82nd Post On Prophecy - Is Jesus the Messiah - Con't.

When Jesus walked the earth, many people did not believe that Jesus of Nazareth could be the promised Messiah. The people of Nazareth knew Jesus as the son of Mary and Joseph, not that Jesus was born of a virgin in Bethlehem. When they came to live in Nazareth, they did not come from Bethlehem, but from Egypt. The Holy Family had to flee from Bethlehem and go to Egypt to escape King Herod the Great's decree to kill every male child two years old and younger. This also is a fulfillment of prophecy, "out of Egypt will I call My Son." The Holy Family returned from Egypt and settled in Nazareth. Jesus when He started His earthly ministry, went to the Synagogoue in Nazareth, and as an adult male of that town took His place to read and comment on the Scriptures. Jesus read from the Book of Isaiah 61: 1 - 2a; and after He finished reading the text, told the people there that this Scripture was fulfilled in your hearing. The people in attendance, knew that Scripture to be a Messianic prophecy, so they understood fully what Jesus meant when He said this has been fulfilled in your hearing. Jesus was telling them that He was the Promised Messiah. They rejected this and tried to throw him off a cliff. Jesus was able to move through the crowd without being touched. His time had not come, yet. Jesus being called a Nazarene, fulfilled the prophecies that the Messiah would be rejected.

81st Post Bible Prophecy Continued - Is Jesus the Messiah?

I should have posted this sooner, but I have remembered to post it now. The Old Testament points to a Savior, Redeemer to come to save us from our sins. No other person living before Jesus Christ, or after has fulfilled more prophecies, than Jesus did. Jesus fulfilled 100 Old Testament prophecies during his lifetime on earth. This blog was started to explain that the Bible is the true word of God, and to point out the signs of the End Times, that will take place. There are more prophecies yet to be fulfilled that Jesus will do when He comes again. The evidence will become even stronger, when these open prophecies start to be fulfilled. The posts that dealt with "The Cup", and "The Cross"; show that Jesus was the one who was promised. They have explained how Jesus became our Redeemer. It has been 2,000 years since Jesus walked the earth, and many say that was a long time ago, and He will not come back. God the Father picked the time to send His Son to live on the earth; and God the Father will pick the time for Christ's return. All of these things were printed as part of the Old Testament. Jesus said when He walked the earth, that He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end, "No one comes to the Father, except through Me." Jesus is our Redeemer, but I have yet to blog on His resurection, to complete the whole meaning of Redeemer.

80th Post Prophecy and the Cross Discussed - Con't.

Why does the Cross hold the power that it does. I have been trying to explain what the "Cross" and the "Cup" are and why they are important. How could Jesus use a "Cross" a symbol of his death, into a symbol of triumph. When God gave us free choice, it set in motion a situation where God could not fail. For God to be God, He had to be over everything. If God failed just one time, He would cease to be God. This means He could not fail, not now, not ever! If God is not perfect, He is not God! Jesus being the Son of God, has to have these same attributes, or He is not God! Man not being God, brought sin into the world because he disobeyed the Laws of God. Man was tricked by Satan into disobeying God. In order to reestablish man's position to what it was before sin was introduced, God would have to restore man. This required paying the sin debt that was owed; and conquering the trickster that caused man to fail. That meant Satan had to be brought down. The cross is the vehicle God used to accomplish both these things. Jesus died for all man's sins. He raised Himself on Easter to prove that He had conquered death! When Jesus rose, He conquered death. The wages of sin is death, because Jesus had no sin, death could not keep Him. When He rose on Easter, He conquered death and Satan. This is why Jesus can say "I am the Way the Truth and the Life; No one comes to the Father except through Me." There is no other God, but this God!!

79th Post Full Power of the Cross Investegated.

