Many times I’ve remarked, after being informed of one prophetic development or another, something like: “Well…what can we expect at this late hour of the age? It’s all coming together just like it should.”
That’s almost a too-casual look on my part at these things we see happening that prove the truth of God’s prophetic Word. I haven’t, in making such a statement, fully grasped in every instance what is taking place at this late hour. At least, yours truly has been occasionally lax in totally understanding what’s taking place, to some extent. So I’ll say here that it’s my faux pas, not yours, that should be addressed and corrected.
Bottom line of this self-critique is that things are taking place not by natural, prophetic selection—the evolving events that build upon one another by happenstance. These things are actually orchestrated by the very hand of the One who foretold the matters involved. God is in the Heaven-ordained process of pulling all things together for the wrap-up of this quickly fleeting Age of Grace.
I could point to many areas that validate that this is taking place. However, one stands out profoundly.
The war Hamas started on October 7, which Israel is in the middle stages of finishing, seems to be the catalyst that’s galvanizing the final stage being set for the Gog-Magog battle (Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39). The Lord’s great hand of direction came starkly in view for me when the announcement that a minor player has just become part of the massive gathering of the major Gog-Magog players.
I don’t mean to trivialize that coming attack on God’s chosen people by likening it to a game of two teams opposing one another. Certainly that isn’t my intention. However, the whole of this thing called human creation and God’s dealing with us seems in some way to be a stupendous drama—a great play, that is, as the title of this article implies—directed by the very hand of God.
And what we see happening in and surrounding God’s chosen nation is unimpeachable proof, if we ever needed it, that He isn’t the existential God the agnostics claim, but a hands-on God beyond human comprehension.
And it isn’t the grand orchestration that so impresses me and any child of God. It is, rather, a more-or-less minor element He has just added to the drama He long ago told us about through Ezekiel that makes the goose bumps run up the back of the neck, because it shows just how very near we are to the finale of the great play that’s about to begin.
The “minor element” is the announcement given in the following news item:
MSN: Algerian parliament authorizes President Tebboune to support Gaza amid Israeli assaults
ALBAWABA- In a significant move, the Algerian Parliament has officially authorized President Abdelmadjid Tebboune to enter the conflict in support of Gaza, with a unanimous vote of 100/100.
This decision comes in response to the escalating Israeli massacres against the Palestinian population in the besieged Gaza Strip.
Algeria becomes the second Arab nation to declare official support for Palestine and to confront Israel. (“Algeria Votes to Go to War with Israel,” by CWR, November 3, 2023)
So why does this joining in by a minor Israel-hating, blood-vowed enemy invoke such a back-of-the-neck chill? The following helps us understand:
The key consideration is the content of Ezekiel 38 and 39. What features of these chapters indicate the timing of the invasion, its participants, and location?…
Magog occurs in the Old Testament on four occasions (Genesis 10:2; 1 Chronicles 1:5; Ezekiel 38:2; 39:6). It identifies a descendant of Japheth in the table of nations, which scholars trace to the ancient Scythians. These tribes lived in the region north of the Black Sea and some consider their territory stretched from Ukraine to Siberia. Further, Ezekiel describes Gog as “the prince of Rosh” (38:2, NASB), which also suggests a location in Russia, although the use of “Rosh” is debated…
Added to these are “Persia, Cush, and Put” (Ezekiel 38:5), as well as “Gomer and all his hordes” and “Beth-togarmah” (38:6). Persia is clearly modern Iran, another Islamic nation, whose name was changed to Iran in recent times. Cush and Put are more difficult to identify, as is Beth-togarmah. Scholars consider Cush is the nation of northern Sudan, an Islamic one, and Put is Libya, another Islamic (mainly Sunni) nation, and possibly includes Algeria and Tunisia because the ancient borders extended west beyond modern Libya. (“The Battle of Gog and Magog,” The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, https://www.foi.org/2021/12/10/the-battle-of-gog-and-magog/)
The fact that tiny Algeria—which is almost certainly a major constituent part of the ancient area known as “Put”—is now added to the jigsaw puzzle of the Gog-Magog invading horde shows that God’s great hand of control is at work. This confirms yet again that our Lord keeps every detail of His promises in every instance.
