The Bible speaks of the afterlife, but it speaks more about life, because how we live will determine the afterlife. To look at the afterlife we must first consider this life. We have seen that sin separates us from God. We also have seen that hell is a real place for people who are unrepentant, and for those who do not believe, or  do not accept Yeshua’s sacrifice, His shed blood, on their behalf. We also have seen that those who believe can fall from grace due to their sins, and their disobedience to the will of God. So now, if there’s hell, we must ask ourselves, is there a heaven?

Genesis 1:1 tells us that God created the heavens and the earth. So what does heaven look like? Isaiah 6:1-8, tells us about Isaiah’s experience when God pulled back the veil.  “In the year of King Uzziah’s death I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, lofty and exalted, with the train of His robe filling the temple.  Seraphim were standing above Him, each having six wings: with two each covered his face, and with two each covered his feet, and with two each flew.  And one called out to another and said, “Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord of armies. The whole earth is full of His glory.”  And the foundations of the thresholds trembled at the voice of him who called out, while the temple was filling with smoke.  Then I said, “Woe to me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of armies.” Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a burning coal in his hand, which he had taken from the altar with tongs.  He touched my mouth with it and said, “Behold, this has touched your lips; and your guilt is taken away and atonement is made for your sin.”

Well, maybe Isaiah was hallucinating, but then the Apostle John must have had the same hallucination, for Revelation 1:10-16 tells us,  “I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like the sound of a trumpet,  saying, “Write on a scroll what you see, and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea.”  Then I turned to see the voice that was speaking with me. And after turning I saw seven golden lampstands;  and in the middle of the lampstands I saw one like a son of man, clothed in a robe reaching to the feet, and wrapped around the chest with a golden sash.  His head and His hair were white like white wool, like snow; and His eyes were like a flame of fire.  His feet were like burnished bronze when it has been heated to a glow in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. In His right hand He held seven stars, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword; and His face was like the sun shining in its strength.” When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man. And He placed His right hand on me, saying, “Do not be afraid; I am the first and the last,  and the living One; and I was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore, and I have the keys of death and of Hades.”  And again in Revelation 4:1-11 it speaks of the throne room of God, “After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven, and the first voice which I had heard, like the sound of a trumpet speaking with me, said, “Come up here, and I will show you what must take place after these things.”  Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne was standing in heaven, and someone was sitting on the throne.  And He who was sitting was like a jasper stone and a sardius in appearance; and there was a rainbow around the throne, like an emerald in appearance. Around the throne were twenty-four thrones; and upon the thrones I saw twenty-four elders sitting, clothed in white garments, and golden crowns on their heads.  Out from the throne came flashes of lightning and sounds and peals of thunder. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven spirits of God;  and before the throne there was something like a sea of glass, like crystal; and in the center and around the throne, four living creatures full of eyes in front and behind. The first living creature was like a lion, the second creature like a calf, the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.  And the four living creatures, each one of them having six wings, are full of eyes around and within; and day and night they do not cease to say, “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God, the Almighty, who was and who is and who is to come.” And when the living creatures give glory, honor, and thanks to Him who sits on the throne, to Him who lives forever and ever,  the twenty-four elders will fall down before Him who sits on the throne, and they will worship Him who lives forever and ever, and will cast their crowns before the throne, saying, “Worthy are You, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for You created all things, and because of Your will they existed, and were created.”

Maybe John was hallucinating about angels, but then Ezekiel must have been also, for Ezekiel 10:1-22 says,  “Then I looked, and behold, in the expanse that was over the heads of the cherubim something like a sapphire stone, in appearance resembling a throne, appeared above them.  And He spoke to the man clothed in linen and said, “Enter between the whirling wheels under the cherubim and fill your hands with coals of fire from between the cherubim, and scatter them over the city.” And he entered in my sight. Now the cherubim were standing on the right side of the temple when the man entered, and the cloud filled the inner courtyard. Then the glory of the Lord went up from the cherub to the threshold of the temple, and the temple was filled with the cloud, and the courtyard was filled with the brightness of the glory of the Lord.  Moreover, the sound of the wings of the cherubim was heard as far as the outer courtyard, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks. And it came about when He commanded the man clothed in linen, saying, “Take fire from between the whirling wheels, from between the cherubim,” he entered and stood beside a wheel.  Then the cherub reached out with his hand from between the cherubim to the fire which was between the cherubim, took some coals and put them into the hands of the one clothed in linen; and he took them and went out.  The cherubim appeared to have something like a human hand under their wings. Then I looked, and behold, four wheels beside the cherubim, one wheel beside each cherub; and the appearance of the wheels was like the gleam of a Tarshish stone.  And as for their appearance, all four of them had the same likeness, as if one wheel were within another wheel.  When they moved, they went in any of their four directions without turning as they went; but they followed in the direction which they faced, without turning as they went.  And their whole body, their backs, their hands, their wings and the wheels were covered with eyes all around, the wheels belonging to all four of them. The wheels were called, as I heard, the whirling wheels.  And each one had four faces. The first face was the face of a cherub, the second face was the face of a human, the third, the face of a lion, and the fourth, the face of an eagle. Then the cherubim rose up. They are the living beings that I saw by the river Chebar.  Now when the cherubim moved, the wheels would move beside them; also when the cherubim lifted up their wings to rise from the ground, the wheels themselves would not turn away from beside them.  When the cherubim stood still, the wheels would stand still; and when they rose up, the wheels would rise with them, because the spirit of the living beings was in them.Then the glory of the Lord departed from the threshold of the temple and stood over the cherubim.  When the cherubim departed, they lifted their wings and rose up from the ground in my sight with the wheels beside them; and they stood still at the entrance of the east gate of the Lord’s house, and the glory of the God of Israel hovered over them. These are the living beings that I saw beneath the God of Israel by the river Chebar; so I knew that they were cherubim.  Each one had four faces and each one four wings, and beneath their wings was the form of human hands.  As for the likeness of their faces, they were the same faces whose appearance I had seen by the river Chebar. Each one went straight ahead.”

Daniel also saw creatures with many heads, but they were not heavenly angels, but four kingdoms that will arise and out of the one, will come one  like a beast. He will be influenced by Satan as we see in  Daniel 7:1-14, “In the first year of Belshazzar king of Babylon, Daniel had a dream, and visions passed through his mind as he was lying in bed. He wrote down the substance of his dream. Daniel said: “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me were the four winds of heaven churning up the great sea.  Four great beasts, each different from the others, came up out of the sea. “The first was like a lion, and it had the wings of an eagle. I watched until its wings were torn off and it was lifted from the ground so that it stood on two feet like a human being, and the mind of a human was given to it. “And there before me was a second beast, which looked like a bear. It was raised up on one of its sides, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up and eat your fill of flesh!’  “After that, I looked, and there before me was another beast, one that looked like a leopard. And on its back it had four wings like those of a bird. This beast had four heads, and it was given authority to rule. “After that, in my vision at night I looked, and there before me was a fourth beast—terrifying and frightening and very powerful. It had large iron teeth; it crushed and devoured its victims and trampled underfoot whatever was left. It was different from all the former beasts, and it had ten horns. “While I was thinking about the horns, there before me was another horn, a little one, which came up among them; and three of the first horns were uprooted before it. This horn had eyes like the eyes of a human being and a mouth that spoke boastfully. “As I looked, “thrones were set in place, and the Ancient of Days took his seat. His clothing was as white as snow;  the hair of his head was white like wool. His throne was flaming with fire,   and its wheels were all ablaze. A river of fire was flowing, coming out from before him. Thousands upon thousands attended him;  ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him. The court was seated,  and the books were opened. “Then I continued to watch because of the boastful words the horn was speaking. I kept looking until the beast was slain and its body destroyed and thrown into the blazing fire.  (The other beasts had been stripped of their authority, but were allowed to live for a period of time.) “In my vision at night I looked, and there before me was one like a son of man, coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was led into his presence.  He was given authority, glory and sovereign power; all nations and peoples of every language worshiped him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion that will not pass away, and his kingdom is one that will never be destroyed.”

Even the Apostle Paul was taken up to heaven, but he would not speak of such heavenly things as he says in 2 Corinthians 12: 1-4, “No doubt it is not seemly for me to boast. Nevertheless, I will come to visions and revelations from the Lord.  I know a man in Messiah about fourteen years ago (whether he was in the body I cannot tell, or whether he was out of the body I cannot tell, God knows) who was taken up into the third heaven.  And I know the same man (whether in the body or out of the body I cannot tell, God knows),  how he was taken up into Paradise and heard words not to be spoken, which no man can utter.” 

So  yes, there is a heaven and a hell, but there is much more to the story as we will see next as we look at the restored Garden of Eden.

When we think of hell, we think of a guy in a red suit with horns and a pitch fork, running after those departed souls to poke them time and time again with the pitch fork. But this is not a true rendering of hell. There is no guy in a red suit, no horns, no pitch fork and there is nothing funny about hell.

Many people  do not think that Hell is a real place. They do not believe that a loving God would send someone to such a place. In 2014, a Pew Research Center poll found that twenty-nine percent of Catholics, eleven percent of Evangelical Protestants, and 40 percent of mainline Protestants said they didn’t believe in the existence of hell and I believe that seven years later that this percentage has increased significantly. So what is this place called hell?  Let’s start from the beginning. Genesis 1:1-5 tells us, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.  Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. God saw that the light was good; and God separated the light from the darkness.  God called the light “day,” and the darkness He called “night.” And there was evening and there was morning, one day.” 

God is everywhere, but when He pulled back a part of Himself so that He could create the universe, and all that is in it, we see that the separation of God only left darkness. 1 John 1:5 tells us, “This is the message we have heard from Him and announce to you, that God is Light, and in Him there is no darkness at all.”

Heaven and Hell represent two kingdoms, the kingdom of light and the kingdom of darkness, and with every kingdom there is a king. The Kingdom of Light has King Yeshua and the kingdom of darkness has king Satan, a fallen angel who led many others to fall with him on the day of his rebellion.

Colossians 1:13-14 tells us, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

We also see in Ephesians 6: 12 that these two kingdoms are in a spiritual battle, a battle that has come down to us. “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

So what is hell exactly and why would God send anyone there?  Well, we know that hell is the eternal separation from God due to a sinful unrepentant  life on earth and repentant in its true meaning is to walk away from sin and come back to the Word of God.  In Genesis 3:24 we see from the start when Adam and Eve sinned that God separated Himself from them by driving them out of the Garden. 

In Isaiah 59:2 it says, “Your iniquities have separated you from your God; and your sins have hidden His face from you, so that He will not hear.”

And Galatians 5:19-21 also tells us, “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are: sexual immorality, impurity, indecent behavior,  idolatry, witchcraft, hostilities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions,  envy, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these, of which I forewarn you, just as I have forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.”

People say that Yeshua died for our sins, so we do not need to repent for He has paid the price for any sin that we may commit.

Romans 6:1-13 says, “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life.  For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for the one who has died is freed from sin. Now if we have died with Messiah, we believe that we shall also live with Him,  knowing that Messiah, having been raised from the dead, is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him.  For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all time; but the life that He lives, He lives to God.  So you too, consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Messiah Yeshua. Therefore sin is not to reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts,  and do not go on presenting the parts of your body to sin as instruments of unrighteousness; but present yourselves to God as those who are alive from the dead, and your body’s parts as instruments of righteousness for God.”

We are to die to sin  as Matthew 16:24 tells us,  “Then Yeshua said to His disciples, “If anyone wants to come after Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me.” And also in Philippians 3: 17-21, “Brothers and sisters, join in following my example, and observe those who walk according to the pattern you have in us.  For many walk, of whom I often told you, and now tell you even as I weep, that they are the enemies of the cross of Messiah, whose end is destruction, whose god is their appetite, and whose glory is in their shame, who have their minds on earthly things.  For our citizenship is in heaven, from which we also eagerly wait for a Savior, the Lord Messiah Yeshua; who will transform the body of our lowly condition into conformity with His glorious body, by the exertion of the power that He has even to subject all things to Himself.”

Galatians 5:24 goes on to say,  “Now those who belong to Messiah Yeshua crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

If we do not die to ourselves, how can we be born again?  John 3:1-3 says, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;  this man came to Yeshua at night and said to Him, “Rabbi, we know that You have come from God as a teacher; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him.”  Yeshua responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Yes, our unrepentant flesh causes us to sin, and sin separates us from God, and that separation leads to death, and if we die in our sins, that death sends us to hell. Yeshua says this figuratively in Matthew 5:31-30, but the point is very true,  “Now if your right eye is causing you to sin, tear it out and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to be thrown into hell.  And if your right hand is causing you to sin, cut it off and throw it away from you; for it is better for you to lose one of the parts of your body, than for your whole body to go into hell.”

Many of the Parables tell us what happens when we are left to our sins.

We are going to look at the end of a few of these parables.

Matthew 13:24-30, The Wheat and the Tares,  “Where then did the weeds come from?’“‘An enemy did this,’ he replied. “The servants asked him, ‘Do you want us to go and pull them up?’ “‘No,’ he answered, ‘because while you are pulling the weeds, you may uproot the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest. At that time I will tell the harvesters: First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles to be burned; then gather the wheat and bring it into my barn.’”

Matthew 13:47-50, The Net,  “Once again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was let down into the lake and caught all kinds of fish. When it was full, the fishermen pulled it up on the shore. Then they sat down and collected the good fish in baskets, but threw the bad away. This is how it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come and separate the wicked from the righteous and throw them into the blazing furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Mathew 22:1-14 The Great Banquet, “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. He asked, ‘How did you get in here without wedding clothes, friend?’ The man was speechless.“Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.”

Matthew 24:45-51,The Wicked Servant, “The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

Matthew 25:14-30, Ten Talents, “So take the bag of gold from him and give it to the one who has ten bags. For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. And throw that worthless servant outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”

We have seen just in these few parables that there will be those who will be thrown into the fire, or what we call hell. Many people think that the parables are for the unbeliever but that is not true for the unbeliever already is going to die in their sins as John 8:24 tells us, “Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.” No, the parables are for the believer to speak to them about their ways.

Revelation 20: 8-10 first tells us this about the final last days, “When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,  and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.  And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.  And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” And it continues to tell us this in Revelation 20:11-15, “ Then I saw a great white throne and Him who sat upon it, from whose presence earth and heaven fled, and no place was found for them.  And I saw the dead, the great and the small, standing before the throne, and books were opened; and another book was opened, which is the book of life; and the dead were judged from the things which were written in the books, according to their deeds.  And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and Death and Hades gave up the dead who were in them; and they were judged, each one of them according to their deeds.  Then Death and Hades were thrown into the lake of fire. This is the second death, the lake of fire.  And if anyone’s name was not found written in the book of life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.”

Hell is a real place, a place of darkness, a place separated from God, and it is so real, and so dreadful, that Yeshua actually sweated blood just at the thought of Him  going to hell, Luke 22:40-44, and that He was going to be separated from the Father, all because He was going to die with all of our sins upon Him. But thanks be to God who gave us the victory in the Messiah Yeshua. We now can be with God forever if we walk in the newness of life that the Holy Spirit gives, and not according to our flesh. Next we want to answer the question is there a heaven?

Click to access For-Christ-our-Passover-lamb-has-been-sacrificed.pdf

1. Passover is on the 14th day of the first month of the Biblical  Calendar, usually in the middle of March to the middle of April. This is the day of the Seder which remembers Israel’s Exodus from Egypt. Passover is the day that Yeshua was crucified. Yeshua also tells us that we are to remember Him at the Seder, when the Afikoman is broken, and when the Cup of Redemption is blessed. ( NOTE: see our information about preparing the Seder.)
2.  Passover is not a Sabbath day, but a day of preparation for the feast of Unleavened Bread.
3. Today, the 7 day Feast of Unleavened Bread is also called Passover, which is part of the Passover Season. This is the 15th day of the first month.
4. On the day of preparation one goes throughout their home and cleans it of any leaven (yeast) that may have fallen in the way of crumbs. All leavened foods are removed from the home. This represents one removing sin from their lives.  Paul tells us in 1 Corinthians 5:7-8, “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.Therefore let us keep the feast, not with the old bread, leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and of truth.…” (NOTE: The Corinthians were not Jews, but Gentiles.)
5. On the 16th day of the first month is a feast called the Feast of First-Fruits. This was the day that Yeshua rose from the dead. In 1 Corinthians 15:20 Paul tells us this, “But Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep.”
6. It is on this day that we begin to countdown to the day of Pentecost, which ends the Passover Season. This time is called the “Counting of the Omer.”
7. Every day you say, “Today is the __ day of the omer. Blessed are You, O Lord our God, Ruler of the universe, who has commanded us to count the omer.” It can be a great family time of reading a Scripture and singing a song as you countdown the days. (NOTE: you can get a copy of this year’s count on our website.)
8. There are many good non leaven recipes online for meals and desserts. You would be surprised how they taste really good. (see transcript for Passover Brownies)
9. These feasts of Passover, Unleavened Bread,  First Fruits and later Pentecost are called the Spring Feasts and they have all been fulfilled, but not so with the Fall Feasts, they are all about Yeshua’s second coming.
10. Believers should be keeping God’s Biblical Appointed Times, they are for all of God’s children. We remember birthdays and special occasions, well God has special occasions that He wants us to keep at His appointed times, not man’s. Man  changed God’s times back in the Fourth Century, and we have been made to believe that this was God’s doing, when in fact, it was not. God never changes. God’s times are not about Santa Clause or the Easter Bunny…God’s times are holy as He is holy.

Passover  Unleavened  Brownies

 Ingredients:  3/4  cup cake meal… (many stores carry cake meal for Passover, otherwise it may have to be ordered online.)

 1 cup butter or  margarine

4oz of bitter chocolate

2 cups sugar

4 eggs well beaten

1/2  tsp of vanilla

1 cup chopped nuts (maybe excluded)

Mix:  Melt chocolate, butter in a saucepan, low heat. Add sugar gradually, add beaten eggs and vanilla and stir in the cake meal. Remove from heat,  and add nuts.

Bake: Bake in a greased 9×9 pan at 400 degrees for 20-40 minutes or until done.

Check  with a toothpick.

Frost or powder sugar or leave plain, according to your preference.

If you look at the time around the Exodus from Egypt and compare it to the time of the Crucifixion, we see that they are like bookends.

 Exodus 12:1-13 tells us,  “Now the Lord said to Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt,  “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you.  Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.  Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; in proportion to what each one should eat, you are to divide the lamb. Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight.  Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.  They shall eat the flesh that same night, roasted with fire, and they shall eat it with unleavened bread and bitter herbs.  Do not eat any of it raw or boiled at all with water, but rather roasted with fire, both its head and its legs along with its entrails.  And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall completely burn with fire.  Now you shall eat it in this way: with your garment belted around your waist, your sandals on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in a hurry—it is the Lord’s Passover.  For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord.  The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

The blood on the doorpost covered the people inside from the death angel. But to escape death, a lamb, a perfect unblemished lamb, had to be sacrificed. First, let us look at Yeshua, as He too, had to be examined.

Luke 19: 29-40 says, “After Yeshua said these things, He was going on ahead, going up to Jerusalem.  When He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mountain that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples,  saying, “Go into the village ahead of you; there, as you enter, you will find a colt tied, on which no one yet has ever sat; untie it and bring it here.  And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ you shall say this: ‘The Lord has need of it.’”  So those who were sent left and found it just as He had told them.  And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”  They said, “The Lord has need of it.”  And they brought it to Jesus, and they threw their cloaks on the colt and put Jesus on it.  Now as He was going, they were spreading their cloaks on the road.  And as soon as He was approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole crowd of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen, shouting: “Blessed is the King, the One who comes in the name of the Lord; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” And yet some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples!”  Yeshua replied, “I tell you, if these stop speaking, the stones will cry out!”

Yeshua entered Jerusalem for everyone to see and examine Him, because He was going to be the perfect unblemished Lamb, the Passover Lamb, going to slaughter on the fourteenth day of the month of Nissan. The people examined Him and cried out, “Blessed is the King, the One who comes in the name of the Lord.” 

1 Corinthians 5:7 tells us this, “Get rid of the old yeast, so that you may be a new unleavened batch—as you really are. For Messiah, our Passover lamb, has been sacrificed.  Therefore let us keep the Festival, not with the old bread leavened with malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.”

When we accept Yeshua as our Passover Lamb, we too, then cover the doorway to our hearts with His blood as John 5:24 tells us,  “I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, the person whose ears are open to My words [who listens to My message] and believes and trusts in and clings to and relies on Him Who sent Me has (possesses now) eternal life. And he does not come into judgment [does not incur sentence of judgment, will not come under condemnation], but he has already passed over out of death into life.”

Yeshua kept the Passover. What we call the Last Supper was Yeshua and His disciples eating the Seder Meal. Luke 22:10-13 tells us,  “He replied, “As you enter the city, a man carrying a jar of water will meet you. Follow him to the house that he enters,  and say to the owner of the house, ‘The Teacher asks: Where is the guest room, where I may eat the Passover with My disciples?’  He will show you a large room upstairs, all furnished. Make preparations there.” They left and found things just as Yeshua had told them. So they prepared the Passover.”

When Yeshua took the bread which was unleavened bread, and broke it, and said “This is My body”, what He was doing was breaking the Afikoman, which is the middle piece of  three Matzahs which are on the Seder dish, and it was this that  He broke. When He took the cup and said , “This is My blood,” this was the cup called Redemption; it is one of four cups in the Seder. When He said, “Remember Me,” He said this because up till now we are remembering the Exodus from Egypt, but at this point of the Seder Yeshua, now wants us to remember Him and His crucifixion. This is why the Seder is done on the fourteenth day of the Biblical calendar, because it was on this day that He was crucified and became our Passover Lamb.

 We also see from Exodus 12:1-13 that they were to eat the meal in readiness, and they needed to prepare the meal a certain way. So why was that so important? Because it represents all five offerings in Leviticus.

1. The Passover sacrifice was a Peace offering, Leviticus 7:12-15,  this was also an offering of a sweet aroma to God. The blood, the fat and the kidneys of the offering were put upon the altar as “the food of the offering made by fire unto the Lord” (Lev. 3:11). This was God’s part. Then the breast was given to Aaron and his sons and the right shoulder to the offering priest. This was man’s part. Thus God and man both fed on the same offering which speaks of communion and fellowship and typifies the communion which the believer in Messiah enjoys with God on the basis of the work of Messiah at the cross and His blood shed there for our sins. We are at peace with God through the work of the cross and can feed upon Christ in fellowship with the Father. Luke’s Gospel and Psalm 85 especially present this theme.  The sacrifices had to be eaten in one or two days.

2. The Grain offering, Leviticus 2:2, the Passover was eaten with unleavened bread and herbs. This offering typifies Messiah as the perfect and sinless Man and presents to us His wonderful Person and His spotless life which was  an offering of a sweet aroma unto God. There was no shedding of blood in this offering so it speaks of the perfection of the Messiah, His person and His life rather than of His death. The fine flour pictures His sinless humanity with its evenness of moral qualities, the oil pictures the grace and power of the Holy Spirit which characterized His life, while the frankincense is emblematic of the sweetness and fragrance of His Person and life.

3. The Sin offering, Leviticus 4:23. We come now to the non-sweet savor offerings. The special feature of this offering is in the whole bullock being burnt upon the ground outside the camp of Israel after the blood and fat were put upon the altar for God. This offering was for sin and pictures to us Messiah who was made sin for us (2 Cor. 5:21) and endured the judgment and wrath of God against sin in our stead as our substitute. The holiness of God and the awfulness of sin are brought out in the bullock being entirely burnt up outside the camp. It pictures Messiah, forsaken of God, as our Sin-bearer as given in Psalm 22 and Mark’s Gospel.

4. The Burnt offering,  Leviticus 1:3. Here we have the highest aspect of the work of Messiah where He is seen offering Himself up entirely to God to do His will even unto death. The whole offering, except the skin of the animal, was burnt upon the altar and all went up to God as a sweet savor. It pictures Messiah who gave Himself as “a sacrifice to God for a sweet smelling savor” (Eph. 5:2). Messiah is not seen here as bearing our sins, but as accomplishing the Father’s will, glorifying Him and vindicating the holiness and majesty of His throne. This theme is especially prominent in John’s Gospel and in Psalm 40.

5. The Guilt offering is also called “reparation.” Here sin is looked at as a trespass against the government of God. Amends had to be made for the wrong done and the fifth part added to it. Atonement was made by the blood of the offering, and the trespasser was forgiven. This offering presents Messiah who died for our sins, and trespasses, restoring that which was taken away because of sin(Ps. 69:4). He has not only answered to God for our sins and paid our debt by His shed blood, but has added the fifth part, as it were, bringing more glory to God and more blessings to man than were had before sin was committed. This is the first view the sinner gets of the Cross of Messiah. Psalm 69 and Matthew’s Gospel present this aspect of the offering of Messiah.

Yeshua’s death represents all of these offerings, in so much that by fulfilling them He canceled the debt that was ours to pay. This is why the Passover Seder should be kept by believers, because we too, have our Exodus from Egypt (the world). We too, are covered by the blood,  and we too, now can pass over from death to life. 

Exodus 13:1-16 goes on to say this,“The Lord said to Moses, “Consecrate to Me every firstborn male. The first offspring of every womb among the Israelites belongs to Me, whether human or animal.” Then Moses said to the people, “Commemorate this day, the day you came out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery, because the Lord brought you out of it with a mighty hand. Eat nothing containing yeast.  Today, in the month of Nissan, you are leaving.  When the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Hivites and Jebusites—the land He swore to your ancestors to give you, a land flowing with milk and honey—you are to observe this ceremony in this month: For seven days eat bread made without yeast and on the seventh day hold a festival to the Lord.  Eat unleavened bread during those seven days; nothing with yeast in it is to be seen among you, nor shall any yeast be seen anywhere within your borders.  On that day tell your son, ‘I do this because of what the Lord did for me when I came out of Egypt.’ This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the Lord is to be on your lips. For the Lord brought you out of Egypt with His mighty hand.  You must keep this ordinance at the appointed time year after year. “After the Lord brings you into the land of the Canaanites and gives it to you, as He promised on oath to you and your ancestors,  you are to give over to the Lord the first offspring of every womb. All the firstborn males of your livestock belong to the Lord.  Redeem with a lamb every firstborn donkey, but if you do not redeem it, break its neck. Redeem every firstborn among your sons. “In days to come, when your son asks you, ‘What does this mean?’ say to him, ‘With a mighty hand the Lord brought us out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.  When Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, the Lord killed the firstborn of both people and animals in Egypt. This is why I sacrifice to the Lord the first male offspring of every womb and redeem each of my firstborn sons.’  And it will be like a sign on your hand and a symbol on your forehead that the Lord brought us out of Egypt with His mighty hand.”

What we see here is that the last plague upon Egypt was the death of the firstborn, man and animal. Because of this, God required the Israelites to consecrate their first born, also. We know that Yeshua was Mary’s first born child and He too was consecrated to God also as Luke 2:22-24 tells us, “When the time came for the purification rites required by the Law of Moses, Joseph and Mary took him to Jerusalem to present him to the Lord  (as it is written in the Law of the Lord, “Every firstborn male is to be consecrated to the Lord”), and to offer a sacrifice in keeping with what is said in the Law of the Lord: “a pair of doves or two young pigeons.”

So the people fled Egypt. They came to the Red Sea and it was here that they noticed that Pharaoh’s army was pursuing them as Exodus 14:10-14 tells us. “As Pharaoh approached, the Israelites looked up, and there were the Egyptians, marching after them. They were terrified and cried out to the Lord.  They said to Moses, “Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die? What have you done to us by bringing us out of Egypt?  Didn’t we say to you in Egypt, ‘Leave us alone; let us serve the Egyptians’? It would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the desert!”  Moses answered the people, “Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Egyptians you see today you will never see again.  The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still.”

Yeshua and His disciples ate and left quickly also. Luke 22:39-44 tells us this, Yeshua went out as usual to the Mount of Olives, and His disciples followed Him. On reaching the place, He said to them, “Pray that you will not fall into temptation.”  He withdrew about a stone’s throw beyond them, knelt down and prayed,  “Father, if You are willing, take this cup from Me; yet not My will, but Yours be done.”  An angel from heaven appeared to Him and strengthened Him.  And being in anguish, He prayed more earnestly, and His sweat was like drops of blood falling to the ground.”

Like the people when they saw Pharaoh’s army , they too,  went through a spiritual battle. They cried out to God, “Save us!” Yeshua also asked God to save Him by removing the cup before Him.

Exodus 14:21-31, continues, “Then Moses reached out with his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all night, and turned the sea into dry land, and the waters were divided.  So the sons of Israel went through the midst of the sea on the dry land, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left.  Then the Egyptians took up the pursuit, and all Pharaoh’s horses, his chariots, and his horsemen went in after them into the midst of the sea.  But at the morning watch, the Lord looked down on the army of the Egyptians through the pillar of fire and cloud, and brought the army of the Egyptians into confusion.  He caused their chariot wheels to swerve, and He made them drive with difficulty; so the Egyptians each said, “Let me flee from Israel, for the Lord is fighting for them against the Egyptians.” Then the Lord said to Moses, “Reach out with your hand over the sea so that the waters may come back over the Egyptians, over their chariots and their horsemen.”  So Moses reached out with his hand over the sea, and the sea returned to its normal state at daybreak, while the Egyptians were fleeing right into it; then the Lord overthrew the Egyptians in the midst of the sea.  The waters returned and covered the chariots and the horsemen, Pharaoh’s entire army that had gone into the sea after them; not even one of them remained.  But the sons of Israel walked on dry land through the midst of the sea, and the waters were like a wall to them on their right and on their left.  So the Lord saved Israel that day from the hand of the Egyptians, and Israel saw the Egyptians dead on the seashore.  When Israel saw the great power which the Lord had used against the Egyptians, the people feared the Lord, and they believed in the Lord and in His servant Moses.”

Romans 6 :1- 7 tells us,  “What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? Far from it! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?  Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah have been baptized into His death?  Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that, just as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,  knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;  for the one who has died is freed from sin.”

Yeshua’s death freed us from the power of sin. Egypt represents the world, and leaven represents sin.  When Israel went into the water, it was like they were dead and  buried, but when they came out of the water it was like they were resurrected into new life.

Paul speaks about it this way in Philippians 3:7-11, “But whatever things were gain to me, these things I have counted as loss because of Messiah.  More than that, I count all things to be loss in view of the surpassing value of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them mere rubbish, so that I may gain Messiah,  and may be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own derived from the Law, but that which is through faith in Messiah, the righteousness which comes from God on the basis of faith,  that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death;  if somehow I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.”

Paul was saying that faith, the same faith that Israel had when they went into the sea, we must have in the death and resurrection of our Messiah. We must suffer and die also, like Yeshua, having the faith to lose everything for Him, knowing that one day we will rise also after death. This faith in Him,  and becoming like Him is what makes us righteous in Him. 

Pharaoh and his army suffered loss also, just like  Satan and his army did when Yeshua died that day, for it tells us in  Colossians 2:13-15,

“And when you were dead in your wrongdoings and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our wrongdoings,  having canceled the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him.”

We also had the victory for  Colossians 1:13 says,

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son.”

We had our Passover, we had our forgiveness as Hebrews 9:22 tells us, “And almost all things are cleansed with blood, according to the Law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Now we can be light and have fellowship with each other as  1 John 1:7 says, “But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all  sin.”

Now it is time to celebrate and that is just what the people did. Exodus 15:1-4a,20 says, “Then Moses and the sons of Israel sang this song to the Lord, saying: “I will sing to the Lord, for He is highly exalted; The horse and its rider He has hurled into the sea. The Lord is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation; this is my God, and I will praise Him; my father’s God, and I will exalt Him. The Lord is a warrior; The Lord is His name. Pharaoh’s chariots and his army He has thrown into the sea..” “Miriam the prophetess, Aaron’s sister, took the tambourine in her hand, and all the women went out after her with tambourines and with [dancing.”

Yeshua, also rose victoriously, it is said in Matthew 28: 1-10, “Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the tomb.  And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone, and sat upon it.  And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.  The guards shook from fear of him and became like dead men.  And the angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Yeshua who has been crucified. He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.  And go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you to Galilee. There you will see Him; behold, I have told you.” And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy, and ran to report to His disciples.  And behold, Yeshua  met them and said, “Rejoice!” And they came up and took hold of His feet, and worshiped Him.  Then Yeshua said to them, “Do not be afraid; go, bring word to My brothers to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”

And again in  Revelation 5:11-14,  “Then I looked, and I heard the voices of many angels around the throne and the living creatures and the elders; and the number of them was myriads of myriads, and thousands of thousands,  saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb that was slaughtered to receive power, wealth, wisdom, might, honor, glory, and blessing.” And I heard every created thing which is in heaven, or on the earth, or under the earth, or on the sea, and all the things in them, saying, “To Him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be the blessing, the honor, the glory, and the dominion forever and ever.” And the four living creatures were saying, “Amen.” And the elders fell down and worshiped.”

There are so many reasons why believers should be celebrating these days of Passover. They would have been, if man did not change the dates and times that were written in the Bible. This is your heritage, it is yours, and as Believers in the One True God, and His Word,that makes us Judeo -Christians, grafted into Israel as Paul tells us in Romans 11:17-18. Let us be the true light to the world, testifying to God’s truth, not man-made theology.

Laying the Foundation

Today all we hear is the sins of our founding fathers and how we should reject all that they did. But what about the sins of our forefathers who passed on their religious beliefs?  To answer this question we must look back with eyes that see clearly. So let’s take a closer look into church history. I think you may be amazed at what you are going to hear. But first we must establish a foundation.

