Steps Of an Unknown Writer

   Is it just a revelation?  Or, is it the last audible, written message of Christ to His church, of the things that were, and are, and are to come?  Is it not, after all, the Revelation of Jesus Christ, that He gave to His servant, John, the beloved Apostle?  And how John gave it to the seven churches in Asia, and the church gave it to us?  Can you not see the guiding hand of God in this whole process?  Seems to me that this is one of the most, if not the most important books of the whole Holy Bible.  How then can you ignore it?  Who would not want to be blessed by God by reading His very last book of the Holy Bible?  And believing the written words, and holding to them, and looking for the “things to come,” shall you not surely be blessed?  The Lord Jesus said so.  Do you believe that as it is written?  Do you want to know your future and the future of the world?  Do you really want to know where your soul goes at death?  And where you (and I) shall spend eternity, and with whom? 

   Why is the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ attacked so much by Christians, the very ones who profess to love the Word of God?  And even the very ones who say they truly love the Lord, yet cast aspersions upon the book that outlines God’s Plan of the Ages for all humanity; where are they in their belief?  And just who is behind these attacks, so vicious, so fanatic, that two believers of the faith, can almost come to blows over the very interpretation and understanding of this most precious book?  Alas, Christianity today is very sorely divided over the prophecies yet to be fulfilled!

   Like Genesis, Christians have already moved the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ (that’s the correct title!) into the trash can of their minds!  Sadly, most believers in the stream of the liberal waters (and it’s getting uglier) want to stop at Jude in their Bible lessons, and then start again with Matthew!

   The theme of the Revelation is the Second Coming of our Lord Jesus, the Christ, in great power, and glory, and might, and majesty,  that at that time in the near future, every eye of every people and nations will see Him descend from heaven with His armies (the church saints and the holy angels); He shall reign on the earth at Jerusalem as the “King of kings, and Lord of lords” for a thousand years, and then, in eternity, forever!  Wow!  Was there ever a more glorious theme in all of human history, in all of the Holy Bible, than what is presented in the very first chapter?

   Notice how the Book of Jude closes with these words, “To the only wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever.  Amen.  What a most wonderful lead-in then to the next and last book of the Holy Bible, the one neglected by countless people today, The Revelation of Jesus Christ.  

   Hear the opening words:

“THE Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto Him, to show unto His servants (us) things which must shortly come to pass; and He sent and signified it by His angel unto His servant John: Who bare record of the word of God, and testimony of Jesus Christ, and of all things that he saw.  Blessed is he that reads, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.”

   I urge you, with all love, to read this most precious book through at least once a year.  You will be blessed.  John believed it, I believe it, what about you?

   What think ye, then?  How are we to navigate the battleground of truth and error?  The battle still rages on between unseen forces for the very souls of men, now, in our time, and in the centuries past.  Whom will ye worship; of whom will ye listen to?  What will ye believe? 

   There is a book, an indestructible book, that has withstood the violent attacks of the  “enemy,” and still remains whole and pure, the world’s best-selling book, ever!  God loved us so much that He revealed Himself in written print, so that we may truly know Him.  He spoke the words He wanted known to His chosen writers over the centuries, and they faithfully wrote down word for word God’s manuscript, without error, as guided by God, the Holy Spirit.  What think ye then, the Holy Bible, the written word of God?  This living, life-giving book, can be found in every land and nation of the world; in every language and dialect , culture and tribe!  It is a book many unbelievers seek to look into; a book believers discount or attack.  Yet this same precious book is treasured and loved unto eternity by countless faithful, believing followers, Jews and Gentiles alike.  Just here, in this “book” and its contents, the battle furiously rages, in homes, seminaries, churches and thousands of other places, the book of light and life: to read or not to read; to believe or not to believe; to believe all or some; to discard the first half, and only accept the latter?  Therefore, now, what think ye?

   Man will do everything he can to try to explain the earth and the heavens.  He will explore the solar system and universe with great telescopes and can find no end…and, rather than searching God’s Word and giving Him the praise and glory, no, he will exhaust his fertile imagination and come up with incredible explanations (theories) outside the realm of God, with man, instead of God at the center.  There was, he insists, an enormous explosion in ancient times that left the debris that we know today as our solar system and the universe!  But if you will read the Book of Genesis, the book of beginnings, and believe, you will see that God created everything, everything, in six days.  That’s exactly what He said; that’s exactly what He did!  You don’t need an explanation; you wouldn’t understand anyway, for you are just a man.  God spoke everything into existence out of nothing! 

