The True Reformation

Schlosskirche in Wittenberg¹

The true reformation was not a consequence of 95 theses posted on a Wittenberg door for debate 500 years ago today, but rather it was the revelation of the light of the Scriptures. For a thousand years it had been encrypted in Latin and sequestered in cathedrals and seminaries and monasteries while untold masses perished — ever in want of the "words of life."

But in a moment in time Tyndale, and others who translated His Word into the languages of the lost, caused even the “boy that driveth the plow to know more of the Scripture than” those who inhibited the cathedrals and seminaries and monasteries of that world that once was. The Scriptures, replicated by a revolutionary technology, quickened multitudes to be “born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever” (1 Peter 1:23).

These new believers were the meek, the merciful, the pure in heart, the peacemakers, the persecuted, they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness, those who desired to be called the children of God. 

Because "believers only" baptism was an easily identified act of obedience, they were often referred to as Anabaptists (re-baptizers). Averting the aspersion, they called themselves the Brethren of the Lord; those who obediently followed His plain and simple Word.

And they were not a just another sect, they spring up everywhere in "a moment in time."



¹User: Pedelecs at wikivoyage shared [CC BY-SA 3.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ASchlosskirche_Wittenberg_innen.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/bd/Schlosskirche_Wittenberg_innen.jpg

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

The Question of the Ages

Only One Thing Will Work

Jerusalem Golden Gate 1900¹

"Sorry, but only one thing will work!”

Our President cryptically commented today regarding North Korean provocation. So what is that one thing that will work, and what is to be sorry about?

The Hetz 3 is an anti-ballistic missile that provides exo-atmospheric interception of ballistic missiles (during the outer-space portion of trajectory), including "all" intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) carrying nuclear, or any other warheads.

The Hetz 3 literally "chases" ICBMs into outer-space at leisure, destroying them with 99% or better efficiency. ICBMs reach exo-atmospheric altitudes to achieve hyper-sonic velocities during thermal phase reentry to avoid countermeasures, such as the "THAAD"  that was NOT designed to destroy ICBMs in terminal phase or any other phase!

Moreover, the mature Hetz 3 kill vehicle is essentially available off the shelf ($2–3 million per unit), not requiring a massive decades long development program costing tens of billions like the THAAD!

"So what is to be sorry about?" Did I neglect to mention that "the only thing to work" Hetz 3 is "single source" and is better known as Israel's "Arrow 3"!

As Kim prepares for his next ICBM "test" launch, this one targeting mainland U.S.A, our president, in grave need of the "incomparable" deterrent capability the Arrow 3 would offer – "burned that bridge" today when he announced he would not be moving the U.S. Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Such is "the times of the Gentiles," i.e., when "Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled" (Luke 21:24).

"The times of the Gentiles" began when the Chaldeans breached the walls of Jerusalem, burning the city and the temple of Solomon, and scattering the few who escaped to the four winds of heaven (587 BC), and "the times of the Gentiles"will be complete when Christ returns to "judge" the nations that "remain" regarding their affinity with Israel, or lack thereof.

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink" (Joel 3:2-3, cf. Matthew 25:31-46).

¹See page for author [Public domain or Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AJerusalem_Goldenes_Tor_um_1900.jpghttps://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a5/Jerusalem_Goldenes_Tor_um_1900.jpg

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

The Gospel of the Kingdom

The Tyndale Bible¹

"When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel" (Act 1:6).

The eleven were asking in regard to the "redemption" of Israel -- the fulfillment of kingdom prophecy when the Lord will rule the earth with the "Law of Moses" and a "rod of iron" and the mandate of the Sermon on the Mount, and "out of Zion shall go forth the law and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem" (cf. Isaiah 2:1-3).

As our Lord concluded His earthly ministry, His answer morphed into a directive to, once again, preach the "gospel of the kingdom," as in Matthew 10, but this time in the power of the Spirit, witnessing unto Him "both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth" (cf. Act 1:8).


However, are we to preach the "gospel of the kingdom" today?

"I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the grace of Christ unto another gospel: Which is not another; but there be some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any other gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be accursed. As we said before, so say I now again, If any man preach any other gospel unto you than that ye have received, let him be accursed" (Gal 1:6-8).

Our Lord's "gospel of the kingdom" was a wonderful gospel, and would have been a "glorious" one had Israel accepted it. Yet, it was the "quintessential" gospel, for by it came "the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world"! 

However, during this age of grace our "glorified" and "ascended" Lord "revealed" to Paul what he refers to as "my gospel." Paul's gospel is a gospel by which "God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ" (cf. Rom_2:16), a gospel "kept secret since the world began," (cf. Rom_16:25), a gospel by which "Jesus Christ of the seed of David was raised from the dead" (cf. 2Ti_2:8), a gospel that supersedes Israel's "gospel of the kingdom," ONLY during this "dispensation of grace"! But when the Body of Christ and the Spirit within her is removed the earth, the "gospel of the kingdom" will resume unabated, until it becomes the "glorious" gospel God originally intended.

"For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ. But I certify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is not after man. For I neither received it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ" (Gal 1:9-12).



¹By Peter Schöffer (printer); William Tyndale (British Library Board) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3ATyndale_Bible_-_Gospel_of_John.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d0/Tyndale_Bible_-_Gospel_of_John.jpg

©2017 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.

God in Control

Cities

Kansas City, Columbia, and St Louis ─ 2016¹

Essentially every major city in America has a different "soul" from the less populous areas surrounding it. Forget the 2016 Red State - Blue State maps. 

There are only “Blue Cities” floating in a “political sea of red” as far as the eye can see! 

This elicits the question ─ do cities make people liberal, or do people make cities liberal? 

The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Scripture does not record a single "city" of that antediluvian world, but that it was "one global city of iniquity"!

Thereafter, God said unto Noah and his sons, "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth," but "contrary" to God's command, "as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar; and they dwelt there. ... And they said, Go to, let us build us a city and a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be 'scattered' abroad upon the face of the whole earth." (cf. Genesis 11:2-4). 

 On a plain in the land of Shinar Nimrod² a “mighty hunter” of men, and “the souls of men" compelled them to build Babel the very "first" city, and its tower, “whose top may reach unto heaven."

The question remains ─ do cities make people liberal, or do people make cities liberal, or does it make any difference?


 ¹By Ali Zifan - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=48101411

²"Nimrod as a mighty hunter founded a powerful kingdom; and the founding of this kingdom is shown by the verb וַתְּהִי with ו consec. to have been the consequence or result of his strength in hunting, so that the hunting was most intimately connected with the establishment of the kingdom. Hence, if the expression “a mighty hunter” relates primarily to hunting in the literal sense, we must add to the literal meaning the figurative signification of a “hunter of men” (“trapper of men by stratagem and force,” Herder); Nimrod the hunter became a tyrant, a powerful hunter of men. This course of life gave occasion to the proverb, “like Nimrod, a mighty hunter against the Lord,” which immortalized not his skill in hunting beasts, but the success of his hunting of men in the establishment of an imperial kingdom by tyranny and power. But if this be the meaning of the proverb, יְהֹוָה לִפְנֵי “in the face of Jehovah” can only mean in defiance of Jehovah" (Keil and Delitzsch Commentaries, cf. Genesis 10:6-20).

 ©2018 Christian. Textual content may be copied and distributed, but it may not be sold.