 Moses, before  he died, spoke to the children of Israel and once again repeated the Ten Commandments to them.  Deuteronomy 5:8-10 says this about the sins of the fathers, 

“You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.  You shall not worship them nor serve them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, inflicting the punishment of the fathers on the children, even on the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,  but showing favor to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”

Messiah Yeshua

Yeshua was Jewish, born of Jewish parents, with a Jewish genealogy, from  the line of David. During the life of our Messiah, He never once told  His followers who were Jewish that He was beginning a new religion. Not once did He ever say, “Do not keep the Commandments, or the Sabbath, or the Biblical Feasts of God” mentioned in Leviticus 23. No! He said just the opposite. Matthew 5:17-19, “Do not presume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I did not come to abolish, but to fulfill.  For truly I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter shall pass from the Law, until all is accomplished!  Therefore, whoever nullifies one of the least of these commandments, and teaches others to do the same, shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but whoever keeps and teaches them, he shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven.”

We have a long way to go before God’s Word has accomplished all that it needs to accomplish and heaven and earth are still here and so every stroke of the pen is still enforced and has value. As far as the Sabbaths, In Mark 2: 27-28 says this,  “Yeshua said to them, “The Sabbath was made for man, and not man for the Sabbath.  So the Son of Man is Lord, even of the Sabbath.”

And regarding the Biblical Feasts, we see time and time again Yeshua keeping the Feast days; John 7:37-38, Yeshua at the Feast of Tabernacles, John 2:13-23, Yeshua keeping Passover. 

The Apostles

During the life of the twelve Apostles, who were Jewish, did they ever say, “We are beginning a new religion, or do not keep the Commandments, or the Sabbath, or the Biblical Feasts of God”?  On the day of Pentecost when Peter stood up and preached to thousands of Jewish people who were in Jerusalem for the Feast, not once did Peter tell the crowd that they were beginning a new religion. On that day 3,000 Jewish believers accepted the Messiah, and shortly after in Acts 4:4 5,000 also. Not Peter or any other Apostle, ever started any new religion. All those on Pentecost went back to their homelands, and still worshiped in the synagogue on the Sabbath, but now their lives were complete because of Yeshua the Messiah.

God Fearers

All throughout the journey in the wilderness there were people who sojourned with Israel because they saw and knew that Israel believed in the One True God. They did all that the Jewish people did. In fact God commanded it so. They lived like them and worshiped like them. In the days of the Messiah, there were still people who clung to Israel, they were called God Fearers. Luke 7:1-10 tells us this story.  We will look at verses 2-5,  “Now a centurion’s slave, who was highly regarded by him, was sick and about to die.  When he heard about Yeshua, he sent some Jewish elders to Him, asking Him to come and save the life of his slave.  When they came to Yeshua, they strongly urged Him, saying, “He is worthy for You to grant this to him;  for he loves our nation, and it was he who built us our synagogue.”

We know or should know that after Yesua’s victory on the cross over Satan, that he would do everything in his power to destroy that victory,  and we will see as we go on in time that he did just that. But the powers of evil will never undo what Yeshua did on the cross, no matter how much the devil does to destroy that truth. 

God is truth and His truth is eternal, but we must search for truth, for truth is not with man, but with God.

James

James Hatzaddik, (The Righteous), was the brother of Yeshua. James was a Nazarite and he was the first Bishop of Jerusalem, (Episkopos in Greek). A bishop was an overseer or elder of a congregation. A Nasi in Hebrew, was a prince or the head. We see Paul in 1 Timothy 3:1-7  explain the duties of an overseer. “It is a trustworthy statement: if any man aspires to the office of overseer, it is a fine work he desires to do. An overseer, then, must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, skillful in teaching,  not overindulging in wine, not a bully, but gentle, not contentious, free from the love of money. He must be one who manages his own household well, keeping his children under control with all dignity  (but if a man does not know how to manage his own household, how will he take care of the church of God?),  and not a new convert, so that he will not become conceited and fall into condemnation incurred by the devil. And he must have a good reputation with those outside the church, so that he will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil.”

 James was the head of the Jerusalem Congregation, and the head of the 1st Council called the Jerusalem Council, which we will see in a moment. Tradition tells us that James was appointed by Yeshua, prior to Yeshua’s ascension into heaven. James, now was the steward of the throne of David. In 62CE James was martyred along with five other of his disciples. In reading the Book of James, you will never find him telling his readers not to obey the Commandments or not to keep the Sabbath or the Biblical Feasts of God.

Paul

Paul, during his lifetime, never said that he was starting a new religion, nor did he ever say, “ Do not keep the Commandments, or the Sabbath, or the Biblical Feasts of God.” No, he never said any of this because the Jewish people would have never thought to not keep the Commandments and Sabbaths of the Lord.

When Paul went to the Gentiles, which was part of God’s plan from the beginning, he spoke to them about the One True God. These people were pagans. They worshiped many gods. They had no knowledge of the One True God. They had no knowledge of the Messiah Yeshua, but when they came to believe, then  they too, worshiped right alongside the Jewish people in their synagogues. There was no new religion. There was just one form of worship, just as God is One. 

Jewish Form of Worship

We must realize that churches as we know them did not come for many centuries later as we will see as we go along. The only form of worship was Jewish.

“Synagogue” is a Greek word that literally means a gathering of people, like when the believers would meet at Solomon’s Portico, Act 5:12, “At the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were taking place among the people; and they were all together in Solomon’s Portico.” But it can also refer to the place of assembly. Synagogues were used for a variety of communal needs: such as schools, for communal meals, as courts (Acts 22:19), as a place to collect and distribute charity (Matt 6:2). Worship also took place in first-century synagogues.  Synagogues today are not like the synagogues in the days of the apostles.  Nonetheless, reading and interpreting the Torah and the Prophets are well attested to in first-century synagogues (Acts 15:21), along with communal prayers, (Matt 6:5). We know that Paul went to the synagogue and preached, but we also know that in many places where there were no synagogues, believers met in houses. Over these congregations was an overseer and Paul appointed many of them as we see in Acts 14:23, “After appointing elders for them in every congregation, Paul  and Barnabas, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust.”

Also in Titus 1:4-5, “To Titus, my true son in a common faith: grace and peace from God the Father and Messiah Yeshua our Savior. For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you.”

So now let’s look forward, beginning with the Jerusalem Council, which took place around the year 50 Common Era. The question that was being asked was, “Do Gentiles who are coming to the faith need to be circumcised?”  This question is what Paul dealt with throughout his whole ministry.  Paul called it, “My Gospel.”(Romans 2:16,16:25) It was given to him by God, because he was chosen to go to the Gentiles. Ephesian 3:2-10 tells us this, “If indeed you have heard of the administration of God’s grace which was given to me for you;  that by revelation there was made known to me the mystery, as I wrote before briefly. By referring to this, when you read you can understand my insight into the mystery of Messiah,  which in other generations was not made known to mankind, as it has now been revealed to His holy apostles and prophets in the Spirit;  to be specific, that the Gentiles are fellow heirs and fellow members of the body, and fellow partakers of the promise in Messiah Yeshua through the gospel,  of which I was made a minister, according to the gift of God’s grace which was given to me according to the working of His power.  To me, the very least of all saints, this grace was given, to preach to the Gentiles the unfathomable riches of Messiah, and to enlighten all people as to what the plan of the mystery is which for ages has been hidden in God, who created all things; so that the multifaceted wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”

Paul died defending his gospel which was simply Gentiles did not need to go through the ritual of  becoming Jewish, which  circumcision was a part of, nor did Gentiles need to be circumcised to be saved, for circumcision did not save us, but the shed blood of Messiah did. When reading the Epistles of Paul you must keep in mind that this is the background for all he taught, and you need to place this background into interpreting his teachings. Paul did not start a new religion for Gentile believers, Paul tells us in  Philippines 3:3-6, “For it is we who are the circumcision, who worship by the Holy Spirit and glory in Messiah Yeshua and have not depended on the flesh— though I myself might have confidence in the flesh also. If anyone else thinks he might depend on the flesh, I far more—  circumcised the eighth day; of the nation of Israel; from the tribe of Benjamin; a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the Torah, a Pharisee;  as for zeal, persecuting Messiah’s community; as for Torah righteousness, found blameless.” Paul did not say I used to be.  

Next we will  look at the Jerusalem Council.

Jerusalem Council

Acts 15 tells the story. We will look at verses 6-11.

Some believers who were of the party of the Pharisees felt that Gentiles should be circumcised and this is the matter that they discussed.

“The apostles and the elders came together to look into this matter.  After there had been much debate, Peter stood up and said to them, “Brothers, you know that in the early days God made a choice among you, that by my mouth the Gentiles would hear the word of the gospel and believe. And God, who knows the heart, testified to them giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He also did to us;  and He made no distinction between us and them, cleansing their hearts by faith. Since this is the case, why are you putting God to the test by placing upon the neck of the disciples a yoke which neither our forefathers nor we have been able to bear?  But we believe that we are saved through the grace of the Lord Yeshua, in the same way as they also are.”

James, who was the head of the council and the believers in Jerusalem, rendered his decision in Acts 15: 13-31. We will look at verses 19-22,  “Therefore, it is my judgment that we do not cause trouble for those from the Gentiles who are turning to God, but that we write to them that they abstain from things contaminated by idols, from acts of sexual immorality, from what has been strangled, and from blood.  For from ancient generations Moses has those who preach him in every city, since he is read in the synagogues every Sabbath.” Then it seemed good to the apostles and the elders, with the whole church, to choose men from among them to send to Antioch with Paul and Barnabas: Judas who was called Barsabbas, and Silas, leading men among the brothers.”

We see that James begins by saying,  “That from ancient generations” which refers to those Gentiles who sojourned with Moses. Then he brings it forward to their present time, referring to the Gentiles who now sit in synagogues on the Sabbath and hear the Torah being read and taught. So James knew that the Gentiles were already being taught the Commandments and Statutes  and wisdom of God.  James exclusively points out certain things pertaining to food. This is because he wanted Jews and Gentiles to be able to fellowship in “Koinonia”  which is in today’s terms called “Christian fellowship,” which is your common pot luck dinner.  James’ concern was communion with God, such as with worship and prayer, along with meals. This also was true about sexual immorality,  and was common to their previous pagan life.

So you have to ask yourself, “ Why?  

Why are we not worshiping at the synagogue today?”

 The Separation of the Jew and Gentile

All the way back to Paul’s day we see that the Gentile believers were being taught that God rejected Israel because they did not accept the Messiah Yeshua. But Paul in Romans 11 disputes that claim. We will look at verses 11-24,

“ I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? Far from it! But by their wrongdoing salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous.  Now if their wrongdoing proves to be riches for the world, and their failure, riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!  But I am speaking to you who are Gentiles. Therefore insofar as I am an apostle of Gentiles, I magnify my ministry  if somehow I may move my own people to jealousy and save some of them.  For if their rejection proves to be the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance be but life from the dead?  If the first piece of dough is holy, the lump is also; and if the root is holy, the branches are as well. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree,  do not be arrogant toward the branches; but if you are arrogant, remember that it is not you who supports the root, but the root supports you.  You will say then, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.”  Quite right, they were broken off for their unbelief, but you stand by your faith. Do not be conceited, but fear; for if God did not spare the natural branches, He will not spare you, either.  See then the kindness and severity of God: to those who fell, severity, but to you, God’s kindness, if you continue in His kindness; for otherwise you too will be cut off. And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again.  For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and contrary to nature were grafted into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, who are the natural branches, be grafted into their own olive tree?”

Paul makes it quite clear that Israel is not being replaced by the Gentiles, but that the Gentiles are being absorbed into the tree of Israel and it is what supports.This does not make the Gentiles the new Israel as verses 25-35 tells us, “For I do not want you, brothers and sisters, to be uninformed of this mystery—so that you will not be wise in your own estimation—that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in;  and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written: “The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.”  In relation to the gospel they are enemies on your account, but in relation to God’s choice they are beloved on account of the fathers;  for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.  For just as you once were disobedient to God, but now have been shown mercy because of their disobedience,  so these also now have been disobedient, that because of the mercy shown to you they also may now be shown mercy.  For God has shut up all in disobedience, so that He may show mercy to all. Oh, the depth of the riches, both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and unfathomable His ways!  For who has known the mind of the Lord, or who became His counselor?  Or who has first given to Him, that it would be paid back to him?  For from Him, and through Him, and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”

This was God’s plan from the beginning, as we see the promise to Abraham,  that the Gentiles or as it is said, “ The Nations,” would all be gathered into Israel.

As we continue on this journey through time we will see just how things changed over the centuries and just how we arrived to today. We hope that you will continue on this journey through time, and that you will begin to see the sins of our forefathers.

Next we will look at Jewish Revolts and the Didache

Revolts / The Didache

The First Century saw three Jewish revolts which changed the course of time for the early believers. Not to spend too much time on these revolts, we will use Wikipedia as a reference.

The First Jewish–Roman War (66–73 CE), sometimes called the Great Jewish Revolt , or The Jewish War, was the first of three major rebellions by the Jews against the Roman Empire, fought in Roman-controlled Judea, resulting in the destruction of Jewish towns, the displacement of its people and the appropriation of land for Roman military use, as well as the destruction of the Jewish Temple and polity. The Second revolt, also called The Bar Kokhba revolt known by Romans as the ‘Jewish Expedition’ , was a rebellion by the Jews of the Roman Province of Judea, led by Simon bar Kokhba, against the Roman Empire. Fought circa 132–136 CE, it was the last of three major Jewish-Roman wars, so it is also known as The Third Jewish–Roman War or, The Third Jewish Revolt. Some historians also refer to it as the Second Revolt of Judea, not counting the Kitos War (115–117 CE), which had only marginally been fought in Judea.

Simon bar Kokhba called himself the Messiah. Because the Jewish people felt that the Messiah would come and deliver them like in the days of Moses, the people followed him. But the believers who followed Yeshua the True Messiah remembered what He told them, as recorded in Matthew 24:4-5 this, “See to it that no one misleads you.  For many will come in My name, saying, ‘I am the Messiah,’ and they will mislead many people.” 

Also in Matthew 24:15-16 Yeshua tells them this, “Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—  then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains,” and that is exactly what the believers did. When the temple was destroyed in 70 CE during the first revolt, Titus the commander of the army did just that. He brought in idolatrous images and placed them on the altar. The believers saw this and they fled to the mountains and were saved, while  a million people were killed during the siege.

Because the believers did not stand with the Jewish people and fight alongside them, they regarded them as traitors. And the separation just grew wider and wider.

The Bar Kochba revolt brought an end to the Apostolic Jewish Community in Jerusalem. The community had three bishops, or overseers, James, Simeon, and Justus.The Jerusalem Community of believers stood firmly with the original apostles and their teachings.

The Didache

After the fall of Jerusalem and the Temple, the Apostolic leadership realized that they had to preserve the teachings of the Messiah for future  believers. As the original twelve apostles were now older, and many of them  had traveled to other countries preaching the Word, they saw the importance of this.  Many false teachers  were leading people astray. So the Apostolic leadership composed a document called, “The Instruction of the Master through the Twelve Apostles to the Gentiles,” or simply “The Didache.” It was written as a catechism book for new believers. This book taught new believers the two ways of life, the way of life and the way of death. This is what God told Israel in Deuteronomy 30:15-20. We will look at verses 15-18a,“See, I have placed before you today life and happiness, and death and adversity,  in that I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, so that you may live and become numerous, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to take possession of it.  But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but allow yourself to be led astray and you worship other gods and serve them,  I declare to you today that you will certainly perish.”

 The Apostles knew that the choice of life and death, the blessings and the curses referenced in Deuteronomy 28 was for everyone. The Didache also taught them about fasting and praying and immersion, much like what Paul refers to when he speaks of the elementary principles in Hebrews 6:1-8, “Therefore leaving the elementary teaching about the Messiah, let us press on to maturity, not laying again a foundation of repentance from dead works and of faith toward God,  of instruction about washings and laying on of hands, and about the resurrection of the dead and eternal judgment.  And this we will do, if God permits. For it is impossible, in the case of those who have once been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and have been made partakers of the Holy Spirit,  and have tasted the good Word of God and the powers of the age to come,  and then have fallen away, to restore them again to repentance, since they again crucify to themselves the Son of God and put Him to open shame.  For ground that drinks the rain which often falls on it and produces vegetation useful to those for whose sake it is also tilled, receives a blessing from God;  but if it yields thorns and thistles, it is worthless and close to being cursed, and it ends up being burned.”

Paul was telling his Gentile readers that they had learned their catechism, and now they need to mature in their faith. Lastly the Didache taught them that God has put people in authority and they need to respect that authority. 

Paul also reminds them of this in Ephesians 4:11-16,  “And He gave some as apostles, some as prophets, some as evangelists, some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the building up of the body of Messiah;  until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Messiah. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of people, by craftiness in deceitful scheming;  but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, that is, Messiah,  from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.”

So we see at the end of the First Century that the teachings of the Messiah were being preserved. But Peter tells us that Paul was being misunderstood. 

2 Peter 3:14-18 tells us this, “Therefore, beloved, since you look for these things, be diligent to be found spotless and blameless by Him, at peace, and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,  as also in all his letters, speaking in them of these things, in which there are some things that are hard to understand, which the untaught and unstable distort, as they do also the rest of the Scriptures, to their own destruction. You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, be on your guard so that you are not carried away by the error of unscrupulous people and lose your own firm commitment,  but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Messiah Yeshua. To Him be the glory, both now and to the day of eternity. Amen.”

One thing that was being twisted was Paul’s reference to being saved by faith alone, and not by works. Ephesians 2:8-9 tells us, “For by grace are you saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:  not of works, lest any man should boast.”

But James tells us just the opposite in James 2:24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

But the works that Paul was speaking of were the works of becoming a Jew to be saved.  Sometimes he referred to it as the “Works of the Law.”  This is what the Jerusalem Council was all about, does one need to become a Jew to be saved? (refer to part one of this series.) These works are these, in order to convert, the conversion candidate must have a circumcision, and immerse in the mikveh. There is also a requirement to accept the commandments and do works of charity and prayer and like a child who has been  bar mitzvahed, he must know Torah. Paul said that Gentiles  do not need to become Jewish, and the Jerusalem Council agreed. Ephesians 2:11-18 tells us this,  “Therefore, remember that formerly you who are Gentiles by birth and called “uncircumcised” by those who call themselves “the circumcision”  remember that at that time you were separate from Messiah, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world.  But now in Messiah Yeshua you who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Messiah. For He himself is our peace, who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility,  by setting aside in his flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace,  and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which he put to death their hostility.  He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.  For through him we both have access to the Father by one Spirit.”

 So in reality Paul and James agreed, one is not saved by the works of becoming Jewish, but we must use our faith for doing the works of God as Ephesians 2:10 tells us, “For we are His workmanship, created in Messiah Yeshua for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

Simon Magus and Nero

Simon Magus was the first Gnostic and he had many followers. These people pretended to be believers in Messiah, but they embraced the superstition of idolatry.  We first find him in Acts 8:9-13, 18-24

“Now a man named Simon had previously been practicing magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, claiming to be someone great;  and all the people, from small to great, were paying attention to him, saying, “This man is the Power of God that is called Great.”  And they were paying attention to him because for a long time he had astounded them with his magic arts.  But when they believed Philip as he was preaching the good news about the kingdom of God and the name of Messiah Yeshua, both men and women were being baptized.  Now even Simon himself believed; and after being baptized, he continued on with Philip, and as he observed signs and great miracles taking place, he was repeatedly amazed.”

 “Now when Simon saw that the Spirit was given through the laying on of the apostles’ hands, he offered them money,  saying, “Give this authority to me as well, so that everyone on whom I lay my hands may receive the Holy Spirit.” But Peter said to him, “May your silver perish with you, because you thought you could acquire the gift of God with money!  You have no part or share in this matter, for your heart is not right before God.  Therefore, repent of this wickedness of yours, and pray to the Lord that, if possible, the intention of your heart will be forgiven you.  For I see that you are in the gall of bitterness and in the bondage of unrighteousness.”  But Simon answered and said, “Pray to the Lord for me yourselves, so that nothing of what you have said may come upon me.”

In 62CE, no sooner did Paul leave Rome, Simon Magus arrived. Magus now in Rome could reach many believers and deceived them back into their original thinking and lifestyle. Simon Magus came to Rome to spread his heresies and found success among the God fearing Gentile believers. He turned them from the true faith and impressed the people of Rome with his Satanic miracles. He was a powerful sorcerer and a master in illusions which won over many people.

Those who followed Magus, the magician or should we say false teacher, taught his followers,  who Paul just converted, to fall down before his image and worship with incense, sacrifices and libations. He used philosophical dualism of the Greeks and he retold the stories of the Torah. He even took the teachings of Yeshua and turned it into something completely different. In the new enlightened world of Simon Magus, the God of the Jews, became an evil angel and Yeshua was not the Son of the God, of the Jews, but the son of a higher god. He was the first to teach the cancellation of the Torah. This laid the foundation for Christian Gnosticism. It used the Scriptures in reverse to prove the exact opposite of what they were saying. Isaiah speaks of this in 

Isaiah 5:18-20, “Woe to those who drag their sins behind them like a bullock on a rope. They even mock the Holy One of Israel and dare the Lord to punish them.“Hurry up and punish us, O Lord,” they say. “We want to see what you can do!”  They say that what is right is wrong and what is wrong is right; that black is white and white is black; bitter is sweet and sweet is bitter.”

Paul writes to the believers to refute such lies in 2 Timothy 3:13-15, “ But evil people and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.  You, however, continue in the things you have learned and become convinced of, knowing from whom you have learned them,  and that from childhood you have known the sacred writings which are able to give you the wisdom that leads to salvation through faith which is in Messiah Yeshua.” 

The early church writers traced all the Gnostic Christians from the 2-4 Centuries back to Simon Magus. These false Christians slipped into the church like a contagious and leperous disease teaching gnosticism in the manner of their forefather Simon Magus. 

Justin Martyr once said, “Simon Magus established a cult of followers who worshiped him like a god.” Even Peter confronted Simon Magus when he was in Rome.  After the death of James, Peter went back to Jerusalem, but legend has it that Yeshua spoke to Peter in Jerusalem and told him to  immediately leave and go to Rome to fight the enemy, the adversary of the Master and the brethren.

In Rome Peter would have connected with Silas, and Clement, John Mark and Aquila and Priscilla. He would have encouraged those who had fallen away to repent and come back into the fold. Legend has it that Simon Magus summoned Peter to meet with him on the Sabbath. Simon promoted the event, and many of the population in Rome came out just to see Simon’s powers. Peter also had powers, the power of the Holy Spirit, and he challenged Simon Magus to the point that many of Simon’s converts turned away.

Nero

At the time when Peter was in Rome, Nero was the fifth Emperor of Rome. He most likely heard about Peter and Simon Magus’s meeting. Nero loved theater, entertainment, and spectacles. Legend has it that Peter and Paul were imprisoned at the Mamertine Prison and it was from here that Peter and Paul were led to their deaths.  Parts of this prison still stand today.  Nero had his Maximus Circus where he made sport in killing many Chrisitans. It was here that Peter was crucified.  An eighty foot Egyptian obelisk of red granite was in the center, and a gilded ball sat atop of the monument. This obelisk still stands today at the Basilica of Saint Peter. The Maximus Circus is now Vatican Hill.

The followers of Messiah grew in the First Century, but not without darkness, and sorrow, and persecutions that led to the separation of  Jew and Gentile, but also martyrdoms of the Apostles, and many believers, Jew and Gentile, and yet, the true teachings of Messiah,  and the Torah continued. 

Yeshua told His followers what it would require of them as Believers, even persecution.

“Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or farms, for My sake and for the gospel’s sake, but that he will receive a hundred times as much now in the present age, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and farms, along with persecutions; and in the age to come, eternal life.”

Next we will continue on our journey through history and look at our ante-Nicene Forefathers.

Apostolic Fathers/Ante-Nicene Fathers

As the First Century came and went, with it went the original Twelve Apostles. The Second Century found itself with many influential people making the way for Chrisitanity to flourish, but now it wasn’t Jerusalem that was the core to all things, but Rome and with that, it’s Greek influence. The Apostalic Fathers were very concerned about proclaiming the Gospels just as the apostles themselves proclaimed it. They were just as focused as the apostles were in rooting out and exposing any false doctrine that kept wanting to rise up during the early church. This became the Patristic Era or you could simply say, the times of the teaching and writings of the church fathers.  There were still many who continued the teachings of the apostles and we are going to look at three who are called the Chief Apostolic Fathers.

Clement of Rome

Clement of Rome was one of  three chief Apostolic Fathers. Clement was said to have been consecrated by Peter the Apostle, and he is known to have been a leading member of the church in Rome in the late 1st century. Early church lists place him as the second or third bishop of Rome after Peter. Clement’s only genuine writing still in existence is his letter to the church at Corinth (1 Clement) in response to a dispute in which certain presbyters of the Corinthian Church had been deposed. He asserted the authority of the presbyters as rulers of the church on the ground that the Apostles had appointed such. His letter, outside the New Testament, was read in church, along with other epistles, some of which later became part of the Christian canon. These works were the first to affirm the apostolic authority of the clergy.  According to tradition, Clement was imprisoned under the Emperor Trajan; during this time he is recorded to have led a ministry among fellow prisoners.

Ignatius of Antioch

Ignatius, was the third bishop of Antioch early in the Second Century, and he was a student of the Apostle John and also one of the three Apostolic Fathers.  Ignatius called himself Theophorus (God Bearer). A tradition arose that he was one of the children whom Yeshua took in his arms and blessed. 

 ^{(Matthew 19:14)}

 The Fourth-Century Church historian Eusebius writes that Ignatius succeeded Evodius as bishop. Theodoret of Cyrrhus claimed that St. Peter himself left directions that Ignatius be appointed to be the overseer of Antioch. But many things that were accredited to Ignatius  were not of him, for one, that anyone who celebrated the Passover with the Jews, or recieved emblems of the Jewish feast, was a partaker with those that killed the Lord and His Apostles, and yet being a student of  the Apostle John, he would have known that Yeshua said this as recorded  in John 10: 17-18,   “For this reason the Father loves Me, because I lay down My life so that I may take it back.  No one has taken it away from Me, but I lay it down on My own. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it back. This commandment I received from My Father.”

Polycarp of Smyrna

Polycarp was the bishop of Smyrna. Polycarp was a disciple of the Apostle  John and a friend of Ignatius. Polycarp is also regarded as one of the chief Apostolic Fathers. Polycarp lived in an age after the deaths of the apostles, when a variety of interpretations of the sayings of Yeshua were being preached. Polycarp occupies an important place in the history of the early Christian Church.  He is among the earliest Christians whose writings survived. His role was to authenticate orthodox teachings through his connection with the Apostle John: “a high value was attached to the witness Polycarp could give as to the genuine tradition of old apostolic doctrine.” In 154 CE the new bishop of Rome, a man named Anicetus, attempted to force Chrisitans everywhere to abandon their observance of Passover. The Roman Chrisitans commemorated Yeshua’s death by fasting  from Friday during the seven days of Passover until midnight of the next day, Saturday, in which they celebrated Yeshua’s resurrection. When the question arose about the Passover, Polycarp traveled to Rome and spoke with Anicetus about the change. Polycarp refused to accept the change, with keeping with the Apostles and the Scriptures, that Passover was to be kept on the fourteenth day of  Nisan at evening (Exodus 12:18)

His testimony condemned  many of the heretical teachers and his testimony converted many disciples of Marcion and Valentinus, both Gnostics.

The Ante Nicene fathers also tried to stay true to the gospel, but they had additional worries. There were some writings that began to carry as much weight as Peter, Luke and Paul. Satan has been, from the beginning, determined to undermine Yeshua’s victory at the cross and what better way to do that than to divide Christians. So these false teachings would creep in and cause believers to error in their thinking.  John tells us in  1 John 4:2-3 that the spirit of antichrist was already in his day. “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Messiah Yeshua has come in the flesh is from God;  and every spirit that does not confess Yeshua is not from God; this is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming, and now it is already in the world.”

By these men defending the truth and exposing the lies this began the formation of church doctrine. They truly knew what it meant to defend the faith. Jude 3 says this, “Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints.”

These early fathers held beliefs that most Christians today would consider incorrect. As we go on you will see why.

Irenaeus of Lyons France

Irenaeus was a disciple of Polycarp. He also was  an early Chrisitan apologist. His best known book was called “Against Heresies” (180CE) in which he enumerated heresies and attacked them.  Irenaeus believed that the only way for Christians to retain unity was to humbly accept one doctrinal authority. He also proposed that the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John all be accepted as canonical.

The Latin Father

Tertullian 

Tertullian was one of the most important Chrisitan writers of the Second Century.

His works were highly significant in developing the basic doctrines of the church. In one of his writings called, “Against the Jews”, he blamed the entire Jewish race for the death of Yeshua. He too was a writer of apologetics, theological, controversial and ascetic works. Tertullian would denounce Chrisitan doctrine he considered heretical, but as time went on he adopted a montanism approach to life with ascetic works, which the mainstream church considered heretical. He also added the words, Old Testament and New Testament to the Chrisitan Vocabulary, along with the idea of three persons in one for the Trinity.

The Greek Fathers

There were many Greek fathers. These were those who wrote in Greek and they were very anti-Semetic. There were many who continued Paul’s work, but not everyone was in step with him.  Although there were many, we will only look at a few.

Justin Martyr

There was  a philosopher named Justin Martyr. Justin was born around the time that the beloved  John the Apostle died. Justin a Gentile lived in the area of  Samaria and yet, he was not a Jew or a Samaritan, but he came to the knowledge of Christianity. After the Bar Kochba Revolt he moved to Ephesus and began developing a philosophical apologetic form of Chrisitanity filled with Platonic ideas from Plato. He addressed his first apology directly to Antonius Pius and his second directly to the Roman people, in an attempt to legitimise Chrisitianty and to put down the lies about it. In 150 CE Justin traveled to Rome to begin  teaching a school of disciples. Ten years later Justin debated a philosopher named Crescens who was a talker who knew nothing about what he talked about and he convinced the people and the Roman  authorities that Justin  and his disciples were illegitimate and so was Chrisitanity. Justin was a Christian, but he was not for the Jews. He taught that God’s covenant with the Jews was no longer valid and the Gentiles had replaced Jews in God’s redemptive plans.

Because the Romans had given the Jewish people the right to worship their God, they also realized that many Gentiles were worshiping with them, so they made the believers worship their  Roman gods.  When Justin and his disciples refused they were scourged and beheaded.  We see this practice widely  developing later in years.

The Decian Persecution of Christians occurred in 250 AD under the Roman Emperor Decius. He had issued an edict ordering everyone in the Empire to perform a sacrifice to the Roman gods and the well-being of the emperor. The sacrifices had to be performed in the presence of a roman magistrate, and be confirmed by a signed and witnessed certificate from the magistrate. An unknown number of Christians were executed or died in prison for refusing to perform the sacrifices, including Pope Fabian. Others went into hiding, while  many apostasized and performed the ceremonies. The effects on Christians were long-lasting: it caused tension between those who had performed the sacrifices (or fled) and those who had not, and left bitter memories of persecution.

Clement of Alexandria

There were many who came out of Alexandria, Clement for one. Alexandria, Egypt was one of the most important cities of the First Century. It was the center of learning anything Greek, science, literature, mysteries and Christianity. There was a theological school for the instruction of new Christians and this is where we find Clement. Clement was the first member of the Church of Alexandria who was a distinguished teacher. He united Greek Philosophical traditions with Christian doctrine and he valued spiritual mysteries.  Like Justin Martyr he developed a Christian Platonism, which were ideas from Plato and was well versed in pagan literature.  Clement is best known for his famous pupil and successor Origen who was only eighteen when he became head of the school in 203 CE.

Origen of Alexandria

Origen interpreted the Scriptures allegorically and showed himself to be a stoic, a neo-pythagorean and a platonist. He wrote  that the soul passes through successive stages before incarnation as a human and after death, eventually reaching God. He imagined even demons would be reunited with God. Origen taught the allegorical method of interpretation of the Scriptures which denies the literal meaning of God’s Word, as to say, “This is what God meant.” This way you can make it mean whatever you want it to mean. Many of Origen’s students became leading theologians of the early church. Clement also taught that the Jews were guilty of plotting to kill Chrisitans. Origen’s fame and influence was recognized throughout the Roman world, even by the Emperor.

 The Allegorial Teaching Method

The Gentiles wanted to completely separate themselves from the Jews and to do this they had to have their own interpretation of God’sWord. This came with the method of interpreting the Bible allegorically, this was the Greek method of interpretation. The Bible is meant to be interpreted literally , unless it states otherwise, like Paul using Sarah and Hagar as an example, in Galatians 4:24, when Paul says,  “This is speaking allegorically, for these women are two covenants: one coming from Mount Sinai giving birth to children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar.” It is important to know the background of the Scriptures to know when something may even be an idiom or a metaphor, or even irony, all of which are figurative language. 

Eusebius 

 Eusebius was a great admirer of Origen. He wrote the history of the first three centuries of the church and is considered the “Father of Church History.”  He taught that the promises and blessings in the Tanakh were for the Christians and that the curses were for the Jews. He declared the church was the “true Israel of God” that had replaced literal Israel in God’s covenants. Eusebius became the bishop of Caesara and he became a very close friend and advisor to the Emperor Constantine.

