A new look at persecution and the Jews

 Here is another great sermon by David Pawson.  When you read it, you will see God’s hand in current history.  Hopefully my Cliff’s Notes (since the sermon was over 1-1/2 hours) still caught all the highlights. 

History’s greatest disasters happened in the 20^th century.  And of all of them, the most horrific was the holocaust.  The murder of 6 million Jews, one-quarter of them children, still seems unbelievable in the world.  They weren’t even fighting anybody. It was genocide, the murder of a race. Euphemisms abounded—the Germans called it a “solution,” (as if there were a problem); it’s also called “ethnic cleansing.”

Here is a terrible fact that has been hidden from us.  In 1938, the nations of the world realized that the Jews of Europe were in mortal peril—150,000 had already fled Germany, and they all knew full well what Hitler was going to do, since he laid out his fanatical hatred of the Jews 13 years before in his autobiography, Mein Kampf.  Franklin D. Roosevelt called a 10-day conference in July at a famous spa resort on Lake Geneva called Evian-les-Baines; 32 nations’ diplomats showed up.  He wanted to discuss what could be done to help Jews fleeing Nazi persecution.  They finally decided that changing immigration laws were the only option.  They desperately needed to open up nations to fleeing Jewish refugees. But two of the ‘great powers’ (U.S. and France) flat-out refused to help. The U.S. said they ‘can’t take any more.’  This set the tone for the conference; only three nations offered minimal help—Britain offered to take a few thousand children. The Netherlands and the Dominican Republic were willing to take a few hundred adults.  So the conference was a failure, and after the first day, most of the delegates were out sailing on their boats on Lake Geneva.  Observers went back to Germany and reported to Hitler, “you can do what you like with the Jews, the nations don’t care.”  Mr. Pawson believes that World War II was God’s judgment on the Western nations.

It was realized as early as 1942 that the Jews were not only persecuted, but being exterminated as a regular daily occurrence in camps.  This was obtained through decoding of the Enigma spy decoder that the U.K. obtained a copy of; it was valuable for determining enemy positions.  Part of the reason we didn’t consider swooping in to rescue was that Hitler would know we figured out his Enigma, and change the code.  (Ed. Note:  But why didn’t we bomb all the railroad lines leading up to them, to at least slow down the slaughter?  And, since it was a good bet that the genocide would speed up if the Germans were losing, and since victory was pretty certain by early spring 1945 (when the Battle of the Bulge didn’t stop us), why did the Allies not send special elite troops of commandos to take control over the camps?  The Air Force could be sent to defend the commandos’ positions.  It would not have required any exhaustion of our forces at all.)

(Further notes:  Of nations under Nazi rule, Poland, where most of the death camps were, has the terrible distinction of wiping out the highest percentage of Jews who populated there pre-war:  they murdered 3 million of their 3.3 million original population, or 90%.  Shockingly, a close second place was Greece, who murdered 87% of its pre-war Jewish population. At the other end, Denmark only killed 1% of their populated Jews, despite pressure to do more from their Nazi masters.  Last note:  Most of the Ukrainian refugees, in their current war with Russia, are going to Poland—how will they treat them, I wonder?)

Back to Mr. Pawson:  I could tell many grisly stories about how ‘functional’ the Germans found their Jewish prisoners—hair for cushions, skin for lampshades, their fat for soap, even their ashes for fertilizer. In Treblinka, the fields were a yard deep in ashes. Let’s not go any further.  The whole story can be visually obtained in London, at the Imperial War Museum; or by reading Martin Gilbert’s book, ‘The Holocaust:  Jewish Tragedy.’

Think about the irony of it:  Germany, the land of Luther, together with Germanic Austria, with their combined beautiful culture in Berlin and Vienna, and their glorious history of musical composers—Beethoven, Mozart, Strauss—yet that is where the germ of Jewish hatred began—in a ‘Christian’ country, not in Islam. But Germany also led the world in theologians who believed in Higher Criticism—the purpose of whose efforts was to denounce as liars and fakery the God-inspired Scripture.  By destroying faith in the Bible, it helped empty the churches in Germany; and its poisoned work spread to Britain and the U.S. Many of our seminaries are still teaching our new pastors not to trust everything in Scripture as Truth.

The big question is, “why did this happen in Germany first?”  It was ‘Christian;’ the northern half was Protestant Lutheran, the southern half Catholic.  We’ll start with Hitler.  He didn’t always hate the Jews.  He started out as a failed watercolor artist in Vienna, so poor he didn’t have an overcoat.  And a rabbi took pity on him and gave him one, which Hitler wore for years.  But Vienna already had a strong anti-Semitic mood.  Jews were despised—but Hitler wrote this in his diary:  “In the Jew, I saw only a man who was of different religion; and th
erefore I was against the idea that he should be attacked just because he had a different faith.  Anti-Semitism is unworthy of the cultural traditions of a great people.”  Can you believe that?  So, what went wrong? He actually began his massive killing spree (October 1939) not with the Jews, but with the physically and mentally disabled.  They were herded into trucks, hose pipes were connected to passenger chambers, and they were gassed by carbon monoxide. Then he moved on to the elderly, whom he regarded as ‘useless eaters.’ He conducted this killing under the guise of a Euthanasia program. (Euthanasia is now legal in the following European countries:  Belgium, Netherlands, Holland and let’s throw in Canada—under Justin Trudeau—but not Britain; and surprise, it is legal in a Catholic country in Europe, Spain).  They often pressure the old, lonely patient shoved off into a nursing home, about quality of life, and assist in their death.  Hitler’s SS men asked no questions:  They tottered or wheeled them off to their death camps.  Then he moved on to undesirables, like half a million gypsies, the homeless, the tramps.  Hitler decided who was unworthy of belonging to a great people, the Aryans.  He didn’t like Jehovah’s Witnesses for no reason known; and he killed other Christians who spoke out and protested.  Two come to mind:

Dr Martin Niemoller, a theologian, had a famous quote that he used to explain his boldness on speaking out against Hitler:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a socialist.

Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—
Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me

As you can see, we should care when anybody was denied their civil rights, no matter if we agree with them.  Niemoller escaped, and lived until 1984.  Then there was Dr Dietrich Bonhoeffer, also a theologian, who helped plot the failed assassination attempt on Hitler.  But he was killed.

But Hitler eventually concentrated on the Jews.  Several reasons have been suggested for his changing his focus of hatred:  Could it have started because he obtained syphilis from his lover, a Jewish girl?  Hitler willingly shared her with his deplorable friends, so that possibility was his fault.  Could he have read a famous fraudulent booklet, which originated in Germany, called “The Protocols of the Ancient Elders of Zion,” which speculated that the Jews had a secret conspiracy to take the whole world over.  Or was it because he, having military aims, needed to unify the people by focusing on a common enemy that he blamed for their troubles?  The Jews filled that need for a scapegoat well.  Oh, Germany had troubles, that led to chaos. Extreme hyperinflation wiped out the value of savings for retirement, or anything else.  That plus their high unemployment led to a ripe situation for dictators.  They had also signed a humiliating treaty to end World War I, which forced them to pay reparations to the world which they damaged. The Allies rubbed their noses in it, and they sought revenge.  (The Allies needed the spirit of how Abraham Lincoln handled the South, not the spirit that pervaded at the Versailles Treaty.)  They were forced to set up a democratic system, which was not in accord with their military sense of blind obedience to leaders. Eventually they only had two choices for political parties that changed:  the extreme left-wing Communists (which Hitler felt they were full of Jews), or the right-wing fascists. The upper class people were reading Darwin, Karl Marx, Freud, and Nietzsche too much as well (even though two of them were Jews); it is said that Darwin banished God from nature, that Marx banished God from history, and Freud banished God from the human soul. From these poisoned sources, hey believed God did not care, and that life was an animalistic struggle for dominance. And in their nationalism, they believed that the superior Aryan working man was more honorable than the rich proletariats.

There were increasing outbursts of anti-Semitism; in Poland, in Russia (which had its pogroms), even in France, where a Jewish military officer, Alfred Dreyfus, was banished due to his spying.  But there was no evidence.  His fellow officer was the spy, but easily convinced people by planting the evidence on him, a Jew.  Interestingly, that incident had a part in leading to the founding of the Jewish state of Israel.  Through all the previous centuries, the Jews were persecuted in Europe on religious grounds—namely, deicide, killing the Son of God. But that didn’t bother Hitler as much as their race, which he considered inferior. 

Pawson considers that underlying all factors for their continuous persecution was the fact that they were the chosen people of God, as Scripture said.  And the majority of humanity is in rebellion to God.   BUT why should God allow His chosen people to be persecuted and murdered?  Why did He abandon His people in their hour of deepest need, during the holocaust?  Did He make it happen?  Many Jews have been asking their rabbis, and abandoning their faith, not getting an answer for this question.  Some say it was reincarnation (or karma), for the sins of the previous generations.  Some rabbis say, “we don’t understand God, He is mysterious, hidden. It’s not our place to question God—He is sovereign.”  There is nobility in that argument, but it is not satisfying.  A more realistic explanation is, without the holocaust, there never would have been the state of Israel. And the nation of Israel has a part to play in Scriptural prophecies of the end times. In any event, the nations of the worldhad an outpouring of compassion and guilt that seldom happens; they granted something that never would have happened otherwise(Hard to believe the racism of man, but between 1945 and 1948, the British were transporting Jewish refugees to barbed-wire camps in Cyprus, and even sending them back to Germany. The world has never really accepted refugees, no matter how desperate their circumstances.

Here's the most interesting answer floated to that question: Many rabbis quoted Isaiah 53, about the suffering servant of God, and felt that in the holocaust, the suffering Jews shed their blood, and were making atonement for the sins of God’s people in the whole world.  THAT seems arrogant.  But we know Isaiah 53 prophesies Jesus shedding His blood for His people—but, of course, the Jews don’t believe in Jesus, which is why they were under a curse.  Deuteronomy 28 and Leviticus 26 lists most of the curses for disobedience.  Other chapters listed the blessings for obedience.  The Jews chose the former.  Interestingly, the two curse chapters reads like a journalistic report of the holocaust.  Here is a verse that shows a character about God that you will never hear about; Deuteronomy 28:63 warns of a curse of disobedience:

Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you.

