither approves nor disapproves that practice. He merely asks if there can be any point in it at all if there is no resurrection and if the dead never rise again.
From that Paul passes on to one of the great motives of the Christian life. In effect he asks, "Why should a Christian accept the battle and the danger and the perils of the Christian life if it is all to go for nothing?" He quotes his own experience. Every day he is in jeopardy of his life. Something terrible of which the New Testament has no record happened to Paul at Ephesus. He refers to it again in 2 Corinthians I: 810: he says that in Asia that is in Ephesus, he was in such dire peril that he despaired of life and had the sentence of death passed upon him. To this day in Ephesus there is a building which is known as Paul's prison. Here he calls it fighting with beasts. The word he uses is the word that is used of a gladiator who in the arena had to fight with the lions. The later legends tell us that Paul actually did so fight and that he was wondrously preserved because the beasts would not attack him. But Paul was a Roman citizen and no Roman citizen could be compelled to fight in the arena. Much more likely he used the phrase as a vivid picture of being threatened and ill-treated by men or by a mob who were as savage for his life as a wild beast might have been. In any event Paul demands, "To what end is all the peril and the suffering and the scars if there is no life beyond?"
The man who thinks that this life is all, and that there is nothing to follow it, may well say, "Eat, drink and be merry for tomorrow we die." The Bible itself quotes those who spoke like that. Isaiah (56: 12) speaks of those who say, " Come ye, I will fetch wine, and we will fill ourselves with strong drink; and tomorrow shall be as this day and much more abundant." The preacher, who held that death was extinction, wrote, "There is nothing better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labor." Ecclesiastes 2:24, cp. 3: 12; 5: 18; 8:15; 9:7). Jesus Himself told about the rich fool who forgot eternity and who took as his motto, "Eat, drink and be merry." (Luke 12: 19). Classical literature is full of this spirit. Herodotus, the Greek historian, tells of a custom of the Egyptians. " In social meetings among the rich, when the banquet is ended, a servant carries round to the several guests a coffin, In which there is a wooden image of a corpse, carved and painted to resemble nature as nearly as possible, about a cubit or two cubits in length. As he shows it to each guest in turn, the servant says, 'Gaze here, and drink and be merry, for when you die, such will you be.'" Euripides writes in the Alcestis (781789, A. S. Way's translation):
"From all mankind the debt of death Is due, For of all mortals is there one that knows If through the coming morrow he shall live? For trackless is the way of fortune's feet, Not to be taught nor won by art of man. This hearing then, and learning it of me, Make merry, drink; the life from day to day Account thine own, all else in fortune's power."
Thucydides (2: 53) tells how when the mortal plague came to Athens people committed every shameful crime and eagerly snatched at every lustful pleasure because they believed that life was short and they would never have to pay the penalty. Horace (Odes 2: 13; 13) gives as his philosophy, "Tell them to bring wines and perfumes and the too short-lived blossoms of the lovely rose while circumstances and age and the black threads of the three sisters (the Fates) still allow us to do so." in one of the most famous poems in the world the Latin poet Catullus wrote, " Let us live, my Lesbia, and let us love, and let us value the tales of austere old men at a single half-penny. Suns can set and then return again, but for us, when once our brief light sets, there is but one perpetual night through which we must sleep." Take away the thought of a life to come and this life loses its values. Take away the idea that this life is a discipline and a preparation for a greater life to come and the bonds of all honor and morality are loosened. It Is useless to argue that this should not be so, because men should not be good and honorable for the sake of some reward. The fact remains that the man who believes that this is the only world will inevitably live as if the things of this world are all that matter.
So Paul insists that the Corinthians must not associate with those who say that there is no resurrection. To associate with such is inevitably to risk an infection which can pollute life. To say that there is no resurrection is not a sign of superior knowledge; It Is a sign of utter Ignorance of God. Paul is unleashing the lash that very shame may bring these wanderers back into the right way.
THE PHYSICAL AND THE SPIRITUAL 1 Corinthians 15: 35-49
But perhaps someone says, "In what form are the dead raised? With what kind of body do they come?" That is a foolish question. When you sow a seed, It cannot be made alive, unless it first dies. It is slot the body which is going to come into existence that is sown, but a seed which is not clothed in a body at all, it may be of corn, or of some other of the crops. But God gives it a body as He wills, and to each of the seeds He gives its own body. All flesh is not the same flesh. But there is one kind of flesh of men, and another of beasts, and another of birds, and another of fishes. There are heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies. The splendor of the heavenly bodies is one thing, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. The sun has one splendor and the moon another splendor and the stars another splendor. I say stars, not star, for star differs from star in splendor. There Is the same difference between this body and the body we shall have in the resurrection of the dead. Our body is like the seed. It is sown in corruption; It is raised in Incorruption: it is sown in dishonor; It is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: it is sown a physical body; it is raised a spiritual body. For if a physical body exists, so does a spiritual one. For it stands written, "The first man, Adam, became a living soul. The last Adam became a life-giving spirit." it is not the spiritual that comes first, but the physical, and after that the spiritual.
The First man is of the earth and was made of earth; the second man is from heaven. Such as are made of earth are like earth; such as are heavenly, are like the heavenly one; and, as we have borne the image of that which is of earth, so we shall also bear the image of Him who is of heaven.
BEFORE we begin to try to interpret and understand this section we would do well to remember one thing--all through it Paul is talking about things that no one really knows anything about. He is not talking about verifiable matters of fact, but about matters of faith. He is trying to express the inexpressible and to describe the indescribable, and he Is doing the best he can with the human ideas and the human words that are all that he has to work with. If we will remember that it will save us from a crudely literalistic interpretation and will make us fasten our thoughts on the underlying principles which are in Paul's mind. In this section Paul is dealing with people who say," Granted that there is a resurrection of the body, even if we go so far as to allow that that is so, with what kind of body do people rise again?" Paul's answer has three basic principles in it.
(i) He takes the analogy of a seed. The seed is put In the ground and dies, but in due time it rises again, and It rises with a very different kind of body from that with which it was sown. Paul is showing that, at one and the same time, there can be dissolution, difference and yet continuity. The seed is dissolved; when it rises again there is a vast difference in the body that God gave It; and yet, in spite of the dissolution and in spite of the difference, it is the same life, the same seed. That argument proves that our earthly bodies will be buried and will dissolve; they will rise again and the form in which they rise may be very different; but the fact remains it is the same person who rises, however different the resurrection body may be. We may be dissolved by death; we may be changed by resurrection; but it is still we who exist.
(ii) The second basic principle which Paul lays down is that in the world, even as we know it, there is not one kind of body. Each separate part of creation has its own body. That argument proves that God gives to each living creature and to each created thing a body suitable for and adjusted for its part in creation. If that be so it is only reasonable to expect that God will give us too a body fitted for the resurrection life.
(iii) The third basic principle is that in life there is a development. Adam, the first man, was made from the dust of the earth. (Genesis 2: 7). But Jesus is far more than merely a man made from the dust of the earth. He is the incarnation of the very Spirit of God Himself. Now, under the old way of life, we were one with Adam, sharing his sin, inheriting his death and having his body but under the new way of life we are one with Christ and we shall therefore share His life and His being. That argument proves that it is true that we have a physical body to begin with, but it is also true that one day we shall have a spiritual body also.
All through this section Paul has maintained a reverent and wise reticence as to what that body will be like. It will be a spiritual body and it will be such as God knows that we need and we will be like Christ, but in verses 4244 he draws four contrasts which shed light on our future state.
(i) The present body is corruptible; the future body will be incorruptible. In this world everything is subject to change and decay. "Youth's beauty fades, and manhood's glory fades," as Sophocles the old Greek poet had it, but in that life to come there will be a permanence in which the lovely things will never cease to be lovely and beauty will never lose its sheen.
(ii) The present body is in dishonor; the future body will be in glory. What does Paul mean by this? It may be that he means that in this life it is through our bodily feelings and passions and instincts that dishonor can so easily come to life; but in that life to come our bodies will no longer be the servants of passion and of impulse but the instruments of the pure service of God, than which there can be no greater honor.
(iii) The present body is in weakness; the future body will be in power. It is nowadays fashionable to talk of the power of man, but the really remarkable thing is the weakness of man. A draught of air or a drop of water can kill him. We are limited in this life so often simply because of the necessary limitations of the body. Time and time again our physical constitution says to our visions and our plans,
Thus far and no farther." We are so often frustrated in life because we are what we are. But in that life to come the limitations will be gone. Here we are compassed about with weakness; there we will be clad with power.
"All we have hoped or willed or dreamed of good shall exist;
The high that proved too high, the heroic for earth too hard."
On earth we have the "broken arcs"; In the life to come "the perfect round."
(iv) The present body is a natural body; the future body will be a spiritual body. By that, it may be, Paul meant that, as we are, we are but imperfect vessels for the Spirit and imperfect instruments of the Spirit; but in the life to come we will be such that the Spirit can truly fill us, as can never happen here, and the Spirit can truly use us, as is never possible now. In the life to come we will be able to render the perfect worship, the perfect service, the perfect love that in this world can only be a vision and a dream.
THE CONQUEST OF DEATH I Corinthians 15: 50-58
Brothers, I say this, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the Kingdom of God, nor can corruption inherit incorruption. Look now! I tell you something which only the initiated can understand. We shall not all die, but we shall all be changed, in a moment of time, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised up incorruptible and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality..then the word which stands written will happen, " Death has been swallowed lip in victory." 0 death, where is your victory? 0 death, where Is your sting? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. Thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. So then, beloved brothers, show yourselves steady, immovable, always excelling in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your toil does not go for nothing.
ONCE again we must begin this passage by remembering that Paul is again dealing with things which defy language and which baffle expression. We must read this with the mind with which we would read great poetry, rather than with the mind with which we would dissect a scientific treatise. The whole argument follows a series of steps until it reaches its climax.
