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Understanding the Word of God is a spiritual miracle from God
Fred R. Coulter—July 1, 2023
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We're soon going to face the greatest attack on the Word of God. When they come out with the A.I. Bible, then they're going to try and expunge everything that they can about the Bible, the true Word of God. One of the reasons they're going to do it is because they don't understand it.
God has perfected His Word and put it in such a way that the world will never know what it means. But those who love God will know what it means. That's quite and amazing thing, indeed.
As we will see this is a spiritual operation. So, it comes from God the Father and Jesus Christ. Everything in the Bible hinges around everything concerning God and what He's doing on the earth. He's written it in such a way that those who do not want to love and obey Him can't understand it! But those who do love and obey Him will understand it!
God has also made it very simple for people to start to understand. That's called the Ten Commandments! I don't think there is a language in the whole world that the Ten Commandments are not simply there to be simply understood for what God has said. This is given to us so that we can have love toward neighbor, love toward God, and love toward brethren. That's what it has to be!
- How did God do that?
- How did God write the Bible in such a way that it's hidden from their eyes and understanding?
- How does He do it so that we can understand?
As we know, it doesn't come all at once! Last time we gave eight points in order to understand the Bible. First of all, there's God the Father and Jesus Christ.
1-Corinthians 2:9: "But according as it is written, 'The eye has not seen… [there are a lot of things we can't see] …nor the ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.'"
You take this one verse, and it tells us an awful lot!
- Do you think that God is going to give any understanding to anyone who hates Him?
- Who doesn't believe Him?
NO!
Verse 10 shows the difference. There is an act of God. Sometimes it starts out very simply, like with the Ten Commandments.
One thing I recommend to those who are just new, study through the book of Proverbs verse by verse a couple of times, all the way through. Read each verse and think about them. That will show you:
- right and wrong
- good and evil
- correct attitude and wrong attitude
- what wickedness is
- all the things that are associated with what God wants us to know
Those are easy to understand. A person can read the book of Proverbs and understand that just by reading it, and believing it!
Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit…" So, it takes the Spirit of God that comes from God! It comes to us in two forms:
- WHEN we begin to search out and find out Who God is, and we begin to get interested in the Bible, and we realize we need God, THEN God sends His Spirit to be with us
- IF we follow through and come to repentance and baptism, and have hands laid out for the receiving of the Holy Spirit, THEN we have the Holy Spirit within us and it unites with the spirit of man
This is a spiritual parallel to being begotten in the womb of your mother by your father. God the Father is our Father, and the ultimate goal is that He wants us in His Kingdom as His children.
That's something the world does not know. They may elude to it, but they don't comprehend it.
Verse 10: "But God has revealed them to us by His Spirit for the Spirit searches all things—eventhe deep things of God."
There are some things that are very deep indeed! There are some things in the Bible that we don't understand today. Hopefully, we will understand as we go down the road with all the things that are to take place.
Verse 11: "For who among men understands the things of man except by the spirit of man, which is in him?.…
God gave us a unique spirit called the spirit of man, and this gives us:
- thought
- intelligence
- choice
- emotions
- feeling
All of the things associated with being human beings! But the spirit in man is not complete! Men are able to do a lot of things:
- they can invent
- they can make
- they can build
Look at all the things that mankind has. Look at what we're using right now with just the digital means of live video sent out to wherever anyone in the world wants to listen to. That knowledge had to be revealed by God to someone, because God wants it in the end-time.
But also, you have the situation that there's another spirit—Satan the devil—called 'the prince of the power of the air'! He is the one who blinds the minds of those who don't believe! When something comes along and you don't believe the Word of God—BANG!—it's like a shutter has been put before your eyes and you can't understand.
"…In the same way also, the things of God no one understands except by the Spirit of God" (v 11).
That's the mystery of the Kingdom of God, which Jesus says that it's been given to us to know! But to the world, they don't know! They have a lot of ideas, and a lot of satanic thing mixed in with it, but what do they really know?
