Steps Of an Unknown Writer

Believe on GOD and the things of God.  Know that God’s “Plan of the Ages” is ever moving forward according to His sacred, most holy written word.  As it is written, “all Scripture must be fulfilled.”

We live in troubling times.  Worry and uncertainty abound.  Where can we go, what can we do, to whom can we run?  I think Peter said it best when he confessed, ‘where can we go, Lord; thou hast the words of life.’  Run to Him.  He is ever waiting with open arms.

Against Christianity is the raging tide of evil and wickedness in the world today, just as it has been in the past, so it is now.  Someone said on a radio talk show that overall, we live in a good world.  Just a survey of history, and certainly current events would suggest otherwise!  No, do not be deceived, the arch-enemy of God, whose name is Satan, the Devil is the one behind all the unthinkable acts of human destruction, for he is the destroyer, the murderer, the liar and deceiver of truth.  And he has his followers, the fallen angels who follow him, these wicked demons, also entice or move men to commit these horrific acts of slaughter of the innocents.  The slaughter of Christians and Jews over the centuries is uncountable! About 3/4 of the world population does not believe in the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, revealed in Matthew’s Gospel as the “Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit; or that God, the Father, sent His only begotten Son to die for our sins so that:

“For God so loved the world that He sent His only begotten Son, so that all who believe on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

A good world? I would say, no; but on the other hand there are so many wonderful people and families doing things that honor God, both in their lives and their actions. So, does the good outweight the bad?

What can we do, then? What should we do?  Whom should it be in our every waking thoughts? in all the moments of our lives? the last thought on our mind before sleep?  Just Jesus Christ, the Messiah…the One who came to save….the One who will be King of Kings and Lord of Lords…the One and only who can bring lasting peace to this troubled earth!  

Therefore, at the moment of belief, when we confess the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, as our Lord and Savior, believing wholeheartedly His sacrificial, substitutionary death for the sins of the world; for your sins and mine; His resurrection from the dead on the third day; His ascension up to Heaven to the Father; and His coming again in power and glory to reign in His Kingdom, then we shall ever be with Him in His Kingdom, and throughout eternity. 

In John, chapter six, when Jesus and His disciples were at Capernaum, a great multitude of people found Him there: “Then said they unto Him, What shall we do, that we might work the works of God?”

“Jesus answered and said unto them, This is the work of God, that ye believe on Him whom He sent.”

He commanded us to love one another, despite the evil and wickedness in the world.  For Jesus said:

“By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples, if ye have love one to another.”

How best, then, in our lives and actions, our belief and worship, might we best honor Christ, and to love Him with all our love?  It must be through the Holy Communion, the centrality of all our worship.  For He said to do this act of worship in remembrance of Him until He comes again…

Do you remember the words Jesus spoke as recorded in the Gospel According to John, beginning in chapter six, verse 34:

“Then said they unto Him, Lord, evermore give us this bread.”

“And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that comes to Me shall never hunger; and he that believes on Me shall never thirst.”

“I came down from heaven…”

But a great many grumbled and did not believe.

But He said to them, “No man can come to Me, except the Father which has sent me draw him: and I will raise him up at the last day.”

Hear His words and believe…

‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believes on Me has everlasting life.”

O, how these precious words echo and resound; but they would not believe.  But to those who do, eternity is assured in Christ Jesus.  

“This is the bread which came down from heaven, that a man may eat thereof, and not die.”

“I am the living bread which came down from heaven: if any man eat of this bread, he shall live for ever: and the bread that I will give is My flesh, which I will give for the life of the world.”

But they still murmured all the more, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”

“Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, ye have no life in you.”

“Whoso eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.”

“For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed.”

“He that eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him.”

“As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he that eats Me, even he shall live by Me.”

Luke 22:17…

“And He took the cup, and gave thanks, and said, Take this and divide among yourselves: For I say unto you, I will not drink of the fruit of the vine, until the kingdom of God shall come.”

“And He took bread, and gave thanks, and break it, and gave unto them, saying, This is My body which is given for you: this do in remembrance of Me.”

