2-Peter 1:12: "Therefore, I will not neglect to make you always mindful of these things, although you already know them and have been established in the present Truth. For I consider it my duty, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by causing you to remember these things; knowing that shortly the putting off of my tabernacle will come, even as our Lord Jesus Christ has signified to me. But I will make every effort that, after my departure, you may always have a written remembrance…" (vs 12-15)—that's what the Greek word means—written.

Why do we have to have it written? Because of all the liars seeking to change and pervert the Word of God.

"…written remembrance of these things in order to practice them for yourselves" (v 15). If you didn't have the Word of God to go to, how would you remember it? That's why it's an absolute total and complete lie that the Bible was not put together until 180A.D.; somewhere between there and 397A.D. so the Catholic Church could take claim for it and lay hold on it in the lying way that they always do in everything that they have anyway. Everything it's based on is a lie! lie! lie! They steal the name of Christ. Like the Psalm says, 'While steal you My words and cast My Law behind your back.'

God didn't leave it to word of mouth tradition! They had enough trouble finding all the false prophets coming into the New Testament Church while the apostles lived. That's why He wanted to do it.

Notice that Peter lays out the course, and this is why in dealing with the Word of God and doing any translation is really a very humbling experience, and really opens your heart and mind more to the Word of God:

• how true it is
• how righteous it is
• how good it is
• how fantastic it has been that God has preserved it against al the efforts of Satan the devil and evil men

I tell you, if you want a real humbling experience, read about the life of William Tyndale. I have a tribute to William Tyndale in The Holy Bible in It's Original Order. He single-handedly translated into English, for the first time ever, the New Testament from the Greek and the Old Testament from the Hebrew. He did it along with the help of a couple men: Miles Coverdale for a while and John Rogers at the end, and he helped Tyndale to finish it while he was in prison.

Tyndale was hunted by the church authorities, hunted by the civil authorities, and he went from pillar to post. I'm sure that God used him and raised him up to translate the Bible so that it would be there for all the modern-day children of Israel. We need to think in bigger terms and 'we're just a wee, little part of it,' as he would say.

Finally, Tyndale was betrayed by Henry Phillips; arrested and put in prison near Amsterdam. In his last letter that he wrote: "Please, may I have a candle and my Hebrew Lexicon, a hat to cover my head and leggings for my legs and feet, because it's very cold in here." Here he was facing death, shivering in his cell, one little candle; and if it weren't for the grace and favor that the jailer gave him—that God gave him in the eyes of the jailer—he would never have finished doing the Old Testament.

John Rogers had to finish it, because Tyndale couldn't quite do it. But I have at home the Henry Matthew Bible, which is William Tyndale's full Bible. It's a complete reproduction of it, bound in the same way that it was. The last words of William Tyndale were: "Lord, open the mind, open the eyes, of the King of England." No one could have a Bible. It was forbidden to have a Bible! Here we sit and we have Bibles. One day I counted all the Bibles at home; I have 41 now. They couldn't even have one.

God answered that prayer! The last words that he said before they burned him at the stake, because they tied him to the stake and they ran a noose through the stake around his throat and then they pulled it right after he uttered those words. They choked him to death and lit the fire and burned him.

If we understand the background for it, it [translating the Bible] is not a self-exalting thing to do it. It's very, very humbling. That's how we have the English Bible.

Peter is writing why they wrote and canonized the New Testament, v 16: "For we did not follow cleverly concocted myths as our authority, when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His magnificent glory."
God works it out in everyone's life, that somewhere down the line you are going to have a defining moment in your life that is going to set you on the right course to God in a very profound way. If you haven't had that yet, you will. What was that "…magnificent glory"? That's when Jesus took him up on the Mt. of Transfiguration! He relates it here:

Verse 17: "Because He received glory and honor from God the Father when the voice came to Him from the Majestic Glory, 'This is My Son, the Beloved, in Whom I am well pleased.'" What was the rest of the message? Listen to Him! That goes right back to the most important thing that defines those who love God. They obey His voice!

In the Bible, you have the words of God. Paul calls them 'the God-breathed words.' Why would he do that? Because when you speak you breathe! These are the words that God inspired all the writers of the Old and New Testament so that there could be something for us today—God-breathed words!

Verse 18: "And this is the voice from heaven that we heard when we were with Him on the Holy mountain. We also possess the confirmed prophetic Word…" (vs 18-19). In other words, when Jesus opened their understanding concerning Him—in the Law, the Prophets and the Psalms—and they had their understanding opened even more as the Holy Spirit led them, because He said, 'You're going to receive the Spirit of the Truth that will teach you all things and tell you of things to come.'

This is why we have the New Testament. This is why it's such an absolute shame that in the world—and in the Church of God especially—that we have the Word of God, all of it, where we can:

• study it
• learn it
• know it

Then what happens? Just like the apostles when they went out to the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus said 'to watch,' they didn't realize the crisis that was coming! What happened? They went to sleep!

I think that when we see what's coming down, the things are just over the horizon, it's going to be awesome! It is going to be beyond what we have ever thought. That's why it's absolutely incumbent upon everyone of us, every minister of God, every elder, every deacon, that they better get down right serious concerning the Word of God because these things are coming!

"…confirmed prophetic Word…" (v 19)—the very words of Jesus Christ. The confirmed prophecies concerning His life, death and resurrection and the New Testament up to this point. Prophetic does not mean foretelling the future in this particular case, solely; this means foretelling the Word of God! Foretelling forth the Word of God!