We learned from our study of the "CUP" that there was more to this than just a cup filled with wine. The same is true for the "CROSS". The cross was the vehicle used to grant us forgiveness of sins, this is True. But there is another part of forgiving of sins that we forget to include. This has to do with the getting rid of the sins once they are forgiven. To better understand this, we have to go to Leviticus Chapter 16, Hebrews Chapters 9 & 10, and 13:12. Hebrews 13:12, is the one that says that Jesus had to die outside the camp. If you look at the Temple, the Altar of Burned Sacrifice was inside the Temple walls but outside in the courtyard. So why is it so important that Jesus was to die outside the camp (city walls)? The sin had to get outside the city walls. In the Old Testament, this was accomplished through the use of a scapegoat. Lambs were used to cover the sins of the people, Bulls (priests) and Goats were used to cover the sins of the people as a nation. This was done as part of Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement). In the Old Testament, it required two days to try to accomplish what Jesus actually did in one. The Old Testament sacrifices, only covered the sins they did not atone for them. This is the reason, they had to be performed every year. Jesus' sacrifice, was complete, He only had to do it once and Jesus got rid of the sin, not just covered it. I will go into more detail concerning the scapegoat in next post.

78th Post Jesus and the "CUP" Discussion Continued.

In the previous posts concerning the "CUP". We have looked at the complex mixture the "CUP" contained. Now we will be looking at the complex way the Lord used that "CUP" as a way to reconcile us back to God. By us, I mean all humanity; to be reconciled you must believe that Jesus died and rose again for your sins. We will be looking at the resurrection and what that all entailed. A clue is found in the last part of Jesus' prayer in the upper room on Maundy Thursday night, before He was to be betrayed. The prayer is found in John Chapter 17, but we are concentrating on the last verses of this prayer. Jesus uses the word "sanctify" twice, and consecrate once. Remember that Jesus is perfect, without sin. Jesus was not guilty to die for our sins, so why was it necessary for Him to be consecrated? When Jesus died, He not only satisfied God's Sin requirement, but He also satisfied the Right to be called our High Priest. Just like Jesus was baptized before He could teach the people, Jesus also had to be consecrated to become eligible to be Our High Priest. Remember Jesus is not of the line of Aaron, so He was establishing a new form of Priesthood, along the lines of King Melchizedek (Genesis 14:17-20). Like King Melchizedek, Jesus holds the title of King & High Priest. Jesus not only paid the sin debt, but He also became the One who has the authority to forgive sin. When Jesus forgives, you are completely forgiven! I hope this post has helped you to understand more of what the "Cup" did for you and why it was important for Jesus to drink all of it. Praise God!

77th Post Jesus and the "Cup" Discussion continued.

In order for Jesus to atone for our sin, He would have to get rid of it. How did He do it? First Jesus being sinless, would have to become sin, how was this accomplished? Jesus had to drink the "Cup" that was prepared for Him, He could not drink only some of it, but had to drink all of it. When He had done this, He became sin. If it just covered Him, He would be no better than the animal sacrifices had been. In order to ATONE for the SIN He had to become it. The animal sacrifices could only cover the sin, not get rid of it. On the Cross, Jesus showed once and for all Who is stronger! Only Jesus took our sin and got rid of it. ONLY GOD COULD DO THIS!!! When Adam sinned, Adam brought sin into the world, Jesus took SIN OUT on the cross. Making His Death, the only one that could atone for the sins of the world. God's Law had been broken, and Only God could reconcile us back to Him! I don't know how to explain this, but I will give you an example. Say you have a cup of poison, and you pour it into a larger container of the antidote, the antidote will absorb all the poison, making the solution safe. The antidote is stronger than the poison. This is what happened on the Cross. God the Father told the Son, He would have to become sin and atone for it in order for the people to be reconciled back to the Father. I hope you have a greater appreciation of what Jesus did for you on that Cross!!

76th Post Jesus and the "Cup" further discussion.

Understanding the full scope of what Jesus Christ did for us on the cross, is understanding "Propitiation". This is the term that describes what Jesus accomplished on the cross for us. His sacrifice had to be greater than the animal sacrifices had been. If you look at the book of Leviticus, it tells how animal sacrifices were carried out. The person brought their unblemished animal to the high priest, there in front of the high priest they would place their hand on the animals head and then confess their sins to the high priest. When they did this, they were transferring their sin to the unblemished animal thus making the animal guilty of their sin, the wages of sin is death, so the animal then had to die in the person's place. The animal sacrifice did not atone for the sin, but only covered it. In the Old Testament, the High Priest, before he could accept the sacrifices of the people, he had to sacrifice an animal also, to cover his sin. Jesus is Our High Priest, and being SINLESS, did not have to sacrifice an animal to cover His sin because He did not have any! He had to become our sin. If He did not, there would be no difference between what He did on the cross, and what the animals did that were sacrificed in the Old Testament. Only Jesus Christ can atone for sin. He had to have become the sin in order to get rid of it. This is a very hard topic to understand, I am running out of space so will continue next post.