“Likewise also the cup after supper, saying, This cup is the new testament in My blood, which is shed for you.”

And so, at Holy Communion we enter into the “mystery” of Christ, as we take and eat His body, the living bread, and drink His blood, the living wine.  And therefore in a memorial celebration of His death and resurrection, we partake in Him and He in us, until we sit with Him in His kingdom on earth.

Only believe, He said, and do this Holy Communion in remembrance of Me.  And so shall it ever be.  Let us love and honor the Lord in His Holy Communion as often as we can.

Let it be so, Lord Jesus.  Amen.

His created holy ones, who stand before God; who shouted for joy when God created the earth:

“Where was thou when I laid the foundations of the earth?…When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?”    

His holy angels desire to look into the things of God given to His chosen people, and unto His Church, the body of His Son.

Are angels with us in our church when we pray, and give thanks, and worship Him, and partake of the Holy Communion?

Yes, my son, they are and always will be.

Do you now see, brother Monk?

Father?

Yes, my son. 

Can You show me, LORD?

It is written in Hebrews 1:14 regarding My angels: 

“Are they not all ministering spirits, sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation?”

Gabriel appeared to Zacharias the priest in the Temple:

“According to the custom of the priest’s office, his lot was to burn incense when he went into the temple of the Lord.”

“And there appeared unto him an angel of the Lord standing on the right side of the altar of incense.”

“I am Gabriel that stands in the presence of God.”

- Luke 1:9;11;19.  

As they ministered unto Me during My ministry on earth, and were present at the first Holy Communion with My disciples.  It is in Matthew 26:

 ”And as they were eating, Jesus took bread, and blessed it, and brake it, and gave it to the disciples, and said, “Take, eat; this is my body.”

“And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, “Drink ye all of it; For this is my blood of the new testament which is shed for many for the remission of sins.’

“But I say unto you, I will not drink henceforth of this fruit of the vine, until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father’s kingdom.”

Throughout the church ages, it has always been believed that when the bread and the wine are presented as the ‘body and blood of Christ’ is the sacrement of the Holy Communion (The Holy Echuarist, the Holy Mass), and the ‘Mystery’ of faith is thus experienced, that angels of God are in attendance when Christ is known in the ‘breaking of bread.’

That was in 33 A.D at the “Last Supper” of our Lord.

John the Apostle was there.

And 62 years later, old and exiled on the idland of Patmos, the Lord Jesus appeared to John and told him to write what he saw in a book  and send them to the angels of the churches in Asia.

For He said in the Revelation:

“I am Alpha and Omega, the first and the last: and, What thou see, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia;”

“Unto the angel of the church of Ephesus write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Pergamos write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Thyatira write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write;”

“And unto the angel of the church in Philadelphia write;”

“And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;”

So you see, My son, the church of Jesus Christ has, throughout the Church Age, and even today in the 21st Century has always had My holy angels keeping watch over the ‘body of Christ,’ which is His Holy Church.

My Lord and my God.  I……………..

Brother Monk, wake up, wake up!    

   And the third day passed.  After the birth of our Lord Jesus, these are the three most holy days of our Christian faith: Good Friday, Saturday, and Easter Sunday.    

The dramatic events of these three days happened in Jerusalem of Judea during the Feast of the Passover, when there was a full moon, all as prophesied in the Holy Bible, exactly as it is written, some one thousand nine hundred eighty years ago.  

The First Day: Good Friday.  A day of profound sorrow; a day of weeping for the understanding of what ourLord endured for us in the greatest of suffering that could be inflicted upon a man.  The sacrificial Lamb of God who was led to the slaughter; who died for our sins.  The Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the whole world.  

What man could endure such suffering?  It happened in three phases.  First, from the time of His arrest by the Jewish Temple guards, to the handing over to the Roman ruler, Pontius Pilate, Jesus was repeatedly kicked, slapped, punched in the face, and spit upon over and over again. 