He said, “Let there be light: and there was light.”  He spoke into existence the Heaven and Earth, the seas and dry land.  And He said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after its kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.”  God created the sun and the moon next, and the stars, to rule over the day and the night.  Then came fish and all things that swim in the seas, followed by fowls (winged birds); then came cattle, creeping things, and beasts, all after their own kind!  And then came the crowning act of God’s creation: “man.” 

“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness:…”  “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them…and God blessed them…”   What if these very first spoken words of God were seen and taught everywhere, ingrained in our memory, words seen in our homes, school, workplace, as we leave and as we come in, and as prepare for sleep, and as we awake?  What then of attitude and disposition?  What then of kindness and love?  But forces are at work that attack this: “Yea, hath God said…?”  We should know where it comes from and be on guard.  But, what think ye?      

   And just as the entire Bible is God’s Plan of the Ages in sequence and chronological order, so He, and He alone, created the heaven and the earth, the “US” and the “Holy Spirit,” the “ONE GOD,” the Triune God.  There is no other!  For later, in God’s Scriptures, He reveals Himself as LORD, the One who men can see and live, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  Then, in the New Testament, during the ministry of Jesus, He is revealed as the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost, the Holy Spirit.  Only God sent His only begotten Son to save sinners, to die for our sins so that we might be forgiven and reconciled to the Father:

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

   All other “gods” are false, man-made, and of demonic origin by the Tempter.  He has many other names and descriptions: he is the great liar, the cleaver one, the deceptive one, the Dragon, the Devil, even Satan!  But you will not believe the Bible and what is written of him and his plan against God, and God’s people, and the reat of mankind!  Satan  never sleeps nor rests; he is the fallen cherub, who comes as a roaring lion, or an ‘angel of light! 

   And so, as we travel the centuries of time, we know that Book, the Holy Bible, records that the Son of God, called Yeshua, Jesus, who is the Messiah, the Christ, died on the cross, and was buried, and on the third day He arose from the dead.  Then, as his disciples looked on, He ascended into heaven and sits on the right hand of the Father.  And as it is written and believed, He will come again in great power and glory!         

   He created the Gentiles, the Jews, and the Christians.  He created His church, and the followers of Jesus Christ, are called Christians.  All who confess, who truly believe on the Lord, Jesus Christ, Gentiles and Jews alike, shall be saved; they shall be resurrected unto eternal life with Him.  We can and do know the future, for it too is written in the pages of the Word of God, His Holy Scriptures.  I know what I believe and look for for; but, what think ye?

The very beginning of the walk on the long road to salvation was begun by the father and mother of the human race, Adam and Eve, some 6,000 years or so years ago.  It began from the Garen of Eden, somewhere near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers.  Contrary to the garbage believed and taught in secular society over the past 160 years, Adam, the very first man, was created by God in the image of God on the sixth day of creation.  God created him out of the clay of the ground, and placed him in a very special place on earth where he would want for nothing: the Garden of Eden.  God gave Adam the Hebrew language, for everything, the trees, animals, waters, everythig Adam named was in Hebrew.  But Adam was alone, and God knew he needed a help mate.  So God put Adam to sleep, and from his rib, God created a woman to be his wife. 

In the middle of the Garden was two very special trees: the Tree of Life, and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. 

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of  it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.”

Time passed, and it wasn’t long before Satan entered the scene!  Disguised as a serpent and the most “subtile” beast of the field, he boldly approached the woman and began his history of deception, doubt, and lies, when he said, “Yea, hast God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?”

“And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: But of the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.”

“And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.”

The act of disobedience wasn’t hard to do, nor very long thought of!  For the woman did eat, and gave it to her husband, and he did eat.  Thus began the long, hard road to  salvation, with all its twists and turns, mountains and valleys, and detours along the way.  It is a most narrow road, and only so many will be able to walk it!  But this road is special,  for at every turn is the Great Shepherd to Guide and Protect and ensure the way to  salvation is finished for the travelers on this road.  

This Great Shepherd Guide (God) first appeared as a man whom Adam and Eve saw and talked to.  He was walking in the Garden in the cool of the day, and fiound them hiding.  They had covered their nakedness with leaves.  God knew what they had done.  When He learned the whole story, how the serpent beguiled Eve, and she ate of the forbidden friut, and then gave it to her husband, and he did eat also, God pronounced curses on all three. But He left  the man and woman hope for the future in a most amazing prophecy about the coming of God, the Savior, to earth as a man! It is the first Messianic prophecy of the Holy Bible (Genesis 3:15), and it entails the “seed of Satan” (the Antichrist) one day being defeated by the “seed of the Woman.” 