The detail we’re “looking up” for in particular is the Rapture of all believers in Jesus Christ. Here is how to be assured you will be a part of that tremendous rescue from this judgment-bound world.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. (Romans 10:9–10)
Terry James Prophecy Line 
Thank you Terry for this article…..And thank you for your recent book, New World Order, with Pete Garcia….An excellent read, with so much good historical information, along with references.
Praying for the lost; and for the peace of Jerusalem….Blessings; and Maranatha!
Date correction…October 7, not November 7…date Hamas started war with Israel. I think that is what you meant to write.
Just wanted to toss this out there. Could we actually have three Gog-Magog events?
Here’s why I think this is so. We have seen events prefigured in the Bible such the translation of Enoch and Elijah into heaven ; the saving of Noah’s and Lot’s families from their wicked societies (previews of the Rapture) and Antiochus Epiphanes as a type of Antichrist even prefiguring the latter’s desecration of the temple.
Could this principle also apply to Magog conflicts?
After all we do have at least two accounts of different Gog-Magog events, one by Ezekiel (38) and the other by John (Revelation 20:7-10).
Look also at the some parallels between Ezekiel’s account and what we see described about Armageddon in Revelation:
Ezekiel {38:22} And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that [are] with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. {38:23} Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I [am] the LORD.
Revelation {16:16} And he gathered them together into a place called in the Hebrew tongue Armageddon . . . . {16:20} And every island fled away, and the mountains were not found. {16:21} And there fell upon men a great hail out of heaven, [every stone] about the weight of a talent: and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail; for the plague thereof was exceeding great.
Ezekiel’s account ends with such finality, it makes me wonder how it could happen and yet people would still not “know that I am the Lord” and accept the Antichrist’s false claim to be “God.”
Could there be another in between these, one that is about to happen in the near-future?
I hope someone will weigh in on this and help clear up the confusion I’ve always had on this topic.
No Ed. Armageddon and Ezekiel 38 war are two different events separated by an unnamed time span.
Thanks for your feedback, Lyndon.
Can you show me how you arrived at this conclusion?
I would appreciate it.
The one that chills me is the never-noticed little comment that God makes in Ezekiel 39: 6:
“I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely (carelessly) in the coastlands, and they shall know that I am the Lord.”
Sounds like the Russian coalition and America wiping each other out in a nuclear exchange to me. ? That certainly would open the door for the anti-Christ. Couldn’t America just as easily be the “he who restrains” that is taken out of the way as the standard interpretation to the restrainer being the church? Isn’t that just as consistent with scripture?
We can’t expect God to feel obligated by the scenario we have contrived for Him.
Well, Wade, I think if the U.S. and Russia ever got into a nuclear war like that, you can bet each would deploy every nuke each had and that’d pretty much take care of any complex form of life on Earth.
We know that the Tribulation has to happen and the Antichrist to come to power. If you check out Revelation 13, I think you’ll see that a high level of technology has to exist to make the events it portrays possible, something a massive nuclear exchange would quickly end. If the Antichrist still showed up, the only things he’d have left to rule over would probably be microbes, insects, and some critters living around the geothermal vents on the bottom of the ocean.
As far as America restraining evil, I don’t see that happening at all, quite the opposite. If anything, we are warp-driving into sin. I am seeing things not only permitted but praised in this country these days that absolutely disgust me.
I mean, the way it is now, America can’t even restraint itself!
Watching the daily news regarding Israel and the world-wide hatred is so much like sitting in a heater as the lights go down, the music comes up, and the music begins. There are the Israeli teens dancing at Sderot, and suddenly Hamas runs onto the stage and guns everybody down. And what do I see in the stage wings? Actors dressed as Russians, Persians, Turks, and others waiting to rush out and attack the IDF as they try to protect their land. I look down at the program lying across my lap and realize that it is the Bible opened to Ezekiel chapters 38 and 39! Couple this with the world-wide hatred of the Jews, and it certainly looks like God is setting the stage for Gog Magog.
It’s time for every Pew-Sitter to evaluate what they believe about Jesus Christ, less they fall victim to Paul’s warning in 2 Corinthians 13:5. “Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Christ is in you, except ye be reprobate?” What am I getting at? Unless you believe that Jesus is God, and that – as Lamb of God – He took away the sin of the world, you are not saved. If Jesus finished His mission – and all sin is gone – and you still ask God to forgive your sins daily, you are denying that Jesus finished His mission. After the cross, no New Testament writer tells anybody to ask God to forgive their sins, and nobody does it. Why? Because that “Primitive Church” knew sin was no longer the issue because it was gone. To ask for forgiveness for sins that are already gone is a direct denial of Jesus Christ.