Second, the scourging.  He was tied to a post, stripped of His clothes, and whipped with a great number of lashes (enough to kill a man) by the Roman guards.  These whips were made of leather with bits of glass and metal attached, designed to inflict the maximum amount of pain due to the tearing away of skin!  He was whipped all over His body, and His blood flowed profusely for our sins. 

Third, the death sentence: death by crucifixion.  And then the Romans roughly pushed hard down  upon His head a crown made of large thorns that cause great bleeding.  And after that, they made Him carry on His badly torn and battered body a tall, heavy, rough wooden cross, all the way through the city to the place where He would be crucified.  He was whipped and beaten if he stopped or fell.  There, He was laid upon the cross, His feet placed one on top of the other, and His arms out stretched so violently as to dislocate the shoulder joints.  And there He was nailed to the cross: long, thick iron nails, one through His right hand into the hard wood; another nailed through His left hand into the wood; and another nailed through both His feet, into the hard wood.  Then the Romans lifted up the cross and slammed it down into a deep hole to anchor it.  Fighting for every breath, suffering the most horrific, excruciating pain, our Lord Jesus died hours later, there on a hill outside Jerusalem, nailed to a cross for all to see.  And so that all prophecy must be fulfilled as written, affixed above His head at the top of the cross were the immortal words in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek: “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews.”  And so He is, and so it shall be. 

His body was taken down and conveyed to a tomb for burial.  His body was washed, and spices and ointments were applied, and He was wrapped in clean, white linen cloth.  A great stone was rolled over the entrance of the tomb to secure the body that no man could enter and steal the body.  Good Friday, the First Day.

The Second Day.  And on the second day, Saturday, as His body lay in the tomb, His  soul or spirit then descended into Hell.  Where is this place where the spirits of the dead go? It is a place especially made by God to hold the spirits of all believers up to the time of Christ’s death; and to hold the spirits of all unbelievers up to the time of Christ’s death, and following His death, even to the time of Judgement after His Kingdom rule on the earth. 

This place of the unseen spirits was known to the Jews as “Sheol,’ and to the Greeks as “Hades.”  Thus translated, “Hell,” the place in the lower parts of the earth where the spirits await the resurrection of their dead bodies unto judgment.  Before the death of Jesus, this place had two great compartments: one for the righteous called “Paradise,” or “Abraham’s Bosom,” the other part was where the spirits of the unrighteous went, a place of torment and dread and anguish.  There was a great gulf that separated the two; they could see and talk to one another, but could not cross over or ever leave their abode.  That is, until Christ died.  When He descended into Hell on the second day, He preached to those in “Paradise,” released them as He “took captivity captive,” and ascended on high to the Father in Heaven with the souls-spirits of the believing righteous ones since Creation.  Since then, there is no longer anyone in Abraham’s Bosom of Hell, for they are all in Heaven with the Lord.  And since that time and forward, even to our time and beyond, all who die in Christ Jesus go immediately up to Heaven to be with the Lord and Father, just as the Apostle Paul wrote, “to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.”  

But it is not so with the unrighteous unbelievers.  For their future is the same lot as those who preceded them:  at death they go directly down into Hell with the billions of souls already there, separated from the Lord in death, as they were in life, in darkness and gloom.

The Third Day.  “And on the third day He arose from the dead.”  With His soul-spirit reunited with His body in the tomb, God resurrected Jesus from the grave with a new, immortal, glorified, incorruptible, imperishable body of flesh and bone.  A body that will live forever; a body that can walk through walls; a body that transcends time and distance and space.  He was seen and held by His disciples; he ate and drank, and spoke.  He cooked for them.  He gave them instruction of things to come.  And then, after many days and having been seen by many, with His disciples gathered all around Him on the Mount of Olives, He ascended into Heaven; He went up from them in the air, to the clouds and beyond, out of their sight. 

You see, Christ (the Messiah) set the pattern and put it in motion His “Plan of the Ages,” which is the plan of all history for the redeemed in Christ Jesus, in life on earth, death, and eternal life through Him and in Him. 