Constantine I

Constantine I, also known as Constantine the Great, changed Chrisitanity forever. You can say that he was the biggest factor in the way we worship today.  Constantine became a Chrisitan though he continued worshipping his sun god. His mother Helena was a Chrisitan, and so Constantine declared that the whole Roman Empire would be Chrisitan in the edict of Milan in the year 313. He now ruled over the  empire not only in it’s politics, but also in it’s religion, the church and the state together. The state and the church merged as one, as in a marriage and Constantine considered it to be the kingdom of God. It was considered to be the bride of Constantine, the combination of his military and political might and Origen’s allegorical interpretation of Scripture made the way for Constantine to rule over every area of the church.  Most of the Roman Empire was pagan, and this made the way for paganism to flourish within the church, because these people now had to consider themselves Chrisitans, even though they had no personal relationship with God. Constantine  also divided the empire into East and West and to this day we have the Catholic Church in the West and the Greek Orthodox Church in the East. This eventually led the way to the Byzantine Era and western Medieval culture. Of course, all of this put an end to Chrisitan persecution by the Romans which was the only good thing to come from Constantine. He was now the Pontifex Maximus, the Great Priest. He was building cathedrals and churches. Many of his decisions were based on superstition, like if he did not do right by Christians that God would punish his empire. He made new teachings and laws which did not pertain to the Scriptures at all. His worship of the sun god influenced artists for centuries with their halos around their heads. 

But it still to this day affects each one of us. Constantine changed the day of worship from the 7th day Sabbath to Sunday, enacting that all courts of justice, and all people of all towns and places of work were all to rest on Sunday as the “Venerable day of the sun.” This goes back to ancient Babylon and their cult worship of the sun and continued all throughout history up to the Roman Empire and to the church today.

Constantine not only merged the State with the Church, but as we will see he changed many other things, that to this day, has led Christians to follow him, and not the Messiah.

Continue with us as we learn about these changes .

The Ecumenical councils

So we have begun to see the gap grow wider between Yeshua’s teachings which were upheld by His disciples, and those who began bringing in pagan ideas. 

The Council of Nicea

 All of these new teachings and ideas led to the First Ecumenical Council in 325 Ce. It was held in Nicaea, which is now Turkey. It was a council of  318 Christian bishops and was given by the Roman Emperor Constantine I. If you remember the last council held  in Jerusalem in 50 CE, it was led by James the brother of Yeshua in regards to the Gentile believers. We see by the Fourth Century that Christianity is now being decided by Roman Emperors and there has become a big disconnect from truth. The council ends with the Nicaea Creed which says: We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, the maker of heaven and earth, of things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the begotten of God the Father, the Only-begotten, that is of the essence of the Father. God of God, Light of Light, true God of true God, begotten and not made; of the very same nature of the Father, by Whom all things came into being, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. Who for us humanity and for our salvation came down from heaven, was incarnate, was made human, was born perfectly of the holy virgin Mary by the Holy Spirit. By whom He took body, soul, and mind, and everything that is in man, truly and not in semblance. He suffered, was crucified, was buried, rose again on the third day, ascended into heaven with the same body, [and] sat at the right hand of the Father. He is to come with the same body and with the glory of the Father, to judge the living and the dead; of His kingdom there is no end. We believe in the Holy Spirit, in the uncreated and the perfect; Who spoke through the Law, prophets, and Gospels; Who came down upon the Jordan, preached through the apostles, and lived in the saints. We believe also in only One, Universal, Apostolic, and [Holy] Church; in one baptism in repentance, for the remission, and forgiveness of sins; and in the resurrection of the dead, in the everlasting judgement of souls and bodies, and the Kingdom of Heaven and in the everlasting life.

You may say, “I see nothing wrong here,” but it does not speak about all the changes they made during this council. No, this was truly a parting of the truth. The council decided that the church would celebrate the resurrection of Yeshua on the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox (March 21st) rather than on it’s Biblical date. This also changed the day of His crucifixion. Let’s look at Scripture;  John 19:14,   “And it was the preparation of the Passover, and about the sixth hour: and he said unto the Jews, Behold your King!” 

Luke tells us this in Luke 23:52- 54, “Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body.  Then he took it down, wrapped it in linen cloth and placed it in a tomb cut in the rock, one in which no one had yet been laid.  It was Preparation Day, and the Sabbath was about to begin.” That Sabbath was the Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Even Paul makes reference to it and tells us to keep the Passover in 1 Corinthians 5:6-8, “Your boasting is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump of dough?  Clean out the old leaven so that you may be a new lump, just as you are in fact unleavened. For Messiah our Passover also has been sacrificed.  Therefore let’s celebrate the feast, not with old leaven, nor with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.” 

Paul tells us that Yeshua is our Passover Lamb, just like John the Baptist said, “Behold the Lamb of God.” There are times when the church celebrates Yeshua’s death a whole month after Passover. This is because they also went from the lunar calendar which was from the time of  creation. Scripture says,  “And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day,” and every day for the seven days of creation. This is what they called each day and this gave witness to creation and the 7th day rest of God as the Sabbath. But they changed it to the pagan Roman calendar, with all of it’s pagan days which honor a different pagan god, like the Sun and Moon and Saturn and so forth. This also automatically changed the Feast of First Fruits (resurrection) to Easter, which was the spring feast of Ishtar. So now we have good Friday instead of Passover and we have Easter instead of First Fruits as mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 15:20, “But Messiah has indeed been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep.” 

Constantine also hated the Jews and so he did not want his empire to reflect anything that had to do with their beliefs. But Passover and First Fruits are not all that Constantine changed at the Council of Nicaea. Remember Constantine worshiped the sun god among others and  they celebrated winter like spring with a festival called Saturnalia,which was on December 25th. It was also called “the Nativity”, this was considered the birthday of the sun god Mithras. Naturally Constantine made this time also the time to celebrate the birth or nativity of the Son of God. Now everyone in his Empire could have something to celebrate. But it is believed that Yeshua was born on the first day of the Feast of Tabernacles and was circumcised on the eighth day of the feast. Thus the theme of the feast is God dwelling with man, and rejoicing in the Word on the eighth day. To this day the believers in Yeshua, who now call Him Jesus, because we have lost all our Jewish roots, follow two pagan holidays. Yeshua kept the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread( which is all called Passover now) and the Feast of  First Fruits. I don’t recall Him ever saying not to keep these feasts, instead as He said  that He came to fulfill the Word and not abolish it. There came others during this time of the council who taught nothing but hate for the Jews . 

Council of Rome

The Council of Rome was a meeting of Catholic Church officials and theologians which took place in AD 382 under the authority of Pope Damasus 1, the then Bishop of Rome. The Decree of the Council of Rome (AD 382) on the Canon of Scripture during the reign of Pope Damasus I (AD 366–384) reads thus, according to the later ‘Gelasian Decree’:

Now indeed we must treat of the divine Scriptures, what the universal Catholic Church accepts and what she ought to shun. The order of the Old Testament begins here: Genesis one book, Exodus one book, Leviticus one book, Numbers one book, Deuteronomy one book, Josue Nave one book, Judges one book, Ruth one book, Kings four books, Paralipomenon [i.e. Chronicles] two books, Psalms one book, Solomon three books, Proverbs one book, Ecclesiastes one book, Canticle of Canticles one book, likewise Wisdom one book, Ecclesiasticus [i.e. Sirach] one book.

Likewise the order of the Prophets. Isaias one book, Jeremias one book, with Ginoth, that is, with his Lamentations, Ezechiel one book, Daniel one book, Osee one book, Amos one book, Micheas one book, Joel one book, Abdias one book, Jonas (Jonah) one book, Nahum one book, Habacuc one book, Sophonias (wisdom)one book, Aggeus one book, Zacharias one book, Malachias one book. Likewise the order of the histories. Job one book, Tobias one book, Esdras two books [i.e. Ezra & Nehemiah], Esther one book, Judith one book, Maccabees two books.

Likewise the order of the writings of the New and Eternal Testament, which only the holy and Catholic Church supports. Of the Gospels, according to Matthew one book, according to Mark one book, according to Luke one book, according to John one book.

The Epistles of Paul the Apostle in number fourteen. To the Romans one, to the Corinthians two, to the Ephesians one, to the Thessalonians two, to the Galatians one, to the Philippians one, to the Colossians one, to Timothy two, to Titus one, to Philemon one, to the Hebrews one.

Likewise the Apocalypse of John, one book. And the Acts of the Apostles one book. Likewise the canonical epistles in number seven. Of Peter the Apostle two epistles, of James the Apostle one epistle, of John the Apostle one epistle, of another John, the presbyter, two epistles, of Jude the Zealot, the Apostle one epistle.

Now you have to ask yourself, What led them to decide which book were in and which one were out?  I’m more concerned with the ones they decided not to consider. We know that there were actually 4 letters that Paul sent to the Corinthians. But I am glad that they accepted the Torah, the Prophets and the Writings, which makes up the Tanakh. How could they argue with the Scriptures that God entrusted to the Jewish people, but what about the writings of the apostles? We will never know why!

John Chrysostom

John Chrysostom was the Archbishop of Constantinople, which is now Istanbul.  He was called the “Golden Mouth.” He was a very eloquent preacher and public speaker. He was passionately hateful toward the Jews. He preached that even God hated the Jews, and it was a Christian’s duty to hate the Jews. He preached that the synagogue is worse than a brothel, the temple of demons, a den of thieves, the refuge of devils.  It was this kind of preaching that caused 

anti -semitism throughout the decades. It also helped, along with others, who would come to strengthen the Nazi’s in their ideology and justification, to rid the world of the Jews. 

As we will see the post Nicene fathers were more interested in defending the gospel than teaching it’s truths. As they began to fall away from these truths, they began to fall away from the Apostolic Fathers who brought these truths. This led to the “Age of Theologians” where there was commentary on every issue and everyone had an opinion. From all of this came the “Doctors of the Church.”

These were people whose teachings on faith had been deemed sound and they benefited the church through their writings and study and research of the Word along with their theological contributions. These were highly regarded people who later were all canonized as saints. They all had to receive a formal proclamation by a pope or at an ecumenical council.

The Church Doctors

Hilary of Poitiers

Hilary was one of the first Latin doctrinal writers. He was the bishop of Poitiers. At times he was referred to as the “Hammer of the Arians.” The Arianism teaching said Yeshua was not equal to the Father and that He was created, and so He was not without a beginning like the Father. Augustine of Hippo, which we will soon hear about, called him “the illustrious doctor of the churches”, and his works continued to be highly influential in later centuries. 

Ambrose

Ambrose was the Bishop of Milan. He was a theologian, and one of the most influential ecclesiastical figures of the 4th Century.  In the late 4th Century there was a deep conflict in the diocese of Milan between the Nicene Church and Arians. Paganism was a lesser concern than heresy for Christians in the Fourth and Fifth Centuries, which was the case for Ambrose. The great Christian writers of the Third to Fifth Centuries felt their “business was to discredit traditional religious practices as a route toward propagating their new faith and destroying any loyalty to the old gods and goddesses that still survived in the Roman West. 

Jerome of Stridonium

Jerome was a great Bible scholar. His Latin translation of the Scriptures became the official Bible of the church. It was the Vulgate Bible and he became known as the Father of Biblical Science.  All the writers of the Bible believed in the literal meaning of God’s Word, such as that a Jewish Messiah would establish His kingdom on the earth and that He would rule His kingdom for 1,000 years. The Messiah would restore Israel and be the ruler of all nations including the Gentile believers who would be blessed also in this kingdom. But  literal interpretation of the Scriptures were not compatible with the teachings of replacement of Israel by the church, and with Jerome being a big fan of the allegorical teaching of the Word  the church now became the kingdom of God.  So now after the Council of Nicea this became the foundation to all of their teachings going forward. 

Now it was the spiritualizing of the kingdom, so that they could establish their false doctrine that the church was now the true Israel. Contantine along with the church, in partnership, established the spiritual kingdom of God in the hearts of men throughout the world to this day.

Augustine of Hippo

Augustine was the bishop of Hippo, a philosopher and theologian. He is one of the most important figures in the development of Western Chrisitanity along with John Chrysostom. Augustine was into the works of Plato, like so many others. He framed the concept of original sin and he wrote a book called the “ City of God,” where he spoke  of  the church as the spiritual city of God rather than a physical city. His thoughts profoundly influenced the medieval worldview. The segment of the Church that adhered to the concept of the Trinity as defined by the Council of Nicaea and the Council of Constantinople closely identified with Augustine on the Trinity. 

Pope Gregory the Great

Pope Gregory the Great was a Doctor of the Church. He was known as Gregorius Dialogus because of the dialogue he wrote. He was the first of the popes from a monastic background and one of the four great latin Fathers of the church. Gregory I had the most influence on the early medieval church.

First Council of Constantinople

All of this brought about the First Council of Constantinople in 381 CE. with the Emperor Theodosius presiding. In this council they still were discussing Arianism and Apollinarism. Apollinarianism was a Fourth-Century Christian heresy that plagued the early church and that denied the full humanity and perfection of Jesus Christ. It is named after Apollinaris the Younger, who was bishop of the Laodicean church and who originated the teaching 361CE  Apollinarianism taught that Jesus’ two natures, human and divine, could not co-exist in the same person. According to Apollinaris, since Jesus was human, He must have sinned, and a sinful nature could not share the same body with the divine nature. To overcome this “problem” in Jesus, the Logos of God came upon Jesus, replacing His human mind or rational nature with God’s and overwhelming the sinfulness inherent in Jesus’ humanity. The Logos thus became the divine nature of Christ, as opposed to the human nature of Jesus. Once again they did not go to the Scriptures for their answers. Philippians 2:5-7 should make it all clear to us. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.” Yeshua was the Logos, the Word of God. He stripped himself of all that was His deity, to become a man. All that Yeshua did, His miracles, and His dying, were all done as a man, a man who abided with God, and God who abided with Him,  John 15:1-11. 

The council also discussed the divinity of the Holy Spirit, which led to the rewording of the Nicean Creed, which was then called the Niceno- Constantinople Creed, which is still recited today.

The Council of Nicea brought about great division. Because Constantine divided the empire into the East and the West, so too, the thought on doctrine divided itself. There was much infighting, and the fact that there were so many different branches of the church, the Greeks, the Asians, the Latins  and some believed in the Council Creed, others did not, many believed in Arian thinking and others did not, and so many different kinds of thinking, all different  and most all,  were plain heresy from these theologians. A call for unity in the church was the topic of the day, but this did not come about because which theory was correct?  Today we see so many churches, with so many beliefs, and it all goes back to the fact that our forefathers left the truths that Yeshua the Messiah gave us,  and the Apostles carried on, and the Apostolic Fathers after them fought so hard to keep. But unfortunately these people were bishops and doctors of the church, and writers who had an impact on so many people of their day, and even to this present day, mislead believers in untruths. But the Fourth Century was not the only time when we see such division, the Fifth Century had trouble of its own.

Council of Ephesus

In 431 another council was called, this time it was held in Ephesus. This time it was to discuss Nestorianism. Nestorianism is the doctrine that there were two separate persons, one human and one divine, in the incarnate Christ. It is named after Nestorius, patriarch of Constantinople (428–31), and was maintained by some ancient churches of the Middle East. A small Nestorian Church still exists in Iraq.  The conflict was that it was heretical to call Mary Theotokos (Mother of God), God Bearer, as she gave birth to a man, Jesus, in whom God dwells. The council affirmed the unity of Christ by recognizing that the correct title for Mary was indeed “Theotokos”- Mother of God, and  a definition was agreed upon to present Christ as one person with two natures.  Before the incarnation of the Son, there were two and there was only one nature after His birth.

They also discussed Pelagianism, also called Pelagian heresy, a 5th-Century Christian heresy taught by Pelagius and his followers that stressed the essential goodness of human nature and the freedom of the human will.  Celestius, a disciple of Pelagius, denied the church’s doctrine of original sin and the necessity of infant baptism. The council was against this idea.

Well it wasn’t long and the church still could not agree on things so this brought about the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE  presided by Emperor Marcian and was attended by 520 bishops.

Council of Chalcedon

It seems that what they had decided twenty years ago still needed some discussion. The principal purpose of the Council was to reassert the doctrine of the Council of Ephesus against the heresy derivative of Eutyches and Nestorius. Such heresies attempted to dismantle and separate Christ’s divine nature from his humanity (Nestorianism) and further, to limit Christ as solely divine in nature (Monophysitism). This time they came up with the doctrine called “Hypostatic Union.” This was the union of two distinct natures of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ who is true God and true man. They owed their gratitude to the foundation of faith presented by Pope Leo I. But the infighting continued and the divisions only got worse in the Sixth Century. Every question throughout the centuries could have been answered if they would have just read the Scriptures and listened to Yeshua’s own words. “I and the Father are One,” John 10:30.  “If you have seen Me, you have seen the Father,”John 14:9. “ In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made,” John 1: 1-3.  “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth,” John 1:14.

Second Council of Nicaea

In the Second Council of Nicaea in 787 CE they restored veneration of icons and condemned iconoclasm which is the destruction of religious and political images and monuments. Again if they had not disregarded the Scriptures they would have known this in Exodus 20:4-6, the second Commandment, “You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below.  You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me,  but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.” But they said their prayer went beyond the icon, but to the person of the icon. Again they were making the Scriptures to say and mean what they wanted them to say and mean. But the Scripture tells us that we are not to pray to anyone except the Father. Mathew 6, the disciples ask Yeshua to teach them how to pray and He said, “This, then, is how you should pray:“‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done,    on earth as it is in heaven.”

And again,  “And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.  Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.”

Again in John 16:23, “Whatever you ask the Father in My name.” No where in the Scriptures will it tell you to pray to a saint or a loved one, but only to the Father in Yeshua’s name.

We ask that you will continue on our journey through church history as we continue to see how our forefathers changed Scripture.

Councils of Rome and the Papal States

There were eight councils held in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, which would be considered the Eastern Orthordox Church, only 7 of  which were accepted by the Roman Catholic Church. The word Catholic (in Latin catholicus) meaning universal was first used by Ignatius of Antioch in his letter to the Smyrnaeans in 110 CE. because unification was the goal of these first eight councils. Constantine laid the groundwork for the split when he divided the Empire into east and west, which went beyond politics, but also included the state run church. In 1054 the breakup came and to this day we have the east vs the west in its influence in politics and religion. But the Catholic Church still believes that it is the Universal Church, the mother church to all who came after. So let’s look at a few of the councils of the west.

During the medieval years also known as the “Dark Ages” the church went through its own dark time, as we will see.

Priests

Elders were now called priests. An elder was an ordained person who was below an overseer (bishop) but was above a deacon.  Paul writes in Titus 1:5-6 this, “For this reason I left you in Crete, that you would set in order what remains and appoint elders in every city as I directed you, namely, if any man is beyond reproach, the husband of one wife, having children who believe, not accused of indecent behavior or rebellion.”  But as time went on this all changed. The first written mandate requiring elders to be chaste came in AD 304. Canon 33 of the Council of Elvira stated that all bishops, presbyters (priests), and deacons and all other clerics” were to abstain completely from their wives and not to have children. In the First Council of Nicaea, Constantine and the bishops  addressed  the problem of heresies, and argued for a consistent practice of priestly celibacy. This was met with great resistance and contributed to the “ Great Schism.” The practice of priestly celibacy began to spread in the Western Church in the early Middle Ages. In the early 11th Century Pope Benedict VIII responded to the decline in priestly morality by issuing a rule prohibiting the children of priests from inheriting property. Pope Gregory VII attempted to mandate priestly celibacy, but the practice was contested widely by Christians in the Orthodox Eastern Mediterranean world.

The First Council of the Lateran

The First Council of the Lateran was held in the Palace of Lateran in Rome. The church was not as critical about such matters as the earlier Trinitarian and Christological concerns as in the past but the church wanted to rid the secular authorities of interfering with the church, namely the Emperors or Kings. Pope Callixtus II resided over this council. This council was trying to take back its power over the church from the state and one was the discussion of priests marrying. Canon 3 of the council states, “Summary. Priests, deacons, and subdeacons are forbidden to live with women other than such as were permitted by the Nicene Council. Text. We absolutely forbid priests, deacons, and subdeacons to associate with concubines and women, or to live with women other than such as the Nicene Council (Canon 3) for reasons of necessity permitted, namely, the mother, sister, or aunt, or any such person concerning whom no suspicion could arise.” By the Second Council of Lateran in 1139 it was finally compulsory that no clergy could marry, though to this day the Greek Orthadox Priests may marry.  There were a total of four councils at Lateran but at the Fourth Council in 1215 there were several anti-semitic canons which continued the unchristian attitude toward the Jewish people. This council defined the teaching of the Catholic Church on transubstantiation, the doctrine which describes in precise scholastic language the transformation by which the bread and wine offered in the sacrament of the Eucharist becomes the actual blood and body of Christ. We will discuss this in the next episode.

The Papal States

The Papal States also referred to as the Republic of Saint Peter tells us how Constantine had such an influence in church history even more so then the Messiah or even His disciples. When Constantine made the church a state church it was more about power than about Salvation. Beginning in the 8th Century the church went from teaching their doctrine to powerful political leaders. From 756 to 1870 the church was in control of central Italy and even part of France. As early as the 4th Century , the popes had acquired a considerable amount of land around Rome. It was called the Patrimony of St. Peter. In the 5th Century with the separation of the east and west, Pope  Gregory I had even more influence in Central Italy with the Byzantine Empire, and it increased as the people relied on the church for protection against barbarian invaders, like Attila the Hun. Church history is so vast that we cannot discuss all that went on throughout the years, but many popes came and went and many countries got involved and even for a time Rome shared its power with France. There was a period from 1378 to 1417, when there were two  rival popes, each with his own following, his own Sacred College of Cardinals, and his own administrative offices and for a while there were even three popes. I wonder if all three of them were infallible, and took the place of God here on earth?

Avignon Papacy

The Eccumenical Councils kept coming, Council of Lyons I and II, and then the church saw great division. From 1305 to 1378, the popes lived in the Papal Enclave of Avignon, surrounded by Province and under the influence of the French kings. This period was known as the “Avignonese” or “Babylonian Captivity.” During this period the city of Avignon itself was added to the Papal States; it remained a papal possession for some 400 years even after the popes returned to Rome, until it was seized and incorporated into the French state during the French Revolution. Because of the two popes  a council was called in 1409 in Pisa whereby they appointed a third pope who took the name John XXIII. Under pressure from the Emperor Sigismund, John convoked, in 1414, the Council of Constance, which deposed him, received the resignation of the Roman pope, Gregory XII, and dismissed the claims of the Avignon pope, Benedict XIII. That series of events opened the way to the election of Martin V in November 1417, whereby the schism ended. In the 15th Century, popes beginning with Martin V sought to reestablish their control over Central Italy. During his time as pope, Martin V  whose real name was Oddone Colonna, took the opportunity to increase the Colonnas’ power and enriched them with vast estates in papal territory. Martin V was involved in the one hundred year war between France and England. He asserted himself as authority in England, and in the Spanish Kingdom similarly emphasizing the rights of the church against the crown. (1503-13 CE.) Julius II, who was called the warrior pope, expanded the Papal States. Pope Julius actually joined in on many of the war efforts, or should we say, the fight. But by the 16th Century the Papal States were diminished by the Reformation and one thing led to another that even economically the Papal government  was weakened. This leads us to another interesting fact.

 Did the popes play a role in Revelation?

The Roman Empire and the Blessings of the Pope

Daniel 7, and Revelation 13, and 17, all point to an interesting sequence of events that could easily be considered as the Roman Empire. Here is only a part of each segment of Scripture. Let’s see if you agree.  Daniel 7:24-25,  “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will humble three kings.  And he will speak against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.” Revelation 17:9-10 could this  mean seven resurrections of the Roman Empire?  “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits,  and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.” Revelation 13:1,3,  “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.”  “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.” 

The Western Empire fell in 476 CE and  in 553 CE the eastern Roman Emperor Justinian and his armies had succeeded in reconquering Italy and all of the Western Empire. Justinian looked to the church and decreed that the proper people be chosen to govern by the bishops(who later would be called popes) and those influential people in each province. The church and the state reunited once again in the west. This was called the “Imperial Restoration”. Revelation 13 says, “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.”  The deadly wound that Rome’s Empire felt in 476 was now revived and brought back to life by Justinian, but there would be six and even seven times more attempts to bring back the “Eternal City” called Rome, the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Church of Rome which began in 554CE to  even today.

The protection that the east was giving the west now became negotiable and King Charles, king of the Franks and Leo, Bishop of Rome, held negotiations  to resolve this problem.  In  800 CE, on Christmas day, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks knelt before St. Peter’s altar and Pope Leo placed a jeweled crown on his head and anointed him with holy oil. So was the coronation of Charles the Augustus as the pope saluted him, “Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus.” So we see first Justinian and now Charlemagne second. Charlemagne King of the Franks now became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 936 CE, the German Saxons became the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955 Otto, Duke of the Saxons and king of the Germans entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII and crowned him with the imperial crown at Pavia in 962 and so the restoration of the Roman empire continued with King Otto being the third. The Holy Empire was now to a large extent German in its ways and politics , but definitely Rome in its legacy. Rome was out to conquer the world. The church was now a political machine, and there was no stopping it. Otto had imperial symbols like the imperial apple, filled with the earth from the four corners of the world. He called the crown,  the crown of Rome and of the globe and he called himself  the head of the world and ruler of the globe and of Rome and the empire went on for another 300 years till Rudolph I was elected emperor in 1273.This was the first for the Hapsburg family to be placed on the imperial throne and it came with Rudolphs’ descendant Charles V in 1530 when Pope Clement VII crowned him king. He was now the fourth to receive the blessings of the pope, and this was the fourth revival of the Roman Empire. By the 18th Century the title “Holy Roman Emperor” became an empty title. By the end of the 18th Century life was about to change and it was called the French Revolution. An  ambitious man from France rose up whose name was Napoleon  Bonaparte and his goal was to be the head of a French Republic, even king of all of France. He considered himself to be a successor of Caesar and Charlemagne. In 1791 Avignon had removed itself from the papal control and annexed themselves with France. In 1797 Napoleon had taken several papal territories and in 1791 he had taken control of the rest of the papal territories and claimed the Roman Republic. The Hapsburg Family of Austria joined with Napoleon and even helped him to gain the imperial title.  The Holy Roman Empire was seeing itself fall apart. Napoleon gained land from Spain and France, Holland , Belgium and western Germany and even Italy. Is this beginning to look like something familiar? It should and we will see as we go on that it was all too familiar. In 1804 Pope Pius sought peace with France and presided over the imperial coronation of Napoleon, thus making him the fifth crowned by the pope and the fifth revival of the western Imperium since Justinian. This was in fact a period of 1,260 years since the imperial restoration under Justinian in 554, thus fulfilling Revelation 13:3-5 The beast was given  authority for forty-two months which equals 1260 days, but there were still two more attempts to be made in this prophecy regarding ancient Rome. By 1871 Bismark united all of the non- Hapsburgs of Germany under the Prussian king while Garibaldi united all of Italy under the northern king Sardinia-Piedmont. Fifty years after Garibaldi’s inauguration, he too, had visions of restoring the glory of ancient Rome. Well, it happened and it was led by a man named Benito Mussolini. He led his Fascist to power in 1922. Fascists derived their name from the faces of Imperial Rome. The “Faces” was an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods signifying unity and authority. Back in the day it was carried by Roman consuls as a symbol of their office. In 1870 King Victor Emanuel defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome. Needless to say that the pope and it’s new rulers were cold to each other, but in 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the pope which gave the papal sovereignty over the Vatican City which made Mussolini’s government the first Italian government in modern history to be recognized officially by the pope.  This treaty was just a prelude to the one that would be signed four years later, in July 1933, between the pope and the Nazi government of Germany. Mussolini went and conquered Ethiopia and Somaliland in 1896 and in 1936 Mussolini proclaimed from the Palace of Venezia that after 15 centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on its hills of Rome. Mussolini  entered into an alliance with Adolf  Hitler that resulted in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This was the sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving Imperial Rome, but it was short-lived by the defeat of Germany in 1945. After the war Stalin made himself known in Europe but after defeating Nazsism, the world did not want communism either. IN 1957  with the Treaty of Rome a Common Market began with France, West Germany, Italy and three Benelux states. This became what we know today as the European Union. So is it true that the popes played a role in the end times scenario? Six attempts have been made to restore ancient Rome with the help of the popes and there will be one more attempt. Keep your eyes open, and maybe we will see this last attempt to fulfill  the prophecies in the Book of Revelation.

Next we will go back a few years and look at the Reformation.

Martin Luther and the Reformation

The church saw heresy and division and scandals throughout the centuries, the Crusades and Inquisitions, and the Papal States which resulted in land grabs and power. Emperors and kings were ruling and dictating what the church was going to preach and what it’s main doctrine would be  until the Popes gained the power to rule. We also saw that no longer did the Scriptures or even God Himself matter. There was no leading of the Holy Spirit. These were truly the Dark times. But the Times changed and people began to see things differently. We entered into the time called the Early Modern Era, the Renaissance, Reformation and Enlightenment. The invention of the printing press and famous people like Shakespheare, Da Vinci, Bach, and Martin Luther made great accomplishments in science, theater and music and religion.  In the 16th Century the church was going to see another split. This time it was not going to be like the last time, when the Church of Rome was divided between East and West, no, this was going to be a totally different denomination  called Lutheranism.

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German Theologian who would change the history of Christianity. Martin became a lawyer by the wishes of his father. Later after experiencing a severe thunderstorm, felt that he was being called into the monastery and so he left his law practice to become a Monk. While there he went back to school to receive his degree in theology and so wanted to advance his studies to get a Doctorate Degree. But this was interrupted by his assignment to represent the observant German Augustinian monasteries in Rome. He found that Rome lacked spirituality and soon he found himself back in Germany finishing his degree. He began to publish theological writings, such as the 97 Theses entitled Disputation Against Scholastic Theology. He offered courses on the Psalms, Romans and Galatians and the book of Hebrews. One of his students wrote this about him, “He was a man of middle stature, with a voice that combined sharpness in the enunciation of syllables and words, and softness in tone. He spoke neither too quickly nor too slowly, but at an even pace, without hesitation and very clearly.”

By 1517 everything was going to change. Irritated by a Dominican friar named Johann Tetzel, who was reported to have preached to the faithful that the purchase of indulgence could forgive sins, Luther wanted to debate this topic of indulgences. An indulgence is the full or partial remission of temporal punishment for sins after the sinner confesses and receives absolution. … The first known use of plenary indulgences was in 1095 when Pope Urban II remitted all penance of persons who participated in the Crusades and who confessed their sins.

Luther sent a copy of the Ninety-five Theses to Tetzel’s superior, Archbishop Albert of Mainz, along with a request that Albert put a stop to Tetzel’s extravagant preaching. Before long, Albert formally requested that official proceedings be commenced in Rome to determine the work’s orthodoxy.  Luther used such phrases as, “Christians should be taught.” One of his questions was, “Why does not the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the money of poor believers?” Surely this was the beginning of Luther’s departure from the Catholic Church. Luther struggled and even agonized over the Scriptures. He felt that he could not totally live up to its standard. He would read Paul’s Epistle to the Romans over and over again, especially Romans 1:17, “ For in  the gospel the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith: as it is written, ‘He who through faith is righteous shall live’” By 1518 Luther was summoned to Rome to examine his teachings.As Luther was being questioned , Luther only had thoughts of their ignorance, and the otherside, thought he only had fantasies in his head. Neither side got anywhere and Luther left Rome, but Luther was apprehended and brought back. Pope Leo X  made a Papal statement and addressed the issue of the authority of the church to absolve the faithful from temporal punishment. Luther’s views were declared to be in conflict with the teaching of the church. This debate went on till finally, on June 15, 1520, Pope Leo issued another Papal statement, which charged that 41 sentences in Luther’s various writings were “heretical, scandalous, offensive to pious ears,” though it did not specify which sentences had received what verdict. Luther was given 60 days upon receiving the statement to recant and another 60 days to report his recantation to Rome. On December 10, 1520 Luther took the Papal statement and burned it. Luther was excommunicated from the church. In 1522 Martin Luther translated the New Testament into German. He insisted that the Bible alone was the source of Christian truth and that every Christian believer was able to understand the Biblical message.  Luther had repeatedly written, most significantly in 1523, that marriage is an honourable order of creation, and he regarded the Roman Catholic Church’s insistence on clerical celibacy as the work of the Devil. He married an ex-nun and his enemies made sarcastic remarks about his marriage. In 1525 Luther was isolated from various other reformers in a controversy over the meaning of the Eucharist, or the Lord’s Supper. The dispute concerned the proper interpretation of Jesus’ words when He said, “This is My body…This is My blood.” There were those who argued that these words had to be understood symbolically, as “This symbolizes My body…This symbolizes My blood,” But Luther argued firmly for a literal interpretation. Many believed that Jesus was spiritually, but not physically, present in the communion host, whereas Luther taught that Jesus was really and bodily present. The reform movement became a house that was publicly divided. No matter what, Luther made it clear that he would not change his views: he took a piece of chalk and wrote the Latin words, “Hoc est corpus meum” (“This is My body”), on the table, but the deep division within Protestantism remained. 

Here is a great example of what happens when you do not have an understanding of the Word of God due to a lack of understanding of our Jewish roots. 

The Last Supper

All four gospels including 1 Corinthians all speak about the Last Supper. 

Luke 22:15 says this, “And He said to them, “I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.” This is a direct reference to the Seder Meal.

The Seder was a celebration of the Exodus from Egypt, Israel’s redemption. As Exodus 6:6 tells us, “Say, therefore, to the sons of Israel, ‘I am the Lord, and I will bring you out from under the labors of the Egyptians, and I will rescue you from their bondage. I will also redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments.” 