I hope you will each look into this matter. A debt that has been satisfied does not need forgiveness. Likewise, a forgiven debt does not need to be paid.
Roger I pray that your eyes are opened and you learn that what you’ve said about repentance and confession of sin is serious error.
James 5: 16 plainly says “Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.”
We are sinners until we are glorified. While in the process of sanctification we continue to sin, but less as we cooperate with the power of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit.
In Luke 17:3-4 Jesus says “Pay attention to yourselves! If your brother sins, rebuke him, and if he repents, forgive him, and if he sins against you seven times in the day, and turns to you seven times, saying, ‘I repent,’ you must forgive him.” This verse clearly demonstrates that we continue to sin and repent until we are glorified.
And 1 John 1:8 says “If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”
We must continually repent of our sins as long as we live, because we are of the flesh, and we sin until glorification by Rapture or death. Jesus promises to forgive our sins when we confess them and ask for His grace, but to pretend we stop sinning once we are saved, and no longer need to repent, is a satanic lie.
Robin:
The first chapter of 1 John was directed at the proto-Gnostics who denied that Jesus was God in the flesh, denied that they had sin, and called God a liar. 1 Joh 1:8-10 is not directed at Christians, but rather at these Greek Gnostics.
Interesting that you did not comment on the fact that none of the writers after the cross told anybody to ask God to forgive their sins. Regarding Luke 17:3 which describes the 4-step process of forgiveness between humans, that is not how God did it. God did it by sacrificing Himself on that Roman cross to actually remove, take away, all mankind’s sin at that moment. As you describe the “forgiveness of sins” thing, you might as well substitute God for Santa in the Christmas song, “Santa Calus is Coming to Town.” God is keeping a list (your account) of all your sins. He knows who is naughty and nice.
There is a Greek word (Aphiemi) that appears about 104 times in the New Testament. Look it up. It is the word used for divorce, removal, taken away, gone, went away, and etc. But the translators under King James incorrectly translated it as “forgive.” When Jesus called Peter from his boat, Peter and his brother (Aphiemi) their nets and followed Jesus. So, did they forgive their nets or abandon them. Likewise, the woman at the well (Aphiemi) her pot and went to town to tell everybody about Jesus. Did she abandon of forgive her water pot?
In Acts 16:30-31 we have the record of Paul & Silas in prison. Thye Jailer asks, “Sirs, what must I do to be forgiven?” And they answered, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be forgiven all thy past sins and thy new sins as you confess them, and thy house.” OH, WAIT! That jailer wanted to know what he must do to be saved!
Write back and I’ll tell you what all the preachers tell their Pew-Sitters.
First, repent of your sins and ask Jesus into your heart. This wi
Roger, I am not going to debate this with you. You’re so committed to your error that you have closed your mind to the truth.
I’ll pray that you open your eyes and your heart instead of trying to be ‘right’.
And my salvation is in no way at risk. To imply that it is, is dangerous territory on your part.
Robin: Open your Bible to 2 Corinthians 13:5 and read Paul’s explanation of being “unworthy.” That warning is for you because you are ignorant of the finished work of Jesus on the cross to take away the sin of the world.
I hope this reply lands in the right place. This response is for Roger.
If the Bible evidence Robin and I presented is insufficient to demonstrate the need for us to always acknowledge and repent of our sins, I just don’t know what else I can say. You have free will so you can believe whatever you want and I can believe that you are mistaken.
I’ll just close what appears to be an impasse between us by addressing the “genuineness” of repentance issue you brought up as in how can a person know if they are being “genuine” enough? Well, if they can’t figure that out, they probably aren’t being genuine at all.
To get saved initially, you have to admit you are a sinner and that you are sorry for these sins and accept Jesus’ atoning sacrifice of himself for them. After that, you don’t repent to GET saved, you repent because you ARE saved. This is what the Bible tells us to do, as Robin and I have tried to demonstrate at length. Now since Jesus is the Living Word who caused the Written Word to come to exist, I reckon I’ll keep doing just what the Bible evidence says to me that I should do.
What you choose to do is entirely up to you.
I totally agree with Robin, Roger.