75th Post Jesus and the "CUP" Con't from last post.

In the last post, we were discussing if Jesus died and took sin out of the world, why is there still sin over 2,000 years after His Death? For Jesus to be the complete and perfect "Sin Offering" for us, He would have to pay for all sin, right? This means the sins that were done before Jesus came to live on the earth, the sins while Jesus was on the earth, and the sins of the future generations would commit before Jesus comes back. God created the world, and knows exactly how long it will exist, before He destroys it. Why was it necessary for Jesus to drink this "CUP". Jesus being with out sin could not die in our place, unless He became sin. This is a very hard thing to grasp, so read this carefully. On the cross, Jesus became sin, (He was covered with our Sin); God the Father could not look on sin so He turned His Back for three hours, the hours from 12:00pm to 3:00pm. During this time the place was dark as night, in the middle of the day. Why did God demand this sacrifice of His Son? His Son was the only one strong enough to accomplish this task. This is the only God that Did this for you. When Jesus said "IT IS FINISHED"! It was, He paid it all. This is how Jesus paid the price of our reconciliation. We can not understand why God demanded such a high price for us, or that His Son Jesus would pay such a price. I hope these posts have given you a better understanding of God, and what He did for us. Jesus is our Propitiatory Sacrifice.

74th Post Signicance of the Cup Jesus Was Talking About in the Garden of Gethsemane- Luke 22: 39 -46.

You maybe wondering why I included this, in my Prophecy about End Times. Hopefully, after reading this you will come to the same conclusion I did, that this needed to be included. There is a lot of teaching concerning this "CUP" what it contained, why Jesus seemed to try to get out of drinking it, and what was accomplished through His drinking of this "CUP". Since this blog is trying to show that God had a plan from the very beginning, this "CUP" is very much a part of this plan. You have to remember that God is perfect, has no sin, and is a God of Righteousness (Judgment); and Mercy (Love). God gave us free choice, and it is this free choice that gets us into trouble, because we always choose the wrong thing. God loves us and wanted none of us to go to hell. That is why He made His Son come here and live as a human. This is what John 3:16 is all about. The key to that verse is the word "Believe". Free choice again, we can either choose to believe or not. Sin was brought into the world by Adam in Geneses Chapter 3. God needed another Adam to come that could live a perfect life and die without committing sin; if this happened, Sin would be taken out of the world. Jesus accomplished this on the cross. You then ask if this is true how come we still have sin today, 2,000 years after Jesus died? That is a good question, and I am running out of space for this blog so will continue on next blog.

73rd Post Prophecy of Matthew Chapter 25 Con't. - Verses 31 - 46

Matthew 25: 31 - 46 The Final Judgment.
This was spoken by Jesus toward the end of His earthly Ministry. Depending on how you interpret Scripture, these verses mean different things. Since my position is to believe what Jesus Said in Chapter 5 of Matthew "I did not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill. Every yod and tittle will be fulfilled." This means that all the signs mentioned in the Bible will come to pass. We just don't know the order they will come to pass. Matthew 25:31, starts out with the Son of Man comes with all His angels with him, then He will sit on his glorious throne. Other prophecies show Jesus will do some things on earth before He sits on this throne. I believe that this means there will be a lapse of time before this throne and judgment. Jesus says He will separate the sheep from the goats, I believe this to be the White Throne Judgment. This according to Scripture should come after the Millennium the 1,000 year reign of Jesus on earth. This is talked about in the Old Testament. People say "That Jesus can come at anytime!" This is true, because God is God, and can do anything He wants. However, since Jesus said that all will be fulfilled, this means all things have to be fulfilled before the end can come. This puts things into a definite time frame, and order. People always look for God to return soon, so that they can leave this world. This will happen, but in God's timing, not ours.

72nd Post Jesus on Prophecy Matthew 25 Parable of the Talents Con't.