Verse 12: "Now, we have not received the spirit of the world…" That spirit comes from Satan the devil!
Different people have differing degrees of the spirit of the world. Some are just in the world and they don't know anything, but they follow along with some of the things of God and their decent in what the world would call find, obedient people. But they know nothing about God!
Then you have those who are given over to all kind of sins like we have today with the sexualization of the world beginning with the children. Things become more and more evil and go down into the depths and pit of the sins of Satan. That's the spirit of the world!
"…but the Spirit that is of God…" (v 12).
That Spirit only comes with repentance and baptism, and the laying on of hand so that you have the Spirit of God united with your spirit of man so that you are the begotten children of God!
Then through prayer and study, and through obedience, then we begin to understand the Word of God! All of those things are necessary!
"…so that we might know… [He wants us to know] …the things graciously given to us by God… [here's the other side that coin, too]: …which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom… [there's a lot of philosophy out there, and philosophy was the religion of the ancient world] …but in words taught by the Holy Spirit…" (vs 12-13). That's the active working of the Holy Spirit in your mind!
Have you ever gone along and you're reading and studying, and all of a sudden it's like a light BING! comes on. And you say, 'Oh, that's it!' God is the One Who is revealing it to you! That happens as continually as we grow and overcome!
He gives it: "…in order to communicate spiritual things by spiritual means" (v 13).
Just not having the ability to read, but having the ability to understand spiritual things. The carnal mind without the Spirit of God does not understand it! I'll give you a good example of understanding something to a certain degree, but not understanding into action of belief. Belief or faith always has works! Whatever you believe you also follow and do. Those are works. As Jesus said, 'We are judged…' He doesn't say that we're judge by our faith, you're judged by your works!
True faith produces works, and everyone everywhere has works, from the depths of Satan to the closeness of God that anyone can be, by choice and free moral agency.
Verse 14: "But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God; for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually discerned."
That's something! Understanding the Bible is a spiritual miracle from God to each one of us! To the degree that we love God and keep His commandments, we'll grow in grace and knowledge.
Let me go quickly through the 8 points that are necessary to understand the Bible. We're going to answer questions that even geologists cannot figure out. That even 'experts' cannot figure out. God has written the Bible in such a way that it's 'here a little, there a little, line upon line and precept upon precept. That works two ways:
- without the Spirit of God you don't understand any of it
- with the Spirit of God, He can make you know His knowledge
I don't know if it's because we get older—none of us are getting any younger—but the more you know about the Word of God the more you know how much you don't know!
Think on that! Generally the people who 'know it alls' in their own mind, they don't know anything! Well talk about one man like that next week.
Summary of the 8 points from last week's message: How Do You Understand the Bible?:
- You must believe and have faith unto action
- You must believe the Truth of the Bible
Why? Because there's one true God Who is the God of Truth Who cannot lie! On the other side of that coin is Satan the devil who is the 'father of lies'!
- What you read that you must do, you must obey
That is a key! WHEN you the personal thought and conviction of mind, and actions by your own works to obey, THEN God can give you more understanding! That's a point where a lot of people miss and don't go far enough
- You have to love God with all your heart, mind, soul and being
The world likes to come and claim God's love: 'Oh, God's love is unconditional and you can do anything you want to and God still loves you.'
Why is there a Lake of Fire for those to be thrown in it if God's love is unconditional? They don't have the whit to read that part of the Bible.
- You need the grace of God that covers a lot of things
- first of all, it's forgiveness of sin
- next, it's beginning to understand the Word of God by the grace of God
- then the most important part of grace is prayer and study every day
So that when you get on your knees and pray to God, you have direct connection with God the Father in heaven above. That is what's important and the world can't understand it.
I saw a whole series done on Facebook about 'mega churches destroy Christianity.' That's true! They destroy it!