This “seed of the Woman,” is the same One who was “walking in the cool of the garden; the same One who pronounced the curse, and the same One who covered their nakedness and sin (shedding of blood as a sacrifice for the remission of sin) with animal skins.  He is the Second Person of the Holy Trinity, the God people in those days were allowed to see and live.  He is the Great Shepherd, the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth.  He is the Christ, the Messiah.  He will manifest Himself as  Man throughout the pages of the Old Teatament; He will be known by many names; He will do great deeds.  All these most wonderful appearances point to the ‘fullness of  time’ when Jesus Christ would come to earth and shed His blood for the forgiveness of sins and eternal life.  This is the believers true salvation;  and this is the completion of The Long Road to Salvation, began so long ago at the beginning of human history.   

It is He, and He alone who is ever present on the Long Road to Salvation, and only He will see to it that all who are His will complete this most wonderful walk of faith.  Amen.

I believe that God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit created everything in six 24 hour days.  The earth was one week old after God finished His work and rested, and everything He made, everything, was very, very good.  Lucifer, the powerful cherub, began shortly thereafter to do what he does so well, that is, to deceive mankind through tricks and lies in the battle to win souls.  His end-game is to turn people away from God, to himself.  Whom and what will you worship is the spiritual warfare that has been raging since the fall of Adam and Eve, when sin, decay and death entered the world.  And so it was now year one, the very first year of human history. 

When Jesus was born of the Virgin Mary and became man, some 4,000 years had passed in human history since the Creation.  Today, we are living in the 6th Millennium, about 6,016 years from Creation.  As God does things in cycles of seven, I believe the 7th Millennium will be when Jesus returns to reign on the earth in the Kingdom of God.

Now the Old Testament paved the way for the New Testament.  And early on we discover some important things regarding the Trinity: that from eternity past and all through the books of the Old Testament, all through that time period of thousands of years, that God, the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit were all spirit beings.  The Holy Spirit can never be seen; it is He that restrains much of the evil and wickedness in the world today; it is He that was sent to believers in Jerusalem on Pentecost, 33 A.D., after Jesus ascended into heaven; it is He who convicts those called by the Father to believe on His Son; it is He who is at work in the hearts and minds of the believer and the true believing church.  And it is He that enables a person to be “born again” in spirit that he may believe and be saved.

God, the Father is Spirit; no man has ever seen God; no man can look upon God and live.  “But the hour cometh, and now is, when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father seeketh such to worship Him.  God is a Spirit: and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth.” (John 4:23-24)  

But, God so loved His people that it was made possible for the second Person of the Trinity, the Word, to come down from heaven and guide the redemptive history of Israel.  He is God, and He manifested Himself in the form of a man, with a body, flesh and bone, something one could touch, could talk to “face to face,” someone one could hold on to.  This is the God people could look upon and not die!  He would appear at various times, and then return to heaven.  Often, He talked to people from heaven, or talked to them in dreams or visions.

The whole key to understanding “the long road of salvation” is that it ends in the town of  Bethlehem Ephratah of Judea, where God was born man as Jesus of Nazareth.  He was and is fully God, fully man.  Listen to the words of the prophet Micah:

“But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall He come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.” (Micah 5:2)

The long road of salvation began in the Garden of Eden, in Genesis 3.  There, we find three personalities involved in the first great rebellion against God: Satan, Adam, and Eve.  At the lie and deception of Satan, Eve takes of the fruit of the “Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil,” which God commanded that they not eat.  And Adam ate the fruit.

“And the LORD God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2:16-17)

And so, as we see in the long road of salvation in human history, down through the ages, Eve and Adam, and people of all generations, lwho listened to the Devil instead of God, and they took the fruit and ate and disobeyed God.  And we also ate of the forbidden fruit.   

The very first appearance of God to mankind, on whom they can look upon and not die was in the Garden of Eden.  God walked among the trees and confronted them.  And now is set in motion the battle ground between Satan and the Jewish people in all history and the basis of “anti-Semitism,” beginning in Genesis 3:14-15:

“And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; and upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.”  

Thus, the “seed line” that began with Eve continued through the third son of Adam and Eve, namely, Seth, and will wind its way all through the redemptive history of Israel as seen in the Old Testament.  The “seed of the Woman” comes to fruition in the ‘book of the generations of Jesus Christ’ as recorded  in Matthew and Luke’s Gospels.  He appeared on the scene as a baby boy, born of the Virgin Mary ( the “seed” is Jesus, the Son of God; the “Woman” is Mary) some 4,000 years after the Creation.  But who is the “seed of Satan”?  The “seed of Satan” will be “the Antichrist” who will appear, I believe, future, in the time of the 21st Century after the true believers in Christ, His Church, shall be “raptured” to heaven.  Then will follow the last seven years of human history of the “times of the Gentiles,” known also in Scripture as “the Great Tribulation” when God shall judge the unbelieving inhabitants of the earth.   