If your premise was correct, then after accepting Jesus each person would become sinless. In other words, the sin nature we inherited from Adam and Eve would be gone and we wouldn’t ever do or even think of evil things again. Nor would we ever die because:
Romans {6:23} For the wages of sin [is] death; but the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
This is clearly not the case because believers in Jesus still are clearly capable of doing sinful things and we are presently not immortal. This perfection will only come after we receive our glorified bodies, post-Rapture.
Paul, who wrote Romans and most of the epistles candidly expresses his own perpetual battle with this sin nature:
Romans {7:21} I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. {7:22}
For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: {7:23} But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law
of sin which is in my members. {7:24} O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? {7:25} I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.
Now the sins of the past we confessed to are forgiven by Jesus if our confession and repentance is genuine, but it doesn’t forgive the “new ones” we perform afterwards. For example, when I paid last month’s electric bill, it certainly won’t cover the electricity I used this month. If it did, I’d get free power from now on.
Sure would be nice, but it just ain’t so!
The electric bill analogy is a good one Ed.
Also, how can we, currently trapped in bodies of sin and death, sincerely long for an end to our sinful ways, if we have been relieved of them?
Yes, as Believers we are freed from the penalties of sin (eternal death and torment) through our glorious Savior, Jesus Christ. This is everything! But the suffering and consequences caused by our ongoing sin continues.
I’m with Paul, I hate my sin. It no longer brings me pleasure, which is a paradoxical blessing. Before salvation I often didn’t even see my sins. As much as I’d like to, I can’t seem to stop all of them all the time. I feel emotional, spiritual and sometimes even physical pain from them now. I sin less and yet feel them so much more!
No wonder we don’t fear death! It is simply a doorway to being fully transformed into glorification, and being with Jesus face to face, forever. It can’t come too soon for me.
Exactly so, Robin.
While we are here, the personal struggle we have with sin will continue and our only remedy is to rely on Jesus’ atoning sacrifice of himself for us and ask for forgiveness on that basis.
When asked by his disciples how to pray, part of his answer was this:
Luke {11:4} And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us.
Likewise, Jesus’ is constantly interceding for us continuously for us:
Hebrews {7:25} Wherefore he* is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them. [*Jesus.]
The idea here is that it is not a situation where forgiveness is a “one and done” deal.
I, too, do not fear death for the same reasons you mentioned and for me, it is more like going home, totally healed physically, mentally, spiritually, and finally seeing Jesus face to face who made it all possible!
Amen and amen! What a Savior we have in Jesus Christ.
I’m convinced if we didn’t need to regularly ask for forgiveness of our sins, we would certainly forget what He has done for us.
We are as just as fallen as ancient Israel. And yet Jesus made it possible for His church to approach the throne of God; the veil was torn in two at Golgotha. He put an end to all of the blood sacrifices required for atonement by His one perfect sacrifice. When I consider all the bulls and rams that were slaughtered in the old sacrificial system, it is clear we often take for granted His astonishing gift!
It is right and good that we acknowledge His amazing grace through our ongoing repentance. It is a small, humbling act that reminds us of what He alone has done for us, and allows us to truly thank Him and worship Him.
His mercies are new every day. All glory be given to our Triune God.
Maranatha!
Robin: Regarding whether or not God took away our sin at the cross, and whether we need to do something beyond what Jesus did on the cross, let me give you an analogy. I am buying a house and making my monthly mortgage payments in order to keep my home. One day, the bank notifies me that somebody has paid all of my past, present, and future mortgage payments and my mortgage is gone. What wonderful news! But several months later, I get a warning from my bank that if I don’t start making my payments, they will foreclose and take away my home. “Wait! You told me that my mortgage was paid in full! Did you lie to me then, or are you lying to me now?”
Our preachers tell us over and over that our past, present, and future sins were paid for at the cross. And then they tell us in the next breath that unless we forgive others, God won’t forgive us. And then he tells us just before partaking of the communion elements that if we have unconfessed sins on our account, then we raise the cup to our damnation. The poor Pew-Sitter is put into a state of uncertainty by this contradictory Hybrid Gospel. It’s sort of like a father handing his son a set of car keys at graduation, but as the son runs toward the new car, the father holds up his lease agreement. “Yeah – I gave you a car, but you have work to do to keep it.”
My complaint against the churches is this. Pew-Sitters – who are there like the Philippian Jailer to find out what he must do to be saved – is instead told what he must do to get his after=salvation sins forgiven as he commits them. And the poor Pew-Sitter has no way of knowing whether his repentance, confessions, or whatever else he is doing, is enough to actually get those new sins forgiven. That is not the “Good News” that we need. That is terrible news.