By His glorious and powerful resurrection, He became the “First Fruits” of the First Resurrection of all believing people which He has ordained to occur, like all history and historical biblical events, in a chronological, sequential order.  First, Christ’s resurrection.  Then, sometime in the near future, the resurrection of all Christians, those who believed and believe in Him from the time of His resurrection and Pentecost, across almost two thousand years, and up to the 21st Century of our time, and then just beyond, to the time Scripture tells us of an event next on God’s timetable: the ”Rapture” of His Church.  This will be a time that could happen at any moment, for there will be no signs heralding this next great event in history. 

Listen as these immortal words of God by the Apostle Paul are recorded in I Corinthians, chapter 15, beginning at verse 51:

“Behold, I show you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall  all be changed, In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.

For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.  So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.  O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?”

And, blessed are those in Christ who hold fast to these words of the second phase of the first resurrection (Jesus being the first phase) as written by Paul in I Thessalonians, chapter 4, beginning at verse thirteen:

“But I would not have you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning them which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have no hope. 

For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.  For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep.

For the Lord Himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord.

Wherefore comfort one another with these words.”

Christ the first phase of the first resurrection of the body; we, the second phase of the first resurrection.  During the first half of the seven-year Tribulation on earth, Daniel’s 70th Week, the Two Witnesses who were killed while preaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ, will be resurrected and taken up to Heaven.  After Jesus Christ returns again to earth with His armies of saints and angels, He will then resurrect the martyred Tribulation saints who died for Christ; this is followed by the resurrection of all the Old Testament saints.  This is the third, fourth, and fifth stages of the first resurrection. The last stage of the first resurrection of all who are in Christ Jesus, the sixth phase, will  be accomplished at the close of the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.

“This is the first resurrection.  Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection: on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with Him a thousand years”  

Then comes the Second Resurrection, the resurrection of all the unbelieving, unrighteous spirits in Sheol (Hell) into an immortal body, where they will immediately be judged by Jesus Christ at His ‘Great White Throne Judgment.’  From there they will be cast into the Lake of Fire for all eternity apart from God, where they will be with the Antichrist, and the False Prophet, and Satan, the Devil.  All those who were the enemies of God; all those who took the mark of the beast and worshipped the beast and his image.

“But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.”

“And they were judged every man according to their works.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  This is the second death.  And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.”

The Three Days.  It all began in eternity past when God, the Holy Trinity, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit planned all this, and was put in motion in the “Fullness of Time” when Jesus was born a human being, fully man, fully God, died, was buried, and was resurrected from the dead.  

May you ever hold deep in your heart the blessed meaning of these  three days of Christ’s love and grace for you.  Amen.

   One morning, after we had finished Matins, our morning prayer to the glory of the Lord God Almighty, the holy father monk called me aside.

Brother monk, I have read with great interest your thoughts on conversion as the chief work of the Holy Spirit.  I particularly like the way in which you presented His work in centuries past, from the time of our Lord Jesus Christ when He was on the earth, to the conversion of the English beginning was the ministry of blessed Augustine, our first Bishop, and through the ages up to our time, today.

I am humbled by your words, reverend father.  

Would you then honor us this evening with a small presentation of your work?

After Evensong, the monks gathered in the great library to hear the words of brother monk, whose name is Peter.

I am honored to speak to you, my fellow brothers.  Now, let me humbly present the work the Holy Spirit has guided me on this most wonderful journey.  

In eternity past, when there was only God, the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, when nothing had been created, even before the foundations of the world, He knew your name!  You see, dear brothers in Christ, He planned exactly when you would be called, exactly the century, exactly the place, exactly the time and circumstances of your being called to believe in His Son, His One and only begotten Son, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.  And you know this in your heart, what the great Apostle Paul wrote in his Epistle to the Ephesians in chapter one, verses 4-5:

“According as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world…having predestinated us into the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of His will.”

It is what we know as God’s “Plan of the Ages,” and that being His Plan of Redemption and Eternal Salvation, which is in Christ the Lord.  All human history begins here in His Plan.  Only the Arch-Enemy, the Devil has put it into the mind of man, even believers, evil, wicked thoughts contrary to God’s written word! 