- Sabbath and Holy Days
Very important, because through the Sabbath, Passover and Holy Days God lays out His Plan!
- The timing of when events will take place
When God takes part of the timing over here, and part of the timing over there, and another aspect of the timing in another place, and another aspect of the timing over here then all of them must be put together properly.
- Rightly Dividing the Word of God or straightly cutting the Word of God.
With that review we will answer the question: How old is the earth? We can't give it to you in years, but we can give it to you in sequence of events! But not all of those events are found are found in chronological order. But when properly put together they follow in a chronological sequence.
That's what it means to rightly divide or straightly cut the Word of God.
Answers to Bible Questions:
Q #1—How old is the earth? We can't tell you exactly, but we can give you some events! How old it may be we will have to guess on; speculation. The Bible does tell us, much to the chagrin of the scientists, because they won't read the Bible or believe it. Let's start at the very beginning:
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God…"
It doesn't tell us what beginning! Tie in Titus 1:2; 2-Tim. 1:9} because it says, before the ages of time! That means that eternity existed before God brought the time the way that we can understand it somewhat today. We'll tie that together with some other verses, but let's look at it here.
Verse 1: "In the beginning God created the heavens…" full stop! Then it says, "…and the earth."
- How long a span of time was it after He created the heavens before He created the earth?
- What did He create between that span of time? The Bible tells us!
We have "In the beginning God created the heavens…"
What did He create after the heavens but before He created the earth?
We can get a great lesson from Job. He did everything that God said that he should do, but he gave himself all the credit and not to God, though he did acknowledge God. Job got so wrapped up in himself, so wrapped up in how righteous he was that he thought he was as righteous as God or more than God. He wanted to have a judge come and referee the argument in arguing with God to justify himself that he was right.
Job's three friends couldn't do it. So, Job said, 'Oh, I wish God would talk to me.' Well, Job, you got what you wished for! Imagine this: Job is sitting there full of pus, scabs, ashes, flies, pain and his three friends sitting out there. Then Job gets God's answer:
Job 38:1: "Then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said, 'Who is this that darkens counsel by words without knowledge?'"
Have you ever said things without knowledge?
Verse 3: "Now gird up your loins like a man; for I will demand of you, and you shall answer Me."
'You want an answer from Me, I'll give it to you. And you answer Me!'
Verse 4: "Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?…."
Wait a minute! God created the heavens and the earth.
"…Declare it if you have understanding!" (v 4).
We have it with all these scientists today. How can you tell how old anything really is?
Verse 5: "Who has determined its measurements if you know? Or who has stretched the line upon it? On what are the foundations fastened to? Or who laid its cornerstone" (vs 5-6). That's something!" (vs 5-6).
Notice v 7 because it answers the question what did God create after He created the heavens and before He created the earth.
Verse 7: "When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy?"
- When? When He laid the foundation of the earth!
- What does this tell us? Between creating the heavens and then creating the earth, He created all the angels!
They shouted for joy and they were all happy! Why? Because God put them on the earth as their habitation when He first made the earth!
How do we know? We know from the rebellion of Lucifer, which it says of him that 'you were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created.' So, God created the angels after He made the heavens and before He made the earth. Because when He made the earth, then all the sons of God and the angels were shouting for joy, because God was going to give it to them.
How do we know they were on the earth? Isa. 14 tells that when Lucifer rebelled, he ascended above the clouds that were covering the earth 'to be like the Most High'!
The question becomes: How long were the angels on the earth before the rebellion took place? We don't know! Could be millions of years. They were spirit beings. When they rebelled there was war.
How do we know that? Rev. 12! So, here we are, Genesis on the one hand and Revelation on the other hand, with the book of Job in the middle. Rev. 12 is quite a chapter and one of the most difficult to understand if you don't understand the Sabbath and Holy Days and about Jesus Christ and the Plan of God.
Revelation 12:1: "Then there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and having the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars."