The Jews defied God terribly from 900 BC on, when Solomon’s death led to his sons splitting the kingdom.  They were defeated in war and oppressed countless times, but there were some incidents really severe that stand out.  They were massacred by Titus in 70 AD for their part in the death of Christ, but that was a short-lived suffering.  But it took til’ 1933 AD before God began administering a severe punishment that killed six times as many as the beating they took from the Romans, and it lasted 5 years in its greatest intensity. Mr. Pawson believes that the holocaust was partially due to how the Jews who lived in Germany forgot about God, and their connection to Him.  They were assimilated, and lost their identity, even their language (they spoke Yiddish in Germany).  But God’s chosen people were to be different, as we Christians are to be different from the world.  If they had abided in Him, He would have blessed them and they would be a wonderful evangel. But God had no use for His people who wanted to be the same as the world.  God knew that wherever Jews assimilate, anti-Semitism rears its ugly head.  Besides, it was another slap in the face and another defying their covenant they made with Him in Exodus.  To get God’s feeling about that, read Ezekiel 20:32-33:

“You say, ‘We want to be like the nations, like the peoples of the world…But what you have in mind will never happen. ³³ As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, I will reign over you with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and with outpoured wrath. 

There it is again, this thing about God’s anger you probably never hear about.  We should always read Scripture with the focus being to know God.  It is stupid not to know what He wants, and pay the price for that ignorance, as we see with the Jews. We can learn a lot about God treating His people from the Old Testament.

Another dunderhead move by the Jews that prob
ably added to their punishment was the following:  An agnostic Jew, Theodor Herzl, got a prophecy (sent by God), and persistently bothered all the Jewish influencers in all of Europe to seek their own land—oddly, he did this in the 1890s!  He tried to hold a Zionist congress of Jewish leaders in Munich in 1896, since he could see dangerous anti-Semitism on the horizon in Germany (this is why I claim it was a prophecy).  Would you believe, the German Jews appealed to their authorities and got him banned from such a meeting? He finally got It in Switzerland the next year, and later made a prediction that the Jews would get their nation in 50 years’ time.  (He was wrong by two months).  Herzl got his original inspiration from his anger over the Dreyfus incident.  But the nations remembered him later; he was a big reason they did get their country in 1948.  Unfortunately he died in 1904.  This incident proves that God will even work with someone who doesn’t even believe in Him to keep His plan rolling.  You have to believe God is in charge. I wish my history teacher could have taught us like Pawson taught.

Last, let’s consider Warsaw Poland, which had the most religious Jews left at the time (and there were not many overall).  Why did the whole city become a ghetto, and why did they get crushed in a futile battle with Nazi soldiers, if they were religious?  Well, because of their embrace of religious tradition and rejection of God’s Word.  They were supposed to be living under the Torah, or the Pentateuch (the first 5 books of the Bible).  Yes, there really were 613 commandments and bylaws in those books (thank God for the New Testament).  But Jewish law was allowed to become a confusing mishmash of God’s laws and rabbi’s traditions, such as in the Mishnah and Talmud.  It was already going on in Jesus’ day when He said, “you nullify the Word of God by your traditions.” (Matthew 15:6) But they ignored Him.  The legalistic tradition became burdensome; they didn’t like God.  Synagogues still discuss more interpretation of tradition than they do of their Holy Scripture. Sacrificial atonement for sin, a heart of the gospel to the Jew, had been replaced by repentance. Righteousness is an outward goal, not an inward one, as it should be. So the butchery of Warsaw was God’s answer.  He had used the Philistines, the Assyrians, the Babylonians, the Midianites, the Edomites, now the Nazis—to discipline His people.  (That does not excuse those other nations who He uses to discipline them.)

Thank God for His mercy in this:  there was a limit to the sanctions of the covenant; i.e., on how much God’s discipline would hurt.  Any wrath outpoured would be temporary, first of all.  All the Old Testament prophets, while talking of Israel’s sin, always put out a hope for the future.  Secondly, God would never completely abandon His people—sanctions would never be total. Look at Jeremiah 31:35-36:

This is what the Lord says,

He who appoints the sun to shine by day,
       who decrees the moon and stars to shine by night,
who stirs up the sea so that its waves roar,

       the Lord Almighty is his name:
³⁶ ‘Only if these decrees vanish from my sight,’ declares the Lord,
  &n
bsp;   ‘will Israel ever cease being a nation before me

 

Unfortunately, Israel is now learning Western ways and abandoning any sense of religion.  They have a higher percentage of agnostics than most nations. Few are orthodox, and are looked upon as the Amish in America. They must blame God for all their troubles, but if you read the Old Testament and what I’ve added above, the blame begins with them.  It is easy for people to blame God for suffering.  There is much to be learned about God in this paper, and by reading the Old Testament.  Do not assume God has changed His personality into a soft touch, like Grandpa God.  Jesus talked more of hell than anyone or any book of the Bible.  Matthew 7:13-14 says that only a FEW will reach life, or heaven.  The majority are headed for destruction, or hell.  Many, who assume they are “good” for heaven, will be shocked, on the day of judgment, to hear our Lord redirect them to hell, as He warned in Matthew 7:21-23:

  

“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. ²² Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ ²³ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’

 

Are you sure you are doing God’s will?  Do you definitely know God’s will that He is speaking of here? I have other blogs on this, but I urge you to a rapid reading through a red-letter Bible, and write the verses that speak of what pleases God’s will. “I
accept Jesus” is nowhere near a complete answer.