And the world has bought into these fantastic theories that prop man up in his very fertile imagination every heresy foisted upon the Church, even up to our own time.  To wit, note where the fanatics of the myth of “evolution” strain in every conceivable way to propagate the lies and error of the evolution of man: from the from the mud, they say, an accident happened, a random act of pure “chance.” And from a spark, simple cells just roaming around in the seas, combed with  ‘other simple roaming’ cells, and on and on, more and more, years upon years, the right conditions on an earth that came into being by a “big bang,” why, given millions and millions of years, the apes came from an ancient animal, and then came the hoax of an upright being called “cave man,” then, modern man.  And so, if all is just a product of pure chance, and there is no plan for our future when we die, well then, best you all eat, drink, and be merry today, for that’s it, there is no more!  Then there is no heaven, there is no hell, there is no kingdom, there is no God.  Yet, we hear, there are many gods and many religions, and good people everywhere. So then,  all are equal, all valid.  And if they do believe (a murky, hazy belief of sorts), then all people will be in heaven in the end; after all, there are many ways to God, right?

Let’s map it out. 

Now, before the “Fullness of Time,” when the Second Person of the Holy Trinity came out of heaven and was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Virgin Mary, Gentiles and Jews of the first four thousand years of history since the creation of Adam, the first man on earth, were saved by the Holy Spirit, according to the calling of God, the Holy Father.  Not all, but many.  He came and went as the winds blows.  He was not here permanently, as He has been  since the start of the “Church Age,” Pentecost A.D. 33.

Therefore, we see this principle at work when Jesus walked the roads and paths of Judea, and Samaria, and Galilee, and the regions round about.   The principle is thus: the calling by the Father; the conviction, change, born again to belief,  many coming to faith out of thousands of people who came in contact with Jesus.  It was His power, like that of the Holy Spirit, God, who does this most holy of works according to His plan.

The work of God, the power of calling His people was at work with John the Baptist, when, in John 1;29, he declared, “Behold the Lamb of God, which takes away the sin of the world.”  Many were around, and the next day, two disciples were called, and followed Him..One was named Andrew.  And when he found his brother, Simon Peter, the action of belief took hold, for he said, “We have found the Messiah…the Christ.” And the same thing happened with Phillip and Nathanael, who said, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel”-(John 1:37-49).  From many, four.  And the mystery of who He calls, and His power to convict and seal forever plays on.

Then, Peter’s famous confession.  We pick up the account in Matthew 16, verses 13-18:

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am?”  After many answers came forward, Jesus asked them again: “But whom say ye that I am?”

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood has not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven.”

Called; believed; act.  That time; that place; God.  These were Jews, but there were also Gentiles.. Case in point, the Roman centurion.

Also at work: seeing and hearing, but not hearing, lest they would come to believe.  The Isaiah Prophecy was at work!  And After Matthew 12, because of this, Jesus spoke to the multitudes in parables.

And what about the many examples in the Gospels when Jesus cast out evil spirits (demons-fallen angels) who were inside people?  The Scriptures tell us that all who stood by were amazed at seeing this Man who had control even over the demons.  And the Gospels tell us that these evil, unclean spirits yelled something most profound before they left the body they possessed.  And although these accounts are silent as to the reaction of the people and rulers when they must have also heard with their own ears what these demons said to Jesus, I firmly belive that God would use even a demon to have some come to faith, for Jesus, God, is causing the action.

Matthew 8:28-29:

“And when He was come to the other side of the country of the Gergasenes, there met him two possessed with devils, coming out of the tombs, exceeding fierce, so that no man might pass by that way.  

And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God?  art thou come hither to torment us before the time?”

Even the demons knew who Jesus was, and yet the religious leaders of Israel would not believe.., pretending not to hear.  Why?  Because they were not chosen by God to believe, but to do the things against Jesus and the people.  But, no doubt, they did hear,”thou Son of God!”