What is this? The portrayal of God's Plan as pictured by a woman! How much time and space do we have? This is what's tricky, because this prophecy goes through at one point and then it comes to another point!
Verse 2: "And being with child..."
It goes from the woman in heaven to the person of Mary, who was the mother of Jesus. All that time and space between.
However, was this the cause when this prophecy was brought out of the angels to rebel and go against God. Now it was revealed to them that God is going to create man and woman, and they will serve them so that man and woman can become the children of God. It says 'before the ages of time' (Titus 1), God promised eternal life and God cannot lie!
So, this had to be a revelation, which the angels didn't like, one third of the angels!
Verse 3: "And another sign was seen in heaven: and behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns on his heads; and his tail swept away a third of the stars of heaven, and cast them to the earth…." (vs 3-4).
- the rebellion took place before the creation of man
- it took place after the creation of the earth
You don't know that unless you put those Scriptures together. Then it comes down to the birth of Christ:
"…And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to deliver, so that he might devour her child when she gave birth" (v 4).
Of course, right from the start Satan was after Christ!
Verse 5: "And she gave birth to a man Child, Who was to shepherd all the nations with a rod of iron; and her Child was caught up to God and His Throne.
So, here we have in these two verses the explanation of Mary, the birth of Christ, His death and resurrection. All right there with these verses. The woman then becomes the Church. Why? Because we are all the begotten children of God, not yet born!
Verse 6: "And the woman escaped into the wilderness…"
Now let's put this together with Gen. 1, and so we understand something very important.
Genesis 1:1: "In the beginning God…" Stop right there!
- Rev.12—that's the woman, God's Plan
- first thing He created was the heavens
- then He had to create the angels because they saw the foundation of the earth laid
- then God created the earth
This is why we find some of the things we find in geological accounts today about dinosaurs and about the age of the earth.
Verse 2: "And the earth was without form and void…"
When God created it, it was perfect. How did it become without form and void? That also could be translated became, meaning that it was after the fact of being created, "…it became without form and void…"
We find in Jer. 8 that war created 'tohu and bohu' (Hebrew) without form and void. This was the war that was in heaven, which then caused God to have to flood the world. What we read of in v 2 is the first flood!
"…and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters" (v 2).
- How long was it in that condition? We don't know!
- How old was the earth at that point? We don't know!
- Were the angels righteous for what we would consider millions of years before they rebelled? We don't know!
But being able to measure the speed of light, men are able to tell how far away some of the stars in heaven are. They're billions of light years and that what explains that there is eternity! It's out there beyond a measurable thing that men can do.
Then God started creating the world for man and woman. Let's talk a little bit about something else here, which is speculation:
In different locations of the world there are mass burials of dinosaurs, two places in America in particular: Nebraska; there is a whole herd. You can look it up on the Science Channel under Volcanoes. The biggest volcano in America is lying under Yellowstone National Park It blew up at one time and formed what is a caldera. A caldera is a ring of mountains that were formed when lava came up out of that ring on the edges. The middle of the volcano stayed in tact.
This volcanic action took place, one of the biggest explosions ever, and when it calmed down the land came down back where it was, sunk a little deeper, behind the right of mountains. That's a caldera!
Below Yellowstone today, only 1500 feet, there all of the lava working, working, working! They say that if it goes off, it's going to effect the whole United States.
Picture Wyoming and just down at the corner of it is Nebraska. In Nebraska they find this whole herd of dinosaurs. Even to this day, with food that was in their stomach. They find mastodons up in the northern climes the same way.
Is this because of the destruction that happened when the angels rebelled. There had to be a lot destruction in that war. They weren't using squirt-guns. Who knows all the weapons that they had. Look at what Satan has inspired with the nuclear age with man today.
What the want to do is have the ray weapon that can send out electronic power to destroy anything on contact.
