Today we visited Caesaria, which was definitely not a holy place. Our excellent guide, Khader Mascobi, told us that this seaport was built by the evil Herod the Great to attract pagan Roman soldiers to spend time in a Rome-like place in the Holy Land.
It might have been a bad idea, but God used it as the place where Christianity would be given to Gentiles and then spread to the Western World!
Dead Sea Scrolls at APU
I wish you all could be with us. At least you can come along on the Internet. We will post our impressions here from day to day (Starting Tuesday, May 25), and you can see pictures on Facebook as we go along.
What a time to be in Israel! There is constant news about the danger of war between Israel and her neighbors. If these aren’t the last days, I can’t imagine how things can get much more dramatic.
I always feel safe in Israel though. Statistically, we are much more likely to face danger in Los Angeles than in Israel. The Lord is in control of our lives isn’t He?
In the meanwhile, if you live near Azusa Pacific University in Southern California, you can treat yourself to an amazing exhibit of the history of the Bible and see their newly acquired fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls! It is almost as good as going to the Holy Land in person!
But you, Daniel, close up and seal the words of the scroll until the time of the end. Many will go here and there to increase knowledge.”
Daniel 12:4 (NIV)
When Daniel wrote these words he may have had a vision of someone like me using his Droid to compose a blog.
This phone has more power than my laptop computer. It has dual processors and 19 gigabytes of onboard memory. I was able to copy and paste the verse from the searchable Bible in the phone’s memory. This paragraph was translated from my spoken voice.
Next I will post this blog on the Internet directly from the phone.
Daniel would have been amazed at such increased knowledge and such going here and there on the Internet!
We’re getting mixed messages from the news about how God may be feeling toward the United States these days.
Some say we are blessed because of the multiple failures of would-be mass murderers, such as the older case of the shoe bomber and two more recent botched attempts by terrorists.
Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad was apparently trained by the Taliban in Pakistan to construct a massive car bomb, but his detonation device failed to bring about the desired calamity.
Last Christmas, Abdul Farouk Umar Abdulmutallab, a 23-year old Nigerian, tried to destroy a Northwest Airlines jet over Detroit, but his detonator also failed to ignite the explosives he carried in his underwear.
It certainly is possible that The Lord Himself has intervened in these failures.
On the other hand, some of my fellow prophecy-trackers have pointed out the possible correlation between the many disasters that have plagued our country recently and the weakening of support for Israel by our administration. Unusual floods, hurricanes and tornados have stricken us, sometimes coming right on the heels of disappointments to Israel by President Obama’s policies. Now a major oil spill threatens our ecology and our economy while U.S. negotiators make harsh demands on Israel’s building programs.
Which is it? Is God blessing us or cursing us? Could it be a little of both to remind us of the ancient, unchanging, covenant with Abraham? Let’s all read it again and ponder what it means for our nation in these last days.
1 The LORD had said to Abram, “Leave your country, your people and your father’s household and go to the land I will show you.
2 “I will make you into a great nation
and I will bless you;
I will make your name great,
and you will be a blessing.
3 I will bless those who bless you,
and whoever curses you I will curse;
and all peoples on earth
will be blessed through you.”
Genesis 12:1-3 - NIV
But now the South China Morning News describes a find that could be the real thing. A team of 15 explorers, including a documentary filmmaker have brought back startling evidence of an ark-like structure at 13,000 feet on Mt. Ararat. A sizeable piece of wood was determined by Carbon dating to be 4,800 years old. The date and size of the structure make the find very interesting. The Hong Kong-based filmmaker, Yeung Wing-cheung said, “It’s not 100 percent that it is Noah’s Ark but we think it is 99.9 percent that this is it.”
Time will tell. But I have always been a believer in a last-days revival, and that the greatest proof ever to those who are willing to believe would be the discovery of the remains of Noah’s Ark.
Have we ever seen so many of the “Signs of the Times†as we see now? Most prophecy scholars would agree that this is what we would expect of Jesus’ prophesied “beginning of birth pains,†just before the Tribulation of the last days. The time is also ripe for a final harvest of believers before the beginning of that time of judgment.
Maybe this find will be validated, and stimulate that great world-wide turning to Jesus Christ as their Savior! Wouldn’t that be just like the Lord to save the best proof ever for the last days?
Evangelists claim Noah’s Ark found - Prophecy Central – from a WorldNetDaily article
Have Hong Kong evangelists found the biblical Noah’s ark? - South China Morning Post
Caution: Time will tell if this is credible. Latest Noah’s Ark ‘just wood planted on Ararat’ - WorldNetDaily
Recently blogging has made a huge impact on the news industry. When traditional media outlets fail to get to the heart of current important issues, the bloggers swarm the story and uncover the facts. Thanks to the Internet, everyone has a voice, and some of them, like Matt Drudge, have developed a magnificent megaphone.
Now blogging has come to the Internet world of Bible prophecy. On Prophecy Central, we continue to summarize news stories of special interest to prophecy students, with little or no editorial comment. And now, with a separate blog, we feel the freedom to give commentary to current events and add the Bible passages that relate to the issue.
There are other good prophecy blogs popping up also! So we have just added a section to our “About Prophecy†links that is just about prophecy blogs. By making these available to you in one place, we hope to enhance your knowledge and enjoyment of the subject.
You can get to it by clicking on “Prophecy Links†at the top of Prophecy Central’s home page, or by going directly to the Prophecy Blogs section at
http://www.bible-prophecy.com/links12blogs.htm
Solomon said, “The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails-given by one Shepherd. Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them. Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body. Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this the whole duty of man.†- Ecclesiastes 12:11-13
Now we Christians are faced with a similar situation. We have so-called Christians in the news doing things that are completely contrary to the teachings of the Bible, and especially of the Lord Jesus Christ.