Luke 4:33-37 is an account of Jesus in Capernaum of Galilee:

“And in the synagogue there was a man, which had the spirit of an unclean devil, and cried out with a loud voice, saying, Let us alone; what have we to do with thee, thou Jesus of Nazareth? art thou come to destroy us? 

I know thee, who thou art; the Holy One of God.”

They heard a voice call out, “the Holy One of God.”

No matter what great signs He did or what they heard in their ears, they would not believe…no matter what!

They saw His power and authority to command the unclean spirits to come out of the man.  They were amazed!  His fame grew.  But they did not hear the words of the demons.  And if they heard them, it was dismissed right away, lest hearing and seeing they would come to believe.  But they would not; could not, for this they were born.  

I believe that this was one of the reasons why so many times Jesus cast out demons of people among the multitudes…that many would hear loud, understandable words coming from inside the person demon possessed, and that these words would stick!

And so it was too with the English people in the 8th Century A.D., when God called the blessed Pope Gregory to send Augustine to Britain to convert the people to the Christian faith.  God called them by His Holy Spirit using a man of God to lay the seed.

May these words, my dear brothers, warm your hearts and be of help in your walk of faith in Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

Amen    

   It is a stormy, cold night on the island.  I have never seen lightning bolts flashing across the dark sky so near us, as tonight!  And I have never before heard thunder so loud and so close, so very close, that it shook my cell and my bed!  I pulled the covers tightly over my head, trying to go back to sleep, but was now too restless.  And then I heard it: a voice in my head, saying, “You must go to Rome with Father Monk.  You must go at once before a new pope is elected.  You shall be representatives of the faith that came from the Roman Church.  I will tell you what to say when you get there.  You must tell them as My beloved John tried to tell them, “but they will not believe!”

And so they arrived in Rome.  And on the first day of the cardinals’ election process for a new pope, Brother Monk was in a room where a microphone was connected to speakers that would enable the thousands and thousands assembled there from all over the world to hear messages as to the progress being made.

And then a voice said unto him, “I am Jesus.  Speak now unto the people here assembled the words I give you.”

“Brothers and sisters in Christ Jesus, our Lord, hear the words I speak.  And shall you believe? 

I preached unto my people when I was here the first time, the Kingdom of God, but they would not hear.  They rejected Me!  To my beloved Apostle John, I gave unto him the last words of My book, for the seven churches in Asia, and even beyond unto the very corners of the earth, My earth, which I created, the last “things which are to come.”  They believed for a time, but as the centuries past by, wickedness crept into My Church, and the very words of last book unto you, were explained away so as to take them as a myth.  And so, even now, most of My people ignore or do not believe the words of the ‘last days’ John wrote unto you-even your popes!  For it is man who errs, not God.

By this time the police and keepers of the house could not enter the room from which Brother Monk preached.  No one could silence the voice that flooded the square.  All were silent as the throngs of people assembled there listened reverently to the words he spoke.  They perceived these were not ordinary words from an ordinary man.  No, they believed something very special was happening from God.

The time is almost near when the things prophesied for the future shall be accomplished.  You know them from my last book John wrote unto you, even as all Scripture must be fulfilled about Me.  I am He, Jesus, in heaven with the Father, but soon, very soon, I will come again back to earth to reign: for I am the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords, your Christ, the Messiah!

But before I come back in the clouds with the radiance of the Sun, with great power and glory, I must first accomplish something very great my Apostle Paul often spoke about to his churches: the first resurrection after Me.

“For I shall come out of heaven with the arch-angel, and with a great shout, and the great blast of the trumpets, and all over the world, at the same time, and from the time of the beginning of My church, the dead in Christ Jesus shall rise from the grave; then all who are alive at that very moment, those who are alive in Christ Jesus shall be changed into immortal, glorious, imperishable bodies like those just resurrected, like even unto Christ, translated in the ‘twinkling of an eye,’ and together, in the greatest assembly of the Lord that ever there was to behold, you shall be gathered unto Me in the sky, above the clouds, and follow Me up to heaven unto the Holy Father.  