(i) Paul insists that as we are we are not fit to Inherit the Kingdom of God. We may be well enough equipped to get on with the life of this world, but for the life of the world to come we will not do. A man may be able to run enough to catch his morning train, but he would need to be a very different man to be able to run enough to run in the Olympic games. A man may write well enough to amuse his friends but he would need to be a very different man to write something which men will not willingly let die. A man may talk well enough in the circle of his club but he would need to be a very different man to talk well enough to hold his own in a circle of real scholars and experts. A man always needs to be changed to enter into a higher grade of life. First then Paul insists that before we can enter the Kingdom of God we must be changed.
(ii) Further Paul insists that that shattering change is going to come in his own lifetime. In this Paul was in error.
But he looked to that change coming when Jesus Christ came again.
(iii) Then Paul goes on triumphantly to declare that no man need fear that change. The fear of death has always haunted men. Dr. Johnson, one of the greatest and the best men who ever lived, was haunted by this fear. Once Boswell said to him that there had been times when he had not feared death. Johnson answered that "he never had a moment in which death was not terrible to him." Once Mrs. Knowles told him that he should not have a horror for that which is the gate of life. Johnson answered, No rational man can die without uneasy apprehension." He declared that the fear of death was so natural to man that all life was one long effort not to think about it. Now wherein lies the fear of death? Partly it comes from the fear of the unknown. But still more it comes from the sense of sin. If a man felt that he could meet God easily then to die would only be, as Peter Pan said, a great adventure. But whence comes that sense of sin? It comes from a sense of being under the law. So long as a man sees in God only the law of righteousness he must forever be in the position of a criminal before the bar of God with no hope of acquittal and with the certainty of condemnation But it is precisely that that Jesus came to abolish. He came to tell us that God is not law, but love; that the centre of God's being is not legalism but grace; that we go out, not to a judge, but to a Father who awaits His children coming home. And just because of that Jesus Christ gave us the victory over death, and the fear of death is banished in the wonder of the love of God.
(iv) Finally, at the end of this chapter, Paul does what he always does. Suddenly the theology becomes a challenge; suddenly the speculations become intensely practical; suddenly the sweep of the mind becomes the demand for action. So Paul ends by saying," If you have all that glory to look forward to, then keep yourself steadfast in God's faith and God's service, for if you do, all your effort and all your striving will not be in vain." The Christian life may be difficult, but the goal is infinitely worth the struggle of the way....(William Barclay, The Letters to the Corinthians, Westminster Press, Philadelphia, 1956)
What are Resurrection Bodies Like?
We know of one man who walked on earth having overcome death and having gained possession of a resurrection body. That man was Jesus of Nazareth.
"...[He] has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has abolished death and brought life and immortality to light through the gospel..." (2 Timothy 1:9-10).
Jesus has in fact gained a great and lasting victory for us,
"Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." (Hebrews 2:14-15)
After His resurrection from the dead, Jesus made a number of appearances to his followers. The following passages of Scripture shed light on what He looked like, how he behaved, and what He did during the next 40 days before his ascension.
He was present on earth with people in his resurrection body:
It is helpful to read: Matthew 18:1-35, Mark 16:1-11, Luke 23:53-24:54, John 20:1-18, Mark 16:12-13, Luke 24:13-35. Luke 24:36-43, John 20:19-23, John 20:24-29, John 21:1-24, Matthew 28:16-20. Mark 16:14-20b, Luke 24:44-53, John 21:25, 20:30, 31; Acts 1:1-12, and I Corinthians 15:3-8.
From these passages we learn that Jesus had a tangible resurrection body which could be touched and handled. He was able to eat food. His body carried with it the nail wounds in his hands, feet and sides that remained as evidence of his crucifixion. He carries those same scars today. He was not a ghost, not a spirit. He had been dead, and was now alive again.
Jesus, after His resurrection, was able to conceal his identity from friends, as for example when he talked with two disciples on the road to Emmaus on that first Easter afternoon. He was able to enter and leave rooms through closed doors, and apparently could travel a hundred miles to Galilee with ease. At the time of His departure--the Ascension--he disappeared through a gate, a space-time gate taking him out of our physical world into the invisible world of the spirit which surrounds us on all sides.
In summary, in our resurrection bodies,
1. We will be able to recognize Jesus as He is now and has been for the past 2000 years. "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." (1 John 3:2)
2. We will recognize our friends and loved ones.
3. We can eat food, we can be touched and we will have our usual senses of sight, smell, taste, smell, etc.
4. We can, apparently enter and leave the physical world from the invisible realm of the heavenly places.
5. Our new bodies do not wear out and are imperishable. We are no longer subject to sickness, pain or grief.
6. We will be incapable of sin by nature. Thus the quality of all relationships with our fellow saints will be immensely improved.
7. Marriage will have ceased as an institution for us. We will not be sexless, nor will the differences between the sexes be eliminated, rather they will be amplified and extended. We will probably lack reproductive organs. However, our participation in the Marriage Supper of the Lamb implies an intimate unity not only with our Lord Jesus, but also with all the rest of God's people.
8. Because of the absence of sin, pleasure and enjoyment without fear of failure, inhibtation or restriction will be greatly expanded. Any two believers can enjoy intimate fellowship of the highest quality."At the right hand are pleasures forevermore."
9. Our resurrection bodies will be equipped to be in tune with the spiritual world, the heavenly places, therefore time and space travel is a likely capability of these marvelous new bodies.
10. Based on our walk with God in this present life believers will possess varying capacity to contain God in heaven. The quality of time, and the quality of eternal life which each of us experiences will be greater for those whose lives have been lived out on earth is a closer walk with the Lord and obeyed Him most faithfully.
11. We should consider our present selves as mere smudges of greasy smoke, laregly shadowy and transparent. The residents of heaven, on the other hand are "solid people." The best description of this state of affairs I know of is given by C.S. Lewis in his wonderful (fictional account) of a visit from the outskirts of hell to the gates on heaven in his perennially valuable book "The Great Divorce".
12. Resurrection bodies are not the same identical bodies which were laid in the grave which were then reconstituted. The new body is related to the former body, yet different.
Additional Commentaries and References:
Excellent further commentaries by Ray C. Stedman, Expository studies in First Corinthians, Messages 36-39. and also Ray C.
Stedman, Expository Studies in Second Corinthians, messages 9-10.
The Bible indicates that the unrighteous who did not receive Christ in their lifetimes will also be resurrected (separately) and given resurrection bodies, (Revelation 20:11-15). We know even less about the nature of these bodies which will last forever along with their occupants in a place of everlasting destruction.
"Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death into life. Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live. For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man. Do not marvel at this; for the hour is coming in which all who are in the graves will hear His voice and come forth--those who have done good, to the resurrection of life, and those who have done evil, to the resurrection of condemnation." (John 5:24-29)
Your email is welcome (dolphin@best.com)
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| THE COMING HOLOCAUST
| By Rance Taylor
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You would have to be deaf, dumb and blind or living in a cave not to be aware of the overhanging threat of nuclear war that has been present like the sword of Damocles. The standard strategic warhead yields twenty megatons or sixteen hundred and sixty seven times the power of Hiroshima's twelve kilotons. Russia tested a sixty-megaton bomb. Four of these detonated at one time would alter the axis of the earth.
Despite all the rhetoric about the "cold war" being over, Russian nuclear powered 941 Typhoon class ballistic missile submarines slip silently through our offshore waters like monstrous grey sharks, unseen, unheard and undetected.
Out of sight, out of mind as they say, at least for most Americans. Each ship carries two hundred nuclear warheads and the ballistic missiles to deliver them to our cities with pinpoint accuracy, as if that would be necessary. China can vaporize our west coast too, thanks to America selling them the latest supercomputers which have been modified for targeting their ICBM's. That's called giving our opponents enough rope to hang us. Each Russian Typhoon carries enough destructive power to incinerate the North American continent. And thanks to American funding, an even deadlier submarine threat has been developed by Russia, the Severodvinsk, which out performs America's best. Russia spent an estimated $12.8 billion in 1997 for R&D in this area, including the fourth generation nuclear powered ballistic missile submarine which Anatoly Chubais hailed as "a submarine for the next century," the Yuri Dolgoruki. Once in service, the main targets of this submarine's nuclear missile compliment will be American cities. Yury Maslyukov recently revealed plans to modernize their program, bringing into service "several" new Yury Dolgoruky class nuclear submarines.
"We shouldn't be seduced by talk of strategic partnerships with one or other great power. Today's world is complex and military force still plays a not insignificant role in it" said Maslyukov, former head of Soviet central planning.
I won't bore you with a litany of all the Middle East, African and Asian countries that hate the "Great Satan" and are obsessed with developing massive stores of deadly nerve gas or new genetically altered "designer" bacteria or viral weapons that could spread out of control and wipe out mankind. Many of these third world powers thirst for nuclear weapons and have the oil resources to buy them from Mother Russia or China, for example.
You know about all these things. But are we really going to have thermonuclear destruction of our planet? Is it inevitable? Are these silent grey nuclear sharks just off our shores going to launch their ballistic missiles? We would have only ten minutes to prepare for the holocaust. Prepare what? Run where? Do you think our massive military-governmental behemoth could decide anything in ten minutes? And how would our launching massive ICBM's toward our enemies protect us from being vaporized or worse, not being vaporized and suffering a slow death from radiation exposure? I don't know about you, but I don't look forward to the prospect of vomiting myself into oblivion. I would prefer the former. Hiding in a home bomb shelter would be like a pig roasted in the oven, so to speak; not much to look forward to, but will it happen?
Georgie Anne Geyer, in her excellent column for Universal Press Syndicate, wrote on 26 Sept, 1998 "Unless all of this evidence plus human nature is mistaken, and unless we do something fast, we Americans are in a serious danger that we have never before experienced: The target is us."