 

While Mr. Pawson does a great job pointing out reasons for God’s allowing persecution of His people, we need to look at ourselves and learn from this.  If we have pain, or grief, it is not always due to some gross sin that we did.  Sometimes that’s true.  But other times, we just have to accept that in the sin-filled world, lives get messed up.  We learn patience.  If we are truly born again, hopefully we never lose our trust that God still loves us, and brings us closer to Him.  If our lives were always roses, we would easily decide that we don’t need God—and forget that His mercy in just letting us live is more than we deserve. We all deserve hell, because our sins defy His holiness.  It is too easy to forget Him, and we are so easily drawn to the world, and not in pleasing Him, which is where we should be.  Let us show mercy to others, as He showed to us.  On a practical level, let us donate to the less fortunate, let us not be so strict on immigration laws.  Let us defend the unborn.  Let us see ourselves as mistake-ridden like the Jews, let us learn from them, and get determined to change our lives, going His way, in His will.

 

 

The Incarnation

 Christmas is about the incarnation of Jesus. From God to man. Strip away the season’s hustle and bustle, the trees, the cookies, the extra pounds, and what remains is a humble birth story and a simultaneously stunning reality — the incarnation of the eternal Son of God.

This incarnation, God himself becoming human, is a glorious fact that is too often neglected, or forgotten, amidst all the gifts, get-togethers, pageants, and presents. Therefore, we would do well to think deeply about the incarnation, especially on this day.

Here are five biblical truths of the incarnation.

1. The Incarnation Was Not the Divine Son’s Beginning

The virgin conception and birth in Bethlehem does not mark the beginning of the Son of God. Rather, it marks the eternal Son entering physically into our world and becoming one of us. John Murray writes, “The doctrine of the incarnation is vitiated (ed., ruined) if it is conceived of as the beginning to be of the person of Christ. The incarnation means that he who never began to be in his specific identity as Son of God, began to be what he eternally was not” (quoted in John Frame, Systematic Theology, 883).

2. The Incarnation Shows Jesus’s Humility

Jesus is no typical king. Jesus didn’t come to be served. Instead, Jesus came to serve (Mark 10:45). His humility was on full display from the beginning to the end, from Bethlehem to Golgotha. Paul glories in the humility of Christ when he writes that, “though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking on the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:6–8).

3. The Incarnation Fulfills Prophecy

The incarnation wasn’t random or accidental. It was predicted in the Old Testament and in accordance with God’s eternal plan. Perhaps the clearest text predicting the Messiah would be both human and God is Isaiah 9:6: “To us a child is born, to us a son is given; and the government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”

In this verse, Isaiah sees a son that is to be born, and yet he is no ordinary son. His extraordinary names — Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace — point to his deity. And taken together — the son being born and his names — point to him being the God-man, Jesus Christ.

4. The Incarnation Is Mysterious

The Scriptures do not give us answers to all of our questions. Some things remain mysterious. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God,” Moses wrote, “but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever” (Deuteronomy 29:29).

Answering how it could be that one person could be both fully God and fully man is not a question that the Scriptures focus on. The early church fathers preserved this mystery at the Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.) when they wrote that Jesus is “recognized in two natures [God and man], without confusion, without change, without division, without separation; the distinction of natures being in no way annulled by union, but rather the characteristics of each nature being preserved and coming together to form one person and subsistence, not as parted or separated into two persons but one and the same Son and Only-begotten God the Word, Lord Jesus Christ.”

5. The Incarnation Is Necessary for Salvation

The incarnation of Jesus does not save by itself, but it is an essential link in God’s plan of redemption. John Murray explains: “[T]he blood of Jesus is blood that has the requisite efficacy and virtue only by reason of the fact that he who is the Son, the effulgence of the Father’s glory and the express image of his substance, became himself also partaker of flesh and blood and thus was able by one sacrifice to perfect all those who are sanctified” (Redemption Accomplished and Applied, 14).
And the author to the Hebrews likewise writes that Jesus “had to be made like his brothers in every respect, so that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people” (Hebrews 2:17).

The incarnation displays the greatness of God. Our God is the eternal God who was born in a stable, not a distant, withdrawn God; our God is a humble, giving God, not a selfish, grabbing God; our God is a purposeful, planning God, not a random, reactionary God; our God is a God who is far above us and whose ways are not our ways, not a God we can put in a box and control; and our God is a God who redeems us by his blood, not a God who leaves us in our sin. Our God is great indeed!

Written by Joseph Scheumann, December 25, 2013

Fleeing an Ancient Darkness

Here's a bit of how the poorest live; it may spark your giving internationally as well as domestically:

Sitting in a home that doubles as a church building in rural Sierra Leone (one of the poorest countries in Africa, income $500/year average), 24- year-old Miracle Conteh was about to share secrets from her childhood that she knew could get her killed. But then, those who would kill her—members of a secret society to which she once belonged—were already pursuing her for leaving their ranks to follow Christ. For two years, Miracle, known as Sassa until coming to faith in Christ at age 14, performed ancient rituals that involved interacting with demons, casting spells, and performing bodily mutilations. She learned the rituals from her grandmother, who leads the secret society.

During those two years, Miracle said, she felt no fear of the evil spirits with which she interacted. In fact, she felt comfortable in their presence. ”Wherever I went, I sensed the presence of evil spirits all around me” Miracle said. “There was nothing in me that made me feel that I must come out of it, because I never sensed anything like God in me. I was just going forward more deeply into it.”

More than half of Sierra Leoneans are Muslims, and nearly 13% are Christians.  Most of the remaining population practice ethnic religions.