Now one of the three servants, did not do anything with the talent, but buried it in the ground and kept it safe. The master is upset with this servant because he did not do anything to try to increase what he was put in charge of, while the master was away. The servant says that he is afraid of the master and that is why he buried it, because he did not lose what was given him. In the world, investing has a certain amount of risk attached. The greater the risk, the greater the reward, or the loss can be. Those wanting you to invest, only concentrate on the gain side, not the loss side. If you are doing the Lord's Work, He will Bless it, and it won't come back void. This is another sign that the Kingdom of God operates differently than the world does. The master is upset with the servant because he did nothing to try to increase the amount. The servant was entrusted with a talent, and he chose not to do anything. This is like the five foolish virgins in the earlier parable. They made no provision for the future. They like this servant were found wanting and were passed over. They all had something and they lost it. The foolish virgins lost entrance to the wedding feast, and the servant lost his talent, he was entrusted with, and he was thrown into outer darkness, in that place will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. The lessons of both parables seems to be make provisions and you will be allowed to enter, if you do not, or try to do too late, you will be cast out. Where are you in your walk with Jesus??

71st Post Matthew Chapter 25 2nd post on this chapter - Continued Parable 10 Virgins.

Our last post left off with the 5 foolish virgins going to the market place to buy oil. Look at Matthew chapter 24 starting at verse 40. One is taken, one is left. There is a lot of teaching on what that means. The end of chapter 24 ends with weeping and gnashing of teeth. Which group is which? The Bible makes it very clear if you take the time to read carefully what is written there. I am going to let you make your own decision. The five foolish virgins leave, they are not there, seems to be same as taken first. They come back and find the door is closed with them locked outside. They call from outside for admittance, and were refused.

The second parable is the Parable of the Talents. This parable opens with the master leaving on a journey and asks his servants to watch over his possessions. In this parable also the journey takes a long time. What is the message here? Chapter 24 talks about Second Coming of Christ, Chapter 25 continues on that same subject, notice both parables deal with a long time passing. The parable continues with two servants investing what they were in charge of and gaining more for their master. We like the servants are called to be doing the work of the Lord. If we are doing His work we will be able to show an increase. We are to be working for the Kingdom of God everyday, this is our duty as God's Children. This will be continued next post.

70th Post Prophecy and Matthew Chapter 25.

Matthew chapter 25 has two parables and the Final Judgment in it. We will look at these in probably more than one post. This first Post deals with the Parable of the Ten Virgins. It says that 5 were wise and 5 were foolish, both groups were invited to the wedding feast. Only one group was allowed to enter. In many Bible classes, this parable is not taught as Bible prophecy about end times. They say it has to do with the Second Coming of Christ, and that is it. I think chapter 25 follows chapter 24 because it is further teaching on what was spoken of in chapter 24. The early Christians were looking for an early Second Coming. Clearly, this parable of the ten virgins, calls this into question. The Virgins had arrived early anticipating the arrival of the Bridegroom. He was delayed, for a long time. The virgins tired of waiting, fell asleep. Then they are woken up abruptly and told the Bridegroom is coming. Five virgins had brought extra oil for their lamps, and five had not. The five that did not have oil asked the five who did to share their oil with them. They refused saying that if they did share they would not have enough to light both their lamps, and the other five who did not bring extra oil. The five virgins who were prepared told the other five, to go and buy oil at the market place and come back. They left to buy the oil, and when they came back, the door had been closed and when they asked to be let in they were told "I do not know you." I will continue next post.

69th Post Prophecy on Matthew 24: 36 - 51

"No one knows That Day or Hour." This was spoken by Jesus Himself. If He doesn't know when it will be, how can I say I know, this is absurd. Jesus said it will be like the days of Noah. This is not a passage the End Time people talk much about. I don't know why that is, maybe it has to do with the fact the story of Noah is found in the Old Testament. You should familiarize yourself with this story, it is found starting in Genesis Chapter 8. When the flood came it caught the world by surprise. The world had never seen it rain before the flood. They had no idea what was about to happen to them. The signs came in the sky, and they had no experience to warn them about possible danger. If the storm clouds start to gather today, we all stop and notice the sky, then we decide if we should continue with what we were doing or make an effort to get out of the storm. When the Lord Comes again, the sky will show signs, but we will not be able to read them because we have not seen these before. Just like the people of Noah were surprised by the rain, so will the people on earth be, when Jesus suddenly appears in the sky. Matthew 24 says that the sky will turn dark and the stars will fall from the sky. Only people who are aware of these signs, they will have some clue to what is about to happen. Will we remember this? Or will we not make the connection from what we have read to what we are actually seeing? Its going by the Book!