The Seder consists of  four cups of wine and three matzahs and other elements on a plate each representing part of the Exodus story. When Yeshua came to the broken matzah, Luke 22:19-20 records Yeshua saying this, “When He had given thanks, He broke it (the matzah) and said, “This is My body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same way He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood; do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”

This matzah that Yeshua broke was called the Afikomen, which is wrapped in a white napkin and hidden till later in the service when it is brought back, and the cup that Yeshua had in his hand was the cup called Redemption. What Yeshua was telling His disciples was that when you do this part in the Seder, this is not only about the Exodus, but about Me. Remember Me, as the Afikoman, that was buried and then rose again, and  remember that the Cup of Redemption is My blood that was shed for your salvation. When we get to this part of the Seder we are to remember our Redeemer and Savior who shed His blood and who died for us, and who took us out of the kingdom of darkness into His kingdom of  light, Colossians 1:13.That was our Exodus.  Paul tells us  in 1 Corinthians 5:7 that Yeshua is our Passover Lamb and that we are to celebrate the feast.  

Eucharist

Over the Centuries we see that there has been this discussion regarding if the Eucharist is the actual body and blood of the Messiah. Once again it is because our forefathers did not base their facts on Scriptures, but they always wanted to have their theories to make their doctrine.  John 6:48-58 tells us this,“I am the bread of life.  Your fathers ate the manna in the wilderness, and they died.  This is the bread that comes down out of heaven, so that anyone may eat from it and not die.  I am the living bread that came down out of heaven; if anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever; and the bread which I will give for the life of the world also is My flesh.” Then the Jews began to argue with one another, saying, “How can this man give us His flesh to eat?”  So Yeshua said to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves.  The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day.  For My flesh is true food, and My blood is true drink. The one who eats My flesh and drinks My blood remains in Me, and I in him.  Just as the living Father sent Me, and I live because of the Father, the one who eats Me, he also will live because of Me.This is the bread that came down out of heaven, not as the fathers ate and died; the one who eats this bread will live forever.”

Yeshua was not into cannibalism nor was He a vampire. How many times did Yeshua say the bread, the true manna from heaven? John 1:14 tells us that Yeshua is the Word made flesh. Jeremiah writes in 15:16, “ Your words are what sustain me; they are food to my hungry soul. They bring joy to my sorrowing heart and delight me. How proud I am to bear your name, O Lord.”  Psalm 119:103 says, How sweet are Your words to my taste! Yes, sweeter than honey to my mouth!”

We are to eat the Word of God, in other words the Word must become part of us. That is how we abide in God and God abides in us as John 15:7-8 tells us, “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.  By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples.” When Yeshua said those words to the crowd He was also referring to His crucifixion, as we saw in the Seder. Yeshua did not start some new sacrament, or eucharist or communion…the sacraments were all man made. This was all part of their doctrine and their worship ceremony and they were taken out of their Jewish context, just so they could separate from their Jewish roots. This is a good time to say that Luther and the Prodistant five main beliefs which include by “Grace Alone”, are scripturally debateable.  Today everyone quotes Ephesians 2:8-9, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.”  Let us never forget that we are saved by the shed blood of Yeshua. It is something that you rarely hear any more and maybe that is why Yeshua said, “When you do this remember Me.” The devil knows that there is power in the shed blood of Yeshua and he would like you to forget that. Are you eating the body and drinking the blood? If not, you need to start by confessing the truth of God’s Word and applying the blood on the lintels of your heart. Luther’s role in the Reformation after 1525 was that of theologian, adviser, and facilitator but not that of a man of action. Biographies of Luther accordingly have a tendency to end their story with his marriage.  He was drawn into fierce controversies during the last decade of his life, and he became a different person—easily angered, dogmatic, and insecure. His tone became loud and harsh, whether in comments about the Anabaptists, the Pope, or the Jews. In each instance his pronouncements were severe and harmful: the Anabaptists should be hanged as seditionists, the Pope was the Antichrist, the Jews should be expelled and their synagogues burned.  Thus he wrote in a June 1543 letter to a friend: “I desire that there be given me a good little hour when I can move onward to God. I have had enough. I am tired. I have become nothing. Do pray earnestly for me so that the Lord may take my soul in peace.” Martin Luther died on February 18, 1546 Martin Luther is assuredly one of the most influential figures in Western civilization during the last millennium. He was the catalyst for the division of Western Christendom into several churches, but he also left a host of cultural legacies, such as the emphasis on the language spoken by ordinary people of the region. He was not a systematic theological thinker. Much like St. Augustine in late antiquity, Luther was what might be called a controversial theologian.  

Next we are going to look at the key tenets of what the Lutherans believe  and the Reformation 500 years later

Key Tenants of Reformation/Council of Trent/Second Vatican Council

Certain key tenets of Luther’s theology have shaped Protestant Christianity since the 16th century. They include his insistence on the Bible, the Word of God, as the only source of religious authority, a dogma known as sola Scriptura; his emphasis on the centrality of grace, appropriated by faith, as the sole means of human salvation; and his understanding of the church as a community of the faithful—a priesthood of all believers—rather than as a hierarchical structure with a prominent division between clergy and laity. Recent interpreters of Luther have attempted to understand his thought in terms of his struggle against the overpowering reality of the Devil or in terms of his intense fear of a death that would permanently separate him from God. Although there is evidence to support both views, neither quite captures Luther’s spiritual essence. What seems to characterize him more than anything else is an almost childlike trust in God’s overarching forgiveness and acceptance. Luther talked much about his temptations, by which he meant his doubts about whether this divine forgiveness was real. But he overcame these doubts, and his life thereafter was one of joyous and spontaneous trust in God’s love and goodness toward him and all sinners. Luther called this “Christian freedom.”

The center of scholarly attention in Luther studies in the late 20th Century was Luther’s understanding of the proper role of the Christian in society and politics. According to many scholars, Luther’s disavowal of the German peasants in 1525 and his notion that, as he once put it, “The Gospel has nothing to do with politics” facilitated a tendency toward political passivity among Protestant Christians in Germany. Luther’s notions developed in opposition to the belief developed by the medieval Catholic Church that all of society wore a Christian mantle. The notion of a “Christian” politics or a “Christian” economics was very much disliked by Luther. However, this did not mean that the public realm had no principles that needed to be honoured. What Luther rejected was the notion that there was a uniquely “Christian” approach to these realms; uniquely Christian, Luther insisted, was only that which pertained to Jesus’ salvational work of redemption.

  In Martin Luther’s older years, he realized that he would not be able to convert Jews to his version of Christianity, so he unleashed a tirade of anti-Semitic writings. He argued that Jewish synagogues, schools and homes should be set on fire, that Jews should have their assets confiscated and that they should be used as forced labor and expelled.

The Five Solae of the Protestants Reformation.

The Five Solas are  by faith alone,  by the Scripture alone,  by grace alone,

 by Christ alone,  by God glory alone. So let’s look at a few of these to see if they are correct in their statement. 

Faith Alone: 

Hebrews 11:1 says this,  “Now faith means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for, it means being certain of things we cannot see.” So who is right and who is wrong?

Romans 3:28 tells us this, “Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith, without the works of the Law.”  James 2:24, “You see that a person is justified by works and not by faith alone.”

We saw earlier in part 2 that Paul and James did not contradict each other. In fact when Luther translated the New Testament into the German language he added the words “alone” to Paul’s statement. So what does it mean to have faith in the work of the cross?  Is this not what your faith needs to be in? Is not faith in itself work?  Let’s use a synonym for faith, like trust: Now trust means putting our full confidence in the things we hope for… or confidence means putting our full faith in the things we hope for. Maybe we are saved by trusting in the work of the Lord, or having our confidence in the work of the Lord, either way there is something on our part that we must do either, trusting or having confidence or having faith  is still work on our part and this is what James was talking about, but Paul was speaking of the works of the law as far as a believer having to become a Jew to be saved. He still upheld the law in Romans 3:31, “Do we then nullify the Law through faith? Far from it! On the contrary, we establish the Law.”

Romans 6:15-16 tells us this, “ What then? Are we to sin because we are not under the Law but under grace? Far from it!  Do you not know that the one to whom you present yourselves as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of that same one whom you obey, either of sin resulting in death, or of obedience resulting in righteousness?”

We know that sin separates us from God

Galatians 5:19-21, “Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God.” 

Luke 13:3 tells us what Yeshua said, “Unless you repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways and live changed lives], you will all likewise perish.” 

We can see that we must still have to walk in the ways of the Messiah if we truly have faith in His work on the cross.

 Scripture Alone: 

Luther believed that only the Word of God was to be used as our basis for belief. On the surface this is correct, but As we saw in part 6, how do we know which books were left out? And what truths were never revealed to us.

Also you have to ask yourself with so many translations, which one is correct?  According to Wikipedia, as of September 2020 the full Bible has been translated into 704 languages, the New Testament has been translated into an additional 1,551 languages and Bible portions or stories into 1,160 other languages. Thus at least some portions of the Bible have been translated into 3,415 languages. There are translations and revisions, and some translated word for word, others translated thought for thought, some according to their philosophy, and so on.  According to livescience.com “There are more than 45,000 denominations globally. Followers of Jesus span the globe. But the global body of more than 2 billion Christians is separated into thousands of denominations. Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist, Apostolic, Methodist — the list goes on.”  If all of these translations and opinions can create so many denominations then what is truth?

We just saw that Martin Luther added the word alone to Romans 3:28 and of course, you always find added commentary in different lines of Scripture which are  all based on the translator’s own views of  that line of  Scripture like John 4:25 “The woman said, “I know that Messiah” (called Christ) is coming. When He comes, He will explain everything to us.” Yeshua was not called Christ in His day. This only happened when we stripped Him of His Jewishness and changed His real name  to Iesvs in Latin, and Iesous in Greek, and then when the letter “J”,  in 1524, was added to the alphabet His name was then changed to Jesus, when all the time we could have said His real name Yeshua, the Name His Father gave Him, meaning God’s salvation for a reason. But I ask you this question, Acts 4:12 tells us this, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among mankind by which we must be saved.” So which name is the correct name under heaven that we should use to be saved? Only Yeshua, which means “God’s Salvation,” The name His Father gave us.

This verse in the AKJV Matthew 1: 21, has been changed as every other modern version, “And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins.” Yeshua was Jewish not Greek or Latin or any other nationality, so why have we changed the most important name in the Scriptures? We also know that so much has changed over the years as each council got together to voice their own opinions and made their own doctrine to fit that opinion and those who taught heresies and people like Constantine who changed dates and days and names and the Scriptures had to be changed to fit the narrative,  like this line of Scripture:

 John 1:17, “For the Law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Messiah Yeshua.” So let’s look at this to see if it may have been changed or added.  John 1:14 tells us this, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us; and we saw His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” But in this content there was no need for this to be put in, so was it added like many other things to form their doctrine to make people think that the law is obsolete? The Torah is Truth, because Yeshua is the Word (Torah) made flesh.  Yeshua came not to nullify the Law but to make it complete. The Law of God is His holiness, it is what sets His people apart from the world. It is His teachings and it is His Commandments. He chose the Jewish people, not on their merit, as we have not been chosen on ours. This is grace. He delivered the Jewish people out of slavery (Eygpt), not on their merit, just as He has delivered us from our slavery of sin, not on our merit.  This is grace, but once again it was to take away the value of the Jewish people and to nullify the Hebrew Scriptures. 

But Scripture alone also meant that people should not consider traditions or other books. We learned that the Didache was written by those who had been taught by the apostles, but still, people today use commentaries like they are the Word of God, even though many of these people are only giving their own opinion.  Today people are writing books as though they are authorities on the subject. Pastors today even get their sermons online because they do not know the Word of God. Even Psychology has entered into the teaching of the Scriptures. Romans 3:2 tells us, “ They (the Jews) were entrusted with the actual words of God.” The Jewish people have had the Torah going back to Moses, which he received by God Himself.  Yeshua quoted Scripture after Scripture from the Torah. If it was not true or not for our use, I don’t think He would have quoted it, but it is for our use because it is our foundation. The Jews have their books like the Mishnah, which  is a book that is on the study of Scripture and was published at the end of the Second Century CE. The Mishnah is an edited record of the complex body of material known as Oral Torah that was transmitted in the aftermath of the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE.  

Yes, the Rabbi’s have been debating Scriptures for centuries, but that is what it is, a debate, and when you read their debates in their commentaries it says, Rabbi so and so said this, and Rabbi so and so said that, and you can see for yourself which school of thought you think is right. Even in Yeshua’s day they debated. Yeshua would often debate with the teachers of His day, because He said to them, in Matthew 5;17, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the Law or the Prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them.” (In the Hebrew what Yeshua was saying is that He had come to teach the law correctly.)  Yeshua was a Pharisee and not a Sadducees, and in today’s world that would equate to a Orthodox Jew.

Because Yeshua would correct them on the oral law, people today think that He was fighting with them because they were hypocrites or heretics,  and as we would say today, Yeshua was canceling them out. But this is not true, Matthew 5:21-48 is a good example of this. Everytime Yeshua would say, “It is said”, He was referring to the oral law, which was open for debate, because the oral law had to do with how one walked out the commandments of God. This was not a debate on the written law. Some of the Jewish references were written by people before Yeshua was even born, and even their prayers go back to King David, and their worship goes back to Moses, and when Chrisitans try to teach the Hebrew Scriptures based on modern day commentaries it makes no sense, because we do not understand the idioms of their language that were used. We need to go to those books that have been used throughout the ages by the Jewish people, for if God entrusted them, then we should also trust them. We no longer question what we are taught, because we do not know the Scripture ourselves, but Act 17:11 tells us, “Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.” If they questioned Paul then we should be questioning our Pastors and Teachers as we examine the Scriptures. 

The Council of Trent

The Council of Trent was held in 1545-1563 as a counter -reformation. It’s main purpose was to respond to the issues at hand and enacted the formal Roman Catholic reply to the doctrinal challenges of the Protestants. The Council met for twenty-five sessions under three different popes. It issued condemnations of what it defined to be heresies committed by proponents of Protestantism. They made sweeping decrees on self-reform and for its dogmatic definitions that clarified virtually every doctrine contested by the Protestants like

teachings, including Scripture, the Biblical canon,  the Old and New Testament books were definitely fixed, and the Latin Vulgate revised, and was declared adequate for doctrinal proofs, a stance against Protestant insistence upon the original Hebrew and Greek texts of Scripture. Decrees on  sacred tradition, and the nature and consequences of original sin were defined.  After months of intense debate, the council ruled against Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith alone: a person, the council said, was inwardly justified by cooperating with divine grace that God bestows gratuitously. Indeed, both of the doctrines of the Protestant reformers—justification by faith alone, the authority of Scripture alone—were put down, and the doctrine of justification by both faith and works on the basis of the authority of both Scripture and tradition were uplifted.

 On the sacraments  penance was extensively defined, extreme unction (later, the anointing of the sick) explained, and the number of sacraments was fixed at seven. On the Mass, it defined the Mass as a true sacrifice; in place of the liturgical chaos that had prevailed, the council laid down specific prescriptions about the form of the Mass and liturgical music along with issued doctrinal statements on holy orders, matrimony, purgatory, indulgences, and the veneration of saints, images, and relics and the veneration of saints and  salvation.

The 2nd Vatican Council 

In 1962 the Vatican held it’s 21st Ecumenical Council. The purpose was to address the role of the church in the modern day world. They thought that it was time for a spiritual renewal.  So  they changed the liturgy of the Mass from Latin to whichever language was of the people. They also thought that it was time for those Christians who had separated themselves from the Roman Catholic Church to return. By describing the church as the people of God, a pilgrim people, the council fathers provided the theological justification for changing the defensive and inflexible stance that had characterized much of Catholic thought and practice since the Protestant Reformation. They gave more church responsibilities to lay people. The “Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy” establishes the principle of greater participation by the laity in the celebration of Mass and authorizes significant changes in the texts, forms, and language used in the celebration of Mass and the administration of the sacraments. The church began uniting believers and they started at the beginning by uniting the East and the West, the Eastern Orthodox and Rome by putting back together what Constantine separated. They also looked to bring back those who separated from the universal church because of  Martin Luther. The baby step that they started with was that it was all right if a person came into either’s church, like for a wedding or a funeral.

500th Anniversary of the Reformation

2017 marked the 500th anniversary of the prodistant reformation. But since the council called Vatican II the Catholic church has been once again uniting all faiths together under the guise of peace. There was a statement of faith which over 1500 people signed who were theologians and college professors and prominent people in the church from all over the globe. In this series we have seen a few statements from the Eccumenical Councils of the past, so here are a few statements of faith from the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. 

THE REFORMING CATHOLIC CONFESSION WHAT WE, PROTESTANTS OF DIVERSE CHURCHES AND THEOLOGICAL TRADITIONS, SAY TOGETHER

A “Mere Protestant” Statement of Faith to mark the 500th anniversary of the Reformation

“That the world is divided – by race, class, age, gender, nation, politics, and religion – is as obvious as it is tragic. That Protestants are divided is equally obvious and, given our Lord’s prayer for unity (“that they may be one” – John 17:11), even more grievous. While we regret the divisions that have followed in its wake, we acknowledge the need for the sixteenth-century Reformation, even as we recognize the hopeful possibilities of the present twenty-first century moment. Not every denominational or doctrinal difference is a division, certainly not an insurmountable one. We dare hope that the unity to which the Reformers aspired may be increasingly realized as today’s “mere” Protestants, like Richard Baxter’s and C. S. Lewis’s “mere Christians,” joyfully join together to bear united witness to the gospel of Jesus Christ and to its length, depth, breadth, and width – in a word, its catholicity. We therefore aim to celebrate the catholic impulse that lies at the heart of the earlier Reformation even as we hope and pray for ever greater displays of our substantial unity in years to come.” (You can read it in its entirety at https://reformingcatholicconfession.com/)

HOLY SCRIPTURE

That God has spoken and continues to speak in and through Scripture, the only infallible and sufficiently clear rule and authority for Christian faith, thought, and life (sola scriptura). Scripture is God’s inspired and illuminating Word in the words of his servants (Psa. 119:105), the prophets and apostles, a gracious self-communication of God’s own light and life, a means of grace for growing in knowledge and holiness. The Bible is to be believed in all that it teaches, obeyed in all that it commands, trusted in all that it promises, and revered in all that it reveals (2 Tim 3:16). 

Our refute: And yet we ignore the Hebrew Scriptures and God’s Appointed Times in Leviticus 23  and we nullify that which we chose to nullify like the 7th day Sabbath which was made holy and set apart at creation. All which was changed throughout history and not by Yeshua and His disciples. 2 Timothy 3:16 which they quote tells us, “All Scripture is inspired by God and beneficial for teaching, for rebuke, for correction, for training in righteousness;  so that the man or woman of God may be fully capable, equipped for every good work. Just to remind you, when Paul wrote these words, the only Scriptures were the Hebrew Scriptures.

JESUS CHRIST

That Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God became human for us and our salvation (John 3:17), the only Mediator (solus Christus) between God and humanity (1 Tim. 2:5), born of the virgin Mary, the Son of David and servant of the house of Israel (Rom. 1:3; 15:8), one person with two natures, truly God and truly man. He lived a fully human life, having entered into the disorder and brokenness of fallen existence, yet without sin, and in his words, deeds, attitude, and suffering embodied the free and loving communication of God’s own light (truth) and life (salvation).

Our Refute: As we saw earlier in this series that Yeshua emptied himself as Philippians 2:5-7 tells us, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Messiah Yeshua,  who, as He already existed in the form of God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,  but emptied Himself by taking the form of a bond-servant and being born in the likeness of men.”  Yeshua is God, He said “I and my Father are one,” (John 1:1) yet to be the perfect sacrifice He had to do it as a man, not God. We diminish the sacrifice on His part when we say that He was able to do this because He was God.

Hebrews 2:18, “For since He Himself was tempted in that which He has suffered, He is able to come to the aid of those who are tempted.”

Hebrews 4:15, “For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are—yet he did not sin.”

Hebrews 2:7-9 also says this, “We have not yet seen all of this take place,  but we do see Yeshua—who for a while was a little lower than the angels—crowned now by God with glory and honor because He suffered death for us.”

THE PERSON AND WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT

That the Holy Spirit is the third person of the Trinity, the unseen yet active personal presence of God in the world, who unites believers to Christ, regenerating and making them new creatures (Tit. 3:5) with hearts oriented to the light and life of the kingdom of God and to peace and justice on earth. The Spirit indwells those whom he makes alive with Christ, through faith incorporates them into the body of Christ, and conforms them to the image of Christ so that they may glorify him as they grow in knowledge, wisdom, and love into mature sainthood, the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ (Eph. 4:13). The Spirit is the light of truth and fire of love who continues to sanctify the people of God, prompting them to repentance and faith, diversifying their gifts, directing their witness, and empowering their discipleship.

Our Refute:  The subject of the Trinity has gone back for centuries now.  God is not a man that He should be called a person. Numbers 23:19 tells us this, “God is not a man, that He would lie, Nor a son of man, that He would change His mind; Has He said, and will He not do it? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

So He is not three persons in one. God is a Spirit, as Yeshua told the Samaritan woman in John 4:22-24,  “You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, because salvation is from the Jews.  But a time is coming, and even now has arrived, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be His worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”

And the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Messiah Yeshua, and Yeshua is the Word, the Logos of God. Remember the Armor of God, in Ephesians 6:17? “The Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God”

2 Corinthians 3:17a, “Now the Lord is the Spirit,” 

Galatians 4:6, “And because you are sons, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” 1 Peter 1:11,  “Inquiring what person or time the Spirit of Christ in them was indicating when he predicted the sufferings of Messiah and the subsequent glories.”

 Genesis 1:2,26a, “ And the earth was a formless and desolate emptiness, and darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.  Then God said, “Let Us make mankind in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

Yeshua said I and the Father are one (John 10:30). The Spirit of God, the Spirit of Messiah,  Messiah and the Father they are all one God.  Yeshua never said, I am one of three.

THE CHURCH

That the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church is God’s new society, the first fruit of the new creation, the whole company of the redeemed through the ages, of which Christ is Lord and head. The truth that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, is the church’s firm foundation (Matt. 16:16-18; 1 Cor. 3:11). The local church is both embassy and parable of the kingdom of heaven, an earthly place where His will is done and He is now present, existing visibly everywhere two or three gather in his name to proclaim and spread the gospel in word and works of love, and by obeying the Lord’s command to baptize disciples (Matt. 28:19) and celebrate the Lord’s Supper (Luke 22:19).

Our Refute: The Catholic Church is far from the Apostolic Church. First of all, John 14: 6, says this, Yeshua said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.” Because Yeshua said that He was the way…His followers called themselves the ‘Way,’ as Acts 19:23 tells us “About that time a major disturbance occurred in regard to the Way.” In Acts 11:25-26 was  the first time the term Chrisitans was used . “ Then Barnabas left for Tarsus to look for Saul,  and when he had found him, he brought him to Antioch. For a whole year they met together with Messiah’s community and taught a large number. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called “Christianoi.” Which is the combination of  Christos, which means the “anointed one” with the word follower. This term was only used a few times, here in Acts 11:26 and 26:28 and like  1 Peter 4:16 in the New Living Translation “But it is no shame to suffer for being a Christian.” The word (Chrisitan) is applied where it was assumed, but it is not in the original manuscripts. It is believed by some that the word Chrisitan was coined by the Bishop Ignatius of Antioch. Second, the Apostolic church was in Jerusalem, not Rome, and when the Apostle traveled to spread the Salvation message they knew that Jerusalem was the main, should we say, Headquarters. When Yeshua and His disciples gathered there was no church. Those who came after them met in the synagogue for worship, and  in homes or at Solomon’s Portico for teachings and fellowship. The church is not the kingdom of heaven, for everywhere the Spirit of the Lord is there is the kingdom. Luke 17:20-21, “Now He was questioned by the Pharisees as to when the kingdom of God was coming, and He answered them and said, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed;  nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or, ‘There it is!’ For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”

Before there was such a thing as a church of believers, Yeshua said this in Matthew 4:17,  “From that time Yeshua began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Not only Yeshua, but John the Baptist, and the disciple, all preached the same thing. In fact when you gather in prayer in your home that also becomes part of the kingdom. 

BAPTISM AND LORD’S SUPPER

That these two ordinances, baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which some among us call “The Sacraments,” and that they are found in God’s  Word, and by the Spirit, they are proclaiming the promise of the gospel, to those who enter into them . Baptism and the Lord’s Supper communicate life in Christ to the faithful, confirming them in their assurance that Christ, the gift of God for the people of God, is indeed “for us and our salvation” and nurturing them in their faith. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are physical focal points for key Reformation insights: the gifts of God (sola gratia) and the faith that grasps their promise (sola fide). They are tangible expressions of the gospel insofar as they vividly depict our dying, rising, and incorporation into Jesus’ body (“one bread … one body” –       1Cor. 10:16-17), truly presenting Christ and the reconciliation He achieved on the cross. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper strengthen the faithful by visibly recalling, proclaiming, and sealing the gracious promise of forgiveness of sins and communion with God and one another through the peace-making blood of Christ (1 Cor. 11:26; Col. 1:20).

Our Refute:  Matthew 28:19-20 says, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,  teaching them to follow all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” So would Yeshua tell His disciples to baptize? The word baptize comes from the Greek and it means to immerse. The origin is from Judaism. The ritual of immersion was basically a purification ritual going back to the Tent of Meeting and then to the Temple itself.  God told the people to build a laver. It was for the priests to cleanse themselves before entering into the work of the Tabernacle. Later, as “God-fearers” or “righteous” Gentiles expressed their desire to convert to Judaism, priests broadened the rite’s meaning, and along with circumcision, performed an immersion into a mikvah “baptism” as a sign of the covenant given to Abraham. This is what Paul called the Works of the Law. The Mikvah was a pool of water that was free flowing, like a river would be. But when Yeshua was so called baptized, He was immersed by John, who was immersing people as a “sign of repentance.” Water is regarded in the  Hebrew Scriptures as signifying cleansing, ritual purity, and a renewal of life from defilement. Water is also associated with the Holy Spirit, and thus that is why a dove appeared above Yeshua’s head. But immersion was never for salvation or even the forgiveness of sin, but just as a sign. Many Jewish people will enter a mikvah before their wedding, or before they began a new ministry. So Yeshua would never say, Go and baptize in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, because He would have considered it entering into the mikvah, and He knew that He and the Father are one, and so He would never have said to immerse in the Father, Son and Holy  Spirit, because God is One, Plus all of it is very unJewish in thinking. But for those who were pushing the doctrine of the Trinity, they would have added this on along with the concept of their Sacrament of Baptism. Yeshua would have told His disciple to go and make disciples of all the nations,  not converts, teaching them to follow all that He commanded; and that He was with them  to the end of the age.” 

As far as the Lord’s Supper we already refuted this thinking in Part 10

Where are we today? Closing Statements

As we saw in part 12 at the 500th Anniversary of the Reformation in 2017, that 1500+ people had signed an agreement with the Pope, which started back at  the Ecumenical Council in 1962 that the Lutheran Church, for the sake of unity, would now recognize the Pope’s purpose as it was given to the Apostle Peter to keep the Church united. But let us look at other things that have been going on to unite believers under one universal church.

According to Wikipedia, The Document on Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together, also known as the Abu Dhabi Declaration or Abu Dhabi agreement, is a joint statement signed by Pope Francis of the Catholic Church and Sheikh Ahmed el-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, on 4 February 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

According to Vatican News, An Appeal for Peace was signed in Rome by Pope Francis and by leaders of world religions gathered at the International Prayer Meeting for Peace, “No one is saved alone – Peace and Fraternity.”

According to CNA,  in October 2020 Pope Francis was joined by representatives of the world’s major religions in his appeal for peace in the Campidoglio Square, designed by Michelangelo. The Christian, Muslim, Jewish, Sikh, and Buddhist representatives each gave speeches, lit a candle in a candelabrum, and signed a scroll containing an “Appeal for Peace.” Candles were lit in the basilica as the Christians prayed together for peace in Afghanistan, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Central African Republic, Somalia, Syria, Ukraine, Yemen, and the Holy Land. 

On the surface you may say,  “I see nothing wrong with any of this.” But that is what it is supposed to look like, but that is not the goal.

We would like to end this series by saying this. After Yeshua’s victory on the cross, these last 2,000 years, we have seen an attempt by Satan to push forward his agenda, that goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden. Satan’s only goal is to have his own kingdom, and have people bow down to him and call him a god.  The Book of Revelation speaks about two beasts who will come, one will be a world religious system. One will be a global government. As we hope that you have seen from this series that all throughout history the Chrisitan faith has been changed. It no longer is the faith of Yeshua and His disciples. It no longer is the faith of our forefathers. It no longer is the faith of even Martin Luther, and the Reformation, and tomorrow it will not even look like it does today . Today all religions are being brought together under the guise of peace, and everyone, once again has changed their doctrine, no matter if you are Baptist or Lutheran or even Catholic, no matter if you are Hindu or Buddhist, or Morman.  We have seen over the centuries religion and politics mixing as if Yeshua was an activist who got  involved in the Roman government in His day.

No! He went about saving souls, and we should stick to spreading the Gospel also, but as we saw in this series, it wasn’t about the gospel really, but about wealth and power, as we saw with the Crusades and the Papal States, and even in the Book of Revelation.

 In 2022, the One World Religion Headquarters is set to open. It will be called the Abrahamic Family House. It is being built on an island in the city of Abu Dhabi. There will be three buildings, one representing the Mosque, another the Church and the last, the Synagogue, all for the sake of peace and unity. This is what so many of the 21 Ecumenical Councils were all about, to have only one church, with only one doctrine, except their doctrine is  not in line with Yeshua’s or His Apostles. We must come back to the truth of God’s Word. With so many changes throughout time it is almost unrecognizable. But after all these centuries, finally it has been accomplished, almost all religions and denominations, and all political leaders, all stand in line with the Pope, (The Bishop of Rome). This will be the final return of the Holy Roman Empire, with its leader receiving the blessings of the Pope. This may be hard for some to accept, but church history is not hidden, it is there for all to see, and if we take the time to study the Scriptures as a whole, we will see that it all lines up to tell the truth.

For more information on this subject we hope  that you go on to our website and read our two brochures on Mystery Babylon, Social Justice, and listen to our podcast “Clarion Call” on  Fleeing Babylon and  Do we need another Great Awakening?

So we know that history repeats itself, the question is, is that true for prophecy?

Daniel speaks of the Abomination of Desolation three times, Daniel 9:27, 12:11 and Daniel 11:29-32. 

We want to look at what Yeshua said in Matthew 24:15-22, 24-26  “Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—  then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house.  And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.  But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.  For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.  And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him.  For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.  Behold, I have told you in advance.  So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”

Yeshua says, “Let the reader understand.” We see that in the year 70 CE the Temple came under siege, this was the Abomination that the people of His day should have understood from not only the Book of Daniel, but the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in the days of the Maccabees. Though the Emperor Titus did not place an idol in the Temple, he did enter into the Temple court which was off limits to Gentiles. This is why Yeshua said, “Let the reader understand.” There were many people who did understand what He meant, and they fled as they were told to, but as Yeshua warned that many false prophets would arise. And they did!

False Prophets told the people if they put their faith in God by going to the holy place, at this critical hour, they would surely see the Messiah come from the Mount of Olives and drive out their enemies. And a great number of people—men, women, and children, did just that. They did not heed Yeshua’s words, and they made their way up to the Temple Mount which, at that time, was still a war zone. Some of them made their way to the Temple, others took refuge from the battlefield on the roof of the Royal Stoa (the southern portico) and on the roof of the eastern colonnade (Solomon’s Portico). They looked toward the east, waiting for the deliverer to appear. Josephus says that about six thousand men, women, and children crowded onto those rooftops. The fighting continued and no Messiah came. They set the Temple on fire and many people were slain. 

A fierce fight continued in the Court of the Priests. Josephus says that the Roman soldiers behaved like men possessed, cutting down everything and everyone in a mad fury and ignoring the orders of their superiors. The bodies piled up quickly:

“The rebels were slain and defeated everywhere they turned. A great number of them were weak and unarmed. They had their throats cut wherever they were caught. All around the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another. The ramp going up the altar ran with their blood. The dead bodies that were slain above slid down the ramp.” (Josephus)

The Talmud tells us that the Emperor Titus entered the sanctuary, committed indecencies in the Holy of Holies, defiled the Torah scroll, and finally thrust his sword into the curtain that hung before the Holy of Holies: 

“He then took a sword and slashed the curtain. Miraculously, blood spurted out. He thought he had slain [God], as it says [in Psalm 74:4], “Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place; they have set up their own standards for signs.” (b.Gittin 56b)

10,000 people died because they did not listen to the Messiah. Today there are many false prophets and they are teaching a dangerous message. 

The teachings of pre-tribulation started with a man named John Nelson Darby. He is the father of modern Dispensationalism and Futurism. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830s                                       by a group called  the Plymouth Brethren, which Darby was a part of. Later it became popular in the United States in the early 20th Century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.

The reason why this is so dangerous is because like in the days of the Messiah, the Lord told the people what they needed to do when trouble struck. They were prepared. Today, here in America, the church is not prepared for what is coming. People are listening to false prophets of peace. They tell the people this will not happen to you, and yet all around the world believers are suffering persecution and martyrdom and they are going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. They hang their proverbial hat on 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 which says, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Messiah Yeshua who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” Paul was speaking about salvation, not persecution. Of course God wants to see all of us come to salvation, and that is how we will be spared by God’s wrath. In fact, here are several verses speaking about trials from those who knew all about them.

Hebrews 10:32-35, “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.  Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.  You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.  So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

James 1:12, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

1 Peter 1:6-7, “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Messiah Yeshua is revealed.”

1 Peter 1:12, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

1 Peter 5:10, “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

Revelation 7:13-14,  “Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?”  I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Revelation 2:17, “The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Revelation 3:5-6, “The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels.  The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 3:21-22, “The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne.  The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Revelation 12:17,  “So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua.”

We are to be overcomers, overcomers of what? Today in America, there are more people than ever who no longer call themselves  Chrisitians.  The worldview in America is no longer the Biblical worldview.  We no longer look at things through God’s eyes, but now only through man’s eyes. We no longer even feel that we need to keep God’s Commandments. I heard one man say,  “He does not even believe that Yeshua said this in John 14:15”, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

We want to continue looking at this topic of prophecy repeating itself, and we hope that you will consider its warnings.