The Bible does not use the words "thermonuclear holocaust" or "hydrogen bomb" because these words are of recent origin. It all began July 16,1945 at the Trinity Test Site at Alamogordo, New Mexico. The first bomb was used three weeks later, dropped from the Enola Gay. The Biblical Prophets, on the other hand, wrote twenty-seven hundred years ago and expressed their visions in language of that time. But it's there, if you read it with an open mind. And once you see it, it is obvious. The prophets are full of description of what is shortly coming upon the world of modern man.
Don McAlvany describes what he calls a "rogue wave" which is like a massive tidal wave made up of several disasters coming upon us at the same time, a symbiotic synergistic relationship (my words) where the sum is much greater than all of the parts individually. A Sunnami, composed of Y2K software and embedded chip malfunction, global depression and meltdown, introduction of the complex Euro currency, Middle East and Asian wars which may become nuclear, hair trigger issues such as Taiwan, North Korea, Japan, Cyprus, Iran, Syria and Turkey. Even one of these is bad enough, but with all of them hitting at about the same time, the entire world becomes very unstable, even violent. There are many more issues involved, such as the breakdown of society and infrastructure, rioting, looting, burning, and killing by desperate, hungry people roaming the darkened streets of the major cities, totally out of control.
The Bible tells us what conditions will be like in the End Times:
2Tim. 3:1 " But realize this that in the last days difficult times will come." "Difficult" (Gk.: chalepos) means dangerous, violent, hard to bear, grievous, painful, perilous, troublesome. In other words, conditions in society will be like Noah's day.
How does scripture describe the time of Noah? Gen. 6:11 "Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence."
Gen. 6:13 "Then God said to Noah, 'The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.'"
Remember what Lord Jesus said about the timing of His return: Luke 17:26 "And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man . . .". And in regard to the violence and sexual depravity of the people who lived in Sodom and Gomorrah and their sudden fiery total destruction: Luke 17:30 "It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed."
(all scripture quotes are from the NASB Update, The Lockman Foundation )
Does the Bible speak about sudden fiery destruction in the End Times? Can we recognize the use of the hydrogen and neutron bomb in ancient scripture passages? To be able to recognize the effects, we must first be familiar with what happens when nuclear weapons detonate. There are eleven specific effects of a hydrogen bomb explosion:
(This information was abstracted from the classic work by Jonathan Schell, "The Fate of the Earth, "New York, Knopf, 1988)
I. An immediate intense gamma irradiation by neutrons and gamma rays.
II. A coherent electromagnetic pulse lasting seven seconds which produces a huge surge of energy that knocks out all communication equipment.
III. An expanding central fireball of extremely intense heat which vaporizes and rises.
IV. A thermal pulse which produces flash burn and blinding light for 20 seconds. One third of the total energy is released in the thermal pulse, vaporizing instantly and starting multiple fires. A 20-megaton bomb will burn victims to death 23 miles away and produce retinal burns 350 miles away!
V. One half the total energy is present in the blast wave which produces extreme pressure, flattening objects 22 miles away. A ground burst would produce tons of dust fused with radioactive fission products sucked up into the mushroom cloud and returned to the earth as local radioactive fallout distributed downwind, emitting deadly gamma rays for 24 hours.
VI. Firestorms and superfires: Columns of hot gases rising create an updraft with hurricane force like a blast furnace, producing an all consuming conflagration.
VII. Intermediate fallout primarily in the troposphere with rapid global circulation probably in the entire one-third of the Northern Hemisphere. Deadly gamma radiation would last for weeks.
VIII. Late global fallout located in the stratosphere, lasts for years. It produces nuclear winter with no sunlight, no rainfall, and a drop in temperature. Millions of tons of soot are present. Large quantities of oxides of nitrogen deplete the ozone. Beta emitting radioactive fallout ulcerates the skin. Radioactive Iodine 131,Strontium 90 and Cesium 137 have a long half-life and are taken internally when they enter into our water-plant-food chain. Food and water would be contaminated and deadly.
IX. Nuclear winter would blacken the atmosphere and obscure the sun, moon and stars.
X. Ozone depletion will allow full hard ultraviolet radiation producing retinal and corneal damage and blindness, skin cancer, and immunosuppression.
What would you actually experience if you were so unfortunate as to be near a nuclear explosion? First, there would be a dazzling white light for 30 seconds and a searing heat. Five seconds later, a blast wave full of about 400-mile-per-hour winds. During an actual nuclear attack, three-fourths of the United States would be burned up in 10 seconds. Sixty percent of the population would be dead with only 300,1-megaton bombs. It is assumed that with an all-out first strike on America, 10,000 megatons would be used initia
lly and several 25 megaton bombs. After the hurricane-force winds, there would be vertical updraft. A large mushroom cloud would rise, containing dust and smoke, and firestorms would begin. The day would darken to night as the atmosphere was obscured. A lethal fallout would occur 150 miles downwind, producing nausea and vomiting. Two weeks later there would be hair loss. Your bone marrow would be depressed and the platelets depressed, producing secondary hemorrhage from your mouth, nose, lungs and bladder, and bloody diarrhea. Of course, if you were within a 23-mile radius of the explosion you would be burned to death and incinerated instantly. If you were closer than that, your body would be vaporized by the initial thermal pulse. (taken from "The Fate of the Earth", Jonathan Schell)
Richard Rhodes in his book "The Making of the Atomic Bomb"(New York: Simon and Schuster, 1986) in chapter 19 entitled "Tongues of Fire" vividly describes the effects of flash-burn: "Extremely intense thermal energy leads not only to carbonization but also to evaporation of the viscera"
"...were seared to bundles of smoking black char in a fraction of a second as their internal organs boiled away."
"Accompanying the flash of light was an instantaneous flash of heat-its duration was probably less than 1/10th of a second but its intensity was sufficient to cause nearby flammable objects . . . to burst into flame and to char poles . . . " (End of quotes)
A grapefruit sized fission-free neutron bomb, in contrast, would kill everything within a 600-yard radius without damaging buildings and with no lingering residual radiation. The initial release of high-energy neutron radiation would cause flesh to instantly melt away with shocking suddenness, an instantaneous living death. There has never been a weapon that could produce these effects until now, but the prophet Zechariah wrote about it 2515 years ago.
Zech. 14:12 " Now this will be the plague with which the Lord will strike all the peoples who have gone to war against Jerusalem; their flesh will rot while they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongue will rot in their mouth."
Heb.: Maqaq -to rot, melt, decay, flow away
This is a description by a young doctor in Nagasaki as quoted by a WHO report: "The sky was dark as pitch, covered with dense clouds and smoke; under that blackness over the earth hung a yellow brown fog. Gradually the veiled ground became visible, and the view beyond rooted me to the spot with horror. All the buildings I could see were on fire. Electricity poles were wrapped in flame like so many pieces of kindling. Trees on the nearby hills were smoking, as were the leaves of sweet potatoes in the fields. The sky was dark. The ground was scarlet, and in between hung clouds of yellowish smoke. Three kinds of color-black, yellow and scarlet loomed ominously over the people, who ran about like so many ants seeking to escape. What had happened? With that ocean of fire, the sky of smoke, it seemed like the end of the world." (Akizuki, 1981)
The prophet Zephaniah, who devotes his entire book to 'The Day of the Lord" sees many years into the future:
Zeph. 1:14 Near is the great day of the Lord, Near and coming very quickly; Listen, the day of the Lord! In it the warrior cries out bitterly.
Zeph. 1:15 A day of wrath is that day, A day of trouble and distress, A day of destruction and desolation, A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness,
Zeph. 1:16 A day of trumpet and battle cry Against the fortified cities And the high corner towers.
Zeph. 1:17 I will bring distress on men So that they will walk like the blind, Because they have sinned against the Lord; And their blood will be poured out like dust And their flesh like dung.
Zeph. 1:18 Neither their silver nor their gold Will be able to deliver them On the day of the Lord's wrath; And all the earth will be devoured In the fire of His jealousy, For He will make a complete end, Indeed a terrifying one, Of all the inhabitants of the earth.
(Heb.:'iwwer -a skin or film over the sight.)
Radiation and thermal pulses will produce cataracts and retinal burns. Excess UV B radiation produces snow blindness and corneal scars.
In Jeremiah chapter 4,the prophet has a vision of the End Times. One can almost visualize the incoming Topol-M2 (SS-27) ICBMs, the RSM-52 SS-N-20 Sturgeons from the Typhoons, and the SS-NX-28s from the Yury Dolgoruky.
David Wilkerson comments on this passage, "We are on the brink; the party is over."
Jer. 4:19 My soul, my soul! I am in anguish! Oh, my heart! My heart is pounding in me; I cannot be silent, Because you have heard, O my soul, The sound of the trumpet, The alarm of war.
Jer. 4:20 Disaster on disaster is proclaimed, For the whole land is devastated; Suddenly my tents are devastated, My curtains in an instant.
Jer. 4:23 I looked on the earth, and behold, it was formless and void; And to the heavens, and they had no light.
Jer. 4:24 I looked on the mountains, and behold, they were quaking, And all the hills moved to and fro.
Jer. 4:25 I looked, and behold, there was no man, And all the birds of the heavens had fled.
Jer. 4:26 I looked, and behold, the fruitful land was a wilderness, And all its cities were pulled down Before the Lord, before His fierce anger.
Jer. 4:27 For thus says the Lord, "The whole land shall be a desolation, Yet I will not execute a complete destruction.
Jer. 4:28 "For this the earth shall mourn And the heavens above be dark, Because I have spoken, I have purposed, And I will not change My mind, nor will I turn from it."
Jer. 4:29 At the sound of the horseman and bowman every city flees; They go into the thickets and climb among the rocks; Every city is forsaken, And no man dwells in them."
John, the prophet on the island of Patmos, sees a vision far into the future. Could this be a description of a thermonuclear holocaust?