68th Post Jesus on Olivet Discourse Con't- Matthew 24: 29-31

Matthew 24: 29 - 31 Starts with the words "Immediately after the tribulation of those days..." This seems to blow a large hole in the pre-trib plan. It does not get any better either. Who is right? We won't know until after Jesus comes. Jesus told us to be able to watch and read the signs, He did not say we needed to know the order they are fulfilled. Jesus Himself said that "no one knows when the Son of Man will return, only the Father knows." If Jesus says He does not know, how can I say I know how it will unfold. All I know for sure, is that it will go exactly the way God has planned it. God is God and He can do whatever He wants, when He wants. The fact God can not lie, or contradict Himself, means some signs have to come before others, however, no one can predict when these things will take place. This is why the Jewish scholars could tell the wise men where the Messiah was to be born when they came to Jerusalem asking to see the Promised King of the Jews. They all knew Micah 5:2; but did not know when the Messiah was to be born. This is how the End will be also. The Old Testament calls the End of the World as the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. If you look at Matthew 24:30-31, you will see an explanation of how one day can be both terrible and great at the same time. Notice the negative comes first and the positive follows. This is very interesting, because many of Jesus' parables also seem to keep this order. If the believer's are raised by themselves during the pre-trib, who are these elect the angels are gathering? The debate continues.

67th Post Prophecy of Olivet Discourse Con't. Matthew 24: 15 - 28 Con't.

Matthew 24:16 - 22. Then those who are in Judea flee into the mountains. Scholars will tell you that this also has already been fulfilled when the Roman Army laid siege to Jerusalem in 70 A.D.. You could make a case for this, unless you look at what other Old Testament Prophets said about this. Zechariah 14:4 states that Jesus will stand on the Mount of Olives and the mountain will split and form a valley as an escape route for His people. If this had happened when the Roman Army destroyed the city in 70 A.D., we would be able to see proof of this by looking at the Mount of Olives. This has not happened either. This goes with what Jesus said, "Let the reader of the prophet Daniel know and understand, the sealed part of the Book of Daniel is now ready for fulfillment, when the anti-christ stands in the Holy Place on the Temple Mount. This will not happen until the ant-christ rebuilds the Temple on the Temple Mount. This is the place where
the Mosque of Omar (Dome of the Rock) stands now. If you know anything about this location, it seems impossible that a Jewish Temple will ever sit on the Temple Mount again. But this is mentioned in the Bible as one of the anti-christ's accomplishments. The tribulation mentioned in verses 21 - 22, it also says that for the sake of the elect these days are cut short. If the elect are pre-trib raptured, who is Jesus talking about here?? If the elect are present with the Lord already, why would they care how long this period lasts?? Who then are the elect Jesus is talking about?? There will be more on this chapter to follow. Jesus told us a lot in these two chapters.

66th Post Prophecy from The Olivet Discourse Con't. - Matthew Chapter 24.

Matthew 24: 15 - 28 This section of the Olivet Discourse deals with the Abomination of Desolation.
I will start with this first. Some New Testament Scholars will tell you that the Abomination of Desolation is what the Roman Army was called as they destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A.D.. You could make a case for this unless, you look at the first Abomination of Desolation, that Daniel spoke of that would appear during the time of the Greek Domination 160 B.C. The history of this person lived between the time Malachi and Matthew were written. You can find this story in the Book of 1st Maccabees. Don't have this book in your library? Don't worry, you can read it online. Antiochus Epiphanes IV defiled the Temple. The Roman Army just destroyed it, big difference! Antiochus was one person, the Roman Army does not fit this either. Daniel said the anti-christ was a small horn, singular, Roman Army plural. If you read Daniel Chapter 7, while the anti-christ is destroying things on earth, The Ancient of Days is trying him in Heaven. If this was the Roman Army, Jesus would have come back already. Since we are still waiting for His (Jesus) coming, we know the Roman Army could not be this Abomination of Desolation Jesus spoke about. If you have been reading this blog, I have repeatedly told you that Prophets of God are 100% accurate, this is how you separate the real from the wanna be's. Don't take my word for things, look it up yourself. I am not afraid of the truth, or defending it. Antiochus Epiphanes IV really lived, you can look him up in any history book. Check it out.