In Part One we looked at the prophecy of Daniel 11 and Yeshua’s prophecy in Matthew 24 and we saw that not only history repeats itself,  but prophecy als can repeat itself. In Part Two we want to look at  Daniel 7:1-8.

“I had a vision at night; I saw there before me the four winds of the sky breaking out over the great sea, and four huge animals came up out of the sea, each different from the others.  The first was like a lion, but it had eagle’s wings. As I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted off the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a human heart was given to it.  Then there was another animal, a second one, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up, and gorge yourself with flesh!’  After this, I looked; and there was another one, like a leopard with four bird’s wings on its sides. The animal also had four heads, and it was given power to rule.  After this, I looked in the night visions; and there before me was a fourth animal, dreadful, horrible, extremely strong, and with great iron teeth. It devoured, crushed and stamped its feet on what was left. It was different from all the animals that had gone before it, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

This prophecy has always been taught to be Babylon, Media/Persia and Greece, but the question is, is this prophecy repeating itself today? We know that Babylon is the country of Iraq and the Medes and Perisans take up the area of Iran. We know that  King Cyrus II conquered Babylon from Isaiah and Jeremiah. We know that King Artaxerxes II, or Ahasuerus, who was Persian married Esther. Of course, we also know from history about Alexander the Great who conquered it all. But what about today? Well, we must take a closer look into the empires of the past to see the meanings today. From Iraq to Israel into Egypt, it  was all part of the Assyrian Empire. Who were the Assyrians and what is so significant about them today?  The Assyrian Empire was part of all three empires listed in 

Daniel 7. The Assyrians were noted for their military power and for their extreme acts of cruelty. They moved conquered people around to different areas for forced labor and they practiced genocide. The Assyrian army was the strongest in the ancient world. The Assyrian government was mainly an instrument of war. One group we know that was part of this empire were the Hittites, which were in the days of Joshua. The Assyrians maintained control of vital trade routes which kept the Near East in economic unity. The origin of the Assyrians began with Asur. Asur is named for Ashur, the son of Shem, one of Noah’s three sons, Genesis 10:1,22. Asshur was a brother to Arphaxad, an ancestor of Abraham, Genesis 11:10-26. Assur was worshiped as the chief god of Assyria-the god of war- and portrayed as a solar deity with a winged disc. The Hittites also used the winged dic and the swastika. The swastika is a symbol for the sun, power, energy, Thor’s hammer and the god of weather and storms. The swastika was found in front of an ancient temple of Assur. The Hittites and the Assyrians also used a double headed eagle to symbolize the sun gods-storm, thunder and sun. These symbols reappear in the culture of Germany, Prussia and Austria, especially the Third Reich. The Hittites whom Assyria eventually conquered and absorbed show linguistic and cultural links with the German tribes of Hessians and Prussians. Josef Bihl, a historian, notes that Germany’s oldest city, Trier, was founded in 2000 BCE by Trebeta, the son of an Assyrian king named Ninus. Some historians say that the Assyrians were the “Prussians of the Ancient World.” When the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians conquered Assyria in 612 BCE, its ruling class scattered to the north, east and west and some of these people are found today in Iraq, Syria and Caucasus.  Nineveh was the capital of the powerful Ancient Assyrian Empire.

We see God referring to Nineveh, as a  lion, Nahum 2:11-13 says, “Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub went with nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough prey for his lionesses, and filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.  “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of armies. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, and a sword will devour your young lions; I will eliminate your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.” 

1 Peter 5:8 says this, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

The empire of Assyria may no longer exist, but it can still be traced, and one of  its modern nations is Germany.  We have seen the Assyrian mind set in the nation of Germany in the 20th Century. So then why does the Bible speak of Assyria in the end times? Because it is speaking of Germany. Germany is the Lion. Germany is Gomer.  Genesis 10:2-3 tells us, “The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.”  They not only have the swastika, but the Assyrians had the four winged eagle, Nisroch. It says that the eagle’s wings were plucked off, and it  was lifted off  the earth, and was made to stand on two feet like a man and a human heart was given to him. This could only refer to World War I, German emperor and king of Prussia, Freidrich  Wilhelm II  who was forced to abdicate in 1918, ending the 300 year reign of Prussia, the Assyrian four winged eagle, Nisroch was plucked, which led to a democratic state, which brought in Adolf Hitler. He was the lion who went about seeking whom he could devour. Today Germany is one of, if not, the leading economic power in Europe. After all these years, now they have woken up, and they are increasing their funding pledge to NATO to increase their military. One thing we do know, and that is Hitler was given Rome’s blessing to conquer, and hopefully restore the Roman Empire, but this did not happen. (See our series on the sins of our forefathers and see the blessings of the Pope at the end of this transcript). There is still one to come that will accomplish this task, and the last resurrection of the Roman Empire will fulfill Daniel 2:31-45. We will look at 40-43 “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; just as iron smashes and crushes everything, so, like iron that crushes, it will smash and crush all these things.  And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have within it some of the toughness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with common clay.  And just as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be fragile.  In that, you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in their descendants; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not combine with pottery.”

Next we will look at the bear.

The Sins of our Forefathers Part 9 

The Roman Empire and the Blessings of the Pope. 

Daniel 7, and Revelation 13, and 17, all point to an interesting sequence of events that could easily be considered as the Roman Empire. Here is only a part of each segment of Scripture. Let’s see if you agree. Daniel 7:24-25, “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will humble three kings. And he will speak against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.” Revelation 17:9-10, could this mean seven resurrections of the Roman Empire? “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.” Revelation 13:1,3, “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.” “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.” The Western Empire fell in 476 CE and in 553 CE the eastern Roman Emperor Justinian and his armies had succeeded in reconquering Italy and all of the Western Empire. Justinian looked to the church and decreed that the proper people be chosen to govern by the bishops(who later would be called popes) and those influential people in each province. The church and the state reunited once again in the west. This was called the “Imperial Restoration.” Revelation 13 says, “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.” The deadly wound that Rome’s Empire felt in 476 was now revived and brought back to life by Justinian, but there would be six and even seven times more attempts to bring back the “Eternal City” called Rome, the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Church of Rome which began in 554CE to even today. The protection that the east was giving the west now became negotiable and King Charles, king of the Franks and Leo, Bishop of Rome, held negotiations to resolve this problem. In 800 CE, on Christmas day, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks 1 knelt before St. Peter’s altar and Pope Leo placed a jeweled crown on his head and anointed him with holy oil. So was the coronation of Charles the Augustus as the pope saluted him, “Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus.” So we see first Justinian and now Charlemagne second. Charlemagne King of the Franks now became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 936 CE, the German Saxons became the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955 Otto, Duke of the Saxons and king of the Germans entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII and crowned him with the imperial crown at Pavia in 962 and so the restoration of the Roman empire continued with King Otto being the third. The Holy Empire was now to a large extent German in its ways and politics , but definitely Rome in its legacy. Rome was out to conquer the world. The church was now a political machine, and there was no stopping it. Otto had imperial symbols like the imperial apple, filled with the earth from the four corners of the world. He called the crown, the crown of Rome and of the globe and he called himself the head of the world and ruler of the globe and of Rome and the empire went on for another 300 years till Rudolph I was elected emperor in 1273.This was the first for the Hapsburg family to be placed on the imperial throne and it came with Rudolphs’ descendant Charles V in 1530 when Pope Clement VII crowned him king. He was now the fourth to receive the blessings of the pope, and this was the fourth revival of the Roman Empire. By the 18th Century the title “Holy Roman Emperor” became an empty title. By the end of the 18th Century life was about to change and it was called the French Revolution. An ambitious man from France rose up whose name was Napoleon Bonaparte and his goal was to be the head of a French Republic, even king of all of France. He considered himself to be a successor of Caesar and Charlemagne. In 1791 Avignon had removed itself from the papal control and annexed themselves with France. In 1797 Napoleon had taken several papal territories and in 1791 he had taken control of the rest of the papal territories and claimed the Roman Republic. The Hapsburg Family of Austria joined with Napoleon and even helped him to gain the imperial title. The Holy Roman Empire was seeing itself fall apart. Napoleon gained land from Spain and France, Holland , Belgium and western Germany and even Italy. Is this beginning  to look like something familiar? It should and we will see as we go on that it was all too familiar. In 1804 Pope Pius sought peace with France and presided over the imperial coronation of Napoleon, thus making him the fifth crowned by the pope and the fifth revival of the western Imperium since Justinian. This was in fact a period of 1,260 years since the imperial restoration under Justinian in 554, thus fulfilling Revelation 13:3-5 The beast was given authority for forty-two months which equals 1260 days, but there were still two more attempts to be made in this prophecy regarding ancient Rome. By 1871 Bismark united all of the non- Hapsburgs of Germany under the Prussian king while Garibaldi united all of Italy under the northern king Sardinia-Piedmont. Fifty years after Garibaldi’s inauguration, he too, had visions of restoring the glory of ancient Rome. Well, it happened and it was led by a man named Benito Mussolini. He led his Fascist to power in 1922. Fascists derived their name from the faces of Imperial Rome. The “Faces” was an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods signifying unity and authority. Back in the day it was carried by Roman consuls as a symbol of their office. In 1870 King Victor Emanuel defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome. Needless to say that the pope and it’s new rulers were cold to each other, but in 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the pope which gave the papal sovereignty over the Vatican City which made Mussolini’s government the first Italian government in modern history to be recognized officially by the pope. This treaty was just a prelude to the one that would be signed four years later, in July 1933, between the pope and the Nazi government of Germany. Mussolini went and conquered Ethiopia and Somaliland in 1896 and in 1936 Mussolini proclaimed from the Palace of Venezia that after 15 centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on its hills of Rome. Mussolini entered into an alliance with Adolf Hitler that resulted in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This was the sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving Imperial Rome, but it was short-lived by the defeat of Germany in 1945. After the war Stalin made himself known in Europe but after defeating Nazsism, the world did not want communism either. In 1957 with the Treaty of Rome a Common Market began with France, West Germany, Italy and three Benelux states. This became what we know today as the  European Union. So is it true that the popes played a role in the end times scenario? Six attempts have been made to restore ancient Rome with the help of the popes and there will be one more attempt. Keep your eyes open, and maybe we will see this last attempt to fulfill the prophecies in the Book of Revelation. 

We know that history repeats itself, and we have seen that prophecy does also.

In Part 2 we saw that in the prophecy of Daniel 7:1-8,  that the Lion is Germany.

Next we want to look at the Bear. The Bear is the easiest to relate to in today’s world. We know that Russia is the Bear. Then there was another animal, a second one, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up, and gorge yourself with flesh!’  

This is definitely President Vladimir Putin. We see that the Bear has three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. Who are these three ribs? Most likely they are the ribs of the Bear. It is told to “get up, and gorge yourself with flesh.”

We have seen this to be true with Russia. Over the last several decades Russia has been exactly that, a bear. It has been very aggressive in annihilating countries and people who have broken away from the original USSR to bring them back to the original Motherland and in so doing, tens of thousands of people have died as we saw with Georgia, Crimea, and now the Ukraine. It also went after those who were not part of the Motherland as we still remember the slaughter in Chechnya.

We know what we see today, and we know what we have seen over the last decades, but what will the Bear do going forward? Will he stop after he resurrects the old USSR or will he have ambitions to continue his quest for more flesh?

Let us now continue looking at  Daniel 7:1-7. “After this, I looked; and there was another one, like a leopard with four bird’s wings on its sides. The animal also had four heads, and it was given power to rule.”  

We see that the country of Iran is known for being the home of the Persian Leopard. The leopard is symbolic of strength, power and speed. We see that also this leopard has four bird wings on its side and four heads.  Iranians are Shiates who are Twelvers. Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. According to the theology of Twelvers, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who not only rule over the community with justice, but are also able to preserve and interpret sharia and the esoteric meaning of the Quran. Starting with Muhammad’s descendants, beginning with sons Hassan and Hussein, continued the line of Imams until the time of the Twelfth Imam, also called Muhammad. The only son of the Eleventh Imam, Muhammad took over on the death of his father in the 10th century, but disappeared without a trace at the age of five. The Twelfth Imam has since become Islam’s only messianic figure. Shia Muslims believe he merely withdrew from public view in what is called “the Great Occultation” and that he will eventually emerge when God commands him to liberate the world from evil. Referred to as the “Hidden Imam” or the Mahdi [ divinely guided one], Shia Muslims believe the Twelfth Imam remains spiritually present in the world, even if physically hidden. Some believe he appears during certain invocations and prayers. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often refers publicly to the Twelfth Imam. In September 2005, he concluded his first speech before the UN by calling on God to hasten the return of the Imam. At a theology conference later that year he declared: “The most important task of our revolution is to prepare the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam.” According to Al-Islam.org, this is what will bring about the Twelfth Imam. 

See if you don’t think it sounds like the end times.

“Traditions have been reported mentioning the signs for the time of the appearance of the Imam who will arise (qa’im), peace be on him, and the events which will take place before his appearance, together with the indications and features of it. Among them are: The Sufyani will come out in revolt; the Hasanid will be killed; the Abbasids will dispute over worldly kingdom; there will be an eclipse of the sun in the middle of the month of Ramadan; there will be an eclipse of the moon at the end of that month in contrast to ordinary happenings; the land will be swallowed up at al-Bayda’; it will be swallowed in the east-it will be swallowed up in the west; the sun will stay still from the time of its decline to the middle of the time for the afternoon prayer. It will rise from the west; a pure soul (nafs al-zakiyya) will be killed in the outskirts of Kufa with seventy righteous men; a Hashimite will be slaughtered between the corner (of the Ka’ba) and the station of Abraham); the wall of the mosque of Kufa will be destroyed; black standards will advance from Khurasan; al-Yamani will come out in revolt; al-Maghribi will appear in Egypt and take possession of it from Syria. The Turk will occupy the region of al-Jazira; the Byzantines will occupy Ramla; the star will appear in the east giving light just like the moon gives light; then (the new moon) will bend until its two tips almost meet; a color will appear in the sky and spread to its horizons; a fire will appear for a long time in the east remaining in the air for three or seven days; the Arabs will throw off the reins and take possession of their land, throwing out the foreign authority; the people of Egypt will kill their ruler and destroy Syria; and three standards will dispute over it (Syria).The standards of Qays and the Arabs will come among the people of Egypt; the standards of Kinda (will go) to Khurasan; horses will come from the west until they are stabled in al-Hira; the black standards will advance towards them from the east; the Euphrates will flood so that the water comes into the alleys of Kufa; sixty liars will come forward, all of them claiming prophethood, and twelve will come forward from the family of Abu Talib, all of them claiming the Imamate; a man of important rank of the supporters of the ‘Abbasids will be burnt between Jalula’ and Khaniqin. The bridge next to Karkh in the city of Baghdad will be established; a black wind will raise it at the beginning of the day and then an earthquake will occur so that much of it will be swallowed up; fear will cover the people of Iraq and Baghdad; swift death (will occur) there and there will be a loss of property, lives and harvests; locusts will appear at their usual times and at times not usual so that they attack agricultural land and crops and there will be little harvest for what the people planted; two kinds of foreigners will dispute and much blood will be shed in their quarrel.Slaves will rebel against obedience to their masters and kill their masters (mawali); a group of heretics (ahl al-bida) will be transformed until they become monkeys and pigs; slaves will conquer the land of their masters; a cry (will come) from the sky (in such a way) that all the people will hear it in their own languages; a face and a chest will appear in the sky before the people in the centre of the sun; the dead will arise from their graves so that they will return to the world and they will recognize one another and visit one another; that will come to an end with twenty-four continuous rainstorms and the land will be revived by them after being dead and it will recognize its blessings; after that every disease will be taken away from those of the Shia of the Mahdi, peace be on him, who believe in the truth; at that time they will know of his appearance in Mecca and they will go to him to support him. (These signs) are as the reports have mentioned. Among the total of these events are some which are bound (to happen) and others which are conditional. God knows best what will take place. We have only mentioned them on the basis of what is recounted in basic sources of tradition (usul) because of their inclusion in traditions which have been handed down. From God we seek help and Him do we ask for success.”

So who are the four bird wings and the four heads who were given power? 

Most likely

Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Syria, Sudan, Libya.

As we continue to look at Daniel 7:1-8, it goes on to say, “After this, I looked in the night visions; and there before me was a fourth animal, dreadful, horrible, extremely strong, and with great iron teeth. It devoured, crushed and stamped its feet on what was left. It was different from all the animals that had gone before it, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

Revelation 13:1-6  tells us this about that horn that will pluck out the three.

“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.  And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.  I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;  they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”  A mouth was given to him speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.  And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

The fourth animal is the European Union, but not like it is today, this will also be a one world government, ruled by the Antichrist. This will be the resurrection of the last Roman Empire. This fourth animal will get the blessings of the Pope ( see our podcast on the Sins of our Forefathers, or read the transcript at the end of Part 2 of this series) and we will see once again this empire rise to do destruction as did the past Roman Empires. But who will be the ten countries? They will be led by France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, possibly, Rumania, Spain, Greece, Hungary, and Bulgaria, maybe Slovakia, or the Czech Republic could replace Spain or Greece, who may  drop out. 

We also see here the lion, bear and leopard will have great power. Out of this Roman Empire the Antichrist will arise. He will pluck out three of the horns, these most likely will be three of the weaker countries in the EU and then the beast will have seven horns and seven heads. Ezekiel tells us what will happen to the lion, bear and leopard. We see in Ezekiel 38 that Gog who is the ruler of Magog will invade Israel. Ezekiel 38:1-9 says,  “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying,  “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,  and say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.  So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet;  Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you. Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them.  After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them.  And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you. ‘This is what the Lord God says: “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan.”

And again in Ezekiel 39: 17-23  speaking to Gog says, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?  It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My anger.  In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will certainly be a great earthquake in the land of Israel.  The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the crawling things that crawl on the earth, and all mankind who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; and the mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground.  And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother.  With plague and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone.  So I will prove Myself great, show Myself holy, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.”’

God will cause Israel to be invaded, but not conquered.

We see here that Gog is the ruler of Magog which is Russia, the Bear. “Persia” is Iran, the leopard. “Cush” is  Ethiopia or Sudan and “Put” is Libya and “Gomer” is Germany,  the Lion.

So we see here the demise of the Lion, Bear and the Leopard and all those who go with them, will all go and invade Israel. We see the outcome in Ezekiel 39 that God will crush their power and might, like He did to Egypt at the time of the Exodus. 

But not before they do great destruction and persecution as we see in 

Hosesa 13:6- 8 says,  “As they had their pasture, they became satisfied,

and as they became satisfied, their heart became proud; therefore they forgot Me. So I will be like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs, and I will tear open their chests; I will also devour them there like a lioness, as a wild animal would tear them to pieces.”

Amoss 5:18-19 speaks about the Day of the Lord.

“Woe to you who long    for the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord?     That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion   only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall   only to have a snake bite him.

Revelation 13:7-10 also says, “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over every tribe, people, language, and nation.  All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered.  If anyone has an ear, let him hear.  If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.” 

But there is still one more beast as Revelation 13:11-18 tells us, 

“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon.  He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed.  He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the presence of people.  And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life.  And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause all who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed.  And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads,  and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.  Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

Let’s go back to Matthew 24:15-28, where once again we will see the warning of Yeshua which speaks to us about this time.

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand—  then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.  Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house.  And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak.  But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days!  Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath.  For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again.  And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.  Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him.  For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect.  Behold, I have told you in advance.  So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.  For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be.  Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

Once again we see Yeshua warning us about false prophets, because that is one of the beasts. Let’s take Yeshua’s warning and let’s not run after every preacher or teacher who tells us anything different because when Yeshua returns we will all know it without a doubt. There will be no need for signs and wonders. 

Who are the corpses?  They are those who are dead to the Holy Spirit, they have ears to hear, but do not listen.

In this series we have looked at different prophecies related to the end times. In this episode we are going to look at the Dragon.

Revelations 13:1-4 tells us,

“The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.  The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.  One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.  People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

We see here that the Dragon was standing on the shore of the sea when a Beast comes out of it, and the Dragon gives authority to the Beast. The Dragon has always been considered  to be the devil and for sure is, but  we have another thought. We believe in this Scripture that the Dragon is China and the Dragon China is going to give the beast not only authority but power. A dragon is not fast on its feet, it does not eat things up with its teeth or tear things apart with its hands, but it does spit out fire from its mouth and that is what it uses to devour things. In Scripture we read a lot about the Dragon. Let’s take a closer look. In Ezekiel 29:2-3 we see the King James Version of the  Scriptures using the analogy of the Dragon as the king of Egypt as it says,  “Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt:  speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God;  “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, “My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.”’

Isaiah 27:1 says this, “ On that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

I think we will see our answer here in Revelation :3:1-4,  “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was pregnant and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.”

China is known as the “Communist Red China.”  What we see here is that the dragon has seven heads and ten horns. This is what we looked at in Part four. This was the European Union.  Communism is going to be the government of the New World Order. This is the beast that everyone will worship.  The Ukraine War has woken up a sleeping giant. It has caused Germany to rebuild its military, and even before the war, France has been speaking of a European Union Army. Europe can no longer depend on the United States to protect them, and so they are taking matters into their own hands, and this will lead to many wars. So how does China figure into all of this? We have recently seen that China has entered into a treaty with Russia and it will enter into a treaty with the EU and even with countries like Iran.  China is becoming the world leader, but it does not necessarily have to fight the wars, but only back the wars financially. Yes, China wants to take over Asia and even Euro-Asia, but it also wants to take over the world.  And so you will see this great Dragon, not fighting with its hands, but its fiery flames as it breathes destruction.  A dragon has a long powerful tail, and we see in Revelations 3, that the Dragon will use its tail to wipe out a third of the stars and hurl them to earth. This is the Dragon conquering nations.  

Revelation 3:2-3  speaks to us about the Lion, Leopard and Bear And the Beast that I saw was like a Leopard, and his feet were like those of a Bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a Lion. And the Dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.  Yes, these three will wage war on Israel and they will be backed by China and as we saw, they will be defeated. This for sure will make the Dragon angry, so angry that as we will see, he will wage war even against the army of Yeshua.  One thing about China is that today they have 2 million soldiers fulfilling this prophecy in Revelation 9:13-19, “Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God,  saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.”  And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind.  The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them.  And this is how I saw in my vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire, of hyacinth, and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone.  A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths.  For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”

We see here that their mouths are like the mouths of the Dragon and their tails are destructive tails of the dragon.  Revelation 16:13-16 says this,“And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs;  for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty.   And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”

Revelation 17:11-18 continues. “The beast which was, and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction.  The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour.  These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast.  These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.” And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages.  And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire.  For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled.  The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

Revelation 19:11-19 says,  “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself.  He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God.  And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses.  From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty.  And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.”  Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great feast of God,  so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slaves, and small and great.” And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army.” 

Yes, the final Roman Empire will be destroyed, along with the Lion, Bear and Leopard and the great red Dragon which we know was Satan himself who works behind the scenes of all evil and darkness. But as we see here, he too, will come to his demise.

Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10 continues with this “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand.  And he took hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years;  and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison,  and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore.  And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them.  And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

 Yes, history repeats itself and so does prophecy but one day 1 Corinthians 13:8-10,12 tells us this  “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with.  For we know in part and prophesy in part;  but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.”

“ For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.”

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If you are hurting, you came to the right place. The First Aid Kit is designed to help those who do not know where to turn for help. We also suggest that you listen to our podcasts called “Encouraging Moments” and also our “Sandiegrams.” Also contact us and we will begin Praying for you.

Table of Contents

Click on the links below to access sections:

• Abortion
• Alcohol Abuse
• Alzheimer’s Disease
• Bullying
• Cancer
• Domestic Abuse
• Drugs
• Eating Disorders
• Fatherless/Parental Needs
• Fraternities and Sororities
• Gambling Disorder
• Gender Preference
• Grief
• Halloween
• Homelessness
• Loneliness
• Other Crisis
• Pornography
• Prostitution
• PTSD
• Suicide
• The Addiction To Lying
• Veterans

Abortion

Anyone who is honest will tell you that they have had many complications after having an abortion. Those who have had an abortion are more likely to have mental health issues. They live with depression, regrets, grief, anxiety, guilt and shame, suicide thoughts, always wondering what might have been. There is always a little part of you that dies when you abort a baby, and that little part of you never heals, because it can never be replaced, not even with another child. If you are contemplating having an abortion, you must also consider the health risk to you. There have been plenty of things go wrong in an abortion like damage to the womb or cervix, excessive bleeding, incomplete abortion, requiring an additional surgical abortion procedure, infection of the uterus or fallopian tubes, scarring of the inside of the uterus, Sepsis or Septic shock, uterine perforation, and even death. It also causes premature babies which can cause a lower chance for that next child to live to adulthood. Also those that do survive have significant risk of serious disabilities, including cerebral palsy, intellectual impairment, psychological development disorders and autism. Abortions also gives you a better chance of having Breast Cancer. God loves you and He loves the child within you. God wants this child to have the same chance to life that you had. In fact God has a plan for this child. There is no unwanted child with God. God is a God of life, and He wants to give everyone life abundantly. God is our provider and protector to everyone who trusts in Him. Trust God now and believe Him that He has a purpose for you and this child. Talk to your pastor or family or if you want help contact

A lost life is a lost opportunity. 

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Alcohol Abuse

Many teens find themselves abusing alcohol. It is estimated that there are 10 million underage drinkers. But drinking does not make you anything but drunk. It  does not make you a better person, or a better athlete or even the best person on campus. It only makes you ruin your life at an early age, or at any age. If you have to prove yourself to anyone, then you are only lowering yourself,  and that will not bring about confidence or popularity or even  a good job one day. There is no future in it. But God has a future for you, and it can be a future for good and not evil. Alcohol is a negative, not a positive and it only brings about depression and hopelessness. Today you can turn your life around. Let God  direct you. He knows His plans for you and He loves you. If you want to end the cycle of alcohol abuse you can call the:

Why ruin your life with alcohol, when God wants to give you a drink from the well of salvation?

BOCA Recovery Center: Trauma Informed Therapy for Substance Use Disorders

BOCA Recovery Center: Depression & Addiction: Signs, Symptoms & Treatment

BOCA Recovery Center: Substance Abuse & Mental Health Hotlines: Where to Get Help Now

You can also see your family doctor or pastor and of course, your parents.

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Alzheimer’s Disease

Alzheimer’s disease kills more people today than many cancers and heart disease. It is the most common cause of Dementia. The hard thing about Alzheimer’s is that it is slow, a slow death. Alzheimer’s begins 20 years or more before memory loss and other symptoms develop. Alzheimer’s disease is a type of brain disease, just as coronary artery disease is a type of heart disease. It is caused by damage to nerve cells (neurons) in the brain. The brain’s neurons are essential to all human activity, including thinking, talking and walking. 

• Stage 1: preclinical Alzheimer’s disease
• Stage 2: mild cognitive impairment due to Alzheimer’s disease
• Stage 3: mild dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease
• Stage 4: moderate dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease
• Stage 5: severe dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease.

Millions of Americans are living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. As the size of the U.S. population age 65 and older continues to grow, so too will the number and proportion of Americans with Alzheimer’s or other dementias. If you would like to help, more than 1 million additional direct care workers will be needed between 2021 and 2031 — more new workers than in any other single occupation in the United States. But when caring for someone with advanced Alzheimer’s be cheerful and caring and loving, for they go into a deep darkness that leaves them not knowing or understanding emotions. They do not remember, so do not try to make them understand or remember. All the sadness is on the caregiver. So if you can be strong for the both of you then consider becoming a caregiver.

If  you think someone you know may have Alzheimer’s Disease and you would like more information contact the Alzheimer’s Association at  https://www.alz.org

Read this great story about singer Glen Campbell and  his wife on their experience with Alzheimer’s

Disease at : Battling Alzheimer’s Together Glen Campbell

62 Tips on Caring for a Loved One with Dementia

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Bullying

Are you being bullied?  Do people laugh at you?  Do they say that you are different? Little do they know that everyone is different. What a dull world this would be if we were all the same. We are not a cookie cutter humanity. We are not all Gingerbread men and women. We all have different gifts and abilities. 

We all come from different backgrounds. This is what makes us unique. 

God loves each and everyone of us. And when people laugh at us or cause trouble for us, we should not run or hide, or even give up. No! It should make us stronger and more determined to succeed in life. When we go through such trials, we must know this, that one day we will do great things, because we have been put in the fiery furnace. We who are just clay, the dust of the earth, will be refined into earthen vessels, so one day, we may even be used, to help the one who laughed and the one who bullied.

Suicide Prevention: 1- 800- 273-8255

 National Runaway Hotline: 1-800-RUNAWAY ( 1-800-786-2929 )-a national, toll-free hotline for runaway and homeless youth, teens in crisis and concerned family/friends. Completely confidential.

Anger Management Workbook

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Cancer

Those three words… “You have cancer,” are the most terrifying  three words in the spoken language.  Yet, there are so many cancer survivors. Having a positive attitude helps. But once treatment starts and life goes on it can take quite a toll on you. It truly is a battle. But there is one who is a Mighty Warrior and He is always dressed for the battle, Isaiah 42:13. God will carry us and give us the strength to go on. Isaiah 40-29-31 says, “He gives strength to the weary, and to the one who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous young men stumble badly, Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”

Don’t give up, and never feel hopeless, because with God all things are possible, because God is the God of the impossible, Mark 10:27. Look to Him with faith.

1 John 5:14-15 says, “And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to His will He hears us. And if we know that He hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of Him.” 

Today, if you have cancer, and you feel defeated, take courage, because God loves you, and He cares about you, and you are always in His arms, 1 Peter 5:7.

Finally Philippians 4:6-7 says,  “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

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Domestic Abuse

If you are going through domestic abuse and you are  being physically abused, or verbally abused, and you are feeling worthless or anxious. We feel your pain. No one is worthy of abuse. Everyone has value. Everyone has a purpose in life, and should be able to live out that purpose. If you are an abuser and you feel that you need to bring someone down, then we say this, “No one needs to prove themselves.” God has given each one of us purpose and worth. Drugs won’t change the situation, alcohol won’t change the situation, and neither will suicide. If you are being abused, or if you are the abuser, you need help. Do not feel ashamed, but there are many people who want to help you anyway they can. God loves you very much, and He wants to bring healing to you, no matter if you are the abused or the abuser. Seek help today by seeing a doctor, or a spiritual leader, or even a friend or family member. 

Every life is worth respect, because God is the one who gives us life. 

Tech safety for survivors of domestic violence

Guide: What Is Doxxing and How to Protect Yourself Online

RAINN: Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network

1-800-656-4673 or live chat with RAINN HUMAN TRAFFICKING

child abuse :USA National Child Abuse Hotline 1-800-422-4453

Runaways : National Runaway Safe line 1-800-786-2929
Live Chat with National Runaway Safe line (5:30pm – 12:30am EST)

dating abuse & domestic violence : Cutter Law, Ride Share Sexual Assault Safety Guide

National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233 RAINN: Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network 1-800-656-4673 or live chat with RAINN HUMAN TRAFFICKING

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Drugs

Drugs do not make the person. You are who you are, and you are the way that you are, because God created you and He loves you, and He has a purpose  for your life. He has given you talents and abilities that others do not have. He has a plan for your life and He wants you to fulfill that plan by using your talents and abilities. Maybe you don’t see them because you have let yourself believe a lie. Drugs are a lie. They do nothing for you except keep you from fulfilling your purpose in life. You are special because God called you to do special things. You are able to do it, because God has equipped you. Turn to Him, speak with Him, He hears you, and He knows you by name .If you are looking to get off of drugs, you must stop having any contact with those who sell drugs, or even stop hanging out with people who do drugs, or going to places where you know drugs are used.  

A life in bondage to drugs is not a life at all.

Drug Rehab USA 24/7 Support Hotline: 888-527-4184

Helpful Resources Narcotics Anonymous

BOCA Rhttps://bocarecoverycenter.com/ecovery Center:

Trauma Informed Therapy for Substance Use Disorders

BOCA Recovery Center Substance Abuse & Mental Health Hotlines:

Where to Get Help Now

BOCA Recovery Center Depression & Addiction: Signs, Symptoms & Treatment

BROOKDALE Premier Addiction Recovery

Fentanyl Crisis and Narcan Overdose Prevention Guide for Families and Communities

Find Help with Narcotics and Opioid Addiction

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Eating Disorders

Do you or someone you know have an eating disorder? Maybe you do not recognize it as such, because people tend to eat more. But if you are someone who tends to eat when you are having problems, you could find yourself having an eating disorder.  Today, if you are heavy or obese, people like to shame you or cancel you or bully you, but God sees it differently. God does not look at the outward appearance of a person,  He looks at the heart of a person.  God sees you, and He not only sees you, but He feels your pain, your shame, your hurt. People can be cruel, but God loves you. You may say, if God loves me then why am I going through this? That is a good question, but the answer is that people go through all kinds of trials, and we feel hurt and abandoned, but much is for a reason, and that reason is for us to draw closer to God. The world wants to take us far away from God, but God wants to draw us closer to Him. If we take these times and we go the world’s way, then we go even farther from God, and we then begin to cope by eating or drinking or doing drugs or even suicide, but God wants us to go His way, and His way will lead us right into His arms. Today if you are going through a serious time in your life, and you think eating is the answer, then I tell you, it will only lead you down a road of more misery.  Turn to God, His Word is all the food you need.  Call a pastor, talk to a doctor or you can call  

Crisis Text Line If you are in a crisis and need help immediately, text “NEDA” to 741741 to be connected with a trained volunteer at: Crisis Text Line. The Crisis Text Line provides free, 24/7 support via text message to individuals who are struggling with mental health, including eating disorders, and are experiencing crisis situations.