Rev. 8:6 And the seven angels who had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound them.
Rev. 8:7 The first sounded, and there came hail and fire, mixed with blood, and they were thrown to the earth; and a third of the earth was burned up, and a third of the trees were burned up, and all the green grass was burned up.
Rev. 8:8 The second angel sounded, and something like a great mountain burning with fire was thrown into the sea; and a third of the sea became blood,
Rev. 8:9 and a third of the creatures which were in the sea and had life, died; and a third of the ships were destroyed.
Rev. 8:10 The third angel sounded, and a great star fell from heaven, burning like a torch, and it fell on a third of the rivers and on the springs of waters.
Rev. 8:11 The name of the star is called Wormwood; and a third of the waters became wormwood, and many men died from the waters, because they were made bitter.
Rev. 8:12 The fourth angel sounded, and a third of the sun and a third of the moon and a third of the stars were struck, so that a third of them would be darkened and the day would not shine for a third of it, and the night in the same way."
Since one third of the earth was repeatedly mentioned with the destruction of the earth, trees, grass and contamination of the waters making all of them poisonous, and darkening of one third of the atmosphere, a nuclear holocaust seems most reasonable.
Listen to Jeremiah again:
Jer. 25:31 "A clamor has come to the end of the earth, Because the Lord has a controversy with the nations. He is entering into judgment with all flesh; As for the wicked, He has given them to the sword,' declares the Lord."
Jer. 25:32 Thus says the Lord of hosts, "Behold, evil is going forth From nation to nation, And a great storm is being stirred up From the remotest parts of the earth.
Jer. 25:33 "Those slain by the Lord on that day will be from one end of the earth to the other. They will not be lamented, gathered or buried; they will be like dung on the face of the ground."
The meaning of the vision will be obvious in the "latter days", Jeremiah says:
Jer. 30:23" Behold, the tempest of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, A sweeping tempest; It will burst on the head of the wicked.
Jer. 30:24 The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back Until He has performed and until He has accomplished The intent of His heart; In the latter days you will understand this."
The prophet Isaiah also is given a vision by the Lord of the End Times and the Day of the Lord:
Is. 13:5" They are coming from a far country, From the farthest horizons, The Lord, and His instruments of indignation, To destroy the whole land.
Is. 13:6 Wail, for the day of the Lord is near! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.
Is. 13:7 Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man's heart will melt.
Is. 13:8 They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame.
Lit.Heb.trans. "faces of flames ( flashing; brightness )[will be] their faces".
Is. 13:9 Behold, the day of the Lord is coming, Cruel, with fury and burning anger, To make the land a desolation; And He will exterminate its sinners from it.
Is. 13:10 For the stars of heaven and their constellations Will not flash forth their light; The sun will be dark when it rises And the moon will not shed its light.
Is. 13:11 Thus I will punish the world for its evil And the wicked for their iniquity; I will also put an end to the arrogance of the proud And abase the haughtiness of the ruthless.
Is. 13:12 I will make mortal man scarcer than pure gold And mankind than the gold of Ophir.
Is. 13:13 Therefore I will make the heavens tremble, And the earth will be shaken from its place At the fury of the Lord of hosts In the day of His burning anger."
Did you hear that? "...the earth will be shaken from its place . . . " Four 60 Megaton bombs could do that-change the axis of the earth, and only heaven knows what else!
"So I will shake the heavens, and the earth shall move out of its place." Jay P.Green, Sr. "A Literal Translation of the Bible" Hendrickson Publ., 1985
Isaiah continues with another vision:
Is. 24:5 The earth is also polluted by its inhabitants, for they transgressed laws, violated statutes, broke the everlasting covenant.
Is. 24:6 Therefore, a curse devours the earth, and those who live in it are held guilty. Therefore, the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men are left.
The Noahic covenant, which is an everlasting covenant concerning 'the sanctity of human life' (Gen. 9: 1-17) was broken. The curse of Deut. 28: 15 is then activated.
Deut. 28:15 "But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:"
The inhabitants of the earth will be burned and only a few men left. All the oceans are polluted and life is gone from them. The water is radioactive and undrinkable. The grass and trees are dead. The atmosphere is so dusty from fallout debris and soot that the sun, moon and starts are obscured. It is dark, cold, empty, and desolate.
Listen and feel the terror of John's vision recorded in chapter 6:
Rev. 6:12 I looked when He broke the sixth seal, and there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair, and the whole moon became like blood;
Rev. 6:13 and the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind.
Rev. 6:14 The sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up, and every mountain and island were moved out of their places.
Rev. 6:15 Then the kings of the earth and the great men and the commanders and the rich and the strong and every slave and free man hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;
Rev. 6:16 and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb;
Rev. 6:17 for the great day of their wrath has come, and who is able to stand?"
Verse 12 might be describing the blast wave and nuclear debris and soot that obscure the atmosphere. In verse 13, this could represent ICBM's with multiple warheads. If a real star hit the earth, we would be completely destroyed. Verse 14 is the mushroom cloud caused by the tremendous updraft.
Dennis Pollock in his paper "Does the Bible Predict a Nuclear Holocaust" (The Lamplighter Vol.XIX N.9 Oct.1998, page 5) states: "It should be evident that what we are talking about is a weapon unparalleled in human history; a weapon with the capacity to obliterate huge cities in seconds. This is a scenario that perfectly fits with the kind of swift, mass destruction spoken of in the book of Revelation. Indeed, considering the widespread death predicted by John, it would be hard for us to imagine anything other than a nuclear holocaust which could come close to producing such carnage." (End of quote)
"The basic power of the universe has been harnessed. The force from which the sun draws its power has been loosed." (President Truman, July 1945).
"I am death, the shatterer of worlds. "J.Robert Oppenheimer quoting from the ancient Indian poem, Bhagavad-Gita.
Matt. 24:21 " For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will.
Matt. 24:22 "Unless those days had been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short."
Does the Bible describe a thermonuclear holocaust? I think it really does. Only a selection of scripture passages have been given here to make the point. There are dozens and dozens more that were not quoted. In fact, I believe now you will recognize these passages yourself, especially when you read the prophets of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. You will see them everywhere in the Bible, but don't despair. Read also the many scriptures that tell of the Lord's love for you. He wants you to fully trust Him. He will hold your hand and be your protector.
The prophet Habakkuk gives us the answer to all our problems and worries:The Lord God has everything under control,trust Him.
HAB 3:17 Though the fig tree should not blossom And there be no fruit on the vines, Though the yield of the olive should fail And the fields produce no food, Though the flock should be cut off from the fold And there be no cattle in the stalls, HAB 3:18 Yet I will exult in the Lord, I will rejoice in the God of my salvation.
HAB 3:19 The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds'
feet, And makes me walk on my high places..
When we fear the threat of attack by terrorists or ABC warfare,this psalm gives us reassurance:
PSA 91:1 He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High Will abide in the shadow of the Almighty.
PSA 91:2 I will say to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in whom I
trust!"
PSA 91:3 For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper And from the deadly pestilence.
PSA 91:4 He will cover you with His pinions, And under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.
PSA 91:5 You will not be afraid of the terror by night, Or of the arrow that flies by day;
PSA 91:6 Of the pestilence that stalks in darkness, Or of the destruction that lays waste at noon.
PSA 91:7 A thousand may fall at your side And ten thousand at your right hand, But it shall not approach you.
PSA 91:8 You will only look on with your eyes And see the recompense of the wicked.
PSA 91:9 For you have made the Lord, my refuge, Even the Most High, your dwelling place.
PSA 91:10 No evil will befall you, Nor will any plague come near your tent.
PSA 91:11 For He will give His angels charge concerning you, To guard you in all your ways.
PSA 91:12 They will bear you up in their hands, That you do not strike your foot against a stone.
PSA 91:13 You will tread upon the lion and cobra, The young lion and the serpent you will trample down.
PSA 91:14 "Because he has loved Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him securely on high, because he has known My name.
PSA 91:15 "He will call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him.
PSA 91:16 "With a long life I will satisfy him And let him see My salvation."
PSA 34:7 The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear Him, And rescues them.
PSA 34:17 The righteous cry, and the Lord hears And delivers them out of all their troubles.
PSA 34:18 The Lord is near to the brokenhearted And saves those who are crushed in spirit.
PSA 34:19 Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the Lord delivers him out of them all.
PSA 50:15 Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I shall rescue you, and you will honor Me."
PSA 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble.
PSA 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea;
PSA 46:3 Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride.
PSA 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not want.
PSA 23:2 He makes me lie down in green pastures; He leads me beside quiet waters.
PSA 23:3 He restores my soul; He guides me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
PSA 23:4 Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
And from the words of Jesus:
MAT 10:29 "Are not two sparrows sold for a cent? And yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father.
MAT 10:30 "But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
MAT 10:31 "So do not fear; you are more valuable than many sparrows.
God sees,knows and cares about you. He is in control;don't be afraid.
PHI 4:6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
PHI 4:7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
PHI 4:13 I can do all things through Him who strengthens me.
And finally,our blessed hope:
1TH 4:16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.
1TH 4:17 Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.
1TH 4:18 Therefore comfort one another with these words.
Rance Taylor - TB4823@aol.com
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PROPHEZINE NEWSLETTER - Commentaries
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The Bones of Faith
From the Voice of the Martyrs
In eleven hours we traveled eighty miles through a nation of muddy river delta where hundreds of thousands drown in floods, where people laughed when we told them we were "tourists." Bangladesh is a Muslim nation that is less than 1 percent Christian, with a per capita income of $180 a year (less than half the income of the people of Haiti).
What kind of faith could Christians have who had lost everything, would receive no inheritance, could not read, and were rejected by all of their friends and beaten by their families?