The “enmity” God placed between Satan and the Woman, the Jewish people, and between his seed (Antichrist) and her seed (Jesus the Messiah) is seen throughout the Holy Bible by Satan’s attempts to utterly destroy the Jewish people and their Messiah!  One only need look at Genesis six where Satan and his demons completely corrupted all of mankind, save eight souls, the righteous Noah and his family.  Mankind did only what was evil and wicked day and night, and so God brought about the world-wide flood that destroyed every living thing that breathed upon the earth!  Those saved on the Ark, man and animals, over time would repopulate the earth.  Mankind would be given a second chance to start over.  Would they run to God, or run away from God? 

When Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, and the Hebrews came to be a great number of people, Pharoah decreed that every Hebrew baby boy was to be destroyed by drowning in the Nile River!  “And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed.”  Yet the mother of Moses placed him in a water tight basket and set him in the Nile River.  The baby was “discovered” by Pharoah’s daughter, who raised him in the royal house.  How about the story of Esther and Mordecai and the evil Haman?  Haman, an official of the royal court had the king send out a royal decree to destroy all the Jews who lived in the Persian kingdom, who were brought there years earlier when king Nebuchadnezzar destroyed the Temple and the city of Jerusalem.  

If we should fast forward hundreds of years later between  the two Testaments, to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, and Judas Maccabeus in 168 B.C. (3,836 years after the Creation), we find yet another evil plot to destroy the Jews.  Antiochus desecrated the Temple in Jerusalem, killed thousands of Jews in and around Jerusalem, especially the young men (the “seed” line), and took into captivity the remaining women and children. 

And now we come to the year 4 B.C. (4,001 years after the first year from Creation), the year our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ, the Son of God, was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king.  God truly walked among us in the flesh.  Thus, the seed line and seed of the woman comes to its fulfillment in the birth of Yeshua, Jesus, the Messiah.  Now Satan must destroy the “seed of the Woman,” for he surely knows that  Messiah will one day seal his doom; He shall crush his head when He comes the second time.  But Satan was concerned with the “now”- that if can kill the Messiah, He won’t be able to return a second time.  He therefore stirs up Herod, to use him to destroy the King of the Jews.   

Matthew 2:1-18:

“Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judaea in the days of Herod the king, behold, there came wise men from the east to Jerusalem, Saying, Where is he that is born King of the Jews? for we have seen his star in the east, and are come to worship him.  When Herod the king had heard these things, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him.  And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he demanded of them where Christ should be born.  And they said unto him, In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel.  Then Herod, when he had privily called the wise men, inquired of them diligently what time the star appeared.  And he sent them to Bethlehem, and said, Go and search diligently for the young child; and when ye have found him, bring me word again, that I may come and worship him also.

When they had heard the king, they departed; and, lo, the star which they saw in the east, went before them, til it came and stood over where the young child was.  When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy.  And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother, and fell down, and worshipped him: and when they had opened their treasures, they presented unto him gifts; gold, and frankincense, and myrrh.

And being warned of God in a dream that they should not return to Herod, they departed into their own country another way.  And when they were departed, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, Arise, and take the young child and his mother, and flee into Egypt, and be thou there until I bring thee word: for Herod will seek the young child to destroy him.

When he arose, he took the young child and his mother by night, and departed into Egypt.  And was there until the death of Herod: that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying, Out of Egypt have I called my son. 

Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently inquired of the wise men.  Then was fulfilled that which was spoken by Jeremy the prophet, saying, In Rama was there a voice heard, lamentation, and weeping, and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children, and would not be comforted, because they are not.”

O, the depths of Satan and his demons!  He is the ‘destroyer.’  And this bloodbath of the innocents has been played out in every century of human history against the Jews, and against the Church.  One only need look at the persecutions of the last century, which exceed previous centuries combined; indeed, just look at the slaughter of Christians and Jews in the world today!  The long road of salvation is covered by blood; but it is also covered in the redemptive blood of Christ.

And so it was that the Jews and Gentiles of that time saw God face to face as a human being, not as a manifestation as in the days of old.    

But Satan never gives up, and, as we know from Scripture, he greatly stirred up the Jews to kill Jesus of Nazareth.  And so, it came to pass as written, that He was crucified, died, and was buried.  The promise of the Messiah’s return was now nullified.  There would be no confinement of Satan in the “bottomless pit;” Satan could continue to deceive the nations century after century after century.  He would thus continue to be “the prince of this world!”  But how then would the prophetic word of God be fulfilled?  Therefore,  according to the Plan of God of eternity past, and by His mighty power, Jesus arose from the dead on the third day, and ascended into heaven to the Father.  And He will come again and defeat Satan.