I think you are terribly confused.
No one is claiming that works save us. They don’t. But Jesus told us to continue to confess our sins.
He also told us not to lie, or steal and to love one another. If we do or do not do these things we have not forfeited our salvation. But that does not mean we are to do or not do them.
Obedience is evidence of our salvation, not the source of it.
You are the one who claims we don’t need to confess and repent of our sins…in direct contradiction to our Lord’s commands.
Robin: Again, your ignorance is screaming out at me. Tell me the verse where Jesus commands us to repent of our sins and to confess our sins to God. Yes, at the man-to-man level, we restore fellowship when we admit wrong-doing and ask each other for forgiveness, but God does not forgive like men forgive each other.
Robin & Ed:
Every church I have attended tells basically the same “Bad News” instead of the “Good News.” To be saved, repent of your sins and ask God to forgive your sins, and ask Jesus into your heart. This gives you judicial forgiveness of your past sins and a permanent relationship with Jesus. But, when you sin after you are saved, those sins accumulate on your sin account and can only be forgiven by invoking your 1 John 1:9 confession of every sin. When an undetermined number of sins accumulate on your account, God sees those sins and breaks His fellowship with you, and He can’t use you in His ministry. The most appropriate time to confess your sins is just before communion so as to avoid the “communion curse” of 1 Corinthians 11:27-29.
It is noteworthy that Paul wrote his two letters to the Corinthian Church about 50 AD. It is also noteworthy that John wrote 1 John about 90 to 95 AD. Regarding eating and drinking unworthily, please tell me how these Corinthians were to remedy this communion curse when that remedy (1 John 1:9) did not exist for 40 to 45 years later?
“Behold! The Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world!” If you are believing (putting your faith and trust) in the finished work of Christ, then you are saved. If you are sharing your faith and trust between Jesus dying on the cross and your own works (forgive others, repent of sin, confess to be forgiven, etc.) then you are believing in a different Jesus.
Unfortunately you haven’t attended any church that teaches God’s word correctly if you have come to this conclusion.
Repentance of our sins is commanded by the Lord, but Jesus never said if we failed to confess our sins that we would lose our salvation. That is a Roman Catholic kind of “faith”, although other denominations teach it as well, and it is false.
Bad doctrine leads to confusion and we know who is behind confusion.
Robin: First, please give me the verse where Jesus commands us to repent of our sins.
Second, 1 Corinthians 11: 29-31 does tell us that if we eat and drink at the communion table unworthily that we drink to our damnation. But that passage is not saying that if we partake with unconfessed sin on our account that we lose our salvation. Your ignorance screams! What Paul was telling those Corinthians was that if they are lost, they are doing like a drunk when he raises his glass and says, “I’ll see you in hell!”
That’s right, Robin.
Your knowledge and insight into Scripture is impressive.
The type of horrible punishment Jesus took upon himself for our sins shows exactly how terrible that they are and the price that it cost him to redeem us.
Paul said it so well here:
Romans {5:6} For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died
for the ungodly. {5:7} For scarcely for a righteous man will one die: yet peradventure for a good man some would even dare to die. {5:8} But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. for the ungodly.
Amazing grace, indeed!
Ed: This is Roger. So, you agree with most pastors that only our past sins are forgiven when we are saved, that all future sins accumulate on a sin account, and they are forgiven when we repent of them and confess them with a certain (undefined) level of genuineness. Wow! Tell me, Ed, how a Pew-Sitter is to know whether his repentance and confession was genuine enough to convince God to forgive him? What about this? “I wanted a Rolex watch, but I knew God would not let me have one. So, I stole one and then confessed it so that God had to forgive me.” Of course, that confession lacks the (undefined) level of genuineness that you describe.
Here’s another thing pastors often tell Pew-Sitters when they pray for health, wealth, and happiness, but fail to receive it. “Well, you either have unconfessed sins on your account, or you don’t have enough faith.” In other words, “It’s your fault that God doesn’t answer your prayers.”
Please write back and tell me how a Pew-Sitter is to know how genuine he must be when he repents of sin. when he confesses his sins from his sin account before communion, or when he tries to negotiate with God to get his sins forgiven.