Despite this public adherence to religion, an estimated 90% are additionally aligned with secret societies that dominate all aspects of life in Sierra Leone. At about the age of puberty, boys are often initiated into the Poro society.

Leaders of these societies hold considerable local power, and national politicians even seek their endorsement, and promise to protect their rituals and customs. Most politicians approve of the rituals, with some supporting Poro and Bondo (for young women) houses financially to ensure that the rituals continue throughout Sierra Leone. They believe that the societies help create social order, and preserve cultural values.

Families that refuse to join or participate in the societies, including Christians, are treated as outcasts.  They are denied any decision-making roles in their village.

During the Poro initiation ceremonies, boys receive ritualistic cuts on their backs, signifying the teeth marks of a demonic spirit. Likewise, girls who enter Bondo suffer ritual genital mutilation as an initiation to womanhood. Nine of ten girls undergo this ritual in Sierra Leone, which has the highest rate of female genital mutilation in Africa. The women who administer these rites are revered, and are believed to hold supernatural powers.

Miracle was born into a Muslim family, and raised by her grandmother from a young age.  Her grandmother is a zowie, a Bondo leader for her village. When Miracle turned 12, her grandmother began preparing her to become a zowie as well. At the end of a school year, when the Bondo initiation rituals often take place, Miracle’s grandmother would send her into the forest to collect leaves for secret rituals. “Before she could send me to the forest to pick specific leaves, she would consult an evil demon spirit,” Miracle recalled. “Then I would be able to find the leaves that she needed.” The leaves are used to make a potion thought to prevent the girls from feeling pain during the ceremony. 

As the Bondo initiation starts, the girls have their faces painted with white clay, and are led deep into the forest by a demon.  The zowie, who embodies the devil, wears a wooden mask and a costume generally made of palm leaves. The devil typically uses an unsterilized razor or knife to mutilate the girls, who receive no form of anesthesia other than the leaf potion. The girls are often tied down, and their mouths are covered.

 

Following the ritual, the girls take an oath of secrecy, and are told that if they disclose the society’s secrets, they will be killed. Just discussing the ritual with a nonmember, including a doctor, could be considered breaking the oath.

As Miracle grew in her understanding the rituals, her grandmother allowed her to wear the devil costume and conduct the mutilations herself.  She was 13 at the time. “I was the one actually doing almost everything,” she recalled.  “At my young age, I initiated 35 girls into the secret society.”

Looking back on those two years of her childhood, Miracle said she felt as if she had lost control of her soul, invoking demons and seeking their guidance.  “In the secret society, you are assisted by an evil spirit to carry it out,” she said. “In most of my work, I operated alongside the evil spirits, and they directed me what to do.

In addition to teaching her the initiation rituals, Miracle’s grandmother taught her how to enter a spiritual realm through incantations, and by invoking demonic spirits. Then, Miracle said, she could interact with the demons to further learn the ways of the secret society, and to control people. Miracle ceremonially entered a witch’s coven. And in their presence, she said, she could physically control and harm people in ways similar to voodoo, which originated in the nearby West African country of Benin. “That attracted many young people to me because I gained power in the spirits,” Miracle said. When I am inside that witch’s coven, those in the physical realm, whatever I tell you, no matter how big you are, you listen to me and you do what I tell you to do.”

Miracle said that she and her grandmother even killed children by ritually kidnapping their souls.  The disturbing tales of these “killings” included figuratively “eating” their flesh and “drinking” their blood—all from the spiritual realm. Miracle said that later, in the physical world, parents would find their children’s bodies and have no idea what happened to them.

These shocking claims were corroborated by a Christian front-line worker who had escaped the Poro secret society as a young boy, and now helps former secret-society members like Miracle. He said stories like hers of demonic-influenced killings are common throughout the region. “A doctor can’t find any blood,” the worker said. “The child is plain white, and when you take them to the hospital, the doctor will tell you, ‘There is no blood in this child.’”

Reflecting on her time in the secret society, Miracle recalled limitations to the dark power she gained by invoking the support of demons and witches. Each time her power was limited, a Christian was involved. “There is something in the Christian that prevents you from taking that soul.” I want to tell you that it is not only because my grandmother said it, but I myself tried it and saw it with my naked eyes. I saw it in the children who became Christians; when we wanted to take them, it was difficult. Those children you cannot take. There is a force that fights you.”

One evening when Miracle’s grandmother was visiting another village, a Christian pastor arrived with a projector and a small screen.  He had come to the village to share the JESUS films. As she watched the life of Jesus projected on a portable screen that lit up the night, Miracle said she felt moved by Christ’s teachings and miracles. She also realized that she had encountered Jesus in the spiritual realm. He was the force that protected the Christians she and her grandmother had tried to control. “My heart was fixed to the Lord Jesus Christ,” she said. “I started yearning to give my life to Christ.”

At the conclusion of the film, the pastor asked if anyone wanted to place his or her faith in Jesus Christ. Miracle decided to walk forward.  “I made an attempt,” she said, “but it was like something held me back.” Although she didn’t walk forward at that moment, Miracle later joined the pastor and others at a church in a nearby village, where they prayed together. Miracle still hadn’t come to faith in Christ, but she said she felt at peace during the all-night prayer meeting.

When Miracle returned home the next morning, her grandmother, who was back from her visit, asked her where she had been. “The people who came, they had a church,” she answered. That was all her grandmother needed to hear.  “I have made you a leader in our society,” she shouted, “what are you doing with these…church people?”