What do you suppose the angels had in their battle? God had to literally destroy the whole surface of the earth and kill all the dinosaurs. They find them also in South Dakota. Two different things:
- the ones in Nebraska were covered with volcanic ash
- the ones in South Dakota were covered with mud that through the years became hard stone
So, how old in their measuring of these things is it? They don't know! One of the reasons is that in volcanic ash there's very little carbon, so you can get no carbon dating. In the stone you can get some carbon dating, but how do they know that that's correct? They don't know!
But these in Nebraska are supposed to be 50,000 years ago, and in South Dakota 150,000 years ago; even up to a million years ago. But it tells you they don't know! What they measuring is measuring from what we are able to do today, but is it accurate going back to that point? We don't know! So, the answer to the question is:
For those who say that the heavens and the earth and everything were created in seven days, they do not account for when the angels were created. The only place we can find that is in Ezekiel 28, 'You were perfect in the day that you were created.' It doesn't tell us when. But we know that they were happy and obedient when God laid the foundation of the world for them to live on. When they were there they rebelled.
So, there was this great war and God had to flood the world, cool it all down, destroy everything that Satan and the angels rebelled against. We don't know how long it was in that condition before God began to re-create the surface of the earth for human beings.
When you look at those things… Go on the Science Channel and look up under volcanoes you can probably find out a lot about that.
Q #2—As we are living in the time of the end, in Matt. 24:12 the love of people has grown cold and many bad things are beginning to happen in the Church.
Yes, it's happened in the Church, too. This group here says that they want to associate with us. So, we will have to see. We now have six independent churches that associate with us.
Q #3—Although Adam and Eve—being the first man and woman to sin and die—will they be in the first resurrection?
That's an interesting question, but it's one we can't answer. Why? Because we don't know if they repented unto salvation or not! But the sacrifice of Christ will apply to them if they're in the second resurrection, because the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah was given to them:
Genesis 3:15: "And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He will bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel."
Yes the sacrifice of Christ can apply to them, but God is the One Who has to determine how and when, will or was applied.
Q #4—Here's a man who keeps the Sabbath alone and what he does from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday is pray and study. So, a friend of his died and was wondering if it would be all right to attend his funeral?
Well, it probably be okay to pay respect to him, so that would not be a sin.
Q #5—Rev. 12:17: "Then the dragon was furious with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her seed, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."
This is very interesting, because this leads right up to the end time. Rev. 12 also tells us that in the end-time there's going to be another war in heaven.
Verse 7: "And there was war in heaven; Michael and his angels warred against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels warred."
We don't know how fantastic that's going to be, but think about what men are doing now to try to get out into space and we don't know exactly how all of this is going to work out. But there's going to be a time when Satan and the demons will try to come back and take over heaven again, but they will be cast down.
Verse 8: "But they did not prevail, neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great dragon was cast out, the ancient serpent who is called the Devil and Satan, who is deceiving the whole world; he was cast down to the earth, and his angels were cast down with him" (vs 8-9). So, that war is going to come!
- How is that going to appear?
- How large will that be?
Know this: This generation is being prepared for invasion from outer space by 'aliens'! To the world:
- Who are two chief aliens? God the Father and Jesus Christ!
- Who are the other aliens? The righteous angels!
- Who are the other aliens besides that? Satan the devil and his demons!
They will be cast down from heaven when they try and war again!
Verse 13: "And when the dragon saw that he was cast down to the earth, he persecuted the woman who had brought forth the man-Child."
That's the Church. So, there's coming a time when the Church is really going to be persecuted, and look at it today. This whole thing of the idolatry of A.I., the coming A.I. Bible and the coming Beast Power—who is going to say he is 'God'—all of that is coming and are going to be powerful events that are going to take place.
Then there is something else that's going to take place and the Protestants call it 'the rapture'! But the Bible shows that it's taking a few physical people to a place of safety! We don't know how many, and we don't know who they will be. God is going to make the choice as to who is going to be there. Why is God going to have some go to a place of safety, a few. We have series on the rapture—The "Secret Rapture" is a Hoax!