Would we find that substance more precious than gold mentioned in 1 Peter 1:7, the trial of your faith? Even more, what kind of faith in Christ could exist for a new believer who did not have shelves of Christian books, concordances, music, and numerous Bible translations? What kind of faith grows in those who cannot read one page of any translation and are beaten for speaking about Jesus at a "kindergarten level"? Have we forgotten that the Word existed before the world began (John 1:1)? Would a simple verbal transmission of that Word be enough to hold a bare-bones, isolated faith for believers who are literally spit upon by their own families? We were not disappointed. We would encounter that same glorious hope living in the bones of faith in Bangladesh. We learned that there is greater hope for us in the keeping power of Christ than we realize. The government and constitution of Bangladesh allows religious freedom and does not condone persecution. However, at the village level, persecution of Christians is a common occurrence. As one Bangladeshi Christian told us, "There are more Imams (Muslim leaders) in the countryside than there are police."
Here are their stories...
Testimony: Abdul and Mjurar M.
I drive a rickshaw 12 hours a day. Forty percent of my pay goes for rent of the rickshaw. An evangelist gave me a New Testament about Jesus, but since I cannot read my wife reads to me by a small lamp on the floor after our evening meal of rice. Her eyes get tired but she keeps reading.
When we became Christians, our neighbors would not let us drink from the well. My wife and children walk half a mile to the river three times a day with clay pots. Sometimes the river water makes us sick. The Muslim court in the village has started a court case against us. They are angry that we visited another area three years ago for a Christmas celebration. My uncle took our inheritance of land away from us. When we went to see a judge, he said we were telling lies and waved with his hand for us to get out.
We worship with others in a house about one mile away from our home. The neighbors shout in through the window using dirty language and throw big pieces of dirt at the house. Our six-year-old son goes to the window and shouts back at them. He threw a stone at them.
My wife went to the hospital when our relatives beat her with a stick. They hit her in the ear, grabbed her by the hair, and jerked her around. She was still sick after eight days in the hospital but returned home to help us. Jesus has saved us. We have no sin, but have peace now. We will not go back to the Muslim life where there is no hope. Tell the Christians in America to be ready for Jesus' coming. We will meet in heaven.
"Blessed are ye, when men shall hate you, and when they shall separate you from their company, and shall reproach you, and cast out your name as evil, for the Son of man's sake...Rejoice"(Luke 6:22,23).
Testimony: Milon G.
A friend gave me some gospel booklets, which I hid in a steel trunk in my bedroom. At night I would get my key, open the trunk and read with a kerosene lamp. Having studied in a Muslim fundamental school for 12 years, I had known about Jesus mentioned in the Koran but didn't know Him as Savior.
I accepted Jesus in 1992 and was baptized secretly 400 kilometers from my home. I sell clothing in the local market, and began placing some Christian books in my shop for other Christians. When Muslim men learned of this, they would walk into my shop and just take shirts, pants, and socks from the shelf without paying for them. If I asked for money they threatened to beat me. If they are interested in the booklets I will give them one.
I ride to the villages on my bicycle and carry Christian literature. In two villages, groups of Muslims threatened to cut off my feet so I couldn't travel. In the rains, I hold an umbrella in one hand and steer with the other; I often fall down, and get muddy and scratched. At night, I hold a flashlight. I sing from the Psalms when I ride. The Christians I meet do not have an extra blanket for me, so I try to make it back home to sleep.
I would like to tell my Christian friends in America that we are going through many problems but still we have Jesus Christ. We have peace through Him and we have hope that when we die we will go to heaven.
"But God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things that are mighty; and the base things of the world and the things which are despised God has chosen" (1 Corinthians 1:27,28).
Testimony: Abdul and Joina R.
I don't know how to read but I know Psalm 23. My wife also cannot read but our son and daughter read the Bible to us. We have a one-room house with grass walls and a grass roof. We have been isolated since becoming Christians. For the last year, our neighbors have not allowed visitors to cross their land to come and see us. Visitors would have to go a long way around. We also cannot get agricultural loans for our rice field.
I was in bed one month from beatings. My wife brought me bread and rice. The doctor was not happy with me and asked me why I became a Christian. One day at noon I returned from the market walking down a dirt path to my house. The Imam (Muslim leader), was standing beside the mosque. He wore a robe, had a beard and glasses, and held a big stick. His name is Gafur.
Gafur called me over and asked why I became a Christian; he accused me of loving Jesus. He began beating me on the head and back with the stick. A doctor ran up and stopped him but no one went to the police. The police would do nothing. The leader of the village said, "You have become a Christian so you destroy our Muslim religion."
My ten-year-old son says that he will become a preacher and give the gospel to those who beat us, to bring them to Jesus.
"Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you!...Love your enemies, do good to them which hate you" (Luke 6:26,27).
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The Voice of the Martyrs has been actively serving the persecuted church for almost 30 years. Our mission is clear. With the continued persecution of Christ's body around the world, we strive to bring practical and spiritual assistance while making their voice heard.
The Voice of the Martyrs was founded by pastor Richard Wurmbrand. During the hard line Communist rule of Romania, Pastor Wurmbrand spent fourteen years in prison for his ministry with the underground church. He underwent frequent tortures. In 1964, Pastor Wurmbrand, his wife Sabina, and their son, Mihai, were ransomed from Romania for $10,000. Expecting to see a feeble, defeated man, the world witnessed a spiritual giant who overcame desperate situations through his love for Christ.
His calling became clear as he established the ministry of The Voice of the Martyrs around the world and quickly became known as "the voice of the underground church."
Voice of the Martyrs Staff
Tom White
Kevin Turner
Voice of the Martyrs
P.O. Box 443
Bartlesville, Ok. 74005
918-337-8015
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PHYLLIS SCHLAFLY REPORT -- Nov. 1998
Eagle Forum <eagle@eagleforum.org
What College Tuition and Fees Are Paying For!
What's Going On at College Campuses?
Bizarre And Weirdo Courses
- One reason college tuition is so high is that it must cover the cost of paying high-priced professors to teach dozens or hundreds of worthless courses that are not education at all, but are just propaganda, entertainment, or behavior modification. Here are some titles of courses currently taught at major universities: Columbia: "Sorcery and Magic." Dartmouth: "Queer Theory, Queer Texts." Harvard: "Fetishism" and "Feminist Biblical Interpretation." Yale: "AIDS and Society" and "Queer Histories." Cornell: "Gay Fiction." Princeton: "Sexuality: Bodies, Desires, and Modern Times." University of Pennsylvania: "Feminist Critique of Christianity." Brown: "Unnatural Acts: Introduction to Lesbian and Gay Literature." Bucknell: "Witchcraft and Politics." Middlebury: "Female Erotic Literature of Latin America." Stanford: "Homosexuals, Heretics, Witches, and Werewolves: Deviants in Medieval Society." Vassar: "Global Feminisms." Williams: "Witchcraft, Sorcery, and Magic." Rutgers: "Homoerotic Literature." University of Colorado: "Queer Theory." University of Massachusetts: "Rock and Roll." University of Michigan: "Crossing Erotic Boundaries." University of Wisconsin: "Goddesses and Feminine Powers." ("Comedy and Tragedy, 1997-1998" published by Young America's Foundation, Herndon, VA)
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY - Your $33,000 tuition will be partially paying the salary of Peter Singer, who has been appointed a Professor of Bioethics. He is an advocate of abortion rights, animal rights, and euthanasia rights, and he teaches that the only reason we value life is the pleasure it produces. If cows lead pleasurable lives, don't butcher them. If handicapped lives are not pleasurable, kill them. Singer supports all forms of euthanasia, voluntary or not;
abortion and infanticide; and rights for animals. Who decides which lives are pleasurable? Enlightened people like himself. (Wall Street Journal, Sept. 25, 1998)
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS - The law review policy is to use the female pronoun instead of the male pronoun as a matter of course, "except," according to the editors, "when referring to a criminal defendant, where male pronouns are used."
ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY - Professor Jared Sakren of the ASU Theater Department is facing dismissal for teaching Shakespeare and other classic works. A graduate of Juilliard, Sakren was warned by Lynn Wright, the department chair, to stop teaching Shakespeare because it was "sexist," and, if he wanted to have his class perform classical works such as The Taming of the Shrew, he must alter the ending to avoid offending women. Sakren's former students include stars such as Kelly McGillis, Val Kilmer, and Fran McDormand, but nevertheless Sakren was denied tenure. He is appealing, and a court will decide whether his constitutional rights were violated. (Arizona Daily Wildcat, Feb. 2, 1998 and Campus, Fall 1998)
HARVARD UNIVERSITY -Harvard has appointed two lesbians to be housemasters and direct the social life of students at the leading traditional dormitory, Lowell House. (New York Times, April 15, 1998)
OLD DOMINION STATE UNIVERSITY, Virginia - When Phyllis Schlafly was invited to lecture here, the feminist faculty protested the invitation to her even though previous speakers on this campus had been a series of extreme feminists, including Susan Faludi, Molly Ivins, Patricia Schroeder, the sexologist Dr. Ruth, Faye Wattleton of Planned Parenthood, and a lesbian army colonel.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY, St. Louis -The syllabus for a course called "Sex and Gender in U.S. Politics" features women of the Ku Klux Klan, Anita Hill, sexual harassment, gay and lesbian rights, and the UN Treaty on Women. Eight pro-abortion groups are listed as sources.
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE - The Dean of Admissions, Michele Hernandez, has revealed some of the secrets of the admissions process in a new book called A Is for Admission. Most admissions committees, she writes, are not made up of scholars or intellectuals, and they resent students who are well-off and smart. Your college application will fare better if you are from a ghetto, a barrio, or an Indian reservation. To get admitted, you should be someone they can feel sorry for. That will boost your chances of getting admitted and getting financial aid, even if your academic qualifications are lower.