The long road of history led to the fulness of time when God was among men on earth.  The prophecy of the “seed of the woman” in Genesis was fulfilled at the first coming of Jesus.  The rest of the prophecy will be fulfilled at Christ’s second coming, when He shall crush Satan’s head.

Fifth, I believe that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is to be a literal, personal coming: that as he went away in the clouds of heaven, before the eyes of his disciples, so, in like manner, will he return. (Acts 1:11; 1 Thessalonians 4:14-18)

Sixth, I believe that, after our Lord Jesus Christ comes again, the earth will be renewed and the curse removed; the devil shall be bound, the godly shall be rewarded, the wicked shall be punished; and that before he comes there shall be neither resurrection, judgment or millennium; and that not till after he comes shall the earth be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord. (Acts 3:20-26; Isaiah 25:6-9; Revelation 1:5-8; 20:1-6; Isaiah 65:17 to end)

Seventh, I believe that the Jews shall ultimately be regathered, as a separate nation, restored to their own land, and converted to the faith of Christ. (Jeremiah 3:10-11; 13:10; Romans 11:25-26; 2 Corinthians 3:15-16)

Eighth, I believe that the literal sense of the Old Testament prophecies has been far too much neglected in the present day, and far too much neglected by the churches; and that, under the mistaken system of spiritualizing and accommodating Bible language, Christians have too often completely missed the meaning. (Luke 24:25-26)

I believe, finally, that it is for the safety, happiness and comfort of all true Christians to expect as little as possible from the churches or government under the present dispensation; to hold themselves ready for tremendous convulsions, and changes of all things established, and to expect their good things only from Christ’s second advent. 

Even so, come, Lord Jesus.

Blessed is He that comes in the name of the LORD.  Amen.

There was a great man of God who lived in England from 1816 to 1900.  He was the Bishop of Liverpool and leader of the Evangelical Party of the Anglican Church of England.  On his gravestone are chiseled the words: “I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.  By grace are ye saved through faith.”  His name was John Charles Ryle, known mostly as J. C. Ryle.  He fought long and hard against strange  doctrines that were creeping into the church in his day.  His writings have been “rediscovered” and many evangelicals today have taken a renewed and increasing interest in the writings of Bishop Ryle.  He was a wonderful and gifted expounder of the Word of God, very Biblically sound.  He was one of the greatest Victorian evangelicals of the 19th Century.

Bishop Ryle wanted to leave behind an Autobiography (written in 1873) for his children, he wrote, “in order that my children may possess some accurate account of my history of life, after I am dead.”  So speaking of his conversion, he said: “It may interest my children to know what were the points in religion by which my opinions at this period of my life became strongly marked, developed and decided, and what were the principles which came out into strong, clear and distinct relief when this great change came over me…Nothing I can remember to this day appeared to me so clear and distinct as my own sinfulness, Christ’s preciousness, the value of the Bible, the absolute necessity of coming out of the world, the need of being born again and enormous folly of the whole doctrine of baptismal regeneration.  All these things seemed to flash upon me like a sunbeam in the winter of 1837 and have stuck in my mind from that time down to this.  People may account for such a change as they like; My own belief is that it was what the Bible calls “conversion” or “regeneration.”  Before that time I was dead in my sins and on the high road to hell, and from that time I have become alive and had a hope of heaven.  And nothing to my mind can account for it, but the free sovereign grace of God.”  

But my aim here is not to write a story of this great saint, rather, to share with you one of his writings I came across years ago.  It is called “Bishop Ryle’s Millennial Creed” that was written by him over a hundred years ago.  Sounds much the same today, doesn’t it?

                            BISHOP RYLE’S MILLENNIAL CREED

First, I believe that the world will never be completely converted to Christianity, by any existing agency, before the end of this dispensation.  In spite of all that can be done by ministers, members and churches, the wheat and the tares will grow together until the harvest; and when the end comes, it will find the earth in much the same state that it was when the flood came in the days of Noah. (Matthew 13:24-30; Luke 17:20-36; Matthew 24:37-47)

Second, I believe that the wide-spread unbelief, indifference, formalism and wickedness which are to be seen throughout Christendom, are only what we are taught to expect in God’s Word.  Troublous times, departures from the faith, evil men waxing worse and worse, love waxing cold, are the things distinctly predicted.  So far from making me doubt the truth of Christianity, they help to confirm my faith.  Melancholy and sorrowful as the sight is, if I did not see it I should think the Bible was not true. (Matthew 24:12; 2 Timothy 3:1-6, 13)