"…to which you do well to pay attention, as to a light shining in a dark place… [in this world—darkness—and we're the light and the Word of God is a light] …until the day dawns…" (v 19)—the return of Christ when He comes and shines like a brand new sun in the heavens, when the heavens are rolled back as a scroll.

"…and the morning star arises in your hearts" (v 19). That's talking about the resurrection, because didn't Jesus say that we're going to 'shine as the sun in it's full strength'? That's what it's about.

We need to grasp one of the most important things that we can understand. God has called us to the greatest calling possible. He hasn't called us to be 'religious' people.

• He has called us to love Him with all our heart, mind, soul and being
• He has called us to know His Word
• He has called us to do the things that He wants us to do
• He has called us to be the sons and daughters of God
• He has called us to have eternal life
• He has called us to reign forever with Christ

Only those in the first resurrection will ever be in that category! That's why God has called us!

Verse 20: "Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture originated as anyone's own private interpretation." This doesn't mean prophecy in the sense of foretelling. This means inspired Scripture that was written down! It wasn't that someone came along and said, 'Oh, this is a good idea, God, I'll write this down. What do You think of this?' NO!

Read the Old Testament, how did it come about? The Lord said to Moses, 'Moses, I'm a little busy today, why don't you write down what you think would be good for the people.' NO! He said, 'Moses, you tell the children of Israel, thus says the Lord…"!—all the way through the Law of Moses, which is really the Law of God!

the Word of the Lord came to Isaiah…

• the Word of the Lord came to Jeremiah…
• the Word of the Lord came to Ezekiel…
• the Word of the Lord came to Daniel…
• the Word of the Lord came to all the prophets

It's not what a man does, it's what God causes to be through the men that He has chosen! We're just dealing off the things from what they have done.

The most fantastic thing about the New Testament is that Jesus said to the apostles, 'You are going to be witnesses of Me to the ends of the earth!' They didn't go there physically, but their writings have gone there. They are still witnessing—aren't they? We are just coming along, as Jesus said to the apostles, 'You're going to enter into other men's labors. Someone else sowed, but you're going to reap,' Likewise with what we have here, someone else did all the work, and we just come along and refine it a little bit.

Verse 21: "Because prophecy was not brought at any time by human will, but the Holy men of God spoke as they were moved by the Holy Spirit." That means just like a sail on a ship where the wind blows on the sail and the ship moves. It wasn't done by human will. We need to understand that!

When we read some of these things, let's understand that there is a first fulfillment and a second fulfillment; there are many other different fulfillments of these, because not only is it stating a fact in the days of John, but it's also prophesying down through time that these things would take place.

1-John 2:18: "Little children, it is the last time…" If it was the last time then, you know that this is the last, last, last time!

"…and just as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have risen up, by which we know that it is the last time" (v 18). John was preparing them for the onslaught of false gospels—which were already starting—and would come in full fury after the apostles died. This is why the apostles had to canonize the New Testament and God didn't leave it to Satan-inspired pagan priests to put together His Word.

Verse 19: "They went out from among us, but they were not of us because if they were of us, they would have remained with us; nevertheless, they left that they might be exposed to show that they all were not of us."

1-John 4:1: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit…" Behind every one of these things is a demonic spirit, if not Satan the devil himself.

"…but test the spirits, whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world" (v 1)—which tells you that demon spirits inspire false prophets!

Verse 2: "By this test you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. And every spirit that does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is not from God. And this is the spirit of antichrist, which you heard was to come, and even now it is already in the world" (vs 2-3). And now it's coming again in our day!

Let's do a little history before we get into Judas Iscariot. Right now we have an attitude of everybody's opinion is truth, which is not so. I'm reiterating what is called 'post modernist thinking':

• if you believe it, to you it is truth
• because you feel it, it must be so

You see this on the news all the time. You really don't get news anymore. What you get are carefully cultivated opinions based upon these three steps:

• thesis—the way things are
• anti-thesis—the new proposition
• synthesis—we come to a new conclusion

You watch that when they do it on the news; especially Fox News, MSNBC—everyone of them—they don't have one person bringing the news, which is news, you have one person pushing a political agenda through a committee of people sitting there to give you their opinions, so that you will reformulate your thinking according to the way that they want it to be reformulated. That's the third one.

Let's apply this to past history. Let's go back to the 1840s. What was the first anti-thesis to come along? What was the thesis?

• God exists
• God created the world
• the Word of God is His

Even though they didn't obey it they way that they ought to.

Along comes Charles Darwin and what does he say? There's no such thing as a Creator; it evolved! Look where that has led to today, after the Scopes trial and everything they have done through law to get rid of God out of government, schools, your lives, the churches, as they're doing through their spurious translations. Look at the state of the situation today because of that.

What was the next blow in evolution? The Scopes trial! It's kind of like the professor who said to the class: Has anyone seen God? Nobody answered! Has anyone touched God? Nobody answered! Has anyone heard God? Nobody answered! Then one brave student stood up and said, 'Sir, I'd like to make a comment.' The professor said to go ahead because he wanted to know what it was.

'Has anyone seen our professor's brain?' Nobody answered! 'Has anyone heard our professor's brain?' No answer! 'Has anyone touched our professor's brain?' No answer! 'By the professor's own reasoning, he does not have a brain.'

In that is a truth! All truth is logical, but not all logic is truth! This becomes important. Let's see what happened with the Bible, the Protestant world and where we are today.

In the first part of the 1880s Wescott & Hort –note Commentary: Why This Translation? How Did This Happen?—decided to get the spurious text of the Alexandrinus, the Vaticanus and Sinaiticus, which were texts that were rejected. They said, 'These texts, because they are the oldest they have to be the most accurate.' It's not the oldness of the paper that gives the correctness of the text. What is the test? Is it the Truth?

You can have a copy that was copied from an original text that the paper accurately copied, and the paper may actually be younger than the old text that they were talking about. So, they would say that this younger text does not contain the Truth, only the older text. But that's not so, and that's how they got everything confused.

So, Wescott and Hort said, 'Oh, we've got to correct the Textus Receptus; we've got to get rid of the Stephen's Text; we've got to get rid of the Byzantine Text'—which were the overwhelming majority of it. They succeeded in doing The Revised Standard Version of the New Testament, and later The Revised Standard Version of the Old Testament. They accomplished this into the 1880s and into the 1890s. There were men who stood up and warned and said, 'No, this is not right!' So, the warning went out. What happened? It was out! The synthesis was on its way, only to be redone and brought into more heresy later on.

Then in 1893 is a key pivotal point in God's dealing with the Protestants and the Catholics' dealings with the Protestants concerning the Sabbath. Here's another very important thing to remember: If you do not accept the Truth of God—obey it and live by it—and you reject it, God will then withdraw His Spirit and blessing from you; after giving you warnings and finally cut you loose.

What happened was the World's Fair in St. Louis, and the Protestants said, 'We need to have the law of the land declare that Sunday is the Christian 'holy day.' So, they took it to the Supreme Court. The Seventh Day Adventist went up and said, 'No, that's not true. We want a regress of grievances because this will infringe upon our freedom to keep the seventh-day Sabbath.'

So, the Supreme Court wisely went against their petition to make Sunday declared the Christian holiday in America. That's when Cardinal Gibbon wrote his Rome's Challenge to the Protestants {Appendix A: The Holy Bible in Its Original Order; also found in The Day That Jesus Christ Died and in Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which?}

Gibbon wrote and said that the Protestants have the most insane position that you could possibly hold. They say to go by the Bible alone, which is 'sola scriptura,' but they claim Sunday as a day of worship where you can't find any place in the Bible that says that Sunday is the day of worship that God has sanctified. 'We, as Catholics, only have done it. By our power we have done it.'

They even have quotes in here where Catholics say that they don't even need the Bible. How about that? So, Gibbon challenged the Protestants: 'Why don't you become like the Seventh Day Adventists?' He didn't know about some of the Churches of God scattered throughout America. Cardinal Gibbon was a cardinal in Baltimore at that time. If you want to see the original, you can go on The Baltimore Sun website and you can look it up. That's where we found it. There's no copyright on it; it's free domain; so we used it.

Gibbon gave the Protestants a warning. He said, 'If you do not come wholly on Catholic ground…'—because you're believing a tradition of the Catholic Church, and you say you don't want tradition, yet, you follow it—'the Catholic Church is going to come upon you in a way and in a time that you won't know. We will rise in all of our ancient arrogancy.'

You can read that! That's just paraphrasing it. They have done that! They're on every translating committee. They have spawned a lot of the dumbing-down of Protestantism to make them foolish; all because they didn't repent and keep the Sabbath. You can see the results of it today.

Let's go back to 1893, something else happened. In Chicago there was the first World's Parliament of Religions. Unheard of: bringing in eastern mysticism, Hinduism; and that began to unleash a lot of spiritism and things like this, in America. Once you turn your back on God then other forces are loosed!

When that happened, it set the stage for what we now have as the doctrine of equality of religions. It starts way back here and what's the lesson of the Days of Unleavened Bread? A little leaven leavens the whole lump! How does this fit into to what we're talking about?

You can see the diversity of things that we have with religion today. One of the worst decisions ever made by the Supreme Court was written by Sandra Day O'Connor, that you can't say anything religious if it offends someone else, which was the basis for 'hate crimes.' Jesus said that He didn't come 'to bring peace, but a sword.'

Let's carry this forward a little more. Let's see what happened in 1947 in Palestine. What did they find? They found the Dead Sea Scrolls! The Dead Sea Scrolls do shed some light on the Old Testament, especially with the book of Isaiah, that what they have in the Hebrew today is nearly letter for letter what they had back then, showing the preservation of the Word of God. But they also have a lot of the heretical sun-worshiping doctrines that the Essenes had.

Two years before that something else occurred in Southern Egypt, in 1945 in the town of Nag Hammadi. Nag Hammadi had a library, and in that library they discovered other gospels that were written in about the 150s-200A.D. These include:

• the Gospel of Thomas
• the Apocrypha of Peter
• the Gospel of Mary Magdalene

Are you beginning to put some pieces together? What is happening in the world today is a result of all of this that I've covered:

• to prepare
• to soften up
• to make acceptable

the denial of Jesus Christ!

Let's look at something else that has come along. Have you read the book Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Henry Lincoln, Machael Baigent and Richard Leign? You've got to read books. Be like Patton, you've got to read the enemy's book so you know what it is.

I read Holy Blood, Holy Grail when it came out in about 1979-80. It's basically like The DaVinci Code, that the grail that Jesus conducted the Lord's Last Supper with was the one that the apostles drank out of, and the Knights Templar was able to get this away the Arabs and take it over to southern France. Everything ends up in southern France if you watch the History Channel.

Here comes along all of the movies—let's just throw in all the movies that debunk Jesus Christ. Let's throw in all these heretical gospels, which were touted by the Jesus Seminar that takes away from Christ as being in the flesh, which reduces Him down to just a man—the goal of the Jesus Seminar.

Let's look at some of the things that have brought in the occult into the modern age through entertainment, books, movies, songs, the whole thing. Remember the sweet little comedy program Bewitched? What does that do? That makes witchcraft acceptable! Fun! What does that do? That takes away from people belief in God! Then you have things like Frankenstein movies, horror movies, many of the mystery movies that come along that bring in the occult and so forth. Then you have a degradation of the movies beginning with Clark Gabel in Gone with the Wind when he said 'damn.'

Now what do we have once that little leaven came in? We've got every evil under the sun coming through movies and so forth! Then you have in the entertainment world the Beatles bringing in the disjunctive beat. You have Elvis Presley and all of the music that's coming.

Listen, if any of you are teenagers, anytime there is something designed for you, know that it is designed and inspired by a Satan the devil to turn you against your parents, to take your mind and twist your mind into thinking like Satan the devil through music! So, what do we have today? We have a whole occult generation plugged in with their iPods blowing out their minds and their ears!

Let's add some more movies into this, because what is happening is that this end-time generation is being prepared for the antichrist through all of these things by destroying all knowledge of Jesus Christ by reducing Him to below an average human being.

Star Wars—I remember I went to the first Star Wars and my boys were all excited—this is great! I said, 'It's a bunch of witchcraft and occult.' Oh, dad! That's what it was! Who was the one who taught Luke Skywalker to do what he did? And he finally got to see? Yoda! What a name! They've got Star Wars' paraphernalia and everything, but what is Yoda? Yoda is the name of the letter that begins the word Jehovah—YHVH! That ugly little creature called Yoda was to teach levitation and power of mind, concentration and bringing in all the occult.

How many movies have we had? Lord of the Rings! How many things do we have on television series? Star Trek! Introduction of the mark of the beast with that thing in the forehead on some of them. People don't think of that, but it's all programming and leading up to bringing in the final antichrist!

Now, back to Nag Hammadi. Since everyone's opinion is good, now we have scholars in religious universities saying that 'these have a great deal of value for us,' which brings us to the 'Gospel of Judas Iscariot.' Of course, Satan wants to rehabilitate Judas Iscariot.

Let's add into this mix Harry Potter, all the books and movies, hundreds of millions of people. What does that do? While they're downgrading the Bible and Christ, they are making witchcraft acceptable! They can even teach it in schools, and even the Protestants have accepted Harry Potter as a good thing.

Along comes The DaVinci Code after selling some 60-million books. Can you make money by teaching and writing a lot of lies? Sure you can! Will Satan reward you? You bet he will! Big time! That's what he wants.

The DaVinci Code movie is a body-blow to everything that names the name of Christ! I don't mind his attack on the Catholic Church, because that's probably warranted. But the whole thing of it is that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were married and that they had offspring.

Jesus couldn't have married anyone because while He was Lord God on the earth He was married to ancient Israel, and He could not marry the Church or be engaged to the Church until He died to end that marriage covenant with ancient Israel. That's why He died. In order to end a marriage bound by God, or God binding Himself to His people, one of the two have to die. Either all the descendants of Israel die or God dies; that's one factor in His death.

So, according to The DaVinci Code they had offspring and the Knights Templar and the Holy Blood, Holy Grail says that through the kings of Europe's bloodline flows the genes from Jesus and Mary Magdalene. Amazing—isn't it?

So, out comes The Jesus Papers. With a smart-aleck look on his face all the way through, and there was another one earlier called The Passover Plot which Jesus survived the crucifixion. But it was boldly said that when the vinegar was put up to Jesus' lips they really gave Him high-powered narcotics so it looked like He died. They took Him off the cross and He revived and got together with Mary Magdalene.

All of these things are coming when Satan has made anyone who believes in Christ to be stupid, dumb, just absolutely worthless! Look at all the movies that they make on Protestant ministers, and then sure enough you go on television and you watch all these idiots that are supposed to be Protestant ministers, and that's the way they are.

Where is all of this leading?

(go to the next track)
What you're getting is a preliminary for this series. In doing this it helps me think it through even more. I need to get more information concerning these different things.

What happens with the movie The DaVinci Code, you have Satan deceiving the whole world and has a lot of people working for him that he's rewarding big time.

The people have been taught to believe what they see: if you see it, it's got to be true. To give you an example of a real live case that took place. Remember on television they showed a babysitter throwing a baby up in the air and they convicted her and put her in jail. She stayed two years and six months for child abuse, but when the child was examined by doctors they found nothing. They couldn't figure it out, but they looked at the nanny camera that the parents left when they had the babysitter there, and finally someone who knew about the camera was smart enough to figure out what was really going on.

It was that that camera only took a picture once every four seconds. In doing that, it looked like the baby was being jerked around, when it wasn't. They finally got the conviction thrown out and she was released. So, not everything you see is necessarily true. That's why people are infatuated with magicians. They're able to do 'a slight of hand'—the hand is faster than the eye.

What's going to happen with all of these attitudes that have been projected in downgrading Christ downgrading Christ, downgrading Christ? All of this is the anti-thesis.

• the thesis—Christ is the Son of God, He was God manifested in the flesh
• the anti-thesis—no He wasn't, He was just a human being and He actually had relations with Mary Magdalene and had off-spring and survived the crucifixion

Downgrading, downgrading, downgrading!

Then comes along The DaVinci Code and people went to see it. It was almost like mass hysteria like it was with the Harry Potter movies, which makes witchcraft more acceptable. You can order Harry Potter stuff, even a Harry Potter wand and play real witchcraft!

So, people see that and they believe it! Now comes along Judas Iscariot! 'We need to rehabilitate Judas Iscariot.' Have you ever seen interviews where a journalist interviews a mass murderer. They come out and they say, 'Well, he's really a nice man or woman. How could they have done this?'

This is what is happening with Judas Iscariot. Jesus overcame Satan right after He was baptized. Jesus went out into the wilderness for 40 days and 40 nights and overcame him in the temptation—one-to-one! Not as God, because He could have overcome Satan very easily. Not as an angel, because He could still do it. But as a human being subject to the pulls of the flesh that we all have, He overcame Satan the devil and was victorious over him as recounted in Matt. 4 & Luke 4. There had to be another man selected on the innermost circle of Jesus who would be a betrayer.

• to fill the prophecies that He would be betrayed
• He chose him because he didn't believe
• He chose him because he was demon possessed

Mark 3:13: "Then He went up into the mountain and called to Him those whom He desired, and they came to Him. And He ordained twelve, that they might be with Him, and that He might send them to preach, and to have authority to heal diseases and to cast out demons" (vs 13-15). That is in the authority in the name of Jesus Christ.

Let's understand that it's not the man who does it, but Christ, through His name, Who does it. That's why even false prophets, when they're resurrected and say, 'O Lord, look, we did all these wonderful things for You; we healed the sick, we cast out demons and we did many wonderful works in Your name (Matt. 7), Jesus will say, 'I never knew you, depart from Me, you who work lawlessness.'

Verse 16: "Then He chose Simon and added to him the name Peter; and He chose James, the son of Zebedee, and John, the brother of James; and He added to them the name Boanerges, which means 'sons of thunder.' And He chose Andrew, and Philip, and Bartholomew, and Matthew, and Thomas. And He chose James, the son of Alpheus; and Thaddeus; and Simon, the Cananean" (vs 16-18)—not Canaanite; he was from the area of Canaan.

Verse 19: "And Judas Iscariot, who also betrayed Him…." Let's understand something concerning this: Judas was not victimized by Jesus. He is called 'the son of perdition.' That's what Jesus said, 'None of them is lost except the 'son of perdition that the Scriptures might be fulfilled.'

There's going to be another 'son of perdition,' which the stage is being prepared for. I think it's very interesting that Satan wants to rehabilitate Judas first. After Jesus told the disciples about eating His flesh and drinking His blood, the disciples:

John 6:60: "Therefore, after hearing these words, many of His disciples said, 'This is a hard saying. Who is able to hear it?' But Jesus, knowing that His disciples were complaining about this, said to them, 'Does this offend you? What if you shall see the Son of man ascending up where He was before?'" (vs 60-62).

Let's just interject one thing right here: One of the tools of Satan the devil, that he is using to worm his way into the Churches of God today, is that Jesus was not God before He became human. But He was the 'thought' of God. Not like it says:

John 1:1: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God"—simple and profound in English and in Greek. All the way through the Gospel of John you find out that Jesus did come from heaven; He's from above, etc., etc.

John 6:63: "It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life." This is why the Spirit of God and reading the Word of God—which is inspired by the Spirit of God—it does something to you mentally and emotionally that no other book can do. No other book contains the words that are Spirit and that are Life.

That's why in times of distress you can go to the Word of God and be comforted. That's why when you read it, it does something to you spiritually to strengthen you and correct you. It is the only book in history that shows the sins and weaknesses of those that the world would call 'heroes':

• like King David
• like Saul
• like the apostles

Just to give you an example, since the world loves its own, when the movie finally comes out about John Paul II do you think they're going to show one little sin of that man? No! It's another reason why the Bible is true.

Verse 64: "'But there are some of you who do not believe.'…." That's why He chose Judas; and Judas was the only one from Judea—Kerioth—a town where he came out of where there were priests.

"…For Jesus knew from the beginning who were the ones that did not believe, and who would betray Him. And He said, 'For this reason, I have said to you, no one can come to Me unless it has been given to him from My Father'" (vs 64-65). That's why Jesus chose Him.

Let's see some of Jesus' confrontation with Judas, and see Judas' attitude. Let's do a little review here: beginning in Matt. 21, Jesus began in Jerusalem to severely correct all the religious authorities. He had confrontations with them. One of the confrontations was the one with John the Baptist, whether Jesus was from heaven or men. Politicians can't answer it. 'If we say He's from men, all the people will believe He be a prophet from God. So, we'll be in trouble with the people. If we say from God, He will say, 'Why didn't you believe him [John the Baptist]?' So, they said, 'We can't answer.' Jesus said, 'I can't tell you where I get my authority either.' Remember Judas was watching all of this and he probably had more sympathy for the religious community and the leaders at this time.

Then you come to Matt. 22 and Jesus really gets after them and condemns them. Matt. 23 is the excoriating, absolute denunciation of scribes and Pharisees—hypocrites! All the way through it is 'Woe! scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites' and so forth.

What I want you to do is picture someone who didn't believe Jesus, in the person of Judas Iscariot, and I want you to picture it, that Satan and the demon was stirring him up to be against Jesus. Now Jesus had plenty of cause for condemning.

Matthew 26:1: "Now, it came to pass that when Jesus had finished all these sayings, He said to His disciples, 'You know that after two days the Passover takes place, and the Son of man is delivered up to be crucified'" (vs 1-2). They still didn't understand it.

Verse 3: "Then the chief priests and the scribes and the elders of the people assembled together in the court of the high priest… [Wicked spirits in high places?] …who was called Caiaphas; and they took counsel together for the purpose of seizing Jesus by treachery, and killing Him. But they said… [politicians to the end] …'Not during the Feast, so that there will not be a riot among the people'" (vs 3-5).

We'll see what happened, because Satan works a little bit over here, and then he works a little bit down here, and then over here and over there. Then he brings it all together.

Verse 6: "Now, when Jesus was in Bethany, in Simon the leper's house, a woman came to Him with an alabaster flask of ointment, very precious, and poured it on His head as He sat down to eat. But when His disciples saw it…" (vs 6-8). This was instigated by Judas, because he had the purse and was stealing from it.

"…they became indignant and said, 'What reason is there for this waste? For this ointment could have been sold for much, and the money given to the poor.' But Jesus knew this and said to them, 'Why do you cause trouble for this woman? For she has performed a good work toward Me'" (vs 8-10). He said on the second anointing that this was done for His death.

Verse 11: "For you have the poor with you always, but you do not always have Me. What this woman did in pouring this ointment on My body, she did for My burial. Truly I say to you, wherever this Gospel shall be preached in the whole world, what this woman has done shall also be spoken of for a memorial of her" (vs 11-13). Is that true? Yes, you just heard it!

Verse 14: Then one of the twelve, who was called Judas Iscariot, went to the chief priests." He said, 'I've had it, that's more than I can take.'

Verse 15: "And said, 'What are you willing to give me, and I will deliver Him up to you?' And they offered him thirty pieces of silver." They were glad when he came. Satan had already counseled to get rid of them. Then here comes just the one that they need:

• someone to betray Jesus
• someone who knew Him
• someone who knew His habits

Verse 16: "And from that time he sought an opportunity to betray Him."

Luke 22:1: "Now, the Feast of Unleavened Bread, which is called Passover, was approaching; and the chief priests and the scribes were speculating as to how they might put Him to death, for they feared the people. Then Satan entered into Judas, who was surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve. And he went away, and spoke with the chief priests and the captains about a way by which he might betray Him to them. And they rejoiced, and agreed to give him money" (vs 1-5).

The 30 pieces of silver is very significant. It was prophesied that it would be 30 pieces of silver, but 30 pieces of silver is the price of a dead slave. If you cause a slave to die then you owe the master 30 pieces of silver.

We find the most detailed account of the betrayal in John 13. This was not only the account of it, but it was also a prophecy of the demise of the whole system of the temple worship, and the reaction of the Jews in rejecting Jesus. So, there's an awful lot contained in this.

• there is a reality
• there is a symbolism
• there are prophetic things involved

It's interesting that there are only two people in the Bible called 'the son of perdition.' Here's the whole purpose of the foot-washing:

John 13:16: "Truly, truly I tell you, a servant is not greater than his lord, nor a messenger greater than he who sent him."

Let's understand a great principle here: If you're a messenger, what is your message to be? Exactly what you're told to bring! If you add anything to it, or take away from it, you make yourself greater than the one who sent you, because you have changed it by your own opinion. Think of that in relationship to ministers, teachers, writers, and in relationship to all these things that are brought in trying to get rid of Christ. They're setting themselves up greater than Christ, because they want to get rid of Him!

Verse 17: "If you know these things, blessed are you if you do them. I am not speaking of you all; for I know whom I have chosen, in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled: 'He who eats bread with Me has lifted up his heel against Me.' I am telling you at this time, before it happens, so that when it does happen, you may believe that I AM. Truly, truly I tell you, the one who receives whomever I send is receiving Me; and the one who receives Me is receiving Him Who sent Me" (vs 17-20).

Verse 21: "As He was saying these things, Jesus was troubled in spirit, and testified, saying, 'Truly, truly I tell you, one of you shall betray Me.' Then the disciples looked at one another, wondering of whom He was speaking. Now one of His disciples, the one whom Jesus loved… [that's always John's way of referring to himself] …was leaning on Jesus' chest. And so, Simon Peter motioned to him to ask who was the one of whom He was speaking. Then he leaned back on Jesus' chest and asked Him, 'Lord, who is it?'" (vs 21-25).

Verse 26: "Jesus answered, 'It is the one to whom I shall give a sop after I have dipped it.'…." He probably took a piece of unleavened bread like you would do with a big corn chip and scooped up some of the Passover meal; probably with a morsel of meat in it and He gave it to Judas.

"…And when He had dipped the sop, He gave it to Judas Iscariot, Simon's son" (v 26). What did this do?

• it ended the Old Covenant Passover ceremony

That's why we no longer have a meal with it.

• Jesus instituted the broken bread and the wine for the New Covenant ceremony

That's why we do that!

Verse 27: "And after the sop, Satan entered into him…." Think of this: Right there at that last Passover that Jesus had, Satan was there! Think of it! That blows my mind, but that's exactly what happened. It shows you the determination of Satan the devil to do everything that he can to get rid of Jesus. Because, if he can in any way, then he will triumph, so he thinks in his perverted thinking.

"…Then Jesus said to him, 'What you do, do quickly.'" (v 27). Who was Jesus talking to? Satan!

The 'Gospel of Judas Iscariot' says that he only did it because Jesus asked him to, and that Judas was, in fact, one of 'His top apostles,' and 'confided in him, more than any other of the apostles. What is written in the New Testament is greatly degrading Judas, that he wasn't like what it said at all. He was really a good man, doing what his Master asked him to do. How can you condemn him?' Sounds a little like the Garden of Eden—doesn't it? Master of liars!

Verse 28: "But not one of those sitting at the table knew why He said this to him; for some thought, since Judas had the bag, that Jesus was telling him, 'Buy the things that we need for the feast'; or that he should give something to the poor. So then, after receiving the sop, he immediately went out; and it was night" (vs 28-30). That was also a prophecy of the end of the temple system and the rejection of Jesus by Judaism.

After Judas betrayed Him, and after Jesus was tried, crucified and died—or maybe sometime before Jesus died—Judas hung himself (Matt. 27:3). Why did Judas hang himself? It says he repented, but he didn't repent in the sense of repenting unto salvation! But after Satan left him he came to his senses and realized what he had done.

• Why did Judas have to hang himself? He had to give his life for betraying Jesus!
• Who was going to take Judas' life?
• The priests, scribes and Pharisees? NO!

They even took the 30 pieces of silver that he went and threw back into the temple and bought a potter's field with it. So, they wouldn't arrest him and execute him—would they?

• Would the Romans' do it? They could care less!
• Would the apostles do it? No! They had no authority to do so!

God took care of it. Judas hung himself, and when he did his guts spilled out and that ended Judas Iscariot. {note sermon #4 in this series: Enigma of Judas Iscariot}

Let's project ahead and let's look at the stage that is being set. {Note chapter 4 in Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? Secrets of the Occult Saturate the World Today} based on the prophecy in Rev. 13. All the things that we discussed at the first

• have been molding public opinion
• have been deceiving people
• have been preparing the way for the antichrist

are now beginning to form and mold public opinion to the point that those who really believe in Christ will be thought of as enemies of the state.

Revelation 13:3: "And I saw one of his heads as if it were slain to death…" Remember the king is in charge of the kingdom. Here is the one who has one of the heads slain to death.

"…but his deadly wound was healed…" (v 3). What I want you to do is picture someone who becomes as popular as Pope John Paul II or more so.

"…and the whole earth was amazed and followed the beast" (v 3). There's one thing to understand about the book of Revelation: when it says the whole world, the whole earth, all peoples, it means exactly that!

Verse 4: "And they worshiped the dragon…" Why are they going to worship Satan the devil? Because all Christianity has been debunked, killed with a body-blow by all of these things that we have mentioned! Now Satan-worship is in, and the whole young generation has been prepared for it.

• Do they believe in Christ?
• Do they believe in God?

No! They don't know a thing about it!

Next time you watch a football or basketball game with college students, you look in their eyes and see what they're doing. The very last thing that they would have on their mind would have anything to do with God the Father or Jesus Christ. Besides, 'who wants to be a stupid ole religionist anyway. I want power, I want things now. I like magic; I like my movies; I like to mess up my hair, mess up my face, split my tongue, tattoo myself from head to toe and the genitals' and everything else. That's what's going on out there. That's all occultism paving the way for the coming antichrist!

"…who gave his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who has the power to make war against him?'" (v 4).

Let's see what he's going to do: 2-Thess. 2—this has not happen. We need some more understanding as we go through. We're given a warning here.

2-Thessalonians 2:1: "Now, we beseech you, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him"—through the resurrection.

You can take certain principles of this prophecy and you can apply it to certain situations in the Church, but this is talking about what's going to come out of the mystery of lawlessness or iniquity, which is Satan's system, not the Church.

Verse 2: "That you not be quickly shaken in mind, nor be troubled—… [in other words, be steadfast] …neither by spirit…" There will be spirit apparitions out there. Look what happens every time something happens where there is an image of Mary or a weeping Madonna; thousands go—don't they? That's all spiritism!

"…nor by word… [anything that's written or printed] …nor by epistle as if from us… [Paul, Peter or John] …saying that the day of Christ is present" (v 2). That's what they're going to say when the antichrist comes. 'Christ is here!'

Who knows! Is He going to claim that he actually has the genes of Jesus Himself in him, verified now by 'religious' authorities, because they all believe The DaVinci Code and the Jesus Papers, and reject the Word of God?

Verse 3: "Do not let anyone deceive you by any means because that day will not come unless the apostasy shall come first…" What was the original apostasy and where is that found? Gen. 11 when they built the Tower of Babel! When they worshiped Nimrod in place of God! This applies to the world, the whole apostasy against everything to do with God, against everything to do with Christ.

"…and the man of sin shall be revealed—the son of perdition" (v 3). There it is! As we saw in Rev. 13, the world is going to go wild after this man. Satan is going to have his hypnotizing, mesmerizing power and he will make enemies become peaceful. He will solve the problems that are in the world. He's going to be accepted as God manifested in the flesh. The prophesied Savior!

Notice that there's going to be a temple built in Jerusalem and here's what the beast does, v 4: "The one who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is an object of worship; so that he comes into the temple of God and sits down as God, proclaiming that he himself is God." That has never happened in the Church.

Remember that John wrote about the vision of the temple in Jerusalem (Rev. 11). But what did John also know that happened to the temple in Jerusalem? It was destroyed!

Matthew 24:15: "Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the Holy place' (the one who reads, let him understand)." When Jesus was speaking He didn't say this last statement. This was put in there by John when he, Andrew and Philip canonized the New Testament.

They knew that the "…abomination of desolation…" had not happened. They knew that 2-Thess. 3 and Rev. 13 had not yet taken place. So therefore, in order for those at the end-time to know they inserted this statement: "…the one who reads, let him understand." This tells us that there will be a temple. As a matter of fact, that's the closest Satan is ever going to get in taking over the throne of God, by going into the Holy of Holies in the temple in Jerusalem, which will be built.

Brethren, we're living on the verge of very exciting times! Epical, historical, profound times!

2-Thessalonians 2:5: "Do you not remember that when I was still with you, I told you these things? And now you understand what is holding him back in order for him to be revealed in his own set time" (vs 5-6). There is a set time that God has based upon the circumstances and the fulfilling of prophecies that this will take place.

Verse 7: "For the mystery of lawlessness…" The secret of men getting rid of the laws of God and replacing them with their own and Satan's laws. That's why it's lawlessness.

"…is already working; only there is one Who is restraining at the present time until it arises out of the midst" (v 7)—of the satanic system; not out of the midst of the Church.

Unfortunately, the King James says 'falling away' and people read that and apply that to the Church. NO! This is mankind's total rebellion against God and following the false Christ! He comes out of that system: Mystery Babylon the Great, which includes all the religions of the world.

Verse 8: "And then the lawless one will be revealed (whom the Lord will consume with the breath of His mouth, and will destroy with the brightness of His coming)" {note Rev. 19—the beast and the false prophet are cast into the Lake of Fire when Jesus returns}

Verse 9: "Even the one whose coming is according to the inner working of Satan… [when Satan gets permission to do this, notice what it's going to be]: …with all power and signs and lying wonders." People are going to say:

• Seeing is believing!
• Look at what this man has done!
• Look at the miracles that have been performed!
• Look what this religious leader is going to do!
• He's calling down fire from heaven!
• This has got to be from God!

The world is going to go 'hook, line and sinker'!

Verse 10: "And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who are perishing because they did not receive the love of the Truth, so that they might be saved." Another very important lesson here: You've got to:

• love the Word of God
• love the Truth of God

That is the only thing, coupled with the Spirit of God, that's going to keep you from being deceived. The whole world is going to be swept up in this!

Verse 11: "And for this cause, God will send upon them a powerful deception that will cause them to believe the lie." What is the lie? This man is greater than Jesus Christ! This man is the true Messiah! This man has been sent by God to save the world, and he will usher in a time of peace for 3-1/2 years that the world is going to be convinced that, yes, this has got to be true!

If you don't think they will do it, just watch some of the historical documentaries on Adolf Hitler and his preaching to the people, and see how they were all involved in the occult and, yes indeed, Satan was involved in stirring up the men and women into following him. Only this is going to be on a vastly greater scale.

Verse 12: "So that all may be judged who did not believe the Truth, but who took pleasure in unrighteousness."

That's the second son of perdition! The world is being conditioned, massaged, manipulated and deceived! All of these things that are coming out, and I have many more that I failed to mention, are paving the way, setting the mind, degrading Jesus—making Him worse than just an ordinary man:

• a liar
• a cheat
• one who was not sacrificed
• one who survived the crucifixion

Then the rehabilitation of Judas! Yes, the rehabilitation of Judas is going to pave the way. He's going to be thought of as someone who was misunderstood, someone who only did what Jesus told him to do. Where have you heard that before? The criminals of the Third Reich! 'We were only doing what we were ordered to do.'
I don't know how it's going to come down, but you just watch:

• the reaction to the movies that are coming
• the reaction that's going to take place with the revelation of the Gospel of Judas Iscariot
• the attitudes of people and see how they accept all of these things
• especially the attitudes of the young people, and how they're very susceptible to it

How they will be willing to follow this, because after all they don't have to follow the 'stupid stuff' of their parents, which as now been disproved in their eyes.

This is going to be awesome, indeed!

All Scriptures from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version by Fred R. Coulter

Scriptural References:

• 2 Peter 1:12-21
• 1 John 2:18-19
• 1 John 4:1-3
• Mark 3:13-19
• John 6:60-62
• John 1:1
• John 6:63-65
• Matthew 26:1-16
• Luke 22:1-5
• John 13:16-30
• Revelation 13:3-4
• 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4
• Matthew 24:15
• 2 Thessalonians 2:5-12

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Matthew 4
• Luke 4
• Matthew 7; 21-23; 27:3
• Genesis 11
• Matthew 11
• Revelation 19

Also referenced:

• from The Holy Bible in Its Original Order, A Faithful Version:
• Tribute to William Tyndale
• Commentary: Why This Translation? How Did This Happen?
• Article: Rome's Challenge to the Protestants (Appendix A: The Holy Bible in Its Original Order—also found in books:
• The Day That Jesus Christ Died by Fred R. Coulter
• Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? by Fred R. Coulter
• Books:
  • Holy Blood, Holy Grail by Henry Lincoln, Machael Baigent and Richard Leign
  • DaVinci Code by Dan Brown
  • Jesus Papers by Michael Baigent
  • The Passover Plot by Hugh J. Schonfield
  • Occult Holidays or God's Holy Days—Which? Secrets of the Occult Saturate the World Today (chapter 4)

• Sermon: Enigma of Judas Iscariot (#4 Assaults Against Jesus series)

FRC:bo
Transcribed: 4-4-14