And so, dear ones of Mine, shall you forever be with the Lord! 

You shall not, not even one of you be part of the following seven years of judgement that shall be upon my people Israel, and even the whole unbelieving world!  No, not one!   

If you would only believe what John wrote in the Revelation of Jesus Christ, you too can know your future, and the future events which shall come upon the whole world, and, as I desire, teach others, especially My chosen ones, the Jewish people, for they are still Mine, and always will be.  You have not replaced them, but are grafted into them, blind yet as they are.  But, like you today, shall  they believe?

And when the prophecy of Daniel’s last Seven Years has expired, then I shall come out of heaven with my saints and angels to the earth, when the desperate call of My believing Remnant shall come to My ears…and then, and only then will I return, and my kingdom shall then begin. 

You are My witnesses; My testimony unto all the world.  You spread the seed of My Holy Gospel.  Do not be ‘slow of heart to believe all that was written of Me.’ Do not be like My two disciples who walked on the Road to Emmaus after My crucifixion, fools, because they did not believe all Moses wrote of Me!  

Thus I have spoken through My servant, and you have heard.

These words shall not pass away but are settled forever in Heaven.  These are My true words.  Shall you believe?

But you will not believe.”

 And when all these words were spoken, the police burst into the room and arrested Brother Monk.  There were no charges, but they had to depart Rome first thing in the morning.  And they arrived back to their island, and Father Monk did not speak, but smiled the whole trip home.

i

In the year of our Lord 2013, March.  The winds have calmed.  The sun is up, and some visitors are about the island.  

Tea and bread is being served in the great room.

After all, said the American visitor to our holy island, everyone has their own interpretation of the Bible, right?

Well, yes, that’s true.  Anyone can believe anything he likes, and even thinks he knows what the Bible says…according to his own understand-his learning, I replied.

I said, But you must know, my friend, that there is only one, true understanding, one interpretation, the way God meant His written word to be understood.  

How’s that? he said.

Like any other book written to be understood in its most simple, normal, usual, literal sense, that’s how.  God did not write to confuse people, or place secret hidden meanings between paragraphs that only the most lofty and learned of men could know.  What God had man write by His Holy Spirit was the record of things past, present, and future. He meant it as He wrote it; to be understood by a believer who puts his mind, heart, and soul to study the Scriptures, giving it your quiet time, and read every day.  

If you approach it as a scoffer, a wrestler of words, one who wants to make it something it is not, to try to prove it wrong, or add things that aren’t there, then you might as well forget it and put it on the shelf to gather dust!

But in your heart, like the kid in a candy store, you know it to be God’s truth of what He wanted to tell us, the good, the bad, and the ugly, then you will know and eagerly want to read on, and on, and on.  It shall begin to take hold, and a warmth will fill you, you shall truly see, and it shall cause an emotional response.  It shall make you want to seek Him.  There will be questions to be sure, but humbly go to Him in prayer with your requests.  Honor the Bible; stand up for the Bible.  Let it never be spoken ill against in your presence!  This is God’s love to you; love Him back by reading His  written word…and believe what He has written.

The confusion of understanding has its roots. 

Who were “the allegorists ” (alligators) who undermined the normal interpretation of Scripture?

As mentioned, it started with the Greeks, who passed it on to the Jews, many of them, who desired to make “controversial accounts” in the Holy Scripture, at least in their eyes, more tasteful to their listeners.   

One then took up the banner, a Jewish philosopher named Philo, who interpreted the plain, natural meaning of Scripture that was left was so far out there, that it didn’t make sense!

In the early church, Origin followed this line of thinking of seeking to find hidden spiritual meaning in just about every paragraph and verse. He argued that, “if no spiritual significance is found on the surface of a Bible passage, it may be concluded that the verses are to be taken symbolically.”

From the School at Alexandria, in a very short time, moving away from the early church fathers, he “made allegory the dominant method of biblical interpretation down to the end of the Middle Ages.”  Truly, this was a most desperate effort to avoid the plain meaning of Scripture.  