Who will they be? They will be faithful brethren who have been faithful in spite of everything that goes on. How are they going to get there? Luke 17, the angels are going take them there!
One man who is a minister of a Church of God thought he would go over to Jordan and he would buy Petra from the King of Jordan. He was laughed at and chased away. A lot of people think that the minister is going to call you and tell you to be ready because the angels are going to take you to a place of safety. But what if the minister didn't like you, and wouldn't call you? You died in the slaughter and you're resurrected, and you say, 'Lord, I though I was going to go to a place of safety.' I thought you were, too, but the minister's phone call didn't get to you so therefore, you had to be martyred! 'Thank you, Lord, I'm here!'
It's not going to be that way! Even one minister said that he was going 'supervise the two witnesses'! Are you God?
Verse 14: "And two wings of a great eagle were given to the woman, so that she might fly to her place in the wilderness, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.… [that's 3-1/2 years] …And the serpent cast water out of his mouth as a river, so that he might cause her to be carried away by the flood" (vs 14-15). Look at how much power Satan has!
Did you know that there are vast amounts of water under the area of Petra? Vast amounts of water!
Verse 16: "But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed up the river that the dragon had cast out of his mouth. Then the dragon was furious with the woman and went to make war with the rest of her seed…" (vs 16-17).
To answer your question: the KJV says 'remnant,' which is incorrect! It mean the rest! What is the difference? Remnant means a small amount indicating that the greatest majority were taken off in 'rapture' as the Protestants view it!
God is going to select who's going to go there. Why is going to have physical human beings in a place of safety? Some? Just a few? Because all the rest of the Christians known will be martyred! If they are all martyred what would that represent? The Church would die out! Jesus said that He would 'build His Church and the gates of the grave shall not prevail against it.' So, this is to keep His Word that the physical Church of God's people would never die out. But notice:
"…went to make war with the rest of her seed who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ" (v 17).
That ties in with Rev. 5 and the martyrdom of the saints. Because the only remnant will be alive are in a place of safety, what is the next thing that takes place? When it comes time for the 144,000 and great innumerable multitude (v 7)!
So, the question is: Who are the remnant? God alone knows, and He alone will decide! And the angels will take them to wherever they're going to go!
Q #6—Are there any principles in the Bible that elude to the prohibition of plastic surgery, face lifts, Botox, etc.? Would these be part of the procedures that fall under principle of prohibition of tattoos?
Let's look at it this way, two things I want to cover:
- Have you heard about 'Operation Smile'? Doctors go in, particularly evident in Southeast Asia! It may be some kind of curse, bacteria or thing that they eat. In that area they eat quite a bit of snake. So, I don't know if it's connected with that, I have no idea. But children are born with a cleft palate, so these doctors who are surgeons come and repair the cleft palate. That is a good thing! There's nothing wrong with that!
- Then you have facelifts. When you ge old your face sags. That's just the way that it happens. If you can keep your skin in decent shape, take care of your health, you might not need a facelift.
You can always tell those who have had facelifts, because they end up like Nancy Pelosi; she has had so many facelifts that her shoulders are almost on top of her head.
Botox could be a dangerous thing to get into your system. Don't do it! Take care of yourself.
At my age I exercise 5-6 days a week. Sometimes after the Sabbath I go down and get on the stationary bike so I can keep the circulation going in my legs. That's an important thing you need to do as you get older, keep your legs moving because the vessels down there can get all clogged up and cause you a lot of problems. You have to keep the blood flowing.
Let me bring out another example,: When Dolores and I first came up to Eugene, OR, shortly after we were married and I was a ministerial assistant with Dale Hampton. There was man who—and Raymond Cole was also up there—was working on his truck and was trying to fix his carburetor. Gas was leaking everywhere and it caught fire and burned his face.