Food does not make the cure, only God’s Word is food for our soul. Only God’s Word is good medicine.

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Fatherless/ Parental Needs

Fatherless homes are an epidemic in this country. No one should live without a father. If you live in a fatherless home, there is help. Call the numbers below and there is help for you and your family. But Remember, God is our Father and He loves you. You can call on Him anytime of the day…just talk to Him, He’s always there to listen, and because He loves you, trust Him to answer your call. 

Without a father, call Focus on the Family to speak to a counselor: 1-855-771-4357!

 Live in Dallas, Texas. Contact information: hello@forerunnermentoring.com | (972) 656-8252 | 

Live in the Phoenix area Contact information: john.pyle@americasfatherlessfoundation.org |352-669-0000 |

The FatherlessGenerationFoundation Based out of Atlanta, GA. Phone:1-888-407-7990 | E-mail:info@tfgf.org | website 

 Contact information: dads for a day | 352-571-8741  

Big Brother Big Sister of America

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Fraternities And Sororities

Studies show that fraternity men are three times more likely to commit rape than other men on college campuses. Fraternity pledges are at a higher likelihood to commit rape or sexual assault because of the pressure to meet the hyper-masculine standards that fraternities expect of their members. Overall, fraternity men are shown to have more rape-supportive attitudes than non-fraternity men. Fraternities have often been accused of fostering rape-supportive attitudes by promoting male dominance and brotherhood, and fraternity affiliation has been found to be a significant predictor of sexually predatory behavior in retrospective research. Sexual assault is such a common occurrence among fraternity organizations that one fraternity, Sigma Alpha Epsilon, is commonly referred to by the nickname, ‘Sexual Assault Expected.’ Attitudes towards women learned in fraternity life can perpetuate fraternity men’s lifelong attitudes, leading to the potential to commit sexual assault and rape after college life. Studies show that women in sororities are almost twice as likely to experience rape than other college women. A research article studied campus demographics and reported rapes and found that campuses that report more rapes have more fraternity men, athletes and liquor violations.” Unfortunately, many judges also once belonged to a fraternity and may now belong to the Masonic Lodge. So as you took the oath , you must remain faithful to your fraternity brothers. Researchers have found that in predominantly male environments, such as fraternities, athletics and military groups, men feel pressure to meet the group’s standard of masculinity, which may contribute to men being more accepting of sexual violence. Nicholas Syrett, a professor of history at the University of Northern Colorado, has been a vocal critic of the evolution of fraternities in the 20th century. In 2011, Syrett stated that, “fraternal masculinity has, for at least 80 years, valorized athletics, alcohol abuse and sex with women.” “Studies have shown that fraternity and sorority members are more likely than the average college student to use or abuse drugs. Since the 1990s, fraternity members have experienced an increase of over 400% in the recreational use of prescription benzodiazepines like Xanax and Valium. Amphetamine use with drugs like Ritalin and Adderall are more common among fraternity members than other college students. Fraternity members abuse amphetamines at double the rate than that of their non-college peers. Marijuana use is also more prevalent among fraternity and sorority members compared to college men and women not in fraternities or sororities.” Anyone concerned about hazing can report it either by calling the Anti-Hazing Hotline:

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Gambling Disorder

Gambling problems can happen to anyone from any walk of life. Your gambling goes from a fun, harmless diversion to an unhealthy obsession with serious consequences. Whether you bet on sports, scratch cards, roulette, poker, or slots—in a casino, at the track, or online—a gambling problem can strain your relationships, interfere with work, and lead to financial disaster. You may even do things you never thought you would, like running up huge debts or even stealing money to gamble. A gambling addiction or problem is often associated with other behavior or mood disorders. Many problem gamblers also suffer with substance abuse issues, unmanaged ADHD, stress, depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorder. To overcome your gambling problems, you’ll also need to address these and any other underlying causes as well. If you think you may have a problem with gambling seek help.

National Problem Gambling 1-800-Gambler Helpline is a free confidential 24 hour helpline or Text:800GAM

National Problem Gambling serves as a resource for individuals who may be struggling with gambling problems or gambling addiction or for those who may know someone who is struggling. When someone contacts 1-800–Gambler they will receive support, information and referrals to services that can help them address their gambling-related concerns.

Gordon Moody: https://www.gamblingtherapy.org/support/live-support/

email at help@gordonmoody.org.uk

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Gender Preference

People tell you that you can be whoever you want to be. It is true that you can be whatever you want to be, but it is not true that you can be whoever you want to be. First of all, people should not be telling you this to begin with. Seeds of doubt in one’s mind only leads to lies. You are unique because everyone is unique. Only you have your own set of fingerprints, and only you have your own soul. You can do all you can to look different and act different and call yourself a different name, but you can not change your soul, because that is how you were created.

Psalm 139 tells us, “For you created my inner being;  you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful,  I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place,  when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book  before one of them came to be.”

What beautiful words for a beautiful person whom God loves, and that person is you.

Today, if you are struggling with these questions, I say this: The world has many voices, but God who loves you only has one. You can hear His voice in the words of the Bible. God’s Word has been forever, even though they have only been written down in the last centuries. Man’s words are only as long as that person has lived. I would trust the words of the One who created you, and He tells you that you belong to Him.  The world brings confusion, God brings peace. Don’t let yourself suddenly believe something that you, or anyone else, even thought about, when you were born.  You have value because God gives you that value. You are special, because God made you special. Do not let someone take it away from you.

Support for LGBTQ+ youth through The Trevor Project Text: Get started by texting 
‘START’ to 678-67

Call: Get started by calling us at 1-866-488-7386. Chat online: Get started by beginning a chat at thetrevorproject.org/get-help

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Grief

Everyone in life loses someone. We all suffer Grief. Yes, it is suffering.  We can’t stop crying. We can’t eat or sleep. But the crisis comes when we suffer too long, when we just can not continue to function. We just can not go on without that special person. When there is such a loss that our hearts break,  we say, “were is God?”  “Why did He allow this?” We take our grief to a new level, and we become angry. We begin to hate everyone and everything, even God Himself.  Some people begin to drink, others become reclusive, and others even lose their jobs, homes, and family. Grief is a terrible plague on one’s soul.  You know God lost His Son, and He knows what you are going through. Yes, God has feelings, too. We are made in His image. He felt sorrow when our Messiah died, and He was separated from Him, as He descended into Hell. Sin separates us from God and the Messiah carried our sins upon Himself.  God knows exactly what you are going through. Don’t turn from Him, but run into His arms. You know that He has your loved one also in His arms. God will never leave you. He is always at your side. He is as close as the whisper of His name. You will see your loved one one day, and while that person is in God’s arms, think of this, there is no time with God, so your loved one, while in God’s presence, is dwelling in a place where there is no time.  To them they have just left you, even if they have been dead for 40 years. That is how close they are to you. So cling to God and He will comfort you and carry you till the day that He brings you home and then you will not only be with God, but you will once again be reunited with that loved one. Life does go on with God.

 We hope that you can take comfort in our Encouraging Moments.

Here are only a couple of Sandiegrams…See more at Sandigrams at the top  menu

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Halloween

The Dangers of Halloween For Those In Crisis.

According to Healthy Place:

Halloween Can Be Frightening For People with Mental Illness

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Halloween can be fun time, but it can also be a difficult time for people who have been abused (esp. satanic ritual abuse) or have PTSD, anxiety or other mental health conditions. Recovering From Mental Illness blog author, Paulissa Kipp, discusses the issue in Halloween, More Trick Than Treat for Those With Mental Illness.

Especially, if you or your child have a mental illness, here are some things to keep in mind:

• Halloween is tied into death and the devil. Some dress up in bizarre scary costumes and in their attempt to instill fear, the characters may make strange eye contact. In addition, they may invade your personal space, making frightening noises and use bizarre body movements and gestures.
• Children who participate in such Halloween celebrations may experience high levels of fear, anxiety and panic.
• Be prepared to be assaulted by all sorts of examples of mental health stigma. For instance, people dressed in costumes, like a straight jacket, pretending to be “crazy” or haunted asylums, whose residents are portrayed as violent monsters.
• If you feel uncomfortable celebrating or dealing with Halloween, do something else tonight. You don’t have to submit yourself or your child to anything that harms your mental health.

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Homelessness

So many people are homeless today. If you are one of them, seek  help. There are many agencies today who can help you not only find a place to live, but also help you become a productive person in life. Do not consider drugs or alcohol or even suicide. Do not consider dropping out of society. There are many agencies who can give you a helping hand. See the list below. God loves you! Do not let your circumstances keep you from the One who loves you. Call on the name of the Lord. He sees you and He is in control of all things. No one is never alone because our Creator is always with us. Take comfort for He has you in His loving arms.

You will find Below  our favorite charities for helping homeless people:

• Family Promise
• Coalition for the Homeless
• Covenant House
• StandUp for Kids
• U.S. Veterans Initiative
• Abode Services
• Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
• DePaul USA
• Building Changes
• Save the Family
• National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Harvest Home
• Streetwise

https://www.samhsa.gov/homelessness-programs-resources/grant-programs-services/path-program/immediate-assistance

You will find below our charities  for the homeless

• Healthcare for the Homeless
• Selah Neighborhood Homeless Coalition
• Nevada Partnership for Homeless Youth
• National Alliance to End Homelessness
• Coalition for the Homeless
• Shelter the Homeless
• Picture the Homeless
• Chicago Coalition for the Homeless

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Loneliness

We all feel alone at times, but for some of us, loneliness is not some of the time. Day in and day out loneliness becomes our companion. It also becomes our taskmaster. We suffer the pains of loneliness. It is a silent pain within that people around us do not see or feel, but to the lonely it is a great sorrow. There is one who does see and feel, and that is God. God is with us always. He never leaves us. He never abandons us. He loves us. It’s hard for the lonely to accept this, because of our deep pain within. But God wants to heal us. He wants to take away the hurt, the pain, the loneliness. Pick up a Bible and read and speak to God, He hears you. He knows every hair on your head. Get involved with your church, your community, like being a Big Sister or Brother, and you will find meaning in life. And if you are a parent of a child that suffers from loneliness then get involved in your child’s life and reduce that isolation in their lives. If you are elderly or just can not get around, then write to our soldiers, or other shut-ins, even be a grandparent to those who do not have a grandparent. You feel you need to talk with someone you can call:

Judeochristianclarion.com

——Other Crises Lines—-

Lanier Law Firm Social Media Addiction Statistics

Helpful Resources for Human Trafficking Victims

Helpingsurvivors.org

Life Net Hotline: 1-800 543-3638

Broken Believers Prayer Line :  708-512-7011

62 Tips on Caring for a Loved One with Dementia

Elder Abuse Hotline: 1-800-252-8966

Runaways

• National Runaway Safe line: 1-800-RUNAWAY ( 1-800-786-2929 )-a national, toll-free hotline for runaway and homeless youth, teens in crisis and concerned family/friends. Completely confidential.
• Covenant House 1-800-999-9999 (Youth and Parents, 24-hour, toll-free crisis hotline which provides crisis intervention, referral and information services to homeless, runaway and other troubled youth and their families throughout the U.S.

Helpful Resources for Human Trafficking Victims

• National Runaway Safeline: 1-800-RUNAWAY ( 1-800-786-2929 )-a national, toll-free hotline for runaway and homeless youth, teens in crisis and concerned family/friends. Completely confidential.
• Covenant House 1-800-999-9999 (Youth and Parents, 24-hour, toll-free crisis hotline which provides crisis intervention, referral and information services to homeless, runaway and other troubled youth and their families throughout the U.S.

Sexual Assault: National Sexual Assault Hotline: 1-800-656-HOPE (4673)

Cutter Law, Ride Share Sexual Assault Safety Guide

Helpingsurvivors.org

Suicide: Samaritan Hotline: 212-673-3000

Poison Control Center: 800-222-1222

Other Crisis:  Life net Hotline: 800-543-3638

How To Manage Your Emotions While Driving

Disaster Distress Helpline 1-800-985-5990 or text Talk With Us to 66746

Covenant House Safe Place to sleep.org   Homeless Youths  844-298-3757 or 1-800-600-7233 or 847-249-4450 or text 69866

https://hoarders.com/Horders.com 1-800-462-7337

Here are some other resources for hoarding help:

• The International OCD Foundation: Offers a resource directory for therapists, treatment programs, clinics, and support groups 
• Hoarding Cleanup: Provides a directory of hoarding cleanup services and mental health providers 
• Psychology Today: Offers a search function to find therapists in your area who treat hoarding disorder 
• Clutterers Anonymous: Offers a 12-step recovery program with in-person and online meetings 
• The Clutter Movement Individual Support: A peer support group on Facebook 

Doing Self-harm
Need Help?  Text a Crisis Counselor at 741471. You’re not alone.

Pass 741741 On To A Friend you may know who needs help. Or  call 988

S.A.F.E. Alternatives (Self-Abuse Finally Ends) – Organization dedicated to helping people who self-harm, with a helpline at 1-800-366-8288.

A crisis doesn’t only mean suicide. It can be any painful emotion that requires support: bullying | school stress | depression | anxiety | suicide | relationships | friendship | family problems | self-harm.

Those around us with special needs and disabilities are real people and they are special and that is all we need.

Also here are a few websites for your information:

• Special Needs Services
• How To Volunteer With People With Disabilities
• The American Association of People with Disabilities
• National Center For Learning Disabilities

 Need Prayer:  

700 club prayer line:  Call 1-800-700-7000 

Crossroads prayer line:  Call 1-866-273-4444 

TBN Prayer line:  Call: 714-731-1000 

Broken Believers Prayer Line :  708-512-7011

The Three Steps To Recovery

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Pornography

But everyone is doing it! That may be so, but what they do not realize is that pornography becomes an addiction. It is very hard to let go of sexual images from the brain. Once our brain sees an image, it is as though it is branded on our brain and it will torment you your whole life. Posting images on social media will follow you your entire life. If you want that good job, or run for  any office or even get married, those images can not be removed. Today it may not bother you, but it will tomorrow.  If you want to be set free from the bondage of pornography, only God can set you free. Only He can wash those images from your mind. Our bodies are not meant to be put on display.  Our bodies are a dwelling place for our Creator and when we take photos of our bodies, we cheapen ourselves, and our lives. And then it becomes shame, and shame becomes depression, and we continue on this downward spiral. No doctor or psychiatrist or therapist can heal you from the images of pornography. Maybe they can help you to let go of habitual use, but once the damage is done it is done. If you have a problem in this area, turn to God. He loves you, He created you and you belong to Him.  Tell your folks so they can help you or a close friend or  call you pastor, or your family doctor or  you can call the:

A life of pornography is a life of abuse.

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Prostitution

Prostitution  can be a lucrative business, but only for those who run the business. Prostitution is slavery. When you sell yourself, someone buys you, and he then owns you. This only leads to a life of drugs, alcohol and self degradation. It is a life that leads to a dead end, literally. You are worth more than this. God created you to have value and to have purpose, but prostitution strips that all away.  One should never buy into the idea that this is the only thing that you can do, or that someone offers you a glamorous lifestyle that you can not refuse. Life is more than clothes and jewelry and  money, because these things only leave you as a person on the outside, but on the inside you are left with not even your soul. Prostitution strips you of you. This is not what God intended for you. Regain your value. Regain your self respect. Seek help to become free of the bondage that someone has over you. You are able to live without your keeper. You do not need to be locked up like an animal. You are a real person, and you can live a life with dignity and self respect. Talk to God. He will help you if you ask Him.

Remember, God created you to be free.

Helpful Resources for Human Trafficking Victims

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PTSD

When we think of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, we think of soldiers coming home from the battle. But can anyone have PTSD?

According to the National Institute of Mental Health the answer is “Yes.”

Anyone can develop PTSD at any age. This includes combat veterans and people who have experienced or witnessed a physical or sexual assault, abuse, an accident, a disaster, a terror attack, or other serious events. People who have PTSD may feel stressed or frightened, even when they are no longer in danger.

It is natural to feel afraid during and after a traumatic situation. Fear is a part of the body’s “fight-or-flight” response, which helps us avoid or respond to potential danger. People may experience a range of reactions after trauma, and most will recover from their symptoms over time. Those who continue to experience symptoms may be diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Symptoms of PTSD usually begin within 3 months of the traumatic event, but they sometimes emerge later. To meet the criteria for PTSD, a person must have symptoms for longer than 1 month, and the symptoms must be severe enough to interfere with aspects of daily life, such as relationships or work. The symptoms also must be unrelated to medication, substance use, or other illness. The course of the disorder varies. Although some people recover within 6 months, others have symptoms that last for 1 year or longer. People with PTSD often have co-occurring conditions, such as depression, substance use, or one or more anxiety disorders. After a dangerous event, it is natural to have some symptoms. For example, some people may feel detached from the experience, as though they are observing things as an outsider rather than experiencing them. A mental health professional—such as a psychiatrist, psychologist, or clinical social worker—can determine whether symptoms meet the criteria for PTSD.

Here are some of the symptoms.

Flashbacks—reliving the traumatic event,  including physical symptoms, such as a racing heart or sweating, recurring memories or dreams related to the event, distressing thoughts, physical signs of stress. Thoughts and feelings can trigger these symptoms, as can words, objects, or situations that are reminders of the event. One may stay away from places, events, or objects that are reminders of the experience or avoid thoughts or feelings related to the traumatic event. Avoidance symptoms may cause people to change their routines. For example, some people may avoid driving or riding in a car after a serious car accident.

You may easily be startled or have tense feelings, or be on your guard, or be on edge. You may have difficulty concentrating or even difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep. You may feel irritable and have angry or aggressive outbursts. You could even engage in being risky, reckless, or destructive in your behavior. Arousal symptoms are often constant. They can lead to feelings of stress and anger and may interfere with parts of daily life, such as sleeping, eating, or concentrating. Other symptoms are trouble remembering key features of the traumatic event or negative thoughts about oneself or the world, even exaggerated feelings of blame directed toward oneself or others. You could have ongoing negative emotions, such as fear, anger, guilt, or shame or loss of interest in previous activities or maybe even feelings of social isolation or difficulty feeling positive emotions, such as happiness or satisfaction.

Older children and even teens may also may develop disruptive, disrespectful, or destructive behaviors and they may feel guilt over not preventing injury or death, or have thoughts of revenge. 

Risk factors that may increase the likelihood of developing PTSD include: Exposure to previous traumatic experiences, particularly during childhood. Getting hurt or seeing people hurt or killed. Feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear and having little or no social support after the event to help you deal with stressors, such as the loss of a loved one, pain and injury, or loss of a job or home. Having a personal history or family history of mental illness or substance use

If you think that you may have PTSD seek help. Some people with PTSD, such as those in abusive relationships, may be living through ongoing trauma. In these cases, treatment is usually most effective when it addresses both the traumatic situation and the symptoms of PTSD. People who experience traumatic events or who have PTSD may also experience panic disorder, depression, substance use, or suicidal thoughts. Treatment for these conditions can help with recovery after trauma. Research shows that support from family and friends also can be an essential part of recovery.

Mental Health Effects After a Traumatic Accident: The Hidden Repercussions

Guide To Understanding PTSD After an Accident

Migraines and Driving: What Every Driver Needs to Know

Download this PDF on PTSD

PTSD Therapy Drug Rehab Centers 24/7 Support Hotline: 888-527-4184

If you or someone you know is struggling or having thoughts of suicide, call or text the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline  at 988 or chat at 988lifeline.org . In life-threatening situations, call 911.

Or visit the “First Aid Kit” at www. judeochristianclarion.com

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Suicide

Jesus loves you, that is why He died for you. If you were not worth it, He would not have given up His life, but He did so that you don’t need to give up yours. Talk to Him, He hears you. He is as close as the whisper of His name. He knows you better than you do, because He created you. Stop and think about what I have just told you. You have value and that is why Jesus died for you. Remember that. God can turn things around if you would trust Him. Read the Bible, He wrote it for you, because He loves you…For God so loved you that He sent His only begotten Son to die for you, so that you may have life with Him forever. We recommend that you seek immediate help if you are thinking about suicide. Talk to a family member, or call a local church, or even a friend, or neighbor, or call

But death is never the answer to life.    

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The Addiction to Lying

Compulsive lying describes a condition in which a person tells falsehoods out of habit, sometimes for no reason at all.  It is also known as pathological lying, mythomania, and habitual lying.

According to Good Therapy: Habitual lying often has the following traits: The lies are believable and may have truthful elements. A person who has the flu might tell co-workers the symptoms are in fact AIDS or some other serious illness. The lying continues for a long period of time and is not caused by some immediate pressure. A person who lies repeatedly about an affair would typically not qualify as a habitual liar, since the lies result from the desire to keep a secret. The lies tend to present the person lying in a positive light. A person is more likely to lie about having a Phd than claim they dropped out of high school. The lies have an internal—rather than external—motivation. A child with abusive parents might lie compulsively to avoid harm.  These falsehoods would not be considered compulsive because the lying is motivated by an outside threat. The terms “compulsive lying” and “pathological lying” are often used interchangeably. Medical literature currently does not differentiate between these terms. Yet there are professionals within the mental health community who classify the terms as subtly different conditions. In this framework, compulsive lying is the habit of telling falsehoods uncontrollably. People in this category may be more comfortable telling lies than telling the truth. They may lie repeatedly about important as well as unimportant matters. People who lie compulsively often have no ulterior motive. They may even tell lies which damage their own reputations. Even after their falsehoods have been exposed, people who lie compulsively may have difficulty admitting the truth. Meanwhile, pathological lying often involves a clear motive. A person may lie to gain attention or admiration. Other lies may be designed to garner pity or help from others. Even self-harming lies may provide some form of internal gratification. People who lie pathologically may mix falsehoods with the truth to make their lies more credible. As such, pathological lying is often considered a subtler form of manipulation than compulsive lying. According  to the American Addiction Center: If you want to know how to stop lying compulsively there are a few steps you should take to hold yourself accountable. If you are wondering how to help a compulsive liar in your life it would also be beneficial to encourage them to work through these actions: Admit that you have a problem with lying. As long as you are in denial, you won’t stop lying. Be accountable to someone. Talk to a friend, a counselor, or a 12-step sponsor and commit to being completely truthful with them. Consider the consequences. Sooner or later, your lies will be exposed, and you risk losing people’s trust and friendship. But by admitting your lies and committing to positive change, it is more likely that you will be given a second chance to repair broken trusts. Journal. When you lie, reflect on the reasons for your lies. Become aware of automatic, habituated, irrational thoughts. Then consider alternate, more positive choices that will help you meet your emotional needs with honesty and honor. Set positive, life-enhancing goals and make concrete plans to work toward these. Give yourself something to be genuinely proud of yourself about, so that lies and deceptive, pretentious ego-boosts are no longer necessary in your life.

Recoveries Anonymous Twelve Step Program https://www.r-a.org/i-compulsive-lying.htm

Evolve Treatment For Teens

Liars Anonymous

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Veterans

We want to start by saying, “ We are thankful for your service.”

Your life matters. You served proudly and courageously, and you made it through.

You made it through because your life has a purpose beyond your service. You have no need for shame or regret, or even wondering why you survived, and others did not.  You survived because your life still has purpose. No one knows better than you what a military life requires. So no one knows better than you how to relate to someone who is in crisis. Use your life for the better, and help another Vet get through his or her struggle. You may be hurting yourself, but there is no better cure than to reach out to another Vet and give him a helping hand, and in the meantime, you will be helping yourself. God loves you, and this is a nation that is proud of you.

But death is never the answer to life.  

Call the National Call Center for Homeless Vets. 1-877-4AID VET

Suicide Prevention: 1- 800- 273-8255

Veterans Suicide Hotline: 1-800-273- 8255

Suicide: Samaritan Hotline: 212-673-3000

Suicide Prevention Helpline: 988   and Press 1, Or Text 838 255

NEED SUPPORT? U.S.VETS is available to offer emergency housing assistance, resources and support.
Call us at (877) 5-4USVETS or (877) 548-7838

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So we know that history repeats itself, the question is, is that true for prophecy?

Daniel speaks of the Abomination of Desolation three times, Daniel 9:27, 12:11 and Daniel 11:29-32. 

We want to look at what Yeshua said in Matthew 24:15-22, 24-26  “Therefore when you see the Abomination of Desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them.”

Yeshua says, “Let the reader understand.” We see that in the year 70 CE the Temple came under siege, this was the Abomination that the people of His day should have understood from not only the Book of Daniel, but the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy in the days of the Maccabees. Though the Emperor Titus did not place an idol in the Temple, he did enter into the Temple court which was off limits to Gentiles. This is why Yeshua said, “Let the reader understand.” There were many people who did understand what He meant, and they fled as they were told to, but as Yeshua warned that many false prophets would arise. And they did!

False Prophets told the people if they put their faith in God by going to the holy place, at this critical hour, they would surely see the Messiah come from the Mount of Olives and drive out their enemies. And a great number of people—men, women, and children, did just that. They did not heed Yeshua’s words, and they made their way up to the Temple Mount which, at that time, was still a war zone. Some of them made their way to the Temple, others took refuge from the battlefield on the roof of the Royal Stoa (the southern portico) and on the roof of the eastern colonnade (Solomon’s Portico). They looked toward the east, waiting for the deliverer to appear. Josephus says that about six thousand men, women, and children crowded onto those rooftops. The fighting continued and no Messiah came. They set the Temple on fire and many people were slain. 

A fierce fight continued in the Court of the Priests. Josephus says that the Roman soldiers behaved like men possessed, cutting down everything and everyone in a mad fury and ignoring the orders of their superiors. The bodies piled up quickly:

“The rebels were slain and defeated everywhere they turned. A great number of them were weak and unarmed. They had their throats cut wherever they were caught. All around the altar lay dead bodies heaped one upon another. The ramp going up the altar ran with their blood. The dead bodies that were slain above slid down the ramp.” (Josephus)

The Talmud tells us that the Emperor Titus entered the sanctuary, committed indecencies in the Holy of Holies, defiled the Torah scroll, and finally thrust his sword into the curtain that hung before the Holy of Holies: 

“He then took a sword and slashed the curtain. Miraculously, blood spurted out. He thought he had slain [God], as it says [in Psalm 74:4], “Your adversaries have roared in the midst of Your meeting place; they have set up their own standards for signs.” (b.Gittin 56b)

10,000 people died because they did not listen to the Messiah. Today there are many false prophets and they are teaching a dangerous message. 

The teachings of pre-tribulation started with a man named John Nelson Darby. He is the father of modern Dispensationalism and Futurism. Pre-tribulation rapture theology was popularized extensively in the 1830sby a group called  the Plymouth Brethren, which Darby was a part of. Later it became popular in the United States in the early 20th Century by the wide circulation of the Scofield Reference Bible.

The reason why this is so dangerous is because like in the days of the Messiah, the Lord told the people what they needed to do when trouble struck. They were prepared. Today, here in America, the church is not prepared for what is coming. People are listening to false prophets of peace. They tell the people this will not happen to you, and yet all around the world believers are suffering persecution and martyrdom and they are going through all kinds of trials and tribulations. They hang their proverbial hat on 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10 which says, “For God hath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord Messiah Yeshua who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him.” Paul was speaking about salvation, not persecution. Of course God wants to see all of us come to salvation, and that is how we will be spared by God’s wrath. In fact, here are several verses speaking about trials from those who knew all about them.

Hebrews 10:32-35, “Remember those earlier days after you had received the light, when you endured in a great conflict full of suffering.  Sometimes you were publicly exposed to insult and persecution; at other times you stood side by side with those who were so treated.  You suffered along with those in prison and joyfully accepted the confiscation of your property, because you knew that you yourselves had better and lasting possessions.  So do not throw away your confidence; it will be richly rewarded.”

John 16:33, “I have said these things to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” 

James 1:2-4, “Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds,  because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.  Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”

James 1:12, “Blessed is the one who perseveres under trial because, having stood the test, that person will receive the crown of life that the Lord has promised to those who love Him.”

1 Peter 1:6-7, “In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may result in praise, glory and honor when Messiah Yeshua is revealed.”

1 Peter 1:12, “Dear friends, do not be surprised at the fiery ordeal that has come on you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.”

1 Peter 5:10, “And the God of all grace, who called you to His eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will Himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.”

Revelation 7:13-14,  “Then one of the elders responded, saying to me, “These who are clothed in the white robes, who are they, and where have they come from?” I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”

Revelation 2:17, “The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who overcomes, I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, and a new name written on the stone which no one knows except the one who receives it.”

Revelation 3:5-6, “The one who overcomes will be clothed the same way, in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.”

Revelation 3:21-22, “The one who overcomes, I will grant to him to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat with My Father on His throne. The one who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.’”

Revelation 12:17,  “So the dragon was enraged with the woman, and went off to make war with the rest of her children, who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Yeshua.”

We are to be overcomers, overcomers of what? Today in America, there are more people than ever who no longer call themselves  Chrisitians.  The worldview in America is no longer the Biblical worldview.  We no longer look at things through God’s eyes, but now only through man’s eyes. We no longer even feel that we need to keep God’s Commandments. I heard one man say,  “He does not even believe that Yeshua said this in John 14:15”, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”

We want to continue looking at this topic of prophecy repeating itself, and we hope that you will consider its warnings.

In Part One we looked at the prophecy of Daniel 11 and Yeshua’s prophecy in Matthew 24 and we saw that not only history repeats itself,  but prophecy also can repeat itself. In Part Two we want to look at  Daniel 7:1-8.

“I had a vision at night; I saw there before me the four winds of the sky breaking out over the great sea, and four huge animals came up out of the sea, each different from the others. The first was like a lion, but it had eagle’s wings. As I watched, its wings were plucked off, and it was lifted off the earth and made to stand on two feet like a man, and a human heart was given to it. Then there was another animal, a second one, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up, and gorge yourself with flesh!’ After this, I looked; and there was another one, like a leopard with four bird’s wings on its sides. The animal also had four heads, and it was given power to rule.After this, I looked in the night visions; and there before me was a fourth animal, dreadful, horrible, extremely strong, and with great iron teeth. It devoured, crushed and stamped its feet on what was left. It was different from all the animals that had gone before it, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

This prophecy has always been taught to be Babylon, Media/Persia and Greece, but the question is, is this prophecy repeating itself today? We know that Babylon is the country of Iraq and the Medes and Perisans take up the area of Iran. We know that  King Cyrus II conquered Babylon from Isaiah and Jeremiah. We know that King Artaxerxes II, or Ahasuerus, who was Persian and married Esther. Of course, we also know from history about Alexander the Great who conquered it all. But what about today? Well, we must take a closer look into the empires of the past to see the meanings today. From Iraq to Israel into Egypt, it  was all part of the Assyrian Empire. Who were the Assyrians and what is so significant about them today?  The Assyrian Empire was part of all three empires listed in

Daniel 7. The Assyrians were noted for their military power and for their extreme acts of cruelty. They moved conquered people around to different areas for forced labor and they practiced genocide. The Assyrian army was the strongest in the ancient world. The Assyrian government was mainly an instrument of war. One group we know that was part of this empire were the Hittites, which were in the days of Joshua. The Assyrians maintained control of vital trade routes which kept the Near East in economic unity. The origin of the Assyrians began with Asur. Asur is named for Ashur, the son of Shem, one of Noah’s three sons, Genesis 10:1,22. Asshur was a brother to Arphaxad, an ancestor of Abraham, Genesis 11:10-26. Assur was worshiped as the chief god of Assyria-the god of war- and portrayed as a solar deity with a winged disc. The Hittites also used the winged dic and the swastika. The swastika is a symbol for the sun, power, energy, Thor’s hammer and the god of weather and storms. The swastika was found in front of an ancient temple of Assur. The Hittites and the Assyrians also used a double headed eagle to symbolize the sun gods-storm, thunder and sun. These symbols reappear in the culture of Germany, Prussia and Austria, especially the Third Reich. The Hittites whom Assyria eventually conquered and absorbed show linguistic and cultural links with the German tribes of Hessians and Prussians. Josef Bihl, a historian, notes that Germany’s oldest city, Trier, was founded in 2000 BCE by Trebeta, the son of an Assyrian king named Ninus. Some historians say that the Assyrians were the “Prussians of the Ancient World.” When the Medes, Babylonians and Scythians conquered Assyria in 612 BCE, its ruling class scattered to the north, east and west and some of these people are found today in Iraq, Syria and Caucasus.  Nineveh was the capital of the powerful Ancient Assyrian Empire.

We see God referring to Nineveh, as a  lion, Nahum 2:11-13 says, “Where is the den of the lions and the feeding place of the young lions, where the lion, lioness, and lion’s cub went with nothing to disturb them? The lion tore enough for his cubs, killed enough prey for his lionesses, and filled his lairs with prey and his dens with torn flesh.  “Behold, I am against you,” declares the Lord of armies. “I will burn up her chariots in smoke, and a sword will devour your young lions; I will eliminate your prey from the land, and no longer will the voice of your messengers be heard.” 