WICHITA STATE UNIVERSITY -The student government sought to change the non-discrimination policy of all campus organizations by requiring their constitutions to add sexual orientation and replace "sex" with "gender." After outrage from Eagle Forum Collegians chapter president Betsy Myers, as well as Christian students and groups, the student government decided to postpone its decision and create a study committee.
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS - The University at Champaign freely hands out condoms as part of its "safe sex" message, but the "safety" is now in question. In efforts to cut costs, the university purchased less expensive brands of condoms to distribute in the student health center, and some packages were split down the middle and leaking. The students are demanding new condoms.
(Campus, Spring 1998)
CITY UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK (CUNY) - The administration decided to require all students to pass a basic English proficiency test prior to graduation -- after public criticism about the decreasing value of the CUNY diploma and the disservice to students who graduate from college without ever learning proper English. Students at numerous CUNY campuses are going to court over the matter because many cannot pass the 12th grade level writing test. Half of CUNY students are not native English speakers, and CUNY students have been allowed to graduate without ever learning English. Yamile Mendez, the lead plaintiff in the case, said, "You cannot measure a students capacity with one piece of paper." (Campus, Fall 1997)
SAN DIEGO STATE UNIVERSITY -Resident Assistants (RAs) are required to participate in a "diversity workshop." Speakers include representatives from groups such as the Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Alliance. One exercise placed all the RA trainees in a room with various ethnic and sexual preference signs. The students were instructed to congregate under the sign that matched their ethnicity and sexual preference. Heterosexual white males were left in the middle of the room. The only group for white students in the Chapultepec Residence Hall is the Allies for Social Justice, which identifies itself as a "group for people of European decent to help support minority and civil rights causes." (Melissa Cheney, San Diego State University student, Winter 1998)
CORNELL UNIVERSITY - The Resident Assistant program at Cornell not only requires workshops in fire and police procedures, but on human rights and social issues as well. Leftist views are forced on the RAs. One workshop asked RA trainees to describe how the world sees them and how they see the world. Students who did not view the world as unfair, racist and sexist were told by the facilitator, "Well, you have a right to feel that way, but you are deluding yourself." Racism was defined in the workshops as follows: "The institution of people in traditional power roles which discriminates against people in unempowered positions based on their skin color." This definition means that no minority can be labeled a racist. Most role-play situations involve racial, sexist, and homophobic matters.
(The Cornell Review, October 23, 1997)
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN -Jennifer Gatz was denied admission even though she graduated 13th in a class of 298, scored 25 on the ACT, was a student government leader, cheerleader, homecoming queen, and mathematics tutor. While she would have caught the eye of any college recruiter, having the wrong skin color prevented acceptance to the University of Michigan. The university had implemented the "Michigan Mandate," which boosted minority enrollment from 12.7% in 1986 to over 25% in 1997. The "Michigan Mandate" uses a grid system to score applicants on combined test scores. However, white applicants must fall into one more demanding grid row to be admitted, while those minority applicants who are accepted may fall in a less demanding grid row for "disadvantaged" and "underrepresented" minorities. The Center for Individual Rights has filed suit against the university to assure that other students are not denied admission based on the color of their skin.
(Washington Times, October 17, 1997 and Campus, Fall 1998)
MACALESTER COLLEGE, St. Paul, MN - Students were asked to support Planned Parenthood and NARAL by participating in a phone bank to identify pro-choice voters in conservative districts and get them to vote for pro-choice candidates. The phone bank operated out of the Macalester College Sociology Department. Students could sign up on the Sociology Department bulletin board. Regular attendees were rewarded with bumper stickers and pins. (WGS Newsletter Intersections, November 1997)
YALE UNIVERSITY - A sophomore Yalie could take the following list of courses in complete fulfillment of his sophomore year: Redesigning the Family: Challenges from Lesbians/Gay Men, Photography and Images of the Body, Love Books in the Middle Ages, Intermediate Yoruba, Women's History: Methodical and Comparative Inquiry, AIDS in Society, Listening to Music, Affirmative Action and Civil Rights in the Labor Market, Sexual Meanings, Troubadours and Rock Stars--a Comparison. (Martin Gross's The End of Sanity)
UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS - Along with five other New England Land Grant universities, the University of Massachusetts adopted a plan called "Vision 2000." The goals of the program are:
"Through nine broad recommendations, this document sets forth a vision where women at our six institutions can and should be at the beginning of the next century." Some of the goals include:
"implement diversity initiatives, encourage womens academic and career development, establish and support women's centers, and end gender-bias and discrimination against women in the curriculum."
(Vision 2000, February 1997)
Joseph Epstein, the editor for 25 years of The American Scholar, the Phi Beta Kappa magazine, wrote this parting comment: "In academic argument, I have noticed, the radicals almost always win, even though they rarely constitute a majority. Conservatives usually don't care enough to take a strong stand against them."
Abraham Lincoln said: "The philosophy of the classroom today will be the philosophy of the government tomorrow."
Read the entire issue of the November Phyllis Schlafly Report at:
http://www.eagleforum.org/psr/1998/nov98/psrnov98.html
Subscribe to the Phyllis Schlafly Report for only $20 per year.
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"tactical treason"
By Melissa Wells-Petry
The day I am writing this, Bill Clinton, President of the United States, has met with senior military leaders at Fort McNair in Washington, D.C.
The purpose of the meeting was to advise the president of a not-too-pretty picture concerning the United States Armed Forces. Specific topics included funding shortages, aging equipment and lack of spare parts, recruiting, retention, and morale.
The military report card probably did not reflect straight "A's," let's put it that way.
A top official concedes the pace of even present operations is "unsustainable."
A prominent commentator on foreign affairs, commenting on reports that Secretary of State Albright deliberately put the brakes on UNSCOM inspections in Iraq, called thechain of events a sort of "tactical treason."
Pilots, in both the Navy and the Air Force, continue their stampede to civilian life.
Despite lowering accession standards and upping signing bonuses, recruiting is giving all the services, except the Marine Corps, fits.
Moreover, somehow I suspect the most obvious drag on military morale - the present (and future) predicament of the commander in chief - was left unspoken.
A year ago, almost exactly, we, and the nation, were discussing the case of Lt. Kelly Flinn. Flinn, you recall, was an Air Force pilot who was being court-martialed for having an affair with an airman's husband, conspiring with her boyfriend to lie about her crime to investigators, and lying to investigators under oath.
Flinn was busted when - oops! - her co-conspirator failed to live up to his end of their dirty deal, and instead took his oath seriously and told the truth.
Of this whole sordid affair, I wrote in this space:
"Lt. Flinn was a military officer charged with delivering nuclear bombs on enemy targets.
Cheating, lying, duplicity, arrogance and greed would not do. ... Immorality, immaturity, and selfishness must not win the day over duty, honor, country."
Now what are soldiers, and the nation, supposed to think about the commander in chief?
As I reflected on the meeting between the generals and admirals and the commander in chief at Fort McNair today, my mind turned back to July 1993, when I was in the audience for a presidential speech in the main auditorium on Fort McNair.
The president was addressing a group of officers on his concept, and rationale, for opening the armed forces to homosexuals.
Mr. Clinton repeated in that 1993 speech many of the themes he had massaged since the opening salvo of the debate. But one theme in particular made me - I must admit - mad. And it gave me one of those sinking feelings in my stomach, the kind that tell you in no uncertain terms that this - the Clinton presidency - was going to turn out all wrong.
In newspaper after newspaper, in interview after interview, Mr. Clinton said over and over again that the real problem with the military ban on homosexuality was that "it forced homosexuals to lie."
You see, if homosexuals did not lie when they got caught, then they would be discharged. That would be bad, in Mr. Clinton's view.
If a soldier who broke the law - who failed, as we so often heard from this administration, "to play by the rules" - lied to get out of his jam, certainly Mr. Clinton would not blame him for that.
If you remember anything at all about the debate on Mr. Clinton's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell," it was that those who lied in order to serve in the military deserved a medal, not a discharge.
Quite clearly, the commander in chief believed -
as he stated on numerous occasions beginning in the fall of 1992 - not only that lying was understandable, but it was entirely appropriate to lie in order to facilitate an individual's pursuits and to avoid the personally unpleasant consequences of one's acts.
Listen to me, friends: Mr. Clinton expressly empathized with the need for soldiers to lie to their commanders and to military investigators when the authorities got in the way of one's personal fun and games.
If you lied to save your skin when you got caught breaking the law, obviously, according to the commander in chief, you did the right thing.
Obviously, it was the law's fault, not yours.
Can you think of anything more antithetical to duty, honor, country than the commander in chief arguing, advocating, advancing the standard that a soldier ought to lie in order to do what he wants rather than what the military mission requires?
Can you imagine how harmful it is to good order and discipline to establish the principle that it's okay to protect yourself from bad news (which war tends to generate quite a lot of) by simply lying?
Well, that's exactly what happened during the debate on homosexuals in the military, and now, in another context, history is repeating itself all over again.
Over and over again, we have seen this frightening attitude that the White House is above the law. We saw it first, of course, in the administration's decree that - even though Congress resoundingly rejected Mr. Clinton's ludicrous policy of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" -DoD would impose it anyway.
And we don't need to look to the Starr report for an additional example.
Right in our own military "back yard," once again we are seeing the law "spun" and "finessed" - by the people who are supposed to be about faithfully executing the law.
The Military Honor and Decency Act, for example, which the MRP helped to defend successfully in court, languishes amidst administration "promises" that it finally will be implemented.
The Military Honor and Decency Act prohibits the sale of pornography in all post and base exchanges and ships stores.
The law was challenged by Penthouse and other porn kings and guess what: the Constitution really does permit military commanders to just say no to garbage that undermines good order and discipline, especially garbage that fosters the attitudes underlying sexual harassment.