Third, I believe that the grand purpose of the present dispensation is to gather out of the world an elect people, and not to convert all mankind.  It does not surprise me at all to hear that the heathen are not all converted when missionaries preach, and that believers are but a little flock in any congregation in my own land.  It is precisely the state of things I expect to find.  The Gospel is to be preached ‘for a witness,’ and then shall the end come.  This is the dispensation of election, and not of universal conversion. (Acts 15:14-19; Matthew 24:14; Romans 8:20-24, 28, 29) 

Fourth, I believe that the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is the great event which will wind up the present dispensation, and for which we ought daily to long and pray.  ‘Thy Kingdom come,’ ‘Come, Lord Jesus,’ should be our daily prayer.  We look backward, if we have faith, to Christ dying on the cross, and we ought to look forward, no less, if we have hope, to Christ’s coming again.  (John 14:3; 2 Timothy 4:8; 2 Peter 3:12; Titus 2:13; 1 Corinthians 11:26)

It is a recurring theme on my heart that all my family, and friends, and all my readers, and as far as these words might reach others, all my loved ones, may know the truth of life after death.  And so I write that you may know.  Where will you spend eternity? 

The often heard question by a soul winner to a stranger is: “If you were to die today, where would you spend eternity?” 

“I don’t know, don’t think of that much.  When I die, I die, that’s all.”  

Then the soul winner tells them about the Lord Jesus Christ, and that calling on the name of Jesus, asking to be saved and repenting, that thy sins be forgiven, is salvation.  And then at death, the new believer will spend eternity with God, instead of the alternative, everlasting darkness and punishment forever separated from God.  “Your destiny is sealed at death; there is no second chance!” On whom will you believe?

To my dear readers, I ask this question: “At the moment of your death, where will you spend eternity?”  You see, God really does have a plan for all mankind.  He has a plan for believers, and a plan for unbelievers, Jews and Gentiles alike, from the beginning when God created man, to the end of this age and on into eternity-everlasting joy or sadness, light or darkness.  Shall it be forever with the Lord Jesus, or in utter darkness away from Him?  There is no other salvation apart from Him.  If you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you will be saved. 

“Saved from what?” you ask.  Saved from your sins, saved from the great wrath of God that is to come upon an unbelieving world, saved from the judgment of God upon all sinners who never believed (when you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior, your sins are indeed forgiven), and saved from being separated from God for all eternity, that’s what!  Of truth, this is what the written word of God says in the Holy Bible.  You shall not die in your sins, but they shall be forgiven.  Only Believe on Him, Jesus the Christ, the Messiah, whom God, the Father has sent to a dark and dying world to save sinners and that they may have eternal life!  And as the Lord is eternal, so shall a believer who dies in the Lord Jesus live again with Him in eternity, in glory, in a new, immortal body like His. 

The world is under Satan’s control now.  He sends out his fallen angels-demons, to do what he has always done, to convince man to follow the lie, for he is the great adversary of God!  He is the father of lies, and sets around him a culture of death, destruction, decay and deception.  He would have all men worship him and the things of this world.  He has many devious and cleaver ways to draw men away from God, even to use men of the church to lie to and confuse the flock!  His plan is powerful and has been carried out to greater or lesser degrees in all the centuries of human history, even today in the 21st century!  He is a created spirit being, of the highest order, the cherubim, for he never sleeps or rests!  And so you see, beloved, that one must consider in his or her lifetime the following truths: what has light to do with darkness?  What has life to do with death?  Jesus is Light; Satan is darkness.  Jesus is Life; Satan is death.  Jesus is the Truth; Satan is the lie.  Jesus is the Way; Satan is the wrong way.  Jesus saves; Satan destroys.  Jesus is everlasting joy; Satan is everlasting torment.  Jesus is the Lord of all creation; Satan is the god of this world.

What is eternity?  Eternity is a non-ending period of “time” that never ends but continues on forever and ever and ever.  Eternity is not the past centuries of human history, nor the present age we live in.  Eternity is not the Rapture of the Church.  Eternity is not the Tribulation, and Eternity is not the coming one thousand-year reign of Christ on earth.  These events will still be measured in times as we know it, in seconds, minutes, days, months, years, and centuries.  Everyone who has ever lived and will live will spend eternity somewhere in the future, either with God, or separated from God.   