1 Peter 5:8 says this, “Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

The empire of Assyria may no longer exist, but it can still be traced, and one of  its modern nations is Germany.  We have seen the Assyrian mind set in the nation of Germany in the 20th Century. So then why does the Bible speak of Assyria in the end times? Because it is speaking of Germany. Germany is the Lion. Germany is Gomer.  Genesis 10:2-3 tells us, “The sons of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras. The sons of Gomer: Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.”  They not only have the swastika, but the Assyrians had the four winged eagle, Nisroch. It says that the eagle’s wings were plucked off, and it  was lifted off  the earth, and was made to stand on two feet like a man and a human heart was given to him. This could only refer to World War I, German emperor and king of Prussia, Freidrich  Wilhelm II  who was forced to abdicate in 1918, ending the 300 year reign of Prussia, the Assyrian four winged eagle, Nisroch was plucked, which led to a democratic state, which brought in Adolf Hitler. He was the lion who went about seeking whom he could devour. Today Germany is one of, if not, the leading economic power in Europe. After all these years, now they have woken up, and they are increasing their funding pledge to NATO to increase their military. One thing we do know, and that is Hitler was given Rome’s blessing to conquer, and hopefully restore the Roman Empire, but this did not happen. (See our series on the sins of our forefathers and see the blessings of the Pope at the end of this transcript). There is still one to come that will accomplish this task, and the last resurrection of the Roman Empire will fulfill Daniel 2:31-45. We will look at 40-43 “Then there will be a fourth kingdom as strong as iron; just as iron smashes and crushes everything, so, like iron that crushes, it will smash and crush all these things. And in that you saw the feet and toes, partly of potter’s clay and partly of iron, it will be a divided kingdom; but it will have within it some of the toughness of iron, since you saw the iron mixed with common clay. And just as the toes of the feet were partly of iron and partly of pottery, so some of the kingdom will be strong, and part of it will be fragile. In that, you saw the iron mixed with common clay, they will combine with one another in their descendants; but they will not adhere to one another, just as iron does not combine with pottery.”

Next we will look at the bear.

The Sins of our Forefathers Part 9 

The Roman Empire and the Blessings of the Pope. 

Daniel 7, and Revelation 13, and 17, all point to an interesting sequence of events that could easily be considered as the Roman Empire. Here is only a part of each segment of Scripture. Let’s see if you agree. Daniel 7:24-25, “As for the ten horns, out of this kingdom ten kings will arise; and another will arise after them, and he will be different from the previous ones and will humble three kings. And he will speak against the Most High and wear down the saints of the Highest One, and he will intend to make alterations in times and in law; and they will be handed over to him for a time, times, and half a time.” Revelation 17:9-10, could this mean seven resurrections of the Roman Empire? “Here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains upon which the woman sits, and they are seven kings; five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; and when he comes, he must remain a little while.” Revelation 13:1,3, “Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.” “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.” The Western Empire fell in 476 CE and in 553 CE the eastern Roman Emperor Justinian and his armies had succeeded in reconquering Italy and all of the Western Empire. Justinian looked to the church and decreed that the proper people be chosen to govern by the bishops(who later would be called popes) and those influential people in each province. The church and the state reunited once again in the west. This was called the “Imperial Restoration.” Revelation 13 says, “I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed.” The deadly wound that Rome’s Empire felt in 476 was now revived and brought back to life by Justinian, but there would be six and even seven times more attempts to bring back the “Eternal City” called Rome, the Holy Roman Empire ruled by the Church of Rome which began in 554CE to even today. The protection that the east was giving the west now became negotiable and King Charles, king of the Franks and Leo, Bishop of Rome, held negotiations to resolve this problem. In 800 CE, on Christmas day, Charlemagne, the king of the Franks 1 knelt before St. Peter’s altar and Pope Leo placed a jeweled crown on his head and anointed him with holy oil. So was the coronation of Charles the Augustus as the pope saluted him, “Charlemagne as Emperor and Augustus.” So we see first Justinian and now Charlemagne second. Charlemagne King of the Franks now became part of the Holy Roman Empire. In 936 CE, the German Saxons became the most powerful group in central Europe. In 955 Otto, Duke of the Saxons and king of the Germans entered Italy at the request of Pope John XII and crowned him with the imperial crown at Pavia in 962 and so the restoration of the Roman empire continued with King Otto being the third. The Holy Empire was now to a large extent German in its ways and politics , but definitely Rome in its legacy. Rome was out to conquer the world. The church was now a political machine, and there was no stopping it. Otto had imperial symbols like the imperial apple, filled with the earth from the four corners of the world. He called the crown, the crown of Rome and of the globe and he called himself the head of the world and ruler of the globe and of Rome and the empire went on for another 300 years till Rudolph I was elected emperor in 1273.This was the first for the Hapsburg family to be placed on the imperial throne and it came with Rudolphs’ descendant Charles V in 1530 when Pope Clement VII crowned him king. He was now the fourth to receive the blessings of the pope, and this was the fourth revival of the Roman Empire. By the 18th Century the title “Holy Roman Emperor” became an empty title. By the end of the 18th Century life was about to change and it was called the French Revolution. An ambitious man from France rose up whose name was Napoleon Bonaparte and his goal was to be the head of a French Republic, even king of all of France. He considered himself to be a successor of Caesar and Charlemagne. In 1791 Avignon had removed itself from the papal control and annexed themselves with France. In 1797 Napoleon had taken several papal territories and in 1791 he had taken control of the rest of the papal territories and claimed the Roman Republic. The Hapsburg Family of Austria joined with Napoleon and even helped him to gain the imperial title. The Holy Roman Empire was seeing itself fall apart. Napoleon gained land from Spain and France, Holland , Belgium and western Germany and even Italy. Is this beginning  to look like something familiar? It should and we will see as we go on that it was all too familiar. In 1804 Pope Pius sought peace with France and presided over the imperial coronation of Napoleon, thus making him the fifth crowned by the pope and the fifth revival of the western Imperium since Justinian. This was in fact a period of 1,260 years since the imperial restoration under Justinian in 554, thus fulfilling Revelation 13:3-5 The beast was given authority for forty-two months which equals 1260 days, but there were still two more attempts to be made in this prophecy regarding ancient Rome. By 1871 Bismark united all of the non- Hapsburgs of Germany under the Prussian king while Garibaldi united all of Italy under the northern king Sardinia-Piedmont. Fifty years after Garibaldi’s inauguration, he too, had visions of restoring the glory of ancient Rome. Well, it happened and it was led by a man named Benito Mussolini. He led his Fascist to power in 1922. Fascists derived their name from the faces of Imperial Rome. The “Faces” was an ax wrapped in a bundle of rods signifying unity and authority. Back in the day it was carried by Roman consuls as a symbol of their office. In 1870 King Victor Emanuel defeated the armies of the pope and captured Rome. Needless to say that the pope and it’s new rulers were cold to each other, but in 1929 Mussolini signed the Lateran Treaty with the pope which gave the papal sovereignty over the Vatican City which made Mussolini’s government the first Italian government in modern history to be recognized officially by the pope. This treaty was just a prelude to the one that would be signed four years later, in July 1933, between the pope and the Nazi government of Germany. Mussolini went and conquered Ethiopia and Somaliland in 1896 and in 1936 Mussolini proclaimed from the Palace of Venezia that after 15 centuries, the reappearance of the Empire on its hills of Rome. Mussolini entered into an alliance with Adolf Hitler that resulted in the Rome-Berlin Axis of World War II. This was the sixth attempt at uniting Europe by reviving Imperial Rome, but it was short-lived by the defeat of Germany in 1945. After the war Stalin made himself known in Europe but after defeating Nazsism, the world did not want communism either. In 1957 with the Treaty of Rome a Common Market began with France, West Germany, Italy and three Benelux states. This became what we know today as the  European Union. So is it true that the popes played a role in the end times scenario? Six attempts have been made to restore ancient Rome with the help of the popes and there will be one more attempt. Keep your eyes open, and maybe we will see this last attempt to fulfill the prophecies in the Book of Revelation. 

Welcome

They say, “April showers bring May flowers.” But what else does April bring us?

More times than not, it brings us to a time of remembrance of our Savior’s death and resurrection. Unfortunately today many people do not even consider it. Bunnies, and baskets of candy, and coloring eggs, take center stage. The days of sitting in church reflecting from noon to three are long gone. Even in our modern translations, our Bibles have omitted the shed blood of our Messiah.  This is why Yeshua said to His disciples at the Seder Meal, when you get to this point in the Seder, “Remember it’s about Me” (paraphrased).  Today, as you prepare for this memorable time, let us remember with hearts eternally grateful for the shed blood of our Messiah, and let us go from there into a celebration of praise for such a great salvation, for He has truly risen to eternal glory!

The Atonement is in the Blood

This month we remember the sacrifice of the lamb. The first time that we see a sacrifice of a lamb that has any significance was in Exodus 12:2-7,  “This month shall be the beginning of months for you; it is to be the first month of the year for you. Speak to all the congregation of Israel, saying, ‘On the tenth of this month they are, each one, to take a lamb for themselves, according to the fathers’ households, a lamb for each household.  Now if the household is too small for a lamb, then he and his neighbor nearest to his house are to take one according to the number of persons in them; in proportion to what each one should eat, you are to divide the lamb.  Your lamb shall be an unblemished male a year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You shall keep it until the fourteenth day of the same month, then the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel is to slaughter it at twilight.  Moreover, they shall take some of the blood and put it on the two doorposts and on the lintel of the houses in which they eat it.”

So let us begin in the first line, God says,  “This shall be the beginning of months for you.”  Originally this would have been the seventh month, but now God has changed the order of things. At the time of Creation the first month, which is now the seventh month, was the time of Rosh Hashanah, which means “head of the year, ” Rosh Hashanah is considered the birthday of Creation. This is  the civil New Year of the Jewish calendar, the year 5782. There are ten days between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. These are called the Days of Awe. This is a time of repentance. From Creation to Yom Kippur we know that Adam and Eve sinned.

 Yom Kippur most likely was the first atonement when God sacrificed animals to clothe Adam and Eve, in Genesis 3:21, “And the Lord God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.” 

These animals most likely were sheep, though it does not say, but because Yeshua was to be the atonement for their sin,  He was called the Lamb of God, so it is safe to say that they would have been sheep that God sacrificed for their atonement. And those garments from that atonement which were used to cover  Adam and Eve are like  Yeshua’s blood that covers us, and makes us righteous. So then, those garments could be called “Robes of Righteousness.” Adam and Eve then were driven from the Garden of Eden. This exodus from the garden was like the exodus from Egypt. They too, went  into the wilderness after the sacrifice of the lamb and just like the people leaving Egypt lived in tents, so too Adam and Eve.  This would have been the first Feast of Tabernacles.  But now God says that this no longer would be the first month to you,  Why? Because now it was not only to be about their exodus from Egypt, but one day it would be about our exodus from sin. And the lamb and it’s blood placed on the lintels of the doorpost, would be the Lamb of God and His blood placed on our hearts. So what Yeshua has fulfilled has taken us full circle from Creation. Let’s look at this in Scripture. Exodus 12 tells us about  the blood of the lamb that was to be put on the doorposts and lintels of the house.

Exodus 12 :12-13 continues,  “For I will go through the land of Egypt on that night, and fatally strike all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, from the human firstborn to animals; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgments—I am the Lord.  The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

We see that  the blood was to be a sign, and that blood was going to keep the death angel from striking that house. So the death of the lamb was actually saving life through it’s blood.   Leviticus 17:11 tells us this,  “For the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you on the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood by reason of the life that makes atonement.”

Once again the blood was bringing atonement. 

John 1:29 tells us this about John the Baptist, “The next day he saw Yeshua coming to him, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!”

 Many years later the Lamb of God came to shed His blood. This sacrifice  would be the fulfilment of God’s promise to Adam and Eve. It would be a fulfilment of the Exodus story. As the blood atoned for Adam and Eve, and for God’s people in Egypt, so too, this Lamb would atone for all of man’s sin. We saw in Exodus 12 that a lamb was to be picked out on the tenth day of the first month and held till the fourteenth day, the day called Passover. This was to give the one who was going to offer the lamb time to examine it to see if it was truly without spot or blemish. We see in Matthew 21:7-11, that Yeshua came into Jerusalem on the tenth day of the first month and He rode upon a donkey for all to see. “ And brought the donkey and the colt, and laid their cloaks on them; and He sat on the cloaks.  Most of the crowd spread their cloaks on the road, and others were cutting branches from the trees and spreading them on the road.  Now the crowds going ahead of Him, and those who followed, were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David; Blessed is the One who comes in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest!” When He had entered Jerusalem, all the city was stirred, saying, “Who is this?”  And the crowds were saying, “This is Yeshua the prophet, from Nazareth in Galilee.” 

The people did see, and deemed Him the One sent by God. 1 Peter 1 17-19 says, “If you address as Father the One who impartially judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves in fear during the time of your stay on earth; knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers,  but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Messiah.

Matthew 21: 12-13 tells us what Yeshua did right after He entered Jerusalem,

“And Yeshua entered the temple area and drove out all those who were selling and buying on the temple grounds, and He overturned the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who were selling doves.  And He said to them, “It is written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer’; but you are making it a den of robbers.”

Yeshua cleanses the temple and rids it of all uncleanness, all spot and blemish.

1 Corinthians 3:16, tells us, “Don’t you know that you yourselves are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in your midst?”

We also see that husbands are to be like the Messiah as Ephesians 5:25-27,

“As for husbands, love your wives, just as the Messiah loves the Community of Believers, and indeed, gave Himself up on its behalf,  in order to set it apart for God, making it clean through immersion, so to speak,  in order to present the Community of Believers to Himself as a bride to be proud of, without a spot, wrinkle or any such thing, but holy and without defect.”

Hebrews 9:19-22 tells us this,  “For when every commandment had been spoken by Moses to all the people according to the Law, he took the blood of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and sprinkled both the book itself and all the people,  saying, “This is the blood of the covenant which God commanded you.”  And in the same way he sprinkled both the tabernacle and all the vessels of the ministry with the blood.  And almost all things are cleansed with blood, according to the Law, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.”

Without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness. We have seen this to be true beginning with Adam and Eve. Matthew 26:27-28, “ Also He took a cup of wine, made the blessing, and gave it to them, saying, “All of you, drink from it!  For this is My blood, which ratifies the New Covenant, My blood shed on behalf of many, so that they may have their sins forgiven.”

We all have sinned, and we all have need for the blood of the Lamb. We all have our own Exodus as Colossians 1:13-20 tells us, “For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son,  in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation:  for by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones, or dominions, or rulers, or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. He is before all things, and in Him all things hold together.  He is also the head of the body, the church; and He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.  For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him,  and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.”

John 19:30 says, “He said, “It is finished!” And He bowed His head and gave up His spirit.”

When we think of  Yeshua hanging on the cross, remember this: 

It may have been the grace of God to send His Son to die for us,  because He so loved us, but 

You are saved by the shed blood of the precious Lamb of God, and do not ever forget it.

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Recipe Corner:   Must- Have Tiramisu by Taste of Home.com

Ingredients:       

 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

2 cups vanilla yogurt          

1 cup fat-free milk 

1/2 cup brewed espresso or strong coffee, cooled                                               24 crisp ladyfinger cookies    

Baking cocoa       

Fresh raspberries, optional

1. In a small bowl, beat cream until stiff peaks form; fold in yogurt. Spread 1/2 cup cream mixture onto bottom of an 8-in. square dish.
2. In a shallow dish, mix milk and espresso. Quickly dip 12 ladyfingers into espresso mixture, allowing excess to drip off. Arrange the dish in a single layer, breaking to fit as needed. Top with half of the remaining cream mixture; dust with cocoa. Repeat layers.
3. Refrigerate, covered, at least 2 hours before serving. If desired, serve with raspberries.

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Kids Corner:

One day we too, will rise from the dead and we will live with God forever. What a day of rejoicing that will be when we all get to heaven and live together with our heavenly Father. 

Numbers 21:16-17,  “From there they continued on to Be’er, the well where the Lord said to Moses, “Gather the people together and I will give them water.”

Then Israel sang this song: “Spring up, O well! Sing to it!”

Be’er in Hebrew means well. When Israel was in need of water God always provided.  The first well mentioned in Scripture is in Genesis 16:14, in the wilderness, on the way to Shur, where Hagar sat down when fleeing from Sarai. Later it was named Beer-lahai-roi, “The well of Him that lives and sees me” 

 The second well mentioned is also in connection with Hagar’s history in the wilderness of Beersheba. Genesis 21:19, “Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. So she went and filled the skin with water and gave the boy a drink.”

Abraham and Isaac and Jacob are also best known for digging a few wells. Beersheba is best known, for it was there that Abraham made a covenant with Abimelech.  

Genesis 21:25-31, tells us, “Then Abraham complained to Abimelech about a well of water that Abimelek’s servants had seized.  But Abimelek said, “I don’t know who has done this. You did not tell me, and I heard about it only today.”  So Abraham brought sheep and cattle and gave them to Abimelech, and the two men made a treaty. Abraham set apart seven ewe lambs from the flock,  and Abimelek asked Abraham, “What is the meaning of these seven ewe lambs you have set apart by themselves?”  He replied, “Accept these seven lambs from my hand as a witness that I dug this well.”  So that place was called Beersheba, because the two men swore an oath there. The name seems to be a Hebrew play on words—beʾer “well”; shevaʿ “oath,” or “seven” referring to the seven lambs.

As we see water seems to play a big part in Biblical events. Most of all you can not forget Creation as Genesis 1:1 says this, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” 

We know that God separated the water to create the dry ground and we also know that man is made of more than half water. Water is life! Yeshua says this in John 4:4-10, “Now He had to go through Samaria.  So He came to a town in Samaria called Sychar, near the plot of ground Jacob had given to his son Joseph.  Jacob’s well was there, and Yeshua, tired as He was from the journey, sat down by the well. It was about noon. When a Samaritan woman came to draw water, Yeshua said to her, “Will you give Me a drink?” The Samaritan woman said to Him, “You are a Jew and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink?” Yeshua answered her, “If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked Him and He would have given you living water.”

John 7:37-39 also tells us this, “On the last day, that great day of the feast, Yeshua stood and cried out, saying, “If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive.” 

Years ago there was a song that went like this: “I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me, makes the lame to walk and the blind to see, opens prison doors, sets the captives free, I’ve got a river of life flowing out of me. Spring up, O well, within my soul, spring up oh well, and make me whole, spring up, O well, and give to me, That life, abundantly.” 

John 4:13-14, Yeshua went on to say, “Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again,  but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.”

Life, true life, is in God, and He gives us that life in the Holy Spirit, like a river flowing inside us constantly moving, never stagnant, always fresh and clean, producing even more life abundantly.  Today, are you thirsty, thirsty for the Holy Spirit? Is your spirit longing for that life giving water to heal you, and set you free from within? God is the God of abundance, and He will give to those who eagerly desire life, His life, Eternal life.  Come and drink from the well of salvation as Isaiah 12: 3 tells us, “With joy you will draw water from the wells of salvation.” Come to God’s well and never thirst again. Maybe that is why God gave us the Holy Spirit fifty days after the crucifixion, so that our joy would be complete in Him, as we drink from the well of  salvation, filled with the Holy Spirit, with the life giving water springing up within you. Then you too, will be singing,  

“Spring up, O well, within my soul, and give to me, that life abundantly.”

Click to access He-has-risen.pdf

We know that history repeats itself, and we have seen that prophecy does also.

In Part 2 we saw that in the prophecy of Daniel 7:1-8,  that the Lion is Germany.

Next we want to look at the Bear. The Bear is the easiest to relate to in today’s world. We know that Russia is the Bear. Then there was another animal, a second one, like a bear. It raised itself up on one side, and it had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. It was told, ‘Get up, and gorge yourself with flesh!’ 

This is definitely President Vladimir Putin. We see that the Bear has three ribs in its mouth between its teeth. Who are these three ribs? Most likely they are the ribs of the Bear. It is told to “get up, and gorge yourself with flesh.”

We have seen this to be true with Russia. Over the last several decades Russia has been exactly that, a bear. It has been very aggressive in annihilating countries and people who have broken away from the original USSR to bring them back to the original Motherland and in so doing, tens of thousands of people have died as we saw with Georgia, Crimea, and now the Ukraine. It also went after those who were not part of the Motherland as we still remember the slaughter in Chechnya.

We know what we see today, and we know what we have seen over the last decades, but what will the Bear do going forward? Will he stop after he resurrects the old USSR or will he have ambitions to continue his quest for more flesh?

Let us now continue looking at  Daniel 7:1-7. “After this, I looked; and there was another one, like a leopard with four bird’s wings on its sides. The animal also had four heads, and it was given power to rule.”

We see that the country of Iran is known for being the home of the Persian Leopard. The leopard is symbolic of strength, power and speed. We see that also this leopard has four bird wings on its side and four heads.  Iranians are Shiates who are Twelvers. Twelvers believe that the Twelve Imams are the spiritual and political successors to the Islamic Prophet Muhammad. According to the theology of Twelvers, the Twelve Imams are exemplary human individuals who not only rule over the community with justice, but are also able to preserve and interpret sharia and the esoteric meaning of the Quran. Starting with Muhammad’s descendants, beginning with sons Hassan and Hussein, continued the line of Imams until the time of the Twelfth Imam, also called Muhammad. The only son of the Eleventh Imam, Muhammad took over on the death of his father in the 10th century, but disappeared without a trace at the age of five. The Twelfth Imam has since become Islam’s only messianic figure. Shia Muslims believe he merely withdrew from public view in what is called “the Great Occultation” and that he will eventually emerge when God commands him to liberate the world from evil. Referred to as the “Hidden Imam” or the Mahdi [ divinely guided one], Shia Muslims believe the Twelfth Imam remains spiritually present in the world, even if physically hidden. Some believe he appears during certain invocations and prayers. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad often refers publicly to the Twelfth Imam. In September 2005, he concluded his first speech before the UN by calling on God to hasten the return of the Imam. At a theology conference later that year he declared: “The most important task of our revolution is to prepare the way for the return of the Twelfth Imam.” According to Al-Islam.org, this is what will bring about the Twelfth Imam. 

See if you don’t think it sounds like the end times.

“Traditions have been reported mentioning the signs for the time of the appearance of the Imam who will arise (qa’im), peace be on him, and the events which will take place before his appearance, together with the indications and features of it. Among them are: The Sufyani will come out in revolt; the Hasanid will be killed; the Abbasids will dispute over worldly kingdom; there will be an eclipse of the sun in the middle of the month of Ramadan; there will be an eclipse of the moon at the end of that month in contrast to ordinary happenings; the land will be swallowed up at al-Bayda’; it will be swallowed in the east-it will be swallowed up in the west; the sun will stay still from the time of its decline to the middle of the time for the afternoon prayer. It will rise from the west; a pure soul (nafs al-zakiyya) will be killed in the outskirts of Kufa with seventy righteous men; a Hashimite will be slaughtered between the corner (of the Ka’ba) and the station of Abraham); the wall of the mosque of Kufa will be destroyed; black standards will advance from Khurasan; al-Yamani will come out in revolt; al-Maghribi will appear in Egypt and take possession of it from Syria. The Turk will occupy the region of al-Jazira; the Byzantines will occupy Ramla; the star will appear in the east giving light just like the moon gives light; then (the new moon) will bend until its two tips almost meet; a color will appear in the sky and spread to its horizons; a fire will appear for a long time in the east remaining in the air for three or seven days; the Arabs will throw off the reins and take possession of their land, throwing out the foreign authority; the people of Egypt will kill their ruler and destroy Syria; and three standards will dispute over it (Syria).The standards of Qays and the Arabs will come among the people of Egypt; the standards of Kinda (will go) to Khurasan; horses will come from the west until they are stabled in al-Hira; the black standards will advance towards them from the east; the Euphrates will flood so that the water comes into the alleys of Kufa; sixty liars will come forward, all of them claiming prophethood, and twelve will come forward from the family of Abu Talib, all of them claiming the Imamate; a man of important rank of the supporters of the ‘Abbasids will be burnt between Jalula’ and Khaniqin. The bridge next to Karkh in the city of Baghdad will be established; a black wind will raise it at the beginning of the day and then an earthquake will occur so that much of it will be swallowed up; fear will cover the people of Iraq and Baghdad; swift death (will occur) there and there will be a loss of property, lives and harvests; locusts will appear at their usual times and at times not usual so that they attack agricultural land and crops and there will be little harvest for what the people planted; two kinds of foreigners will dispute and much blood will be shed in their quarrel.Slaves will rebel against obedience to their masters and kill their masters (mawali); a group of heretics (ahl al-bida) will be transformed until they become monkeys and pigs; slaves will conquer the land of their masters; a cry (will come) from the sky (in such a way) that all the people will hear it in their own languages; a face and a chest will appear in the sky before the people in the centre of the sun; the dead will arise from their graves so that they will return to the world and they will recognize one another and visit one another; that will come to an end with twenty-four continuous rainstorms and the land will be revived by them after being dead and it will recognize its blessings; after that every disease will be taken away from those of the Shia of the Mahdi, peace be on him, who believe in the truth; at that time they will know of his appearance in Mecca and they will go to him to support him. (These signs) are as the reports have mentioned. Among the total of these events are some which are bound (to happen) and others which are conditional. God knows best what will take place. We have only mentioned them on the basis of what is recounted in basic sources of tradition (usul) because of their inclusion in traditions which have been handed down. From God we seek help and Him do we ask for success.”

So who are the four bird wings and the four heads who were given power? 

Most likely

Lebanon, Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Turkey, Syria, Sudan, Libya.

As we continue to look at Daniel 7:1-8, it goes on to say, “After this, I looked in the night visions; and there before me was a fourth animal, dreadful, horrible, extremely strong, and with great iron teeth. It devoured, crushed and stamped its feet on what was left. It was different from all the animals that had gone before it, and it had ten horns. While I was thinking about the horns, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them, and three of the previous horns were plucked out before it; and behold, this horn possessed eyes like human eyes, and a mouth uttering great boasts.”

Revelation 13:1-6  tells us this about that horn that will pluck out the three.

“And the dragon stood on the sand of the seashore. Then I saw a beast coming up out of the sea, having ten horns and seven heads, and on his horns were ten crowns, and on his heads were blasphemous names.  And the beast that I saw was like a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a lion. And the dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority.  I saw one of his heads as if it had been fatally wounded, and his fatal wound was healed. And the whole earth was amazed and followed after the beast;  they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast; and they worshiped the beast, saying, “Who is like the beast, and who is able to wage war with him?”  A mouth was given to him speaking arrogant words and blasphemies, and authority to act for forty-two months was given to him.  And he opened his mouth in blasphemies against God, to blaspheme His name and His tabernacle, that is, those who dwell in heaven.”

The fourth animal is the European Union, but not like it is today, this will also be a one world government, ruled by the Antichrist. This will be the resurrection of the last Roman Empire. This fourth animal will get the blessings of the Pope ( see our podcast on the Sins of our Forefathers, or read the transcript at the end of Part 2 of this series) and we will see once again this empire rise to do destruction as did the past Roman Empires. But who will be the ten countries? They will be led by France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Poland, possibly, Rumania, Spain, Greece, Hungary, and Bulgaria, maybe Slovakia, or the Czech Republic could replace Spain or Greece, who may  drop out. 

We also see here the lion, bear and leopard will have great power. Out of this Roman Empire the Antichrist will arise. He will pluck out three of the horns, these most likely will be three of the weaker countries in the EU and then the beast will have seven horns and seven heads. Ezekiel tells us what will happen to the lion, bear and leopard. We see in Ezekiel 38 that Gog who is the ruler of Magog will invade Israel. Ezekiel 38:1-9 says,  “Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, “Son of man, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, and say, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. So I will turn you around and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them magnificently dressed, a great contingent with shield and buckler, all of them wielding swords; Persia, Cush, and Put with them, all of them with buckler and helmet;  Gomer with all its troops; Beth-togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all its troops—many peoples with you. Be ready, and be prepared, you and all your contingents that are assembled around you, and be a guard for them. After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel which had been a continual place of ruins; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are living securely, all of them. And you will go up, you will come like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you. ‘This is what the Lord God says: “It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil plan.”

And again in Ezekiel 39: 17-23  speaking to Gogsays, ‘This is what the Lord God says: “Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them? It will come about on that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel,” declares the Lord God, “that My fury will mount up in My anger. In My zeal and in My blazing wrath I declare that on that day there will certainly be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, all the crawling things that crawl on the earth, and all mankind who are on the face of the earth will shake at My presence; and the mountains will be thrown down, the steep pathways will collapse, and every wall will fall to the ground. And I will call for a sword against him on all My mountains,” declares the Lord God. “Every man’s sword will be against his brother. With plague and with blood I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain on him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and brimstone. So I will prove Myself great, show Myself holy, and make Myself known in the sight of many nations; and they will know that I am the Lord.”’

God will cause Israel to be invaded, but not conquered.

We see here that Gog is the ruler of Magog which is Russia, the Bear. “Persia” is Iran, the leopard. “Cush” is  Ethiopia or Sudan and “Put” is Libya and “Gomer” is Germany,  the Lion.

So we see here the demise of the Lion, Bear and the Leopard and all those who go with them, will all go and invade Israel. We see the outcome in Ezekiel 39 that God will crush their power and might, like He did to Egypt at the time of the Exodus. 

But not before they do great destruction and persecution as we see in 

Hosesa 13:6- 8 says,  “As they had their pasture, they became satisfied,

and as they became satisfied, their heart became proud; therefore they forgot Me. So I will be like a lion to them; like a leopard I will lie in wait by the wayside.

I will confront them like a bear deprived of her cubs, and I will tear open their chests; I will also devour them there like a lioness, as a wild animal would tear them to pieces.”

Amoss 5:18-19 speaks about the Day of the Lord.

“Woe to you who longfor the day of the Lord! Why do you long for the day of the Lord? That day will be darkness, not light. It will be as though a man fled from a lion only to meet a bear, as though he entered his house and rested his hand on the wall only to have a snake bite him.

Revelation 13:7-10 also says, “It was also given to him to make war with the saints and to overcome them, and authority was given to him over every tribe, people, language, and nation. All who live on the earth will worship him, everyone whose name has not been written since the foundation of the world in the book of life of the Lamb who has been slaughtered. If anyone has an ear, let him hear. If anyone is destined for captivity, to captivity he goes; if anyone kills with the sword, with the sword he must be killed. Here is the perseverance and the faith of the saints.” 

But there is still one more beast as Revelation 13:11-18 tells us, 

“Then I saw another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spoke as a dragon. He exercises all the authority of the first beast in his presence. And he makes the earth and those who live on it worship the first beast, whose fatal wound was healed. He performs great signs, so that he even makes fire come down out of the sky to the earth in the presence of people. And he deceives those who live on the earth because of the signs which it was given him to perform in the presence of the beast, telling those who live on the earth to make an image to the beast who had the wound of the sword and has come to life. And it was given to him to give breath to the image of the beast, so that the image of the beast would even speak and cause all who do not worship the image of the beast to be killed. And he causes all, the small and the great, the rich and the poor, and the free and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, and he decrees that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man; and his number is six hundred and sixty-six.”

Let’s go back to Matthew 24:15-28, where once again we will see the warning of Yeshua which speaks to us about this time.

“Therefore when you see the abomination of desolation which was spoken of through Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place—let the reader understand— then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains. Whoever is on the housetop must not go down to get things out of his house. And whoever is in the field must not turn back to get his cloak. But woe to those women who are pregnant, and to those who are nursing babies in those days! Moreover, pray that when you flee, it will not be in the winter, or on a Sabbath. For then there will be a great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will again. And if those days had not been cut short, no life would have been saved; but for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short. Then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Messiah,’ or ‘He is over here,’ do not believe him. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will provide great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect. Behold, I have told you in advance. So if they say to you, ‘Behold, He is in the wilderness,’ do not go out; or, ‘Behold, He is in the inner rooms,’ do not believe them. For just as the lightning comes from the east and flashes as far as the west, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. Wherever the corpse is, there the vultures will gather.”

Once again we see Yeshua warning us about false prophets, because that is one of the beasts. Let’s take Yeshua’s warning and let’s not run after every preacher or teacher who tells us anything different because when Yeshua returns we will all know it without a doubt. There will be no need for signs and wonders. 

Who are the corpses?  They are those who are dead to the Holy Spirit, they have ears to hear, but do not listen.

In this series we have looked at different prophecies related to the end times. In this episode we are going to look at the Dragon.

Revelations 13:1-4 tells us,

“The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name.  The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.  One of the heads of the beast seemed to have had a fatal wound, but the fatal wound had been healed. The whole world was filled with wonder and followed the beast.  People worshiped the dragon because he had given authority to the beast, and they also worshiped the beast and asked, “Who is like the beast? Who can wage war against it?”

We see here that the Dragon was standing on the shore of the sea when a Beast comes out of it, and the Dragon gives authority to the Beast. The Dragon has always been considered  to be the devil and for sure is, but  we have another thought. We believe in this Scripture that the Dragon is China and the Dragon China is going to give the beast not only authority but power. A dragon is not fast on its feet, it does not eat things up with its teeth or tear things apart with its hands, but it does spit out fire from its mouth and that is what it uses to devour things. In Scripture we read a lot about the Dragon. Let’s take a closer look. In Ezekiel 29:2-3 we see the King James Version of the  Scriptures using the analogy of the Dragon as the king of Egypt as it says, “Son of man, set thy face against Pharaoh king of Egypt, and prophesy against him, and against all Egypt: speak, and say, Thus saith the Lord God;  “Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, “My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself.”’

Isaiah 27:1 says this, “ On that day the Lord will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, with His fierce and great and mighty sword, even Leviathan the twisted serpent; and He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.”

I think we will see our answer here in Revelation :3:1-4,  “A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; and she was pregnant and she cried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. Then another sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and on his heads were seven crowns. And his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven and hurled them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth he might devour her Child.”

China is known as the “Communist Red China.”  What we see here is that the dragon has seven heads and ten horns. This is what we looked at in Part four. This was the European Union. Humanism, which is like Communism is going to be the government of the New World Order. This is the beast that everyone will worship.  The Ukraine War has woken up a sleeping giant. It has caused Germany to rebuild its military, and even before the war, France has been speaking of a European Union Army. Europe can no longer depend on the United States to protect them, and so they are taking matters into their own hands, and this will lead to many wars. So how does China figure into all of this? We have recently seen that China has entered into a treaty with Russia and it will enter into a treaty with the EU and even with countries like Iran.  China is becoming the world leader, but it does not necessarily have to fight the wars, but only back the wars financially. Yes, China wants to take over Asia and even Euro-Asia, but it also wants to take over the world.  And so you will see this great Dragon, not fighting with its hands, but its fiery flames as it breathes destruction.  A dragon has a long powerful tail, and we see in Revelations 3, that the Dragon will use its tail to wipe out a third of the stars and hurl them to earth. This is the Dragon conquering nations.  