Her grandmother gathered the elder Bondo women, and told them that Miracle had attended a church service. “Immediately, a decision was reached that for treading my foot in the church, I should be killed,” Miracle said.  “I had violated the law.” About 30 women took Miracle into the forest, made her take off her clothes and tied her down.

“They flogged me very seriously that night,” Miracle said, crying. “They said, ‘If you ever try to follow that pastor, the next time we will kill you.’”

Miracle headed for the pastor’s house as soon as she was untied, but the women realized where she was going and recaptured her. They beat her again, and one of the women rubbed a crushed hot pepper in her eyes and elsewhere on her body. Screaming, Miracle broke free from the women and continued running, eventually reaching the pastor’s home.

Realizing Miracle’s life was in danger, the pastor and his wife immediately let her in their home. When the women arrived at the house a short time later, they ceremonially cursed the area where the pastor showed the JESUS film and led worship services. Throughout the night and into the morning, they threw stones at the house and ordered the pastor to release Miracle so they could kill her. Eventually, the pastor was able to take Miracle to a church, where she stayed with another pastor for about a month.

While staying at the church, Miracle placed her faith in Christ. After her baptism, she took on the name “Miracle” to honor the way God had brought her out of darkness and into light.

Ten years after coming to faith in Christ, Miracle is part of a vibrant church and continues to grow in faith.

In December 2022, Miracle graduated from a three-year sewing program. She said she is grateful for her sewing machine and the training she received from the school; they are helping her provide for herself and have given her a place in society that doesn’t require keeping secrets. “I want whoever reads my story to be praying for me to stay in the Lord,” she said. “That is the most important thing, staying in Christ.”

Miracle’s grandmother is unable to attack her through the spiritual realm, but Miracle has heard that she is still pursuing her. Still, she doesn’t fear her grandmother or the others who wish her harm. She keeps her eye solely on Christ. “Until I go to glory,” she said, “I will be with the family of Jesus. My grandmother, I don’t think about her.”

Instead of the demons and witches she interacted with as a young girl, Miracle is now filled with the Holy Spirit and protected by the blood of Christ. She trusts God to continue lighting the path before her in a spiritually dark region of Africa. “What happened to me in the spirit realm, I didn’t understand,” Miracle said. “Today I can call on the name of Jesus and I am able to understand that dark realm and the Light of the world. I praise God that I am now in the light.”

Two Proofs About the Timing of the Rapture (Part 2 of 2)

Joel Richardson’s sermon on the 10 virgins, is my second proof in this parable that the time of the tribulation vs the rapture is not what people think (the first proof was last week).  His sermon on this second proof is short, as well as the rest of this paper. He disavows the pretribulation rapture. He explains how the Jewish marriage supper is an allegory of us Christians (the Bride of Christ) having a wedding supper with the Groom (Jesus). And how it proves a post-tribulation rapture; a rapture after most of the tribulation; not a pretribulation one, as we will summarize.  It’s in The Parable of the Ten Virgins, told in Matthew 25:1-13:

…the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. ² Now five of them were wise, and five were foolish. ³ Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them, ⁴ but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. ⁵ But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. “And at midnight a cry was heard: ‘Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him!’ ⁷ Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. ⁸ And the foolish said to the wise, ‘Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.’ ⁹ But the wise answered, saying, ‘No, lest there should not be enough for us and you; but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.’ ¹⁰ And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. ¹¹ “Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open to us!’ ¹² But he answered and said, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.’ ¹³ “Watch therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

First, the groom is not marrying 5 women at once.  The word ‘virgin,’ in this case, is simply a young woman, unmarried.  The 5 who got in to the wedding supper might just be bridesmaids, or the bride’s entourage. The important lesson is that another 5 of the 10 young women were not preparing for the groom’s arrival, so they were not allowed in the wedding feast.  Applying that to us, if we are not loving our Lord enough to be anxiously looking for His arrival, and eagerly awaiting the opportunity to escape the sins of earth, we are not true Christians.  Do not get lost in the world, people, and learn to focus to the necessity of your abiding in Christ instead (John 15:1-6). Otherwise, you may miss heaven, Jesus is saying in those sections of verses. If your priorities did not get radically changed (into a new person) when you got “saved,” you may not end up saved. 

You may ask, “if that’s the main purpose of this parable in Matthew 25, why are we looking at it for End Times discussion?” Well, Matthew 25 may not appear so, but is still part of His Olivet Discourse on the End Times. Also, it does speak of the Coming of the Bridegroom for His bride, so it has relevance to our subject. It answers the question, “Do Jewish wedding rituals in the first century prove a pretribulational rapture—or a post-tribulation one?”

(Besides this discussion, I suggest reading Revelation 19:2, 7-9; here are the salient portions:

“For true and righteous are His judgments, because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication; and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her.” …the marriage of the Lamb has come, and His wife has made herself ready. ⁸ And to her it was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints.

Notice in context of nearby verses in revelation that the marriage (and supper) is after the coming of the Lord, since He has already performed  Judgment. These Revelation verses, and the Ten Virgins verses, are the only two sections of verses that explain the timing of the rapture vs. the marriage supper.)