There will be two resurrections that prepare all people who ever lived for eternity: the resurrection of the just, and the resurrection of the unjust, or, stated another way, the resurrection of believers in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, and the resurrection of those who do not believe in Jesus Christ.  These two resurrections are separated by a thousand years and happen, as Scripture tells us, in sequential phases, not all at once but over a period of time.  First, following Christ’s resurrection about 1,982 or so years ago, believers await a time in this present dispensation (known as the “Church Age” or the “Age of Grace”) when our Lord Jesus shall come from heaven to the clouds above the earth and resurrect all dead believers in Him since the birth of the Church at Pentecost.  He comes above the earth for His true believers, not on the earth.  This is not the Second Coming of our Lord. Then those believers on the earth at this time who are alive shall be changed-translated into immortal bodies in the ‘twinkling of an eye.’  And they, along with the resurrected dead, shall join Jesus in the sky above the earth, and follow Him to heaven, and so shall we ever be with the Lord.  “Therefore, comfort one another with theses words.”  This future event, perhaps sooner than we think, is known as the “Rapture,” or the “first resurrection.”  Sometime after the future Rapture, there shall follow a seven-year period when Christ Jesus pours out God’s wrath-judgment upon an unbelieving earth.  This future unprecedented event is known in the Scriptures as the “Tribulation and Great Tribulation.” After this,  the Lord Jesus, THE KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS shall return to earth at His Second Coming with His saints and angels following as two great armies.  It is at this time Jesus will then set up His Kingdom of God on earth, and He shall reign there at Jerusalem for a thousand years, and then, for ever and ever.  During this Kingdom period, Christ will resurrect the Tribulation saints, those killed for belief in Jesus as their Lord and Savior during the dark Tribulation.  At the same time He will also resurrect all the Old Testament saints.  And this will complete 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.” Revelation 20:6  

When the thousand years of Christ’s reign on earth has  expired and eternity draws near, all the dead unbelievers from the time of creation to the end of the Millennium will be resurrected and shall be judged by Jesus at the Great White Throne Judgment.  Then they shall be cast into the lake of fire where Satan, the Antichrist, and the False Prophet will be.  There they shall spend eternity.  This is the second death.  And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.  “And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire.” Revelation 20:15

It’s not too late, dear readers.  Where will you spend eternity?  Call on the name of the Lord; trust in Jesus, the Son of God as your Lord and Savior today.  Only He can save; only He can grant eternal life.  Only he can forgive your sins, for He died for you.  He, and only He is our salvation.  Trust in Him; lean on Him; hold tightly to His hand, for He will never leave you or forsake you.  Then you shall know where you shall spend eternity.  What a joy; what a most precious gift only God can give!  What a comfort to the soul.  If we shall die today, yet we shall be happy, knowing what awaits us, knowing we are the Lord’s forever.  This life is so short, but eternity is forever. 

“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” John 3:16

Amen.

When Jesus manifested Himself in Old Testament times as the One who could be seen, He became known by a new name according to His act.  When He healed a person, He was known as “Adonai Rapha,” The LORD My Healer.  In the fullness of time when God became a man, this same Jesus, Adonai Rapha, went about the country healing the sick, the lame, and the blind, casting out demons and forgiving sins.  You see, God’s love has always been about healing. 

In this time of reflection, Let us pray these words from the heart, in humbleness and  with eternal  thanks in calling upon His great mercy and love: hear us, O LORD, our Savior, for You are now and forever…

The LORD My Healer

PRESERVE me, O God, for in You I put my trust.  O my soul, you have said to the LORD, You are my LORD, my goodness is nothing apart from You.  As for the saints who are on the earth, they are excellent ones, in whom is all my delight.

   O LORD,  You are the portion of my inheritance and my cup; You maintain my lot.  I will bless the LORD who has given me counsel; my heart also instructs me in the night seasons.  I have set the LORD always before me; Because He is at my right hand I shall not be moved, therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoices; My flesh also will rest in hope.  For You will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will You allow Your Holy One to see corruption.  

You will show me the path of life; in Your presence is fullness of joy; at Your right hand are pleasures forevermore.

Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven.

But He answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.  

So that faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.

For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, and do not return there, But water the earth, and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower and bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

My son, give attention to my words; incline your ear to My sayings.  Do not let them depart from your eyes; Keep them in the midst of your heart; For they are life to those who find them, And health to all their flesh.  Keep your heart with diligence, For out of it spring the issue of life. 

I am afflicted very much; Revive me, O LORD, according to your word.

Remember the word to Your servant, Upon which You have caused me to hope.  This is my comfort in my affliction,  For Your word has given me life. 

Your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path.

Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and to those who love it shall eat its fruit.

So Jesus answered and said to them, Have faith in God.  For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be removed and be cast into the sea, and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says.

Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.

God cannot lie but must be faithful to His covenant.

Nevertheless My lovingkindness I will not utterly take from him, Nor allow My faithfulness to fail.  My covenant I will not break, Nor alter the word that has gone out of My lips.  Once I have sworn by My holiness; I will not lie to David.

Nevertheless He regarded their affliction, when He heard their cry; And for their sake He remembered His covenant, And relented according to the multitude of His mercies.

Not a word failed of any good thing which the LORD had spoken to the house of Israel.  All came to pass.