Revelation 3:2-3  speaks to us about the Lion, Leopard and BearAnd the Beast that I saw was like a Leopard, and his feet were like those of a Bear, and his mouth like the mouth of a Lion. And the Dragon gave him his power and his throne, and great authority. Yes, these three will wage war on Israel and they will be backed by China and as we saw, they will be defeated. This for sure will make the Dragon angry, so angry that as we will see, he will wage war even against the army of Yeshua.  One thing about China is that today they have 2 million soldiers fulfilling this prophecy in Revelation 9:13-19, “Then the sixth angel sounded, and I heard a voice from the four horns of the golden altar which is before God, saying to the sixth angel who had the trumpet, “Release the four angels who are bound at the great river Euphrates.” And the four angels, who had been prepared for the hour and day and month and year, were released, so that they would kill a third of mankind. The number of the armies of the horsemen was two hundred million; I heard the number of them. And this is how I saw in my vision the horses and those who sat on them: the riders had breastplates the color of fire, of hyacinth, and of brimstone; and the heads of the horses are like the heads of lions; and out of their mouths came fire and smoke and brimstone. A third of mankind was killed by these three plagues, by the fire, the smoke, and the brimstone which came out of their mouths. For the power of the horses is in their mouths and in their tails; for their tails are like serpents and have heads, and with them they do harm.”

We see here that their mouths are like the mouths of the Dragon and their tails are destructive tails of the dragon.  Revelation 16:13-16 says this,“And I saw coming out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet, three unclean spirits like frogs; for they are spirits of demons, performing signs, which go out to the kings of the entire world, to gather them together for the war of the great day of God, the Almighty. And they gathered them together to the place which in Hebrew is called Har-Magedon.”

Revelation 17:11-18 continues. “The beast which was, and is not, is himself also an eighth and is one of the seven, and he goes to destruction. The ten horns which you saw are ten kings who have not yet received a kingdom, but they receive authority as kings with the beast for one hour. These have one purpose, and they give their power and authority to the beast. These will wage war against the Lamb, and the Lamb will overcome them because He is Lord of lords and King of kings; and those who are with Him are the called and chosen and faithful.”And he said to me, “The waters which you saw where the prostitute sits are peoples and multitudes, and nations and languages. And the ten horns which you saw, and the beast, these will hate the prostitute and will make her desolate and naked, and will eat her flesh and will burn her up with fire. For God has put it in their hearts to execute His purpose by having a common purpose, and by giving their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God will be fulfilled. The woman whom you saw is the great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.”

Revelation 19:11-19 says,  “And I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse, and He who sat on it is called Faithful and True, and in righteousness He judges and wages war. His eyes are a flame of fire, and on His head are many crowns; and He has a name written on Him which no one knows except Himself. He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. From His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may strike down the nations, and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of God, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” Then I saw an angel standing in the sun, and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in midheaven, “Come, assemble for the great feast of God, so that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, both free and slaves, and small and great.”And I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies, assembled to make war against Him who sat on the horse, and against His army.” 

Yes, the final Roman Empire will be destroyed, along with the Lion, Bear and Leopard and the great red Dragon which we know was Satan himself who works behind the scenes of all evil and darkness. But as we see here, he too, will come to his demise.

Revelation 20:1-3, 7-10 continues with this “Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding the key of the abyss and a great chain in his hand. And he took hold of the dragon, the serpent of old, who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years; and he threw him into the abyss and shut it and sealed it over him, so that he would not deceive the nations any longer, until the thousand years were completed; after these things he must be released for a short time.”

“When the thousand years are completed, Satan will be released from his prison, and will come out to deceive the nations which are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together for the war; the number of them is like the sand of the seashore. And they came up on the broad plain of the earth and surrounded the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and fire came down from heaven and devoured them. And the devil who deceived them was thrown into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are also; and they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.”

 Yes, history repeats itself and so does prophecy but one day 1 Corinthians 13:8-10,12 tells us this  “Love never fails; but if there are gifts of prophecy, they will be done away with; if there are tongues, they will cease; if there is knowledge, it will be done away with. For we know in part and prophesy in part; but when the perfect comes, the partial will be done away with.”

“ For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I will know fully, just as I also have been fully known.”

Do I have a story for you..

There was a man named Abram and he had a wife named Sarai. God spoke to Abram and told him to leave all of his house, and friends, and even his brothers and sisters, and go to a land that God would show him. God even told him that he would make him a great nation, and bless him, and make his name great. 

God even said that all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.  Abram was seventy-five when he left his town of Haran.  He took Sarai and his young nephew Lot, whose father had died, and he  packed up all of his belongings, and they set out for the new land that the Lord was taking them to.

Scripture tells us this in Hebrews 11:8, “By faith Abraham, when he was called, obeyed by going out to a place which he was to receive for an inheritance; and he left, not knowing where he was going.”

As Abram was traveling God appeared to him and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” Abram pitched his tent near a mountain, at a place called Bethel, and built an altar and called on the name of the Lord.  

After some time, a famine came upon the land, and so Abram went down to Egypt till the famine had ended. On the way to Egypt, Abram said to Sarai, “Sarai, I know that you are such a beautiful woman, and it will come that the Egyptians will see you and they will ask me “Is this your wife?” If I say “Yes,  they will kill me for you. Please say that you are my sister, so that it will go well with me, and I will live because of you.” Abram, at this point, may have believed God that He would do all that He had spoken to him, but his faith was only in his mind, and not yet, in his heart, for Abram could not trust God enough to keep him alive, because he had to lie about his wife. Well, they did see Sarai in all of her beauty, and Pharaoh had her brought to his palace. They treated Abram well for her sake, and they gave him sheep and oxen, donkeys and many servants. But God struck Pharoah and his house with great plagues. Pharaoh called Abram and said, “What is this you have done?” Pharaoh had them all escorted out of the land of Egypt. This certainly was a prelude to the day when God would bring plagues upon Egypt and Moses would escort the people out of the land. 

Abram became a very rich man in livestock and in silver and gold. Abram went back to the place where he had pitched his tent from the beginning. By this time Lot also had flocks and herds, and they both grew to the point that their flocks needed more room to graze, and so the herdsmen of both Abram and Lot began to argue.  Abram said to his nephew, Lot, “ Our herds have gotten so large that we need more grazing land, so let us go our separate ways.   If you go to the left, I will go to the right. If you go to the right,  I will go to the left.” 

Lot chose for himself the valley of the Jordan. So Lot took all that he had, along with his family and those who worked for him, and departed. 

Now again God said to Abram, “Look all around you, for all the land you see I will give to you and your descendants forever.” Abram moved his tents, and dwelt by the Oaks of Mamre, which is called Hebron.  Hebrews 11:9-10 says, “By faith he made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country; he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise.  For he was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

Now it came about that a war broke out amongst several kings, and they took Lot and the people in his town captive.  Abram received word that his nephew Lot had been taken captive, so Abram took 318 trained men from his household and he left to find Lot. Abram and his men defeated Lot’s captives, and they set free all of the people from the town, and they took back their possessions. 

Abram was the hero, and the king of Sodom went out to meet him, along with the king of Salem, whose name was Melchizedek. He was not only a king,  but a priest unto God.  Melchizedek brought out wine and food to eat, to celebrate the occasion. He also blessed Abram and thanked God for such a victory.

By now Abram was not only known by many, but he was a powerful man in word and deed, but he had no children. So he asked God for a son. 

 God said to him,“Look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them, for so shall  your descendants be as numerous as the stars.” 

Abram believed God and it was looked upon him as righteousness. God made a promise to Abram. Hebrews 6:13-14 tells us this, “For when God made the promise to Abraham, since He could swear an oath by no one greater, He swore by Himself, saying, ‘indeed I will greatly bless you and I will greatly multiply you.”’

Now God had promised Abram not only the land all around him, but now descendants to numerous to count. Well, time came and went and Abram and Sarai became impatient waiting on God, so they came up with their own plan to start having these descendants. Sarai said, “Because I have not been able to have children, take my maid Hagar as your wife, and have your son.”

 So that is what Abram did and sure enough, Hagar was with child. This brought great distress to Sarai, and she took it out on Hagar. It got to the point that Sarai told Abram that Hagar had to leave and she did. The Lord found Hagar by a spring of water in the wilderness and told her to return  to Sarai. The day came for the child to be born, and it was a boy, and he was called Ishmael, the name God had given him.  

This powerful man, who was now 86 years old, had placed himself in a position where both of his wives were now at odds with each other, all because he did not wait upon God. We can create hardship for others and distress for ourselves. We can even divide our families, when we do not trust God, nor wait upon Him. Ecclesiastes 3:11 says,  “He will make all things beautiful in His time. James 1:2-4 tells us, “Dear brothers and sisters , is your life full of difficulties and temptations? Then be happy,  for when the way is rough, your patience has a chance to grow.  So let it grow, and don’t try to squirm out of your problems. For when your patience is finally in full bloom, then you will be ready for anything, strong in character, full and complete.”

 God was faithful to keep His word, and Abram was going to find this out for himself. 

Years went by and Abram was now 99 years old and God appeared to him again and told him to walk before Him blameless and God made another promise with Abram. God once again told Abram that he would be the father of many nations, and even kings will come forth from him. God swore a vow between Him and Abram and all of his descendants to come, a vow that would last forever. Once again God told him that the land that he has walked upon would be his descendants’ forever, but this time it was not just God making a promise to Abram, but Abram had to keep his end of the bargain. God said that he had to circumcise himself and his son Ishamael and all of the males in the household and that this was to be done from generation to generation as a sign between Abram and God and all of his descendants. It’s like a wedding ring is a sign between a man and wife of their promise to each other. 

Now God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, the father of many nations, and Sarai’s name to Sarah, for she shall be the mother of many nations.  God told him that she was going to have a son, and kings and peoples shall come from her. God also said to Abraham that Ishmael would be a great nation and he would  have 12 princes. But Isaac, who shall be Sarah’s son, would carry on the promise between him and God forever. 

Now Abraham journeyed once again, and once again, he came to a land where he told them that Sarah was his sister. The king took Sarah to his palace and God came to the king during the night in a dream and told him,“You are a dead man, because the woman that you have taken is married.”   

The king, ever so frightened, said, “Lord, will you kill me and my people, when I am an innocent man?” For he told me that she was his sister, and he was her brother, my heart is blameless, and my hands are innocent. I have done nothing.”

God responded to the king, “ Yes, I know that you have done nothing, because I have kept you from sinning against Me. Now give her back to her husband, for he is a prophet and he will pray for you, but if you do not I will kill you and all that is yours.”

The king called for Abraham and he said to him, “What have you done to us? And how have I sinned against you, that you have brought on me and my kingdom a great sin? You have done to me things that ought not to be done”

Abraham tells the king, “I said what I said because I thought, for sure, that there was no fear of God in this place, and you would kill me because of my wife.

Besides, she actually is my sister. She is my half-sister who I married. I told my wife that since we left our own country that wherever we traveled that this kindness be shown to me ; that she says that I am her brother.”

Once again we see that Abraham still does not totally trust God , even though he believes what God has spoken to him. 

Abraham  was still a work in progress as 2 Peter 1:5-11 tells us, “For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge;  and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness;  and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love.  For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my brothers and sisters  make every effort to confirm your calling and election. For if you do these things, you will never stumble,  and you will receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.”

God does not give up on those who walk with Him and He certainly did not give up on Abraham. Well, Abraham did pray for the king and God blessed the king. 

God also kept His promise to Abraham and Sarah and they had a son in God’s appointed time. God does all things, remember, in His time. Abraham called his son Isaac and according to the promise, Abraham circumcised Isaac on the eighth day.

Abraham was one hundred years old now, and Sarah was ninety.

Hebrews 11:11-12 says, “ By faith even Sarah, who was past childbearing age, was able to bear children because she considered Him faithful who had made the promise. And so from this one man, and he as good as dead, came descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as countless as the sand on the seashore.” 

Abraham had a great feast for Isaac on his birthday and everyone was invited. But Sarah saw Ishmael making fun of  little Isaac. Well, this made Sarah very angry, and she went to Abraham once again, and told him this, “Drive out this woman and her son, for her son shall not be an heir with my son Isaac.”

Abraham became very distressed over this, because Ishmael still was his son too.

But this time God says to Abraham, “Do not be distressed,  because of Ishmael, and his mother; listen to Sarah, for through Isaac your descendants shall be named. I will make a nation from Ishmael also.”

So Abraham took food and water and gave them to Hagar and sent them away. 

Sometimes God asks us to do things that are hard to do, but Romans 8:28 says,  

“And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose.”

Hagar finds herself lost and out of food and water. So Hagar did what she knew to do, and that was to pray and God heard her prayers and He showed her a well of water and also told her that Ishamael will become a great nation also.

We learned a great lesson here with Abraham, Sarah and Hagar and that is what 

Romans 5:1-5 tells us, “Therefore, since we have been justified through faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have gained access by faith into this grace in which we stand. And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out His love into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, whom He has given us.”

All three of them suffered because of a wrong decision, but God used it to produce character  and hope in each one of them.

The years had gone by and so the day came when God tested Abraham with his hardest test yet.  Abraham was always concerned that someone would kill him over his wife. Now God wanted to know if Abraham would kill his son whom he loved.

God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah and offer him there as a burnt offering on the mountain that I will show you.”

1 Peter 1:7 tells us, “These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus Christ is revealed to the whole world.”

Yes, Abraham was going to be put through the fire. So in the morning Abraham and Isaac set out for the land of Moriah. On the third day Abraham saw the place in the distance and he told his men who were traveling with him to stay in place as the boy and him went on ahead to worship God. As they were going along Isaac asked his father, “We have the wood for the fire, but where is the lamb?”

Abraham told him that God would provide the lamb. So Abraham laid out the wood, and he took Issac, and  placed him on the wood and took out his knife and began to plunge it toward Isaac, when God called out to him, “Abraham,  Abraham!”

“I’m here,” Abraham said. “Do not stretch out your hand against the boy. Do not harm him, for now I know that you fear Me, since you have not withheld your son from Me.”

Abraham looked, and there was a ram caught in the bushes and he offered it up to God.

Then God called to Abraham again and said,  “By Myself I have sworn, because you have done this thing and not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will multiply your descendants as the stars of heaven and as the sand which is on seashore; and your descendants shall possess the gate of their enemies.And from you all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you obeyed My voice.”

Hebrews 11:17-19 tells us, , “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son,  even though God had said to him, “It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.” Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”

WOW! The testing of our faith makes us not only strong in our walk with God, but it also makes us obedient to God. 

God also gave up His only begotten Son. You see, God never asks us to do anything that He Himself would not, or has not done. It was just as hard for God to see His Son die on the cross and be separated from Him because of the sin that He took upon Himself in our place. Hebrews 5:7-8,  speaking about the Messiah says,

“In the days of His humanity, He offered up both prayers and pleas with loud crying and tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His devout behavior.  Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Yes, the testing of our faith, those trials that can so often cause us to suffer, brings about obedience to God and God rewards our obedience. Deuteronomy 28 speaks of the rewards for obedience and it also speaks about our disobedience and those hold true till this day, because God never changes.

To all who have faith, Abraham is called our father. This is not just a great story, this is our heritage, for all who believe. Let’s close with  1 Peter 1:3-9 once again,  “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,  to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable, undefiled, and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you,  who are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last days.  In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,  obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

Click to access Facts-about-Pentecost.pdf

Click to access Pentecost-word-search.pdf

Kids Corner                              

  JudeoChristianClarion.Com

Do I have a story for you…

One day Daniel’s town was invaded by a king named Nebe-nezzer. He had his men gather all the people and they took the people to the place that  Nebe-nezzer ruled as king. Daniel was not alone because his three friends were with him. The king changed their names and made them dress like the king’s people, but Daniel and his friends knew who they were, and they were not going to change, no matter what. Daniel and his friends found favor with the king, but the king’s men waited till they could find something on Daniel and his friends and one day they did. They went to the king and said that these men were not bowing down to their false gods. At this time Daniel was not with his friends. The king made the boys bow down to his false gods, but they refused, so this is what happened. The king ordered that Daniel’s three friends be thrown into the fiery furnace.. But Daniel’s friends knew God, and they knew that God was with them, so they were not afraid. The furnace was so hot that the men who threw them in got burnt. When the king looked inside the furnace he saw four men and he asked, “Did we not throw in three men? Why is it I see four and they are not bound , but free walking around in the midst of the fire and the fourth man looks like the son of the gods.” So the king ordered the men to come out of the furnace and when they did, the king and his guards were amazed that the fire never touched them nor their clothes and they did not even smell of smoke. The king began to praise the God of  Daniel’s friends. 

Isaiah 43:1-2 says, “But now, this is what the Lord says, He who is your Creator, Jacob, and He who formed you, Israel: “Do not fear, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by name; you are Mine! When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you.”

So as time went on, and Nebe-nezzer was no longer the king, but a man named Darius, and he found Daniel to be faithful in his duties. So the king’s men plotted against Daniel, and they made the king sign an order to enforce a law that in the next thirty days if anyone prayed to another god they would be thrown into the lion’s den. Why, the lion’s den? 1 Peter 5:8 tells us this,

“Be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.”

These men knew that Daniel would go up on his roof and openly pray to his God. The king signed the document, and it went into law, not knowing that it was a plot to kill Daniel. Well, sure enough, Daniel went up on his roof and prayed to God like he did every day, and there they were ready to bring Daniel before the king. The king tried everything to release Daniel, but his men would not let him violate the law that he had just made. So the king had Daniel thrown into the lion’s den, but before they did, the king said to Daniel, “You God whom you serve so faithfully will deliver you Daniel.”

The men had a large stone rolled in front of the lion’s den  and the king sealed it with his signet ring. Matthew  speaks to us about Jesus when He was laid in the tomb and the large stone was placed in front of it. 

Matthew 27:65-66 says this,  “Pilate said to them, “You have a guard; go, make it as secure as you know how.”  And they went and made the tomb secure with the guard, sealing the stone.”

The king went off to his palace and spent the night fasting and he had no entertainment brought in and he did not sleep all night. Then the king rose early in the morning and quickly ran to the lion’s den to check on Daniel.

When he got there he called out, “Daniel, Daniel, has your God whom you serve been able to rescue you from the lions?”

Daniel yelled back, “O king live forever! My God sent His angel, and shut the lion’s mouths, and they have not harmed me as I was found innocent before Him.”

The king gave orders to take Daniel out of the lion’s den and when he came out the king was pleased to see Daniel. Then the king made another law that said, that all men should praise the God of Daniel, for He is the living God and that His kingdom is forever and He rescues and performs wonders and great things in heaven and on earth who has rescued Daniel from the power of the lions”

Psalm 21:11 tells us, “Though they intended evil against you and devised a plot,

they will not succeed.”

Wow! What a great story about God’s faithfulness to those who are faithful to Him.  We have seen that God is able to do all things. He not only rescued Daniel’s friends from the fiery furnace, but He stood with them in the furnace. 

We also saw that God was with Daniel in the lion’s den. God is always with us. He is there with us during our times of trouble. You can call on Him, and He will hear you, and He will be with you when you need Him the most. He will take you through your times of trouble, and He will not walk away from you as 1 Peter 1:6-9 says,  “In this you greatly rejoice, even though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed by various trials,  so that the proof of your faith, being more precious than gold which perishes though tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ;  and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”

What about you? Are you a Daniel? Do you have such faith and devotion to God, that nothing will stop you from praying or speaking about Him? Daniel and his friends were like- minded, and that is why they were friends. They knew what was the right thing to do, and that was not to bow down to a false god or worship anything other than the One True God. Today people are afraid of being canceled or snubbed if they do not go along with the crowd, but just think of what it means to be canceled by God? When Daniel and his friends needed God the most, God was faithful, and He was there even in the midst of the fiery furnace or the lion’s den. Today stand up and be counted in the ranks of God’s people, and be on the right side of every area of your life and you too, will see God’s hand in your life.

You never know when you may have to escape a fiery furnace, or the mouth of the lion,  and remember, Hell is a fiery furnace, and the devil is a roaring lion.

Welcome

Hello May! This month we begin our third year of the Clarion. We hope that you have enjoyed them, and that you have passed them on to family and friends. If you haven’t yet, you can sign-up to receive the Clarion with your emails.

We would like to wish all our mothers and grandmothers, foster mothers, godmothers, and soon to be mothers, all a very happy and blessed Mother’s Day.

To My Mother

Mother dear, life has gone by, and it has been many a year since you held me when I would cry. You always took away my fear, and you knew just what to do when I came near. Mother dear, it’s been too long since you sang me your song. 

I pray today that you could once again be here to stay, if God would only let it be, may it be, even for just a day.

Grace Alone

We have just remembered the crucifixion of  Yeshua, and it wasn’t all that long ago, we celebrated God’s gift to us, in the birth of Yeshua. Two important events that play a part in our salvation, the birth and the death of Yeshua. The early forefathers who believed more in doctrine than Scripture came up with the notion that we are saved by grace, and grace alone. Grace alone, is one of the five solas which makes up the foundation of the doctrine of the Reformation, which every Protestant Denomination is built upon. The Scripture that they based their belief on is Ephesians 2:8-9 which says, “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—  not by works, so that no one can boast.”

We want to take a closer look at this word grace and then determine if the literal use of the word was used.

So often we find that the Jewish origin of a word was not used properly in it’s translation. We also know that our forefathers were not interested in the literal meanings, for they had their own ideas, and their own doctrine to form.

Thus, while there are many translations in respects to the word grace, in both Jewish and Christian Bibles the word always signals that God has His hand in it. So in Christian theology, grace is the unearned, undeserved divine gift of unconditional love, mercy, favor, acceptance, forgiveness, sustenance and salvation from God through Yeshua to those who accept Him as Messiah, and Savior as we saw in Ephesians 2,  and here in Romans 11:6, “But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works, since otherwise grace is no longer grace.”

And we even see that it was added as commentary in Ephesians 2:4-5, “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our wrongdoings, made us alive together with Messiah (by grace you have been saved).” Let me say that commentary which was added is not the Word of God, but someone’s opinion.

 We have seen so many songs written about God’s grace, one famous song was “Amazing Grace” written by the clergyman John Newton in 1772  the one line reads, “Amazing grace! How sweet the sound, That saved a wretch like me!… How precious did that grace appear, the hour I first believed.”

The question is, is this true, that when you first believe in Yeshua, you are automatically saved, not only saved, but “Once saved always saved”  which was a doctrine that came out of this, all because of grace?

So let us look at this closer for there are two elements here, one saved by grace alone, and two, saved the moment when a person believes.

In Jewish thought,  grace more often is expressed as God’s loving kindness or mercy, and it is balanced by God’s justice. The rabbis of the Talmud explain that God created the world with both, because loving kindness alone would have allowed sin to increase, and justice alone would have condemned all of creation (Genesis Rabbah 12:15). Therefore, the rabbis continue, that God’s favor, forgiveness, and mercy are not automatic, for that would unbalance justice. Nor are those attributes earned or deserved, because that would suggest human control over God. 

Throughout the Torah and expressed directly by the prophets, one receives God’s unmerited favor (grace) when they turn from their wickedness and live by God’s ways, as we see in Isaiah 55:7, “Let the wicked abandon their ways    and those who are evil in their thoughts. Let them return to the Lord so that He may have mercy (grace) upon them; and to our God, for He is rich in forgiveness.”

And in Joel 2:13, “And rip your hearts, and not your robes, and be turned to the LORD your God, because He is merciful and He is cherishing, and His Spirit is patient and His grace abundant, and He changes evil.”

So God’s mercy  (grace) can be conditional upon our attempt to act in the image of God, to obey the commandments, and to repent when we miss the mark.

God balances mercy (grace) with justice as Micah 6: 8 tells us, “He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?”

In Christian thought, it is through believing that the door to personal salvation is open, because it is associated with “grace,” but this  rarely appears in Jewish literature. 

So let’s start by looking at the word “grace” to see what it meant to Paul.

We tend to forget that Paul was Jewish and his Jewish education of the Scriptures were taught by Rabbi Gamaliel.  Gamaliel was one of the prominent teachers of the Law in the First Century.  Acts 22:3 tells us this about Paul, “I am a Jew, born in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city, educated under Gamaliel, strictly according to the Law of our fathers, being zealous for God just as you all are today.” Paul would have held to the strictest meaning of God’s Word,  and if it was spoken or written in the Greek he would have used words that relayed the true Hebrew meaning. Now let’s see how Paul would have used the word grace. 

In Greek the word is  “Charis”meaning, favor, freely given or extended, always leaning toward. In Aramaic the word is “Taybutha” which  has the idea of favor and goodness. In the Talmudic writings, it was used as a sign of recognition. Genesis 6:8 in the Torah says this, “But Noach found grace (favor) in the sight of Adonai.”  We see that grace has many words that can be used in its place like mercy and favor, gratitude, graciousness, goodwill, for a few, but the Hebrew letters for grace in Genesis 6:8  are the letters  Chet ח and Nun נ. So let us get a word picture which the Hebrew language gives us. Chet has the numerical number of eight which is the number for grace and wisdom. Grace and Noah are the same root letters when Noah is spelled backwards. Noah means rest, but the Rabbi’s tell us that there is more, that there is a Hey  ה at the end of the Nun which gives the picture of a tent. Numbers 24:5 says this “How lovely are your tents, Jacob; your encampments, Isra’el!” This is a good picture to describe grace.

Let’s discuss these three letters. Chet (which sounds like het) is the letter for life as we see in the word chayim. It is also a picture of community as in the word chavurah. It also represents light that descends from God and ascends back to God. Therefore it is considered to be the doorway from heaven. We know another door as  John 10:9 tells us, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.” As we saw in the word Chayim. They also put the blood of the lamb on the door. Exodus 12;13, “The blood shall be a sign for you on the houses where you live; and when I see the blood I will pass over you, and no plague will come upon you to destroy you when I strike the land of Egypt.”

So far we have seen that on our part we must enter through the door and the Israelites had to place the blood on the doorpost as we must place it on our hearts. The next letter Nun (sounds like noon) represents faithfulness and it’s rewards.Nun is a little bent on top so it represents humbleness. James 4:10 tells us this,  “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”

But verses 6-9 tells us how to be humble before God, “Therefore it says, “God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”  Submit therefore to God. But resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come close to God and He will come close to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.  Be miserable, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning, and your joy into gloom.” 

Once again we see that we must do our part to receive God’s grace. Now we will look at the letter Hey. Because the letter Hey is broken on one side it is a picture of the presence of God within the human heart, one who is broken and contrite and one who returns to God by the transforming power of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit opens the door of the heart of the believer and dwells within him.

 All of this paints a beautiful picture of grace, but grace is only on God’s part. God’s loving kindness, His grace  as John 3:16 tells us,  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.” 

Again we see only God’s side of His grace in Romans 5:8, “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Messiah died for us.” God’s favor toward us, His mercy toward us, His love toward us, use whichever word you like, it is still only on God’s part.  Yeshua is the open door, if we wish to come in, we may, but once we are in, then we must do our part. Even to have faith or to believe is our part and faith must be walked out and belief must be acted out. Sin separates us and to return to God’s graces, we must repent and be washed clean. It is not by grace alone for this is only on God’s part. We did not die for our sins, it was not our blood that was shed, this was God’s part of the covenant, ours is to walk humbly before our God. Revelation 7:14  says this, “ I said to him, “My lord, you know.” And he said to me, “These are the ones who come out of the great tribulation, and they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.”  God provided the blood, but we must wash our robes.

Recipe Corner:    Tropical Escape Pineapple Bars 

by averie cooks.com

INGREDIENTS:  For the Crust:  1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened . 1 cup all-purpose flour.  1/2 cup granulated sugar.  pinch salt, optional and to taste

For the Filling:  1 large egg . 1/2 cup granulated sugar . 1/3 cup sour cream (plain or vanilla Greek yogurt may be substituted) . 1 1/2 teaspoons McCormick Pure Vanilla Extract .  1/4 cup all-purpose flour . one 20-ounce can pineapple chunks, drained (fresh or frozen could likely be substituted)

INSTRUCTIONS: Preheat oven to 350F and line an 8×8-inch pan with aluminum foil, spray with cooking spray; set aside.

Make the Crust: To a large bowl, add the butter, 1 cup flour, 1/2 cup sugar, and optional salt. Using two forks or a pastry cutter, cut butter into dry ingredients until a sandy mixture with peas-sized buttery bits forms.

• Reserve 3/4 cup of this mixture; set aside.
• Transfer remaining mixture into the prepared pan and using your fingertips or the back of a spatula, lightly press crumbs evenly into the pan to form a crust.
• Bake for 10 minutes. While the crust bakes, make the filling.

2. Make the Filling:
   • In a large bowl (same one used to make the crust mixture is fine) add the egg, 1/2 cup sugar, sour cream, vanilla extract, 1/4 cup flour, and whisk until smooth; set aside.
   • Remove crust from oven and top evenly with pineapple chunks. About 90% of the surface area will be covered with pineapple; chunks will be very close to each other but not quite touching.
   • Carefully and evenly pour the sour cream mixture over the pineapple, making sure to get it into the corners.
   • Evenly sprinkle the reserved crust mixture over the top to create the crumble topping.
   • Bake for about 35 minutes, or until edges and top are set.
   • Place the pan on top of a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 1 hour before slicing and serving.
   •  

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Hebrew Corner:            The Month of Iyyar

As we have just left the month of Nissan, which is the 1st month of the year, we now enter into the month of Iyyar. Iyyar sits between two Biblical Feast days, Passover and Shavuot (Pentecost). In between these two feasts we have been counting the fifty days called the Omer.  On the fortieth day of the Omer, we celebrate the Ascension. Iyyar means “splendor.” It was also called Ziv as 1 Kings 6:1 tells us, “ In the four hundred and eightieth year after the Israelites came out of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, the second month, he began to build the temple of the Lord.”

It was in the month of Iyyar that Moses took a census of the people by their tribe and from there the people were placed by their tribe around the Mishkan (Tabernacle) as Numbers 1 tells us.  Again we see seven hundred years after 1Kings 6, Zerubbabel begins the construction of the second temple in the month of Iyyar as Ezra 3:8 tells us, “In the second month of the second year after their arrival at the house of God in Jerusalem, Zerubbabel son of Shealtiel, Joshua son of Jozadak and the rest of the people (the priests and the Levites and all who had returned from the captivity to Jerusalem) began the work. They appointed Levites twenty years old and older to supervise the building of the house of the Lord.” 

These were certainly times of splendor and times of rejoicing, but how about the days Yeshua spent with His followers after His resurrection to His ascension, definitely a time of splendor. Enjoy your month of Iyyar in the splendor of the Lord. 

Today people are running here and there. It seems like time is also running, running away with our lives. We live in an instant world, click this and you are there. Knowledge is at our fingertips. We do not even need to leave our couch, and we can do almost anything. Pick up the phone and it will be delivered to you.

No one slows down to stop and smell the roses, or even to take the time to consider all the blessings that God has blessed us with. But I ask, “What are we running from?” Every generation has lived life, and every generation has had the time to live that life, but today it seems that no sooner do we wake up, we are going back to sleep. We still have the same twenty-four hours in a day, but you hear people everywhere say, where did this day go? Or where did this month go?  (Young and old alike.) So I ask again, “What are we running from?” You may say, I am not running from anything. But, yes, you are, you are running from God. The more we occupy our lives with ourselves, and the world, we are not occupying it with God, our Creator, our Father, the Lover of our souls. God created us to spend time with Him. He so loves us. He is a lover who pursues the one He loves. He does what He has to do to get our attention, our affection. We hear so often, why does God allow such things?  He allows it because He has to get our attention, simply because He loves us so much. To some people that may seem just the opposite, they think that God is cruel. No! God is not cruel but God is a holy God and He is a jealous God, No, not jealous like us who are in the flesh, but His holiness requires holiness. God is set-apart from sin, and sin separates us from God. God created us not so He would be separated from us, but just the opposite, to fellowship with us and one day to live with us. This was the idea behind the Mishakan, (Tabernacle) in the wilderness God so wanted to be with His people and He still does. 

Revelation  21:3 says, “And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and He will dwell with them. They will be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God.”

2 Corinthians  6:16 tells us that we now are the temple and God lives inside us,

“Or what agreement does the temple of God have with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; just as God said,“I will dwell among them and walk among them; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.”

It’s time to stop running, but when you do, don’t  be surprised at this, for

1 Peter 4:3-5 says, “For the time already past is sufficient for you to have carried out the desire of the pagans, having pursued a course of indecent behavior, lusts, drunkenness, carousing, drinking parties, and wanton idolatries. In all this, they are surprised that you do not run with them in the same excesses of debauchery, and they slander you; but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.” 

Many believers think that they can live like the world and still be in God’s good graces. The only running God wants us to do is told to us in Hebrew 12:1-3, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,  looking to Yeshua, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.” 

If we find that we do not have time to pray or read our Bibles, and that our whole life is centered around ourselves, then we are in jeopardy of separating from God and maybe it already has happened. 

1 Peter 1:3-11 gives us good advice if we find that we are running in the wrong direction.

“His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us to His own glory and excellence, by which He has granted to us His precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness,  and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.  For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Messiah Yeshua. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins.  Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall.  For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and SaviorMessiah Yeshua.

Today, take a moment and consider the question, “What are you running from?” And let God help you to slow down, and turn around, and even repent if you must, then run into His arms, and let Him heal you, and forgive you, and bring you back to where you belong.