Why is the timing of the wedding supper an issue? Pretribulationists believe Christians, previously dead or alive at rapture, go straight to heaven. But there is a problem. Somehow they have to try to enjoy the marriage supper, while the new Christians and Jews and their unsaved families are getting murdered by the millions during the tribulation back on earth.  Kind of a downer idea, isn’t it? Uh, I’m not ready for dessert.

On the side, I just want to throw in another important idea:  the Bible takes the view that Israel is the Bride.  Is there any room for us Gentiles?  Not a problem; in Romans 11:17, Paul exposits that we saved Gentiles were grafted into the Israel’s olive tree, and become part of God’s Israel. Saved Jews and Christians are all called “Israel.”  To express the unity of the Church.  Galatians 3:28 says “There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” 

Pretribulationists, usually also followers of dispensational ideology, really need to learn that God doesn’t treat the Jews and Christians as separate groups under the New Testament.

Now let’s get back to the Ten Virgins. We’ll start by saying, first century Jewish wedding customs placed the marriage supper at the home of the bride, NOT at the home of the groom or his parents.  For the Last Days, that means we do NOT have the marriage supper in heaven (Father’s house), but on earth, at the New Jerusalem (Bride’s house). After that supper, according to custom, the groom would take the bride to his house--heaven.  (J. Snodgrass, Stories of Intent.  He is basing this on Tobit 7 and 8, in the Apocrypha).

So the order of events is, the Groom (Jesus) leaves His house (leaves heaven), and makes His way towards earth, then pauses in the clouds, waiting for His angels to act. His angels ride with him (not us riding with him).  When the groom is visible from earth (that’s where the cosmic disturbances bring that about), the shout and trumpet blast are given, and, if we are ready (ie, having been born again and love Him, and are looking for His arrival), we (the bride) come up to greet Him (in the clouds) and escort Him back to her house on earth.  Like coming to greet a visiting dignitary and escorting him back.  A big meal is served, and the father gives his daughter to her groom, with his blessing, and then they go back to his house to consummate the marriage. That’s when we go to heaven. (I have another blog on when we go to heaven).

To prove the point Scripturally, notice my underline in v. 10 of Matthew 25 above.  Note that the bridegroom came, the prepared young women went in with him to the wedding feast, and the door was shut. That’s it—clearly those were done in one place.  No mention of flying off to the groom’s place.  The supper, clearly, was there—at the bride’s dwelling. 

I hope this gives the proper meaning of this allegory, and helps you believe how pretribulation rapture is a figment of an 1830 imagination (I have another blog on that). This is one of many proofs of the opposite—it is post-tribulation.

If we live in that time, we will have a target on our backs. Temptation to abandon Christ will be great. (Or, believing in a false doctrine will be great).  The Scripture says we must endure to the end to reach heaven.  May God show us how to endure the tests of the man of sin, if we are alive in those last days, and may God show us how to prepare for His coming.  We don’t want to miss heaven.  No. Nyet.

  

Two Proofs About the Timing of the Rapture (Part 1 of 2)

 Let’s talk about End Times.  Despite many people’s wariness, the order of certain important future events can actually be determined. Not the date of rapture, for instance, but placing all Scripture in context, and using verses literally as much as possible, gives a way to figure out the order of some significant future events.  Each event then is a sign that tells you, “x” event comes next.  That helps you endure the trek toward the end. 

John, who wrote Revelation, has certified early in the first chapter that it is profitable to read it.  He wasn’t asserting it was a bag of frustrations, like most people do who avoid it:

Blessed is he who reads and those who hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written in it; for the time is near.

Didn’t he say to “keep those things within it?”  He must’ve expected that it makes sense to us to say,  “keep those things.”  True, the answers are not all in one place, meaning it takes a great acquaintance with Old and New Testaments to pull these things off, but Scripture sprinkled all around will hint and yield results. 

My initial portion of this study is based on these Scriptures:

1.     Daniel 9:27 He will confirm a covenant with many for one ‘seven.’ In the middle of the ‘seven’ he will put an end to sacrifice and offering. And at the temple he will set up an abomination that causes desolation

2.    II Thessalonians 2:1-4 Now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to Him… for that Day will not come unless the falling away comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, ⁴ who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God or that is worshiped, so that he sits as God in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God.

3.    Matthew 24:15-16, 22, 29-31 So when you see standing in the holy place ‘the abomination that causes desolation… ¹⁶ then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountain …“If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive…“Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ “Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory.  ³¹ And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other.

4.    Revelation 11:1-2 I was given a reed like a measuring rod and was told, “Go and measure the temple of God and the altar, with its worshipers. ² But exclude the outer court; do not measure it, because it has been given to the Gentiles. They will trample on the holy city for 42 month

What do we learn from these verses?  In Daniel, we learn that an unnamed man will make a Covenant with “many” for a time period of one ‘seven.’  In that same verse, we learn who the two parties are.  The receiving party for the Covenant were the Jews, because the terms ‘sacrifice and offering,’ and ‘temple’ are Jewish terms in the Bible. The grantor of the Covenant was the man of sin, since after a time he shows that he hates the Jews enough to stop their sacrifices.  Not only that; he also commits blasphemy against God, setting up an ‘abomination’ in the temple, which has to refer to an idol.  The idol is likely him, or a statue of his image, since we learn in II Thessalonians 2 above that he ‘sits as God in the temple of God.’ Truly sticking the middle finger at God. We can easily guess what that does for his future. 

