The Eschaton

"The night is far spent, the day is at hand"¹

North Korea launched another missile today. This one went higher and further than any before —  defense analysts concluding the power and range were consistent with a fully functional ICBM for which we have no deterrent — well within range of Washington DC and everything in between.

Concurrent nuclear tests, the most recent eclipsing by virtually an order of magnitude any previous underground test confirmed the signature of a far more destructive "thermo" nuclear capability. The delivery of such a capability was simulated today with a 100kg payload.

Many wonder why there is no Eschaton (end times) allusion to America in Scripture. Perhaps, there is no "end times" America — brings to remembrance the poignant words of Paul's Roman epistle.

"Knowing the time, that now it is high time to awake out of sleep: for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed. The night is far spent, the day is at hand" (cf. Romans 13:11-12).

If the night was far spent, and the "Day" at hand in Paul's day, how much so today?

Saved?



See page for author [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AAmanecerluzzyacentillo2.JPG https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/88/Amanecerluzzyacentillo2.JPG

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

To the Hebrews

This post remains under construction!

The Ten Commandments

Moses, Gustave Doré.¹

Roy Moore's affinity for the Ten Commandments is to be commended. However, his Bible begin and ended with Exodus Chapter 20. Yet, that was quite sufficient for most of his judicial decisions, but not the rest! 

The Scriptures contain far more, some that would have been very advantageous to the judge, had he taken the time — matters pertaining to "thoughts and intents of the heart.""

"Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery: But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart. (Matthew 5:27-28).

Or:

I made a covenant with mine eyes; why then should I think upon a maid? For what portion of God is there from above? and what inheritance of the Almighty from on high?" (Job 31:1-2).

Back to Moore who demanded that we as a society hear the trumpet of Sinai from which hailed the Ten Commandments. Unfortunately, Moore never realized to whom the twentieth chapter was written "I am the LORD thy God, which have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage" (Exodus 20:2). Hopefully, that will give a clue.

Moore, was marooned on an island in the Dispensation of the Law of Moses, void of the Spirit, where God's will was written on "tables of stone" rather than in the present Dispensation of Grace where it is written by "the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart" (cf. 2 Corinthians 3:2-8).

Likewise, many churches today, failing to "rightly divide the word of truth" (cf. 2 Ti 2:15), have been marooned on islands in the Dispensation of the Law of Moses while wearing life jackets of Grace. Hard to swim when shackled to "tables of stone"!


Gustave Doré [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AMoses_dore.jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/69/Moses_dore.jpg

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

And They Sat Down to Drink

The Great King, King of Kings (Shahanshah) and King of Nations¹

"What we're seeing is that Iran is trying to create a regional hegemony from Tehran, through Iraq, through Syria and ultimately Lebanon and the Mediterranean in order to create an empire. ... This would be a threat not only to the region – to Saudi Arabia and Egypt, the rational players, and of course Israel – but to the world because their goal is to dominate ultimately and subjugate the entire region and thereafter the world."²

Not only is Iran recreating the empire "that once was," but is also attempting to consummate the "annihilation" that hitherto failed!





“… in the days of Ahasuerus, (this is Ahasuerus which reigned, from India even unto Ethiopia, over an hundred and seven and twenty provinces)” (Esther 1:1). Xerxes I King of Persia and Media (ancient Iran) whose Daiva Inscriptions record his title as the Great King, King of Kings (Shahanshah) and King of Nations i.e., of the world.²

“King Ahasuerus promote[d] Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him. And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman… But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence…. And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath. And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai….

And Haman said unto king Ahasuerus, There is a certain people scattered abroad and dispersed among the people in all the provinces of thy kingdom; and their laws are diverse from all people; neither keep they the king's laws: therefore it is not for the king's profit to suffer them. If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries. 

And the king took his ring from his hand, and gave it unto Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, the Jews' enemy. And the letters were sent by posts into all the king's provinces, to destroy, to kill, and to cause to perish, all Jews, both young and old, little children and women, in one day, even upon the thirteenth day of the twelfth month, which is the month Adar, and to take the spoil of them for a prey….

The posts went out, being hastened by the king's commandment, and the decree was given in Shushan the palace.

And the king and Haman sat down to drink" (cf. Esther 3:1-15).