But where do these thoughts of the most learned men in history come from?  Who is the great deceiver, the liar?  Who is the arch-enemy of God?  Who is it that wants to twist God;s word, or make them mean something else: thus try to pull you further from God, but closer to him?  God is not the author of confusion.  But, for this they were born.

Even the great St. Augustine, one of our revered church fathers, followed Origin.  “He interpreted the non-prophetic Scriptures literally and the prophetic allegorically.”  He consistently spiritualized most portion of the Book of Revelation of Jesus Christ.  And this deeply affected the Roman Catholic Church and the Protestant Reformers…sadly, most of the Church today!

But his one chief work, Augustine’s “City of God,” the Book of Revelation was to be understood as a spiritual allegory.”  This has had a powerful influence on the Church, from the highest to the lowest leaders, and to the people themselves.

And so it was taught: the Millennium, the thousand-year reign of Christ, that had begun with the birth of Christianity and was fully realized in the Church.  And this at once became orthodox doctrine!

Wrong.  False. 

No wonder the confusion; no wonder false, incorrect teaching in the Church.  No wonder.

Help us, O Lord.  May you seek His holy Spirit to guide you in all truth.  May the prophecies that announced the First Coming of our Lord Jesus, understood as happened “literally,” may this same literal meaning be applied to the as yet unfulfilled prophecies of the future events of the Second Coming of Jesus Christ the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Amen.   

   It is one of the greatest blessings God has given us.  He loved us so much that He wanted to leave us His Story.  And so, over the course of thousands of years, using different men in different places, He caused His spoken word to be written down in “books” so that we and our children, and grandchildren, and great-grandchildren, ad infinitum, might have the story of how it all begin, Who began it, and where it’s  all heading.  This greatest blessing is called “The Holy Bible.”  It is the greatest book ever written; the Book that has outsold all other books in history!  It is indestructible.  It is timeless.  It’s words are forever settled in heaven.  It means what it says, and says what it means. It’s words can’t be twisted or interpreted for a meaning that simply is not there (a method of interpretation know as an “allegory,” or allegorical interpretation that crept into the Church during the 2nd-4th centuries).  Scripture has only one plain, simple, clear, correct meaning, but can have many applications.  Sadly, it is Genesis and biblical prophecy that is the primary target of this false interpretation.  And just as sad, it is man, Christian men, scholars, ordained and lay, who have bought into this error, and tried (and hold ferociously to their imagined meaning) to interpret and thus give false meaning to different parts of the Holy Bible.  And this they teach!

The two books of the Holy Bible attacked and misinterpreted the most are the two very anchors and pillars books themselves: Genesis and The Revelation! And here’s where the “great alligator,” “Mr. Allegory,” comes into the picture. 

When the Church first came into existence on day of Pentecost in  33 A.D. in Jerusalem, the only Bible they had was the Hebrew Old Testament.  From a child, they read their Bible literally: Creation was creation-the very beginning of all things.  Adam and Eve were the very first adult human beings created on His earth.  Noah and his three sons built a huge Ark as instructed by God to save them and the animals from the great flood that would cover the whole earth!  There really was a unicorn, and dinosaurs, and a Tower of Babel.  There really was a giant named Goliath, who was killed by a little shepherd boy named David. These were stories of real people and real events that happened long, long ago.

The books written after the time of Jesus became the New Testament, and, together with the Old Testament, over time became the Holy Bible of the Christian Church.

Yet today, as in years past, one still hears the famous, but silly words of well know personalities who have a national forum, words spoken against the wonderful and timely television series ”The Bible,” that just won’t go away just like the bit of an alligator: “After all, everybody  knows that Adam and Eve and Noah’s Ark is just an allegory!”  Right?  Wrong!  As if this stupid remark means that all people believe that way?  Nonsense.  Just where did this robbing the meaning of Scripture come in? Better yet, who were the “Allegorists” who undermined the normal interpretation of Scripture, as they passed on ‘the alligator’s'  bite to others?  

Stay tuned.

Blessed are those who believe all the written word of GOD as it is written.  May it always be so.  Amen.