Satan

As I write this the ‘Princes of the Church’ are sequestering themselves in the Sistine Chapel to choose a new Pope. I’ve been reading a collection of sermons by Charles Spurgeon called ‘Spiritual Warfare in a Believer’s Life’, and something I read this morning has prompted me to quote Spurgeon,

“Satan…has made men accept a stone for bread. Many have held, and still hold, that it is possible to find an infallible foundation in the Pope or other spiritual leaders…how any mind can by any possible contortion twist itself into a posture in which it will be capable of accepting such a belief is one of the mysteries of humanity. The notion of infallibility residing in mortal man is worthy of a madhouse and scarcely deserves to be seriously discussed.”

In Latin, one of the titles for the Pope is ‘Vicarius Filii Dei’ which translates into ‘Ruler In Place of the Son of God’… In Greek the same can be said of the title ‘Antichrist’, where the prefix anti- means both ‘instead of’ and ‘against’. Personally I do not believe that a Pope will be the Antichrist spoken of in the Book of Revelation, however, I have no doubt that the notion of an ‘infallible’ man ruling in place of Christ is truly blasphemous and fallacious. In the not too distant future, the Son of Perdition (aka Antichrist in Revelation) will demand that the entire world worship him as their savior from within the soon to be rebuilt Temple in Jerusalem. This is the moment at which all Jews are warned to flee from the city.

Matthew 24:15-18
“So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation,’ spoken of through the prophet Daniel–let the reader understand– then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. Let no one on the roof of his house go down to take anything out of the house. Let no one in the field go back to get his cloak.

April 13, 2005

Why does Hollywood do it?
Hopefully lack of viewership will drive a stake into the heart of a new TV mini series called ‘Revelations’ that will soon debut on NBC. The story line falls much more on the side of ‘just plain stupid’ than ‘offensive’ or ‘blasphemous’. Staying true to character, the powers that be in Hollywood single out one religious belief to mock, which is Christianity of course. It’s highly unlikely that we’ll ever see a tv mini series that is inspired by a mockery of the Koran or Torah. For the record, the Second Coming of Jesus will not be an infant that is saved from a shipwreck in Greece, but all the Earth will see Him as He comes to Judge the world.

Revelation 19:11
I saw heaven standing open and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and makes war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. Out of his mouth comes a sharp sword with which to strike down the nations. “He will rule them with an iron scepter.” He treads the winepress of
the fury of the wrath of God Almighty. On his robe and on his thigh he has this name written:

KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

If you personally know the Executive Producers of Revelations, Gavin Polone and David Seltzer, don’t stand too close to them because it’s just a matter of time until lightening strikes if they continue to play golf in the rain. There will be no escaping having to answer for adding and taking away from God’s Word.

Deuteronomy 12:31
You must not worship the LORD your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things the LORD hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.

April 5, 2005

Coincidence?
You decide…
I don’t know what to make of it, but I realized something unusual about the 2 huge earthquakes which have hit Sumatra in the last 3 months and I think it’s worth mentioning. The first quake generated the Tsunami which killed somewhere around 250,000 people… it struck on December 26th, 2004 which is the day after Christmas, registering a huge 9.0 on the Richter scale. The next big quake struck on March 28th, 2005 which was the day after Easter this year, it registered a huge 8.7 on the Richter scale. Christmas & Easter, the days that Christians celebrate the birth of Christ and the resurrection of Christ from the tomb. Hmmm, interesting, huh? According to the USGS website, these were 2 of of the 10 most powerful quakes in the world in the last 100 years! And the largest pair of quakes in 200 years. Like I said, I don’t know what to make of it, but it’s something to think of.

Matthew 24:7-8
For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom, and in various places there will be famines and earthquakes. But all these things are {merely} the beginning of birth pangs.

April 1, 2005

A particular sub-headline on the Drudge Report caught my eye this morning, it reads “Koran scholar: US will cease to exist in 2007”. No, this isn’t an April Fool’s joke. Palestinian scholar Ziad Silwadi (who is not a world-renowned scholar of the Koran ) claims through his study that the US will be inundated by tsunamis on both coasts in 2007 as punishment from Allah for the country’s history of heinous sins. There’s only 1 problem with Ziad’s prophecy… there is NO precedent of ANY prophecy unique to the Koran having ever come true. Only God knows the future, therefore, only God can reveal the future, and He has done so several hundred times in the Old Testament (aka Tanakh). While the US will certainly cease to exist someday, it certainly won’t happen the way Ziad imagines it. I just don’t understand how any rational, thinking person could ever choose the Koran as a holy book when compared to The Bible. I can only conclude that they haven’t made the comparison, but have chosen to believe the lie.

What’s really special about Ziad’s interpretation is that he draws a parallel between these upcoming tsunamis and the parted waters of the Red Sea crashing down upon Pharoh and his army that were in pursuit of WHO? The Jews! Also, check this out, I happened to underline this passage in my Bible a few days ago:

Isaiah 51:10
Was it not you who dried up the sea,
the waters of the great deep,
who made a road in the depths of the sea,
so that the redeemed might cross over?
The ransomed of the Lord will return.
They will enter Zion with singing;
everlasting joy will crown their heads.
Gladness and joy will overtake them,
and sorrow and sighing will flee away.

This is REAL prophecy. The passage not only speaks of God safely saving the Jews from Pharoh some 4000 years ago, but it also speaks of the future, when the “ransomed of the Lord” who are all those who were purchased by the blood of Jesus, those who accept Jesus the Jew as their Messiah, as God who came in the flesh and obediently died on the cross, as the sacrificial Lamb who takes away the sins of the world for those who believe, AND then rose from the dead 3 days later in victory over death. These are the ransomed of the Lord who will live forever in the real heaven, in the presence of God, in peace with joy, gladness, singing and no more pain or suffering at all.

This is the Good News. This is Salvation. And it can be yours too, all you have to do is ask for it.

God Reigns.

Amen