What about the Hutaree Christian militia group that planned to kill policemen in the hope that their rebellion would bring down the government. Are they Christian just because they say they are, when everything they stand for is contrary to the teachings of the Prince of Peace?
And what could be a worse representation of Christianity than the hateful picketing and heckling of the perverse Fred Phelps and his Westboro Baptist Church at the funerals of servicemen who have died protecting their countrymen?
Here is just one of many places in the Bible that show that these are false Christians:
Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us. – 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV)
Christians everywhere need to rise up and condemn these hateful misrepresentations of our faith. Christian leaders must take a stand against these and other unbiblical practices. If we don’t, we will deserve the persecution that the media and the Devil want to bring against us.
Apostasy - Prophecy Central
Prophecy students often notice that America does not seem to be mentioned in last-days prophecy. Of course Israel and her neighbors are central to the predictions of future events. A renewed form of the Roman Empire is seen in Daniel. In Ezekiel’s war of “Gog and Magog†Russia is prominent, along with an Islamic alliance including Iran and Libya. But where is the mighty superpower of the 21st Century, the United States of America?
Some have thought we are mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13 as one of the “young lions†of what might be the old British Empire. But that is not convincing today since Great Britain is not all that powerful and the United States is obviously no longer a British colony.
Others have thought America could be equated directly with Babylon the Great at the point of her future destruction in Revelation 17 and 18. But that is too great a stretch, and there are far better explanations of Babylon in the last days.
So, what happens to the United States between now and the likely near-future unfolding of the end times scenario?
There are several possibilities. One theory is that the war of Gog and Magog will take place before the rise of Antichrist’s final world empire. It could be the war of the Second Seal of Revelation 6:3-4. That series of events, described in Ezekiel 36 through 39, includes the rebirth of the nation of Israel and an attack against her once she is living in peace and safety. Israel was reborn in 1948 in magnificent fulfillment of this prophecy, but she has not yet enjoyed peace. That peace could be achieved any time now, setting the stage for the attack of Russia and an Islamic force against Israel. Ezekiel’s prophecies about this war say that Israel’s enemies will be destroyed by fire and brimstone. This, of course, could describe a nuclear exchange. What if Iran were to use a nuclear weapon against Israel? Wouldn’t the response also threaten to involve the United States in an unwanted nuclear exchange? If that did happen, it is not likely that the United States would still be a powerful world-player after that war.
Another likely scenario would be that America will have suffered a financial collapse by the time of the last days, and would still exist, but not be a super-power. That is exactly what many political and financial analysts are saying about our current course. The unconscionable spending of recent legislation, with its inevitable tax burden on future citizens could easily be the real reason for the demise of America as anything more than another cog in the European socialistic machinery that Antichrist will use for his economic dictatorship (Revelation 13).
In either of these cases, The United States will not be gone in the last days. We will just not be worth mentioning.
The Bible predicts that there will come a day when every person must be registered in a world-wide economic system. This will be a permanent universal credit device without which no one can buy or sell anything. It will be imposed by “the beast†(Antichrist), and will be accompanied by a physical “mark.â€
That day just got a little closer with the proposal of a senate bill that would require all American workers to have a National ID Card that could not be used by someone else. That means that the card would contain biometric information – probably digitized fingerprints. Americans have always been reluctant to have this kind of registration since it is seen as an invasion of their privacy. It might start, as in this proposed bill, as a permit to work, but it would undoubtedly be used for tracking individual health, purchases, travel, voting, and anything else “big brother†would like to know.
The legislation is a result of President Obama’s desire to see Congress enact immigration legislation this year. To give the bill a bipartisan start, Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer and Republican Senator Lindsey Graham will cosponsor the measure.
There are a couple of things to keep in mind here. First, the mark itself is not our individual identification number. The Bible says it is “the name of the beast or the number of his name.†Antichrist will be energized by the Devil, who always wanted to be worshipped as god. Wearing his “mark†would be the equivalent of a Christian wearing a cross. But this mark – probably a visible or invisible tattoo, will be his name or his distinctive number. There are many possible numbering systems that could be used, but no one knows yet what it will be, and the Bible says we can not know who Antichrist will be until the Holy Spirit ceases to be the restrainer of sin. (2 Thessalonians 2:1-12). This would be during the Tribulation when true Christians have been taken away by the Rapture of the Church. (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18)
The second thing to remember is that the actual device could be like a credit card or smart card, but in order to keep people from losing it, it could be an implanted radio-frequency identification device (RFID) similar to the ones already being placed under the skin of pets and some humans.
All of this means we are getting closer than ever to Our Lord’s return for His Church!
ID Card for Workers Is at Center of Immigration Plan - Wall Street Journal
The Mark of the Beast - Prophecy Central
The Rapture - Prophecy Central
For the past several weeks at Solid Ground Church we have been considering a series of messages from Jesus, taken from the Gospel of Luke, on the theme: “Hope in Uncertain Times.” Jesus’ teaching was filled with hope for all people, whatever trials they might face.
Because of His love for us, He provided forgiveness of sins by dying in our place. He promised direction, protection, provision, and much more to those who would follow Him. In normal usage of the word, a “hope†is something one wants to have happen, which may or may not come to pass. In the Bible, a hope is based on the promises of God. It is therefore something that is sure to happen, but its fulfillment is still future. The Bible is full of promises, and each one gives reason for a believer to expect some positive outcome.
One of the greatest promises in the Bible is the return of the Lord Jesus to establish His kingdom on earth. It is known in Evangelical circles as “The Rapture of the Church.” In Titus 2:13, the Apostle Paul called this “The blessed hope.”
We don’t believe in setting dates, but that great event is certainly getting closer all the time!
Visit the Rapture page on Prophecy Central.