We also can conclude that when he had the Jews agree to make a Covenant with him, he pretended to be their friend. Or else they would not have agreed to Covenant with him. The Covenant is agreed to for a term of time.  That length of time is a neutral word meaning ‘seven.’  It could never be for seven weeks; that would be meaningless.  It’s likely to be seven years, because Scripture makes a reference to a portion of it. In Revelation 11 above, the Gentiles have the run of the temple for 42 months, or 3-1/2 years. Consider further that ‘in the middle’ of the ‘seven,’ is the time that the man of sin breaks the Covenant and shows himself as their enemy by desecrating their treasured temple. He, being a Gentile, will be the guy that will lead the offense over the temple for the 42 months, from the middle of the ‘seven.’  So we see the Covenant has to be 7 years, but broken up into two halves; in the first half he pretends to be friends of Jews, but the second half starts with him desecrating the temple and blaspheming God—which goes on for 3-1/2 years.

Think about him starting out as a “friend” of the Jews. Then, all of a sudden, he desecrates their temple.  Would it not be fair to conclude that when he did that, he ‘revealed’ himself for what he really is, a hater of Jews?  I think so.  Then, looking at II Thessalonians 2 again, it definitely seems to be speaking of the Coming of the Lord for his saints, the one-time event called the rapture. Look again.  It CLEARLY says that that fabulous Day will not come until AFTER the man of sin is revealed. So II Thessalonians 2 says that Christians can’t get raptured until the man of sin is revealed, right?  But did we agree on the idea that that ‘revealing’ would be in the middle of the seven-year Covenant?  Therefore, if the seven years are ‘the Tribulation,’ such as most futurists affirm (look at the disasters Jesus prophesies in Matthew 24), the saints cannot leave the earth, or get raptured, until at least half of the tribulation is past. Thus there is no ‘pre’tribulation rapture, no rapture before the tribulation. 

Jesus helps out in Matthew 24 above. Verse 15 is right at the point where the abomination, or idol, being set up, halfway through the 7 years. He warned that the Jews hearing of that should get away as fast as they can—presumably the man of sin will begin killing them as fast as he can. He is no longer loyal to them.

Jesus broadens who the man of sin will want to kill by saying, “If those days had not been cut short, no one would survive.  Since that man is acting on behalf of Satan, and since Satan hates Jews and Christians (actually, he loves killing anybody), both Jews and Christians will be killed by the millions. Plus, there are wars (which given modern weapons will kill millions), as Matthew 24:6 says:

⁶ And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars

Truly, combining those elements would come close to “no one would survive.”

After all that martyring for the Lord, then Jesus mentions a cosmic disturbance, and THEN He details the rapture.  The Greek word ‘parousia,’ a rapture word, is used. As you can see in Matthew 24:31 above, He says angels will blow the trumpet and gather His children from the clouds, favorite rapture events. No one in his right mind can say that Matthew 24:29-31 is not the rapture.  It Is!

Let me further say that we cannot conclude that the rapture happens right after the man of sin is revealed, as you might argue a mid-tribulation rapture. No, if that were the case, Christians would rapture immediately after he’s revealed, and before the man of sin can kill more than a few of them.  No, the rapture is not immediately after the man of sin is revealed; it is after “the distress of those days,” as you read above.  Sadly, there has to be a period of time after the man of sin is revealed before the rapture, since the man of sin’s bloodletting goes on so long that it appears “no one would survive.” Further about the day of rapture is that the tribulation, designed as 7 years, is ‘cut short’ so as to have some Christians (and some saved Jews) still around lest he kills everyone.  So, probably short of 7 years a bit, comes a cosmic event (our rapture sign), and then the glorious Return of Our Lord.  This is His second coming, the rapture.

One more time, to summarize:  There are wars among nations. The man of sin makes a deceptive covenant to protect the Jews for 7 years. In the middle, or after 3-1/2 years of the 7, he reveals how he really feels by desecrating the temple and setting up an abomination to God. Some Jews flee.  But he kills Jews, and Christians, in massive numbers and in great violence, for over 3 years more.  When it seems loss of life among God’s beloved would be total, Christ comes to pick up His Bride, His real church, both dead and alive—the rapture. His Second Coming.

Those of you who argue in favor of pretribulation rapture, have to assume all sorts of weird things.  A big problem of yours: Jesus’ first coming (Advent) was at His birth, right?  You tell us that Jesus, in the future, comes from heaven to earth in a rapture before the tribulation, so I feel it’s safe to assume you’re saying that that would be His second coming.  Then, strangely, you have Him coming to earth yet again (you assert Matthew 24:15-31 is this event, which you call “Not a rapture,” despite how v. 31 looks). Supposedly He will take up just the Christians and Jews who got saved in the 7 years, and to perform Judgment.  I think it’s fair to assume you mean that’s His 3^rd coming?  What, you say?  No? He doesn’t come 3 times? Well, it sure looks like you’re doing 3 times.  So your biggest problem, to me at least, is to explain how that middle coming is not a coming.  Because we both know that the Bible clearly says He comes twice, not 3 times. It’s in the Apostles’ Creed as well:

…on the third day he rose again from the dead; he ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of God the Father almighty; from there he will come to judge the living and the dead.

That’s twice, right? 

Hopefully this introduction will help you to read next week, my summary of Joel Richardson’s sermon, the second goal of this blog. Please visit us to capture another proof, in the 10 virgins, of why the rapture is post-tribulation