But check out your local PX, BX or shoppette: is smut still for sale? You bet it is. Why, when the law says "N-O"? As the saying goes, "What part of 'no' is not understood here?" There never has been one single legitimate reason for not implementing this law posthaste. Yet we have seen so much foot-dragging, those dogs will start smoking if they don't watch out. Once again, lawmakers have been assured the MHDA will be enforced - this fall. Keep us posted, please. And remember, we need your support to continue this march.
www.frc.org
One Minute Briefing is written by Melissa Wells-Petry, a former Army major and member of the JAG Corps. Mrs. Wells-Petry serves as Legal Counsel for the Family Research Council Military Readiness Project.
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F.Y.I. - Israel in the News
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F.Y.I. - Israel in the News
Week Ending: 17 October 1998/27 Tishri 5759
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"Thus says your Lord, the L-RD, even your G-D Who contends for His people, 'Behold, I have taken out of your hand the cup of reeling; The chalice of My anger, You will never drink it again. And I will put it into the hand of your tormentors, who have said to you, "Lie down that we may walk over you."'" Isaiah 51.22-23a
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Talks Continue at Wye: US President Clinton took a hands-on role in the Middle East summit Saturday, hoping to inject momentum after two days of little progress. Although a news blackout has been maintained, word has been leaked that little headway has been made in the meetings thus far. One official inside the closely-guarded estate said Arafat's chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, engaged in a furious exchange at one point with Prime Minister Netanyahu when the Israeli leader referred to the 'West Bank' as Judea and Samaria, which are the Biblical names for the area. One issue on the table is the release of 3,000 Palestinians held by Israel for security offenses. The Palestinian Authority (PA/PLO) official who has been trying to negotiate prisoner releases accompanied Arafat to the US talks. In addition to meetings with PM Netanyahu and PLO leader Arafat, Clinton had a 12-minute telephone call with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak regarding the accords. The talks are scheduled to last several days and mark an intensive push by the US to get Israel to agree to a further 13 percent military withdrawal from Judea and Samaria.
Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon and Defense Minister Yitzhak Mordechai are scheduled to join the talks on Sunday. The two had taken part in ceremonies Thursday in Israel marking the 25th anniversary of the October 1973 Yom Kippur War. The war's decisive battle came when the 143rd division of the Israel Defense Force (IDF), then led by Sharon, recrossed the Suez Canal to drive back Egyptian troops. Some 25,000 soldiers and officers who took part in the crossing of the Suez Canal gathered in Latrun to commemorate the great achievement. Sharon was greeted with enthusiastic applause from the assemblage. He promised again that he would not shake the hand of Arafat. Egypt began the war by crossing the Suez and attacking Israel on Yom Kippur. (REUTERS, AP, AFP, ARUTZ-7)
Netanyahu's Nine Points of Principle: PM Netanyahu promised his cabinet Tuesday that he would not retreat from a series of principles -- "both our starting points and our end points", in the words of a senior official. Those nine points, on which he said compromise was out of the question are:
1. Nothing will be agreed upon until everything is agreed. The deal must be a package, and no [Israeli troop] redeployment will take place until Israel has clear confirmation that the Palestinians are fulfilling their part of the deal.
2. The PA/PLO must fight terror by battling the bases of terror, arresting suspected terrorists and putting released terrorists back in jail.
3. There must be a Palestinian assurance of complete security cooperation with Israel.
4. A joint Israeli-Palestinian committee against incitement must be set up to monitor and fight incitement.
5. The Palestinian police force must be reduced. Today, the force stands at some 36,000 [or more, according to some reports]. According to the Oslo Accords there should be only 24,000 police at this point. At the end of the redeployments the Palestinians are to be allowed a total of 30,000 police.
6. Illegal weapons held by Palestinians must be confiscated and efforts to battle weapon smuggling must be made.
7. The Palestinians must extradite prisoners demanded by Israel.
8. The Palestinian Covenant must be changed by the PNC [Palestinian National Council].
9. Observer committees ensuring the fulfilment of responsibilities must be set up and start working immediately. (ICEJ)
Withdrawal Entails a Total of 27.2%: Prime Minister Netanyahu informed the Cabinet that 27.2% of Judea and Samaria will come under Palestinian control in the framework of the planned withdrawal, as follows: 1% that will be transferred from Area C (total Israeli control) to Area A (total Palestinian control); 9% from Area C to Area B (Palestinian civilian control, Israeli security control); 3% from Area C to a special nature reserve status, under Israeli security control and where Palestinian construction will be forbidden;14.2% that will go from Area B to Area A. (ARUTZ-7)
Meanwhile, Back at Home ...: Thursday night, about 10 cars sustained damage over the course of 30 minutes when Arabs ambushed Jewish drivers on a road leading to Beit El, throwing rocks at their vehicles. Among those attacked were Avigdor Shatz, the head of security of the community of Shilo, and his assistant. They chased the rock-throwers, whose car then sped off along a nearby side road. Shatz and his companion said they unwittingly entered an area under PA/PLO control, still chasing their attackers' car. They were then pulled over by several plain-clothes PA/PLO policemen, who ordered them out of the car. ARUTZ-7 quotes Shatz as later recounting: "A very large crowd of PA soldiers gathered around. The police shot at our feet and above our heads, beat us [with rifle butts], and confiscated our weapons and all the emergency security and medical equipment in our car." About 40 minutes later, the Israelis were taken to be questioned by Palestinian Security Chief Jibril Rajoub. "If an event of this sort happens again, we will act much more strongly," he warned.
One Jew has been killed, and another was severely wounded, in yet another Arab terrorist attack, near Moshav Orah in southern Jerusalem. Tuesday afternoon, two gunmen approached Itamar Doron, 24, and Ilan Mazon, 25, while the two members of a Hassidic community were taking a ritual bath in a natural spring, and opened fire on them with automatic weapons. After the terrorists murdered Doron and seriously injured Mazon, they drove off in Doron's car and abandoned it near the checkpoint at Beit Jallah near Beit Lechem; the killers apparently walked from there into the PA/PLO village of Walajeh. Jerusalem Police Chief Ya'ir Yitzchaki said that the attack was "very well-planned". (ICEJ, ARUTZ-7)
US Republicans Press Clinton: The US House Republicans introduced a resolution last Friday [10-09-98] that calls on Clinton to assert that he opposes a Palestinian declaration of statehood. The aim, a source said, is to impress on the PA/PLO that it will not "be able to move forward with declaring a Palestinian state without making a big error and severely impairing their relations with the US". The resolution calls on Clinton to "publicly and unequivocally state that the United States will actively oppose such a unilateral declaration and will not extend recognition to any unilaterally declared Palestinian state".
Meanwhile, this week HA'ARETZ reported that senior Clinton Administration officials have informally asked Israel to consider accepting the principle of an eventual Palestinian state as part of a final Wye Plantation summit document. According to the US idea, in return for accepting the idea of a Palestinian state in principle, the exact powers and geography of the putative state would be defined through negotiations by the two parties and the May 4th deadline for completion of the interim agreement period and implementation of the final status would be postponed.
Farouk Kadoumi, head of the PLO's diplomatic desk, says that a Palestinian state will be established in May 1999, and that it will wage war against Israel. In an interview published in the PA/PLO's newspaper AL HAYAT AL-JADEEDA, Kadoumi said that after the new state is recognized by most of the world, the Palestinians will use their weapons to fight against the Israeli presence on what he called "Palestinian lands". He said that the only differences between Hamas and the PLO involve the tactics by which to reach their common goal. David Bar-Illan, a top Netanyahu media advisor, said in response, "Kadoumi has shown the true face of Palestinian intentions -- war with Israel".
Russia and the Arab states will recognize and back an independent Palestinian state, according to recent media reports. France has also indicated that it would recognize an independent "Palestine". The Vatican's charg d'affaires in Jordan, Monsignor Dominique Rezeau, Wednesday said the Vatican is also ready to recognize a Palestinian state. Many other nations have also declared their readiness to accept a Palestinian state. (JERUSALEM POST, HA'ARETZ, ARUTZ-7, ICEJ, JORDAN TIMES)
'Intifada of Fire' Damage Assessed: Thousands of Israelis were evacuated from their homes and some 12,000 dunams (approx. 3,000 acres) of woodland destroyed in a spate of fires deliberately set in various parts of Israel over the past week. Losses of property has been estimated at millions of dollars. Five Arab youths confessed to starting some of the fires to avenge police aggression against Arab demonstrators during a recent land dispute, an official said Wednesday. The fires began Sunday and spread through the Carmel mountains. (ICEJ, AP)
On the Northern Front: Hizb'Allah shells struck the western Galilee on Thursday evening, but no casualties were reported, YEDIOT AHARONOT reported. Amid the sound of exploding mortars during Thursday's attack, many residents of the area secured themselves in bomb shelters. Shells were also fired at IDF positions in southern Lebanon. Again, there are no reports of injuries. An IDF soldier was wounded in a mortar attack by Hizb'Allah Wednesday morning. His condition is considered moderate. Exchanges of fire continued for two hours on the Lebanese-Israeli border. (ISRAEL LINE, MED, ARUTZ-7)
The Cornerstone for the Third Temple: On October 7, 1998 The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement brought the cornerstone for the Third Temple to the gates of the Temple Mount and the City of David. Days before, the Arabs, who still control the Temple Mount (but do not have sovereignty over the Temple Mount), put pressure on the Israeli authorities not to allow the Faithful to lay the cornerstone on the Temple Mount. They threatened to cause a violent riot if it took place. Unfortunately the Israeli authorities decided to give in to the threats and they closed the gates of the Temple Mount before the laying of the cornerstone. At the same time they allowed the Faithful, and even encouraged them, to bring the cornerstone to the City of David very close to the gates of the Temple Mount and then to carry the cornerstone around the walls of the Temple Mount and the Old City seven times. This showed the desire of the authorities in Israel and the people of Israel deep in their hearts to see the fulfillment of the desire and historical dreams to see the rebuilding of the Temple at this time. For a full report, visit their website at: www.templemountfaithful.org (TMF)
Tallit Constitutes a 'Provocation': The Jerusalem District court has refused to overturn the conviction of Hillel Polchik who entered the Temple Mount about five months ago, wrapped himself in a tallit (prayer shawl) and began to pray. When ordered to leave by police officers, Polchik laid down on the ground. The officers picked him and carried him out. Two friends who were with him were also ordered to leave before they could pray. In the verdict, Judges Ruth Orr, Ezra Kama and Daniella Wexler wrote that a Jew praying in public on the Temple Mount, wrapped in a prayer shawl, without prior coordination with or permission from the police, could be interpreted as a 'provocation'. They said the act constituted a legitimate cause for fearing a disruption of public order. (HA'ARETZ)
Jews Move into 200-year-old Synagogue in East Jerusalem: Knesset member Benny Elon and a group of yeshiva students Thursday moved into a deserted, Jewish-owned building in eastern Jerusalem which until 1948 served as a synagogue. Their presence promoted protests by members of Peace Now and Palestinian leaders Hanan Ashrawi and Feisal Husseini, whose bodyguards got into scuffles with Israeli police at the site, in the Sheikh Jarrah neighborhood of east Jerusalem. The Jewish students, from the Beit Orot yeshiva on the Mount of Olives, brought furniture, a generator and food, flew Israeli flags and announced that they planned to establish a permanent religious school at the 200-year-old synagogue. The synagogue is owned by the Jerusalem Sephardic Community Committee, which give Elon and the students permission to occupy it. (ICEJ)
Israel Marks 12th Anniversary of Ron Arad's Capture: On the occasion of the 12th anniversary of missing-in-action navigator Ron Arad's capture, Ron's brother Chen and the Fellowship for Ron Arad's Release held a press conference in Tel Aviv on Thursday, HA'ARETZ reported. Next Tuesday the organization intends to deliver, through a courier company, a petition demanding Arad's release directly to Iranian President Mohammed Khatami at his Teheran residence. The organization expects to collect tens of thousands of signatures through its Internet site by Saturday night. During the ceremony, Chen Arad criticized the defense establishment for what he termed an "intelligence failure" in its efforts to secure Arad's freedom. "One word from Khatami will bring about Ron's release," Chen said. The signature-gathering campaign is being announced on banners on the main Internet search engines, as well as others, such as ours. A click on the banners leads the surfer directly to the Ron Arad Internet site: www.ron-arad.org.il.