If they would have taken him to the hospital they would have peeled off the skin and do skin grafts. But they didn't take him to the hospital, he was anointed and they got lots of red wine by the gallons, and olive oil. They poured the wine over his head and face three or four times a day and let it sit there and soak.
Then they had the olive oil to put on afterwards. Over the space of a month and a half his whole face healed without a scar! We saw him and talked to him, so we know it was true.
So, you look at some of these combat soldiers with these horrible skin grafts that they have had to restore their faces, and it's a shame.
Skin grafts you have to be careful with it. If you have a cut someplace and you need skin and it can't grow, you might need it.
Q #7—What is meant the second time?
This is referring to the children of Israel and their rebellion. It's not recorded for us, except when we come to Joshua 5 where it is recorded that before the Passover—four days before—they had circumcision for all those born during the exodus that were not circumcised. So, we know that there were two circumcisions, but it doesn't tell us of the circumcision when they were in Egypt.
Jude 4: "For certain men have stealthily crept in, those who long ago have been written about…"
Verse 3 "…exerting all my diligence to write to you concerning the common salvation, I was compelled to write to you, exhorting you to ferventlyfight for the faith, which once for all time has been delivered to the saints.
Verse 4: "Condemning them to thisjudgment. They are ungodly men who are perverting the grace of our God…"
If you want to see that, go Day Star, TBN and any of the Sunday-keeping ministers and you find that that's what they are doing, especially this one woman who prances around and says that you can to anything you want to, because God loves you. All you have to do is believe in Jesus, and after that it doesn't matter what you do. Her name is Joyce Meyer. Number one she shouldn't be preaching! When they do that they are:
"…turning it into licentiousness, and are personally denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I myself want to remind you, though you once understood this, that the Lord, after saving a people out of the land of Egypt, the second time destroyed those who did not believe" (vs 4-5).
That is referring to the second generation. When they rebelled what did God do? You have to understand what happened? God brought close to going into the 'promised land' and they sent out 12 spies to check it out! They came back and 10 of the spies said, 'Oh we can't do that, the people are so strong! tall! and high walls! We can't do it!'
But Joshua and Caleb said, 'No, trust in the LORD, He'll take care of it.' What happened?
All right, I've had it with you! You have done and rebelled against Me 10 times in the wilderness!Everyone over 20-years-old is going to die in the wilderness! You are going to be out there 38 more years, making it a total of 40 years.
That's what it means. That generation was all that God could put up with. What happened the next morning? When you repent, you better repent and not go back on it! They said the next morning: 'Oh, we'll go up and fight!'
God already made the judgment that you are going to wander for 40 years, you're not going to go up and fight. Moses those them if they went up to fight, they were going to lose! So, they went up and fought, and God slaughtered a lot of them and the others came back 'licking their wounds.' The moral of this story is, don't go against the Word of God!
That's what it's referring to here, "…the second time destroyed those who did not believe"—they didn't believe God! He said He would take care of them!
Q #8—In Dan. 12 what is the difference between the 1,290 and the 1,335? We do not know! God hasn't told us!
However if you get the Daniel/Revelation transcript book with CDs and the Chart, you will see the difference between 1,290 and the 1,335.
One possible answer would be that those who are taken to a place of safety represents the 1,335 days. I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see, we really don't know.
Q #9—How long is the actual period of the Day of the Lord at the final stages of the final seven years\?
We know that the first 3-1/2 years of the last 7 years are peace and safety. Then when the King of the South comes against the King of North and the King of the North comes down to Jerusalem and goes into the Temple and says that he's 'God.' That's when the Tribulation begins.
Some are saying that the Tribulation lasts for 2-1/2 years and then the Day of the Lord. Well, the Day of the Lord can include the whole 3-1/2 years, or just the last year, and it can also include something other than the return of Christ when it refers to the Day of the Lord against Jerusalem when He destroyed it in 536B.C. and in 70A.D. as well.