¹By Nick Taylor [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3APersepolis%2C_Iran_(2471048564).jpg https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c7/Persepolis%2C_Iran_%282471048564%29.jpg

²Israeli Education Minister Naftali Bennett, CBN News Bureau, Washington, DC, 11-10-2017.

³Inscriptions of Xerxes Lines 6-13 (Roland G. Kent in "Language" Vol. 13 No. 4).

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

Prayer

 Praying Hands Albrecht Dürer, 1508.¹

After Evangelist Franklin Graham and Vice President Mike Pence and a plethora of others weighed in on criticism of House Speaker Paul Ryan's Sutherland Springs comment, it is time to review "prayer" fundamentals. 

God the Father does not listen to those who are not "His own," "God heareth not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and doeth his will, him he heareth" (cf. John 9:31) — with one "exception" "whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved" (Romans 10:13). God will hear that petition, and will not refuse!

The apostle Paul further explains, "How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?" (Romans 10:14). 

"... I declare unto you the gospel... By which also you are saved... first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the Scriptures" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

If you believe Christ died for your sins as described in the Scriptures, "and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day" as described in the Scriptures, and have called on Him — God the Father, through the indwelling Spirit, in the name of his Son will hear your prayer!

Now, back to Ryan, "if" he has not believed and called on the Lord, he may think prayer is appropriate, but he is just talking to the wind. Furthermore, "He that is of God heareth God's words" (cf. John 8:47).



¹By Albrecht Dürer - gallery.euroweb.hu, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=263190

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

Out of Sodom

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Dead Nations Never Rise Again?

The Siege and Destruction of Jerusalem²

British Foreign Secretary, Arthur James, Lord Balfour, 100 years ago Friday sent a communique, that came to be known as the "Balfour Declaration."

Dear Lord Rothschild,

His Majesty's government view with favour the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people, and will use their best endeavours to facilitate the achievement of this object... .

Arthur James Balfour

Rome's imperial legions, commanded by her future Caesar Titus Flavius Vespasianus in AD 70 made Jerusalem a desolation. The second temple was set aflame and as it burned, rivulets of gold betraying its magnificence mingled with the blood that bathed the temple mount. And as the conflation consumed the city, a remnant, a Jewish diaspora, was scattered by the four winds of heaven to all the nations of the earth.

Longfellow in the 1845 poem “The Jewish Cemetery at Newport” bewails “How strange it seems! These Hebrews in their graves” as he describes the diaspora of the Jews “in narrow streets and lanes obscure," in “Ghetto and Judenstrass, in mirk and mire” partaking “unleavened bread and bitter herbs of exile” slaking their “thirst with [the] marah of their tears” while enduring “the life of anguish and the death of fire.”

But lamentably, in the last four verses, Longfellow affirms a two millennia "anathema."

But ah! what once has been shall be no more!
The groaning earth in travail and in pain
Brings forth its races, but does not restore,
And the dead nations never rise again.

 But ah! What once has been shall "be" again! In 1948 a dead nation "did" rise again!

 But ah! Titus Flavius Caesar Vespasianus Augustus’ “Eternal” Roman Imperium! “What once has been shall be no more!”

 “… The hand of the LORD was upon me, and carried me out in the spirit of the LORD, and set me down in the midst of the valley which was full of bones, And caused me to pass by them round about: and, behold, there were very many in the open valley; and, lo, they were very dry. And he said unto me, Son of man, can these bones live? And I answered, O Lord GOD, thou knowest. Again he said unto me, Prophesy upon these bones, and say unto them, O ye dry bones, hear the word of the LORD. Thus saith the Lord GOD unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live: And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and ye shall live; and ye shall know that I am the LORD. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the bones came together, bone to his bone. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off for our parts. Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I am the LORD, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves, And shall put my spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I shall place you in your own land: then shall ye know that I the LORD have spoken it, and performed it, saith the LORD” (Ezekiel 37:1-14).¹

¹The bones of this prophecy are those of the "whole" house of Israel, which the LORD, in a yet future day will bring up out of their graves and into the land of Israel. "And they shall look upon Him whom they have pierced," and shall know the LORD. And they shall be "born of the Spirit," and shall live!


² By David Roberts, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=10987959

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