65th Post Jesus Said in the Olivet Discourse - Matthew chapter 24.- My Comments.

If you look at the right side of this blog to the core verses listed, you will find many are from this chapter of Matthew. I have not commented on those verses before, because I thought they were pretty self explanatory. I printed these verses as core, because they seem to contradict all the schools of thought about End Times. I find it fascinating that people are willing to take Paul's letters to explain end times without even considering why Paul wrote those letters in the first place. They seem to forget that Paul before his conversion, was Saul. And Saul was an accomplished Old Testament Scholar. Paul did not forget what he knew about the Old Testament, what happened to him on the road to Damascus made him understand the Old Testament better. If we are going to understand the End Times, we need to consider what book we are basing our conclusions. The Bible, God's Word is the book we should be studying. God can not lie or contradict Himself. This is true. This is why the pre-trib crowd do not mention any of Jesus' Words in their laying out of their plan. What they don't tell you is that the pre-trib teaching is only 200 years old. Jesus walked the earth 2,000 years ago and this is only 200 years old. Why do people believe it? Everyone wants a get out of jail free card. Unfortunately it does not wash with what Luke 9:23. This verse does not seem to have a silver lining. I used to say that Jesus can come back at anytime, however when you look at what Jesus Himself said in Matthew chapter 5, "I did not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill." This says that it sorta does matter when Jesus comes back.

64th Post Earthquake in Japan sign of End Times??

This was a great earthquake and caused lots of damage throughout the world. I am writing this before the hype starts. Jesus told us in His Olivet Discourse Chapter 24 of Matthew, that earthquakes, rumors of wars would occur, but this is not the end, but the start of birth pains. When will Jesus come? This is the question. It depends on how well you know the Bible, and believe what it says. In Jesus' Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 - 7), Jesus said He did not come to do away with the Law and the Prophets, but to fulfill. Every cross of the "t" and dot of the "i" will be fulfilled. This is where the debate starts, what constitutes fulfillment? The core verses that are printed on the right side of this blog, I hope will help you to stay grounded, they do for me. If you look at End Times, you have to look at what the Old Testament Prophets wrote. The book of Daniel is very helpful, in Chapter 2, Daniel interprets Nebuchadnezzar's dream. But what does this have to do with us today? We are in the feet made of clay and iron part of this statue. We have already had one anti-christ come during the Greek domination, that happened. We are looking for another anti-christ, Jesus spoke about in His Olivet Discourse. We have to wait until the ten toes of the old Roman Empire is revealed. Once this happens, we will know the anti-christ Jesus spoke about is not far off. I hope these words have given you some comfort.

63rd Post Prophecy on Great & Terrible Day of the Lord - My Comments

Old Testament prophets talked about the Great and Terrible Day of the Lord. When I was a child, I had trouble with this statement. How could one day be both Great and Terrible? During my journey of Bible study over the years, I still kept stumbling over that phrase. The Old Testament prophets seemed to dwell on the Terrible part of that phrase, so I came to the conclusion that the Great part must be the degree of terribleness. I held this understanding, until I started studying the New Testament and trying to discern the "signs" that Jesus told us to know about, and watch for to understand the End of the Age. The Apostle Paul said that he was a Pharisees' Pharisee, I understood that Paul was a devout Jew, and remained true to his knowledge of the Old Testament. His understanding of the Old Testament is what changed. Paul clearly understood all of the Old Testament prophecies, and never would have gone against what they said. The Letters written to the Church of Thessaloniki were to correct misunderstandings that the people of Thessaloniki had after Paul had preached on the End of the Age. This is why exegesis and hermenutics are so important to get right. Apostle Paul would have not taught anything that would contradict anything the Scriptures had taught previously.