A lot of the disciples in 70A.D.—when the temple was destroyed—thought that Jesus was going to come, because not one stone was left upon another stone, as Jesus said.
- What was missing?
- What did not take place at that time in 70 A.D.?
There was no 'abomination of desolation'! That's why we know from Rev. 11 that a temple must be built. The Tribulation can't start until there is the Temple rebuilt. The Jews are just aching to build it, but God has totally blinded the orthodox rabbis so that they don't understand where the Temple should be. If they knew where to build it, they would have built it a long time ago.
They're still trying to build it where the Mosque of Omar is. But they'll never do that! The Muslims would come in and wipe out the Jews with the greatest slaughter that would ever be. So, that won't happen!
Q #10—What about Malachi 4 about the coming of Elijah?
Well, we'll just summarize it this way"
- the first Elijah was the one that's recorded with his ministry in the books of Kings and Chronicles,'
- Jesus said that John the Baptist was Elijah to come for that generation.
But Mal. 4 says that Elijah is to come before the great and terrible Day of the Lord. Who will that be, we don't know. But he will come!
Q #11—Zechariah 5—we will have to tackle that at a later time.
Let me tell you this: Zechariah has a good deal of prophecy in it, which effects us today. But there are a lot of things we can't understand. That will require another study on that.
Q #12—Are the 144,000 and the great innumerable multitude are those who receive the mark of the beast and repent?
We're not told! The only thing we are told is that they repent.
Q #13—Sacred Names:
Let's understand this: What language was the New Testament preserved in and God caused to be written in that language? Greek! Anyone who takes the names of God from the Old Testament and puts them in the New Testament is going against the Word of God! If He wanted it in Hebrew He would have put it there!
Now we go directly to the Father and Christ in prayer. When God poured out the Holy Spirit in Acts 2, what happened? All of them with their different languages heard the disciples speak the things of God in their own language!
In addition to that, Who created all of the languages at the Tower of Babel? God did! So, whatever the name of God is, in whatever language, that's the word you should use. The word Father is almost recognizable in every language: Father, Pater, etc.; and in other languages: mama, papa which is almost universal in every language.
You're not being 'righteous' by taking sacred names of the Old Testament and superimposing them upon the New Testament. God didn't want that.
Q #14—When the earth is shaken out of its position (Isa. 13:13) is God going to restore it to a 12 month year of 360 days? We don't know! Whatever it is, God is going to restore it to what it needs to be.
Same thing with the sundial going back 10 degrees. God can make that happen and adjust for it another way and clear it up. He could make that happen in the daytime, then at night when everybody is asleep He puts it back where it needs to be. So, the next morning everything is back on schedule.
Thank you for your questions. It shows that you are studying your Bible. Stay close to God in prayer.
Scriptural References:
1 Corinthians 2:9-14
Q #1:
- Genesis 1:1
- Job 38:1-7
- Revelation 12:1-6
- Genesis 1:1-2
Not quoted:
- Titus 1:2
- 2 Timothy 1:9
- Isaiah 14
- Jeremiah 8
- Ezekiel 28
Q #2:
Not quoted: Matthew 24:12
Q #3:
Genesis 3:15
Q #5:
Revelation 12:17, 7-9, 13-17
Not quoted:
- Luke 17
- Revelation 5; 7
Q #7:
Jude 4, 3, 4-5
Not quoted: Joshua 5
Q #8:
Not quoted: Daniel 12
Q #9
Not quoted: Revelation 11
Q #10:
Not quoted: Malachi 4
Q #11:
Not quoted: Zechariah 5
Q #13:
Not quoted: Acts 2
Q #14:
Not Quoted: Isaiah 13:13
Also referenced:
Message: How Do You Understand the Bible
Transcript Books:
- The "Secret" Rapture is a
- Daniel/Revelation w/CDs and Chart
FRC:bo
Transcribed: 7/5/23
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