For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.  

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and every living thing that moves on the earth.

And when He called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. 

Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.  And heal the sick there, and say to them, The Kingdom of God has come near to you.

And I will give you the keys of the Kingdom of heaven, and what you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  

Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.  

Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health,  just as your soul prospers.

And behold, a leper came and worshipped Him, saying, LORD, if you are willing, You can make me clean.  Then Jesus put out His hand and touched him, saying, I am willing; be cleansed.  Immediately his leprosy was cleansed.  

O LORD, my God, I cried out to You, and You healed me.  O LORD, You brought my soul up from the grave; You have kept me alive, that I should not go down to the pit.

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.  The LORD has chastened me severely, But He has not given me over to death.

Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know. 

Behold, I will bring it health and healing; I will heal them and reveal to them the abundance of peace and truth.

And He said, If you diligently heed the voice of the LORD your God and do what is right in His sight, give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, I will put none of the diseases on you which I have brought on the Egyptians.  For I am the LORD who heals you.

So you shall serve the LORD your God, and He will bless your bread and water.  And I will take sickness away from the midst of you.

And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.

Who Himself bore our sins in His body on a tree, that we having died to sins, might live for righteousness by whose stripes you were healed.

Surely He has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; Yet we esteemed Him stricken, Smitten by God, and afflicted.  But He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquities; The chastisement for our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed.

How God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.

Which is easier to say to the paralytic, your sins are forgiven you, or to say Arise, take up your bed and walk?

Who forgives all your iniquities, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your mouth with good things, so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s. 

With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation.

The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy.  I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. 

Therefore all those who devour you shall be devoured; And all your adversaries, every one of them, shall go into captivity; Those who plunder you shall become plunder, and all who prey upon you I will make a prey.

For I will restore health to you and heal you of your wounds, says the LORD, because they called you an outcast, saying: This is Zion; No one seeks her.

No weapon formed against you shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn.  This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is from Me, says the LORD.

But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; Therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.

I, even I, am He who blots out your transgressions for My own sake; And I will not remember your sins.  Put Me in remembrance; Let us contend together, State your case, that you may be acquitted.

Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything according to His will, He will hear us, And if we know that He hears us, whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked of Him.

But these words are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

This charge I commit to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may wage the good warfare. 

Selected Bible Verses from the NKJV by Alyosha Ryabinov, 2006

   In rememberance of His birth, when God became man and dwelt among us some 2,000 years ago in Judea, these inspiring words from the Gaither Vocal Band are offered during this most blessed Christmas season, the Glorious Impossible:

See the virgin is delivered, In a cold and crowded stall

Mirror of the Father’s Glory, lies beside her in the straw

He is mercy’s Incarnation, marvelous His miracles

For the Virgin gently holds the Glorious Impossible

Hallelujah   Hallelujah   Hallelujah

Love has come to walk on water, turn the water into wine

Touch the leper, bless the children, Love both human and divine

Praise the wisdom of the Father, Who has spoken through His Son

Speaking still He calls us to the Glorious Impossible

Hallelujah   Hallelujah   Hallelujah

Glorious Impossible

He was bruised for our transgressions, And He bears the eternal scars

He was raised for our salvation, And His righteousness is ours

Praise, O praise Him, praise the Glory of His lavish grace so full

Lift your souls now and receive the Glorious Impossible

Hallelujah   Hallelujah   Hallelujah

Glorious Impossible 

PART THREE: A Hymn of Thanksgiving for the final overthrow of Death.

“I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.  And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.” (Job 19:25-26)

“For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first fruits of them that sleep.” (I Corinthians 15:20)

“Since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead.  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” (I Corinthians 15:21-22)

“Behold, I tell 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 trumpet.” (I Corinthians 15:51-52)

“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.” (I Corinthians 15:52-53)

“Then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: Death is swallowed up in victory.” (I Corinthians 15:54)

“O death, where is thy sting?  O grave, where is thy victory?  The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law.” (I Corinthians 15:55-56)

“But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (I Corinthians 15:57)

“If God be for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)

“Who shall lay anything to the charge of God’s elect?  It is God that justifies.  Who is he that condemns?  It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is at the right hand of God, who makes intercession for us.” (Romans 8: 33-34)

“Worthy is the Lamb that was slain, and hath redeemed us to God by His blood, to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing.  Blessing and honour, glory and power, be unto Him that sits upon the throne, and unto the Lamb, for ever and ever.  Amen (Revelation 5:12-13)

So ends and begins again in the Christmas season, even throughout eternity that has no end, Handel’s glorious “Messiah.”  In praise and thanksgiving, may we sing these words as a prayer to always remember our Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth.