News and Galatians Two

Fred R. Coulter—September 17, 2011

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Greetings, everyone! Welcome to Sabbath services. We are going to cover news and miscellaneous Bible questions today.

Finance:

I hope you've all been following what's going on with the banks in Europe. I have an article here: Europe's Banks are Staring into the Abyss. Of course, you've heard about Greece, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland. The biggest problem is to try and get the Germans to go along with the refinancing of these various debts. The truth is that there is no way that they can carry on unless they have debt forgiveness. It's just not going to be. The bonds for Greece are discounted to 86%. In other words, if you buy 100 Euros worth of those bonds, you pay 86 for them. The interest rate is 14%. So, the spread for the first year is 28%.

There's no way this is going to be collectible. It's just not going to happen. The Greeks are not going to do it. They are going to rebel. Says here the Greek banking system is about done, which is true.

Europe's Banks are Staring into the Abyss (Jeremy Warner, Sept. 13, 2011; telegraph.co.uk)

The eurozone sovereign debt crisis is exacting a devastating toll on the European banking system as a whole, the UK included.

We don't know what's going to happen there. Thursday Geithner went over to Europe, as if he could help them; he doesn't even know what to do here. They don't know what to do. When you have a debt-based fiat money, you must continually expand the debt in a way that can be perpetuated. But the problem is unless you're paying down the debt as you go, sooner or later you're going to reach the point that there's too much debt that no one can pay anything. We are at the inflation point and who knows how quickly that is going to kick in. So it says here:

Europe's financial and monetary system is falling apart.

What have we said for years? They are going to bring all the banking systems in line! That's why Geithner went over there to help bring it all in line. They are going to have to create such a crisis worldwide so they can bring in a world currency. Now, they've talked about it this way: The dollar, the pound—I don't know if it's the German mark—the Swiss franc and the euro; that's it, those four.

Who is excluded? The BRICs: Brazil, Russia, India and China. Why? Even though their economies are growing, their economies are very fragile. Their money is really not very good. China likes to think that it could handle being international reserve currency, but it doesn't have the ability to do it. Different ones are going to China from Europe, especially the Italians, asking for them to purchase some of their bonds. China is saying, 'No, we don't want to purchase your bonds. We want to buy your businesses.'

The whole thing is that the G-20—now the G-20 is all of the major leading central banks of the world. Go back to 2008, remember what happened in September, 2008? That drop in the stock market that put Obama in office! I wonder who was doing that? Because at that point McCain was ahead by about three points!

Here are some things that are about the world economy Jim Rickards—Monetary System Will Go Gold Soon, (kingworldnews.com September 13, 2011, www.goldsilver.com/news/jim-rickards):

With gold and silver continuing to consolidate the recent gains...

It's been going up, it's been going down, it's been going up, it's been going down. It can't break through the 1950 level and it can't go below the 1780 level, so right in that range.

…today King World News interviewed…Jim Rickards, Senior Managing Director of Tangent Capital Markets, to get his take on where gold is headed: "With the G-20 coming up...

So they're going to have another meeting with the G-20 here pretty quick.

...I think they're going to dust off the old SDR solution."

(SDR) Special Drawing Rights. I just mentioned the four currencies: Swiss franc, Euro, dollar, and pound. The Germans would rather have their own mark and have that in there, but they're sort of stuck with the Euro and that's why they are so angry. The non-productive nations must be supported by Germany. Those are the nations that they conquered in WWII. So they're not happy with that.

"The next time there is a major global financial crisis the Fed is not going to be able to bail out the world..."

Because they've loaning to the European banks and with all the debt-denominated assets they have they can lend money with absolutely no limit. As I mentioned one time, the bare minimum is that they could create $4.5-quadrillion worth of loans. Every time you hold an asset—if you hold a note, it's an asset—if it's $100-million, then you have $90-million that you can loan against that $100-million.
You loan that out to the different nations, and remember they made a $500-million transfer to New Zealand back in 2008-2007, somewhere around there. Bernanke was asked about it and he just kind of sloughed it off and said, 'Well, that's just kind of the normal banking things we do.' Huh?

"It will be very transparent that we're just replacing one kind of paper money with another kind of paper money and that is going to accelerate the rush to gold."

He says that gold is going to go $5,000-$7,000 an ounce. We'll have to wait and see how that will go.

Middle East:

Things are happening in Israel. Most people don't know that Turkey declared war against Israel, because Israel will not apologize for the deaths of those who—remember where they were enforcing the blockade. We'll have to wait and see what is going to happen.

Turkey wants to come and regain the power it had with the old Ottoman Empire. They may exert it very shortly by going into Syria and stopping the things going on in Syria. Because remember, Turkey had all the Arab world under its control.

How many have seen the movie Lawrence of Arabia? The Ottoman Empire was defeated in 1917. How is the 'king of the south' going to be reconstituted? It's going to be reconstituted with a caliphate in Cairo! Turkey being a power broker; Saudi Arabia being a power broker, and we don't know what's going to happen to Iran yet. So, what you have to do is watch out for Turkey, not coming into your backyard.

There's now competition between Turkey and Saudi Arabia over influencing the other states. We don't know what's going to happen in Libya or in Syria, but all of these things you can rest assured are paving the way for the coming 'king of the south.'

What's happening in Europe is going to be very interesting, because before this financial matter it looked like Europe was getting together, gathering a good head of steam and that the king of the north would begin to have a power base constructed for him. But now who knows what's going to happen.

For everyone who thinks that time is short, it's probably a lot longer than you figure. Here's something that very few people realize that Israel has: they have secret submarines. They let it be published that they have them. Here's a picture of it. Why do that? To let Turkey know: Don't do anything! To let Iran know, because they have missiles in those submarines: You send one of your missiles over here and you're history. They currently have three. They're going to expand it to six. As things develop in the Middle East, it's going to go back and forth, and back and forth.

The Jews are really in a terrible predicament there because Obama is not their friend. The latest election in New York—what happened? A Jewish Democrat could not get elected in the Democrat district that was three-to-one Democrat—which then was Anthony Weiner's former district. So, we'll have to wait and see what happens there.

Given the environment that we have between the Jews and between the Arab nations—and now this coming session of the United Nations, they're going to try and grant nationhood to the Palestinians—we'll see what happens with that. But there is going to come a time when there will be a pact made between the 'king of the north' and the Jews. That will be, I believe, to protect them. That will be the beginning of the 70th week of the 70-weeks prophecy.

We've always looked Luke 21:20, that the armies surrounding Jerusalem are surrounding it because of war. But what if it is that they are surrounding Jerusalem to prevent war between the Jews and the Arabs? Luke 21:20: "But when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation has drawn near."

In the fulfillment of the Jewish Wars 66-70A.D. that ended up destroying the temple, the armies that surrounded Jerusalem were the Roman armies and it was desolated. So, when we read v 20: "But when you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation has drawn near" we don't know what the final fulfillment is going to be. Most of these prophecies have a first fulfillment and a second fulfillment, so we need to be alert as to what is happening. We also know that Rev. 20 tells us that there is going to be a temple built and we also know in Matt. 24 and Mark 13 that the abomination of desolation is the thing that sets off the beginning of the Great Tribulation.

• Have prophecies always worked out the way that God that has given them? Yes!
• Have prophecies always worked out the way we have thought by us watching the appearance of prophecies happening?
• Have they happened the way that we have thought? No, indeed!

We have to be ready for many, many different things.

Science:

Verse 25: "And there shall be signs in the sun and moon and stars, and on the earth distress and anxiety among the nations, the seas roaring with rolling surges."

I have quite an article here. We'll look at it. Solar Eruptions Hit Home, Sept. 5, 2011, www.offthegridnews.com
The sun is entering a period of increased activity and massive solar eruptions….and coronal mass ejections.

That's throwing out into the solar system great masses of powerful magnetic forces. The powerful solar eruptions are known as the Carrington Effect. The last time that happened was in 1859. Here's what it did then: causing fires; shorting out telegraph wires.

Imagine how much more powerful this disruption would be with modern infrastructure; with communications and power shorted out, global chaos would ensue. The U.S. National Academy of Sciences estimates that the disruptions and destruction caused by such storms could exceed $2 trillion and require years to rebuild all affected infrastructure and systems.

So just because they have a system up and going and looks like we are approaching, like we saw with the sermon on Toward the Mark of the Beast, looks like we're getting closer to the mark of the beast. Well, if it's not time, God is going to do something. He can set it all back. Remember, God can just snap His finger—so to speak—and all the plans of men will just fall apart. Let's see how the nations are; let's see the arrogance that they are coming to be.

I don't know if you've heard the news lately, but the Obama administration gave a license to a company—through political favor, it appears, one of many, many, many that they're beginning to uncover—called the Four Square Microwave Technology. That is the most powerful microwave broadband that could possibly be. Its signals are so powerful that it could disrupt the satellite communications that we have. It could disrupt the military things that we have. A general in charge of protecting those things testified before Congress that they should not grant the license because that would interfere with the protection of the United States and national security. And the Obama administration had the gall to ask him to change his testimony so they could grant the license. Well, they granted the license, so we'll see what kind of big uproar will be with that. But that is only reflective of Psa. 2.

Psalm 2:1: "Why do the nations rage and the people plot in vain? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together against the LORD and against His Christ, saying, 'Let us break Their bands asunder and cast away Their cords from us'" (vs 1-3). That's why Christ is going to come back the way that the New Testament shows He's going to come back, in great power. That's why the heavens are going to roll back as a scroll when the sixth seal is opened. Get the whole world's attention.

Verse 4: "He who sits in the heavens laughs; the LORD scoffs at them." He could take care of them. They have all their plans; they have all the things that they're going to do. Many of them are going to fit into prophecy. But if it's not time for it to take place, it isn't going to happen.

Verse 5: "Then He shall speak to them in His wrath, and in His fury He terrifies them. 'Yea, I have set My king upon Zion, My Holy mountain'" (vs 5-6). It's talking about the return of Christ and this is exactly what we see happening today.

God does it with the weather. God does it with the changing of the power of the sun. Back to the Solar Eruptions Hit Home article: it's also affecting Saturn. The earth is in a position between Saturn and the sun that has a balancing magnetic affect on the earth. When both of them get out of hand, we're seeing what we are seeing now. I'm absolutely amazed as to what has happened.

The sun produces two types of solar storms: solar flares and coronal mass ejections (CMEs). Both types of storms are caused by disruptions of the sun's magnetic field. Solar flares and CMEs are both capable of causing massive problems for the high-tech systems that our modern civilization depends on.

I wonder what that would do to the cloud system? POOF! Makes you wonder—doesn't it?

Solar flares send bursts of radiation in the form of waves of photons into space.

If the eruptions toward the earth take place on the backside away from the earth, it doesn't affect the earth very much. But if it takes place on the front side affecting the earth, then the part of the earth that is facing toward the sun will have some disruptions. The part that is not facing toward the sun will not be affected nearly as much. Here's what happened recently:

If these erupt toward Earth, they can have a powerful effect on communications, as seen by the event in China. The eruption that affected Chinese radio waves was a Class X, one of the most powerful solar flares possible.

It disrupted all of their electronics.

The Carrington Event is a prime example of a CME... [Carrington Magnetic Event] ...The storm was so powerful that it caused the Earth's magnetic field to shake...

Wonder why we've been having so many earthquakes lately?

...sending geo-magnetically induced currents through the soil and atmosphere. Stronger current such as these have the potential to overload circuits and short out transformers.

This can be a serious problem for everyone. Think about this. Just considering the US disasters in 2011, why have they all occurred? We know it's punishment for sin! What most people don't realize is that human sin affects the environment, not exactly as the environmentalists say. What happened after Adam and Eve sinned? God's judgment brought a curse upon all mankind, a curse upon the ground! You look at what we talk about during the Millennium and the restoration of the animals to what they were and you find that it also

• changed the nature of the animals
• changed the nature of man
• changed the nature of the earth

Jeremiah 23:9: "As for the prophets my heart within me is broken; all my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome because of the LORD and because of the words of His Holiness. For the land is full of adulterers... [Do we have that today? Oh, yes, big time! All kinds of sex sins.] ...Because of swearing, the land mourns... [that has to do with lying and cheating and everything] ...the pleasant places of the wilderness are dried up, and their course is evil, and they wield power unjustly" (vs 9-10).

It affects the environment. What God does with the sun also affects the environment. Let's take another look at this and see how Paul described what's happening in the world. This is quite a thing when you consider it. And put all of this together with what is happening; we don't know how these things are all going to all come together but we're dealing with God and His power.

Romans 8:18: "For I reckon that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the earnest expectation of the creation itself is awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God" (vs 18-19).

I want you to understand—since we're getting very close to the Holy Days—how important the Passover, the Sabbath, and Holy Days really, really are, and how important God's calling is for us. My observation is that too many people are playing church. Too many people are comfortable with having learning the Word of God at church substituted for Biblical platitudes and fellowship. So that means the ministry sticks with basics. When you do that, where's growing in grace and knowledge? Where's understanding the things at the end-time? We're not to be static—ever!

What we do today is fine today. If it's been a bad day, repent and go on and ask God to help make tomorrow a better day. If tomorrow's a better day, thank God for it and go on. Whatever the difficulties that come, as Jesus said, 'Sufficient for the day thereof, is the evil thereof.' But we're to keep seeking the Kingdom of God first.

What I want you to do, when you watch the world news, you watch some of these reports, and everything that's going on in the world is really quite a thing, look at the famines in Africa, the storms and things that we've had here in America, and also the heat that we have had; the earthquakes that have been around the world. It started out with Haiti, then Chili, then New Zealand, then Japan, then Alaska, then back east, then one in Seattle recently. I think a lot of this is all associated with these solar flares and the magnetism plus the sin and everything. All of these things are combined in one big picture.

Verse 20: "Because the creation was subjected to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who subjected it in hope.... [that goes right back to Gen. 3:15.] ...In order that the creation itself might be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that all the creation is groaning together and travailing together until now" (vs 20-22). Think what Paul would write today with all the things that we know of.

Here are some of the things that have taken place. US Counts the Cost of Nine Months of Unprecedented Weather Extremes, Sept. 5, 2011, by John Vidal (guardian.co.uk):

2011 has seen the deepest drought in 60 years in the Horn of Africa which has contributed to a famine in Somalia and 10 million people affected in Kenya, Djibouti, Ethiopia and Uganda. Southern Africa, however, experienced unusually heavy rainfall.

Latin America has suffered a series of disasters. More than 500 people died in some of Brazil's worst rainstorms and mudslides in January, and Columbia faced what it called its worst-ever natural disaster when months of rain and floods devastated the north of the country. Meanwhile Mexico and much of central America experienced one of their deepest droughts in many years.

To say nothing of the drug wars down in Mexico. So, everything is kind of—you know, a tinderbox here, a tinderbox there, a tinderbox over here.

Korea, the Philippines, and parts of China have been racked with some of the worst storms in the century, with flash floods and landslides triggered by torrential rain.

Then it talks about the tsunami which killed 12,000. Earthquakes 6.2 or above hit New Zealand, Philippines, Japan, Fox Islands, Papua New Guinea, Mexico, Indonesia, Fiji, Thailand, Burma, Vanuatu, Argentina, Chili, and Iran in the first six months of 2011. Smaller ones have hit Pakistan, Tajikistan, Tonga, and Solomon Islands.

Also, the ice is melting in the Arctic at a record rate. We'll have to see what happens there. Now then, it lists all the disasters here in America. And I was thinking the other day when I watching the news where it says: Today is the record for number of consecutive days of heat over 100 degrees in Texas. Look at the map: drought, flood, hurricane, earthquake! What else do we have? Dollar collapsing, unemployment—all of those things. We need to be alert to those. You think that's bad? Hold on!

Secret U.S. Experiments to Prompt 2nd Coming? by Joe Kovacs, Aug. 21, 2011 (www.wnd.com)

Secret experiments now underway in the U.S. and elsewhere are sparking fears of a potential extinction-level event hastening the 2nd Coming of Jesus.

Let's understand this: Nothing is going to hasten it! It's going to be right on time! But we haven't understood exactly what men are going to be able to do. We've covered in Gen. 11 why did God confuse all the languages? Because 'now that they have begun to do this, anything that they imagine to do, they will be able to do. And nothing will be restrained from them.' Now we can see why.

For decades now, there have been science-fiction stories portraying a future filled with spectacular abilities for people...

Look at the movies that we have out there today and it's like my wife has said for years: everything that Satan does, he telegraphs through the movies. What do we have with the movie Avatar? Post humans! Trans-humans! Super powerful people!

...where the definition of what makes someone a human being is blurred by blending high technology and even animal traits into the human body.

Remember the old movie, Six Million Dollar Man, 1982 Blade Runner?

Since then, there's been no shortage of tales with similar themes, from "Dollhouse" and "The Terminator" to "Spider-Man," "Splice" and "The Matrix."

And all of those are trying to show that men are greater, if we can enhance them. There's a DVD you can find and download online. It's called Trans-Humanism: Destroying the Barriers (www.kenkleinproductions.net) Also: (www.youtube.com) What that is,
Basically it's sort of a re-genesis, altering human bodies—genetically, mechanically or both—to make them better than they've been for thousands of years affording them Superman-style abilities in both brains and brawn.

Have we been programmed to receive that as a world? Yes, indeed!

The Nightmare World of 'Trans-Humanism' by Joseph Farah; Aug. 26, 2011 (www.wnd.com)

Nick Bostrom, an Oxford University philosophy professor and director of the Future of Humanity Institute...

Isn't that something? They have an institute for the future of humanity.

(back to): Secret U.S. Experiments to Prompt 2nd Coming? by Joe Kovacs, Aug. 21, 2011 (www.wnd.com)

…many trans-humanists wish to follow life paths which would, sooner or later, require growing into post-human persons who have a form of eternal life.

'You will become gods.'

He [Nick Bostrom] says trans-humanists want "to be resistant to disease and impervious to aging; to have unlimited youth and vigor; to exercise control over their own desires, moods and mental states; to be able to avoid feeling tired, hateful or irritated about petty things; to have an increased capacity for pleasure, love, artistic appreciation and serenity; to experience novel states of consciousness that current human brains cannot access….

In other words, become higher than the highest high you can get from any of the drugs today.

…It seems likely that the simple fact of living an indefinitely long, healthy, active life would take anyone to post-humanity if they went on accumulating memories, skills and intelligence."

God can take care of that at any time. Then they have another application of what we saw with the mark of the beast, the little temporary skin tattoo. They have it now so they can just put it over a mother's belly who is pregnant, and check up on the baby.

Meanwhile IBM just unveiled an experimental computer chip, it says mimics the human brain in that it perceives, acts and even thinks.

What they want to do is find out how with nanotechnology that they can actually make a brain that will be encased in some kind of substance like our brain is today, which basically is cholesterol. And by the way, all these cholesterol-reducing drugs—be careful. The brain's mostly cholesterol; so is the liver. Think what that may have to do with things about losing memory, etc.

I know a man who was on blood pressure medication and also the cholesterol medication. He started taking care of his health and taking care of his body and exercising and doing what he needed to do and guess what? He quit all of that and his blood pressure was normal and his cholesterol was normal. What do you know about that! Took effort, but no doctor bill. And besides, if 'Obamacare' goes in, that's what you're going to have to do, because he isn't going to take care of you.

Additionally, researches at Cambridge University created the first ever animal with artificial information in its genetic code.

Remember, once it is there and is a part of their reproductive systems, it goes on to the next generation. Think about that.

"The technique, they say, could give biologists 'atom-by-atom control' over the molecules in living organisms." The BBC reported. "What makes the newly created animals different is that their genetic code has been extended to create biological molecules not known in the natural world."

When it says that 'the way of man seems right; the ends thereof are the ways of death,' you've got it right here. They think they're God. They think they're wise. The Bible says they're fools.

Among them is author and researcher Tom Horn who stars in "Trans-Humanism: Destroying the Barriers."

That's the DVD you can download on line.

He suggests people, as we know them, are in the process of a manmade re-design in order to make them super beings or even non-human entities. "In terms of what trans-humanists are aspiring to do through the use of these new sciences—biotechnology, nanotechnology, neuropharamacology," Horn says, "what they may do is lead us literally into the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy."

Hence the return of Christ. When you read back there in the book of Revelation about some of these soldiers and things, we've never asked: Why are they in this type of symbolism that they are? Maybe we're seeing why by some of these things that are here.

That catches you up on the news. It doesn't change anything. The more things change, the more they stay the same.

Track 2 or Download

Galatians:

Now I want to cover something in Galatians. It's going to help us understand even more. The way we have it translated here in the Faithful Version is the best translation of any of the modern translations and it corrects the mistakes of the King James Version.

One of the hardest things for Protestants to understand is that there are actually two laws of Moses, as presented by the Jews. That's why you need the book, Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? Judaism calls all their traditions, which we have a whole appendix listing hundreds and hundreds of their law from the Code of Jewish Law. It is a religion of men and very, very few people really understand that the rabbi must be obeyed. Whatever he says, you do. And very few people realize that even the rabbis brag that what the rabbis decide God must accept. They don't want you to know how absolutely abominable that Judaism is. It's evolved substantially from the time of the Apostle Paul.

The central issue here in Galatians 2 is how you are made right with God, how you have sin forgiven. In the Old Testament they could have sin forgiven to the temple if they offered a certain offering. In Judaism you have to do much like Catholicism. Catholicism, if you go confess your sins and the priest tells you, 'Well, go do 200 hail Mary's and 500 'Our Father's.' The Jews have works that they have to do that make them right. And it's all reduced to physical things!

Let's begin in Galatians 1. This is essential for us to know, because every time someone finds out about the Holy Days, they say, 'Well, those are only rituals.' or 'That's only for the Jews.' Therefore, they don't even study the Old Testament to know what it says, so they don't know what is in it. This is why Paul is so important, because he is one of the main ones to let us know about Judaism. We also need to know that the whole society of Jews, especially in Jerusalem, were all caught up in the law, the law of rituals. Yes, they had the Sabbath and the Holy Days, that's true. But as James said to Paul, when he came up, 'Look at all the thousands that believe and are zealous of the law.' He counseled him, was a political move, which Paul should not have done, but he did it. The whole episode recorded there in Acts 21, 22, 23, 24, etc. are all important in understanding that you can't mix Judaism with Christianity. And that Judaism's version of the Law of Moses is not talking about the Law of Moses in the Bible.

Remember, Jesus said to the Pharisees and the rabbis in Judaism today are direct descendants—literally, literarily, and Scripturally—of the Pharisees. They admit it themselves. Jesus said to the Pharisees, 'Had you believed Moses (the one in the Bible), you would have believed Me. But because you did not believe him, you do not believe Me!'

Well, now, the Pharisees were saying, 'We believe Moses. Our version of it.' It's hard to get to those in Judaism. All right today, because Protestantism has put away the whole Old Testament and all the laws of God based upon especially the misunderstanding of Gal. 2, and a complete lack of knowledge of Judaism. I've seen how many people email me and write me and question me about Gal. 2 and how that Paul did away with the laws of God. How that if you try and keep the commandments, you are seeking to justify yourself by law. That's not true. The simple question is: Can we be sinners and enter the Kingdom of God? No!

'Sin is the transgression of the law,' which means then we should not be breaking the laws and commandments of God, but we should be keeping them in the Spirit as Jesus taught and as Paul taught. So Paul has to make this impassioned plea with the Galatians. Now, Galatians is the most complicated book of all the epistles that Paul wrote.

Galatians 1:6: "I am astonished that you are so quickly being turned away from Him Who called you into the grace of Christ, to a different gospel."

Let's understand: Grace comes from God and grace defines our relationship with God! We've always been taught that grace is the forgiveness of sin. That's not quite true. Grace is the basis of our relationship with God of which part of it is the forgiveness of sin. Come back to Romans; we'll be going between the two to cover some of these things so we understand what it's talking about here.

Romans 5:1: "Therefore, having been justified by faith..." Let's summarize what does it mean to be justified by faith. To be justified by faith means you're put in right standing with God because you have repented of your sins, you have accepted the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and it is His shed blood that is full payment for your sins for you to be justified and made in right standing with God.

"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through Whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand..." (vs 1-2). That is your whole relationship with God. That's what it means to be under grace. Not only do you have your sins forgiven and you are justified, but you receive the Holy Spirit. When you pray, your prayers go directly to God in heaven above. When we keep the commandments, we keep the commandments of God through grace by His Spirit.
So we stand in this grace. "...and we ourselves boast in the hope of the glory of God. And not only this, but we also boast in tribulations, realizing that tribulation brings forth endurance, And endurance brings forth character, and character brings forth hope" (vs 2-4). We have the progression of growing in grace and knowledge here—don't we? Just put in your notes 2-Pet. 1:3-10. We are partakers of the Divine nature. And then we are to add to the faith virtue and all of those things.

Verse 5: "And the hope of God never makes us ashamed because the love of God has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit... [Which God only gives to those who obey Him.] ...which has been given to us." When we are under grace, we receive:

• the Spirit of God
• the love of God
• we understand the hope of God
• we receive the faith of Christ, His very faith given to us to be part of us

All of these things cannot be done with law-keeping of any kind. Yes, we're to keep the commandments of God, spiritually, through the grace of God with understanding.

Verse 6: "For even when we were without strength, at the appointed time Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will anyone die for a righteous man, although perhaps someone might have the courage even to die for a good man. But God commends His own love to us because when we were still sinners, Christ died for us…. [Not only do we have our sins forgiven]: …Much more, therefore, having been justified now by His blood..." (vs 6-9).

Nothing can justify anyone from sin to God the Father in heaven above except the sacrifice of Jesus Christ and His shed blood! When you have been justified, you are now ready to begin the Christian walk.

Verse 9: "Much more, therefore, having been justified now by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His own Son, much more then, having been reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only this, but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom we have now received the reconciliation" (vs 9-11).

Come back to Galatians 1 and let's see what Paul gave there was a summary of the Gospel of Grace. A summary of how we have our sins forgiven through the shed blood of Jesus Christ, which makes us justified. Galatians 1:6: "I am astonished that you are so quickly being turned away from Him Who called you into the grace of Christ, to a different gospel."

What does this tell us? Very important. Let's ask a question to answer that. Can anyone add to or take away from the laws of God? No! Can anyone add to or take away from the grace of God? No! All of that comes from God! You can't add to it. You can't take away from it, but you can move people away from the grace of God. You can't change it. The grace of God is the grace of God through Christ. That's it!

They were going to a different gospel, v 7: "Which in reality is not another gospel; but there are some who are troubling you and are desiring to pervert the gospel of Christ." You can't change it to improve it. You can't add to it to improve it. If you take away from it, which you can't really do, but you can in teaching

Verse 8: "But if we, or even an angel from heaven, should preach a gospel to you that is contrary to what we have preached, LET HIM BE ACCURSED!" That's totally cut off from God. This is strong language, especially when we get into what happened in Gal. 2, because we're dealing with a problem with Judaism.

Verse 9: "As we have said before, I also now say again. If anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to what you have received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED!" Tie this together. For ministers and elders and teachers, we all need to listen up. And as Paul wrote, 'You who teach others, don't you teach yourself.' We must be faithful to:

• the Word of God
• the grace of God
• the teachings of the Bible

We are to be growing in grace and knowledge, growing in character, and understanding the Truth of God even more as we go forward.

He says it twice, preaching another gospel, v 9: "As we have said before, I also now say again. If anyone is preaching a gospel contrary to what you have received, LET HIM BE ACCURSED! Now then, am I striving to please men, or God? Or am I motivated to please men?.… [What is the motivation?] ...For if I am yet pleasing men, I would not a servant of Christ" (vs 9-10).

We all need to think about that; all need to realize that. As everyone who's a teacher, has their own problems and difficulties and sins, we all have to repent like anybody else. Through those things then we can learn and become better teachers because we are serving the brethren to help them who are going through the same thing. Think about that!

Verse 10: "Now then, am I striving to please men, or God? Or am I motivated to please men? For if I am yet pleasing men, I would not be a servant of Christ. But I certify to you, brethren, that the Gospel that was preached by me is not according to man; Because neither did I receive it from man, nor was I taught it by man; rather, it was by the revelation of Jesus Christ…. [v 13 sets the contrast and the tone for Gal. 2]: …For you heard of my former conduct when I was in Judaism..." (vs 10-13). The King James says 'Jew's religion,' but who knows what the Jew's religion really is. In today's world when all religions are being equated as equal, then you end up with a lot of trouble.

"...how I was excessively persecuting the Church of God and was destroying it; and I was advancing in Judaism far beyond many of my contemporaries in my own nations, being more abundantly zealous for the traditions of my fathers" (vs 13-14). Judaism is run by traditions. Christ said to the Jews, 'In keeping your traditions, you reject the commandments of God.'

Let's keep that in mind, come over here to chapter two and let's see what we have here. After he confirmed the Gospel that he was preaching was the same one that Peter, James, and John were preaching, Galatians 2:11: "But when Peter came to Antioch..."

Who was Peter? Peter was the apostle to the Jews, and also Christ used him to make contact with the first Gentiles (Acts 10). And what did he say when he came to Cornelius? He said, 'God has revealed to me that I should call no man common or unclean.' He also said that it is unlawful—by Judaism law—for one who is a Jew to come and keep company with a Gentile or one of another nation. Wasn't even allowed to come into their homes. Was not even allowed to eat in the same room. It was a racist, exclusive religion with contempt and hatred. In most cases when you get into the inner sanctum of Judaism today, it still is!

What happened after he taught all in the household of Cornelius? They believed and the Holy Spirit came on them. All the Jews that were with Peter were astonished—right? You can read this in Acts 10. Why did God do that? A lot of people today say that shows you don't have to be baptized. If you're not baptized, you don't belong to Christ! If you don't have the right covenant baptism, you don't belong to Christ! You may belong to a church, you see. But there's the dividing line. The dividing line is God's way and no other way. And Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life.

What happened after they saw that the Holy Spirit came on them and they spoke in tongues? Peter said, 'Who can forbid water?' Because the mindset of the Jews, even in the Church, was that unless the Gentiles were circumcised physically, they couldn't be in the Church. This was powerful! This was historic! This was really earth shaking what happened there! After that he stayed with them another four days. So he was there five days altogether. When he came back to Jerusalem and the elders there heard that the Gentiles had received the Gospel, the elders asked Peter, 'What did you do, you went into men uncircumcised?' They, even of the Church, were not going to allow it. That's why it had to be through Peter. That's why it had to be done this way.

With that background, let's come here to Galatians 2:11: "But when Peter came to Antioch, I withstood him to his face because he was to be condemned." This is in the Scripture for a very important point. It doesn't matter whom people think the minister or apostle is, not even he can change what God has done. And where he emphasized here 'pleasing men,' this has to do with the politics that were being carried out here.

Here's what happened, v 12: "For before certain ones came from James... [James was the half-brother of Jesus and was the apostle over the Jerusalem church.] ...he was eating with the Gentiles. However, when they came, he drew back and separated himself from the Gentiles, being afraid of those of the circumcision party."

There were those coming from James saying that you can't eat with Gentiles, not even those in the Church. The hardest attitude for Jews to come to is an attitude that Judaism and the ways that they have done are completely contrary to the will of God. That's the hardest thing to happen.

Most people when they meet a Jew, a Jew says, 'I am a Jew.' Why do they do that? I don't know. Maybe they think there's some superiority to it, but if you reject Christ, what superiority do you have in anything? Nothing! I suppose I should answer back and say, 'I'm a Gentile.' Politics! He was trying to please men. Like Paul said, 'If you please men, you're not going to please God.' Trying to please the ones coming from Jerusalem so there would be a good report coming from them back to James that 'we were there with Peter and oh, we saw how good he was.'

Verse 13: "And the rest of the Jews joined him in this hypocritical act, insomuch that even Barnabas was carried away with their hypocrisy." Everyone today who saw the Netanyahu-Obama on television where Netanyahu was telling Obama what to do, what they wouldn't do, because Obama turned around and was very disgraceful to Netanyahu. When they were talking, he didn't want to talk anymore, because he didn't like the subject that Netanyahu was bringing up, so he said, 'I'm running off to dinner.' Left him standing.

Well, here we have a reverse situation. Barnabas was a Levite. Peter was a Galilean, we don't know from what tribe. Here come the Jews from Jerusalem coming down to visit during one of the Feast days in Antioch. Now we have this division going on. What if this took root in the Church? Stop and think about it today. Do we have root things taking place in the Church that shouldn't be? Yes, indeed! Some of them Judaism? Some of them sacred names? Yes, indeed!

Verse 14: "But when I saw that they did not walk uprightly according to the Truth of the Gospel, I said to Peter in the presence of them all, 'If you, being a Jew, are living like the Gentiles... [eating and mingling with them] ...and not according to Judaism... [which requires you to separate and eat separately, have nothing to do with them] ...why do you compel the Gentiles to Judaize?'" That is, since you eat separately, you make them eat separately and that is following Judaism. That is not following Christ!

Verse 15: "'We who are Jews by nature—not sinners of the Gentiles—Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law...'" (vs 15-16). Here that nasty, little verse that in the King James says, "…Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law." They say, 'See, we don't have to keep the law.' However, the Greek here is 'ergon nomus'—'ergon'is works. There is no definite article the before works, nor any definite article before law. It does not read 'the works of the law.' but works of law.

Why cannot a person be justified by works of law, though we're required to keep the commandments of God?

• eliminate all the works of Judaism, all of their code of Jewish laws
• eliminate all the sacrifices at the temple that used to bring justification to the temple

What did we read justifies us, back in Romans? The blood of Christ!

Verse 16: "Knowing that a man is not justified by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ..." (v 16). That means Jesus' own faith, which then is spiritually imparted to us when we receive the Holy Spirit of God.

"...we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law; because by works of law shall no flesh be justified" (v 16). Because only the sacrifice of Christ and the shed blood of Christ can justify you and put you in right standing with God.

Come back here to Romans 3 and let's see how he wrote of it here and all takes place. Another error today is that many of the Protestants believe once you have your sins forgiven through Christ you can't sin again. You've been justified once forever. But notice what the justification covers.

Romans 3:24: "But are being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.... [no other redemption is going to work] ...Whom God has openly manifested to be a propitiation through faith in His blood, in order to demonstrate His righteousness... [Now righteousness here in this case means the righteousness that comes from being justified, that is having your sins removed.] ...in respect to the remission of sins that are past" (vs 24-25). Not future, but past.

Here's another thing also to realize. Why are not future sins forgiven ahead of time? Because you don't know what your sins are going to be—correct? Yes! And wouldn't we be of all people most ungrateful if we felt as though that with the justification, forgiveness of sin, that we could no longer sin anymore. We could just go do whatever we want to. 'Sins that are past.' All sin is past sin. Though you will sin in the future, you can't define that. But when you sin, it is defined, whatever the sin was. That can be forgiven upon repentance.

"...in respect to the remission of sins that are past, Through the forbearance of God; yes, to publicly declare His righteousness... [or justification] ...in the present time, that He might be just, and the one Who justified the one who is of the faith of Jesus. Therefore, where is boasting? It is excluded.… [That's why it does no good for a person to come up and say, 'I am a Jew.' Have you repented? It's not who you are, not what you are. If you belong to Christ, then you're His.] ...Through what law? The law of works? By no means! Rather, it is through a law of faith" (vs 25-27). What is a law of faith?

• repentance
• forgiveness
• justification
• baptism
• receiving the Holy Spirit of God

That's all contained in the first eight chapters of the book of Romans.

Verse 28: "Consequently, we reckon that a man is justified by faith, separate from works of law." Notice how that is phrased there, because there are good works that are ordained that we are to walk in them (Eph. 2:10)—keeping the commandments of God. But those do not justify us. No work of any law can substitute for the shed blood of Jesus Christ and forgiveness from God the Father through His sacrifice to make you justified. When you understand that and you really grasp that, then what do we find?

Verse 29: "Is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? YES! He is also God of the Gentiles. Since it is indeed one God Who will justify the circumcision by faith, and the uncircumcision through faith…. [same operation] …Are we, then, abolishing law through faith? MAY IT NEVER BE! Rather, we are establishing law" (vs 29-31). Where are the laws to be written? In our hearts and in our minds!

Let's see what he's talking about here, Galatians 2:16: "Knowing that a man is not justified... [from sin] ...by works of law, but through the faith of Jesus Christ, we also have believed in Christ Jesus in order that we might be justified by the faith of Christ, and not by works of law; because by works of law shall no flesh be justified"—because it never can justify. Look at it this way:

• God alone forgives sin
• God alone justifies upon repentance
• no law can forgive any sin
• no work of any law can forgive any sin
• the law defines what sin is

The good works that we do are spiritually based and spiritually motivated out of love and faith and hope and kindness and goodness, and all the fruits of the Spirit.

Verse 17: "Now then, if we are seeking to be justified in Christ, and we ourselves are found to be sinners, is Christ then the minister of sin? MAY IT NEVER BE!" Go repent. Isn't that what John wrote of in 1-John 1? 'If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins.' Yes!

Verse 18: "For if I build again those things that I destroyed... [the works of Judaism] ...I am making myself a transgressor. For I through law... ['the wages of sin is death'] ...died to... [works of] ...law, in order that I may live to God'" (vs 18-19). In other words, every work of law to try and make God forgive you your sins is a dead work, because you haven't repented to God!

I don't know how many times people do this, but I've heard of people saying, 'Well, I haven't prayed and I haven't studied for a while.' Why? 'Well, because I sin and I just can't do it until I make myself right.' How are you going to make yourself right unless you repent? You can't! Notice what this justification really means, because this ties in with Rom. 6, as well, that we're co-crucified with Christ.

Verse 20: "I have been crucified with Christ, yet I live. Indeed, it is no longer I; but Christ lives in me. For the life that I am now living in the flesh, I live by faith—that very faith of the Son of God, Who loved me and gave Himself for me…. [What happens when you start adding a lot of things to the Gospel of Christ that shouldn't be there?] …I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness... [the righteousness through justification] ...is through works of law, then Christ died in vain" (vs 20-21).

What does he mean by that? If it were by a work of law, then God would say, 'Do this and your sins are forgiven. You don't need Christ's sacrifice for you.' But the whole process of conversion, the whole process of grace, the whole process of all of these things together consists of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Let's touch upon a few of things that people add:

Sacred names:

Not necessary. Just put in your notes, Rev. 7. How's the great innumerable multitude of many languages, nations, kindreds, and tongues, two years into the Great Tribulation, how they going to know how to pronounce the Hebrew names of God, if it's required for salvation? Not going to! Show me where in the New Testament, because Paul knew Hebrew and Aramaic and Greek and probably Latin as well, show me where Paul put the names of Jesus Christ and the Lord in the Hebrew names? Not there! It's not required and God did not put it in there.

The wrong calendar:

The correct calendar is the calculated Hebrew calendar. That's what God gave so we can all keep everything on the right day. There are some people who say you have to observe the moon. No, it must be calculated, because the earth, moon and sun and the heavenly bodies have all been 'discombobulated' in the past and that's why God gave the calculated Hebrew calendar. Same thing with:

• Fifteenth Passover
• Monday Pentecost

Here's a little mundane thing. The question comes up, and it came up when I was down in Arcadia:

How should dress for Sabbath services?

With decent clothes. Some people have it, you got to have a tie. I wear a tie just because I'm recording this. I didn't have a tie and some people said, and even Dolores said, 'You look better with a tie. You ought to have a tie.' That's why I have a tie. Just dress decently. What if you come in sandals? You might call them 'Jesus shoes,' because Jesus wore sandals—right? Sometimes that's necessary.

What about traveling on the Sabbath?:

How else are we going to get to Sabbath services today? Same way with eating out on the Sabbath! Then there are a few other things we could get into. But those are the main doctrines that fit in here. A work of law: 'You shall use the sacred names.' Where is the commandment? Not there!

You see how important that Gal. 2 is in dealing with Judaism and then you can take and apply that to a lot of contemporary things that take place within the Church of God. Don't let anyone come along and give you a little add-on to the Gospel of Christ. Know your Bibles, so you know what it is and won't be fooled.

Scriptural References:

• Luke 21:20, 25
• Psalm 2:1-6
• Jeremiah 23:9-10
• Romans 8:18-22
• Galatians 1:6
• Romans 5:1-11
• Galatians 1:6-14
• Galatians 2:11-16
• Romans 3:24-31
• Galatians 2:16-21

Scriptures referenced, not quoted:

• Revelation 20
• Matthew 24
• Mark 13
• Genesis 3:15; 11
• Acts 21-24
• 2-Peter 1:3-10
• Acts 10
• Romans 1-8
• Ephesians 2:10
• 1-John 1
• Romans 6
• Revelation 7

Also referenced:

 Sermon: Toward the Mark of the Beast
Books:

• Judaism: A Revelation of Moses or a Religion of Men? by Philip Neal
• Code of Jewish Law by Ganzfried and Goldin

Articles:

• Europe's Banks are Staring into the Abyss by Jeremy Warner September 13, 2011 (telegraph.co.uk/finance/jeremywarner)
• Jim Rickards—Monetary System Will Go Gold Soon (goldsilver.com/news/jm-rickards)
• Solar Eruptions Hit Home, Sept 5, 2011 (offthegridnews.com)
• US Counts the Cost of Nine Months of Unprecedented Weather Extremes, by John Vidal, Sept. 5, 2011, (guardian.co.uk)
• Secret U S experiments to Prompt 2nd Coming, by Joe Kovacs, Aug. 21, 2011 (wnd.com)
• Trans-Humanism: Destroying the Barriers (kenkleinproductions.net) or (youtube.com)
• The Nightmare World of 'Trans-Humanism' by Joseph Farah, Aug. 26, 2011 (wnd.com)

FRC:lp
Transcribed: 9-28-11
Formatted: bo—9/30/11

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