(ISRAEL LINE)
Raviv to Be Indicted: Attorney-General Elyakim Rubenstein will announce the indictment next week of GSS-agent provocateur Avishai Raviv, ARUTZ-7 has learned. Raviv will be charged with inciting towards the murder of the late Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin. The indictment had been held up because high school girls who had heard Raviv goad Yigal Amir into assassinating Rabin refused to testify. They feared that they would be charged with not preventing the assassination, as was Margalit Har-Shefi. After Knesset Law Committee Chairman Chanan Porat succeeded in arranging with Rubenstein that the girls would not be prosecuted, they agreed to testify. It is now felt that there is sufficient evidence to prosecute Raviv. (ARUTZ-7)
Yesha Store Online: In the beginning of the year, the PA/PLO, along with Gush Shalom, called for a boycott of products produced in Yesha, with the argument that every shekel for Yesha is a shekel against peace. Using the boycott list as a supplier list, Ealan Hirshfeld started the Yesha Ze Kan store, a store selling products produced in the Jewish settlements of Judea, Samaria and Gaza, located at the corner of King George an Jaffa Road in Jerusalem. "I would venture to say that the relative share of the population of Yesha in Israel's overall GNP is impressive," Hirshfeld said. "The store offers a broad selection of products including gift items -- arts, jewelry, etc., food products, toys and books as well as many other products from Yesha. The artists include people who already have a worldwide reputation, such as Nachshon, as well as artists not yet known to the general public." Due to the early success of the store, many factories have had hire more workers to keep up with the demand for products. Based on this success, he has now opened an online store located at: http://come.to/yesha. "Our website," Hirshfeld said, "right now offers a limited selection of products. The prices are in dollars and we have not yet completed making provisions for secure on line credit card payment so for the time being payment is by check. The prices are in dollars and include shipping to North America and Europe. Our plan is that the website will be much more than a retail store. It will serve as a showcase for the entire range of Yesha producers -- both of consumer and industrial goods." (IMRA)
List of People Murdered by Palestinian Terrorists since the Oslo Accords: An updated list of people murdered by Palestinian terrorists since the Oslo Accords has been compiled and posted to the Prime Minister's Office web site. The list is available at the following address: http://www.pmo.gov.il/english/policy/pp-141098.html
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FYI - Israel In The News
"For Zion's sake will I not hold my peace,
and for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest" Isaiah 62:1
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It Takes Guts to Say "Jesus".
This is a true story of something that happened just a few years ago at USC.
There was a professor of philosophy there who was a deeply committed atheist. His primary goal for one required class was to spend the entire semester attempting to prove that God couldn't exist. His students were always afraid to argue with him because of his impeccable logic. For twenty years, he had taught this class and no one had ever had the courage to go against him.
Sure, some had argued in class at times, but no one had ever really gone against him' (you'll see what I mean later). Nobody would go against him because he had a reputation. At the end Of every semester, on the last day, he would say to his class of 300 students, "If there is anyone here who still believes in Jesus, stand up!"
In twenty years, no one had ever stood up. They knew what he was going to do next. He would say, "because anyone who does believe in God is a fool. If God existed, he could stop this piece of chalk from hitting the ground and breaking.
Such a simple task to prove that he is God, and yet he can't do it."
And every year, he would drop the chalk onto the tile floor of the classroom and it would shatter into a hundred pieces. All of the students could do nothing but stop and stare. Most of the students were convinced that God couldn't exist. Certainly, a number of Christians had slipped through, but for 20 years, they had been too afraid to stand up. Well, a few years ago, there was a freshman that happened to get enrolled in the class. He was a Christian, and had heard the stories about this p
rofessor. He had to take the class because it was one of the required classes for his major and he was afraid. But for 3 months that semester, he prayed every morning that he would have the courage to stand up no matter what the professor said or what the class thought.
Nothing they said or did could ever shatter his faith, he hoped. Finally the day came. The professor said, "If there is anyone here who still believes in God, stand up!" The professor and the class of 300 people looked at him, shocked, as he stood up at the back of the classroom.
The professor shouted, "You FOOL!! If God existed, he could keep this piece of chalk from breaking when it hit the ground!" He proceeded to drop the chalk, but as he did, it slipped out of his fingers, off his shirt cuff, onto the pleats of his pants, down his leg, and off his shoe. As it hit the ground, it simply rolled away, unbroken. The professor's jaw dropped as he stared at the chalk. He looked up at the young man and then ran out of the lecture hall. The young man who had stood up proceeded to walk to the front of the room and share his faith in Jesus for the next half-hour. 300 students stayed and listened as he told of God's love for them and of his power through Jesus.
You have one of 2 choices...
1)delete this and never look at it again
2) pass this along to your Christian and non-Christians friends and let them have encouragement we all need every day.
I pray you will choose option 2.
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Dear Friend,
As you got up this morning, I watched you and hoped you would talk to me even if it were just a few words, asking my opinion or thanking me for something good that happened in your life yesterday. But I noticed you were to busy trying to find the right outfit to put on and wear to work. I waited again.
When you ran around the house getting ready I knew there would be a few minutes for you to stop and say hello, but you were too busy. At one point you had to wait fifteen minutes with nothing to do except sit in a chair. Then I saw you spring to your feet. I thought you wanted to talk to me but you ran to the phone and called a friend to get the latest gossip I watched as you went to work and I waited patiently all day long. With all your activities I guess you were too busy to say anything to me.
Inoticed that before lunch you looked around. Maybe you felt embarrassed to talk to me, that is why you didn't bow your head. You glanced three or four tables over, and you noticed some of your friends talking to me briefly before they ate. But you didn't. That's okay, there is still more time left and I have hope that you will talk to me even yet.
You went home and it seems as if you had lots of things to do. After a few of them were done you turned on the TV. I don't know if I like TV or not, just about anything goes & you spend a lot of time each day in front of it not thinking about anything, just enjoying the show. I waited patiently again as you watched TV and ate your meal, but again you didn't talk to me.
As you did your homework I waited while you did what you had to do. At bedtime I guess you felt too tired. After you said goodnight to your family you plopped into bed and fell asleep in no time.
That's okay because you may not realize that I am always there for you. I've got patience more than you will ever know. I even want to teach you how to be patient with others as well.
Because I love you so much, a long time ago I left a wonderful place called Heaven and came to Earth. I gave it up so that I could be ridiculed and made fun of. And I even died so you wouldn't have to take my place.
I love you so much that I wait everyday for a nod, prayers or thought from a thankful part of your heart. It is hard to have a one-sided conversation.
Well, you are getting up again and once again I will wait with nothing but love for you, hoping that today you will give me some time.
Have a nice day!
Your friend,
Jesus P.S. Do you have enough time to send this to another person?
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" U "
Before U were thought of or time had begun,
God even stuck U in the name of His Son.
And each time U pray, you'll see it's true
You can't spell out JesUs and not include U.
You're a pretty big part of His wonderful name,
For U He was born; that's why He came.
And His great love for U is the reason He died,
It even takes U to spell crUcified.
Isn't it thrilling and splendidly grand
He rose from the dead, with U in His plan.
The stones split away, the gold trUmpet blew,
and this word resUrrection is spelled with a U.
When Jesus left earth at His upward ascension,
He felt there was one thing He just had to mention.
"Go into the world and tell them it's true
That I love them all-
Just like I love U."
So many great people are spelled with a U,
Don't they have a right to know JesUs too?
It all depends now on what U will do,
He'd like them to know
But it all starts with U.
author unknown