I doubt that you can see it, but everything we’re talking about here was typical of the Pharisees. Work righteousness, rather than the free gift.
i find funny how you dispensational “prophecy experts” can find the things obscurely in passages, but not see fulfillment in Sacred Scripture to prophesied starring right in front of you. Ezekiel names gog by name for the valley where they were to bury the invading army in Ezekiel 39:11 Valley of Hamon Gog. we find Haman in Esther trying to wipeout the Jews in all of the Persian Empire, which composes all the nations mentioned in this particular prophecy from India to Libya all the way to the Black Sea that borders to the north of Turkey. the stan nations that broke away from Russia at the collapse of the Soviet Union composed the northern border of the Persian Empire. the only land mass not part of the empire from India to Libya was the Arabian peninsula fitting the prophecy to a “T”. Turkey was the cause of all three Greeco/Persian Wars with the second war Xerxes father, Darius the Great, dying at Marathon in battle. Xerxes lust for revenge lead him to war and his humiliating to defeat at the hands of Spartans setting up the story we find in Esther.
Exactly when did the war start?
Thanks Ed, you have clear understanding of scripture as well. It is a pleasure to know you here.
We both know all understanding is a gift of the Holy Spirit and is continually refined by studying the scriptures. Sigh…if only more Christians would faithfully do this, praying for wisdom and discernment, what a different Church we would be. He has already given us everything we need.
Thanks for the kind words, Robin.
I am very much enjoying our conversations and your insights.
God bless!
I don’t think the initial Gog-Magog war has actually begun yet, Chris, but it is possible that current events in the Middle East are a prelude to the first conflict regarding these players against Israel. Russia is presently getting cozy with Iran and this is worth watching.
Revelation reveals that Satan will stir up people from this same region at the end of the Tribulation as well, when he is released from his 1000-year captivity (Revelation 20:7-10).
I said in an earlier comment that I think there is a possibility of three such events, one soon to come, one during the Tribulation which may be a prelude to Armageddon, and the one at the end of the Millennium. Certainly, there are two, so why not a third? Pre-figurements are not unheard of when it comes to prophecy.
Of course, many people probably disagree with me about this, but I have no problem with that because am not an expert!
I’m here to learn!
Correction!!
Revelation reveals that Satan will stir up people from this same region at the end of the TRIBULATION as well, when he is released from his 1000-year captivity (Revelation 20:7-10).
I meant to say “Millennium” here.
For the last couple of days, I have been trying to point out the Pharisee thinking that is so prevalent in our churches – the message that give no assurance of salvation. The reason there is so much bad information coming from the pulpits is because there is a general ignorance of when certain New Testament writings were created, to whom they were addressed, and what was going on in and around the early churches. For instance, do any of you know how many Christians attended the Sermon on The Mount? No? Well, it was ZERO. Jesus was preaching to Old Testament Jews who looked up the hill to the group of Pharisees as the most righteous Jews. The Apostle John had an enemy named Cerinthius who was teaching Gnosticism – that God did not come to earth in the flesh and that because mankind was flesh and spirit, it was only the flesh that was sinful. Therefore, no need for forgiveness, righteousness, or a Savior.
Those Pew-Sitters who do not believe that Jesus – the Lamb of God – took away the sin of the world are lost because they deny Jesus’ finished work on the cross.
Thank you so much, Brother Terry for your always Holy Spirit inspired messages. It is such a comfort to me (and all Holy Spirit filled Christians) to know that God gave His Son for a blood atonement for all our sins so that we may be with Him soon. Those of us who are His Church, His Bride, know we have been forgiven, and are seen by our Father as His pure children. We are instructed to pray, to talk to our Father in Heaven so we will experience a close, personal relationship with Him, which is what Christianity is all about.
Even though we are born with, and carry all our lives, the sin nature we received from Adam and Eve’s sin, our Savior sees us as forgiven and worthy. We look forward to going home and joining Him in our wedding feast and living in the home He is even now preparing for us. An unknowable joy awaits those who have accepted the sacrifice of our Savior to free us from the sins of this world and be accepted as children of God. The peace and love we feel in that knowledge will give us strength to bear all that may come our way in the days ahead.
I am more grateful than I can express to you for helping us to keep our minds and hearts on His message of salvation for all who accept, and to not worry or be distracted by non-salvation issues, and to know that we who believe in His sacrifice and that He rose from the dead and ascended to Heaven, are assured of a blessing beyond all blessings. May God bless and keep you.